Papers by Panagiotis Ferentinos
Regionalism and Internationalization: New Explorations in Cultural and Creative Design, 2023
In this paper, I will attempt to develop the intersection of "regional" (regionality) and "intern... more In this paper, I will attempt to develop the intersection of "regional" (regionality) and "internationalisation". For this reason, this body of research brings to light and discusses the urban space of a city in financial crisis, Athens, Greece (regional), through its visually traced imagery. It unveils the Athenian cityscape's metamorphosis throughout the years of a crisis (regional), bringing to light a locus in the world scene suitable for research in comparison to other similar spaces of crisis: financial, social, political, etc. (international). The regional becomes part of a wider interest and one more example of how these cases can be documented, recorded, and preserved in digitised form, finally producing products of international interest. As far as these products are concerned, I intend to address how these products, which derive from a cityscape in crisis, may function, for instance, as a brand for alternative tourism, offering contemporary ruins of a crisis as products for the tourist gaze.
Art and science applied: experience and vision, 2022
Following on from the inroads the advancement of new technologies has made into the study of urba... more Following on from the inroads the advancement of new technologies has made into the study of urban landscapes, this article set out to examine the visualised activities over the surfaces of the Greek capital, Athens, during Greece's economic crisis. The contemporary detritus of the recession-walls, massive closed stores and their shopfronts, carcasses of kiosks and various urban volumes-has been gradually transformed into a skeleton, an armature where socio-political echoes come into existence through an inscriptive, adding and mark-making process. Taking into consideration that this alternative narrative of the crisis through the public surfaces has been perpetuated, comprising a visually saturated and omnipresent skin, new formulas can emerge and seek out an understanding and preserving this imagery. An attempt to seek these formulas is primarily based on fieldworks in Athens in various chronological phases during the crisis, observation and wandering, as well as photographic charting, archiving and scanning methodologies. The employed apparatuses indicate how novel approaches to new technologies may evidence twofold significance: on the one hand, how they can contribute to an alternative "reading" of the traces, while moving along their frequent reception as "acts of vandalism", stains or smudges; on the other, how the scientific progression, e.g. 3D scanning, in terms of recording and image making, can be enriched, become widely used, and provide new perspectives in the field of urban landscape and its study. The resulted body of this project can be applied to the direction of a chronicle; a historic evidence identifying the crisis and Greece's contemporary period. This approach has the potential to reveal new insights into a wider context of activities surrounding the urban visual interventions. Besides, it may finally be applied as a methodology to other cases of cityscapes similar to Athens or responding to their particularities.
Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais / Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2021
A close look at the urban surfaces of Athens during the years of the economic crisis reveals the ... more A close look at the urban surfaces of Athens during the years of the economic crisis reveals the extensive phenomenon of the people's interaction with the surface of the cityscape, the skin of Athens. A derma of crises that reflects Greece's socio-political conditions over this period, and the austerity measures enforced by the official state. This rapidly transformed and ever-changing surface imagery can be recorded and used for reading and further understanding of how the public sphere responds to this period of decline, and reacts to the recession's strategies of sovereignty. The urgency to document, give prominence to this urban field and examine it as a whole is of pivotal importance, considering the fact that the official authorities (such as the mayor of Athens) have recently taken action to eliminate the urban traces. However, these inscriptions bear witness to the continuous crisis mirrored on the Athenian walls and architectural volumes. Over the last years, there have been numerous scholars and researchers that have engaged with the study of the Athenian cityscape. Nonetheless, they particularly focus on graffiti, street art and slogans, and this engagement sometimes facilitates the emerging artistry or the discussion of socio-political connotations. In contrast to this, this article moves towards the identification of the phenomenon as a dynamic potential of a derma-city skin and does not specifically focus on them as mere details (often intentionally made, e.g. a graffiti). It examines the wholeness, the anonymity, the unintentional activity; how they contribute to the formulation of an urban collage, an assemblage of visual elements that co-exist making Athens a unique case of an over-marked city. The study of various dimensions of this skin and of the virtual preservation means aims to add a further layer of understanding to the urban space as a main field of socio-political connotations during the crisis.
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Papers by Panagiotis Ferentinos