Getting ready

The posters for POP IT UP! are already distributed. It's getting serious...

Pop it up! trial version

Last night we had a nocturnal experiment with Nuno, my hero. I needed to try one of the projections for POP IT UP! to see the final effect. The projection turned out to look really well and I am relieved. I am just 9 days away from the event and hopefully everything is on the right way.

Sebastian Stumpf, video still from »Underground Garages«, 2008, video projection with sound, 12:50, loop, dimensions variable

 

courtesy: Sebastian Stumpf and Galerie Thomas Fischer, Berlin

Entracte

Last week-end was like the mid-term of my EVS. Freshly finishing my individual project, I spent a long day in Lisboa strolling in Bélem and Ajuda and among some museums (I discovered one of my favourite spot: Jardim Botânico da Ajuda).

I saw then two wonderful shows at CCB (Manfred by Schumann and Tchaikovsky) and Maria Matos (hypnoting Grouper's performance).

Now I am preparing an application to implement Pipripi in Montemor (Alentejo) for a festival this summer.

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)

nomen omen

Valerie is apparently a witch or a Czech Nostradamus, because the title of her post  describes perfectly the final show of the stopmotion animation called Panico do Castelo.

It was indeed a panic in Transforma, because unfortunately computers let us down. By the way, who on Earth would think that we're gonna have problems with computers, not children. 

The space was arranged as a cinema, there was also an exhibition  which consisted of castles made from recycled materials, collages and drawings. An exhibition curated with a lot of thought (maybe even too much) by me and Valerie. 

So the show was delayed for an hour, probably the most embarassing hour of my life. At least we had some sweets brought by parents to cheer up. Finally we had to show the animation without a sound, crushing down every 2 seconds.

But children liked the workshops and this is the most important thing. I also liked the children and this is the second most important thing. And thanks to little Inês I know how to correctly pronounce maçã and this is a lesson I will remember for my whole life.

Meu pânico no workshop

Tomorrow is the last day of our Easter workshop with children and I am entering it with mixed feelings and a lot of expectations about our final product.
The first half of the week I noticed a lot of problems caused especially by our incapability to communicate with the children and with ourselves (as the volunteers team counted the same number of persons as the participants). Also I felt that our lack of experiences with working with children (except Esther of course) was affecting the course of the workshop.
However the second half of the week went surprisingly much better. We found our own language to communicate with the kids and we were able to organize ourselves much better in the smaller team. The children seem to enjoy the activities and the time spent with us and I have to say they are the best teachers of Portuguese one could ever have!

First Easter camp's day

We are so tired but so excited about the Easter camp which we are doing. We hope that the children are enjoying as us with the idea about to do our film, and with all the techniques and process which we are learning.

We have to thank to the volunteers who are helping us because without their help all is more difficult for us and they are always supporting us.

Today we gave the explications about the film which we want to create and we started to create the new set in which we are going to work. Always working shoulder to shoulder with the participants. Because we have no to forget that this Easter camp is for them and by them.

I am sure we are going to put more energies in the next days, and in the end of this camp we are going to miss all the time together with the children and we are going to enjoy watching the result of our work.

Learning.

And we continue learning about Transforma, about coexistence, about portuguese life, about art, about "Meio ambiento", about our work here.

We are so excited about to do the first Easter camp of Transforma. We are putting all our knowlegdes and energy in prepare it, and we are so happy with all the work and all the activities that we are going to do with the young people who are going to come to enjoy with us this project.

We are so integrated in Transforma and in portugueses habits. So we have to only let us go and enjoy this unique experiencie.

So far so good

The time is passing really quickly here in Torres Vedras. Before I noticed the first third of our EVS project is over. 

Next week we are already implementing our first activity – Easter stop motion movie workshop for local kids and youngsters. Our preparations were really spectacular – we worked hard especially on the stop motion teaser for the workshop which allowed us to try our own skills and abilities to create an animation in only one day.

Here is the result:

In the meantime we are still planning our other projects that will take place in the following weeks and months.

We spend our free time mostly travelling – so far I managed to visit Lisbon, Óbidos, Alcobaça, Batalha, Sintra and Cascais and we still have big plans about Porto, Faro and especially Azores where we are heading next month. 

I am still enjoying the fresh local fish, fruits and vegetables which are so expensive and hard to get in my country. Mercado Municipal is one of my favorite places to go and my biggest worries in Portugal are if I manage to try and taste everything that I want! I already know that I will be missing all the delicious pasteis and dried figs.

To sum up, we are really doing our best to get the most from this experience.