International Drawing and Photography Contest

The main ideas present in the international contest Drawing and Photography Contest (DPIc) integrated in scopio Architecture, Art and Image – UTOPIA is to open the Universities to the Civil Society through Drawing and Photography projects, showcasing the multifaceted richness of activities, experiences and architectures related to the Learning institutions and its diverse spaces of experience and work.

Themes

• Thus, the core theme of the contest is the idea of Utopia and Visual Spaces of Change, focusing on the spaces and identities of the Universities, being Visual Spaces of Change the scopio Architecture, Art and Image Journal section focused in the use of photography and other visual media for researching, documenting and analysing different aspects of architecture, city and territory transformations.

Objectives and Goals

• The overall goal of this initiative is to create new communication and dissemination channels between Universities (and respective academic communities) and the Civil Society, by opening up these institutions to society through different interactions, socialisations, studies and research projects, and by promoting an interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and experiences between different fields of knowledge and social strata.
• Specific goals of the contest:
  • Raise the awareness of the new generations towards the transforming potential of Architecture, and its relationship with the concept of City, encouraging them to explore the ideas of Utopia and Visual Spaces of Change, using them in their artistic processes;
  • Promote a better understanding of Image and its uses as a method and a medium of representation that opens up new ways of transforming and interacting with Architecture and Urban spaces;
  • Highlight the potential of Image as a medium to cross borders and dislocate boundaries between different Architecture and Art problems and applications, with a focus on University spaces.
  • Increase the awareness of students and citizens towards the need to think of alternatives for the education spaces they attend, whether they have, or haven’t already been created;

Prize Information

• The selected works will be on exhibition and published in U. Porto Press and scopio Editions’ catalogue. All authors of the selected works will receive a certificate. The jury will select one winner and, possibly, distinguish one or two works with honourable mentions; the awarded works will receive a document certifying the jury’s decision.
• The works will also be featured in U.Porto Press and scopio Network’s web sites, as well as in U.Porto’s platform Sigarra. The winner of the contest will receive 3 (three) copies of U.Porto Press and scopio Edition’s catalogue, and the authors of the honourable mentions will receive 2 (two) copies. The Organising Committee will make its best efforts with the sponsors of the Contest to provide attractive prizes to the winner and the authors distinguished with honourable mentions.

Eligibility Criteria

• The international contest Drawing and Photography Contest is open to all academic communities, both in Portugal and abroad.
• Contestants must use, at least, one of the two proposed forms of representation – Drawing and/or Photography – without limitations in terms of manipulation, including collage and photomontage, or regarding the combination of both forms of representation. The images submitted to the contest must not bear any signature or watermark. All images containing photographs must have a high printing quality; otherwise, they may not be published in U. Porto Press and scopio Editions’ catalogue.
• Is it the objective of this contest that each visual narrative – diptic – communicates a real space and an idealized one capable of flourishing a new conscience about the portrayed place, stimulating people to experience these spaces from new perspectives.

For more information, visit scopio Magazine.