Blog

Combloux, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

A visual artifact from 1928. A picture catched in a restaurant: even eating typical food the Density eye is always looking for complexity! Quite similar (in the approach) to some of the new maps of our Density laboratory course (i.e. Cinema, Media and Hospitals).

After four years, the time is ripe to reveal the precise meaning of (half of) the title of our research framework (and of this blog): “Density”.
I have to admit that at the beginning the choice of this term – and the idea of researching on that – was more like the verbal synthesis of a very raw intuition, a vision without a clear definition. Nowadays our research and educational experiences – through the laboratory course “Density | Complexity and Communication Design”, all the thesis and the PhD work – confirm the goodness of this first intuition and the vision has a brief definition: with Density we mean the relation (the ratio) between time and complexity in the decision processes. The world becomes more and more complex (glocal, interconnected, fluid, etc.), changing faster then ever. So that we are asked to make quick decisions for complex problem and/or in complex systems, and forced to deal with complexity (current and future changes can be really understood only using an approach based on non-linearity and complexity): definitely a dense situation.

We strongly believe that integrating the right approach with the competences of designers in visualization and representation, the discipline of Communication Design can cope with dense situations, providing effective tools (diagrams, primarily) to improve the decision process and making profit from the richness of complexity.

We’re still working on that, but some interesting results already emerged, as you can see (I hope!) browsing our blog.

Chemical Atlas, inserito originariamente da densitydesign.

Some nice infographics from ‘Chemical Atlas or The Chemistry of Familiar Objects’ by Edward Livingston Youmans (1855) at Strasbourg Universities.

RESHAPING COMMUNICATION DESIGN TOOLS
During the last thirty years the level of interest in Complexity Science has been constantly increasing. Combining the opportunity offered by the findings of the Complexity Science with the framework of the multi-disciplinary debate on the meaning and use of diagrams, we propose a design methodology to help designers support their interventions in complex environments.
The structural features analysis of Complex Systems has been our key point to outline a methodology to offer designers a new mindfulness in the use of design tools. This methodology is based on five phases: analysing, representing, pinpointing, timing and telling. It provides a theoretical framework that incorporates many tools suggesting a different use of them with a special attention to improve the designer’s consciousness of the system he is designing in.
When design is addressing complexity, diagrams could become generative tools that can be used to produce metadata relevant to the design process.
Have a look here

Have a look at the presentation

The Pdf file contains the report of a lecture held by A. Penati, R. Gabbatore, M. Quaggiotto and C. Colombi, about Visual Design, Complexity and representation issues during Design Phenomenology Course.

“[The diagram] never functions to represent a persisting world but produces a new kind of reality, a new model of truth.”
Deleuze, G. (1986) Focault, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Following the link you will find my paper discussed during the Ph.D. Course “Design Phenomenology” held by E. Mazini.

Second step done!
The groups on the basis of an analytic process have made their diagram, a map.
These artifact should become a plataform to act whitin the complexity of the system whit a design intervention.

Fashion System Centre & Periphery

Fashion System – Centre & Periphery, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

density live on stage 07-08, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

The map shows the results of our inquiry on the fashion system. We started by asking ourselves if talking about fashion capitals still makes sense and moreover if there are new actors on the international scene. The representation shows that there are main and second actors, and that they are both important.
Central and peripheral elements in fact coexist and interact, thus requiring to pay attention also to countries that seem less relevant but in the future could become more and more important.

Transport System Italian Infrastructure

Transport System – Italian Infrastructure, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Analizing the transport system gives back a wide range in quantity and variety of issues and informations available.
We focused our work mainly on the infrastructural system nationwide.
Our survey carefully focuses on mayers and troubles whic new infrastrueures create at local level. It makes a point of laws and normatives that regolate the infrastrueural net development in European countries. As far as it is concerned about the analysis of new infrastrueures increase, we have pointed out how diferent roles may interact.
In other words, how citizens can influence the opinion of the plaintifs that aeually has decisional power in ruling the system.
We have foremost mapped critical areas nationwide. For the BreBeMi highway projee we have identined the main plaintifs and their thinking.

Hospital System From client to Patient

Hospital System – From client to Patient, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

The hospital: a system suitably created for the care and the reinstatement of the user, fundamental subject about which trials are divided to more or less visibly and flows of information, materials, data and people.
Therefore, the map is totally centred on the users of the system, from which some vectors – corresponding to the direct access of the users to the sectors of the structure – are diffused: the reading sense is oriented towards right this way, where the processes and actors semicircle is placed; as a matter of fact, inside it are represented the processes and the operating subjects taken back inside the structure. The different nature of the exchanges is pointed out by the different colouring of the lines: following the radial disposition, at the end of every process you reach the area dedicated to the representation of communications and of exchanges between different sectors of the hospital. At a second level, it has been placed a second semicircle, a less specific representation of the system, that therefore shows – always with radial reading sense, consistently his corresponding right – in first place the flows between the departments, visible exchanges from the user and as easily deducible of type “many to many”; in second place a couple of data concerning every department: the height of the columns corresponds to the flow of users, while the width of them shows the amount of resources absorbed by the specific department. Once finished this sense of reading, taking into consideration a vision more of set of this area, it is visible the hierarchic organization of the system, where beneath the general direction, which is resources reach and he is responsible for distribution of them, appear administrative, sanitary and management directions, disposed according to their relative competence areas.

Media System Integration & convergence

Media System – Integration & convergence, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

“New antennas could convey old froth” (Bertold Brecht).
Our diagram aim to explain the content flow in the italian mediatic system, strarting from the major content producer to the user interfaces. We want to show that the user could be reached by a few editorial groups through various channels, in this way the same content comes to the user in different ways giving him a wrong idea of pluralism. The whole system has been formulatedas an inverted cone which has the producers ring in its base and the user on its top. The upper part put the focus on the editors and their products, this help us to highlight their role inside the system. In the lower part we placed the cone’s development that can individuate the most relevant flows, relations and nodes. The user himself gets into the system as a producer whom is only constrained by the internet distribution platforms, that make the free sharing of contents possible.

Cinematographic System I Soliti Ignoti

Cinematographic System – I Soliti Ignoti, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

The map represents Italian cinema system, focusing on government funds regarding cinema products.
We primary focus on funding process in order to define movie’s founds flows as an input and output process. Government supports only movies responding to a “cultural interest” principle, with the aim of boosting Italian cinema.
This first found brings out movies into a complex system with public and private players, but there is a lack of backing through the system: movies don’t arrive successfully to the audience, a flop for the nation’s aims.Two different subsystem emerge, public and private, competing for the same target, the audience, into a deep network of relationships. Production, distribution and (sometime) promotion govern the process.

Contemporary Art Valorization mechanisms

Contemporary Art – Valorization mechanisms, originally uploaded by densitydesign.“

For Contemporary Art there are therefore essential requirements needed: something created by someone and a process that results in a social setting, that is an effective frame, something like art.”(Alessandro Dal Lago and Serena Giordano, 2006)
It seems, in fact, that the production and enhancement of artistic is determined only by the logic of the market and the discourse on art. The map represents the system of Contemporary Art in Italy in the last two years from the point of view of twelve breakthrough artist. The actors are grouped by category and differ one from the other according to their level of activity. The flow of interaction between the various actors have different forms: works, money and information; some reports appear in the shade. The representation of the system reveals how the process of defining value of the work is not dependent strictly by artists but involving different actors and how some dynamics of the system remain deliberately hidden.

density live on stage 07-08, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

How does one become a Saint?

C.Stem 2007 is a 3 days long
event focused on on generative systems as a tool as well as medium to draw new conceptual and creative paths.

The opening will be on November, the 29th, with an audio/video performance by Valerio Spoletini, creator of V-Scratch, and hardware/software tools for creating both music and visuals using turntable.
On November, the 30th, will be the exhibition, featuring:

• Tom De Smedt, Frederik De Bleser, Lucas Nijs: developers of NodeBox
• Michael Schmitz, genoTyp
• Ricard Marxer, Caligrapht
• Andreas Koller and Philipp Steinweber, Similar Diversity
• Alex Dragulescu, Spam Architecture
• Gleetchplug Design, OM, Gleetchlab
• Todo
• Pedro Mari, Streams

On Saturday, December the 1st, there will be the lectures about NodeBox, genoTyp and Evolving Logo and Caligrapht by the very voice of their authors.
See you there!

Flavio Curella