CALL FOR IMAGES

The theme of ‘taking care’ of something, as an act of safeguarding the thing itself, is an activity that implies an acknowledgement and a consequent design action, which will determine its course from then on. In this context, Drawing is a discipline through which it is possible to acknowledge, determine, and consequently valorise and safeguard an asset (a monument, a work of art, nature, something intangible up to entire cities and landscapes).

GRAPHics of Immateriality (GRAF_I) is an initiative that interprets the theme of taking care as an opportunity to safeguard, preserve, and disseminate the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Intangible Cultural Heritage includes not only monuments and collections of objects but, as determined by UNESCO, also ‘traditions, practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and know-how that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise’.

GRAF_I proposes to reflect on the theme of taking care of the Intangible Cultural Heritage through the instruments of the disciplines of Representation. Intangibility, defined as what has neither form nor substance, concerns Cultural Heritage linked to ideas, lifestyles, craftsmanship, constructive knowledge, lived history, traditions, and the imagination of local communities. The valorisation of these aspects becomes fundamental in maintaining cultural diversity, as opposed to an increasingly pervasive globalisation, in order to ensure an intercultural dialogue of life and traditions. In this context, the importance of intangible culture is not to be found in the cultural manifestation per se, but rather in the wealth of knowledge and its capacity to be passed on from one generation to the next.

Drawing, in this context, with the production of images and models, representations and communications, can be a language through which we can take care of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, fulfilling the task of preserving, enhancing, and passing it on. For this purpose, a Call for Images is proposed to the scientific community with the aim of collecting and disseminating Drawing methods and techniques which are capable of representing concepts, ideas, and narratives about Heritage. They bestow form and image to the intangible, fulfilling the task of communicating this one through graphic representation.

The Call invites the Drawing and Representation scientific community and Heritage scholars to depict Intangible Heritage through an image. Graphic works are to be understood, as defined by ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems), as other types of material, multimedia, or virtual scientific products which express a representation of architecture works, industrial products, and the environment. They can therefore be considered as cognitive, designing, expressive means of visual communication to the different scalar dimensions of an investigation and experimentation process.

The images submitted, accompanied by a commentary text, may be originals or analyses of already published images, provided that the participant holds the respective rights to publish the work in the context of this initiative.

THEMATIC AREAS

The Call for Images is articulated around three main focuses:

KEYWORDS

The transversality of the fields of interest of the Call for Images allows us to define certain keywords, indicated below, which may be freely taken, combined, and reworked by the authors, in order to favour a more effective research proposal, especially regarding unexplored or scarcely explored subjects.

#oraltradition #performingarts #socialuse #rituals #festivityacts #knowledgeaboutnature #knowledgeoftheuniverse #knowledgeoftechnics #incorporeal #intangible #invisible #communication #bequeathing #traditions #collectiveknowledge #identity #identitary #collectiveculturalidentity #professions #traditions #ceremonies #dances #musicalcompositions #legends #dialects #languages #historicalheritage #archaeology #foodculture

KEY DATES

VENUE

Università degli Studi di Sassari (University of Sassari), Alghero. Dipartimento di Architettura, Design e Urbanistica (Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning). Complesso di Santa Chiara, Muralla de l’Hospital (Bastioni Marco Polo), 07041, Alghero, Italy.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Accepted works, once passed the Double-Blind Peer Review, will be published in a volume collecting the Conference Proceedings and as an ebook with ISBN in open access on the PUBLICA Sharing Knowledge publishing platform.

The authors of the best works will be invited to publish expanded versions of their contributions, in form of extended articles, in an issue of the journal DISEGNARECON dedicated to the themes of the conference.