BELICINA KNOW-HOW NETWORK: an interactive and participatory map
The goal of the thesis Belicina Network of Know-how: an interactive and participatory map by Ambra Di Bernardi, developed within the Master's Degree Course in Design and Territory Culture of the University of Palermo, (supervisor Prof. Viviana Trapani) was to tell the richness of the Knowledge of Making of the Belìce Valley, for strengthen or trigger relationships between local operators and to stimulate the growth of a new system of virtuous collaborations.
The project idea, also developed with the contribution of the Director of the Network G. Di Matteo and the President Giuseppe Maiorana, was oriented towards the construction of a Know-how map from the emerging traditional and innovative productions of Western Sicily through the tools and methodologies of visual communication design: an implementable, interactive, multimedia documentation, aimed at informing and narrating the qualities and potential of the knowledge spread throughout the Network, with the aim of communicating its qualities, strengthening its identity, developing synergies between excellent products and activities of museums and entities responsible for nature protection.
The goal was to develop a functional tool for activating processes of collaboration and cooperation between and with local actors - artisans, artists, companies, institutions and cultural associations - and in particular to connect qualified and sustainable development of two strategic sectors of our territory: cultural production and the tourist offer.
In a first phase of territorial research, n. 25 activities of interest to the project, also very heterogeneous. After the first collection of data and information, we turned to the analysis and cataloging of materials for the definition of an initial filing of local knowledge and productive excellence, with information on people and their skills and knowledge, on productions and their specificity, on production processes and technologies, on materials and workmanship, on their history and link with the territory, on innovative aspects; the survey was enriched by photographs, videos, audios and interviews carried out during the months of field research.
Starting from these materials, various infographic visualizations have been developed, summarized in a "contemporary map" prepared for multimedia and interactive use, which will be able to enrich the information and communication of the site of the Belicina Natural and Museum Network; with the idea of favoring the implementation of its contents through the interaction of the various territorial actors and potential visitors of the Belicina Network, true promoters of the productive and cultural development of the territory.
To complete and effectively communicate the experience, a multimedia product was also developed which, in particular, describes people as bearers of knowledge and their creative and/productive context and which marked a first moment of knowledge and participation of the protagonists of the Know-how network.
The didactic experimentation conducted gave the opportunity to appreciate the effectiveness of building a system of relationships between institutions, people, places, as a strategic element for the growth and social and cultural development of a territory.
The union between art, culture and knowledge of doing is proposed as a possible field of experimentation of new methodological models oriented towards the knowledge and dissemination of traditional and innovative knowledge.
