IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B
Abstract
This paper provides a case study for exploring the potential to build community through partnership between artists, cities, and the general public in urban settings. TRES is an immersive solo installation of art works presented at various cities in Broward County, Florida. This sequence of projects began in the Fall of 2023 and continued through 2025 in cities that have large immigrant populations: Pembroke Pines, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, and Fort Lauderdale. The themes and content relating to the artist’s own memories and sense of belonging initiate a public discourse by exploring her relationship to space and the moving image; audiences then have the opportunity to respond with their own memories, as a growing database of local public memories become part of a constituent video installation. Indoor and outdoor projections express cyclical change and transformation in a Magical Realist style that recontextualizes the extraordinary moments of the everyday in reimagined environments, via multimedia sculptures, animation, and live performance in collaboration with local musicians and dancers, to connect with the audience’s own memories of community and nature in South Florida. The installations begin by transforming hand-drawn memories, recomposing constituent elements into new forms that mirror the cyclical processes of nature; i.e., the natural world transforms into drawings, and then the drawings transform into animations or hanging sculptures. As the internal processes of the artist become externalized, they can serve the community by building a sense of connection to the present time and local space that affirms collective wellness and belonging.
Alejandra Abad is an interdisciplinary visual artist and Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University who explores belonging as key parts of collective wellness. Through layering, abstraction, and light, she creates audiovisual experiences that relate to place and community. Her style is informed by architectural studies at FAU, Film/Video/New Media/Animation at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Interdisciplinary Media Art Practices at The University of Colorado. Recent work includes Lexicon de Plantas, a large-scale audiovisual participatory installation that was presented
Steve Jones was a UK Fulbright Scholar to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth from 2010-2011, where he conducted dissertation research on Welsh Modernist Literature. He received his PhD in British Literature from Ball State University in 2013 and his MA in Literature (with a concentration in Film Adaptation of Literature and Comics) from Indiana University in 2007. He has taught courses in Literature, Writing, and Film Studies. His scholarly work focuses on the areas of Modernist and Postcolonial Literatures, Cinema, and Comics. He is also a musician, playing in several bands in a variety of genres.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Thursday 10th July, 2025