Moving clouds

Observo as nuvens no céu. Sabemos, são passageiras, lugar de trânsito entre um estado e outro das substâncias, entre a condensação e a precipitação, entre o céu e a terra. Mas um detalhe que às vezes nos escapa é que as nuvens estão sempre projetadas na terra, às vezes em forma de água ou vapor, outras em forma de sobra. Em forma de sombra, a nuvem, como uma mancha de contornos móveis desloca-se enquanto faz e desfaz formas comportando-se como território móvel. Impermanente, a sombra que a nuvem faz no chão, marca e desmarca territórios. Arisco dizer que as zonas autônomas temporárias, no campo, funcionam como as sombras que as nuvens fazem no chão, escaneando as estancias permanentes e dando a elas o refresco da efemeridade em forma de um nomadismo de ações e ideias.

(Mendonça, 2015).

When I first met Cinthia, back in November 2012, as a participant in the project Interactivos, she was, together with her partner at that time, Bruno, in charge of Nuvem, an initiative set in the region of Visconde de Mauá to carry out research, experimentation and development of processes seeking autonomy. This autonomy was meant to be not only technical but also relative to other spheres, such as environment, culture, body or territory, to mention some. Its location on a rural setting was specifically intended as a proposal to re- appropriate the countryside in response to the exhaustion of cities and urban life. In practice, it worked as a house in which meetings and debates were held for the diffusion of open knowledge and autonomous culture, as well as a center for residencies for artists and project makers. It also acted as a telecenter and rural hacklab. A strong emphasis was given to reaching the local community through different activities, such as workshops with the population or the creation of content and tutorials involving different issues concerning life in the community. The main financial supporter of Nuvem was the Ford Foundation, a New York-headquartered organization that makes grants for projects regarding a variegated range of areas, like higher education, the arts, economic development, civil rights, the environment, among other. In this regard, the foundation served as a sort of “institutional umbrella”, in words of Graci Selaimen. She is program officer in the foundations’ Brazil office and during

Encontrada, in an informal conversation I had with her, she used this term to refer to the foundation’s role as a facilitator for a group of smaller organizations.

Through the combination of artistic residencies, creative laboratories and activist’s encounters, the space created with Nuvem promoted a sort of transdisciplinarity in which the focus was placed on the processes of creation rather than on the products. Indeed, to facilitate access to the different projects, a wiki was used to publish and edit any documentation generated during the activities. Another interesting initiative it hosted were the so-called “Mutirões de Mínimo Impacto Ambiental”, collaborative “work parties” carried out together with dwellers to address specific needs of the community, such as the recovery of water sources, the growing of agroforestry systems and the creation of gardens and compost heaps, to mention some. These mutirões17 _{were one of Nuvem’s key actions, insofar as they} involved other people from the community and the integration of different knowledges coming from an old generation of local farmers whose expertise is being lost due to the exodus of young people from rural to urban areas.

Interestingly, according to Cinthia, Nuvem aligned itself with other “rural communities” across Brazil and abroad conceived of as experimental spaces seeking autonomy and integration. In an article she published on this topic (Mendonça, 2015), where she describes other projects of the like, she acknowledges “a consciência de uma existência em rede, onde há conexão com demais áreas rurais ou periféricas de mesmo interesse”. And adds, “essa conexão se dá tanto em relação a troca de práticas e ideias quanto a de mercadorias e tecnologias. O “saber fazer” onde se pode aprender como funcionam as coisas, como podemos produzi-las ou construí-las e agenciá-las.”. In this regard, she considers this kind of spaces in which Nuvem is included, “contradispositivos”, that is, devices that go against standardized structures and forms of power, in that they favor an encounter between the person and the world not necessarily mediated by consumption patterns.

However, after Cinthia and Bruno’s separation, Nuvem also started to gradually break apart. But just as the clouds described in the excerpt of Cinthia’s text some lines above (which are always transient and are a place of transit from one state to another), the endpoint of Nuvem was indeed its transformation into a new “territory”. Probably this was what Cinthia meant when speaking about “mobile territories” and the sort of “nomadism of actions and ideas” that she wanted to invoke with the name “Nuvem”. So although the project as I had

17 _{Mutirão is the Brazilian name given to a collective mobilization towards a specific goal, based on mutual} support provided without an economic charge. Originally the term was used in the rural context for certain jobs from which many people benefited, such as the building of popular houses. Today it designates any collective initiative to perform a service without remuneration.

known it up in the mountains of Visconde de Mauá did not exist as such anymore, the knot of ideas, motivations and people that had formed part of it, had now turned into a new project. It was now called Silo and it was there where I re-encountered Cinthia (and some other people whom I had met at Nuvem) some years later.

After the dismantling of Nuvem, Cinthia had moved back to Serrinha do Alambari, a protected area from the region of Resende, in Rio de Janeiro, where her family had a house. From there she initiated some activities with some friends inspired by the same premises than Nuvem. At the time of requesting grants and funds to carry out the projects, she soon found out that establishing itself as a civil society association was a pragmatic way of accessing these resources, and so they decided to formed an association. Thus, Silo was born in 2016 by bringing together a group of friends that had been involved for years in different projects regarding artistic production, technological experimentation, autonomy and collaborative convergence. At the time when this work was written it comprised eight members, besides Cinthia herself. Lina, an artist and freelance media consultant who manages an atelier in Sao Paulo directed to the creative and playful experiences with technologies. Anais, artist and stylist, creator of INA NIN18_{, a project in the intersection of art and fashion that experiments} through performances, installations, and different objects bringing together Chinese and Brazilian traditions; Fernanda, product designer and carpentry teacher at the educational program from the Instituto Tomie Ohtake19 _{in Sao Paulo; Itala, cultural producer and} researcher from Bahia, co-funder of the Aceleradora Baiana Vale do Dendê20_{, a social holding} aimed at fostering innovation among young afro-brazilian entrepreneurs; Mariana, a biologist from Rio de Janeiro, specialized in environmental education and organic agriculture; Sara, an electrical engineer from Minas Gerais involved in different initiatives regarding sound, movement and electronic arts; Vanessa, a member of Fondo ELAS21 _{-an independent Social} Investment Fund dedicated to foster and strengthen the prominence and leadership of women in Brazil; And Thiago, a computational engineer who works with digital culture, education and journalism and has participated in different projects related to art, technology and activism.

All of these people were old friends of Cinthia, with whom she had already worked with separately time and again in various initiatives. Despite their different backgrounds and experiences, they shared a common interest in trans-disciplinary exchanges between art and

18 _{http://www.inanin.com.br/.}

19 _{http://www.institutotomieohtake.org.br/.} 20 _{http://www.valedodende.org/.}

technology. In this regard, Silo was conceived of as a space to conduct initiatives experimenting with the intersection of different knowledges and stimulating both collaboration and autonomy, in relation not only to technologies but also to environmental sustainability, cultural production or the body (with a special emphasis on gender issues). In the same spirit as Nuvem, it also built upon the desire to promote a passage between rural and urban landscapes by subverting the rule that centralizes in urban settings the production of art, science and technology. Their activities, as with Nuvem, included artistic residencies, citizen laboratories, do-it-yourself workshops, mutiroes and also activities specifically geared toward women. Through this type of experiences, conceived of as short-term projects or interventions, the aim was to create a space for critical action and reflection, and to open a channel to foster a continuous transit of people and ideas between urban and rural areas.

At the time when I contacted Cinthia again, it was about to take place “Encontrada”, an annual event originally devised by Cinthia in 2012 which had been taking place since then (first under the umbrella of Nuvem, and now within Silo) aimed at women and transgender people in the sphere of feminist activism. That was the occasion I chose to meet Cinthia again and get to know more about her new project in Silo.

Figure 28: Nuvem.

Figure 29: Working at Nuvem.

Photographer: Luciana Fleischman.