| Objectives

The Group aims to develop research projects that can contribute to the acquisition of wider and deeper knowledge about the different communicative dimensions that may be present in the main artistic activities of our modern societies through historical, theoretical and applied research of the languages, the technologies, the media and their literacies. And, as well, to keep an open door to other research activities that may contribute to a better understanding of the different arts and crafts that are present in many of the mass communication processes, which shape some of the most actual and predominant environments of cultural consumption. We believe that these objectives may be achieved through laboratorial and theoretical research on subjects such as the materials, texts, sources and literacies that are comprehended within the fields of Film, Visual Arts and Mediated Communication, namely within the innovative processes of New Media production and dissemination.
Such research activity of mediated artistic communication, in general, may find several complementary dimensions within the research activity of our other research group, working mainly with non-mediated Theatre and Performance Studies, since both groups have chosen the Sources, Forms of Expression and Techniques, in each of its special fields, as a common ground to develop our different research projects.

There are two great axes that help us to design, contextualize and systematize our research activities, at the same time as we try to keep a continuous quest of our study objects, both through more specific research projects and through more continuous programs of Ph. D. and M.A. studies. The first great ax is related to internationalization efforts to collaborate with different geo-cultural networks. The second ax is a scope quest for cultural diversity and multiple literacy dimensions. This open and wide scope has been most important to define some of the main questions that we are working with in other senior research Projects, as well as in some Ph.D and M.A. programs.

| Researchers

Coordinator:
Vítor Manuel Reia-Baptista

Integrated:
Ana Isabel Candeias Dias Soares
Ana Luísa Fernandes José Gonçalves
Bruno Miguel dos Santos Mendes da Silva
Fernando Sampaio Martins Amaro
Francisco Baptista Gil
Gabriela Borges Martins Caravela
João Maria Gomes Ribeiro Mendes
José Manuel Emiliano Bidarra de Almeida
Merja Sinikka Nousia de Mattos-Parreira
Mirian Estela Nogueira Tavares
Natália Laranjinha
Paula Soares

Collaborators:
Alexandre Nuno Serrão Fialho Alves Barata
Ana Filipa Cristiano Cerol Santos Martins
Ana Isabel Agostinho Catarino
Ana Maria Videira Paiva
António José da Conceição Pires Pinto Guerreiro
Artur Miguel de Campos Lopes Teixeira Ribeiro
Aurízia Félix Sousa Anica
Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues Martins Pereira
Carlos Filipe Gonçalves Faustino
Célia Maria Fernandes Palma
Cristina Maria Marques Braga
Darryl Emanuel Lampreia Domingos
Edilson Brasil de Souza Júnior
Elisabete Cristina Figueiras Ribeiro de Jesus Pereira
Emília Quitéria de Colos Piedade
Fernando Gonçalves
Francisco André Estrela Mantas
Inês Velho Espírito Santo
João Paulo do Nascimento Milagre
João Pedro Rodrigues Viegas
Joaquim Paulo Figueira Nogueira Rodrigues
Jorge Alexandre Ferreira de Sá Gouveia
Jorge Manuel Neves Carrega
José Bogalheiro
José Paulo Chagas Fialho
Lígia Isabel Guerreiro Lopes de Oliveira
Liliana Lopes Dias
Liliane Leman
Luís Correia Carmelo
Mara Barth
Márcia Barbosa da Silva
Maria de Fátima Chinita da Mata
Maria de Lurdes Ferreira Cabral Usera de Vasconcelos
Maria Jesus Botano Villar
Maria Lúcia Silva Ramos
Maria Margarida Narciso Maltinha
Maria Raquel Sampaio Monteiro Schefer
Marina Cláudia da Fonseca Guiomar
Mário Luís Ramos Antunes
Marta Filipe de Matos Ribeiro Mendes
Olivia Novoa Fernandez
Paulo Octavio Bezerra Leite
Pedro Cabral Santo
Pedro José Leal Filipe
Rosa Maria Caldeira Vieira Guedes
Rui Francisco de Brion Ramirez Sanches
Sandra Cristina Côrtes Moreira
Sérgio Paulo Guimarães de Sousa
Silvia Desterro Tavares da Silva Vieira
Soraya Alexandra Vasconcelos Magalhães
Tiago Rodrigues Batista
Vanessa Raquel Sousa Dias


Research grant holders:
Ana Isa Bernardino Mestre
Bento Alexandre Vera Galado
Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues Martins Pereira
Hélder António Pereira Wasterlain
Joana Palminha
Jorge Alexandre Físico Felício
Jorge Lobato Peres Jácome Martins
José Maria de Moura Murtinha Dias Ferreira
Marta Teixeira Pascoal Simões
Miguel dos Reis Cipriano
Nuno Ricardo Sequeira Fernandes
Pedro José Leal Filipe
Vanessa Raquel Sousa Dias Cipriano
Vasco Lobo Oliveira

Projects | Cross Media, Mixed Media in NIT and Performative Arts

To develop a multimedia platform in which art, communication and technology dialogues and provide the results of Ciac’s projects of both research groups. This platform must work not only as an information archive, but also as trigger in the creation of new artistic and communicational languages.

Objectives
This project has been inscribed among the general objectives of CIAC, that is:

- To conduct applied research in artistic creation and teaching labs in the fields of Theatre, Film and other Arts, establishing meaningful links between theoretical research and creative processes.
- To develop applied research in the field of new technologies and new modes of expressions associated to them, establishing links amongst media, theoretical reflection about Arts and Media, and practices associated to both.
- To investigate material, virtual, technological resources of artistic phenomena and the media, including the creation of databases related to the objects of theoretical and applied research.

Coordinator
Gabriela Borges

Research team
All Ciac’s members

Projects | Mediterranean Thesaurus of Fictional Narrative

To expand the web of Research Centers/Universities of the Mediterranean Area, which propose to work for the common Thesaurus and its presence in contemporary film, theatre and performing arts.

Objectives
ESTC and UALG based, this research project will start to build a source’s thesaurus of texts of the Mediterranean area (traditional tales, legends, poetry, classical, modern and contemporary literature, others) that have been or are being used in contemporary film, theatrical and performing arts, videoart or cross-media objects.

This project has been inscribed among the general objectives of CIAC, that is, to develop research networks within institutions (universities, research centers, labs, etc.) in the Mediterranean area, with the purpose of identifying, collecting and analysing common roots and cultural narrative sources in distinct artistic creative processes (Theatre, Film, Literature and Performing Arts).

Coordinator
João Maria Mendes

Research team
Luís Falcão
Vítor Reia Baptista

Projects | Cinematographic Reel Journals

To collect and analyse the last examples of Portuguese cinematographic reel journals (1970-77) as evidence of audiovisual collective memory and corresponding modes of representation.

Objectives
To recover, collect and analyse the last examples of Portuguese News Reels between the years 1970 and 1978, trying to develop a better knowledge of the study object, recovering its formal and content materials, their aesthetics, ethics and multicultural sources.
To show these materials as evidence of a collective memory, corresponding to different modes of cultural representation of a paradigm shift in the aesthetics of audiovisual journalism from cinema to television.
To compare these materials with other examples of cinematographic News Reels from the Mediterranean Area within the same period of time.

Coordinator
Vítor Reia Baptista

Research team

Projects | International network platform

To collect and analyse the last examples of Portuguese cinematographic reel journals (1970-77) as evidence of audiovisual collective memory and corresponding modes of representation.

Objectives
To create a permanent platform of science outreach, which includes scientific and cultural documentaries and reports to be broadcasted by European networks and online television, and to be used as a research and teaching tool.
The collaboration of the University of Algarve in this project is related to the production of scientific, cultural and artistic documentaries and reports about themes related to the Algarve, i.e., the Mediterranean area. These works will be spread through European broadcast networks, online and digital television as well to be used as a valuable research and teaching tools
To produce contents in HD (High Definition) format in order to become an advanced laboratory for new technologies and offer the possibility for art and communication researchers and students to experiment with new audiovisual formats. Production of audiovisual material in HD format will be compulsory in the coming years due to the transition from analogue to digital television in Europe. For this reason, this project could contribute as it proposes to experiment with new technology and create new forms of expression.
This audiovisual material will be important for broadcasting and interchanging scientific, cultural and artistic information nationwide and abroad.

Coordinator
Mirian Tavares

Research team
Bruno Silva
Gabriela Borges

Projects | Euromeduc

To develop Media Literacy Seminars within a media education and research strategy in order to disseminate its main perspectives and to propose new research lines along the Mediterranean area.

Objectives
To identify and map the most important trends in the main media production achievements made by the young Europeans, their small differences and major disruptions, with the help and point of view of several European experts in the Media Literacy field.
To clarify what are the links that can be established between the youngsters’ media production and their media education, as well as to identify what are the main skills that should be observed and achieved in a broad European context, from the Mediterranean media cultural environments to the Nordic media landscapes, all of them having the internet as their main dissemination vehicle and support network.
These steps will be systematized within a wide research process, sequenced in 3 different international seminars, Paris, Brussels and Faro, and a final assembled congress in Bellaria, between January 2008 and December 2009.

Coordinator
Vítor Reia Baptista

Research team
Bruno Silva
Emília Piedade
Filipa Cerol Martins
Gabriela Borges
Mirian Tavares
Sandra Cortes

Projects | Transcreations: literature and audiovisual media

To create a multimedia platform of adaptations of literary works to film and television by Portuguese authors.

Objectives
To catalogue works of Portuguese authors that were adapted to audiovisual media.
To produce and disseminate documentaries and interviews to be used as teaching and research tools. This initiative should be enlarged to other European countries in order to enhance the interchange of knowledge amongst different universities of Europe. It shall be produced in advanced technological formats and supports that facilitate both dissemination and interchange.
To provide a complete database about the relationships between literature and audiovisual media in Portugal to local, national and international communities that can also be an instrument of dissemination and promotion of the Portuguese language, literature and culture.

Coordinator
Mirian Tavares

Research team
Ana Soares
Bruno Silva
Gabriela Borges

Projects | ALGARTE

To build a multimedia digital platform to disseminate data about the history and the state of the art, artists and groups of artists in the Algarve during the 20th century. This project has won the Ceratonia Award in 2008.

Objectives
To identify and catalogue artists and groups of artists who have lived in the Algarve during the 20th century.
To contribute for dissemination of the history of artistic creation in the Algarve region during the 20th century and also to promote the education of different targets.
To offer workshops to professionals in the areas of tourism, arts and communication with the data collected during the research in hotels, schools, cultural and artistic centres in the Algarve region.

Coordinator
Mirian Tavares

Research team
Bruno Silva
Gabriela Borges

Research grant holders
Pedro Leal Filipe

Projects | Portuguese Contemporary cinema

The applied research that characterizes this project intends to analyze, on a systematic basis, the narrative feature films and some examples of documentaries produced in Portugal during the last 20 years by comparing their typology and identity within the context of the main trends of contemporary international cinema.

Objectives
Is there some kind of agenda-setting, corporate culture or gatekeepers counseling which intervene as experts or advisers in the making of creative scripts? How do authors work, either individually or(if) organized in teams? How to describe their organizational culture and methods, when compared with equivalent choices of their peers (ex. HBO, others)?
In contemporary Portugal, is there a dominant typology among the film projects that obtain financial support from Public Institutions (namely ICA, the Public Institute for Cinema and Audiovisual)? What is the level of knowledge and know how (resulting of academic learning or of professional experience) required to be accepted as a screenwriter or as a “script doctor”?
What is the relevance of the script of the contemporary feature film, among the other creative skills that are needed to build a project (camera, direction style, art direction, sound design, editing and general post-production), and how does it articulates with them? What criteria allow for the evaluation of a script?
— Are the fictional contents of Portuguese feature films and are the contents of Portuguese documentaries, of the last 20 years, related to the main trends and questions of contemporary societies (Portuguese, or other, when observed under an inter-cultural, multicultural point of view)? Is it possible to identify a Portuguese position among the main trends of contemporary cinema?

Coordinator
João Maria Mendes

Research team
Ana Soares
Jorge Alexandre Ferreira de Sá Gouveia
Luís Alexandre de JesusFalcão
Maria de Fátima Chinita da Mata
Marta Filipe de Matos Ribeiro Mendes
Paulo Octávio Bezerra Leite
Vítor Reia Baptista

Research grant holders (students BA in Cinema ESTC)
Jorge Lobato Peres Jácome Martins
Marta Teixeira Pascoal Simões
Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues Martins Pereira
Rui Pedro Domingues Falcão
Miguel dos Reis Cipriano
Vanessa Sousa Dias

Projects | Teaching Screenwriting: Compared Methods & Experiences

To share information about the state of the art, pedagogical trends and sources, industry interests in the Internet (linking schools and websites of research centres). To compare methods and goals of lecturing/learning screenwriting in European/American schools, emphasizing practical results.

Objectives
This research project is based at Lisbon’s ESTC and shares information about the state of the art, pedagogical trends and sources, industry interests in the Internet (linking schools and websites of research centres), and compares methods and goals of lecturing/learning screenwriting in European / American schools, emphasizing practical results. Our comparative universe includes schools members of CILECT (Centre International de Liaison des Écoles de Cinéma et Télévision) and GEECT (Groupement Européen des Écoles de Cinéma et Télévision) and a limited number of USA schools.
We aim to understand how the narrative heritage of rites of passage (A. Van Gennep), archetypal sagas (J. Campbell), the hero’s journey (C. Vogler) and Archplot (R. McKee) became a “narrative ideology” and enbodied a set of “normative moulds” in screenwriting methodology, having a direct influence on the teaching of authors like Irwin Blacker, Richard Walter, Lew Hunter, Syd Field, John Franklyn, Linda Seger, Richard Blum, Kristin Thompson.
Then we will compare this heritage (and its roots in Aristote, Horatius, Theofrastus, Aelius Donatus, Shakespeare) with the “narrative deconstruction”  proposed by F. Lyotard, J. Derrida, G. Deleuze, J. Kristeva, R. Barthes, V. Wolf and different theatrical and cinematic “avantgardes”, like those practiced by authors like Chris Marker, Chantal Ackerman, Derek Jarman, Jim Jarmush, others.

Coordinator
João Maria Mendes

Research team
Jorge de Sá Gouveia
Luís Falcão
Paulo Leite

Projects | Quality and Identity: a comparative study of European public TV channels

This project aims to compare the quality of TV programming and also the cultural and communicative identity of the following European public channels BBC2, TVE 2, RAI 2 e RTP2.

Objectives
To discuss the quality of TV programming of the European public channels BBC2, TVE2 e RAI2 and their cultural and communicative identity in order to compare with the programming and the identity of RTP2.
To improve the semiotic model to analyse TV programmes proposed during the postdoctoral research.
To discuss the relationship between the quality of programmes, TV consumption and media literacy in this four European public channels.

Coordinator
Gabriela Borges

Research team
Bruno Silva
Gabriela Borges

Research grant holders
Pedro Leal Filipe