ECO-VISUALIZATION STRATEGIES. Towards new narrative values for nature-inspired communication

The implications of Climate Change’s increasingly visible effects pose an unprecedented threat to the planet. The depth of the global issue cannot be handled solely by technology solutions and top-down institutional initiatives. To inspire collaborative and participatory procedures that can impact decision-making authority from below, a deep transformation in people’ thought patterns and lifestyles is required. According to this viewpoint, design performs a critical and highly responsible role in raising awareness of the environmental crisis. Understanding complex processes related to the current crisis necessitates a multidisciplinary approach to translating scientific findings into communication artifacts capable of informing, educating, and influencing society. As Donna Haraway (2016) states, it is necessary to consider Nature as a dynamic and continuously evolving entity of human and non-human actors, social, cultural and technological factors. The survival of humankind depends on the awareness of the Planet as a unique and resilient entity, in which cooperation between living and non-living organisms is the key to guaranteeing the balance of the entire Ecosystem. Recognizing the multiple ways in which Nature responds and reacts to the crisis of our time can lead us to develop design strategies that are not only more effective but also more inclusive and sustainable, reducing the impact of our actions and the entropy generated by the processes that characterize the anthropocene era. Through some personal research experiences, the contribution aims to describe how ongoing research aims to identify new eco-strategies applicable to the discipline of Data Visualization, with Nature-inspired approaches. It is in nature, and with nature, that important answers can be found to the gaps not only of the discipline of Data Visualization but, as its most recent evolutions demonstrate, of design in general.