Mapping Cultural Information Augsburg and Venice in Infographics
Published by BoD – Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt, 2016
Funded by the DAAD with funds from the Federal Foreign Office (AA)
Edited by Emanuela Bonini Lessing and Michael Stoll
Graphic design: Antonella Ligios and Marcello Musina
Copyright © HSA and IUAV, 2016
All right reserved: no part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photocopy, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher
ISBN 978-3-7412-5700-1
Hochschule Augsburg University of Applied Sciences Department of Design An der Hochschule 1 86161 Augsburg, Germany
Università Iuav di Venezia
Master in communication and product design
Santa Croce 191, Tolentini 30135 Venezia, Italy
Living in Europe today is a wonderful gift.
Looking back in history, one hardly will find a timespan of peace and prosperity as long as the current one, that started after the end of World War 2.
A key element of modern democracies is the educational level of its inhabitants. Their ability to form and actively participate in political, social and cultural progress. This doesn’t come easy: Europe came with complicated, complex often abstract topics.
Information design is a discipline, that enables understanding through visualisation and explanation. Charts, diagrams, data visualisations, maps, cross section drawings help people not only to understand relevant issues but also to recall facts and figures.
With this series of collaboration between IUAV, Venice, and HSA, Augsburg, we wanted to shed light on the rich history and relation between both of our cities. Our students in mixed groups explored historic topics as well as questions on current life and living.
We compared architecture, tourism or water supply or public transport, to name a few.
By mapping information on the faces of a solid (in workshop 3 and 4) and on a city map (in workshop 1 and 2), students also learnt about new ways to tell their findings: from sorting, selecting and weighting on one hand to planning and designing on the other.
We as we are working in academics think, that it is our prominent task to educate students further in this field for a good reason: to enable insight and understanding.
These DAAD-funded projects were and initial series of sparks and mark the start of a much more comprehensive relation between our universities.
Emanuela Bonini-Lessing and Michael Stoll