Texture design and Environment. Translation tools for places identity

In this paper we discuss how texture design is visible expression of environment, material culture and intangible knowledge. Characteristics of textures such as color qualities, different kind of “written surface” and abundance of details and decors, reveal historical background, geographical identity and socio-cultural aspects. Surfaces can be considered as media and weaves express local knowledge and territorial identity. Hence, texture design is similar to a writing which it can be developed on different surfaces and it can transmit artistic and symbolic value about specific environment. It impacted the history of civilization as well as traditional writings and illustrated stories. Gombrich said: «It does not exist tribe or culture with no ornamental tradition» ([1979] 2000, p.7 [translation mine]), «the issue is to reach an endless variety» (ivi, p.9 [translation mine]). A texture project is defined by the repetition of signs, matched and organized through recursive rules. It aims at getting a perceptive twists created through a sort of “combined design”. The texture’s signs are similar to the alphabet letters: they are composed by a body and a font. They can change its nature depending on materials, supports, compositions, manufacturing, shapes and formats. Signs have a fundamental role: their design defines aspect and perception of the weave. According to Charles S. Peirce (1989) and his semiotic theory, a sign brings in itself a lot of meaning: each meaning is a translation in a sign. Translation is a communication act that gives us “almost the same thing” according to Umberto Eco (2003). Given that translation is possible only if we interpret the signs, in texture design coherence between perceptive, chromatic, and shaping steps is a fundamental element. Talking about translation, the role of designers is to propose atransposition and to find translatability with a “sensible gaze” (G. Baule, 2016). In Mediterranean Basin handcrafted knowledge is an example of this sensibility in the design act. Through the study of translation passages, the research of similarities and differences between textures and signs, we believe it is possible to give a new point of view in the cultural heritage of local production, such as small objects and surfaces.Materials and manufacturings express a cultural common nature of the Mediterranean states due to historical, morphologic and geologic aspects and they return a global identity to the territory. In the meanwhile aesthetic elements (perceptive and superficial) return an immediate identity expressing local culture. This immediate identity expressed by some decorative elements of local handmade production reveals territorial belonging. Common elements are immediately perceptible through a minimum experience and they express the typicalness of the object. Thus, visible textures, weaves, colors and signs answer to a translation sensibility. Therefore, texture design has to be considered as a kind of design for the cultural translation.