Oporto, je t'aime

Just a brief memory of our beautiful (rainy though) weekend in Oporto...

Freaks, dead sharks and urinals no. 1

Freaks, Dead Sharks and Urinals is a cycle of history of modern and contemporary art, that we designed together with Natalia. 
We prepared 6 lessons dealing with different topics related to 20th and 21st century art and this week we delivered the first lesson.
We were a bit afraid about the number of participants - I have to admit, I was so sure we will have to cancel our lessons, that I stopped preparing the content of the lesson. 
However, on Monday before the first lesson we got 7 participants and we decided to continue.
Next week we will see whether our audience liked the lesson - if they come back, they probably did. So fingers crossed!

(Walter De Maria)

Pipripi Ensemble

Here is a video of the final result during Soundproof reopening on saturday, the 25th of April. It was the first live performance for most of participants.
This workshop involved 5 participants (students, engineer, musician, synth amateurs or just curious) with whom we constructed these basic LFO.
We burnt a couple of chips by experimenting but the final result was positive for everyone.
This workshop will probably exported in Montenor O Novo and for children here in Torres.
To be continued.

Açores, the paradise on Earth

Waterfalls. 

Cows. 

Lakes.

Miradouros.  

Colors. 

Bathing in hot springs. 

 No rush. 

Fresh air. 

Tea. 

Walking up and down. 

Bananas. 

Abacaxi. 

Ocean. 

Hills. 

Vulcanos. 

Picnics. 

The magical island. Açores, the paradise on Earth.

Meu primeiro haiku

mentor time

will be silent

as the April’s rain

Jantar-exposição DIY

We were honored to be in the exhibition of videos and pictures about the experience of 7 young people from Torres Vedras who went to Germany to enjoy a meeting during 7 days with another youth people from 3 more European countries.

It was lovely to hear them talking about their new friends, about how all the experiences were exceeded their expectations, about how they have overcome their fears and have lived an experience that will mark them for the rest of them life.

Especially was motivating listen it because the next week I will be in a similar experience in the Training course, unfortunately alone without my partners.

Therefore I am animated and wanting to enjoy this new experience of meeting new people and new places which then miss.

Este não é um Stearns

Esboço do Pipripi poster

One sketch of the possible workshop's poster. A schematic simple synth with 60's font (in reference of the decade the first Moog's synth was commercialized, the Stearns 2035. This week, we will start to spread the word about Pipripi and make some tests with IC chips 40106, 4040, 4051.

On Saturday I made, with the help of volunteers, the first workshop of the annual Feira rural in Torres Vedras.

 I can not be happier about how it went. A lot of people came specifically to do it because they had seen our posters, and others were walking along the Feira and they found us making paper and wanted to join the experience of creating their own paper using traditional methods. 

The speciality of our workshop was that we discovered the technique of how to make handmade paper without using glue or chemical dyes. 

 We create our paper and decorate with plants, flowers and other papers dyes or fruit.

The idea of the workshop was not only to teach how we can make handmade paper, as well make awareness about how we can fabricate new paper with naturals and quotidian things which we have at home as fruit peels, pencil shavings, flowers...Also the importance of the correct use we must give to the paper.

Back to normal

After an exhausting workshop week we got the chance to have a short, calm and most importantly warm and sunny week. So I used the opportunity and tried to enjoy the sun as much as I could..

Pipripi

After the first common workshop, it's time to work on the individual one.

Mine is called Pipripi and is focused on sound and music in relation with art and space with main objectives as :

• To perceive art as an experience (personnal or collective).
• Platform for collective, multiple interaction.
• Basic electrical, recording and mixing knowledges

It's a creating a more active and federative dialogue between sound, space and community.

In that synth workshop we will build experimental sound machines (starting with a LFO) on the basis of digital logic chips (IC) and different resistors, capacitors and potentiometers in the perspective to use it live for the opening of the Soundproof session on April 25 in Transforma.CAIXA.

For the now, the schedule looks like that :

21.04: Soundwalk and field recording in Torres Vedras (basic use and mix of this sound material with Audacity).

22.04: Building of the synth (reading schematics, understanding of electrical concepts; how to use a breadboard and how to solder, experimenting different square waves…).

23:04: Composition and rehearsal of the opening show of Soundproof. Making of the podcast.

Thaumatrope, phenakistiscope and other illusions

A challenging week and a good first test for our upcoming workshops. Like previously said on other posts, the main issue was the intern communication and the organizational structure that get solved after first days. The main positive point is that participants enjoyed this week and personally it confirmed me that I would like to keep continue working with children in relation with different innovative art mediums.

Um Castelo Vivo

Construção do set (timelapse)