Rotura – Revista de Comunicação, Cultura e Artes

Visual methods for researching communication from creative and multimodal perspectives

Fernando R. Contreras Medina — 2026-09-30

Prefácio

Ana Filipa Martins — 2026-09-30

Inteligencia Artificial Aplicada a las Ciencias Sociales

José Manuel Romero Tenorio — 2026-09-30

This article analyzes the visual and expressive dynamics of TikTok through artificial intelligence techniques applied to a corpus of 7,398 videos. The aim is to show how visual methods supported by machine learning can contribute to understanding sociocommunicative and cultural phenomena in digital environments. For this purpose, an unsupervised learning model (exploratory SOM and K-means clustering) was trained, which made it possible to identify four main clusters of audiovisual organization. The first reveals dense and saturated compositions of elements that, beyond the technical, allow us to interpret the screen as an algorithmic chroma: a flexible space of assemblage that organizes gestures, effects, and visual trajectories. The second corresponds to the loops and rhythmic repetitions characteristic of the platform, which create circularity and continuity in the experience. The third shows how bodies and digital effects combine in unstable surfaces, where the human and the technical intertwine without clear boundaries. The fourth cluster points to a regime of expressivity that stimulates constant participation and self-exposure. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that TikTok cannot be understood solely as a transmedial space, but rather as an algorithmic interface that organizes rhythms, affects, and digital subjectivities, encouraging reflection on the political and sensory impact of platforms in contemporary life.

The Legacy of Women Designers in the Canary Islands: Articulating a Collective Voice through Visual Methodology

Noa Real García — 2026-09-30

En la historiografía del diseño y sus archivos institucionales se ha invisibilizado sistemáticamente el trabajo de las mujeres, un fenómeno que se intensifica en territorios periféricos por la escasez de bibliografía y registros. En el contexto de las Islas Canarias (España), coexisten iniciativas profesionales y oferta formativa en distintas instituciones, donde las mujeres han estado presentes, pero la documentación sobre mujeres en el ámbito del diseño permanece dispersa y poco sistematizada, dificultando la construcción de genealogías y referentes en el territorio. Este artículo propone una metodología visual y participativa para recopilar y visibilizar el legado profesional fragmentario del colectivo creativo de diseñadoras canarias.

En un marco temporal acotado a cuatro meses, se diseñó una estrategia cualitativa multimodal basada en métodos visuales. Se construyó una base de datos inicial mediante muestreo en bola de nieve y se realizaron cinco entrevistas semiestructuradas a diseñadoras referentes con el fin de recoger narrativas individuales. Paralelamente, se desarrollaron tres grupos focales online para articular una voz colectiva, diferenciando entre diseñadoras profesionales e investigadoras académicas. En dos de ellos se incorporó la plataforma visual colaborativa Miro como infraestructura para dinamizar y registrar datos en tiempo real o asíncrona.

El análisis combinó la extracción manual del material generado, la revisión de las transcripciones y una primera categorización temática asistida por inteligencia artificial, posteriormente validada por el equipo investigador. La investigación culminó en una exposición participativa concebida como dispositivo metodológico de restitución pública y activación de archivo, que integró tanto las narrativas cualitativas recopiladas como una muestra representativa de trabajos físicos y digitales. La exposición fue además registrada mediante un recorrido audiovisual 360º para ampliar su accesibilidad. Se propone así un modelo de documentación visual y participativa replicable para investigaciones en prácticas creativas con poco archivo, tiempos limitados y orientadas a la transferencia social.

Social Media 2: Line, performative drawing and immersive experience with 360 video

Cecile Meier — 2026-09-30

The performance Social Media 2: Line proposes an innovative way of recording and experiencing performative works through 360 video, shifting from traditional frontal observation to an experience in which the viewer chooses where to look and becomes an active observer using a computer, mobile phone or virtual reality headset. Inspired by authors such as Michel de Certeau and Tim Ingold, as well as by Rosemary Lee’s choreography Passage for Par, the piece reflects on social media behaviors and reinterprets the act of walking as a living drawing in space. The work is framed within the field of performative drawing and within a renewal of visual methodologies, in which spherical and interactive images make it possible to explore bodily, spatial and affective dimensions that are difficult to grasp through conventional frontal audiovisual recording. A study with 70 students evaluated user experience in three viewing modes (PC, mobile phone and Oculus virtual reality headset), showing that higher levels of immersion enhance presence, immersion, flow, enjoyment and technology adoption. In this context, the mobile phone emerges as a balanced option for regular classroom use, while the immersive Oculus version maximizes the expressive and emotional power of the piece, although it requires controlling session duration to avoid fatigue and discomfort in the most sensitive students.

Visual ethnography with 360° camera applied to the K-pop phenomenon in Mexico City: public space, heterotopias and ethics of responsibility

Rogelio Del Prado Flores — 2026-09-30

Visual ethnography in this research is a situated, embodied, and relational methodological approach that enables the production of knowledge from the interaction between bodies, images, technologies, and urban spaces. Its use does not respond to a purely documentary intent, nor to the mere accumulation of audiovisual records, but rather to the need to understand how youth K-pop practices produce meaning, identity, and territoriality in the public space of Mexico City. Based on this, a 360° camera (Insta360 X3) is used as a fundamental element of the video ethnography employed to explain this social phenomenon in greater depth, since beyond guaranteeing neutrality, it is a device that destabilizes the single framing, records the co-presence of the event, and demands a reflexive interpretation of the researcher’s position. This research addresses the different meanings produced by young people who dance K-pop in the urban space of Mexico City, identifying the different youth dynamics and belonging to the social group. Based on the link between phenomenology and visual methods, the article presents the results of a research project whose main objective was to analyze the dancing of different youth groups related to K-pop at the Monument to the Revolution, over a period from 2023 to 2025, in order to analyze the meanings they give to their personal and group identity, as well as their appropriation of public space and the production of heterotopias. The research is based on a theoretical review of the fundamental concepts used to analyze this phenomenon, such as the embodied phenomenology approach, which is formed from situated observation in the territory, allowing for the analysis of performative dynamics from a position of ethical responsibility. The visual methods used consisted of video ethnography using a 360° camera, analyzing four framing aspects: 1) public building windows as mirrors, 2) the Monument to the Revolution and the public roadway, 3) K-pop choreographies, and 4) images of the researcher during ethnographic fieldwork with the 360° camera. Among the main findings is that through K-pop, youth heterotopias are produced in which historical memory, global culture, and sensory experience are re-signified in ephemeral, contingent, but highly significant events, providing a metadisciplinary understanding of the interrelationship between public space, embodied visual ethnography, young people’s group life, and the responsible participation of researchers.

Experiencing the atmosphere of a public space to better understand it

Natacha Cyrulnik — 2026-09-30

The documentary series ‘Sortir de la carte postale’ (Beyond the Postcard) aims to capture everyday life at a tourist site by conveying the atmosphere of the place. These short films, each lasting around ten minutes, are designed to enable viewers to move from being ‘tourists’, who generally take a selfie in front of the building and then leave, to being ‘travellers’, who spend a little more time at the site to see how the inhabitants live on a daily basis (Paquot, 2014). This premise gave rise to the intention behind this series, which chose immersion through atmosphere as its original audiovisual method.
We first defined atmosphere, then the atmosphere that exists in cinema, and more specifically in the context of this series. We then go on to question the creative process up to the point of reception, via operational choices (from technical aspects to the situational stages of preparation, filming, editing and screening) and more sensitive choices. Finally, the screenings are analysed through the prism of those that take place in a cinema, as well as those made by the viewers themselves.
Thus, in an increasingly sensitive approach, the atmosphere in a documentary film is depicted in an attempt to better understand what it is all about.

Untaken Photographs

Jaroslava Šnajberková — 2026-09-30

This article proposes the phenomenon of ‘untaken photographs’ as a hybrid research-creation methodology that moves from representational photography to relational visual practice in the context of fieldwork with the Kággaba community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, and extends into digital media contexts. It shows why a photograph is sometimes not taken and the importance of preserving the moment only in the photographer’s memory. In an environment overflowing with digital images, we prefer the return to introspection, poetry, personal experiences, and a personal journal. The article emphasises photography as a way to relational knowledge and discusses how digital abstraction can foster deeper connections with the environment and people. The text combines reflection on the medium of photography with journal entries from the field to demonstrate how the photographic act is transformed in a situation where the decision not to photograph becomes an approach that creates meaning.

Material Language, Situated Vision

Marzia D’Amico — 2026-09-30

This article examines the verbo-visual practice of Mirella Bentivoglio (1922–2017) as a methodological model for research–creation and visual inquiry. Situating her work within contemporary visual methodologies, multimodal research, and interpretative ethics, the study argues that Bentivoglio’s artistic strategies function not merely as aesthetic experiments but as structured modes of knowledge production. Through the material interrogation of language, spatial organisation, fragmentation, and silence, her works mobilise verbo-visual forms as research devices capable of investigating the conditions of meaning, perception, and ideological construction.
Adopting a qualitative and interpretative framework grounded in visual analysis and research–creation, the article approaches Bentivoglio’s artworks as epistemic objects that actively participate in the production of knowledge. Close readings of Storia del monumento (1968), Gabbia (HO) (1966–70), and La scrittura del silenzio (1975) demonstrate how semantic displacement, spatial constraint, and absence operate as methodological tools that redistribute interpretative agency and foreground the viewer’s role as co-producer of meaning. These works expose the relational and contingent nature of interpretation while challenging regimes of visual authority and linguistic stability.
By positioning Bentivoglio’s practice in dialogue with contemporary debates on multimodality, participation, and ethical reflexivity, the article proposes verbo-visual creation as a transferable research framework. It ultimately argues that creative practice can function as a rigorous epistemic process, offering critical methodological insights for visual research concerned with embodiment, relationality, and the ethics of meaning-making.

Adopting a qualitative and interpretative framework grounded in visual analysis and research–creation, the article approaches Bentivoglio’s artworks as epistemic objects that actively participate in the production of knowledge. Close readings of Storia del monumento (1968), Gabbia (HO) (1966–70), and La scrittura del silenzio (1975) demonstrate how semantic displacement, spatial constraint, and absence operate as methodological tools that redistribute interpretative agency and foreground the viewer’s role as co-producer of meaning. These works expose the relational and contingent nature of interpretation while challenging regimes of visual authority and linguistic stability.

By positioning Bentivoglio’s practice in dialogue with contemporary debates on multimodality, participation, and ethical reflexivity, the article proposes verbo-visual creation as a transferable research framework. It ultimately argues that creative practice can function as a rigorous epistemic process, offering critical methodological insights for visual research concerned with embodiment, relationality, and the ethics of meaning-making.

O oculto como dispositivo metodológico

Ana Andreiolo — 2026-09-30

A partir da descoberta, em 2025, de uma figura feminina nua oculta sob o retrato Dora (1934), pintura da artista modernista Anita Malfatti, este artigo investiga a imagem revelada como campo de latência e sobrevivência, propondo-a como dispositivo metodológico visual. Em diálogo com a imagem revelada através de tecnologias da ciência da arte (infravermelho e raio-X) e com a fenomenologia de Maurice Merleau-Ponty, articulada aos estudos sensoriais de Sarah Pink, desenvolve-se o conceito de uma epistemologia do oculto, compreendida como forma de conhecimento encarnado que emerge da tensão entre visível e invisível. A revelação tecnológica é aqui disposta como produtora de dado imagético propulsora de uma reconfiguração dos regimes de visualidade. Ao integrar criação visual, análise crítica e reflexão sensorial no próprio processo investigativo, o artigo insere-se no campo interdisciplinar dos métodos visuais, explorando a imagem enquanto artefacto empírico, operador teórico e prática comunicativa. Propõe-se, assim, uma montagem visual como operação epistemológica, na qual análise e criação se entrelaçam, ampliando os modos tradicionais de produção e apresentação do conhecimento em estudos artísticos e culturais.

From Carnival to Urban Tactics: Visual Methods and Film Analysis in La ilusión viaja en tranvía

Isabel Lincoln Strange Reséndiz — 2026-09-30

The present article proposes a rereading of La ilusión viaja en tranvía (1953), by Luis Buñuel, from the articulation between Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of carnival (2003), Michel de Certeau’s notion of everyday practices (2000), and visual methods in qualitative research (Mannay, 2010, 2012, 2013). Its aim is to determine how the film updates the experience of urban space through a reading articulated between filmic image, urban memory, and contemporary visual record. The study begins with an initial cinematographic analysis, aimed at identifying the narrative organisation, the displacements of tram 133, and the ways in which the characters defy authority; subsequently, it re-actualises the filmic space through Pink’s walking with video technique (2007, 2023) and 360° recording, based on a situated walk through Plaza de la República and other spaces linked to the former tram mobility of Mexico City. The relationship between theory and methodology is central, since the act of walking, recording, and engaging with the cinematographic image builds a situated reading of Mexican urban memory. The film gains relevance in representing Mexican culture through everyday life, popular mobility, comedy, inequality, and the symbolic appropriation of space. The results show that the clandestine tram functions as an urban tactic and that the 360° recording reactivates historical, affective, and cultural nodes. The article contributes to studies on Mexican cinema, the city, and visual methods by proposing filmic space as a living cartography and a contemporary experience.

Antimonuments in Mexico: Visual Fractures as Tactics Against Official Memory

Alberto Ruiz-Méndez — 2026-09-30

The article analyzes antimonuments in Mexico City as tactics that visually fracture the State’s official memory. The research problem stems from the tension between monumental memory—an institutional strategy that consolidates a linear and homogeneous historical narrative—and antimonuments as interventions that challenge this narrative through the denunciation of forgotten or unresolved injustices. The objective is to demonstrate that, by being positioned in front of monuments and governmental buildings, antimonuments produce a visual fracture that interrupts the continuity of official memory. Guided by the Visual Methods paradigm, a systematic digital photographic record of the antimonuments was conducted, using an observation matrix inspired by the concept of stratified place developed by Michel de Certeau. Photographic editing was employed to highlight three analytical layers: monument (strategy), antimonument (tactic), and urban environment, emphasizing above all their conflictive superimposition. Through the analysis of these layers, the findings show that antimonuments not only commemorate unresolved injustices but also perceptually reconfigure space, generating interruptions in the visual linearity of State memory. The article concludes that antimonuments operate as visual fractures within a stratified place, thereby expanding the understanding of memory as a field of symbolic and spatial conflict.

From State Mandates to Indigenous Expression

Na Yang — 2026-09-30

This study aims to analyse the association and educational inheritance of Sanjiang’s cultural ecology through the lens of Sanjiang Dong farmer life paintings amidst modern social change in China. Employing a qualitative research method, the study focuses on Sanjiang County, Guyi Town, and Nanning City. The participants include the president and vice president of the Guangxi Art Association and Sanjiang County Art Association, the governor of Sanjiang County, the tutors and creators of Sanjiang Dong farmer life paintings, and the principals of primary and secondary schools in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County in Guangxi. The findings reveal a dynamic evolution of the art form across three distinct periods. In the pre-1978 era, state mandates and socialist ideologies channelled artistic production into politically driven narratives. With the advent of reform and opening up, local cultural and natural influences began to reassert themselves, resulting in an art form that increasingly celebrated indigenous aesthetics and rural life. In the contemporary 21st century, enhanced educational initiatives, interdisciplinary collaborations, and professional training have fostered an autonomous artistic vision that reflects historical continuity and contemporary dynamism. The study uses cultural ecology to interpret how visual form, compositional density, modelling practices, colour choices, and subject matter emerged through changing relations among state policy, local environment, ethnic craft traditions, artistic mentorship, and market conditions. The study therefore argues that Sanjiang Dong farmer life paintings are cultural-ecological artefacts shaped by negotiation among political power, indigenous expression, and changing modes of production. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to cultural ecology theory and its practical implications for policymakers, educators, and stakeholders seeking to safeguard and promote traditional art forms in an era of rapid social and technological change.

Between Reproduction and Creation

Eduard-Claudiu Gross — 2026-09-30

This study examines the intersection of artificial intelligence and art through an analysis of Midjourney’s capabilities in interpreting and recreating artworks considered canonical in the western canon of art history. Using a mixed-method approach combining computational art analysis with qualitative comparative assessment, we investigated how AI-generated imagery challenges traditional notions of artistic authenticity, authorship, and originality. Five iconic works from the public domain—Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” Wood’s “American Gothic,” and Munch’s “The Scream”—were analyzed using Midjourney’s describe function and subsequent image generation across technical, stylistic, and semantic dimensions. Findings reveal that prompt specificity critically shapes output fidelity: concise prompts tend to produce more faithful reproductions, while elaborate, detail-rich prompts invite broader creative reinterpretation. The AI consistently demonstrated strong technical proficiency in replicating compositional elements and color palettes, while showing notable tendencies toward stylistic amplification and occasional semantic misinterpretation of cultural context. These results contribute to ongoing debates about AI’s role in artistic production, suggesting that Midjourney functions less as a precise replicator and more as an interpretive collaborator, generating hybrid works that exist in tension between reproduction and creation, fidelity and innovation, human intention and algorithmic pattern recognition.

Mobile Homes and Caravans in the Algarve

Sílvia Leiria Viegas — 2026-09-30

The article addresses the current housing crisis in Portugal during a period of extreme financialisation of the urban space. It focuses on the Algarve region, specifically Loulé and Albufeira, and stresses its particular context in recent years (2022-2025), marked by high immigration rates and rapid social and cultural transformation. The article explores informal strategies to housing access among disadvantaged migrants. Due to the shortage of affordable accommodation, many of these migrants have occupied rural plots with mobile homes and caravans. These practices, in turn, have introduced new urban-rural dynamics with profound impacts. The central objectives of this investigation are: to identify recent trends in informal housing access by disadvantaged migrants, both in Loulé and Albufeira, following its greater visibility; to examine their experiences with these informal housing practices and their consequences; and to explore digital communication that supports the informal housing market while at the same time shaping specific public discourses about the issue. Drawing on an interthematic approach that combines urban studies, migration, and digital fields, the article provides both conceptual and empirical insights for analysing socio-spatial and socio-digital practices. It includes a paradigmatic case study, the Guia Campsite, illuminating the precariousness and deprivation of migrant housing in the Algarve region and their digital representation. Conclusions show that migrant housing informality in the Algarve emerges from the interaction between structural housing shortages, restrictive land regulation and digital mediation. Mobile homes and caravans function as adaptive housing strategies but also reproduce new forms of vulnerability, speculation and exclusion. Digital platforms simultaneously facilitate access to informal housing, shape public narratives and reinforce socio-spatial inequalities. The findings highlight the need to reconcile housing rights, territorial regulation and spatial justice in peripheral regions.

O que os objetos fazem fazer

Zara Pinto-Coelho — 2026-09-30

Este artigo analisa o papel dos objetos nas práticas comunicativas quotidianas do Mercado Municipal de Braga, procurando compreender de que modo participam na produção do mercado como lugar vivido. Partindo de uma conceção da comunicação como prática situada e de uma abordagem etnográfica inspirada na etnografia sensorial, o estudo acompanha a forma como pessoas, objetos e espaço se coordenam na organização da vida quotidiana do mercado. O trabalho de campo, realizado entre 2021 e 2022, mostra que produtos hortofrutícolas, imagens religiosas, utensílios domésticos e elementos arquitetónicos intervêm de formas distintas nas práticas observadas: organizam a experiência sensorial, prolongam as interações, tornam as bancas habitáveis e reconfiguram os usos do espaço coletivo. A análise evidencia que o lugar não resulta apenas da configuração material do mercado nem das intenções inscritas na sua organização, mas das práticas comunicativas através das quais vendedores, clientes e objetos produzem continuamente formas de convivência, cuidado, pertença e apropriação do espaço. O artigo contribui, assim, para compreender a produção do lugar como um processo comunicativo que articula pessoas, objetos e espaço.

Between legitimacy and vulnerability

João Pedr — 2026-09-30

Fact-checking has emerged as a central journalistic response to the contemporary crisis of information credibility, particularly in media systems marked by political polarization and platform-driven disinformation. Although academic research on fact-checking has expanded rapidly, there is limited comparative reflection on how its empirical dimensions have been studied across national contexts in Southern Europe. This article addresses that gap by examining empirical fact-checking research conducted in Portugal, Spain, and Italy between 2020 and 2025. The study is based on a systematic review of 108 peer-reviewed empirical articles indexed in Scopus. Focusing exclusively on reported empirical findings, a qualitative thematic analysis was applied to identify recurrent patterns, tensions, and interpretative frameworks shaping academic production in the three countries. The analysis reveals three dominant thematic clusters. First, the integration of artificial intelligence into fact-checking practices appears as a site of innovation accompanied by ethical concerns, opacity, and increased editorial dependence. Second, structural constraints such as resource scarcity, limited visibility, and infrastructural fragility significantly restrict the reach and societal impact of fact-checking initiatives. Third, disinformation is consistently framed as a politically saturated phenomenon, frequently instrumentalized by radical right-wing actors to delegitimize journalism and reshape public discourse. These findings depict fact-checking as a practice oscillating between symbolic legitimacy and operational vulnerability, shaped by technological transformations, structural inequalities, and political contestation. The article argues for a situated understanding of fact-checking that accounts for its communicative, political, and technological dimensions, highlighting the need for comparative and context-sensitive approaches in future research.

Spanish Sportswomen in Social Networks: Presence and Visibility in a Digital Environment

Francisco Javier Herrero Gutiérrez — 2026-09-30

Women’s elite sport has experienced a boom in recent years, mainly due to the presence of female athletes in national and international competitions and their achievements. However, their presence in the media is traditionally lower than that of their male counterparts. In this context, female athletes have profiles in social networks that represent their own communicative space. They do not depend on media coverage, thus contributing to the expansion and strengthening of women’s sport. This research addresses the study of the presence of women athletes in social networks, in which platforms they are present, which are the most used, and if their reach has to do with the sport discipline they practice. For this purpose, an exploratory study was conducted by selecting the 50 most influential Spanish sportswomen according to the Forbes Women list. Applying a quantitative methodology, ad hoc variables have been defined to address the question, which can be replicated in subsequent studies of similar characteristics. The results point to a majority use of Instagram, which is also the network they update the most, as well as a scarce use of their web platforms, without finding a pattern in sports discipline among the sportswomen with the highest number of followers. The study contributes a perspective focused on sportswomen’s own profiles, as opposed to the prevailing research on their media representation.

Developing the Conception and Quality of Learning through Literature and Cinema

Joana C. B. Gonçalves — 2026-09-30

Previous research suggests the possibility of promoting students’ conceptions of learning and the quality of their learning products through the arts. In this framework, the present article reports two quasi-experimental studies that intended to test an art-based psychoeducational intervention: Study 1 through Literature, with 42 secondary students (divided between a control and an experimental group); and an exploratory Study 2 through Cinema, with 20 university students (divided into an intervention and non-intervention group). The aim was to evaluate the interventions’ potential to promote the development of the conception of learning (CL) and of the quality of learning outcome (QLO). Both variables were assessed pre- and post-test: CL was measured through the “Conceptions of Learning Inventory – COLI”, and an open question; and QLO through a commentary on a chosen text (Study 1) or movie scene (Study 2), evaluated using the “SOLO Taxonomy”. The interventions consisted of orienting participants to analyse and discuss excerpts of works of Art (Study 1 with literary texts; and Study 2 with movie scenes) on the theme of active versus passive learning. Study 1’s quantitative data underwent statistical analysis using Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, as well as a case-by-case analysis. Study 2’s data was solely subjected to a case-by-case analysis. Thematic analysis was employed on qualitative data. Results suggest a potential of such interventions to both increase a qualitative CL and the QLO, and to reduce a quantitative CL. Interindividual variability in the interventions’ effects was also observed. Limitations and suggestions for future studies are proposed.