Anabela Pereira is a researcher working on biographies, embodiment and identity. She also has an interest in visual culture and discourse. Address: CIES, ISCTE-IUL Av. Das Forças Armadas, Lisboa, Portugal
... The growing interrelatedness of military, communicational and artistic machines of vision in ... more ... The growing interrelatedness of military, communicational and artistic machines of vision in the twentieth century (Virilio, 1994), the spectacle society (Débord, 1967) and 1 Anabela Pereira, CIES/ISCTE-IUL Lisbon University Institute. belacp@gmail.com Page 2. ...
The aim of this article is to demonstrate how body-representations offer an opportunity for its v... more The aim of this article is to demonstrate how body-representations offer an opportunity for its visual interpretation from a biographical point of view, enhancing, on the one hand, the image’s own narrative dynamics, and, on the other, the role of the body as a place of incorporation of experiences, as well as, a vehicle mediating the individual interaction with the world. Perspective founded in the works of the artists Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder, who use self-representation as an expression of these incorporated (lived) experiences, constitutes an important discursive construction and structuring of their narrative identity through visual creation, the artists enable the other with moments of sharing knowledge, creativity and subjectivity, contributing also to the construction of the contemporary, cultural and social imagery.
This article begins with the assumption that analysing visual discourse is a question of explorin... more This article begins with the assumption that analysing visual discourse is a question of exploring the hermeneutic potentials and epistemological emergence of images as depending on individual perception, ways of seeing and social interaction, strengthening their agency, to ascertain their significance and recognition as aesthetical symbols, as meaning-making processes. The article presents a case study based on two world-renowned Portuguese artists (Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder) in which the authors understand the notion of the agency of image as an original means of interpreting social and cultural experiences, studying how artists transform their visual representations in ambiguous narratives about images. Starting from a critical and phenomenological perspective, the authors developed an image-based analysis, contrasting artists’ visual representations with their textual readings and recognizing the central meanings of self-representation in both cases.
The aim of this article is to acknowledge the implications of addressing the visual representatio... more The aim of this article is to acknowledge the implications of addressing the visual representation of the body from a critical and realistic discursive perspective. Besides allowing the identification of the mechanisms for the artist’s name and work-recognition this perspective has allowed the study of body representation as language and as a common system of meanings, not just giving attention to the forms of connection between the image and speech or written text, but also to the rules, practices and social relations that produced and governed them. Also it has permitted interrogation of and reflection on the relation between two important categories used in the analysis of self-representation, that is, the relation between ‘artist’s identity’ and ‘work’s identity’ in the cases of Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder, whose works are characterized and recognized by the specific use of the artists body figures.
... The growing interrelatedness of military, communicational and artistic machines of vision in ... more ... The growing interrelatedness of military, communicational and artistic machines of vision in the twentieth century (Virilio, 1994), the spectacle society (Débord, 1967) and 1 Anabela Pereira, CIES/ISCTE-IUL Lisbon University Institute. belacp@gmail.com Page 2. ...
The aim of this article is to demonstrate how body-representations offer an opportunity for its v... more The aim of this article is to demonstrate how body-representations offer an opportunity for its visual interpretation from a biographical point of view, enhancing, on the one hand, the image’s own narrative dynamics, and, on the other, the role of the body as a place of incorporation of experiences, as well as, a vehicle mediating the individual interaction with the world. Perspective founded in the works of the artists Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder, who use self-representation as an expression of these incorporated (lived) experiences, constitutes an important discursive construction and structuring of their narrative identity through visual creation, the artists enable the other with moments of sharing knowledge, creativity and subjectivity, contributing also to the construction of the contemporary, cultural and social imagery.
This article begins with the assumption that analysing visual discourse is a question of explorin... more This article begins with the assumption that analysing visual discourse is a question of exploring the hermeneutic potentials and epistemological emergence of images as depending on individual perception, ways of seeing and social interaction, strengthening their agency, to ascertain their significance and recognition as aesthetical symbols, as meaning-making processes. The article presents a case study based on two world-renowned Portuguese artists (Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder) in which the authors understand the notion of the agency of image as an original means of interpreting social and cultural experiences, studying how artists transform their visual representations in ambiguous narratives about images. Starting from a critical and phenomenological perspective, the authors developed an image-based analysis, contrasting artists’ visual representations with their textual readings and recognizing the central meanings of self-representation in both cases.
The aim of this article is to acknowledge the implications of addressing the visual representatio... more The aim of this article is to acknowledge the implications of addressing the visual representation of the body from a critical and realistic discursive perspective. Besides allowing the identification of the mechanisms for the artist’s name and work-recognition this perspective has allowed the study of body representation as language and as a common system of meanings, not just giving attention to the forms of connection between the image and speech or written text, but also to the rules, practices and social relations that produced and governed them. Also it has permitted interrogation of and reflection on the relation between two important categories used in the analysis of self-representation, that is, the relation between ‘artist’s identity’ and ‘work’s identity’ in the cases of Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder, whose works are characterized and recognized by the specific use of the artists body figures.
De viva voz: ecos biográficos da sociedade portuguesa, 2023
Na biografia de uma pessoa encontramos aquilo que essa vida tem de absolutamente único. Não exist... more Na biografia de uma pessoa encontramos aquilo que essa vida tem de absolutamente único. Não existem duas biografias iguais. Mas encontramos também o que dessa biografia é partilhado com outras vidas enquadradas por contextos histórico sociais similares. Em 16 histórias de pessoas que nasceram nas décadas de 1940 e 1950, e que testemunham a complexidade das experiências e das formas de as interpretar nas esferas da família, do trabalho, da educação e do lazer, ecoam também dinâmicas de um país em mudança.
Neste livro, que resulta de uma pesquisa sociológica, direccionamos, por isso, um olhar de duplo sentido para as biografias. Um olhar de proximidade para vidas permeadas de cor, textura e padrões, em toda a sua riqueza e singularidade; e um olhar mais panorâmico para a História em que decorrem estas histórias. É a relação entre biografia e sociedade que encontramos nestas páginas. É o peso do mundo, mas também a criatividade humana. De viva voz.
The sharing of bodily experiences, whether in face-to-face interactions or through individual pra... more The sharing of bodily experiences, whether in face-to-face interactions or through individual practices, can influence a person's psychological and physical well-being. The mediating mechanisms influencing body-sense through time are, however, poorly understood. The present study concerns these mechanisms and how movement can have an impact on such a bodily sense. Through a variety of variables defining movement, such as strength, balance, technique, energy, flexibility, coordination, resistance, and velocity, this analysis measures the impact of movement in body-sense understood as the human ability to feel and experience the body in all its essence and aspects. This analysis shows that it is meaningfully possible to improve body perception in the presence of movement, and that people using their bodies in an active way are more aware of that sense than others who do not perform such actions. Using a regression analysis and measuring the presence (or absence) of those variables between different individuals practicing different physical activities, this analysis shows how synchronicity between " movement " and " body, " people's habits, and " common rituals, " affects their body-sense.
Intensified Bodies from the Performing Arts in Portugal, 2017
This chapter analyses the series Voar [Flying] (2001) by Helena Almeida and Anatomy and Boxing (1... more This chapter analyses the series Voar [Flying] (2001) by Helena Almeida and Anatomy and Boxing (1996) by Jorge Molder. Their practice mainly uses the language of photography, although it also contains a conceptual discussion on performance, as the living body of the artist is an ongoing presence actively participating in the artistic process. In this process, photography is not a recording of a situation but the place of an event – a place of embodiment, performativity, representation and also identity – in which the body is seen as a function of an absent presence. It constitutes the site of the artistic experience and not simply its object, representing the continuity between the image and its referent, by the transforming of the performative self-presence into the iconic self-absence of the body in the works. Exploring their creative process enables understanding the links between the ephemer-ality of the staged performance and the endless fictional possibilities of the photographic subject matter.
Biographical Perspectives on Lives Lived During Covid-19: Global Narratives and International Methodological Innovations, 2024
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic took people by surprise in its deep immediate impact and i... more The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic took people by surprise in its deep immediate impact and in its extent over time. One year after it was globally widespread, the effects were still being felt in people’s daily lives. But what has changed during this period? There are many answers to this question. We reflect on this interrogation departing from the results of a sociological research that was ongoing, in Portugal, in March 2020, when the first lockdown took place in the country: “Biographical echoes: triangulation in the study of life histories”. The necessary adaptation of the research design, due to the impossibility of conducting interviews in co-presence, resulted in a spin-off project where we contacted the participants that have already been interviewed to share with us their experiences of the pandemic through phone interviews, photographs of their daily lives and short messages via smartphone, and maintained contact with them over time. During the second lockdown in Portugal, in 2021, we re-interviewed them and received more images. Based on this data, in this chapter we develop a reflection not only on the process of conducting biographical research in abruptly changed research circumstances, but also on how the participants’ perceptions of time and space, as well as their relationships and practices evolved over a year in a pandemic context.
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Neste livro, que resulta de uma pesquisa sociológica, direccionamos, por isso, um olhar de duplo sentido para as biografias. Um olhar de proximidade para vidas permeadas de cor, textura e padrões, em toda a sua riqueza e singularidade; e um olhar mais panorâmico para a História em que decorrem estas histórias. É a relação entre biografia e sociedade que encontramos nestas páginas. É o peso do mundo, mas também a criatividade humana. De viva voz.