Description In the context of understanding the complex phenomenon of violent religious radicalization, this map details the journey of foreign fighters to the territories of the Caliphate. The data were retrieved from official organizations, research centers and consortiums that make these data publicly available. "According to figures collected by the Soufan Group, between 27,000 to 31,000 people including women and children who would not normally engage in conflict have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight in the region. Reasons that these people join any extremist group seem to depend on where they come from." — Wikipedia Starting from the data about the movements of the fighters from their home countries to the combat fields, the project studies the role of social, religious and economic indexes that might influence the reality of each individual and that could be crucial in driving the need to look for equilibrium elsewhere missing.





The countries of origin are placed horizontally by the distance from the fighters' common destination. The size measures the country's Muslim population while the vertical distribution represents the country's overall population. This way, a comparison between the worldwide Muslim communities can be performed by the reader.

The key elements of the map are the flows of foreign fighters leaving from all the different countries worldwide to merge into one common entity. It is interesting to notice the relation emerging between the size of the flow and the size of the Muslim community per each country. When this ratio is particularly strong, the country is highlighted in stronger hues of red accordingly. The more intense the color, the more foreign fighters over the country's Muslim population.

The publicly available data from The Soufan Group also provides information about the official number of returnees from the combat field back to their home country. This movement of people is visualized with the yellow flow that leaves the original destination and goes back into the respective countries. Retunrees are not to be intended as "survivors," as the data considered here are not about how many people lost their lives. Tech Specs Print: 58 × 28 cm (22.8 × 11 in) Team Serena Del Nero

Marco Mezzadra

Claudia Pazzaglia

Alessandro Riva

Alessandro Zotta







DensityDesign final synthesis studio Design process The project was developed during the 2016/2017 edition of DensityDesign final synthesis studio, with the aim of learning to observe and represent controversial phenomena from different perspectives, and to visually communicate them to different publics. The topic of radicalization was chosen among the “Societal challenges” identified by the European Union as the most urgent. Throughout the project and research we narrowed down this macro-topic until we identified the specific controversy of violent religious radicalization in relation to the extremist organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Phase 1 Exploring official data The course was structured in three main phases, each one with the objective of facing the different problems related to information visualization, although through distinctive and different outputs. The data visualization on the journey of foreign fighters were the final output of the first phase of the course, in which we were asked to choose, use and communicate official data sources. The design process was greatly supported by the course material and bibliography, as well as direct revisions of the work with the professors. Special attention was given to the design of the visual model of the representation to illustrate our academic learnings of the theory and history of data visualization. In addition to the visualization, as a team we also designed a complementary website that expands the insights of this research with country-specific contextual information, such as economic, religious and social data. The website is available on Github: Travel the Distance. A simplified version is published on Corriere della Sera — La Lettura Digital. Phase 2 Diving into the web The second phase was dedicated to the study on data from unstructured digital sources. We were provided with a broad range of different tools to harvest, manipulate and analyze data, and earned a deep understanding on how to directly collect and reuse data. The output of this phase is a significant research website in which we studied the communication strategies of the Islamic State and its resonance in both the media and the public. The main challenge that we faced in this phase was to define the protocols to collect our raw material, sometimes even by building our own codes and tools. The research website is published on DensityDesign: IS a brand. Phase 3 Visualization for advocacy The last phase, the third, was the most experimental. The focus was on the public communication of the topic using the data collected in the previous phase, creating an installation that allows the guests to physically “enter” the dataset. The way we designed the installation, creates engagement within the visitor at first sight and provides a shocking revelation at the entrance, which becomes the narrative key for the unfolding storytelling through which the results of our research are delivered. The installation includes data-posters, data-video and data-audio pieces as well as physical data-sculptures to be touched and explored by hand. To see the project that we deisgned and built for this phase, please visit the teaser mini-site: JOIN US. Visual Data Corriere della Sera – La Lettura On December 31st, 2016, the visualization was published on Corriere della Sera – La Lettura #266, the Sunday cultural supplement of the leading Italian newspaper. The map is featured in the Visual Data section together with an article by Lorenzo Cremonesi.















Feature interview Market Cafe Magazine — Issue 2 In July 2017, the work on the journey of foreign fighters was published on the second issue of Market Cafe Magazine along with a feature interview focused on the importance of collaborating in a multidisciplinary team. We also talked about our design process and how an academic piece became "Best of Show" at the Malofiej Awards. Other authors featured on MCM Issue 2 are Paolo Ciuccarelli, David Hunter, SPIN Unit, Jonas Parnow, Maral Pourkazemi. Market Cafe Magazine is a London-based independent magazine about data visualization. It features stories of exceptional people and mind-blowing works.

Created by Tiziana Alocci and Piero Zagami.