Packaging as configuration for access

Abstract

The field of communication design is one which involves language, the evolutionary communicative artefact, the capacity to provide new meanings, etc., but also the ability to read the technologies used to produce communication and the eff ects that they have within the ‘action plan’ of an object. In this context, we have chosen to develop ideas on packaging within a broader study of the environment focusing on ‘design for access’ and to read packaging artefacts according to this perspective. Speaking about access design therefore means reversing the point of view and design priorities.Considerations about the roles and functions of packaging imply, as a consequence, a revision of the artefact which does not have to be limited by the performance and operative dimension of the object. The first line of work is linked to ‘implicit ethics’ and strongly connected to the communicative and informative accessibility of packaging. The second line of research is engaged in developing new forms of appreciation of the term ‘access’. The present research investigates the potentiality of the artefact as an instrument to develop new levels of access to the content itself and to the informative content.