Graphic Sciences and Documentary Heritages. A Shared Experience in Trentino

This paper presents the first results of the project "Ecolture. Ecology for Culture", an interdisciplinary research still underway at the University of Trento. The aim is to promote and disseminate knowledge of some documentary heritages preserved in archives, libraries, and museums in Trentino by means of visual communication based on open-source digital procedures. Biography is the tool used for selecting the materials to work on. Books, magazines, various kinds of manuscripts, drawings, and photographs, as well as objects and thematic collections, are linked to some characters who, from the sixteenth century onwards, have progressively built the cultural ecosystem of today’s territory in the artistic, humanistic, social and scientific fields. The translation of places, people, works, stories, and ideas into images can use simple or complex digital products such as cartoon drawings, photomontages, infographics, diagrams, maps, 3D models, interactive images, animated pictures, and multimedia videos. Contemporary visual languages make it possible to offer engaging cultural experiences to an audience of specialists and non-specialists both in the exhibition venues and remotely.