Resumo

This article presents the “Virtual Monuments” project that explores alternative modes of video production and projection, investigating other media, formats and practices. Our fulldome project is a collaborative interdisciplinary project jointly produced by the Federal University of Santa Maria/Labinter (Santa Maria, Brazil), Durban University of Technology/ Interdisciplinary Lab (Durban, South Africa) and the Federal University of Ceará (Fortaleza, Brazil). The aim of this project is to use the planetariums or different surfaces in these cities as sites for the projection of digital monuments collaboratively produced and shared between the three participating cities. Monuments are usually considered structures that occupy public spaces as cultural symbols commemorating important figures, events or elements of a culture´s heritage. Monuments can also be seen as sites where power can either be enforced or contested. The Virtual Monuments project was produced jointly as an experiment in multi-sited, collaborative, interdisciplinary creation between the three participating institutions in order to expand our understanding of the dynamic collaborative processes of ideation, creation, production, participation exhibition and reception. Each site contributed and participated in the creation of the others’ artworks, each one sharing their creativity and know-how to collectively realize these monuments as a tentative siting of dissolution of hierarchies and power structures within institutional creative environments. The project has been showcased in international events such as “Understanding Visual Music - UVM” at the Galileo Galilei Planetarium of Buenos Aires, “DIGIFEST” at Durban University of Technology, and “EFEMERA” at the UFSM Planetarium in Brasil.