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Karanos Akis
Karanos Akis An artist's statement A video i've been working over a year, a
collection of adult live webcam sex shows only when the performer is absent. A ghost documentary, a record of the most private
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sanctum aesthetics- those of the sleep chambers. A parable about communicationabsence- essence and the investigation of
identiy in the Digital era.
An interview with
Karanos Akis Since the first time we have watched "Camtasia", we have found stunning the fact that your videoinstallation is not conceived using metaphoric approach, but adopting a performative research. A paradoxal research, indeed, since only empty rooms are envolved in your video. When did you get the idea for this work? I'm hooked on reality. The raw material for my work - collages, assemblages of found and bought objects, even the elements, the vocabulary i use when I paint or make a video (as in "Camtasia" case)- the basis is always out there. It is real, it has volume and physical presence – marketing and the laws of free market have that force. So I view ‘Reality’ as a synonym for perversion, an unholy invertion of the purity and wholeness of the absurd. Shocking, fascinating and total.
But i'm not interested in making a documentary, or prove a case, the facts are never facts isolated. My approach is, let's say, alchemistic. Setting free the cultural leftovers (symbols), testing their strength if out of context, creating metaphors for every certainty , transmuting Logos*1 to logos*2 and the opposite - not - as a critique made to exclude and prove me, but in an attempt to depict- build- a personal myth, closer to the notion of truth, stripped of any use (or value as a product) and enriched by the provocative force of humour. Because from a different angle everything is ridiculous. *1 Logos λόγος, from λέγω lego "I say" as a philosophical term *2 logos = abbreviation for logotypes
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The concept of absence in the digital age is fundamental in your investigation. Could you introduce our readers to this partcular aspect of Camtasia? The idea for the video came when i first entered one of these rooms, there was a video of a performer, presented as if it was a live performance, luring us to pay to see more and hundreds of comments of angry horny people in the live chat pointing out that this is a scam, if you pay you just get ripped off since you'll just watch a video.
This was pretty powerful, time and space became obsolete in a one panel cartoon like situation, where cofusion was crowned king of the night, with a big shiny digital $ of sedated hormons on the top of the crown.
Instead of what? Interacting ?
First thought is that cyber-space leaves no room for magic, but this incident made me realize that the cyber-space is the magic. Not a magical place, but THE magic. The concept of absence in the digital age is fundamental in your investigation. Could you introduce our readers to this partcular aspect of Camtasia?
So there was this ghost of an exploited (either way) girl, peforming her ritual of sexual luring for ever in a loop and the voice of people who have this same experience(?) with me at the moment, from all over the world, angry, unable to buy.
Well if you think about it, we do anything to trick our brain in order to be content. Cyberspace is the place, mainly because of the insane vastness of information and the characteristical absence of any effort. So you are a semi-god there.
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On the other hand, it's virtual. A total of 0 and 1's, love in cyberspace is a "ghost" romance without past, something like a primary echo - in a way closer to 'ideal' and therefore 'absent'.
corner of the planet and in totally different financial widths?
Camtasia is exactly that, a parable about communication - absence - essence and the investigation of identiy in this Digital era. On the process of making the video, took a little more than a year, i found myself pondering at the situation. I was looking for empty rooms,
From an aesthetical point of view, we have been impressed by the balance between absence and presence in your video, which is not conceived as a classical balance, as the relationships between solids and voids in architecture for example, but a sort of coexistence between past and present in imagination and perception. How do you achieve this balance?
I was actually visiting sex web cam shows, to search and record inhabited but temporarily empty, rooms. What kind of perversity was this ? I could fantasize i'm the sole survivor in the cheapest dystopic post apocalyptic film ever made, or maybe I was an animist, getting turned on by this extra super double comfort cozy IKEA bed ? A strange anthropologist recording the latest trends in bedroom interiors, in every
I was alone. People were there, but absent. Hillariously tragic, no?
I get the same sense, this 'ghost limb' feeling, every time i watch the video, I'm glad it came across. People worshiped fire some thousands of years ago, now we invent a new self online, we live a digital life.
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Everything to feed that bitch, the brain, with cause and fullfilment. Can you tell us your biggest influences in art and how they have affected your work? That's really hard for me to answer, as a child of a painter i was always getting information or found myself in the middle of grown ups talks about arts and this and that, so i can't really track influences. For example i remember that those years everybody talked about Beuys so when i actually saw Beuys' work i found it boring and fake, pretty much like watching an Agatha Christie movie after having read the novel first. But in order to not avoid the question, i want to believe L.Bunuel, Dada, the faith in the game of the situationists, the acceptance of the erraneous as truth of Cy Twombly, and the presence of P.Guston, G.Baselitz, A.Jorn,
S.Polke- the weaponry of arte povera and pop art, and the not-give-a-fuckiness of the so called "Young British Artists" are of influence to me. Your work deals with new media technology: do you think that new media art will definitely fill the dichotomy between art and technology? I dont think there's a dichotomy there, art uses every technological achievement, to the point of exhaustion. See what will happen when 3D printers will be cheap and larger. For me it's like if i have a spoon i will make something with the spoon, if i have a space rocket, i'll bring my spoon and curve my initials on it. What’s next for Karanos Akis? Are there any new projects on the horizon? Always is, for now i'm settling in my new home
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in the Netherlands plus I have a solo exhibition in 2015 so i'm working for that. There's also my project of digital collages at akkkaak.tumblr.com, where i replace the use of the 'subconscious' as used in Surrealism with the randomness of google image search and tumblr feed - and my solo exhibition of digital images 'the Freat Gorgeting' at my website cargocollective.com/karanos this September. I believe digital should remain digital, so I will use this webspace to make virtual exhibitions, often. My sound project can be found at kokkalameans-bones.tumblr.com all releases will be free for download, I got an album out from the Italian underground label Spettro Records called 'Αντιφαντασιωβίωση' (Antifantasioviosi) this September and a new release at christmas. Thank you guys for the questions, thank you for reading this. I am opening my virtual arms in a big web hug. I hope you were there.
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