A Focus on Pedagogy
Abstract
Within the broad context of design studies, Communication Design for the Territory stands as a hybrid discipline constantly interfacing with other fields of knowledge. It assumes the territorial theme as its specific dimension, aiming to generate communication systems capable of reading the stratifications of places. From an educational perspective, teaching activities are closely linked to research and can take on different levels of complexity: from the various forms of cartographic translation to the design of sophisticated transmedia digital systems. In the wake of COVID-19, this discipline has come to terms with a profoundly changed scenario in terms of limited access to the physical space and the emergence of new technologies for remote access. In this unique context, we propose a pedagogical strategy that focuses on the hybridization of communication artifacts with the aim of fostering design experimentation. As a creative tool, hybridization leads to the design of innovative systems by strategically combining the characteristics of different artifacts to achieve specific communication goals. By experimenting with these creative strategies, students are led to critically reflect on existing communication artifacts’ features and explore original designs that deliberately combine different media, contents, and communication languages in innovative ways. Through hybridization, the methods for territorial knowledge production appear more effective, effectively combining the skills and knowledge embodied in multiple subject areas. The paper presents the experience developed in the teaching laboratories of the DCxT (Communication Design for the Territory) research group of the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano. The teaching experience highlights how hybridization strategies can increase the effectiveness in learning about territorial specificities, in acquiring critical knowledge about communication systems, and in developing innovation strategies that allow to influence the evolution of traditional communication models.
Clorinda Sissi Galasso. After studies in Cultural Heritage and a diploma in stage photography, she started to study at Politecnico di Milano where she graduated in 2017 in Communication Design. Her research activity is oriented towards memory representation systems and the valorization of data preserved in historical archives. She is currently a PhD candidate studying the complex relationship between memory and places from a communication design perspective. The aim is to provide new answers to the search for a conceptual resolution between the ideas of “places of memory” and “memory of places”, focusing on the notion of mnemotope. In particular, she deals with the study of new map-based communication devices to visualize territorial mnemotopic networks. She currently collaborates with the research group in Design of Communication for the Territory (DCxT) of the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano.
Marco Quaggiotto is a senior researcher at the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano, where he holds a PhD in Industrial Design and Multimedia Communication. Since 2009 he has been a lecturer at the Design School of the Politecnico di Milano, where he teaches Communication Design with a focus on digital communication formats. His work is focused on the field of Communication Design, with particular interest in the design of digital interfaces for the exploration of complex territories and systems, the application of digital cartography to narrative formats, and issues related to the representation and interaction with data and knowledge systems.
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Friday 22nd April, 2022