Transformative Storytelling Design: shifting perspectives through disruptive storytelling

Nowadays, in the face of countless current challenges, there is a need to stimulate society toward a critical attitude that can address contemporary complexity. In this context, design, and especially storytelling design, can play a fundamental role: designing transformative experiences capable of generating positive behavioral changes. Design, and especially, communication design, through its provocative nature can indeed question our assumptions, beliefs and perspectives, exposing us to new ideas, alternative viewpoints or unknown scenarios, encouraging critical thinking and open-mindedness. Indeed, design can help overcome preconceived ideas, paving the way for personal growth and transformation by disrupting existing paradigms and by embracing unconventional thinking. Such a reversal of perspective can be made possible through collaboration with other disciplines that may be far apart, such as, specifically, social sciences, immersive technologies, and performing arts. Thus drawing on a plurality of methodologies and tools, far from schematic and rigid impositions, we could adopt a transdisciplinary, or even “in-disciplinary,” approach, which applied to the context of transformative immersive design is enabled to challenge conventions, break boundaries and imagine innovative solutions, giving full expression to a strongly cultural, formative and innovative approach.