2025 Urban Creativity Conference and Activities

Urban Creativity
Conference and activities

Lisbon 3-5 July 2025
edition 12

Videos available

Here's the link for (permission given) recorded sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/@urbancreativity_wt

Short report

The 2025 edition of the Urban Creativity activities—the 12th so far—reinforced the idea that this event consistently exceeds organizational expectations. This year introduced several new initiatives, most notably the adoption of a fully hybrid model, combining online and in-person presentations. This approach not only fostered broader participation but also offered a positive environmental impact by reducing the need for air travel while keeping the field’s leading thinkers connected. Naturally, in-person participation brought a richer experience.

Everyone present this year also benefited from the debut of a fully structured exhibition: Digital Capture: 3D Imaging in Art, Design & Architecture. The exhibition space, adjacent to a smaller auditorium, created a new format for the event—one that we expect to explore further in future editions.

It is also important to highlight what may have been our largest non-academic audience to date, particularly during the Graffiti Books and Boris Sofia Metro presentations.

On average, attendance held steady at around 40 participants (20 online and 20 in person), with a significant peak of nearly 100 attendees during the aforementioned Graffiti Books and Boris Sofia Metro session.

The panels themselves were diverse in character (a glance at the program will confirm this), yet a shared spirit prevailed throughout. Since its inception 12 years ago, Urban Creativity has aimed to create a shared platform where researchers and practitioners from a variety of fields can build bridges and develop mutual understanding.

This diversity continues to be a fertile ground for varied interpretive angles. Across the three-day event, issues of public and private space, gender, aesthetics, and technical concerns were all part of the conversation.

In keeping with the event’s spirit of openness, this short report intentionally refrains from focusing on any single panel or presentation. Rather than imposing a narrow viewpoint, we aim to reflect the dialogical nature of the event, where many discussions are ongoing and will continue through our publications.

The journals UXUC, VAS, GSA, CAP, BBDS, and EGI were all present at the event and are currently under review. Submissions for publishing will be accepted until October 5, 2025. Here for all submissions.

All panels were recorded, and we expect to share the public links very soon.

 

Program

Locally at Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa (FBAUL)
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July 3 (Thursday)
FBAUL - Lagoa Henriques Auditorium (1st floor)

9h30 - reception opens
9h40 - Welcome session
- Pedro Soares Neves (Urban Creativity, CIEBA/ FBAUL, ITI/ IST)

Panels (UXUC),
Urban Territories as Malleable Matter for Negotiating Urban Futures - Anchors, Assemblages, Antagonisms, moderation by Vera Penz + Phillip Schnell (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

10h00 - Panel 1 
Claiming Emotional Territories in Post-Industrial Sarkandaugava
- Laura Prikule, University of Latvia (local)
Ali Mendjeli, Delegated Wilaya: Governance Challenges and Environmental Perspectives
- Maya Benoumeldjadj, Chouite Norhene, Algeria (online)
¡Basta ya! Territorialization of public space with wall writings against sexual assault
- Jonna Tolonen, Postdoctoral researcher (D.A.), University of Lapland, Finland (local)
QA

11h20 - 11h30 break

11h30 - Panel 2
Soft Territories: Potted Plants as Aesthetic Interventions in Urban Space
- Yun Zhang PhD Candidate, Drawing Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon (online)
Walls that speak: urban graffiti and alternative narratives in Rome
- Diletta Haberl, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, Italy (online)
Pedagogic, Social and Ethical Storytelling Modes of Intervention and Participation (...)
- Pedro Andrade, CECS, University of Minho, Portugal (local)
QA

13h30 - 15h00 Lunch break

15h00 
AI and street art – a copyright perspective
- Siri Helen, University of Agder, Norway and Enrico Bonadio, The City Law School, City, University of London (online)
Humanising the territory: proposals for the management of urban art and muralism (...)
- Mª Carmen Sánchez Miranda and Carmen Gálvez Sánchez, Laura Luque Rodrigo, University of Jaén, Spain (online)
Hot Clouds, Cold Landscapes: Ecologies of Storage
- Valerie Messini, Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien, Austria (local)
QA

16h30 - 16h40 - break

16h40
Decolonizing Spatial Epistemologies: Rethinking Space, Time, and Design Through Indigenous Knowledges.
- Melisa Miranda Correa, Investigadora Postdoctoral, WP2 Evaluación de riesgos y peligros múltiples en contextos culturales y territoriales complejos, Pontifica Universidad Católica, Chile (local)
QA

17h10
Graffiti vs Street Art: Achieving consensus among the street art community regarding terms
- Quin Martins, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Canada (online)
Graffiti in the Digital Age: Rethinking Territory through Technology
- Adelaide Quenson, University of Geneva, Switzerland (online)
An Inventory and Analysis of Slogans, Images and Media Advocating for Non-human Animals in Public Spaces
- Isabel Carrasco, Marist University, Madrid, Spain (local)
QA

Post conference activity:
From 18:30h at Passevite
Org by YYCS - Yes You Can Spray
- STREET SALON • Talks about "performances in public space" connecting street artists with street musicians.
- POP-UP EXPO w/ invited artists
- SCREENING intro to and docu "The Art of Disobedience" (by GECO)
normally Mr. Bubble will also play some music on Thursday @ Passevite



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July 4 (Friday)
FBAUL - Lagoa Henriques Auditorium (1st floor)

10h00 - 
Illegal Urban Art and Naples: between mappings and contemporary iconoclasm
- Lorenza Carannante, Università degli studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Italy (local)
Cultural Mapping in Street Art: A Systematic Literature Review
- Rita Gomes, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal (local)
Going Local: Deciphering Street Art through Urban Territory and Urban Territory through Street Art
- Diana Raisa Laura Lolici, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romenia (local)
QA

11h20 - 11h30 - break

11h30 -
About Engagingscapes: What Else a Chimney Can Be, if not a Chimney…?
- Szilvia Kovács, University of Dunaújváros, Hungary (online)
Knowing street art and graffiti without methods: improvisational everyday practice
- Laima Nomeikaite, University of Agder, Norway (local)
QA

- Victor Ferreira, professor Faculty of Architecture, U Lisboa (local)*

12h30 - 14h00 Lunch break

14h00 - 16h00 Panel "Digital Capture"
moderation by Pedro Soares Neves
14h00 - Introduction: Digital Capture between the Analytic and the Synthetic
- Prof. Nic Clear 
14h20 - Re-enacting Space: Behind and in front of the Lidar Camera
- Dr. Eva Sommeregger 
14h40 - 3D Laser Scanning representation in Architecture: the Place of The Record 
- Dr. Bernadette Devilat, Dr. Felipe Lanuza (online)
15h00 - RGB+D*(t) or the Spatial Manifold Image on Designing Virtual Spaces through Collective Live Volumetric Video Streaming
- Cenk Güzelis, Anna Pompermaier (online)
15h20 - Photogrammetry: Dwelling amongst the Artefacts 
- Cameron Stebbing (online)
15h40 - The WavEs
- Prof. Nic Clear  
15h50 - QA

16h00 - 16h10 break
Auditorium change to
FBAUL "Grande Auditorio" (ground floor)

16h10 - 17h30 Graffiti books (panel)
Pedro Esteves moderator
- Christophe Pereira - co editor
- Lxvandalsquad - photographer
- Tiaguito Fonseca - collector and photographer
- Benedita Roby - PhD researcher
QA

17h30 - 19h30
The Grifters Presents: Sofia Metro Inside Out. Book signing, Film screening & Talk
17h30 Boris intro (Sofia Metro Inside Out Project)
17h50 MOVIE (40min)
18h30 Boris talk (20-30 min)
19h00 - 19:30 Book Signing
 

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July 5 (Saturday)
FBAUL - Lagoa Henriques Auditorium (1st floor)

10h00 - 12h00
Graffiti as an urban territorial and identity tool for branding
- Asier Morán Fuertes, Universidad de Sevilla (online)
Latine Urban Ecologies, Asserting Place, Transforming Space-Time
- Adaiah Hudgins-Lopez, University of Cambridge (online)
Convergence of Urban and Digital Territories: Animation as a Preserving Solution and Transforming Tool (...)
- Mattia Ronconi, ID+ , Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, Portugal (local)
Writing on the Great Walls: Ambiguity, Enterprise, and Rebellion in Chinese Graffiti
- Andrea Lorenzo Baldini (local), Shangge LI (online)
QA

12h30 - 14h00 Lunch break

14h00 - Panel (EGI - Epigraphy, Graffiti, Iconography) - all sessions online

Graffiti, heritage and context: the act and significance of writing
moderation by Philippa M. Steele, Principal Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK

group 1
14h00, The Rhythm of the Line: Cursive, Graffiti and the Poetics of Interowriting
- Alice Mazzilli - Artist/calligrapher, independent researcher, Italy

14h20, !Kóu-ta !'an ǀne !khai ǀhing ǁaa ǁneiǁnei ("Rock's shadow extends over the houses"): Primordial Frameworks in the Semiology of Graffiti at a Site of Ancient and Contemporary Mark-Making
- Pule kaJanolintji - doctoral student, Department of African Studies and Linguistics, University of Cape Town, South Africa

14h40, Mount Hymettos, Athens: a holy place for writing
- Philippa M. Steele - Principal Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK
15h00 - QA

group 2
15h20, The Walls Have Eyes: Public Writing in Three Heterogeneous Contexts
- Tim Brookes - CEO of Endangered Alphabets, independent researcher, USA

15h40, “Throw up” bubbles, gongs and signet rings: bold statements, contrasting meanings
- Christopher Miller - Translator and independent researcher, Canada

16h00, Yerevan graffiti: a reflection on sociopolitical shifts
- Hrant Papazian - Educator, California State University at Los Angeles, USA
16h20 - QA

16h40 - 16h50 break

16h50 - 18h00 Panel (EGI + GSA - Graffiti and Street Art)
Carved in Stone, Captured on Canvas, On the Medial Transformation of Epigraphic Elements in 15th Century Painting
- Anna Elisabeth Krebs (EGI), Ruhr-universität Bochum, Germany

A Mural-Graffiti in Medellín: Fighting for the territory as ethical space
- Juan Carlos Guerrero-Hernández, University of Nevada Reno, USA

Lessons in Equity, Addressing history textbook silences on the Canadian women’s labour movement through public art
- Anna Rodirgues, Ontario Tech University, Canada

Territories of Gentrification: A Case Study of Philadelphia Graffiti in Areas of Urban Development
- Julia J. Scheffler, Benjamin Guidry, independent researchers, USA
QA

18h00 - Closing remarks
- Pedro Soares Neves (Urban Creativity, CIEBA/ FBAUL, ITI/ IST)

Post conference activity (we recomend):
18:00-21:00, at Crackids
The Grifters Presents: Sofia Metro Inside Out
Book Signing - Exclusive Merch Drop - Meet & Greet - Party





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Activities

From 3 to 5 of July
Digital Capture: 3D Imagining in Art, Design & Architecture
Exhibit at Lisbon Fine Arts Faculty on the entrance of Lagoa Henriques Auditorium (1st floor) 
Works from the last AIS journal, Architecture devoted published issue, co edited by Nic Clear and Hyun Park.
Note: the exhibit includes Royal Institute of British Architects 2025 award wining works.


July 4, 17h30 - 19h30, at FBAUL (Grande Auditório)
The Grifters Presents: Sofia Metro Inside Out
FILM SCREENING , Book signing & Talk

5 July, 18:00-21:00, at Crackids
The Grifters Presents: Sofia Metro Inside Out
Book Signing - Exclusive Merch Drop - Meet & Greet - Party


Social program by YYCS - Yes You Can Spray :

3 of July, 18:30h at Passevite
- Street Salon • Talks about "performances in public space" connecting street artists with street musicians.
- Pop-up Expo w/ invited artists
- FILM SCREENING intro to and docu "The Art of Disobedience" (by GECO)
normally Mr. Bubble will also play some music on Thursday @ Passevite

4 to 6 of July from 10:30h until end of the day
- live-painting on Caracol da Graça and "pimp-up my beachbag" with music