Candidate’s Full Name: Alexandros Ampatzoglou
Title of PhD Thesis:Objects: Containers of Curiosity
Three-member Advisory Committee:
Yannis Ziogas (Supervisor), Professor, School of Fine Arts University of Western Macedonia
Firmin DeBrabander, Professor of Philosophy, Studio and Humanistic Studies(Major), Slade Deputy Director (Projects), Maryland Institute College of Art
Mark Harris, Professor, School of Art, DAAP, University of Cincinnati
Summary
The aim of this dissertation is to determine how human beings and especially artists, perceive and translate history, coexistence, creativity and the formation of their own personality through the objects around them. Based on that concept, which branches into many research fields, I would like to observe the inner need and the reasons we produce and coexist with objects, through multiple prisms. I have also focused on the social context of the objectification of subjects, that is created within the social context of Neoliberalism especially in “advanced”/industrialized societies, through all different contemporary means of communication and socialization. As it is especially absurd that humans, who in theory, should be and act like “citizens” in contemporary societies and not objectify themselves, the capitalization/monetization of their existence is no longer avoidable, no matter how much they are aware and fight against the situation that the capitalist system creates. Finally, my main focus will be on the part related to creativity and the work of art, as it seems to exist in a parallel universe, between the world of objects and the world of ideas. What power does the work of art possess, so that it can transport us to worlds beyond our immediate understanding of reality, making us escape from the ultra-fast reality that exhausts and depletes us?
Candidate’s Full Name: Ioannis Varvaresos
Title of PhD thesis: Collective Body and Public Space: Artistic and performative practices, with an emphasis on “walking”, of the Collective Body in Public Space to create Agonistic Spaces in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century
Three-member Advisory Committee:
Angeliki Avgitidou (Supervisor), Professor of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, in the School of Fine Arts in University of Western Macedonia
Panagiotis Kouros, Professor of the Department of Architecture, in the Faculty of Engineering, in Univversity of Patras
Danae Theodoridou, Lecturer in Fontys Academy of the Arts, in the Netherlands
Summary
The main axis of the doctoral research is the in-depth investigation of the criteria based on which specific artistic practices are called collective, and the way in which each collective artistic process can create a public space. Influenced by Johan Huizinga and Victor Turner, the research will focus on the artistic process as a form of play, a meeting place within which specific rules apply. Emphasizing these rules of artistic processes, meaning the degree of participation of the participants in the produced work, especially in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century, there will be a distinction as to when these rules create the conditions for the artistic process to be understood as collective and when this meeting place, where the artistic process is happening, can be called public. Drawing on theories from the fields of sociology, anthropology, politics and aesthetics, and using Grounded Theory Research as a core methodology, the theoretical background will be built. Finally, an attempt will be made for Ethnographic Research, on an artistic practice that will be created by the doctoral candidate himself based on the aforementioned theory and the research questions that will have been raised.
Candidate’s Full Name: Theocharis Tsampouras
Title of PhD thesis: From the Workshops of Chioniades to the Painter Pagonis: The Emergence of the Artist during the Modern Greek Enlightenment
Three-member Advisory Committee:
Zoe Godosi (Supervisor), Associate Professor, University of Western Macedonia,
Ilianna Zarra, Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Melina Paisidou, Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Summary
This dissertation examines the artistic development of the painters from Chioniades, with a particular focus on the works of painter Pagonis, situating this activity within the context of the Modern Greek Enlightenment. It explores the evolution of the painting workshops of Chioniades from the mid-18th to the early 19th century, emphasizing the parallel progression of post-Byzantine art and the conflicts between traditional and innovative artistic trends that emerged in the late 18th century in the Southern Balkans. Various painting evidence, including murals, portable icons, and objects from Epirus, Western Macedonia, and Thessaly, are analyzed in relation to contemporary political, social, and economic conditions to understand the priorities of the artists and patrons of the time. Additionally, through a study of Pagonis’ works, the dissertation investigates the shift of early 19th-century painters from craftsmen to artists. The research delves into the factors that led the most active painters of the mid-18th century to diverge from standardized post-Byzantine painting practices and develop unique artistic and iconographic styles. It also critically examines the art of the Orthodox in the Ottoman-ruled Balkans from 1760 to 1810, to provide a new theoretical framework linking post-Byzantine painting to modern Greek art.
Candidate’s Full Name: Ioulia Charalampous
Title of PhD thesis: Feminist Art and Artistic Activism: Historical and Contemporary Examples of Performativity and Artistic Activism
Three-member Advisory Committee:
Avgitidou Angeliki (Supervisor), Professor at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts in Florina, University of Western Macedonia
Gyioka Charikleia, Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Daflos Konstantinos, Professor at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens.
Summary
The PhD thesis explores the genealogies of artistic activism and feminist art in the Greek context. This subject is connected to the artistic practice of feminist collective art and, by extension, to feminist theory from the 1960s to the present, with a focus on Greece. The historical trajectory of feminist art and artistic activism is examined through the presentation of examples and case studies from the Greek context, as well as through its relationship, similarities, contrasts, and interactions with numerous examples and case studies from countries such as the United States, Latin America, England, Spain, France, and Argentina.
The doctoral thesis attempts to define artistic activism, specifically “artistic activism in Greece.” Through historical and contemporary examples of collective performative artistic practices, the re-examination of issues raised by feminism is studied, and how these are expressed through feminist collective art is explored. Simultaneously, the research focuses on feminist collective and participatory art, issues surrounding “performance theory,” and performative artistic practices.
Additionally, the research seeks to define the aesthetic dimension of historical and contemporary feminist protest movements and to identify their relationship and dependence on feminist art. For this reason, concepts, practices, forms, and the aesthetic dimension of feminism, artistic activism, and feminist art (such as eco-feminism, cyber-feminism, craftivism, performance art, female queens or drag queens, queer art, video art, Body Art, etc.) are examined and proposed where their Greek equivalent is lacking.
Candidate’s Full Name: OURANIA SCHORETSANITI
Title of PhD Thesis: Approaches of Visual Writing Gestures in Contemporary Painting
Three-member Advisory Committee:
Yannis Ziogas, (Supervisor), Professor, Department of Visual and Applied Arts, University of Western Macedonia.
Jo Volley, Associate Professor, Slade Deputy Director (Projects), Coordinator Material Research Project, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.
Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Professor of Law & Theory, University of Westminster, London.
Summary
The main research topic of the doctoral dissertation is Approaches of Visual Writing Gestures in Contemporary Painting, the concept of artistic writing in the art of our time, and the way in which it is integrated into visual field research. The ongoing presence of painting as a visual expression activates a need for an updated approach to writing. The concept of visual writing in painting is important to be informed and enriched by both historical standards and the needs of the modern era.
Visual writing, in its modern interpretation, is the way his / her gesture artist is imprinted as a trace on the support surface as well as the symbols that this gesture forms. Traces and symbols were part of the visual arts from an early age art, either as part of the construction process or as stand-alone works. In our research we will to investigate their dynamics and influence on the art of today and the future. It is clarified that reference is made to the dual role of visual writing as both a gestural process as well as the formation of letters, words, and excerpts of texts or symbols which integrated into the projects.
Candidate’s Full Name: Evangelia Svirou
Title of PhD Thesis: Local history and methods of visual literacy via the work of artists in Western Macedonia (educational practices)
Three-member Advisory Committee:
Zoi Godosi, (Supervisor), Associate Professor, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Western Macedonia.
Ifigeneia Vamvakidou, Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Kostas Kasvikis: Supervisor, Associate Professor, Pedagogical Department of Municipal Education, University of Western Macedonia
Summary
The dissertation theme concerns the utilization of artists’ visual work, especially those who have been activated in region of Western Macedonia, creating that way, an educational project, educational interventions and practices in primary education system (kindergarten and first grades of primary school A-C). The project endeavor is about to reveal and develop a well based practices: visual, visual literacy, providing the local history knowledge. The theory and the schemes which are used in the research, both are based on visual literacy, local history and the art history and pedagogic applications.
The approach of these artworks will be based in particular historical and contemporary methods, which are developed and applied in the field of art work’s analysis. For that purpose, there will be used: fundamental historical and theoretical texts, and, as well as illustrated and aesthetical analysis, via artists’ whose visual work has been activated in region of Western Macedonia, creating a great historical, sociological, visual and aesthetic interest, including a very concrete/specific period of time and topogeographical (area) axis.
This research aims to figure: how the usage of the visual literacy, the approach of artworks as cultural derivatives- along with the exploration of students’ cognitive, emotional and aesthetic dimension, can be evaluated/ applied or used in order to create a new conceptual visual representation. Moreover, other aspects of this research are also: the teaching of the local history via artworks, the creation of school “voice or speech” and the art material, utilizing the visual material, acquiring that way skills, which are of the outmost importance for the cultural environment acknowledgment.