Abstract:

In our everyday life, our relationships with others and with space in which we live in or go through, we get in contact with devices that mediate between us and our surroundings.
In view of the changes of the communicative practices and the evolution of technologies and languages the Communication Design Research Unit, in INDACO Department of Politecnico di Milano, operates by valuating and facing the problem of territorial identity. Project methodology was applied into the Laboratories of Master’s Degree Course in Communication Design.
The analysis and classification of innovative projects of territorial communication is getting structured considering the organization of an Observatory for projects. These projects emphasize the territorial identities and verify the possibility of developing communicative formats. They include dynamic instruments that connect different layers of communicative access, able to show multiple levels of contents belonging to complex contexts.
Through those devices and the use of new technologies, including augmented reality, it will be possible to create new communicative models: they will create new forms of participation for the visitor/user and give new meaning to places that have lack of memory or sense and where traditional references are missing.
The application of project methodology into educational laboratories is structured both in handling contents gathered from different sources (media, texts, statistical references, etc.), arranging them in maps (by the use of infographic) and organizing the material in various devices with different functions, to visualize the results and to value the impact on territory.

Keywords:

Educational models, Communication, Design, Format, Territory.