R§esearch in Cinema and Multimedia Design at LabCom/UBI: review and prospects J. Paulo Serra UBI/Labcom Ciência 2010 Lisboa, 5 de Julho

Objectives To provide an overview of the research projects in Cinema and Multimedia ongoing at LabCom To briefly characterize project-based research in the master degrees in Cinema and Multimedia Design at UBI To identify some of the difficulties of project- based research in Arts and Design

Definition “Research [in its most general sense] is systematic enquiry whose goal is communicable knowledge”. (Archer, 1995, p. 6)

Research projects LabCom

LabCom - Online Communication Lab / / LabCom is a Communication Science Research Unit at University of Beira Interior (UBI) It has been developing since 2000 In January 2002 LabCom applied to evaluation by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)

Research Areas Lines of research funded by FCT: Information and persuasion Identities and Citizenship Cinema and multimedia

Cinema Current project funded by FCT: Theory and Aesthetics of Documentary Film ( ) Main specific goals [research about]: To elaborate an online database of theses on cinema made by Portuguese researchers To put a special emphasis on the study of political and social documentary, ethnographic documentary, and also on the "making of"; To contribute to the discussion of concepts of the cinematographic language such as representation, script, narrative, out-of-field and editing.

Multimedia Design Current project funded by UBI, IT and PT: InTact – Multitouch and gesture interaction in real environments with Virtual Augmentation [research through] Duration: March 2010, February 2011 Interdisciplinary project: Multimedia Design and Computer Engineering

Main goals: Experimentation of multitouch, gestural, natural / tangible and immersive techniques / methodologies of interaction; Creation of a prototype of a portable, multitouch, and gestural interaction environment for collaborative work; Creation of a prototype of an immersive and natural environment of interaction.

Projects submitted to FCT Cinema: Argumentation and rhetoric in Portuguese film criticism (research about] Multimedia Design: Design of Interactive Multimedia Environments for Public Spaces. A multi-user interactive environment for the public hospital of Covilhã [research through]

Other projects (not funded by FCT) Images Online ( Databases of specific images of mass communication processes (advertising, propaganda, etc.) Portuguese Cinema Collection, processing and dissemination of Portuguese Cinema ( ) DOC On-Line Documentary Cinema Digital Magazine ( )

Master degrees UBI

Organization 2nd year: internship, dissertation or project Cinema: the project (a short film) is made by a group Multimedia: the project is an individual one In both courses, the great majority of students choose to make a project In both courses, the project involves writing an individual report

The report must include: - a rationale of the methodologies used for addressing the theme both theoretically and practically; -relevant bibliography; -a critical analysis of the results.

Since 2007, Cinema students show their short films at Ubicinema Since 2005, Multimedia Design students show their projects at Reset Currently, we are trying to enlarge the public – individual citizens and corporations - that has access to the projects

Students’ difficulties to deal with research projects Difficulties to choose themes and problems of the projects (lack of an enlarged visual/artistic culture) Lack of experience of students to prepare research projects (Simó, Moura, 2010) Little knowledge, both theoretical and practical, about scientific research methodologies Difficulties in the theoretical foundations of the experimental work (Simó, Moura, 2010)

Difficulties to explicit the tacit or implicit knowledge involved in the making of the projects Poor knowledge about the requirements of scientific writing (Simó, Moura, 2010)