Αkoo-o (UK/GR/B) is an international group of artists and researchers that use sound and mobility as vehicles of expression and social inquiry. Combining their different fields ( visual arts, cultural studies, musicology, anthropology, literature, sound design, music composition and performance) they share a common understanding of sound as a cultural material that transgresses the limits of disciplines; at the same time, they consider walking to be a cultural-artistic practice that carves pathways between their own theoretical milieus and leads to meeting points with others. Their work is based on research and on the process of collaboration with other artists, residents and the public, through workshops and participative, creative collaborations. Since 2013 they work on collaborative projects that involve their interest on sound, mapping, promenadology, the relation between the arts, technological mediation and the city. Founding members: Dr. Nikos Bubaris, Sofia Grigoriadou, Dana Papachristou, Giorgos Samantas and Geert Vermeire. https://akooocollective.wordpress.com/
Stefaan van Biesen (Antwerp) Member of the Milena principle. Multi-media , drawings & performances. An associative solidity between thinking, acting, environment: ‘how do thoughts manifest themselves via acts in our environment, what extent do they contribute to our well-being?’. Devoting an important part of his artistic activity to exchanges and collaborations with other artists and experts. / Links: www.stefaanvanbiesen.com, www.themilena.com.
Dr Guy de Bievre (Brussels) is a composer, musician, sound designer and sound art curator. His music has been commissioned and/or performed by musicians such as Guy Klucevsek, Seth Josel, Anne La Berge, The Bozza Mansion Project, Zivatar Trio, Zwerm and various local and international organizations. As a composer/performer (guitar, lap steel and electronics) he focusses on open form composition, which was also the topic of his PhD at the School of Arts, Brunel University, London. He performed internationally, both solo and with musicians/composers like Anne La Berge, Phill Niblock, Peter Zummo, Tom Hamilton, etc. Next to all this he is teaching at RITCS School of Arts in Brussels and guest teacher in international schools, e.g. TU Berlin, Brunel University London, Seam Weimar, KASK Gent, freelancing as a writer, sound engineer, sound designer and consultant. He was the curator of the audio art series Earwitness at CCNOA (Centre for Contemporary Non Objective Art) in Brussels and of the Culture Mile in Enschede, Holland (first instalment in November 2008 (Bill Fontana)). He was mentored in soundwalking by Hildegard Westerkamp, back in 2002.
Dr Sinan Bokesoy (Istanbul) is a composer, entrepreneur and developer of professional audio applications. He holds a Ph.d. on computer music research from University of ParisVIII and Bs.C. in electronics engineering from ITU / Istanbul. He is the founder of SonicPlanet™ sonic augmented reality solutions on mobile platforms and also the founder of sonicLAB™ sonic synthesis plugin software for advanced sound design. / Links: www.sonicplanet.com , www.sonic-lab.com.
Dr Nikos Bubaris (Mytilene) 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”. / Link: aegean.academia.edu/
Dr Dimitris Charitos (Athens) is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies of the University of Athens. He teaches “Human-Computer Communication”, “Art and Technology”, and “Visual Communication – Visual Design”, at an undergraduate level and “Digital and Hybrid Mediated Spaces”, “Interactive Design”, and “Music and New Media” at a postgraduate level. He has studied Architectural Design (National Technical University of Athens, 1990), Computer Aided Design and has a PhD on Interactive Design and Virtual Environments (University of Strathclyde, 1998). He has also taught at an undergraduate and postgraduate level since 1994 in Scotland and Greece (Department of Informatics, University of Athens and Dept of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens). He has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications in books, journals or conference proceedings. His research interests include: interactive design, virtual environment design, locative media, mediated spaces, ambient intelligence, digital art, and visual design. His artistic work involves electronic music, audiovisual, non-interactive or interactive, site-specific installations and virtual environments.
Julia Eckhardt (Brussels) is the director of Q-O2. Born in Berlin, she is altviolinist in the field of composed and improvised contemporary music. After her studies in viola in Rotterdam and Brussels, she worked with several chamber music ensembles and was a member of the National Orchestra of Belgium. Since 1996 she is an artistic responsible for Q-O2, first ensemble for contemporary experimental and improvised music and since 2006 workspace for music and soundart. Since 2001, Eckhardt is a member of Incidental Music (with Manfred Werder and Normisa Pereiera da Silva), an international ensemble for conceptual music.
Berit Ellingsen (Norway) is the author of one short story collection: Beneath the Liquid Skin (firthFORTH Books 2013), and two novels: The Empty City (translated into French as Une Ville Vide in 2014) and Not Dark Yet (Two Dollar Radio 2015). Her short work has appeared in W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction International, SmokeLong Quarterly, Unstuck, Litro, and other places, and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and the British Science Fiction Award. Berit is a member of the Norwegian Author’s Union and divides her time between Norway and Svalbard in the Arctic./ Links: http://beritellingsen.com, http://emptycitynovel.com
Dr Anastasia Georgaki (Athens) studied Physics (University of Athens, 1986) and Music (Hellenic Conservatory of Athens, 1981-1990). She continued her studies at IRCAM (Paris, 1990-1995) in computer music and music technology (DEA and PhD in Music and Musicology of the XXth century, IRCAM/EHESS). During the period 1995-2002 she has been teaching as a lecturer in Music Acoustics and music technology at the Music Department of the Ionian University at Corfu. Since 2002, she is lecturer and currently Assistant Professor in Music Technology at the Music Department of the University of Athens. Since 2008 she teaches at three different Master programs at the University of Athens and the School of the Fine Arts (music and new media, sound ways off knowledge, digital visual music). She is also supervisor of PhD candidates on the area of vocal analysis and new media. Member of numerous committees in Greece and abroad. She is a professional accordion player and active musician./ Links: www.novitango.gr.
Sofia Grigoriadou (Athens): MFA, Athens School of Fine Arts (2015). BA, Painting: Athens School of Fine Arts (2013) & BA, Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology: University of Athens (2006). Participation in exhibitions, conferences and artistic projects. Member of TWIXTlab project between art, anthropology and the everyday, Akoo-o soundwalking group and founder of Exceptional Athens tourist and cultural platform. / Link: sofiagrigoriadou.wordpress.com
Dr Lydia Matthews (US) is Professor of Visual Culture at Parsons School of Design / Art, Media and Technology, New York. Her courses encompass as well the “xstudio: walking as a practice”‘. Trained as a contemporary art historian at UC Berkeley and the Courtauld Institute, her work addresses how artists, artisans and designers foster democratic debates and intimate community interactions in the public sphere. As a 2001 Spencer Foundation Fellow, A curator/educational advisor for numerous institutions ranging from small artist-run spaces to artist residencies to major museums, she curates regularly in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia In 2010, she helped launch a Curatorial Design Research Lab at Parsons, whose activities included a collaborative endeavor with the Benaki Museum Pireos Annex in Athens, Greece. Entitled “Against All Odds: Ethics/Aesthetics” (2011), the project examined participatory co-design in response to urgent global and local environmental and social conditions. www.lydiamatthews.com
Marielys Melendez (Athens / Puerto Rico) is an independent artist/researcher from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her creative practice encompasses dance, performance art, movement and video installation, video art and creative writing. Through her current research, ISLA en FUGA, Marielys is dislocating herself, deepening in the experiences of mobility and survival strategies. / Links: http://www.marielysbm.wordpress.com/ http://www.bitacorarealenga.
Professor Jonathan Mills (Edinburgh) is a prominent, Australian-born, composer and festival director, who resides in the UK. In the 1990s he worked in the Architecture Faculty of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, leading courses in acoustic design. He is the composer of several award-winning operas and works for chamber ensemble and orchestra. His opera Eternity Man was recognised by a Genesis Foundation commission in 2003 and his oratorio Sandakan Threnody won the Prix Italia in 2005. He has been director of various festivals in the Blue Mountains (near Sydney), Brisbane, Melbourne and Edinburgh, UK where he was the director of the Edinburgh International Festival between 2007 and 2014. He is currently Programme Director of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, a UNESCO-recognised biennial meeting held in conjunction with Edinburgh’s summer festivals, Artistic Curator of the Lincoln Center Global Exchange, New York, Artistic Adviser to English National Opera, London, Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Vice-Chancellor’s (Professorial) Fellow at the University of Melbourne. His work has been recognised by awards from the governments of Australia, Britain, France, Poland and South Korea.
Professor Georgios Parmenidis (Athens) is an architect-engineer, Doctoral Degree: School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 1976, 1982. Professor of theoretical and scientific applications on architectural space, School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens. Director of Postgraduate studies: “Architecture, Design of Space”, 2003-2015. He has participated in 14 research programs, either as a principal member of the research group, or as the scientific project manager (5). He has a continuous and awarded (10) design practice since 1980, especially on interior design, furniture design, museography. / Link: www.parlon.gr.
Dr Patrick Primavesi (Leipzig)
Dr Nikolas Remy (Volos)
Dr Ana Sanchez-Colberg (Athens), BA (Hons), MFA, PHD, serves as Coordinator Dance Area Choreographer, dancer and scholar with a long track record of dance production and academic publications. She is director of award winning dance theatre company Theatre enCorps with whom she has toured internationally since the company was established in 1989. Prior to coming to the College, she was Head of Undergraduate studies at LABAN (1993-2005) and later Course Leader of the PhD & Research Degrees at Central School of Speech and Drama (2005-2009). She is currently Visiting Professor of Choreography and Composition at the University Dance and Circus Stockholm and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. For a comprehensive list of works and publications see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Sanchez-Colberg
Katerina Taliani (Edinburgh) is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD thesis titled ‘Walking-with-sound: Sound, Space, Movement’ explores soundwalking practices and their impact on audiences’ creative engagement with space and sound through walking. Her research questions the role of locative media, mobile audio and geo-location in the experience of public space and how they contribute to ‘urban commoning’, by enabling citizens to co-produce culture and knowledge.
Elli Vassalou (Brussels) is an architect, visual artist, performer, activist, therapist and designer. She has studied architecture in Patras School of Architecture [GR] and trained on dance, theatre, photography, video and cinema. She is now doing her master studies in multimedia design and activated space at KASK University in Gent [BE]. She has participated in various conferences and festivals [Greek festival, Athens Video Dance project, Documenta 12 – Kassel, Athens Video Art Festival, National Theatre, National Opera House of Greece, the 6th European Landscape Biennial of Barcelona..]. Her work is a research on the embodied impact of space on psychophysical experience, collective memory and the socio-political and personal life of people. Her aim is to create impulses and situations that put human experience in the centre of creative processes./ Link: www.evassalou.com.
Dr Simona Vermeire (Brussels) Doctoral researcher in Comparative Literature, Center of Humanistic Studies, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal with a tesis The virality in Saramago and Ionesco. Literary concept of various interdisciplinar cultural projects (exhibitions and art events in Portugal, Belgium, Romenia, Greece, Brazil) and member of the international cultural organization “the Milena principle”.
Adonis Volanakis. Born in Athens, Greece in 1976. His practice is the interchanging amalgam of blind dates and aesthetics, poetry and politics, visual and performing arts, public and indoor spaces. Adonis has created installations on female narratives, urban walking projects with communities and strangers, collaborative platforms and residencies with poets, visual artists and philosophers and other social compositions/ togetherings. He studied at the Wimbledon College of Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London and Alvar Aalto University in Helsinki. His work has been presented in USA, UK, Greece, France, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland. Since 2004 he has taught at the University of Peloponnese / Nafplio and at the University of Patras. In 2012-13 he was a Fulbright Visiting Artist at the Art & Public Policy Department, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University where he teaches since 2014 as a Visiting Professor. He has been supported by the foundations: Fulbright, Linbury, A.S. Onassis, London Institute, Arts and Humanities Research Board/ UK, A.G.Leventis, Propontis, Spyropoulos, and B&E Goulandris.
Dr Alexander Voutsas (Athens)
Thanos Vovolis (Athens)