The presentation of a set of initiatives promoted under the Visual Spaces of Change (VSC) project was held at the Rectory of the University of Porto (U.P.) on January 23rd. The Deputy Dean for Culture, Museums and Editions of the UP, Fátima Vieira, introduced the theme of the International Drawing and Photograph Competition, Space and Identity of the UP Faculties, summarizing and justifying the pertinence of the theme to a fundamental question: who we are and what we want to be as a collective belonging to this centennial institution that is the University of Porto.

The coordinator of the VSC project, Pedro Leão Neto, framed these questions within the scope of this research project, emphasizing the potential of Photography and Image to reveal identity aspects of communities, architectures and territories, making visible different modes of appropriation and transformation that occur in the urban space. Based on the preliminary results of this project in its several aspects, several concrete examples of creative exploration of photography and drawing, its communication potential with the use of information technologies, and the combined use of the Image with various forms of artistic expression were presented.

In this context, the International Ideas Contest was also presented for the creation of an Exhibitor and Mobile Projector for the exhibition of contemporary photography project, 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 public presentation of these initiatives intends to contribute to open innovative research and visual communication paths on 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 U.P. are used, 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.

The broad spectrum of representatives of the various faculties of the UP that participated in this public presentation demonstrate the interest aroused by this initiative, which gave space at the end of the succession to diverse but convergent contributions to the will to open more and more the academy to the society, thus contributing to increase the capacity of the University to participate in the cultural life of the city of Porto and to project its cultural values and social and environmental patrimony on a regional and international scale.

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Photography by Eduardo Silva
Text by José Barbedo