I am Lucia Dossin. Fiveblackcats is the fantasy name under which I have been working since 2004. I currently live in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
I graduated in architecture (FAUUSP, São Paulo) and in 2015 I completed my Master in Media Design & Communication (Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam). I started my journey in ‘making websites’ in 2000, while working for web studios in São Paulo, Brazil. In the beginning, my work consisted mostly of making Flash animations for projects related to photography, visual arts, fashion and film. As time went by, my toolset shifted towards HTML, CSS, JS, PHP and Python, but my interest in the combination of technology, art and culture remained the same (well, perhaps it is stronger nowadays ;) ).
The works you see here are, for the most part, a selection of websites I designed or built for clients. After 2011, more often than not, I was in charge of both front and back-end (powered by WordPress). Besides design and development for the web, I also do print and more experimental stuff in Hybrid Publishing. Recently, my portfolio grew wider with the addition of some experiments and self-initiated projects that I have been doing in the last few years and that reflect my personal interests and research skills.
The tasks you can hire me for are as varied as simply maintaining or fixing your WordPress website to conceptualizing, designing and implementing an interactive interface or printed matter. Please feel free to drop me a line if you think I can contribute to your project.
Prototype of an experimental project on Open Design and Social Practices at WdKA, where the idea was to build an open source device to read out loud the contents of a text book.
Excelfie is an experiment where a spreadsheet is used in a new context. It is a simple idea, both conceptually (populate a spreadsheet with numbers that do not actually mean anything but actually perform a graphical representation) and technically:
VoilĂ , you have an excelfie!
My original wish was to use only numbers (and the empty cell) but most numbers do not represent the variations in the gray scale so well as other characters, so I am using a mix of numbers and signs such as #, % and +.
You are welcome to download the file. Despite the file extension, it can also be opened using Open Office and Libre Office. ;)
The experiment has one derivation so far, which is a performance/installation where selfies are typed out using a typewriter. Excelfie - Derivation #1 has been featured at the Post-Digital Publishing Archive, performed at Zine Camp 2017 - WORM/UBIK Rotterdam November 11 & 12 and presented during Berlin Poetry Festival 2018, in the exhibition Types of Typewriting at Oqbo Gallery, curated by Annette Gilbert and Michael Glasmeier, between May 24 and June 23, 2018.
Bibliotecha is a framework to facilitate the local distribution of digital publications within a small community. It relies on a microcomputer running open-source software to serve books over a local wifi hotspot. Using the browser to connect to the library one can retrieve or donate texts. Bibliotecha proposes an alternative model of distribution of digital texts that allows specific communities to form and share their own collections.
My participation in the project consisted on workshops, research and development along with André Castro, Roel Abbing, Yoana Buzova, Michaela Lakova - among many others.