Beyond the Game. Towards a Methodological Model for Applied Games in Heritage Representation

Abstract

In Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 metaphysical masterpiece, the forbidden territory known as the “Zone” does not present itself to the gaze as a space to be observed or described, but rather as an environment to be traversed, in which access, visibility and meaning are governed by conditions that reveal themselves only through experience. Knowledge does not coincide with the representation of space, but emerges progressively through movement, time and the thresholds that regulate its traversal. It is from this idea of space as a regulated experience, rather than as an image to be reproduced, that a reflection takes shape on the role of interactive digital environments and games applied to the representation of cultural heritage, in which form and material characteristics are not autonomous givens, but are subordinated to the experience that renders them meaningful. Within the contemporary debate on the representation of cultural heritage, the growing diffusion of interactive digital environments and game-based devices calls for reflection on the design of visibility, experience and knowledge. Applied games—increasingly used in educational, museum and territorial contexts—cannot be understood simply as a technological evolution or merely as a communication strategy: they call into question representation itself as a critical practice and as a tool for the construction of meaning. On this basis, the contribution considers applied games as a field of investigation through which to examine three interrelated issues: 1) representation as a design act; 2) the definition of a transferable methodological framework; and 3) scientific validation as an integral component of the design process. The argument combines a review of the state of the art, a longitudinal analysis of experiments developed over approximately a decade, and a cross-cutting analysis of workflows and recurring design principles, with the aim of providing a validated and replicable theoretical and methodological framework.