Arte, Individuo y Sociedad (ISSN 1131-5598, ISSN-e 1988-2408) is a quarterly journal that publishes articles and research studies on the visual arts and how they relate to the social, historical, political and cultural context from different scientific fields, particularly creative and artistic education. In addition to scientific articles, bibliographical reviews are also included.
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Urban Art and Civic Learning: Bloom’s Taxonomy Applied to Quality of Life in Three Spanish Cities
Using a comparative approach, this study examines urban art in public space as an experience of civic learning and its relationship with perceived quality of life. The Spanish urban contexts of Pamplona, Madrid, and Ceuta are analysed, selected for their relative positions (higher, intermediate, and lower) in the Multidimensional Quality of Life Indicator published annually by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE). The research project to which this contribution belongs is organised in two phases: (1) an inventory, geolocation, and characterisation sheets of existing artworks, linking each intervention to its urban context; and (2) the administration of a citizen survey structured around the cognitive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, incorporating affective and operational dimensions. Survey results across the three cities show high visibility and recognition of artistic interventions and a predominantly positive appraisal of their influence on everyday life, although active public involvement in artistic projects remains at lower levels. As a methodological contribution, the study proposes a six-item synthetic version, applicable to mediation and social-impact processes, aimed at estimating the intensity of cognitive interaction between citizens and urban art.
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The deconstruction of comics in the production of Ana Peters (1964-1967): visual culture and gender awareness in Spanish pop
This article analyzes the pictorial production of Ana Peters between 1964 and 1967, a period in which the artist developed a unique critical appropriation of comic book language. Using an interdisciplinary methodology that combines social art history, semiotic analysis, and feminist visual studies, this work examines how the strategies of fragmentation, repetition, and ellipsis of the vignette operated as mechanisms of contestation against the gender archetypes of late Francoism. The specific contribution of this research lies in unveiling how Peters' work does not constitute a mere mimesis of international Pop Art, but rather a visual counter-device that, by emptying mass consumption iconography of its content, highlights the fracture between the economic modernization of the developmentalist period and the persistence of patriarchal structures. The study concludes that, far from being a tangential practice, Peters' drawing stands as an exercise in semiotic resistance fundamental to understanding the emergence of gender awareness in the Spanish avant-garde of the sixties.
Art and representation in sites of memory: aesthetic tensions and the transmission of Argentina’s recent past
This article examines how contemporary disputes over the representation of Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976–1983) are negotiated through artistic practices developed in sites of memory in the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. The aim is to analyze the aesthetic decisions, processes of collective debate, and pedagogical challenges involved in the production of two murals located in public health institutions. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative approach combining fieldwork, interviews, and iconographic analysis of the artworks. The inquiry is organized around three interrelated dimensions -aesthetic, procedural, and pedagogical- which make it possible to understand both the formal choices and the tensions that emerged during their production and in their projected modes of public transmission. The findings show that disputes over the representation of horror are not resolved solely at the theoretical level but unfold through concrete processes of negotiation among actors with diverse expectations. Furthermore, the pedagogical dimension, central to these spaces, tends to receive less reflection than aesthetic discussions, which affects the conditions under which the murals become intelligible in the public sphere.
Laughing to disobey: humor and irony as strategies of visual resistance in feminist art of the Spanish Transition
Feminist art has been approached through interpretative frameworks that have tended to prioritise denunciation, the gravity of the conflict or the expression of anger, thereby relegating other equally effective political strategies to the background. In contrast to this restrictive reading, this article analyses the use of humor and irony as specific forms of visual resistance in feminist art produced during the Spanish transition. Adopting a feminist epistemological approach, the study focuses on the practices of Esther Ferrer, Isabel Oliver and Paz Muro, examining how their works incorporate languages linked to visual culture and media imagination to subvert hegemonic discourses on femininity. Through parody, playfulness and exaggeration, these artists challenge the aesthetic canon, the confinement of women to the domestic sphere and the cultural construction of the supposed lack of female talent. This work argues that irony operates as a specific form of symbolic resistance which, far from softening the conflict, introduces a critical distance capable of generating shifts in systems of representation and activating critical readings of images.
Influence of packaging design on product quality perception. A study about typical foods from the central region of Portugal
According to the scientific literature, packaging design is an essential factor in constructing the symbolic value of a product and therefore conditions people’s purchase intention. Based on this premise, the study analyzes the influence of packaging on the perceived quality of typical foods from central Portugal (Beira Baixa, Beira Alta, and Alto Minho), such as olive oil, honey, wine, smoked products, and fruit. The main objective is to determine whether the quality and innovation of packaging design directly influence the perceived quality of the product and to analyze the impact of various attributes (shape, material, label, graphic design and other components) on this assessment. The research methodology combines a panel of seven graphic design experts (for the evaluation of packaging design) and a quantitative survey applied to consumers (n = 75). The results reveal a very significant relationship between the quality of the design and the attributed quality of the product, as well as the particular impact of the graphic design of the label on these evaluations.
At the boundaries of reality: Is the interactor a character? An interdisciplinary inquiry in interactive art and narrative studies
El auge de nuevos dispositivos e instalaciones interactivos ha dado lugar a un nuevo tipo de espectador, que funciona como componente narrativo: el interactor. También parte de la narrativa, el personaje ha sido entendido como una entidad ficticia distinta, dotada de agencia y vida interior (Eder, Jannidis y Schneider, 2010). ¿Puede el interactor considerarse un personaje? Este artículo explora áreas de mezcla, ambigüedad o incluso transgresión que surgen cuando ambos conceptos se intersectan, a fin de identificar condiciones en las que esto puede ocurrir. La reflexión surge a partir de formas artísticas como el arte digital interactivo creado por Bianchini (2004) o Davies (2013). Estas obras nos invitan a navegar distintos tipos de umbrales: (a) mediante el uso del Interaccionismo Simbólico para destacar cómo las obras están imbricadas en límites perceptuales, en los que el interactor es percibido como espectador por unos y como personaje por otros; (b) al concebir la metalepsis como inherente a la condición del interactor, un agente transgresor que cruza los límites entre los mundos real y ficticio; y (c) al cuestionar los límites del concepto de personaje, particularmente el criterio de ficcionalidad. Sostenemos que el interactor puede entenderse como un personaje en determinadas condiciones teóricas, mediáticas, subjetivas y relacionales.
Berlanga’s Cinema and Historical Memory in Spain
This paper examines the memorial function of Luis García Berlanga’s cinema in relation to the Spanish Civil War, Francoism, the Transition and Spanish democracy. Its aim is to explore how his films transform events, institutions and social experiences from the recent past into materials of cultural memory. The study adopts a qualitative, hermeneutic and ftextual film analysis applied to Bienvenido, Míster Marshall, Plácido, El verdugo, the Leguineche trilogy, La vaquilla and Todos a la cárcel. The analysis considers the temporality of production, represented temporality, satirical strategies, the choral structure, social spaces, forms of violence or repression, and the memorial function of each film. The results show that the films made under Francoism acquire memorial value as contemporary satires later reread as a cultural archive; the Leguineche trilogy captures the continuity of elites; La vaquilla revisits the Civil War through esperpento; and Todos a la cárcel problematises the democratic institutionalisation of remembrance. The article concludes that Berlanga turns choral comedy into a critical form of historical knowledge, capable of revealing the persistence of power and the contradictions of contemporary Spanish memory.
Intercultural Arts Education: discourses, practices and educational challenges. A systematic review
This article presents a systematized review of the scientific literature on the relationship between art education and intercultural education. The aim of this paper is to conceptualize the term intercultural art education, as well as to identify the pedagogical challenges faced by this approach. This research is part of the project Inclusive Online Arts Education: development and evaluation of a comprehensive MOOC model for teacher training (EDARCLUSIÓN) (PID2021- 127124OB-I00). The choice of systematic review as a working methodology sought to create a state of the art on the subject. Using the SALSA (Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, Analysis) approach, a total of 190 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases were analyzed, exploring this intersection between the two fields studied. The results point to four fundamental aspects: ending classic narratives around diversity, adopting a critical perspective in arts education, promoting new curricula and methodologies, and encouraging teacher training. Overcoming these challenges will be essential to promoting inclusive education.
Territory exploration as sculptural action: Intercultural dialogue and research-creation at the University of Jordan
This article presents the results of a research-creation project developed at the Faculty of Art and Design of the University of Jordan in Amman, within the framework of the Jerash Festival in the 2024 edition. The central premise argues that the exploration of territory is not a preliminary step to creation, but a sculptural action in itself. Through a collaborative methodology with the Sculpture Department, the study shifts the focus from the final artistic object to the processes of cultural and academic exchange. Collaboration with Jordanian professors and students allowed for the hybridization of contemporary languages with local traditions, transforming the classroom into a space for mediation. The results indicate that the deepest impact of the stay lies in the generation of shared knowledge and the strengthening of international research networks. It is concluded that artistic practice, in contexts of institutional reception, acts as a tool for academic diplomacy and the redefinition of spatial narratives in the Middle East.
Diagramming the Possible. Projective Tools in the Initial Phase of the Pictorial Project
This article examines the diagram as a projective tool in the early stages of the creative process, approaching the outset of an artistic project as a field of tensions in which intuition, desire, image, and form begin to take shape in relation to one another. From a qualitative, theoretical-analytical, and essayistic approach, situated in dialogue with A/r/tography and Visual Arts-Based Educational Research, the study combines conceptual review, analysis of contemporary artistic practices, and pedagogical experience. Through the examination of notebooks, maps, moodboards, and visual process archives, it identifies modes of pre-figurative thinking that make it possible to understand the diagram as a visual technology of thought in the act. As its main contribution, the article proposes three principal diagrammatic regimes: inter-factual, post-factual, and pre-factual, conceived as tactical modulations that can be activated according to the needs of the project, and not necessarily in a sequential order. The article argues for the diagram as an open device capable of accompanying the transition from the possible to the potential, offering a flexible framework for sustaining creative inquiry without prematurely foreclosing it; an approach that is especially relevant in pedagogical contexts of artistic training. While the analysis is situated within the course Pictorial Projects in the Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Murcia, the proposed framework is intended to be transferable to other contexts of project-based creation and artistic learning.
Art, heritage and teaching innovation: The EDUArtHeritage project as a model of interdisciplinary and intercultural learning
This article analyzes the EDUArtHeritage1 Teaching Innovation Project, an interdisciplinary and international experience that integrates art, heritage, and technology within teacher education. The main objective was to promote meaningful learning of cultural heritage through active and collaborative methodologies that connect artistic education with local identity and intercultural cooperation. A mixed research method was applied, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses within an action research framework. A total of 217 students and teachers from Spain, France, and Portugal participated, developing processes of historical research, ceramic creation, and audiovisual production using Artificial Intelligence tools. The results show significant improvements in creative, digital, and intercultural competences, as well as strong social impact derived from the public installation of the ceramic artworks produced. The study concludes that artistic and heritage education, supported by technological and pedagogical innovation, provides an effective pathway to fostering cultural sustainability, inclusion, and international cooperation in higher education.
De dentro a fuera. Una conversación con María Gimeno
Interview with the visual and performance artist María Gimeno.
Trauma, art, and memory in the work of Guillermo Núñez: A critical reading of El jardín de los jardineros (1974)
This article examines the epistemological limits of history and memory in the reconstruction of the past, addressing this tension through trauma theory and its inscription in art. The analysis focuses on the case of chilean artist Guillermo Núñez (1930–2024), who was detained and tortured by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) in 1974, during the early months of the chilean civic-military dictatorship (1973–1990). The study explores the series El jardín de los jardineros (1974), conceived after his first imprisonment at the Air Force War Academy, one of several detention centers in which he was held during two separate arrests. It argues that, in the face of the impossibility of discursively representing trauma, art functions as a critical device that interrupts historical linearity, eludes explanatory frameworks, and opens a space for a sensitive form of knowledge that challenges the limits of what can be said.
From Symbolic Form to Epistemic Artifact: Praxeological Analysis of Mathematics in Historical Images for Interdisciplinary Art Education
Today, visual arts and mathematics are taught as isolated territories. This disconnection has fragmented learning, obscuring the profound dialogue between number and form. This article bridges both disciplines. To achieve this, it analyzes historical images not merely as aesthetic objects, but as conceptual tools that process and transmit mathematical thought. Through the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD), we propose an adaptation of the praxeological model applied to historical images, enabling the "reading" of the geometry and arithmetic concealed within art. To verify its utility, we examine the works of six masters—ranging from the precision of Da Vinci, Pacioli, and Dürer to the modernity of Oliver Byrne and M. C. Escher—deconstructing the praxis (tasks and techniques) and logos (technologies and theories) inherent in each masterpiece. Results confirm that these images operate as genuinely autonomous didactic media, capable of structuring, justifying, and legitimizing geometric, arithmetic, and topological knowledge through visual language. We conclude that integrating this perspective into the art classroom and STEAM projects not only enriches the curriculum but also restores the image's power as a tool for discovering the world. Ultimately, this approach rescues mathematics from mechanical repetition, transforming it into a shared visual experience.
Bulegoa z/b, an office for art and knowledge. Singular case in the divergent cultural network-context on the gentrification process in Bilbao
Over the last two decades, a constellation of independent artistic and cultural initiatives has emerged in the city of Bilbao. Their activity forms an alternative cultural network system that provides mutual support for the city's artistic context. It is essential to highlight and locate these initiatives, as they play a critical role in the relationship between art and urban development and the prevailing cultural system, thereby constituting a specific response to the gentrification process initiated by the so-called Guggenheim Effect. By situating the activities of these initiatives in a paradoxical position, both within and outside the institutional system, we question their actual and situated functioning and the nature of their contribution, with the aim of offering a perspective which could be transferable to other situations. To this end, we selected Bulegoa z/b as a case study, as it presents methodological keys to the creation of thought around the current artistic, pedagogical, cultural, and social axis, weaving collaborations at the local and international levels. Accordingly, Bulegoa constitutes a critique not only of the cultural system, but also of artistic and academic institutions, while offering an alternative to it.
Nature as a paradigm of the creative process. An approach to the art-nature relationship in contemporary painting
This article establishes a series of relationships between specific painting practices and different concepts of nature, from which emerges a concrete and original approach to the art-nature binomial as an object of artistic research. Through these relationships, it delves into key aspects of the creative process, such as the idea of ​​transformation, necessary for understanding contemporary abstract, gestural, and organicist works, and certain related forms of landscape painting—works, in general, that are heirs to Romanticism. The text analyzes various examples of painting within a broad and current artistic context, revealing how its extraordinary qualities and expressive possibilities can show parallels with nature, allowing us to understand how nature manifests itself through the pictorial material. With the aim of offering a comprehensive view of the object of study, the art-nature relationship, currently subject to the parameters of contemporary art, has been extended to some expanded painting practices with a more hybrid and/or critical profile, as well as to expressions of contemporary drawing, whose creative processes reveal aspects common to those described.
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (17 de febrero – 31 de mayo de 2026) y Kunsthaus Zürich (3 de julio – 25 de octubre de 2026). Comisariado: Clara Marcellán (Madrid) y Jonas Beyer y Sandra Gianfreda (Zürich).
From heritage to innovation: the Arxiu Valencià del Disseny as a strategic resource for contemporary design
This paper analyses the role of the Arxiu Valencià del Disseny (AVD) as a driving force behind an innovative design ecosystem in the Valencian Community. Using a qualitative methodology based on focus groups with senior designers, young designers and teachers, it examines the perceptions and uses of the archive by the main players in the sector. The results confirm that the AVD is perceived as a key resource for the conservation of Valencian design heritage, as well as a strategic tool for training, research and professional practice. However, significant challenges related to the visibility, accessibility and institutional links of the archive are identified. A set of actions is proposed to enhance its impact, such as collaboration with educational and business entities, technological improvement and international projection. The study concludes that the AVD not only preserves the memory of design, but also has the potential to become a hub for innovation and sustainable development in the field of regional design.
Espectros del Imperio británico. 50 películas victorianas. Víctor Mínguez y Teresa Sorolla (2025). Barcelona, Editorial UOC, 216 páginas
The Neolithic Cromlech and the Void: Its Relationship with the Feminine Principle as Consciousness of the Absolute Through the Art of Oteiza
Oteiza's creative thought would evidence the existence of a psychic reality that explains the phenomena of consciousness as the presence, in the human being, of a universal force or “Great Mother.” This energy is interpreted by the artist from a transcendental inner void that we will analyze through his experience of the Basque cromlech. The main objective of this study is to analyze how Oteiza uses this prehistoric monument as an archetype of totality related to the feminine principle, where spirit and matter converge, and where the sculptor proposes a language of silence linked to fertilizing forces that culminate in a “transcendental Nothingness.” To this end, the paper is structured in three fundamental axes: first, the “psychic void” is explored as a methodological tool for knowledge and transformation of the subject; second, the metaphysical nature of his sculptural proposal is examined, positioning the void not as absence, but as a space of spiritual fullness; finally, it analyzes how this vision redefines the perception of nature and establishes a dialogue with the practices of contemporary art by women.
Roberto Burle Marx and the Use of Tiles in Modern Brazilian Architecture
This article systematically examines the career of Brazilian artist Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994) as a muralist through his use of ceramic tiles. This career is situated within the context of Brazilian modernism, in which Burle Marx was a leading figure. It provides the necessary background to contextualize this creative journey, both from a historical perspective—referring to traditions inherited from the period of Portuguese colonization—and through more recent experiences, particularly the rise of neocolonial architecture in the early decades of the 20th century, which incorporated the tile as an emblematic element. The emergence of modern tile factories and companies such as Osirarte in 1940 fostered a muralist movement within which Burle Marx would become a central figure in Brazil, though he would also receive commissions in other countries across the Americas. Initially, figurative and abstract approaches converged in his work. This latter trait, through geometric rigor—characteristic of Brazilian concretism—and biomorphic designs, would exclusively define his work from the 1950s until his death.
Visually Narrating the Voice of Childhood. An Inhabiting Artist in the School to Investigate Children's Thinking
This article explores the photobook and visual narratives as spaces for creative thinking and action in childhood, using an arts-based educational research and a/r/tographic methodology. The study examines how pupils can develop a critical understanding of images and construct personal meanings from their visual experiences. The article presents the process and outcomes of the project Pespunto, carried out in a mixed classroom with first-, second-, and third-grade primary school students. The project began with the shared reading of photobooks, followed by the creation of a collective discourse through action and photographic documentation. Inspired by the textile work of Franz Erhard Walther, the school playground became a space for encounter, listening, and balance. The resulting photographs were assembled into a photobook that also incorporated the ideas and sensations arising from the action through a poetic text. The article outlines key aspects of the process, emphasizing the importance of listening to and valuing children’s voices, and reflecting on the role of the teacher-artist-researcher within the creative process.
“Science twinned with Art”: The anatomical sculptor Laureano Coll Soler (1856–1916)
This article explores the life and work of the anatomical sculptor Laureano Coll Soler (1856–1916), one of the most significant figures in anatomical sculpture in Spain during the second half of the nineteenth century. At a time when three-dimensional anatomical models were essential to medical education, Spain stood out for the systematic employment of anatomical sculptors in its medical schools. Despite their importance, these professionals received limited recognition, and much of their output has been dispersed or lost. Drawing on previously unpublished archival sources, historical press accounts, and the study of several museum collections, the article offers the first detailed reconstruction of Coll’s professional career and presents an initial catalogue of his sculptural production. It also attributes four works held in different collections that had previously been regarded as anonymous or of French origin, thereby contributing to a reassessment of Spain’s anatomical heritage. Trained as both a medical doctor and an artist, and active as an anatomical sculptor as well as an amateur photographer, Coll provides a revealing case study of the close relationship between science and art in the nineteenth century and emerges as a key figure in the history of anatomical sculpture in Spain.
La IA en la creación artística, la docencia y la investigación. Modelos y aplicaciones en la generación del conocimiento. Iracheta Martín, María de, y Ruiz Bago, Jesús (coords.) (2026). Valencia: Tirant Humanidades. 327 pp. ISBN: 979-13-7038-031-1
El hilo como dibujo. Carmen Mendoza Chávez (2024), Ciudad de México, Ediciones La Herrata Feliz, 64 páginas. ISBN: 978-607-8422-25-8
Comisariado: Fernando Davis. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. 11 de febrero – 8 de junio de 2026
Combined use of 3D simulator and fixed outdoor camera for testing and broadcasting of artistic work on a media facade
This article analyses the development and use of a 3D simulator and the installation of a fixed camera as technical and creative tools at the ETOPIA Centre of Art and Technology in Zaragoza (Spain), a facility that emerged as part of the "Digital Mile" technology district and which sought, among its objectives, to integrate technological innovation with artistic expression, especially through the building's media facade. The implementation of a remote simulation and monitoring system that facilitates the preview of content, optimising its subsequent broadcast, is detailed. In addition, the technical and conceptual challenges faced by artists in the use of this hybrid medium are examined, highlighting the works presented during the 5th Ibero-American Congress of Culture in 2013. The article evaluates the impact of the project in the cultural and technological field, emphasizing its contributions to digital art broadcast on media facades and its potential to redirect urban narratives in a context where smart and smart city prevails.
Rustic Renaissance: Vernacular architecture in religious painting from late 15th to early 16th centuries
Although Renaissance art often favoured classical architecture as the setting for sacred events and characters, several works from the period, from different European regions, placed religious narratives within rural landscapes that included vernacular architecture. Far from serving as neutral scenery, these rustic settings conveyed symbolic meaning shaped by theological discourse. Christian humanism and Platonic thought converged, prompting many Renaissance paintings to articulate the harmony between the humble life of the countryside and the divine order inscribed in the natural world. Drawing from contemporary humanist thought, pastoral literature, and the iconographic analysis of five case studies, this article argues that vernacular imagery provided a culturally resonant language for divine presence to be more easily experienced. The artistic choice of vernacular architecture, rather than revealing a rejection of Renaissance classicism, suggests a parallel mode of revival, grounded in classical heritage, just as much as Greco-Roman architecture would. This article explores how such architectural choices impacted the audience’s performative construction of sacred meaning, allowing spiritual experience to be mediated through recognisable and symbolically resonant landscapes.
Haptic spaces: Textiles in contemporary installation art
At present, textiles have established themselves as some of the most significant materials within contemporary artistic practice, particularly in the field of installation art. Building on this premise, this article examines the potential of textiles as generators of haptic and sensory spaces within the domain of textile installation, conceiving it as an interface that mediates the relationship between body and space. At the same time, it explores the symbolic, political and performative dimensions of textile materiality and how these dimensions reconfigure our spatial experience and the ways in which we are affected in our encounter with the artwork. This approach is evident in the work of numerous contemporary artists and is analyzed in this article via three case studies: Ann Hamilton, Kapwani Kiwanga and Rosa Tharrats, whose installation practices not only highlight a substantial shift in the contemporary understanding of space, but also in the ways that we relate with the world in which we inhabit.
review of the picturebook Poetics of Abandonment