The Vice-rector’s Office for Culture of the Universitat de València has launched two new sound and audiovisual formats –Público Cautivo and La Nau en l’aire– developed by students from the UV in the framework of Activa Cultura, an aid programme of the Universitat de València (UV) meant to foment artistic and cultural projects of students. With these initiatives, the university reinforces its commitment to young talent and for new formats of cultural dissemination.
Público Cautivo is a cultural video podcast created by Natalia Polo Chocano and Valentina Nava Serna, students of the Doctoral Programme in History of Art of the Universitat de València. The project, specifically intended for this edition, proposes a reflection on university experience in dialogue with current issues and daily life aspects.
The series is composed of ten episodes –published biweekly on Spotify and YouTube–, and it is articulated as a space for conversation between two young researchers that defend a different way of communicating the academic thinking, by being personal, critical, and aware with the personal dimension. The audiovisual format is not secondary, it is central. It allows them to add images and visual references that enrich the analysis and make it more accessible.
Recorded in Valencia’s Audiovisual Workshop, the video podcast strengthens the idea of the university as a space for creation and the experience of being a university student. On every episode, the authors connect personal experiences –as doctoral students of the UV–, with structural issues of the academic field, along with other aspects of daily life. One of the most distinctive features of this project is their willingness to break the stereotype of the distant academic figure.
The result of Público Cautivo is a “thinking laboratory” that connects intimacy with daily life, and defends contemporary art as a tool to understand and accompany the university experience.
Meanwhile, La Nau en l’aire is a cultural podcast in Valencian of doctoral students in History of Art of the UV, Mar Lloret and Mar Sanz, about the murals and sculptures that are distributed at the three campus of the Universitat de València. Through a friends’ conversation, recorded in the Espai Podcast of the Marketing and Communication Service, they try to link contemporary art with sociocultural topics that can be interesting for students of several disciplines.
The project wants to approach this heritage to students, make artists and the idea of every work known, and invite to reflect upon the public art that is around us. With the willingness to join the present, the critical thinking, and heritage, every programme revolves around one of these works, which allows them to open the weekly topic and analyse it from several perspectives.
Finally, the initiative ends with a virtual open day in which hosts from other cultural podcasts will participate as guests, with the aim to support creation in Valencian and to foment its use in cultural dissemination.