Dissemination
CIAC researcher awarded PhD degree in Digital Media Art
CIAC researcher and DMAD doctoral candidate Juliana Wexel was awarded the highest classification, Very Good with Distinction and Honour, for the PhD degree in Digital Media Art – Specialisation in Communication, Culture and Arts. The doctoral defence took place on 2 December 2025 at the Gambelas Campus of the University of the Algarve.
Her doctoral work was supervised by Prof. Dr Bruno Mendes da Silva and co-supervised by Prof. Dr Mirian Tavares.
Juliana Wexel’s thesis-creation, entitled VULVA IS MEDIA: VULVA ART, VULVARTIVISM AND DIGITAL MEDIA ART, presents the deconstruction of a taboo element as its central object of artistic research and seeks to conceptualise, in an unprecedented and original way, the vulva art movement. According to the research, vulva art emerged during the second wave of feminist art, established an inescapable relationship with digital media art through cyberfeminism, and consolidated itself as an artivist movement in the fourth feminist wave. Vulva art artists focus on female genitalia as an object of visual, performative and literary representation in aesthetic discourses that deconstruct taboo themes related to sexuality, anatomy, pleasure, orgasm, masturbation and menstruation.
To demonstrate the configuration of vulva art, the doctoral research establishes a generational division based on vulvar iconography and iconology, analysing 62 works and projects by 50 artists from 22 countries across six continents: North America (United States, Canada and Cuba), South America (Brazil and Chile), Europe (Germany, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Scotland, Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland), Africa (South Africa), Asia (Japan) and Oceania (Australia). The study also focuses on the ways in which digital technologies have been intertwined with languages, artistic techniques, creative tools, collaborative processes, experiences and audience interactions, as well as on the dissemination of works that employ graphic design, photography and digital video, 3D modelling, video animation, game design and immersive media, and on how their uses and modalities have impacted the spread of vulva art.
The doctoral journey also culminated in the creation of the CyberPerformanCity method, linked to the European projects CyPeT (2022–2023) and COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action Writing Urban Places: New Narratives of the European City (2020–2023).
The doctoral research was funded by the Research Grant UI/BD/150845/2021, under Project UIDP/04019/2020, within the framework of the Collaboration Protocol for Financing the Multiannual Research Grant Plan for Doctoral Students, established between the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the R&D Unit Research Centre for Arts and Communication (CIAC) of the University of the Algarve, in Faro, and integrated into the PhD in Digital Media Art (DMAD).
The doctoral jury was chaired by Prof. Dr Ana Clara Simão Viegas dos Santos and comprised Dr Adérito Fernandes-Marcos, Full Professor at the University of Saint Joseph, Macau; Dr Ana Isabel Candeias Dias Soares, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the University of the Algarve; Dr Bruno Miguel Mendes da Silva, Coordinating Professor at the School of Education and Communication of the University of the Algarve; and Dr María Jesús Botana Vilar, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the University of the Algarve. The external examiners were Dr Maria Isabel Gallis Pereira Baraona, Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, and Dr Fernando Luís Maia da Cunha, Adjunct Professor at the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil.
Esta publicação também está disponível em: Portuguese (Portugal)