Innovative Technologies in Urban Mapping. Built Space and Mental Space

Imagine a pebble: a rough, rugged pebble, some three inches in diameter. Do you think it is interesting? Would you stop by were you to stumble upon it? Would you take a picture of it? Would you put it in a museum? Of course not. Unless you were to know, by any means, that this little insignificant stone is the stone used by the later-to-become king David to kill Goliath. This piece of news would change everything and any good-sensed museum in the world would no doubt be more than happy to host the little insignificant pebble in a specially-dedicated room. Most cultural heritage ‘objects’ do not talk by themselves except maybe, in cases where beauty prevails. Most cultural heritage objects are, in fact, in desperate need of ‘stories’ about them since their value is not self-evident. Therefore, communicating their value is ‘the’ – not just one – role of cultural heritage institutions; their ‘raison d’être’. Imagine a large metropolis: a Metropolitan Net City, several kilometres wide. Do you think it is easy to live there or to discover its hidden values? To detect, learn and show the importance of informality as a source of resilience and adaptability? New information technologies are changing the planning and design activities on both the architectural and urban scale by giving access to information through interactive digital environments. The whole new media environment creates a communication mood through different display codes: new virtual design tools and new meaning derived from figures/ images integration and narrative texts. We begin with the idea that to valorise cultural heritage means to generate values for the addressee when the contemporary urban space – using new technologies –could gain a fundamental role in the information and teaching field. This occurs in many senses: • understanding: the addressee better understands the meaning of the ‘object’; • appreciation: through understanding, the addressee feels the importance of the object; • knowledge: the addressee gets more information about the object and related issues (e.g. history, sociology, art, movements, etc.); • curiosity: the addressee now ‘wants to know more'; • care: the addressee feels as if s/he owned the object; • contact: the addressee wishes to get in contact with the object – through a visit to the institution. In this way, contemporary urban spaces, consisting of heritage values, ‘prophecy places’ and using new technologies can be integrated with the information and teaching field. This happens in two ways: directly and indirectly. The first way relates to the daily fruition of urban space giving information about the society and ensuring integration. In an indirect way the urban space, through its self-preview – provided by new media – becomes the very first tool of ‘distant’ information. Our aim is to investigate these modalities, in order to make the urban space – especially its hidden heritage values become understandable not only visually but also to all of the senses and mostly when moving inside the city.