Visual communication in research : a third space between science and art

Ample scientific literature recognises the role of visual thinking in the constructive process of ideas and mental images and the function of visual intelligence in the communicative processes. Starting from the sectoral studies, we have turned our attention to the visual communication of the results of scientific research, relating it to some characteristics of artistic communication to find a shared ground, that is, a third space inhabited by common languages and competencies. In so doing, we have overcome the traditional antinomy between humanists and scientists, starting instead from the results of a recent study that has shown how such an opposition does not find real confirmation in the sector of science communication. We have thus analysed three case studies (graphical abstract, augmented reality, audiovisual documentation) on the grounds of a 10-year long experience of research in the field of visual communication (iconography and iconology, art teaching, video research) to acknowledge visual thinking and graphical/artistic competencies, situated in the third space between didactics and art, a fundamental role in the formation of a scientist and a researcher.