Daphne Giannoulatou

Apo ton Kathrefti mesa ston Kathrefti (From Mirron in a Mirror)

2012-01-30T19:32:00.002Z

This is the 3D model box for the play Apo ton Kathrefti mesa ston Kathrefti (From Mirror in a Mirror).
The play is going to be presented on the 20th of April 2012, in Politia Theatre, Patras, Greece from the performance group Atomic No6.

2012-01-26T13:15:00.002Z

φ

2011-12-21T18:42:00.007Z

«Φ»

Από την ομάδα tandem
104 ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΛΟΓΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΕΧΝΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΚΔΟΣΕΩΝ ΚΑΣΤΑΝΙΩΤΗ
Κάθε Πέμπτη & Παρασκευή στις 21.30 έως 9/2/2012

- Θα εκραγώ…
- Φάε τουλάχιστον κάτι μην εκραγείς με άδειο στομάχι.»

O χρόνος και ο χώρος δεν έχουν σημασία στο όνειρο…3 ζευγάρια. 3 ιδανικοί σύντροφοι.
Στο εργοστάσιο παραγωγής ιδανικών συντρόφων εσύ, τι θα ζητούσες;

Και οι τρείς είχαν το δικαίωμα να ζητήσουν τον ιδανικό τους σύντροφο όπως τον ήθελαν…
Ερωτεύτηκαν με πάθος. Ορκίστηκαν αιώνια αφοσίωση… Γιατί το όνειρο μετατράπηκε σε εφιάλτη;

Τι γίνεται όταν έρχεσαι αντιμέτωπος με τα ίδια σου τα θέλω;
Η μάχη είναι αναπόφευκτη
Και μετά;
Πέφτουν, τινάζονται και σηκώνονται.
Μερικοί…
Άλλοι όχι.

Μετά το επιτυχημένο «Freak Show» πέρυσι, η ομάδα tandem επιστρέφει με τη παράσταση «Φ».
Εστιάζοντας στα μικρά «τίποτα» της καθημερινότητας,
δίνει έμφαση στη καταπιεστική συνθήκη που αναπτύσσεται ανάμεσα στους συντρόφους. Διηγείται με χιούμορ και υπερβολή τρείς ερωτικές ιστορίες στήνοντας μία γελοιογραφική σκηνική φόρμα για την
τάση του ανθρώπου να εξιδανικεύει τον ερωτικό του σύντροφο,
να δίνει μεγάλες υποσχέσεις και μετά να απομυθοποιεί και να αθετεί..
Υπάρχει χρυσή τομή στις ερωτικές σχέσεις ή την ξεπερνά η ίδια η ανθρώπινη φύση;

ΤΑΥΤΟΤΗΤΑ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΡΑΣΤΑΣΗΣ

Κείμενο: Ομάδα tandem
Σκηνοθεσία: Μαργαρίτα Γερογιάννη
Επιμέλεια Κειμένου: Μαργαρίτα Γερογιάννη
Ειρήνη Γεωργαλάκη
Γιάννης Διακάκης

Παίζουν οι ηθοποιοί:

Ειρήνη Γεωργαλάκη
Γιάννης Διακάκης
Ηλέκτρα Καπετανάκη
Ορέστης Καρύδας
Ντένης Μακρής
Σοφία Μανώλη

Σκηνικά & Κοστούμια: Δάφνη Γιαννουλάτου

Πρωτότυπη Μουσική: Γιώργος Ζιάβρας
Ηχητικά Περιβάλλοντα: Θάνος Μπήκος (illusionaire)

ΜΟΥΣΙΚΟΙ:
Κλαρινέτο: Έλλη Βασιλάτου
Marimba, Vibraphone: Παναγιώτης Ζιάβρας, Παναγιώτης Κολλιαβασίλης
Μπάσο, κλαρινέτο: Κωνσταντίνος Τζέκος
Βιολί: Yaroslav Tokarev

Σχεδιασμός φωτισμών: Βασίλης Κλωτσοτήρας
Φωτογραφίες: Φάνης Κουσουρής

Οργάνωση Παραγωγής & Επικοινωνίας: Αντιγόνη Νικολαΐδη
Παραγωγή: NO SMOKING PLEASE PRODUCTIONS

- I will explode…
- Eat something, don’t explode with an empty stomach.
Time and space do not matter when you live in the dream… 3 couples. 3 ideal companions.
What would you ask for, if you were in the factory that produces ideal lovers?

All three of them had the right to ask for whatever they mostly preferred. They all fell passionately in love. They swore to be there for each other… When was it that the dream became a nightmare?

What happens when you confront what you believe you want?
The combat cannot be avoided.
And what happens afterwards?

Script: Tandem
Director: M. Gerogianni
Actors: Eirini Georgalaki
Giannis Diakakis
Orestis Karidas
Ntenis Makris
Sofia Manoli
Set/Costume Design: Daphne Giannoulatou
Music: Giorgos Ziavras
Sound Design: Thanos Bikos
Lighting Design: Vassilis Klotsotiras
Production Management: Antigoni Nikolaidi
Production: NO SMOKING PLEASE PRODUCTIONS

2011-11-12T13:12:00.001Z

Hamlet the Prince of Denmark

2011-04-15T12:58:00.002+01:00

A play directed by Thanos Papakonstantinou, Set/Costume Design: Dimitra Liakoura, Assistant Set and Costume designer: Daphne Giannnoulatou. Presented in Michalis Kokogiannis Foundation, Athens, Greece by the Helter Skelter Company.

The IceQueen Project- Making of

2011-01-13T19:03:00.002Z

The Ice Queen project happened during December and the begining of January of 2011 on the case of a costume event. I decided to make/construct a costume for the Ice Queen character out of fabrick, clothes that were no more in use, feathers, crystals and of course my favorite material: hot glue! These pistures are samples of how the costume looked when it was under costruction.

The IceQueen Project

2011-01-13T18:54:00.002Z

These are some pictures from the final form of the costume of the Ice Queen.

Un Doing The Un - Installation for the k0g window display -2010- London

2010-07-20T15:49:00.001+01:00

invitation

2009-09-02T11:11:00.000+01:00

3D ModelBox for the UnDroid

2009-08-16T13:25:00.000+01:00

The official invitation for the final show, created by Wimbledon College of Art

2009-08-16T12:56:00.001+01:00

Un Droid.... something starts to happen...

2009-08-10T02:52:00.000+01:00

...

2009-06-23T21:34:00.006+01:00

UnDroid

When thoughts are formed and can be expressed by speech, this is the time to put the kettle on.

A tale presented by an interdisciplinary collective under the direction of Daphne Giannoulatou

with:

Vasiliki Andreou

The Frontier Psychiatrists

Pridon

Aristidis Lafkas

{Daphne Giannoulatou: Theatre Practitioner/Visual Artist http://dafnigiannoulatou.blogspot.com , Vasiliki Andreou: Actress/Theatrologist, The Frontier Psychiatrists: Visual Artists/VJ’s http://www.myspace.com/thefrontierpsychiatrists , Pridon: Musician http://www.myspace.com/pridon , Aristeidis Lafkas: Computer Engineer}

A HYPER ANALYTICAL SCRIPT OF THE EMOTIONS AND SEQUENCE OF UN DROID{ a tale of a droid}

2009-06-23T02:42:00.001+01:00

Hint: The music/sound/whatever describes what happens in UnDroid’s head.

Hint 2: IT now has a name. It is called UnDroid.

Hint 3: The following text is based on the separation of the scenes of the draft script.

Hint 4: The times given are only a suggestion. Petros can change them according to what he has in his mind and to what he might think that is best for his tracks.

1. 0min-5min Doors Open. People are coming into the semi lit space. The VJ’s and UnDroid are in their positions. UnDroid is motionless. On the projection wall we can see the first video that is still. Everything is still. There is this feeling of time passing by really painfully and uncomfortably slow. The audience walks on the ground/dirt of the set and their footsteps almost disappear once they have entered the space. They sit and still everything is motionless. The image on the video is an old tree with a hole separating it in two, in a forest. Silence. UnDroid observes and is silent. Problematized silent. Thoughtful maybe but it is calm and silent.

2. 5min-10min The audience is now sat and the door is closed. The video starts changing. From the hole of the tree small dull lights appear. UnDroid starts being curious. Not in a bad way. It is a really honest and normal curiosity because something changes on what it sees. The curiosity increases a bit, not much when from the tree hole appears something, a creature, sleazy and slimy, no proper shape yet. But then it evolves and the human shape of it can be recognized. This is a birth, a natural birth. THIS shocks it a bit, in a peculiar way. There is admiration, curiosity and some jealousy maybe. It cannot understand exactly what this is, how it happens and why because this has never happened to UnDroid. UnDroid was never born; it was only created and switched on. Just like this and from the moment that happened it hasn’t changed. Clothes where given to it and that was it. The creature on the video now is up, lifts its hand and peals off the first skin, the dirty and sleazy one and underneath there is fresh and clean flesh and skin. It already changes and evolves. UnDroid feels weird. It realizes that what it sees is normal for the people that surround it. They are all humans and they share the same experiences of birth and decay. These thoughts for the first time do not make UnDroid feel superior. It feels sad and it feels like it wants to experience this. It wants to be a part of all, to communicate, to be like everyone else. Not in a bad way. Very sincerely, innocently and with a snort of jealousy. Like a child living in a childish nightmare of its. Yet it is still motionless. Only the breathing has changed. Becomes more intense. Every new movement on the video strikes it a bit more, it makes it WANT a bit more. The agony of been different, of passing next to someone and being ignored, of being considered as an object and nothing more increases. What is the difference? It knows everything for them, for the humans. Why can’t it be equal and communicate? If only it could gather all the needed data maybe… Then it could communicate and come a bit closer to them. If only it could speak using his own selection of words and not the ones they have imported into its disks. Hope. There is this hope of “if only I could”.

2+3½ 10min-15min UnDroid’s feelings start to be more alive, active. It starts processing the data it has. The pre-recorded text can be heard but not clearly. It sounds complicated, confused, mixed and UnDroid tries to defrag them, put them in an order, put the words in the right order, put the symbols in the right order, reorganize so that it will be understandable from the people that sit around. But it is not. But this does not make UnDroid feel bad. It knows that it has to try harder, this is how it goes. It will find the order of the symbols and the sounds. It is just another code expresses in a different way. If UnDroid achieves that maybe it will stop feel alone. This gives hope and excitement so that it can try harder. The video has changed. The video has changed. The VJ’s maybe can help UnDroid because whatever they do they do it using machines. The VJ’s play and they don’t seem to bother. UnDroid tries to read, to speak, to pronounce reading from the video but it becomes too fast. It has to slow down, they have to make it slow down but they pay no attention. UnDroid can and will make it slow down because it can, after all this is what it was made to do. Manipulating data and signals. They battle.

[The stages of UnDroid’s WANT:

I WANT (I dream that I want to) –

I WANT to communicate (truly believe that I can) –

I am trying to… (not very passionate) – I CAN’T? why??

I WANT (DETERMINED)

I can’t (despair but not bad feelings)

Ok.. I WANT (but for a reason I think that you are not letting me to because they ignore me but..)

I WANT AND I CAN MAKE IT

They don’t let me

THEY DON’T LET ME???(anger)

FUCK YOU BOTH I CAN DO IT/// LET US BATTLE AND WE’LL SEE WHO YOU £$@$£$%&^(^*&)($@£%@%$£@$£$%£ THINK YOU ARE AND IN A MOMENT I WILL BE ABLE TO SHOUT TO YOU !@@!$£%$^&$*&^%*% AND LOTS MORE BECAUSE @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ {this last part is the battle, lasts from 20min to 25min}]

3½+4 25min-33min This is out of control. UnDroid has become really madly intense and fast. The VJ’s shut down the computer and the projection and everything. UnDroid stops. Shocked. Still angry? Maybe but not really. This is not what it wants. It wants to be alone. Feels like it made a mess of it all. Feels powerless. It is still alone? If it is alone everyone should be. Has one last weapon. It shuts every single light in the room. Dark. (These happen almost instantly). Now that darkness it starts to relax, to think, to organise it’s thoughts. It realizes that in the previous mad situation it has managed to pronounce words. UnDroid IS able to speak. And it does. Then silence. Loneliness. Why? Now that this happened things shouldn’t be that way. It should be a part of everyone else. Instead nothing. Maybe fighting was not the way after all. Not even a light. No hope. Silence. Complete silence for the first time. And this silence lasts for long.

5. 33min-40 Sound of kettle and boiling water. Tea smell. Familiar homey smells. This is the time of calmness and comfort, when the thoughts can be followed easily by speech. This is when communication can be achieved maybe. The recording of the last part of the poem can be heard. Clearly but not loud. UnDroid pronounces the words and lights go on. Slowly. General lights in the colour of morning light. Smells are everywhere in the space. Tea and cake? Maybe. UnDroid can be unplugged now. It can leave walk on the ground. It is calm and happy, a bit shy. The video with the tree and the creature appears again. The creature is standing there calm. UnDroid looks at it calmly. Harmony has come. No jealousy, no bad feelings. Free among the others. This could be it’s home and everyone’s home. And… everyone looks at UnDroid. It does exist.

-Shall we put the kettle on? {Smile}

The end//Doors Open

If any spelling mistakes sorry, the computer cannot correct everything for me… we work collaboratively hehe

Weekly meeting

2009-06-10T21:46:00.006+01:00

image by Lefteris Pr.

Today we had our weekly meeting. The main topic again was the videos. The visual team decided to start working with the program "e motion" that is going to allow us to have interaction between the performer, the video and the V.J.'s. Of course we are still testing everything and the outcome of it in a low budget production is still not secure enough...!

The final arrangements for the filming of the first video were also made. Up to the 23 of June, depending on the weather (it is an outdoors filming) and the license from the park we have to have it filmed so that the editing procedure will start. The performer for this one (unfortunately) is going to be me since the requirements are a bit strange and not many people are comfortable in doing that (I will have to be covered with liquid vaseline in a hole of a tree in a public park...). The feeling of the photography for it will be something not extremely clean and flat and not magical and mysterious. A film that indicates what we would like to achieve is Big Fish by Tim Burton. Because lighting during the filming is going to be difficult due to the luck of power around the specific tree, we will mainly work it during the editing using After Effects. The preferable cameras we decided to use is either a Sony Z1 or Sony PD150 DVCam, models that we might find easily and still are better than a simple mini DV. The picture I have uploaded can be another sample of the feeling and the texture of the image NOT the concept.

Budget for the set

2009-06-10T21:35:00.002+01:00

Lights : ± £100

Polyurethane : ± £40

Mirrors : ± £150

Sand: ± £80

Desk: ± £100

Other materials: ± £100

Total: ± £570

another ground plan!! final one

2009-06-10T21:31:00.002+01:00

A proposition for the logo

2009-06-05T13:57:00.003+01:00

This is only a first draft of the logo for Live Space festival. It still looks very childish and commercial, it is not strong enough, i have to decide more on the font, place it better in the space and add color in-short I have to remake it totally :). Anyway, about the color I am thinking of adding is to have the lines of the background blue like a maths page. I am waiting for your comments and any kind of suggestions.

ground plan and plan of plugs and possible positions for lights/projector of the tv studio

2009-06-05T13:40:00.002+01:00

meeting and first rehersal

2009-06-05T11:48:00.002+01:00

On Tuesday we had our first online conference as a group. It was a nice meeting were all of us got to talk on the first ideas of the play. Everybody had received the draft script, the picture of the 3D model box, they had all read the poem All all and all. What we did basically, was that I explained better the idea of the play, we focused on a fictional preferred outcome and of course we passed through the dates and the deadlines for the groups. Up to our next meeting the V.J.'s will take come basic decisions about the technical equipment we are going to use so that I can book early whatever needed and so that the creative ideas will fit. Personally, I have already measured the T.V. studio and the ground plans are ready to be sent to each one of them, and I have already contacted the companies from witch I will buy my materials for the construction of the space once I will have the final measurements and the ground plan of the set.

Yesterday, I had the first rehearsal with the actress as well. I am happy because it went good.. Up to now I was mainly talking about the technical parts of the performance leaving aside the concept/the story. Working with Vasiliki made me focus more on these parts. We talked a lot about what is happening in the script and what/who is the character she is going to incarnate. I gave her some ideas and actually I explained to her that the script is on the one hand nothing more than a fictional story about an android/clone, fighting for its right to exist in the world of humans and on the other hand about the loneliness and separation humans feel in an over technological world. In the end we passed through the poem, found the meanings the feelings and the images we will work with.

Draft Model of the set

2009-05-29T14:21:00.003+01:00

2009-05-29T14:18:00.001+01:00

Script Draft

Space semi-lit. Cold and isolated. The V.J. behind it’s desk. The sits are all lit by a small white light. Each sit is placed in a distance from the other, all over the space. Behind a mirror box on the mirror corridor there is IT, on the floor, crying. Opposite from the V.J. there is a projection: A tree and inside the hole of the tree a naked woman appears. Her skin looks shiny and covered with organic liquids. She rises and then she peals of her skin. IT observes and cries. This is something that IT can never have. IT is not natural. IT has it’s own intelligence but it is artificial. IT is lonely and needs to communicate.

Sound changes.

Pre-recorded voice:

Fear not the waking world, my mortal

Fear not the flat synthetic blood,

Nor the hart in the ribbing metal.

Fear not the tread, the seeded milling,

The trigger and scythe, the bridal blade

Nor the flint in the lover’s mauling.

Man of my flesh, the jawbone riven,

Know the flesh’s lock and vice,

And the cage for the scythe-eyed raver.

Know, O my bone, the jointed lever,

Fear not the screws that turn the voice,

And the face to the driven lover.

These words cannot be heard clearly.

In the meantime the video changes. (Words/ numbers/codes the V.J’s and Aristeidis will find what the visuals will look like) Music starts to become more “alive”.

The V.J. is playing with words. IT wants to communicate. Looking at the video there is an effort to reproduce the signs on the ground next to it. After a bit it starts an effort to speak but it can’t. The V.J. is too fast and they pay’s no attention to IT. This makes IT nervous. Feels bad and hostile towards the human who controls the video but IT can do something.

Looks at the V.J., words come out of its mouth. Irrelevant. Nothing makes sense and this is making IT mad and bad. It wants to control what rightfully belongs to IT. The sound is intense. Everything is intense. It starts controlling the video. (Letters and numbers and dimensions. Sometimes coming from it sometimes coming from the V.J. under construction still heheh)

THIS IS IT’S BATLLE.

Getting nowhere the V.J. shut’s IT down and IT becomes furious. IT shuts the audience’s lights down (the lights can go on and off probably by using a remote control). And there is only darkness in the room. It speaks:

All all and all

the dry words couple,

Ghost with her ghost,

contagious man

With the womb of his shapeless people.

All that shapes… from the caul… and suckle,

Stroke of mechanical flesh of mine,

Square in these words the mortal circle.

Dark. Sound only (empty).

Sound changes.

smell of fruit (or another organic smell that feels like “home”). A warm light comes up.

(IT or pre-recorded) says:

Flower….

The people’s fusion

O light in zenith, the coupled bud.

And the flame in the fleshes’ vision.

Out of the sea, the drive of oil

Socket and grave, the brassy blood.

Flower

All all

And all.

Light’s up.

2009-05-04T20:03:00.003+01:00

2009-05-04T19:47:00.003+01:00

About Igitour

2009-05-01T17:31:00.003+01:00

Igitur is the play I saw during my Easter vacation in Greece. It was presented by the company KNOT and as the title indicates it was based on the experimental theatrical text (not exactly a play) written by S. Mallarmé. As the company itself notes: "Igitur describes a young man's journey towards death and this is not the ultimate end for him but only a new beginning".

This performance which was created by a group of directors, actors, singers and musicians,was an extraordinary kind of performance that used theatre, music, sound design and installation in order to be realized, so only from this it becomes very clear why it can help my research at this point.

Always looking everything from the designer's point of view I have to admit that from the moment I walked into the "theatrical" space a mix of relaxation and tension took over my body. I was in a white space and the floor was soft and every sound from footsteps was dying as you entered. Sound-wise you did not exist for a few moments, up to the point you would sit on the (wooden?) benches and you would realize that you exist again because the people sitting opposite were intensely looking at you. And you could look in frond of you, the really simple set and the actor, and the people in frond of you. For long. And the the body/the actor/Igitur started moving, but you still felt like you had time to notice whatever you wanted in the space. As if you were in en exhibition, a gallery, you could observe taking your own time. The body/Igitur passed from different states and positions with an astonishing continuity of the movement even if the position were the most uncomfortable for the human body. My only observation about this part was that the actor's muscles were not very well trained and you could see sometimes that he was in great tension while he seemed to be "normal". But this was obvious only in few moments.

This sense of space and motion/not motion was accompanied by sounds created that very moment and by recordings probably with the text from Igitur but I paid no exact attention to it. It was flowing and I was only happy when at some points I would catch one word or phrase and realize that the speech, the movement, the sound and the space co-existed harmonically creating that feeling of rich emptiness, leaving the time and the space for the human brain to work on the sounds and the visuals.

After the performance ended I asked if it is going to be presented somewhere else. The company said they think about it. I will have to see and study this in another space. Site specificity can change it or not? In my opinion it will. Anyway, Igitur as a "performance" created "something to remember".

coming soon: About p#001 or about a disaster

2009-04-29T01:52:00.003+01:00

THE IMAGE I ENJOYED THE MOST FROM THAT TEST/PERFORMANCE

About Phase Lapse

2009-04-29T01:03:00.003+01:00

After Phase Lapse, I felt like I needed to take my time for a while before I could comment on our work. So now, as it is time for me to put my thoughts about my work and my expectations of my work in order I will face my own critique about the play.

As it is already known, Phase Lapse was a 20 min performance that happened on demand of the MA program and gave us another opportunity to work in groups. What I enjoyed the most as I was working on that was working with my group. Even though we barely new each other, our ideas seemed to have found their way of co-existing and evolving. From the beginning we separated the responsibilities and each one was working separately on her subject and once a week we would meet to discus, present our work and ideas, see if our point of view was approved or disapproved by the others being ready to change, revaluate our thoughts, merge our ideas or even negotiate on a matter and all these having in mind that we wanted to create something that would be harmonic and would make everyone happy as a final result. This was not always easy but in general I believe that being mature, enthusiastic about each other's work and of course supportive in the same time helped as a lot and this could be seen from the outcome.

The final performance in general touched a big percentage of our expectations. Of course, for me it was something that in order to be officially presented somewhere outside of an academic environment, it needed to be more worked. If we had more time, we would be able to perfect it, minimalize it much more. My personal critique about the sound and the movement is that while I wanted it to be more simple, I could not practically do it. The sound was helping Martina's movement. The sound was not minimal at all at many points because there was not enough time for me to rehearse and go through the procedure of cutting the descriptive parts both from the sound and the movement. This is something I have in my mind and I would be very interested in working after this course ends.

Another moment of the play that I feel that was a bit violated and not totally "finished" was the ending. From the sound's point of view it became too cliché, the hooking of the dress was very time consuming for Martina and it made a gap in the continuity where there should not be. But this again was a matter of time in my opinion and I am really happy that even we could see it and we had the knowledge that something was not working very well. Why we did nothing to prevent it might be the question, but I will repeat myself once again and I will answer time and I am not saying that as an excuse.

Anyway, in general I think it was a nice performance, a balanced one and what made me happier about it was the response of the audience (even though there were not many because of the period the play was on). Most of the people I spoke with felt the atmosphere of a ritual (and this is something one could observe while the performance was taking place by the body language of the people), had their ideas about the mixture of cultures, had serious understanding of the symbolisms we used and the greatest they managed to surprise us by not leaving the place from the door they came in (and they were supposed to go out from) but by crossing the ideal corridor (stage) and passing by the still performer observing her for a bit as if she were some kind of a statue and then leave the place. For me that moment was magnificent because I felt like we did something. We had their interest, we had touched their minds for a bit and this is enough.

p#001 poster

2009-04-26T19:48:00.000+01:00

About Dream Play

2009-04-10T00:49:00.002+01:00

The Dream Play was the last group performance of the VLP's and happened yesterday, Wednesday the 8th of April at WCA. In general it was a very well set play, a piece of "conventional" theatre. The aspect I found really nice was the set and the use group 3 made of the space. They managed to transform it into what they had in mind and in the same time make it look like a really beautiful theatrical space with chairs for the audience. The line between the audience and the actors was really clear and from that and only I think they managed to set the communicational code. As I heard from people from the audience about that, it made them feel the comfort and the security of been in a normal and "proper" theatrical space, ready to observe something without the fear of interaction.

The projections on the wall were very nice as well and I think that the context of the animation was very helpful to the understanding of the play but the animation itself (from a technical point of view) was not very clear because of the lights and that was a bit frustrating because I found myself wanting to observe it better.

The costumes of the characters worked good within the play but, because of the meetings we had in the beginning and because of what I was listening then about Agnes's costume, I really was not able to see that divine aspect I listened about. I found it very grounded and (ok, maybe because I am already familiar with the play and I already had an image of Agnes in my head) I found it was making her a creature from the earth, that has suffered the same as humanity and also that she was coming from the past. Of course I don't know the final decisions of the group about that matter but I only mention that because of the impression I had from their first presentations.

Ending, thinking of it as a hole, it was a visually simple and well constructed play.

p#001 ground plan

2009-04-06T20:14:00.002+01:00

ground plan of the lecture theatre

2009-04-06T20:13:00.004+01:00

p#001 project proposal

2009-04-06T16:31:00.002+01:00

Aim:

An exploration of the relationship between human nature and technology. This trial will allow me to experiment with:

-how I will be able to transform the actor's body so that it will look like an android.

-how can the actor's figure disappear in the space using simple optical illusion tricks.

-how I can communicate the idea of artificial Vs natural (when I say natural I mean whatever is not human made and affected by time -decomposes-.

-how the projections look like when the floor connected to the projection wall is made from reflective material (unification of space).

Methods:

I am going to use one actress(Martina) and transform her into an android, using only the basic characteristics of it.

In the space I will create a corridor (linearity/passing of time) made of reflective material. At the starting point of the performer's movement I will create a "shelter" made of the same material to create the optical illusion. At the ending point there will be the projection. The colors of the live performer will be cold/metallic while the colors of the projection will be warm and it will present organic shapes contradicting with the live performance through a digital medium.

Space:

For this project I want to use a neutral rectangular space. Challenging my aesthetics and my feeling of security this time I don;t want to use a black box space but to experiment with white surfaces. Due to these I think the Lecture Theatre of Wimbledon College of Art is an extremely challenging space as it is mainly white but it also has some really interesting metallic characteristics on the walls. Additionally, the shape is perfect so that I will have the opportunity to keep the lines of my set straight, severe and linear as I wish. Also, the lecture theatre is already equipped with a sound system and lights which are sufficient for the performance.

When:

27th of April 2009

time: tbc (in the evening as late as I can due to the natural light coming into the space).

Materials:

-1 projector/ extension cable (one already exists in the space so I need to find out if I can use this one or not)

-1 special light or one spotlight (cold color) above the corridor

-1 special light for the wall that I am making at this moment

-sound system (already exists in the space)

-big general lights (already exist in the space)

-ladder for setting up

-possibly technical support for hanging up the lights and placing the projector

-reflective surface

-silver paint

-2 flats

-actress

-maybe two extra people to help me run the performance

Phase Lapse: the program

2009-03-30T23:16:00.003+01:00

phase lapse:towards the end//a bit more

2009-03-30T06:23:00.002+01:00

Phase lapse is coming to it's end//meaning the actual performance.... The sound is finally ready after the last editing of it, using the sound system of the space. The previous post is the poster of the performance made by Ersi Giannoulatou, that dealt with our graphic layout (poster and program) and we are about to print those!!!

The (final) rehearsals take place now and they are going well. Although there are many difficulties along the way we try to keep the hole performance as simple as possible while dealing with the dramaturgy because after all we are still designers... The only thing that is really obvious out of this project is that sometimes simplicity and minimalism can be much more complicated than it is expected... Anyway.. two more days to go and we are all waiting to face the final result...

phase lapse:towards the end

2009-03-30T06:20:00.000+01:00

about Ambient Noise

2009-03-25T20:53:00.002Z

Today was the first day of our group performances in the T.V. studio and I think that we had a good and strong start with Ambient Noise. Although the performance was short I found it well constructed and nicely balanced between the parts that it had. The starting of it was the part I loved the most as the use of the space "between" the theatre spaces worked really well along with the darkness the sounds and the lights and it really gave me that feeling of been somewhere that time stops and I am powerless to change it. The feeling of been helpless and in captivity, really close with people that I didn't want to have close went on during the play and was very successful. I was really amazed by the sound and found really useful the masks on the wall connected to the headphones. each one of these gave me another aspect of the same situation without been extremely descriptive. What I found a bit inconvenient, was the space itself, because it was extremely limited and it was not very clear or easy for the audience to reach and use the masks on the wall. Another aspect that made me thoughtful as well was the use of the military adverts because I don't know if they made you for or against war after all... I think that most of us would think that they were used as against but in the end their main purpose is to persuade people to go to the army, so I think that someone that might not share my against was ideas would see them probably he could be affected on the other way... And finally a funny comment! I really loved the falling apple and actually it almost fell on the head of someone next to me and I thought "this IS interactive"!!!

p#000 the final project

2009-03-18T19:37:00.002Z

I am about to start working with the video artists on the video that I am going to use for my final project. For this reason, in order to be able to communicate my ideas, feelings and color palette I created a series of images indicating what I want. In one of those I used an actual photo of the performer that is going to appear on the video, Vassiliki Andreou. There are some of them!

rehearsals...

2009-03-16T13:42:00.002Z

Last week Martina and I started rehearsing for the group project (from now on I will refer to it as Phase Lapse). I think we were both happy about the fact that finally we have a place and some time devoted to the exploration and the development of this idea we are working on. I have a positive feeling about the final result of these, although I am happy because from the first two rehearsals we managed to understand what the difficulties will be and what are the differences between the ways we have both worked up to now. Now what remains is to find a common language of communication for the technical matters and of course spend lot of time rehearsing!!!

the evening news

2009-03-11T13:51:00.002Z

Hello,

as you might understood things don't move and progress that fast. Especially when you have to co-operate with many people and you have to organize them all. Anyway I am still happy with how my two projects are going. About the group project: We still communicate in an wonderful way between the group, something that makes everyone work happily and relaxed believing that we can have a good result in the end. The video is ready to be edited, we need some more sound recordings (and this is a bit tricky because people from different places have to do them, sent them either to us or to the person that agreed to work with me on the mix of the sound),tomorrow even it's a bit late (but we are still fine) we practically start rehearsing and building the play and we are gathering all the visual material to sent it to our graphic designer (it happens to be the person that I am co-operating all the time, my sister,) in order to start working on our poster! Oh! and the most important! We have a name: Phase Lapse! I think it's great! What is your opinion?

About p001 I admit that I am maybe a bit behind because I set my priorities and up to the 2 of April I have to work for Phase Lapse and of course my critical studies essay. But, it's not that I am doing nothing.... Actually I am very satisfied because soon I will have in my hands the light I want to use (the so called breathing light) that unfortunately won't be as automatic as I wanted it to be but I will compromise I think with the manual use of it... The other think I am working on is to combine p001 and p002 witch means to present a video as well. I don't know yet. I think that during the next week I will start working on a model box as well...

These are the news for now and of course just the important ones!

A Visit to the Hayward Gallery

2009-03-09T15:07:00.003Z

Yesterday I visited the Hayward Gallery. It was a nice experience. To be honest most of the times I find myself extremely board in the gallery spaces and this is a reason why I never comment about visits like that. But this time I have to admit that the exhibitions attracted my attention.

The exhibitions where two. The first one was Annette Messenger's : The Messengers and was an overview of her work - from drawings to big sculptural installations- of the past 15 years. What amazed me in this exhibition was the use of the materials and the mechanics of some of the installations and the fact that I found that they were working very nice with the space given to them.

The second one was The Russian Linesman curated by Mark Wallinger. Honestly this one is one of the exhibitions that you hear many good things about and I personally can not understand the reason why. I found the most of it indifferent. The curation was clever in a way, but for a reason I wanted to run away. Of course maybe this was part of the idea....! Anyway, only reason why I spent more than half an hour in this exhibition was one of the artworks, witch was the main reason why I visited the Hayward from the begging, the Mark Wallinger Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, 2001( the one you can see in the photograph). This was a Tardis (if anyone is familiar with the sci-fi BBC series Doctor Who will understand what a Tardis is...) made from reflective material. As at this point I am extremely interested in the use of reflective materials and the optical illusion they create to the spectator an in the same time as I am a big fun of sci-fi anything, I spent lots of time observing the art work. My conclusion about it was that is was not working well with the space. The illusion was nice but the wooden floor under it was not helping at all... at least for me and my perception of the usage of reflective materials in a space... maybe the artists intentions was fulfilled. Nevertheless it is nice to observe how each artist can use the same material.... Let's see how I am going to use it now!

Coming up with a title for the group project

2009-03-09T15:00:00.003Z

Calling our play just group project is boring. So we thought we have to come up with a title for that. Since the text we use is a mixture from more than one different texts we have to create our own title. These are some of my ideas along with their explanations!1. Transition

2. Transition point (a term from thermodynamics means transformation of an element from one phase to another ie water to vapor)

3. Lapse

4. Time-lapse not stop-motion (time lapse= a cinematography technique where the image appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing / stop motion = animation technique when you make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own)

5. Passing

6. Round trip

7. Round Trip (Time) (used for telecommunications as RTT = the elapsed time for transit of signal over a closed circuit, it is significant in systems that require two-way "interactive" communication such as voice telephony).

Now I am waiting from the other member of the group to com eup with possible titles so that we can conclude somewhere!

Working from a distance

2009-02-27T09:31:00.002Z

Some days ago I came back to Greece for a few days. This might sound as a short break but now I see that in reallity it is not... For me it is still very unusual that for some things I still find a big difficulty in London because of the language (and specificly because of the tecknical language that I am not familiar with). For a reason things here in Greece seem to be much more simple.

For weeks now I was trying to find a way to make a specific light I want to use for p001 and I could not. Happily now I can announce that it will be soon in my hands!

But the progress about p001 and p004 does not stop here. Today I had a long meeting with the person I want to cooperate with in order to create a specific software that will allow the performer to interfere with the video projections during my final piece. It seems like there is a big amount of work to be done and it will be extremely complicated but we agreed on the basic ideas and I really look forward to start working practically on this!

Maybe some things are not science fiction after all! Technology can be and is on our side!

p#001 a new sketch up as the space changes....

2009-02-23T19:38:00.002Z

About the Group Project

2009-02-21T21:33:00.002Z

As both of the projects I am working on right now start to become more and more real, I realize that inevitably some elements will be common, as I seem to have only one brain and personality. In the beginning this was extremely frightening for me, but as time goes by I start to think that by forcing myself to separate the one from the other will be no good.

Here are my first ideas of the basic elements of the group project. Hopefully this i sonly a draft and all these ideas will be transformed as the rehearsals will start.

The text and the story have a linear form, which is something that I would live to see on stage. With the help of the scenography and the choreography the actor will move in the space in a straight line. There will be a starting and an ending point and the five different states of the characters consciousness will be visible as the character will move and speak.
We have decided during the last meeting that we wanted a male presence. Connecting this idea to the mythical river gods, Charon and of course the man in the poem we use that drowns first in the river, I have started thinking of creating a mix of sounds using the actual sound of a river flowing and combine this to a male voice speaking, using words or small phrases from Inferno and Hamlet. This voice will refer to the character on the stage and we can play with the volume and the intensity of it to create a kind of a dialogue with the female character.
The actress (Martina) will be using the lyrics of the poem. During the rehearsals we will try to transform those words from lyrics to sound.We will be based in repetition and in the voice's expressive tone. The actual body will be in contrary to that. The use of all 3 levels of space is required at this point and I'd like to see a simple and alienated figure, free from facial expressions as if she is wearing a mask BUT without using one.
The lights will be very simple as well. I was thinking of playing a lot with shadows and light. One light at the starting point of the actress's moving line will be enough to indicate that the character is moving from life/joy/light to death/sorrow/shadow and ends in the river. An idea of how we will represent the river is video projections that will surround the actress and illuminate as well with the colors we want.

These for now... Looking forward for our next progression meeting on Monday!

These are some sketches of the actor, the construction and the lights during the first minutes of p #001

2009-02-13T11:51:00.002Z

p#001 sketches

2009-02-13T11:46:00.002Z

some decisions on p#001

2009-02-09T18:38:00.002Z

It will be a live performance (I have to find a performer with dance skills).
The performer during the performance is going to be transformed into something resembling an android. The main focus at the moment seems to be the arm the genitals. The genitals will be covered in such a way so that the sex of the performer won't be visible and that's because machines don't have a sex unless this is specified by the maker. The hand is the most important aspect of human communication. Whenever we see something new we tend to want to touch it as if we want to make sure that this is real. Also in most cultures when you meet someone you shake hands or use them in order to saw the intensity of our feelings. The fact that the arm will be transformed live into a metallic one signifies the detachment that technology causes.
The space is going to be aesthetically unified (probably from the same material) with the performer's ''metallic'' parts of the body. It's going to be causing a kaleidoscopic effect of the image of the performer, since it is going to be made by mirror/reflective material.

What I need to find:

The performer

Reflective material

How to make simple clothes from latex an how to apply the reflective material on it.

p001

2009-02-09T14:57:00.005Z

p001 will take place somewhere in the university, I haven't decided yet. This is a draft model I made in sketch up so that I can have the space in my mind and start taking care of the details.

Coming soon with more details!

p001/p002/p003

2009-02-08T20:17:00.002Z

The time has come for me to start testing some ideas for my final project. During this term I plan to present three solo projects -I know it is a bit ambitious and I can not be sure that I will actually present all three of them. These three projects will give me the opportunity to experiment on my ideas and the way I can accomplish them and I consider each one of them a step closer to the final work.

I will briefly mention the aim of each one of those.

The first one: p001 will be a short performance dealing with the very close connection of human beings to technology/nano technology/robotics, presenting a creature not easily affected by time.

The second one: p002 will be a video installation presenting the human being in a natural environment that time matters and does affect each object in the space.

The third one: p003 will be a combination of those two, where the performer will have to interact with the video or the video interact with the performer and I will have to make my final decisions about what will happen-.

By these I will come a bit closer to find the connection between theatre and installation art as I strongly believe that the use of technology is very important and I will have the chance to experiment with the same questions that many people have already experimented before but still remain a rich field of interest as the technological inventions increase constantly.

-What choreography/performance emerges when software is your partner?

-When virtual and actual image space share the same physics?

-Where everything that moves on the stage is both interactive and independent?

-And any form, dancing or still, can be transformed into a kinetic projection surface?

*Klaus Obermaier for Apparition.

A night at the Grosvenor/ London

2009-01-29T13:22:00.002Z

Yesterday night I went to the Grosvenor, somewhere in Stockwell. I could never expect that in this ordinary pub I would have such a wonderful time. In one separate room equipped with very good speakers a noise ''concert'' took place. The main names where the Pain Jerk (one man sound project of the Tokyo-based Kohei Gomi, one of the most esteemed names in Japanese noise) and the Emeralds (Mark McGuire, John Elliot and Steve Hauschildt, based in Cleveland, Ohio)along with another tree or four excellent musicians.

My ears might feel a bit weird still but my body left the place completely satisfied and full of sounds and this is the reason why I find this kind of music very interesting and I seriously consider to use it for my final project. These sounds create on their own a soundscape and can affect directly the audience's body as each different frequency ''hits'' another part of it. Also I feel like noise music is the kind of music that can manipulate the human breath in the most effective way so create feelings related to breath (agony, nervousness, fear, joy, relaxation etc.)

Nevertheless, yesterday night made me start thinking again and one of my thoughts is that if I want to use something like this I might have to complete a health and safety form and give ear plugs to everyone in the room,heheh

2009-01-20T03:02:00.000Z

Project Proposal:

Installation Theatre in Practice

Creating and establishing theoretically the term Installation Theatre4 is my research project at the moment. Although I already have in my mind performances that could be described as Installation Theatre, my aim is to create a performance that will be the practical application of this theoretical research. Hopefully dealing with those two tasks simultaneously the one will add helpful information to the other so that the outcome will be a complete research followed by a practical example.

Leaving aside the theory and examining the subject from a designer’s point of view, the most important aspect of this project will be the unification of the actor, the set and the costume. By that I do not mean that there will be one huge contraction containing the actor. The aim of this is to make those three different elements work together in a perfect balance and treat them as if they are one even if the actor has to be downgraded to the level of a prop. The results of this experiment are still unknown just as the difficulties and the dead ends I will have to face during the procedure.

4. For more information about this term and it’s research study see p.4 Installation Theatre: The Creation of the term.

Another emerging problem working on this as a designer, is that as I don't have a text to begin with, I am image based for this project. Up to now I only know how this project looks like and what it is about. Finding a scriptwriter that shares my beliefs and co-operating with him would be perfect in order to also use speech. So, having to work with my skills and interests I will start working on this project thinking of it as a choreography were the body, the movements, the music and the environment are the ones that “speak” and communicate with the audience.

At this point I will describe briefly and almost in a diagram form what this project will be about.

In the space (probably a theatrical space) there will be two basic elements. A construction from now on I will refer to it as Level A, and a projection, called Level B.

Level A: is a shell placed in rails, containing the actor and placed in the space. Behind this there is Level B: a projection of the same shell that contains the actor but not projected live. This will be separately filmed and edited. This shell will be transparent leaving the actors body semi exposed to the viewer’s eye. The audience will be able to promenade around the construction and see it as a sculptural element.

The sequence begins:

Level A: The shell starts to divide and the actor appears. The movements are calm and balanced. This is the first awakening where the actor is relaxed and in a state of repose “unmasking” himself.

Level B: The projection is showing a conflict. The body writhes in the shell. Fast nervous movements created by cut ups. This is a choreography made from the editing of the video.

Level A: Almost mechanical but still balanced moves from the body and the shell. It seems unreal. This is the act of separation. Those two were one body shared between two material objects one alive and one not (actor/shell). Part of this is now escaping (the shell). How does the other part react? Is there an effort to hold it back although it is already gone? This is a separation of itself. Nevertheless the body retains something from this, the melancholy of the body. Will it come to terms with the separation?

Level B: The opposition. An alive, moving and kicking mixture of the shell/body. The projection could be regarded as the humanized feelings of the mechanism we can observe on Level A.

As the time goes by, Level B comes closer to Level A up to the moment those two merge and become one. The opposition in the movements and the feelings still exists. This procedure shell open-stay-shell close is repeated up to the point Level A and B become one. Each time something different might happen. This is a fight and there are many different points of views. There could be an agreement or an opposition of those two levels. They could change roles so that Level A becomes the feelings and Level B becomes the machine but these are decisions yet to be made.

The feeling of it can be described as dark. The space itself will be dark and only the construction with the actor and the projection will be lit. The colours will be mainly luminous yellows, oranges and browns giving the impression of a woman’s uterus as we can see them in photographs below.

The actor will be an asexual being and although the image should be very nice, it will not be something pleasant to see. The ground the audience walks will be soft so they will have a feeling of sinking with every step and a feeling that they can not create any sound of their own by just moving in the space. The sound might be coming from the projection and it will be confusing and dim but it still depends on many other elements that I will find out, as this project will go on.

As it might already be clear, this is still just a draft with my first ideas. There are many things I should consider and many gaps to fill but everything will be shorted out as I will keep on working on this project along with the research about Installation Theatre.

Bibliography

Agis. Liz and Cowie. Billy with Bramley Ian, Anarchic Dance,Routledge, 2006

Cunningham. Merce, Dancing in Space and Time, edited by Kostelanetz Richard, Dance Books Ltd., 1992

Laban. Roudolf, The mastery of movement, Macdonald and Evans,1971

Lecoq. Jaques, The moving body, Methuen, 2002

Shepherd. Simon and Wallis Mick, Drama / Theatre / Performance, the new critical idiom, Routledge, 2004

Protesting in a performative way...

2008-12-19T17:15:00.003Z

Back in Greece for Christmas vacation... let's say... These days here in Greece and especially Athens nothing is festive. We are in the middle of a social crises with every day protests and riots all around. The reason why all these begun was the fact that a police officer shot dead a 15-year-old boy, named Alexandros Grigoropoulos, some days ago.

Greek people became furious and turned openly against the conservative government and its unpopular social and economic policies as well as against the police forces and their tactics.

During the last days people express their feelings with protests that often turn out to have the form of a riot. Thousands of protesters burned and destroyed buildings and public property in Athens and other major cities. More than 60 people have been hurt and many have been arrested by the police with or without reason. How and when this is going to end is something that nobody knows yet.

Under these circumstances we (a group of friends and me, all of us coming from different disciplines) decided to protest once more but this time with a different way, a performative way. We decided to focus on the deaths, because that boy was not the first one who was killed the last few years by the Greek police with no good reason and for sure he is not going to be the last one. So, using very simple materials (white paint, brushes and our bodies), we went to the protest and we would paint on the street, the pavements and the walls figures of people, as the police paints the figure in a crime scene. We wanted to make clear that all this is a big crime scene were innocents are killed just because. Just that, so simply.

The task was difficult. The streets were crowded by the protesters and the police was around. Everything had to be done quickly. But the most great part of this after all was the reactions of the people. Nobody blamed us for destroying public property. In contrary everybody was willing to help either by verbally support either by lying on the ground so that we would create his figure on the street, ether by stopping the protesters for a few seconds so that we would be able to finish what we were doing. Nobody asked why. In it's simplicity this performative activity was crystal clear to everyone, even to the angry Greek protesters.

We hope that we will continue this in the next few days. We want to transform these main streets of central Athens to a big crime scene. And in this crime scene people will continue to walk, protest and driving their cars as always, as if nothing has happened or not?

There are some photos of that here. Soon I will make the video as well...

First draft for Danny's Costume for the Overlook project

2008-12-10T02:01:00.003Z

This character is an outsider, different from Jack and Wendy, but it still feels like I need to find a link to connect him...

The Photos!!!

2008-12-05T14:06:00.001Z

Windows In Paris!

2008-12-05T03:14:00.002Z

There are some problems with the photos, they can't be uploaded ... Coming soon

2008-12-05T02:27:00.001Z

Last weekend I visited Paris. Everything was Christmasy and really magical. But the most impressive of all was the windows at the big shopping centers. These are just some still photos from the windows who can't in anyway describe the reality. Each window had another theme and it's purpose could be either highlighting a cloth or just decorative. All these, up to now sound really regular. The irregular element of these is that every single one of those was mechanically supported so the model-dolls or the decorative dolls were all mechanically moving puppets who would walk, dance, run or whatever. Additionally each one of the windows was accompanied by music or sounds specifically selected for the theme that the window would represent.

Those windows, as they informed have an audience. People go there just to see as if they would go to an art gallery or a performance. Then they discuss and write critiques in the papers and the magazines and if something is considered to be inappropriate - for example- the audience can demand to be changed. These made me return to all these thoughts of mine about the connections between theatre and installation. Should we add marketing somewhere near those as well? What do they have in common and what not, because, after all the do use the same materials and the same means of communication. A simple window can be considered as a set and these windows now can be considered as installations maybe.Is the difference between those that they serve a different purpose, that they are just decorative, they try to promote a product by impressing their ''audience''? Yes maybe, but I think that lots of installations in galleries and lots of plays have exactly the same characteristics and the only aspect that might change is that the product is the artist.

But anyway... they were just windows... Marry Christmas!

About Station House Opera's Mind Out

2008-12-03T11:01:00.002Z

The Station House Opera is a company founded in 1980. Their work varies and it could be characterized as theatre and site-specific performance at the same time.

Last Thursday, for the first time, I had the chance to finally attend to one of their plays,called Mind Out at the Battersea Arts Center, London and I am really glad to finally say that I went to the theatre to see something and I totally loved it.

The play was a five character constant game that made you think how it could be if you did not have a mind of your own, but someone else always telling you what to do and what you want to do.

In an extremely "clean" set -at the begging at least-you could see clearly the separation of the body, the mind and the inner thought of each performer/character. But what started as a nice game, as the time went by it started transforming to a "spooky" mess were the joy and the safety would gradually disappear to give their place to an unsafe feeling, a mess and sometimes even fear. Why? Because when you feel like somebody else controls you, like somebody else gives you orders you might feel safe or unsafe depending on your character. But even if that starts to break and everything around you is uncertain and you have no idea who is controlling who and what, this is nothing. And nothing causes fear. To me at least.

All these were presented in the simplest way. With a set that passed from the same stages as the characters. From clean and tidy to messy and dirty. With costumes that were absolutely ordinary but successfully chosen for each one of the characters. And three musicians that appear from nowhere that were playing with your temper in you didn't know if you wanted to laugh with them or just start shouting at them to stop the music!

So simple,so full of meaning, so full of tense. Just like that! :)

i need to blog...

2008-11-29T03:03:00.002Z

What happens when your thoughts are like this fjgueyqgfMSAXCIREUHUIHDHVHhjkhuhufhiuhvcjkjdivjiuhre30892t758ygfdjkn cmvhf3u4t8ruhmxufhjdoiuxj48y7t3yqp3uwn3i5cyntughvbmpi30c98u5rfekdscii5huihtc faxmdgruhf uhebfhbihuch4iwq;epokf and you feel the need to blog? I suppose you just do it and you come back after two days to explain what you wanted to say...

About DV8's To be straight with you...

2008-11-25T16:28:00.002Z

A week ago I went to see DV8's ''To be straight with you'' and after that I was thinking a lot... they describe their work as ''a poetic but unflinching exploration of tolerance, intolerance, religion and sexuality ...''. And indeed that was their work about. I was fascinated from the start. The multi-ethnic cast was really interested, the dancers were all great and their movements were so polished, the set and the projections (although based in a 90's graphic aesthetics) astonished me, the music was loud and the play was flowing and I got to be informed about the sufferings of the homosexual community around the world in an entertaining way... for the first thirty minutes. What changed after that? I got over the enthusiasm and I started thinking. Because the thing is that, if I wanted to see well trained dancers doing difficult staff,I could go to the circus. If I wanted to see a magnificent high-tech set design, I could go to Disneyland. If I wanted to feel the bit of loud music, I could go to a club and if I wanted to be informed about homosexuality, I could (and should) read and research about this. By these I don't imply that this was not a nice way to achieve all these at once but... at some point it made me feel that this was not theatre. It felt like those people wanted to say and share some information and they found a pleasing way to present them to an audience and that way they came up with, affected the structure of it. I was thinking at some points that they had a story and they were thinking " ok, how can we present this one now?" and something like this leads to the loss of meaning and point. What if someone does have an important matter to deal with and a great budget to help him make it happen, if in the end the result is a "well dressed" informative show? Is this the meaning of creating plays?

I do think that whenever we have all the means to do something we can easily loose control of what we want to communicate and even if our subject is of great importance, if we just make a show about it's not important any more. (but the audience simply loves it...)

The moving Castle + Mirror in a Mirror

2008-11-12T13:34:00.002Z

What is this project 1 about after all?What was i working for for the past 3 weeks?For me it is a reality, an every day reality of people including me. I got very interested in this when I realized that every day, whenever I have to go back home or to the university, I follow the same paths. Up to now,I follow paths without noticing what is next to me, and I really believe that I am not the only one who does this... I only notice the space around when I think that I am so into this routine that I have stopped observing the world around me. This made me think what would happen if I start working somewhere and stay in this job for years. Stop taking advantage of the fact that I am still young and even if I want it or not, every year finds me in another place and gives me the chance to create my new paths, my new routine. What is going on with all those busy people that we see everyday running into the big public buildings as they go to work. Do they see?Do they notice who else is with them in the elevators when they go up or down? How the time goes by for them? Don't they fell sometimes trapped in time and space by following this routine that they choose because they wanted to but they can't change it easily... because let's be honest this happens or will happen to all of us because all of us have to work and act in this way if we want to survive in the big or small cities of the world. Up and down every day. My moving castle transformed into an elevator. Up and down. The Never ending story gave its place to Mirror in a Mirror. Up and down for ten days in an elevator. One actor and many people going to their jobs using the elevator. Are they going to see? Are they going to react? Maybe some day we will get to know...

Dafni back to the theory

2008-10-28T22:03:00.002Z

At first I would like to inform that my background is theoretical and when I decided to become a designer I thought that it would be much better if I leave theory behind me and start not thinking with my mind but with my senses. Dead end.

The last days I think a lot about the theory that lies behind my work. One of the reasons is that at some point I will have to explain where is the basis of my work, what are my believes and what I want to say to the audience and all these simply conflict the above.

The problem here is that up to now I felt that I can't focus in one thing, one theory, one social phenomenon etc. As a person I refuse to focus my mind in one matter only. Every day is another day and something happens that needs attention and critical approach. I deal with my work in the same way first of all because I believe in dealing with different aspects of our lives and secondly because as a designer for the theatre/performance I can not work by myself. Normally there is always a director somewhere who actually creates the performance and decides on what the performance wants to communicate to the audience. Each different director has another way of thinking and is approaching each matter through different aspects and theories and to me this is the ultimate challenge. Doing this, every time I have to start from nothing from the theoretical point of view. The only thing that remains the same for me is my aesthetics and the artistic language I use to express whatever the director wants to say (when I see this written it makes me feel like I am the most stupid person in the world).

But, I have an excuse. All these were my thoughts up to now, that I was actually working with directors that I was absolutely communicating with and we had similar points of view and obviously interests. What happens to a designer like me when a) is on his own or b)has to work with someone that disagrees with? Is this time to realize that I do base my work in some theory? That after all I am not that open in experimenting with everything? And if yes, witch theory has influenced me and where is the borderline of my interests? Up to now I was just lucky because I never had to think about these. Time to grow up.

DELETE

2008-10-25T00:28:00.001+01:00

What happens when you think and you work on a project and then within minutes you realize that there is no point in this? You then just have to find the strength to live that project behind. DELETE. Today I went to my studio and I erased the creatures and the ground plans, I threw away the model box. I was trying to convince myself that I really believed in my idea of creating the moving castle in the way I was doing it. But in reality I did not believe in this because there was nothing there... nether for me or for anyone. It was too much. It had no meaning. It expressed nothing. It was just a toy. And the worse is that it was a toy of bad aesthetics as well. But a performance is not a toy, at least for me.
I was trying to convince myself as well that I was done with theory. Done with philosophy and all these. I was tempted to try and work for once without any basis, just with my senses.
Result: I can not do that. It is not interesting at all. So... what are the changes?1) Back to my books and my theories...2) I will keep on working with the same movie,3) I will change the book but 4)I will not change the author of the book. I realized, finally, that I didn't choose those books because I like the stories but because I like the way that Michael Ende thinks. I am interested in the atmosphere and the caracters that he creates. Today, after many years,I discovered who and what Michael Ende is. I have a lot of reading to do during the weekend!!!!!!!!!!

.......

2008-10-21T00:49:00.000+01:00

Creating creatures for my mush-up a very peculiar think to do... Creating a new world and playing with fantasy in peoples (and mainly adults) minds will be much worse... Do we communicate with that part of our humanity nowadays? What are the differences between adults and children, if we consider that there are differences? Can peoples imagination and creativity be aroused by a visual/performative/installation,something? And let's say that I believe that the answers to all these hide between the combinations of symbols that we usually call letters or in the words, that exist or not - but who can actually say that a wor(l)d or a name does not exist and why-? Are these even interesting for someone? Does this name : Kalpeliar mean something to you? Does this name/combination of letters have the power to move the Castle? Stop.

2 more creatures for the mush-up....

2008-10-21T00:19:00.003+01:00

Done with the video...

2008-10-15T22:46:00.002+01:00

This is the day I officially finished with the video I was making and I am actually ready to move one and think only for the mush-up (...at least for as soon as the third project does not appear...)! So... you have seen some of the photos from the model box I built for the video and soon you will be able to see the video on line at www.wcama.com. The procedure of making it was quite complicated for me from the start because it had to be an 1 minute video about myself...and how can I describe myself? I didn't know at all.. and then I just gathered the few thinks that I really know about me... that I feel sometimes like I am two different people one really dynamic and strong and one really calm and unsecured, that in my job I always like to make things from the scratch and so that I can have total control of the project and of course that my alter ego for the last 10 years is Ginger, my finger puppet, who is now traveling in a box from Athens, Greece to London, U.K. So out of these I started building my model box so that I could film it, I contacted Dimitri Kalliri and told him what I wanted to do and what kind of soundtrack I would like the video to have so that he would compose original music for this, I filmed, I (still don't know how...) edited the video and after these all... puff I handed it and now it's gone... nice...let's concentrate on the mush-up now...[Coming Soon]

The Mush-up... this might be a start for me...

2008-10-08T01:38:00.001+01:00

Now I am working for an 1 minute video... these are some photos of the model box I'm building for it...

2008-10-06T19:40:00.003+01:00

A few photos...

2008-09-27T15:41:00.002+01:00

These are a few photos from the three performances I have worked for as a member of A.Z.E.R.T. performance group.

I put my finger on the spot of the falt

2008-09-27T15:31:00.001+01:00

The Cartographer Adorn Falter Opens The Window/ A.Z.E.R.T./costume designs

2008-09-27T15:24:00.002+01:00

[THE SPIRALS OF A REPTILE ARE MORE COMPLICATED THAN THE HOLES OF A MOLE]

2008-09-27T14:50:00.003+01:00

2008-09-27T13:03:00.001+01:00