It from Bit or Bit from It?
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It from Bit or Bit from It?
It from Bit or Bit from It?
I thank my professor Lambros Psyrrakis and all the professors in the 5th Painting Workshop for their help, discreet guidance, support and encouragement. Special thanks to my professor Aliki Martzopoulou who, with her lessons, opened a brand new path of visual creation for me.
“The Universe (it) derives from an underlying computer-like information source (bit)”John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008)
The uncritical and unrestrained use of computersand by extension digital applications for communication, learning, playing, socializing - was strongly criticized by most of society in the past. Social media, the spread of fake news and the influence of algorithms on content delivery have created a new reality where truth is often contested, while affecting the way we interact and perceive the world around us.
Social resistance to the phenomenon was overcome when our entire social life was mediated and moved entirely into the digital space due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But through entropy in the encoding of information in the computer random stitches inaccurately convert our physical form into its digital version. Is the nature of our dual existence different or identical? For some theoretical physicists and philosophers, it is identical since at the quantum level we share the same materials and the same fundamental function, the sharing of information. Our digital selves are as real as our physical selves and have the same impact on society as our physical entanglement with it.
My research is about this duality, exploring the elements that are lost or consolidated through their rapid alternations. My works reflect the reconstitution of the image on the computer screen. To create them, I refer to the screenshots I started collecting as archival material, from classes and family conversations during the confinements for Covid-19 until today. I crop and edit the photos in Illustrator where I create the shapes and color composition, then transfer to the canvas and paint with acrylics. The focus of attention is on the face; the setting of the space does not matter, it is neutral, although sometimes I choose to unify the faces with their surroundings through uniform forms. The process is reminiscent of stained glass in cathedrals. The white borders depict the void, the immaterial space. What interests me are the feelings and the emotional states that are expressed. My color palette is influenced by television broadcasts of black-and-white motion pictures, which when the signal is interrupted acquire static and colors from the digital color model (RGB). So, I choose white, black and three shades of gray. But since my works, finally, complete their cycle in the physical world I use the three primary colors of the artistic color model (RYB).
My works, like us, have a dual existence digital and physical, with some differences.
The art that influences me and the art that I produce has structure. The lines, the outlined forms, the clear and intense colors, the white, create an order that calms my mind in the visual pollution of the chaotic world that surrounds me. I draw inspiration from Piet Mondrian and the De Stijl movement, from Pop Art and Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, from the Bauhaus movement.
Tenderness, 2024,
90χ130
Tenderness, 2024, acrylics on canvas, 90χ130 cm
Attentiveness, 2024,
Attentiveness, 2024, acrylics on canvas, 90χ130 cm
Perplexity, 2024,
Perplexity, 2024, acrylics on canvas, 90χ130 cm
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Diligence, 2024,
Diligence, 2024, acrylics on canvas, 90χ130 cm
Readiness, 2024,
Readiness, 2024, acrylics on canvas, 90χ130 cm
Seriousness, 2024,
The computer screen has always been a window to the world. However, as the amount of information we have access to increases, so does the speed at which we browse web pages. In the video I have isolated “windows” from the screenshots I have collected and show them at a fast pace reflecting this speed. The soundtrack is the sound of the first dial-up router used to connect to the internet.
90χ130
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• 2024 Basel 3.0 – Artbox.Projects, Euroairport Basel, Switzerland
• 2024 Venezia 2.0 – Artbox.Projects, Cipriarte Gallery, Venice, Italy
• 2024 A Place of Their Own, MOMus Πειραματικό
• 2023 The most spectacular outing, Kil-Hwan Chang Art Museum, Gangneung, S. Korea
• 2023 WSA Painting Prize Exhibition 2023, Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, U.K.
• 2023 /θre.psis/, Toss Gallery, Θεσσαλονίκη
• 2023 New York 2.0-Artbox.Projects, NYC Artexpo, Manhattan, New Νork, U.S.A
• 2022 Art & Technology, Sound Light Color Atelier, Amsterdam, Holland
• 2022 Aesthetic o Faces, Kil-Hwan Chang Art Museum, Gangneung, S. Korea
• 2022 New Art Vibes, Azote Galery, Paris, France
• 2022 New Visions, Florence Contemporary Gallery, Florence, Italy, online
• 2022 The Monuments and me, Πολυχώρος
Βράβευση: WSA Painting Prize 2023, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, U.K.
She was born in 1965 in Thessaloniki.
She was admitted in the academic year 2018-2019 to the Department of Visual and Applied Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). She is a student at the 5th Painting Workshop with Lambros Psyrrakis, Aliki Martzopoulou, Maria Vozali, Christos Veneti and George Divaris as professors. She is also a graduate of the Department of European Civilization (2018) and holds a Master’s degree in Public History (2020) from the Faculty of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University (E.A.P.), Patras.
Selected Exhibitions:
• 2024 Basel 3.0 – Artbox.Projects, Euroairport Basel, Switzerland
• 2024 Venezia 2.0 – Artbox.Projects, Cipriarte Gallery, Venice, Italy
• 2024 A Place of Their Own, MOMus Experimental Center for the Arts, Thessaloniki, Greece
• 2023 The most spectacular outing, Kil-Hwan Chang Art Museum, Gangneung, S. Korea
• 2023 WSA Painting Prize Exhibition 2023, Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, U.K.
• 2023 /θre.psis/, Toss Gallery, Thessaloniki Greece
• 2023 New York 2.0-Artbox.Projects, NYC Artexpo, Manhattan, New Νork, U.S.A
• 2022 Art & Technology, Sound Light Color Atelier, Amsterdam, Holland
• 2022 Aesthetic o Faces, Kil-Hwan Chang Art Museum, Gangneung, S. Korea
• 2022 New Art Vibes, Azote Galery, Paris, France
• 2022 New Visions, Florence Contemporary Gallery, Florence, Italy, online
• 2022 The Monuments and me, Islahane Cultural Center, Thessaloniki, Greece
Awards : WSA Painting Prize 2023, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, U.K.
/ Contact
elsapapag836@gmail.com