Dissemination
Book published by FAUP includes a chapter by a CIAC researcher
The chapter Autofiction and Nomadic Self-Writing in the Video Art ARETUSA hydro_VOX (2023–2024), authored by CIAC researcher Juliana Wexel, is included in the book The Female Gaze: Materiality and Identities, edited by members of the ID-SCAPES project and published by the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP). The book was launched on 1 July during the seminar Cultural Heritage and Visual Representations of India, held at FAUP.
The chapter presents an account of the autofictional creative experience developed through a feminist reinterpretation of the myth of the Greek nymph Arethusa, inspired by the homonymous spring located on the small island of Ortigia, in Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. Syracuse is known as città aretusea due to its deep cultural and architectural connection with the mythological spring. The narrative of ARETUSA hydro_VOX results from an autobiographical and nomadic writing process, based on Juliana Wexel’s artistic experience while living in Ortigia between 2021 and 2023.
The work focuses particularly on the fragment meta_SQUIRT, composed of AI-generated 3D generative video animations that explore representations of female sexuality and genitalia in analogy with the fauna, flora and waters of the Arethusa spring. ARETUSA hydro_VOX is part of a trilogy of cyberfeminist artworks emerging from the artistic practice developed within the creation-thesis VULVA É MÍDIA: VULVA ART, VULVARTIVISMO E MÉDIA-ARTE DIGITAL and was presented in the experimental video category at the AVANCA Film Festival 2024 and the XV Curta Açores Festival 2024, in Portugal.
The video art project is also the process and outcome of the authorial method CyberPerformanCity, which connects public space, performative intervention and cyberspace. The initiative was developed through the intersection of methodologies such as feminist arts-based research, autoethnography and practice-based research, and is linked to the European projects CyPeT (2022–2023) and COST Action Writing Urban Places: New Narratives of the European City (2020–2023).
The doctoral research was funded through Research Grant UI/BD/150845/2021, by Project UIDP/04019/2020, within the framework of the Collaboration Protocol established between the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Research Centre in Arts and Communication (CIAC) of the University of Algarve, and was developed as part of the Doctoral Programme in Digital Media Art (DMAD).
A scientific presentation on the chapter was also included in the Cultural Heritage and the Female Gaze Seminar, promoted by FAUP on 2 October 2025. Recent research has contributed to increasing the visibility of women in architectural projects, highlighting their role in a field historically dominated by male figures. Beyond authorship, the relationship between women and cultural heritage reveals diverse practices and experiences that enrich the understanding of the built environment. In tribute to Raquel Soeiro de Brito, Suzanne Daveau and Gritli von Mitterwallner — born in 1925 and whose legacies continue to inspire reflections on gender and knowledge production — the programme featured lectures by Oliver Kessler (University of Bonn) and Antonieta Reis Leite (CES-UC).
Esta publicação também está disponível em: Portuguese (Portugal)