Opendata, web and dolomites
  1. home
  2. trasparenza
  3. open h2020
  4. ticass
  5. reports

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TICASS (Technologies of Imaging in Communication, Art, and Social Sciences)

Teaser

Visual communication is an important component of everyday social life around the globe that we want to function as a kind of \'universal\' language. The TICASS project investigates visual communication in various urban contexts (in Poland, Kenya, United Kingdom, Italy, and...

Summary

Visual communication is an important component of everyday social life around the globe that we want to function as a kind of \'universal\' language. The TICASS project investigates visual communication in various urban contexts (in Poland, Kenya, United Kingdom, Italy, and Czech Republic) in an intercultural perspective, looking for similarities and differences in visual imagery, aesthetics, relevance to social and economic structures, communicative and educative values, perception, interpretation, and functioning. This is researched from two viewpoints:
- through images in the cities which are collected, described, and analysed by TICASS researchers;
- from the view of people living in these cities, with whom TICASS researchers conduct deep interviews on perception and interpretation of images, in reference to photographs collected in the exhibition ”RAPPROACHMENT with public space” and various workshops on visual literacy.

The overall objective of research activities is to lead us to the construction of Educational Recommendations for Studies in Media, Art, and Design, as well as to create a manual for courses in visual literacy for school children (in process). Such recommendations and examples of good practices are necessary in order to effectively implement visual literacy in public education.

Research realized within the TICASS project is important to European society, helping achieve better intercultural communication, which is of vital importance in contemporary political and social framework.

Work performed

\"(1) On the beginning of the project TICASS researchers representing various fields in humanities during the first secondment agreed on the main research tools for empirical research, which are:

(I) Lasswell’s Cards containing photos from 5 categories identified in public space in cities: (1) parks, streets, and squares (2) public facilities (3) public transport (4) public transportation stops (5) railway/metro/airport/other stations),
(II) Analysis of Lasswell’s Cards in six perspectives of visual analysis proposed by Paul Martin Lester: (1) personal (2) historical (3) aesthetic/technical (4) cultural (5) ethical (6) critical.

Empirical material collected from Poland and from Kenya was described and analysed, and formed the monograph: “Technologies of Imaging in Urban Communication – Report 1 from Poland”, and “Technologies of Imaging in Urban Communication – Report 2 from Kenya“, edited by Elzbieta Perzycka and Aleksandra Lukaszewicz Alcaraz, which are now prepared to for publication by Open Access in 2019 in Academic Publishing House of Academy of Art in Szczecin.

After the 1st TICASS International Conference, \"\"Theoretical Basis of Visuality from Intercultural Perspective\"\", held at Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland (28th - 29th of June 2017) the monograph was published in the project:\"\"Visuality from Intercultural Perspectives: Technologies of Imaging in Communication, Art, and Social Science\"\", edited by Michael Fleming and Aleksandra Lukaszewicz Alcaraz; published by PUNO Press in cooperation with Academic Publishing House of Faculty of Painting and New Media, Academy of Art in Szczecin, Szczecin 2018.

(2) TICASS team have created and is still elaborating the photographic exhibition, which is both an artistic production and a research tool for investigating modes and specificity of perception and interpretation of the same images in various countries.The first exhibition at Academy of Art in Poland (June 2017) was a pilot, in order to assess \'exhibition as a tool\' in the research: it drove to the creation of a Board for Arts, managed by Adela Machova, to reshape the mode of presentation and to change the research tool from paper questionnaires to deep interviews based on general disposition with analysis of photograms (an innovative research method within visual sociology).

The second exhibition of “RAPPROACHMENT with public space“ was held at Pwani Main Library between 16th of November and 12th of December 2018 in Kilifi, Kenya, and the third exhibition at POSK Gallery (which opened on 11th of May 2019 at PUNO in London, UK). Both were arranged by Adela Machova.

(3) Educational focus of the research overlaps with the artistic focus through workshops, trainings, laboratories, realized projects, and interviews, and it is realized throughout the whole time of the project, but especially during mobilities and during exhibition, when there are conducted interviews (managed by Rosita Deluigi from UNIMC). Perspective of visual sociology proposing as a metod deep interviews on the basic of general predispositions with the presentation of photograms appeared to be better suited to the research aim then the previous one, adopted in Poland, basing on interviews realized in the form of a survey.

\"

Final results

The TICASS project is innovatory in connecting theoretic, educational, and artistic perspectives on visuality in urban settings: it contributes to the development of description of the field of visual literacy and sharpening the tools to be used in it. In order to teach visual literacy – the competence to understand, interpret, use, produce, and transform visual communicates – in intercultural perspective, there are necessary structural and methodological advices about modes of their conduction. The TICASS team is responding to this necessity and is preparing the Educational Recommendations for Studies in Media, Art, and Design (due: 34) together with a manual for Visual Literacy. The manual is being developed during the activities realized by UJEP team and by UNIMC team.

The work on the Educational Recommendations for Studies in Media, Art, and Design and the manual has led UNIMC to start two new projects in 2017, as a growth from TICASS: “Visual TICASS” oriented towards kindergarteners 3-6 years old; “Urban TICASS” oriented towards primary school children 8 to 10 years old, along with university students in Macerata, Italy; and “Visual TICASS: the colours of intercultural dialogue” directed to primary school kids 7 to 12 years old in Kilifi County, Kenya.

The Educational Recommendations for Studies in Media, Art, and Design will be submitted to regional, national, and European educational authorities, but first of all they will serve in orienting artistic education at AASZ and at UJEP, but support cultural and intercultural education at UNIMC and at PUNO. We hope to implement them also at Pwani University, within the next MSCA-RISE Horizon 2020 project, titled: “Transcultural perspectives in art and artistic education” (TPAAE) (in the assessment process; Proposal ID SEP-210582019) creating new courses in Art, Media, and Design at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Pwani University.

An important lasting effect of the project is fostering cooperation between partnering institutions and signing agreements within the Erasmus programme (between AASZ, UNIMC, UJEP). A further outcome is the application by AASZ for cooperation with PUC in Kilifi, and with Kenyatta University (Nairobi, Kenya) within Erasmus Mundus programmes.

Website & more info

More info: http://ticass.eu.