AugE | Augmented Europe is a project funded by the Europe for Citizens Programme – Civil Society Projects

AugE Project partners are MADE Group (Thessaloniki), MEET (Milan), Public Art Lab (Berlin), RICX (Riga).

AugE is aimed at enhancing the impact of digital technologies and digital creativity for the active citizenship and active participation of a huge number of young people to the political debate about the future of Europe, allowing the sharing of innovative ideas for a joint creation of a new EU awareness, and a renewed sense of European belonging.

Four online Ideathons on “Inclusion, equality and diversity for a better Europe” (MEET, Milan, November 2020), “Connecting People and Places” (PAL, Berlin, December 2020), “Climate Change, Art and Isolation” (RIXC, Riga, March 2021), “Youths, future and startups” (MADEGROUP, Thessaloniki, April 2021) developed a community of young people that exchanged views on these issues and on the future of the young people of the EU.

The Closing of the AugE Project event took place online June 14th 2021. The Project Partners are keeping the community active after that, through an online platform, where their work, the project and more is being presented.

MADE has asked from 8 creatives to give their views on Tech, New Technologies and the Arts.

You can visit our platform here: http://spatial.chat/s/AugmentedEurope

Please find out more about our guest speakers:

Anestis Anestis is a creative coder and new media artist based in Athens, Greece. Since his teenage years he has been drawn to visual representations of imaginary worlds and began to crack games and hack machines to simulate his dreams.

His insatiable curiosity about how the universe works and his fascination about subjects broader than those of his pragmatic software passion motivated his studies in physics. He started working as a Software Developer during his university studies and he advanced into Project Manager for Research & Development military software projects for 15 years. Those projects included command & control, communication and information operations, electronic warfare, and intelligence analysis and visualization.

By combining new media and contemporary art with info-aesthetics, digital culture and creative coding, his optimist vision is to cultivate knowledge, experience and perceptions of complexity in an interconnected world. His interdisciplinary practice uses computer interfaces as emotional tools for mediating the virtual with the physical through poetic images, algorithms and interactive installations.

His work has been exhibited in new media group shows in the context of galleries and festivals nationally and internationally. He is currently working on data art and visualization projects, designing and developing his own user interfaces, software and aesthetic tools. His plans are to expand the use of those tools into immersive experiences applied into a variety of contexts, from the art world to business applications.

Tumblr: http://aanestis.tumblr.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/aanestis
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/anestis.d.anestis
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/aanestis
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/aanestis

Christos Danezis, is General Manager, Sigmalive Ltd, Cyprus Experienced professional on the integration between business, technology, media and communication. During his career he developed and facilitated unified digital transformation strategies in media organizations. He is adjunct professor at the University of Nicosia, and the Cyprus University of Technology and his research interest lays in the areas of innovation, online content production, distribution, consumption and monetization. He had successfully managed numerous EU funded projects, national and transnational, mainly on Innovation, Communication and Technology, either as project manager, coordinator or communication and exploitation manager.

Since 2016, he holds the position of General Manager at Sigmalive Ltd, the market leader in digital publishing in Cyprus, and he has been a keynote speaker at national and international conferences on the fields of media, technology and business. He is also acting Vice President of the Cyprus Online Publishers Association and member of the Media Ethics Commission.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christosdanezis/

Christiana Kazakou is a transdisciplinary researcher, curator & cultural producer; acting, performing & reflecting trans geographically. Her research with i-DAT explores curating ‘Hybrid Narrative Environments: a ‘beyond disciplinary’ approach for intermediating art and science discourse’ & her research is currently funded by the 3D3 Centre for Doctoral Training, Arts & Humanities Research Council (UK). Christiana is also an Associate Lecturer for the BA/BSc Digital Media Design/Game Design courses at the University of Plymouth.

Following her studies on Art & Science (MA) at Central Saint Martins & Arts Management (MA); she works & curates for numerous innovative companies, networks, festivals, cultural organisations, NGO’s and social enterprises whose activities engage across the spectrum of the arts, sciences, technology and society. Her most recent projects include the curation of a multidisciplinary programme for the STARTS (Science, Technology, and the Arts) Regional Centres in Athens, and the social innovation platform MADE Group. She is also the Program Co-ordinator for LEONARDO/ISAST (International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology) and more specifically for LASER Talks; a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for interdisciplinary dialogue and community building to over 45 cities worldwide.

Professional membership: Museums Association

Website: http://www.christianakazakou.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiana-kazakou-74a15222/?originalSubdomain=uk

Meletis Koropoulis studied sociology in Athens, apprenticed in Europe, launched Blackbox Strategies & Productions and is advising in business, culture & education.
He is currently founding a future conscious international design fair in Athens.

Website: blackbox.com.gr

Alkistis Koukouliou, is Founding Director, Ione & Mann Gallery. Ione & Mann (established in 2015 by Alkistis Koukouliou and Beatrice Spengos) is an independent female led art gallery, dedicated to presenting new yet accomplished contemporary art.

Over the last 6 years we have built a reputation for immaculately curated exhibitions presenting high quality, thought provoking art as well as for our commitment to supporting early career artists from all across Europe and beyond. We only show artists we believe in, we are not driven by trends, and we particularly enjoy helping people build or enhance a collection that reflects who they are while at the same time exposing them to art that could gradually expand their horizon.

The onset of the pandemic had a significant impact on our physical exhibition programme, however, thanks to new technologies we were able to showcase work by artists living and working across borders. Among other projects, we were able to travel to the depths of the Finnish boreal forest for a site-sensitive installation by Finnish artist Josefina Nelimarkka, visit the studio of British artist Emily Platzer in the Hautes-Alpes region in France, and explore the meditative practice of Slovakian artist Jana Emburey who draws inspiration from the vastness of the Scottish Highlands.

As things are now starting to open up again we are looking forward to returning to art in real life through an exciting physical exhibition programme and hoping to establish an pan-European artist residency programme in Greece.

Alkistis studied Law at the University of Athens, Management and Marketing at the University of Bath (MSc) and Art & Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.
She is a Patron and Ambassador of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, with a focus on the Royal Academy Schools, Britain’s only free international art school.

Website: www.ioneandmann.com

Instagram: @ioneandmann, @alkistisk

MARILENA KOUTSOUKOU is Curator and Art Advisor. She was born in Athens, Greece. She obtained a double BA in Economics and International Relations from Tufts University, USA, and an MA in Museum and Gallery Practice from UCL.

She has organised and curated many international cultural projects, as well as group and solo exhibitions in Athens, Mykonos, Doha, Copenhagen, Melbourne and London.
Her curatorial project, the photography exhibition of HRH Prince Nikolaos titled ‘Aegean Desert’ was the first institutional collaboration between Greece and Qatar, as it was presented at Benaki Museum of Islamic Art in Athens and Katara Cultural Village in Doha. She has curated the Greek Pavilion at the London Design Biennale, showing ‘Together’, an immersive installation of Prince Nikolaos, which is currently on view at Somerset House London. Her next project is curating an exhibition at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, USA, in September 2021.

She is passionate about Public Art and has participated in the Public Art Forum in Doha, organised by Qatar Museums, Qatar Foundation and the British Council, as a Speaker. She is also the Head of the Arts and Culture Cluster and a founding member of the Female Start Up Founders Cluster of the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) Women in Greece. She is also a Young Patron of the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

Her boutique art platform Muse/Lab focuses on creating cultural bridges through the blend of diverse artistic styles.

LinkedIn: Marilena Koutsoukou-Kallitsantsi
Instagram: @marilenakik

Yiannis Melanitis is an independent artist and Assistant Professor at Athens School of Fine Arts. Yiannis Melanitis’s work initiates from a conceptualization on the strategies of contemporary art. Recent research focuses on the role of code and information on the arts considering “INFORMATION AS THE NEW CONCEPTUALIZATION. (Latest example is his gene micro-injected into the butterfly named Leda Melanitis for the creation of a transgenic, adult butterfly breed/ see “Leda Melanitis” at MACRO MUSEUM, Rome).

He derives from philosophy, epistemology and history of art critique to construct artworks which embody questions on probability and the “art of new distributions in nature”. Political speech and philosophy arising from machines and computers, render humans to mere ‘watchers’ or envisage new roles to society. Melanitis attempts to prognosticate that even official, state structures of dialectics that will be produced in the future may derive from self-programming computers. He presents works of interactive dialectics through the computer, which fabricate a philosophical dialogue with the public, remodeling the art of rhetoric through calculation.(i.e.in the work “Random Rhetoric” for Ars Electronica 2020).

In other series of artworks he references the mechanics of speech with the concept of the alienation of logic from the human as its inward administrator.

Oil paintings and sculptures recast on linkages between philosophy, language and politics.The oil paintings, often dysmorphic, designate linkages between the comical, humorous and political camouflage during the mimetic act of portraiture.
His artworks include installations, performances, bioartworks, theoretical texts, critique, poems, code-based web artworks, sculptures, oil paintings and drawings.
Melanitis has published essays on art and philosophy in english and greek. His texts are translated into english, italian, korean and greek.

Yiannis Melanitis holds degrees in painting, sculpture and digital arts from the Athens School of Fine Arts and is presently a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture, (NTUA) with a thesis entitled: Biological Dynamics in Art.

Exhibited in Austria, Mexico, Brasil, Belgium, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, US, Scotland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Greece. Latest work presentations include Ars Electronica 2020, MACRO Museum (Rome); at the National Museum of Brasil; Biblioteque of Brasil; Museu D. Diogo de Sousa, Braga, Portugal; the Tongeren Museum and Praetorium, Belgium, N.York MIT PRESS.Works acquired by HUG, Geneva, “Collection R”, Belgium (exhibited in Sofacqgallery, Belgium) and other private collections.

As a subject of criticism, his work is included in international editions as “Art Tomorrow” (Ed.L.Smith), Leonardo MIT, Lomonosov Moscow University, by Seung-Chol Shin, Assimi Kaniari, Mario Savini among others.
Yiannis Melanitis has been a member of the Delphi Society.

Website: http://www.melanitis.com
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiannis_Melanitis
Academia. edu: http://asfa.academia.edu/YiannisMelanitis

Georges Papalexis is CEO and Artistic Director of Zolotas Jewelers SA. Since 1895, the Zolotas House has paved a unique path in the history of jewelry making. It has created a world where gold meets history through the revival of ancient goldsmith techniques. Each jewelry collection represents a never-ending through the land of aesthetics. At its flagship store in the heart of Athens, at 10, Panepistimiou Street, Zolotas House takes us on a journey to a world where Greek cultural heritage meets the fine art of jewelry-making.

The House’s unique creations have graced world-famous personalities – including Jackie Kennedy, Maria Kallas, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Catherine Deneuve and Scarlett Johanson-with their glamor and inspired design.

The house of ZOLOTAS, celebrates the timelessness of luxury with creations that reflect history, tradition and passion for the ‘unique’.

Maintaining the family character that has been part of his success and moving towards the continuity of his tradition, ZOLOTAS finds itself on the frontline of a multimillenial patrimony. In 2010 Georges Papalexis joins the House as the new artistic director and CEO, after having completed his jeweler expertise in Paris, directly inspired by the founder’s trail.

He is perfectly aware of the brand’s stylistic force, its frenetic creativity, and undertakes the task to recreate it respecting its singular identity. He brings back iconic codes, favoring thematic inspiration originating from the architectural orders. Diamond prevails in his new collections and new collections of yellow, white, grey or pink gold see the light. He introduces new technologies in the production process of the jewelry making to develop new creativity method, to increase quality and productivity and embraces the new digital era for promoting the brands creations.

Our current mission is to explore the endless opportunities of the online digital channels by creating new experiences for our customers. We are strongly examining augmented reality as a new way of presenting our jewelry online or to discover our physical stores. We also invite and give opportunities to new designers and talents to create new collections for the brands in order to combine our tradition with modernity.

Website: http://www.zolotas.gr