Daphne Monastirioti
A key element of my practice is breathing with a specialization in the asthmatic breath. The root cause is my asthma, as the breath is a constant reminder of mortality and consciousness. So the study begins when a physical problem becomes an existential one which makes it an obstacle to interpersonal relationships as long as every thought focuses on the breath. On this basis, I research the role of breath in people's relationships and how its loss on the internet (cloud) affects them, specifically how an "asthmatic physiognomy" is born due to the accelerating evolution of technology. Technology which through the architectural addiction of social media, demands more and more our attention. Practically, I collect organic and mechanical breaths to create narratives and soundscapes.
Graduation Project
Can a machine produce poetry? Digital objects obtain the position of narrators creating a new soundscape through repetition. The project itself is a hybrid environment consisting of technological objects, remnants of breath, and the distorted voice of a human presented as an artificial assistant. Paradoxes become the principal of this interaction with the main interest in search of empathy. Here, I explore the emergence of recognizing by extending our gaze beyond of conditions of entities.
EVERY BREATH IS A NOVELTY
Thesis
This writing is an attempt to argue about the importance of breath inside the network. This might appear to be paradoxical considering that breath is a bodily result precisely generated by the lungs. However, my practice and research have given me indications about the importance of exploring the impact of the breath’s absence from the network. As an artist, I have been working with the process of breathing during the last five years. It could be because I, myself, suffer from asthma. To this extent, breathing is a constant reminder that I am conscious and alive. Nevertheless, we all experience breathing from the beginning until the end. And if the lungs work correctly then, most of the time, people do not pay attention to it. That is because everyone learns to rely on breathing without querying how or why it works. At the same time technology is an integral part of our lives. We experience, partially, our lives through the personal computer (PC) and the computer network or cloud. We operate social applications not only to keep a connection with other people but mostly to inform everyone about the process of our everyday lives through the composition of small narratives. Here I explore the common patterns between the imperfect way of connecting through social media and the imperfect way of connecting when one is lacking the sense of breath through this hypothesis: the absence of breath in the network is a potential factor contributing to broken human interaction.