Publications

LLM-assisted authoring can accelerate immersive production, but a convincing output is not necessarily executable, behaviorally correct, or ready for public use. We present TholusOS, a system for co-authoring multi-user immersive experiences across dome projection, audio, lighting, participant phones, physical effects, media services, and a live scheduler. TholusOS separates creative generation from operational authority. A macro compiler derives an experience profile, temporal windows, a system-owned cue skeleton, and readiness requirements; the LLM fills only exposed creative fields. A micro compiler maps accepted moments through semantic anchors and modality lanes into synchronized runtime cues. Family-aware audits inspect progression, state transitions, action-consequence chains, service flow, and audience-perceptible outcomes. Cue timing contracts identify elements that are locked, narrowly adjustable, window-flexible, or optional, so repair remains proposal-only until review, application, and revalidation. Audience-readiness gates distinguish authoring, simulation, controlled participation, and production. We describe the implemented architecture, its uneven integration maturity, and a reproducible software snapshot, and define an evaluation protocol for authorial control, behavioral validity, multisensory timing, repair safety, and gate calibration. Executable Experience Grammar denotes a typed intermediate representation and transformation rules, not a formal language with proved soundness; liveReady is a software state rather than physical certification. This system report does not claim comparative or hardware-in-the-loop results not yet measured.

This paper investigates the transition from the framed image to the enveloping image in the history of Western visual perception. For centuries, the frame has served as a cognitive and semiotic device regulating the distance between subject and representation. The rise of immersive media, from fulldome projections to virtual reality, has disrupted this paradigm. The analysis traces the philosophical roots of the frame concept (Simmel, Derrida, Marin), the art historical genealogy of proto-immersive practices (from Renaissance quadraturismo to nineteenth century panoramas), the media theories of the transition (Youngblood, Manovich, Eugeni), and the psychological implications of immersion (aesthetic distance, flow state, perceptual frame effect). The final section discusses the new cinematic grammars required for frameless storytelling and surveys contemporary experimentation in the Italian and international context.