Percezione e immagine mentale: il ruolo della rappresentazione nella trasmissione dei beni culturali

The accessibility to cultural heritage has recently found many opportunities for research and application. The growing attention of numerous museums and associations is to disseminate the heritage of their collections by extending the catchment area of the interested public. In the case of blindness and low vision - conditions that do not allow a visually impaired person to enjoy and appreciate the "visual" arts fully - it is possible to implement translations of works based on the specific perceptive needs of visitors. The transmission of cultura! goods takes piace through an act of direct knowledge of the work explored by touch, be it originai or a reproduction: a condition that makes the imperative "forbidden to touch" disappear. With these assumptions, we understand how this approach is revolutionizing the role between the work and the user, a phenomenon that requires a precise translation process, as well as in reorganizing exhibition systems and their museum offerings. In this multidisciplinary field, representation plays a centrai role: the science and technique of drawing integrated with the precepts of tactile perception allow obtaining different modes of tactile reproduction (relief drawing, bas-relief, three-dimensional physical models). Furthermore, the representation aims to project, acquire, transiate, and make copies that, accompanied by a narrative guide during the tactile reading, can transfer a work's compositional and aesthetic contents and generate mental images of the objects explored. The article analyzes the needs of visually impaired users and the related possibilities of enjoying art, examining good practices for translating works and designing an accessible museum itinerary. These aspects must be considered in terms of single reproduction - to configure a mental image of the work and its geometrie, compositional, and symbolic characteristics - and in a spatial organization - using different tactile tools useful for orientation and understanding of form, composition, and content - whether the environment is an exhibition collector or presents itself as an architectural artifact of interest.