Digital artisan shop and immersive experience

By project CD-ETA

Published on 07 March 2022

Italy

Toscana

About this good practice

Digitization of a craft shop is a result of a longer path that brings artisans into the process of a more technological approach to their professional activity to support, enhance and valorise their productions. The action iAtelier Online aims at designing new products merging artisans and designers know how and the use of enabling technologies as virtual or augmented reality. The GP is a first step to analyse how the digitization can permeate the craft sector. The main focus was to develop a technology to valorise the user experience in a service design logic. A project is developed and then adapted at the first idea to the digitization of the shop. This is a win win process that brings together three pole of the community from the cultural, economic and technological side: craftspeople are involved in a pathway that valorise their works and lead crafts production to new contemporary approaches. Younger generations are much more engaged by this tools and could possibly develope a better understanding of traditional and ancient traditions and skills. Technologies can find new ways to express their potential and open to new sectors and new stakeholders. Moreover this operation could benefit the artisans selected for the project and at the same time in a wider view be a first step to a new approach for the sector, for museums, for culture-based and high quality artisanal productions.

Resources needed

1 craftspeople/craft SME, 2 designers, 2 tutor of the project, 1 organization (Artex) to manage the programme (2 people), 1 technical organization to implement the project (UniFi/Smart Operations) (1 people) Technical support from Virtual Reality specialist

Evidence of success

The artisan shop was "virtualised" so as some products, creating an environment were the buyer could move freely, acquiring information about the products of interest, their history and craft process.

Potential for learning or transfer

This experience could be easily disseminated in other countries and contexts because the craft sector needs to find and follow new strategies to approach the digitization affair everywhere. It means that the crafts sector could benefit a lot of all those digital tools to valorise and enhance its own skills and precious traditions. Ingredients are: a craft SME, designers, and an expert organisation in technological tools. Results will be many and diverse, the aim is to open the boundaries to new approaches that will support productions, the safeguard of traditions and survival of an economic sector that live in symbiosis with culture, territories and communities. The GP is low cost, not too much time consuming and the main pillars for its implementation are easy to find on any territory, so highly transferable. The technologies are wide spread and easy to learn as part of the everyday modern culture and uses.