The project "CONTRAST: Network of multidisciplinary artistic initiatives in Art, Architecture, Design and Photography" (CONTRAST) led by the research group Architecture, Art and Image (AAI-CEAU-FAUP), coordinated by Pedro Leão Neto, and managed in partnership with the Cultural Association Cityscopio, ESMAD-uniMAD and FBAUP-i2ads and ID+ was selected for funding by DGARTES in the call for proposals for the Project Support Program - Programming.

CONTRAST thus sees recognition for the work carried out by the entire team and partners from eleven Higher Education Institutions - ARCO, DARQ, DCAM, EA.UCP, ESAP, ESMAD, FAUP, FBAUL, FBAUP, FEUP and IPT - both in terms of Creation and Teaching/Research, and in the network of Dissemination, Debate and Editorial initiatives around Photography and its interaction with Art, Architecture and Design.

The CONTRAST project aims to contribute to the dissemination, creation and teaching of photography in its interaction with Art, Architecture and Design. This contribution is developed at national and international level through the sharing of experiences and knowledge between schools, groups and non-academic associations, bringing together the interest of different audiences in these themes from a transversal and holistic perspective.

The proposed activities are based on the work and synergies developed both through its online platform and through the CONTRAST publication, which currently brings together the work of eleven higher education schools teaching photography in various disciplinary and artistic areas: ARCO, DARQ, DCAM, EA.UC, ESAP, ESMAD, FAUP, FBAUL, FBAUP and IPT. The project thus draws on the consolidated experience of these higher education institutions in teaching and researching the practice and discipline of photography in various disciplinary and artistic areas. This work has been developed through various projects, research and initiatives, as well as editorial experience that ensures a strong integrated and complementary strategy of teaching, research and communication, namely through the organization of conferences, debates, exhibitions, projects, courses/workshops and scientific and pedagogical publications in both article and book format that expand photography to other disciplinary areas. For all these reasons, publishing is an essential element for the CONTRAST project and its network of multidisciplinary artistic initiatives in Art, Architecture, Design and Photography aims to strengthen and update the editorial component of this project.

The artistic initiatives include the creation of artistic works, the programming of pre-existing works and specific actions to develop audiences, involving partner institutions and local communities, providing active participation in the creation and enjoyment of the arts by various audiences, with the proposed initiatives serving as documentary and artistic territories for various projects.

Over the next two years we intend to strengthen the project's research component, as well as broaden our partnerships, particularly in the European context with other institutions and artistic networks close to our universe of interest. With this aim of internationalizing the CONTRAST project, a partnership will be created with the Society for Artistic research (SAR), which is an international non-profit, artistic and scientific society dedicated to the development, connection and international dissemination of artistic research as a specific practice of knowledge production. The aim is to start a pilot project in which the partner institutions' photography projects can be created and hosted on the Research Catalogue platform, an international artistic research infrastructure that allows multimedia publication.

In addition to the new partnership created with the Society for Artistica research (SAR), our collaboration with three schools outside Portugal continues, namely with the Liverpool School of Architecture (LSA), Zaragosa Unidad Predepartamental de Arquitectura of the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) Barcelona Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech (UPC).