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The Visual Storytelling as a Way to Create Knowledge and Empathy Between Generations in Academic Institutions

Authors:
The Visual Storytelling as a Way to Create Knowledge and Empathy Between
Generations in Academic Institutions
Rui Vitorino Santos, University of Porto, Portugal
The Barcelona Conference on Arts, Media & Culture 2020
Official Conference Proceedings
Abstract
How can academic institutions value and promote the knowledge of retired professors
and researchers in the field of design and art? The answer to this question induces a
plurality of possibilities that share a common conclusion - Institutions could and
should do more. This paper focuses on a pedagogical experience that explored the
approach of a new generation of students to a group of retired professors and
researchers from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (Portugal),
through the construction of graphic narrative artefacts. We started working from an
archive made by interviews, visual and sound documents that collect the pedagogical,
scientific, artistic and biographical knowledge and legacy of each professor or
researcher. It was from these materials that each student worked, first bringing
together elements that enabled the construction of the universe and particularities of
each interviewee and, finally, producing narratives that offer a critical vision of a
retired generation. We used the visual storytelling, for its ability to combine different
signs in the representation of the real and symbolic and for its creative and
communicational potential. The final publications proved that the knowledge of the
retired generation is dynamic and useful for the new generations. Its legacy is
fundamental for the understanding of the future of academic institutions and must be
worked, visible and celebrated.
Keywords: Visual Storytelling, Graphic Narratives, Wisdom Transfer, Institutional
Memory, Individual and Collective Memory
iafor!!
The International Academic Forum
www.iafor.org
Introduction
The result of the pedagogical practice that we will describe happened within the
project Wisdom Transfer / Transfer of Wisdom: Towards the scientific inscription of
individual legacies in contexts of retirement from art and design higher education and
research (WT), under development at ID + Research Institute for Design, Media
and Culture, at the University of Porto (Portugal). This activity is one of several
actions that materialized the aims of the WT project. The results obtained illustrate a
practical example of the use of this legacy by a new generation of students of design
and illustration within an academic institution of public higher education - The
Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP).
The material produced identifies, rethinks and values a material and immaterial
heritage of some of the retired teaching members and researchers at FBAUP, which
the WT project intended to archive, optimize and streamline, once
"[…] stems from the evidence that there is insufficient inscription and use of
individual knowledge and experience of ageing and retired art and design professors
and researchers. It hypothesizes that the legitimization of practice-led wisdom in art
and design research will greatly contribute to the scope and depth of the discipline, as
well as inform its role as a multi-disciplinary interface" (Alvelos & Barreto, 2019).
A scientific, artistic and human knowledge constituted by different types of dispersed
material such as pedagogical, scientific, artistic and graphic practices or stories of the
interviewed, about the institution, city, country, among others, which, when brought
together in an archive, enabled new exploratory approaches to the investigation of this
legacy – which is intended to be dynamic.
It is from this living archive of knowledge that different possibilities have been built
for the use of this heritage and in particular where the focus of this article is inscribed,
which contextualizes and reflects on a set of graphic narratives that propose and
materialize the dialogue between a new generation of students with this group of
retired FBAUP professors and researchers. To this end, we use visual storytelling as a
catalyst for the transfer of transgenerational knowledge and the enhancement of
transversal skills between the different interlocutors.
From one image to a sequential graphic narrative
Visual and graphic storytelling was chosen as a medium both for the historical
tradition of the illustrated narratives in the context of FBAUP, visible already in some
of the legacy of the elements of this retired generation and continued in several
curricular plans of the study cycles at FBAUP, as well as for the capacity that the
graphic narratives offer in the translation of the diversity of material and immaterial
information from the WT archive. We are interested in thinking that the
characteristics of multimodality, narrative polygraphism and polyphony (Groensteen,
2013:410) that this new generation of students use in the production of images and
texts are ideal to approach the plurality of contexts and materials in the archive,
through the creation of new visual repertoires that are based on affinity, knowledge
sharing, identity and heritage.
A territory of dialogue and intergenerational empathy that graphic narratives can
offer, when used in the interpretation and representation of the real and symbolic
world that exist on the archive interviews, which, being fed by the intersection
between partial and particular memories of the universe of each of the interviewees
and students, allows a creative act where translation processes, plural and
multidirectional reinterpretation are favoured.
What we intend to obtain is not only a quote from the real world that is represented by
the image and sound of the video interview but representations that oscillate between
the image that each student/illustrator builds of that world and what he adds from his
own. In this way, the final result is always a sum between the Self (author) and the
Other (interviewee), which results in a fictionalized and informed narrative that is
built by the interconnection of these two poles. In turn, the final message or its
multiple meanings are dependent on the decoding process of those who observe and
interpret the final graphic narrative. A process that gives rise to a new meaning for
these images, since it happens through the interpretation and reconstruction of
different worlds that are implicit in a narrative composed mostly by images. As
Thierry Groensteen tells us, "The image was defined as utterable, describable,
interpretable and, ultimately, appreciable—all adjectives that put the accent on the
active participation of the reader in the construction of meaning and in the assessment
of the work" (Groensteen, 2013:20).
A type of participation that can happen in a single image, but when combined in a
book format that explores the sequencing of images in combination with text, the
basic structure of comics or graphic narratives becomes fundamental for its
decoding. It is, in reality, the juxtaposition, sequencing and the gaps generated
between images (text and image) and the turn over the pages that creates the narrative
and defines the medium nature of graphic narratives. A multimodality space where
different narrative and semiotic mechanisms are related and interconnected, that
brings together "different semantic systems (figural, textual, symbolic) into a crowded
field where meaning is both collaborative and competitive – between images, between
frames, and between reader and writer" (Gardner, 2012: xi).
A rich ecosystem in connections where different signs interact and create gaps
between themselves, whose decoding is largely dependent on the reader's skills. "As a
result, there are several kinds of gaps […]: texts and their elisions, images and their
ellipses, and the divergence between the codes, all concurring in demanding active
participation from the reader" (Ahmed & Crucifix, 2018:21).
It is important to point out other features of the graphic narratives that led to its choice
as a form of communication and as a repository of the cultural memory of an
institution, that is built by the confluence of individual and collective memories. The
material produced, as mentioned, arises from a previous collection with clear
objectives that went through to archive the legacy of a retired generation of FBAUP
and its availability to the community inside and outside the institution. It is this
cultural memory that the WT archive emanates that guided this pedagogical practice,
that revisits, applies and reconstructs it in other contexts. In this case, we resort to the
graphic narrative again for its singularities, namely the use of text, image and support
- a space where reading the text and images happen at the same time and on the same
surface.
Reading is an act that incorporates several socio-cultural and contextual dimensions
that are conditioned to the cognitive, affective and visual skills of the reader. It is
these dimensions that promoted the reading of the text as an essential competence of
human evolution, a characteristic that educational systems have valued in detriment of
the image. This promotion of the verbal dimension ends up influencing the way we
deal with images which, although they are visual signs with narrative potential for
description and communication, when we orient ourselves towards their
understanding, this is mostly accomplished through verbalization. Although the text is
a monosemic language - in which there is an articulation of specific and unambiguous
meanings, according to a pattern of reading signs that are learned - it is not reduced to
a simplified or mechanical translation process. But the text is also an aesthetic
experience, they are also images, with a body, expression and a dimension on the
page, they have a history, a distant and nuclear family that sometimes becomes
visible. It is important to understand that words count, that there is a speech, an
author, a register, a vocabulary, grammar, intertextuality, among others.
Unlike text monosemy, an image is polysemic. Therefore, achieving a single
interpretation is difficult. The images are always ambiguous, with a wide range of
possibilities for meaning, and are usually explicit in the way they approach the
viewer. Reading images is a form of generative reading (Rose 2001), personal and
collective, often according to empathic standards in its decoding with something that
is not completely mastered, but which, in turn, does not stop us from continuing to
seek a sense (Rogoff, 1998), since an image leads to other images in a form of
intertextuality of the image that is built from the repertoire of previous individual and
collective experiences and narratives. A form of storytelling that like Monika
Schmitz-Emans says "[…] is rooted in a basic and transcultural human inclination to
give narrative form to experiences and imaginations. In the course of human history,
this inclination has manifested itself in changing medial forms and languages"
(Schmitz-Emans, 2013: 385).
When looking at the graphic narratives we find the use of various signs, in different
forms of combination in the construction of the narrative, in which the visual and the
verbal are affirmed as a bimodal or hybrid text also characteristic of comics, picture
books or graphic novels. In these contexts, each sign tends to be used according to its
particularities and giving the other the information it best transmits, in an indirect
transaction where both are limited, compete and interact in the same medium.
It is the exchanges between signs that best characterize the graphic narratives and the
complexity in decoding them. In many of the examples developed by the students, the
interanimation of the verbal and visual signs and the narrative sequencing are created
not by the lived knowledge of what is expressed by the interviewed, but by
information mediated through video, which adds complexity both in the act of
creation and in decoding by the reader of the graphic narrative. In this way, they use
visual and verbal intertextuality, where metaphors, analogies or paratexts offer other
narrative possibilities to the legacy and story of each interviewee, which in turn
contribute to making the final reader motivated to look at the text and image and start
reading it. An invitation that gives to the reader a central role in determining the
meaning of the content, a characteristic of graphic narratives that finds parallelism
with the definition of transmedium and transmediatic proposed for W.J.T. Mitchell
(2014), for the comics.
Transmedium because it´s " […] moving across all boundaries of performance,
representation, reproduction, and inscription to find new audiences, new subjects, and
new forms of expression." (Mitchell, 2014: 1476), a notion that is corroborated by
Marie-Laure Ryan when she proposes the concept of the medium as a " channel of
communication or material means of expression" (Ryan, 2014: 20). On the other
hand, the graphic narrative is "transmediatic because it is translatable and transitional,
mutating before our eyes into unexpected new forms. […] it opens audiences onto a
deep history that goes back before mass media […] its openness to multiple
alternative frameworks in terms of style, form, structure, material support and
technical platform" (Mitchell, 2014: 1479).
We started by briefly identifying the differences between reading text and images
apart so that we can better understand the graphic narrative possibilities when both
signs are incorporated and coexist in the same medium, which originates a
multiplicity of possibilities of combination. The relationships between text, image and
support thus find in graphic narratives a perfect ecosystem to experience and
communicate stories, for which we, as readers/observers, have a decisive role in their
legitimation. In the particular case of these graphic narratives, it is up to us to manage
and recognize the human and artistic heritage in the form of sequences made by text
and image and created by a generation of young students (19 to 25 years old) from
memories archived in the form of video and sound, where the retired interviewee
builds a narrative path about his life as a teacher, researcher and individual. It is
through a simple graphic narrative composed in most cases by only eight panels, that
we are invited to relive moments of our collective and individual history as members
of an academic community.
Cultural memory: Reshaping and revisualization of individual lives into graphic
narratives
Before describing the objectives and methodology underlying the project of graphic
narratives, it will be important to reaffirm their role in the construction of what we
can call cultural memory on the form of a publication. We can think of a memory as a
way to access our apprehended or previous experiences that are reborn in the present
when they are remembered or reused. The archive created by the WT project is not
just an archive of memories told in the first person or by the objects and memorabilia
that illustrate the professional and private lives of these people, it is a dynamic and
plural repository that amplifies others experiences and meanings that are
reconstructed in living memories when remembered and shared.
The publications generated by the students are a result of the revival of these
memories, in which the authors retrieve and recontextualize them in new narratives
that although they start from real documents and present biographical elements of
those portrayed in the final object, they are in reality metanarratives that deal with real
information in which is attached different meanings that arise from mediation,
empathy or affection between the author and the interviewee. A memory that "travel
between disciplines, between historical periods and between geographically dispersed
academic communities (Bal, cit. by Gibson, 2018:41).
A confluence of intergenerational signs that take place in an editorial artefact that
welcomes these reconstructed memories, through creative processes that always
involve translation and construction and not the transparent and redundant duplication
of reality or facts transcribed and recorded in the WT archive. The process of
translation and reconstruction is an exercise that, triggered by factual information, by
the individual's voice, but is also an exercise of fictionalized memory, "[…] It is rare,
especially today, to read a memoir that does not also betray a fictive intent. Not only
do memoirs openly adopt many recognizable authenticating strategies, but they also
draw attention to gaps and omissions, to doubt and invention" (Pedri, 2013:128).
These processes indicate that memory and in particular cultural memory must be
understood "as an effect of a variety of institutionalized discourses and cultural
practices" (Plate & Smelik, 2013:3). An effect with multiple actors and where
individual and collective factors give rise to different ways of processing and
manifesting that are characterized by their plurality and complexity between a past
that is reactivated in the present and that informs a future or as the authors tell us – a
memory "is always a re-call and re-collection (the terms are frequently used as
synonyms), and, consequently, it implies re-tur, re-vision, re-enactment, re-
presentation: making experiences form the past present again in the form of
narratives, images, sensations, performances " (Plate & Smelik, 2013:6).
A process in which the cultural memory is related at two levels, the individual
biological memory (Erll, 2008) and the collective context. It´s in the interaction
between these levels that is summarily constructed the cultural memory, that "refers
to the symbolic order, the media, institutions, and practices by which social groups
construct a shared past " (Erll, 2008:5).
In short, the "engagement with cultural memory is therefore not only what comes
after the making and distribution of cultural texts [and images], it also now often
precedes that making, or occurs at every step throughout the process of making. So
many digital works begin as acts of memory, with a user remembering a loved (or
hated) mass culture text [image] and isolating, then manipulating, revising, and
reworking, specific elements of that text [image]" (de Kosnik, 2016:3). A modus
operandi that we recognize in the graphic narratives carried out by the students.
Graphic narratives: Empathic processes
The pedagogical practice included a set of collective (workshops) and individual
(archive analysis and creation) actions and was carried out during the school year
2019/2020, in different stages throughout the year, only the final phase which
corresponded to the printing and production of publications in a week risograph
workshop did not happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it was possible
to implement the project, 27 graphic narratives were made, in three colours (blue, red
and black), in A5 format, with 8 pages each (figure 1).
Figure 1: All graphic narratives covers
All actions were designed and carried out outside the context of a specific FBAUP
course or study cycle. The extra-curricular option proved to be important since it
made it possible to overcome the possible constraints of a curricular exercise, which
could be subject to evaluation and also eliminated the potential demotivation of
students without much interest in the practice of graphic narratives. The working
model created a multidisciplinary and informal working group that in one year
developed two projects and found specific meeting moments to discuss, produce and
present final solutions with the different participants and researchers of the WT
project.
As mentioned earlier, the focus of the project was to explore the possibilities of
graphic narrative in transgenerational dialogue, taking as a starting point the archive
of material collected by WT researchers. This project took place after a first one
developed in the previous semester where the same group dedicated themselves to
making illustrated portraits for each retired professor or researcher, an action that
ended in a public presentation "You Look Familiar" (figure 2), at the FBAUP
Cozinha gallery. This exhibition, in addition to presenting the WT project to the
community, marks also the return of professors and researchers portrayed to FBAUP
and the sharing of experiences and stories with current students.
Figure 2: Opening of “You Look Familiar” Exhibition at FBAUP Cozinha Gallery.
ph @claúdia Lima
The main group of participants in the illustrated portraits project and the coordinating
professor at FBAUP (Rui Vitorino Santos) moved on to the graphic narratives project.
The selection of students was based on the interest and skills demonstrated in the field
of illustration and graphic narratives, both in previous courses of illustration and in
extracurricular illustration work. It was sought that the participants were
representative of the teaching of illustration in the different study cycles at FBAUP.
In the end, the group was made up of 16 students from the Degree in Communication
Design, the Specialization Course in Illustration and the Master in Graphic Design
and Editorial Projects.
Since there was already empathy between the group and the students sense of
belonging to a larger team of researchers from previous experience, it has facilitated
the scheduling of tasks to be developed. At first, the audiovisual material produced by
the WT team of researchers was distributed, namely the video interviews. The
information collected by the students was mainly made of scientific, pedagogical and
artistic experiences and knowledge (stories from the academy, former students,
colleagues, among others) and revealed in the first person by the voice and image of
the intervenient and the interviewer, and by the place of the interview (atelier, garden,
college, among others) or the works displayed or cited.
The video-interviews proved to be crucial for the production of the graphic narratives,
although there was a biographical concern in the message of each narrative, since
each publication is dedicated to an individual, it was not intended to be a mere
biographical record. Students were encouraged to explore and produce narratives for
these individual stories, proposing other ways of thinking, recording and referencing
their legacy, contributing to fixing it through new imagery and textual repertoires that
emanate both from the experiences of each retiree and the students themselves. A
discourse and ways of seeing in which past individual memory is reorganized and
reconstructed in other ways that update these repertoires and contribute to the cultural
memory of FBAUP. The guiding lines that we explore in the methodology and
objectives also intend to meet the expectations of the WT project archive, since this
"[…] reveals a potential for the recovery of (and a renewed interest in) skills and
mechanics that, in particular instances, stem from decades or Centuries of practice
and know-how. Filtered through past contextual application and value, they may find
renewed viability and relevance at a time when analogue technologies and
local/regional challenges act as a dynamic and constructive counterpoint to the
pervasiveness of digital media and globalisation. "(Alvelos & Barreto, 2019).
Results
As we suspected and in continuity with the objectives proposed, the results were quite
diverse and proved that despite the structure of the video interviews being common
among interviewees, the way to reconstruct the information they transmit by the
students was quite plural.
We chose not to analyse the graphic narratives individually, but we tried to find
affinities in the different discourses. In this way, we started by mapping close
narratives and we built three large groups, which although presented individually can
be found in the same publication or even double-page:
1. Individual and Collective Biographical Narratives
Where the student's interest is in creating a sequence of images that communicate
information from the interviewee's personal history using different degrees of
representation.
2. Metaphorical Narratives
On these narratives, it's difficult to know exactly the starting point. The action and
characters are metaphorically explored with verbal and visual features that offers
possible connections with the interviewee.
3. Visual References Narratives
In these narratives, there is a clear interest in the artistic or graphic work and it is from
there that the sequential images are made in which the pictorial referent,
expressiveness of work or artistic production is quoted.
Starting from these three broad categories, we subdivided each category into specific
narrative contents. It is in this more detailed reading that we find the dialogue
between author and subject portrayed more visibly, whether in the personal choice of
the story, metaphor worked or in the inclusion of the student's personal experiences in
what was illustrated.
In the first category, we highlight the presence of what we can understand as the
cultural memory of FBAUP, namely through direct citation or induction of the
following narrative features:
1. Individual and Collective Biographical Narratives
1.1. FBAUP – Architecture and Gardens
The importance given to the architectural and landscape space is not a surprise, since
one of the faculty's hallmarks is precisely its implementation in an old palace from the
19th century, surrounded by an extensive garden. The 1950s marked the beginning of
the construction of different buildings to support classes and the reduction of the
green area. As we can see in the image on the left (figure 3), the garden was and is
remembered as an iconic place in the faculty experience. However, we also find
multiple visual and verbal references to the interior and exterior of campus buildings.
Figure 3: Left: Maria José Valente by Cláudia Alves. Center: Leonilde Princepelina
by Francisca Ramos. Right: Antero Ferreira by Joana Pintor
1.2. FBAUP – Students, Professors, Pedagogies and other Academies
In this subcategory, the one most represented by students, we can find individual and
collective episodes and stories reported by the interviewees, as students or professors.
It is important to note that the majority of students ended up showing in these stories
some references to pedagogical practices that they considered innovative at the time
(in contrast to other academies) and that echo today in many of the faculty's
workshops, namely teaching directed to the student interests and the appreciation of
empathy between teacher and student in the learning processes.
1.3. FBAUP – Cross Biographies
This subcategory is related to cross stories between interviewees who remember the
faculty, sometimes as the maturing of a relationship that still exists (e.g. Rodrigo and
Isabel Cabral), or the reliving of certain affective episodes that were built and lasted
until the present (figure 4).
Figure 4: Left: Helena Almeida Santos and Helena Abreu e Lima by Helena Luz.
Center: Rodrigo Cabral by Aurora Peixoto. Right: Isabel Cabral by Aurora Peixoto
1.4. FBAUP - Social and Political Activism
The generation interviewed experienced the end of the dictatorship in Portugal (April
25, 1974) and the beginning of democracy. Thus, it is not surprising that many
students have worked on themes related to democracy, the carnation revolution or
social issues, such as the artistic education democratization for the entire population,
among others.
1.5. FBAUP - Women Against Patriarchy
Although related to political and social activism, we decided to highlight the feminist
struggle against patriarchy, since its activism and presence is mentioned by all-female
interviewees. On the other hand, we consider relevant to find issues that, although
they start with reports from the 20th century, are updated by students, for example by
accentuating the need for gender balance in the teaching community or the Art and
Design world (figure 5).
Figure 5: Maria José Aguiar by Biakosta
2. Metaphorical Narratives
2.1. Freedom and Self-knowledge
In this category, we can find solutions that use metaphor or euphemisms to convey
concepts that are not personalized, but collectives, such as the relationship between
freedom and its promotion at FBAUP or experiences of self-knowledge that marked
the interviewees.
3. Visual References Narratives
Finally, concerning this last category, we can see its subdivision into three groups that
correspond to the historical courses offered at FBAUP: Painting, Sculpture and
Communication Design. In these narratives, we see the student’s interest in the
interviewee's work. We find different forms of citation: the visual reference of the
original work and in other examples, where we realize that the interest lies in the
representation of the author's vocabulary or its artistic practice evolution. In both
cases, the student tends to mimic and translate the language or narrative elements that
characterize the artist's work (figure 6).
Figure 6: Left: António Quadros Ferreira by Cheila Mendes. Right: Zulmiro de
Carvalho
by Margarida Ferreira
Although these subcategories were presented individually in reality, they can be
found or parts in a single publication. In the same way, we believe that in an even
more detailed reading we could still identify other features or intergenerational micro-
narratives.
Conclusion
The proposed pedagogical practice, The visual storytelling and the graphic narratives
as a way to create knowledge and empathy between generations in academic
institutions, although it had an atypical ending, due to the COVID-19, not allowing
the full return of professors and researchers to FBAUP or the collective production of
publications in risograph, it confirmed, however, the pertinence and urgency of
retaining and using in the universe of higher education the scientific, pedagogical,
artistic and human capital of its reformed teaching and research community.
When analyzing the plurality of materials and information collected on the WT
project, we easily understand that archiving - although fundamental - is only the first
action to enhance this heritage. What we described in this pedagogical practice is
evidence to the usefulness of this heritage. These graphic narratives reinforce our
belief that sharing and exchanging knowledge between generations is fundamental for
the future of academic institutions and for building a sense of belonging, identity and
empathy.
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Contact email: rpsantos@fba.up.pt
... In terms of theoretical contributions of the research, key inferences were derived and published on: pedagogical practices at ESBAP in the pre-revolutionary period (Lima, Alvelos, Barreto, & Penedos-Santiago, 2019b;Lima et al., 2020a); the impact of travels abroad on the artistic activity of a generation of students in a dictatorial period Lima, Alvelos, Barreto, Penedos-Santiago, & Martins, 2020b); first pedagogical practices in Design in Higher Education (Lima, Alvelos, Barreto, Penedos-Santiago, & Martins, 2021, 2022a; and monographs by Portuguese artists-designers (Lima, Alvelos, Barreto, Penedos-Santiago, & Martins, 2021a;, 2020Penedos-Santiago & Martins, 2020;. In this domain, the archives have also proved resourceful towards illustrating and complementing presentations made at conferences (Lima et al., 2020a;Lima et al., 2020;Lima, Alvelos, Barreto, & Penedos-Santiago, 2019a, 2019bLima, Barreto, & Penedos-Santiago, 2021). ...
... • The workshop titled "The narrative possibilities of illustration in transgenerational dialogue" with students from Communication Design, Illustration, and Graphic and Editorial Design courses. The main task was to research and create illustrated narratives of the artists, wherein each student was assigned one artist and had to draw a portrait and develop a graphic novel (Santos, 2020). The students' research process in this regard included consulting the archive and making a detailed study of their artist subjects' personality before building an original narrative for the graphic novel (Lima et al., 2022b). ...
Article
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This article reviews the development of a visual archive within the scope of a funded project Wisdom Transfer that was realised at the Faculty of Fine Arts (FBAUP), University of Porto, in Portugal from 2018 to 2021. The project’s directional objective was to research on the pedagogic environment at the faculty during key years preceding the Revolution of 25 April 1974, towards recovering and reactivating the connected historical, empirical, and technical heritage – which had had a pivotal influence on the maturation of the faculty’s now distinctive cultural identity. The visual archive was based on photographic and audio-visual materials gathered through a series of interview-based sessions with noted artists who were associated with the faculty during the indicated period as either teachers or students. The photographic materials included both original imageries belonging to the period, and contextual pictures taken during the project period, and became generative resources for both the reconstruction of pedagogic histories, and their reinterpretation in contemporary contexts of creative education. The article, thereby, concatenates the methodological elements that were instrumental in the articulation of the visual archive, alongside a number of key project outputs towards highlighting the efficacy of photographs and photography in conducting social research.
... The practices implemented in both universities were based on a set of methodologies developed within the Wisdom Transfer (https://wisdomtran sfer.fba.up.pt) project aiming to promote knowledge transfer between retired artists and designers and current art and design students and based on workshop models tested within this project . Specifically, the programs and outcomes of three workshops were analyzed: the workshop "The narrative possibilities of illustration in transgenerational dialogue", held at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (Lima et al., 2022;Santos, 2020); the workshop "Typographical essays as a contribution to the transfer of transgenerational knowledge", held at the Lusófona University of Porto (Lima et al., 2020(Lima et al., , 2022; and the workshop "Procedural pattern interpretations of the work of António Quadros Ferreira", held at the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave . ...
... From the analysis of these workshops, a set of practices were identified that contributed significantly to raising greater interest and involvement of students in the proposed projects; broadening knowledge about artists and works from other generations; stimulating the sharing of knowledge between students with different profiles (Lima et al., 2020). Of these identified practices, we highlight: the possibility of attending the workshop for free, the only requirement being the students' commitment and engagement; the encouragement of proximity between teachers and students, dissipating notions of hierarchy in favor of a more collaborative work; the creation of an environment similar to artists' studios in order to stimulate greater proximity, sharing of ideas and experiences; the gathering of a reduced number of participants which allows a greater follow-up of all the work, the involvement of all (teachers and students) in the project and a sense of belonging and commitment; the engagement of participants coming from different artistic areas, envisaging multidisciplinary groups (Lima et al., 2020(Lima et al., , 2022Santos, 2020). ...
Conference Paper
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This paper describes two pedagogical practices based on Francis Bacon’s graphic Works. One in a curricular context, held at Escola Superior Artística do Porto, and the other in an extracurricular context held at Universidade Lusófona do Porto (both in Portugal), which aimed to stimulate students towards a critical analysis and interpretation of Francis Bacon's work and its recreation using contemporary digital media. This initiative was integrated in the Graphic Works of Francis Bacon exhibition at the World of Wine Museum in Vila Nova de Gaia and was the result of a collaboration between this Museum, the Academy and the Renschdael Art Foundation, a collaboration that aimed to give voice and life to a debate emerging from the exhibition of the work of art and its multimedia translation. Hence, it was intended to complement the exhibition of the artist's works with a multimedia language, through multiple interpretations and digital animations of the Painter's work made by the students and targeted at digital natives as one stream of the exhibition was to target local primary and secondary schools.The participants involved in this project came from various BAs, including Communication Design, Fine Arts and Intermediate, Visual Arts - Photography, Cinema and Audiovisual, Audiovisual Communication and Multimedia, Video Games and Multimedia Applications. This allowed to bring together multidisciplinary groups of students with different profiles and backgrounds, contributing to a myriad of results both in visual terms and technological resources, which included approaches such as: the use of techniques close to rotoscoping in which students created drawings frame by frame over the original images; the exploration of cut-out animation techniques; the recreation of Francis Bacon's work in 3D; explorations of image manipulation, editing, and video effects.In an academic context, these practices resulted in an in-depth knowledge of the work of an artist from a generation different from that of the students; an opportunity for them to work with a real client, applying in a project the knowledge obtained in various curricular units of the BAs they are attending; and the possibility of seeing their work integrated in an international exhibition. As regards to the Graphic Works of Francis Bacon exhibition, this academic project brought a new dynamic to the space combining graphic works by the Painter with multiple interpretations of a generation to whom digital media are omnipresent.In this paper, the pedagogical practices adopted in both Universities are described, projects by students are analyzed as well as the contribution that these projects brought to the exhibition through information gathered from visitors, from articles published on the event and through an interview conducted with the exhibition curator.The exhibition, according to the commissioner, Charlotte Crapts, had an "impressive" turnover bearing in mind that the country was going through Covid restrictions. In the commissioner’s view, the multimedia interventions created a bridge with the educational sector and following this, the exhibition interacted with a great number of youngsters. This was a pioneer exercise in the exhibition space that will be followed in future exhibitions.
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This article aims to present a set of guidelines for the curricular inscription of invisible stories—empirical knowledge, life experiences, professional and pedagogical practice—of Design professionals, lecturers, and researchers, with a role in the history of Portuguese Design, shortening as much as possible, the scientific findings from the corresponding curricular frameworks. It is intended to revert this matter into a pedagogical context, permeating several Curricular Units, in coordination with the faculty thus creating new pedagogical contexts for the students who take part in these Units. A series of workshops in different Design Faculties were conducted to understand the engagement of the students and the degree of empathy they were able to establish with the different topics through visual representation exercises. This reactivation and inscription of these testimonies, from the voice and experience of several design professionals and researchers, aims to connect the current generation of design lecturers, students, and professionals with Portuguese design. To achieve this, we propose two dissemination approaches: (i) learning methodologies will be put into practice aimed at exploring new visual repertoires that offer a critical look to the new generation of design students on the inheritance of knowledge, and intellectual assets, through visual representation; (ii) conceiving a digital archive to increase outreach and perpetuate knowledge. The guidelines proposed will inform new solutions for the dissemination, inscription, and reactivation of knowledge (shaped by memories and experiences) as curricular or extracurricular modules, using visual narratives as a communicational interface.KeywordsDesign researchDesign educationCurricular inscription
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Strategic brand management presupposes the use of different strategies. The dimensions. In this theoretical chapter, the authors analyze how the most known concepts are related. As a result, brand equity plays a great importance in brand image and brand identity, implying different approaches in the communication process of brands. Consequently, storytelling plays a specific role in brand communications, especially digital storytelling. Creating appropriate narratives, brands can improve customer engagement, consumer’s emotional involvement and loyalty.KeywordsBrandingBrand equityBrand image and identityStorytellingNarrativesCustomer involvementConsumer’s memoryDigital marketing
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This book is the follow-up to Thierry Groensteen's ground-breaking The System of Comics, in which the leading French-language comics theorist set out to investigate how the medium functions, introducing the principle of iconic solidarity, and showing the systems that underlie the articulation between panels at three levels: page layout, linear sequence, and nonsequential links woven through the comic book as a whole. He now develops that analysis further, using examples from a very wide range of comics, including the work of American artists such as Chris Ware and Robert Crumb. He tests out his theoretical framework by bringing it up against cases that challenge it, such as abstract comics, digital comics and sh?jo manga, and offers insightful reflections on these innovations. In addition, he includes lengthy chapters on three areas not covered in the first book. First, he explores the role of the narrator, both verbal and visual, and the particular issues that arise out of narration in autobiographical comics. Second, Groensteen tackles the question of rhythm in comics, and the skill demonstrated by virtuoso artists in intertwining different rhythms over and above the basic beat provided by the discontinuity of the panels. And third he resets the relationship of comics to contemporary art, conditioned by cultural history and aesthetic traditions but evolving recently as comics artists move onto avant-garde terrain. © 2011 by Presses Universitaires de France and 2013 by University Press of Mississippi. All rights reserved.
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