VIULIFE

VIULIFE Creative Projects
The Art of Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and Technological innovation have until now been considered as two separate disciplines. Creativity is about the world of art, aesthetics and culture generated through unarticulated creative processes. Technological innovation is about the world of scientific discovery and knowledge based on strong methodological work. This separation has characterized our social and economic development model, and has helped in generating wealth and welfare in the last century.

The scenario is now rapidly changing. New challenges are emerging for our society. Environmental concerns of suitability of production processes, ethical questions in scientific discovery, aesthetics and cultural meanings of goods are examples of the new issues we are called to address. Dealing with these challenges requires a wholly new approach that combines creativity and innovation.

Venice International University as an international research and education center aims at fostering this new approach introducing extra curricular activities dedicated to creativity and innovation alongside its academic program. These activities are intended to enrich students’ training program exposing them to creative practice and to alternative ways of analysis and discovery. The objective is not to transform students into artists, but to let them experience art and creativity as a new perspective to interpret and make sense of the world. Students are asked to produce something original using techniques and forms of expression that are related to the world of art and creativity and refer to the use of digital technologies.

From this perspective, artistic creativity can be a first step towards new training methods, where theory is combined with practical creativity and the semantics of art, providing opportunities to engage and unify, through the discovery of new visions and ideas. VIU encourages contemporary art practice in order to pursue research based not only on numbers and statistics but also on human and artistic implications.

Fall 2007
Venice: Islands of Creativity
Promoted with AIESEC
The project aims at involving VIU students in discovering hidden traits of Venice, going beyond the postcard image of the touristic side of the city. In particular, the objective is to unfold the new creative vogue in Venice. The most interesting part of this new creative movement is not developing within the very heart of Venice but on the islands that surround the City. Giudecca, Certosa, Murano are re-inventing themselves and investing in innovation and are the places where creativity is taking place.
Under the guidance of a multimedia artist, Gaston Ramirez, students will produce images and videos that represent the city and its islands from a different perspective.
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Spring 2007
Nokia Only Planet: Innovating through Empathy
Italy through the lens of Mobile Technologies
Art and creativity are cornerstones of Italian culture. This is seen in Italy’s rich cultural heritage and also in the business sector where Italian companies are leaders in design and fashion. What is the backdrop of this creative process? The workshop's aim is to find new ways of narrating Italian Creativity and Contemporary Culture through photo and video capture using mobile technologies.
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Fall 2006
Venice: Impressions from Near and Far
The goal of this photo competition was to encourage students to analyze and reflect upon Venice and Globalization through images, shooting photographs which do not have to simply portray a situation, but have to create an intellectual process which can convey meaning and information about the deep links and relationships between Venice and Globalization.
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Fall 2005
VIULIFE: Billboards
In 2005 to celebrate its 10th anniversary, VIU invited the Bulgarian artists Boris Missirkov and Georgi Bogdanov to create a series of photographic portraits. VIU students professors, researchers and staff shared in the creative process from the initial idea through to a finished work of art. The participated in thechoreography of the shots that depict them in original interpretations of typical everyday scenarios. The project generated team-building, faovring the exchange of ideas and a fuller awareness of who works and studies in the university.
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