A group of researchers from La Salle-URL has created El Nou Despertar de l'Aurora, an immersive experience that recovers Barcelona’s historical heritage and has been screened at the Interactive Arts & Science Laboratory (IASlab), the campus laboratory that is a pioneer in Europe in transdisciplinary research and artistic creation. Led by professors and researchers Jorge Egea and Gloria Fernández, the project is part of the research carried out by Human Environment Research (HER), one of the two La Salle-URL research groups accredited with the TECNIO seal awarded by ACCIÓ, the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia.
The work is a continuation of El Despertar de l'Aurora. Reconstrucció digital d'un ensomni nouocentista, a Digital Arts research project that was presented in an exhibition at the Palau Robert in early 2025. In its first part, the 3D reconstruction of The Fountain of Aurora was presented, a monument by sculptor Joan Borrell i Nicolau and architect Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, which was dismantled two years after being installed in the Jardinets de Gràcia in Barcelona. Now, La Salle-URL researchers, with the participation of digital artist Daniel Sabio (The Glad Scientist) and the collaboration of the Government of Catalonia, propose a sensory and immersive experience that connects with the city’s cultural legacy.
The experience is completed by two additional works that broaden this perspective on the recovery of Barcelona’s historical heritage through digital innovation: Ecos de Pedra: Llum i ombra del Gòtic, a work by Carles Pàmies, researcher at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, which explores the architectural representation of the cloister of the Benedictine monastery of Sant Pau del Camp, one of Barcelona’s most emblematic and oldest monuments; and Patrimoni Sonor de La Pedrera, an exploration of the sounds of the building designed by Antoni Gaudí that reveals an unprecedented interpretation of La Pedrera through its sonic identity, created by Marc Arnela, professor and researcher at La Salle-URL.
Collaboration between artists, engineers and heritage specialists makes it possible to create experiences such as El Nou Despertar de l'Aurora, the result of an ongoing dialogue between creativity, research and technological innovation. In this way, the project emerges from the transdisciplinary coexistence that takes place in the IASlab laboratories, where researchers and artists work together to promote impactful applied research projects that make all the knowledge generated on campus accessible to society.
