From infographics to anthropology, from memory to literature: the many faces of the art of storytelling are at the core of ICS Magzine new issue, coming out this month. Through different influential points of view, the monographic issue addresses one of the most topical themes in the field of communication, using the cultural dimension as the privileged key to interpretation.

A lot of the contributions enriching this issue are indeed focusing on the concept of storytelling, seen not only as an engagement technique – typical of these days – but as a typically human and socially shared desire to listen to stories. It’s a need that connects the most ancient tribal communities, captured by the photographer Jimmy Nelson, to the current digital scenery where, according to Frank Rose – one of the top experts on the subject – immersiveness allows to find “a new physicality”.

But storytelling means also visual narration,  as reminded in the interviews with John Grimwade, the infographics guru, and with Steve Duenes, graphic director of the New York Times, and it means also cinematographic narration, as explained by the anthropologist André Singer, who retraces the relations between politics and the camera. To finally get to history as a collective construction according to Michael Dobbs, who in the long cover story leads his interlocutors from the White House to Europe, to what he defines as “the best story ever told”, deserving – according to him – to be still celebrated.