Le mille e una villa is a project supported by the Istituto Regionale Ville Venete and produced by Archipelagus, a collective of people with different, complementary professional skills, with the objective of building a multidisciplinary platform aimed at improving knowledge and appreciation of the district. Intended mainly for primary school students, the project arose out of the desire to integrate the experience of a villa visit with further individual or collective study using digital tools, precisely those of their generation. The star and guide of the video game is Piropiro, a character inspired by a small aquatic bird very common along the watercourses of Veneto, the piropiro (sandpiper). The game is an ideal journey along the river Brenta, from Venice to Villa Venier Contarini, headquarters of the IRVV.
The little players are encouraged to observe the details of a scene, to understand the significance of the objects and complete the meaning of the story they are told using the simple drag and drop mechanism. The world in which they are immersed is made up of soft colours, light shadings and textures that highlight what is intentionally two dimensional. It is a simple world of cardboard, almost ‘handmade’, inspired by puppet theatres or shadow theatres, which provides the background to the story of villa life. Once the games have been completed, children can upload drawings and photographs online, such as to make Le mille e una villa a place of comparison and shared growth.