Digital Wednesdays

Digital Wednesdays is an initiative of the Onassis Stegi of the Onassis Foundation, aiming to present to the public theoretical and artistic tendencies dealing with digital and Internet art, the relation between art and technology and the many ways they mutually interact. Digital Wednesdays present artists, works, and projects, which explore the ways and conditions through which fine arts and technology come into contact, and are redefined through this interaction.

From 2015 to 2016 three Digital Wednesdays took place at the Onassis Stegi, exploring the critical presentation of technologies affecting our lives, and the role of art in this context. We had the opportunity to see James Bridle’s talk on ‘Subversive Media’. Theo Spyropoulos explored the issue of redefining architecture as one of post-digital society’s ‘Radical Frameworks’, while Irene-Mirena Papadimitriou examined whether the ‘Maker’s Revolution’ is a movement or a new kind of industry.

In this new cycle, Elias Marmaras and Nathan Jones, artists and theorists, will explore in their presentations ‘Transitional Networks’ and ‘Glitch: The Contemporary Aesthetics’ the way in which digital technologies and the networks that have emerged through them, create and further our understanding of what is art. They also examine how digital and post-digital art incorporate the transition from one network to another. As we move from one digital ecosystem to another, from analogue to digital, and from digital to post digital, even the collapse of networks and the work they produce – which may seem incomprehensible – is part of the creative process and of the artwork itself. At the same time, the use of Community Networks as a line of flight from a continuously expanding system of control by the state and the private sector, are seen not merely as a tool for activism, but also as a kind of artistic expression, using as its primary material the network in which it is positioned.

Digital Wednesdays aspire to become a forum of creative dialogue between technology, the arts, and science, in which new ideas and projects are developed and thrive. This forum can also reinforce critical thinking, praxis, and creativity, and develop a community of post-digital arts in Greece.

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Photo @ Nathan Jones
Glitch Art

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Wireless device and antenna installation in the foothills of Olympus mountain, Sarantaporo.gr

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"Polylogue", an installation by the Design Research Lab/MAZI that was first exhibited at Transmediale 2016, in Berlin.

Programme

Wednesday 1 June 2016 | 19:00

"Glitch: the contemporary aesthetics" | Nathan Jones

The glitch is a term used to describe the “mess that is a moment” when systems break or falter, and disgorge themselves. Glitch Art capitalizes on, captures and instigates these messy media moments, producing what has been described as "the only true aesthetic of software". But many of its signature styles are well known now, and not at all surprising.
Meanwhile our world is increasingly augmented and governed by glossy screens and shadowy algorithms, and surely the mandate for making glitches happen as part of critical-creative practices is greater than ever?
Whether literally, as screens, autocorrect functions and tax codes, of figuratively as ideologies by which our cognitive resources are partitioned and processed in search of excess value, the digital is at saturation point - and so is the threat and potency of the glitch.

This talk by Nathan Jones explores the explosion of glitch aesthetics, documenting its dissolution as pre-packaged filters and pop-culture textures, and exploring its afterlife in the new horizons of technological mediation. Using references from literature, media, performance and philosophy, and a variety of visual and audio examples, this talk will introduce the concept and practices of glitch aesthetics, and ask provocative questions about its ongoing potentials to shock.

Wednesday, 8 June 2016 | 18:00

"Transitional Networks" | Elias Marmaras, Giorgos Kleisiaris, Panayotis Antoniadis

The histories of Community Networks date back to the very beginning of the Internet, even though they were named differently. They re-emerge to a greater extent in the 1990s. However, in recent years after the leaks of Edward Snowden, Aaron Swartz, and WikiLeaks, as well as the collective questioning of net neutrality, a contemporary scene of artists, hackers, and network professionals has emerged. In collaboration with Internet users, they seek to find new and alternative ways of using Community Networks.
Tendencies that have emerged seek to change and hybridize the architecture of the system of networks, of relations that develop between users and networks, and between users themselves. The main demand at present involves the development of off-the-cloud networks with particular qualities. These are networks that find themselves outside corporate monopolist structures, but can connect with each other translocally, offering solutions to problems of economic productivity, cultural life, user security, and inclusion of large groups of people, such as refugees.

For the workshop ‘Transitional Networks’ the main speakers are Elias Marmaras, Giorgos Kleisiaris and Panayotis Antoniadis. They will present relevant projects in Greece and abroad, as well as examples of community networks created in order to connect non-privileged groups, such as residents of rural areas (Sarantaporo, http://www.sarantaporo.gr/) and refugees, and will explore their relationship with critical contemporary art.

Nathan Jones

Nathan Jones is a writer and artist based in Liverpool. He is co-editor of mindlanguage-technology publisher Torque, and director of new media and performance agency Mercy. Nathan has curated various projects such as The Act of Reading (2015), Syndrome (2014-15), and Electronic Voice Phenomena (2009-13). His solo work includes commissions for Cape Farewell, Abandon Normal Devices, and Liverpool Biennial/Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art. Nathan is REID crossdisciplinary scholar at Royal Holloway University of London researching glitch aesthetics in English and Media Arts. He writes for new media blog Furtherfield and Art Monthly, and his work on codecs and contemporary poetry was part of this year's Transmediale festival. Alittlenathan.co.uk

Elias Marmaras

Born in Athens, Elias Marmaras studied Urbanism and Fine Arts at the University of Paris VIII, France. He was a member and co-founder of different international groups in Paris, Milan, Eindhoven, and Athens.

George Klissiaris

George Klissiaris - Dipl. Engineer in Production Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Crete, Greece and holder of Master's Degree in Marketing and Communication from the Athens University of Economics and Business. He is the original initiator of Sarantaporo.gr Non Profit Organization's set-up and the establishment of the networks in the area. He is a marketing expert in a large trust of Greek companies. Information technologies are his great passion and a field for volunteering work for common public benefit. He is currently in charge of the technical support for operation and maintenance of Sarantaporo.gr WiFi Networks. He is responsible for the general coordination of tasks within the Non Profit Organization.

Panayotis Antoniadis

Panayotis Antoniadis is the co-founder of the Zurich-based nonprofit organization nethood.org that combines research and action in developing tools for self-organization in localities. He has an interdisciplinary profile with background on the design and implementation of distributed systems (Computer Science Department, University of Crete), Ph.D. on the economics of peer-to-peer networks (Athens University of Economics and Business), post-doc on policies for the federation of shared infrastructures (UPMC Sorbonne Universites), and interdisciplinary research on the role of ICTs for bridging the virtual with the physical space in cities (ETH Zurich). Two EU Horizon2020 projects, http://mazizone.eu and http://netcommons.eu, support Panayotis' current activities, with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary events that bring together researchers, practitioners, and activists from various fields around the participatory design of hybrid urban space, focusing on wireless and peer-to-peer technology.

Transitional Networks

Born in Athens, Elias Marmaras studied Urbanism and Fine Arts at the University of Paris VIII, France. He was a member and co-founder of different international groups in Paris, Milan, Eindhoven, and Athens.

George Klissiaris - Dipl. Engineer in Production Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Crete, Greece and holder of Master's Degree in Marketing and Communication from the Athens University of Economics and Business. He is the original initiator of Sarantaporo.gr Non Profit Organization's set-up and the establishment of the networks in the area. He is a marketing expert in a large trust of Greek companies. Information technologies are his great passion and a field for volunteering work for common public benefit. He is currently in charge of the technical support for operation and maintenance of Sarantaporo.gr WiFi Networks. He is responsible for the general coordination of tasks within the Non Profit Organization.

Panayotis Antoniadis is the co-founder of the Zurich-based nonprofit organization nethood.org that combines research and action in developing tools for self-organization in localities. He has an interdisciplinary profile with background on the design and implementation of distributed systems (Computer Science Department, University of Crete), Ph.D. on the economics of peer-to-peer networks (Athens University of Economics and Business), post-doc on policies for the federation of shared infrastructures (UPMC Sorbonne Universites), and interdisciplinary research on the role of ICTs for bridging the virtual with the physical space in cities (ETH Zurich). Two EU Horizon2020 projects, http://mazizone.eu and http://netcommons.eu, support Panayotis' current activities, with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary events that bring together researchers, practitioners, and activists from various fields around the participatory design of hybrid urban space, focusing on wireless and peer-to-peer technology.