The very notion of “virtual” stands at the core of the ERC project AN-ICON, which addresses virtualityunder a threefold perspective: theoretical, historical, and practical, in connection with the contemporary processes of environmentalization of the image experience. However, far from being a unanimously interpreted concept, its semantic area is very broad, according to the multifarious nuances this notion assumes in philosophy, psychology,semiotics,media studies, computer sciences etc.Inviting scholars from different disciplinary domains, this workshop aims to map the major semantic articulations of this notion, also considering its historical roots and its operative applications. The meeting will also explore analogies and differences between the virtual as specific of “virtual reality” (VR) and other digital typologies, such as “augmented reality” (AR), “mixed reality” (MR), “cross-reality” (XR