UOU

Category: ARTS

  • ARTS: moving bodies – on art and walking

    CONTENT / In this workshop we will explore different approaches and methods in relation to moving and sensing bodies. We will look briefly at how artist and thinkers have used walking as a means to think, create and converse different terrains.

    Together we will examine how walking in certain situations affects our knowledge, that we gain from experience, literacy and landscape views from the perspective of art.  Participants will be invited to take part in a few exercises that are based around walking and to look at their own movement and walk through their environments and try ways to make that visible.

    Participants can expect to walk indoors and outdoors, to sketch their ideas and make documentation of their movement, to share ideas and to discuss their own and others, to view work of others.

     

    AIMS / To explore different ways of walking and collecting, measuring, thinking and sensing.

    To gain insight into environmental, societal and personal layers of urban or natural landscapes.

    To create visual documentation of these explorations.

     

    EVALUATION / Assessment will be based on the following learning outcomes. Participants should be able to:

    • discuss different examples of walking for example in artworks, texts or exhibitions.
    • to engage independently with the course material, through discussion, writing or visual methods in their own work.

     

    SCHEDULE / Prior to the workshop an audio lecture will be made available for participants to listen to before the 11th of May.

    Tuesday 11th of May

    Presentation of outline

    Small group discussions

    Walking exercise

    Discussions

     

    Bibliography / Selected pages from the publications will be made available before the workshop.

    – Careri, F. (2017). Walkscapes: Walking as an aesthetic practice. Ames. Culicidae Architectural Press.

    – Solnit, R. (2000). Wanderlust: A history of walking. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

     

    Iceland University of the Arts /

    Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir (gunndis@lhi.is)

     

  • ARTS: small scale and isolated occurrences – on art and the precarious

    CONTENT /

    In this workshop we will pay attention to the margins of our visibility: the precarious, ephemeral, fragile, unstable. Based on the radicality of contemporary artistic practices, participants will be invited to reflect on their daily lives. Each participant will be proposed to use video as a privileged tool to document ephemeral actions, small occurrences and / or precarious situations that reconfigure their relationship or perception of the reality in which we live. It is proposed to introduce a certain form of slowness into the gaze, because what is intended is not just an observation but a stopped view. It is a repair: seeing it a second time and giving new opportunities not only to the object but to the visibility itself. As if the number of half-glances and overflows that we dedicate to things is harmful to this ethics that remains in expectation in the encounter with each look.

    At the end, all videos will be compiled into a single video mosaic that will show all the small occurrences, poetic micro-actions that the participants performed simultaneously and in a loop. This video object resulting from a collective artistic process will later be hosted on the UOU website.

     

     

    PLAN/

     

    Session 1

    Presentation.

    1. a) Framework of the workshop, objectives and working plan.
    2. b) Presentation and setting of the work proposal.

     

    Session 2

    Expository presentation of the working proposal where the supervisors will analyse some contemporary artistic projects that can inform the students’ projects.

     

    Session 3

    Forum to discuss projects and debate ideas. Monitoring of work.

     

    Session 4

    Presentation of the individual projects. Viewing of the videos.

     

     

    Faculty of Fine Arts of The University of Porto (PORTUGAL)

     

    Fernando José Pereira (efejotape@me.com)

    Samuel J M Silva (samuel.jm.silva@gmail.com)

     

  • ARCH + ARTS: competition / research: MATTER ON LINES. MARBLE

    CONTENT / What it is relevant on Architecture and Art, talking about objects is the matter. Matter as a physical substance that create atmospheres, relations and light.

    The proposal for the workshop is to create matter with lines. MARBLE IS A HARD ROCK THAT HAS A PATTERN OF LINES GOING THROUGH IT THAT CAN BE POLISHED TO BECOME SMOOTH AND SHINY. Using the definition of Marble, we are going to create matter with a pattern of lines that could be smooth and shiny.

     

    AIMS / To understand the presence of the matter in our projects.

    To relate drawings, physical models and video as a way to produce an architectonical_artistic project.

     

    METHOD / The students will use the drawing to create matter. We will draw lines and model them to create a space as a matter.

    Finding opportunities of Multimedia Dawing_Model_Video relationships to start with a project.

     

    Part 1: Draw. Individual Work.

    Select a piece of marble and draw the lines that constitute the matter of the stone.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY / “Power of ten”. Charles and Ray Eames:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0&t=14s

     

    Part 2: Model. Group Work.

    Transform the lines into a three_dimensional object.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY / “Cloud Cities and Solar balloon travel”. Tomas Sarraceno:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61fybvkZiDE

     

    Part 3: Video. Group Work.

    Find a Program that matches with the matter of our project.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY / Silk Pavilion – Mediated Matter Group, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnH1C5rJ94k

     

    SCHEDULE / Easter Workshop:

     

    29 -31 March

    EASTER 1-12 April

    13-16 April

     

    EVALUATION / Jury: UOU professors. 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize.

     

    Alicante University (SPAIN) / Joaquín Alvado Bañón (joaquin.alvado@ua.es)

    + Javier Sánchez Merina (jsm@ua.es)

     

  • ARTS: maps of memory (places of remembrance)

    CONTENT / TO COME IN CONTACT with ourselves and with our to have become through lifetime (bonnländer 2019): Places of Remembrance – A practical experiment to reconstruct memories through developing a city map

    People who suffer from dementia, for example Alzheimer’s, suffer from memory loss. Events that occurred long ago, but which can be emotionally significant for us, often lie in childhood. But in what ways can we bring back to life emotionally significant memories for our present life or for the development of new designs for ourselves and for being recognized as a person instead of a patient? How can a world and an architecture for persons who suffer from dementia look like – so that their live can be a personal live? The philosopher, psychotherapist and art therapist Karl-Heinz Menzen says that exercises that support the reconstruction of places from childhood stimulate emotional memory. And that re-associating personal memory with time and space as a system of coordination is critically responsible for the capacity of memory. His practical ideas are based on neurologically-oriented theories of the structure of the brain, of rehabilitation. By connecting to neuronal networking intact brain areas, such as the areas of long-term memory reconstruction of memory performance thus the ability to remember is activated. He focuses on training through a methodical approach in the art therapeutic setting to promote the relationship to space and time and the own personality in its individual and historical aspects. According to Menzen, impulses for the reconstruction of memory, for example are places of childhood – “Our hometown”. With the support of an art therapist, the old people draw streets of the place from their own childhood like an architect on a large piece of paper assembled for everyone and then replicate the houses that were formerly inhabited (Menzen, 2008, p. 63 f).

    Keywords: Interdisciplinary aspects of architecture – Fine Arts, Art Therapy, Memory of Emotions, Dementia, Alzheimer

    AIMS / The aim is to come in contact with our memories and to build a map and to tell about the experience after. The students investigate whether and which memories are brought to life with this method. They observe whether details become more and more detailed, whether there are special smells and colors, surface textures, haptic or acoustic memories. Whether long-forgotten people appear with whom they are perhaps connected by a special event or who have played an important role in their lives. As we sketch and model in ever greater detail, we investigate whether narratives emerge during this process and whether we want to share them with others.

    SUMMARY OUTCOMES To bring together – synchronize – space and time in this specific method support remembering and the ability of being in contact with the own emotions, related to the awoked sensual aspects, that are experienced while creative working – f.e. – hammering – noise, vibration, rhythm – reminding of sounds and sensations of the past, relating to the actual moment.

    Drawing and building the (emotional) objects of remembering in context of space awoke inner pictures and stimulates associated atmospheric memories and so it creates narratives: f.e. from the wallpaper with pattern of roses to the memory of elegant parties, music and athmosphere of the parents house.
    To tell and show after reconstructing promotes the communication into the social group. To listen to the stories and see the visual representations of biografic memories transport them into an actualized space and moment. Both – social space and the concrete perceptive space of the moment relate to past and present of an individuum and of a society.

    This method transferred to a working situation with a person suffering from dementia it enables both – the individuums of the group of clients, and the accompanying artist to make the whole personality recognizable in the relation. Emotions, experiences aspects of identity, qualities of the person / character – of past and present become awoke in the actual relation Architects can reflect on their professional practice in a playful way, getting impulses by both personal and cultural – historical aspects of experienced places and spaces – connected to their own experienced past or to the cultural and historically – different – memories of collegues. (Connert und Bonnländer, 2019).

    METHOD / First we draw and reconstruct a map of the places of our childhood: the streets and places around, the buildings and the environment. We will reconstruct the house of our parents or the people we grew up with, for example with clay. We all work on our own map or city map at the same time. This way we can hear the sounds of the other participants. Afterwards we want to show and to reflect and exchange our experiences and observations.

    Working Instruction: Draw a memory of a residency place in childhood, for example also the pathways to school and so on… – in a map perspective, after having the plan, add memory specific details like situations, experiences, by drawing, painting, or in any other way for example threedimensional with clay or with tape Materials you need: A big paper for the city map, drawing materials – pencils, water colors or other colors, Scissors, brushes or crayons to paint. Materials to build houses on the map, for example clay, cardboard, strong paper, glue, adhesive tapes. Please send the foto of your object in JPEG 200 ppi during the first day workshop to us.

     

    1st day: Introduction, Group work, show the city-map in JPEG 200 ppi.

    2nd day: to show and tell.

     

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students: Introduction, Development and to show part 1 / 16 Feb 2021.

     

    EVALUATION /

    Part 2 Final Crit / 23 Feb 2021.

    1. To sensitize oneself to oneself and others by exploring the importance of memories of childhood places.
    2. Did I succeed in bringing back to life memories of my childhood by reconstructing streets and houses in a map of the place of my childhood?
    3. How does my memory of the place of my childhood change after I have worked out a map of it? What do I generate? What emerges, what changes – memories of events, colors, sounds, objects, characteristics of materials or surfaces, ideas of space?
    4. Are there emotions involved? Which one?
    5. What is the meaning of the fact that I created my city map by my own hand, without digital tools? Please observe your sensuality in your hands, your sense of space…
    6. Students can show and explain their city map to others and exchange experiences with others.
    7. They can reflect on a meta-level and describe how two-dimensional and three- dimensional processes work in combination with biography.
    8. Students deal with related sciences and interdisciplinary aspects.
    9. Explore possibilities of how to support people suffering from forgetting in the field of space and time through sensitive spatial development.

    Bibliography /

    Menzen, K.-H. (2008). Art therapy with people confused by age (2nd ed.), 53-70. Munich: Ernst Reinhardt Connert, S. (2019). Ein Leben mit Demenz im hohen Lebensalter. Beispiele aus der Kunsttherapie.

    Forum für Kunsttherapien – Die Fachzeitschrift des GPK, 47(1), 8-11. https://www.theatertherapie.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Forum_-Heft_2_Lebensalter_Mai_2019.pdf

     

    Academy of Fine Arts Munich (GER) /

    Senta Connert (connert@adbk.mhn.de)
    Katja Bonnländer (bonnlaender@adbk.mhn.de )

     

  • ARCH+ARTS: the space for learning as a landscape of life

    CONTENT / Many changes have been in the architecture profession since Journey to the East was written: A diary of Le Corbusier’s trip in 1911. This book is a collection of visual notations, or impressions perceived by Le Corbusier as a visitor to a number of cities in Southeast Europe. Later, the acquired disciplinary knowledge acted as an inspiration for his architecture.

    This year we have organized a 2-week workshop travelling to the unknown: to places that have awakened in each of us a need to learn from the local, its technology, culture and society; consolidating links of specialisation. It is also an experience to empathize Architecture as a Comparative Study, learning as a trip, a journey as an experience.

    We will discuss and go with our proposals and designs in our desired trips, redefining the limits of architecture by working with the unknown as a way to build up a research.

     

    AIMS / To identify a place as a desire. To work with the imagination as a real context. To describe a place with your experience. To find opportunities in your desires to start with a project. To introduce oneself to the class. To get to know the rest of the future members of your working group. To learn how to contribute to group work.

     

    METHOD / The student’s life and interests as building material. To introduce our personal skills and portfolio into a place. Trip to a new destiny you desire to know.

     

    1st day: Introduce yourself presenting a 3min video with the values of your experiences in the desired destiny.

     

    2nd day: Group work according to your common interests. Connect your destinies into a sequence.

     

    3rd day: Final crit. Design your Zoom setting. Mock-up scale 1:1.

     

    SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:

     

    Introduction / 03-05 Feb 2020.

    Development / 08-11 Feb 2020.

    Final Crit / 12 Feb 2020.

     

    EVALUATION / Develop the answers to 3 questions from these 12:

     

    1. The WORKSHOP proposes that students begin to build a complete thought to tackle projects, to process, organize, view and display information so that “data collection” became proactive rather than an analytical tool. Have I been able to go beyond analysis procedure and convert the project into a proposition display?

     

    1. The students have to learn to criticize their work and to draw conclusions. They have to process systems and models of architectural production, reformulating nonobvious descriptions, focusing their gaze on the invisible structures, not having preconceived ideas, producing unexpected findings, and non-discursive reasoning. Have I used my own ways of expression reformulating descriptions and avoiding the obvious and the use of direct images of the project culture?

     

    1. The student begins to explore architectural expression systems to formalize their projective ideas. How many ways of expression have I used at work and what is the value expressed by each of them?

     

    1. We have to learn to talk and discuss about architectural sustainability criteria, adding the concept of ecological niche project (mental territory, social, material, technical, medium-environmental, etc). Have I addressed the theme of THE WORKSHOP responding to the proposal on the sustainability?

     

    1. We are going to know how to work in-group to discover the roles in production systems. How much information data made in-group have I used to express my project?

     

    1. The students must participate and contribute with their ideas to the class as an essential part of knowledge. What is the intensity used to express my ideas through the architectural expression ways?

     

    1. The students must learn to establish a personal lexicon to express his architectural ideas. Have you expressed your ideas through a personal lexicon, or have you imitated expression systems used by other designers seen in the media (magazines or Internet)?

     

    1. You need positively assess risk and innovation as a necessary condition of design. Innovation defined as the use of allied disciplines to develop intellectual and technical tools to create new realities, within their own reality, exceeding the established models. Do I use allied disciplines for innovative production?

     

    1. The students must enter, step by step, work details the project culture, you must learn to interpret and criticize from their own proposal. How many data have you appropriated from the culture to express my project?

     

    1. You should produce an open system work, with more questions than answers. How many questions have you made throughout the design process and how many have you tried to answer?

     

    1. Skills: Interest in the contribution, regardless of the attitude from which it was generated. What is the interest of my contribution?

     

    1. Attitudes: how to tackle the problem independent of the outcome. Have I solved with intellectual and material effort to present the proposal?

     

    Bibliography / Le Corbusier. Journey to the East. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press, 1987.

     

    Alicante University (SPAIN) /

    Joaquín Alvado Bañón (joaquin.alvado@ua.es)

    Javier Sánchez Merina (jsm@ua.es)

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