Accept represents a system where the information of a text is transmitted as light signals, formatted in Braille method characters. The installation creates a screen which reproduces the text “I accept the terms in this licence agreement” in Braille alphabet. While Braille code is a tactile writing and reading system used by the blind, the selected medium is light. The project references the end-user license agreement – EULA and comments on the violation of users’ data by corporations. EULA agreements are known for their complexity and large volume, making their reading and understanding impossible for the average user. The user, exposed to information that cannot understand is forced to the option NEXT in order to bypass the information volume ending up to the option ACCEPT to use the software. In EULA agreements, there are extreme terms for use, property and reproduction of a user’s personal data as well as for the unilateral interest protection of the corporation.
Portfolio Categories: artworks
Velvetology
Velvetology – ( βελουδολογία) was created for the tenth year celebration of Velvet magazine. Through an algorithm all velvet issues were searched to find the most used words during the decade. This words, were printed and sticked on the streets of Athens forming a route from Velvet Room (where the magazine used to be publicised) to Romantzo (where the Ten Velvet Years Festival and the exhibition took place). The route has formed a new narrative through the words used, a non linear poem taking form on the passenger’s eyes. While reminding us the decade’s fields of interests, on the same time words can take a new meaning in the context they are hosted.
FCW Morse Machine
Free-cultural-work Morse-code Machine represents a system where text information is transmitted as a series of on-off flashing light. While Morse code is used for emergency signals, the only distressed signal this device is able to transmit is the definition of “freedom” on the ecology of a free cultural work.
The viewer can activate the device by using the on/off button which allows the following text to be coded and transmitted in light signals.
the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it
the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired from it
the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part, of the information or expression
the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works
source: From Definition of Free Cultural Works, Version 1.1, http://freedomdefined.org/Definition
Oiko-nomic Threads
Weaving has always been associated with hard domestic work and holds a considerable place in the course of Greek tradition. In the preindustrial era, the loom played a key role in domestic economics and later, only a few decades ago, the knitting machine was associated with domestic revolution. In both cases, the weaving is a symbol which underlines domestic production as a core element of development.
The installation Oiko-nomic Threads represents a system commenting on the notion of work through the production of a textile. By rethinking and redefining the functionality of an obsolete knitting machine and rendering it part of a new system, the creation of a real time textile is made possible. Its decoration emerges from the data visualization of Manpower Employment Offices databases, using selected patterns inspired by Greek folk art.
The installation Oiko-nomic Threads refers to the production methodology and creates conditions to keep the weaving process accessible and contemporary. Woven as its product becomes an active base of archival resources.
Oiko-nomic Threads is a collective project by Marinos Koutsomichalis, Afroditi Psarra and Maria Varela realized with the support of the National Documentation Center (EKT) in the framework of ‘Creativity: Iinnovative Models of Production and Access’ (CIMPA) project and exhibited at the National Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST.
Blog Posts on Oiko-nomic Threads
Photo documentation Aggeliki Hatzi, Grimius Inevitabilis.
And so much intensity in Greek phraseology
The project “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology ” is an artistic research on Kavafis’ phraseology. The particular linguistic behaviour of Kavafis, the mix of dialects and words shapes his unique poetic world.
For the research of the project his poetic worlds of 150 recognised works were translated to a database and through an algorithmic mechanism the repeated words were identified.
In this way while the poet’s phraseology is recorded as an independent tool, simultaneously the repeated words could be characterized as the kernel of Kavafis’ mythology.
The words that a poet chooses to work with is the body of his creative production. Words are carefully chosen to handle the language in a sensory function. However repeated words throughout the work are those that express parts of his psyche, visions, ideals or ribs while are elements which reflect the social conditions beneath which he lived and created.
The project “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology ” lists these words. The design parameters of the composition of the moving image are determined by computing frequencies in all of Kavafis’ documents. Abstraction, the non-structured narrative and the semantic game which is created lead to a redefinition of the linguistic material.
What is a poetic word, what is poetic language, what is the relation between poetic language as the common language?
The poet creates a system and a relationship of a whole and its parts. The system as poem and words as parts create a dynamic relationship in which reflect one another.
The project “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology” examines the case when the words isolated from the original set, are able or not to maintain the “colour” that the poet originally gave them?
Do the reactivation of the verbal elements and the new relationship created manage to find balance that lead to a sense of a whole?
The title “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology.” is a verse from Konstantinos Kavafis’ poem “‘This One” (1909).
The project was completed with the support of Onassis Cultural Center for the exhibition “Visual Dialogues 2013”
video 5.48 min
research/ editing: Maria Varela
music: Marinos Koutsomichalis
video footage: free stock footage archive
Licenced under CC BY-NC-SA
Θοδωρή Χιώτης, ανάλυση του έργου “και τόση έντασις σ’ελληνική φρασεολογία”, απόσπασμα από την ομιλία «Ξένος μες στην Αντιόχεια»: το καβαφικό έργο στο ψηφιακό συγκείμενο η οποία δόθηκε στα πλαίσια της ημερίδας Καβάφης και εικόνα στο Πάντειο πανεπιστήμιο, 20.03.2015
Quick Response Corpse
Quick Response Corpse was a day-long event presented at Athens Plaython. Aiming at constructing an interactive art installation, the event was completed through three different stages; that is the workshop, the game and finally the exhibition of the outcome, which was open to the public.
Quick Response Corpse refers to the “exquisite corpse”, an artistic methodology that emerged through a game developed by the Surrealists. Each collaborator adds in a common composition, words or pictures, continuing linearly the composition in what the previous individual has contributed, without however knowing its content. In this way a unique common associative narration is being created.
Following this artistic methodology, Quick Response Corpse’s participants were called to create one collective interactive patchwork, the narration of which was be developed through information found online.
Each one of the participants was called to stitch/embroider one two-dimensional QR code. Then, the first participant to complete his/her embroidery was called to connect his/hers individually created code with information personally from the Internet. Only a part of this information could be revealed to the participant that had completed next the stitched/ embroidered QR code. The participant had then to think his own information, in association with the element that was revealed to him and to repeat the same procedure with his follower.
Virgin.Olive.Stains
Virgin.Olive.Stains is an assemblage where the sound creates visual forms through an analogue mechanism. The sound oscillations create movement which makes the olive oil drop into water creating unique shapes reflecting onto the walls.
The piece was created for the LUST exhibition. The sound used originally comes from a broken washing mashine. The construction is playing out with visitors minds and questions the idea of lust.
14.7 #1 – Thessaloniki
Stopover is a pseudo-historical documentation, fictional figures, comments on cultural activities, on the challenges accepted and risks involved for a place-passage, like the city of Thessaloniki.
The visitors are invited to freely position 7 speakers on top of the 14 available columns, this way unveiling in space different audio streams. Sounds of the past (miscellaneous songs from the city’s song contest, 1962-2007) are recalled from Thessaloniki’s memory to become part of an ever-changing audience-incited composition. The work was realized in collaboration of M.Koutsomichalis, M. Varela and K. Vafeiadou. The project was conceived for the inauguration of the 100 years since Thessaloniki became part of Greece.
Unidirectional Mono-View
Unidirectional Mono-View is a machine that interferes with stereo and mono analog reproduction techniques, imposing the one-dimensional experience of storytelling. Deliberately limitating the fullness, the breadth and freedom of perception.
The audio part is resourced from a found tape of 40s resistance songs (Antistasiaka) recorded in stereo sound. The right canal from A side has been mixed to the left canal of B side and the other way round. This is exported to Mono sound and recorded back to a tape.
As the Unidirectional Mono-View machine plays the tape, the circle motion of the tape is transferred to a view master reel which lies beneath a light projector. View-master works in stereoscopic view. The way it is placed, is projected as mono and the way the images displayed on the wall are not sequential. The narrative becomes incomplete and illegible. Also, the speed displayed slides depending on the speed of the tape affects visibility
Downtime (post-domestic fiction)
Downtime (post-domestic fiction) refers to the representation of a system comprising of obsolete electric appliances.
Through hacking methodology, the redefinition of their original identity is investigated, thus giving them new uses. The objects have been removed from the original frame of reference becoming rich in functionality. The post-use of existing objects – tools, deliberately questions existing hierarchies. These capabilities extend beyond the system’s practical everyday life applications and become part of a new system. The new system created, a hybrid of analog and digital technologies, faces the depreciation of units not as a conclusion but rather as an opportunity to review their functional capabilities.
In this way, the conditions are being created to maintain the content of the objects active. Through the new use which is assigned to them, the objects become accessible to their reuse and manipulation, while they stand as a potential long-term archival resource.
While the electric appliances are the composers which produce live audio and video, the viewer’s subjective presence is crucial for the development of the project. Through his/her interaction with the objects, his/her personal intervention to the narrative produced, provides a constant influx of new material. Thus the experience evolves rather as a perceptual than a conceptual one.
The project served as a collaborative platform, through which the multilevel reading of the dynamic new system is ensured. Starting from DIY methodologies the project is completed into a DIWO (Do It With Others) ethics.
Read here Jussi Parikka’s review on Downtime (post-domestic fiction).
Participating artists are Ioanna Angelopoulou, Nefeli Georgakopoulou, Veroniki Korakidou, Marinos Koutsomichalis, Antonis Lyras, Afroditi Psarra, Maria Varela.
Workshop facillitator: Marinos Koutsomichalis (www.marinoskoutsomichalis.com)
Curating: Maria Varela – Frown Tails (www.frowntails.com)