See, Touch, Feel: a Cognitive and Educational Journey through Maquettes

The paper illustrates three experiences with analog models in the digital age that touch on three distinct and complementary topics: that of the characters of the model derived from digital processes, that of the use of maquettes for educational purposes in an age when the output is practically always numerical, and finally—the last experience—that of the use of the analog model from digital processing for analytical and communicative purposes. The description of the experiences is preceded by a framing of the theme and the keys used. All three experiments shown—a series of maquettes of museum objects, some models built for educational purposes, and the reproduction of design objects designed by Andrea Palladio—are treated in parallel with their theoretical references and the motivations behind them. Finally, there is always a description of the relationship between model and analog or digital graphic representation.