2ND EDITION OF THE AAI DEBATES AT MIL-UP
On the past 12th of December the second series of the AAI debates - Architecture, Art and Image took place at the Media Inovation Laboratories of the University of Porto (MIL-UP), in which scopio Editions was part of the organization together with the research group CCRE - CEAU from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), MIL-UP and the Laboratory of Architecture, Art, Image and Inovation (AAi2Lab).The second edition of AAI was dedicated to the project Visual Spaces of Change. After the presentation of the project by Pedro Leão Neto, two roundtables have been held along the day.
The theme of the morning's round table was "Image and Transformation of Public Space: the use of Photograph as an Instrument to Research and Question the City" - in this debate opened to a full audience, several research papers were presented in the scope of documentary photography and (FBAUP), followed by interventions by Manuela Matos Monteiro (SPACE MIRA), José Miguel Rodrigues (FAUP), Pedro Bandeira (Faculty of Architecture U.Minho), Luís Gonzaga (Center ALGORITMI U.Minho) and Pedro Moura (Metro do Porto).
In the afternoon, the second roundtable was presented with the theme "Visual Research Methods and Transdisciplinary Approaches for the Construction of Bridges Between Architecture, Art And Image." This table was attended by and presented by architects, photographers, academics, curators and artists such as Daniel Moreira and Rita Castro Neves, Andreia Garcia (Architect and Curator), Isa Clara Neves (Investigadora de Pós Doutoramento / Ces), Susana Lourenço Marques and José Carneiro (FBAUP), Francisco Adão da Fonseca and Pedro Jervel (SKREI), Lara Jacinto (Photographer), David Viana (CM Porto) and Manuela Pinto (MIL / New Media for Heritage Lab).
The VSC presentation and subsequent debates, besides other things, allowed to explore diverse ways of how contemporary photography can be explored as a meaningful instrument of research about contemporary processes of urban change, producing visual synthesis about how architectures, places and spaces are used and lived, rendering visible aspects which are difficult to perceive without the purposeful use of image and photography.The wide range of institutions, organizations, groups, researchers and authors with an interest in architecture, cultural and artistic production, from inside and outside the academia world, that participated in this second edition of AAI debates confirmed the relevance of this initiative for opening academia to society, fostering greater social interaction among researchers, artists and curators beyond their traditionally circumscribed spaces of action, expanding their capacity to participate in the public domain, which is a common objective of the AAI debates, the MIL-UP Laboratories and the project Visual Spaces of Change.