From Data Gate to Story Gate. Territory Visualization Models and Processes for Design Driven Actions

The territory is a real and rhetorical place where, according to different methods and value system, the relationship between product-context-identity materializes (Cristallo, 2004, 2014). It is a multiform connection which in turn is embodied in the notion of "territorial deposit", a mine of localized resources resulting from historical, social and natural stratifications. That is to say that the availability of goods in a given place is the combination of environmental, human and cultural properties that have marked their life and development over time. The reading of a territory is therefore a complex action since it foresees the interpretation of its characters (the properties) and the construction of "areas of meaning" and "shared visions" so that these same characters are correctly displayed for those in the area who must act through targeted project conduct. That is to say that the resources present in the territory are examined as a "communicative landscape" of which it is necessary to understand and reconstruct the accesses so much more if we consider the close relationship between the products and services included in these landscapes. In this framework, Information Design - as a project of alphabets, grammars and visual syntaxes to elaborate and describe graphic and visual narrative sequences - has at the same time the role of deciphering and drafting these communicative passages offered by the territory-system also through the planning that requires and induces. A path that can be activated by identifying Data Gate, configuring Story Gate and staging storytelling models that make the complexity of the data presented intelligible1. This conceptual path is conducted with the aid of case studies, examining - against the background of the interdisciplinary nature of the knowledge / skills - projects and experiences whose "communication base" is a factor of entry to favor, between tradition and innovation, the development of good practices for using the local environment.