A prison opera and digital transformation boost diversity of artistic voices A special opera performance in Lisbon improves inclusivity for the marginalised while digital literacy will create new artistic opportunities. Written by Emanuela Barbiroglio Pictured above, 'O Tempo (Somos Nós)', performance June 17th 2022, Lisboa, Portugal © Joaquim Dâmaso/SAMP Research projects are exploring the capacity of artists to reduce inequality in the digital age. A special opera performance in Lisbon improves inclusivity for the marginalised while digital literacy will create new artistic opportunities. Four professional Portuguese [...]

Opera from the inside out Irish National Opera Presents Out of the Ordinary/As an nGnách The world’s first Virtual Reality Community Opera Premiering at Kilkenny Arts Festival Tuesday 9 to Sunday 14 August Also at Dublin Fringe Festival Friday 12 to Thursday 25 September Irish National Opera’s new Out of the Ordinary/As an nGnách is as close as you’ll get to an opera for the people and by the people. It’s the world’s first virtual reality community opera, and it has been developed [...]

A Culture of Possibility Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview David Ramy and Bruno Homem of SAMP on Co-creating Original Opera with Incarcerated Youth Arlene Goldbard - 15 July 2022   NOTE: This post is to introduce you to the 19th episode of François Matarasso’s and my monthly podcast, “A Culture of Possibility.” It will be available starting 15 July 2022. You can find it and all episodes at Stitcher, iTunes, and wherever you get your podcasts, along with miaaw.net’s other podcasts by Owen Kelly, Sophie [...]

TRACTION at IMX 2022 Thomas Roggla – CWI – 11 July 2022 From June 22nd to 24th 2022, the TRACTION project had a presence at the ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences (IMX) hosted by the University of Aveiro in Aveiro, Portugal. The conference gathers an international community of researchers and professionals in human-computer interaction, design, and sociology. Two peer reviewed works from the TRACTION project were presented by Sueyoon Lee and Thomas Röggla from CWI, a work-in-progress, and a demo paper. Titled “Designing [...]

Change from within The TRACTION project and the power to transform institutions, networks, individuals and, eventually, systems. Performance at Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon © Joaquim Dâmaso / SAMP To create positive and lasting social change, major improvements must be made at the systems level of an issue area. This entails reconfiguring policies, processes, and power structures to remedy complex issues such as poverty, social justice, health disparities, and more.[1] As a project manager at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation who, among other responsibilities, manages grants targeting social [...]

TRACTION brings the Co-Creation Stageto IEEE BMSB 2022 Mikel Zorrila – Vicomtech – 24th June Photograph by Joaquim Dâmaso – SAMP The scientific and technological research in TRACTION, mainly represented by Vicomtech, CWI and DCU, has had a very relevant presence at the IEEE International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting hosted in Bilbao from the 15th to the 17th of June of 2022. In particular, the Co-Creation Stage has raised interest within the research community as a web-based tool to orchestrate media content to enable [...]

Building Capabilities:  Rethinking the Social Value of Culture François Matarasso – 15th June 2022 O Tempo (Somos Nós)', second performance 3 June 2022, Leiria, Portugal © Gil de Lemos/SAMPIs culture good for us? Is culture good for us? A simple question, on the surface, but one that has troubled philosophers and politicians since the age of Plato, if not before. It also concerns those who create and enjoy culture, which is to say, all of us, because culture is one of humanity’s defining characteristics. There [...]

New European Bauhaus Festival TransMedia Catalonia being interviewed by the European Research Executive Agency The New European Bauhaus Festival took place on 9- 12 June 2022 both online in the form of an international conference and face-to-face at various locations around Brussels. Organised by the European Commission, it was the first ever festival dedicated to the New European Bauhaus (NEB), a creative and interdisciplinary initiative which connects the European Green Deal to our living spaces and experiences. Designed around three pillars, Forum, Fair and Fest; the [...]

TESTE em LEIRIAEventos em junho de 2022 No próximo mês de Junho o projecto TRACTION, nome que recebe a presente edição do ÓPERA NA PRISÃO, vai ter o seu ponto alto de programação para a comunidade. Depois de quase 3 anos de co-criação, uma nova ópera vai ter a sua estreia, para a qual colaboraram todos os parceiros deste projecto. Chama-se  O TEMPO (somos nós) , e teve como ponto de partida para o processo criativo o trabalho dos jovens reclusos sobre duas palavras: porta e viagem. Numa parceria com a [...]

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2022 Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) takes place on Thursday 19 May 2022 and is an event that is celebrated every year around the world, aimed at raising awareness on the importance of digital accessibility and inclusion in an increasingly diverse society, leaving no one behind. Media accessibility has become a key issue on the global agenda at the UN Sustainable Development Group towards social and cultural inclusion. With the rapid advancement and popularity in technological content in recent years, offering a first-rate [...]