'Bauhaus: Art as Life', Barbican Art Gallery (posted on 10/7/12)

Print screen

A couple of weeks ago I visited the celebrated Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery. As the name might state the obvious, the whole exhibition was about the Bauhaus movement; a movement that what we call design is rooted there.

The show was massive -and perhaps too much, as it presents Bauhaus from its very first endeavors in form and color followed by furniture, catalogues, sculptures, architecture and so on, up to the last photograph that was shot in the school's canteen the day that it became past.  In conclusion, it was a very well curated show, very large and multi disciplinary ranging from linoleums and typography to furniture and photography. It's not that the informed viewer will see something new, but perhaps they will be able to observe a sequence of evolution that was trigured and gradually shaped contemporary visual culture. The exhibition will be on public display until August 12th, 2012.


Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
July 12

MA Symposium No2 (posted on 10/7/12)

Photo by N. Georgopoulos

There is something about presenting your work which is exciting. For me, presenting my work is simmilar to a gig -you go on stage and you perform live! You give your best performance in order to communicate as good as you have imagined.

Towards the end of June of 2012, every student from MA Graphics (including the author) gave a 10 minutes presentation about their work followed by another 10 minutes Q&A at the Ceramics lecture theatre at Camberwell College of Arts. Overall, it went very good. As far as concerns me as a researcher/designer at Camberwell, it was exciting and surely something I needed to do because I had just finished the first part of my project (June 14, 2012) and felt the need to present it as a whole, as a sequence -because that was the way I had conceived it.

My father always tells me that apart from the apparent benefits that one gains when presenting their work, the real and most essential value they get out of their presentation is that of the preparation.


Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
July 12

Camberwell College of Arts summer show (posted on 10/7/12)

Photo by N. Georgopoulos

Congradulations to all of the Camberwell College of Arts' BA students who exhibited their work on the 16th of June at the 2012 summer show. I tryed to see most of the work but couldn't due to hardcore MA work. From what I saw though, I felt really proud to be part of this famous London-based academic institution. BA Photography, BA Sculpture and BA Illustration had some absolutely mesmerizing projects! Well done!


Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
July 12

Damon Albarn & Rufus Norris, 'Dr. Dee', opera (posted on 10/7/12)

Damon Albarn at a rehearsal for 'Doctor Dee'. Photo by Jonny Donovan. Print screen.

British Design 1948-2012, V&A (posted on 10/7/12)

Print screen

Research Project, 'June 14, 2012', web site (posted on 7/7/12)

'June 14, 2012', home page. Web Site.

This website was designed in order to host the Identity pictures that the participants of the Installation took inside the photo booth. Since printing the pictures instantly during the event was not an eligible thing to do -from a budget perspective- I designed a website where people could visit so as to download their pictures instead of posting them on a Facebook event page or on Flickr -something that could destruct them from the project to some degree or another.

On that basis, I applied the same sort of design approach with the intention to create a consistent identity for the whole project. What is more, designing a bespoke space for an event in order to 'place' the photographs that were taken during its context, is something that provides to the participants a reassurance that their pictures are not distributed irresponsibly around the web nor they are posted to a free, and therefore dodgy platform.

'June 14, 2012', photographs. Web Site.

'June 14, 2012', Web Site. Design specifications.

'June 14, 2012', Web Site. Design specifications.

Art Direction & Design: Nikos Georgopoulos
Coding: Thodoris Tsiorkas
URL: http://14-6-12.com


Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
June 2012

Research Project, 'June 14, 2012', participatory installation (posted on 7/7/12)

'June 14, 2012', participatory installation. Photo by N. Georgopoulos.

My research project at Camberwell College of Arts is an enquiry into the concept of self-awareness -a state that one can gradually acquire through a journey of self-exploration. More specifically, the aim of this research is about communicating as well as exploring how such a concept translates into real life.

After a lot of research and tests, I came up with the idea to communicate a particular state (destination) through a synthesis (journey). On the basis that self-awareness presupposes experience, the project culminated on June 14th, 2012, into an interactive installation of the same name, consisting of a ready-made bookshelf (containing objects-symbols) and of a photo booth (mixed media) -symbolising respectively the concept of (our) background and that of identity. People were invited to choose an object from the bookshelf that they could identify as a point of reference to who they are; and to take an identity photograph with that object by using the photo booth –essentially communicating that; in real life, people ‘acquire’ their identity by becoming aware of themselves.

The id photographs as well as the interviews of the participants regarding their choice of object will be included into a year book-like catalogue which I am currently designing and will display at the Final show in September.

'June 14, 2012', participatory installation. Photo by N. Georgopoulos.

'June 14, 2012', participatory installation. Photo by N. Georgopoulos.

'14-6-12, How to participate', installation hand in. Photo by N. Georgopoulos.

'June 14, 2012', participatory installation. Photo by N. Georgopoulos.

'June 14, 2012', participatory installation. Photo by N. Georgopoulos.

'June 14, 2012', installation set up. Photo by Ch. Iosifides.

'June 14, 2012', preparatory sketches by N. Georgopoulos.

'June 14, 2012', photo booth construction in collaboration with Dylan Frazao. Photo by N. Georgopoulos

'June 14, 2012', spatial study by N. Georgopoulos.

'June 14, 2012', preparatory sketches by N. Georgopoulos.

'June 14, 2012', spatial study by N. Georgopoulos.

Cardiff & Miller, 'Opera for a Small Room', installation, 2005. (posted on 7/5/12)

Cardiff & Miller, 'Opera for a Small Room', mixed-media installation, 2005. Screen shot.

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are 2 Canadian artists who work together primarily producing sound and sculptural works. I have included this particular project of theirs in my research because of some similarities that my research project and their installation share with each other, not on the basis of concept and/or content, but on the basis of the materials that have been used in order to compose a context. Opera for a Small Room is a mixed media installation including sound, record players, records and synchronized lighting.

At this point, it would be very usefull to concider a small extract from the project's description that is available through their website: ''...There are twenty-four antique loudspeakers out of which come songs, sounds, arias, and occasional pop tunes. There are almost two thousand records stacked around the room and eight record players, which turn on and off robotically syncing with the soundtrack. The sound of someone moving and sorting albums is heard. The audience cannot enter the room. To see and hear his world, they have to look through windows, holes in the walls, and cracks in the doorways and watch his shadow move around the room.'' 

In conclusion, while that sort of construction of a situation is very interesting and provoking(image 2), personally I find a bit frustrating the fact that one does not really understands what this situation is about -beyond the obvious- and most importantly, what is the outcome -visual, conceptual or other- seeking to communicate. You can see more about this project here.

Cardiff & Miller, 'Opera for a Small Room', mixed-media installation, 2005. Screen shot.

Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
May 2012

Dimitris Papaioanou, 'Inside', performance, 2011. (posted on 7/5/12)

Dimitris Papaioanou, 'Inside', performance, 2011. Screen shot.

Dimitris Papaioanou is a Greek stage director, choreographer and visual artist who drew international media attention with his creative direction of the opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

In 2011 he conceived and directed 'Inside' as 6 hour stage work with no beginning, middle or end. Surprisingly, he presented it for a limmeted number of performances in a contemporary Concert Hall-music theatre in Athens, as opposed to some sort of a squad that one would expect for such an avant-garde, weird spectacle. Here it would be very helpful to consider a small part of the press release:

''... You can watch as much as you like, sit wherever you like, exit and re-enter as many times as you like. INSIDE is a work born where two situations come together: a performance that runs endlessly meets audiences who come, go and switch seats whenever they like. On stage the work constantly recycles itself. It makes use of the same material in different ways that are never repeated. A single simple series of personal, everyday actions is combined and superimposed to create countless compositions. A bedroom in the heart of a theatre transforms a personal place into public space. A theatre in the heart of the city opens its doors to the public and invites audiences to watch the action as if gazing at a landscape. INSIDE treats the theatre as an exhibition space, the work as an exhibit, and invites audiences to act as visitors.''

As far as concearns the performers they are all professional dancers. But, in each performance a limmted number of people from the audience are encouraged to participate in the performance with a short rehearsal before hand. Because, that kind of interaction makes sense and offers to the format of the performance the conceptual validity that needs and perhaps, it is designed for acquiring progressively. ''...  a place in the performance has been set aside each day for one audience member. If INSIDE appealed to you and you can see yourself inside the room, talk to one of the ushers to sign up. We’ll decide together which day you’ll join us on stage. On that day you’ll rehearse with us for about an hour to learn the same sequence of movements that everyone performs. Then you’ll be ready to come inside. We’ll give you one free ticket for a friend to come see you, and a 15-minute DVD of your time on stage to remember us by when you leave.''

Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
May 2012

Dimitris Papaioanou, 'Inside', performance, 2011. Screen shot.

Dimitris Papaioanou, 'Inside', performance, 2011. Screen shot.

Dimitris Papaioanou, 'Inside', performance, 2011. Screen shot.

Interview with Dimitris Papaioanou about 'Inside'.

Stefan Sagmeister, 'Deitch Steam Room', installation, 2008. (posted on 7/5/12)

Stefan Sagmeister, 'Deitch Steam Room', installation, 2008.

Stefan Sagmeister is a very well known Austrian Graphic Designer who lives and works in New York. Through out his career, Sagmeister lectures regularly and he has worked across all kinds of platforms, from the Casa da Musica identity and Lou Reed's record sleeves to Aiga Detroit poster and various large scale, public or site specific installations.

As part of his show called 'Things I have learned in my life so far', which was shown at Deitch Projects on Grand Street in New York's Soho district, Sagmeister and his team created a small steam room in the storefront of the gallery that kept the windows permanently fogged up. They invited an entire array of New York designers (each one every hour) to come and write any of the exhibition's maxims (such as: assuming is stifling or worrying solves nothing) into the steamed up windows.

Stefan Sagmeister, 'Deitch Steam Room', installation, 2008.

In my view, it is fascinating how this installation works in conjunction to the rest of the show, or as a sort of viral performance for the exhibition. Apparently, the theme of the exhibition is about things that the designer learned in his life and have kept in his diary -as he had pointed out repeatedly while giving lectures. In that respect, the whole show was a visualisation of these things, which came out of his diaries as statements, e.g. 'Everybody thinks they are right' or 'Trying to look good limits my life' and so on, so forth. What is more, it's a very interesting notion if one thinks about how the installation was 'visualised' since it's very concept is about memories, experiences, life and death, oblivion, desperation, struggle, salvation, story-telling, remembrance, redemption etc. All of these things can fit in the conceptual or literal context and circumstances of that small steam room.

Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
May 2012

Sulki & Min, 'Office for Archival Reproduction', installation, 2006. (posted on 6/5/12)

 

Sulki & Min, 'Office for Archival Reproduction', interactive installation, 2009. Screen shot.

Sulki Choi and Min Choi are 2 Korean Graphic Designers who set up on their own in 2003 in order to work together on various commissioned and self-initiated projects. I first learned about the couple a few months ago when I was doing some research on the Jan van Eyck Academie identity, Maastricht, NL.

The 'Office for Archival Reproduction' (from now on referred to as OAR) is an installation that the couple produced as a contribution to ‘Frame Builders’, Insa Art Space (IAS), Seoul, 24 May – 2 July 2006. The installation aims to become a temporary office responsible for documenting how the IAS Archive is used during the period from 24 May to 2 July 2006. The central activity of OAR is to collect photo-copied pages of the Archive’s materials, made by its visitors, staffs, or any other users. The collected copies will be organized into a book afterwards as a record of the IAS Archive’s life: without any central planning, it’s going to be an almost random archive of the Archive itself. I am attaching hereto a small part of the text, which was posted as part of the installation.

''... Although the OAR is physically inhabiting the IAS, it’s not part of its official organisation: the office has no employees, and its operation is completely reliant on visitors’ – your – participation. We encourage you to freely browse the Archive, find materials that interest you, or the ones for any reason you think worth highlighting, then duplicate and contribute the pages to OAR.''

In my view, this work is very interesting and the concept that the final outcome of this installation is '... completely reliant on visitors’ participation' is fascinating. However, for some reason I feel that this usefulness that nowadays seem to accompany some fine-art projects is accompanying this one as well. In particular, the way that this project is installed and/or conceived, inevitably raises questions; the usual unanswered ones that emerge out of various projects within visual culture such as 'what was the original idea of your project?'. In other words, 'what was the question or issue that your concept attempted to address?' 'What is the use of this 'temporary office -if any?'. 'Is it going to be something like a publication that reflects something relevant and therefore useful to the organisation? 

Nikos Georgopoulos,
London,
May 2012

Blitz theatre group, 'Guns! Guns! Guns!', theatrical performance, 2009. (posted on 6/5/12)

 

Blitz theatre group, 'Guns! Guns! Guns!', 2009. Presented at the National Theatre of Greece. Screen shot.

Blitz theatre group was formed in 2004, in Athens, Greece. In 2008 they conceived and directed a theatrical performance in the National Theatre of Greece called 'Guns!Guns!Guns!' In the press release they use a Jean Baudrillard's quote which reads that ''... since the world follows a delirious path, we have to adopt a delirious point of view.''

'Guns! Guns! Guns!' is a delirious review of the 20th century. Using various means, 6 performers, one after the other, sitting behind a big table in front of the audience, present and re-present crucial -for them- moments and characteristics of the century. Historical personalities, audio documents, romantic heroes, moments, public speeches, guns, movements, songs, flags etc. are the raw material of the performance.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen the performance when it was elaborated in Athens. Therefore, I can't really analyze it on the basis of its production. What I can say though, is that the concept is very very interesting and if produced and directed very good, I can imagine being brilliant!

Nikos Georgopoulos

London,

May 2012

John Smith, 'Associations', 16mm film, 1975. (posted on 6/5/12)

John Smith, 'Associations', 1975. 7 mins, colour & Sound, 16mm. Screen shot.

I saw John Smith's Associations an evening at Camberwell Space during the 2nd week of the Into the Fold exhibition, organised by the Camberwell Press. I was shocked -it was that good! 

''... Images from magazines and colour supplements accompany a spoken text taken from ‘Word Associations and Linguistic Theory’ by Herbert H Clark.  By using the ambiguities inherent in the English language, Associations sets language against itself.  Image and word work together/against each other to destroy/create meaning.''

I have included it into my research because its concept is inspired by Psychoanalysis, stream of consciousness writing as well as free writing in order to build an amazing 'narrative'.
View extract here.

Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
May 2012

Martin Arnold, 'Piece Touchee', 16mm film, 1989. (posted on 6/5/12)

Martin Arnold's 'Pièce Touchée',16mm Film, b&w, 16 min. Screen shot.

Martin Arnold is an Austrian experimental filmmaker know for his obsessive reworkings of found footage. Lots of critics conccider him as a representative of the generations of artists making the transition between experimental film and video art.

In 1989 he did an 16mm film called 'Piece Touchee' based on a single 18-second shot from a 1954 film called 'The Human Jungle' (directed by Joseph M. Newman). What was the original movie about is irelevant -at least for his piece. By editing and stretching out the 18-second sequence into a 16 minutes piece.. he is attempting to create, or possibly unearth, narratives concealed within the mundane film from which he sampled. Thus, in 'Piece Touchee' are fitured a man and a woman. Their figures on the screen flip back and forth between frames as the motion is repeated and reversed and therefore, one can conceptually translate these movements and/or to identify through out the densification and dilutions hidden meanings that reference to the overall arising visual context of the movie he sampled.


In this one, a woman is reading something on the sofa. A man -husband- enters the room. By the editing, we can see the mans figure going back and forth and therefore, entering (the house) and stepping back (leaving the house). He might have a girlfriend, he might want to say that in his wife but he doe not have the balls to do that. Whereas, in the original movie he (the man) enters and kisses his wife straight away, Arnold calls him a liar and he proves his point through reworking his spectacular, stereotypical male entrance as the 'Piece Touchee.

View an excerpt here.

Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
May 2012

Virginia Woolf, 'Mrs Dalloway', film adaptation by Marleen Gorris, 1997. on screen (posted on 6/5/12)

Mrs Dalloway, 1997. Directed by Marleen Gorris. Print screen.

Recently, I have been doing some research on the Stream-of-Consciousness writing for my project at Camberwell. In literary criticism, Stream-of-Consciousness is used as a method to portray an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions. But how is it translated when integrates into visual culture?

I discovered that one of the most important novels that use the Stream-of-Consciousness writing, Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway'(1925) was adapted into a film by director Marleen Gorris in 1997. The whole movie was characterised by flash backs, parallel narratives, voice superpositions etc. I must admit that, even though Vanessa Redgrave was excellent as Mrs Dalloway, and the film was good and strong as well, its direction was a bit looser than I would have expected it to be. It wasn't clear enough some times and some times it was very coherent and therefore, the movie developed some sort of inconsistency.

In my view, the context of the film should be much more edited in a much more experimental way; not noisy, nor deconstructed. It could be as minimal as a very show, whitish single shot minimalistic video. It needed a little bit of Martin Arnold's approach. Other than that, as a film it was very much enjoyable.

Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
May 2012