Pedro Neto (FAUP, 1992) holds a master's degree in Urban Planning and Design (1992) and a Ph.D. in Planning and Landscape from the University of Manchester (2002), focusing on Urban Design Representation and Communication. This research marked the onset of his international recognition, notably through a set of significant SCOPUS publications focused on visual communication and photography. Since 2007, Neto has seamlessly integrated his research efforts with teaching, establishing the Architecture, Art, and Image (AAI) research group through the CCRE project (2007), funded by FCT. A key highlight of his career includes co-founding the first E-Learning Café at the University of Porto (2013), earning the Jens D rup E-Learning Award (EUNIS).
Maria Neto is an architect, university professor, and researcher, with postgraduate studies in the Development of Human Settlements in the Third World by ICHaB-ETSAM, a professional training in Humanitarian Shelter Coordination by IFRC, UNHCR, and Oxford Brookes University, and a doctoral thesis in Architecture on refugee camps in protracted situations and humanitarian action. Her research is deeply embedded in the practicalities of architecture, urban planning, and humanitarian action, focusing particularly on refugee studies and the participatory processes within vulnerable communities. Recognizing that refugees and refugee camps should be at the center of our civilizational agenda, she delves into migratory movements, demographic changes, and the essence of citizenship. Her work critically examines housing policies and methodological interventions aimed at enhancing living conditions for marginalized groups, employing participatory approaches that not only encourage integration and cooperation but also empower the community members in the planning process, optimizing the use of resources. On these topics, she is the author of several chapters in books and articles in scientific journals, debates, and international conferences. She is also the author of the book "The Invisible Cities of Dadaab" (OASRN, 2019), the essay "Landscapes of Care" (circo de ideias, 2022) awarded with the Universities Prize of the Lisbon Architecture Triennial, co-editor of the book "Utopia-500" (with Fátima Vieira and Pedro Leão Neto, UP Press, 2019) and co-editor of the book "Contrast II" (2021). She has been acting as an invited lecturer at DECA-UBI and as a researcher at CEAU-FAUP and ICHaB-ETSAM since 2013. Additionally, she has served as a visiting professor at various national and international universities, including ETSAM, FAUP, ETSAC, and UVa. She has actively participated in various projects funded by competitive funds as a researcher and Co-PI. Furthermore, she has contributed to development cooperation efforts with Architects Without Borders Madrid in Senegal and has joined humanitarian action teams in Kenya (Dadaab) with UNHCR and in England (Leeds) with the British Red Cross (BRC). Currently, she teaches Design Studio I and runs her own architectural practice. Her approach intertwines teaching and professional experience, ensuring that one informs the other. This dynamic interplay leads to a continual reevaluation and enrichment, leading to a (re)visiting and deepening of already acquired knowledge. During 2022 she collaborated with IHRU on the "Housing for Habitat Program" under the New Generation of Housing Policies (NGPH), as a Local Action technician in the Cabo Mor neighborhood in Vila Nova de Gaia. She currently coordinates an interinstitutional cooperation agreement at UBI between UBI-FAUP-CMF for the construction of 5 buildings comprising 22 dwellings in the historical center of Fundão. This project, funded by the National Emergency and Temporary Housing Grant (BNAUT) under the Recovery and Resilience Program (PRR), is aimed at communities of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants, in line with Fundão's municipal strategy of 'Refuge City'. She was the winner of the 11th edition of the Fernando Távora Award and joined, by invitation, the Portuguese representation at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, in the Debate "Instant Cities" with Michel Agier and Manuel Herz (2021). She has been an invited speaker at various events, including public lectures delivered at the Mikser Festival in Belgrade (2016) by invitation of the Camões Foundation, a lecture given at the Fernando Távora Award ceremony (2016), participation in the launch debate of the 18th edition of the Távora Award, invited by the College of Architects (2022), and an invitation to participate in the debate 'Architecture in a Context of Emergency,' commemorating the 6th anniversary of Casa da Arquitectura (2023).
FBAUP - Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
With this Open Call "Exploring Contemporary Realities", we launch the annual major theme of interest for scopio Magazine AAI – Visual Spaces of Change: Exploring Contemporary Realities, Volume 2, and initiate a new collaboration with the project Contrast: Multidisciplinary network of artistic initiatives in Art, Architecture, Design and Photography through SCOPIO & CONTRAST International Conference.
The call will have as responsible Editors academics / artists coming from both scopio Magazine AAI and the Contrast project. This editorial team will ensure the necessary peer review work through the U. Porto OJS platform.
scopio Magazine AAI will be, in this way, the official publishing academic periodical for International Conference SCOPIO & CONTRAST and the submissions are both for the Conference and its 2nd volume in partnership with Contrast addressing the theme Exploring contemporary realities.
Abstracts for conference presentation will be published in the e-book of abstracts of the SCOPIO & CONTRAST International Conference, which will have also the program and will be accessible and free to download through scopio Magazine AAI and Contrast platforms at the time of the event.
Subsequent publication of the most relevant (expanded – full manuscripts) contributions will be published in section Exploring contemporary realities of scopio Magazine AAI ], Volume 2.
The present call aims to explore the use of photography and other means of visual representation as forms of artistic research, documentation, and analysis of different configurations on the transformation of the physical environment and how it is understood and shaped by a diverse field of study, practices and cultures. This means, besides other things, to better understand through photography and film the relationship between culture and space and explore how culture, beliefs, behaviours, and practices, interacts with and shape the physical environment of different territories and their architectures, cities and landscapes, as well as to acknowledge contemporary discourses and usages of landscape concepts1.
Social transformations are linked to changes in the inhabited place, and recent history has revealed the speed with which space changes. These transformations have been so radical that regular documentation about the impermanence of the place has become urgent. In fact, places are uncertain spaces and to represent them visually is to preserve their understanding, recent life experiences such as the gentrification of large cities or the health crisis have imposed profound changes on contemporary life models and, consequently, allowed the creation of previously unthinkable photographs. This is where the “Exploring contemporary realities” is located, artistic projects and documentary projects that operate from the expanded field of architecture, art and design from its actual materialization to the experiences of the place; exploring different levels of privacy, scales and urban landscapes. Focusing also on the exploration of the discursive space that operates in broader systems: sociocultural, political, historical and even technical.
If we accept the image as a kind of visual language2, disseminated and received in different geographic points, this call extends this dialogue, opening up to the integration of different looks of cultural identities from other regions, places and countries; the specificity of the place as a way to increase our understanding of society and the territory. The objective is to encourage the use of images for the construction of artistic projects that promote critical views on the transformation of the physical environment as a result of the way they are perceived and experienced in their multiple facets. In summary, the aim is to take advantage of the current role of the image as a way of expanding knowledge with a particular focus on photography, recognized as a privileged means of expression and research for the understanding of architecture and urban landscapes and for the construction of the imaginary; between document and fiction; reproduction and manipulation; analogue and digital visual representation as a means of crossing different disciplines, blurring artistic boundaries.
The call is interested in the construction of artistic projects and theoretical essays using photography and film as a way of communicating the experience of space, questioning how people live and work, as well as architectural practices and urban landscapes. We want to encourage students and researchers to develop projects that are not limited to documenting and describing reality, but to deepen knowledge that enhance the construction of more effective and meaningful ways of understanding our relationships with the territory, even anticipating a possible future. It is intended to develop visual essays based on conceptually and artistically strong photographic artistic practices.
We are open to submissions that explore photographic representation as an artistic research tool, both in theoretical work and in field work, in all its possible and complex artistic visions. We want to awaken the interest of authors in the areas of architecture, art and design encouraging the creation of photographic series that explore new frontier paradigms, which can contribute to the critical analysis of the dynamics of physical and social transformation, understanding architecture and urban landscape as living and inclusive organisms.
The organization of the international conference will integrate members coming from scopio Magazine AAI Editorial team and the Contrast project, reinforcing in this way the network of multidisciplinary artistic initiatives in Art, Architecture, Design and Photography.
References
See the discussion of key conceptions of landscape circulating as part of the recent discourse i.e. landscape as a fundamental building block, a communicative medium, and a realm of imaginative constructs." Vera Vicenzotti. "The Landscape of Landscape Urbanism." Landscape Journal 36, no. 1 (2018): 75-86. https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.36.1.75. https://lj.uwpress.org/content/wplj/36/1/75.full.pdf.
Nathan Jurgenson - The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media, Verso, 2019, p. 13-14
