Dissemination
CIAC Researcher Delivers Presentation at the Cultural Heritage and the Female Gaze Seminar at FAUP, Porto
CIAC researcher Juliana Wexel will take part this Thursday, October 2, in the Cultural Heritage and the Female Gaze Seminar, organized by the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP). At the event, she will present the paper Autofiction and Nomadic Self-Writing in the Video Art ARETUSA hydro_VOX (2023–2024), an account of the creation of the autofictional video art piece that proposes a feminist reinterpretation of the myth of the Greek nymph Arethusa, inspired by the homonymous fountain on the small island of Ortygia, in Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. Syracuse is known as città aretusea due to its profound cultural and architectural connection with the mythological fountain. The narrative of ARETUSA hydro_VOX results from autobiographical and nomadic writing, based on Juliana Wexel’s artistic experience while living in Ortygia between 2021 and 2023.
The presentation focuses in particular on the fragment meta_SQUIRT, developed through 3D generative video animations created with artificial intelligence (AI), which explore representations of female sexuality and genitalia in analogy with the fauna, flora, and waters of the Arethusa spring in Ortygia. ARETUSA hydro_VOX is part of a trilogy of cyberfeminist artifacts stemming from the artistic praxis of the thesis-creation “VULVA IS MEDIA: VULVA ART, VULVARTIVISM, AND DIGITAL MEDIA ART” and was screened in the experimental video category at the AVANCA Film Festival 2024 and the XV Curta Açores Festival 2024, in Portugal.
The work is both process and outcome of the authorial method CyberPerformanCity, which interconnects public space, performative intervention, and cyberspace. It was developed by combining methodologies such as feminist arts-based research, autoethnography, and practice-based research, 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).
Juliana Wexel’s doctoral research is funded by the Research Grant UI/BD/150845/2021, through the Project UIDP/04019/2020 under the Collaboration Protocol for Funding the Multiannual Plan of Doctoral Research Scholarships, signed between the Foundation for Science and Technology and the R&D Unit Research Center Arts and Communication (CIAC), University of Algarve, within the PhD in Digital Media Art (DMAD).
The presentation Autofiction and Nomadic Self-Writing in the Video Art ARETUSA hydro_VOX (2023–2024) will take place in Session 2, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Admission is free.
About the Cultural Heritage and the Female Gaze Seminar
Recent research has expanded the visibility of women in architectural projects, highlighting their role in a field historically dominated by male protagonists. Beyond authority, 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 — all born in 1925 and whose legacies continue to inspire reflections on gender and knowledge production — the program features lectures by Oliver Kessler (University of Bonn) and Antonieta Reis Leite (CES-UC).
The full program is available (here).
Esta publicação também está disponível em: Portuguese (Portugal)