The big final presentation began today with the BOUNDARY group: students, who were working on the notion of boundaries at a large scale and a private scale during the last two weeks, have also developed some merchandising items, such as T-shirts, “scratch-to-see” postcards, posters, business cards and an info-game, to explain all the conclusions they’ve collected so far about the concept of boundaries in Europe.
“Be careful in giving general representations of Europe: this image is changing every two years”
“Did your idea of boundaries change after these two weeks?”
“We appreciate your attempt to put all the graphics you produced so far on real products”
FAB group, who have so far developed a quality “certification” label for products made in Europe that reflects the basic principles and concerns underlying the idea of Europe and advanced by European institutions (social equity, environmental protection, etc.), presented today some examples of applications of their graphics on real everyday life products.
“I feel a little bit uncomfortable with creating symbols that should represent a wide range of values”
“It’s a good idea because you didn’t choose to put new products on the market, but to represent all the qualities these products should have”
“I think it’s an impossible project, but it’s very hopeful and I like it for that”
As suggested by the teachers during the last presentation, the FEARNIVAL group tried to see their project within a real context. They provided their carnival with a suitable calendar, having the first meeting starting in Brussels, and then travelling all around the european biggest cities, and also planning the activities during the three festival days (ending with the “No fear Party” on the last night). Flokloristic floats, costumes and masks were also presented to the audience.
“Be careful with the semantic aspect of signs and symbols you’re drawing: some of them are not politically correct, you might offend someone’s national identity”
“Turning fears into laugh is great”
FLOWS group, stating that Europe exists thanks to migration, came out with the idea of a travelling exhibition (set up on a camper), whose purpose is to show people the advantages of migration flows within the continent. They also developed some of the products shown in the exhibition, which are all “métissage”, result of interbreeding between native objects and cultural processes they’ve come across. Objects as a means of showing the contribution of immigrants to Europe.
“You’re giving a contribution in solving a problem in a positive way”
“You’ve opened a door. OO is exactly about this: spreading values”
As suggested last wednesday, KATE group provided their “We share” project with the study of a suitable internet network, to make their books be better shared throughout schools in Europe.
The sharing of this educational package will be a form of cultural exchange educating children about the views and lifestyles of children in other regions in Europe. The group also gave examples of the graphical layout of books.
“The graphic design you’ve developed it’s really appropiate”
“It’s good for children to learn in a non-academic way”
The wide range of products developed by group CARA, using space as the ultimate communication tool, was today enriched by two important elements: a diagram, which is intended to be the archetype of all the “Subtitles” products (a chart where all the concepts are explained) and a website containing the “Manifesto for Subtitles in Europe”, where each objects is exaustively described in details.
“Are you going to do that in practice?”
“You developed the very interesting question about building connections”
“Your project is good because interaction between people is not forced”
“A good project brief and a very clear communication”
BORDERLINE project’s aims are, as declared by the students themselves, “to shock people into communicating using european context; to help them realise how fortunate they are to be a part of Europe; to encourage them to gain a sense of european identity”. The range of “Other strategies” the group presented through a clear single video are all based on the same principles of intervenction: the students start from some of the most important articles of the European Human Rights, thus developing the related topics and planning a performance for each of them. Monitoring people’s responses is also part of the project.
“You dared to face delicate political question in a deep, active and coherent way: good!”
SPLACE group, working on the communicative potentials of public spaces, gave today some realistic examples of their project: they developed a system where the public can speak into a microphone and the vocal input will be converted into a graphical image and projected onto a large screen.
“The positive aspect of this project is that you choose a real space in Brussels to locate it”
“When you want to express yourself you have to use a language (words, symbols, …), but creating a brand new language is very difficult. It’s hard to relate images you see with the sounds they come from. I think there’s a lack of message here”
“Your concepts were well defined: not only your aim is to give freedom of expression, but also you force people to take an active part. Moreover, the fact that you choose a real building is interesting because this brings the idea of the personal issues becoming public”
On the last presentation, ERADIUS was definitely given all the characteristics and the interactive potentialities of a webradio. The students registered a real web address (www.eradius.eu) and showed realistic examples of how the interaction between the speakers and the customers, and among the customers themselves, should work. To explain the peculiarities of their project, they also presented the “story of Romain, Erasmus student, on the 20th birthday of the Erasmus program”, in the form of a cartoon showing all the benefits of this network of european universities.
“Your project is interesting because you didn’t only make a representation of a website or a logo, but, most of all, you designed a strategy: this is a complete design project”
“I think you can realize it somehow, really! Just go for it! Don’t let these ideas die here”
Last but not least, the four girls of the former NOA group, who have explored the European identity by interacting among themselves and with the city of Brussels, presented their four different projects: they, in fact, have finally resolved to each select a location and analyze it from the perspective of their own specialty/viewpoint. So Noa presented her video “Europe in my eyes”, a collection of images and suggestions she elaborated from her outside-Europe point of view. Laura told the audience about her journey in search of her own european identity, ended with the discovery she doesn’t feel to have one and stating that european unity is not based on cultural common aspects but dependent on location. Laura gladly opens the discussion to everyone holding a different point of view, through the “Never be a tourist in Europe” blog she set up for the occasion. Larissa will stick a block notes on one of the walls of the camp’s entrance, asking each student to write what Europe is about, and then sending the result to the Propaganda group for the final publication. The video presented by Elena tells the story of a foreigner struggling to integrate himself and making useless efforts to communicate to people, while visiting Brussels. The story has neverthanless a happy ending, underlined by the Beatles famous hit “All you need is love”, which is also the conclusive message of today’s presentation.
