Mostrare l'invisibile. L'Exhibit Design come strumento di conoscenza

The research investigates Exhibition Design as a practice for organizing and communicating knowledge, questioning the possibility of extending its methods, strategies, and languages beyond the museum context. In particular, the study explores the role of exhibition design in revealing the invisible, understood in both its material and immaterial forms, and examines how narration, technology, figurative practices, and spatial organization can contribute to the reading and interpretation of reality. Particular attention is devoted to technologies in order to assess their potential to expand the communicative and exploratory capacities of exhibitions. The research is structured into three parts. The first defines the concept of the invisible and identifies the cognitive tools used to make it accessible, while also tracing the historical development of museums and exhibitions and their relationship with knowledge. The second analyzes a selection of contemporary case studies through five categories: narration, order, point of view, rhetorical figures, and translation, with the aim of identifying and comparing the conceptual and instrumental principles underlying exhibition design. The third adopts an experimental approach and applies these principles to the design of a physical exhibition and a virtual proposal. The design experience, developed during the research period at Liverpool John Moores University, led to the realization of the exhibition A Legacy in Motion: Women’s Physical Education 1900–2025. The comparison between theoretical analysis and design practice highlights how Exhibition Design can be understood as a complex, multi-layered device capable of offering alternative modes of investigation and knowledge through the combination of narration, image, technology, and space.