LINA Mantikou _portfolio_
“Beauty is the promise of happiness” Stendhal “Perhaps you should ask if the dancer is a machine. But of course, he is a beauty performance machine, a machine alive breathing and experiencing the most exquisite emotions.” Andre Levinson, Anthology of Theatrical Art, 1950
Contents: pg. 4-9 pg. 10-13 pg. 14-15
ODETTE, ideal destructions | thesis project 2011 The idealised body | Research Theme 2010 Spatial transformations | special design studio 2008
pg. 16-17
The Mechanism of Dream | elective 2009
pg. 18-20
Pavillion of University of Volos | design studio 2008
pg. 21
Speech,plot,weave | 8th - 9th Fashion week workshop 2008
pg. 22-23 Museum pavillion at Thessaloniki | special design studio 2009 pg. 24-27
“Karla� residential estate | design studio 2009
pg. 28-29
Body Containers | special design studio 2008
pg. 30
Scenic space design | elective 2009
pg. 31
Cohabitation | performance in design studio 2007
pg. 32
Conceptual design_ Neopoetics(II) | elective 2009
pg. 33
Transformotions | ex-machina workshop Volos 2010
ODETTE, ideal destructions|thesis project 2011
The thesis ÂŤOdette|ideal destructions" is an interpretation of the classical choreography of 1871, the Swan Lake. This interpretation, through the original plot of the myth, alternating between the two spatial conditions, the lake and castle, and the relationships formed in these two environments, tries to revisit issues of symmetry and idealisation today. The axis of symmetry, as a remaining part of the sublimation process during the Renaissance and Romanticism, becomes the tool of the present reinterpretation of symmetry.
The installation consists of a floor and three video projections. The floor comprises four units in addition to the original scenes of the choreography plot. Each unit consists of a composition of thin fragile laces, handmade by the heroine (me). The whole floor is a score of the new choreography, the performance of the heroine, marked by vertical weights. The three videos are inset between the three pauses of the choreography. They are related to the three more important moments of the original plot, the death of Odette, the love between her and the prince and the misleading of the prince by Odette’s alter ego Odile.
video 1_ the dying swan
The new dying swan is set at the beginning of the plot, an endless state between life and death, woman nature and the nature of the swan. As a dance archive, the performance of Prima Ballerina Assoluta Maya Plisetskaya from “The dying swan” in 1969, choreographed by Michel Fokine for Anna Pavlova was used while for the new music composition “le Cygne from Carnival of the Animals” of Camille Saint-Saëns was used.
video 2 _ He
video 2 _ She
In the video “He” extracts of the original dance of the prince with Odette and Odile were used, when he declares his love to the former. In the video “She” extracts of the the two solos of Odette and Odile were used, in which they are trying to seduce the prince. On both videos Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s music composition “The swan lake” 1966 was used as the dance archive, with the legendary couple Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn in Rudolf Nureyev’s choreography (an interpretation of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s choreography, 1895). The role of the axes (vertical and horizontal) is the link of the three videos to the new extrabodies.
The ideal building, Villa Rotonda A.Palladio, 1591 A.C.
The double symmetry and the perfect proportions turned it into an archetype of ideal, as referred to the “Quattro libri dell’ Architettura” of A.Palladio.
The first memory of nature Location: Patision str., Athens “I’m on my grandmother’s balcony. I get on the tiptoes of my feet and land again to marble floor. Around me white pots with red and white geraniums.”
geranium(plant)< crane < origami crane the folded message of pure love | the folding of the ideal
The partnership | the extra-partnership _ folding and unfolding to the vertical axes
The fractal surface The fragments of the origami folding are reunited and compose a new mega-groundplan and a new view of the villa. The two fragments, as fractals, are multiplied symmetrically generating the seven surfaces, which differ by the distance of the axes.
Kaleidoscope derives words:
from
the
greek
κάλος (beauty) είδος (shape) σκοπέω-ώ (to seek) The mechanism which seeks the splendour in shape
The journey to the ideal (Vicenza, Italy 22-26/10/2010) The contradiction between symmetry and asymmetry (the route to the most symmetrical building consists of a 2km. random, asymetrical local alley), nature and designed environment, the rotation of the main and supplementary rooms are the eternal fractals of beauty.
The surface The surfaces are multiplied and finally cut by the heroine, become surge, completely different from each other and compose her performance. Her cloth consists of the same fractal, assymetrical at that point.
The process of idealisation and destruction of the surface is an endless process without beginning or end. It is an attitude, a way of life. It is the promise of the daughter, who will become mother and do the same to her unborn daughter ...
The idealised body | Research Theme 2010 Issues of beauty and design After romantisism, when the supernatural / metaphysical dominated, the need to interpret the world through science, physics, measurements and logic was created. The forms belonging to the period before the 20th Century (Modernism) were characterized as “classics”. The model of the Ballerina and the newer Barbie, intertwined with the eternal youth and flawless beauty, are claiming the designation “classic”. The improper posture and deformation, as characteristic of such a beauty, are a timeless issue and formulate the idealized path towards “integration”.
Position 1 - The location of the new man in the world The cosmocentral consciousness and the deep knowledge of the human body are the main features of the first position. A complete physical control is achieved by the «turnout» and the reveal of unknown or unseen aspects of the human body, projecting a strangely idealized body image, with balanced sex characteristics. The creation of an asexual being was embodied through design examples of dresses, social revolutions and toy production describing the deformation of the physiology of the body as an intercultural phenomenon of beauty. Costumes of Popova and Stepanova, represented the new Futursistic man, free from racial characteristics. The movement of feminism in the early 20th century was reinforced by the pattern of the ballerina, was described then as a phallic element. The appearance of the Barbie doll in the same period, with the “twist and turn” body type, a deformity close to that of a ballerina, connects deformation models of the female body with no cultural affinities, such as the tiny geisha shoes and the corsage. The strength and the nobility in perfect balance and distortion of the ratios are common paths of an integrated being, such as the “norm” of Lysippos in ancient Greece and the regenerated model Vitruvio of Da Vinci at the Renaissance.
In the philosophy of classical dance, the dancer’s goal is the integration of being, by which all human characteristics. The process of transformation of human conquest is achieved by the five core positions.
Position 2 - Towards a new balance In the second position the human is body for the first time in a state of redefinition of the balance axes. Understanding the body as a mechanism plays an important role in reaching this new equilibrium. Using the “pointes” the conception of the body as a mechanism is intensified as the mount minimizes to the fingertips of the feet. That situation leads, in excess, to the deformed feet of the geisha, to Barbie and the general design of women’s high heels. In the industrialized environment of modernism, the «modulor» of Le Corbusier, embodies a contemporary expression of a classical dancer mixed to the model of the human body of Da Vinci. The body remains registered in a Euclidean space, stylized, and all the fluid motion is presented, reaching more organic forms. The space which produces the classical dancer in the modern environment can be embodied using concrete and the process of molding. Through the first drafts of Hadid and the design series «chamberworks» and «micromegas» of Liebeskind, the characteristics of liquidity, continuity and fragmentation of the classical dance movement are expressed through the modern tectonic style.
Position 3 - The overthrow of the facility The heretical use and operation of the human body is the aim of this position. The third position combines the disclosure of internal support mechanisms with the charm of the body as a construct that tries to maintain a marginal balance. The heretical use of industrial materials, the abstraction of structural design and sense of transparency are carrying this body in architectural design through the example of the Pompidou Center.
Position 4 - A distorted support mechanism The fourth position is the situation of discovering a new balance through the deformation of the support mechanism of the body. The dinagonal view of the body reveals the third dimension, while the en face view creates the illusion of a two-dimensional body. The art of perspective distorted to create spaces where the third dimension is represented illusionary is the link between the body of this position and the visibility and representation of space in the Renaissance period. Examples of this design is the “ideal city” of Leon Battista Alberti and the «Teatro Olympico» of Palladio. Matching the two examples, which through the diagonal pathways revealed the city to the public, to the design CAD logic programs, which plan the modern architectural space, are revealed the timeless principles of geometry in illusionery environments.
Position 5 - An intangible support mechanism The fifth position is the final phase of the body deformation. The viewing of the body in both en face and profile view shows a body without a third dimension, which strengthens the relationship of the ideal body with the supernatural. Following a formalistic logic and shifting the proportions of Barbie in a woman’s body, the distorted body image is revealed. Both in the ballerina’s body and the body of the Barbie’s body types BellyButton and Ever-Flex the continuous deformation is obvious. Overcoming the image of this body as a formalist platform of beauty production, the distortion of proportions and the ghostly nature resemble to an unfamiliar model in architectural design. Such examples are the surreal architecture of Gaudi and the abstract metaphysical, modernism of Hadid and Koolhaas. The sense of a precarious balance with a strong metaphysical element can be seen in the example of Koolhaas’s CCTV in Beijing. The typical shift of two members intesify a sense of dynamic instability, with references to Futurism and the metaphysical sense of the first skyscraper of Mies Van de Rohe.
The motion of the ideal body The dancer’s perfectly controlled movement is both an internal transformation of him and the audience. The dancer's gaze and its interaction with the public is concentrated on three processes according to the modern theory of Burton on the art of photography: the body control, the presentation and the transformation. The presentation of the body takes place in a completely formalist environment, with the detached head as the only change in the routine nod. The image of a body with the top of a continuous pullup voltage cut from the body is a target of an idealized beauty both in areas with no cultural affinity with the ballerina, like tribes of Thailand, and Barbie. This internal process of motion is a combination of fragmentation in a formalistic abstract space, described by the theory of Marey, and a continuity inherent in the speed and swing in Futurism. The surprise, the repeating of the same movement, the loss of distinct boundaries in the execution of movements and the attention of losing the feeling of the ground are common features of the site produced by the movement of ballet and the new Vidler’s non-territorial “Tilepoli”.
“You want I will be more upright meat, tearing, - And changing color like the sky want The miracle immaculate politeness not a man anymore, but a cloud with pants.” A cloud with pants A. Myakovsky
The transformation of a man through the classical dance, leads to a superman, a hero, an idealized beauty, a grotesque even featured as a barbarous anomaly, somewhere between a mechanical and a transcendent reality, between life and death, drama and comedy, the uplifting and challenging. The caricature of the human figure in modern Charlie Chaplin, embodies a different anatomy of the body of the classical dancer, experiencing the personal drama through grotesque situations.
Spatial transformations | special design studio 2008 case study | Double houses at Borneo Amsterdamn, MVRDV
the double monad_ “There is no possibility of tranfer within the units, nor we can accept that internal movement can be produced, oriented, increased or decreased in their inside. The monads have no window through whch anything can enter or exit.” “The unit as a creature has as its purpose the change, which is continues and derives from an internal norm. The plurality of the changes comes from the nature itself of the material, which characterize the unit. The physical change is carried out in stages, somethng changes, something remains the same.” Monadology G. Leibnitz (1714)
cloth design_
performance | dress-dressed
extradiagrams_
organism_ | compositionon of abstracts of the extradiagrams. The resident and his/her environment ineract and produce a new species.
divide, mirror, overlap
The Mechanism of Dream | elective 2009
The archetype _ The child house memory -- My mothers family home
The dream _ the unconsious memory
-- The childhood play house: a canvas home placed inside my family’s home
“I am standing in a sand floor. Opposite of me there is a white house with a rouf and human legs. It has no windows or doors. I cannot go inside. I can only see one of its perspective view. It’s back view is missing” _Spatial myth Starting point is the chair. You fit at the part that is missing. You circle the structure but you end at the beginning. To come in you need to bend.
The blank home_ The archetype structure of a house in double height. A folded structure. A home for two, one from the inside and one at the part that is missing.
Pavillion of University of Volos | design studio 2008
Human relationships create space relationships. So, the urban fabric is woven from human activity like a knitted fabric. Human relations are translated into yarn and the plot into place, or vice versa. The filaments suggest demonstrations and actions, with more or less local density, creating a fluid knittwear. The overall inside route diverts the public movement from Ermou Street to the park, from the dense urban fabric to the empty-green space.
“Ein alter Tibetteppich” Deine Seele, die die meine liebet, Ist verwirkt mit ihr im Teppichtibet. Strahl in Strahl, verliebte Farben, Sterne, die sich himmellang umwarben. Unsere Füße ruhen auf der Kostbarkeit, Maschentausendabertausendweit. Süßer Lamasohn auf Moschuspflanzenthron, Wie lange küßt dein Mund den meinen wohl Und Wang die Wange buntgeknüpfte Zeiten schon? “An old Tibetan rug” Your soul, which loveth mine, Is woven with it into a rug-Tibet. Strand by strand, enamoured colours, Stars that courted each other across the length of heavens. Our feet rest on the treasure Stitches-thousands-and-thousands-across. Sweet lama-son on your musk-plant-throne How long has your mouth been kissing mine, And cheek to cheek colorfully woven times? Else Lasker-Schüler
Speech,plot,weave|8th - 9th Fshion week workshop 2008
hybrid underwear the binding of a man’s and a woman’s underwear (T-shirt + lingerie --> couple’s underwear)
Museum pavillion at Thessaloniki|special design studio 2009
“Karla” residential estate| design studio 2009
The area, where the residential estate lies, is located between the two boundaries of the region, the dam and the mountain. The natural continuity and flow both of the mountain ground and the lake water are violently interrupted by the dam. The forces engaged by these two centers make the intermediate ground vibrate. The vibrating ground detaches from its mass and creates convexes and concaves, trying to bridge the continuity of the two natural elements. The residential estate can cover the needs of a population of 2000 people, providing a “suburban” residence, between Volos and Larissa. In addition to housing units, it includes educational institutions, sports and cultural facilities, government buildings, commercial uses, churches and a hospital.
THE MICRO-AERA The system of the vibrating ground consists of two aeras that alternate and consist the new ground.
Body Containers| special design studio 2008 TO WALK | A state on the verge verb: to walk definition: to advance or travel on foot at a moderate speed or pace; proceed by steps Analysing the motion of human gait, and focusing on the movement of the foot, we can distinguish three phases. The first phase is when the leg is standing on the ground, the next is on the verge of moving to the air, while the third phase is the moment when it is free to air. Translating these three phases in terms of static could be said to refer to the clamping, the joint and rolling, respectively. The site_ â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Bubleâ&#x20AC;?: a smal river mouth near the commecial port of Volos,Greece
The Fractal of Walking a. clamping _ site: the ground, foot: phase of standing in the ground b.joint _ site: the existing deck, foot: the phase on the verge of moving to the air c. rolling _ site: jump to the water, foot: the phase the foot itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free to air
The installation consists of a wooden deck (1x 1.2 m) and a float volume 120 lt of insulating material. The deflection of the construction is adjustable depending on the point tied the joint. The user can move from a stable ground, to a semi-stable (the deck) and finally to a fluid environment (the river) reaching the braking point of the construction. This construction is in-between stability and instability, creating a borderline situation.
The Fractal of Walking _ the Hybrid Mechanism a. clamping _ the solid ground you walk to approach the specific site and the deck b. joint _ the new wooden deck of the mechanism which swing to the pulse of the water c. rolling _ the limit of the hybrid mechanism that the joint cracks and leeds you to water
Scenic space design| elective 2009 Cleansed_ Sarah Kane love/hate accept/dismiss word violence/body violence woman/man
The intense desire made the identity fluid. Tinker | supervisor -- uper vision scene: a container that can be tranfered everywhere Karl, Rod, Robin,Woman, Actors are separated on both sides of the container. While they are operGrace ating across the ladder, managing on the edges of their feet, their body place: unknown time: unmeasurable the rhythm comes from the speech.
slouches more. The rate of their climbing follows the rhythm of their speech.Tinker is located at the highest point of the ladder, which causes the biggest deformation of his body. Viewers may sit on both sides of the container, so as to watch and hear only one aspect of the play each time. When scenes roll, viewers can change side.
say the unsayable see the unseeable hear the unhearable
Cohabitation|performance in design studio 2007 The procedure of cofabitation and the meaning of boundary
Conceptual design_ Neopoetics(II)| elective 2009 The house of the storks | The memory of my family home music background: a personal composition of a greek traditional lullaby and the calling sound of the storks
Transformotions|ex-machina workshop Volos 2010 My Body as a machine music background: a composition of the sound of my feet