Beyond the Written Word @ Online Seminar

On the 10th of July we invited four women researchers coming from different disciplines and working on different parts of the world to a space of conversation about collective art-science research processes, with an emphasis on the use of visual languages in co-creation processes.

During this virtual seminar we explored questions around the power of visual arts to go beyond words and spark new understandings, feelings and reflections on difficult and/or relevant subjects. We learned about the difficulties of translating written language/research into visual language with the experiences of Federica Ravera when collaborating with Martina Manyà for the co-creation of ‘Dones de la muntanya’, a graphic novel, portrait of the rural world and Pyrenean sheperds with a gender perspective. Carla Boserman shared with us her reflections on how she sees visual arts as a way of doing research and strengthening collective processes in Spain.We also discussed the risks and challenges of portraying diverse (and sometimes vulnerable) voices through visual languages and the ways to consider the potential impacts of our work on those who we are representing. Through her work with riverine communities in Colombia, Maria Ordoñez-Cruz shared how her artistic practice has enabled collective reflections around stories of violence and opened windows for imagining new/different futures. Finally, we heard from Andrea Cagua perspectives on visual arts in the context of research on collective memory, autobiography and migration and her projects: ‘Memoria & Comics’ andEnviñetadas.