Saltar para o conteúdo principal

FCCNFCT Digital Services

Access the national information on scientific and technological funding in Portugal

Activity Funded

LabCom - Communication and Arts

LabCom - Comunicação e Artes

Reference
UIDB/00661/2020
Project Start Date
2020-01-01
Project End Date
2024-12-31
Principal Investigator
Funding Program
Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017/2018) - Financiamento Base

Abstract

10.2 Summary in English for general dissemination purposes LabCom is a communication sciences research unit created in 2002 in the Faculty of Arts and Letters of UBI. The main purpose of LabCom is to develop advanced research on communication and new media technologies, especially those underlying online and digital processes in order to assess their impact on everyday life and to understand different kinds of communication phenomena on an individual, communitarian and societal basis. From a theoretical point of view, LabCom's research is based on two basic assumptions. The first is that communication and new media technologies are turning our society into a mediated one, subordinating all social and cultural phenomena to a media logic. The second is that there is a reciprocal relationship between communication and contemporary arts: as all mediated communication denotes a growing aesthetization, the theory, practice and reception of the arts imply communication strategies, but also have repercussions on it. From these theoretical assumptions arise the following general questions: 1. What are the main characteristics of the mediatization process in areas such as science, politics, art, education, language and culture? 2. What are the impacts of mediatization on the everyday life of individuals, communities, and societies? 3. What is the role of media, in particular new media, in the processes of representation and construction of individual and collective identities and imaginaries? 4. What are the main changes in the condition of culture, visual culture in particular, and heritage brought about by the digital society? To answer these and more specific questions LabCom adopts an epistemological and methodological pluralism that includes several disciplines from social sciences and humanities, and doesn’t excludes methods from any of these fields of knowledge. The aforementioned assumptions justify unit’s organization in two research groups: Communication& Media, and Arts. The two groups reconcile work in their specific lines of research with the strengthening of their interdisciplinary collaboration around common or cross-cutting objects, and in the organization of scientific events and publications. Internationalization is a cross-cutting objective of all of LabCom's research activities. With regard to knowledge dissemination, LabCom maintains its strong commitment with both online publishing and open access, fields in which it has been a pioneer since its inception. This commitment led LabCom to create a set of digital infrastructures that gathered it broad international recognition in the field of communication sciences, attracting millions of visits and downloads each year: 5 online academic journals, 4 online libraries, 1 online publisher, and 3 databases in the area of cinema and image. To these knowledge dissemination infrastructures we should add experimental media such as the first online Portuguese academic weekly newspaper, an online radio station, and an online television channel. 10.3 Summary in English for evaluation LabCom is a communication sciences research unit created in 2002 in the Faculty of Arts and Letters of University of Beira Interior. The main purpose of LabCom is to develop advanced research on communication and new media technologies, especially those underlying online and digital processes in order to assess their impact on everyday life and understand different kinds of communication phenomena on an individual, communitarian and societal basis. From a theoretical point of view, LabCom's research is based on two basic assumptions. The first is that communication and new media technologies are turning our society into a mediated one: not only in the sense that all social fields (politics, science, culture, arts, religion, etc.) become visible through the media, but also in the sense that those phenomena are progressively created in a media logic. In the same way, the identity of cultural groups is no longer a state but a process of auto and hetero-mediatic representation and creation of an imaginary. Even if authors like Eliseo Veron think that mediatization is an anthropological and historical process, it seems indubitable that online and digital media and communication are being critical in this process. The second assumption is that there is a reciprocal relationship between communication and contemporary arts: as all mediated communication denotes a growing aesthetization, the theory, practice and reception of the arts imply communication strategies, but also have repercussions on it. Media arts emerge, precisely, as one of the clearest spaces of confluence between these two domains, reflecting the dynamics of hybridization, technological convergence and conceptual dynamics of the contemporary culture industry. However, this does not mean media were considered in an isolated way: in fact, all media are intermedia, all mediality is intermediality. From these theoretical assumptions arise the following general questions: 1. What are the main characteristics of the mediatization process in areas such as science, politics, art, education, language and culture? 2. What are the impacts of mediatization on the everyday life of individuals, communities, and societies? 3. What is the role of media, in particular new media, in the processes of representation and construction of individual and collective identities and imaginaries? 4. What are the main changes in the condition of culture and heritage brought about by the digital society? To answer these and more specific questions LabCom adopts the epistemological and methodological pluralism that has been one of its hallmarks. At the epistemological level, our approach includes disciplines like philosophy, sociology, anthropology, economy, linguistics and other, each providing not only a certain perspective over the same phenomena, but also seeing different phenomena in what we call reality. At the methodological level, we’ll carry out research based in quantitative, qualitative and experimental methods, and, in certain cases, methodological triangulation, in order to conciliate “explication” and “comprehension” (Dilthey). The aforementioned assumptions justify our unit’s organization in two research groups: Communication& Media, and Arts. While the first group researches the multilevel and multiform impacts and effects of communication and new media technologies, the second group is focused on the relationship between communication and new media devices in the arts and in its specific interfaces, from fine arts to cinema, from design to visual communication. The two groups reconcile work in their specific lines of research with the strengthening of their interdisciplinary collaboration around common or cross-cutting objects, and in the organization of scientific events and publications. In order to link research and advanced training, the Communication and Media Group will work in a close relationship with the PhD in Communication Sciences, while the Group of Arts will organize its activity around the PhD in Media Arts. Both groups include researchers from UBI, and from other Portuguese Universities and Polytechnics, proving the attractiveness of LabCom to external scholars. Internationalization for Lusophone and non-Lusophone countries is a cross-cutting objective for all research activities, materializing in the support of publications and missions, and the strengthening of cooperation with other foreign research groups. With regard to knowledge dissemination, LabCom maintains the strong commitment with both online publishing and open access that has had since its inception. This commitment led LabCom to create a set of digital infrastructures that gathered it broad international recognition in the field of communication sciences, attracting millions of visits and downloads each year: i) 5 online academic journals: DOC On-Line (Documentary Cinema), www.doc.ubi.pt, Eikon (Semiotics and Culture), www.eikon.ubi.pt, Communication Studies, www.labcom.ubi.pt/ec, Recensio (Recensions), www.recensio.ubi.pt, Rhêtorikê (Rhetorics), www.rhetorike.ubi.pt; ii) 4 online libraries: BOAL (Audio Literature), www.boal.ubi.pt, BOCC (Communication Sciences), www.bocc.ubi.pt, BOND (Design), www.bond.ubi.pt, LusoSofia (Philosophy and Culture),www.lusosofia.net; iii) 1 online publisher: LabCom–IFP Books, http://www.labcom-ifp.ubi.pt/page/books; iv) 3 databases in the area of cinema and image: CINEPT (Portuguese Cinema), http://www.cinept.ubi.pt, On-Line Images, www.imagens.ubi.pt, Research on Moving Image, ww.investigacoescinema.ubi.pt. To these knowledge dissemination infrastructures we should add experimental media such as the first online Portuguese academic weekly newspaper, Urbi et Orbi (www.urbi.ubi.pt), founded in 2000 and that often serves as source for regional and national media, the online radio station RUBI (www.rubi.ubi.pt), and an online television channel, TUBI (www.tubi.ubi.pt).

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade da Beira Interior Laboratório de Comunicação (LabCom)
  • Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI)

Funding 690.000,00 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

690.000,00 €