Mariana Ciancia

• PhD
• Researcher at Politecnico di Milano

This paper aims to propose and stimulate a critical debate on the multidisciplinary aspects of communication design, focusing on the contribution, mutual learning, and synergy of audiovisual storytelling, transmedia design, and game design. We assume the narratives as the common ground for developing design processes and practices for addressing co...

This paper aims to address the power of worldbuilding practice in promoting shared and collective imagination, activating a process of cultural and narrative change. Specifically, the work presents a collaborative, social project entitled ACTS—A Chance Through Sport , whose main aim is to promote sports in prison as a tool for social reintegration,...

Questo scritto racconta l'apporto del gruppo di ricerca ImagisLab al progetto ACTS - A Chance Through Sport. Strutturatosi negli anni, l'approccio proposto assume la narrazione come un'attività che da sempre caratterizza gli esseri umani. Nella prima parte ri?ettiamo sul contributo della pratica dello storytelling rispetto alle ?nalità educative de...

Narratives mirror shared interpretations of the world. Still, dominant narratives prevail, pushing non‐hegemonic narratives in the corner. A change in the creation, interaction and distribution of narratives can support the design of counter‐narratives able to feed social change. Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) can be considered an emerging exp...

This paper aims to reflect on human–artificial intelligence (AI) collaboration in cultural production and depicts the collective socio-cultural imaginary focusing on humans’ intrinsic vulnerabilities related to AI systems, which are often perceived as a way of reshaping human presence within contemporary society. Our hypothesis states that their in...

Changes in business and social environments have led society towards a complex landscape in which the relationship between mainstream media and participatory culture is completely changed, with a consequential blurring of boundaries between public and virtual space. As audience media habits are changing, a digital vision of reality is rising and en...

The vampire has become a fascinaIng character whose distribuIon and consumpIon have been reinvigorated over the past two decades thanks to series and sagas such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight and True Blood. Conceived from the same myth, these three cross-plaTorm products develop transmedia narraIves in which well-designed storyworlds, distr...

This paper discusses a design methodology for developing interactive storytelling projects based on character-driven stories. Shaped as a three-year research through design, it was applied in the educational context of Politecnico di Milano, School of Design, from 2015 to 2017. To open up the issue of the degree of interactiveness and agency that d...

Interactive narratives constitute a complex and articulated subject of research and experimentation, rooted in different epistemologies. Their potential and extended fields of application make them a regular object of investigation in many areas, as well as an important element within the contemporary design curriculum in the communication domain....

Questo testo affronta il sempre più attuale tema della digital transformation, un processo di evoluzione della cultura imprenditoriale e manageriale e di re-interpretazione digitale degli strumenti d’impresa. L’obiettivo è quello di delineare le opportunità reali e i limiti strutturali (in termini tecnici, metodologici e fisici) di questa trasforma...

Today, more than ever, audiences are surrounded by imaginary worlds in which a wide variety of products and activities can be fully explored through multiple media windows. Imaginary worlds allow members of the audience to enter vicariously in the narrative space, spending a certain amount of time in speculative and explorative activities, experien...

The book focuses on Transmedia Design, a field of research that allows researchers and practitioners to analyse, develop, and manage multichannel narrative-based communication systems. The work aims to identify the main features of transmedia projects, to build a glossary that can be shared and to present an original framework: a conceptual and ope...

In questo paper presentiamo il caso studio Plug Social TV, un esperimento di progettazione collaborativa attivato nel 2013 in due quartieri periferici della città di Milano (Bovisa e Dergano), che per circa tre anni ha coinvolto l’intero sistema locale: l’università, con la Scuola del Design e il laboratorio di ricerca Imagis Lab1 del Politecnico d...

Multi-channel structures within the convergence era, both as crossmedia and transmedia phenomena, have become increasingly important, and have completely changed the role of the audience, undermining the notions of authority and authorship, shaping society, and influencing media habits. This has created a mediascape in which readers can vicariously...

“Vidding” is the practice of synchronizing a song with excerpts of one or more visual texts (usually a TV series or a cult movie), so to confer new meanings to the video materials. This form of user-generated content usually explores some peculiar aspects of the original materials (the evolution of character or of a relationship), or to confer them...

Lluny d’emprar el terme transmèdia com un simple adjectiu que pot qualificar a certs substantius, actualment es pot considerar la transmedialitat com una veritable manera d’executar projectes abordant la complexitat de l’escenari mediàtic contemporani. L’objectiu d’aquest treball és definir la disciplina de Disseny Transmèdia mitjançant la descripc...

Lo scenario della narrazione contemporanea ha una configurazione sempre più complessa e frammentata ed è caratterizzato da sistemi comunicativi multicanali, che amplificano il potere trasformativo delle storie. I media digitali e i social media hanno reso la forma narrativa più articolata, costituendola di diversi elementi interconnessi tra loro, p...

Il volume affronta il tema della transmedialità intesa come una pratica di progettazione con cui è possibile affrontare la complessità dello scenario mediale contemporaneo. La transmedialità è una pratica costituita da conoscenza tacita in cui professionisti di grande esperienza operano secondo un sapere non esplicito e mutuato dalla tradizione. Mo...

Living in a highly mediated world, we are witnessing the rise of new consumption behaviour and the spread of multichannel narrative forms. A scenario in which audiences enter vicariously imaginary worlds, exploring the fictional spaces conveyed through multiple channels. Starting with the recognition of the difference between story and storyworld,...

The contemporary mediascape is witnessing the emergence of crossmedia and transmedia structures: phenomena that foster the sharing of meaning-making processes between producers and audiences, shaping society and influencing media habits. There are also a whole industry and a newborn scientific community that want to go beyond the conceptual confusi...

This full-day workshop presents a process for the design of fictional stories on social media, where the plot can guide the narrative and interactive experience. Activities and discussions build on the idea that the structure of the most renowned social media profiles-i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram-can be considered as a narrative structure base...

The current widespread use of digital videos, pictures, audio and text, and their distribution across social media leads to the rise of new consumption behaviours and the spread of new interactive narrative forms. These issues are considered with the analysis of the results of the workshop "Micro Narratives for Community Engagement", which is part...

The current widespread use of digital videos, pictures, audio and text, and their distribution across social media leads to the rise of new consumption behaviours and the spread of new interactive narrative forms. These issues are considered with the analysis of the results of the workshop “Micro Narratives for Community Engagement”, which is part...

Changes in business and social environments have led society towards a complex landscape in which the relationship between mainstream media and participatory culture is completely changed, with a consequential blurring of boundaries between public and virtual space. As audience media habits are changing, a digital vision of reality is rising and en...

In the contemporary audiovisual scenario, traditional production flows are facing changes in the distribution of financial resources and professionals are forced to find new ways to engage their audiences. Furthermore, the emergence of new narrative structures has enhanced the role of the crowd in the mediascape, showing that in order to overcome c...

The paper will address the issue of dialogue between actors with different skills, starting from some evidences: 1- TRANSLATION. The growing need (in the scientific field and dissemination) to display and shape ideas, information, data, to communicate results and findings making them accessible, interpretable and sharable (Breidbach and Vercellone...

Chi ha ucciso Laura Palmer? … Why so serious? … Should Barbie Take Ken Back? ... In caso di smarrimento chiamare: 335 1000586… L’abbattimento della finestra immaginaria, che teneva a distanza le audience, risponde a una serie di cambiamenti che hanno e stanno caratterizzando la società contemporanea influenzando enormemente le abitudini mediali. Il...

Transmedia is a cultural paradigm that allows audiences to participate in the meaning-making process of narrative worlds. However, what does 'transmedia' really mean? There are so many voices and definitions, but the question remains: is transmedia a real practice able to foster multiple perspectives, allowing the development of widespread creativi...

The great developments in social, economic and urban planning fields are deeply changing the identity of the city, in Milan as well as in other metropolises. A complex system in which physical emergencies and perception of the image of the city converge (Lynch, 1960): what we should call a collective mental synthesis (Bonini Lessing, 2010). Histori...

Se c’è un elemento che caratterizza la nostra contemporaneità è la sintesi, che porta tutti noi ad avere tempi più ridotti per la produzione, ma soprattutto per la fruizione della comunicazione. La domanda da porsi è quindi se ci sono delle forme di rappresentazione privilegiate che siano capaci di essere sintetiche, ma allo stesso tempo ricche sem...