Future Landscapes is a research about the construction of the New High Speed Railway Turin-Lyon (TAV) and the No TAV (No Train) social movement. The research is based on a three hundred kilometers walk from Turin to Lyon across the Alps. FL looks at the social-political conflict caused by the railway project and proposes its own interpretation. While doing so, the project questions the role of des
ign: can a designer gather empirical information and share it as a unique story? Can this help in making a complex topic visible and understandable? The disciplines of information and communication design can give a contribution as an alternative to traditional journalism. FL is not neutral, but is transparent in its position and methods. This project gives great importance to first-person and on-site investigation, as a complementary source of information to mediated ones. The conflict around the TAV involves all kinds of environmental, political, social and economical aspects. Its local dimension doesn’t make it a local problem, on the contrary, it’s very much linked to global issues that concern all of us: control of the territory and modification of the landscape; concept and practice of democracy, progress, and common good; top-down and bottom-up construction of Europe. The disciplines of information and communication design can give a contribution because the subject has been ignored or distorted by the Italian mainstream media. Its local dimension doesn’t make it a local problem, on the contrary, it’s very much linked to global issues that concern all of us: control of the territory and modification of the landscape; concept and practice of democracy, development and growth; health and quality of life; public money and common interest; top-down and bottom-up construction of Europe. In other words: our common future in a globalized world.
