Costruire lo sguardo

Overview & Synopsis

The volume explores the role of images and visual languages as devices and modes of visibility through which the “values” of tangible and intangible cultural heritage are constructed, negotiated, and actualized. It brings together contributions that reflect on knowledge, methods, and experiences across the fields of management, education, research, and professional practice. Both the starting point and the ultimate aim of the volume are to investigate the different ways in which cultural heritage is exposed to the public gaze, questioning the process of “making visible” as an action intended to foster the engagement of heritage communities and diverse stakeholders. Every act of “exhibition” is an act of mediation and actualization that, through processes of selection, ordering, and interpretation, produces hierarchies of meaning and value. It is therefore a social, ethical, and political action that shapes the public’s experience. The volume thus focuses on a critical reading of the role of images and practices of visualization as meaning-making devices that interpret and stage cultural heritage, offering an experience that, far from being neutral, actively contributes to orienting its meaning. At the core of this reflection lies the relationship between visual devices and languages, narratives, and forms of experience, considered both as theoretical constructs and as the outcomes of practices and design choices through which cultural heritage is made visible, interpreted, and actualized. The intention is to address practices ranging from drawing and representation to photography and digital reconstructions, from museography to information design, and from artistic practices to participatory communication strategies, in order to outline a possible critical taxonomy of languages and devices. Such a taxonomy seeks to reveal how heritage becomes visible, which narratives can be constructed, what kinds of relationships are activated, and which forms of experience are proposed.