Digital Memorials: Communication Design and Commemoration Artefacts for Hybrid Spaces

Placing permanent signs to remember events or personalities is a common practice that has existed since the origin of humanity. In the context of communication, the memorial thus plays a significant role, both because of its symbolic and commemorative function and because of its close relationship with the territory in which it is placed. Among the forms of externalization of memory, it is the one that is most likely to succeed in creating an empathic bond with the visitor, generating a real emotional experience of the space that contributes to the permanence of individual memories. Over time, the history of memorials has evolved through various media and physical devices embedded in the environment, to actual memorial museums. But what happens to a memorial in the digital world? This paper explores the role of Communication Design in creating alternative forms of digital memorials that offer new ways of user interaction, an extension of synaesthetic impact, but also the possibility of visiting inaccessible places and facilitating a relationship with the past. The reflection starts from the experience of the didactic workshop "Digital Memorial", carried out in the framework of the Bachelor of Science in Communication Design at Politecnico di Milano, in which the students were asked to design a memorial on a digital platform using geolocation and digital mapping features for the transmission of memories. In this context, the design appears as a privileged mediator of the territorial past, able to convey it through engaging and innovative digital solutions for the traditional field of commemoration.