Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

i2ADS is an R&D Unit based at the Faculty of Fine Arts of University of Porto, Portugal (FBAUP).

Its mission is to promote research in the fields of Fine Arts, Design, Drawing and Performing Arts, with an emphasis on the practical and educational impact of artistic research in society. The main goals are the creation of a shared research culture between artistic areas to inform and enhance its practice and the promotion of debates regarding the social, cultural and technological frames of art and design.

i2ADS’ organization comprises Research Programs and Art-Based Labs on Arts Education, Critique and Society; Interculturality and Society; Artistic Production, Processes and Technological Studies; Artistic Practice, Politics and Social Engagement; Computation, Hybrid Practices and Culture; and Drawing Across Disciplines. The Unit supports two Doctoral Programs (Fine Arts and Art Education) at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto.

Its team is composed of researchers from the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Architecture (University of Porto) and the School of Music and Performing Arts (Polytechnic of Porto), PhD FCT grants and collaborating researchers from several Universities.

i2ADS is an Institutional and Portal member of the Society of Artistic Research (SAR) and the European Educational Research Association (EERA).

DRAWinU

DRAWinU — Drawing Across University Borders.

status	active
portal	i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society
admins	Fabrício Fava, Paulo Luís Almeida
members	Paulo Luís Almeida, RC i2ADS, Marina Vale Guedes, David Lopes

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PÁR-A-GEM

PÁR-A-GEM — The importance of Time in times of Time compression within contemporary artistic practices

status	active
portal	i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society
admins	Fabrício Fava, Paulo Luís Almeida
members	RC i2ADS

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OPDrawing

OPDrawing — The Observation of Perception, considered through Drawing

status	active
portal	i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society
admins	Fabrício Fava, Paulo Luís Almeida
members	Mike Croft

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2SMART

The intersection of art and science, or art and engineering, or art and technology, is a common trope since the 1960s when collectives such as “E.A.T.” were formed to explore and promote collaborations with the then-new technologies. But this “intersection of art and technology” is often bandied about in somewhat unclear terms about what it may mean and what its results can be. Art and technology don’t so much intersect as they almost overlap, at least in the sense that we cannot even fathom art without technology. To be realised, art demands a medium and hence, technology. Art cannot be without technology; art is unthinkable without technology. We can frequently witness two types of dynamics in art and technology collaborations. The first is when art works as a function of technology, towards technology, becoming somewhat goal-driven in its aim. This is where we can find commissions with motivations squarely grounded in technology and science. The second is where we find technology and science providing resources to art, such as new materials, tools, methods, etc., that artists use in their work. Occasionally, these can even be developed at the artists’ demand, but they can also result from independent research subsequently put at the artists’ disposal. Neither of these constitute modes of collaboration in which both parties are led to outputs resulting in effective contributions to both fields and where real synergies are developed or where the arrow points both ways. Is this type of synergy possible? Can art and technology cooperate? What can art bring to technology, engineering, and science? Can it produce effective contributions to these fields? i2ADS’s participation in the 2SMART project was steered towards two closely related, albeit quite different, goals. One of these was focused on communication design and communicating science by exploring data visualisation and other media design techniques for the sciences. The communication processes of scientific and engineering teams — those in the 2SMART project, but also in a broader sample of the Portuguese science and technology ecosystem — were studied with the goal of understanding their most frequent needs and of devising design patterns that could be used as tools for researchers to deal with design decisions when designers may not be available. This led to direct contributions to scientists’ and engineers’ design literacy and indirect contributions to a broader scientific literacy. Furthermore, this effort also allowed us to map other needs and opened avenues for future research within i2ADS and the Faculty of Fine Arts. Another goal was focused on art. However, rather than promoting collaborations with science and technology, it aimed to foster creation in a context of science, technologies, and engineering, bringing artists to the laboratories for creative residences for extended periods of time. André Rangel in NANO4MED lab, Carolina Grilo Santos in the Processes Products and Energy group, and Catarina Braga in the Environmental Sciences and Technologies group, all labs of LEPABE, developed processes of artistic research in the labs, exploring and discovering its spaces, the people that work in them, and the technologies, materials and processes they work with. At the start of each of these residences, the artists didn’t have constraints beyond a maximum duration for the residence and the expectation of showcasing the outcomes of their work in an individual show at the Library of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. The residences resulted in very diverse works — in media, concepts, approaches, and in the focus developed by each artist during the residence — leading to the different ways that the works resonate with the contexts where they were developed. However, we may also discover convergent traits in the works, perhaps because of their shared history or the forces that shaped them. With this cycle of residences, we tried to bring the epistemological processes of art to sciences and engineering, to look at STEM processes through the perspective of art, something which may lead to the development of new critical perspectives and to a reframing and reorganisation process that can only be developed through art. In this final show, which also marks the project’s conclusion, the three works are brought together and confronted in the Gallery of the Museum of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, provoking further dialogue between the works and the technologies that brought them to be.

status	active
portal	i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society
admins	Fabrício Fava
members	Ana Duarte

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  Desenho e Observação para Médicos (last edited: 2023) author(s): Marina Vale Guedes connected to: i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  PT Desenho e observação para médicos é uma Unidade Curricular de Competências Transversais que promove o ensino do desenho, adaptado aos estudantes de medicina e medicina dentária da Universidade do Porto. Esta UC desafia os estudantes a reconhecerem a importância do desenho e da sua linguagem visual como um instrumento de apoio à aprendizagem enquadrado na sua formação académica. Considerando que o ensino da Medicina se apoia na observação do corpo humano e das imagens que o representam, a prática do desenho pode tornar-se útil não só no entendimento da Anatomia, mas também como uma ferramenta importante de comunicação entre médicos e pacientes. A possibilidade de entender e comunicar construindo as próprias imagens contribui para consolidar e complementar competências cognitivas e comunicacionais relevantes para as suas áreas de formação. O desenvolvimento desta UC está integrado no projeto de investigação DRAWinU – Drawing Across University Borders (i2ADS-FBAUP). EN Drawing and observation for doctors is a course of drawing specially created for medicine and dentistry students at the University of Porto. This course challenges students to recognize the importance of drawing and its visual language as a learning tool to support their academic training. Considering that teaching within medicine context is based on the observation of the human body and the images that represent it, the practice of drawing can become useful not only in understanding anatomy but also as an important tool for communication between doctors and patients. The possibility of understanding and communicating through their images helps to consolidate and complement cognitive and communication skills relevant to their areas of training. The development of this course is part of the research project DRAWinU – Drawing Across University Borders (i2ADS-FBAUP).
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  [in]visible_seeing the invisible (last edited: 2023) author(s): Margarida Dias, Maria Lurdes Gomes connected to: i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  On March 14th 2023 took place the 1st seminar, "Seeing the invisible" of the project "[in]visible - [in]visibility of identities in Portuguese 1st-grade elementary textbooks of Social & Environmental Studies after 1974", at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (Portugal). For the reflection and critical analysis of the illustration works, there was the participation of the illustrators Júlio Dolbeth, Rui Vitorino Santos, Samuel Moura, the guests Catarina Casais, Daniela Fraga Gomes, Inês Capelo, Joana Carneiro, and in addition to the team, the external consultant Fernando Hernández-Hernández (U. Barcelona). Cristina Ferreira and Fabrício Fava took photographs. Through practical and creative proposals, the seminar aimed to think and problematize the illustration in 1st-grade elementary Social & Environmental Studies textbooks published in Portugal in the last 2 decades.
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  Atlas de Anatomia (last edited: 2023) author(s): Marina Vale Guedes connected to: i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  PT O desenho faz parte da história da Anatomia e serviu, durante vários séculos, como um instrumento complementar da observação e representação do corpo humano. Foi através do desenho que se documentou a evolução de um percurso carregado de descobertas, no qual se destaca a importância da representação como um veículo revelador do conhecimento e das teorias desenvolvidas por médicos e anatomistas. Atualmente, e apesar do aparecimento da fotografia e consequente evolução tecnológica, o desenho continua a fazer parte do estudo da anatomia marcando presença nos manuais utilizados pelos estudantes. A sua importância é tão preponderante para o entendimento das estruturas anatómicas que alguns estudantes de medicina procuram replicar as ilustrações observadas nos atlas com o objetivo de entender e memorizar a sua morfologia, posicionamento e respetiva nomenclatura. O renovado interesse pela prática do desenho motivou a criação deste atlas de referências visuais, dedicado aos estudantes da unidade curricular de Desenho e Observação para Médicos, a partir do qual se procura por um lado criar uma contextualização histórica sobre a prática do desenho associada ao estudo da anatomia e por outro problematizar a exploração das técnicas e estratégias gráficas utilizadas na análise e representação do corpo humano. EN Drawing is an essential part in Anatomy’s history and served, for several centuries, as a complementary instrument to observe and represent the human body. It was through drawing that the evolution of a path laden with discoveries, in which the importance of representation was a vehicle to reveal knowledge and theories developed by physicians and anatomists. Despite the later appearance of photography and the consequent technological progress linked with it, drawing continues to be present in the manuals used by students as a standard tool to understand human anatomy. Its importance is sometimes so overpowering for understanding anatomical structures that some medical students choose to replicate the illustrations seen in anatomy books to understand and memorize their morphology, positioning, and respective nomenclature. The renewed interest in the practice of drawing motivated the creation of this visual atlas, dedicated to students of the module Drawing and Observation for Physicians. The main objectives were, on the one hand, to create a historical context about the practice of drawing associated with the study of anatomy and, on the other hand, problematize the exploration of graphic techniques and strategies used in the analysis and representation of the human body.
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  Espelho meu | Performance/installation for voice, body and image (last edited: 2023) author(s): Bruno Pereira, Pedro Santos connected to: i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  This exposition presents and explores all the creative process related to the performance Espelho meu, premiered in March 2017, in Porto, Portugal. From its assumptions and creative contextualization, we deepen our reflection and explore a possible outcome materialized in this work. It's the materialization of a creative thought, a creative process, into the artistic gesture of the performer. We believe that the creation of new performances is the only effective way to develop the contemporary performative scene. New performances that raise questions and multiple layers of understanding promoting new visions of the world and new possibilities. In this paper, we will briefly discuss the role of improvisation in the process of creating a vocal gesture that externalizes an inner thought, the role of the body and the energy of the performance, the non-imposed but important interaction with the audience, the relevance of the text as semantical and sound object, the choice of the concept mirror and its symbolical impact, the cross paths between artistic practice and technology and the artistic exploration of the performance after its physical existence in time, consolidated in the performative resonance as a creative tool to stretch time and to provocate the ephemerality of performance.
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  LABORATÓRIO F. - the revolt of native species (last edited: 2023) author(s): Susana Soares Pinto connected to: i2ADS - Research Institute in Art, Design and Society This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  LABORATÓRIO F. is a meeting place between species: fungus, flora, fauna, human,.. . This is part of SHS (soil, health and surrounding) project from the UP (University of Porto) which is developing a multidisciplinary research work group focused on three mineral mines in the north of Portugal. Soil remediation and the involvement of local communities are priorities. Planting actions, constructing a pond complemented with knowledge exchanges about native diversity and mine history surrounded by ruins from extractivism. Finding new approaches between species is mandatory.
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  A Change in Perception (last edited: 2022) author(s): Garry Barker This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
  An artist’s narrative that sets out to introduce the starting point for a new body of evolving work that will grow out of an interrogation of somatic perception and interoception. As the corona virus pandemic emerged the artist Garry Barker had just been given a commission to develop a series of playing cards that were designed to help people develop conversations about their bodies. However lockdown prevented many proposed activities taking place, initial packs of cards were produced but they couldn’t be used to play the suggested games, and the artist was asked if he could develop an online version. The artist’s research then began to change direction and questions were asked about the nature of perception itself, the body and somatic awareness. Research was refocused on inner body perception and neuropsychology and associated drawings were made in response to a growing awareness of internal body schemas, together with visualizations of relationships between interoception and exteroception. Gradually what emerged was the artist’s realization of how important his own imagination was in building images of how we feel about our inner bodies.
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