ID+ (Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture), University of Porto - Engeneering Faculty, IPCA
Porto, Portugal

Daniel Brandão has a Communication Design Degree and a Masters Degree in Multimedia Art from the University of Porto, Faculty of Fine-Arts, Portugal. From 2004¬¬ to 2010, he was Communication Designer at the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum, Porto, Portugal. From 2006 to 2010, he also created video advertisements for contemporary art exhibitions, festivals, international conferences and music concerts for the Serralves Foundation. While working on his PhD in the Digital Media Program at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Porto he also teaches Multimedia, Video, Communication, and Editorial Design at the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, the Escola Superior Artística do Porto, and the Catholic University of Portugal.

www.youtube.com

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Communication Practices in a Networked Participatory World

Possibilities for creation, manipulation, and sharing of all types of content that emerge with digital tools, have rekindled old debates and reflections on copyright, identity, ethics, aesthetics, and rhetoric, as well as on privacy, trade, and management of human relations. Recognizing the relevance of these issues, this research project investigates in particular how participatory media are transforming contemporary societies. We aim to understand how institutions may be reedited and reassembled following the spirit of participatory media, which promote greater involvement of its users, and effect through collective creation significant increases in production levels.

We identified following tasks:

This project showed clearly the need to reformulate the role of users as they get more and more involved with the production of the content they consume. Cultural, educational, and social institutions cannot be content with just communicating, they also must engage in interactions with the people they serve. Such greater degrees of association, permeability, and flexibility in the dealings with their audiences will make them more attractive, dynamic, and compelling. As a result the audience will be involved in the construction of institutional identity, contributing to a greater level of authenticity.

We seek to understand how the institutions can take advantage of the willingness of its audience participation for the construction or reconstruction of their institutional identities and narratives and even for the redefinition of its missions in the development of societies.

Currently the project is in the process of sorting and taxonomy to find the object of study that will serve as a basis to implement the investigation. The aim is to produce a map of different aptitudes and positions of various institutions on the issues addressed by the project, which involve a participatory communication.

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Shirky, C. (2008). Gin, Television, and Social Surplus. Web 2.0 Expo. www.shirky.com.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.

Caruth, N., & Bernstein, S. (2007). Building an On-line Community at the Brooklyn Museum: A Timeline. The Museums and the Web 2007, San Francisco, California.

Beckstrom, R. A., & Brafman, O. (2008). A Estrela-do-Mar e a Aranha: O fenomeno das organizacoes sem lidded. Lisboa: Editorial Presenca

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