The 6 minute video shown at Camberwell college cinema room

My visit to United Kingdom – London and my return

It was great to visit London and University of the Arts London. I didn’t visit National Gallery, Madame Tussauds or Big Ben. My nine days of presence in London were spent for the built up of the show at Camberwell College. I was enthousiastic setting up my own installation at a nice corner in the IT room and preparing the space were all the gifted students of Camberwell were planning to exhibit. The IT room had a wonderfull view of  Saint Giles church and my installation with Saint Raphael icon and Proskinitari image just opposite the window, “wispers” to the audience to accept the invitation of the installation.

I have spent few ours at West End of London drinking a pint of beer and eating lamb kebab with my cousin Giannakis at this crowded part of Central London.

Diversity and multiculturalism was evident in this overcrowded place. Many people were watching the Euro 2008 match Holland – Russia in pubs, others drinking and socializing in cafes, other performing in the streets. I was surprised seeing a group of Harre Krishna devotees singing the mantra of Harre Krsihna.

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Assessment Evidence

• On-line text / diagrammatic /visual / aural presentation of your work, demonstrating a critical understanding of digital arts and how your work relates to current thinking and research in Digital Arts

• The Practical work resolved according to your proposal and presented professionally as part of a on-line group event

• Supporting research material in appropriate form

• On-line log documenting your role as a member of the exhibition/presentation team

• A written report in two parts: artist’s statement – explanatory comment and critical evaluation of your own work in the context of current creative practice and reflection – a critical analysis of outcomes compared with intentions, a review of overall progress and outline plan for further development (1000 – 1500 words)

The conceptual design of the Proskinitari: http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/municipality-approval-for-building-the-proskinitari/

The final construction of the Proskinitari according to the design suggested:http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/reflection-3w17

Filming and editing videos while building the proskinitari to the completion of the construction eg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q17D355Kyzc , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPR4HK8t6FA , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq4EY9j-LQw , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtwKD6qehWc

A short length moview of 6 minutes will be presented at the final show.

The creation of the digital icon: http://chrysanthosvoutounos.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/saints.jpg

The practice and study of iconography was really helpfull for the creation of the digital icon and also the other outcomes of this research: I will continue traditional iconography and Byzantine Art research and the exploration of the possible interraction with the Spectacular digital Art: http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/3w26/

The design of the virtual Chapel in Second Life: http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/the-bell/ , http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/reflection-3w23/ which links to:

the webpage www.proskinitari.coma digital narrative webpage where the viewer can send a request to the Saints http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2007/10/06/wwwproskinitaricom/ . The same webpage is linked through the virtual environment of Second Life and the Chapel constructed at http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/Miniard/100/170/20/

I was enthusiastic every time i spottedan ecclesiastic monument and was about to photograph it.Sometimes the poor lens of the 2Mpixels of my mobile phone was seem enough with no  prepaparations, no hustle, no worries, just the right focus, position, attachment. Sometimes a better camera would be an option like when photographing the proskinitari to create the image shown at the final show. I have been also waiting a cloudy day in sunny Cyprus in order to create a dramatic image. I will remember the construction of the Proskinitari and the difficult moments in my life that accompanied it. My camera would capture some photos that i love, like the following below, digitally altered creating Panorama photos:

http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/pan-orama-up-view-photos/, or the Sanctification of the Proskinitari, a moment captured with analog photograph and not altered in Photoshop, http://chrysanthosvoutounos.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/sanctification-of-the-proskinitari/

I was very glad to meet many of the face to face and some online students and work for the built up of the show, Mosh, Day Yan, Nicolas, Katrin, Andriano, Suzan, Sharon, Lusy, Shawn, John…my tutors Andy and Jonathan for encouragement…and many others, Dominique, Ben… My work will show up at a wonder full place and i am happy that i contributed for the built up of the show, building plinths, moving chairs, tables, equipment, painting walls, tables… 

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The work on the ten iconographies turned out to be an open end study. Instead of really rush and finish the icons i decided to stop my work and continue studying for the really important step of the iconography for the faces of the Saints. The faces of the Saints are the A and Ω of Byzantine Iconography, a phase that must be studied carefully and with strong devotion of the Iconographer. I am satisfied of the Digital Icon result. I have acheived my purpose of creating my digital Icon of the Saints i love but the creation of the Byzantine icons with the traditional technique is a technique wich i feel that i am yet far away to master. My devotion to master this technique is true therefore this research turned to be a great pathway to study this art. Digital art has the advantage of fixing errors by undo – redo instead of the difficult to fix errors done when practising iconography.By trial and error i was able to focus on the right decisions avoiding mistakes.

The images are shown below:

The creation of the icon paintings was also hard because of trying to follow the technique of Photios Kontoglou and creating icons that differ in a way of the prototypes in order to follow my own style of work. These works were studied well and the next face of creating the Saints faces is the next goal of this open end research.

For example when i started Saint Nicolas i decided not to copy a prototype therefore i studied varius icons of Saint Nicolas including icons created with Renaissance technique and also icons created in Byzantine technique as shown below.Ofcourse imitating and copying the prototypes is not considered fraud or lack of expressing the personal style. Famous artists have copied other great masters because they loved their works and wanted to study a known image. In the case of iconography is the honored image of the Saints that is drawn and not an image to honour the iconographer.

 

The icons had also the size of 30×40cm therefore the size for creating an Icon for the three Saints Raphael, Nikolaos and Irene was a difficult work. The Icons drawn for churches are bigger so i will consider practising iconography on larger board in the future.

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I have arranged my trip to England from 15 – 23 of June for the show built up. Unfortunately i can’t stay longer and engoy vacation at UK because of family obligations. My Godfather has invited me to stay at his home. It is great to visit London and see they way of life of my Godfathers family here.

I am working on the ten iconographies. After gold gilding the phase of painting the proplasmos – first layer of paint for Saints clothes and skin is difficult for a beginner. After the finish of the digital icon i realized that the work for traditional iconography wouldn’t be easy. Painting Saints clothes must be done carefully with the right selection of pigments in order to transmit the humble spirit of Byzantine art. I was using umber a lot for making the colors look humble, an instruction that i have taken from Photios Kontoglou “Ekfrasis”.

I have to concentrate on the Unit 3

Two interesting articles

Two very interesting articles related with my research are the ones below:

http://www.pravmir.com/article_261.html

and http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17286291/wid/11915829/

The first article analyzes the Othodoxy’s view on virtual reality.

“In practice, the problem of a Christian’s approach to virtual reality is solved, partially, by the fact that it shares well-known similarities with other forms of fantasia. Wherever there is lust, or anger, or greed, or gluttony, the images that incite these passions should be avoided or turned off: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out” (Matthew 5:29). The virtuality of an act should be understood as old-fashioned fantasia. That is why the gunning down of virtual people in so-called “first-person shooter” games is so troubling.”

I have mentioned the issue of “Spectacular” in previous posts and this article is so relevant with the issue of Spectacle in art. Fantasia is a relative word to spectacle therefore the decision to keep my project on a less spectacular or impressive style was the the right one. Ofcourse the presence of a virtual chapel in Second Life is quite “modern” and alien to the Orthodox church rimes but it works in this environment and creates new ethics that assimilate with the standard. Its working in a simillar way that television broadcast the liturgy every Sunday. The flock has to choose between Going to Church on Sunday, viewing the liturgy on tv or stay and sleep in the cosy bed. The physical presence at the house of God is different than the comfort of sitting on the sofa. The Holy Communion also enables the believer to commune the Holy Spirit and receive the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ. But why not for a church to exist in a virtual environment. It can also commune the Holy Spirit to the receiver in a different level.

One day i logged in Second Life. I was hearing strange noises, and mans voice. Somebody left a robotic avatar looping inexpedient words just next to my chapel. Someones sick fantasia used virtual environment and knowledge to create something sick.

The second articles analyzes the research in helping patients overcome ills.

“Researchers are studying whether a video-game version of Iraq can help returning veterans cope better with post-tramautic stress disorder.”

“The evidence is still tentative, but experts on virtual worlds as well as health care say they see a lot of promise in virtual worlds as a forum for addressing real-world woes in a kinder, gentler environment.”

Therefore why not a virtual world that is relative to religion ethics not be able to offer similar benefits to people who suffer psychologically or bodily.

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The video above is a presentation of my research at the college i work in Cyprus. It was presented to a group of students before my visit to England for the show built up. The image of the proskinitari which i will show at  Camberwell was mounted on the wall showing the students the coexistence of a virtual chapel and a real – physical proskinitari. I have explained that sending a request to http://www.proskinitari.com is optional and it is addressed to people that are far away to a real orthodox church.

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 By touching – clicking on the fountain of the chapel the user can link to the webpage http://www.proskinitari.com . A label enables the user to go to the certain page.

 Work was done in order to create the interractivity of the virtual chapel with http://www.proskinitari.com

The user is informed with written messages how to interract with the icon of Saint Raphael or the fountain in order to submit a request.

 

 

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I had the chance to present my presentation to classmates and our tutor Andy. The link is:

http://www.voutounos.com/videos/MyFinalPresentation1.wmv

 My classmates bombarded me with questions (they are really good) and tried to answer in a period of ten minutes. I try here to answer with some more clarified additions.

Jessica stated that she had goosebumps watching the video in my presentation. The liturgical purpose of Byzantine art is to help people approach God using their sence of sight. I think the event in the movie of the litania – priests carrying the Icons of Saint Raphael and the icon of the Resurrection of Christ is a video serving the same purpose. Iconographers are considered priests. They “write”an icon and when signing, they sign, δια χειρός …… -   by hand of….. Some iconographers may not sign an Icon. Iconographers are “servants of the image that becomes a window through which, both ways the human and divine are operative”.

Lucy asked:Hi Anthos, Forgive me for my ignorance but I don’t understand the festival you are celebrating in the video…. How does this relate to your project?How will non-christians understand the significance?”

The “festival” is the day that the Saints are celebrated. They are celebrated on the day that they martyred, the day that bodily died. In Orthodox church every day is devoted to a Saint and many proskinitaria, chapels, temples are built in their memory. 
John Baugh asked: Anthos can people actualy communicate from the SL chapel
Paul Thompson asked: Anthos you have made both physical and virtual work in your project – have you found ways of getting people to cross the boundaries – eg can they ask prayers online?

The answer is yes. People can join SL and communicate from Second Life chapel. They can send also an online pray to the site: www.proskinitari.com

Sean Clark asked: Is your work more a theological study rather than a digital arts study.How does it related to contempory digital arts practice?

As i stated in the artist statement i try to visualize Byzantine art through a digital prism. I have shown my project to a Theologian – Priest and approved my project. I was very careful all this time to show the proper respect to the formalism of Byzantine art but the same time present a contemporary digital art project. Off course my project has a Theological extension but this was inevitable due to the structure of Byzantine Art.

Susan Wishart asked: Anthos, as this is a personal spiritual journey for you, do you feel as though you have reached a peace within by creating this piece?Do you feel as though you can now communicate your spirituality in your own way?
Tara Smith asked: Do you feel this journey has strengthened your faith and in which way?

It has strengthened my faith in a way that i researched and found out about Saints lives!This is of great importance for me, for people wanting to imitate Saints way of life and become also Saints. This is the purpose of Human Life. Iconography,the study of Bible and other religious texts and participation at the liturgy in Church were essential for the completion of this project and the improvement of my spiritual state.

 Jessica D’ Avidgor asked: And I wondered how people will know about your “real little” chapel?    John Baugh stated: I admire the fact that you have both an virtual and phyisical aspect to you work.It appeals to different generations.

The answer to Jessica, about how making known to people the construction of Proskinitari is the video that will be exposed at the show. The conception of the construction of Proskinitri works better in the physical space that is built. At the beginning i had the idea to make this physical Proskinitari interractive but after mature thought it was clear in my mind that it wouldn’t “work” in the environment of my country due to the fact of formalism in Byzantine art and Church, the so called “tipiko”. There is tipiko for everything, the liturgies, fast, etc. This tipiko is helpful in order to keep the bond of the pilgrim in Church. Many think that following the tipiko is not essential, eg going to the Church every Sunday or to observe the fast but actually all these differentiate the real Christian who follow his master Jesus Christ. As i state my final presentation the tipiko is like the shell of an egg that holds the yolk – spirituallity inside. I am glad of the final statement of John Baugh. This was one of my objectives, to make my project open to different generations, young and old, strong or tepid beleivers. I am not sure of the approach to agnostics or Atheists. I don’t want to offend the religion or dogma of any people.

 

 

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i am working also in the environment of Second life. I have decorated the back circular window of the chapel with a IC XC NI KA (IC XC is the Greek abbreviation for “Jesus Christ”. The letters ni, iota, kappa, and alpha spell NIKA, which means “conquers.” Therefore, IC XC NIKA means “Jesus Christ Conquers”).

The chat session was focused on the online presentations. The Q&A session was really interesting and the presentations of every student unique! I was scheduled to present mine next week, along with Rajinder and Susan because the lack of time.

The link for my final prsentation is the following: http://www.voutounos.com/videos/MyFinalPresentation1.wmv

I had some problems uploading the final presentation to the hosting server but finally i secceeded.