Second public presentation

The second public presentation began today with SPLACE group. The students made their choice about the space they intend to use for their installation. It’s a public space within the European District in Brussels, located in Gare Léopold. The project will include a microphone, which the people is free to use. The sounds will then be turned into graphics through a computer and displayed in the bridge connecting the buildings of the environment. This action is intended to be repeated in other big cities, symbolic places around Europe. A webcam in site, with a view of all the visual effects, and a website, containing all the produced graphics, will also be part of the project. The aim is to give people freedom of speech and of expression, even if they don’t speak the same language (using the graphics as a translator).
The debate that followed took in consideration whether it is really an expression of freedom to speak not being understood, if not through graphics; whether the graphics could be seen as a kind of censorships to the speaking person. In any case, teachers pointed out that encouraging active speaking instead of the virtual one (sms, email) is a good and strong argument of this project.



BORDERLINE provoked then the audience with shocking images and strong campaigns. Beside the burning flag, they presented a video in which the members of the group were performing a “human chain”, followed by some images, like a fake newspaper reporting the effects of the Third World War, or the prices labels in a supermarket, reporting prices in the old national currencies but with their actual values, thus enhancing the good effects brought by the introduction of the Euro. All these actions are supposed to make people feel lucky to be european. At the end of the presentation, the group distributed a questionnaire to the audience, which is intended to be the beginning of next performance.
The tutors agreed that the students had done a good job trying to provoke situations rather than persons.



CARA came out with the first images of their products catalogue, called “Subtitles”. These are all objects thought to enhance the already existing places, using the city as a layer and not introducing new brands on the market. According to these students, space is the ultimate communication tool.
Five projects were then shown in detail: “Reality Belfast”, a metaphor of the wall as a separation object, which is intended to give new neighbours to people, by projecting on the wall next to their house the image of somebody else’s house; “Neighbours skies”, the projection of another european country’s sky on the ceiling of bus stops; “Dancing in the streets”, which consists in mapping people’s walking round a piazza and then projecting their footsteps in another european piazza, thus provoking a kind of dance; “See saw”, benches that go up and down depending on whether someone else sits down on the corresponding bench in the other city; “The Others”: when, at night, you’re staying under a streetlamp, the shadow that you produce is reported in another street somewhere.
The simple but strong objects this group has collected so far, together with the gentle and clear graphic, was appreciated by the teachers, who underlined two main qualities: the fact that interaction between people is not forced and the fact that it concerns everyday life’s imaginary.



ERADIUS group found the graphic identity for their radio station: it basically consists of a barcode, where each bar is given a different colour, representing the different 27 european countries. The program of the radio was also set out, divided into permanent broadcastings (like the local news) and temporary broadcastings (which can be joined and updated by everyone). The program was then translated into a layout for the website, adding symbols representing the different broadcasting typologies.
The idea to set up a radio station for Erasmus students was found “excellent” by the teachers, although there were some doubts conceirning the graphics (which they suggested to keep simple and perhaps more interactive) and the philosophy behind the project: what is the strong idea that keeps this radio different from all the others? Students will have to explain on friday.



FAB purpose is to enhance people’s consciousness about the European Union through graphics. They developed a label, which will work on everyday products as a kind of certificate of european values. The logo consists of the words “eu” on a blue background decorated with stars, and the slogan “feel european” is thought to follow the logo for special communications (like campaigns). The group intends the label to be democratically approved by the european population, before giving it to companies. They focus on a strong communication, rather than on an advertising campaign, since this is no new brand, but a sort of certificate to put on already existing products. The group also developed some images for campaigns: a net of coloured threads, kept together by a blu strip, to symbolize the european way of life; a group of different birds standing on an orizontal rope, representing the different european cultures kept together by the European Union identity; a map of Europe outline without borders followed by the slogan “values don’t have any borders”.
The teachers and the audience, after pointing out the good aspects of the project, gave many suggestions to the group: using “feeling european” rather than “feel european”; try to make some real examples, applying the label on products; work out the label to be just a symbol; re-think the outline map of Europe they designed, because Switzerland is missing and it seems apparently that they don’t share the same values as the europeans, which of course is not completely true; finally, the group was suggested to develop new proposals and let the audience vote them during next presentation.



FLOW idea was based on immigration fluxes around Europe and the way these movements affects the lives of products. They choosed four products, which are usually thought to be “typical” of a specific country, and collected historical information about them, to prove that, at the end, what seems obvious about the “nationality” of an object is just something that we take for granted, without going too deep in to it. So, for example, tea, everywhere recognized as the typical English drink, comes instead from India, the Italian pasta has Greek origins and the Belgian beer went on a very long journey before becoming this country’s national drink. The group’s project consists of a very interesting purpose: if you use techniques and processes present in a different culture’s traditional products you can move forward. They already gave some examples: a Japanese fan in the hands of a flamenco dancer and the French typical tissue “toile de jouy” mixed with some Indian tissues decoration.
This group’s approach to the project really impressed the audience, and now they are suggested to move forward coming out with real products.


NOA girls didn’t do the presentation today, because the group still needs some more walks around the city to come out with a suitable project.



The BOUNDARY question is still being checked by the former “Maya” group. They presented a wide range of works and analysis that took in consideration different scales, to prove that big scale boundaries and little scale boundaries have often the same origin points. So, from the Europe map to the city, from the bus to the camp in Place des Martyrs, the students showed to the audience that the boundary question has not immediate solution, it’s an open question. To respect these characteristics, they proposed to translate their research into a wiki-like tool, a dinamic map where everything can constantly be added, changed or removed.
The group was then invited to turn the interesting idea into some real examples.



KATE project’s starting point was the proposal of having children as european mini-ambassadors in the world. As a tool for the children to know eachother’s cultures and countries, the group developed a set composed of six books, characterized by an “identity” section and an “expression” section, which the kids should then fill. Some games, like the “assotiation game” and the “treasure hunting”, are also included. Once the children have completed the books, their teacher is responsible of sending the set to another country, in order to share information and experiences with other schools. The logo that represents the whole project, in fact, contains the sentence “we share”.
What the teachers proposed was to think about using internet and interaction as a tool to make the project more easy to “travel” around schools.



TASTE of IDENTITY were today more focused on “tastes of diversity”, deciding to take fear of diversity as main topic. They then presented their “Fearnival”, a special itinerant carnival where european citizens can benefit and laugh of diversities, to overpass them. Stereotypes and prejudices in the “Fearnival” are represented by masks, costumes and installations, because, as the students said, “the best way to leave our fears about diversity behind is to laugh about them”.
According to the teachers, turning fears into laugh is great. Neverthanless, they feel that something is missing: the group should put the “Fearnival” in a real context: when is that happening? Where? Who is participating? The appointment for these answers, and for many more, is for friday.