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:
A Flower in the Dark Casts no Shadow: Drama, Digital Performance and Uncommon Sense in the Age of AI
Candidate:
Christos Tolis
Supervisor:
Bill Psarras
Date & Time:
Thursday, 24 September 2026 — 15:00 Greece
Join via Zoom:
https://ionio-gr.zoom.us/j/93734864865
Examination Committee
- Bill Psarras — Assistant Professor, Department of Performing and Digital Arts, University of the Peloponnese
- Emmanouel Rovithis — Laboratory Teaching Personnel, Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University
- Daphne Dragona — Assistant Professor, Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University
About the Thesis
A Flower in the Dark Casts no Shadow examines how structures drawn from antiquity, myth, mysticism, and ritual might provide the framework for a contemporary digital performance in which human and non-human agents occupy adjacent roles through generative AI and real-time technologies. Bringing together theories of liminality, systems entropy, new media, Fluxus, Gestalt psychology, and rites of passage, the research asks what happens to authorship and agency when machine agents become active participants within a performative system. A personal account of the artistic process is interwoven with a detailed blueprint for the proposed performance, including verse, code, and a notation system conceived as an aleatoric score.
At the centre of the work is the myth of Persephone and its relationship to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Structured in six acts, the proposed performance connects each act to a quantum phenomenon and uses cosmological measurements to generate algorithmic redactions and recombinations of text, moving between micro- and macro-perspectives of the universe. Within this assemblage of semi-mythical beings, Teiresias—the blind oracle—is given a central role through an artificially intelligent entity. The thesis therefore considers the rationale, implications, and consequences of conceding agency to AI within live performance, particularly when that agency assumes a dramaturgical and sacred function.
About the Candidate
Christos Tolis is an Athens-based filmmaker, director of photography, lighting designer, and creative technologist. Trained as a mechanical engineer at the National Technical University of Athens and holding a Master’s degree in Shipping from the University of Piraeus, he shifted his professional focus toward image-making in 2010. His documentary work has been commissioned by UNHCR, IFRC, and WWF, and he has collaborated with VICE, BBC Alba, Al Jazeera, and other international and Greek media organizations. As a photographer, he was a long-time collaborator of LiFO and has presented several solo exhibitions, including A Game of Power, documenting the Greek lignite-mining landscape.
In 2023, A Voice in the Night, co-directed with Olga Laskaratou, premiered at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival and received the Cosmocinema Award at the London Greek Film Festival. The same year, he directed the interdisciplinary performance The Legend of Kopakonan at the 5th Zadar Organ Festival in Croatia. His latest film, Andreas Laskaratos and the Mysteries of Kefalonia (2025), also co-directed with Olga Laskaratou, has screened at the Kymata International Film Festival and is scheduled for the Chania Film Festival. His current practice increasingly focuses on interactive systems for art and live performance, including generative visuals, audio-reactive environments, and real-time tools at the intersection of code, light, and sound.
Attendance
The defense is open to the public. Students, researchers, artists, and all interested individuals are welcome to attend.
