In-situexperience and digital oracles of virtual representations
"Thegod to whom the Delphic oracle is dedicated does not speak nor hide, he sends signs", Heraclitus, B 93
TUTORS:
José Luis Carles Arribas, Environmental Ecological Scientist, Composer, Professor at department of Music at University Autonomy of Madrid
Cristina Palmese, Architect, Director of Paisajesensorial
Spiros Papadopoulos, Architect, Professor of Architecture at University of Thessaly, Greece
Helena Mantzari, Linguist
Magdalini Grigoriadou, Architect
Maria Loukou, Artist
Avrokomi Zavitsanou, Architect
DATES: Saturday, July 14 until Sunday July 22, 2018.
DURATION: 10.00 AM-18.00 PM
Number of participants: up to 20
Registration deadline: June 15, 2018
A certificate of attendance will be given
Description
The workshop proposes the metamorphosis of the in-situ experiences into oneiric future visions. Through observation and collective gathering, the fragmented micro-scenes will predict the future in multiple means:
- through music, electroacoustic, soundscapes…
- through choreography, audiovisual…
- through manipulated images or collage/montages…
- through augmented digital objects; or even augmented presences…
Upon the corporeal experience, a dynamic interface in between sensing and creating, we aim to explore multiple possibilities in the interaction of the body with the space-time. Taking as primary input “situationist” routes and exploration of urban, rural and archaeological spaces of Amfissa, as inspiration and analysis, the participants will map new diverse routes of narration and will detect space-times of interest. These geo-localized points will operate like doors towards augmented ecstatic sites, to future visions.
The strategies of the development of the project are:
- Experimentation with augmented and digital tools, either as communication strategy either as creative design means.
- Analysis of the space-time of Amfissa, recognizing emblematic sites such as the café where movies of Angelopoulos were filmed. Delineation of the connexion between everyday spaces and sounds and their cultural representations.
- Rise of art narratives upon the idea of movie story telling as a poetic collective construction.
- Awareness of the suitability of prophecies: augmented reality regarded as a mirror of our desires, fears and more
- New innovative languages of art; from sound, audiovisual, images to digital modelling and augmented reality
Statement
The divination mania, experienced by all Sibyls, is the god-sent inspiration, a partly revelation of the future worlds. The word “mania”, “ecstasy”, especially in the way Plato and Plutarch use it, is interpreted as a highly emotional state, which includes all the types of transportation, enthusiasm and inspiration (Fontenrose, p. 212). The greatest good is being transmuted through ecstasy, says Socrates to Phaedrus, provided it is coming from the gods. He calls “ecstatic” the higher art which foresees the future. (Plato,244a-245c).
According to one version of the myth, the god Apollo became master of the Delphic Oracle when he killed Python, the son of Gaia, who was the guardian of the sanctum. There Pythia, seated on the high tripod over the chasm, taken over by “an enthusiastic spirit” according to Strabo (Geographica, 9-3-5) conveys the words of the god to the mortals. Like Pythia, Sibyls were all women that believed to be oracles, prophesying at holy sites, inspirited by the divine ecstasy from a chthonic deity. Heraclitus, the first known to mention these feminine figures, described them as creatures that were living thousand years (Heraclitus, fragment 92), possibly related to very much earliermysticentities in the Near East. (Burkert, p.116)
Thus, Sibyls, these ecstatic creatures have been transmuted throughout the human history, being present at all times and spaces, from Babylonia to Renaissance and even appear in Shakespeare theatrical plays. Poetry, inspiration, enthusiasm, and sacred madness… the signs are thus revealed. All oracles are notoriously open to any interpretation and narration. The burden of the interpretation falls on the subject, the self, called upon to become considerate as beckons one of the Delphic commandments (Know thyself).
Bibliographic notes:
Burkert Walter, (1985), Greek Religion, Harvard University Press
Heraclitus. On Nature, B Fragments, 92, 93
Fontenrose, J. (1978) The Delphic Oracle, University of California Press, USA
Plato Phaedrus, 244a-245c
Strabo. Geographica, Book Θ. 3.5.
Workshop structure
The workshop is designed to prepare ecstatic experiences to participants and audience; we want to convert everyone to an augmented Sibyl; a contemporary oracle receiving future visions of humankind. The main objective is to create a magical, unreal, oneiric experience for all audience, a transmutation of the divine, a revelation of the deity through our own experience. Within the framework of this ecstatic research, which concerns the modern spatial representations, the qualitiesare deriving from the relationship among architecture, audio-visual language and digital technology, as means to enclose a holo-esthetic augmented experience.
The workshop explores the spatial-temporal connection between ancient and modern storytelling aiming at a re-composition and search of the forms of the meta-human body, either in post-human or trans-human visions, within the ambiguous meaning of an oracle. The narrative represents a powerful expressive tool, shaped in a non-lineal way. The free association of these fragmented narrative scenes, previous prepared in the workshop, offer to the audience an each-time unique experience of gathering the revealed future. Based on the random sequence of experiencing the divine future images, everyone can prophesize the future as a contemporary Sibyl. Any ecstatic experience is unique, unrepeatable and personalized as the interpretation depends of the subject, body, state on mind and more.
Perceiving space-time as the narrating body, the participants are called to interact with it through a parallelism: on the one hand the abstract approach of Sibyl´s future worlds and on the other the interpretation of the spatial impression of an oracle which is accomplished through the digital representations.
Through this experimental mapping of the space-time-body, a digital work-impression-interpretation of the oracle is produced and one of the modern version of the “divination mania”, or a “augmented Sibyl” as a memory of the past, understanding of the present and prediction of the future.
Timetable (10.00-18.00h)
Saturday 14thJuly
- Reception (18.00h)
Sunday 15thJuly
- Presentation of the workshop (17.00h)
- Walk in the city (18.00h)
Monday 16thJuly
- Augmented Reality and Post Cinematic Strategies
- Constructing the primary narrative
Tuesday 17thJuly
- Space and Sound, Ecologies of the Space
- Random routes- space narrative
Wednesday 18thJuly
- Producing oneiric atmosphere, mythological prophesies
- Ecstatic corporeal experiences through dance, meditation
Thursday 19thJuly- Saturday 21stJuly
- Working on Augmented Sibyl
Sunday 22ndJuly
- Open experiences to the audiences (20.00h)
General info
It is addressed to:
Students of Architecture (3rd - 5thyear), post-graduate students, students of music, sound, audiovisual, dance etc., and artists under multidisciplinary profile. Participants will be selected according to their CV/portfolio.
Participation – Application:
The participation application (brief CV,150 words) and a sample of projects (two A4 pages, pdf file) must be sent to the following address: lecad@arch.uth.gr or cristinapalmese@telefonica.net before June 15, 2018
Participation fees:
200 euros for registration, workshop and hospitality in local dormitories. Breakfast and lunch are included.
Organized by
- Laboratory of Environmental Communication and Audiovisual Representation (LECAD)/ Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly,
- Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, UAM, Department of Music
- Paisajesensorial, Madrid, https://urbanfluxus.blogspot.com.es/;
Collaboration:
TUTORS
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