On this post I document the interactions I have had with experts, outlining their advice and feedback on my project. Some of this content will also appear in other posts as I may refer to it to explain my decisions and new ideas.
Marco Loredan, travel agent
4/5/2021
I reached out to Marco Loredan, founder of The Venice Experience. It is a travel agency that specialises in the organisation of conferences, visits of villas, palaces, gardens and historical cellars that are not open to the public in Venice and on the mainland.
All the yellow pointers on the map were his suggestions of special places off the beaten track. He helped enrich my routes and discover new places.
Email exchange (in Italian) where he list the places that were added to my map:
14/08/2021
Marco took part in one of my interventions, which I detail in my intervention journal. He suggested some places I could add to my app and gave me some compelling advice, which stems from his professional knowledge of the city.
Alan Lock, architect
10/4/2021 – ongoing
Alan is an architecture graduate founder of Studio ENV, urban design studio, who has been teaching me how to use creative softwares such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. All interactions were in person.
He has also given me advice on how to map Venice in the most efficient way and has introduced me to apps used by construction engineers and architects to create 3D models of things and buildings as a way to enrich the digital experience of tourists.
These apps include:
- Trnio
- Scandi Pro
- Lidar
- 3d warehouse
7/08/2021-
Alan has recently given me a tutorial on how to use the creative software AfterEffect. Indeed, for my next intervention I am creating an advertising video about my app idea, which I will send out to stakeholders and then collect their feedback. You can read more about this intervention here.
19/11/2021
I contacted Alan to help me to find a more efficient way of tracing some bell tower pictures, which I wanted to use for the festival final piece. Initially, I wanted to do everything on illustrator but he advised me to use architecture software Rhinoceros 3D, which sped up the process. You can read more about this process on the Festival piece post.
Marco De Michelis, professor at Universita IUAV di Venezia
21/6/2021
This expert works in the political and social sciences department of this Venice University. Therefore, I thought he could have an interesting view of the city’s societal dynamics, especially the local-tourist relationship. We scheduled a phone call to talk about my project.
This a screenshot of me introducing myself and setting up a meeting (Ialian language)
His feedback:
Although he quite liked my project, he underlined that I would not be able to affect mass tourism. By this, he meant that if my project were to be very successful, the mass would still be present as Venice is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
He seemed to think that I aimed to eliminate mass tourism, which is not the case (may have been some miscommunication here). As a result, he expressed that tourism is a right and that everybody should experience Venice.
He proposed that the creation of new regulations on the number of hotels and BandBs would be more efficient in preventing the city to capitalise on tourism (not at all the root I want to take). He also mentioned corruption in Venice and schemes to sell tourists made-in-China items.
He advised me to include the lagoon in my tour as he (and many other locals I have spoken to), believe it to be the most beautiful thing about Venice. Although it would be wonderful, I target a tourist group that has little time to spend in the city and that is only willing to spend a limited amount of money.
He asked me to contact him again once I have a definitive route.
What I took from it:
Unfortunately, this expert sounded very disillusioned about Venice’s situation. I am not sure he understood the essence of my project, how I want to promote a more responsible type of tourism (not to get rid of the mass) and inspire tourists and locals to work together for the preservation of the city.
This shows me that I need to communicate better my ideas, especially when I speak Italian, which I always find harder. Therefore, I must make sure that my stakeholders and experts do not get the impression that I am trying to eliminate mass tourism.
Instead, it should be clear that I want to offer day tourists a way of giving back to the city by experiencing a more authentic and unexplored side to Venice.
Roberto D’agostino, Venice city planning councillor:
22/6/2021
I was given his contact by a local and we met in person.
This a screenshot of me introducing myself and setting up a meeting (Italian language)
Similarly to Michelis, he advised me not to try to control the mass but to convert it, to encourage more respectful behaviour and interest in the unexplored Venice. This tells me that I need to modify my project description and maybe my question in order to make this more clear. I must be sounding like I plan to fix mass tourism.
He liked many aspects of the project:
- The creation of a sense of community between the locals and the tourists
- Gamifying the tourist experience
- The narrative of the tour
- the exploration of the Venice behind the glass wall
- the involvement of locals
Like Michelis, he mentioned adding the lagoon to the tour, but retracted the idea when I explained the day tourist’s limitations.
He shared interesting historical facts and under explored locations, ex:
- San Francesco della vigna
- San Pietro di Castello
- Arsenale
- La celestia
- Casino dei Spiriti
He also advised me to seek the help of the owner of the Fillippi book shop. He will show me the best books about Venice’s history, architecture and art history.
The expert asked me if he could try the route once it is completed. His opinion will be extremely valuable.
What I took from it:
It was a very pleasant experience as the expert was exited about the project. Although he pointed out some limitations, he inspired me to explore other locations and to do more historical research.
Micky White, historian and photographer
(specialises in 18th century Venice)
23/6/2021 and 24/6/2021
I had two meetings with Micky to see if she could help me with Venetian history. Turns out she knows in great detail the topography of the city in 1745. For instance, she could tell me that, what is now a pharmacy, used to be a chemist and was also able to list me all the stalls and shops on the Rialto bridge and who owned them at the time.
She shared with me documents, some of them containing this information so that I can incorporate it in my tour. Indeed, it would be really nice to tell the tourists was used to be there and bring to life the 18th century Venetian everyday-life.
8/08/2021
As Micky is a Vivaldi specialist (she wrote Antonio Vivaldi. A life in documents and worked on BBC’s documentary Vivaldi’s Women) she took me on a tour to show me various places where the composer and his family had lived. The aim was to see if I could include some of these anecdotes on my map. We went to three different locations, which I think are worth exploring further.
Herman Ho, game designer, 3D generalist, online tutor
5/07/2021
We had a 1 hour call to discuss my project, what sort of features I wanted for the game, what was the aim, the target etc.
The purpose of this was for him to get a good grasp of what I was trying to do and to assess how he could help. By the end he told me he would give me two tutorials to teach me how to use a game design software (Unity3d). It was a very positive interaction and he assured me that what I was planning could be done.
10/07/2021
I had a three hour tutorial with Herman to learn how to use the Unity3d software, which is a platform to create digital interactive content.
We went over the basics, which felt like learning a new language. I will definitely need a lot of practice using it.
Conclusion:
Using this software was very unfamiliar to me, which makes me a little nervous. I know that I will have to persevere if I want to create presentable. I also need to keep in mind that I have a limited amount of time to complete the project, which means that I should not be afraid to slightly simplify some concepts in order to make the work more manageable.
16/07/2021
In this second 3 hour tutorial, Herman taught me the basics of coding. With the method he showed how to create a button that you can press and the different user experiences he can have.
It was very interesting to get a glimpse of what hides behind any digital construct.
However, it was very challenging for me, especially since the lesson was online and it was difficult to follow what Herman was doing while trying to emulate him on my own device.
Jesse Sigalov, software engineer:
14/07/2021
I contacted Jesse to know if creating an app that functions with geolocation could be possible. He confirmed to me that it could be done and that he could act as a consultant, trying do it himself and then showing me how to proceed.
He found that on Unity (the game design software that I use) there was a feature called interactive location API, which help you work with coordinates and build 3d models of the city.
The Screenshots shows the example he made with some London coordinates.
We then played around with the aesthetic possibilities, experimenting with colours and transparency. We also talked a little about how the geolocated spots would appear on the map: different coloured building, a 3D object or logo of some sort, bright spots etc.
14/10/2021
We had a meeting to talk about the development of the app as this expert is going to help me through the process. He had a look at the document I had prepared for him showcasing the app’s structure, features and design (more about this here).
We discussed what easily doable and what would take more time and I shared which screen pages were the most important (The map, the anecdote, the archive), in case we run out of time and cannot achieve everything. The aim is to have a prototype that can convey the spirit of the project efficiently. It is not the end of the world if not every single feature can be included.
I made a google drive with all the informations to be transferred onto the app and we made sure that everything was clear.
21/10/2021
We had another meeting to discuss progress. We mainly spoke about what tool to use to create the Venice map. We settled on a website called Mapbox (more here).
11/11/2021
In this meeting I was shown the final design of the map on the app with the icons I had designed to represent the 5 authentic experiences categories.
The engineer explained to me how to upload the remaining locations to the app through MapBox to speed the process and showed me showed me the finalised home page, which I had imagined. Everything is explained in more details in App design).
We also discussed a way to test the app without being in Venice. While the user is moving in their current location, the map on the app shows them moving through the streets of Venice, which is a fun and interactive way of conveying the function of the app.
18/11/2021
In this meeting we went over the progress, which was consequential. The anecdotes were added, and the home page finalised. It was lovely to see how the project is finally coming to life. More about this in App design.
19/11/2021-25/11/2021
We were able to finalise the visuals of the app, here are a few examples. For more got check out App design.