Eva Papamargariti: All these spectacular whispers

“All these spectacular whispers” will unfold as research and a performative audiovisual installation.

The project examines notions of myth-making and storytelling within the current realm of attention economy and doom scrolling. The first myths and stories were told within small groups and communities; they acted as rituals for connectedness, attention, belonging, sharing, and communication. Examining storytelling devices, language mechanisms, and visual tools that unfold constantly on the internet and especially on platforms like TikTok/reddit/Instagram/YouTube, the work aims to decipher and redefine how contemporary narratives are crafted and consumed in real time. The research will start from the study of traditional oral and written myths and stories that have originated and disseminated through centuries in Greece and in the Mediterranean region, creating legends and the local lore that still exists.

Furthermore, the work will unfold towards the new vernacular linguistic and narrative (oral, visual, written) methods and mechanisms that are leading to an endless generation of online content through a plethos of avatars, images, memes, short videos, AI prompts, and storytellers.

The project aims at the creation of a chimeric–“exquisite corpse”–audiovisual performative narrative. A swarm of physical and digital othered bodies and voices will explore through arcane mythologies the constant birth and collapse of identities, hierarchies, behaviors, power, personhood, the merging of feelings, fears, desires, and fragile kinships.

A new type of “techno-imagination” (Vilem Flusser) is being created in real time while storytelling becomes fragmented, ephemeral, and highly visual. How does this instantaneous access to vast audiences transcend geographical boundaries and cultural barriers? What kind of new stories, mythologies, slang, vocabulary, subcultures, and entities can emerge? What type of resistance and communities can be created in this liminal area between reality and myth? How can we reclaim a new kind of “deep attention” inside the digital realm?