CONTEMPART 15

ThE CREATIvITY EMANCIPATION ATLAS

ART PROJECT IN ThE NEIGhBOURhOOD OF ESTRADA
MILITAR DO ALTO DA DAMAIA
Antnio Gorgel Pinto
CIAUD researcher, School of Architecture - University of Lisbon, Portugal,
gorgelpinto@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper approaches the notion of the creativity emancipation atlas and its
creation method as part of a social visual art project, in the field of multimedia,
developed in a slum of the Portuguese city of Amadora. The initial part focuses the
idea of a machine specifically designed for the project operations, as well as the
fundamental concepts that inform it, such as the theories of machine, creativity
and emancipation. The next part explores the notion of atlas, first as Aby Warburg
conceived it, and second as an object resulting from the machine installed in the
neighbourhood. In this sense, at the end of the present text, there is a detailed
description of the artistic project and the analysis of its results.
Keywords
Social Art, Atlas, Machine, Creativity, Emancipation, Participation, Multimedia.
1. Introduction
The objective of this research is the definition of a visual art practice socially
engaged with groups of residents from urban slums where the main purpose is the
development of participatory activities in the field of multimedia. Another goal to
achieve is to improve the social cohesion between the locals through the cultural
revitalization of the place where they live and their involvement with skills that
stimulate creativity. It is also important that this theoretical and practical art study
contribute to the discussion on the vocation of contemporary art for the production
of pieces, which are both symbolic and fruitful to society.
There are two important linked concepts that define the research. First of all,
the idea of a machine that is capable of producing a series of audiovisual elements
mounted in the form of an atlas. In its turn, the machine has three main aspects
for its definition, which are the particular notions of creativity and emancipation.
Its about a way of understanding based on the montage of heterogeneous
elements, created in a participatory way, in which there are interstitial exploration
areas that contribute to the deconstruction of the ideals of unity, of specificity, of
purity, of integral knowledge, both in the arts field, as well as in other areas of
knowledge. It is expected that the creativity emancipation atlas interpretation has
underlying a combinatorial process of other images, through a specific imagination
that enhances the multiplicity and continually repeats the same system of analogies
(Didi-Huberman, 2010: 14-16).
Thus, it is proposed the presentation of some images and thoughts resulting
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from the creativity emancipation atlas, within the framework of the social art project
developed in Bairro da Estrada Militar do Alto da Damaia, located in Amadora, a
satellite city of Lisbon. This is a project-oriented practice that is developed in two
parts: initially it as an educational and participatory structure; afterwards it is a
symbolic piece, expressing various thoughts about the place and the community
where the project is implemented. Throughout the educational sessions, videos,
texts, sounds, as well as material and spatial references, are collected to be later
processed and constitute the audiovisual atlas. The dialog established between
each representation, of every educational action, takes a contemplative attitude
that confronts the viewer and refers him to other possible meanings in a universe
of unlimited referents.
The educational and participatory activities, developed in the neighbourhood,
fit into the field of information and communication technologies, digital arts, and
photography, in particular: (1) computer lessons for adults, (2) photography sessions
for kids and (3) the recording of ambient sounds. There were also some interviews
with the participation of young people and adults from the neighbourhood. One of
the most significant aspects of the project is the fact of involving several generations
of residents in the relational activities. Thus, the methodology and methods used
will be presented, as well as the results obtained after the application of a survey to
the people involved in the project.
2. Machine Set Up
The main reason for the creativity emancipation atlas is the representation
of a disadvantaged neighbourhood, named Estrada Militar do Alto da Damaia, in
Amadora. This medium is made possible due to a set of essential functionalities
resulting from a kind of machine specifically designed for the creativity
encouragement of the resident participants. The fundamental objective is that the
locals lose any cultural preconceived inferiority ideas when comparing themselves
with other elements of society. Another relevant point of the mechanism in question
is the previous definition of a program for its functioning, informed by a philosophy
of education responsive to the idea of emancipation, and an aesthetic that, with
social awareness, develops several participatory activities. Finally, the creativity
emancipation atlas aims to develop a reflection in society about alternative and
socially more sustainable ways to help solve the problematic situations that
regularly occur in degraded and deprived urban areas. Thus, to set up the machine
that works within a community, which is represented by the production of an
atlas of images, it is important to analyse three notions in particular - machine,
emancipation and creativity.

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Fig. 1. Operational scheme of the machine for the creativity emancipation atlas
(Gorgel Pinto, 2015).
2.1 Machine
The concept of machine is broadly developed in regard to the technological
issues, but less advanced concerning the aspects surrounding the human nature
and its artificialities. Therefore, the study on the machines efficiency becomes
elemental considering an expanded notion of artificiality, the connection among
the spheres of thought and functioning, as well as the production of models for the
understanding of devices (Vengeon, 2009, p.103).
This theory starts from the assumption that there is no division between human
beings and their creations, since these produce several transformations such as
those who are perceived in thought. This is a philosophy focused on a different
development of technique, which considers the production of results and, at the
same time, how it affects the human mind. Thus, the technique is also a kind of
thinking in which humans can reflect on their actions. The man is an unfinished
biological entity that only perseveres in the human being due to a set of technical
prostheses. The technique enables survivorship, freedom and the humanization
of the human being. Every artificiality emanating from technical operations
invented by humans, in any area of knowledge, is a phenomenon of their own
nature (Vengeon, 2009, pp.103-104).
With respect to the connection between art and technique, this is a problematic
that initiated in the separation between both, and not in any of the fields in
particular. At a certain point, the idea that art belongs to an ethereal sphere of
symbolic meanings emerged, located on a superior level from the material world.
Contrary to this perspective, the concepts of ars and tekn, were formed, in the
Greek and Roman periods, which instead of giving more emphasis to the mechanical
operating issues or to the symbolic expression, attributed a greater relevance to
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the practice and skill of the performer. In this sense, it would be appropriate to
recover the logic surrounding the notions of ars and tekn, in such a way that the
technique was understood as a skill matter and, thereby, could contribute to the
development of all the existing practices that the human being creates in many
social and environmental contexts (Ingold, 2001, p. 20).
The machine conceived within the present artistic project implies the
abovementioned notion of artificiality, in which there is no gap between humans
and the creations they develop through some practical skills. The human thinking,
by itself, does not permit the creation of evolutionary conditions, without the
development of automatisms that enhance both his physical actions as well
as his thoughts. It is an idea of machine, which is defined as a set of artificial
automatisms, that does not imply the compulsory need of an object to put them
into practice. The significant features that define the existence of mechanisms are
the various actions and functionalities developed by humans through the invention
of specific devices (Vengeon, 2009, p. 104).
2.2 Creativity
Since its origin, the definition of the concept of creativity developed different
characteristics, taking into consideration its reason of existence and the way it
affects the human being, either in the arts practice, or by the way it manifests
across human culture. Creativity is a universal principle that is common in humanity.
In other words, being an artist is not limited to the genial character or to a rare
aptitude of an individual in particular, but is one of the most important qualities
in all humans with creative sensitivity. During the Renaissance, for example, artists
used to manifest interest in being sensitive and creative in a holistic way, both in
artistic practice, writing, thought, as well as in every action in general. It was a
different conception of an artist from the one that came to be defined and whose
creativity is usually focused on a particular type of production (da Silva, 2009, pp.
76-77, 140).
One of the most important references in the present project is Joseph Beuys,
whose work and thought pointed to a universal notion of creativity. In the artists
perspective, dialogue and language are means of expression that can be shaped
such as forms in sculpture. The way each person thinks and acts is similar to the
work of an artist, being fundamental the recognition and development of formal
reasoning, just like artists observe and reflect on the objects they produce. Thus, art
and art education, in particular, must expand beyond the disciplinary bounds and
integrate other learning. Beuys pointed out that creativity is a consequence of the
productive activity, which is a universal characteristic in all humans (Gomes, 2010,
pp. 8-9, 21, 62, 122).
According to Beuys principle every man is an artist, creativity is a common
characteristic to the social body and not an exclusive faculty of artists, allowing, on
one hand, the development of a freer society, and on the other, a redefinition of
all art territories. This expanded theory of art, denominated social sculpture by
the artist, points out that every human being has creative capacities that can be
boosted in order to stimulate their involvement in the transformation of society.
Moving and acting outside the sphere of art, the social sculpture, potentiated the
creativity as a value of exchange with more logic than capital and profit, which have
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dominated the development of culture and can eventually lead society to paralysis
(Gomes, 2010, pp. 8-9).
2.3 Emancipation
In the context of the participatory actions of the art project in question, it is
important to emphasize the kind of intelligence that drives all healthy children
to understand a new language, which is a consequence of the same learning
process based on guessing. The origin of this type of thinking lies in the desire and
willingness to match, like responding to someone who speaks to you, and not the
one who examines you, under the sign of equality. The necessity to have a teacher,
whose function is to guide his disciples, is placed when the student does not have
the sufficient intensity to learn. Therefore, the relationship between the teacher
and the students that makes sense is not the submission of one intelligence to
another, but an interaction that values the connection among wills. In this way,
the most important element lies in the initial statement of the teacher followed
by a free exploration of the student who follows and learns from other sources of
knowledge, such as the speech or the text. The will and the capacity to emancipate
are the most sensitive issues for the ones who guide someone that wants to
learn, making possible, in this way, the Universal Education: learning anything,
and relate to that thing all the rest, according to the principle that all men have
equal intelligence (Rancire, 2002, pp. 23-25, 30, 44). Man is a will served by an
intelligence (Rancire apud Jacotot, 2002, p. 64).
In the educational paradigm that is more in use, the teacher assumes the position
of the group leader conducting it to the presupposed values of society, just as the
school has the mission of turning smaller the social inequalities. However, the social
model based on this notion of education, which is working to reduce the cultural
differences between classes, is actually perpetuating the same discrimination. The
objective of promoting equality by means of inequality is a perverted logic of the
original objective to develop fairness between social classes.
In this regard, it is essential to generalise the equality between participants
in learning acts since the very beginning and not as the main purpose. Thus, the
teacher, who has more knowledge, must be sensitive to the amount of information
that his students already have. The pre-existence of social disparities is a problem
that mustnt be boosted in the development of learning. The teacher and his
students must be placed in the same sphere of understanding from which they start
exchanging information. Nowadays, two opposed educational models still persist
in society: (1) an action of brutalization that wants to increase the students
capacities and at the same time enhancing the lack of knowledge that students
have; (2) an emancipatory teaching philosophy that is sensitive to the students
natural aptitudes, which are unknown or denied (Rancire, 2002, pp. 10-11).
3. The Creativity Emancipation Atlas
The Creativity Emancipation Atlas is a multimedia medium resulting from
a specifically developed context, whose activity is the subject matter to be
represented. The reproduction of these actions has an underlying participatory
machine, from which educational situations of involvement with a group of slum
residents are generated. One of the relevant aspects concerning the machine
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operation is its prior programming with concepts from the spheres of visual arts and
philosophy of education. This participatory environment is registered via various
media, by the author and the people involved in the project, with a view to drawing
up an archive of memories allusive to the implemented educational activities. This
is a set of photographic and sound elements, selected from the whole produced
reproductions, whose assembling results in a symbolic and documentarian artistic
object. In this sense it is important to approach the atlas of images theory,
developed by Aby Warburg and deepened by Geroges Didi-Huberman.
3.1 Atlas
The atlas concept, which is defined by a kind of knowledge anchored in visuality,
presupposes an interaction between two models of thought - the aesthetic and the
epistemic. It is a visual mode that adds to understanding the sensitive dimension,
the diverse and the lagoon-like nature that exists in each image. This possibility that
is present in the atlas, when including any dissonant note, enables to counter and
expand what is established by intelligence. In this way, through the diversification
of thoughts and the freedom of reasoning, about a particular intelligible analysis,
alternative perspectives are initiated to question the self-proclaimed certainties
of science convinced of its truths, as the art is convinced of its criteria (DidiHuberman 2013: 11-13).
As a result of the expansion of thoughts, interstitial spaces of exploitation arise,
which corroborate the endless capacity to formulate new ideas, to the detriment
of the logical breakdown of the given possibilities and the ideals of uniqueness,
specificity, purity and integral knowledge. The imagination is another relevant
aspect for understanding the atlas, since this is the power that allows an aperture
to other possibilities of understanding and a transversal knowledge through the
use of assemblies among unlikely elements. In the essence of the imagination lies
the permanent need to diversify and create new correspondences and analogies
(Didi-Huberman 2013: 13-14).
Regarding the question of interpretation, contrary to the function of synthesizing
the world, or conceiving a simplified diagram, it is supposed a combinatory process
of new sets of images underlying it. To read the atlas, an imagination that enhances
the multiplicity and continually repeats the same system of creating analogies
is required. This inexhaustible and exponential dynamic is capable of creating
new connections that, from the beginning, did not seem to be connected (DIDIHUBERMAN, 2010: 16).
The development of this thesis is related with the historiographical work, titled
Mnemosyne Atlas, which Aby Warburg began in the year 1925. It is a research work
consisting of more than 60 panels, whose content includes several hundreds of
images without any kind of caption. On the one hand, Warburg wanted to design
a mnemonic model about the humanist thought in Western Europe, from classical
antiquity to the present day, where a social memory could be formed through the
succession of several layers of cultural transmission. On the other hand, the aim
was to develop an aesthetic in which memory could play a key role. In this way, he
gave shape to a kind of atlas constituted by images related with various historical
periods (BUCHLOH, 1999: 124).
In the Mnemosyne Atlas, examples of iconography abound, from ancient
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sarcophagi, formal and stylistic influences of Donatello, Michelangelo and

Rembrandt, as well as some contemporary authors of Warburg, such as Dziga
Vertov, Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Georges Bataille and Walter Benjamin. It should be
noted that the atlas is a reflection of a wide temporal period that covers various
kinds of knowledge and a new composition of historical facts, since the ancient
Astrology, until other copies of atlas from the twenties and thirties of the 20th
century (DIDI-HUBERMAN, 2010: 129).
Throughout the 20th century, numerous authors have focused on the
understanding of image and historical thought, having developed various types of
atlas, such as the works of Walter Benjamin and Georges Bataille. In the visual arts
field it is important to emphasize the mounting thinking that is present in the
works of Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov and Bertol Brecht (ROMERO, 2007: 19).
Afterwards, other artists explored a language supported by processes of compilation
and reassembly, like the Dadaistischer Handatlas (1919-1921), Hannah Hchs
Album (1933), Karl Blossfeldts Arbeitscollagen (1905-1925), and Marcel Duchamps
Bote-en-valise (1936-1968). More recently, Marcel Broodthaerss Atlas (1975) and
Gerhard Richters Atlas (1962-2006) stand out, among other examples (cf. DIDIHUBERMAN, 2010: 18).
The wide artistic production of archive pieces that have emerged since the
precursor work of Warburg, took a different character from the atlas of images, since
this latter exposes an investigation that consists of differences and discontinuities,
while other compilations hide the differences in their dense set. The atlas displays
guidance panels, whereas the archive leads the observer to the disorganization of
its content. The atlas reveals clues, whose gaps between images guide the viewer
to other thoughts, while the archive does not allow the opening of paths between
its documents. Nevertheless, the atlas depends on the prior existence of an archive,
from which it derives the necessary information to give form to an immense field
of conflicts where ambivalences and decisive crisis succeed (DIDI-HUBERMAN,
2010: 188).
4. Art Project in the Neighbourhood of Estrada Militar do Alto da Damaia
The present social art project is developed in a disadvantaged urban
neighbourhood from the city of Amadora, named Bairro da Estrada Militar do Alto
da Damaia (Fig.2). The place is marked by illegal construction and the lack of support
from public entities to solve problems such as poverty, crime, among others.
Immigrants and their descendants, from Portuguese-speaking African countries,
like Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and So Tom and Principe, constitute the
predominant population.
Initially, the project was proposed, by the artist, to a local association called
Loja Social (Fig.3). The first meeting between both parts was very important to
understand the cultural needs of the locals and also to start thinking on some useful
activities that could potentiate their creative energy. In this sense, two workshops
were created: (1) a group of sessions about computer literacy (Fig.4), dedicated
to adults and, subsequently, (2) a set of activities on pinhole photography (Fig.5),
which were destined to youngsters. The initiatives were spread in the community
by the local association, which had no problem in receiving people with interest to
participate. The artist had the collaboration of some multimedia students from a
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local high school.

Fig. 2. Bairro da Estrada Militar do Alto da Damaia. Video frame (Gorgel Pinto,
2015).

Fig. 3. Loja Social. Video frame (Gorgel Pinto, 2015).

This is a practice that was developed in two different phases, which complement
each other. At the beginning it worked as a participatory learning system and
later transformed itself in a symbolic art piece that stimulates the thought about
the place and the community where the actions took place. In the participatory
activities produced during the first part, both the people, who learned, as well as
the artist and the students who collaborated, shared their knowledge and gave
some ideas. Even though the artist previously programed the learning activities, it
was important to be receptive and include other suggestions from participants in
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order to follow a course adapted to their own interests.

During the participatory actions, video footage, photographs, audio recordings,
as well as other kind of elements, were collected to be edited and integrate the
creativity emancipation atlas. The aim is that this kind of archive, which represents
the social art project, assumes a contemplative nature that confronts the viewer
and refers him to a deeper meaning in a space of numerous referents. Parallel to
the symbolic significance, it is the illustration of a useful art project to society, with
very focused methodologies and objectives regarding the cultural development of
the community in question.

Fig. 4. Computer lessons for adults. Video frame (Gorgel Pinto, 2015).

Fig. 5. Pinhole photography workshop for youngsters. Video frame (Gorgel Pinto,
2015).

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The atlas exhibition with the audiovisual content produced during the
participatory actions will have a permanent place online, in a specific web design
composition (Fig.6), as well as temporary location in a municipal gallery-like space
in Amadora. The objectives are: (1) to praise the culture of the people who inhabit
these disadvantaged neighbourhoods, (2) to question the civic responsibility in
solving the problem of social inclusion and, finally, (3) the potential of the visual
arts in relation to the awareness to this problematic. The atlas web design work is
presently in progress and its presentation to the local community and to the public
in general is scheduled for the year 2016.
With the objective of evaluating this multimedia social art project, some
interviews were already made, and others are planned to the end of all activities.
At this point, a survey was applied to participants, non-participant residents, as
well as to some employees of the social institution. In general, the addressed
people considered the social support useful, since it culturally promotes those
who participate on the educational activities and, indirectly, also affecting other
residents. They all highlighted that this kind of activities contributes to the civic
development of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, which counter-cycle with
the usual clandestine behaviours that occur in the area. The persons involved in the
learnings also felt that the received support was useful for their daily life and that they
would be interested in continuing to be involved. They consider that participating in
this type of activities has beneficial effects on health, particularly in reasoning and
memory. The youngsters who participated in the pinhole photography workshop
referred that they would like to continue practicing in organised weekly sessions.
The exhibition at a gallery-like municipal place and the website dissemination will
be decisive for an in-depth evaluation, where every social group will have a proper
idea after seeing the atlas. After the participants confrontation with the art work it
will be important to understand if they feel positively represented and encouraged
to continue the involvement with other initiatives. With regard to the rest of the
urban community, it will be essential to perceive if they feel more sensitized to
the problematic involving this kind of disadvantaged neighbourhoods, as well as
more responsible relatively to the civic duty of society in helping other less socially
included citizens. Finally, it will be crucial to understand, among all the atlas viewers
and, particularly, between visual and multimedia artists, if they consider necessary
and relevant a deeper engagement of the arts with the awareness to these kind of
difficulties.

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Fig. 6. The creativity emancipation atlas. Website screenshot (Gorgel Pinto, 2015).
5. Conclusion
The first objective of this visual art research is to emphasize the arts vocation for
a proper perception to the various issues that interest the common good. The dialog
between the ethical and aesthetic sensibilities gains a particular potential to the
understanding of the social problematic. This type of sensory knowledge produces
a fundamental effect for the development of intersubjectivity, which can contribute
to the sustainable development and to strengthen the universal philosophy.
This concept of art, simultaneously symbolic and prolific, which was developed
in the neighbourhood of Estrada Militar do Alto da Damaia, is a holistic practice that
explores various dimensions of knowledge. The implementation of an immaterial
machine for the emancipation of creativity, aims at improving the socio-cultural
situation of the community concerned and experimenting a practice whose
principles could be generalized between artists, as well as other cultural producers.
When focusing the existing creative energy in this kind of disadvantaged
residential areas, it is possible to valorize the equality of intelligences in comparison
with other citizens that are socially and culturally privileged.
This capacity to promote social inclusion, as well as valuing and informing all
members of society, through a multimedia visual art practice with social sensitivity,
is a practice that should be generalized in society. Thus, the idea is to continue the
theoretical and practical research through the development of projects with other
urban neighbourhoods around Lisbon.
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