Joana Rafael (b.1979) is an architect, researcher, lecturer and ghostwriter, currently based in Porto, Portugal, working between architecture, (issues of) ecology and visual culture. She holds a PhD (2017) in Visual Cultures and an MRes (2009) in Research Architecture from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MA (2008) from the Metropolis Graduate Programme in Architecture and Urban Culture, run by the Centre for Contemporary Culture, Barcelona and a degree (2002) in Architecture from the University of Minho, Guimarães. Joana teaches Contextual Studies and Contemporary Culture -related courses, and is a member of ID+ (Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture) and CEGOT (Center for Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning). Joana is also a certified sustainable agriculture and biological farming practitioner.
On the Techno-Sublime
self published book from Metropolis MA Dissertation.
On the Techno-Sublime explores the enduring art-historical and philosophical notion of the sublime in the light of the new technologies, in order to manifest the intangible rupture between conscience and material world. Under three problematic around the same thematic, this essay is structured in three rounds, flights or challenges, trying to relate concepts, its roots on history, effect on context and change in stage. Following the Aristotelean perspective of pathos, ethos and logos, the present research is trying to explore the notion of the sublime, in our contemporary society, through those concepts. The present thesis make a specific and thorough analysis on the limit that separates the material world and the technologies that are capable to construct new virtual realities, which interact and condition the human conscience. That limit, a flexible and porous limit, is been mapped through different and interrelated readings of various aspects of our contemporary society.
