This paper aims to reflect on methods and applications of digital technology in the field of art ... more This paper aims to reflect on methods and applications of digital technology in the field of art history, specifically on the topic of the medieval sculpture's reuse in the modern age. We present as a case study the pulpit of the church of San Bartolomeo in Pantano in Pistoia, whose 13th-century sculptural and architectural apparatus has undergone, over time, numerous alterations and relocations that have compromised the interpretation of its original configuration. The goal is to reconstruct a 3D digital model of the medieval artefact, based on specific and commonly accepted historical-artistic hypotheses. The digital model becomes essential for the analysis and study of the monument, as well as a tool to increase the understanding and appreciation of the artwork by a non-expert audience.
This research examines the complex and intricate decorative program carried out by Giorgio Vasari... more This research examines the complex and intricate decorative program carried out by Giorgio Vasari on the vaulted ceiling of the refectory of the Maria di Monteoliveto's monastery in Naples, now incorporated into the Church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi. The plurality of elements that compose the decorative apparatus induces the construction of three separate reading levels, each of them analyzed in its geometric, iconographic and symbolic features. In addition, the drawing of graphic schemes of the vaults aims to support the understanding of the decoration and its reading phases.
Transizioni. Atti del 44° Convegno Internazionale dei Docenti delle Discipline della Rappresentazione, 2023
Gli studiosi del disegno hanno spesso indagato le reciproche influenze tra architettura e narrazi... more Gli studiosi del disegno hanno spesso indagato le reciproche influenze tra architettura e narrazione, ambiti solo all'apparenza molto distanti. Questo contributo indaga le potenzialità semiotiche di uno spazio rappresentato a partire da una sua descrizione testuale, con l'obiettivo di comprendere quali componenti del disegno spaziale siano in grado di tradurre visivamente i principali elementi della narrazione. A tal proposito, si analizzano le ambientazioni descritte in due romanzi brevi, Colazione da Tiffany di Truman Capote e Il ballo di Irene Némirovsky, comparabili in quanto entrambi narrano di interni architettonici verosimiglianti alla percezione degli spazi fisici reali. La ricerca ha consentito di individuare gli espedienti grafici comunicativi e contestualmente tecnici che possono intervenire nella rappresentazione visiva di uno spazio narrativo. Il metodo di rappresentazione e i parametri geometrici nell'inquadratura dello spazio possono accentuare il punto di vista e la focalizzazione del narratore. La scelta degli elementi spaziali, i principi e le logiche compositive consentono di qualificare lo spazio vissuto, guidando l'osservatore nella comprensione del racconto visivo. Colori, texture, luci e ombre collaborano, invece, alla definizione dell'atmosfera narrativa e all'attivazione di reazioni emotive da parte dell'osservatore. Parole chiave illustrazione, disegno digitale, architettura narrativa, linguaggio visivo, descrizione letteraria Rappresentazione dello spazio narrativo descritto ne Il ballo di Irene Némirovsky e in Colazione da Tiffany di Truman Capote. Elaborazione grafica dell'autore.
Proceedings of the 3rd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Image and Imagination, 2023
The space in videogames is not a visual extension of conventional narrative structures, as in tra... more The space in videogames is not a visual extension of conventional narrative structures, as in traditional media, but it becomes a tool to organize the tale. The possibility of exploring space and acting on it makes the videogame the closest medium to the embodied experience of a story. This feature attributes a central role to the spatial representation that help the player in the construction of meanings which are necessary to understand the narration. The spatial suggestions become a formal and structural code of visual signs, able to emphasize tones and atmospheres and/or to express emotional valances. Starting from these considerations, the research aims to analyze the relationships between visual representation and narrative language in videogames. The survey methodology includes a comparative analysis of videogame spaces, starting from the main types of stories: realistic, verisimilar and unrealistic. This distinction allows to identify three macrogroups of spatial representations. The empathetic/anempathetic spaces reproduce perceptions similar to those existing in a physical space. The utopian/dystopian spaces propose perceptions that do not coincide with existing reality but that are potentially realizable in certain space-time conditions. The impossible/elsewhere spaces, finally, offer perceptions that not only do not coincide with reality, but that are also impractical in the physical world. This research underlines how the scientific area of representation can contribute significantly to the study of videogame, understood as a narrative form in which the drawing of the space is applied as an irreplaceable modality for the construction of a visual code of thought.
This paper analyses some cultural videogames produced, in recent years, by art and archaeological... more This paper analyses some cultural videogames produced, in recent years, by art and archaeological museums, in order to understand how colour can become a visual tool to support gaming and cultural storytelling. The traditional methodologies of visual language analysis are adapted to the distinctive features of the new medium, as the interactivity and navigability of virtual game spaces. The aim of the research is to investigate colour both as a tool that the game designer uses to structure the narrative and as a visual element that the player interprets to develop the game actions.
This paper examines the role that new technologies and digital representation strategies can play... more This paper examines the role that new technologies and digital representation strategies can play in the conservation and enhancement of the medieval sculptural heritage, often difficult to understand due to its fragmented and lacunar state. The case study presented is the apparatus of sculptural fragments belonged to the Church of San Gennaro Extra Moenia in Naples and today preserved in the Palatine Chapel of the Castel Nuovo Museum. The creation of a library of digital twins becomes a useful tool for academics, enabling them both to enrich their knowledge of sculptural fragments and to advance hypotheses and reconstructive analyses in a digital environment. The design of a virtual reality experience through the use of QR codes and Google Cardboard also allows the creation of new ways of fruition of medieval heritage, especially for nonexpert audiences who do not always appreciate traditional methods of cultural meaning transmission.
Information e 3D Modeling per il patrimonio costruito, 2022
La ricerca presenta la sperimentazione di un nuovo Cultural Game per il Museo Marino Marini di Fi... more La ricerca presenta la sperimentazione di un nuovo Cultural Game per il Museo Marino Marini di Firenze, con l’obiettivo di mostrare come l’uso consapevole del disegno possa contribuire a narrare in maniera innovativa contenuti culturali e storie legate al museo
A virtual narrative environment is a place for storytelling through the exploration and navigatio... more A virtual narrative environment is a place for storytelling through the exploration and navigation of a simulated space. The research investigates how to design and represent a virtual narrative environment for the production of stories related to museum and Cultural Heritage. The Museo Marino Marini in Florence is presented as a field of experimentation for the modelling and visualisation of a narrative gamespace
Colore e Colorimetria Contributi Multidisciplinari, 2022
Il presente contributo indaga alcuni videogiochi culturali prodotti, negli ultimi anni, da musei ... more Il presente contributo indaga alcuni videogiochi culturali prodotti, negli ultimi anni, da musei artistici e archeologici, al fine di comprendere come il colore possa divenire uno strumento visivo in grado di supportare il gioco e la narrazione culturale. Le metodologie tradizionali di analisi del linguaggio visivo sono adattate ai due caratteri peculiari del nuovo medium: l'interattività e la navigabilità degli spazi virtuali di gioco. Scopo della ricerca, infatti, è riconoscere il colore sia come strumento adoperato dal game designer nell'organizzazione della struttura narrativa sia come elemento visivo percepito e interpretato dal giocatore nello sviluppo delle azioni di gioco.
The research examines the videogame as a new form of visual narration, in which the story is cons... more The research examines the videogame as a new form of visual narration, in which the story is constructed not only by the designer's authorial intentions, but also by the interpretation of the player, who moves and acts in the gamespace. The space, therefore, can assume a central narrative role, helping the player in the construction of meanings necessary for the understanding of the story. The aim of this research is to analyse the representation of space as a narrative language in videogames, examining how spatial suggestions become a formal and structural code of visual signs, able to emphasize tones and atmospheres and/or express emotional values. The survey methodology includes a comparative analysis of videogame spaces, starting from the main types of narratives: realistic, verisimilar and unrealistic; this distinction allows to identify three macro-groups of spatial representations, having specific and defined characteristics. This research underlines how the scientific area of representation can contribute significantly to the study of videogame, understood as a narrative form in which the drawing of the space is applied as an irreplaceable modality for the construction of a visual code of thought.
REPRESENTATION CHALLENGES New Frontiers of AR and AI Research for Cultural Heritage and Innovative Design, 2022
With this contribution we intend to continue a research started in a previous study on the constr... more With this contribution we intend to continue a research started in a previous study on the construction of a narrative strategy to communicate the pictorial images of historical cities. Resuming the theoretical and cognitive process started previously, which directed the research towards the construction of a geocoded map of urban paintings and their use in augmented reality, we now intend to validate the proposed methodology on the pictorial image of Naples, chosen as a case study application, identifying weaknesses and strengths of the research process and its possible future directions.
Maps are one of the most widely used communicative devices in videogames, and also one of the con... more Maps are one of the most widely used communicative devices in videogames, and also one of the constantly evolving and developing graphical tools in game industry products. Videogames are the first medium to combine visual dynamism and an active participatory role, and thus present a narrative model that differs from traditional media and that can be defined as a ‘spatial model’. The passage from the spectator’s position to an interactive one implies for the player a new relationship with the space, which is no longer only observable, but also explorable. Spatial awareness in the videogame, therefore, becomes a necessity both for the game designers, who have the task of ‘spatialising’ the story, and for the players, who have to understand and interpret the virtually navigated environments. This allows the cartographic and architectural language to open up to an extremely wide audience, considering that the number of gamers is now estimated at two billion. Despite maps in videogames playing a fundamental and often crucial role in many titles, they constitute an area that has not yet been fully investigated in the scientific field of drawing and visual representation. Instead, we believe it is necessary for these disciplines to contribute to the survey of videogame maps, as experiences in which drawing is used as an indispensable mode for the creation of a visual code of thought. Starting from these considerations, the research intends to offer an overview of the use of maps in videogames and the reciprocal influences and relations between them and the real physical world. Considering mapping as a complex and articulated system, the research aims to examine it by single parameters, separating its typological, functional, visual and graphical aspects. The methodology applied for the analysis of these parameters is deductive, deriving each reflection from a rich sample of videogame products played, watched from online reproductions and/or analyzed from scientific writings and auxiliary texts. The typological analysis allows us to differentiate ‘object-maps’, i.e. coinciding with the game space, from ‘interface maps’, autonomous devices supporting the game world. Videogame maps are then examined in functional terms, identifying the different tasks they can assume both in relation to narration (how they are linked to the story) and gameplay (how they are linked to game activities). In the visual analysis, instead, we define the various ways of displaying maps in the videogame, their positioning on the screen and the scale of representation. Finally, the symbolic language is investigated, distinguishing the graphic elements that compose the maps or through which the player can create their own, such as icons, waypoints, drawing (colors, brushes, lines) and textual elements.
Connettere. Un disegno per annodare e tessere. Linguaggi Distanze Tecnologie. Atti del 42° Convegno Internazionale dei Docenti delle Discipline della Rappresentazione, 2021
The research investigates the visual language in the videogame, as a form of communication emblem... more The research investigates the visual language in the videogame, as a form of communication emblematic of the contemporary age. In particular we analyze the representation of space, as a common and central element in all visual narratives produced by man, whether static or dynamic images. The proposed theme, although partly addressed in the field of game studies, has not yet found a full response in the studies of the disciplinary field of drawing, probably due to the recent origin of the video game medium. The chosen methodology of analysis involves a comparison between pictorial and videogame spaces, since every form of visual narration takes up and reworks codes and languages from the media that preceded it, endowing them with new meaning. The theories related to the construction of spatial representation in a traditional art, different in temporal origin, type of images and narrative purposes, allow, in fact, to show more clearly repropositions and peculiarities of the new medium. The results obtained allow to define the possible relationships between drawing, narration and gameplay, constituting, moreover, a basis for the cataloging by the scientific area of the design of the spaces represented in videogames.
Representation Challenges. Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence in Cultural Heritage and Innovative Design Domain, 2021
The research investigates the theme of the valorization of the huge, but widespread, archaeologic... more The research investigates the theme of the valorization of the huge, but widespread, archaeological heritage of the Phlegraean Fields which, already weakened in its conservation and fruition by the bradyseismic phenomena of the area, is made even more fragile by the absence of narrative strategies, making even local communities unable to perceive its value. The study proposes a systematization of the knowledge of the Phlegraean Fields Park, through surveys and 3D models, integrated by the use of different digital technologies, which together promote effective forms of communication between users and heritage. Each site becomes the node of a network of thematic routes, traced starting from the major attractions of the area and aimed at defining a hybrid landscape, made of in site visits and immersive digital experiences. The goal is to generate a new model of inclusive museum, configuring cultural relationships between physically distant places, between lost spaces and real ruins.
LA CITTÀ PALINSESTO/II. Tracce, sguardi e narrazioni sulla complessità dei contesti urbani storici: Rappresentazione, conoscenza, conservazione , 2021
This research provides an experimental project for the urban image of Napoli, in order to enhance... more This research provides an experimental project for the urban image of Napoli, in order to enhance its knowledge. Artists, who have painted it over time, have shaped a visual memory of its changes that is reinterpreted through a contemporary communicative key. The points of view, taken by the painters in various pictorial views, are identified and placed in a geocoded map, and then be connected to an augmented reality app, developing an implementable and interactive narrative about the 'imago urbis'.
Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13(1), 2021
American Director Wes Anderson's films are an interesting case study on the use of representation... more American Director Wes Anderson's films are an interesting case study on the use of representation and visual language as elements capable of implementing the narrative underlying the film plot. His films, in fact, are constructed according to a logic similar to that of architectural representations. The combination of geometries, perspectives, textures and colors generates a code of signs capable of mediating between the intelligible and the sensitive, between the idea and the image. In particular, chromatic aesthetics constitutes a carefully curated component in the image sequences. The balanced and perfect color compositions, however much they may seem a decorative whim, represent a clever narrative device that, designed according to logical patterns, is able to embody symbolic and communicative values. This research, therefore, aims to investigate the language of color in Anderson's films, with the aim of analyzing its narrative potential. The color is investigated both as a narrative content of the filmic atmosphere and as a narrative container of emotions and symbols. The double register of analysis used for Anderson's films can become a trace of a general methodology of analysis, applicable not only to the works of other directors, but also to other forms of visual narration.
The present research explores the use of the art practices in “no-places” as an instrument of urb... more The present research explores the use of the art practices in “no-places” as an instrument of urban regeneration. “No-places” are meant as architectural and urban spaces where people perceive to be in a decayed and anonymous areas, without identity and ties with the territory due to their shapes and their ways of fruition. The goal is to transform them into ‘new places’, creating a different relationship between people and spaces. This is achieved without structur-al and architectural measures, but modifying those aspects concerning the perception, orientation and recognition to have an impact on the fruition and on the sense of belonging to the place. In particular, research focuses on the anamorphic artistic installations; anamorphosis is a geometrical process of optical illusion based on a distorted projection that enables the recognition of the original image watching it from a specific point of view. The enigmatic and fragmented labyrinth of signs becomes understandable for the observer only when he recomposed it with his eyes and his movement, thereby contributing to define new perception and use of the space. In the first part of the text we analyze some installations that use the anamorphosis as a tool of urban acupuncture; in the second part, the Boscoreale railway station constitutes the case study for the application of anamorphosis to a “no-place” of the urban mobility.
Temi e frontiere della conoscenza e del progetto, 2020
This research focuses on the use of the trompe l’oeil within the most recent scenario of urban ar... more This research focuses on the use of the trompe l’oeil within the most recent scenario of urban art. The trompe l’oeil is a technique of representation characterized by a strong realism and by geometrical and visual illusions that induce observers to imagine a three-dimensionality even though the artwork is realized on two-dimensional surfaces. The term was coined during the Baroque period, but the knowledge of the pictorial illusions has much deeper roots; there are many examples that date back to the ancient Greece, to the Roman Empire and that continue in the following centuries, right up to the contemporary age with the Street Art, typical expression of metropolitan cities of our century. The present research aims to understand the reasons about the return of the trompe l’oeil‘s artistic taste; the goal is to analyze its symbolic and representational features in order to define both its innovative aspects and those that are in continuity with the artistic tradition.
This paper aims to reflect on methods and applications of digital technology in the field of art ... more This paper aims to reflect on methods and applications of digital technology in the field of art history, specifically on the topic of the medieval sculpture's reuse in the modern age. We present as a case study the pulpit of the church of San Bartolomeo in Pantano in Pistoia, whose 13th-century sculptural and architectural apparatus has undergone, over time, numerous alterations and relocations that have compromised the interpretation of its original configuration. The goal is to reconstruct a 3D digital model of the medieval artefact, based on specific and commonly accepted historical-artistic hypotheses. The digital model becomes essential for the analysis and study of the monument, as well as a tool to increase the understanding and appreciation of the artwork by a non-expert audience.
This research examines the complex and intricate decorative program carried out by Giorgio Vasari... more This research examines the complex and intricate decorative program carried out by Giorgio Vasari on the vaulted ceiling of the refectory of the Maria di Monteoliveto's monastery in Naples, now incorporated into the Church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi. The plurality of elements that compose the decorative apparatus induces the construction of three separate reading levels, each of them analyzed in its geometric, iconographic and symbolic features. In addition, the drawing of graphic schemes of the vaults aims to support the understanding of the decoration and its reading phases.
Transizioni. Atti del 44° Convegno Internazionale dei Docenti delle Discipline della Rappresentazione, 2023
Gli studiosi del disegno hanno spesso indagato le reciproche influenze tra architettura e narrazi... more Gli studiosi del disegno hanno spesso indagato le reciproche influenze tra architettura e narrazione, ambiti solo all'apparenza molto distanti. Questo contributo indaga le potenzialità semiotiche di uno spazio rappresentato a partire da una sua descrizione testuale, con l'obiettivo di comprendere quali componenti del disegno spaziale siano in grado di tradurre visivamente i principali elementi della narrazione. A tal proposito, si analizzano le ambientazioni descritte in due romanzi brevi, Colazione da Tiffany di Truman Capote e Il ballo di Irene Némirovsky, comparabili in quanto entrambi narrano di interni architettonici verosimiglianti alla percezione degli spazi fisici reali. La ricerca ha consentito di individuare gli espedienti grafici comunicativi e contestualmente tecnici che possono intervenire nella rappresentazione visiva di uno spazio narrativo. Il metodo di rappresentazione e i parametri geometrici nell'inquadratura dello spazio possono accentuare il punto di vista e la focalizzazione del narratore. La scelta degli elementi spaziali, i principi e le logiche compositive consentono di qualificare lo spazio vissuto, guidando l'osservatore nella comprensione del racconto visivo. Colori, texture, luci e ombre collaborano, invece, alla definizione dell'atmosfera narrativa e all'attivazione di reazioni emotive da parte dell'osservatore. Parole chiave illustrazione, disegno digitale, architettura narrativa, linguaggio visivo, descrizione letteraria Rappresentazione dello spazio narrativo descritto ne Il ballo di Irene Némirovsky e in Colazione da Tiffany di Truman Capote. Elaborazione grafica dell'autore.
Proceedings of the 3rd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Image and Imagination, 2023
The space in videogames is not a visual extension of conventional narrative structures, as in tra... more The space in videogames is not a visual extension of conventional narrative structures, as in traditional media, but it becomes a tool to organize the tale. The possibility of exploring space and acting on it makes the videogame the closest medium to the embodied experience of a story. This feature attributes a central role to the spatial representation that help the player in the construction of meanings which are necessary to understand the narration. The spatial suggestions become a formal and structural code of visual signs, able to emphasize tones and atmospheres and/or to express emotional valances. Starting from these considerations, the research aims to analyze the relationships between visual representation and narrative language in videogames. The survey methodology includes a comparative analysis of videogame spaces, starting from the main types of stories: realistic, verisimilar and unrealistic. This distinction allows to identify three macrogroups of spatial representations. The empathetic/anempathetic spaces reproduce perceptions similar to those existing in a physical space. The utopian/dystopian spaces propose perceptions that do not coincide with existing reality but that are potentially realizable in certain space-time conditions. The impossible/elsewhere spaces, finally, offer perceptions that not only do not coincide with reality, but that are also impractical in the physical world. This research underlines how the scientific area of representation can contribute significantly to the study of videogame, understood as a narrative form in which the drawing of the space is applied as an irreplaceable modality for the construction of a visual code of thought.
This paper analyses some cultural videogames produced, in recent years, by art and archaeological... more This paper analyses some cultural videogames produced, in recent years, by art and archaeological museums, in order to understand how colour can become a visual tool to support gaming and cultural storytelling. The traditional methodologies of visual language analysis are adapted to the distinctive features of the new medium, as the interactivity and navigability of virtual game spaces. The aim of the research is to investigate colour both as a tool that the game designer uses to structure the narrative and as a visual element that the player interprets to develop the game actions.
This paper examines the role that new technologies and digital representation strategies can play... more This paper examines the role that new technologies and digital representation strategies can play in the conservation and enhancement of the medieval sculptural heritage, often difficult to understand due to its fragmented and lacunar state. The case study presented is the apparatus of sculptural fragments belonged to the Church of San Gennaro Extra Moenia in Naples and today preserved in the Palatine Chapel of the Castel Nuovo Museum. The creation of a library of digital twins becomes a useful tool for academics, enabling them both to enrich their knowledge of sculptural fragments and to advance hypotheses and reconstructive analyses in a digital environment. The design of a virtual reality experience through the use of QR codes and Google Cardboard also allows the creation of new ways of fruition of medieval heritage, especially for nonexpert audiences who do not always appreciate traditional methods of cultural meaning transmission.
Information e 3D Modeling per il patrimonio costruito, 2022
La ricerca presenta la sperimentazione di un nuovo Cultural Game per il Museo Marino Marini di Fi... more La ricerca presenta la sperimentazione di un nuovo Cultural Game per il Museo Marino Marini di Firenze, con l’obiettivo di mostrare come l’uso consapevole del disegno possa contribuire a narrare in maniera innovativa contenuti culturali e storie legate al museo
A virtual narrative environment is a place for storytelling through the exploration and navigatio... more A virtual narrative environment is a place for storytelling through the exploration and navigation of a simulated space. The research investigates how to design and represent a virtual narrative environment for the production of stories related to museum and Cultural Heritage. The Museo Marino Marini in Florence is presented as a field of experimentation for the modelling and visualisation of a narrative gamespace
Colore e Colorimetria Contributi Multidisciplinari, 2022
Il presente contributo indaga alcuni videogiochi culturali prodotti, negli ultimi anni, da musei ... more Il presente contributo indaga alcuni videogiochi culturali prodotti, negli ultimi anni, da musei artistici e archeologici, al fine di comprendere come il colore possa divenire uno strumento visivo in grado di supportare il gioco e la narrazione culturale. Le metodologie tradizionali di analisi del linguaggio visivo sono adattate ai due caratteri peculiari del nuovo medium: l'interattività e la navigabilità degli spazi virtuali di gioco. Scopo della ricerca, infatti, è riconoscere il colore sia come strumento adoperato dal game designer nell'organizzazione della struttura narrativa sia come elemento visivo percepito e interpretato dal giocatore nello sviluppo delle azioni di gioco.
The research examines the videogame as a new form of visual narration, in which the story is cons... more The research examines the videogame as a new form of visual narration, in which the story is constructed not only by the designer's authorial intentions, but also by the interpretation of the player, who moves and acts in the gamespace. The space, therefore, can assume a central narrative role, helping the player in the construction of meanings necessary for the understanding of the story. The aim of this research is to analyse the representation of space as a narrative language in videogames, examining how spatial suggestions become a formal and structural code of visual signs, able to emphasize tones and atmospheres and/or express emotional values. The survey methodology includes a comparative analysis of videogame spaces, starting from the main types of narratives: realistic, verisimilar and unrealistic; this distinction allows to identify three macro-groups of spatial representations, having specific and defined characteristics. This research underlines how the scientific area of representation can contribute significantly to the study of videogame, understood as a narrative form in which the drawing of the space is applied as an irreplaceable modality for the construction of a visual code of thought.
REPRESENTATION CHALLENGES New Frontiers of AR and AI Research for Cultural Heritage and Innovative Design, 2022
With this contribution we intend to continue a research started in a previous study on the constr... more With this contribution we intend to continue a research started in a previous study on the construction of a narrative strategy to communicate the pictorial images of historical cities. Resuming the theoretical and cognitive process started previously, which directed the research towards the construction of a geocoded map of urban paintings and their use in augmented reality, we now intend to validate the proposed methodology on the pictorial image of Naples, chosen as a case study application, identifying weaknesses and strengths of the research process and its possible future directions.
Maps are one of the most widely used communicative devices in videogames, and also one of the con... more Maps are one of the most widely used communicative devices in videogames, and also one of the constantly evolving and developing graphical tools in game industry products. Videogames are the first medium to combine visual dynamism and an active participatory role, and thus present a narrative model that differs from traditional media and that can be defined as a ‘spatial model’. The passage from the spectator’s position to an interactive one implies for the player a new relationship with the space, which is no longer only observable, but also explorable. Spatial awareness in the videogame, therefore, becomes a necessity both for the game designers, who have the task of ‘spatialising’ the story, and for the players, who have to understand and interpret the virtually navigated environments. This allows the cartographic and architectural language to open up to an extremely wide audience, considering that the number of gamers is now estimated at two billion. Despite maps in videogames playing a fundamental and often crucial role in many titles, they constitute an area that has not yet been fully investigated in the scientific field of drawing and visual representation. Instead, we believe it is necessary for these disciplines to contribute to the survey of videogame maps, as experiences in which drawing is used as an indispensable mode for the creation of a visual code of thought. Starting from these considerations, the research intends to offer an overview of the use of maps in videogames and the reciprocal influences and relations between them and the real physical world. Considering mapping as a complex and articulated system, the research aims to examine it by single parameters, separating its typological, functional, visual and graphical aspects. The methodology applied for the analysis of these parameters is deductive, deriving each reflection from a rich sample of videogame products played, watched from online reproductions and/or analyzed from scientific writings and auxiliary texts. The typological analysis allows us to differentiate ‘object-maps’, i.e. coinciding with the game space, from ‘interface maps’, autonomous devices supporting the game world. Videogame maps are then examined in functional terms, identifying the different tasks they can assume both in relation to narration (how they are linked to the story) and gameplay (how they are linked to game activities). In the visual analysis, instead, we define the various ways of displaying maps in the videogame, their positioning on the screen and the scale of representation. Finally, the symbolic language is investigated, distinguishing the graphic elements that compose the maps or through which the player can create their own, such as icons, waypoints, drawing (colors, brushes, lines) and textual elements.
Connettere. Un disegno per annodare e tessere. Linguaggi Distanze Tecnologie. Atti del 42° Convegno Internazionale dei Docenti delle Discipline della Rappresentazione, 2021
The research investigates the visual language in the videogame, as a form of communication emblem... more The research investigates the visual language in the videogame, as a form of communication emblematic of the contemporary age. In particular we analyze the representation of space, as a common and central element in all visual narratives produced by man, whether static or dynamic images. The proposed theme, although partly addressed in the field of game studies, has not yet found a full response in the studies of the disciplinary field of drawing, probably due to the recent origin of the video game medium. The chosen methodology of analysis involves a comparison between pictorial and videogame spaces, since every form of visual narration takes up and reworks codes and languages from the media that preceded it, endowing them with new meaning. The theories related to the construction of spatial representation in a traditional art, different in temporal origin, type of images and narrative purposes, allow, in fact, to show more clearly repropositions and peculiarities of the new medium. The results obtained allow to define the possible relationships between drawing, narration and gameplay, constituting, moreover, a basis for the cataloging by the scientific area of the design of the spaces represented in videogames.
Representation Challenges. Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence in Cultural Heritage and Innovative Design Domain, 2021
The research investigates the theme of the valorization of the huge, but widespread, archaeologic... more The research investigates the theme of the valorization of the huge, but widespread, archaeological heritage of the Phlegraean Fields which, already weakened in its conservation and fruition by the bradyseismic phenomena of the area, is made even more fragile by the absence of narrative strategies, making even local communities unable to perceive its value. The study proposes a systematization of the knowledge of the Phlegraean Fields Park, through surveys and 3D models, integrated by the use of different digital technologies, which together promote effective forms of communication between users and heritage. Each site becomes the node of a network of thematic routes, traced starting from the major attractions of the area and aimed at defining a hybrid landscape, made of in site visits and immersive digital experiences. The goal is to generate a new model of inclusive museum, configuring cultural relationships between physically distant places, between lost spaces and real ruins.
LA CITTÀ PALINSESTO/II. Tracce, sguardi e narrazioni sulla complessità dei contesti urbani storici: Rappresentazione, conoscenza, conservazione , 2021
This research provides an experimental project for the urban image of Napoli, in order to enhance... more This research provides an experimental project for the urban image of Napoli, in order to enhance its knowledge. Artists, who have painted it over time, have shaped a visual memory of its changes that is reinterpreted through a contemporary communicative key. The points of view, taken by the painters in various pictorial views, are identified and placed in a geocoded map, and then be connected to an augmented reality app, developing an implementable and interactive narrative about the 'imago urbis'.
Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13(1), 2021
American Director Wes Anderson's films are an interesting case study on the use of representation... more American Director Wes Anderson's films are an interesting case study on the use of representation and visual language as elements capable of implementing the narrative underlying the film plot. His films, in fact, are constructed according to a logic similar to that of architectural representations. The combination of geometries, perspectives, textures and colors generates a code of signs capable of mediating between the intelligible and the sensitive, between the idea and the image. In particular, chromatic aesthetics constitutes a carefully curated component in the image sequences. The balanced and perfect color compositions, however much they may seem a decorative whim, represent a clever narrative device that, designed according to logical patterns, is able to embody symbolic and communicative values. This research, therefore, aims to investigate the language of color in Anderson's films, with the aim of analyzing its narrative potential. The color is investigated both as a narrative content of the filmic atmosphere and as a narrative container of emotions and symbols. The double register of analysis used for Anderson's films can become a trace of a general methodology of analysis, applicable not only to the works of other directors, but also to other forms of visual narration.
The present research explores the use of the art practices in “no-places” as an instrument of urb... more The present research explores the use of the art practices in “no-places” as an instrument of urban regeneration. “No-places” are meant as architectural and urban spaces where people perceive to be in a decayed and anonymous areas, without identity and ties with the territory due to their shapes and their ways of fruition. The goal is to transform them into ‘new places’, creating a different relationship between people and spaces. This is achieved without structur-al and architectural measures, but modifying those aspects concerning the perception, orientation and recognition to have an impact on the fruition and on the sense of belonging to the place. In particular, research focuses on the anamorphic artistic installations; anamorphosis is a geometrical process of optical illusion based on a distorted projection that enables the recognition of the original image watching it from a specific point of view. The enigmatic and fragmented labyrinth of signs becomes understandable for the observer only when he recomposed it with his eyes and his movement, thereby contributing to define new perception and use of the space. In the first part of the text we analyze some installations that use the anamorphosis as a tool of urban acupuncture; in the second part, the Boscoreale railway station constitutes the case study for the application of anamorphosis to a “no-place” of the urban mobility.
Temi e frontiere della conoscenza e del progetto, 2020
This research focuses on the use of the trompe l’oeil within the most recent scenario of urban ar... more This research focuses on the use of the trompe l’oeil within the most recent scenario of urban art. The trompe l’oeil is a technique of representation characterized by a strong realism and by geometrical and visual illusions that induce observers to imagine a three-dimensionality even though the artwork is realized on two-dimensional surfaces. The term was coined during the Baroque period, but the knowledge of the pictorial illusions has much deeper roots; there are many examples that date back to the ancient Greece, to the Roman Empire and that continue in the following centuries, right up to the contemporary age with the Street Art, typical expression of metropolitan cities of our century. The present research aims to understand the reasons about the return of the trompe l’oeil‘s artistic taste; the goal is to analyze its symbolic and representational features in order to define both its innovative aspects and those that are in continuity with the artistic tradition.
Collana Beyond accessibility. Cultural Heritage for All, 2023
The videogame is the emblematic contemporary medium that invite to think about man's new ways of ... more The videogame is the emblematic contemporary medium that invite to think about man's new ways of making knowledge and experience of the world. Video-gaming means for the user to access the writing of a spatial narrative, consisting of virtual environments to navigate, actions to perform, and multimedia representations to interact with. Today, the videogame is also beginning to be adopted in museum institutions, which are experimenting innovative languages in order to actualize their own way of telling the artworks and collections, offering more interactive experiences appropriate for new cultural audiences. To ignore this new narrative mode would mean for museums to create a barrier towards a large audience and, consequently, to hinder the cultural and communicative action they are called upon to provide. The videogame, in fact, can become a tool capable of increasing museum accessibility: the digital one, through the use of everyday technologies; the cognitive one, by reducing the sense of cultural inadequacy and emotional detachment for those audiences, especially younger ones, who do not identify with traditional methods of cultural transmission and who are stimulated by experiences guided by factors such as discovery, free exploration, interaction and immersion; and the physical-perceptual one, as it is capable of creating new forms of relationship between virtual game space and physical museum space. The book therefore reflects on the need to deal more methodically and systematically with the spatial narrative model used in the new medium, making visual procedural maps for its aware use in both Entertainment Games and Cultural Games. The research analyzes the virtual game space as a device for organizing narrative elements that can activate important parts of the player's interpretive process, as a tool for constructing museum-related stories and creating innovative experiences of Cultural Heritage fruition.
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Papers by Greta Attademo
consapevole del disegno possa contribuire a narrare in maniera innovativa contenuti culturali e storie legate al museo
for the production of stories related to museum and Cultural Heritage. The Museo Marino Marini in Florence is presented as a field of experimentation for the modelling and visualisation of a narrative gamespace
role, helping the player in the construction of meanings necessary for the understanding of the story. The aim of this research is to analyse the representation of space as a narrative language in videogames, examining how spatial suggestions become a formal and structural code of visual signs, able to emphasize tones and atmospheres and/or express emotional values. The survey methodology includes a comparative analysis of videogame spaces, starting from the main types of narratives: realistic, verisimilar and unrealistic; this distinction allows to identify three macro-groups of spatial representations, having specific and defined characteristics. This research underlines how the scientific area of representation can contribute significantly to the study of videogame, understood as a narrative form in which the drawing of the space is applied as an irreplaceable modality for the construction of a visual code
of thought.
consapevole del disegno possa contribuire a narrare in maniera innovativa contenuti culturali e storie legate al museo
for the production of stories related to museum and Cultural Heritage. The Museo Marino Marini in Florence is presented as a field of experimentation for the modelling and visualisation of a narrative gamespace
role, helping the player in the construction of meanings necessary for the understanding of the story. The aim of this research is to analyse the representation of space as a narrative language in videogames, examining how spatial suggestions become a formal and structural code of visual signs, able to emphasize tones and atmospheres and/or express emotional values. The survey methodology includes a comparative analysis of videogame spaces, starting from the main types of narratives: realistic, verisimilar and unrealistic; this distinction allows to identify three macro-groups of spatial representations, having specific and defined characteristics. This research underlines how the scientific area of representation can contribute significantly to the study of videogame, understood as a narrative form in which the drawing of the space is applied as an irreplaceable modality for the construction of a visual code
of thought.