The presentation of a set of initiatives promoted under the Visual Spaces of Change (VSC) project was held on January 30that the ESMAD Auditorium. The ESMAD president, Olívia da Silva, started the VSC presentation session, introducing this project as a strategic initiative to an audience composed of students from several ESMAD study cycles, as well as some members of its faculty.
The coordinator of the VSC project, Pedro Leão Neto, framed the core issues of this research project, emphasizing the potential of Photography and Image to reveal identity aspects of communities, architectures and territories, by making visible different modes of appropriation and transformation that occur in the urban space. Based on the preliminary results of this project in its various aspects, several concrete examples of creative exploration of photography and drawing illustrate their communication skills, enhanced by the use of information technologies and combining the Image with various forms of artistic expression.
In this context, it was also presented the International Ideas Contest for the creation of an Exhibitor and Mobile Projector for the exhibition of contemporary photography projects, whose winner will have the opportunity to build and implement the prototype of the solution chosen for the VSC project. The challenge was also launched for students, artists and researchers to participate in the open application for participation in the 1st workshop on Alternative Paths: Architecture, Photography and Dance. The session also featured the presentation of the “A Line in the Landscape” Photography Project, developed by Ana Sofia Santos, alumni of the Master in Audiovisual Communication, within the scope of the Artistic Residence of Póvoa de Varzim.
A significant number of institutions, organizations, researchers, professors and authors with interests in the VSC project – architecture, photography, cultural and artistic production – were among those present, among them Luís Diamantino, Deputy Mayor of Póvoa do Varzim, Lurdes Alves, Deputy Mayor of Vila do Conde, Álvaro Moreira, Head of Heritage Division and Museums of the Municipal Council of Santo Tirso, as well as Mónica Guerreiro, Municipal Director of Culture and Science of the Municipality of Porto, confirming the movement of opening the academy to society, fostering greater social interaction among academics, artists, curators and representatives of several public institutions beyond its traditional areas of activity, increasing its capacity to participate in the public domain, being This is a common goal of CEAU-FAUP and ESM AD – UniMAD, as well as the Visual Spaces of Change project.
The public presentation of these initiatives aims to contribute to open innovative ways of research and visual communication about architecture and public space, focusing on emerging dynamics of urban transformation, through the production of visual narratives on how the different architectures, spaces and territories of the Metropolitan Area are lived and transformed by the various people, cultures and social groups that constitute it as an active society and participant in the process of constant formation and transformation of their collective identity.
See PDF de apresentação
Photography by Eduardo Silva
Text by Eduardo Silva and José Barbedo