Matteo Moretti

In his book Digital Methods, Richard Rogers enshrines the end of the “virtual” by pointing out how the online and physical worlds are intrinsically linked (2015). Indeed, 4.5 billion people tap into and pour their data into the Web daily, giving rise to a recursive system in which online and offline mutually reverberate and influence each other; the boundary be- tween the two worlds has never been so blurred. After more than 30 years, the Web may also be likened to an extensive database, a memory that keeps track of the users’ actions and behaviour, a hyperobject to which we contribute and whose effects we experience (Morton, 2013). In this light, the Web evolved from a communication tool to a potential social research tool (Rogers, 2015).
In this context, the present paper introduces and analyses the case study Mapping Diversity (n.d.), a project that questions the gender gap in the toponymy of Italian cities. Toponymic issues are intrinsically linked to the values and memory celebrated by dedicating a street
to a specific person. Mapping Diversity questions the memory that goes into celebrating toponymy, drawing on the memory made available by the Web in open data. It is, in turn, a digital commons that also contributes to the debate on the role of design in the social and digital spheres. It can support greater civic awareness and a better-informed discussion on complex and multifaceted issues toward a more inclusive and diverse society.

In Italy, the “Piano AntiCorruzione e Trasparenza” (Anti-corruption and transparency plan), with the reform of the Decree n.33/2013, requires all the public administrations to make their data (financial data, personnel, etc.) public and available, as a matter of transparency. Despite that, we are still far from reaching fully the goal of transparency. Due to the lack of a shared protocol, each administration is free to choose the format to publish and present the data, resulting in a proliferation of different formats, different website structures and table of contents, which makes the exploration and discovering of facts and figures harder. Transparency without accessibility, is a lost opportunity. The paper will discuss these issues in the light of a new design and data storytelling oriented paradigm, intended to turn the mere online publication of data into a more engaging and immersive experience. We focus on a particular case study, the project Data Explorer, a prototype informed by a new way of visualizing and exploring data, with the aim of improving the informative process, and making sense of the transparency and making it accessible to a wider audience.

This paper introduces the design-research work in the field of information design developed by the author, as a member of the Trans-form research cluster at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. The Trans-form group focuses on the interdisciplinary research studies and practices that combine design and the social sciences to promote the concept of sustainability across diverse fields, such as economics, politics, and finally information, with the goal of achieving an inclusive and aware society. Specifically, the way information is produced, consumed, and processed today, online and offline, offers an important space to design interventions and make an impact on society: an aspect to which this paper contributes, presenting the research done by the author in collaboration with sociologists, anthropologists, and journalists over the past five years at the Trans-form cluster. The following essay introduces the theoretical framework of socio-design within which the Trans-form cluster o...

The sales of printed material are at a historic low, digital publications are growing at a constant rate. Concurrently, we are witnessing the development of a culture of print that dialogues with the digital, creating a converging relationship. With this premise, the paper presents the research project Das Land and LP magazine, a transmedia editorial project edited and published in a post-editorial context by the Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano.

Starting from the local announcement of the Brenner border restoration by the Austrian government, that risks to turn South Tyrol/Alto Adige, Italy, into another symbol of the EU disintegration, Europa Dreaming is an online project that adds its own re ections to the European debate generated by the migrant crisis. What happens to the European dream when it meets the migrants dream ? Is this the Europe we dreamt of ? Is the Schengen Agreement the way to the European dream ? Probably not. Through the statements made in the 1995 by the European politician Alexander Langer during the blocking of movement of Bosnian migrants at the Ventimiglia border (between France and Italy on the Mediterranean coast), the project reveals that not much has changed after 20 years of implementation of the Schengen Agreement, when, again in 2015, African migrants have been blocked, again, at the same border. Since 1995, the European Union lacks a shared asylum and migrant-related policies and conditions, because « the Schengen Agreement remains an agreement between police forces and of police ef ciency that doesn't seem the best European model » (A.Langer,1995). Through an interdisciplinary team composed by a journalist, an anthro- pologist, an ethnoarcheologist, a photographer and a designer based in South Tyrol, Europa Dreaming repositions the actual migrant crisis on a wider timescale and, through the media coverage of some European media outlets, it reveals the complete lack of migration policies to a wider European audience. Working with an transciplinary team for one year on the topic, it has been possible to produce an historical research archive on European newspapers, a series of data visualization of the 2015 asylum seekers, and qualitative interviews of the migrants who have tried to cross the Brenner pass, in order to depict the story from different points of view. This more correctly re ects the actual complexity of phenomena, in which there are no simple solutions.

This essay analyses the design process for a visual communication project, the final product of which is a website. Conceived within the sphere of Visual Journalism, the goal of the website is to gather and compare various ways of understanding the "European dream" by putting together a montage of different media and languages (photography, video, infographics, reusing images from the archives). It thus responds through a kaleidoscope of points of view to the hyper-simplified story of the presumed migrant invasion of Europe and its portrayal as an emergency by the sensationalist press. The choice of a medium such as the web, using the same means as the news we wish to deconstruct, makes it possible to collate different voices, different places, different historical periods, to bring critical scope and depth to the fleeting flash of today's news. The choices of structure, language and genre lend themselves to a plural type of project that coalesces heterogeneous elements around a core of arguments. The authors' point of view attempts a difficult mediation between ex-post analysis and the involvement in the design process, using semiotic tools to motivate the aesthetic, linguistic and structural choices made earlier during the design process.

Combining a statistics-based investigation and a series of qualitative interviews, the People's Republic of Bolzano project aimed at inviting citizens to discover who the members of the Chinese community living and working in the city are, what they think of Italy, its local culture and society. Contrary to the common belief – propagated by local media - that Chinese people are “invading” the city, the project helped reveal that, while we have and are witnessing a small-scale migration of Chinese people to Bolzano, they are not creating a ghetto in the city. Rather, they are integrating within it. This project, is the result of a web based long-term journalistic enquiry. It features animated and interactive infographics, maps, and a series of qualitative interviews, which help reshape the identity of the local Chinese community through digital media, in order to contrast with the dominant and misleading narrative by the local media. Through a design project based on more transpa...

A large part of the European population, often of advanced age, is unprepared to deal with the current media landscape due to their low media literacy level. This concern resonates loud and clear while reading the conclusions of the Council of the European Union of 26 May 2020. Media literacy supports our ability to interact responsibly with the media, provides tools to counter the growing campaigns of disinformation and media manipulation, and strengthens democratic participation. A form of literacy includes Graphicacy, Data Literacy, or Numeracy, skills central to navigating in an increasingly data-driven society such as the European one. A society in which communication and visual information play an increasing role in the elaboration of information products. It results in a space in which the growing production of information and visual misinformation is not matched by adequate training for the public, which is often unprepared to deal with the complexity in which it is immersed. It is a space to which information designers can contribute by creating artefacts that, on the one hand, tend to inform in an engaging, transparent and accessible manner, and on the other, support the skills of the reader towards a greater understanding of the information conveyed. In this context, this contribution introduces and reflects on the design choices behind the online project Glocal Climate Change (GCC ), which aims to connect citizens with the climate data that concern them. The project, developed through an infographic map and an interactive in-depth study page, supports the Graphicacy of readers towards a greater understanding and involvement in the information process, and greater climate awareness.

Design scholars have been focusing more of their attention to public controversial “things”, through the focus on “making public things” or on the “formation of publics” in relation to design projects. With this in mind, this paper describes a design case contrasting and challenging the main media narrative through the production of digital artifacts. The design intervention we describe, aimed at counteracting the racist stereotyping which targets the local Chinese community of Bolzano. The project People’s Republic of Bolzano reshapes the identity of the local Chinese community through digital media, in order to restore more transparent and balanced information, allowing a broader audience to inform itself on such a complex and multifaceted issue. This small project is part of an emergent phenomenon to counterbalance misrepresentation, in this case over the issue of migration.

If we look at data visualizations as signifying machines, in which every element is meaningful, what is the contribution of animation to the construction of meaning? What does motion or animation add in terms of significance to different kinds of graphics? Does it add something in terms of realism? How can animation be an implementer of meaning, dramatizing the sense of data or expressing doubt about the data itself?

If we look at data visualizations as signifying machines, in which every element is meaningful, what is the contribution of animation to the construction of meaning? What does motion or animation add in terms of significance to different kinds of graphics? Does it add something in terms of realism? How can animation be an implementer of meaning, dramatizing the sense of data or expressing doubt about the data itself?

Web 2.0 has enabled a broader public to generate and share information online, resulting in an unprecedented proliferation of data. As well as being a lens through which looking at reality, data is a real common good when published in an open format. Open data has great potential, but it risks becoming a lost opportunity if the knowledge and tools to process it remains a prerogative of a limited audience. Through the analysis of three case studies, the present paper proposes a design approach that aims to enable a more comprehensive and non-specialist public to understand and reuse open data towards a more aware community.

Parlare di comunicazione per le emergenze significa andare a investigare un'area del progetto che ha implicazioni profonde con altre discipline, umanistiche, sociologiche, antropologiche, scientifiche, economiche. Il volume, quindi, non intende essere esaustivo di un tema che nasce, di per sé, complesso. Il volume tenta di inquadrare uno scenario, prova a fare 'emergere' la tesi secondo la quale oggi sia necessario rapportarsi al concetto più allargato di 'emergenza permanente' in quanto espressione strutturale della contemporaneità, all'interno del quale si apre uno spazio del progetto tutto ancora da sistematizzare, dove il design della comunicazione visiva può svolgere un ruolo sostanziale quale agente di cambiamento.

Nel 2005, il sociologo Bruno Latour e l’artista/curatore Peter Weibel curano la mostra Making Things Public: atmospheres of democracy presso la ZKM di Karlsruhe (Weibel, Latour 2005), andando a rispondere alla domanda “Come potrebbe essere una democrazia orientata agli oggetti”. L’ipotesi apre uno scenario che lo stesso Latour definisce Dingpolitik (2005, p. 1444), una politica affrontata attraverso le cose, oggetti in grado di aprire dibattiti, contestare lo status-quo, provocare riflessioni, supportare l’emersione di contro-narrative atte a contrastare le narrazioni dominanti. La mostra del 2005 rimane un punto chiave per un certo tipo di riflessioni sul ruolo del design nella società. Un ruolo che non è del tutto nuovo: già Viktor Papanek (1972), circa quarant’anni prima, aveva reclamato la funzione sociale del design, in un periodo in cui la progettazione passava da un’economia incentrata sulla soddisfazione di bisogni e necessità, a una orientata alla produzione consumistica di oggetti in grado di proiettare stili di vita e posizionare socialmente. Apparentemente il monito di Papanek si è perso nelle pieghe della storia, almeno fino a qualche anno fa. Stiamo assistendo infatti a un ritorno dell’idea di una progettazione che contribuisca allo sviluppo sociale, superando quella visione che associava il social-design alla produzione di beni caritatevoli, o eticamente affini alle tematiche ambientali, sociali ed economiche. Una produzione di oggetti in grado di agire sulle relazioni all’interno della società. Oggetti che aprono dibattiti, guidano riflessioni, contrastano le narrazioni dominanti, supportano contro-narrazioni, contestano lo status quo. Una visione assimilabile al concetto di Socio-design, elaborato da Brock (1977): critico del design di origine tedesca, coniò tale termine per definire lo spostamento che un certo tipo di design stava attraversando, non più devoto alla progettazione di oggetti, ma a quella di interazioni sociali (Baur, Felsing 2016). Il presdente contributo analizza il progetto Design for migration, una piattaforma online che raccoglie le migliori esperienze di socio-design sul tema migratorio, verso il sostegno di nuove forme progettuali verso una socuetà più inclusiva.

The contribution presents an overview on how the - predominantly visual - digital communication tools can tell the otherness of cities with extraordinary effectiveness, placing, in this sense, representation as a preferential system of knowledge for complexity (urban, anthropological, sociological, economic, cultural, ...) of the contemporary city.

Design scholars have been focusing more of their attention to public controversial “things”, through the focus on “making public things” or on the “formation of publics” in relation to design projects. With this in mind, this paper describes a design case contrasting and challenging the main media narrative through the production of digital artifacts. The design intervention we describe, aimed at counteracting the racist stereotyping which targets the local Chinese community of Bolzano. The project People’s Republic of Bolzano reshapes the identity of the local Chinese community through digital media, in order to restore more transparent and balanced information, allowing a broader audience to inform itself on such a complex and multifaceted issue. This small project is part of an emergent phenomenon to counterbalance misrepresentation, in this case over the issue of migration.

Combining a statistics-based investigation and a series of qualitative interviews, the People's Republic of Bolzano project aimed at inviting citizens to discover who the members of the Chinese community living and working in the city are, what they think of Italy, its local culture and society. Contrary to the common belief – propagated by local media - that Chinese people are “invading” the city, the project helped reveal that, while we have and are witnessing a small-scale migration of Chinese people to Bolzano, they are not creating a ghetto in the city. Rather, they are integrating within it. This project, is the result of a web based long-term journalistic enquiry. It features animated and interactive infographics, maps, and a series of qualitative interviews, which help reshape the identity of the local Chinese community through digital media, in order to contrast with the dominant and misleading narrative by the local media. Through a design project based on more transparent and balanced information, thereby allowing a broader audience to inform itself on such a complex and multifaceted issue, the project opened a local debate about the integration of the Chinese people in the city, that led the local media purveyor of the “invasion” theory to reverse its narrative. 

People’s Republic of Bolzano has awarded with the Data Journalism Award 2015 (best data visualisation of the year, small newsroom) and the European Design Award 2016 (Bronze, digital infographics).

«Se un’immagine vale mille parole, una metafora vale mille immagini». Questo aforisma dello scrittore Dan Pink (2006) racchiude il senso del­ la data visualization. Le metafore sono maniglie in grado di aprire porte di significati (anche questa è a sua volta una metafora) e ci permettono di associare elementi geometrici come linee, punti e superfici a quantità e qualità, aiutandoci a comprendere meglio fatti e fenomeni che proba­ bilmente ci sarebbero sfuggiti attraverso una comunicazione tradizionale (Risch 2008). Le visualizzazioni di dati sono quindi metafore visive che hanno un effetto attrattivo sui lettori, rendendo il nostro lavoro più accat­ tivante, permettendogli di emergere dal mare magnum informativo in cui spesso si naviga e supportando infine i lettori nel ricordarsi sul lungo ter­ mine l’argomento trattato (Bateman et al. 2010). Se inoltre si considera che quasi il 50% del nostro cervello è coinvolto nell’elaborazione del se­ gnale visivo, il 70% di tutti i nostri recettori sensoriali risiedano nei nostri occhi (Merieb – Hoehn 2007), e che siamo in grado di carpire il senso di una scena visiva in meno di 1/10 di secondo (Semetko – Scammell 2012), diventa chiaro come il nostro corpo favorisca l’apprendimento visivo.