In 2017, I got a PhD at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (track in Management and Development of Cultural Heritage), with a research in the field of Interaction Design applied to museums and cultural sites. I am particularly interested in technologies that combine the material and digital aspects during the visit, like tangible interaction and ubiquitous computing (smart objects, smart environments, full body interaction).

My PhD research, conducted under the supervision of Prof. Emanuele Pellegrini (IMT Lucca), Dr. Roberto Scopigno (ISTI CNR, Pisa) and Prof. Raffaella Trocchianesi (Politecnico di Milano), proposes a conceptual framework for tangible interaction applied to museums and cultural heritage sites and lays the theoretical foundations for a design framework aiming to guide designers or design teams in the creation of these experiences.

During my PhD I carried out a research period at the Dipartimento di Design of Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) and also several periods at the Digital Materiality Lab of the Sheffield Hallam University (Sheffield, UK) in the context of the EU-funded meSch (Material Encounters with Digital Cultural Heritage) research project, under the supervision of Prof. Daniela Petrelli and Prof. Luigina Ciolfi.

Duranti, D., Spallazzo, D. & Trocchianesi, R. (2016). Tangible Interaction and Cultural Heritage. An Analysis of the Agency of Objects and Gesture-based Systems. In 6th STS Italia Conference | Sociotechnical Environments. Trento.

Duranti, D., Spallazzo, D. & Trocchianesi, R. (2016). Tangible interaction in museums and temporary exhibitions: embedding and embodying the intangible values of cultural heritage. In 6th International Forum of Design as a Process Systems & Design: Beyond Processes and Thinking. Valencia. ISBN 978-84-9048-440-1

Marshall, M., Dulake, N., Ciolfi, L., Duranti, D., Kockelkorn, H., and Petrelli, D., Using tangible smart replicas as controls for an interactive museum exhibition. In: Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary Conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction, 14-17 February 2016, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. TEI ’16. New York, NY, USA, ACM, 159-167.

Batino,S., Callieri, M., Dellepiane, M., Duranti, D., Pingi, P., Scopigno, R., Siotto, E., Virtual Reconstruction of an Etruscan Tomb, Conference in Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, Vienna, Austria, November 2012.

Duranti, D. (2017), Tangible Interaction in Museums and Cultural Heritage Sites: Toward a Conceptual and Design Framework , PhD Thesis, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, (Advisors: Prof. E. Pellegrini, Dr. R. Scopigno, Prof. R. Trocchianesi).

Duranti, D.(2012), Information Landscapes: studi di usabilità e sviluppo di un sistema di authoring web (Information Landscapes: usability studies and development of a web authoring tool), Master’s dissertation, University of Pisa, (Advisors: Ing. E. Ruffaldi, Dr. C. Evangelista, Ing. M. Carrozzino – Percro Lab., Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna).

Duranti, D. (2009), Usabilità nel web browsing su dispositivi mobili di ultima generazione, (Usability in web browsing through last generation mobile devices), Bachelor’s dissertation, University of Pisa, (Advisor: Dr. F. Paternò – HIIS Lab., ISTI CNR, Pisa).