Sci-Stories in Design: Guidelines for Curricular Inscription and Dissemination Through Visual Narratives

Abstract

This article aims to present a set of guidelines for the curricular inscription of invisible stories—empirical knowledge, life experiences, professional and pedagogical practice—of Design professionals, lecturers, and researchers, with a role in the history of Portuguese Design, shortening as much as possible, the scientific findings from the corresponding curricular frameworks. It is intended to revert this matter into a pedagogical context, permeating several Curricular Units, in coordination with the faculty thus creating new pedagogical contexts for the students who take part in these Units. A series of workshops in different Design Faculties were conducted to understand the engagement of the students and the degree of empathy they were able to establish with the different topics through visual representation exercises. This reactivation and inscription of these testimonies, from the voice and experience of several design professionals and researchers, aims to connect the current generation of design lecturers, students, and professionals with Portuguese design. To achieve this, we propose two dissemination approaches: (i) learning methodologies will be put into practice aimed at exploring new visual repertoires that offer a critical look to the new generation of design students on the inheritance of knowledge, and intellectual assets, through visual representation; (ii) conceiving a digital archive to increase outreach and perpetuate knowledge. The guidelines proposed will inform new solutions for the dissemination, inscription, and reactivation of knowledge (shaped by memories and experiences) as curricular or extracurricular modules, using visual narratives as a communicational interface.