Testi brevi di accompagnamento: linguistica, semiotica, traduzione

La brevitas non è certo una invenzione recente. Incisioni e graffiti, fin da tempi remoti, rappresentano forme espressive concise, lapidarie, affidate a supporti che, per loro natura, non lasciano spazio a messaggi di ampio respiro: pietra, muro, manufatti. Tuttavia, la brevità non coincide necessariamente con la (poca) lunghezza: essa ha, al contrario, una propria retorica, stilistica e poetica, poiché riguarda le caratteristiche di una scrittura che tende a una concisione formale ottenuta attraverso specifici fattori di condensazione, sintesi ed economia. Di conseguenza, a dispetto della – o grazie alla – concisione, le forme brevi rappresentano unità di informazione ad alto contenuto. L’estetica del corto è insomma caratterizzata da una ricercata densità semantica, per cui la brevità “non è un ripiego, bensì un punto di forza” (A. Abruzzese) grazie alla sua intensità comunicativa. I contributi del libro prendono in considerazione la brevitas nell’interazione tra modi semiotici differenti (linguaggio, immagini, simboli, oggetti, voce) in ambiti di varia natura: espografica, giornalismo, pubblicità, cinema, traduzione, interpretazione

Media activism on and off line by Italian adolescents and young adults

From several researchers it appears that Italian adolescents and young people are grown up with commercial television which is accused to contain too much violence, sex, reality shows, advertising, cartoons which are watched from 1 to 4 hours daily. Adolescents are also great users of mobile phones and spend a lot of time to use it. Their academic results are below the average of Ocse States. However the widespread use of communication technology and social networks display also another side of adolescents who engage in media activism and political movement such as Ammazzateci tutti!, Indymedia, Movimento 5 Stelle, Movimento No Tav. In which way does the world economic crisis -with the specific problems of Italy as the cutting founds for school, academic research and welfare, the corruption of political class, mafia and camorra organisation induce a reaction in our adolescents and young people? Several researches inform us about their use of internet in terms of spending time but, more important, how internet, and the web 2.0, could be an instrument for their reaction? What do they do online? How they do it? Which is the meaning of their presence online? And, has their online activity a continuity offline? The research aims are: 1. Trough a participant observation of Social Network profiles opened by 10 young active citizens, I would seek to understand which kind of social or political activities they engage in online as individuals and which is the meaning of their presence online. 2. To observe and understand if adolescents and young people have a continuity of their socio-political engagement online in offline activities and which kind of experiences it is. 3. Try to comprehend which was (or which were) the significant, learning experiences that convinced them about the potential of the web as tool for their activism.All’origine di questa ricerca ci sono due affermazioni, la prima di Al Gore, premio Nobel per la pace nel 2007, ha affermato che “La primavera araba ha avuto internet come strumento” La seconda è di Jacques Gonnet membro del gruppo di studio francese Clemì: “… [esiste un] legame fondamentale tra democrazia ed educazione ai media: (…). La scuola, luogo d’iniziazione ai valori di una società, si inscrive e si rivela, grazie ai media, in una visione politica del mondo. L’educazione ai media diventa un’iniziazione alle pratiche democratiche, (…)” La dichiarazione di Gore mi ha indotta a riflettere sull’attivismo dei giovani italiani, a fenomeni quali “Ammazzateci tutti!”, “Indymedia”, “Movimento 5 Stelle” “Libera” il Movimento “No Tav” ecc. Quella di J. Gonnet su quali possono essere le esperienze formative relative ai media per i giovani italiani. La scuola? La famiglia? I pari? Tutte queste? Altre? Le domande che guidano questo mio lavoro di ricerca sono state: in quale maniera la crisi del nostro paese induce una reazione nei nostri adolescenti e giovani? La rete quanto è utilizzata per dare forma a queste reazioni? Molte ricerche ci forniscono dati sull’uso che i ragazzi fanno di internet in termini di tempo dedicato e attività svolte ma, come internet può essere uno strumento per il loro impegno? Cosa fanno i ragazzi online? Come? Come la loro attività online si traduce nella continuità offline? Avvalendomi di strumenti come l’osservazione di profili su Social Network, l’osservazione in presenza di eventi quali manifestazioni e dibattiti, l’intervista e il questionario, lo studio della letteratura esistente, tenta di dare una risposta a queste domande

Street Furniture and the Nation State: A Global Process

In the popular imagination, street furniture has traditionally been understood as evoking a sense of national or local identity. From Paris’ metro entrances, DDR lampposts in Berlin, and London’s york stone pavements, the designed environment has been able to contribute to the unique qualities of a place. In some instances this was deliberate. In postwar Britain for instance, the Council of Industrial Design – a state-funded design organization - often appeared to measure the quality of street furniture on the basis of its national characteristics. On other occasions, the relationship between such objects and identity emerged accidentally. In Britain during the 1980s, for example, the replacement of Gilbert Scott's red telephone box with an alternative BT model provoked considerable debate. For many people, this act was not just a Conservative attack on nationalization and state-ownership, but also on the very fabric of British identity. This understanding of street furniture has retained its currency for many years, and cities across the world have used street furniture to provide a sense of visual coherency for neighbourhoods in need of new identities, strengthening their character and improving the public's relationship to them. In this way, street furniture has been employed as a cipher for the narrative of regeneration, in which - as a means of altering the identity of a space - street furniture can project a new face upon the street. Increasingly however, advertising companies are able to lever themselves into the street furniture market by offering to provide the service to the local authorities for free in return for advertising space. In offering this service, global companies like JC Decaux, Wall and Clear Channel command a huge amount of commercial power within the city. The excessive homogenization of street furniture coupled with the overwhelming presence of advertising which is increasingly sanctioned by local authorities keen to reduce costs, has resulted in the perception of poorer quality streets. Thus, the irony of regeneration is that by seeking to promote the unique identity of a city, many places often end up looking more and more alike. This paper will examine recent developments in the process by which the street is furnished and the agents responsible. It will specifically look at how these changes have affected the relationship between street furniture and identity, and equally the effect this process has had on understandings of national design histories. Clearly, evaluating contemporary street furniture through the lens of the nation-state is of very little value, since the international differences between street furniture are considerably less marked than they used to be. This extraordinary aesthetic convergence is partly linked to economies of scale - after all, just how many different kinds of bus stop can Europe afford to have? Yet it also reflects some of the challenges posed by globalization and privatization of public space. This paper will reflect upon that process, and how these bigger narratives increasingly affect the landscape of the street

Library buildings around the world

"Library Buildings around the World" is a survey based on researches of several years. The objective was to gather library buildings on an international level starting with 1990