The Visual Language of Technique Volume 3 Heritage and Expectations in Education

Luigi Cocchiarella Editor
The Visual
Language
of Technique
Volume 3
Heritage and Expectations
in Education
The Visual Language of Technique
Luigi Cocchiarella
Editor
The Visual Language

of Technique
Volume 3 – Heritage and Expectations
in Education
123
Editor
Luigi Cocchiarella
Department of Architecture and
Urban Studies
Politecnico di Milano
Milan
Italy
ISBN 978-3-319-05325-7 ISBN 978-3-319-05326-4 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014949295
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

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Forewords
Introduction
The title of the seminar is very challenging since putting together Education and
Visual Languages is a very interesting topic, surely very broad and interdisciplin-
ary. An initiative like this international seminar, discussing different approaches to
the use of images in research, is important because it provides new insights into
researchers working in this area. The theme intrigues the Ph.D. candidates attending
the seminar, who are from different fields of research. The School of Doctoral
Programmes in Politecnico di Milano covers different subjects in the area of
Engineering, Architecture and Design, and the topics related to visualization are
being studied in Ph.D. theses in different domains, as some of the inter-doctoral
courses organized for the candidates have been focusing on this theme.
The seminar also gives an opportunity to discuss the general issue of how
teaching and learning within Ph.D. programmes should be performed. This theme is
important and also under discussion since the establishment of Ph.D. studies for-
malized as a third level of education, in the Bologna process, after bachelor and
master level degrees, and it is defined as an educational path with focus on research
as a way to provide the doctoral candidates with higher level training. Ph.D. can-
didates are considered early stage researchers and Ph.D. training is mainly through
research.
However, the implementation of this educational path in relation to all the
possible educational activities that can be offered to candidates is still under dis-
cussion. In fact, depending on the country and the institution there are different
approaches with a variety of possibilities, ranging from formal instructions orga-
nized by Ph.D. schools, i.e. national or European-level initiatives such as courses or
summer schools, to individual tutoring by one professor. Politecnico di Milano,
over the last few years has offered formal courses at the Ph.D. level for Ph.D.
candidates, to complement the research activity developed on an individual path
under the guidance of a supervisor. Among these courses, several have been
devoted to the theme of visualization, addressed to Ph.D. candidates from different
areas pertaining to architecture, design and engineering.
v
vi Forewords
The international speakers in the seminar give us also the chance to discuss the
ongoing changes, educational approaches and opportunities for the future. The
seminar can provide a rich and fruitful context for discussions on the use of images
and visualization in research and Ph.D. level education.
Milan, July 2013 Barbara Pernici

Head of the School of Doctoral Programmes
Visual Language in Technical Universities Curricula
First of all, I would like to express my thanks to Luigi Cocchiarella for organizing
this important seminar on the topic of the visual language of technique, which is
highly significant for both our School and Politecnico di Milano, especially in this
period. I would also like to thank all of the invited lecturers, first of all the col-
leagues Kenjiro Suzuki from The University of Tokyo, Cornelie Leopold from
Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Ema Jurkin from the University of Zagreb
and Ted Branoff from North Carolina State University. And of course, thanks to all
of the colleagues from Politecnico di Milano, who are taking part in the conference
today.
The visual language of technique between science and art: heritage and
expectations in research and teaching is an extremely important topic, as I already
mentioned, especially for a school of architecture. Nowadays, the problem of visual
language is absolutely crucial for teaching and learning architecture since we are in
the middle of an important revolution, due to the growing importance of the Internet
and the new powerful tools related to the digital software and systems that are at our
disposal. It is essential to mention that even though this digital revolution is fairly
new to our educational environment, it is has already managed to alter it in a
sensible way. For that reason, it is necessary to deeply think over the question
concerning the process of teaching architecture in the context of this new reality.
Therefore, I will try to set a short list of problems and topics that we are going to
address today.
First of all, as the title of Luigi suggests, the idea of the seminar is discussing the
visual language of techniques, a significant part of which is drawing, which is
central to architecture as well. Generally, drawings signify the relationship between
hand, mind and paper. But nowadays paper is disappearing from our toolkit and
often from the toolkits of students as well. I remember that one of the most
important things for all the architects from my generation and the earlier genera-
tions was to choose the type of drawing pencil and the type of paper based on our
preferences, but nowadays this reality is rapidly changing for the students, which is,
in spite of the appearance, an important change. Therefore, a crucial issue is the new
relationship between hand, mind and digital drawing tools, which has not yet been
well incorporated in our educational system, as clearly noticeable from the prob-
lems occurring during the design studio work. The process of acquiring skills
Forewords vii
during the first steps of education, if drawing by hand has to be taught at first and
digital tools have to be introduced later on, are the type of problems that professors
in architectural design have to deal with on a daily basis in the design studios.
Another important problem I would like to discuss is the issue of Internet,
speaking not only about the ability to access a lot of information on every sort of
topic, but most of all about the quality of this information, including visual
information. In the field of architecture, it is particularly difficult to find out
information because of the quantity of not so well selected images that students can
see on the Internet and then use in their work.
Mass media have also an essential role in the development of architectural
culture, which is not an obstacle but an enormous opportunity, as they involve
critique and teaching of history and theory of architecture.
Furthermore, there is an ongoing evolution of the kind of spaces we inhabit
inside the school. Rooms and equipment are changing, the places in which we teach
and the spaces in which students can study and use the new tools are changing as
well. I think that we are going to deal with this matter also in the future, and that it
will be interesting to try to develop an approach that considers studies and services
for education in both engineering and architecture.
Another problem that is in relation to visual language and I would like to
underline, is the issue of the fundamentals of drawing, geometry and mathematics,
that are all involved, either in traditional or in new education, then should be
considered as well.
I would like to welcome you again and wish you a productive day.
Milan, July 2013 Ilaria Pamela Simonetta Valente

Head of the School of Architettura e Società
Preface
This is the third and last volume in the series inspired by the cycle of three seminars
connected to the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Politecnico di Milano
on The Visual Language of Technique Between Science and Art: Heritage and
Expectations in Research and Teaching focused on History and Epistemology (May
2013), Research (June 2013), Education (July 2013), showing the contributions to
the third meeting, focusing on the use of the image in education.
As the previous two books, the volume includes two Forewords, written by the
Director of the Ph.D. School and by the Dean of the School of Architettura e
Società of the Politecnico di Milano, emphasizing on the crucial role of visual
representation in the Engineering, Architecture and Design curricula. The topic is
approached in Part I, through a short introduction, an interview with Piero Angela,
father of the Italian science journalism, and an introductory essay. The following
essays included in Part II concern the invited international lecturers’ contributions
on graphic education, on its tradition and its present and prospective innovations.
Part III includes talks related to the poster session Images in Research, where
students, Ph.D. students, graduates and teachers of the Politecnico discuss their
experiences and proposals about the graphic education in the university, as well as
its connections with the Secondary School and with the Professional world. The
Tentative Afterword, proposes a report based on the discussion related to the Round
Table, while Hearing from the Future collects the opinions of some interviewed
students enrolled in our University.
The book is recommended to scholars, teachers, students and to all those people
who are interested in the intriguing point of enhancing education in the field of
visual representation in relation to Engineering, Architecture and Design. More
about the cycle of seminars can be found at: http://www.150.polimi.it.
I would like to thoroughly thank all the invited lecturers and speakers, for their
inspiring contributions and for the essays included in this volume, together with all
those students, colleagues and friends who have attended the seminar and partici-
pated in the discussion, and Prof. Federico Brunetti also for the photographic
records of the event. Thanks to my students Mihai Dragos Potra for recording the
students’ interviews, Violeta Popova, Pavlina Malinova, Caterina Scalzo, for
ix
x Preface
helping me in transcribing, translating and formatting the published materials,

Kostiantyn Komarovskyi, Ksenia Philippova and again Caterina Scalzo for
redrawing and/or modifying some of the images included in the book. My gratitude
goes my wife, Francesca Scherillo, for her presence and help, and for the many wise
advices. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to the School of Architettura e
Società, to the administrative and technical staff of the Politecnico di Milano, to the
team that helped me with the interview with Piero Angela, video-recorded in Rome
and to the Staff in charge for the 150th Celebrations.
Milan, March 2014 Luigi Cocchiarella
The official logo of the sesquicentennial Seminar Logo1
1
(Designed by the Author. Assembled by the Communication Staff of the Politecnico di Milano)
Contents
Part I Setting the Matter
Educating by Image. Teaching Styles vs Learning Styles . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Luigi Cocchiarella
Colloquium with Piero Angela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Luigi Cocchiarella
How Internet Changes Universities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Alfonso Fuggetta
Part II Visual Language in Education: Between Theory

and Experiences
Graphics Literacy Education at the University of Tokyo . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Kenjiro Suzuki
Visual Representations for Spatial Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Cornelie Leopold
Introducing 3D Modeling into Geometry Education

at Technical Colleges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Sonja Gorjanc and Ema Jurkin
The Role of the Image in Engineering and Technical

Graphics Education: Through a Lens of Cultural-Historical
Learning Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Ted Branoff
xi
xii Contents
The Role of Geometry in Reasoning and Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Claudio Citrini
Part III Images in Education: Iconographies and Experiences

from the Schools of the Politecnico di Milano
Graphics Education—Step 1: “Foundations” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Luigi Cocchiarella
Graphics Education—Step 2: “Complements”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Luigi Cocchiarella
Graphics Education—Step 3: “Upgrade” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Luigi Cocchiarella and Cornelie Leopold
Introduction to the School of Architectural Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Barbara Carini
A Cartogram is Worth a Thousand Maps: The Multi-faced

Image of Our Earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Renato Casagrandi
Iconography of Science Representations as Visual Concepts

in the Digital Era. First Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Federico Alberto Brunetti
Surfing the Visible. Drawing Templates, Scientific Taxonomy,

Web Interface. Visual Design of Digital Interfaces
for the Photographic Archives of the Municipal
Aquarium of Milan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Federico Alberto Brunetti and Danilo Da Re
Yon Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Fabio Mosca (Gounemond)
Xenophonic: From Concept to Product. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Michele Pirovano
In Verbis Virtus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Mattia Ferrari
Friezes: From Images to Construction and Classification . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Elena Marchetti and Luisa Rossi Costa
Contents xiii
Rose Windows: From Images to Construction and Classification . . . . . 149

Teaching to Teachers, Learning from Learners (Part 1) . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Luigi Cocchiarella
Teaching to Teachers, Learning from Learners (Part 2) . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Luigi Cocchiarella
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Appendix: 4 Questions to the Students About

the Visual Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Part I
Setting the Matter
Educating by Image. Teaching Styles
vs Learning Styles
Luigi Cocchiarella
The Nobel Laureate Herbert Alexander Simon, University Professor at the Carnegie
Mellon University, declared: “Learning results from what the student does and
thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance
learning only by influencing what the students does to learn”.
What can we infer from this sentence?
Perhaps it suggests that we should intend education in terms of interaction
between teaching and learning, pointing out the relationships between the repre-
sentational performances of the professors and the cognitive abilities of the stu-
dents. That is particularly important in the field of Visual Education, either because
of the hard training involved in developing and mastering spatial abilities, or
because of the ambiguity often inherent to the Images. Since the 1940s, Benjamin
Samuel Bloom has noticed that Graphic Education not only involves the pure
cognitive but also the affective and the psychomotor domains, as clearly summa-
rized in his well-known Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Therefore, educating requires disciplinary competences as well as appropriate
pedagogic and psychological approaches, in other words, in order to be successful,
a teacher has to consider not only what, but also how to teach, because both the
aspects combine to make students self-directed learners. This becomes even more
relevant in the case of individualized instruction and of students with different
abilities. This means that, beside new programmes for students, appropriate Life-
long Learning Programs for teachers should also be provided in the future.
Another challenging task would be the balancing of tradition and innovation,
namely analogue heritage and digital advancements. In fact, digital graphics have
been considered a stray phenomenon for a long time. Consequently, we are still
discussing on how to redesign our academic programs and our teaching strategies,
L. Cocchiarella (&)
Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: luigi.cocchiarella@polimi.it
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 3

L. Cocchiarella (ed.), The Visual Language of Technique,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_1
4 L. Cocchiarella
as neither technology can replace the teachers, although it increases their effec-
tiveness, nor can we think of a full replacement of learning with e-learning.
Maybe a new semantic approach to the matter should be promoted, taking
advantage of the new syncretism enabled by the new media. In fact, while for
centuries modern science and techniques have required specialization and, conse-
quently, Visual Language from the times of Leonardo Da Vinci has been subdi-
vided into specialized branches, on the other hand, nowadays, digital technologies
provide interesting visual syntheses among specialized languages, so boosting the
interdisciplinary communication.
In other words it is time for Architecture, Design and Engineering teachers to
work side by side in redefining our Graphic Literacy and our Graphic Education
curricula, aiming to investigate prospective unifications in the field of Visual
Language in relation to the polytechnic disciplines.
During the previous seminars (see Volumes 1 and 2 in this series) we were often
playing with etymology. At the end of the Cycle it could be interesting to point out
that both the English verb to teach and the Italian verb insegnare share a common
original meaning: either the latter, deriving from the Latin word insignare is related
to the root signum and to the meaning to sign, or the former, deriving from tæhte,
which means to show, to point out, goes back to the Old English term tacn, whose
meaning is, once again, sign, mark, as if to recall a kind of visual essence affecting
the whole teaching activity. Last but not least, the English and the Italian terms
education and educazione, deriving from the Latin word educare, which means to
drive, to lead out, seem to indicate our social, cultural and human responsibility. In
conclusion, before, and together with, educating by the Image, we should be
educated and educate about the Image.
Colloquium with Piero Angela
Luigi Cocchiarella
Abstract Among the fathers of Italian television, the Italian science journalist and
writer, Piero Angela is also considered to be a public educator in the fields of
science and technique, especially due to the popularity of Quark and Superquark,
his most famous television programmes. In both of them the role of the image,
intended as a system of figures, movies and animations, is always crucial and
dominant, not only to explain physical phenomena, but also to draw ideas and
abstract issues. The interview has been video recorded on June 24th, 2013 in his
home, in Rome. According to the purposes of the seminar, the focus was on the role
of visual language in education. The following pages include a transcript of this
conversation.
The interview with Piero

Angela (left)
Interviewed by Luigi Cocchiarella.

Video recording by Politecnico di Milano. Translated in English at the Politecnico di Milano.
Video interview available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL37G58n94U
L. Cocchiarella (&)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_2
6 L. Cocchiarella
LC1: Good morning. For the third seminar of the cycle “The visual language of
technique between science and art”, organized at the Politecnico di Milano for the
150th anniversary, today we are in Rome to meet Piero Angela, whom we thank for
his time and his kind hospitality, to ask him some questions on the use of the Image
and of the Visual Language in Education, with refer to the Technical Field. I would
start with an introductory question: how important are the Image and the Visual
Language in processing and transmitting knowledge?
PA2: Of course, since I cannot intrude upon your work being part of a different
field, I speak through the experience of my work, even though I do think the image
is essential for everyone. To begin with, I would say that the image, as far as
science is concerned, is decisive, as for example it is for the DNA. How can we
verbally explain DNA, without the use of hands as an illustration? This issue
applies to many other things: as Napoleon said, a picture is worth a hundred
speeches, and that is certainly true. However, I think there are two important things
to mention concerning drawings or graphics. First and foremost, they allow great
rapidity in understanding: as I mentioned, it is possible to rapidly explain the DNA
structure only by using a picture, while it would be certainly hard to understand it
verbally. The second most important issue is that this allows us to have a shared
model, meaning that while all our mental models are always different, with the use
of images, we share an object on which we can discuss, work, or modify. In
addition to this, I should mention the fact that our mind works in a rather special
way, and that the visual area, located in the rear of the brain, is more extended
compared to the area devoted to hearing. As the aphorism says: “if I hear I forget,
but if I see I remember”. Concerning this, the question is: what do I remember? The
crucial issue in this is that we do not actually see the reality. We are often under the
impression of being overwhelmed by things: we see people, objects, tables,
chandeliers... However, this is actually not true; for instance, let us think about a
camera, as the ones you are using now. A camera has a lens that captures the image,
but what the camera sees does not reach the directory; in fact, cameras transform
light signals into electrical impulses that pass through a cable inside of which there
is no image, but just impulses which are then transformed in images. We work in
the same way; if, for instance, we think of the human retina, we can say that
humans have a biological camera too. We transform electromagnetic impulses into
chemical electrical signals; that is to say that from the retina, which has a com-
plicated system of little rods and cones, the impulses are sent to the optic nerve as
signals, which are finally transformed in vertical, oblique or horizontal lines, with
diversity of brightness at the edges. According to this, the different parts reaching
the brain, are subsequently reconstructed in order to enable us to see. Therefore, we
see what we reconstruct. Obviously, this system works so well so that, for us, that is
the reality. However, when we have to reproduce something we have seen using our
1
Interviewer LC: Luigi Cocchiarella
2
Interviewed PA: Piero Angela
Colloquium with Piero Angela 7
memory, there is where problems arise. Let me give you an example: imagine a
situation in which, last month, you had a picnic in the mountains with some friends.
So, if you try to mentally recreate this memorized scenario, you can picture it in your
mind: you may see a small fire with some stones all around it, friends, one of them
has a beard, another one plays the guitar, one with a squared shirt, you see trees here
and there, and a valley in the horizon. Then imagine that you can project your mental
image, the recollection of your experience, on a screen, and on a screen next to it,
there is the projection of the real image taken by a photographic camera. You will see
that they are completely different. As a whole, there is a valley, some trees and
someone with a shirt, yet specifically, everything is different because you have
reconstructed the scenario basing on parameters that your memory has scattered in
your neural network. On the other hand, when we have shared visual models, all the
memories, in this case graphics, drawings or illustrations, may be something more
objective rather than personal. However, there is another important issue concerning
the use of the image in knowledge, which is what we frequently do with graphics, as
well as what teachers do. When a teacher needs to explain a system on the black-
board, he uses arrows, squares, circles, and connecting lines. In the television pro-
grammes, we do the same using graphics as well as cartoons. I, together with Bruno
Bozzetto—the well-known cartoonist—did many cartoons of 8–10 min, on things
that cannot be seen. Let me give you an example: if we talk about Quantum
Mechanics, no camera can ever shoot Quantum Mechanics, nor can it shoot Rela-
tivity, Genetic Engineering, or Entropy. They are all things that with the help of
graphic images, in this case animated with some puppets, become not only visible
but also add emotiveness due to fun, which, affecting the emotional system, allows
us to memorize much better. This is another very important thing in the whole visual
communication: the image must not only be clear, that is a priority anyway, but it
should possibly be creative in order to involve the rational part of the brain as well as
the deeply emotional one; namely that of the limbic system, which allows us to
memorize, and to better maintain the image in the brain. Of course, this is true in any
field, it is very worthy for Science or for the Technique in your work, but everyone
handles it in a different way. However, it is also true when it comes to the Humanistic
culture, for example how can we prepare an art book without illustrations?
LC: Educating “by” Image and educating “about” Image. In the current Visual
Era, the Image is widely used, but its “depth” is sometimes overlooked. Is it
possible to continue to use the image without “studying” it?
PA: Again, I am answering according to my point of view. In our work, we use
the image every day. The image itself is very important: first of all, it should be well
defined and clear, but it should also have those features that allows the watcher/
listener to introject them. Take as an example the time’s duration of images.
Nowadays there is a strange thing: advertising has accustomed us to a language,
which is much shorter and much more rhythmic. Once, the time of perception was
longer, while I think that today we are exaggerating on this aspect: advertising
became too fast. It is true that youngsters are more used to it, but if you ask many
elderly to describe what has just been advertised, at the end they do not know it at
all. The image prevails over the message, as well as time prevails over text, and this
8 L. Cocchiarella
is an interesting aspect. Sensational mistakes are made in using images that are
thought to be beautiful on their merit, effective from the graphic and artistic point of
view, very interesting, but that, in the end, do not really work. Let me give you a
couple of examples (one of these concerns me, personally). A friend of mine, who
is a graphic designer in Milan, once told me: “You know, one day came to see me a
man who sells cereals for breakfast—cornflakes—telling me that he could not sell
these products in the supermarkets”. So he asked me if it was possible that its
presentation was not good enough. He showed me a cardboard box that, in my
opinion, was completely wrong. The graphic designer had done a beautiful job from
the artistic point of view, but the message did not pass. Why? Because the use of
what was inside the box could not be conveyed properly! After my advice he
designed a very clear image with a spoon of milk dripping on the toasted cereals…
and it was very clear! The other example is even more peculiar. I was invited to one
of a series of conferences in Turin. I must say that at the time, when I was having a
conference, the audience was not just full, but sometimes there was even the police
due to the great number of people. Well, I reached this empty theatre and there was
only a handful people, and then I said: “I do not know… what happened?”, “But no
–replayed them- we filled Turin with posters of the conference…”. At the end they
showed me the poster, it was of these dimensions (in the video mimic the size of a
small poster of about 60 x 60 cm.), it showed a green thing full of flowers, as to
represent a naturalistic series, and the speakers’ names were placed sideways in a
really tiny character, so that no one passing on the tramway or even walking could
read them. This is also an example of how, even in spite of a big investment, a great
disservice can be made. But there are other examples, that we live directly and
daily. Think of the evening news on television, for instance. What do we see when
there is a report on a political meeting, a conference, or a meeting of finance
ministers in Brussels? We see cars arriving, gentlemen who get off the car and
shake hands, photographers, then there is the meeting room, someone who pats
someone else on the shoulder, smiling broadly, etc. This is the visual message,
while the text tells us something else: for example, it may say that they have
decided or thought of doing something. The audience cannot follow this message
because it is too distracted from the image gobbling up the sound; the image is
prevailing. I remember when I was in Brussels—I have lived in Brussels for four
years as a RAI (Italian National Television) correspondent. Aware of this problem
and seeking on my own metaphors to come up with, I asked the press office of the
(European Union) Community to make basic animations concerning the problems
of the Community, so that everyone could interpret them as they wished. In the end,
this was not done. This is an example of how in communication it is difficult to
combine, particularly concerning television, the Text with the Image. These two
tools must always be synergic, one bounces on the other. While for the television
news it is harder to combine them and make animations, due to lack of time, for us
it is easier, as we have longer times for preparing documentaries with the headings.
Here is where the graphic becomes essential. Among other things, nowadays we
can take advantage of the new computer graphics systems, the virtual reality and all
these new “devilries”. Well these tools need someone behind them who knows how
to use them without doing a wrong cartoon or a poster that does not work!
LC: Professor Herbert Alexander Simon, of the Carnegie Mellon University,

stated: “Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what
the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing
what the student does to learn”. In the last years, there is much talk about
“e-learning” and distance education: in what way can these techniques replace
teachers, if ever they will?
PA: Meanwhile, allow me to disagree with Professor Simon: on one hand, it is
true that students are independent in their way of learning or thinking, however in
my opinion, teachers are crucial. No one has science within himself; everyone
needs a professor, a teacher to help him, to guide him, to check on the work, to give
him the keys of understanding, and this is very important. Even Dante Alighieri
needed a mentor, a guide, and Virgil was the one who took on that role. Anyhow, I
think that whatever we consider in our life, we are “made of others” and not only of
ourselves, therefore we always need someone who gives us the extent of what you
are able to do, with whom we compare yourself and with whom we also do what is
known as the “sparring partner”. Let me give you an example: when I give an
important interview with someone who is a key figure, before I go I need to have a
good general understanding, also out of respect for the person, so I study as well as
possible what he wrote. I would never go there saying: “well then, how are you,
what are you doing?”, rather I need to know him as well as possible, in order to
make specific and appropriate questions. Well, what I get to know after a short
while of talking to him, is much more than what I learned reading his books... why
is that? Because by talking to a person you can make direct questions, addressed to
certain particular aspect, and there, suddenly the matter becomes clear, “the picture
lights up”. That is why the relationship with people is fundamental, especially when
you wish to understand certain things. I agree on the fact that today there are
obviously many communication tools or media, but despite this, the figure of the
mentor—Virgil—should always persist, because, as I said, he is who can give the
keys to understanding. Even if nothing is added to what you know, a mentor it gives
you a setting, that is, it gives you the “additional gear”.
LC: Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of the learning context. In
other words, the teacher’s performativity is not so important if taken on its own, but
together with it, also the cultural environment, the social and intellectual climate of
the course, play a decisive role. Can all these aspects be replaced, or somehow
supported, by the new technologies and the distance learning?
PA: Certainly, not! They cannot be replaced. Keep in mind that there are examples
where the context does not exist, and it is replaced by those technologies. One of them
is constituted by those well-known correspondence courses that were used some time
ago, where they had evening classes and the work could be sent by mail. Even in
England, there is the Open University, which has acted exactly in the same direction
for a long time: there are people who cannot personally attend because they work, so
they follow courses through a television network and submit exam materials. This
does not make it a low-level university at all; in fact, this Open University is
10 L. Cocchiarella
considered to have a good standard. But it must also be said that the people attending
it electronically are very “motivated”, because this is also important. The “context”
you mentioned is important either for the personal enrichment and for the social
aspect of involvement, either because, somehow, it is appropriate for young people
who maybe, unlike others, do not have the same motivation to accomplish all these
things on their own. Anyway today, beyond these quite outdated and far away
courses, more direct connections between universities and students are starting to
develop; you probably know that some major universities such as Stanford or
Harvard have online courses, so that, if you are in Singapore, Buenos Aires or Rome,
you can virtually attend and follow them. Then, there you can see the limits of the
e-learning: it certainly is a useful method but it cannot replace all the rest. It is a
method that we should use as an addition, as enrichment; but one would not even be
able to appreciate it and benefit from it without a previous preparation. What can
really be useful is an integration of both learning methods. I remember that in the ’80s,
I was unexpectedly part of an Education Committee for the reform of the Elementary
School. Even though I told them I did not know much on the topic, they told me “Yes,
but you bring straight-shooting maverick ideas.” Very well then! Therefore, I made
two or three proposals, one of which was—keep in mind I am talking about thirty
years ago—the teaching of the English language in the five years of Elementary
School. At the time foreign languages were not taught in school, so, as many people at
the time, I had to learn them on my own. They used to teach grammar, literature,
exceptions of words that in the plural form ended with “ics” rather than “s”, and so on.
Nevertheless, how to speak the language was not taught. Therefore, the idea was to
teach 1,500 words in the 5 years of the Elementary School. Apart from this, the other
proposal I made was precisely in this direction. I pointed out that School has not
changed much over the centuries: before the use of books and blackboards, teaching
was just oral. Then the book appeared. But since then nothing changed: there are still
papers, books, blackboards, interrogations, and school desks. Today there are so
many possibilities, for example the use of the TV set not only for a programme that
can be seen between one class and another—which is quite useless, as it can be seen at
home—but most of all for creating a publishing system in which the image entered in
the programme. For instance: “on page 12 there is that animation, there is that film,
and there is that character that comes to bring a testimony…” It is full of interesting
people who could teach many things at school. There are teachers and schools that
occasionally invite people who come and talk to the students; I, myself was often
invited. In my opinion this is a good learning method, it works. I must admit that if I
were a teacher in middle, elementary or even secondary schools, I would be the “film
director”, meaning I would take all these different acknowledgments, together with
my own, and I would build what I basically do in my programs. After all, in my
programs I communicate. It is a different kind of school, because there is no inter-
action, but I collect videos, graphics, images, interviews, experiments, and all these I
put together, reaching out to the audience with images that can be memorized, like a
language. The Image, in this case, is important. Here is what I think could happen: the
teachers, at least those who feel prepared to do it or have this vocation, should get out
of the standards ways of teaching and experiment in these directions. This would not
be a “diminution”, same as when the book came out it did not take space away from
the teacher; it is rather a “multiplier” of efficiency in communication.
LC: We talked about the power of the Image, both on the cognitive level and in
terms of communication. Nevertheless, we know that, as every language, the Image
can also be ambiguous, or it can be used to lie. What can you say about this?
PA: Of course, very often we deal with the ambiguity of images. This also exists
in the minds of those who see it, as every image can arise different reactions,
different mental associations in the viewers. The picture is a tool: it is like a pen, a
typewriter or a computer; it is used to communicate things, so it all depends on the
quality of who is behind it and knows how to evaluate the image. If we talk about
lies, then yes, there is a very beautiful field of lies with images in advertising for
example. There is even a special Control Committee on the quality, let us say, in
order to avoid to communicate wrong things or anyhow, something that would lead
the public to misunderstand the message. This is a common thing. However,
concerning the images, I have two very interesting episodes that concern how
through images one can also manipulate the information. One is about a docu-
mentary I watched in France, in Paris—where I lived at the time—back in the ’50s.
It was about a documentary filmmaker who, for the first time, managed to go and
shoot in Siberia. At the time, entry visas were very difficult to obtain, especially for
a cameraman. He had shown a small town in Siberia that was developing, and then
he showed images of a report about buildings under construction. You could see
avenues, a road that was being paved with women working—because in Russia
women are often road workers. This was the report’s image, but then he said:
“Look, this same image can also be shown in a different way”. So, what was there
to change? The music and the text. It was then showed with a jingle “Parapá, parapá
… Here is the new Russia!… Everything starts with the real socialism, even women
participate in the construction!”. While the other version was with a funeral music
saying: “In the greyness of this ideological prison, women are levelled downwards
…”. In other words, using a language that was not this, but the sense yes, these
examples tells that one could give to the same image very different meanings. In the
same period, another story caught my attention. In an information agency, I believe
FP (France Presse), I am not sure where but certainly not in Italy, two photographs
were placed on the bulletin board. They were exactly the same and they showed, in
the period of the war in the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) some black civilians who
got killed. A caption published by a government newspaper said: “This is what the
government troops found when they arrived, the massacres of the rebels on the
run”. The caption of the same exact picture in the other newspaper, said: “These are
the massacres made by the government troops”. Therefore, this is to way what
matters is how you want to use the image or the context; if you want to lie with
images you can, and we see it on television very often.
LC: We would like to ask you one last question: what will be, in your opinion,
the most important quality for the “Educators by Image” in the future and, on the
other hand, what will be the most important for the “Learners by Image”?
12 L. Cocchiarella
PA: Well, I think there are so many things that must be stimulated simulta-
neously; perhaps there is one I deem to be very important, which I find in my work,
but in yours too. Everyone can learn things, a pianist too—I am a former amateur
pianist—anyone can learn the technique of the piano. Once you have learned how
to write, read, play an instrument, or do graphics, everything depends on what you
decide to make with it. As I mentioned before, these are tools that should be used to
achieve something, they are not useful on their own. If the pianist wishes to play
certain pieces he must have a certain sensitivity, but above all, if he wishes to
compose music, then he must use his creativity. I think this is the most important
thing that should be taught in schools: “to be creative”. That is to say, concepts are
one thing, but the ability to put together these concepts and implement them is, in
my opinion, the basic thing. There is a word, which somehow contains all this: “TO
CONNECT”. In fact, if we consider everything that we see around us, all the
inventions, music, reality, buildings, we should consider that they are the result of
different things put together. I recall a peculiar situation in which, to commemorate
Guglielmo Marconi, one day we took to the studio his first radio equipment with
which he made the first transmissions. They were obviously just replicas, as the
originals are kept in a museum. I asked to the expert who gave me the equipment
(six or seven pieces in total):
“Did Marconi invent this?”
“No, this one already existed.”
“This one?”
“No”
“And this one?”
“No”
“Well then, what did he invent?”
“The Antenna!”
This is to say that when things that already exist are put together, but with an
“additional gear”, or giving them a different meaning, that is what the evolution did.
If, for instance, you study the brain, you will notice that there are parts of it in
certain primates that have another functions compared to ours, such as that of the
language, and that are used for other things. It is somehow similar to the “do-it-
yourself” of the evolution, of which Jacob was talking about. In all the things in our
lives this is fundamental; it is just like the Lego games: you have the pieces, with
which you can build up a house or an airplane, or simply a platform; it depends on
the creativity of whoever uses them. In life, and in your work in particular, we have
thousands of pieces, countless pieces of everything. If we put them together, we can
create new things. Therefore, I believe that this is, above all, what must be taught.
Once you have figured out what the pieces are, what they are called, how they bind
together, the rules of the game, the basic “ABC”, well then, at that point, you must
“create”, because this is what the world is asking for nowadays. The world we live
in does not need materials or notions, it needs “IDEAS”, and “CREATIVITY”.
LC: Well then, thoroughly thanks for this colloquium.
PA: Thank you, too.
How Internet Changes Universities
Alfonso Fuggetta
Abstract Universities and schools are profoundly impacted and transformed by the
availability of cheap, pervasive, and widely used technologies that enable to
introduce new forms of education and learning. This change has generated many
expectations (and fears) about the new role of education institutions: do we still
need them? What is their role going to be? This paper summarizes some arguments
and suggestions on this topic, based on author’s experiences. The paper does not
aim at providing definite answers, but to contribute to an open discussion and
reflection on such an important and critical topic.
1 Is Internet Going to Replace Universities?
The Internet and associated digital technologies and products are radically
impacting all aspects and sectors of our society: industries, service companies,
public administrations. Any human endeavor has been challenged to profoundly
rethink its products, services, and processes and keep up with the pace of this
astonishing wave of digital innovations. This change is far from being completed:
indeed, the speed, scope, and degree of transformations induced by the Internet are
increasing and impacting areas that were considered unaffected or “far” from these
innovations and technologies.
This fast, pervasive, and ubiquitous diffusion of digital technologies is mainly
due to few essential facts:
1. Computers and mobile devices have become consumer products used by an
incredibly high (and growing) percentage of the population. Nowadays,
regardless of age, geographical area, education level, or profession, almost any
person owns and uses at least a smartphone or a tablet.
A. Fuggetta (&)
CEFRIEL—Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: alfonso.fuggetta@cefriel.com

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_3
14 A. Fuggetta
2. Mobile and wireline broadband access is spreading very quickly across all
continents. There is no single point of planet Earth that cannot be connected to the
Internet using one of the many available infrastructures: fibers, mobile wireless
networks (e.g., UMTS and LTE), fixed wireless networks (e.g., WiMax),
conventional DSLs, satellite.
3. Software development and service creation activities are no longer limited to
few powerful software companies or telco operators: any person can easily
create new apps, services, and web sites, as development tools and environments
are cheap, widely available, and increasingly easier to use.
4. Internet stores (e.g., Apple AppStore) have made it possible to easily sell and
distribute software to any person on the planet, creating new markets, business
models, development, and distribution strategies.
5. Digital technologies are increasingly small, powerful, and cheap. They can be
incorporated in many conventional products to provide “intelligence”, person-
alization, and new features.
Unsurprisingly, education and schools are not immune to this change: new dis-
ciplines and curricula have emerged (e.g., computer science and electronic engi-
neering); new ways to study traditional disciplines have been introduced (e.g., CAD
and simulation in mechanical engineering and physics); new ways of interacting and
managing the teaching activity have increasingly revolutionized the processes and
organization of schools and universities. In particular, the innovations in the teaching
process are so profound and disrupting that many commentators and researchers
suggest that the Internet and related services may even become a sort of replacement
for conventional schools and academic institutions. Do we still need “physical
facilities” as we can interact, listen, cooperate over the Internet, without the con-
straints and limitations of traditional approaches?
Indeed, the point is challenging (and frightening): is the destiny of conventional
education institutions doomed? Are we going to live in a world where few, pow-
erful, and renowned institutions will provide—remotely and universally—all the
education services needed by the world populations? Is this true? To what extent?
What are the consequences for our universities and schools?
1.1 MOOCs
Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are the concrete incarnation of this dra-
matic change. They are a fairly recent innovation even if, in reality, there have been
many teaching and education initiatives based on the exploitation of the Internet
since the 90s. For this reason, one may argue that there is “nothing new under the
sun” and MOOCs are just a new label for something which we were already used
to, and has just been amplified by the explosion of broadband connection, mobile
devices, and multimedia technologies. This is at least partially true. Nevertheless,
MOOCs are not organized just as “pure” asynchronously-attended events, as many
other online learning formats that exploit on-demand streaming of instructors’
How Internet Changes Universities 15
classes or other multimedia documents/material. Typically, classes are scheduled as

in traditional courses, students are requested to remotely attend them according to a
predefined schedule, and professors teach “live”. It is therefore an approach that
eliminates the need for physical presence and, at the same time, maintains some of
the feelings and experiences of conventional classes. In addition, most MOOCs
(if not all) are free (as in “free beer”) or very cheap, and this makes them available
to all sectors of our society.
MOOCs have raised a lot of attention and, in many cases, very high levels of
participation (thousands of attendees) with enthusiastic reviews and comments.
This successful performance has led many commentators to observe that MOOCs
can play a major role in promoting education, as they remove—or at least lower—
the barrier to access high quality programs: any student, anywhere in the planet, is
allowed to benefit from the programs and offerings of top schools. However, there
are also skeptical positions claiming that we should better evaluate the results and
effects of using MOOCs on a larger scale and on the medium term. For instance,
even if it is true that enrollment in MOOCs are incredibly high, it is equally true that
dropout levels are equally high: a recent study1 reveals that “95 % of students
enrolled in free, online courses from Harvard University and MIT dropped them
before getting a completion certificate.” Moreover, well-crafted MOOCs are quite
expensive to create and run, and therefore it is difficult to imagine how they can be
offered basically for free on the long run, unless they are part of a strategic mar-
keting initiative or managed as a complement and side product for conventional
classes and courses. For sure, it is quite important to take a prudent approach in
evaluating the real effectiveness and sustainability of MOOCs.
1.2 Social Networks
Another important phenomenon of the past decade is the impressive development of

social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Entire segments of the population
have chosen them as their preferred communication means, replacing other popular
tools such as emails. Inevitably, the rise of social networks has affected also education
programs and schools. Students are used to social networks in their daily life and are
accustomed to their interaction paradigms and mechanisms. Schools are indeed
communities organized around intense social experiences. It is therefore obvious that
students and teachers are increasingly using social networks to support their inter-
action and cooperation. Social networks are very effective means to share ideas and
documents, support workgroups, enable new forms of assistance and support.
Actually, new social networks have been created, specifically conceived for schools
(e.g., Edmodo and Schoology). In general, social networks have become the
underlying support and collaboration platform for any modern education initiative.
1
John Lauerm. “Harvard, MIT Online courses Dropped by 95 % of Registrants”. bloomberg.com,
January, 21st, 2014.
16 A. Fuggetta
The exploitation of social networks in education activities have generated

additional questions on the future of schools and universities, as they are perfect
complements to teaching activities carried out using MOOCs. Indeed, many MOOC
infrastructures do include or are structurally based on a social network. This way
students are enabled to follow classes remotely and, at the same time, be part of an
online community and benefit from a direct—even if “virtual”—interaction with
teachers and instructors. Isn’t this the ultimate evidence that education activities can
really be accomplished “over the Internet”?
Again, the answer if far from being simple and obvious. Certainly, social net-
works are a wonderful opportunity to increase our ability to interact and cooperate.
However, there is no proof that they can replace the value and meaning of face-to-
face interaction.
1.3 Is This the Age of Online Learning?
It is undoubtedly true that we are living in a new age in which the Internet and
digital technologies are and will increasingly play a crucial role in any aspect of our
daily life. This is particularly true when we consider schools and students, i.e., the
youngest part of the population and the typical users of innovative digital tools and
technologies. It is essential to understand how we can exploit these technologies
without jeopardizing the quality of the education process. Even more, we need to
take advantage of these means to increase the effectiveness of our institutions and
open them to a wider number of students. For these reasons, it is extremely
important to reflect on the real essence and nature of the education process and the
intrinsic characteristics of these technologies. We can avoid risks, pursue excel-
lence, and increase quality only by carefully understanding and contrasting these
important and critical factors.
2 What Is the Mission of a School?
The answer to this question might appear quite obvious. However, to assess the
impact and value of specific tools and technologies on the education process, it is
essential to frame a clear and shared view of what a school is all about, i.e., the
ultimate goal that we want to pursue and achieve. A simple and fairly obvious
answer is that schools and universities have to create and share knowledge. This
result is not just the effect of research activities (typically carried out within uni-
versities), but also of a rich interaction among students and teachers/professors
who, therefore, play an open and proactive role to achieve the ultimate goal.
In this context, what are students’ goals? Again, the answer can be quite obvious
but at, the same time, extremely difficult to articulate. A reasonable set of goals can
be summarized as follows:
• Understand principles, notions and founding concepts.

• Learn to learn (in my opinion, this is the most important thing as we should
never stop learning).
• Learn to unlearn.
• Learn to relearn.
• Learn to reason.
• Learn to work together.
• Develop curiosity.
• Share experiences.
• Acquire information.
• Test technologies and tools.
• Understand the principles of ethical conduct.
In this process, teachers and professors are key actors [1]. To qualify and identify
them, I prefer to use the term educators. An educator is more than just a “simple”
lecturer or evaluator. An educator has a central and critical role in supporting and
assisting the growth of students, as the etymology of the term suggests:
Wikipedia: Etymologically, the word “education” is derived from the Latin ēducātiō (“A
breeding, a bringing up, a rearing”) from ēdūcō (“I educate, I train”) which is related to the
homonym ēdūcō (“I lead forth, I take out; I raise up, I erect”) from ē- (“from, out of”) and
dūcō (“I lead, I conduct”).
In general, education is the result of a direct and continuous interaction and

leadership activity. If this is true, is it really possible to educate “over or through the
Internet”? Can we really consider e-learning (or e-teaching) to be equivalent to
educating? In my own opinion, even if I am a professor of Computer Science and I am
obviously passionate and fond of what I do, the answer is definitely no: education
requires a direct and continuous interaction that cannot be completely replicated over
the Internet, in what is often just a one-to-many, anonymous interaction.
The key fact that we should never forget is that a university (or a school) is not
just a collection of individuals reading books or listening to speeches. It is a
community of students, educators and stakeholders, as well as of the other actors
who are actively participating in the life of the university, such as industries, public
administration, public institutions, non-profit organizations. Indeed, a community
exists and lives beyond professional and teaching activities. Can the Internet fully
recreate and support the life of a community over the Internet?
To a certain extend, the answer is yes. Just imagine Twitter, Facebook or blogs:
they have interconnected billions of people spread aroung the entire planet. However,
despite the existence of virtual communities and social networks, the importance of
physical face-to-face meetings should not be underestimated. As a matter of fact, even
bloggers and Internet lovers use to organize bar camps, i.e., physical meetings where
people meet and talk face to face in the same place at the same time. Indeed, there is
an incredible value in the direct interaction among people.
Finally, another key aspect of university life is its infrastructures, such as labs,
complex tools, devices, and instruments, greenhouses, medical centers, etc. Is it
possible for all of them to be simulated or recreated over the Internet? Can one
18 A. Fuggetta
actually become a doctor or an electronic engineer without visiting and working in a

real lab together with colleagues and instructors?
The above observations suggest that the mission and ultimate goal of a school/
universities cannot be pursued and achieved by uniquely exploiting the Internet and
digital technologies. There are specific facets, dynamics, and factors that determine
the quality of the education process and that heavily rely on the physical interaction
and co-location of the different actors involved in the education process [2].
Nevertheless, the Internet and related technologies and tools do have a role in the
education process. How can we qualify and characterize it?
3 What Does the Internet Offer and How?
During the past 25 years, the Internet have incredible expanded its reach and
capabilities. Nowadays, we can identify three main classes of features that the
Internet can offer to the education process:
• Communication: today we can meet anybody who is anywhere in the world, in a
both synchronous (e.g., Skype) and asynchronous way (e.g., email). More spe-
cifically, technology can support three main multimedia interaction paradigms:
– One-to-one.
– One-to-many.
– Many-to-many.
• Information and knowledge creation and sharing: Anybody can be the author of
any type of media or message using a computer. This can be done in a col-
laborative way, sharing contents and information anywhere around the world.
Indeed, there is not a single point on the planet that is not reached by the internet
(actually, even in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or at the North Pole you can
have satellite connection).
• Cooperation: people can interact and cooperate from remote locations, using a
number of different technologies:
– Distributed workforce management and coordination platforms.
– Online community management.
– Social networks.
These features and technologies are extremely powerful, cheap, and increasingly
easy to learn and use. However, can they completely address the needs and
requirements of an education process and recreate it in a virtual environment? Initial
experiences appear not to be positive. For instance, many MOOCs have very high
dropout rate (New York Times, February 20th 2013 [3]: “So far most MOOCs have
had dropout rates exceeding 90 %.”) Certainly, most people try MOOCs just for the
sake of curiosity. However, we should question the assumption and belief
according to which it is possible to totally replace a physical infrastructure and
environment—better, a community such as a university—with a virtual and digital

environment provided over the Internet. Certainly, we should and must exploit the
Internet to improve our schools, universities, and education processes in general.
However, this goal must be pursued by carefully matching needs, expectations, and
real opportunities offered by the Internet.
4 How Does the Internet Change Schools?
The Internet can and do certainly affect, alter, and impact the education process in
many ways, the most important ones being summarized as follows:
• The Internet is an enabler. The internet enables new forms and ways to organize
the education process, and thus it is instrumental to enrich, diversify, and speed
up the learning experience.
• The Internet may be a surrogate. The Internet might surrogate traditional
teaching activities in situations in which costs and physical distribution make it
difficult to attend a classical course.
• The Internet is not a replacement. The Internet cannot completely replace the
experience of attending a course in a university.
In general, looking at the evolution of universities and schools, we can argue that
an inversion is taking place: we are moving from “pure learning” to “living an
experience”. Traditionally, a university campus was the physical location where
courses and labs took place. Nowadays, a lot of information can be acquired on the
Internet, and this enable some learning activity to occur outside the traditional
borders of university campuses. Conversely, universities and schools are the
locations where real-life experiences take place and where it is becoming easier to
meet testimonials, get in contact with other experiences, increase the ability to learn
and share. Probably, this is the future of university campuses: places where com-
munities are created, and where rich professional, human, and cultural experiences
occur. In general, there is no doubt that universities must change. Certainly, the
Internet cannot replace a university campus. However, it is not possible to ignore
the consequences of the introduction of the Internet into our education processes.
The different effects and contributions of these technologies, processes, and
methodologies need to be properly considered and taken into account.
• The onsite experience needs to be enriched in order to exploit the physical
presence and the value of communities and places. There must be an added
value in visiting and living in a campus.
• The Internet must be the main support and enabling platform. For example, the
concept of office hours does not make any sense anymore, as the tools provided
by the Internet completely replace the necessity of having them. Nowadays, any
professor can interact with students using tools such as e-mail or Skype, anytime
and anywhere.
20 A. Fuggetta
• Probably we need hybrid models (onsite and online), with different levels of
hybridization depending on the course level and topic.
• Educators must reevaluate and extend their role as mentors and not just teachers
or instructors.
5 Conclusion
Based on the brief discussion proposed in this paper, I believe that there are three
main conclusions that can and must be drawn:
• The Internet does change universities, but it does not replace them.
• The change is not obvious at all: it is not a mere transposition of physical
classrooms in the cyberspace. If that was the case, then the universities would be
transformed into media companies.
• The Internet is a key enabler of innovation and extension of the learning and
education experience. It should be considered as something we cannot live
without, something that cannot be ignored, something that should not be
underestimated. On the other hand, the Internet should not be considered the
solution for the problems of universities and, more in general, of our education
systems.
Acknowledgments I want to thank my colleague Luigi Cocchiarella for the invitation to con-
tribute on this topic and for his stimulating comments and insights.
References
1. Fuggetta, A.: 3+1 challenges for the future of universities. J. Syst. Soft. 85, 2417–2424 (2012)
2. Fuggetta, A.: Advance knowledge, evolve society. In: Mori, K. (ed.) Concept-Oriented
Research and Development in Information Technology. Wiley, Hoboken (to appear)
3. Lewin, T.: Universities abroad join partnerships on the web. The New York Times, February 20
(2013)
Part II
Visual Language in Education: Between
Theory and Experiences
Graphics Literacy Education
at the University of Tokyo
Kenjiro Suzuki
Abstract Graphic science is the subject which teaches geometry and graphics, and
is taught in early undergraduate curricula at many Japanese universities. In tradi-
tional graphic science courses, descriptive geometry based on hand drawings was
taught. However, in recent years, there continues to be a rapid spread in the use of
3D-CAD in the field of design and drawing, and there is also increasing use of CG
in many fields such as for visualization of computer simulation results in science,
and for image display in the movie and game entertainment fields. With the spread
of 3D-CAD/CG, graphic presentation is now being used in various fields and by
various people, so there is a need for graphic presentation education including the
competence in the use of 3D-CAD/CG, or graphics literacy (or visual literacy)
education for a wide range of students. In order to realize graphics literacy edu-
cation, a new graphic science curriculum has been started at the College of Arts and
Sciences of the University of Tokyo. The main part of the curriculum consists of
Graphic Science I and Graphic Science II. With Graphic Science I, as before,
traditional descriptive geometry is taught with hand drawing. With Graphic Science
II, commercial 3D-CAD/CG software can be experienced. The educational objec-
tive of this course is not only to teach how to use 3D-CAD/CG software but also to
teach geometry and graphics through the use of 3D-CAD/CG. It is designed to
mutually complement with descriptive geometry education (Graphic Science I).
1 Introduction
Graphic science [3] is the subject which teaches geometry and graphics, and is
taught in early undergraduate curricula at many Japanese universities as a liberal
arts subject or as a basic subject for design and drawing. In traditional graphic
K. Suzuki (&)
National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: suzuki-k@niad.ac.jp

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_4
24 K. Suzuki
science courses, descriptive geometry based on hand drawings was taught, but with
the spread of computer graphics (CG) and its application to engineering and
architectural design drawing (CAD), CG/CAD has been implemented into graphics
related courses [1].
At the University of Tokyo, CG programming was introduced into a part of
graphic science exercise course in 1987. However, in recent years, there continues to
be a rapid spread in the use of 3D-CAD in the field of engineering and architectural
design drawing, and there is also increasing use of CG in many fields such as for
visualization of computer simulation results in science, and for image display in the
media and entertainment fields. In most of these cases, commercial 3D-CAD/CG
software is used. Therefore, the competence in the use of commercial 3D-CAD/CG is
becoming increasingly important. The situations during this period are similar to the
changes in information processing education, namely, at the beginning, with regard to
information processing education, computer programming was taught for the purpose
of numerical calculations, but with the spread of various application technologies
such as word processors and the Internet, information processing education has
changed to computer literacy education. In the similar way, with the spread of
3D-CAD/CG, graphic presentation that was used in some specialists such as engi-
neering and architectural designers in the past, is now being used in various fields, so
there is a need for graphic presentation education including the competence in the use
of 3D-CAD/CG, or graphics literacy (or visual literacy) for a wide range of students.
Since 2000, test-runs were repeated using the class-time of the laboratory
exercise course of graphic science. In 2007, the course has been fully imple-
mented [6]. This chapter reports on the new graphics literacy education at The
University of Tokyo.
2 Graphics: Visual Language
Before reporting the new graphic literacy education at The University of Tokyo, let us
discuss the importance of Graphics—Two-dimensional representations of three-
dimensional objects. We, human beings, have very fundamental means for recog-
nizing the world and communicating with each other, such as verbal languages and
numerals. Graphics are, also, considered to be one of such fundamental means that we
humans use.
In Fig. 1a, a mechanical part is described in verbal language (English) but
making an image of the shape based on this description alone is not an easy task. In
fact the task is almost impossible. In Fig. 1b, the same mechanical part is shown
graphically and we are able to recognize the shape at only a glance. We are more
easily able to recognize shapes through graphical representations than through the
use of verbal language.
We, human beings, live in a three-dimensional world, and capture most of spatial
information through our visual system, an Eye. It is noted here that the eye is,
basically, a two-dimensional detector. It uses the two-dimensional image on
Graphics Literacy Education at the University of Tokyo 25
(a)
This fixture consists of a rectangular block 75 mm high, 44mm long and 100mm wide. It has a
25mm thick by 100mm wide flange protruding from the 100mm face of the block with the low-
er surfaces (base) aligned. The free end of the flange is rounded with a 50mm radius and at
the centre of that radius is a hole 8mm diameter through the flange with a 20mm diameter
counter bore 10mm deep in the top surface of the flange. The overall length of the fixture is
150mm.
The rectangular block has a V shaped slot symmetrically through the top surface in longitu-
dinal direction. It has 38mm each side of the centre at the top surface and is 45 degrees to this
surface. The bottom of the V slot is removed by rectangular slot 19 mm wide with its bottom
face 10mm above the top face of the flange.
(b)
Fig. 1 Description of a three-dimensional object [2]. a Verbal description; b Graphic description
the retina, i.e., graphic representation. It is not too much to say that we recognize
three-dimensional world only through Graphics. Graphic system is built in human
beings. That is why graphics are so natural and, hence, useful for us.
3 New Graphics Science Curricula at the University

of Tokyo
At the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tokyo, graphic science
courses have been changed as shown in Fig. 2. With Graphic Science I
(2nd semester/1st year students, one 90-min time slot per week for 13 weeks),
26 K. Suzuki
Fig. 2 New graphic science (2nd Semester) (3rd Semester)

curriculum at the University
of Tokyo Graphic Science Graphic Science
Graphic Science B
Graphic Science B
as before, descriptive geometry is taught with hand drawing. With Graphic Science
II (3rd semester /2nd year students, one 90-min time slot per week for 13 weeks),
commercial graphic processing software can be experienced in this course. Graphic
Science I and II are quasi-compulsory subjects for science and engineering students,
each with about 10 time slots per semester, for about 100 students per slot, making
for a total availability for about 1,000 students per semester.
Graphic Science I–B (one 90-min time slot per week for 13 weeks) is an lab-
oratory exercise course with emphasis on hand work such as hand drawing and
model production, and Graphic Science II-B (one 90-min time slot per week for
13 weeks) is a course centered on CG programming. These courses are for students
who want to further the study of the contents of Graphic Science I and II, with
about one time slot per semester (for about 100 students for each course).
3.1 Graphics Science I
With the spread of 3D-CAD/CG, some people say there is no longer any need for
traditional descriptive geometry, but for the following reasons, it is taught as
Graphic Science I.
(1) Descriptive geometry is a superior method of teaching and learning geometry
of projection and of three-dimensional objects, in particular, for construction
and manufacturing, i.e., Constructive Geometry, since it enables intuitive
grasping and rigorous logical reasoning of three-dimensional shapes, and since
concepts and/or procedures in descriptive geometry can be applied even in
solving geometric design problems by the use of 3D-CAD/CG.
(2) Even in the age of 3D-CAD/CG, manual drawing (sketching in particular) is
still used and is still practical.
(3) Manual drawing is an effective way to enhance spatial ability of students (See
Sect. 3.2.2).
The subject contents of Graphic Science I are shown in Table 1. As shown in
Table 1, they are not so different from those of traditional courses. However, with
the spread of CG/CAD, the descriptive geometry techniques in analyzing shapes
and forms of three-dimensional objects are now loosing their earlier practical
importance. Therefore, emphasis is not being placed on the education of practical
techniques, but is being placed on teaching the theory behind the techniques, i.e.,
geometry of projection and of three-dimensional objects [8].
Table 1 Subject contents of Graphic Science I

Week Topics
1 Guidance, projection (principle, various projection methods)
<Analysis and construction of solids by orthographic projection>
2 Principal projection
3 Auxiliary projection
4–6 Points, Lines, Planes
7 Polyhedra (Regular polyhedra /Semi- regular polyhedra)
8–9 Curved surfaces (Categorization/Helical convolute, Hyperbolic paraboloid, etc.)
10 Cutting of solids (Polyhedra, Circular cylinder, Circular cone)
11–12 Intersection of two solids (Two polyhedra/Tow circular cylinders)
<Pictorial Projection>
13 Isometric and/or perspective projection
3.2 Graphics Science II
With Graphic Science II, commercial graphic processing software can be experi-
enced in the course. At the University of Tokyo, graphic science is being taught as a
liberal arts subject, but it is also being served as a basic subject for engineering and
architectural design drawing.1 Therefore, 3D-CAD is the main graphic processing
software being introduced. However, 3D-CAD has been developed for precise
geometric modeling and for application of the modeling data to design analyses and
manufacturing processes, and is not entirely satisfactory for visualization functions
such as generation of perspective views, rendering or animated display. Therefore,
to supplement the study of these functions, CG software is also being introduced. In
this course, the experience of 3D-CAD/CG is the main educational objective, but by
introducing geometric problems as examples and assignments, it is designed to
teach geometry and graphics through the use of 3D-CAD/CG. In other words, it is
mutually complemented with descriptive geometry education (Graphic Science I).
3.2.1 Subject Contents and Method of Teaching
The subject contents of Graphic Science II are shown in Table 2. For each unit, at
first, brief lectures are given concerning related topics, and next, the operational
methods of CG/CAD software are taught using simple examples. After that, the
1
At the University of Tokyo, all students take courses from the College of Arts and Sciences in
their first 2 years. Starting in the third year, the students go on to take courses from one of the
eleven faculties, such as the Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Science, etc. Subjects called
Graphic Science are offered at the College of Arts and Sciences, and subjects related to
Engineering or Architectural Design Drawings are taught in each of the departments of Faculty of
Engineering.
28 K. Suzuki
Table 2 Subject contents of Graphic Science II

Week Topics
1 Guidance
< 3D-CAD (Inventor®) >
2 2D-Modeling: 1 (Line, Circle, Polygon, Sketching and dimensional constraints,
Editing operations)
3 2D-Modeling: 2 (Spline, Mirror, Patterns)
4 3D-Modeling: 1 (View control, Extrusion, Revolution, Editing operations)
5 3D-Modeling: 2 (Working planes and working axes, Projection)
6 Application of descriptive geometric procedures to solve spatial problems (Shortest
distance problems, Regular polyhedra)
7 Assembly/Orthographic drawing
< CG (3ds Max®) >
8 Interface of 3ds Max (Perspective views, View control)
9 Rendering (Colors, Mapping, Shadows)
10 Key frame animation
< 3D-CAD + CG >
11–13 Overall assignments
students are given assignments. They consist of standard assignments that had to be
done in order to complete the course and optional assignments for further study that
each student could select according to their interest. Assignments are chosen not
only from the fields of applied geometry and engineering and architectural design,
but also from the fields of physics, chemistry and biology for indicating the students
an importance of geometric modeling and visualization in such fields. Details of the
assignments are shown in the textbook [7]
For each of the assignments for weeks 3, 5, 7 and 11–13 shown in Table 2, the
students have to hand in a report, recording the assignments they undertook, the
approximate amount of time it took to complete the assignments, hard copies
(drawing or image) of the main results, and points and problem areas they
encountered while undertaking the assignments. They also have to hand in copies of
the computer files they completed. The classes are held in a laboratory room with
about 100 PC-terminals, and the 3D-CAD and CG software used during the lab-
oratory work are Inventor® and 3ds Max® (Autodesk Inc.).
As shown in Table 2, weeks 2–7 are for laboratory exercises using 3D-CAD. In
weeks 2 and 3, the students learn how to make two-dimensional models (straight
line, circles, arcs and Spline curves), and geometric and dimensional constraints.
An example of the assignments in week 3 is shown in Fig. 3. The students are
required not only to construct a parabola by using the Spline command, but also to
confirm that a straight line (radio wave/light wave) coming into the parabola is
reflected and gathered to the focal point.
The classes in weeks 4–6 are concerned with the production of three-dimensional
models. In week 4, the students learn about the modeling (extrusion/revolution
Fig. 3 An example of assignments in week 3—2D-modeling (Parabola)
Fig. 4 Examples of assignments in week 5—3D-modeling; a Mechanical part; b Intersection
including set operations) and view controls of three-dimensional objects. In week 5,

they learn about the production of models using work-planes and work-axes, and
about the projection function of Inventor ®, which is used as 3D-CAD software in
this part of the course. Examples of the assignments in week 5 are shown in Fig. 4.
Figure 4b shows the assignment for intersection between two circular cylinders. The
students are required to generate the union, subtraction and set intersection of two
circular cylinders. The subtraction and set intersection are easily obtained by editing
the union. The students are recommended to observe the intersection lines carefully,
and are required to answer the question “When the two circular cylinders have the
same diameter and the axes of the cylinders intersect, which kind of curves are the
intersection lines?” Intersection is an important area that is studied in Graphic Science
I (descriptive geometry), but because the intersection lines are so complicated and
30 K. Suzuki
Fig. 5 Examples of assignments in week 6—spatial problems; a Shortest distance problem;

b Icosahedron
difficult to imagine, it is an area where many students have difficulty in their study.
By enabling observation of the produced intersections through 3D-CAD image
display functions (shaded and rotated images), it is expected the students would be
able to better comprehend the intersection.
In week 6, the students learn to solve spatial problems with 3D-CAD by applying
descriptive geometric procedures which they have learned in Graphic Science
I. Examples of the assignments in week 6 are shown in Fig. 5. Figure 5a shows the
problem of producing the shortest-distance pipe connecting two pipes given in a
skewed position. The shortest-distance line is the common perpendicular of the two
skewed lines, but with ordinary 3D-CAD such as Inventor ®, there is no direct
command available to obtain the common perpendicular. It is, therefore, necessary to
find a suitable combination of commands. Since 3D-CAD uses projective views as an
interface with the user and since this is similar to in descriptive geometry, descriptive
geometry procedures can be successfully applied in solving spatial problems with
3D-CAD [5–7]. Figure 5b shows the construction of an icosahedron. The descriptive
geometry procedures are also applied in solving the problem.
In week 7, the students learn about assembly functions and methods to produce
drawing views (orthographic drawings). With regard to the drawing views, they
learn just the method to produce orthographic drawings from the three-dimensional
model and very basics of dimensioning. Details of working drawings such as
tolerance and sectional drawings are not treated in this course, because the main
educational objective of the course is not to teach engineering and/or architectural
design drawing (See Footnote 1). As assignments for assembly, the production of a
face-centered cubic lattice or of a diamond lattice (Fig. 6) is also provided. This is
for teaching the importance of geometry and computer modeling in fields other than
architectural and engineering design, for example, in chemistry.
During weeks 8–10, the students learn about visual presentations using CG
software. First, in week 8, they studied how to produce perspective views with CG
software. An example of the assignments in week 8 is shown in Fig. 7. The students
Fig. 6 An example of assignments in week 7—assembly (Diamond lattice)
Laboratory exercise : of Perspective Views
7_1
1) Generate a cube. Place the cube in the central part of the view. Observe
how the image size of the cube changes by changing the lens from wide an-
gle to telescopic lens.
2) By using wide angle lens, place the point being observed to different
places in the field of vision (center, side). Observe how the image distortion
changes.
Observe this again using the telescopic lens.
3) Consider the relationship between the size and distortion of the view and
the focal distance ( viewing angle) of the lens.
Write the observational results and consideration up in your report.
7_2 Generate a cube. Produce the one - point perspective, the two-point
perspective and the three -point perspective of the cube.
Write the characteristic relations between the projection plane and the po-
sition of the cube for each of the perspectives up in your report.
7_3 Generate a rectangular block. By setting appropriate perspective pa-

rameters, produce the view in which the block looks like,
a) a skyscraper building,
b) an eraser.
Write the perspective parameters up in your report.
Fig. 7 An example of assignments in week 8—perspective views

32 K. Suzuki
Fig. 8 An example of
assignments in week 10—
animation (bouncing of a ball)
are required not only to produce perspective views, but also to observe the changes
of the views by changing the perspective parameters, such as “station point”,
“center of vision”, and “angle of the visual cone” (corresponding to “camera”,
“target”, and “lens” in 3ds Max ®, which is used as CG software in this part of the
course). It is expected that the students could further their understanding of the
characteristic features of perspective views through the observation. It is difficult for
the students to experience these types of observation in hand drawing exercises, and
only with CG can this be made possible.
In week 9, the students learn about rendering. In week 10, they learn about
producing key frame animation. Figure 8 show an example of the assignments in
week 10, the simulation of the bouncing of a ball. This assignment is provided to
teach that visualization by CG is useful not only in engineering and architectural
design but also in other fields, for example, in physics.
Weeks 11 through 13 cover overall assignments. Modeling is undertaken using
the 3D-CAD software, and visual presentations are made by reading the modeling
data into CG software. Figure 9a, b show the examples of overall assignments
(weeks 11–13), the assembly and running simulation of the Geneva gears (Fig. 9a),
and a walk-through of a building (Fig. 9b).
In addition to hand in the weekly reports, the students are required to take a term
end examination which is conducted in a paper-pencil format. They are asked basic
concepts behind 3D-CAD/CG and procedures in solving applied geometric prob-
lems with 3D-CAD.
3.2.2 Results of the Course
The students’ performance in the course, i.e., the scores of weekly reports and the
term end examination, work time it took to complete the assignments, and students’
lecture evaluation are carefully analyzed in 2007, and the results indicated that the
course design is appropriate, though further improvement will be necessary [6].
Fig. 9 Examples of
assignments in weeks 11–13
—overall assignments;
a Assembly and running
simulation of Geneva gears;
b Walk-through of a building
In order to evaluate the enhancement of students’ spatial ability through the

course, a Mental Cutting Test (MCT)2 was administered at the beginning of
the course (pre-test) and at the end of the course (post-test). The gains, together with
the results in a test-run class in 2006, are shown in Fig. 10. They are shown as grey
(green in color-version) triangles. In Fig. 10 are also shown the gains in previous
MCT studies undertaken in various graphics related courses [4]. The gains in
descriptive courses including Graphic Science I are shown as solid circles. In this
figure, are also shown the changes before and after the classes with no graphics
education. These are called control surveys, and are shown as + marks. After the
descriptive geometry courses, the scores have increased in all the surveys and these
gains are greater than those in the control surveys. We can conclude that the spatial
2
The Mental Cutting Test, MCT for short, is a sub-set of CEEB (College Entrance Examination
Board, USA) Special Aptitude Test and has been widely used to evaluate the spatial ability of
students. The test contains 25 items, and so, the prefect score is 25.
34 K. Suzuki
Fig. 10 Difference between

pre- and post- MCT scores.
Filled circle: DG; Filled
triangle: EG by manual
drawing; Open triangle:
3D-CAD/CG (reproduced
with permission from [4, 6])
ability can be enhanced through descriptive geometry courses. On the other hand,
the gains in scores 3D-CAD/CG courses are about the same as the gains in the
control surveys, suggesting that the spatial ability is hardly enhanced through these
courses. With regard to the effect in developing spatial ability, the trend is:
DG > 3D-CAD/CG.
Some people say that 3D-CAD/CG enhances the spatial ability. It is true that we
can get stereoscopic feeling much easier by the use of 3D-CAD/CG. The situation
is similar to eyeglasses. When weak-sighted person use proper eyeglasses, he or she
can get better eyesight. But, it does not mean the function of eye itself becomes
well. From educational point of view, it is necessary not to give the students better
stereoscopic feeling, but to enhance their spatial ability.
4 Conclusion
At the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tokyo, from 2007, a new
graphic science curriculum, the main part of which consists of Graphic Science
I and Graphic Science II, has been started. With Graphic Science II, commercial
graphic processing software can be experienced. The experience of 3D-CAD/CG is
the main educational objective of this course, but by introducing geometric prob-
lems as examples and assignments, the course is designed to teach geometry and
graphics through the use of 3D-CAD/CG. In other words, this course is mutually
complemented with Graphic Science I (descriptive geometry education). The results
of the fully implemented classes in 2007 indicated that the course design is
appropriate, though further improvement will be necessary.
Acknowledgments The author wishes to give his sincere gratitude to the colleagues of the
Department of Computer and Graphic Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of
Tokyo for their daily discussion on the development of Graphic Science curriculum.
References
1. Kondo, K., et al.: Present status of graphic science and graphic representation education in
Japan. J. Geom. Graph. 9(1), 77–87 (2005)
2. Platfoot, R. A.: Text book for engineering and solid modelling—MECH0130. University of
New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (1996)
3. Suzuki, K.: Activities of the Japan society for graphic science—research and education.
J. Geom. Graph. 6(2), 221–229 (2002)
4. Suzuki, K.: Evaluation of student’ spatial ability by a mental cutting test-Review on the studies
in the past decade. In: 11th ICGG, 3:1–5 (2004)
5. Suzuki, K., Schroecker, H.-P.: Application of descriptive geometry procedures in solving spatial
problems with feature and parametric modelling 3D-CAD. In: 13th ICGG: K. Suzuki_II, 1–8
(2008)
6. Suzuki, K., et al.: Development of graphics literacy education (2)—full implementation at the
University of Tokyo. In: 13th ICGG: K. Suzuki_I, 1–8 (2008)
7. Suzuki, K., et al.: Introduction to 3D-CAD/CG—learning geometry and graphics through
inventor and 3ds Max, Japanese edn. Saiensu, Tokyo, Japan (2012)
8. Suzuki, K.: Significance of traditional descriptive geometry in teaching and learning graphic
science. In: 8th AFGS: 108–116 (2013)
Visual Representations for Spatial
Thinking
Cornelie Leopold
Abstract Images are signs, which are essential for engineering and all creative
disciplines. Our relation to the world is always intermediated by signs. Drawings
are used in architecture and other creative disciplines in the design processes to
develop and refine ideas and concepts. Finally the results of the design processes
are also represented by drawings. Drawings or more general visual representations
in its various characteristics have to be understood as elements of a sign system.
The foundations of the drawings are the geometrical figures representing the ideas
and the geometric projection methods. The role of abstraction for the drawings is
expressed by the relationship between ideas and geometric figures. Geometry gives
the background for various kinds and levels of abstractions. The most important
evaluation criterion for the quality of representations has to be, how the object of
planning and designing is represented in its essential aspects. It is necessary to
isolate the various aspects and to represent each of them with an appropriate
visualization. The possibilities of digital 3D-representations do not change the main
characteristics. The 3D-model is also a visual representation with the difference that
the recipient is able to see the model from various viewpoints and to produce his/her
own images. Understanding the different geometric projection methods for
receiving 2D-images of the spatial object is still necessary, even more to control the
navigation process in the 3D-model and its parameters. These considerations lead to
the following topics essential for the education in graphics: Geometric projection
methods with their characteristics behind the various visual representations, visual
representations as signs in the communication process with their different
requirements and references, backgrounds and methods of a wide range of visual
representations, practiced in reasonable application scenarios integrated in study
projects. The relationship between spatial thinking and visual representations will
be emphasized and the ideas illustrated by some students’ examples.
C. Leopold (&)
Faculty of Architecture, Descriptive Geometry and Perspective, Technical University of
Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany
e-mail: cornelie.leopold@architektur.uni-kl.de

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_5
38 C. Leopold
1 Visual Representations as Signs
Starting with the philosophical background of visual representations, we refer to the

thoughts of the American Mathematician and Philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce,
who developed the fundamental concepts of signs:
All that we know or think is known or thought by signs, and our knowledge itself is a sign
[17].
Peirce and Max Bense [1], who based his semiotic theory on these foundations
of Peirce, expressed, that thinking, communication and information are only pos-
sible through signs. Therefore thinking, in our case spatial thinking as it is the topic
of engineering and here especially architecture, needs suitable signs.
A sign has to be seen in its three relations: relation to the mean, the medium—
relation to the object, the meaning—relation to the interpretant, those who should
understand the sign. When we select a visual representation for a specific appli-
cation we have to refer to these relations of the sign. The sign is a mean for
representation and mediation in the thinking and communication process. Peirce
defined a sign as a relation, related to three things (Fig. 1):
A sign is anything which is related to a second thing, its object, in respect to a quality, in
such a way as to bring a third thing, its interpretant, into relation to the same object [18].
The sign is based on a repertoire, the material for representations. For visual
representations the material is for examples lines and shapes with their character-
istics. The medium can be selected out of the repertoire just set or as conventional
signs as fixed in the ISO of drawing.
Laws of perception, as it had been analyzed and described by gestalt theory, are
the background for the visual representations. One important law of perception in
our focus is the law of maximum order, law of good shape, law of Prägnanz
(pithiness), law of good gestalt, as it had been described by Wolfgang Metzger in
his book “Laws of Seeing” [14]. Figure 2 shows some lines, which will be inter-
preted in some cases as representations of spatial objects, a cube or an octahedron.
The law means that the viewer is always looking for a known regular figure. If we
find such a regular figure in the plane drawing, our interpretation remains two-
dimensional; otherwise we are looking for a three-dimensional interpretation.
1. Medium
Sign
relation
2. Object 3. Interpretant
Fig. 1 Sign model according Peirce/Bense [1, 18]

Visual Representations for Spatial Thinking 39
Fig. 2 Effective and ineffective images of a cube and an octahedron [14, p. 457], [10, p. 23]
Fig. 3 Sketch of Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) [13]
The interpretation of a drawing as a representation of a spatial object or situation

is possible with a very reduced vocabular. Only few lines can be effective for such
an understanding. Figure 3 shows probably one of the earliest sketch as an abstract
drawing representing a spatial situation.
Line, half oval and triangle can be more than meaningless geometrical config-
urations. The sketches may be seen as representations of 1. the bricklayer behind a
wall, 2. a priest, fallen asleep behind his pulpit, 3. a worker with a board behind a
wall, 4. perhaps a worker looking around a house corner with a board [22]. This
example shows the possibility of abstract representations.
2 Geometric Figures and Models Representing Spatial

Ideas
In our application scenario of architecture we are now looking how spatial ideas can
be represented. Le Corbusier‘s “Five points of architecture”: pilotis, roof garden,
open floor plan, facades, horizontal windows can be seen as an example
40 C. Leopold
Fig. 4 Processes abstraction, Peter Eisenman, House III [8, p. 14] (redrawn by Caterina Scalzo)
representing spatial ideas by geometric figures. The ideas may be also represented
by geometric 3D-models. Both possibilities are common, that we have to abstract to
specific characteristics. Therefore abstraction to the specific spatial idea is impor-
tant, where geometric figures represent these ideas. Daniel Barbaro expressed this
relationship between ideas and geometric figures already 1557 very appropriately in
his comments to the Vitruv editions:
As writing is the sign of speech, speech is the sign of intellect, so are the mathematical
designs and geometric figures like the signs of their, i.e. man’s ideas [16, p. 28].
In design, processes abstraction may be important as shown for example in the

drawing by Peter Eisenman for House III developing the house structure out of a
cube (Fig. 4).
Another abstraction may be important for developing architecture in the relation
to the user. The abstraction on experienced space in some basic characteristic forms
as it is shown in Fig. 5 helps to focus on this component of experiencing and
perceiving space.
Or we can go even further and come to a high abstraction on connectedness and
neighbourhood. Then we have a topological understanding of space. Then graphs
are suitable representations. Such an approach can be best studied in the three floor
plans, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (Fig. 6), which are based on the same
topological structure as described by March and Steadman [12].
Paul Bernays explains abstraction as a mathematical approach dealing with
objects.
This abstraction, which may be called formal or mathematical abstraction, consists in
emphasizing and taking exclusively into account the structural aspects of an object, that is,
the manner of its composition from parts; (…) One can, accordingly, define mathematical
knowledge as resting on the structural consideration of objects [2].
For training abstract spatial thinking with the help of various visual represen-
tations, we take in our geometry course for the freshmen students as a very first
task: developing spatial ideas out of an image or a two-dimensional figure. In this
Fig. 5 Experienced space

(reproduced with permission
from [9, p. 57])
way we abstract architectural composition on proportions, form and relationships

between forms (Figs. 7 and 8).
The 3-D compositions are represented in various media: physical model, sketch,
assigned views and axonometries.
In another year we took the outline of the floor plan of the Vitra Design Pavilion
in Weil am Rhein, Germany, designed by Tadao Ando. The students were not told
it at the beginning. So later they could compare their compositions out of the given
outline with the realized one of Ando (Figs. 9 and 10).
42 C. Leopold
Fig. 6 Three house project by Frank Lloyd Wright: a Life; b Ralph Jester House; c Vigo Sundt
House. Graph of space and room linkages (reproduced with permission from [12, p. 27f])
Fig. 7 “Komposition Q XX”, 1923, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014

(reproduced with permission from [15]), and by students (1 st semester) created reliefs, 2005/2006
Fig. 8 Examples of drawings: sketch, assigned views, axonometries of the 3-D composition
Fig. 9 Vitra Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando, Weil am Rhein, Germany in Google Earth®
and its outline figure
44 C. Leopold
Fig. 10 Digital and physical model of a student’s 3-D composition, 2007/2008
Fig. 11 Axonometries of the wooden support structure and room concept of a student’s project in
the subject building construction, 2011/2012
In the geometry course we integrate applications of visual representations for

projects in other subjects. Figure 11 shows the wooden support structure of a
student’s design in the subject “Building Construction” in 1st semester. The axo-
nometric representations support the spatial understanding of the structure. A
second axonometry represents the room concept with its openings and relations to
the outside parts. The integrated shadow help to get a spatial impression and to be
aware of the role of light and shadow.
In the second semester the students learn additionally the method of central
projection with its characteristics. They experience that the parallel projection used
for axonometries is object orientated and refers to the design of the object, whereas
the perspective as a result of central projection is related to the subject, the viewer
[19]. Space gets presented as a perspective scene, the impressions of space are
transmitted, the experienced space of a subject (Fig. 12).
When we draw perspectives we should be also aware of the role of abstraction.
The aim should be not a perfect simulation of reality. Renderings are often com-
bined with this goal. But then the sign character of a representation is not taken into
account. The enthusiasm of the technical possibilities of simulation leads to the
misunderstanding of the sign characteristics of all visual representations. The visual
representation not merely simulates reality, but it is a sign in refer to reality. We
should stop the actual tendency to separate the representations by the renderings
from the designing process.
Fig. 12 Perspective of a student’s project, construction and presentation drawing, in the subject
“methods of design” and “building construction”, 2010
3 Representations for Design Processes
Representations are necessary to develop spatial ideas, not only for presenting
design results. The representations are then used as methodical and strategic
instruments; they get tools for receiving scientific cognition.
3.1 Folding
We may start with an experimental way of representing spatial ideas directly by

creating spatial structures with the help of folding. We get aware of the role of
geometric transformations in the resulted spatial structures. These structures are
explored by starting with a square of paper (Fig. 13). Such a way of designing had
been one of the design strategies in our summer school 2012 with professors and
students from Milan, Madrid, Zürich and Kaiserslautern. The task was to design a
mobile cabin for the Palatinate Forest (Figs. 14 and 15).
When we develop such spatial ideas, the experimental way can be supported by
drawings. For this purpose a parametric model may be very helpful, like here in
Rhino® combined with Grasshopper® simulating the folding process. We created
and applied it in the course with our students in 2013 in a workshop together with
our colleague Dennis Röver, where we worked on polyhedric objects. When we
change the folding lines in the parametric model, we can directly explore the
resulted folded structure.
46 C. Leopold
Fig. 13 Folding as strategy and representation for designing, 2012
Fig. 14 Design of a folded object as mobile cabin in the Palatinate Forest, Group T2, Erasmus
Intensive Program, Summer School 2012 in Kaiserslautern [11]
Fig. 15 Representation of the folded cabin as photomontage [11]
Fig. 16 Simulating the folding process in a parametric model in Rhino®/Grasshopper®
3.2 Curves and Surfaces
Other examples for design processes on a geometric background are the explora-
tions of curves and surfaces. In a special course in 2012/2013 we explored various
possibilities. The students analyzed the concept of curvature of a given curve, for
example ellipse or parabola. Curves are received by movements of a point. A
cycloide especially is received by rolling a circle. A point on the circle describes the
cycloide z during the rolling process. The evolute results from the center of circles
of curvature. Understanding the creation of a cycloide and its evolute, under-
standing what means curvature, had been the starting point of a student project
(Fig. 17).
48 C. Leopold
Fig. 17 Creation of a cycloide and its evolute
Fig. 18 2-D pattern from cycloide and evolute, student project by Julia Hoch, 2012/2013
Fig. 19 Variation of parameters for a spatial structure from the evolute of a cycloide, digital
model by Julia Hoch
This construction creates a pattern shown in Fig. 18. The structure is only a 2-D
structure, but evokes already a spatial structure, which was finally created in
drawings, digital and physical model (Fig. 19).
Fig. 20 Variation of parameters for a rotation solid from the evolute of a parabola
Fig. 21 Physical model of the selected shape by cross and longitudinal profiles by student Hanno
Katschinski, 2012/2013
Another student explored the curvature of a parabola. The evolute was used as
the basic curve for a rotation solid. Rhino® with Grasshopper® helped to vary and
control the parameters (Fig. 20). Figure 21 shows the physical model of the finally
selected shape, produced by cross and longitudinal profiles
4 Representations for Analyzing and Re-Designing
A way to learn architectural design can be also analyzing existing architecture and
then using the analyzed structure for re-designing. In the Summer School
“Estructura - Escultura, Struktur - Skulptur” in Buenos Aires 2012 professors and
students from Argentina, Venezuela and Germany (Kaiserslautern) took the Ulm
Pavilion by Max Bill et al. from 1955 for such a task [6].
The top view of the pavilion can be analyzed with the help of classical theory of
ornaments as a root 2 system (Figs. 22, 23 and 24).
50 C. Leopold
Fig. 22 City of Ulm Pavilion, Floor Plan, 1955, Design: Max Bill, Friedrich-Vordemberge
Gildewart, Otl Aicher, © HfG-Archiv Ulm. Fundamental cell according the symmetry analyses
(reproduced with permission from [21, p.7])
Fig. 23 Classical theory of ornaments—root 2 systems (modified from [5, p. 9], redrawn by
Giorgia Crepaldi)
The symmetry analysis determines the geometric structure as symmetry group p4

with its fundamental cell (Fig. 22). The spatial symmetrical analysis specifies the
spatial element for the pavilion structure, characterized as well by rotation of order 4.
For the new designing (Fig. 25) the students studied modelling the joints of the
support structure by cords as an important point of re-designing with experimental
approaches. This example shows again the role of abstraction. The Swiss architect,
artist and designer Max Bill stands for the relationship between abstract and con-
crete. The conceptual has to become visible by concreteness.
Abstract is: not vivid, conceptual, purely mental (…)
The abstraction is a necessary instrument of thought. (…)
Concrete is the real, the existing, visible and tangible object. (…)
Fig. 24 Spatial element and the structure after rotation of order 4
Fig. 25 Model of the analyzed Ulm Pavilion and re-design as textile pavilion [6] (photos by
Willem Roelof Balk, reproduced with permission of the author)
To make visible abstract ideas, relationships, thoughts, that’s concreteness, objectification

[3, translated by C.L.]
5 Representations Between Space and Image
Drawings as two-dimensional images and models as spatial representations are both

important ways of representing architecture. But there is also a way of represen-
tation between space and image. In 2013 we explored relief perspective as such a
possibility for the representation of the internal space of James Frazer Stirling’s
Clore Gallery (1980–1985) in London. We took this architecture example in our so-
called All School Charrette, where all students of architecture from all semesters
work together in small groups on a one-week project, introduced and supported by
all professors of our architecture faculty. Two perspectives of the entrance hall by
Stirling had been the basis of the idea to build a relief perspective model according
the perspective drawings. The two perspectives represent the entrance hall from two
opposite view directions (Fig. 26).
52 C. Leopold
Fig. 26 Perspectives with opposite view directions of the entrance hall of Clore Gallery by two
students’ groups according Stirling (reproduced with permission [20, p. 104])
The perspective design approach by Stirling was supposed to get adequately

represented by the relief perspective models. Relief perspectives had been used for
theater stages, for example Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, 1585, or as built relief
perspectives already in the 15th/16th century like Chiesa di Santa Maria presso San
Satiro in Milan, 1479–1499. But the systematic scientific geometric approach was
only possible after the introduction of projective geometry in the 19th century. The
fundamental works for relief perspective “Traité de Perspective Linéaire” by Jules
de la Gounerie, “Grundzüge der Reliefperspektive” by Rudolf Staudigl, and
“Grundzüge der Reliefperspective nebst Anwendung zur Herstellung reliefper-
spectivischer Modelle” by Ludwig Burmester [4] had been all published in the 19th
century.
We project the space on an image plane for receiving a perspective. For the relief
perspective we transform the space to an image space. It gets obvious, that the relief
perspective is the most general projection method, the others like usual perspective
are special cases (Fig. 27).
An axonometric drawing or a 3-D model explains the parameters of relief per-
spective (Fig. 28). The relief depth, the space between trace plane and vanishing
plane determines substantially the relief perspective. If relief depth is zero, we get
the usual perspective.
The relief model can be created with the help of drawings in assigned views or
by 3-D modelling and development of the surfaces (Figs. 29 and 30).
The relief models of the Clore Gallery entrance hall had been finally built. When
viewing the models from the assumed viewpoint the spatial model produces the
same images as the drawn perspectives in Fig. 26. Two examples of the students’
Fig. 27 Projection of space on an image plane in a perspective and projection of space on an

image space in relief perspective
Fig. 28 Relief perspective of a box with its parameters
Ansicht Seitenansicht
Draufsicht
Fig. 29 Assigned view of the relief perspective model and the development of the surfaces
54 C. Leopold
Fig. 30 Construction of the relief perspective in the 3-D model
Fig. 31 Examples of the students’ relief perspective models (photos by Bernhard Friese [7],
reproduced with permission from the author)
works are presented in Fig. 31. The relief perspective model represents space from a
specific viewpoint. The spatial model itself does not remain an independent object;
it depends on the viewer. The viewer is integrated in the representation.
6 Conclusion
The following points turned out to be essential for education in visual represen-
tations for architecture and civil engineering:
• Visual representations have to be understood as signs in the communication
process with their requirements and references.
• Geometric projection methods with their characteristics behind the various
visual representations are the background for their understanding and
applications.
• We should be aware of different levels of abstraction in the representations.
• Representations are important for design processes while developing ideas, not
only for representing design results.
• The education in visual representation should be taught in application scenarios
integrated in study projects.
References
1. Bense, M.: Das Universum der Zeichen. Agis Verlag, Baden-Baden (1983)
2. Bernays, P.: The philosophy of mathematics and Hilbert’s proof theory. www.phil.cmu.edu/
projects/bernays/Pdf/bernays09_2002-07-26.pdf (1930)
3. Bill, M.: Präzisierungen zur konkreten Gestaltung. Zürich (1947)
4. Burmester, L.: Grundzüge der Reliefperspective nebst Anwendung zur Herstellung
reliefperspectivischer Modelle. Leipzig (1883)
5. El-Said, I., Parman, A.: Geometric concept in Islamic art (1976)
6. Fachbereich Architektur (ed.): rup - Rebuilding Ulm Pavilion. Technische Universität
Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern (2012)
7. Fachbereich Architektur (ed.): All School Charrette Stirling Hoch3. Technische Universität
Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern (2013)
8. Fonatti, F.: Elementare Gestaltungsprinzipien in der Architektur. Buch- und Kunstverlag,
Wien 1982, 5th edn (1987)
9. Knauer, R.: Entwerfen und Darstellen. Die Zeichnung als Mittel des architektonischen
Entwurfs. Ernst & Sohn, Berlin (1991)
10. Leopold, C.: Geometrische Grundlagen der Architekturdarstellung. Springer Vieweg,
Wiesbaden. 4th edn (2012)
11. Leopold, C., Kretzer, A., García-Hípola, M., Lorenzo Cueva, C., Cocchiarella, L., Leoni, F.,
Dillenburger, B., Hao, H. (ed.): structural architecture - geometry, code and design II.
A Hermit’s Cabin. Erasmus Intensive Programme in Kaiserslautern 2012. Technische
Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany. http://issuu.com/architektur.uni-kl/docs/summerschool-
kaiserslautern2012 (2013)
12. March, L., Steadman, P.: The Geometry of Environment (1971)
13. Malvasia, C.C.: Felsina Pittrice. Vite de pittori bolognesi, vol. 1, Bologna, p. 468. https://
archive.org/stream/felsinapittricev01malv (1678)
14. Metzger, W.: Gesetze des Sehens. Waldemar Kramer Frankfurt 1975 (1936); engl.: Laws of
Seeing. MIT Press Cambridge (2006)
15. Moholy-Nagy, L.: Komposition Q XX, 1923, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. www.artmagazine.cc/
(2014)
56 C. Leopold
16. Oechslin, W.: Geometry and line. The Vitruvian “Science” of architectural drawing. In:
Daidalos 1, pp. 20–35 (1981)
17. Peirce, C.S.: On the foundations of mathematics. Ms. 7, §1. (1903)
18. Peirce, C.S.: CP 2.92 (1902)
19. Schneider, B.: Perspective refers to the viewer, axonometry refers to the object. In: Daidalos 1,
pp. 81–95 (1981)
20. Stirling, J., Wilford, M. and Associates: Buildings & projects 1975–1992. Hatje Cantz,
Stuttgart (1994)
21. Ulmer Museum/HfG-Archiv (ed.): ulmer modelle—modelle nach ulm. Hochschule Gestaltung
Ulm 1952–1968. Ulm (2003)
22. Wittkower, R.: Allegory and the migration of symbols. Thames & Hudson, London (1987)
Introducing 3D Modeling into Geometry
Education at Technical Colleges
Sonja Gorjanc and Ema Jurkin
Abstract In this paper we present the aims and the results of the project Intro-
ducing 3D Modeling into Geometry Education at Technical Colleges that was
supported by the Fund for the Development of the University of Zagreb. The main
goals of the project were achieving a stronger professional and scientific collabo-
ration among teachers and improving teaching geometry courses at the technical
faculties of the University of Zagreb. The focus of the project was creating a basic
repository of educational materials related to common teaching topics and those
customized to the profiles of each faculty. The special emphasis was given to the
materials connected to 3D computer modeling.
1 Introduction
During the year 2012 twelve teachers worked on the project Introducing 3D
Modeling into Geometry Education at Technical Colleges supported by the Fund
for the Development of the University of Zagreb [5]. Four faculties were included:
Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Geodesy and
Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering.
The main goals of the project were achieving a stronger professional and sci-
entific collaboration among teachers and improving teaching geometry courses at
the technical faculties of the University of Zagreb. At the present stage of tech-
nological development, the introduction of computer 3D modeling is significant as
well as its implementation in e-learning necessary to maintain the traditional high-
S. Gorjanc (&)
Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
e-mail: sgorjanc@grad.hr
E. Jurkin
Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb
Zagreb, Croatia
e-mail: ema.jurkin@rgn.hr

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_6
58 S. Gorjanc and E. Jurkin
quality of teaching geometry to future engineers at the University. Due to the

importance of the spatial ability, visual thinking and graphical presentation in the
education of future engineers, geometry is still an important part of the basic
education of engineers.
Teaching constructive geometry, mainly within the courses of descriptive
geometry, has a long and good tradition at the technical faculties in Croatia. But
long-time insistence on the traditional way of teaching resulted in lagging behind
most countries of European Union in the application of computer 3D CAD pack-
ages and implementation of educational content in e-learning systems at the
beginning of 2012. We believe that with this project we connected the benefits of
classical and modern approaches to teaching geometry.
The project was organized as a framework for teacher training within which (by
enriching professional knowledge and experience) we worked on the methodology
for introduction of computer modeling in teaching geometry, on the coordination of
standard educational materials and on the harmonization of access to e-learning for
geometrical courses of the aforementioned faculties.
The University of Zagreb supports and actively encourages e-learning at all
levels of higher education. In its e-learning strategy [8] e-learning was defined as a
process of education (learning and teaching process) conducted using the infor-
mation and communication technology which improves the quality of the process
itself and the quality of its result. As a rule, the mixed (blended, hybrid) form of
e-learning is applied at the University of Zagreb. This approach combines classical
teaching methods and those used in virtual learning and teaching environments.
Each faculty should recognize the form of e-learning that is most appropriate for
particular study program and it should also choose the intensity of e-learning, [1].
The Office for E-learning at the University of Zagreb is situated at the E-learning
Centre at the University Computing Centre of the University of Zagreb. The Centre
performs all tasks for the Office with the purpose of efficient introduction and
implementation of e-learning at the University of Zagreb. It has developed
e-learning platform Merlin, the system based on the learning management system
Moodle.
The University of Zagreb distinguishes three levels of application of e-learning
technology with the following aims [7]:
• Level 1—to provide access to information about the course, to allow the use of
the elected teaching materials and to facilitate communication with students.
• Level 2—to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge by the integration of
e-learning with a classical teaching methods.
• Level 3—to make a shift in the educational process from the model based on
transferring knowledge from teachers to students, to the model focused on the
students and on the development of their own competence.
One of the results of the project was creating sites for e-learning courses at all
four faculties participating in the project. The application of e-learning technology
at those sites is at the level 2, and in some segments at the level 3. All teaching
materials are organized according to teaching units and is available through the
Introducing 3D Modeling into Geometry Education at Technical Colleges 59
system for e-learning. The courses are organized in a way that allow the individ-
ualization of the teaching process, and the environment in which students take an
active role and responsibility for achieving educational outcomes.
2 Introducing 3D Modeling into Geometry Education

at Technical Colleges
The goals of the project were:

• Strengthening the professional and scientific cooperation among the faculties in
the area of technical sciences.
• Developing teaching methodology for 3D computer modeling to enhance
geometry courses.
• Harmonization of educational material standards and their further implementa-
tion in the e-learning systems of the aforementioned faculties.
The focus of the project was creating a basic repository of educational materials
related to common teaching topics and those customized to profiles of each faculty.
The special emphasis was given to the materials connected to 3D computer
modeling.
Until the academic year 2012/2013 Descriptive geometry as a course at the
faculties of the University of Zagreb was mostly lectured in the classical way by
using rulers and compasses. Since then the Rhinoceros program has also been
included in the instruction of the aforementioned course at the Faculty of Civil
Engineering and the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering.
The basic educational materials repository is available at the site of the project
[5]. This repository contains the materials for lectures, exercises and independent
learning. It refers to the following main teaching topics:
• Plane geometry (extended Euclidean plane, conic sections, transformations of
the plane).
• Space geometry and methods of projections (extended Euclidean space, solids,
orthogonal projections, axonometry, projection with elevations).
• Space geometry and 3D computer modeling (introduction to software Rhinoc-
eros, solid modeling supported by Rhinoceros, surfaces, intersections of sur-
faces with planes, intersections of two surfaces, terrains).
• Linear perspective.
• Shades and shadows.
• Differential geometry.
The education materials related to the plane geometry contain the interactive
files supported by GeoGebra, while the educational materials related to the space
geometry contain the visualizations and animations supported by Mathematica.
These two softwares were used only by teachers for producing the materials, the
students did not have to learn how to use them. But the students had to learn the
basics of using Rhinoceros. Therefore, the repository also contains about 50 five-
min videos helping to learn basics of Rhinoceros 3D modeling. These videos also
prepare students for problem solving exercises in the computer lab. The videos are
produced by Jing, a free screencasting computer program which also allows
recording the voice of the teacher.
The basic information about the interface, views, viewports, construction plane,
work with layers and plane and space constructions and transformations are pro-
vided through thirteen videos. Every time when we wanted to teach students
something about the Rhinoceros, we used a geometry example, therefore students
learned something about the program and geometry at the same time. The intention
was to spend as little time as possible on teaching software and spend more time on
using software for solving geometry problems. So, in 2 weeks, students had to learn
the basics of Rhinoceros on their own by watching videos at home or in the
computer lab. After 2 weeks they had exercises with the teacher in the computer
classroom where they had to use their knowledge to solve problems typical for
descriptive geometry. Rhinoceros was integrated in the following topics: the solid
modeling, the surface modeling, the intersection of a surface and a plane, the
intersection of two surfaces, the topographic surfaces, the terrain with the roads and
layers (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
The reactions of the students were very positive. They liked working with
computers. Some of the students had the problems with visualization of the space
situation and Rhinoceros helped them to understand spatial geometrical relation-
ships. They also liked videos since that material enabled them to master basic
commands quickly and used those commands in solving tasks in class. The types of
tasks that students solved in class are shown in Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Students
always solved several tasks which they had been given earlier and some new tasks
given by the teacher on the spot. Last year the results that students achieved in
5 weeks (2 h per week) were very good.
Fig. 1 Screenshots from the video related to the intersection of cylinders

Fig. 2 A screenshot from one dynamic GeoGebra file that we use to illustrate the classification of
conics in the extended Euclidean plane. A user can change the position of a conic
Fig. 3 Screenshots from dynamic GeoGebra files related to the image of a circle under a
perspective collineation and affinity. Teachers and students can change the parameters of circles
and transformations
Fig. 4 The visualization of the proper intersections of cones and planes by using Mathematica
animations
Fig. 5 The construction of the intersection curves of cones and cylinders visualized by
Mathematica animations
Fig. 6 The visualization of the intersections of two cylinders by using Mathematica animations
Fig. 7 The illustrations of three exceptional students’ seminars [2, 4, 6]
Fig. 8 Two principal views, a Rhino construction and the axonometric view of a model
Fig. 9 Two principal views, a Rhino construction and the axonometric view of a model containing
the cylindrical parts
Fig. 10 Two examples of the intersection of surfaces with the planes given in three principal
views and an axonometric view: the cone intersected by three planes (left-hand side), the
Byzantine dome - sphere intersected by five planes (right-hand side)
Fig. 11 Four examples of the intersection curves of surfaces
Fig. 12 Two examples of the topographic surfaces modeling: the terrain with a road (left-hand
side) and the layer (right-hand side)
3 Examples
In this section we present the repository of educational materials by showing the

examples of using three aforementioned programs, GeoGebra, Mathematica and
Rhinoceros, for different topics in geometry.
To create educational materials related to planar figures and transformations we
used GeoGebra. This dynamic geometry software, written in Java, enables us to
design interactive network files that a teacher can use during lectures but, although
our students solve their tasks by hand drawing, these interactive educational
material is a very good support for their home learning.
Mathematica is a program which is used as a numerical and symbolical calcu-
lator, computer language, the system for visualization of functions and data, the
platform for designing packages for specific applications and creating interactive
documents with texts, animations, sounds, etc. As such, it is not the most suitable
program for teaching and learning constructive geometry that is connected with
CAD programs. But, due to its great graphics possibilities, the largest number of
figures and animations that we included in the educational material for the lectures
on descriptive geometry is produced with this program.
On the other hand, Mathematica is an ideal program for all topics of the dif-
ferential geometry. Thus, in the case of Differential Geometry course at the Faculty
of Geodesy the complete textbook, that is partly made in the framework of this
project, is produced by using Mathematica. Some examples of the earlier use of this
program at the Faculty of Civil Engineering is given in [3].
The program Rhinoceros can create, edit, analyze, and translate NURBS curves,
surfaces and solids in Windows, and therefore, it is very suitable for teaching
descriptive geometry. One of the reasons for choosing Rhinoceros was a relatively
low cost of the educational lab licence and the free trial versions available for
students’ downloads. The other reason was good experience of colleagues from the
University of Innsbruck.
One of very important topics of descriptive geometry is the axonometric pro-
jection. After the axonometry had been introduced to students, they had to make a
hand-drawing of an object given by two (or three) principal views, but they also had
to create a model of the object by using Rhinoceros. The commands for the solid
modeling and the axonometric view in Rhinoceros were presented to the students in
seven videos.
Rhinoceros was also integrated in the topics traditionally treated by two
orthogonal projection (the intersection of a surface and a plane, the intersection of
two surfaces) and topics treated by the projection with elevations (the topographic
surfaces, the terrains with the roads, layers).
Last academic year at the Faculty of Civil Engineering fifth year students (the
second year students of the graduate study) had the opportunity to attend the
optional course Perspective. Those students were not familiar with Rhinoceros 3D
modeling. Therefore, after a successful completion of the first part of the course
where basic properties of perspective were introduced, the students first had to learn
Fig. 13 Students’ constructions related to a hyperbolic paraboloid. (L. Ivančić and M. Anđić)
Fig. 14 Students’ constructions related to a 3rd order paraboloid conoid. (M. Anđić and I. Škaro)
Fig. 15 Student’s construction related to a road on terrain. (M. Anđić)

how to use this program and then they had to apply their knowledge to modeling
ruled surfaces and roads on terrains. Some of the students’ constructions are pre-
sented in Figs. 13, 14 and 15.
References
1. Beban Brkić, J., Gorjanc, S., Tutek, Ž.: New Challenge for Developers of E-infrastructure. In:
Proceedings of 15th ICGG International Conference on Geometry and Graphics, Montreal,
2012
2. Car, V., Dragun, D., Beban-Brkić, J.: Multimedia Concept in Visualization of the Polar
Stereographic Projection. KoG, No. 12, 2009., 55–62 (in Croatian)
3. Gorjanc, S.: Some Examples of Using Mathematica and webMathematica in Teaching
Geometry. J. Geom. Graph. 8(2), 243–253 (2004)
4. “Dupin’s Indicatrix of a Torus” from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project. In: Gorjanc, S.,
Štambuk, D. (eds.). http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/DupinsIndicatrixOfATorus/
5. Introducing 3D Modeling into Geometry Education at Technical Colleges. http://www.grad.hr/
geomteh3d/
6. “Normal Curvature at a Regular Point of a Surface” from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project.
Štambuk, D. (ed.) (University of Zagreb), Gorjanc, S. http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/
NormalCurvatureAtARegularPointOfASurface/
7. Resolution on Forms of University Education According to Application Level of E-learning
Technology (in Croatian). http://www.unizg.hr/fileadmin/rektorat/Studiji_studiranje/Studiji/e-
ucenje/UNIZG_oblici_svnastave_razine_e_ucenja_20091222s.pdf. Accessed 03/01/2014
8. University of Zagreb E-learning Strategy 2007–2010. http://www.unizg.hr/fileadmin/rektorat/
dokumenti/eucenje_strategija/University_of_Zagreb-E-learning_strategy.pdf. Accessed 03/01/
2014
The Role of the Image in Engineering
and Technical Graphics Education:
Through a Lens of Cultural-Historical
Learning Theory
Ted Branoff
Abstract It is most appropriate to look at engineering and technical graphics

education within the context of Debray’s image as the visual. Within this context
the image can take on many different forms and be used for many purposes. In this
way it is very much schizophrenic. Educators can employ it as a temporary cog-
nitive tool to help students organize information or exercise visualization ability, as
sketches or electronic visuals within a design activity, or as visuals used to docu-
ment a design. The way in which students master the signs and symbols of engi-
neering and technical graphics is a complex process. Examining this process
through the lens of cultural-historical learning theory provides a method of
understanding the ways of knowing within this field. Signs and symbols are con-
sidered psychological tools, which are used in daily activities to direct the mind and
change the process of thinking. Educators are responsible for introducing students
to the signs and symbols within a subject where students would not spontaneously
discover them on their own. They do this by helping students learn the languages of
graphics by recognizing emerging abilities and using questioning strategies and
other techniques to move a student from their actual development to their potential
development. This scaffolding technique is recommended within collaborative,
culturally meaningful, problem-solving environments.
1 Introduction
“People are governed not only by words but also by images” [3, p. 531]. These
images have taken on many meanings over the course of human development, and
Debray classifies them as idol, art and the visual. He defines them in this manner.
T. Branoff (&)
North Carolina State University, College of Education, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
e-mail: ted_branoff@ncsu.edu

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_7
70 T. Branoff
…The idol is the image frozen in time, a swoon of eternity, a vertical cross section of the
infinite standing-still of the divine. Art is slow but already shows its figures in movement.
In our own age the visual is in constant rotation, pure rhythm, haunted by speed [3, p. 533].
The focus of this paper will be on the use of the image in modern engineering and
technical graphics education; therefore, it is most appropriate that we look at the
topic within the context of Debray’s image as the visual. Debray uses many words
to describe the image, but here are just a few which he uses within the regime of the
visual: The visual’s efficacy or relation to being is a simulation where the image is
viewed and represents numbers or data. Its mode of existence is through the virtual
world, and its source of light is electric as it tends to be viewed most frequently
through electronic devices. Its historical context comes from the historical to the
technical where the image is viewed as needed. Its temporal horizon and medium is
the present. Its organization of labor is from network to professional, and its mutual
relation is competition where economics plays a large role.
2 Types and Purposes of Visuals in Education

and Engineering and Technical Graphics
Educators and professionals in engineering and technical graphics use many types
of visuals for a variety of purposes. When introduced to students during primary
school, visuals tend to be in the form of graphs. Besides sketching and scribbling,
graphs tend to be the first formal introduction to purposeful visuals for young
students. Fry [5] presents a taxonomy of graphs for educators that are organized in
the categories of lineal (sequential data), quantitative (numerical data), spatial (area
and location), pictorial (visual concepts), hypothetical (interrelationship of ideas),
and instances where the graph is intentionally omitted. He suggests ways for lit-
eracy teachers to integrate graphs into their instruction so students have multiple
ways of coding the information into their memory.
Danos and Norman [2] proposed an update to Fry’s work specifically geared
toward the design curriculum. Their categories include graphic art—pictorial,
drawing—pictorial, diagrams—pictorial, sequential—lineal, symbolic—quantita-
tive/abstract, symbolic—spatial, and computer-aided design. Their proposed tax-
onomy was developed to be a framework for research and research methodology for
studies related to graphicacy. Early case studies revealed where images were used
to accomplish common teaching and learning purposes.
Visuals also serve many purposes in engineering and technical graphics education.
As we see with Debray [3], the visual is often times temporary, serving its purpose for
only a short period of time. It can also be used as documentation where it may serve as
a means for archiving a design. Figure 1 organizes the purposes of visuals or images in
graphics education into the broad areas of cognitive tools, design and documentation.
Images or visuals can be used as cognitive tools in the areas of visualization
sketching and graphical organizers. Figure 2 illustrates examples of these types of
images. The image is used as visualization sketches when students are solving a
The Role of the Image in Engineering and Technical Graphics Education … 71
Fig. 1 The purpose of the image in engineering and technical graphics education
Fig. 2 The image as a cognitive tool
problem or when they are sketching to improve their ability to mentally manipulate
geometry. We see the image as a graphical organizer when used as a cognitive
mapping tool to organize lecture or textbook information.
Figure 3 shows how the image might be used within the realm of design. Images
can be used as a tool to brainstorm ideas and to foster creativity. Electronic tools
such as 3D modeling software can be used to create 3D representations of the
design, and then these 3D representations can be used to complete analyses on the
design (e.g., finite element analysis, motion studies, interference detection, etc.).
Within the realm of documentation visuals serve quite a few purposes. Engi-
neering drawings, animations, assembly instructions, and technical illustrations can
be created from 3D models and assemblies or produced by traditional 2D tech-
niques (sketching and 2D CAD). These visuals can serve as a means for manu-
facturing, assembly, inspection/quality control, and marketing (Fig. 4).
72 T. Branoff
Fig. 3 The image in design
Fig. 4 The image as documentation

3 The Visual and Education
3.1 Instructional Strategies, Philosophy, and Learning

Theory
The way educators design classroom experiences and select instructional materials
has much to do with how the person defines learning and instruction [1]. It is
important to distinguish the differences between instructional strategies, philoso-
phy, and learning theory. Instructional strategy describes what actually takes place
in the classroom. It is influenced by philosophy and learning theory, but it is mainly
concerned with the day-to-day activities that an instructor employs (e.g., cooper-
ative learning, direct instruction, project-based learning, etc.). Although learning
theories and philosophies involve making assumptions and hypotheses about the
ways things are, philosophies are mainly concerned with a value system. Learning
theories attempt to explain how people learn and are empirically tested through
scientific investigation. Learning theories will also influence the types of instruc-
tional strategies, which are selected for classroom use.
The study of learning theory became prevalent in the early 1900s after formal
schooling had been developed. Popular theories include operant conditioning—
Skinner; information processing theories—Anderson, Paivio, etc.; metacognition;
cognitive-development theory—Piaget; cultural-historical theory—Vygotsky; and
social-cognitive theory—Bandura [6]. This remainder of this paper will focus on
the image within cultural-historical learning theory where many of the key ideas
have been attributed to Vygotsky.
3.2 Cultural-Historical Learning Theory
One of the main tenants of cultural-historical theory is that an individual’s behavior

is the result of two different processes of mental development: the biological
evolution of the human species and the process of the development of humans as
the result of the use of signs and symbols to change mental functions [6]. Signs and
symbols (better known as language) are considered psychological tools which are
used in daily activities to direct the mind and change the process of thinking.
Educators are responsible for introducing students to the signs and symbols within a
subject where students would not spontaneously discover them on their own [8].
Experts, within the context of this theory, have mastered the signs and symbols of
their culture. For experts in the fields of engineering and technical graphics, this
could involve several languages (e.g., orthographic projection, geometric dimen-
sioning and tolerancing, the semantics of a computer-aided design program, etc.—
Figure 5). Educators are responsible for helping students learn the languages of
graphics within a collaborative environment where the students can see how their
visuals fit within the larger context of an industry or enterprise [7].
74 T. Branoff
Fig. 5 Signs and tools within engineering and technical graphics
Fig. 6 Cultural-historical theory (adapted from [4])
Figure 6 shows how sense and meaning within engineering and technical graphics
education are derived from the mediating artifacts of the cultural-historical model [4].
Operant conditioning refers to behaviors based on a stimulus and response system [6].
Vygotsky [9], however, described how complex, mediating acts or activities inhibit a
person’s direct or natural response to a stimulus. Figure 6 illustrates all of the
mediating artifacts, which influence a person’s response (outcome).
Vygotsky believed that the key to education was orientation—keeping students

focused on the goal of the experience. Within this context it is the responsibility of
the educator to select the most essential and most important reactions of the subject
or culture that must be preserved and what material should be suppressed or
removed [10]. On a large scale, the material that is essential to engineering and
technical graphics is documented and preserved within standards such as those
published by ASME, BSI, CSA, DIN, JIS, etc. Individual instructors make deci-
sions about what to preserve within their particular classrooms on a daily basis by
selecting relevant instructional materials.
Another important idea within cultural-historical theory is that subject matter
concepts should be learned within the cultural context in which they exist while
collaborating with an expert. For engineering and technical graphics this could be a
design or engineering environment using problem-based learning. The teacher is the
expert in formal learning settings and is responsible for modeling the desired
behavior, explaining important ideas, and probing the student for explanations [6].
The teacher’s role is to help the student develop the ability to monitor their own
self-questioning strategies. This is done by monitoring the student’s actions but also
by predicting what is going on within the student’s thinking [10].
Human development within cultural-historical theory has two levels—actual
development and potential development. Actual development is the work a student
can complete independently. Potential development is the work a student can
complete with the help of an expert. The difference between what the student can
accomplish individually and with assistance is called the zone of proximal devel-
opment (ZPD). Within the ZPD the expert instructor recognizes emerging abilities
and uses questioning strategies and other techniques to move a student from one
level to the next. This instructional technique is known as scaffolding and is rec-
ommended within collaborative, culturally meaningful, problem-solving environ-
ments [6].
Fig. 7 Example of a visual as a cognitive tool to exercise visualization

76 T. Branoff
Figure 7 shows an example of a visual being used as a cognitive tool to exercise

visualization ability. In this scenario students were given top and front views of an
object and asked to create the side view and pictorial. An instructor who embraces
cultural-historical learning theory would fully orient students to the problem by
explaining that the given views are not the best views to describe the object. This
particular problem has multiple solutions. The instructor had a clear understanding of
the students’ spatial abilities and their abilities in engineering graphics (actual devel-
opment). As the students sketched on the white board, the instructor observed their
sketching and their conversations. The instructor used questioning strategies to probe
students on their thinking and anticipated what they might produce next. With the
instructor’s help, students were able to complete the problem (potential development).
4 Conclusion
The image within engineering and technical graphics education can take on many
different forms and be used for many purposes. In this way it is very much
schizophrenic [3]. Educators can employ it as a temporary cognitive tool to help
students organize information or exercise visualization ability, as sketches or
electronic visuals within a design activity, or as visuals used to document a design.
The way in which students master the signs and symbols of their chosen field is a
complex process. Examining this process through the lens of cultural-historical
learning theory provides a method of understanding the ways of knowing within
engineering and technical graphics.
References
1. Bigge, M., Shermis, S.: Learning Theories for Teachers, 6th edn. Longman, New York (1999)
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(ed.) IDATER Online Conference: Graphicacy and Modelling, pp. 103–124. Design
Education Research Group, Loughborough (2011)
3. Debray, R., Rauth, E.: The three ages of looking. Crit. Inq. 21(3), 529–555 (1995)
4. Engeström, Y.: Expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization.
J. Educ. Work 14(1), 133–156 (2001)
5. Fry, E.: Graphical literacy. J. Read. 24(5), 383–389 (February, 1981)
6. Gredler, M.: Learning and Instruction; Theory into Practice, 6th edn. Pearson, Upper Saddle
River (2009)
7. Hartman, N., Branoff, T.: Learning theories: applications for instruction in constraint-based
solid modeling and other engineering graphics topics. Eng. Design Graph. J. 69(2), 6–15 (2005)
8. Schmittau, J.: Cultural-historical theory and mathematics education. In: Kozulin, A., Gindis,
B., Ageyev, V., Miller, S. (eds.) Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context.
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9. Vygotsky, L.: Mind in society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard
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10. Vygotsky, L.: Educational Psychology. St. Lucie Press, Boca Raton (1997)
The Role of Geometry in Reasoning
and Teaching
Claudio Citrini
Abstract Ever since the very beginning of ancient philosophy, from Pythagoras to
Plato, we know that the world is made up of numbers and figures. Greek mathe-
maticians used drawings as a natural tool for proofing their theories, as the works of
Archimedes and Euclid clearly show. Actually, the ruler-and-compass constructions
are the most ancient examples of a perfectly well designed formal language, whose
power is equivalent to up to second-degree equations. Drawings often provide
wordless proofs that everybody can easily see: for instance, Pythagoras’ theorem
and the statement that the sum of odd numbers in increasing order is a perfect
square can be proved through a self-explaining drawing. The invention of symbolic
algebra in the early seventeenth century, led mathematicians to a more abstract
approach to mathematics. These tools are indeed very powerful, and they often need
only a calculating capability instead of a deep understanding of the problems.
However, especially in the nineteenth century, an analytical approach seemed to be
safer than a geometrical one, and the drawing as a means was excluded from most
books of mathematics, which had a negative impact on learning. On the other hand,
functional analysis introduced a geometrical language enabling to describe many
abstract concepts. Nowadays students have a very poor geometrical insight, the
main fault for which lies in the scholastic institutions. Most of them cannot com-
prehend the large amount of information that a drawing contains, in spite of the
existence of a great variety of geometrical software packages designed to construct
and dynamically modify figures in order to verify guesses about their properties (to
be eventually proved by a formal demonstration, of course). This naturally affects
all the branches of knowledge, as mathematics is ubiquitous. What can we do in
order to improve their skills?
C. Citrini (&)
Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: claudio.citrini@polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_8
78 C. Citrini
1 A Historical Account on the Role of Geometry
A famous quote from Ad Reinhardt says: “Art is art. Everything else is everything
else”. Mathematicians could also say, “Maths is maths”; but probably most of them
would continue saying: “Everything else is maths”. Actually, they feel mathematics
is everywhere, and in a sense, it is true.
According to Pythagoras’ theory, the world is made of numbers, “All is number”.
In his mind, probably, figures were made up of atomic points as well, but we know
that the discovery of irrational numbers destroyed forever this primitive opinion.
Since then, arithmetic and geometry have been distinguished as disciplines but they
stayed connected anyway and that helped them to further develop. Even if the
segments were no longer made of points (as Aristotle stated), numbers were used in
order to measure them, and conversely natural numbers were represented by seg-
ments of integer measure. In fact, the Greek notation of numbers was so awkward
(even though Roman one was much worse) that they needed to use geometrical tools
even for the theory of numbers and the words represented through squares and cubes
are proving it.
1.1 The Power of Geometry for Intuitive Thought
Geometric proofs of arithmetic theorems are sometimes self-evident and easier than
algebraic ones, as Fig. 1 shows, without any need of words: the sum of odd integers
is equal to a perfect square.
You can prove Pythagoras’ theorem through a no-word proof as well (Fig. 2).
However, geometry provides patterns of thought that perfectly fit into the
Aristotelian rules for syllogism and logic reasoning, so it is a metaphorical gym in
which to train the search for truth and proofs.
Fig. 1 Geometric proofs of arithmetic theorems

The Role of Geometry in Reasoning and Teaching 79
Fig. 2 Pythagora’s theorem: a visual demonstration
1.2 The Computational Power of Geometry
Geometry also teaches how to fix the principles and the laws permitted in a chain of
statements or constructions. For instance, nowadays we wonder why Greeks were
so “obsessed” with the compass-and-straightedge (or compass-and-ruler) con-
structions, even if they knew many other kinds of curves, conics in particular, and
plenty of “mechanic” curves. Actually, the ruler-and-compass constructions are the
most ancient examples of a perfectly designed formal language, whose computa-
tional power is equivalent to up to second degree equations, as Pierre L. Wantzel
proved in 1837 (more than 2,000 years after Euclid). The Greeks seem to have been
aware of that limit and of the need of other more powerful methods. In fact, they
were able to solve the three main problems of ancient geometry, which are the
duplication of the cube, the trisection of an angle and the squaring of the circle, in
many different ways. By using the quadratrix of Hippias, for instance, we can easily
solve all of them.
However, I think that modern mathematicians are much more haunted by such
limitations than Greek ones were, as the front page of Gregory of St. Vincent’s
book Plus ultra quadratura circuli shows (Fig. 3).
In Fig. 4, you can see a construction of a regular pentagon where only compasses
have been used without any rulers. It is done by Lorenzo Mascheroni, who in 1797
proved that any ruler-and-compass construction could be made using only com-
passes and no rulers at all. Nowadays this would not be considered as such an
important result, but it shows the continuous search of mathematicians for sim-
plifying and reducing their tools (a form of Occam razor). Georg Mohr has actually
discovered this result much earlier, in 1672, but his work Euclides Danicus was lost
in 1928.
The investigations about polygons that can be inscribed in a circle by using a
ruler and a compass are far more important. It is worth reminding the great result
that Gauss obtained in 1796, when he was only 19 years old. He proved that the
regular 17-gon (later with 257 and 65537 sides, the so-called Fermat primes) could
80 C. Citrini
Fig. 3 Plus ultra quadrature circuli by Gregory of St. Vincent: front page (redrawn by Kostiantyn
Komarovskyi)
be drawn by using a ruler and a compass. However, Gauss was a universal genius,
and his mind was attracted mostly to the number theory and later on, to the
applications of mathematics, (he used the square approximation to determine the
orbit of certain asteroids and the surface curvature of the Earth and his Theorema
egregium is considered a masterpiece in the field of differential geometry). He said
that “Mathematics is the queen of the sciences and the number theory is the queen
of mathematics”, and his motto was “God does arithmetic”, contrary to Plato’s
“God does geometry” reported by Plutarch [6]. Nevertheless, geometrical calcu-
lations continued to be utilized.
Fig. 4 Lorenzo Mascheroni’s construction of a regular pentagon through the use of compass
I would like to give two examples from the history of our Polytechnic School. The
first one is when in 1867 Francesco Brioschi called Luigi Cremona in Bologna.
Cremona was one of the most brilliant scholars in Geometry of the second half of the
XIX century, and he was well known for the so-called Cremonian transformations. He
did not teach Geometry however, but he introduced the so-called “Graphic Statics”,
which is a method for determining stresses and reactions in structures, that was still
taught when I was a young student. The other example is from our Mathematic
Department where we keep a mechanism, built by Ernesto Pascale in 1914 which was
designed to graphically solve the family of differential equations y′ = ay + Q(x). After
setting the parameter a, when a pointer follows the curve y = Q(x) traced on a paper, a
pencil draws the solution of the given equation (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5 Ernesto Pascale’s machine for the graphical solution of differential equations
82 C. Citrini
Fig. 6 Swedish stamps with some of Penrose’s impossible figures
1.3 The Logical Power of Geometry
Contrary to sophistic logic, in geometry nobody can claim a false statement and prove
it successfully. In the previous seminar of this cycle (see Volume 2 in this series),
Giuseppe Caglioti showed a few very interesting examples in which the pictures
deceive us, mainly in the case of ambiguous figures. He also quoted a sentence of
Umberto Eco, who says, “If you can’t use a language to lie, you can’t use it anyway”.
How could, however, geometric language lie? Apart from ambiguity, this is more a
delusion of our eyes rather than a lie of the figure. There is another way to lie. In fact,
pieces of truth can be put together in an impossible way to get a global lie. This leads
to the impossible figures of Penrose, which you can see on the Swedish stamps in
Fig. 6, and to the well-known puzzling drawing by Escher.
In both cases, certain parts of the drawing are correct, but they are connected in
such a way as to infringe the laws of perspective, so that the whole drawing
becomes wrong. A skilled eye can easily (or not so much) find the trick and fail the
attempt for deceit. Beauty and simplicity, logic and intuition are merged deeper
than in any other science. This is why in the front façade of Plato’s Academy you
could read the motto “Let no one ignorant of Geometry enter here” [4] and he
recommended everyone to study arithmetic and geometry.
According to his pupil Viviani,1 Galileo used to say that the blackboard, on
which geometric figures are drawn, was the touchstone of brains, and people who
couldn’t overcome this test had to be dismissed as unable not only to philosophize,
1
A questi soleva dire ch’eglino con maggior ragione dovevano render grazie a Dio et alla natura,
che gl’avesse dotati d’un privilegio sol conceduto a quei della lor professione, che era di potere
con sicurezza giudicar del talento et abilità di quelli uomini i quali, applicati alla geometria, si
facevano loro uditori; poi che la pietra lavagna, sopra la quale si disegnano le figure geometriche,
era la pietra del paragone delli ingegni, e quelli che non riuscivano a tal cimento si potevano
licenziare non solo come inetti al filosofare, ma com'inabili ancora a qualunque maneggio o
esercizio nella vita civile. From: Racconto istorico della vita del Sig.r Galileo Galilei, 1654.
but also to do any civil-life practice. It is no wonder that Euclid’s Elements was the
most long-lastingly utilized textbook in the world: it remained in use for more than
2,000 years.
1.4 The Descriptive Power of Geometry, as a Model

of the Universe
The idea that the world is mathematically built remained based on the theories of
the Greek philosophers. Plato wrote in Timaeus [5] “When the work of setting in
order this Universe was being undertaken, fire and water and earth and air … [God]
began by first marking them out into shapes by means of forms and numbers”.
Skipping Galileo’s far too quoted pages, I remind Kepler’s Mysterium cosmo-
graphicum, whose aim was to prove that the radii of the planet carrying spheres
could be obtained by inscribing and circumscribing to these six spheres the five
different platonic solids (Fig. 7).
A very metaphysical idea, possibly borrowed from Timaeus, showing that also
the founders of modern science were not free from the influence of the past. Neither
Copernicus nor Galileo gave up considering the spheres as the perfect way for
describing planetary motions. Even Kepler discovered the elliptical trajectories of
planets while he was looking for proper epicycles for Mars. He said, “Geometry
existed before the creation. It is co-eternal with the mind of God… Geometry
provided God with a model for the Creation…” In addition, Newton, in his Prin-
cipia, stated that “Elegantissima hæcce Solis, Planetarum and Cometarum com-
pages non nisi consilio and dominio Entis intelligentis and potentis oriri potuit. …
Hic omnia regit, non ut Anima mundi, sed ut universorum Dominus.” Later on,
Alexander Pope [2] sang, “Who made the spider parallels design/Sure as Demoivre,
without rule or line?”, and in W. Blake’s Ancient of Days (1794) God draws the
world with a compass, according to Proverbs book 8:27, where God’s Wisdom
says, “When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the
face of the depth …”2 (Fig. 8).
If Platonic solids were only a suggestion in Kepler’s Mysterium, then what about
the golden section (and the related Fibonacci numbers, logarithmic spirals etc.)?
Hexagons are easily found in nature, e.g., in beehives, in crystals, and so on.
Moreover, it can be proved that this shape minimizes the need of wax, or the
binding energy (but that is implicit in nature laws!). A still more astonishing
example: whereas hexagons in Kepler’s De nive sexangula were only wonderful
2
King James version.
84 C. Citrini
Fig. 7 Kepler’s Mysterium cosmographicum (redrawn by Kostiantyn Komarovskyi)
Fig. 8 God drawing the

World with the compass.
From the book Ancient of
Days by William Blake’s
(redrawn by Ksenia
Philippova)
Fig. 9 Geometrical comparison between micro and macro structures: hexagons in beehive cells
and in organic molecules (redrawn by Kostiantyn Komarovskyi)
snow crystals3 or beehive cells,4 their occurrence in organic chemistry was an

intuition of Kekulé in 1865, a theoretical model for modern science, and at present
time somebody took these amazing photographs of a chemical reaction, where the
molecular structure is perfectly seen (Fig. 9).
3
Cum perpetuum hoc sit, quoties ningere incipit, ut prima illa nivis elementa figuram prae se
ferant asterisci sexanguli, causam certam esse necesse est. Nam si casu fit, cur non aeque quin-
quangula cadunt, aut septangula, cur semper sexangula, siquidem nondum confusa et glomerata
multitudine varioque impulsu, sed sparsa et distincta?
4
Si ex geometris quaeras, quo ordine structi sint apum alveoli, respondebunt, ordine sexangulo.
Simplex est responsio ex intuitu simplici foraminum seu portarum laterumque, quibus efformantur
alveoli. Circumstant n. alveos singulos sex alii, singulis lateribus de intermedio singuli commu-
nicantes. At ubi fundos alveorum fueris contemplatus, singulos trinis planis in obtusum descendere
videbis angulum. Fundum hunc (carinam potius nuncupes) cum senis alveoli lateribus copulant
sex alii anguli, tres altiores trilateri planeque similes imo carinae angulo, tres humiliores qua-
drilateri interjecti. Praeterea considerandum est, geminum esse alveolorum ordinem, portis aversis
in contraria, posticis inter se contiguis et stipatis, angulis carinarum singularum ordinis unius inter
angulos tres trium carinarum ordinis alterius insertis, ea arte, ut alveus quilibet non tantum sex
lateribus communicet cum cum senis alveis in eodem ordine circumstantibus, sed etiam trinis in
fundo planis cum tribus aliis alveis ex ordine averso. Ita fit ut apes singulae novem habeant vicinas,
a qualibet vno communi pariete distinctae. Plana carinarum trina omnia inter se similia sunt, ejus
figurae, quam geometrae rhombum appellant.
86 C. Citrini
The opinion that geometry is the language of God in designing the Universe was
held until the Age of Enlightenment; there’s a well known [8] dialogue between
Laplace and Napoleon:
Napoleon: You have written this huge book on the system of the world without once
mentioning the author of the universe.
Laplace: Sire, I had no need of that hypothesis.
Later on, Lagrange commented, “Ah, but that is a fine hypothesis. It explains so
many things!”
Since then, Geometry became the language that describes the world in scientific
sense without any reference to God.
But let me return to our short historical account, skipping the role that geometry
had in architecture, painting and in general in all graphic arts, through the per-
spective laws, the golden section and other tools.
1.5 The Decline of Geometry
Until the Renaissance, geometry was the undoubted queen of mathematical sci-
ences. During the seventeenth century however, the invention of the symbolic
calculus, i.e. the use of letters to do Algebra, by Viète, the introduction of the
method of coordinates by Descartes, the great improvements in the numerical
methods due to the invention of logarithms by Napier, the use of series of
expansions and more generally of the infinite approximation algorithms, and
eventually the synthesis of these methods in the differential and integral calculus by
Newton and Leibniz, led to mathematicians being involved much more in com-
putational techniques rather than in geometrical approaches, even if the problems
continued being of geometric nature. Nevertheless, geometrical methods were never
neglected, and the authority of Archimedes and Euclid was never in question. At
gloriatur Geometria quod tam paucis pincipiis aliunde petitis tam multa praestet.
“It is the glory of geometry that from so few principles, fetched from without, it is
able to accomplish so much” [3].
The infinitesimal methods on the other hand did not seem grounded firm enough,
as the polemical pamphlets by Berkeley and other opponents highlighted. Two
quotations of Leibniz and one of Newton will suffice to prove that they were both
absolutely sure that their methods worked very well, and were at the same time
unable to convince sceptics on the question of provability.
… et je compte pour égales les quantités dont la différence leur est incomparable. J’appelle
grandeurs incomparables dont l’une multipliée par quelque nombre fini que ce soit ne
saurait excéder l’autre, de la même façon qu’Euclide l’a pris … (1695)
Car au lieu de l’infini ou de l’infiniment petit on prend des quantités aussi grandes et aussi
petites qu’il faut pour que l’erreur soit moindre que l’erreur donné, de sorte que l’on ne
diffère du style d’Archimède que dans les expressions, qui sont plus directes dans notre
méthode et plus conformes à l’art d’inventer.
L’ultimo rapporto di quantità evanescenti […] s’intende come il rapporto di dette quantità
non già prima che siano svanite, e nemmeno dopo, ma nell’istante stesso in cui svaniscono.
[…] E poiché tale limite è certo e definito, spetta alla Geometria determinarlo. …
Si potrà ancora obiettare che se è dato l’ultimo rapporto di due quantità evanescenti,
saranno anche date le ultime grandezze di tali quantità; così che ogni quantità risulterebbe
composta di Indivisibili, al contrario di ciò che Euclide ha dimostrato circa gli Incom-
mensurabili nel x degli Elementi. …
Nevertheless, the new analytical methods were so powerful that they easily got
better than strictly geometrical tools. Besides, algebra and analysis often do not
require the same attention and skills that is needed in geometry, which is why in a
sense they are easier to apply, at least to the simpler problems, of course. This fact
allows more people to get acquainted with them, as long as they do not need a
deeper insight into the problems and the strategies to solve them.
“There isn’t a king’s road to geometry” said Euclid to Ptolemy, whereas Marquis
De l’Hôpital wrote an Analysis book that, if I remember correctly, could be read by
the ladies of the French court as well.
Moreover, Geometry is not concerned with money. Stobaeus says that a pupil of
Euclid’s asked him how much he would earn by learning geometry. Then Euclid
told to his servant: “Give him a threepence, so that he can earn something from
what he learns”. Nowadays, fundraising is the standard for estimating the value of a
scientific subject, and even of a man.
The invention of non-Euclidean Geometries (so far-reaching from a philo-
sophical point of view) destroyed the absolute character of its truths.
Felix Klein’s Erlangen program founded geometries on the abstract ground of
transformation groups, but he was perfectly aware that this abstraction process had
to be undertaken only at a higher mathematical level. From a teacher’s point of
view, on the other hand, he thought:
It is my opinion that in teaching it is not only admissible, but absolutely necessary, to be
less abstract at the start, to have constant regard to the applications, and to refer to the
refinements only gradually as the student becomes able to understand them. This is, of
course, nothing but a universal pedagogical principle to be observed in all mathematical
instruction. … I am led to these remarks by the consciousness of growing danger in
Germany of a separation between abstract mathematical science and its scientific and
technical applications. Such separation can only be deplored and it would be necessarily
followed by shallowness on the side of the applied sciences and by isolation on the part of
pure mathematics [9].
In the nineteenth century, the so called arithmetization of analysis worked out

mainly because Cauchy and Weierstrass got rid of actual infinitesimals; analysis no
longer needed geometry to be sure on its own grounds. On the contrary, some rather
strange examples, as space filling curves, nowhere derivable lines, the one-to-one
correspondence between a segment and a square, etc., made geometrical insight
quite doubtful and perhaps misleading. As Felix Klein said, somehow rephrasing
Saint Augustine’s considerations about time, “Everyone knows what a curve is,
until he has studied enough mathematics to become confused through the countless
number of possible exceptions.” This process continued until Bourbaki, the most
88 C. Citrini
abstract group of mathematicians the world had ever seen. No drawings in their
books, no requirement of a geometrical insight. Terrible! During a meeting in 1959,
Dieudonné shouted, “À bas Euclide! Mort au triangles!” [7] The dropping of
geometry from the position of the queen of mathematics to the one of Cinderella
seemed to be unstoppable.
But geometry wasn’t really dead. Classical geometry had still many pearls to be
found: for instance, the nine-point circle of Feuerbach and the Morley theorem
about trisectants in a circle. And what about Japanese problems named Sangaku?
[10] It’s true that in the 23 well-known Hilbert problems only three dealt with
geometry:
3. The equality of two volumes of two tetrahedrons of equal bases and equal altitudes
4. Problem of the straight line as the shortest distance between two points
18. Building up of space from congruent polyhedra.
Moreover, the last two problems are concerned with non Euclidean geometries,
and only the first is of classical character (it questions whether two equivalent
tetrahedrons can be equi-decomposed in congruent tetrahedron, and soon after it
was given a negative answer by Dehn in 1902). Hilbert’s interest on Geometry was
very deep anyway. His Grundlagen der Geometrie (Foundations of Geometry),
written in 1899, is perhaps the most far-reaching text about the role of axioms in
Geometry from Euclid’s times onwards. A geometrically inspired vocabulary
spread over the world of functional analysis: vector space, scalar product, orthog-
onal systems, hyperplane and hyperspace, convex set, etc. A great novelty was the
introduction of more than three-dimensional spaces.
First, let me remind Flatland, “A romance of many dimensions”, a wonderful
pamphlet written in 1882 by Edwin Abbott. It is dedicated:
To
The Inhabitants of SPACE IN GENERAL
And H. C. IN PARTICULAR
This Work is Dedicated
By a Humble Native of Flatland
In the Hope that
Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries
Of THREE Dimensions
Having been previously conversant
With ONLY TWO
So the Citizens of that Celestial Region
May aspire yet higher and higher
To the Secrets of FOUR FIVE OR EVEN SIX Dimensions
Thereby contributing
To the Enlargement of THE IMAGINATION
And the possible Development
Of that most rare and excellent Gift of MODESTY
Among the Superior Races
Of SOLID HUMANITY
Flatland is a two dimensional country, whose inhabitants are polygons. The

more sides they have, the more important they are in the society.
Middle Class consists of Equilateral or Equal-Sided Triangles. Our Professional Men and
Gentlemen are Squares (to which class I myself belong) and Five-Sided Figures or Pen-
tagons. Next above these come the Nobility, of whom there are several degrees, beginning
at Six-Sided Figures, or Hexagons, and from thence rising in the number of their sides till
they receive the honorable title of Polygonal, or many-sided. Finally when the number of
the sides becomes so numerous, and the sides themselves so small, that the figure cannot be
distinguished from a circle, he is included in the Circular or Priestly order; and this is the
highest class of all.
In order to recognize each other, they turn on themselves: the ratio of the greatest
to the smallest length is a proof of their true shape. That is why females are only
segments.
The little Hexagon meditated on this a while then said to me, “But you have been teaching
me to raise numbers to the third power: I suppose 33 must mean something in Geometry;
what does it mean?” “Nothing at all,” replied I, “not at least in Geometry; for Geometry has
only Two Dimensions.” And then I began to show the boy how a Point by moving through
a length of three inches makes a Line of three inches, which may be represented by 3; and
how a Line of three inches, moving parallel to itself through a length of three inches, makes
a Square of three inches every way, which may be represented by 32.
Upon this, my grandson, again returning to his former suggestion, took me up rather
suddenly and exclaimed: “Well, then, if a Point by moving three inches, makes a Line of
three inches represented by 3; and if a straight Line of three inches, moving parallel to
itself, makes a Square of three inches every way, represented by 32; it must be that a Square
of three inches every way, moving somehow parallel to itself (but I don’t see how) must
make Something else (but I don’t see what) of three inches every way - and this must be
represented by 33.”
“Go to bed,” said I, a little ruffled by this interruption, “if you would talk less nonsense, you
would remember more sense.”
Later on, a Sphere came to visit the Square, appearing to it as a circle of variable
radius.
Sphere. Exactly. The one Square produces a
Something-which-you-do-not-as-yet-know-a-name-for-But-which-we-call-a-Cube with eight

terminal Points.
The most important mathematician in this subject in the last century is the “King of
Geometry” H.S.M. (Harold Scott MacDonald) Coxeter, who gave a complete account
of regular polytopes in many dimensions. He inspired some of the most important
drawings by M.C. Escher, especially the one of Coxeter exhuming Geometry’s coffin
[7], where on the gravestone you could read, Geometry 600 B.C.–1900 A.D. R.I.P
(Fig. 10).
Many geometrical problems are still of a great importance in applications: for
instance, packaging of spheres, hypercube design of web connections, and so on.
But it’s time to stop and return to the teaching problems of the present.
90 C. Citrini
Fig. 10 Coxeter exuming

Geometry’s coffin (redrawn
by Ksenia Philippova)
2 Teaching Geometry Nowadays
If we were to complain that our students do not know anything about Geometry, we
would be right. As we already said, it is not their fault however if they do not get
any pleasure from applying the geometrical principles. In the Italian schools and
universities, for example, the time devoted to Geometry is too short, and it is
devoted to boring activities, such as demonstrating obvious properties, repeating
similar exercises, never asking for new problems or models. These activities are not
exciting for anybody, which is why the students immediately forget all they have
learned, and they do not retain even the simplest ideas and formulas.
Despite the fact that it is a wonderful example of a geometric proof, very few of
my students have heard about the calculation of the volume of a sphere through the
Cavalieri’s method of indivisibles. “Lack of time” is usually the common excuse.
Many of them forget the formula for the volume of a cone, and try to calculate it by
means of an integral. A lot of people studying Architecture could not see perpen-
dicular lines in the space not intersecting each other. And yet, there are so many
tools to do active geometry, e.g. many computer programs which can help us to do
even complex geometrical constructions (e.g., Cabri, Cinderella, Geogebra), with
the advantage that drawings can be dynamically modified by just dragging some
points. In this way students can guess by themselves the proper theorem, verify
whether their guess can be true, and eventually formally prove it.
Last year, in an entering test for a teacher-training course on drawing, applicants
were asked to draw a hexagonal prism. Some of them drew a pyramid. We asked
them the difference between prism and pyramid, an applicant replied: “Pyramid has
a square basis”.
I could tell you several other similar examples from by my experience in teacher
training schools (SSIS) in Milan. To tell the truth, not only geometry was perceived
as quite a mysterious subject. People turned out to be ignoramus in the field of
physics, history, philosophy and literature as well. But the case of geometry is
especially serious, because geometry, as we saw before, is involved in the most of
human knowledge, and the lack of geometry often results in lack of spirit of
observation, reasoning capability and intuition.
That is why, in many projects or documents I have worked on, both in university
boards and in secondary school focus groups, I have always urged teachers to pay
more attention to geometry. I know that the time dedicated to geometry became
shorter and shorter in all of the schools. Also here, in our Polytechnic school, there
were only two courses of geometry devoted to both analytical and projective
geometry (one of the most elegant and fascinating theories I’ve ever come across).
With time one of them has been transformed into a drawing course, but perspective
laws were still taught. Nowadays, geometry is almost banished, relegated in a one-
semester course, where it has taken the form of linear algebra, with some basic facts
of analytical geometry. Students come from secondary schools with a very poor
knowledge of Euclidean geometry and they do not have the chance to face new
synthetic reasoning problems, because projective geometry has disappeared. But
neither linear algebra nor computer aided design (which must be learned, of course)
have the same power for opening the minds.
I genuinely hope that in future this trend will reverse, otherwise the reasoning
capability and the guessing skills of our students will get less and less sharp.
This meeting gave us plenty of suggestions about the power of geometry and,
more generally, of visual arts to see and change the world around us. So I’m very
grateful to Luigi Cocchiarella for organizing it, and I thank him again for the
invitation.
References
1. Coxeter, H.S.M.: Introduction to Geometry. Wiley, New York (1961)

2. Maor, E.: Trigonometric Delights. Princeton University Press. An Essay on Man, 1734, quoted
in Maor, p. 81 (1998)
3. Newton. Principia, pref. (see Maor pp. 81, 87). http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-ADV-B-
00039-00001/
4. Plato, Republic, VII, 526d
5. Plato. Timaeus, 53.b.1-5
6. Plutharch, Quaestiones convivales, 718 b
7. Roberts, S.: King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, the Man Who Saved Geometry. Walker
Publishing Company, New York, pp. 261, 279 (2006)
8. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/*history/Quotations/Laplace.html. It is quoted also
in A. De Morgan Budget of Paradoxes
9. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Klein_intuition.html
10. http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/Sangaku.shtml
Part III
Images in Education: Iconographies and
Experiences from the Schools of the
Graphics Education—Step 1:
“Foundations”
Luigi Cocchiarella
Abstract Until the academic year 2013/2014, Graphics Literacy at the School of
Architettura e Società of the Politecnico di Milano has been provided with the
Architectural Representation Studio, a 12 or 10 ECTS laboratory offered to the
freshmen at the first semester of the first year of the Bachelor Programs Science in
Architecture and Urban Planning. More precisely, as architecture includes build-
ings, urban contexts, and landscapes, the Studio program consisted of two con-
nected modules, Architectural Basic Drawing and Architectural and Urban
Modeling (4 ECTS), each one devoted to a particular dimensional scale of the built
environment, therefore students had to be trained to approach both small- and large-
scale graphic representation.
According to the educational goals of the School, since the beginning of the
Bachelor students were taught to consider the architectural field as an integrated
system including nature and artifice. In terms of Geometry and Graphics this meant
to give students a wide overview about the geometrical structures and the graphic
codes typically involved in this wide field. Anyway, in spite of the very different
contaminations with art, science and engineering, and without denying other
important properties of the built environment, the architectural contexts and their
elements, students were clearly and non-ambiguously said that first and foremost
the root of Architecture consists of Space, namely the space where our daily life
takes place. So that from the architectural point of view every system of data and
bylaws, information, idea, building procedures, materials, techniques, business
programs, has to be related to its spatial potentialities, as also demonstrated by the
History of Architecture and of the Architectural Drawing.
Drawings and models by the students: Shuyang Li, Giulia Orlandi, Gabriella Rossi, Chao
Zheng. The students Shuyang Li and Chao Zheng have also presented the work in the Poster
Session on the seminar day. The pictures show the students of the 2012/2013 class and some
moments of the class activities.
Grafic composition by Luigi Cocchiarella.
L. Cocchiarella (&)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_9
96 L. Cocchiarella
Poster Geometry and Graphics literacy: understanding spaces by combining drawing and model
Graphics Education—Step 1: “Foundations” 97
From this point of view, Geometry makes sense according to the abstract
structure of the Space, and Graphics makes sense according to the real qualities of
the Space. To mark this difference students were often said that Geometry, pro-
viding the logical structures, could be considered as a kind of Ghost and Graphics,
providing the semiotic materials, as a kind of Ghostbuster, the latter helping to
appropriately visualize the first, similarly to what happens in the true space, where
the configurations are physically made of built materials. To better compare spatial
experience and spatial abstraction an overview concerning the principle of
Euclidean and Non-Euclidean geometries is provided, aiming to enhance the stu-
dents’ spatial sensibility. Of course, given the number of variables to take into
account, appropriate “sign systems”, such as drawings, models and other auxiliary
notations, sometimes completed by written and numeric quotes are a part of the
matter, so defining kind of hyper-textual representations, able to describe the
physical and the symbolic properties connected with the true space. In other words,
students are also warned that even non-visible aspects can be represented by
combining iconic and non-iconic visual strategies, and that nowadays GIS, BIM
and the parametric approach in general have enormously enhanced our disciplinary
field, although this is not matter of the first year courses.
In fact, especially in the international classes, taught in English in favor of
foreign students coming from different countries and having very different back-
grounds and visual cultures, Graphics Literacy is a crucial educational stage in
order to achieve a shared representational language. Sometimes students were said
that as well in the lack of knowledge concerning Grammar and Syntax even a super
word processor is not enough to make an excellent writer, as in the lack of
Geometry and Graphics even a super CAD system is not enough to make an
excellent architect. In other words, of course we can start our educational curricula
in architectural representation by using computer, but in any case we cannot avoid
trainings on Geometry and Graphics, or better on the Foundations of Representa-
tion. And this latter is the title that the course will assume in our new Bachelor
Programs from the academic year 2014/2015.
To give sense to the studio, a crucial point is to remark the semantic power of
Visual Language, which is used, as well as all the other languages, not only in
describing the existing spaces (survey) but also in designing the new ones (project).
As a cross-check, students are also noticed that just this is the privileged language
the architect is expected to use, because neither architectural survey, nor architec-
tural project, nor architectural building would be possible without using Geometry
and Graphics, or, without using images.
About the results here presented in the poster, they come from the 2012/2013
students work. On our educational training, architectural representation includes
both physical modeling and drawing, where Geometry and Graphics are intended as
the disciplinary connectors among physical spaces, maquettes, images. After
completing some preliminary exercises, students approach the architectural and the
urban themes. In our case, respectively the Oceanic Retreat project by Steven Holl,
and Portovenere, a Medieval town on the Ligurian Coast. Both them have been
chosen by the teacher because of their interesting spatial configurations and because
98 L. Cocchiarella
of the richness of the environmental context. Since an architect is expected to

understand the connections between reality and representations, students are ini-
tially provided with scaled drawings and pictures of the architectural themes. These
are the basic materials they had to use as a virtual database to explore, analyze and
represent spaces and places. In the past academic years, when possible, an excur-
sion to the real architectural places has also been provided, while during the above
mentioned year only drawings and pictures have been used. Focusing on Drawing
and Modeling, two points could be remarked.
Concerning Drawing, apart from the use of different scales, namely from
1:100.000 to 1/10 according to the extension of the focused spatial contexts to zoom
in/out, a projective connection among the drawings has been mandatorily required.
Especially in the final stage of the course, instead of separately keeping Orthogonal
Projections, Axonometric and Perspective, students had to connect the mentioned
visualization by means of homological transformations, as clearly visible in the
bigger image of the poster here presented. From a geometrical point of view, in
fact, each view is a projection of the same object from a specific center of pro-
jection, therefore the mentioned views can be related through construction lines.
The final layout shows a dynamic series of images describing the studied space.
From a graphical point of view, all the reference lines connecting those views have
been drawn as blue lines, while the architectural outline have been marked with
black lines. From a semantic point of view, in this way all the related projections
live in the same geometrical environment, more precisely in their projective envi-
ronment, clearly distinguishing geometrical processing from graphic results.
Moreover, as the various reference systems have been managed accordingly,
sometimes the views unexpectedly appear side angled or rotated upside down,
moving students to continuously reset their spatial orientation.
Concerning Modeling, three different ways have been proposed. The first one,
inspired by the sculptural Michelangelo’s theory consisted of approaching the space
from outside, so that, basing the on drawing and the pictured provided by the
teacher, scaled massive models of the architectural volumes have been prepared by
engraving a clear blue polystyrene block. The second one, closer to the architectural
sensitivity, and aiming to consider architecture as a space consisted of approaching
the space from inside, therefore scaled white cardboard models selectively replacing
only the slabs, the interior partitions and the stairways have been prepared, and
populated with scaled human silhouettes to emphasize the living spaces. The third
one aimed to point out the idea of the architecture as a limit between the interior
and the exterior spaces, then white cardboard models showing the pure chassis of
the houses, namely exterior walls and roofs, have been prepared, again taking
advantage of homological construction to find the true shape of the selected sur-
faces, sometimes appearing strongly distorted in the original projections provided
by the teacher. Later on, quite surprisingly to the students, the interior models were
inserted into the chassis models. Then, using black carton plume contour lines
models of the ground have been built, to locate the abovementioned models, so
completing the task. As the last stage, students had to locate the models over the
drawings and to take pictures of this final assemblage, in order not to forget the
Graphics Education—Step 1: “Foundations” 99
relationships between drawing and space, that is possible thanks to the mediation of
the projective forms provided by Projective and Descriptive Geometry. To
emphasize the role of images in the architectural work, also photogrammetric
reconstructions have been produced during the semester. These activities have been
planned in order to encourage an active approach to graphic representation, aiming
to get students ready for the architectural design courses taking place in the fol-
lowing semesters.
As already said in the essay I wrote for the first volume of this series devoted to
History and Epistemology, looking behind or beyond the graphic results, nowadays
we have to take in account the changes in the student’s cognitive styles, trying to
balance our teaching styles and their learning styles, accepting to continuously
switch from a top-down approach based on doing by learning, to a bottom-up
approach based on learning by doing, where last but not least, also the social
aspects of the classes play a crucial role, especially, let me reaffirm this, in the
international classes.
As written in brackets in the title, the experience hereby reported is related to the
foundations, or to the graphic literacy, maybe the most sensitive stage in the visual
education, either in the tradition or once again in the digital era, not to mention the
prospective changes that are expected to be thanks to the diffusion of augmented
reality and virtual reality in the future educational contexts. In this initial stage it is
especially evident the Benjamin Bloom’s advice, telling that in this disciplinary
field not only logic, but also emotional and psychomotor domains are involved,
what suggests us not to forget to increase research about education.
Acknowledgments School of Architettura e Società, Dean: Ilaria Pamela Simonetta Valente,

Students of the course Architectural Representation Studio, Bachelor of Science in Architecture,
year 1st, semester 1st, a.y. 2012/2013 (teacher: Luigi Cocchiarella).
Graphics Education—Step 2:
“Complements”
Luigi Cocchiarella
Abstract The students’ work shown here in the poster come from the course of
Geometrical Complements of Graphic Representation, a 4 ECTS advanced optional
course in the 10th semester of the Master Program in Architecture at the School of
Architettura e Società of the Politecnico di Milano. Inspired by the complements of
projective and descriptive geometry traditionally included in the polytechnic pro-
grams, but embodying new contents according to an updated approach, the course
of complements aims to complete the disciplinary learning trail started in the first
semester of the Bachelor with the geometrical foundations of graphic representa-
tion. More than knowledge itself, this second stage in graphic education would
achieve knowledge mastery and metacognitive training as targets.
In the course here discussed, focusing on some cutting edge issues of the geo-
metrical representation and working on the trading zones among the geometrical
division, especially among Euclidean, Projective, and Topologic Geometries, the
same idea of Space is stressed, aiming to improve the students’ criticism about the
adopted models. On the other side, the simultaneous use of analogue and digital
procedures is strongly encouraged, in order to allow the learners to work on the
fault line between tradition and innovation, and to personally experiment the
cognitive affinities and idiosyncrasies between the mentioned approaches.
About the expected results, as an advanced optional educational experience
scheduled at the end of the Master curriculum, the course aims to increase technical
skills as well as to test and stimulate research aptitudes in the field of Geometry and
Graphics for Architecture, as nowadays strongly required both by professional and
by scientific communities. In order to achieve this purposes, alongside with
Projects and drawings by the students: Shahram Abdollahi, Delphine Bakhsiss, Alessandro
Bianchi, Telemaco Galante, Stefano Galasso, Tal Halevi, Adi Iny, Sam Khakipoor, Xin Li,
Francesca Mariotti, Giampaolo Rizzieri, Hiroki Tanigaki.
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_10
102 L. Cocchiarella
Poster Geometry and Graphics: examples of advanced trainings

Graphics Education—Step 2: “Complements” 103
advanced drawing and modeling activities, students are also required to develop
individual papers on their chosen topics, to present and discuss them in short class
lectures, and possibly to sent them to conferences or journals reviewers according to
the teacher’s advice. Interested students are also supported in developing disci-
plinarily oriented final theses. In order to promote a wider knowledge sharing,
international relationships are encouraged, both by means of free contacts with
students and/or teachers from other Universities, and by using the students and/or
staff mobility opportunities connected with the Erasmus projects. Taking advantage
of this opportunity teachers from other universities have been invited to give public
lectures related to the topic of the course.
Concerning the class activities, since students are supposed to come from dif-
ferent curricula, their prior knowledge is checked by a questionnaire at the
beginning of the semester, and the cycle of lectures is adapted to the topics that the
students decide to focus on. During the lectures, both theoretical contents and
practical keys to solve graphic problems are provided, analyzing and discussing in
detail geometrical properties and graphic procedures, and presenting significant
applications. Starting from the analysis of some projective and non projective
methods, techniques and instruments, some fundamental classic descriptive prob-
lems (spatial visualization by means of the image) and constructive problems
(spatial transformations by means of the image), besides some selected cases studio
are revisited and discussed in depth, especially dwelling on some specialized
subjects and applications generally not included in the basic representation cur-
ricula. Looking at the long evolution of geometrical representation, and focusing on
some pivotal steps in the history of the idea of space, geometrical theories and
graphic means from the ancient optical theories to computer graphics, the course
would achieve a twofold purpose: a disciplinary (or internal) one, trying to point
out the relationships between analogical and digital representation; an interdisci-
plinary (o external) one, trying to point out the strong connections of both these
representative approaches with design thinking, design processes, and the built
architectural and environmental spaces. In particular, lectures mainly deal with
historical and theoretical references.
The course preliminarily refers to the history of geometric representation and
architecture as the background where theories, methods, tools, meanings and
applications can be found and related to their cultural contexts, including the crucial
relationships between science and art. Looking at the substance of geometrical
representation, a particular focus on both the “veridicality” and the “illusoriness” of
the image is proposed, especially insisting on the connections among the notions of
space, figure, measure and transformation, not only in Projective and Descriptive
but also in other branches of Geometry, emphasizing that since the Erlangen Pro-
gram we are dealing with systems of spaces and systems of geometries. The
abovementioned issues are also discussed in relation to the need of reloading
Geometry and Graphics education in the computer era, since it may be necessary to
rethink and update some teaching approaches, alongside with criticizing in deep the
purposes of the matter. In fact, although the advent of digital graphics, maybe the
greatest revolution in the field of visual representation since Renaissance, has
104 L. Cocchiarella
enormously increased our chances in managing and imagining geometric and

graphic structures, Projective and Descriptive Geometry courses have paradoxically
diminished and sometimes disappeared from some architectural curricula, so losing
a millennial knowledge heritage, or in the best cases, these matters are still taught in
an obsolete way.
About the application, students can work on the graphic reconstruction/modeling
of classical configurations enclosed in treatises and manuals; photogrammetric
reconstructions (in the poster the graphic reconstruction of the Mario Botta’s Chiesa
del Santo Volto in Turin) graphic reconstruction/modeling of architectural unbuilt
projects (the case of the Rialto Bridge project for Venice by Palladio is shown in the
poster); graphic reconstruction/modeling of stereotomic designed and built systems;
graphic reconstruction/modeling of architectural and theatrical sceneries from
paintings, sculptures, pictures, movie frames; graphic analysis/modeling of illusive
distorted spaces (one of the most favorite, as the example in the poster testifies);
graphic analysis/modeling of anamorphic images; graphic analysis/modeling of
lights and shadows on regular or distorted configurations; graphic analysis/mod-
eling related to cartographic projections; analogue vs digital representation con-
necting Optics, Projective Geometry and Parametric CAD.
Apart from the abovementioned list, from a strictly educational point of view
one of the most significant results is that while working on the wider context of
these assigned tasks, students have the opportunity to critically recall, to go back, to
widen and to reorganize their prior knowledge, what is in favor of increasing
mastery, developing a metacognitive approach, supporting creativity. In other
words, walking on the disciplinary cutting edge allows them to see even unexpected
interdisciplinary connections as well as to better focus on improving their visual
literacy and mastery between tradition and innovation.

Students of the course Geometrical Complements of Graphic Representation, Master of
Architecture, year 5th, semester 10th, a.y. 2010/2011, 2011/2012, 2012/2013 (teacher: Luigi
Cocchiarella).
Graphics Education—Step 3: “Upgrade”
Luigi Cocchiarella and Cornelie Leopold
Abstract The title word upgrade in brackets refers to some special extra educa-
tional programs activated at the School of Architettura e Società in connection with
other Universities. They are basically targeted programs aiming to develop a spe-
cialized topic in the field of architecture. The here presented case is related to an
Erasmus Intensive Program promoted and coordinated by the TU Kaiserslautern, on
the topic Structural Architectures: Geometry Code and Design. Other partners have
been ETH Zürich, San Pablo CEU Madrid, and the Politecnico di Milano. Some
guest lecturers from Detmold University, TU Kaiserslautern, Politecnico di Milano,
and AION architects enriched the program and supported students in practical
activities. All the details about the approach, the teaching staff, the participants, and
the projects can be found in the printed and online references listed below. A very
synthetic selection of the work is shown in the poster published in this article.
The main idea behind the project was to reconsider the role of Structuralism in the
digital era, especially taking advantage of the parametric design. Considering the
complexity of the mentioned topic, more than 1 year before applying for the DAAD
Partners: Technische Universität Kaiserslautern—Cornelie Leopold (project coordinator),

Andreas Kretzer; ETH Zürich—Benjamin Dillenburger (local coordinator), Hua Hao, Toni
Kotnik; Universidad CEU San Pablo, Madrid—Mayka García-Hípola (local coordinator), Carlos
Asensio-Wandosell, Covadonga Lorenzo Cueva; Politecnico di Milano—Luigi Cocchiarella
(local coordinator), Fabrizio Leoni, Gennaro Postiglione.
A complete list of projects and students authors, as well as of invited speakers, teachers and
students assistant, together with information about the IP Erasmus Programme, the Workshop
and the related activities can be found in the printed [1, 2] and in the online publications [5]. On
the day of the seminar, the work was presented in the poster session by the student Violeta
Popova as IP participant.
L. Cocchiarella (&)
C. Leopold
Faculty of Architecture, Descriptive Geometry and Perspective
Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_11
106 L. Cocchiarella and C. Leopold
Poster Structuralism vs Architectural Design between analogue and digital processes. Cases studio
from the IP Erasmus Workshop: projects for the Portovenere old town (2011) and for a Hermit’s
Cabin in the Palatinate Forest (2012)
Graphics Education—Step 3: “Upgrade” 107
project approval, a targeted seminar has been organized at the TU Kaiserslautern, and
the related proceedings have been published in order to be available on time to the
participants. According to the purpose of testing ICT by introducing innovative
e-learning procedures, a section of the digital learning platform OLAT has been pro-
vided by the Virtual Campus Rheinland-Pfalz and prepared by the TU Kaiserslautern.
In fact, the ambitious program and the short time of the workshops (80 h per year)
suggested to pay attention to the preparation and to the post-production activities.
During the preparation time, theoretical materials, key cases studio and basic carto-
graphic documents and iconographic references have been uploaded, while during the
post production time the working groups have had the opportunity to complete the
assigned task by remote connections, and the teachers to continue their supervision. In
this way students and teachers could also test pros and cons between real and virtual
educational communities. Two annuities have been used for the project: two Summer
Schools have been organized (at the Politecnico di Milano in 2011 and at the Technische
Universitaet Kaiserslautern in 2012) and two publications have been printed and posted
online [1, 2, 5]. In order to promote the dissemination of the outcomes, at the end of each
workshop public exhibitions have been organized at the involved partner Universities.
To promote the sharing of cultural knowledge, skills and sensitivities, interna-
tional groups of students coming from the four partner institutions has been formed;
they personally met only at the time of the workshop. The dialogue among the three
educational levels has been promoted, by enrolling not only Master and PhD, but
also some students attending the last year of the Bachelor. As the participants were
expected to work by a combined set of analogue and digital devices, also the setup
of the workshop room has been a crucial point in the activities planning.
Concerning the subject, Structural Thinking has been used as method for
designing architecture in Summer Schools. The starting points of a design project
consisted in formulating rules based on mathematical, geometric, physical, com-
positional and functional structures and their translations in spatial configurations
and relationships between elements. Therefore, the most important aspect of our
Intensive Program has been the interaction of different disciplines and methodol-
ogies in the proposed structuralist approach.
The first workshop, held at the Politecnico di Milano in September 2011, would
test the above mentioned approach across the various dimensional scales and in
relation to a real place whose configurative, historical and environmental charac-
teristics, and must of all the interlinks among these characteristics could offer a wide
range of architectural paradigms to the educational experience. For this reason it
was decided to focus on Portovenere, an historical Italian city on the Coast of
Liguria. The richness of the place allowed students to find and relate both micro-
and macro-structures during the design activities, as well as to discern and evaluate
both qualitative and quantitative elements and parameters. In order to get the
relationships between reality and representation, an excursion to the city has been
planned. According to the purpose of keeping the longest possible class time for the
digital parameterization of the case studio, some 3D CAD models of the city, the
buildings and the landscape have been prepared in advance at the Politecnico di
Milano, on the basis of the official cartography in order to make these basic digital
108 L. Cocchiarella and C. Leopold
ready-made available to the students since the beginning of the workshop. This
allowed students to have usable ready made in digital format, whose feature should
of course be neutral enough to minimize any aesthetical influence on the users. The
work mainly focused on the relationships between analysis and concept develop-
ment and the results have shown how profitable it could be to match classical
theories and new procedures, even more confirming the role and the need of a
cultural criticism behind the new performing digital tools.
The second workshop, held at the TU Kaiserslautern in September 2012, would
focus on the relationships between design and modelling, exploring the parametric
design in the small scale and its consequences in terms of proxemics and tech-
nology. Consequently, it was decided to work on a small architectural design
object, developed according structures, namely a hermit’s cabin or minimal house
for the Palatinate Forest. According to the given guidelines, the small piece of
architecture would have been modular, foldable, decomposable, transportable and
reversible for being adapted to different situations in the forest. As purely indicative
physical supports for the expected design models, the teaching staff prepared, at the
TU Kaiserslautern, a series of wooden maquettes ideally representing small areas in
the forest, while the excursion through the Palatinate forest gave the student the real
feeling of the natural environment. Thus, not having a fixed given place as a
privileged location, the projects had to assume the same idea of forest as an
architectural paradigm. Therefore, while the required feasibility moved the design
process towards a technical target, the evanescence of the physical place lead the
design towards a theoretical target. This double purpose has been reflected in the
same design methodologies, as students developed equally sophisticated graphical,
digital and physical models. One of the slogans proposed to the class invited
students and teachers to avoid stereotypes, to look for archetypes and to make
prototypes. From a disciplinary point of view, the design outcomes dealt at the same
time with architecture, design and engineering.
From an educational point of view, such kind of extra-curricular activities
seemed to show a profitable formula to improve the exchanges between research
and education, as well as to test prospective innovative educational directions to
take into account in the official curricula.
From a disciplinary point of view, the activities in the Program have also
reconfirmed the operational role of Geometry and Graphics in the architectural
design field, where Geometry as the logical pattern provides structures and trans-
formations, and Graphics as the semiotic substance provides the perceivable con-
notation of the Visual Language.

Dean at seminar times: Pier Carlo Palermo, Erasmus Intensive Programme “Structural Architec-
tures: Geometry Code and Design” (Milano 2011—Kaiserslautern 2012), Project Coordinator:
Cornelie Leopold, Local Coordinator for the workshop in Milano 2011: Luigi Cocchiarella.
Graphics Education—Step 3: “Upgrade” 109
References
1. Leopold, C., Cocchiarella, L., Garcia-Hípola, M., Dillenburger, B., Kretzer, A., Postiglione,
A.C. (ed.): Structural Architectures. Geometry, Code and Design I. Erasmus Intensive
Programme in Milano, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (2012). ISBN: 978-3-941438-84-2
2. Leopold, C., Kretzer, A., García-Hípola, M., Lorenzo Cueva, L., Cocchiarella, L., Leoni, F.,
Dillenburger, B., Hao, H. (ed.): Structural Architectures—Geometry, Code and Design II.
A Hermit’s Cabin. Erasmus Intensive Programme in Kaiserslautern, Technische Universität
Kaiserslautern (2013)
3. Medina Warmburg, J., Leopold, C.: Strukturelle Architektur. Zur Aktualität eines Denkens
zwischen Technik und Ästhetik. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld (2012)
4. Valena, T., Avermaete, T., Vrachliotis, G. (ed.): Structuralism Reloaded. Rule-Based Design.
In: Architecture and Urbanism. Edition Axel Menges Stuttgart (2011)
5. 1st year: http://issuu.com/architektur.uni-kl/docs/summerschool-milano2011
or http://www.uni-kl.de/AG-Leopold/dg/intensive_programme/results/ip_milano_2011_leporelli_
hp.pdf.
2nd year: http://issuu.com/architektur.uni-kl/docs/summerschool-kaiserslautern2012
or http://www.uni-kl.de/AG-Leopold/dg/intensive_programme/results/ip_kaiserslautern_2012_
booklet_hp.pdf
Introduction to the School of Architectural
Engineering
Barbara Carini
Abstract One of the aims of the School of Architectural Engineering is to develop

the consciousness of students regarding detailed design and environmental sus-
tainability, together with a critical understanding about the practical viability of
architectural “forms.” The hermeneutical foundation of the whole School program
consists of overcoming the cultural dichotomy that was introduced in the building
sector during the 19th century, as a consequence of the expansion of technique. Our
ethical convincement is that “buildability” should be—in everyday practice as well
as in monumental buildings—the epistemological and disciplinary foundation of
“making architecture”.
From an ontological point of view, architectural shapes developed from pri-

meval, essential functions tectonically expressed (supports in the form of trees, then
becoming columns, spaced as much as stone architraves allowed; tympanums
shaped as pitched roofs, etc.). In the same way, a student in the School of Archi-
tectural Engineering should immediately come to grips with the actual possibility of
building the shapes surfacing from his imagination, but she/he is immature and
inexpert and then, sometimes, she/he proposes projects and solutions out of pro-
portion, intemperate, or just anxiously imitative.
Thus, the qualification of Building Engineer—Architect for our graduates is
appropriate and very precise, and is related to a process of cultural and organisa-
tional renovation of architecture itself—which needs to be constantly affirmed.
The point is that the role of general “director”, typical of designers, became very
complex because of both the many disciplines involved and the management issues
related to the design process. Our collective effort is then aimed at strengthening the
directing role of the Building Engineer—Architect, who should be able to control
Authors mentioned in the poster: Carlo Cervellieri, Emilio Colombo, Isabella Giorgia Colombo,
Ivana Congiu, Varenna Di Ruggero, Narghes Doust, Matteo Fontana, Francesca Malgorani.
B. Carini (&)
School of Architectural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: barbara.carini@polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_12
112 B. Carini
Poster Architectural Design: shape synthesis and construction

Introduction to the School of Architectural Engineering 113
engineering issues before handing them over to specialists, but who at the same
time should have a deep understanding of architectural synthesis.
It is thus of the utmost importance to introduce, at the very start of the design
process, technical and morphological ingredients that, once incorporated in a
“natural” behaviour of the designer, allow to develop a holistic approach with a
good relationship among the many design variables. This explicit attention to
complex technical issues requires both an immediate understanding of the problems
and the successive engineering checks, and can potentially generate innovative
architectural forms. Those who are still doubtful—maybe because they refuse to be
influenced by supposed “environmental terrorists”—that sustainability should be
organically and immediately introduced in the architectural development of a
project are marked by a lack of culture that today can hardly be justified.
In this sense, the use of formal models of the more or less recent past, or the
imitation of projects marked by purely formal and fashionable languages, does not
coincide with the kind of didactic approach informing the School of Architectural
Engineering. This is why one of the topics that got more attention from the very
start of this programme was environmental consciousness: this is taught to students
also with the help of our own research works, both national and international.
Fulfilling these goals requires a synergic, interdisciplinary work during the 5 years
of the programme.
Acknowledgments School of Architectural Engineering, Dean: Emilio Pizzi.

A Cartogram is Worth a Thousand Maps:
The Multi-faced Image of Our Earth
Renato Casagrandi
Abstract Process-dependent representations of our Planet have the power of

clarifying us immediately what is going on and where it is happening. The use of
cartograms instead of traditional colored maps makes evident that unevenness is the
law, rather than the exception, in many important issues for humans and other
species.
Finding ways to represent in an effective manner the environmentally relevant

processes occurring on our Earth has really become a challenging scientific
adventure. The need of “redrawing the Planet” has grown rapidly in recent years,
since we realized that the regional or national scales are often too narrow to deal
with much of our environmental issues. In many ancient cultures, it was sufficient to
discriminate between a “self” and a “non-self”. The chinese word for naming China
(top right of the poster), for example, is made of two characteristics: zhōng (central)
and guó (state). The idiom used to define the “non-self” in ancient Greece was even
stronger than “periphery”: they said “pas me Hellen barbaros”, meaning “whoever
is not Greek is a barbarian”. Thus designing quite a sharp border between the
suitable land of the self and the inhospitable sea of the non-self. Even for us, who
live in the “global era”, some views of our Planet are perceived as unusual by
almost all but few researchers—see for example the image 1 in the poster.
Cartography is a science that has a long tradition and a history that go well
beyond the scope of this short overview. I do not aim at emphasizing here the
technical characteristics of the different projections of our biosphere on two
dimensional maps. Rather, I want to focus on the fact that process-dependent
representations of the Planet can have the power of clarifying us immediately what
is going on and where it is happening: unevenness appears so evident and in so
many facts that matter.
R. Casagrandi (&)
Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: renato.casagrandi@polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_13
116 R. Casagrandi
Poster Some of the various ways of representing our Planet

A Cartogram is Worth a Thousand Maps: The Multi-faced Image of Our Earth 117
Despite the rough mapping of Americas and the lack of Australia—that did not
really exist to the eyes of Gerard Mercator in 1569—his “new and augmented
description of Earth corrected for the use of sailors” (see image 2 in the poster)
sounds pretty familiar to every contemporary reader. In fact, the Spherical Normal
Mercator Projection (image 3 in the poster) is practically “the Earth” tout court for
the great majority of humans with literacy skills. Even an occasional observer (who
malgré tout knows that our Planet is almost spherical) would understand that there
is something wrong with that large Antarctica. Also, Greenland is disproportion-
ately large compared to Australia, for example. This is however the price to pay if
we want to preserve both the angles (a real plus for sailors) and the tangency
between the planet and the cylinder where we project its surface at the Equator. If
we move tangency to a specific meridian—thus called central meridian—and if we
align the axis of the cylinder with the equatorial plane, we get the so called
Transverse Mercator Projection (see image 4), which saves precision close to the
selected longitude but distorts everything that is either far West or far East from it.
Although desirable for navigators, preserving angles on a map can be only mar-
ginally important to other inhabitants of Earth. The Gall-Peters projection (see
image 5), for example, is a paradigmatic equal-area map. When it is seen in such a
mirror, our Earth seems populated by continents and states ranked in a hierarchical
order that is rather different with respect to our common belief.
Moreover, maps can represent much more than just physical characteristics of
the territory. The special species Homo sapiens is in fact influencing so strongly
both the biotic and the abiotic components of Earth that we can rarely avoid to
account for it while describing the Planet (geographia etymologically means “Earth
description”, indeed). The beautiful picture of our Earth by night (see image 6)
reveals that the human population has a very clumped distribution: look at the
impressively dense artificial lights in North America, Europe and Japan. The
uneven displacement of humans is archived in tables of censuses since centuries,
but only recently (in 2004) two researchers, Gastner and Newman, have found a
way to map it very clearly (see image 7, [1]). As we learned by teachers at school—
remember the instructions received when preparing the slides of your thesis—“a
picture is worth a thousand words”. The fact that India has a size comparable to
Africa in the mentioned figure is immediately (if not impressively) informative.
And the global picture is grasped at once. To obtain such figures, some clever
mathematics is needed. I outline a few formulas just to impress the unaware reader
and to give her the flavor of the level of complexity and sophistication needed to
finally transmit a simple and direct message via a “renewed map” (on the right in
the poster).
Population size is just one raw indicator of the state of a region, a nation or a
continent. Many other variables can be plotted in that way. The almost symmetrical
maps of Gross Domestic Products and Child Mortalities reported face to face in the
poster, for example, display surprising differences between countries and do not
need further comments. The web portal http://www.worldmapper.org (see the web
page screenshot in the poster) is rich of a great variety of cartograms, as scientists
now call these kind of maps; many of them—ranging from food availability to level
118 R. Casagrandi
of education and from poverty to violence, are extremely useful in various areas of
research and teaching in both science and humanities. In the important and
emerging field of epidemiology, for example, researchers are adopting these tools
with enthusiasm. The last two figures shown in the poster permit a comparison to
evaluate how effective is the use of cartograms. In fact, both figures aim at
communicating the same scientific message on the distribution of mortality by
climate-induced disasters such as diseases (like malaria and diarrhea), flooding and
malnutrition. The one in the Nature paper by Patz et al. [2] uses a standard map
with different colors (see caption and legend, below and right in the poster), while
the most recent figure appeared in EcoHealth by Patz et al. [3] uses cartograms
(images below, left). The graphical invisibility of most developed countries in the
latter, that contrasts very much with the gigantism of Africa and South Asia, makes
more evident where is the sink of the climate-health problems occurring in the
Planet. The companion figure reported at the top of it, showing which countries are
most responsible for climate change, raises clear ethical concerns that I think cannot
leave us indifferent anymore.
Acknowledgments School of Civil, Environmental and Land Management Engineering, Dean:

Barbara Betti.
References
1. Gastner, M.T., Newman, M.E.J.: Diffusion-based method for producing density-equalizing

maps. PNAS 101, 7499–7504 (2004). doi:10.1073/pnas.0400280101
2. Patz, J.A., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Holloway, T., Foley, J.A.: Impact of regional climate change
on human health. Nature 438, 310–317 (2005). doi:10.1038/nature04188
3. Patz, J.A., Gibbs, H.K., Foley, J.A., Rogers, J.V., Smith, K.R.: Climate change and global
health: Quantifying a growing ethical crisis. EcoHealth 4, 397–405 (2007). doi:10.1007/
s10393-007-0141-1
Iconography of Science Representations
as Visual Concepts in the Digital Era. First
Outline
Federico Alberto Brunetti
Abstract As far as apparently distant, the discoveries of scientific investigation and

the inventions of new modalities of representation in arts encourage each other to
develop knowledge to understand the reality around us. The iconic component
becomes particularly important in this type of path, as it can even shape the thought that
generated it. The technologies and tools developed in the history of science, and even
more the computing power of digital technology, allow us to explore scales of time and
space profoundly remote from our existential coordinates. An interesting interweaving
is actually occurring. “Big Science” is verifying an unexpected and significant corre-
lation of interests concerning some fundamental arguments, in an unexpected contin-
uum of open questions and possible cross-solutions, from the Zeptospace to the new
cosmology. Digital platforms now make it totally interagibile the relationship between
pure alphanumeric data and their presentation through qualitative forms of spatio-
temporal algorithms. This possible visual quality of the quantitative values reasonably
prelude to a series of next-generation -or mutation—of scientific iconography. The
Statistical disciplines of probabilities are reasonably matching with the arts of imagi-
nation, in a process of deep convergence between the power of techno-sciences on the
human mind to suggest new perceptions for the creativity and the imagination in arts.
Scientific Discoveries and Visual Representation
The images produced by the scientific research acquire existing methodologies of

representation, but are also elaborated for a better visual synthesis of understanding
and formalization of relational complexity (see images in the poster).
Both science arts, in a kind of cyclic process, conceive new theories and new
images that imply new algorithms requiring experimental experiences to verify, and
generate new modes of representation and imagination.
F.A. Brunetti (&)

Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: federico.brunetti@polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_14
120 F.A. Brunetti
Poster Particle collision displays portfolio and 3D stereoscopic video presentation. In the Higgs
era. A new travel in the infinitesimal architecture of the elementary particles. Politecnico di
Milano, Scuola del Design, Photographic exhibition and Meeting and research talk Federico
Alberto Brunetti, editor and scientific coordinator of the event (source http://www.polimi.it/eventi/
dettagliowevento/article/3582/nellera-dellhiggs-2930/, http://www.infn.it/comunicazione/index.
php?option=com_content\&view=article&id=378:anelli&catid=12:news&itemid=788&lang=it)
Iconography of Science Representations as Visual Concepts in the Digital Era … 121
Different Aspects of Communication in Scientific Iconography
Each discipline uses and defines specific languages, terminologies, taxonomies and
algorithms to operate on specific fields of knowledge; these assumptions allow the
dialectic debate and the gradual establishment for a common knowledge. The words
of science are often not literary expressions, but logical-mathematical paths
expressed with alphanumeric formulas, taxonomies, theoretical hypotheses based
on observation or requiring further observation to be validated.
Scientific research also shows certain procedures by significant visual strategies
of representation that we could define synthetically like: drawing, images and
metaphors. A progressive iconic abstraction allows us to represent traces,
configurations and hypothetical pre-figurations related to the involved research fields.
Numbers and Images, Science and Arts
In the physical sciences, the alphanumeric measurements procedures are set

essentially by quantitative and computational methodologies. Yet even the pro-
cessing of digital information from the experiments at infinitesimal scales, through
the high-complexity and size of the processed data, is represented synthetically and
comparatively through graphs, histograms, dynamic operations perceptually con-
figurable forms and images of two- and three-dimensions, re-modeled in order to be
presented to our mental procedures as visual phenomena. The methods of under-
standing of our minds tend to perceive abstract concepts decidedly according to
procedures inspired by the perception of our ordinary and common experience.
Regardless of this mental aptitude, technologies and tools developed in the
history of science, and even more the computing power of digital technology, allow
us to explore scales of time and space quite unachievable by our perceptual
interference, be it empirical or subjective, leading us in dimensional scales of time
and space profoundly remote from our existential coordinates.
An interesting interweaving is actually occurring. “Big Science” is verifying an
unexpected and significant correlation of interests in relation to some fundamental
questions, so far only theoretically assumed, through research in particle physics
micro scale (concerning the antimatter, dark matter, [9]) in comparison with the
evidences and hypothesis taken from cosmic macro-scale phenomena observations,
and from the multispectral dynamic incomes between matter and energy (i.e.
“blacks holes”) [10]. In this sense, we are in an unexpected continuum of open
questions and possible cross-solutions from the Zeptospace [5] to a new cosmology.
Visual Concepts in the Digital Era
Concerning the digital platforms on which data are processed, we see that science
nowadays makes totally interacting the relationship between pure alphanumeric
122 F.A. Brunetti
data and their presentation through qualitative forms of spatiotemporal algorithms.

This possible visual quality of the quantitative values reasonably prelude to a series
of next-generation -or mutation—of scientific iconography, which we try to indicate
schematically as follows:
• Morphologic matching: images of virtual objects that simulate the generation of
natural forms or chaotic morphologies, previously non-deterministically
representable.
• Mental visibility of the observer: computed tomography visualizes the subtle
distinction between the functional “organic” activity of the brain and the
“intangible” of the invisible thought.
• Hypothetical realism: through networks computing, researchers can forecast
configurations and systems of cosmic events [8] or simulations of collisions of
particles [9] predicting unknown scenarios.
The Statistical disciplines of probabilities are reasonably matching the arts of
imagination in a process of deep convergence between the power of the techno-
sciences on the human mind and the new perceptions coming from creativity and
imagination in arts.
Acknowledgement School of Design, Dean: Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis.
References
1. Brunetti, F.: Disegno immagini e metafore nella comunicazione scientifica. In:

ComunicareFisica 2007, Trieste, 1–6 Oct 2007. http://comunicarefisica.ts.infn.it/presentazioni/
brunetti.pdf
2. Brunetti, F.: L’immaginario dell’invisibile. Iconografie della Fisica contemporanea tra
macrocosmo e microcosmo: un caso di studio per il Design della comunicazione scientifica.
In: ComunicareFisica 2012, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, 12 Oct 2012. http://
agenda.infn.it/sessionDisplay.py?sessionId=12&slotId=0&confId=4955#20121012
3. Brunetti, F.: La visione scientifica e le immagini della ricerca. In: Peruzzi, A. (ed.) Pianeta
Galileo 2011, Consiglio regionale della Toscana, Firenze 2012, pp. 323–346. Conference on
visual arts and new frontiers of cosmology organized by Pianeta Galileo, Accademia delle Arti
e del Disegno, Florence, Nov 2011
4. Brunetti, F.: Scientific iconography between mathematics and arts in the age of digital
visualization. First outlines. 11th International Conference Aplimat, Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering of Technology, Section mathematics & Art, Bratislava, 4 Feb 2012
5. Dirac, P.A.M.: The evolution of physicist’s picture of nature. Sci. Am. 208(5), 45–63 (1963)
6. Giudice, G.F.: A Zeptospace Odyssey: A Journey into the Physics of the LHC. Oxford
University Press, Oxford (2010)
7. Righetti, M., Strumia, A.: L’arte del pensare. Appunti di logica, ESD, Bologna (1998)
8. Van Fraassen, B.C.: Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective. Oxford (2008)
Iconography of Science Representations as Visual Concepts in the Digital Era … 123
9. http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/Bolshoi/
10. http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/large-hadron-collider
11. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck
12. http://www.sciencecommunicationdesign.eu
Surfing the Visible. Drawing Templates,
Scientific Taxonomy, Web Interface.
Visual Design of Digital Interfaces
for the Photographic Archives
of the Municipal Aquarium of Milan
Federico Alberto Brunetti and Danilo Da Re

Abstract The Milan Civic Aquarium has been erected in occasion of the Universal
Exhibition in Milan in 1906; about a century after the restoration work has been
carried out, and contextually the reordering of historical library and photos stock of
its funds. Scientific classifications, ecological system, systemic representation are
the investigation methods of the complex interactions of Nature; the potential of
digital databases allow to articulate the informations obtained from individual
surveys of marine exhibits and the images, being able to reconstruct their inter-
actions. Scientific naturalistic representations are carried out as a survey (as a data
recording), and at the same time as a project, a design of a global frame of refer-
ences: the contribution of Drawing reveals operative interactions with the theory of
representation. The Archives of Aquarium keeps up, from its early establishment, a
photographic collection that has constantly grown through the decades. It comprises
tens of thousands of well preserved images scientifically classified. A conceptual
diagram founded the development of the interface design among three areas of
information quite heterogeneous connected to specific meta-languages. “Navigating
the visible” has become the emblematic original title of this thesis research, but also
an opportunity to ponder about the relationships within the universe of things, its
visual perception and the theories that give structure to our thoughts. The rela-
tionships among different contents will be the same as the relationships found in the
natural ecosystem, and will represent what we could describe as a “communications
eco system”.
Institutions for the Study of Natural Sciences (F. Brunetti)
The starting point of this research, about a century after the Universal Exhibition in
Milan in 1906, was inspired by the restoration work carried out on the aquarium
Milan Civic and by the contextual reorganization of the photos stock and of the
historical library of its funds.
F.A. Brunetti (&) D. Da Re

Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: federico.brunetti@polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_15
126 F.A. Brunetti and D. Da Re
Poster Diagrams, pictures and graphic synopsis of the work

Surfing the Visible. Drawing Templates, Scientific Taxonomy, Web Interface … 127
Scientific Classifications, Ecological System, Systemic Representation
The methods of investigation of Nature, based on analytical descriptions and spe-

cific taxonomies have found in the ecological survey of environmental systems a
scenario involving dynamic criteria of interpretation of phenomena and complex
interactions.
The potential of digital databases allow to articulate the informations obtained
from individual surveys of marine exhibits, being able to reconstruct their systemic
interactions.
Modality of Representations and Drawing Templates
The visual-iconic analysis of marine specimen has historically consisted of mor-

phological and typological description associated with classification naming,
quantitative and environmental information.
In these templates, scientific drawing is carried out as a survey (as a data
recording), and at the same time as a project, a design of a global frame of refer-
ences: the contribution of drawing reveals operative interactions with the theory of
representation.
Direct observations (the classical source for the study of Nature), naturalistic
theories (historically correlated with coeval epistemologies) and interpreta-
tivemodels (necessarily commensurate with the rendering algorithms available) are
intertwined in the history of sciences, and likewise in the endless knowledge of the
immense and fluid marine world.
Scientific Photographic Archives (D. Da Re)
In addition to an important collection of original copies of ancient treatises

on marine science with numerous illustrations in print and many other modern
bibliographies, the Archives of Aquarium keeps up, from its early establishment, a
photographic collection that has constantly grown through the decades. It comprise
tens of thousands of well preserved images scientifically classified, underscoring
the value of photography as a scientific representation and as an archival document.
Archive/Database/Interface
The logo that we present has served as a conceptual diagram for the development of
the interface design among three quite heterogeneous areas of information; they
have been connected to specific meta-languages, taking into consideration the look
and feel of the graphic project, the communication design, the usability for the user,
and the versatility of the interface for subsequent expansions of the consultation
service offered.
128 F.A. Brunetti and D. Da Re
Complexity/Ecology/Communication
“Navigating the visible” has become the emblematic original title of this thesis
research, but also an opportunity to ponder about the relationships within the
universe of things, its visual perception and the theories that give structure to our
thoughts. We used the specific metaphors of the underwater environment as we
built the graphics design of each page, trying to convey the concepts of environ-
ment, system and relationship on which marine ecology is based. The relationships
among different contents will be the same as the relationships found in the natural
ecosystem, and will represent what we could describe as a “communications
ecosystem”.
Acknowledgement School of Design, Dean: Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis.
References
1. Brunetti, F., Da Re, D.: Navigating the visible. Browsing the photographic archives of the
Municipal Aquarium of Milan by Web interface: systematization of the relationships between
scientific subjects and methods of exploration of this cultural heritage. Florence University
press, Florence. In: Bini, M., Bertocci, S., Mecca, S. (eds.) New Technologies Applied to
Intangible Heritage. Forum UNESCO University and Heritage, Florence, 11–16 September
2006. Notes: Brunetti F: Natural Sciences/Institutions, Taxonomies/Maps of knowledge,
Scientific Drawing/Iconography; D. Da Re: Photographs/Archives, Database/Interface,
Complexity/Ecology, p. 489
Drawing
2. Anceschi, G.: L’oggetto della raffigurazione. Etas Libri, Milan (1992)

3. Foucault, M.: Le parole e le cose. Un’archeologia delle scienze umane. RCS Libri, Milan
(1998)
4. Ackerman, J.S.: Origins, Imitations, Conventions: Representation in the Visual Arts. The MIT
Press, London (2002)
5. Kemp, M.: Immagine e verità. Per una storia dei rapporti fra arte e scienze. Il Saggiatore,
Milan (1999)
6. Starobinski, J.: L’albero del sapere e le sue metamorfosi. In: The Encyclopdia of Diderot &
d’Alembert, pp. 7–21, Milano (2002)
Scientific Photography and Web Design
7. Garrett, J.J.: The elements of user experience. User centred design for the web. New Riders
Publishing, USA (2002)
8. Nielsen, J.: Web Usability. Apogeo, Milan (2000)
9. Weinberg, S., Dogue, P.J., Neuschwander, J.: 100 Ans de photographie sousmarine. Edition
Alain Schrotter, Saint-Cheron (1993)
Surfing the Visible. Drawing Templates, Scientific Taxonomy, Web Interface … 129
10. Anceschi, G.: Il progetto delle interfacce. Oggetti colloquiali e protesi virtuali. Domus
Academy, Milan (1993)
11. http://www.iccd.beniculturali.it/standard/index.html
Taxonomy of Science Images
12. Bocchi, G., Ceruti, M.: La sfida della complessità. Milano, Feltrinelli, Milan (1997)
13. Thompson, D.W.: Crescita e forma. La geometria della natura. Bollati Boringhieri, Turin
(1969)
14. Koyre, A.: Dal mondo del pressappoco all’universo della precisione: tecniche, strumenti e
filosofia dal mondo classico alla rivoluzione scientifica. Einaudi, Turin (1967)
15. Mayr, E., Linsley, E.G., Usinger, R.L.: Methods and Principles of Systematic Zoology.
McGraw-Hill, New York (1953)
Yon Effect
Fabio Mosca (Gounemond)
Abstract YonEffect is a 1st person action-puzzle videogame developed for PC, as

a project for the course “Videogame Design & Programming” at Politecnico di
Milano University. Kaerb Toorian, the main character, is the creator of the time
machine, main feature and key mechanic to overcome levels in the game: the player
will focus on traveling in the past to cooperate with himself while avoiding direct
contact with his alter-ego, otherwise he’ll cause a space-time paradox, which leads
to game over.
The Plot
YonEffect is a one-person action-puzzle videogame designed for PC platform, with

a sci-fi setting. In the game the player impersonates Kaerb Toorian, the scientist
who invented the first time machine, with the help of his assistant “Subject Y”. The
player will guide Kaerb to rescue his assistant after a kidnapping, overcoming
environmental puzzles and dangers. Kaerb can use his invention, the Time Machine,
to overcome levels that would otherwise be impossible to pass. Going back in time
allows Kaerb to cooperate with himself, but also forces him to be aware of para-
doxes. This feature provides a multiplayer gameplay with yourself: you are your
own partner when passing levels, and at the same time your own opponent.
YonEffect aims to deliver the following experiences to the player:
YonEffect programming Team: Mosca Fabio, Christian Miranti, Massimiliano Francia, Davide
Falco. Game Idea & Concept: Mosca Fabio. Sketches and 2D Arts: Joel Fallerini (all the
drawings shown in this article are from YonEffect sketches and arts). 3D views and arts: Nicolas
Esposito, Luca De Giglio. Sound Studio Partnership: YugenStudio. Special thanks to Professor
PierLuca Lanzi for the supervision of the videogame concept & development phases, giving us
the chance to do this experience. Images: http://www.behance.net/joelousy/wip, http://www.
indievault.it/forum/showthread.php?tid=8046, https://www.facebook.com/YonEffect/photos_
stream. All other images comes from our private repository and they have never been published.
F. Mosca (Gounemond) (&)

e-mail: gounemond@gmail.com

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_16
132 F. Mosca (Gounemond)
Poster YonEffect: From sketches to game

Yon Effect 133
• Effortless play: it is based on simple controls (moving, grab, action, time travel),
and well-designed levels.
• Gratification of the ego: it allows the player to feel smart by solving puzzles
with such unconventional methods, such as time travelling.
• Unique experience of time travelling in a videogame, and that of playing
“against” himself.
• Involvement in the game’s plot, thanks to astonishing discoveries and unex-
pected situations, stimulating the curiosity of the player, who always wants to
know more.
Where It Started
YonEffect has started its development as a final exam project during the “Video-
game Design and Programming” course of 2012 in Politecnico di Milano.
The game’s concept prioritized the course’s top eight ideas (down from
60 + concepts), and the creator set up a team with other three programmers: a 2D
Artist and a partnership with a Sound Studio (references in the first page)
In three months of work the team refined the initial concept, balancing the game,
modifying the story and its mechanics. A playable prototype was exposed during a
public presentation in February 2013, broadcasted on national TV channels and
through the web. On May 2013, at “Svilupparty” in Bologna, the developers have
shown the game to other Italian developers, along with a business plan.
YonEffect is still under development, though the team is still missing a 3D artist
and the core members are going trough the last exams of university.
Character Design, Kaerb Toorian
Kaerb Toorian’s concept routes around a young and lonely scientist, but yet a main
character. To design a character with all those features, the team discussed and
evolved the design for three months, tailoring the appearance also according to
game-performance needs. For example, the team discussed about how a main
character has to be recognizable even from distance or without details, as any main
character of a story. In order to make that possible, they came out with a lot of
sketches, mainly focusing on the whip and clothing.
The twenty-five years old Kaerb Toorian is an extrovert scientist who has the
great idea to study the premonitory dreams to develop a time machine. To
accomplish this, he finds a girl, subject Y with a high predisposition and starts to
analyse her, using a special helmet to detect her brain phenomenon. Kaerb devel-
oped the first prototype of time machine: a photograph machine able to take photos
5 min back in time. Kaerb does not have any type of “combat skills”, but he is a
134 F. Mosca (Gounemond)
pure genius. After being kidnapped from Warp Industries, he is forced to work
because subject Y is held in hostage.
In 2 years, he developed the Y-Clock, a time machine that can take a person
5 min back in time. He also figured out how to use it in case of escape, studying
paradoxes and its limits.
Design Level
Design Level in YonEffect is a main issue, since it is a puzzle game that focuses the
gameplay around environmental challenges. Game levels have to be designed
taking into consideration how the player will deal with them: the game has to
instruct him about the mechanics and rules, while entertaining him, and providing
him with continuous challenge. If the levels are too easy to pass, the game would be
boring, on the other hand, if a level is too hard, it will look bad-designed, or it
would simply be frustrating. The player will be able to understand all the mechanics
of the game before using the time machine: for the key feature the third level is a
complete tutorial. The Time Machine adds more complexity in the design level,
which got tested three times more than the previous ones.
The “world” is divided in two main sections: labs and factories. The two areas
are really different: labs are bright, clear, well designed, ordered and highly secure,
making the main challenge the one of solving logic levels to hack the security.
Facilities, on the other hand, are rough, gloomy, filthy and provided with used
machines. Here Kaerb will be using his skills and be challenged by timing in and
less logic levels—in these cases logic, in fact, is not a main feature.
Evolving the Game
Despite the whole design process, even if you think about everything, something is
going to be modified, because the game has to be enjoyable for everyone, and not
only for the team members and some of their friends. During public presentations,
we had the chance to let people try our features. The user’s feedback is truly
important, and it made us aware on a few little details that did not catch our
attention at first. These aspects, such as intuitive colours or better-enlightened
environments, achieved a better response from the users on the successive pre-
sentation, and gave us new feedbacks to work on.
Acknowledgments School of Industrial and Information Engineering, Dean: Giovanni Lozza,

Teacher: Pier Luca Lanzi.
Xenophonic: From Concept to Product
Michele Pirovano
Abstract The development of a video game is a complex process, intertwining

advanced technical requirements and artistic visions, both heavily influenced by
visual design. We present the journey of the development of a musical video game,
Xenophonic, from its concept to production.
From Concept to Product
Xenophonic is a musical puzzle game in which you, the Divinity of Music, will
guide a group of small alien-like creatures, called Xenos, along a dangerous journey.
Up to a few years ago, the Xenos lived happily in their world, eating, playing and
singing on rhythm at the omnipresent music, gift of the Divinity. One day, an alien
planet crashed violently with the Xenos’ world, causing a planetary explosion. From
this big bang, a new world was born, but it was inhospitable and devoid of any
music. The Xenos are now alone and scared, surrounded by strange obstacles and
hungry (and angry) monsters, unable to act without music! You cannot bear all of
this and you have decided to help the little aliens find a new home.
The game is completely controlled by playing a magical instrument, the Xeno-
phone. Through the Xenophone, you will communicate what to do and where to go to
the small Xenos and use their power to overcome the obstacles they may encounter.
Designed to take advantage of touch-based control, Xenophonic is being developed
for the Apple iPad and for Android tablets. The game features fifty different levels
plus five bonus levels, ten magical instruments to unlock and many obstacles and
monsters to defeat; it also features five different thematic areas, each providing
different gameplay challenges: the countryside, the forest, the mountains, the
metropolis and the asteroids. The music in Xenophonic is procedurally built during
gameplay, giving a sense of completion to the player as he progresses in the level. The
game is being developed by Michele Pirovano using the Unity3D framework.
M. Pirovano (&)
Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering
e-mail: michele.pirovano@mail.polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_17
136 M. Pirovano
Poster The visual design of Xenophonic, showing the steps of the development from concept, to
initial prototype, to final product
Xenophonic: From Concept to Product 137
Xenophonic was born with the idea to create an original game about music that
was not just a simple rhythm game. It was presented as a concept during the first
edition of the Videogame Design and Programming course at Politecnico di Milano
and proceeded to be one of the most voted concepts. The development team started
during the course as a team of five inexperienced game programmers under the
name of Euphony Studio, it produced a three-months development prototype that
featured five different levels in three different thematic areas. At the end of the
course, due to lack of time, the team dropped to two people and then to one person,
who still continues the development in his spare time. The team, now a one-man
band, has been renamed to Curiosity Killed the Cat. No graphic nor music artists
were employed in the creation of the game, making the task of creating all the
models, textures, sounds and music tracks for the complete game much more
difficult. This fact, alongside the amount of content needed for such a game and the
work required to optimize 3D graphics for tablet devices, has raised the develop-
ment time of the game considerably. The game is now after two years at the end of
its development cycle. All the levels have been designed and all assets have been
created. After a period of closed beta-testing and bug-fixing, the game will be
available for download on mobile stores. Following its release, Michele will pro-
ceed to explore his next game ideas.
Art and Design
Concept art is necessary to ensure that the developers of a game have a shared
vision of the game. The developers can refer to the concept art, as well as to the
game design document, to make sure the game does not steer away from that vision.
The three drawings in the top-left represent the initial art style of Xenophonic: the
focus here is on many different elements that, together, give a mixed feeling: this is
clearly an alien world, but the elements are natural to our world, just rearranged in a
weird way. The brokenness of the world is also highlighted. Note that although the
initial concept art showed many ivy-like leaves, the final 3D assets use less detail,
due to technical constraints, replacing the ivy with simple grass. The very design of
the Xenos aliens has been carried out in great detail: the Xenos have a simple,
roundish and easily recognizable shape, and have a bright color: one Xenos exists for
each color of the rainbow. The Xenos always look happy and merry-go-lucky,
showing that they are not fully aware of their surroundings and need your help. In
addition, they sing alongside the music according to the actions and to the player’s
inputs, showing their musical nature. Each Xenos is also tied to one of the seven
musical notes, and this has effects both in their sounds and in their gameplay.
Xenophonic sports 50 levels and each one has been carefully designed. The
focus on the level design is typical of such puzzle games, where each level needs to
be revised several times to maximize attractiveness, diversity, and intuitiveness. In
the images, we can see the evolution of one of the level of the game, the first forest
level. In the top, we can see the initial prototype made in flash. This prototype
allowed us to test the gameplay mechanics involving rhythm.
138 M. Pirovano
In the second screen we can see the first actual game implementation, under the
form of the prototype of the forest level. The level is already taking shape and the
shared characteristics of all forest levels can be already seen: the gloomy, dark
atmosphere, the pointy trees, the tall (and out of place) buildings, the dim lights of
the street lights and the colored monsters. The magical Xenophone can be seen at
the bottom of the screen, and a singing Xenos can be seen on the far right: the game
is already playable.
The third screen shows a refinement of the level design: the camera is now
closer, focusing only on the necessary parts of the level, there are now more
monsters, making the level more interesting, and the exit (the big stone head on the
left) has been added for completion.
The final version of the level can be seen in the lower screenshot, with refined
meshes, textures and lighting. The background has been changed to a night scene,
the interface has been finished (compare the time feedback on the top right with the
ones in the previous screenshots) and a new camera angle has been chosen to make
the scene more dynamic. We can also see that the black line around the meshes (the
toon-ink effect) has been removed. This effect had been added to provide a cartoony
style, but the pastel colors were deemed enough to provide a cartoon effect and the
black line had technical repercussions.
The evolution of the title screen follows a similar path, with a first prototype
sporting the full menu functionality, allowing the player to select the level to play,
the difficulty of the game or to quit the game. The graphics of this first prototype are
temporary.
The second screen already shows a design similar to the final one, with the
broken world rolling in the background amidst the clouds and the Xenos flying
around.
The next screen shows a further step in this evolution, highlighting and reducing
the number of buttons to cater to a casual audience, enlarging the title and making
the graphics consistent by making everything three-dimensional.
The final version of the title screen is clearer and brighter by placing some fog in
the background. The black lines, as with the other scenes, have been completely
removed, and all the colors have been converted towards more pastel hues.
Level design was a very important part of the design and development of Xe-
nophonic: five different areas were created, each with its own gameplay elements,
specific graphics style, specific monsters and props. Apart from the Forest area (see
above), we have the Countryside area, peaceful and colored, perfect for an intro-
duction to the game; the Mountain area, cold and unforgiving, which introduces the
slippery mechanic; the Metropolis area, dark and crumbling, which introduces the
magnetic mechanic; and the Asteroids area, functioning as the epilogue of the game
and introducing the gravity mechanic.
In the images, we can see the difference between the concept 2D art and the 3D
style of the Metropolis and Asteroids areas. The Metropolis concept shows two
main ideas: the broken city and the electro-magnetic mechanic: the 3D art mimics
this, placing ruined skyscrapers and cars,, and adding smog as well. The Asteroids
Xenophonic: From Concept to Product 139
concept shows the gravity gameplay mechanic and the big asteroids flying around,
this is reproduced in 3D, with plenty of flying asteroids and bright stars, and also
adding a few props flying around.
As with any other element in Xenophonic, the monsters have been subject to
careful design. All monsters have a gameplay function in the game, such as lifting
the Xenos up, opening or closing passages, or throwing props around. Each monster
has been designed to be easily recognizable with a glimpse. In the images, we can
see the concept art and the final art of the Timid monsters, which hides in the
ground and pops out when needed, and the Flungus monster, which rises from
below to let the Xenos pass on its flat head. All monsters also share some features to
make them recognizable as a group: the big, round eyes are typical of all of them.

In Verbis Virtus
Mattia Ferrari
Abstract In Verbis Virtus is a fantasy video game in which players impersonate a

wizard exploring a mysterious temple. The game uses a speech recognition tech-
nology that allows players to cast spells using their actual voice. In Verbis Virtus
features high-end graphics and a lot of attention is given to the aesthetics of
environments and characters.
The Game
In Verbis Virtus is a video game set in a fantasy world. It puts players in the shoes
of a mysterious traveler exploring an ancient temple that hides many secrets. The
temple also hides many dangers and to overcome them players have to learn the
arcane arts of magic from inscriptions found along their path, so as to be able to cast
spells. By using these powers in a creative way players can solve puzzles, surmount
traps and defeat the enemies that try to impede their journey.
The game uses a speech recognition system that allows players to casts spells by
actually pronouncing magical formulas in a microphone (In Verbis Virtus in Latin
means power is in words). The game features a first person view and challenges
players with both puzzles and fights against monsters. It is being developed using
the Unreal Development Kit, for PC and Mac.
We started this project at the Videogame Design and Programming course at the
Politecnico di Milano, for which we developed the first prototype of the game. After
the course we created the team Indomitus Games, in order to continue the devel-
opment and turn the project into a commercial game. Graphics has a prominent role
in this game, so the team includes both 2D artists, for concept art and textures, and
In Verbis Virtus development team (Indomitus Games): Mattia Ferrari (programmer), Federico
Mussetola (programmer), Giovanni Vadalà (3D artist), Denis Gualtieri (2D artist), Gianmarco
Leone (composer and sound designer), Valerio Carbone (3D artist), Alessio Iellini (animator).
M. Ferrari (&)
Indomitus Games, Rivarolo Mantovano, Mantua, Italy
e-mail: mattia.ferrari@indomitusgames.com

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_18
142 M. Ferrari
Poster Artworks and in-game screenshots of the video game In Verbis Virtus (source: Indomitus
Games)
In Verbis Virtus 143
3D artists, for models. Indomitus Games is now composed by two programmers,

four 2D/3D artists, an animator and a composer/sound designer.
Sketches and Artworks in the Development Process
The figures show sketches and artworks that are used in the development process of
In Verbis Virtus as well as in the game screenshots.
Title Screen
The title screen is an artwork that is shown when the game is launched. It helps
strengthening the identity of the game and immersing players in its atmosphere. It
shows the protagonist in the act of pronouncing a spell, thus highlighting the
importance of the speech recognition feature of the game.
Crystal Room
The crystal room is a place of the game where players have to solve a puzzle to
open a door. The concept art includes details about the puzzle, which is important to
both artists and programmers to understand the constraints that must be observed.
To open the door, players have to use a spell to create a beam of light, filter it
through the crystal and make it hit a particular point over the door. The concept art
shows the exact trajectory of the beam required to achieve this.
Temple Antechamber
The temple antechamber is the first interior that players visit in the game. It contains
six inscriptions placed on as many columns, and players have to examine all of
them before they can continue. Five of these inscriptions are easily found, but the
sixth is hidden behind the ruins of a collapsed column. This situation encourages
players to pay attention to details of environments, which are important to under-
stand the puzzles that occur later in the game.
Veritas
Veritas is a supernatural character that guides the visitors of the temple. Veritas
resides in a mystic dimension called limbo and she helps players learn new spells.
The reference views are detailed drawings of the character made by a 2D artist and
used by a 3D artist as guidelines when creating the model. According to her name
(veritas in Latin means truth), her appearance was designed to embody the idea of
“naked truth”.
144 M. Ferrari
Beast
The Beast is a huge monster with six limbs, capable of deadly charges against
players. It is a tough enemy and represents a major challenge. The preliminary
sketches are proposals for the appearance of the monster, from which the final one
was chosen.
Savage
The Savage is a small biped monster with three tentacles on his back, whose aspect
mixes fantasy and sci-fi elements. It moves quickly and can attack players with his
tentacles and wrist blades. The reference views show the front and lateral projec-
tions of the monster, as well as a picture of the inner face, which is normally hidden
behind the jaws.

Friezes: From Images to Construction
and Classification
Abstract The visual and geometric languages combine in the study of classical
friezes. Tools of linear algebra are introduced in the mathematical description of
these artistic decorations.
The educational approach takes advantages from images in disseminating knowl-

edge of geometric forms. This procedure has long been proposed and used for
didactic experimentations in the Lab FDS (Dipartimento di Matematica del
Politecnico di Milano, http://fds.mate.polimi.it/). In particular the study of the
symmetry in artistic expressions brings to a scientific message: invariance in
mathematics as a result of a transformation, and invariance in physics inside con-
servation laws. See [1] on this subject.
The posters presented in the “EDUCATION” section are a didactic proposal
through images aiming to merge classical artistic decorations with their geometric
structure. The study is completed by their algebraic description using tools of linear
algebra.
Friezes are decorative forms generated by geometric transformations of a basic
pattern along a line; frequently the basic pattern belongs to a plane and the frieze is
generated by translations. From now only plane friezes are considered.
The basic pattern B can be in turn generated by transformations of a basic
element E. The plane transformations involved are isometries since they preserve
distances.
E. Marchetti (&) L.R. Costa

e-mail: elena.marchetti@polimi.it
L.R. Costa
e-mail: luisa.rossi@polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_19
146 E. Marchetti and L.R. Costa
Poster Geometrical 2D transformations and construction of the friezes (from [1])

Friezes: From Images to Construction and Classification 147
Here below the list (see the corresponding images, top left, in the Poster:
• Identity: a point P of the plane is transformed into P′ so that P = P′.
• Reflection with respect to a straight line (axis of reflection): a point P of the plane
is transformed into P′ so that the straight line is the axis of the segment PP′.
• Rotation around a point O (centre of rotation): a point P of the plane is trans-
formed into P′ so that OP = OP′ and PÔP′ is an angle of fixed measure.
• Translation: a point P of the plane is transformed into P′ according to a fixed
direction and a fixed distance.
• Glide reflection: a point P of the plane is transformed into P′ combining a
reflection with respect to an axis and a translation in the direction of the axis.
The general isometric plane transformations can be algebraically represented by
tools of the linear algebra. Introducing a plane Oxy Cartesian system, the point
coordinates are associated to a column vector of two components and the isometric
transformations are associated to quadratic matrices of order two.
Let P and P′ corresponding points
in an isometric
0 transformation of the plane,
x x
identified by the vectors v ¼ and w ¼ 0 respectively. By an appropriate
y y

a11 a12 a
choice of the matrix M ¼ and of the vector h ¼ the formula
a21 a22 b
representing each single isometry is:
w ¼ Mv þ h: ð1Þ
The matrix M is related to the identity, or the reflection, or the rotation, while the
vector h is related to the translation [2].
Analysing the intrinsic symmetries of the basic pattern it is possible to classify
the friezes into seven types: decorations apparently different can be of the same
geometric class [3]. In the following we summarize the description of the seven
types of geometric friezes.
The translational symmetry is connected to each geometric frieze, but different
geometric transformations can be recognised in the basic pattern. In the poster, bottom
left, is reproduced the generation scheme of the seven different friezes, starting from
the unsymmetrical symbol d, as basic element, to construct the basic pattern.
The friezes are denoted by four alphanumeric characters, normally used in the
classical crystallographic notation. More precisely:
• The first symbol is always p.
• The second symbol may be 1 or m to indicate the absence (1) or the presence
(m) of a reflection orthogonal with respect to the translation (the letter m stands
for the initial of “mirror”).
• The third symbol can be m or g or 1 to indicate the presence of a reflection in the
direction of translation (m) or a glide reflection (g) or neither (1) (the letter
g comes from “glide”).
• The fourth symbol can be 1 or 2 and indicates the absence (1) or the presence (2)
of a rotation of amplitude π (that is the basic pattern presents a centre of rotation).
Hereby we indicate matrices and vectors involved in the formula (1), used in the
construction of the basic patterns B:

1 0 0
1. identity if M ¼ I ¼ and h ¼ ;
0 1 0

1 0 0
2. symmetry centred at the origin O if M ¼ and h ¼ ;
0 1 0

1 0 0
3. symmetry with respect to x-axis if M ¼ and h ¼ ;
0 1 0

1 0 0
4. symmetry with respect of y-axis if M ¼ and h ¼ ;
0 1 0
5. rotation around the origin O, with rotation angle of measure θ = π if M ¼

1 0 0
and h ¼ ;
0 1 0

a
6. translation through the vector h ¼ , h ≠ 0 and M = I;
b

1 0 a
7. glide reflection in the direction of x-axis if M ¼ and h ¼ , a ≠ 0.
0 1 0
In the CD distributed with the book [1] you can follow the construction of the
different friezes with a music specially composed and structured according to the
scheme of each frieze.
We conclude this brief paper, describing the image on the right of poster, which
is in turn a poster on the friezes.
The left column shows some kind of decorations that you can find on facades of
Milan houses. In the middle are reproduced the friezes decorating the classroom
walls in the FDS Lab. The right column is devoted to the synthetic representation of
the seven friezes; the basic element E is composed by two arcs of logarithmic spiral.
This poster was recently produced by a group of high school students, at the end
of the educational project “Planning with Math”, organized and realized by the Lab
FDS (see “Progettiamo con la Matematica” in the website of the Laboratory). The
aim of this project is to introduce the students to the methods of mathematical
modelling in different fields.
Acknowledgments FDS Laboratory—effediesse—Formation, Science Communication, Didac-
tics and Experimental Teaching, Director: Giulio Magli.
References
1. Betti, R., Marchetti, E., Rossi Costa, L. (ed.): Simmetria: una scoperta matematica. Polipress,
Milano (2012)
2. Foley, J., van Dam, A., Feiner, S., Hughes, J.: Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice.
Addison Wesley, Boston (1992)
3. Budden, F.J.: The Fascination of Groups. University Press, Cambridge (1972)
Rose Windows: From Images
to Construction and Classification
Abstract The visual and geometric languages combine in the study of classical
rose windows. Classification and mathematical description of these artistic deco-
rations are introduced.
Adequate images are essential to approach the study of a geometric shape. The
posters presented in the “EDUCATION” section are a didactic example realized
among the numerous activities of the Lab FDS (Dipartimento di Matematica del
Politecnico di Milano, http://fds.mate.polimi.it/).
Frequently educational proposals depart from the study of artistic images to
highlight their constructive schemes and stimulate the student in recognizing their
geometric characteristics. So the presentation of mathematical tools becomes more
easy and motivating. For the algebraic description of rose windows it is essential to
introduce methods of linear algebra.
Discovering, recognizing and analysing geometric forms, in the environment in
which the student lives, are the key elements developed in the book [1]. This book
on symmetry, edited in 2007, was partially funded by MIUR and supported by the
Municipality and the Province of Milan, as well as by USR Lombardia. It was also
distributed in high schools of our region; a second edition was edited in 2012.
The rose windows (or rosettes) are decorative forms generated by rotations of a
basic pattern B around a point.
If the basic pattern is located in a circular sector with central angle of measure
h ¼ 2pn (n = 1, 2,…), the rose window is generated by (n−1) rotations of B around
the centre of the circle.
E. Marchetti (&) L.R. Costa

e-mail: elena.marchetti@polimi.it
L.R. Costa
e-mail: luisa.rossi@polimi.it

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_20
Poster Images of rose windows in Milan Cathedral and their contruction; tables of symmetry finite
groups (from [1])
Rose Windows: From Images to Construction and Classification 151
The presence or absence of a symmetry axis in the basic pattern allows a

classification of the rosettes:
(a) cyclic if B has no symmetry axis; the rosette is generated only by rotations of
amplitude h.
(b) dihedral if B has one symmetry axis which is the bisector of h. The axis
divides the basic pattern B into two parts, one of which, indicated by E, is the
basic element; the other is the symmetric of E with respect to the axis. Con-
sequently a dihedral rosette has n symmetry axes and can be generated also by
(2n−1) reflections of E.
The plane transformations involved in the construction of rosettes are the fol-
lowing isometries (that is they preserve distances):
• identity: a point P of the plane is transformed into P′ so that P = P′.
• rotation around a point O (centre of rotation): a point P of the plane is
transformed into P′ so that OP = OP′ and P′ÔP′ is an angle of fixed measure.
• reflection with respect to a straight line (axis of reflection): a point P of the
plane is transformed into P′ so that the straight line is the axis of the segment PP′.
In an orthogonal Oxy Cartesian system, these isometric plane transformations
can be algebraically represented with tools of linear algebra, by the following
relation:
w ¼ Mv
0
x x
where the components of the vectors v = and w = 0 are the coordinates of
y y
the two points corresponding in the transformation.
1. The matrix M can be of two forms:

cos h sin h
M¼R¼
sin h cos h
for a rotation around the origin O (rotation angle h).

2.

cos 2u sin 2u
M¼S¼
sin 2u cos 2u
for a symmetry with respect to a straight line passing through O and inclined by
an angle u with respect to the x-axis positive direction.
The construction of the cyclic rose window can be algebraically described by
the relation:
wk+1 = Rwk (k = 1, 2,…, n−1)
where w1 identifies the points of the basic pattern B and wk (k = 2,…,n−1)

identifies the points generated by successive transformations of the basicpattern
through the rotation matrix R, with h ¼ 2p n
The symmetric basic pattern B in a dihedral rosette is generated by reflection of
p
the basic element E with respect to the symmetry axis inclined by u ¼ 2p2n ¼ n in the
x-axis positive direction.
That is if v and w identify the points of E and of its symmetric respectively, the
construction of B is given by the relation:
w ¼ Sv
Starting from the basic pattern B, you can repeat again the procedure illustrated
for the cyclic rose window; that is by rotations of amplitude h ¼ 2p n
The geometric transformations generating a rosette form finite groups [2]. A
cyclic group Cn is composed only by rotations. A dihedral group Dn contains
rotations and reflections.
The two boxes in poster show the composition of the finite cyclic and dihedral
groups of symmetry (n = 1, 2, 3). In the tables the identity is indicated by i, the
reflections are denoted by s, finally the rotations are indicated by rh ( h the cor-
responding angle of rotation). The composition p o q of two transformations in a
group is to be intended with p chosen in the horizontal upper edge and q in the
vertical left edge of the table. The result is the element at the intersection of the
column and row corresponding.
The images, on the first left column in poster, are real decorations in the internal
floor or in windows of the Milan Cathedral [3, 4]. Moreover in the second column
each image represents the geometric scheme, cyclic or dihedral, having basic ele-
ment E formed by two arcs of logarithmic spiral.
By the choice of these examples, the students are motivated to look for math-
ematical aspects in decorative shapes belonging to the context in which they live.
At the same time some decorations in windows and floor in the Milan Cathedral
lend themselves well to be related to classical geometric curves: e.g. Reuleaux
triangle, epicycloid, hypocycloid,… [3, 5].
This didactical approach has been tested out by us during some residential
Learning Weeks promoted by Regione Lombardia and sponsored by EU. The
participants, high school students, followed the lessons and the laboratory with
interest. The results were also for us really encouraging, because the students
reached a good level of competencies and enjoyed this method.
We conclude this paper inviting the reader to follow the construction of various
rosettes in the CD included in [1].
Acknowledgments FDS Laboratory—effediesse—Formation, Science Communication, Didac-

tics and Experimental Teaching, Director: Giulio Magli.
Rose Windows: From Images to Construction and Classification 153
References
1. Betti, R., Marchetti, E., Rossi Costa, L (eds.): Simmetria: una scoperta matematica, Polipress,
Milano (2012)
2. Budden, F.J.: The Fascination of Groups. University Press, Cambridge (1972)
3. Marchetti, E., Rossi Costa, L.: What geometries in Milan Cathedral? Nexus VI. Architecture
and Mathematics, pp. 63–75. Kim Williams Books, Torino (2006)
4. Marchetti, E., Rossi Costa, L.: Symmetries in the decorations: cyclic and dihedral rose
windows. In: Rossi, M., Duvernoy, S., Mele G. (eds.) Milano-Maths in the City, pp. 29–35.
Maggioli editore (2012)
5. Marchetti, E., Rossi Costa, L.: Decorate the marble turning the circle. In: Barrallo, J., and others
(eds.) Experience-centered Approach and Visuality in the Education of Mathematics and
Physics, pp. 172–173. Kaposvar University (2012)
Teaching to Teachers, Learning
from Learners (Part 1)
Luigi Cocchiarella
Abstract This poster, and the following included in this publication have been
realized by the teachers attending the “TFA” School for secondary school teachers
held at the Politecnico di Milano during the academic year 2012/2013. The work
presented here refers to the results of the Laboratorio di Disegno e Rappresentaz-
ione Geometrica (literally Drawing and Graphic Representation Studio), a course
dealing with the educational foundations of visual representation taught by the
author mentioned above. The main focus was on the processes of teaching and
learning Graphic Representation, on its use and on the support that this matter could
give to the students in the field of Technology. We debated about the relationship
between Reality and Representation and about the power of Graphic Representation
as instrument of knowledge and invention. Basing on the activities really carried on
in class, by the teachers with secondary school students, the poster summarizes and
shows some fundamental concepts of Graphic Representation, especially the phe-
nomenon of Projection/Section, which is the base of Proiective and Descriptive
Geometry, emphasizing the connection among experiment, experience and
abstraction. The following comments are related to the corresponding figures in the
poster.
1. Photography may be a good tool to introduce projection theories in the second

year of a Secondary School class. A photo is a projection directly made with
light, and this process can be understood and directly seen by building a
pinhole camera made with a cardboard box and a frosted glass. The hole
represents the projection center and the glass the projection plane. (Marco
Gasparini)
Authors: Francesca Antonelli, Cristina Caccia, Mariamichela Di Carluccio, Francesca Dordoni,

Adriana Figurelli, Marco Gasparini, Giuliano Gaudenzi, Federica Germano, Simone Mantovani,
Paolo Salvi, Andrea Vicini.
L. Cocchiarella (&)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_21
156 L. Cocchiarella
Poster Reality and Abstraction: observing physical light to understand geometric projections
Teaching to Teachers, Learning from Learners (Part 1) 157
2. Using a light source, an object made of balsa acetate sheets-coated and a model
built with plexiglass dressed by white adhesive paper, it is possible to introduce
the concept of orthogonal projections. Keep in mind that, by using primary
colors, it is possible to explain that we project the entire object: it can be
observed that the projection represents not only what we see but also what is
behind and we do not see. (Federica Germano)
3. The perception of reality, in which we are immersed, is the result of a recon-
structive process generated by our brain, controlled by genetic components,
interactions between us and the environment around us and, last but not least,
based on our knowledge and previous experiences. However, as humans, we are
equipped with a binocular vision: just by looking at an object from different
points of view, we are able to perceive its form and detailed characteristics. The
shadow thrown by the object under observation can help to improve our
perception, showing the hidden aspects. In the specific case where you want to
go back to the real size of the object, as well as to its form, orthogonal
projections are the most suitable technique for the detection of existing objects,
and for the design and construction of new ones. In industrial design, the
technique of orthogonal projections, has historically taken on significant
importance, allowing different groups other than those who designed the work,
to faithfully realize the project, as the designers have conceived. (Andrea Vicini)
4. A sequence of photographs to explain the concept of ideal point. The photos are
always taken from the same angle and the center of projection moves away. We
can observe that the projection rays become less and less oblique and it is easy
to understand when the distance is infinite. (Francesca Antonelli)
5. Have we ever wondered what the figure from which the entire world of
representation originates is? To represent means to graphically report what we
observe. From the “point” begins the journey towards the representation of the
straight line, the flat and the figures in two dimensions, the space and the
three-dimensional figures, such as solids. (Cristina Caccia)
6. Photography is defined as “drawing with light”. Taking a photograph means
turning reality into images catching light and shade. In an image, the compo-
sitional effect is due to the intertwining of self-shadows and shadows. The first
ones fill the windows and mark the white part of the building with an alter-
nating rhythm; the second ones are casting on the same wall and produce a
pattern with an oblique structure that enlivens the composition with its different
shades of grey. A photograph documents, it tells: in a word, it is life. What
would we know without photography? (Mariamichela Di Carluccio)
7. It is possible to build a model that makes it clear to students how the visual rays
shine on the volumes, taking advantage of little drawings of the object that you
see in the real space. (Giuliano Gaudenzi)
8. Giving children the possibility of elaborating an image helps teachers to
evaluate the abstraction level of the class and sensitize children to understand
how we often see reality in a partial and approximate way. If we dedicate some
time and attention to known shapes which are part of our environment and do
158 L. Cocchiarella
not elicit any particular emotion on us, we suddenly discover very interesting
things. (Francesca Dordoni)
9. Can the folding process be a bridge between cognitive psychology and the
didactics of geometrical representation? People reasoning on two different
levels of thought have difficulty in understanding each other, and for a true,
helpful relationship to establish, one of the two should perceive the other’s
reasoning. The teacher is like an engineer who tries to reach his own students’
thoughts by building bridges. (Adriana Figurelli)
10. The aim of the lessons is to use photography to introduce secondary school’s
students to the perspective and projection-section concepts. They daily use a
camera but they ignore its operating principles; during the course they build a
pinhole camera to understand how two-dimensional images are created from
the three-dimensional space. (Simone Mantovani)
11. The orthogonal projection method consists of drawing an object from more
than one point of view, so that the actual proportions result preserved. The
object to represent is projected on several levels, usually three and orthogonal
between them. On each level a figure called view is obtained. This procedure
comes from perspective projection, therefore the principle is clearly
understandable by showing the example of a dark chamber (camera obscura).
(Paolo Salvi)

Barbara Betti, Post Graduate Study Program “Tirocini Formativi Attivi” a.y. 2012/2013, Coordi-
nator: Claudio Citrini, Laboratorio di Disegno e Rappresentazione Geometrica, Teacher: Luigi
Cocchiarella. The author also acknowledges all those teachers attending the Laboratorio who
prepared the poster and the related written comments, with many thanks to Luca Legrenzi for
collecting and ordering the contributions.
Teaching to Teachers, Learning
from Learners (Part 2)
Luigi Cocchiarella
Abstract This is the second poster realized by the teachers attending the “TFA”
School for secondary school teachers held at the Politecnico di Milano during the
academic year 2012/2013. It shows the results of the Laboratorio di Disegno e
Rappresentazione Geometrica (literally Drawing and Graphic Representation
Studio), taught by the author mentioned above. Aiming to investigate the educa-
tional foundations of graphic representation, alongside the discussion about the role
and the function of the visual language in the field of Technology, as well as about
the basic principles of Projective and Descriptive Geometry in relation to the
prospective ways they could be taught nowadays, some other complementary topics
have been examined, in order to understand whether they could be proposed to
secondary school learners. Among these, the physical analogy with the light cast-
ings, the enigmatic effects produced when special distortions affect images and
spaces generating illusory perceptions, the geometrical structure of the hyperspaces,
the new visual possibilities offered by the latest digital media, including some very
familiar visual apps available on mobile devices, also emphasizing the connections
of the visual language with other disciplines. All these topics have been discussed
in class and tested with secondary school students, who enthusiastically welcomed
the proposed issues and participated in the activities, showing significant
improvements. Some of these experiences have been collected in the figures of the
poster presented here and summarized in the following comments.
Authors: Maria Beatrice Carretta, Francesco De Giuli, Elena Demartini, Francesca Derata, Luca
Legrenzi, Loredana Poli, Caterina Praticò, Ilaria Sorrentino, Davide Tinti, Teodora Volpe.
L. Cocchiarella (&)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4_22
160 L. Cocchiarella
Poster Reality and Image: educational experiences with the basic principles of the projective
representations
Teaching to Teachers, Learning from Learners (Part 2) 161
1. Projecting an object (the cube) on a projection plane (the paper sheet) by rays
(sun rays) generated from a light source to infinity (sun) we can observe how in
the course of the day, to vary the inclination of the rays, the projection changes
its shape. In this way we can introduce fundamentals of axonometric projec-
tions. (Elena Demartini)
2. A strict model of the projective phenomenon has been built using the volu-
metric light’s 3d graphic technic. Proceeding to experiences more and more
complex examples have been made, together with some observations that allow
a direct approach to the basic features of central projections. In the end these
experiences have been compared with the traditional teaching path. (Francesco
De Giuli)
3. The need to optimize the packagings’ transportation brings to find new solu-
tions that the nature already found. Some packagings thanks to their shape
allow to better use the space. If we consider an hexagonal prism we can
perfectly optimize the space usage combining the single packagings to take the
shape of an honeycomb. (Ilaria Sorrentino)
4. You need to go beyond conventional and stereotyped readings to keep the
guys’ curiosity on in order to discover what is under or behind an image. By
learning to watch something with the mind too, you start changing your per-
sonal point of view and looking at the world and at other people from new,
different perspectives, with no doubt wider. (Caterina Praticò)
5. In the learning process, at school, measuring instruments and the smartphone
become powerful knowledge mediators. Their use even permits to represent
some not visible aspects of the space in which we live. Furthermore, it is a
mean to show physical properties (measurable but not perceivable) and to
increase our knowledge. (Davide Tinti)
6. The hypercube: the prospective proiection proposed in Intuitive Geometry by
D. Hilbert and S. Cohn-Vossen is recreated by students starting from a photo of
a real tridimensional model e by computer-graphics model. One of the most
famous uses of hypercube in architecture is represented by Le Grande Arche de
la Dèfanse built in Paris. (Luca Legrenzi)
7. The method suggested for teaching orthogonal projections, starts from the
critical and direct observation of daily use objects from different points of view,
taking also advange from digital and interactive games. It goes from the real
object to understanding it in the space and then to the projection of the cor-
responding images on the flat paper. (Maria Beatrice Carretta)
8. The approach to the methodology of representation in orthogonal projection
through the experiential method and with workshops complies adapted to the
visuospatial abilities of preadolescents. The practical activities should not limit
knowledge to a perceptual level, but should constitute the corporal skills to
understand abstraction. Through this procedure, the teacher will be able to de-
construct stereotyped visions, thus avoiding the scholastic habit of offering
scholars conventional representations. (Loredana Poli)
9. From the Latin modulus, diminutive of modus, we can take inspiration to teach
about measure. It is the element or principle on which the composition is based,
162 L. Cocchiarella
the measurement unit for proportioning objects and spaces, conventionally

assumed and creatively manageable: in the writings of Vitruvius, it is the basic
element for the development of the constituent elements of Architecture.
(Teodora Volpe)
10. The augmented reality as a funny and profitable educational way to explore
reality and to listen to the explanation of the work of art that is near you has
been proposed to the class. Students could reach the artworks they preferred
and look for them with the support of the augmented reality devices. (Francesca
Derata)

Barbara Betti, Post Graduate Study Program “Tirocini Formativi Attivi” a.y. 2012/2013, Coor-
dinator: Claudio Citrini, Laboratorio di Disegno e Rappresentazione Geometrica, Teacher: Luigi
Cocchiarella. The author also thanks all those teachers attending the Laboratorio who prepared the
poster and the related written comments, with many thanks to Luca Legrenzi for collecting and
ordering the contributions.
Conclusion
Abstract This section includes selected transcripts from the discussion conducted
in response to the lectures, the interview, exhibition and poster presentations. We
decided to keep the spontaneity and the directness of the talk, therefore the speeches
and the names of the participants are reported as faithfully as possible; the questions
are in italic. Short introductions (issues), however, will help the reader to get
familiar with the proposed discussions in advance.
Round Table
Issue: At the end of the lectures, a series of students’ interviews has been shown
(see the “Appendix” in this volume). Before starting with the round table, the
student who did the interviews was invited to share his impressions, and summarize
the key points of their answers.
Luigi Cocchiarella: Before starting with our discussion I would like to invite the
interviewer, namely the student who did the students’ interviews as a part of his aca-
demic internship assignment, to tell us the “feeling he felt” from the students’ answers.
Mihai Dragos Potra1: Well, in general students were quite shy being inter-
viewed, but some of them enjoyed the questions concerning the education in Visual
Graphics, because according to them it is not enough emphasized in their study
program. Many of them have the feeling of being “self-though”, either in digital or
in analogue graphics. In their opinion, the first thing to learn is drawing by hands, to
express ideas and establishing the limits of the concept, while digital drawing
follows when drawing in more details. We also heard that many of the students
Edited by Luigi Cocchiarella. Transcriptions from the video records by Pavlina Malinova and
Violeta Popova.
1
Student, Bachelor of Architectural Sciences.

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4
164 Conclusion
enjoy using digital, rather than traditional tools, because of the power of the new
software, and also because digital model making is easier, more rapid and flexible
than it was in the past as it allows them to change variables without starting from
the beginning. I agree with this opinion, but as many of the students mentioned
already, I also believe that digital is not enough. From my point of view, digital is
more about the further developing of the concept, rather than just creating a nice
representation of your models, it is good for functionality. I think some terms have
to be established as baselines before starting with digital models.
Issue: This first discussion focuses on the use of computer graphics and network
in technical curricula and particularly on how to schedule the combination of
analogue and digital graphics education, as well as on the pros and cons of the
e-learning.
Luigi Cocchiarella: Before starting with the discussion I would like to mention that
I did not hear anything about Geometry from the students, they just mentioned Graphics
one time but maybe that is because they consider geometry is already embedded into
graphics. Students as a whole desire a more systematic education in digital graphics and
they would prefer more emphasis on it. As we heard from the video interviews, some
students think that the graphic representation is helpful for representing their projects
(“after” having completed them). I think this simply is a misconception, in fact, I try to
teach my students that representation is a language and therefore it also, and must of all,
helps to develop their projects (that is, “during” the process). Another point is that hand
drawings and sketches are suitable for concepts at the initial stages of project devel-
opment, while 3D modeling would be more recommended for the subsequent stages.
Are we absolutely sure? Maybe, it depends on the medium we use. We have good CAD
systems but we are still waiting for appropriate interfaces and software helping us since
the first stages of the design process, since the concept set and the concept development.
Anyway, some experiments have been carried on. For example, in the previous seminar,
professor Kondo showed us a digital sketch-interpreter, a program that makes easy the
transition from sketches into a three-dimensional model (see Volume 2 in this series). I
think it could be really helpful to support and record the author’s work since the
beginning by appropriate digital tools. I often recommend my students to use all the
possibilities that graphic representation gives them, either hand drawings, sketches and
digital software, mixing them according to the needs during the different stages of the
project, in order to make the project itself as coherent and complete as possible. These
are some of the questions I would like to emphasize. Now we can start with the
discussion if you have any other comments.
Kristina Boychenko2: I think these questions could be easily answered by the
students because we are those who start either by sketch or a 3D, depending on our
preferences. For example, I was dedicated to a more traditional way of repre-
sentation as in my first college we were used to hand drawings and that’s why we
2
Student, Master of Architecture.
Conclusion 165
think of an architect as a person who transfers his thought by means of pen in his
hands. And on the next level, when you already know what do you can, you start
modeling it. But that’s how I was thought and I noticed that the universities all over
the world are divided into camps, if I can describe it like this. One camp is the one I
probably belong to, the more traditional one, where it is emphasis on hand
drawings and you have to draw all the projections by hand with pencils. That is
why I was surprised when I heard that some universities do not have courses of
Descriptive Geometry as in my school it was obligatory. Another advantage they
have is that they work very well with digital software like Rhino, 3DMax, Maya and
so on. They use programs for parametric design, something that they do not really
teach in the other camp and that is why students have to learn it by themselves. In
order for students to be more confident, it will be a good idea if they are thought
computer graphic at the universities. For example, the professor Jurkins’ e-course
with video tutorials helps a lot the students with the learning process. Of course, it
depends on both the professors and the students, but motivation as a factor is very
important. If students really are eager to study, they will find a way to actually
follow these e-lessons and take advantage of them.
I would like to add another comment, which is more related to the first part of the
seminar and it is about e-learning and having all the tools to educate students from a
distance, so, why in this sense is necessary to go to university. For example, many of
the students that come to study at the university is because they are getting distracted
if they stay at home. University, on the other hand, offers that special atmosphere
that allows us to be concentrated, to see others and maybe to exchange ideas and got
inspired by the colleagues. This will be difficult to happen if we all work in our
places and do not meet with others. Therefore, the main drawback about the
e-learning is the lack of community. It is also about competitiveness, for example if I
see somebody that has done a beautiful model but I am still on sketches stage, I
would speed up and do my best to be more productive, because in the end we will be
compared, and if I am not on the same level, that would affect my evaluation. It is
also about the awareness of many students, about sharing and exchanging skills and
knowledge. For example, we all know that we can share our ideas via facebook,
tumblr, skype but unfortunately, most of the Russians do not do that, while many
other students share their experiences and are not concern about that. Sharing
photos or sketches of their projects on tumblr is quite common so it can be seen the
whole process, not just the final result. That is all for now. Thank you!
Ted Branoff: I would like to go back to the question of the e-learning for a bit. I
think that in our universities there is a movement for best practices and e-learning.
We are always learning about learning. So what do we have? I guess cohorts of
students coming through a degree program, and it’s very important that the first
thing we do is bring everybody to campus. We go through an orientation to make
sure they understand what kind of tools they are going to need, like computer
minimum system requirements, how to use the different software, whether it is a
synchronous tool, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, and so on. I think that
it is very important component and as we heard in the video interview with
166 Conclusion
Mr. Angela, the sense of community is an important point. I have taught an

instructional design class several times to people across North and South Carolina
who were teachers at community colleges in the science, technology, engineering
and mathematics fields and at the end of the program, we did extensive evaluation,
in order to find out what were the good and the bad things. I noticed the one thing
for most students who had participated, was the feeling of not being connected with
each other because even when we did synchronous we did not use video, it was just
voice. So until we had a meeting face to face at some moment people said: “Hey,
now I see who you are”. That just made the biggest difference when we went back
to the online environment, this sense of community, which I heard in several talks
already today. That may not be graphics related, but it is also important to mention.
Issue: The topic here is defined more clearly. On one hand it concerns the
importance of Descriptive Geometry, whose contribution to spatial cognition can
not be simply replaced by computer graphics, as some skill tests seem to show, and
on the other hand the benefits of the sense of community on the learning processes,
coming from the participation in person to the academic activities, are addressed
and compared to distance learning results.
Kristina Boychenko: Hello! I actually have two more comments. One is to
Professor Suzuki because he said something I agree with. Knowing Descriptive
Geometry really helps to enhance spatial thinking and that is why I really believe it
should be thought at the University. I also believe that people who start directly
with the 3D software skip those very important steps and finally they have diffi-
culties in perceiving the space. Because when you have to draw it by hand con-
sistently and understand all the projection/section phenomena, you perceive the
space really well and know how it can work better. After that, it becomes much
easier when you have to transfer it into the 3D software, as you have already
modeled it by hand. There is another topic I want to speak about and is addressed
to prof. Leopold. I heard that in Politecnico di Milano is thought through Gestalt
and I was surprised about that. I wanted to ask you if there is any connection
between psychology and education as I heard that Gestalt is therapy in psychology
and speaks about the awareness of the individual, of his sub-consciousness. I am
not sure if it sounds the same in English but in the Russian psychology we say: “To
close the gestalt” which means to resolve what bothers you and then move on. Are
they connected with the gestalt theory you already presented or it is just a coin-
cidence of Gestalt in the psychology field and the one of graphical representation?
Cornelie Leopold: Yes, gestalt in theory and in graphic representation have to
come together, we should not separate them as boxes. I think that they are inter-
connected. Especially if we take for an example the architectural field, many disci-
plines should be considered at the same time. They all have to come together, from
mathematics to practical sciences, engineering, structural engineering and even social
sciences for the development of a coherent and thoughtful project. We already spoke
about the main drawback concerning e-learning, that is the lack of sense of com-
munity. An important issue is also to make the university a place where students are
Conclusion 167
more inspired and motivated while working together on projects. That is also the
reason we organized in our faculty of Architecture at TU Kaiserslautern this type of
workshop, the so called All-School-Charrette, where for a week students are working
consistently together in small groups and there are students from all semesters, from
the very beginning until the last years of studies. In this way they are able to use
different representation technique, ranging from sketching to 3D modeling. Of
course, we have to think about the concept development, as we heard this morning,
the relationship between mind and hand is really important and sketching is insep-
arable, but on the other hand utilization of computer, 3D tools can be helpful in the
beginning in order to apply some effects, how perspective affects the use of space and
so on.
Kenjiro Suzuki: We are all members of the International Society of Geometry
and Graphics and note that Geometry comes first and then Graphics. About 40
years ago in the United States, in the late 60s, Descriptive Geometry stopped to be
taught and graphic education moved to CAD. The name of the society is “Engi-
neering Design Graphics Division (of the ASEE)”, but Geometry is not included.
The name of the Japanese society is “Japan Society of Graphic Science”, while the
name of the international one is “Geometry and Graphics”. I believe that the more
relevant one is Geometry and Graphics. Of course, I am familiar with CAD but first
I started with traditional Descriptive Geometry as it enhances the spatial under-
standing. I decided to start a research, studying the enhancement in the spatial
comprehension of the students using either descriptive geometry or 3D CAD
software. I also made an assessment before and after the start of the course to see
what are the differences in their gain. Contrary to my initial expectations, the results
showed that the gain from traditional graphic science is much greater than the one
from 3D CAD software, where the improvement is unnoticeable. I was a little bit
surprised from the results but we can clearly see that hand drawings and descriptive
geometry are of crucial importance. Of course, CAD and 3D software are important
and useful too, but from the educational point of view we need to start from hand
drawings based on Descriptive Geometry.
Luigi Cocchiarella: Thank you very much for your comment, professor Suzuki.
On the point I would like to mention that we can also approach the traditional
courses in Descriptive Geometry in combination with the computer, using it as a 3D
visual support, since it can show the 3-dimentional configuration, therefore if
appropriately proposed to the students, it can help them to better understand the
space, what the projection does and what the construction lines mean. As Piero
Angela said: “There was a teacher plus a book, then a teacher plus a book and plus a
computer and then a teacher plus a book plus a computer and plus internet…”. They
are not in contradiction because all of these tools have to be intended as multipliers.
Intended that they can “boost” the performance of teachers and students.
Issue: The talk points out how computer graphics, especially systems such as
BIM and GIS, can help to empower the sense of reality of the learners, giving the
opportunity to integrate a lot of physical information into the geometrical models,
168 Conclusion
especially those concerning the static aspects, which by tradition are among the
most difficult to approach by students; moreover, the multidisciplinary aspects
involved in a technical digital models, also call into question the need to provide
new ways of cooperation in education.
Dario Coronelli: Many thoughts are going through my mind at the moment so
the first thing will be regarding to the relation between geometry, graphics and
architecture. Geometry is already applied in the building construction in a way, for
bearing loads, creating structural mechanism, a system as well as space. Well, I am
teaching design of structures and I am thinking from my point of view. According to
me it is very important that a part of the discipline is related to the way this objects
transfer loads and develop a mechanism, otherwise there will be people creating
things without any sense. I will give a simple example: when I am usually coming in
this room I have a sense of discomfort because these beams that are passing here
are not structural elements and I developed the feeling that it is not a supported
box. The second comment is about the relationship between concept generation and
the final result. I really do not know if it is right, to start with statics, strength of
materials, design of structures that would lead to the final design stage or maybe go
the other way around. For somebody could be easier to start from the actual
building and then trying to work out the concept. According to me you need both
but here in Milan we start with statics and then continue with strength of materials.
For example, I graduated without being able to design a simple beam and in reality
many of our graduates won’t pass the graduation exams if we asked them certain
questions because they wouldn’t know how to answer. When I asked a question to
my students that designed a 20m beam about how much they will expect to deflect
on the loads they replied around 1 meter. I wanted this to be translated in the sense
of reality. Another issue is the topic about the traditional and digital approach. In
the courses of structural engineering we have the problem that students and
engineers learn to use software very well but at the same time they are losing the
feeling and understanding of the structures. If we bring here, for example most of
our graduates and ask them make and explain the structural scheme, I think most of
them will not be able to do that because they are not used to do it. They can use
software very well and they can develop really good models of different elements
but they are not able to see the real construction. Now I want to get back to the
previous topic because we are losing the synthesis and the conceptual aspect of
design. I am speaking from the perspective of the structural engineering but it is
similar in other disciplines, too. As we were discussing about the understanding of
the space and how it works through the use of descriptive geometry and perspective
and later using 3D to study even deeper the already established rules. I think it is
the same approach as in the structural engineering, even though we speak about
different disciplines. Thank you!
Cornelie Leopold: In my opinion, it is not enough to learn using just the
software because you need first to know the principles of the projection methods
and how to apply them by hand, so transferring that knowledge later into the
software comes naturally with this background. For example, nowadays some
Conclusion 169
architects design building structures, developed out of the software programs

without really bringing it together with the structural design and I believe that the
collaboration between Geometry and Structural Engineering is important in this
case in the development of geometric concepts. Geometry as a discipline does not
incorporate material and that’s why it is very important to bring together these fields
where the material issue comes together with the geometrical structure. Sometimes
architects develop spectacular designs out of the 3D programs, but at the end, they
are not able to realize them. They consult then professionals, specialized in
geometry, and usually it happens that they have to start working on the structure
from the very beginning as there are principles that haven’t been followed. It is
obvious that there should be collaboration between the different disciplines from the
start of the project in order to achieve consistent results.
Ted Branoff: Thank you! I think I will add to the idea of “inter-disciplinary”
that seems to be an important topic in the engineering education in the United States
where you do not just have mechanical engineers who are working by themselves. I
can give you a specific example of a former student of mine who was in my second
level Computer Aided Design class. He was on a multidisciplinary team to redesign
some kind of dashboard in a vehicle and he was very frustrated because he had a
designer in his group. I remember he told me: “This guy is giving me 10 different
options about this dashboard and I designed one that works and it is functional”. I
told him to show it to me, and it looked terrible. Of course the dashboard works and
functions well but should also look good in order to be sold and to be economically
successful. So I think the different professionals have to work together in order to
develop a successful product and that type of approach should be incorporated in
the education system not only in the United States but everywhere.
Luigi Cocchiarella: I want to come back on the question of “feeling” the
structures, as well as, and more generally, the various aspects of a space. You can
actually reach the feeling of something when you become an expert in certain field
and have a deep knowledge about it. In the beginning, students try to represent the
space, to become confident with the idea of the physical space. Then, at least in the
architectural field, they become conscious that the architectural space is not only a
metrical and physically constructible space but also a symbolic space, so this is
another level of knowledge and awareness. The architects and theoreticians have
invented a notion to describe this kind of special space, namely the architectural
space, because when we speak about the space in general, we can refer to the
cosmic space as well as to the space inside of a glass, in a really theoretical or
abstract way, but the architectural space is a system of objects, materials, metrical
relationships, memories and human beings. Among many others there is an
important and wery well-known book written by Christian Norberg-Schulz, titled
Existence, Space and Architecture and devoted to this topic, widely recommended
to students. In this book the architectural space is intended in terms of Place, getting
inspiration from the Latin word Locus (in Italian luogo), including the idea of a
humanized space. Although the human component is quite difficult to get in a
digital process, in relation to the other components of the space a great deal of
170 Conclusion
digital software allows us to develop the projects in a more complete way. Lets take
the BIM or the GIS as examples, enabling us to put in the same model many
apparatus from the Civil Engineering, Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, as
well as from Demography, Sociology, and so forth, in other words to really develop
the design process in collaboration with the various professionals usually involved
in the technical projects.
Issue: This last discussion concerns the cultural backgrounds connected to the
visual language, with special refer to the Western and the Eastern traditions, by
pointing out the relationships between visual and mental images. The power of
knowledge sharing by means of visual devices is a crucial issue, like in the case of
collaborations between Science and Engineering.
Federico Brunetti: First of all, thank you very much for the possibility of
discussing with all the experts invited today. They have been proposed many
interesting suggestions during the days of the conference and it is difficult to
synthesize and put them together. I will simply try to focus on three issues. The first
one is about the relationship between the visual and the image, the second would be
about the geometry of drawings and the third one is about the digital software. I
will give some references about these arguments that are based on my experience
and observation. First of all, I am really interested in this apparent ambiguity
between the visual experience and the meaning of the image because the border
between the two concepts is very interesting. I remember for example very well a
marvelous video interview. I made it with a very experienced and aged architect in
Milan, who was speaking about his professional, designing, architectural history
with closed eyes in order to be sure that he will remember all the details of the
story. The interview was really good but it wasn’t so useful for any presentation
because the architect was always with the closed eyes – involuntary aiming to
remember all the details of his biographic and visual experience-, of course I refer
to the quotation of this event that was just for a joke. The real and profound
question is: “what we think when we see something and what we do see when we
think”, that is in relation to the concept of the experience of vision.
Of course, this question could be perceived from a philosophical or even neu-
roscience point of view, which are two fields having an intersection point nowa-
days. I remember a really nice quotation from Gabriele Paleotti [1522–1599], who
has been a theoretician of iconography in religious art, and was speaking about the
interior drawings, describing the architect as an artist with capability of interior
drawing: that means capable to conceive and preview the spaces even without the
present graphic image but with a complete three-dimensional vision of the space.
That was long time ago, during the time of Gabriele Paleotti and obviously we
haven’t invented anything new since then, but we have discovered. Another quo-
tation I like a lot is from Henri Focillon [Eloge de la Main—eulogy of the hand]:
“The hand makes the mind and the mind does the hand”, speaking about the details
of a painting in which he was able to distinguish the original from the copy. From
all of the arguments I mentioned, my students embrace the most the topic about the
Conclusion 171
mental space modeling and the capability to train our mind to make a 3D model of
the space. So we have our vision, the mental space modeling capability and the
image that can be considered not only visual but also poetic. I would like to
comment what prof. Kondo explained about the software that can use a simple
sketch for making an actual 3D model (see Volume 2 in this series), as according to
me it is really impressive that someone can conceive and develop such an idea. The
famous japanese architect Arata Isozaki had a lecture at the Triennale di Milano
explaining that in the Japanese culture the shape comes from the darkness. In the
Eastern philosophy, on the other hand, the light and the darkness are inseparable
and one cannot exist without the other. In our Western tradition where -in the
Bible- God said: “Let it be light”, we perceive the things through the light. This is
our point of view but in the Eastern understanding, the shadow makes the reality
visible. For example, in the geometry of drawings, the shape comes from the
shadow even though it is explained in the theory of shadow that it actually comes
from the light. Of course it is difficult to define, as they both are interconnected.
Ernst Gombrich, for instance, wrote a really nice book about the shadow, where he
explains that by studying the paintings we can understand the nature of the light, by
means of the shadow. We can say that the relationship between shadow and light is
the generative point of shape.
The second question I want to ask the Japanese professor is more difficult.
Japanese culture has a different form of written language with characters that are
not alphabetic but calligraphic, which creates a different form of written culture
and a different form of language, I suppose, if we can say that the language is
related to the form of the words. Speaking about that, it is not surprising that the
other Japanese professor, Yasushi Yamaguchi (see Volume 2 in this series),
proposed an experience of the image as a code, the image as an enigma, which can
overlap, hide or reveal other images. This is the symbolic form of the image as a
very complex text that reveals or hides something. Everything I mentioned so far is
about the geometry of drawings and the use of images as a bridge that allows our
culture to communicate immediately through comprehension. Of course, the history
of art shows us clearly this ability to have a communication with people that do not
know the alphabet and use images instead of texts.
The third issue I want to speak about is the digital influence nowadays. The old
generation of teachers is now trying to keep pace with the new generation that was
born at the age of computers and is more aware about the opportunities, capa-
bilities and the limits of this very strong experience of digital language, virtual
worlds and so on. But which are the real differences, not in terms of generation gap
but in terms of actual experience? This has something to do with e-learning of
course, and I completely agree with what professor Ted Branoff said about the risk
of losing a community sense generated by technology and affecting the human
relations. On the contrary, it is true that technologies give many opportunities to
the teamwork and to the cross-science development. Many developments have been
made possible nowadays by the cross-sciences, where diverse disciplines collab-
orate each other for resolving issues that were unthinkable before.
172 Conclusion
For example, when Physics, Engineering and Informatics come together and
communicate each other, a lot of more complicated issues can be determined and
the results can be applied in diverse directions. That could be in relation to aca-
demic experiences but also to the science or to other fields, and could be definitely
regarded as the positive side of the digital experiences. I do not know what your
opinion on this question is. Thank you very much.
Kenjiro Suzuki: I want to come back to the software, prof. Kondo was speaking
about, developed to make a 3D drawing out of a simple sketch. It is theoretically
impossible to do that because we do not have enough information, in order to build
the 3D model. For example, USA satellite took a picture of a Soviet Union fighter at
the airport and it is a photo from above seeing at the same time the projection of the
shadow. In this case, it is possible to build a 3D model because there are two
projections, as the shadow is one of them.
Answering the question about the Japanese letters, I can say that we at first
imported letters from China, which are called “Kanji” and are ideographic and then
developed “Kana” which are alphabetic. So nowadays we use the mixture of Kanji
and Kana in writing. I think it is difficult to define if the use of Kanji enhances the
ability of the spatial thinking but it is interesting that we heard today also different
points of view like Japanese, European and even from USA so we can make a
comparison. Thank you very much!
Luigi Cocchiarella: Thank you very much. I think we are going to the con-
clusions. I remember that a friend of mine was explaining me about his blind friend
who could not see anything but they were close friends, so he told his blind friend
that it was a pity he could not see the art masterpieces. The blind friend then smiled
and responded that, although he could not see art masterpieces, on the other side he
was able to see, in his mind, even an eight dimensional vector—which other people
never could see—because having not optical restraints, in his mental perception the
space had no limits, and had many dimensions. I would like to go back to the
question about the sense of reality proposed by prof. Coronelli. The sense of reality
is a wide matter. I think that students at University approach very quickly the high
level of abstraction and that is why they don’t tend to consider which is the
relationship between the models and the reality. Today, we were discussing during
the poster session about the opportunity to create links between University and the
Secondary School, because it is just at that stage that students should be brought to
the abstraction, and at the same time should approach the traditional as well as the
digital systems, being noticed about the cognitive specificities of the two typologies
of tools. These were my final words, now I would like to express you my thanks for
your kind participation in this cycle of seminars.
Tentative afterword: The excellent contributions and opinions heard today have
strongly emphasized the question of the new media in education, as both powerful
visual tools (i.e. for digital modeling) and as part of a worldwide network (i.e. for
e-learning). It is an important point, as in historical terms education has always been
using the most advanced among the available tools. The fact is that the modern
Conclusion 173
media are much more complex and sophisticated compared to those developed in
the past, and if on one hand they can enormously increase the teaching and learning
possibilities, on the other hand their appropriate use in education still needs to be
understood in deep. Moreover, welcoming the new media should not mean to forget
thousands of years of experience both in visual graphics and in education. I see at
least a couple of prospective ways. On the one hand, we can use the new tools to
look into the history of representation, translating theorems and structures into the
digital language of computer graphics, in order to investigate them in a new way
and from a new point of view. On the other hand, graphic software could help us to
get rid of some heavy ‘grammatical’ steps (i.e. graphic constructions) and to focus
more on the ‘syntactic’ properties (i.e. the structure of graphic languages) and most
of all on the ‘semantic’ aspects (i.e. the active and operational use of representa-
tion). Of course many other ways could be proposed, provided that we are inter-
ested in the matter. Maybe, just to recall the previous two seminars, together with
practicing education we need to provide room for research on education and to
update our theoretical investigations about history and epistemology in the field of
The Visual Language of Technique Between Science and Art.
Appendix
4 Questions to the Students About
the Visual Language
Abstract These final interviews aim at getting opinions from some students of the
Politecnico di Milano coming from different Countries and attending different
curricula. The students have been deliberately chosen among those who did not
attend the seminar. It is just a “foretaste”, but it shows an interesting approach. The
importance of hearing the student’s opinion comes from the fact that the young
generations are changing very quickly in these years, therefore, even though Uni-
versities do not have to tend to the “customer satisfaction”, they have to however
stay in charge for the students’ education. To do this, understanding more about
them is not of secondary importance.
1. Students’ Interview
Each student has been asked four fixed questions.3
1.1 Brenda’s Interview
I: What is your name?

S: My name is Brenda.
I: Which school are you attending and which course?
S: I am attending the architecture school in the master program of Sciences of
Architecture. I am in the first year.
Text of the questions prepared by Luigi Cocchiarella. The interviews have been realized by Mihai
Dragos Potra, transcribed by Caterina Scalzo and Virginia Cucchi, formatted by Violeta Popova
and Pavlina Malinova, students at the Politecnico di Milano.
3
I=interviewer; S=student

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05326-4
176 Appendix: 4 Questions to the Students About the Visual Language
I: How important is the image and the visual language in your curriculum?
S: The image is everything. The professors really appreciate if you have good
images and a good presentation.
I: What about the relationship between analogue and digital in your school?
S: I personally use both. When you draw by hand it is easier to think and sketch
your project but when it comes to presenting it you need something neater so that’s
when I use digital tools.
I: What do you like the most about graphic education and what would you change
about it?
S: I think it is very important to have a graphic education because it’s the way
architects speak through drawings; it is very useful. Maybe during my education I
did not have a good preparation on digital tools so something stronger in that
direction would be helpful.
1.2 Hong’s Interview
I: Hi, what is your name?

S: My name is Hong and I am a student in the school of architecture. My course’s
name is Architecture and Building Construction. Now I am in the last semester and
I am preparing for my final examinations.
S: I think that in my curriculum the visual language makes it easier to represent my
views and the important arguments.
S: I think that it is about the interaction factors between each other, one influences
the other and they are equally important.
I: Learning about architecture, it is not all theoretical but mostly practical. What
do you like the most about graphic education and what would you change about it?
S: To be architects we should have learnt how to approach and develop our projects
and not just understand its language.
1.3 Rafael’s Interview
I: Hi, what is your name?

S: My name is Rafael.
I: Which school are you attending?
S: I am attending INSA, a French engineering school in Toulouse.
Appendix: 4 Questions to the Students About the Visual Language 177
S: It is important for me to do mainly flow sheets and charts, so artistically it is not
very relevant but I have to work with images so that the client understands what I
am working on.
S: Actually we only take notes analogously, everything else is digital. We use many
programs that do the flow sheets for us so we work a lot on the digital side.
about it?
S: For us engineers it is very useful to make everything visible and once you have
the whole process built in front of you, you understand how to work with images
and you get so much more into it.
1.4 Federico’s Interview

S: My name is Federico.
S: I am attending the Environmental Architecture course at the Politecnico di
Milano.
S: Well I think it is very important because it is also a way to talk directly to your
client.
S: Analogue methods are the best ways to draw and sketch and, as an architect, it is
something you have to learn. Digital methods are very practical, very quick and
easy to use but in certain cases they don’t guarantee the same results as analogue
drawings.
about it?
S: I like the way it teaches you how to draw new things, maybe something you are
not able to do by hand. I think graphic education should be extended to all courses
and there should be more education of this kind in our school.
1.5 Sheila’s Interview

S: My name is Sheila.

S: I am studying Urban Planning at the School of Architecture.
S: It is very important because in your curriculum you are not only introducing
yourself but also your background, your work ability, your skills so in my opinion I
can say it has 80% of importance.
S: In my school, in architecture we work a lot with digital methods but we also use
physical models. The two things are connected each other, I don’t think that
nowadays one can exist without being skilled in the two ways. I think they
collaborate.
about it?
S: I work with a few programs and I always want to improve more and more, for
example in my renders. For now the thing I would like to change is “myself”, in the
sense that I want to improve my skills with these programs, which I think are well
developed.
1.6 David’s Interview

S: My name is David.
S: I am attending the school of architecture in Milan.
S: I think it is very important, from an architectural point of view, to see things to be
able to understand better, because we work all the day visualizing data and on the
explanation of themes.
S: It is a really crucial point in the education of an architect because we have old
school and newer school. In the old school teachers stick to their certainties but we
need to improve and approach digital methods, try to learn new tools such as
AutoCAD, Rhinoceros and other programs.
about it?
S: The thing I like the most is the possibility of changing things without costs. For
example if you print something and you would like to modify it, it is really
expensive to print it again; if you have the digital file you can do changes in a
minute. Maybe I would change the exams: it would be nice to have exams with
digital supports because it would be easier and it could provide more information in
a shorter time rather than slow handwriting.
1.7 Donald’s Interview

S: My name is Donald.
I: Which school are you attending and which degree?
S: I am attending the third year in the bachelor program of Urban Planning.
S: I think it is important in my curriculum and also in my portfolio since the thing
you first perceive from it, is its graphical aspect.
S: I would say that mine and my colleagues’ experience here includes both the
analogue and the digital language. When we want to organize our ideas we start
with sketches, using a manual language; afterwards, to make our ideas more pre-
cise, we use a digital language.
about it?
S: In my program until now we had some classes where we had to work graphically
but we never had any lectures about how to use digital programs. I think this is
important and we should be taught about this software.
1.8 Carlos’ Interview

S: My name is Carlos.
S: I am an Erasmus student in the Politecnico di Milano.
S: It is very important when it comes to sell a project; to convince people to buy it,
you need to present it with a good graphic structure and images.
S: In my school we always start with an analogue method and then slowly try to get
into a more digital or electronic representation.
about it?
S: There is not something specific that I like, I think it’s an important part in the
development of a project. I don’t personally agree when too many software pro-
grams are used to present a project because you loose the control of representation.
1.9 Lorenzo’s Interview

S: My name is Lorenzo.
S: I am in the third year of bachelor degree in Science of Architecture.
S: I think it is really important because it’s a tool that aims at presenting yourself to
people.
S: In our first year we had Architectural Representation Studio and it was all about
hand drawings, for the rest we mainly used self-taught digital drawing.
about it?
S: I didn’t have a lot of graphic education during these three years, so I would
suggest to improve some courses to teach us how to work graphically.
1.10 Matteo’s Interview

S: My name is Matteo.
S: I am attending the third year of bachelor degree in Science of Architecture at the
Politecnico di Milano.
S: In my opinion it is fundamentally important to be able to communicate the
projects and the ideas we have.
S: Well, in the first year we had a hand drawing Architectural Representation
Studio; in the second year we had a class where digital tools were implemented but
other than that not many other classes gave us this opportunity.
about it?
S: I think nowadays it is of fundamental importance to be able to express our ideas
both digitally and through hand drawings, implementing both the tools. I definitely
would like to have more software classes in this university since most of my
graphical education was self-taught.
1.11 Francesco’s Interview

S: Hello, my name is Francesco.
S: I am attending the master degree at the Politecnico di Milano – Architecture.
S: I think that the visual language is very important in my curriculum as well as in
my field of study.
S: At the beginning of my degree, we started with an analogue point of view on our
architectural conceptions. Later on we began using digital methods, which nowa-
days are becoming very important for our future job.
about it?
S: Good question! With graphic education I can visualize my ideas as well as
explain them to other people. However, digital tools are getting a little bit too much
of a systematic way of thinking about architecture. I am still using my hands,
together with my computer.
1.12 Alberto’s Interview

S: My name is Alberto.
S: I am attending the master degree at the School of Architettura e Società of the
Politecnico di Milano.
S: Well, of course if you study architecture the visual language is the basic part of
our way of working.
S: In my school I think there is a really important and basic relation between the
two parts because in the beginning you have to design using hand drawings; only at
the end you can translate this into a digital work.
about it?
S: I would like to have one! Unfortunately here there isn’t any kind of course about
graphic education, analogue or digital.
What did we hear from the future?

Students are strongly aware of the importance of the visual language in technical
education (in one case we heard “80%”!), also because they have direct experience
with the weak points of graphic curricula. They think graphic education is
important not only for communication purposes (as usually people think) but must
of all for processing ideas during the active work in the field of architectural and
engineering design.
All of them would like to have a stronger continuity in graphic education, and
not only representational courses in the first (and sometimes second) year. More-
over, according to their opinion they should not necessarily focus on digital
graphics. On the other hand, they reclaim from the University an appropriate
education also in this field, which is among the weakest points of our curricula.
Very few courses and very few exams are carried out by seriously using the new
technologies. We know how students (as native digital) are keen on the use of
digital devices, compared to the previous generation (digital immigrants): but their
convincing claims tell us that even nowadays, in spite of the brilliant performance
of the new tools, it is hard to work as self-directed learners! We sometimes come
across students criticizing the software houses because of the fragmented and dif-
ferentiated offers they propose on the market, which makes it difficult to keep
continuity in the various stages of the work. This reveals that there is work to be
done on the issue of the digital developments of the visual language.
However, maybe this is also an encouraging sign of the confirmed need of the
University as a trait d’union between education and the real world. As Piero Angela
stated in the colloquium included in the first part of this Volume, everybody, be she/
he student or teacher, needs a ‘sparring partner’, a mentor, in the end, a Virgil. And
this is matter for education, in our case, for university education. This will be a
challenging task in the future, emphasized even more by the power of the networks,
another world whose potentialities still have to be understood in deep. As we wrote
at the end of the round table, waiting for developing an updated epistemology and
for new chapters in the history of representation, we should investigate the new
cognitive styles emerging from the present era, and most of all empowering the
relationships between research and education, that is, both research about edu-
cation and education about research. After all, they are the two raisons d’être of
the University.

The Visual Language of Technique Volume 3 Heritage and Expectations in Education

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The Visual Language of Technique Volume 3 Heritage and Expectations in Education

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Luigi Cocchiarella Editor

The Visual Language

ISBN 978-3-319-05325-7 ISBN 978-3-319-05326-4 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014949295

Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Milan, July 2013 Barbara Pernici

Visual Language in Technical Universities Curricula

Milan, July 2013 Ilaria Pamela Simonetta Valente

helping me in transcribing, translating and formatting the published materials,

Milan, March 2014 Luigi Cocchiarella

The ofﬁcial logo of the sesquicentennial Seminar Logo1

Part I Setting the Matter

Educating by Image. Teaching Styles vs Learning Styles . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Colloquium with Piero Angela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

How Internet Changes Universities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Part II Visual Language in Education: Between Theory

Graphics Literacy Education at the University of Tokyo . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Visual Representations for Spatial Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Introducing 3D Modeling into Geometry Education

The Role of the Image in Engineering and Technical

The Role of Geometry in Reasoning and Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Part III Images in Education: Iconographies and Experiences

Graphics Education—Step 1: “Foundations” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Graphics Education—Step 2: “Complements”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Graphics Education—Step 3: “Upgrade” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Introduction to the School of Architectural Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . 111

A Cartogram is Worth a Thousand Maps: The Multi-faced

Iconography of Science Representations as Visual Concepts

Surﬁng the Visible. Drawing Templates, Scientiﬁc Taxonomy,

Yon Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Xenophonic: From Concept to Product. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

In Verbis Virtus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Friezes: From Images to Construction and Classiﬁcation . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Rose Windows: From Images to Construction and Classiﬁcation . . . . . 149

Teaching to Teachers, Learning from Learners (Part 1) . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Teaching to Teachers, Learning from Learners (Part 2) . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Appendix: 4 Questions to the Students About

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 3

The interview with Piero

Interviewed by Luigi Cocchiarella.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 5

LC: Professor Herbert Alexander Simon, of the Carnegie Mellon University,

1 Is Internet Going to Replace Universities?

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 13

classes or other multimedia documents/material. Typically, classes are scheduled as

1.2 Social Networks

Another important phenomenon of the past decade is the impressive development of

The exploitation of social networks in education activities have generated

1.3 Is This the Age of Online Learning?

2 What Is the Mission of a School?

• Understand principles, notions and founding concepts.

In general, education is the result of a direct and continuous interaction and

actually become a doctor or an electronic engineer without visiting and working in a

3 What Does the Internet Offer and How?

environment—better, a community such as a university—with a virtual and digital

4 How Does the Internet Change Schools?

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 23

2 Graphics: Visual Language

Fig. 1 Description of a three-dimensional object [2]. a Verbal description; b Graphic description

3 New Graphics Science Curricula at the University

Fig. 2 New graphic science (2nd Semester) (3rd Semester)