Digital Wednesdays

Wednesday 9 November 2016 | 19:00 | In the context of Hybrids exhibition
"Platforms or Colonies? The New Normal"

How is art tackling mega-platforms and the sharing economy? Is there room for the Digital and Cultural Commons?
Speakers:Paolo Cirio, Manu Luksch,Lucie Strecker & Klaus Spiess, Alex Verhaest
The discussion will be held in English.

Wednesday 23 November 16 | 19:00 | In the context of Hybrids exhibition
"E-textiles: Hand-crafting technological artifacts"

Ubiquitous computing, the Maker movement and the Craft Revival gave rise to a generation of e-textiles practitioners coming from different fields (art, design, engineering, physics etc) that explore art and science by experimenting with wearable technologies. Can the idea of hacking the body trigger new scientific research or tactical methods of resistance? Could e-textiles be used as an educational tool to raise awareness towards the massive production and consumption of technology?
Speaker: Afroditi Psara

Thursday 24 November 2016 | 19:00 | In the context of Hybrids exhibition
"Post-digital Realities: The Internet is Dead"

An exploration of the main trends in contemporary art in the wake of the World Wide Web and the Internet of Things
Speakers: Daphne Dragona, Katerina Goutziouli

Wednesday 14 December 2016 | 19:00 | In the context of Hybrids exhibition
"Generation Hybrid"

What are the bioethical issues raised when technology transforms the boundaries and the concept of the body? Where do ethical and creative limits lie and what can we learn about the role of techno-science in life itself?
Speakers: Elias Giannopolulos, Κonstantinos Papamichalopoulos

Wednesday 21 December 2016 | 19:00 | In the context of Hybrids exhibition
"Of Zeros and Ones: Memory and Oblivion on the Net"

The Internet as a form of collective memory, as a surveillance mechanism, and as a palimpsest of common experiences.
Speaker: Kyriaki Goni

Wednesday 11 January 2017 | 19:00 | In the context of Hybrids exhibition
"Techno-alchemists"

How rationalistic is technology in art? Are techno-romanticism and techno-sorcery possible? How can we create alternative realities through art and technology?
Speaker: Ingrid Burrington

Wednesday 22 February 2017 | 19:00 | In the context of the GR80s exhibition
"Video Game Aesthetics from the 80s to today."

Computer gaming as a medium for artistic expression and creation: aesthetic consequences and social repercussions.
Speakers: Pavlos Papapavlos, Dimitris Trakas, Renia Papathanasiou, Christina Chrysanthopoulou

Wednesday 29 March 2017 | 19:00
"Post-Internet Poetry"

What happens when poetry meets technology? How does this encounter change the way we read, understand and feel poetry?
Speakers: Nick Montfort
The discussion will be held in English.

Admission is free with entrance tickets.

Due to limited availability, if you wish to attend, please send an email to the following address: digital@onassis.org. The deadline for sending an attendance request is one day before each talk.

Ingrid Burrington

Ingrid Burrington writes, makes maps, and tells jokes about places, politics, and the weird feelings people have about both. She's the author of Networks of New York: “An Illustrated Field Guide to Urban Internet Infrastructure” and an artist in residence at Data and Society Research Institute.

http://lifewinning.com
Twitter: @lifewinning

Magic and technology have a long, complicated history, one that today tends to get glossed over with invocations of Arthur C. Clarke's frequently-quoted chestnut that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." While Clarke's observation is astute, it also oversimplifies a long, rich, and very political history of technology's relationship to myth, ritual, and uncertainty. This talk will unpack some of the spells, glamours, and familiars that haunt and possess today's machines and explore approaches for a more occult computation.

Pavlos Papapavlos

Pavlos Papapavlos has been professionally involved with videogames since 1996 when, while still a high school student at Athens’ Ellinogermaniki Lyceum, he began writing for Pixel and other Greek videogames magazines. Graduating in Sports Journalism from New York College, Athens, in 2000, he remained actively involved with gaming and HyperPress appointed him editor-in-chief of three monthly gaming magazines—GamePro, Official PlayStation Magazine and PS Tips—that same year when he was still just 20. In 2005, having completed his military service, he started work in the marketing department of Nintendo’s Greek distributor, but his love for writing and journalism soon drew him back into the Media. Since 2006, he has been writing for Greece’s main news portals and the most successful specialized videogame publications. In January 2011, he embarked on his first internet venture, launching enternity.gr, which is now Greece’s largest independent gaming portal.

https://www.enternity.gr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pavlos.papapavlou
Twitter: https://twitter.com/grsephiroth

Abstract
Videogames: The dominant entertainment industry

Videogames are currently a dominant industry in the field of entertainment. Available to the general public since the mid Seventies, video games initially attracted niche consumers looking for interactive entertainment in their own homes or in old-time video arcades. Starting out with rudimentary processors which could only depict a limited number of moving items on the screen, the industry evolved in leaps and bounds, challenging hardware manufacturers to produce ever more powerful systems. Companies such as Atari scored huge successes with games like “Pong” and “Space Invaders”, and from the Eighties on, gaming took aim at the average man in the street. It would never look back. The golden age of videogames brought digital entertainment into the home, with companies like Nintendo and SEGA creating closed systems which could be connected to a television and provide instant access to a wide range of games. The ever-growing demand for games soon led to corporate colossuses like Sony and Microsoft entering—and seizing the lion’s share—of the interactive home entertainment market. The gaming industry’s headline products now have budgets on a par with Hollywood blockbusters, and the sector’s already astronomical turnover is still rising fast. So how did the market get from nowhere to the stars in just a few decades? What was it that broadened gaming’s appeal and sent sales into orbit? How did the industry manage to weather the storm following the historic downturn of 1983?

Dimitris Trakas

Dimitris Trakas is a visual artist who lives and works in Athens. A graduate of the Athens School of Fine Art, he also holds an MA in Art and Virtual Reality (ASFA & Université ParisVIII), a degree in Information Technology, and a Masters in Knowledge Based Systems. His primary interests are painting and digital virtual worlds. He has taken part in a number of group exhibitions at, “inter alia”, the Kythera Biennale 1, 2016; the “Invisible Cities” conference at the Italian Cultural Institute, Athens, 2015; FARMAKON at the BBQ Festival ASFA, 2015 and “This is not a Game” (metamatic:TAF Gallery, 2013). He has also shown his paintings at the ΣΥΝ gallery (2013) and the Markopoulos (2013) and Nea Makri (2012) cultural centres.

Abstract

One of the many changes brought about by the arrival of personal computers in the nineteen eighties was broader access to electronic games in the home. Groups of ground-breaking programmers emerged whose creations, culture and activities would lay the foundations for the development of videogames and impact on their evolution for decades to come. But what was the videogame aesthetic and philosophy back then? How did gaming develop? In what context? What means were available? How can we use contemporary tools today to create games which hark back aesthetically and as a playing experience to that pioneering and astonishing time?
Speakers: Dimitris Trakas, Renia Papathanasiou, Christina Chrysanthopoulou
http://vira.design/

Renia Papathanasiou

Renia Papathanasiou is a sound engineer, musician and VR Artist. She graduated from the Music Technology & Acoustics Department in Rethymnon, Crete. She holds a diploma in Advanced Music Theory as well as an MA in Art and Virtual Reality (ASFA & Université ParisVIII). She is a co-founder and Managing Director of ViRA and her personal research centres on virtual reality systems and videogrames, primarily as educational tools. She has presented papers at IEEE VR2015, the International Conference: The Future of Education, 2015 and the International Digital Storytelling Conference, 2014. She has taken part in group exhibitions at “inter alia” the 5th International eLife Dual Congress, the Invisible Cities Conference (University of Athens, Communication and Media Department), Lumen Online Gallery, VR2015 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference Arles, and the FESTIVAL MIDEN 2014.

Abstract

One of the many changes brought about by the arrival of personal computers in the nineteen eighties was broader access to electronic games in the home. Groups of ground-breaking programmers emerged whose creations, culture and activities would lay the foundations for the development of videogames and impact on their evolution for decades to come. But what was the videogame aesthetic and philosophy back then? How did gaming develop? In what context? What means were available? How can we use contemporary tools today to create games which hark back aesthetically and as a playing experience to that pioneering and astonishing time?
Speakers: Dimitris Trakas, Renia Papathanasiou, Christina Chrysanthopoulou
http://vira.design/

Christina Chrysanthopoulou

Christina Chrysanthopoulou is an architect and engineer who also holds an MA in Art and Virtual Reality (ASFA & Université ParisVIII). She is a co-founder and Art Director of ViRA and also teaches on the ASFA postgraduate “Art and Virtual Reality” programme. She has presented papers at conferences including Hybrid City II in Athens, IEEE VR2015 in Arles, and VS-Games in Barcelona. She has also taken part in numerous exhibitions and festivals including the Festival Miden 2014, Ars Electronica 2015, and Invisible Cities.

Abstract

One of the many changes brought about by the arrival of personal computers in the nineteen eighties was broader access to electronic games in the home. Groups of ground-breaking programmers emerged whose creations, culture and activities would lay the foundations for the development of videogames and impact on their evolution for decades to come. But what was the videogame aesthetic and philosophy back then? How did gaming develop? In what context? What means were available? How can we use contemporary tools today to create games which hark back aesthetically and as a playing experience to that pioneering and astonishing time?
Speakers: Dimitris Trakas, Renia Papathanasiou, Christina Chrysanthopoulou
http://vira.design/

Nick Montfort

Nick Montfort develops computational art and poetry. His computer-generated books of poetry include “ #! ”, the collaboration “ 2×6 ”, “Autopia”, and (forthcoming) “The Truelist”. Among his more than fifty digital projects are the collaborations “The Deletionist”, “Sea and Spar Between”, and Renderings. His MIT Press books, collaborative and individual, are: “The New Media Reader”, “Twisty Little Passages”, “Racing the Beam”, “10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10”, and most recently “Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities”. He is professor of digital media at MIT and lives in New York and Boston.
http://nickm.com
Twitter: @nickmofo

Abstract

Using computation to generate poetry, and to generate provocative books, is a practice with some heritage that is still considered very unconventional and is often resisted. Nick Montfort discusses his practice in this area and that of several others who take different approaches. The style and semantics of language generated will be one aspect of his presentation, but it will also embrace formal, material, social, political, and other aspects of computing on language.

Paolo Cirio

The Italian conceptual artist Paolo Cirio works on the topics of Appropriation, Interventionism and Socially Engaged Art of the Information Society. He defines himself as an artist dealing with the social complexity of the Ιnformation Society and in addition understands himself also as hacktivist, researcher and social commentator. He works with legal, economic and semiotic systems of the information society and investigates social fields impacted by the Internet, such as privacy, copyright, politics and finance.

He presented his research and interventionbased works through artifacts, photos, installations, videos, and public art. He has won a number of awards, including Golden Nica first prize at Ars Electronica, Transmediale second prize and the Eyebeam Fellowship, among others. His controversial artworks are often covered by global media outlets, such as CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, Huffington Post among many others.

Manu LUKSCH

Manu LUKSCH, filmmaker, artist and researcher, interrogates conceptions of progress and scrutinises the effects of network technologies on social relations, urban space, and political structures. Her seminal speculative fiction film FACELESS (2002-07), treats CCTV images as ‘legal readymades’, and derives its scenario from these legal properties.

The feature film “Dreams Rewired” (2015), her second collaboration with Tilda Swinton as voice artist, draws on over 200 films from the 1890s to the 1930s to explore current hopes and fears relating to hyper-connectivity.

Her works have ended up everywhere from street protests in Hong Kong to the collections of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. She is Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths' Centre for Cultural Studies.

Lucie Strecker & Klaus Spiess

Lucie Strecker, together with Klaus Spiess, have been developing trans-disciplinary performances and installations that address biopolitical issues for five years.

A former endocrinologist and psychosomaticist, Klaus Spiess is an associate professor at the Medical University of Vienna. Lucie Strecker is an artist and stage director and holds a senior postdoc position at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

They performed at Budascoop Kortrijk, Tanzquartier and Belvedere/21er Haus, Vienna; their installations have been shown at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, the BEALL Center for Art + Technology, Irvine and the OK Center, Linz, where the duo has been awarded a Honorary Mention (2015) at the Prix Ars Electronica.

They have published articles on their trans-disciplinary performances in Performance Research, Kunstforum International, Springerin, and The Lancet, among others.

Alex Verhaest

Verhaest’s work is largely focused on language, story and the impossibility of communication. The basis is a highly narrative script, existing or newly written, around which she creates a body of work by analyzing its storyline and exploring the limits of what constitutes communicable language.

Verhaest’s highly pictorial work operates on the juxtaposition of painting and video, each new project being an investigation into unorthodox contemporary technology.Verhaest’s work featured in several exhibitions mostly in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Various arts & new media festivals/competitions have selected her work: FILE electronic language festival (Sao Paolo), New Technology Art Award (Gent), TAZ (Oostende), Arts Festival (Watou).

Her work is featured in the Akzo Nobel Collection and she won the prestigious New Face Award (Japan Media arts Festival) and a Golden Nica (Ars Electronica).

Elias Giannopoulos

Elias Giannopoulos studied Electronic Engineering and continued his studies with a MA in Bioengineering. After working in the private industry, he continued his academic career by working in a research group in Barcelona whilst doing his PhD in Virtual Reality and Neuroscience. He has also studied illustration and graphic design which has always been his passion.
In December 2014, he founded Fixers, with its main objective to introduce and raise awareness about open source 3D printing in Greece, by running 3D-printer building workshops. Since then, they have built over 300 3D printers and organized many educational seminars. They have collaborated with a lot of creative groups in several projects combining 3D printing and exploring new ways and areas for the practical use of 3D printing.

Where lies the human presence?

How do we define our presence and how easily can it be manipulated in an era where all content, including our sense of reality, is digitised? What does it mean to be somewhere, to be you and what consequences does this entail in the human condition? How does our embodiment within new technologies alters our sense of morality? In conclusion, when new content is increasingly generated by automata and new technologies gain intuition into the creative process, where does human creativity lie and consequently where do humans stand?

Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos

He was born in 1975, Athens, Greece. He studied painting and printmaking in the Athens School of Fine Arts with professors Rena Papaspirou and Michalis Arfaras, respectively. In 2014 he obtained his MFA degree in the Digital Arts postgraduate program of the Athens School of Fine Arts. Since January 2016 he is a PhD candidate at the Panteion University in Athens.
In 2003 he received a commission by the Benaki Museum for a portrait of the benefactor Andonis Benakis. Since 2004 the work has become part of the Benaki Museum permanent collections.
In 2000 his first graphic novel, “The Japanese”, was published, followed by “The Japanese – Deuteronomion” (2009) and “Epilarchia!” (2011). In 2015 he published “#k_porn”, three colouring books (“Aprés Dubuffet”, “Aprés Tanguy” & “Biomorphic”) and “The Japanese 3”.
His recent solo exhibition, The Great Golden Room, took place in 2015 at the National Museum of Greek Folk Art in Athens, followed by his solo show Talos – Representations of the Artificial Man, at the café of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in August 2016.
In 2015 he was artist-in-residence at the Amsterdams Grafisch Atelier.
He is the cover artist of the Athens Review of Books and freelance illustrator at De Groene Amsterdammer.
He is co-founder of White Island Works.
His works can be found in various public and private collections both in Greece and abroad. He lives and works between Athens and the island of Folegandros.
www.kpklik.com
Twitter: @MilitaryRaiden
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/konstantinospapamichalopoulos/

The new image of the Artificial Man

A promise that has never (yet) come true was the coming of the Artificial Man – the robot, the cyborg, the anthropoid copy (the replica). There have been numerous attempts: from the stories of Isaac Asimov, the “Cyborg” novel by Martin Caidin which later inspired television’s “Six Million Dollar Man” up until the now classic Manfred Clynes & Nathan Kline’s text “Cyborg & Space” which set the foundations for the contemporary form of the Artificial Man. The difference though lies in in the realisation that this image is no longer a utopia but a looming reality.

Kyriaki Goni

Research and the use of technology are integral parts of Goni’s artistic practice. Her work focuses mainly on the interaction between machine, algorithm and human. By using visuals, sound and code she investigates notions like memory, oblivion, privacy and personal data, both in digital and analogue fields. Her works have been exhibited in galleries and new media festivals around the world: Athens Digital Art Festival, International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA21, Vancouver), SIGGRAPH2016 (California), Oddstream (The Netherlands). Her artistic research practice has been presented in conferences on Arts and Technology (SIGGRAPH2016, xArts2013, Renew2013).

Her art paper, “Deletion Process_Only you can see my history: Investigating Digital Privacy, Digital Oblivion, and Control on Personal Data Through an Interactive Art Installation”, was published in August 2016, on “Leonardo”, “Journal of Art”, “Science and Technology”, MIT. She has completed studies on Visual (BA) and Digital Arts (MA), and has also studied Social and Cultural Anthropology in Greece (BA) and The Netherlands (MA).
kyriakigoni.com

Through widespread digitization, cheap storage technology and easy retrieval, collective and personal memory have acquired new features. Users’ digital trail and the voluntary disclosure of their experiences within an “Internet that never forgets” provide a clean and accurate insight into how the world thinks and at the same time reveal the power of mass and corporate surveillance. Could this ability of recording and preserving data provide positive applications for humans and their fragile memory mechanisms in the analogue world? On the other hand, what role does digital oblivion play? Could it be a form of resistance? Could it provide answers to the management and ownership of data? The research on the opposites of “memory” and “oblivion” was launched by media artist Kyriaki Goni within the field of cultural anthropology a long time ago. Combining it anew with her artistic practice, she continues to observe and question these concepts in the digital space.

Afroditi Psarra

Afroditi Psarra, PhD (Athens, 1982) is a multidisciplinary artist, exploring the field of etextiles and soft circuits through the use of digital technologies. Her artistic interest focuses on concepts such as the body as an interface, contemporary handicrafts and folk tradition, the role of women-makers in the post-digital era, and the construction of handmade scientific artifacts. Her artworks include a wide variety of media and techniques, that extend from embroidery and knitting, to hacking and creative coding.
Her work has been presented at numerous digital art platforms such as Siggraph, ISWC, Ars Electronica, Transmediale and CTM, Amber, Piksel and MakerFaire Rome between others, as well at the Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens and the Bozar Museum of Contemporary Art in Bruselles. She was an intern at the “Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing” group in Disney Research Zurich. She is currently appointed as assistant professor in the “Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media” (DXARTS) at the University of Washington. She lives and works in Seattle, USA.

http://afroditipsarra.com

Katerina Gkoutziouli

Katerina Gkoutziouli is a curator and researcher based in Athens. She has curated a variety of exhibitions with a focus on digital arts and she has collaborated with cultural and academic institutions in Greece and abroad, including the Athens School of Fine Arts, Goethe-Institut Athen and ΑCM Siggraph. She was the Programme Director at the Athens Digital Arts Festival for the 2015 and 2016 editions. She is currently affiliated as a field researcher with synAthina, a project initiated by the Municipality of Athens.
https://therestisart.wordpress.com/

Abstract

In our days, it is almost impossible to imagine our life off the net. The new knowledge that is being shaped from the relationship between humans and interconnected devices has become what we call post-digital reality today. In the context of the constant changes in technology and the increasing new interconnected possibilities it brings along, there is often little space left to reflect on the consequences. What has changed in the post-Snowden era? How does information become the material for artistic practice? What is the relation between public and private life in the age of cloud computing?