Angelo Plessas Interview
Angelo Plessas lives and works in Athens, Greece. His main body of work consists of websites that bring together an animated object with a domain name that functions as the title and location of the piece.
Characterised by a stark graphic style, geometric shapes and fluid forms, Plessas' online works often resemble surreal portraits or characters pushed to abstraction that live inside the world of the browser frame.
Manipulated by the viewer through screen-based interactions, these characters play on the relationship between computer user and interface, power struggles between character and cursor.
Broadway Media Arts caught up with Angelo to talk Robot Poetry Reading, the internet, online monuments and artist-led activity in Athens.
Interviewer: Broadway Media Arts (BMA)
Interviewee: Angelo Plessas (AP)
BMA: You are probably most known for your online works, what is your process for making work for the internet?
AP: Sometimes I start with an idea from something I read or see something or my dreams and I start thinking how it would be animated and interactive. When you animate something it's like you open Pandora's box and a set of behaviours is taking place. Either it's a portrait of a character or an abstract form these pieces are developed in a very exciting way. Some other times I start with an open-source script and I manipulate the code and test it as far as this could go. The combination of disciplines that these pieces are made of is something that interests me a lot. Like the Maths and physics equations behind the coding in combination with vector drawing techniques layered by sound combined with philosophy for the domain titles, it's so much fun.
BMA: At one point there were a number of artists who were gathered under the self-described movement of NEEN. Maybe could you explain how NEEN came about and talk a little about why it is no longer active?
AP: Yes Neen was great when it was happening. It started as a word project for a new art movement in New York and then it brought people together who were using computers and the internet to describe new feelings and special moments with them. I curated shows, being writing about it a lot etc. So energetic. But you know it's something we grew out of…Nice as a good memory.
BMA: What was your first computer?
AP: I had videogame console as far as 1984 but I got a computer in the mid 90's. In the 80's I used to hang out at my closest friend's house all the time who had an AMSTRAD 464 and I was so obsessed with it that my parents never really bought me one as they thought I would never do my homework. They could never understand at that time that this would be my most useful homework.
BMA: Is there a particularly active artist-led scene in Athens?
AP: Yes there are some but still not as dynamic as the city itself. For example one of the directors of the Athens Biennale is artist Poka-Yio. The Biennale is somehow a big event for the art community here but still this is something that's happening every 2 years so there is a need for something more permanent. Money is a big issue now. No public help of course but also no private. Greece is a country which never grants artists. It's discouraging but still a quite interesting energy. There are plenty of good artists here.
BMA: More recently you have begun proposing a number of your online works to become sculptures in public space, I am particularly thinking of Every Website is a Monument or maybe your sign for TalkingandWalking.com outside the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens.
Where do you see this interface between online and offline public space?
AP: My websites are already Monuments in a way because a lot of people visit them. Putting a Monument on a square is really the same for me as putting a flash animation on a domain name. They are both public sculptures. It's funny many of the physical components of my websites end up being public either it's a mural or sign or neon. The sign with the domain URLs of my websites are used here in Greece when you enter a city so this is a broader concept to "cover" parts of the city with the internet.
BMA: Some of your online works can sometimes get huge numbers of visitors, that would not necessarily be possible in physical galleries or other spaces. Is this something that is interesting to you about the ways online spaces can enable impossible things to happen?
AP: Of course. When you put something online it can really get viral and get so much attention. Sometimes I look at a website and I imagine how many people see this work now and it creates a metaphysical space where all these alone people are suddenly together. This interaction with these works simultaneously evokes many layers of sociality. This is why I also see my websites as social "objects" too. I think everything interesting is being born online now, from the pop and mainstream stuff to internet subculture. A jungle of everyday surprises.
BMA: Could you maybe talk a little about Robot Poetry Reading?
AP: Robot Poetry Reading is a series of performances and books based on an website RobotPoetryReading.com. On this website users write poetry in collaboration with the "Robot". The "Robot” in question is an open source software that "proposes" random popular words from search engines. When poem is formed then "Robot" publishes on the main page of the website. Lately I noticed some malicious bots are attacking the Robot, they go and write thousands of Viagra poems so the website crashes occasionally. I am in the process of removing these. In the perfomances of Robot Poetry Reading, people are usually invited in the space to write more poems and recite too real time in the space, staging a participatory and organic process by crashing both internet and physical realities.
BMA: You also organise other events like BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) what is BYOB?
AP: Yes BYOB was initiated by friend and artist Rafael Rozendaal. He invited me to participate at the first ever BYOB in Berlin and it a great event so I decided to curate 2 other BYOB's one in Athens and one in Bonn. A great source of inspiration and a great way to meet new people who do great stuff and share the same philosophy.
BMA: Do you have any favourite artists or pieces from BYOB events you have run?
AP: I like everything in the context of BYOB. Everything looks great and magic, the light, the composition of the projections on the walls and the computer landscape in the middle, it's like an ongoing workshop/performance. Collective participation brings beauty, this is the spirit, very internet-y.
BMA: What is next for Angelo Plessas?
AP: I am opening a show this week at Preteen Gallery spreading monuments in Mexico city with "Every Website is a Monument" then holidays in Kithira island and in September the "Monument to Internet Hookups" goes to the city of Thessaloniki as part of the Thessaloniki Biennale.
Angelo Plessas is currently showing MirageMachine.com at Broadway until 26 August; commissioned by Broadway Media Arts.
