PAD. Pages on Arts and Design

25-38

Authors: Vincenzo Cristallo, Miriam Mariani

In the digital age, the democratisation of a series of actions inherent to data management has, in fact, allowed digitisation to be interpreted as an operation to extend and relieve human memory (cognitive offloading, Storm et al., 2016). In the design field, the availability of data contained in the web in a wide but fragmented way would lead to the hypothesis of the advancement of a type of knowledge (and memory) characterised mainly by a spontaneous and disordered growth of information and non-linear narratives (Sendra & Sennet, 2022), as well as a different way of searching and using references in the project field. Referring to this background, with this paper, we aim to investigate the connection between percepts and concepts (Horn, 1998) relating to the use of digital storage in the disciplinary context of Design, integrating the observation of the phenomenon with multidisciplinary points of view. More specifically, it is intended to compose a critical framework within which to understand the characteristics of “designerly knowledge” (Dorst & Lawson, 2009) for the collection and archiving of digital visual material for design use, supporting the discussion through integration with various critical contributions from complexity science, psycholinguistics and perception studies. The aim here is to propose some models of interpretation on the subject that help to understand the organising and systemic modalities of Design for the management of uncertainty as a permanent condition of “contemporary data” (Sendra & Sennet, 2022). In particular, the variety of authors cited contributes to composing the picture that is intended to be returned on the subject of the organisation of digital references for the design of complex content.

63-89

Authors: Marco Borsotti, Marco Mason

In 2015 the conference Between the Discursive and the Immersive: Research in the 21st Century Art Museum by Louisiana and Stedelijk Museum, identified these two terms, discussed mainly concerning exhibitions, as indicators of a shift in the contemporary method of offering culture. Discoursive refers to a new curatorial form of interdisciplinary and synesthetic programming, while immersive looks at the spectacularization of the exhibition. This article, in the first part, introduces the term narrative, in between them. Through a narrative system, exhibitions relate themself to the visitor no longer only in terms of appropriate reproduction of knowledge, but rather in terms of generation of knowledge. Narrative amplifies the meaning of discoursive and declines it as the communicative capacity of the complex relational system “collection-significance-visitor”, opening up to a critical review of the concept of immersive, which often, operatively, it is interpreted in a purely filmic way. The second part introduces the concept of the Post-digital Museum (Parry, 2013) as a construct that contextualizes the “narrative” instance within the recent discourse of museum digital transformation. Any reading of design practices (Mason & Vavoula, 2021) within contemporary museums cannot ignore a paradigm shift in Digital Cultural Heritage, in which digital has become naturalized in museums’ “way of thinking.” This integration “marks a continued development of the museum’s concept and practice” (Arvanities, 2015). The post-digitally discourse will allow us to set the theoretical context and conclude with some reflections and illustrative examples on the practice of visitor experience design (Mason, 2017) in post-digital museums, which is particularly associated with the “design of narrative environments” (Austin, 2020).

118-134

Authors: Giulia Cordin

From the early 2000s, archives and cultural institutions have been confronted with the repercussions of an unprecedented digital revolution. Web 2.0 technologies have accelerated management and organisational processes that were already in place, enabling the digitisation of huge amounts of data. A process that has undoubtedly facilitated the preservation and use of these materials, but which has nevertheless brought to light new problems. These include the oblivion and non-use of digitised materials, which often remain unknown and unnecessarily processed if not supported by promotion and enhancement policies. Furthermore, new digital ways of engaging visitors are challenging traditional models of power and negotiation of meaning, but cultural institutions are not always ready to respond and support such practices effectively. The paper presents the case study of a smart interactive environment created in 2019 for the Temporary Slovene Dance Archive of the Metelkova Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana. Through this work I critically discuss the role of design in respect to actions of retrieval and reinterpretation of digital heritage beyond the simple search of metadata on digital platforms. In addition the project proposes a physical experience to stimulate public use and understanding of archives.

155-

Authors: Michele De Chirico

Today there is a multitude of devices and tools to share technologically mediated memory practices that can be understood as agents collaborating in the “production of the world”. In the field of design of materials, materials libraries started out as cataloguing systems and then became the physical and digital place aimed at conveying material cultures intended as transitions of the intangible and semantic values of a society onto the tangible reality. By configuring repositories of tangible memory, as physical documentary heritage of a territorial and material culture, the role of design emerges in preserving, organising and transmitting the knowledge of the reality that surrounds us. This means transforming the current cultural spaces of the materials libraries to determine design trajectories aimed at making evident the unexpressed opportunities of the materials. The contribution is aimed at investigating the potential of a renewed service as a place of tangible memory, a generative device for conveying identity and valorisation of know-how, the genius loci, and the sense of materials as a potential and source of further design insights, by placing cultural heritage at the centre of the design approach. On the basis of the cataloguing of material samples as “materialised data”, a renewed interactive materials library service can convey the meaning of tangible memory to outline criteria for their knowledge, valorisation and use.

197-217

Authors: Martina Motta, Giovanni Maria Conti, Elisa Rossi

Born with a very artisanal and manual connotation, knitwear design has evolved into a highly technological industrial practice supported by digital tools and advanced machinery. For this reason, teaching in the field is a constant challenge requiring innovation and updated information, together with a memory of the more traditional aspects. The article reports a research work born at Politecnico di Milano upon the acquisition of the material archive of knitted samples donated to the School of Design by Marina Spadafora, a designer with a long-standing career in the knitwear field. Given the archive as a rich physical resource, collected and classified by the knitwear professional along her creative career as a daily-basis working tool, academic researchers questioned how they could extend its purpose to bring innovation to teaching and learning methods, combining the physical and the digital dimension. The research investigated the needs of knit design students, researchers, and professional designers to identify the advantages and the barriers in consulting the archive and connected the more theoretical notions about knit structures and the increasingly digital practices with the material heritage of the archive to result in a resource that stimulates students’ creativity and increases the learning experience.

243-269

Authors: Raissa D'Uffizi

Posters, brochures, advertisements, catalogs, and magazines constitute a fascinating cultural heritage to retrace the history of Italian graphic design. From the 1930s to the 1970s, graphic design enriched Italian communication with a revolutionary visual language. Various societies, foundations, associations, and public or private archives preserve graphic materials today. The result is the difficulty in creating a single place to preserve graphic design projects physically. This condition also reflects the digital archiving process of graphic materials. The absence of official digital conversion has facilitated the emergence of independent entities that make graphic artifacts accessible online. Sometimes online dissemination does not provide historical sources, and it is not primary digitisation. The contribution analyses the online diffusion and immaterial circulation of graphic artifacts. The research presents some emblematic cases to define original and no-original archiving processes. Archivio Storico del Progetto Grafico by Centro di Documentazione sul Progetto Grafico (CDPG), the digitalisation of magazines like Campo Grafico and Stile Industria, or independent projects such as Archivio della Grafica Italiana, are only some examples. The purpose is to identify critical and strong points of these archives and digital platforms, imagining a new digital archive for the Italian graphic design heritage.