HAL is a distinctly original and ambitious research program, which is set to yield multiple benefits for the Ionian Islands Prefecture, while also providing the various Labs of the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University with the opportunity to collaborate more closely and more creatively together. In addition to its other positive outcomes, HAL will extend the technical expertise of said Labs and will support and further develop the Department’s research and innovation infrastructure, while at the same time fortifying its academic research workforce through the recruitment of a significant number of new researchers.

The program is exclusively carried out by the Department of Audio and Visual Arts, not as part or as an extension of an already launched project, but as an autonomous project with specific goals, giving a new impetus to the Ionian Islands’ economy, ...its infrastructure and know-how. More specifically, HAL aims to reinforce and to make , via a field that has not been efficiently developed in any of the other Greek Prefectures: up-to-date interactive audiovisual arts. 

Within this framework, and during its first years of operation, the program will focus on designing, developing and providing digital multimedia, transmedia and interactive content on the following two axes: 1) immersive environments and gamified content and, 2) Telematic Performance Arts. These two directions have not been widely … in other similar fab labs, but are fully compatible with the particular attributes of the social fabric and the local economy to be found in the Ionian Islands Prefecture and, because of that, substantial and immediately deployable. 

The well-rounded, multisensory experiences and applications to be designed by the program appeal to institutions and companies from a wide variety of fields: research, creative and performing arts, cultural entertainment, the travel and hospitality industries, and . Applications of this kind gain even greater significance, as they constitute reliable alternative solutions to the especially adverse climate currently faced by the Ionian Islands –and many other economies around the world-, in light of recent health-related, financial and social developments. 

Given, on the one hand, the Department’s already rich work in immersive environments, gamification and telematic arts, and, on the other, the HAL research team’s technical expertise, the program is to introduce targeted tools that will contribute significantly to the development of the Prefecture’s tourism-related potential, by accentuating its cultural aspects and its synergy with the creative industries. Using true innovation and research as its starting point, HAL offers remarkable, directly utilizable answers to today’s challenges, answers that, in essence, benefit society as a whole.