30 March | Case Study Visual Spaces of Change (VSC) | Collaboration between the Research Group CCRE - CEAU - FAUP and Companhia Instável

The first phase of the 1st Workshop "Alternative Paths: Architecture, Photography and Dance”, part of Visual Spaces of Change (VSC) case study was held on March 30th.

The Alternative Paths: Architecture, Photography and Dance project is an initiative of the research group CCRE-CEAU-FAUP and Companhia Instável (CI), and integrates AAI 2 Lab and scopio Editions into its organization. Alternative Paths (Percursos Alternativos) is born from the collaboration and integration of two projects that, through different forms, relate, question and interpret the urban public space and its transformations: the Visual Spaces in Change (VSC), developed by CCRE-CEAU-FAUP, and Paths through Architecture, developed by CI.'

The first phase of the workshop included (i) two Master Classes, (ii) a guided visit to FAUP and (iii) two exercises / exploratory photography and contemporary dance projects. The guided tour by the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira (FAUP) was led by Lucas Certo, a student of FAUP's 5th year.

After the guided tour, Pedro Leão Neto, architect and professor of Photography curricular units at FAUP and coordinator of the research group Center for Communication and Space Representation (CEMR), carried out the first Master Class, presenting a set of themes related to architecture in photography. Thus, themes such as The Architectural Promenade (Le Corbusier) - how the spectator experiences the space in architecture through a path - and how to translate this experience through a visual photographic narrative; Walkscapes approaching Francesco Careri's idea of walking as an aesthetic practice and the importance of narrative in photography, paying special attention to the visual narratives that are possible to achieve with the development of a photobook.

After lunchtime, Ana Figueira, artistic director of the Companhia Instável, proceeded to the second Master Class and then developed the part of the workshop that was intended to explore the relationship between space, movement, contemporary dance and architecture.

Participants were invited to explore unlikely spaces for the creation and presentation of small contemporary dance exercises and, through them, to better understand the relationship between space and body, as well as to develop a greater critical thinking about these themes.

Guided tour and dance exercises were accompanied by photographers / researchers from the CCRE and AAi 2 Lab group - Ana Miriam, Eduardo Silva and Rita Silva - who developed a first exploratory exercise using a strategy of synchronised cameras to construct some examples of different sequences points of view and expansion of the same situation, interaction and space throughout the workshop.

The first phase of the workshop thus served as an approximation to the themes and exercise that are intended to develop, constituting a brainstorm and a basis for developing a more complete project formed by a set of visual narratives to be created by the participants, of a system of tutoring, being our objective to create the necessary conditions so that later these works can be published either online or in physical support by scopio Editions.

Fotografias de Eduardo Silva e Rita Silva

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