akooocollective

Αkoo-o is a group of artists and researchers that use sound and mobility as vehicles of expression and social inquiry. Departing from different fields -such as the visual arts, cultural studies, musicology, anthropology, literature, sound design, music composition and performance- we share a common understanding of sound as a cultural material that transgresses the limits of our disciplines; at the same time, we consider walking to be a cultural-artistic practice that carves pathways between our theoretical milieux and leads to meeting points with others. Our work is based on research, and it includes the process of collaboration in the artistic approach, through workshops and other activities. Since our meeting in 2013 we have worked on common projects and engaged in vivid discussions that involve our interest on sound, mapping, promenadology, the relation between the arts, technological mediation and the city.

Members

Nikos Bubaris is Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication at the University of the Aegean in Greece. His research interests lie in the fields of sound studies, cultural theory and media studies. He has published in journals, books and conference proceedings on audio technologies, acoustic communication, sonic cultures, sound design and art, mobile media, computer games, user-interface and interaction design. He has edited books on cultural industries, cultural representations and cultural theory. He has produced various sound and multimedia works for art, museum and cultural exhibitions, actions and performances. He is member of the art-research collective “Fones”.

Sofia Grigoriadou holds an MFA degree from the Athens School of Fine Arts. She is a graduate of the A.S.F.A. (2013) and the Philosophical, Pedagogical and Psychological Department of the University of Athens (2006). She has participated in various exhibitions, conferences and artistic projects, such as: the 4th Biennial of Athens, Workshop on value, 2013; Refuge Project II – Testimonials, Milos 2014; Listening to each other / Einander zuhören – Stadt – (Ge)Schichten, Goethe Institute, Athens 2014; Digital Storytelling in Times of Crisis, Athens 2014; 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul 2014; Archaeological dialogues, Archaeology, Anthropology and Contemporary Art workshop, Athens, 2015. She has organised and carried out artistic workshops and educational programs. She collaborates with Elpida Rikou and Io Chaviara in the framework of TWIXTlab, an art project situated in between contemporary art, anthropology and the everyday. Her artistic practice includes mapping, fieldwork, installation, text, audio, video and photography.

Dana Papachristou is a musicologist and artist, focusing in the combination of arts through the use of new technological media. She studied music in the Hellenic Conservatory, Musicology in the Kapodistrian University of Athens, and Music Culture and Communication in the departments of Media and Music Studies, leading to her dissertation which looks into the “Relation of music and painting within Modernism throughout the correspondence of Schoenberg and Kandinsky”. At the moment she is working on her doctoral thesis in the discipline of Philosophy of Music in regards with Deleuze and Guattari, “The Aesthetics of New Media Art in their works Anti-Oedipus and Mille Plateaux” in Paris 8 – Vincennes and the Ionian University. She is a senior student in composition in the class of Theodoros Antoniou, and a piano studies graduate (student of Vicky Chistophilou). In the recent years she has participated in some interdisciplinary research projects about contemporary music and its relationship with other forms of art, in several music projects, and has worked as a musician in education.

Giorgos Samantas is an anthropologist engaged with sound as cultural substance. He has studied Social Anthropology and History (Aegean University, GR) and Visual Anthropology (Manchester, UK). He has participated in group exhibitions, artistic events and conferences in Greece, UK, Slovenia, Albania, and had been a member of Fones collective in Athens. [Border Crossing Network – Salovci, Slovenia, 2007 & Korca, Albania, 2008; Researching and Crossing the Boundaries of “Electronic/Digital” Music, Synch Festival, Athens, 2009; Senses in Motion, Manchester, UK, 2011; Voices : Invitation for Exchange – «Ανταλλαγή/ Αustausch/ Exchange, Broadway Gallery, Athens; Fones@EMPROS theatre, 2012 & 2013; Fones@CAMP!, 2014; Listening to each other / Einander zuhören – Stadt-(Ge)Schichten, Goethe Institute, Athens, 2014]. He is a co-organiser of “sound circles” workshop in TWIXTlab. He is also engaged with the exploration of an anthropology “beyond text”, using video, sound and photography as means to expand anthropological media.

Geert Vermeire is a Belgian curator, poet, artist, art education expert and librarian. As an artist he creates site specific installations and performances. As a member of the noTours team he is involved in projects based on community involvement via locative media, sound mapping and sound-space installations, specifically in relation to literature. Technology as a tool in the creative work of Geert Vermeire has paradoxically the intention to slow down, the awareness and the inversion of time, making tangible memories and traces. He worked in several countries in Western Europe and in Latin America, for SMAK Museum of Contemporary Art Ghent, E-Culture Fair / World Creativity Forum Hasselt, Manifesta9 (Belgium), B-Tours Festival Berlin-Leipzig and Ruhr Triennale Essen (Germany), Monastery of Tibaes – Festival Encontros das Imagens in Braga, Casa dos Bicos and the FBAUL Art University in Lisbon (Portugal), Fotofestiwal Lodz (Poland), BAW Festival Digital Art Tirgu Mures (Romania), A Balkan Tale (Belgrade City Museum, National Museum of Kosovo, Tirana, Skopje, and at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz), Goethe Institut Athens, Museum Bathhouse of the Winds Athens, the Athens School of Fine Arts, the University of Thessaly (Greece), Centro Cultural de Banco do Brasil and the National Library and National Museum of Brasilia (Brazil), next to ongoing projects in Greece, France, Cyprus and Lebanon.