Events
Defense of the Doctoral Thesis | Marisa Alejandra Ponce de León Hernández
05.06.2024 | 3 pm | José Grácio Auditorium | Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica da Universidade de Aveiro
The doctoral examination of the Doctoral Program in Music by Marisa Alejandra Ponce de León Hernández, with the theme "Phytopoetic Creation: An artistic and ecological intervention", will take place on June 5, 2024, at 3 pm, in the José Grácio Auditorium, Department de Engenharia Mecânica da Universidade de Aveiro.
Jury for the PhD thesis of Marisa Alejandra Ponce de León Hernández:
- Prof. Dr. Jorge Manuel Salgado de Castro Correia, Associate Professor at the Universidade de Aveiro and researcher at INET-md (Advisor)
- Prof. Dr. Ana Isabel de Oliveira Andrade, Full Professor at the Universidade de Aveiro
- Prof. Dr. Maria Fernanda Santiago-Bolaños, Full Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid
- Prof. Dr. Rolf Eugenio Abberhalden. Associate Professor at the National University of Colombia
- Prof. Dr Gilvano Dalagna, Assistant Professor at the University of Aveiro and researcher at INET-md
- Prof. Dr. Raquel Lemos e Castro, Assistant Professor at Lusófona University
Phytopoetic Creation: An artistic and ecological intervention
Having awareness and technological knowledge to act upon the global environmental and ecological crisis alone does not solve the problems that planet Earth is currently going through, from climate change to the ongoing degradation of the biosphere. Our decisions on these current issues, which will have a clear impact on our future, require a reconfiguration of our mindsets and our convictions in the way we see ourselves and our relationships with all living things, with the whole ecosystem. Our way of thinking and acting, as a species, towards sustainable development can be transformed by considering the life of non-humans, including plants, sensitively, valuing them intrinsically rather than seeing them as mere resources or a simple underlying factor of human activity. Establishing human-plant interactions through artistic creation, which facilitates the perception of their communicative intelligence and the sophistication of plant life, can contribute to counteracting the self-centered and authoritarian tendency towards the objectification of plants.
Through an artistic and ecological intervention, this research explores the triangulation of performer-plant-public relationships and the complexity of plant life, addressing their perception of their surroundings and the interaction that can be established through their responses to external stimuli. With nine artistic creations making up the Corpus of this Phytopoetic Creation, it is represented by two complementary elements: a final artistic creation, “Intertwined Paths: An embodied journey of connection with plants”, and this document. It explores the artistic precedents and relevant technological aspects, the foundations of this intervention, as well as the research through practice that went into the construction of the Phytopoetic Creation, clarifying the processes, the decisions made, and the resulting artistic products.
From the experiences with plants and the knowledge gathered in this research, as well as through the exploration of the musical instrument, the body, and sound as means of creative expression, interventions were designed and carried out with different audiences. The presence of plants and the materialisation of sounds and movements that result from the connection and interaction with them in these events, partly as if it were a dialogue, continue the intention of being able to contribute to raising public awareness of the affinity and possible complicity between humans and plants, which seems necessary and fundamental for our survival.
Adivsor : Jorge Manuel Salgado de Castro Correia; Felipe Lopes (co-advisor)
