Origins
The Outsider’s Guide to Melbourne
Screenshot from the Outsider’s Guide’s website: 2013
“It was the development of a website called The Outsider’s Guide to Melbourne (O.G.), what led me to undertake my research on journalism and art in the twenty-first century. If I had to choose a scene to open this story, it would be the first time I entered the Gatwick Private Hotel. The reason that led me to this place was because I had to write a 500-word story, as an assignment for a news-writing course I was taking at the time. With two days to go, I had not idea what to write and then a friend, who had recently lived in St Kilda, suggested me to go to the Gatwick, as there was usually something happening over there…”
2. Journalism and art in digital societies
Cover of book: Journalism and art in digital societies (see: publications)
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“Art by definition is a subjective exercise. Even collaborative art comes from the reunion of different subjectivities. Modern journalism, on the other hand, was developed under the idea of objectivity. Besides being quick and economic (in space and time), the new journalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was allegedly objective. In theory, in the short-punched, concise news story there was no room for personal interpretations: just facts.
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“Modern journalism evolved as a race for immediacy. The main technological advances that contributed to this process were: the domestication of the horse (c3.500 B.C.), writing (c3.100 B.C.), the printing press (invented in China in 1041 and introduced and adapted to the western phonetical alpabet in 1450), the steam engine (1698), the telegraph (1844), radio (1895), television (1941) and the Internet (1969).
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“Recent advances in communications, such as the development of social media and mobile recording devices, are altering the way humans exchange information. In this scheme, the figure of the journalist as a technocrat in charge of the transportation of news is becoming obsolete. So is there a space for journalists in the twenty-first century?”
3. Artisan Colombia
The images and stories compiled in this publication were produced between 2009 and 2015. They are a tribute to the vast community of artisans who live in Colombia. Most of the work was originally commissioned by the Italian fashion house Marni and the Colombian company Manos Latinas. In a combined effort, these organisations have developed a social venture that offers work and promotes the exchange of knowledge between artisans from different regions of Colombia…
Screenshot: Marni Ballhaus - Milan Design Week 2016 (see: publications)
4. MR2 Books
Screenshot: MR2 Books website (see: CV)
This website compiles works in creative fiction and non-fiction writing, journalism, photography, digital-collage and illustration, video and animation by Mauricio Rivera R. Including graphic novels, visual arts collection, journalistic compendiums, bilingual editions and samples of caricature and graphic/audio visual humour. These works are samples of the skills covered by the Urban Art Games’ program.