by Alessandra Feola | May 18, 2014 | EducationLabs, Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
LuissLab
MEETING MINUTES 9TH MAY 2014
Katia Ballacchino, professor and anthropologist held the meeting about the theme of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Community. Specifically, an attempt was made to discuss ‘an anthropological analysis of the recent conventions starting from ethnographic case studies – a research methodology that provides technological activity by the individual’. This analysis passes through eight years of study. These years proved to be crucial for our country, for they started from a milestone decision of UNESCO of 2003, which recognized intangible goods as proper Cultural Heritage
What is an Intangible Good? It covers a whole range of practices, traditions, folklore, customs, which a community perceives it as a belonging. Moreover, it does not remain static over time, but it changes and becomes dynamic as the community itself changes. Some examples are the Festa dei Gigli di Nola, Santa Rosa in Viterbo, Candelieri Sardi and Carresi del Basso in Molise. First experiment of a participated national inventory has been when the Ministry for Cultural Heritage asked to think about the UNESCO candidacy as an indirect form to catalogue Intangible goods in their new consideration as proper assets. The idea arose from the debate on the food culture in the vicinity of Lake Bolsena
What is the advantage of gaining recognition from UNESCO? It is basically a matter of intangible value. It brings a series of advantages ranging from commercial to political. Just think of how easily a promotion can be built on it, or how strong a political campaign can be starting from this success. As already said participation is today fundamental. Pompei, UNESCO World Heritage since ever, is paradigmatic. In the last years it has been registered a loss of interest from the community.
Ballacchino tell about the case of Festa dei Gigli of Nola in Campania. During the fest eight obelisks (heigt 25 meters and weight 25 quintals) are built and destroyed each year by the community on a self-financed base. They represents the guilds of crafts and an homage to the saint Paulinus of Nola. Today’s obelisks are the result of an evolution of this tradition. St. Paulinus of Nola returns to the city on a boat to save Nola and its citizens. Nola has no sea , but historically extended to Torre Annunziata. Malformations of the shoulder due to the weight of the Gigli (Callus of San Paulinus). Such a disturbing image increases the idea of belonging to the community. The physical sacrifice to carry each Giglio is an honor for every man. In the Campania region a processes of dissemination of the festival occurred. In many others community (Barra, Brusciano, Casavatore, Crispano, Cimitile, Mariglianella, just to name a few, some similar festivals took place every year). The paradox concerns the creation of a conflict between the neighboring towns, rather than a collaboration between areas with similar traditions. Which festival is ‘original’? Is there something as an ‘original festival’?
According to art. 2 of the Agreement of Faro, a convention for the protection of cultural rights, cultural heritage is defined as a group of resources inherited from the past that some people identify, regardless of who owns the property, as a reflection and expression of their values, beliefs, knowledge and traditions. It evolves as time goes by. It includes all aspects of the environment derived from the interaction over time between people and places. A community asset is made up of people who attach value to aspects specific of their cultural heritage which they wish, within the framework of public action, sustain and transmit to future generations.
Other two examples have been given:
The Sicilian Puppets: Since being recognized by UNESCO as world heritage, the families of puppeteers paradoxically had more problems in terms of the traditional technique. After the production of the roof, thousands of young people have started to create “puppets”, although not perfect from in terms of production. This overproduction ended up in creating conflict, competition and lowering the overall quality of the festival.
The Carreri del Basso in Molise: Feast of just few minutes. It encompasses oxen and horses tied together to pull a wagon. Animal rights activists, for some time now, have denounced the violent attitude towards the animals. Horses are told to be doped for the festival, and the bleeding that can happen during the event, is just another alarm bell from this perspective. On the other hand, managers who run the stables are generally very careful towards their animals, and these are treated well all year long. This attitude is a reflection of a spirit of participation and respect towards animals.
by Federica Maranesi | May 16, 2014 | EducationLabs, Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
On Monday, May 19th at Luiss Guido Carli University, will be held the event ‘Coltiviamoci‘. LabGov will host in Viale Romania 32, Aula Polivalente, a workshop focused on collective management of urban and environmental commons and on the development of institutional economic and social innovation. LabGov students will present the results achieved with the Lab’s activities and initiatives of 2014, and they will have also the pleasureto share knowledge, experiences and ideas with representatives from Coldiretti, Zappata Romana and Lazio Region Expo 2015 Steering Committee. This will be a unique event to talk about participatory processes aiming at actively involving actors on Expo 2015 major themes: ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’. Thus the workshop will focus on concrete, sustainable, technological solutions put forward by active citizens, such as community gardens, and by agricultural entrepreneurs taking care of the land as a commons.
Program:
- h 18.15 video show of LabGov2014 activities
- h 18.20 presentation of LabGov2014 results
- h 18.30 LabGov 2015 vs Expo2015
Speakers:
Giovanni Lo Storto – Luiss Guido Carli General Director
Maria Letizia Gardoni – President of Giovani Coldiretti
Luca D’Eusebio – Zappata Romana/ Hortus Urbis
Albino Ruberti – AD and President of Zétema and Coordinator of the Expo2015 working group for the region Lazio
- Concluding remarks: Gregorio Arena and Christian Iaione (Labsus)
- h 20.00 Awarding of participation certificates for LabGov’ s students; awarding of gratitude certificates for LabGov guest speakers
by Alessandra Feola | May 16, 2014 | Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
MEETING MINUTES 5th MAY 2014
The Labgovers met the writer and director Giulia Morello of Officinegm. The event has evolved into two main directions: the first explanation on “videomaking” and the second exercise on field.
Videomaking Techniques
In the first part of the meeting Giulia Morello has presented a series of more or less well-known “videomaking” techniques, which are essential for the realization of any type of video. This point have to be emphasize, because the same group of creative people can deal with different targets or concepts (commercials, music videos, movies, etc..), To every type of video corresponds a type of language which can be declined in several ways. In its fundamental aspects, however, it would seem that any video is characterized by:
- TYPE: related to the topic that we are going to tell, and to whom we want to tell, and through which channel (for example, if we choose the web channel, it must be characterized by brevity)
- LINEUP
- SCREENPLAY (it is a mechanism of thoughts that follow each other in a video)
- STORYBOARDS: during the evolution of the script we have to think about what we want to see and feel what is needed to be created, without ever losing sight of times in the story.
If we decode those just listed as features of any video format, the ones listed below, instead, are areas within which it is called upon to choose between alternatives:
- PREPARATION: If we make an outdoor video we have to provide all the possible audio / lighting problems, and prepare a plan B in case it rain for example. Moreover it’s important to test all the tools before recording and make a list of the tools;
- LIGHTING: affects the quality of the final result (better to shoot with a lot of light rather than with a little, because we can always lower), the ideal conditions to record are early morning or late afternoon ( better when the sun is near the horizon) ;
- AUDIO: usually underestimated, is the most difficult thing to fix in the post production;
- SHOTS: they are the basic language of cinema (portion of space took by the camera);
- FIELDS AND PLANS: two families of the frame (field, medium field, long field, very long field; individual plan, first plan, very first plan, half-figure, American plan, entire figure);
- REFERENCE POINTS OF SHOTS – normal, from below, from above;
- THE CAMERA MOVEMENTS: panoramic (vertical, horizontal, circular. It contextualizes the character compared to his action);
- ZOOM AND TRAILER (mechanics-trailer – the camera is moved on a track); steady camera
- EDITING: often underestimated. When we took a lot of scenes, it is always preferable to record the bests footage (that will certainly se) to avoid wasting memories;
- ESSENTIAL ROLES: director, sound engineer, operators, actors, editors, photography director.
Part Two: Exercise
During the second part of the meeting, the director Morello asked to the LabGov group to divide into four subgroups. Then prepare a plan for the construction of a spot that explains the activities of the Laboratory, and to promote the same to the students for the future 2015 initiative.
by Alessandra Feola | May 16, 2014 | Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
MEETING MINUTES 23rd APRIL 2014
LabGov hosted Federica Fotino, coordinator of Planning and Valorisation of the State Property. The meeting was divided into two main parts: the first one was a general introduction to project management and to those instruments and methods to realize it; the second one was a real workshop to put into practice the new-acquired knowledge.
In the first part of the meeting Fotino explained what is a project, defining it as “a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result”. The activity of Project Management consists in having the nautical charts (knowing the social, juridical and economic environment in which we come to act), defining the route (defining the objectives), organizing the galley (defining competences, roles, in-depth analysis, activities).In every kind of Project Management, it is fundamental to respect the relation between time and resources, in particular human resources. It is necessary to work bearing in mind the significant difference between objectives and goals; the first ones are different for each part of the project, whereas the second ones are long term intentions. It has been explained what are the methods through which create the Activities/Resources matrix in order to individuate the budget for the project. After the introduction Fotino organized the class in groups for the practical exercise consisting in writing a piece of a project following the instruction received during the meeting.
by Lucia Mosca | Apr 15, 2014 | Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
MEETING MINUTES 4TH APRIL 2014
On the 4th of April 2014 LabGov hosted a meeting about Social Innovation with Massimo Pellegrino (PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ partner) and Domenico Agnello (Temporary Reasearch Associate of University of Palermo).
Domenico Agnello focused on the theoretical framework that lies behind the idea of “Smart City”, that can be seen both as a eco-social transformation tool binded to the new technologies and the reorganization of the capital (with no negative affection) over new processes. Usually a prescriptive vision is used to describe a modern situation that is always changing.
The first concept of “Smart City” was the Renaissance city, because the university was connected with the city, but nowadays it creates some issues regarding the participation of the citizens, due mostly to the fact that not all of them, mostly on the suburbs area, can benefit equally from the opportunities given by a “Smart City”. Other problems might derive from the difficulties regarding the maintenance of a network of participation and the modification of the language used by the population: a “social” language prevents a pedagogical function about the “Smart City” issue. A way to overcome this problem could be betting more on the social networks in order to create a smart and pedagogical society.
Several authors discussed such arguments, like Moses; his idea can be divided into “Moses I” and “Moses II”.
• MOSES I: architectural planning based on a common sentiment: modern and similar to the Enlightment idea, a Roosveltian planning.
• MOSES II: his planning lost some of its previous “social relation”: keywords are modernism and self-referring progressivism.
Another possible solution could be a limited democratic individualism. The problem lies in the fact that in the modern society every project must be “super-performing” since the beginning, and a smart project got some difficulties to be immediately performing.
Massimo Pellegrino focused on the new technologies that might be used in a “Smart City” and how new technologies affected the perception of the passage of time. He explained the theory, developed in the United States, called “Transhumanism” by Ray Carlswell: the speed of the sequence of changing of technologies can be expressed by the theory of accelerated exponential returns. This changes also affects people’s mind.
So what can be done for the “Smart Cities”? Since it is impossible to plan something in a deterministic way due to the fact that society is continuously changing, the only thing logic to do is to try to orient the population, by creating projects that can adjust to the modern society:
• It is important to define the service models, and this includes define a specific goal, the security standards and identify all the relevant stakeholders.
• Analyze all the possible solutions by also studying all the relevant research made by others.
• Prioritize.
• Fund raising.
• Predict the impacts of what your project will have.
• Create a functional Road Map, a project plan.
by Alessandra Feola | Apr 4, 2014 | Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
MEETING MINUTES, March, 28th 2014
On 28th of March LabGov hosted the expert in European project management, Silvia Petrosino (Zètema Progetto Cultura srl), who explained the essential instruments to elaborate European cultural projects.
First of all, she specified projects are elaborated in order to respond to tender notices which derive from European policies that are actuated through programs. These projects produce effects on citizens, stakeholders and public institutions. Only legal entities are admitted to respond to calls for proposal.
The current EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation is called Horizon 2020, and it is the successor of the 7th Framework Programme. Horizon 2020 is divided into three categories: Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges. Regarding culture, the most important program is “Erasmus+: changing lives, opening minds”, composed by three key actions: mobility, cooperation for innovation and good practices, support for policies reform. This program is financed for 20% by the Communitarian Agency EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency) and for 80% by national agencies (for Italy they are ISFOL, INDIRE and Agenzia Nazionale Giovani). Another program is “ Creative Europe” which responds to four challenges : overcome fragmentation, digital shift and lack of data and access to finance. This program is financed with 1.46 billion of Euros shared between culture ( 31%), media (56%) and cross sectors (13%). The objects of “Creative Europe” is to support the capacity of the Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS) to operate transnationally, promote the transnational circulation of cultural and creative operators, reach new audiences and enforce the cultural sector. The instruments for realizing these objects are cooperation, literary translations, networks and platforms.
Secondly, we analyzed a cooperation project realized by Zètema in cooperation with Estonia, Greece and Norway called “FolkMus-Folk music in MusEUMS, young musicians and old instruments” (2010-2012). In two years were organized meetings, 12 concerts, educational activities, workshops in museums involving young musicians coming from Italy, Estonia, Norway and Greece. As Petrosino said, an effective communication program was necessary to promote the event (newspapers, internet, posters ). Moreover, they collected the opinions of musicians and users through questionnaires which revealed the strong audience’s satisfaction. The success of this project was determined by a clear and effective idea, a balanced partnership, richness and cultural diversity, a rational working plan and finally personal commitment.
After this brief overview, the Labgovers were invited to put this knowledge into practice responding to a European call for proposal regarding the relationship between administration and young people.
