Personal Cinema, “The Making of Balkan Wars ­ The Game”, 2003­2005

The group Personal Cinema [76] consisting of the media artistIlias Marmaras, the art historian Daphne Dragona and theprogrammer Yannis Skoulidas presented an exhibition featuringonline interactive artworks [77] (2000). They work in the fieldsof online games, game design, coding and their work oftentakes a political character. During 2000­2011, they created“Glimpses” (2001), the project “The Making of the Balkan Wars:the Game” and “The Making of the Balkan Wars: theDocumentary” (2003­2006), the project “Folded­In” (2008), thegame “Resist Online” (2007­2009) and the project “UrbanWars” (2007). [78] Slightly earlier, the first Greek Festival forArt and Technology, which had begun in 1998, was renamedMedia@terra in 1999 and included the Balkans and theMediterranean. From 2000 it became an annual international

The events that marked the first period of Greek New Media Artfrom 2000 to 2008 (a period that can be theoretically defined asthe beginning of the second period of Greek media art),included the development of infrastructure, institutions andartistic activity itself. In 2000, the National Museum ofContemporary Art [75] opened its doors and from its earlyyears, it included video art and new media exhibitions in itsprogramme.

The First Years of the 21ST Century

festival until 2006. Under themes such as’Neo[Techno]Logisms‘, ’de­globalizing, re­globalizing‘, ’FromText to Hypertext‘ and ’Gaming realities‘ there were interactiveartworks, video installations and theoretical debates.

Having high­speed Internet connections allowed Greek artists,who had previously experimented with digital video, to engagewith streaming media. In 2001, at the Art Athina art fair, theplatform www.artopos.org presented its new website thatincluded streaming media, and in the following year it presented“e­magic”, an international festival of cyberspace­basedactions[79] in collaboration with the International Film Festivalof Thessaloniki. In 2003, on the occasion of two planetaryprojects that took place on the Internet, Anna Hatziyiannakiparticipated as a guest curator with two groups of well­knownGreek artists working with performance, visual poetry andmedia. The first project was “GATES” [80] and the second wasthe online Festival of Wielfried Agricola de Cologne entitled [R]­[R]­ [F][81] with Caterina Davinio being the chief curator forboth projects. The latter project was also presented at theBiennale for new media art Interactiva 03 at the Museum ofContemporary Art in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

From 2003 onwards, new media art festivals have proliferatedincluding; the annual International Digital Film Festival (2003­2009) [82]; the music festival SYNCH FESTIVAL (2004­2011)[83]; the ATHENS VIDEO ART FESTIVAL, which showcasesGreek and international video art [84] and premiered in 2005;Festival Miden [85] in Kalamata, which was founded in 2005 andincludes video art; ANIMASYROS, an annual InternationalAnimation Festival and Forum [86], which began in Syros in2008; and the MIR Festival [87] featuring performances, newmedia art and multimedia. The MIR festival was launched in2008 and it is the continuation of the Video DanceFestival [88]and the artistic Director of both Festivals isChristiana Galanopoulou.

Vasilys Bouzas, “H SPACE”, 2005

In 2005, the Hellenic American Union in collaboration with theplatform www.artopos.org presented the WB05 ­ Web Biennialon the World Wide Web [89] curated by Dimitris Fotiou. A fewmonths later, the Department of Media and Communication ofthe University of Athens in collaboration with the Leonardojournal on art and technology launched the Yasmin mailinglist[90], themed around the intersection of art, science andtechnology in the Mediterranean. It is an international networkof artists, scientists, engineers, theorists and institutions thatpromote communication and collaboration in the field oftechnological art in the Mediterranean. In 2006, the AthensSchool of Fine Arts and the NPO “ARTOPOS” presented the firstinternational exhibition on biotechnology in Greece entitled “InVivo in Vitro”, [91] curated by Anna Hatziyiannaki. Theparticipant artists were Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), EduardoKac, Stelarc, Joe Davis, Karl Sims, Eva Sutton, Daniel Lee,Susan Alexjander and Polona Tratnik. At present, the hybridarts that involve the Life Sciences are not viable in Greece,because the relevant law and spirit do not encourage thecollaboration between artists and scientists in the genetic labs,as is possible in CERN, MIT and in other scientific centres. As aresult, there are no Greek Bio artists. In 2008, the AthensSchool of Fine Arts founded its Multimedia Department. From2006 the use of contemporary technology was also introducedin the Printmaking Department under the supervision of MichalisArfaras [92], an artist with an international career inprintmaking and experimental cinema. During the same year,

the Laboratory of New Technologies of the University of Athensheld “e­MobiLArt” [93], an Interactive Media Artists Workshop.

The Erasers, “War is War”, 2010

In 2003, the artist Lina Theodorou [94] presented an onlineartwork at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, called“Fleshpack.com”, which was a virtual company offering packedillegal immigrants in containers. But in 2005 when the newmedia artist Dimitris Fotiou [95] created an online website,showcasing a company that offered various illegal services toGreek citizens using traditional corruption processes [96], hewas mistakenly arrested because the project was considered afraud by the Greek Cyber Crime unit. The artist KonstantinosTiligadis [97] writes code and algorithms and works withinteractivity, sensors, the Internet, multimedia and robotics. Heoften collaborates with Andreas Sitorengo [98], who primarilyworks with multimedia, as does Ioanna Myrka [99]. Myrka alsoworks with performance and integrates technology such asmicro cameras, electronic interactive sculpture and video in herpractice. Tiligadis, Sitorengo and Myrka participated in a widecollaborative project, which was presented digitally at the ISEAin 2011. [100] Dimitris Charitos [101] is also a new media artistwho usually collaborates with Coti K [102] in complex interactiveaudiovisual installations of minimal aesthetics. A narrative andanthropocentric character can be found in the works of theartist Babis Venetopoulos [103], whether they are 3Danimations, multimedia installations, Internet art or hypermedia.

The artist Vasilys Bouzas [104], apart from his multimediainstallations, incorporates interactivity and the Internet in hismethodology and the artist Kostas Daflos [105] works withinteractive installations. Furthermore, the Erasers combineseveral elements such as live cinema, performance and theInternet to create experimental performances with an activistcharacter. [106]

Photo Gallery

In the field of using music with new media, YannisZannos [107]has specialised in music informatics with anemphasis on interactive techniques. He has participated in manyinternational collaborative projects on new media andmultimedia art. Vassilios Kokkas [108], who studied underWalter Zimmermann, studied electroacoustic and computermusic. Curators who work solely with multimedia and new mediaart are Anna Hatziyiannaki [109], Daphne Dragona [110] andthe young curatorial group “Kernel” [111], consisting of PegyZali, Petros Moris and Theodoros Yiannakis.

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[75] National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens: http://www.emst.gr(Accessed on: 08/08/2012)

[76] Personal Cinema: http://www.personalcinema.org/ (Accessed on:17/08/2012)

[77] Personal Cinema, Proseghisi:http://artcontext.com/shows/pcinema/index.html? (Accessed on: 17/08/2012)

[78] “Glimpses” http://www.softknot.gr/glimpses/ /http://www.balkanwars.org/ and http://www.balkanwars.org/doc/ / the Folded­In: http://www.foldedin.net/ /Resist online: http://resist.transludic.net/ / UrbanWars http://urbanwars.transludic.net/ (Accessed on: 17/08/2012)

[79] E­magic Festival: http://www.biblionet.gr/book/173392/e­magic(Accessed on: 08/08/2012)

[80] GATES:http://xoomer.virgilio.it/davinio/GATES/GRECIA3/gatesgrecia33.htm(Accessed on: 08/08/2012)

[81] [R]­ [R]­ [F]: http://www.nmartproject.net/artists/?p=1106 (Accessed on:08/08/2012)

[82] Short Film Festival: http://www.shortfilmfestival.gr/ (Accessed on:29/07/2012)

[83] SYNCH FESTIVAL: http://www.synch.gr/index_new.php?lang=2&cid=2(Accessed on: 29/07/2012)

[84] Athens Video Art Festival: http://www.athensvideoartfestival.gr/(Accessed on: 29/07/2012)

[85] Festival Miden: http://www.festivalmiden.gr/festival2005.html (Accessedon: 08/08/2012)

[86] ANIMA SYROS Festival: http://www.animasyros.gr/index.php/GR/(Accessed on: 29/07/2012)

[87] MIR festival: http://www.mirfestival.gr/el/index.html (Accessed on:17/08/2012)

[88] Video Dance festival: http://www.mirfestival.gr/08/el/arxeio.html(Accessed on: 17/08/2012)

[89] WB05 –Web Biennial on the World Wide Web:http://www.artopos.org/net.art/en/index.html (Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[90] Yasmin: http://www2.media.uoa.gr/yasmin/ (Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[91] “In Vivo In Vitro” http://www.artopos.org/projects/vitrovivo/intro­gr.html(Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[92] Michalis Arfaras: http://animationcenter.gr/modules/news/article.php?storyid=420 (Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[93] e­MobiLArt: http://www2.media.uoa.gr/~charitos/emobilart/ (Accessedon: 19/08/2012)

[94] Lina Theodorou: http://linatheodorou.com/ (Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[95] Dimitris Fotiou: http://fotiou.net/ (Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[96] http://www.dirtyworks­greece.info/ ­ http://fotiou.net/blog2/blogger.html

(Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[97] Konstantinos Tiligadis (www.tiligadis.com) (under construction)

[98] Andreas Sitorengo: http://www.sitorengo.com/ (Accessed on:16/08/2012)

[99] Ioanna Myrka: http://www.ioannamyrka.com/ (Accessed on: 16/08/2012)

[100] Zeugma: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/paper/zeugma (Accessed on:16/08/2012

[101] Dimitris Charitos: http://www2.media.uoa.gr/~charitos/art.html(Accessed on: 16/08/2012)

[102] Coti K: http://www.cotik.com/ (Accessed on: 16/08/2012)

[103] Babis Venetopoulos: http://www.mda.gr/babis/babis.htm (Accessed on:16/08/2012)

[104] Vasilys Bouzas: www.artroom7.com/win/index_A7.htm (Accessed on:16/08/2012)

[105] Kostas Daflos: http://users.ntua.gr/kdaflos/ (Accessed on: 16/08/2012)

[106] The Erasers: http://theerasers.blogspot.gr/, http://vimeo.com/8690958(Accessed on: 16/08/2012)

[107] Iannis Zannos: http://avarts.ionio.gr/el/department/teaching­staff/275­zanos (Accessed on: 19/08/2012)

[108] Vassilis Kokkas: http://composers.musicportal.gr/?c=kokkas (Accessedon: 19/08/2012)

[109] Anna Hatziyiannaki: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/mrs.hatziyiannaki(Accessed on: 20/08/2012)

[110] Daphne Dragona: http://ludicpyjamas.net/ (Accessed on: 20/08/2012)

[111] Kernel: http://kernel­platform.com/ (Accessed on: 16/08/2012)