Transformative Storytelling Design: From Indisciplinarity to Empathy

D’Ascenzi, Eleonora and Fiesoli, Irene and Lotti, Giuseppe (2024) Transformative Storytelling Design: From Indisciplinarity to Empathy. In: P/References of Design. Cumulus conference proceedings series, 1 . Cumulus Association, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Budapest, pp. 497-508. ISBN 978-952-7549-02-5

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Abstract

The current era's social, environmental, and economic challenges necessitate a strategic, holistic approach to address their complexity (Cerruti, 2018). Simultaneously, there is a growing need to develop a de structured and fluid mindset to counteract the trend of increasing specialization and compartmentalization within scientific, educational, and modern project environments. Addressing crises like climate change, social and cultural issues, economic downturns, and the digital divide requires strategic projects with real impact: although current emergencies are daily highlighted by a vast amount of news and scientific research (Buzzi, 1984), effectively sensitizing - and even before that, stimulating - public consciousness and opinion is particularly complex. This contribution aims to analyze the importance of strategic connections between seemingly distant disciplines to work on effective and unconventional communication design that goes beyond simple dissemination and is able to initiate a process of identification that triggers empathy mechanisms in the face of contemporary challenging issues, giving rise to a new field: Transformative & Immersive Storytelling Design (TISD). Following the theorization of this new field, it introduces an innovative approach that merges Design, Performing Arts, Digital, and Social sciences to overcome traditional discipline boundaries. Designes unifying role and Performing Arts deconstructive capacity encourage a deeper understanding of reality, advocating for an "indisciplinary" approach for a successful communication (Nicolescu, 2014; Mitchell, 1995). To this end, two projects of a marked transdisciplinary nature, EMOTIONAL and INSIDE-ACT, are presented. The first is directly dedicated to TISD, and the second to the need to implement a training path for the profession of Immersive Storytelling Designer (ISD). In conclusion, the research approach leverages the diverse complexity of disciplines to foster a disruptive communication (TISD) and train a new professional figure (ISD), skilled in creating strategic, effective, and empathetic communication.

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