Visual spaces of change: the use of Image for rendering visible dynamics of urban change in contemporary cities Pedro Leão Neto 1 1 Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of the first case study implemented within the research project Visual Spaces of Change. It particularly focuses on the use of Image for rendering visible dynamics of urban change in contemporary cities, exploring the potential of photography for suggesting different readings of past, present and future architectures and places. By discussing the main methodological aspects of implementation of this practical experiment, an innovative process of investigation is proposed for engaging researchers and authors in the fields of Architecture, Art and Image on the creation of visual narratives in public spaces. The use of different representation methods and approaches to photography as a research instrument, and different techniques for communicating different issues related with architecture and public space are discussed. Potentialities and shortcomings of different representation methods and imagery for communicating the identity and transformation of architectures and public spaces are analysed, pinpointing the challenges for a more comprehensive use of visual research and visual data for (i) linking the appearance of the built environment with its identity, meaning and history, (ii) positing interpretative, speculative, symbolic and artistic visual discourses about the city and its architecture, as important elements for reflecting about societal values and understanding different layers of meaning embedded in the built space. The paper concludes by drawing a number of preliminary findings of the ongoing research that is being developed within the project Visual Spaces of Change. 1. Theoretical aspects of photography related to architecture, city and territory The use of photography as a research instrument is grounded in the idea that valid scientific insight into culture and society can be acquired by observing, analyzing and theorizing its visual manifestations (Luc Pauwels 2015, i). From this perspective, the use of visual research methods in the fields of architecture, city and territory can contribute to the creation of a knowledge-enabling environment that allows for a more specific study of architectural forms and urban realities, as well as its transformations and appropriations, thus rendering visible aspects of spaces where people socialize and interact, which are difficult to perceive without the use of image and photography – an idea sustained by the argument presented by Tim Davis on the article Photography and Landscape Studies that photography can: (…) shed new light, supply new metaphors, and suggest new directions for the notion of places and for ways in which they may be perceived and used (1989, 8). In this sense, the universe of photography has been theoretically revised as a practice that translates into an approximation of culture, society, and politics, that uses different strategies to build a critical discourse of what surrounds us, helping to understand architecture and landscape also as cultural constructions and physical expressions which are encoded with meanings that can be read and interpreted. An extensive overview of the state of the art on the distinct possibilities and photographic discourses about the fields of Architecture, City and Territory has already been made and published in book format. It can be found in Um outro olhar sobre Obras de Álvaro Siza Vieira: Fotografia Documental e Artística: Um Olhar Contemporâneo sobre a Arquitectura Portuguesa (Pedro Leão Neto 2018, 179-239) a publication released prior to the beginning of the VSC research project that contains its theoretical foundation, due to the extent of the scope of investigation, which includes an extensive and informed review of a significant number of authors and works that showcase contemporary and critical photographic vision of architecture based on a postmodern documentary approach towards public space transformations and how people live and appropriate these places. From the standpoint of art, David Campany (2014) makes a case in point for the idea that photographic essays produced in artistic contexts can be useful in providing us new readings about critical issues – and particularly in the fields of Architecture, City and Territory – in the article Architecture as Photography: document, publicity, commentary when he defends that critical and independent photographic discourse about architecture are vital, an observation that’s also in line with the arguments presented by Pedro Gadanho in the article Image-Making After Photoshop: Architecture, Public Space and their Visual Discontents, where he defends the value of the independent photographic discourse: