September 23rd, 2021
Research and extension Projects
GRAFFITI AND AUDIODESCRIPTION
by Ana Colacino
Today’s Newsletter is about a lot of things! It is about art, about the joining of university and basic school, about inclusion and also about extension and how it impacts society outside university!
​
We are talking about Professors Simone and Ana Paula’s extension project within the 3rd year of Letras Inglês, that has the aim of creating audio descriptions of the graffiti on Nilo Cairo’s walls. The project is part of the new curriculum that started in 2019, as Professor Simone told us, one of the concerns of the new curriculum was to make a stronger link between university and basic school, as well as university and the whole society. To reach that goal, many changes were made, and among them there is the new mandatory extension project. So, along the internship in the 2nd year, the students have to come up with an idea of a project to work on. This project may have a social impact. They can divide themselves in pair or groups to develop the chosen themes, but since 2020 was the first time that this extension project was developed, and the 2nd year (now in the 3rd year) is a very small group, with only 5 students, the activities were carried in a little different way. The theme was raised by professor Ana Paula, along with the internship in Nilo Cairo, and this would be the only project to be developed by the group of students.
The students had already made the written part of the project in 2020, and now they are following to the next step, executing it. Now, if you live in Apucarana or teach or study at Nilo Cairo, you probably know the beautiful graffiti drawings that the school has in its walls. And if you do not know you probably should! The drawings bring cultural and artistic vibes to the school building, and enriches the street scenario. It is interesting to think about them as a reminder of what education should also bring to us: art, culture and points of view. Those drawings are surely amazing, but how to make them even more engaging? That is when the extension project come handy, as we may know, not everybody can actually see the graffiti on the walls, that is why the students and professors are promoting this audio description project, to embrace all those people who can benefit from this sharing in audio version. It is not only about inclusion, but also about democratization of art, to use our knowledge acquired in university to promote changes in society, and even give more credit to the street art, which is very marginalized. The extension project will be taking place along the two next months, and we will be able to get more information about how it turned out soon… stay tuned!