In this experience of Covid 19 quarantine, time takes on a completely different meaning – the experience of time becomes even more intense: we are not only desperate to fill our time but we are learning to live together in a time that has changed, has slowed down, has lengthened. I have chosen to experience the new temporality by weaving. Weaving is the process by which time becomes tangible, transformed and transcribed into material. This new temporality we are experiencing is directly dependent on the changing flow of information that is communicated daily to us. Time is now transcribed from units of time to units of humans: the number of confirmed cases, deaths and people recovered become part of a macro-history that we are able to see only a small part of. The information flow records medical data and the changes of the curve of the pandemia both locally and globally. These statistics define and redefine the new temporality, or rather the new way in which we perceive time and its passage. I am weaving this timeline everyday, the pattern that is weaved is not simply created by the constant change of the number of patients worldwide but from the emerging narrative of a new perception of the personal and the collective, the local and the global, the creation and momentum of historical events.
The pattern weaved has emerged from different layers of temporality: coding Covid 19 confirmed cases from day 1 to day 83,
weaving for 30 days, from March 14th to April 14th, experiencing my 3rd day of social distancing to day 33.
Data were retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
Illustrations of the poems of “Songs of Mihyar the Damascene” by the Syrian poet Adonis.
Every verse of Adonis’ poems is inserted into the search engine of different Open Educational Resources. The results are online findings depended on the subjective categorisation that a human gave them through tagging. These results are used to create a new composition in the form of a digital collage. The poem itself takes on a new form, having been expressed through a collective knowledge, and Mihyar is constantly changing identity.
An alphabet primer embroidery in greek tradition was the first needlework a girl did in order to learn stitching and reading simultaneously. Women at the time didn’t have access to education so an embroidered alphabet primer was part of the home education they received from their mothers.
In this workshop participants (aged 60+) were introduced to basic electronics, conductive threads and conductive fabrics. While they were stitching they shared stories on culture, tradition, their perspectives on contemporary creative methodologies and technology. The stories were recorded and embedded into the handicraft.
The aim of this workshop was to create an atmosphere like the old days, when needlework was the social interaction between women. They gathered together to create and discuss. On the same time the attempt was to bridge the old with the new.
Through the use of conductive threads and fabrics, the embroidery itself becomes a sensor. By providing a platform of information coming from the participants, the viewer himself creates the narrative form. Each time an embroidered letter is triggered, a non-linear narrative based on the viewer’s own physical experience emerges. The result is unique and can never be reproduced in the same order.
In this way, by merging the natural organic elements (interviews, recordings, etc.) with the technical-digital media (conductive thread and fabric, sensors and microprocessors), the needlework manages to be transformed into a timeless cultural archive and at the same time an archive of workshop participants’ experience.
Project in collaboration with Afroditi Psarra.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.