Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

Professor N. Kanellopoulos is the Head of the Audiovisual Arts Department of Ionian University. He has served as Member and Vice-President of the Ionian University Council (2013-2017), as Head of the Audiovisual Arts Department of Ionian University (2007-2012), as Vice-President for the Computer Science Department of the Ionian University (2005-2007), as faculty member of the Archives & Library Science Department of Ionian University (2003-2007), as faculty member of the Computer Science Engineering & Informatics Department of Patras University (1987-2003), as Quality Assurance Director of the Athens Stock Exchange Depository (2000-2002) and as President for the Greek National School of Dance (2000-2002).

His published work includes 3 international patents, 8 thesis/books and over 120 scientific papers/studies. He has presented his opinion in the mass media on various scientific and cultural matters. He has written one theatre play as well as various literature essays.

Vouvoula SKOURA was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. She studied Graphic Arts at the Athens Technology Institute [A.T.I.]. She lived in London during the Greek dictatorship. She attended courses in Art History [1970] and a graduate course in computer graphics for video at Middlesex Polytechnic [1988]. For many years, she has been involved with experimental multimedia photographic techniques. Her works in film and video have been presented at international festivals and universities in over fifty cities including Athens, Beirut, Berlin, Bilbao, Brussels, Cetinje (Montenegro), Chania, Cracow, Delphi, Ghent, Frankfurt, Kassel, Leeds, London, Naples, Patras, Pristina (Kosovo), Sao Paulo, Sofia, Strasbourg, Tampere, Thessaloniki and others.

Adnan Hadzi is currently working as resident researcher at the University of Malta. Adnan has been a regular at Deckspace Media Lab, for the last decade, a period over which he has developed his research at Goldsmiths, University of London, based on his work with Deptford.TV / Deckspace.TV (DTV). DTV is a collaborative video editing service hosted in Deckspace's racks, based on free and open source software, compiled into a unique suite of blog, cvs, film database and compositing tools. Deptford was formerly a wealthy area, but economic activity declined with the closure of the nearby dockyards, though a process of redevelopment and gentrification is underway, which has led to local debates about the identity and future of the area. DTV is less TV more film production but has tracked the evolution of media toolkits and editing systems such as those included on the excellent PureDyne linux project.
It is through Free and Open Source Software and technologies this research has a social impact. Currently Adnan is a participant researcher in the MAZI/CreekNet research collaboration with the boattr project. The CreekNet pilot engages a diverse population within a limited geographical area, Deptford, in South East London, UK. Deptford is an inner-city area with a mixed socio-economic profile, including low income neighbourhoods, artist communities, student populations attending a range of institutions including Goldsmith’s College, Ravensbourne College and the University of Greenwich; and urban professionals.
Adnan is co-editing and producing the after.video video book, exploring video as theory, reflecting upon networked video, as it profoundly re-shapes medial patterns (Youtube, citizen journalism, video surveillance etc.). The first volume more particularly revolves around a society whose re-assembled image sphere evokes new patterns and politics of visibility, in which networked and digital video produces novel forms of perception, publicity – and even (co-)presence. A thorough multi-faceted critique of media images that takes up perspectives from practitioners, theoreticians, sociologists, programmers, artists and political activists seems essential, presenting a unique publication which reflects upon video theoretically, but attempts to fuse form and content.
Adnan’s documentary film work, in collaboration with his partner Lennaart van Oldenborgh, tracks artist pranksters The Yes Men and net provocatours Bitnik Collective. Together they released the Bitter Lemons documentary mapping lemon grovers on both sides of the no mans land of Cyprus. Bitter Lemons is the moving story of a friendship between enemies that survived against the odds over 30 years of separation. It provides a unique local perspective on the largely forgotten conflict in Cyprus, which became part of the European Union in 2004, from people who have lived with the consequences of this conflict, the memories, the minefields and the barricades, since 1974. Adnan’s current documentary project focuses on his involvement in the media arts collective !Mediengruppe Bitnik. A collective of contemporary artists working on and with the Internet. Bitnik’s practice expands from the digital to affect physical spaces, often intentionally applying loss of control to challenge established structures and mechanisms. Bitnik's works formulate fundamental questions concerning contemporary issues.

Anna Vasof’s series of works «Αffairs» deals with everyday things familiar to everyone: brooms, wipers, harmonicas etc., yet used in a way that is far removed from their ordinary designation. She constructs absurd and impractical situations from them so that familiar objects change their original functional purpose. In that way she is adding the element of the unexpected to everyday objects that dispatch us from everyday reality and allowing us to see the world in a new perspective.

Short CV
Anna Vasof is an architect and media artist. Born in 1985, she studied architecture at the University of Thessaly (2010) in Greece and Transmedia Art (2014) at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since 2004 her videos and short movies have been presented in several festivals, some of them winning distinctions. She’s currently writing a Ph.D. thesis about an animation technique that she develops and at the same time working on designing and building innovative mechanisms for producing critical and narrative videos, actions and installations.