Crafting Knowledge:The Art of Mapping and the New Craft of Data Visualization for Cultural and Creative Industries

The research by the Advanced Design Unit at the University of Bologna explores mapping cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in the region. This project creates meta-maps that showcase the ecosystem of CCI interactions through detailed desk and field research, incorporating data from festivals, events, and institutions. These meta-maps serve as dynamic canvases for both qualitative and quantitative analyses, promoting the discovery of new practices and tools through open-source innovation. Focusing on cross-sectoral and multi-actor collaboration, the research transforms mapping from mere orientation into a co-created mode of knowledge. This method can uncover missing links and underdeveloped areas within the CCI, and is transferable to other contexts, such as the IOR region. Collaborative mapping, a trend in development discourse, enables communities to actively influence the mapping process, generating new knowledge and metadata that describe the craft world's material and immaterial aspects. Data visualization plays a critical role, creating new maps of the creative world and embedding within the mapping process to verify results iteratively. Advanced data visualizations facilitate participatory approaches, enhancing awareness, education, and knowledge. Representing data in accessible forms becomes central, especially for intangible outcomes of CCIs. Thus, designing a mapping-visualization-communication and archiving process becomes a powerful tool, allowing experimentation with new narratives and graphical representations in various geographical areas of the global system.