Abstract
Who are the Chinese citizens in Bolzano? How do they live? Why a Chinese district or simply a Chinese community does not exist in Bolzano? Are Chinese migrants so integrated that they do not feel the need to aggregate? Is Bolzano such a dreamland offering a fertile ground for social integration? The research focus on the social phenomena of the Chinese community of Bolzano, shaping it with numbers, statistics and a series of qualitative interviewes.
Using an integrated approach across visual anthropology, journalism and design (that we could define "visual journalism") the research wants to open a window on one of the smallest and less known community of the city and describe it with an organic point of view, to visually communicate social phenomena.
The research team is composed by a journalist, an anthropolgist, a computer scientist and a designer that work together to tell a story and raise question for a further public debate.
Visual anthropology will be at the basis of a research project facing complex issues such as the integration and coexistence between different cultures in a city. The approach of the research will integrate visual metaphors, interviews, animated and interactive info-graphics, as tools to visually communicate social phenomena to a wider audience in an understandable (but not trivial) way.
The aim of this visualized social research process is to present a topic, showing an entry point for a further public debate and to explore the visual journalism process where designers work together with antropologist, semiologist, journalist and computer scientist, in a different team compared to the traditional design process.