A journey between art and spirituality: San Fedele launches Reflecto, a museum app
The San Fedele Museum. aunched during Milan Bookcity 2024 “Reflecto”, the companion app designed to offer an innovative and personalized visitor experience. The app, available for Android and iPhone devices, is the result of a complex two-year project funded by the Kainon Foundation and the TOCC group and created by DM-Cultura under the direction of Fr. Flavio E. Bottaro SJ.
An inner journey through art
Reflecto takes visitors on a journey that combines artistic discovery with personal reflection and self-examination. Thanks to a sophisticated machine learning algorithm developed by Fr. Flavio E. Bottaro SJ, the app personalizes the experience in real time, adapting the explanations based on the visitor’s feedback.
The explanations for each work are composed of a set of data divided into four expository registers of increasing depth. The descriptive style allows the visitor to dwell on the technical and visual details of the work, such as the shapes, colours, materials, and historical-art context that inspired it. The affective style focuses on the feelings evoked by the work, helping the visitor to recognize and name the emotions that arise during viewing. The reflective style invites deep awareness, posing existential and spiritual questions that encourage reflection on the meaning of life and one’s own experiences. The social style encourages the visitor to reflect on the impact of the work in relation to the collective context, questioning issues of social and cultural relevance. Each work becomes not only an artistic experience, but an opportunity to connect with oneself, explore one’s deepest questions, and confront the great issues of existence.
The content, created with the help of ChatGPT and inspired by the book “The Journey of Life” by Andrea Dall’Asta SJ, integrates Visual Thinking strategies, mindfulness and advanced storytelling techniques to provide a unique and personalized experience.
The visitor who observes and questions becomes the real protagonist of the museum tour. Before the visit, Reflecto offers the visitor a brief profile to understand the way he or she processes information and the style with which he or she wants to experience it. Throughout the tour, each work is introduced by an initial frame and accompanied by personalized explanations that invite visitors to immerse themselves in the symbolic dimension of the works, to be motivated on different levels by the site-specific installations, and to provide feedback that is essential to further refine the experience.
At the end of the visit, the visitor can access a web portal to review the highlights of the visit, to discover new activities, or to continue their journey of growth.
Reflecto is part of the mission of the San Fedele Museum. Itineraries of Art and Faith, is a space for dialogue between contemporary art, spirituality and the issues of our time. Technology becomes a tool to enhance an unrushed pace, to take time for inner reflection.
Currently available in Italian, Reflecto will soon be translated into English, French and Spanish, making the experience accessible to an international audience.
The San Fedele Museum
The San Fedele Museum is located in the heart of Milan. Itineraries of Art and Faith is a unique place where contemporary art and spirituality meet. It houses works and site-specific installations by internationally renowned artists, designed to dialogue with architecture and the spiritual tradition of the place. With Reflecto, the Museum renews its commitment to promoting an artistic experience that is not only aesthetic, but also a true inner contemplation.
