The MARes in Hybrid Arts program of the Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University, cordially invites all interested parties to attend the public defense of the following Master's thesis:
Thesis Title: Re-thinking Neon: Beyond the Signifier
Candidate: Angelina Almukhametova
Supervisor: Iannis Zannos
Date & Time: Thursday, 5 March 2026 — 19:00 (Athens time)
Join via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87401051715?pwd=WVmVRDKjfhmSftcVPFgsdvbbZ7ETOy.1
Examination Committee
• Iannis Zannos — Professor, Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University (Supervisor)
• Adam Zaretsky — Visiting Lecturer, Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University
• Tania Tsiridou — Special Educational Personnel, Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University
About the Thesis
Since neon’s early twentieth-century public emergence as signage, history, art, and culture have largely regarded the medium as a semiotic tool or carrier of meaning. Despite its vivid presence in urban and commercial contexts, and its recurring appropriation within language based conceptual strategies, few writers and critics have challenged neon’s normalized cultural identity and inherited communicative function. This thesis addresses the long-standing interpretive models through three lines of inquiry; history, practice, and theory. Together, these approaches construct a new genealogy of the medium, document neon's affective capacity through ArtSci research, and advance a post-semiotic framework that grounds neon's futurity in embodied practice and open critical discourse.
About the Candidate
Angelina Almukhametova is a US-based transdisciplinary artist working across performance, installation, and sculpture to develop indeterminate systems responsive to site and context. Almukhametova holds a BFA in Art & Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Attendance
The defense is open to the public. Students, researchers, artists, and all interested individuals are welcome to attend.
MARes in Hybrid Arts
https://avarts.ionio.gr/mares/
