Design as Cultural Heritage in the Age of Digital Platforms. Unconventional Archives and Collaborative Practices

This research investigates visual communication design as a form of cultural heritage, situating itself within a historical phase marked by epistemic instability and profound technological transformations. In this context, the definition and narration of design become problematic, due to the fragmentation of sources, the unstable nature of archives, and the growing multiplicity of voices emerging from widespread and grassroots practices. The thesis proposes to consider design as a dynamic and constantly redefined form of heritage, characterized by a relational and “spectral” dimension, in which institutional and informal practices, distributed memories, and digital infrastructures coexist. The investigation develops along three main axes: the recognition of design as cultural heritage; the role of digital platforms and algorithms in shaping and legitimizing design narratives; and the forms of public participation, increasingly involving users as prosumers and co-creators, while also subjecting them to extractive dynamics. From a methodological perspective, the research adopts an exploratory and interpretive approach, in which method is understood as a flexible practice capable of holding together analytical rigor and interpretive sensitivity. Within this framework, concepts developed in the twentieth century—such as the archaeology of knowledge (Foucault, 1969) and the evidential paradigm (Ginzburg, 1979)—are mobilized, moving across archives, digital platforms, and informal sources. The investigation proceeds through traces and fragments, avoiding predefined analytical grids and privileging the observation of the practices through which design heritage is constructed, shared, and transformed over time. Finally, the thesis highlights the need for a methodological shift toward ethnographic and social approaches, capable of valuing micro-histories, everyday practices, and the active role of users in the construction of heritage. In this sense, design emerges not as an autonomous or closed discipline, but as an open space of cultural negotiation, memory, and meaning-making, in tension between democratization and logics of extraction and appropriation.