HOW TO WATER, a slow performance
Here’s the tumblr output of the project: http://howtowater.tumblr.com
Despite recent breakthroughs in technology water didn’t loose any of it’s meaning as a constant element in life’s history. Beginning from the first creatures developing in the sea, up to recent ideas by key players in the online industry to create artificial life scapes on the fluid surface of the earth. During a 7 day artist camp on the Greek Island Serifos,10 digital-native artists gathered to intervene the current state of the most basic element.
Participating Artists: Anunca Pez, Zafeiria Gkolanta, Eva Papamargariti, Manuel Rossner, Alyona Shapovalova, Loïq Sutter, Thereisamajorprobleminaustralia, Theoklitos Triantafyllidis, Nikolas Triantafyllidis, Sebastian Zimmerhackl
Screening, additionally featuring the works of: Adam Ferriss, Alfredo Salazar-Caro, Anthony Antonellis, Kim Laughton, Motoko Kuzekira & Pvmp Irxn, Rachel Archibald, Taj Borgeois, Vince Mcelvie, Alx Lightning, Eva Fifi, Eva Porre, Georges Jacotey, Peristeri On
Organised and Curated by: Triantafyllidis Theoklitos
Dates: 9 – August 16, 2014
Place: Psili Ammos Beach, Island of Serifos, Greece
In the middle of August 2014, 10 net artists who met each other and worked together in the internet, took the bold decision to reveal their identities and meet in person. The experiment involved isolating themselves on an island for a week, during which they would create freely, under the theme “how to water”.
Water as a subject and metaphor seems to haunt this new generation of artists. Being forced to live in the digital age with a physical body made of 70% of this transparent, odorless and tasteless element, they must also follow its’ rituals and rules while surfing the fluid landscapesof their tumblr and facebook feeds. Not to mention the sharks that attack the interwebs’ underwater optic fiber networks. For these reasons they decided to dedicate their research and honor the life-giving element, placing their first IRL meeting in a place encircled by it. The Greek Archipelago.
Theoklitos Triantafyllidis, host and organizer of the assembly invitednine other artists in the island of Serifos. In his home, that became the base of their operations, the artists had to coexist in real time. Not onlywere they inspired and organized their actions, but they also took their first steps in physical contact, especially as the internet access was limited. “It was really awkward when I had to speak to some of them internet kids. I would feel more comfortable sending them personal messages in facebook, but because we had no internet I was obliged to actually interact with them. Sometimes I even touched them.”Internationally renowned net artist Eva Papamargariti, which participated in the experiment confesses: “I was horrified in the first couple of days but later got used to it. I now recognize smells, it will take years for google to include this in its services.”
First to arrive on Serifos was the Greek group of artists, while theGerman participants, Manuel and Sebastian, in order to betterexperience the contact with water, changed their route to include a Homeric journey from Crete to Serifos. The night they gathered, a full moon illuminated the mystical ritual, initiating the experiment. Large concentric circles were carved in the sand. A girl and a black dog wereplaced in the center. As the moon rose, the artists immersed in the sea, chanting and dancing in ecstasy. Invoking Poseidon, they were only asking for calm sea and 3 bars of wifi signal.