Alexandra Karamoutsiou | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (original) (raw)
Thesis by Alexandra Karamoutsiou
Μουσικές ιστορίες πόλης: η ιστορία των αυτοσχέδιων μουσικών στούντιο της Θεσσαλονίκης, 2023
This thesis is a multidimensional historical record of the D.I.Y. music studios of Thessaloniki, ... more This thesis is a multidimensional historical record of the D.I.Y. music studios of Thessaloniki, and the practices that developed in and around them. Those makeshift music studios or otherwise provadika (rehearsal spaces) are extra-institutional, self-managed musical spaces, where musical processes and alternative forms of sociability produce lasting blends that pervade the musical life of Thessaloniki over several decades. However, the action of these spaces remains largely undocumented. Starting from the historiography of popular music genres and drawing from recent epistemological work on D.I.Y. and alternative popular cultures, this study seeks to shed light not only on the studio spaces themselves, but also the multiple network nodes they triggered within the city. The narrative focuses on the first twenty years of their presence in Thessaloniki (mid-70s-early 90s), as well as on the D.I.Y./D.I.T. (do-it-yourself/do-it-together) music network that emerged in and around the studios during the 80s: self-curated concerts and festivals, independent record releases, pirate radio and self-published fanzines. The structure of the thesis is developed around three main research questions: 1) What is the sociopolitical and cultural framework through which makeshift studios emerged? 2) How did the studios develop during the years 1975-1994 and what music groups were involved in this practice? 3) What role did these spaces play in the musical life of the city? These questions are approached through original interviews and archival findings, and are examined from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining methods and concepts from historical musicology, popular music studies, sociology of music and urban geography, to situate the research in the emergent field of urban music studies. Makeshift music studios are ultimately conceptualised as intricately sustainable musical spaces with heterotopic and temporarily autonomous characteristics, which sometimes transcend their materiality and form networked, inter-generational paths all the way to the present.
Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni ... more Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. θαη ζαλ αλαςπρή θαη ζαλ κέζν εκπέδσζεο ησλ ζπλεθηηθώλ κύζσλ ηεο θνηλόηεηαο» Από: Christopher Small, Μνπζηθή, Κνηλσλία θαη Δθπαίδεπζε, ζει 42. Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. 4 «Η τζχνθ είναι πάντα ιδεολογικι» Janet Wolff 7
ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 1 Ο : H πνξεία πξνο ην 4΄33΄΄, ε πξώηε ηνπ εθηέιεζε θαη ην δήηεκα ηεο ζεκεηνγξαθίαο .………... more ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 1 Ο : H πνξεία πξνο ην 4΄33΄΄, ε πξώηε ηνπ εθηέιεζε θαη ην δήηεκα ηεο ζεκεηνγξαθίαο .………………………………………………………ζει: 17 -29 1.1: Αύγνπζηνο ηνπ 1952 ζην Maverick Hall ……………………………….ζει: 17 1.2: 1948-1952: ηα βήκαηα πξνο ην 4΄33΄΄ …...………………………….ζει: 18 -24 1.3: Οη παξηηηνύξεο ηνπ 4΄33΄΄ .…………………………………………ζει: 25 -29 ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 2 Ο : Ζ δηπιή αηζζεηηθή ππόζηαζε ηνπ 4΄33΄΄ ….………..ζει: 30 -45 2.1: Σν 4΄33΄΄ θαη ν επξωπαϊθόο κνληεξληζκόο ..……………………….ζει: 30 -40 2.2:Σν 4΄33΄΄θαη ε κεηακνληέξλα αηζζεηηθή ..………………………….ζει: 40 -45 ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 3 Ο : Σν 4΄33΄΄ θαη ε έλλνηα ηνπ κνπζηθνύ έξγνπ. 3.1: Από ηε κνπζηθή ζην κνπζηθό έξγν………………………………….ζει: 46 -51 3.
Conference Presentations by Alexandra Karamoutsiou
Keep it Simple, Make it Fast! : an approach to underground music scenes (vol. 5) ed. Paula Guerra, Sofia Sousa, 2022
From 1974 until 1981, Greece was experiencing the transition to parliamentary democracy (Metapoli... more From 1974 until 1981, Greece was experiencing the transition to parliamentary democracy (Metapolitefsi) 3 with a right-wing government trying to restore the democratic state's institutions but being uncapable to follow the radicalization of young people (Sklavenitis, 2016, p. 104). At the same time the first steps of a DIY culture and its artifacts (bands, studios, zines, pirate radio stations etc.) took place in Thessaloniki Greece (Karamoutsiou, forthcoming). According to Vernardakis (2014) during the 80s Greece was facing the effort of the neoliberal political and ideological domination and institutionalization. To what extend could we say that the radicalization of the youth was empowered and expressed through DIY ethos and its artifacts and vice versa? Could we assume that DIY music practices were being, an alternative to 'The Capitalist state of Metapolitefsi' (Vernadakis, 2014)? The afore questions will be answered through stories of the DIY music scene of Thessaloniki from the 80s.
Theater/Drama & Performing Arts in Education: Utopia or necessity? (Edited by Betty Giannouli, Marios Koukounaras-Liagkis), 2019
The workshop combines methods of theater and music education with aspects of urban geography. The... more The workshop combines methods of theater and music education with aspects of urban geography. The facilitators invited the participants to engage into an embodied experience of the public space around the Moraitis School and to transform it creatively into a performance. The participants selected elements of the surrounding environment and transferred them on paper in the form of a graphic or verbal score. The scores got mixed and then performed by the group by the mean(s) that they chose to use (sound, movement, speech, image). The scores were performed in groups within a collective performance.
The workshop is based on the "open works" tradition, as formed by the experimental music and the Fluxus movement of the 1960s and 1970s (Nyman, 1999). The participants were invited to play, experiment and act via an educational process which overcomes the borders of formal educational tools and rather becomes the occasion for a didactic approach based on self-action and creativity (Kanellopoulos, Stefanou, 2015). Today, performing arts justify their role in school daily routine, by putting forward specific educational and learning objectives. By introducing contemporary artistic trends, such as performance, in the school framework, we aim to reflect on the structural roles of the student and the teacher, as well as on the learning and teaching process itself (Primavesi, Deck, 2014).
Pages 389-397
Not Just a Zine: the “Rollin Under” Zine and Thessaloniki’s DIY Music-making (1985 – 1990). Thessaloniki’s DIY Music Scene, Dec 21, 2020
From " underground " music studios into public space: the story of a local DIY scene that claimed... more From " underground " music studios into public space: the story of a local DIY scene that claimed the buildings and streets of its city. Thessaloniki, in Greece, is one of the cities, where deindustrialization in the late 1980s left behind urban gaps. These empty spaces, often entire buildings, became the hotbeds, where the DIY music scene informally developed. Valaoritou area, up to this day, hosts the formal and informal music studios, where the city's underground acts meet and make music forming a network of overlapping sub-scenes and genres. This scene seems to be introvert and its performances occur in few & specific places, regardless of the availability of popular recreational venues. However, right before the economic crisis, there seems to have been a shift in this attitude, with some acts deciding to claim the streets and public spaces of the city, starting-probably-with the Street Parade self-organised event in 2008. To what extent did this intervention become a public expression of the DIY music scene and what was its imprint in the city's music, cultural or even social life? How do the urban gaps relate to this musical expression, and the development of a local DIY scene? We wish to listen to the voices (DeNora 2000) of Thessaloniki's underground scene and establish an interdisciplinary experiential approach that highlights the popular identity of the local music scene, by merging tools from musicology and spatial studies. In order to avoid being invasive, increase our embodiment and open up our research to non-academic people (Chaidopoulou-Vrychea 2013) we have chosen psychogeographical games (Debord, 1995) and open interviews as our main researching tools. Our goal is to develop a dynamic, bottom-up historiographical approach, within this rapidly changing present of the area and its musicians.
“At the mercy of modernization…”: Histories of DIY music-making scene in Thessaloniki, the case o... more “At the mercy of modernization…”: Histories of DIY music-making scene in Thessaloniki, the case of “NAYTIA” band.
For over twenty years now, musicians of different backgrounds, ages and educational backgrounds, meet at DIY rehearsal and recording studios in Thessaloniki. These studios are located in the upper floors of old buildings, especially at the west side of the center of the city, above stores and bars and outside of the recorded, official and local histories of music life. From the late 80s those places had been a springboard for a series of crucial musical osmoses, operating as places of communication, networking but also formation of musical collectives.
Among many histories of DIY music-making scene in Thessaloniki, this presentation narrates the remarkable history of punk group “NAYTIA” which has been the first band of Thessaloniki that went to a European tour in 1988 along with “Chaos UK”. Also was one of the first bands that tried to modernize its equipment and recorded its first album “European Revival” at Papazoglou’s studio Agrotikon on 1992. That album was released by their own label called “Athanati Greek Leventia Productions”. Finally, it is very likely that “NAYTIA” was the only punk hardcore group of its time that had a female member as a drummer and vocalist.
Critically reflecting upon interviews and preliminary archival research around the activity of the punk group “NAYTIA” operating on the area from 1988 to 1994, I will address the following questions: What was the political and sociological context within which this band was formulated, in relation to the urban development of Thessaloniki? What were the means of production and promotion (for example, musical partnerships such as pirate radio stations, fanzines, album releases and public actions and events e.tc.)? Finally, in which ways does this music group seem to have affected Thessaloniki’s and Greece’s music life in general? Eventually, I hope that crucial epistemological and methodological issues of music historiography will arise.
http://iaspm2017.uni-kassel.de/
Deindustrialization has affected many cities with “urban gaps” that later got planned with cultur... more Deindustrialization has affected many cities with “urban gaps” that later got planned with cultural and recreational activities, leading in many cases to gentrification (e.g. the case of Temple Bar in Dublin) (Alexandri, 2015). The Valaoritou Area, in Thessaloniki Greece, is a similar case, where the artistic and music scene informally developed since the 1990s, and which offered to the country some of its major popular acts. However, the recent development of mainstream nightlife has started to change the atmosphere that was previously relevant to the music produced in the local studios. How do their sounds historically mingle with the urban buzz of day and night? How can they be interpreted?
We wish to listen to these voices (DeNora 2000, Finnegan 2007) and establish an interdisciplinary experiential approach that highlights the popular identity of the local music scene, by merging tools from musicology and spatial studies. For this quest, in order to avoid being invasive, increase the embodiment of our experience and open up our research to non-academic people (Chaidopoulou-Vrychea 2013) we have chosen psychogeographical games (Debord, 1995) and open interviews as our main researching tools. Our goal is to develop a dynamic, bottom-up historiographical approach, within this rapidly changing present of the area and its musicians.
* should you be interested in this research, please contact us in person * Ερευνητικά παιχνίδια ... more * should you be interested in this research, please contact us in person *
Ερευνητικά παιχνίδια για τις “άλλες” φωνές της Βαλαωρίτου
Αλεξάνδρα Καραμούτσιου
(Critical Music Histories / Tμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών Α.Π.Θ)
alexkara87@gmail.com
Βίβιαν Δούμπα
Ανεξάρτητη ερευνήτρια , Πολεοδόμος - Αστική Γεωγράφος
vivian.doumpa@gmail.com
Η περιοχή της Βαλαωρίτου είναι γνωστή, ιδιαίτερα για τη νεολαία, ως η καρδιά της νυχτερινής ζωής της Θεσσαλονίκης. Στις αρχές του 2000, με το κλείσιμο των περισσότερων υφασματάδικων και βιοτεχνιών της περιοχής, δημιουργήθηκαν κενοί και φθηνοί χώροι, ιδανικοί για καλλιτέχνες, που σύντομα νοίκιασαν τους ορόφους των κτιρίων. Ταυτόχρονα, στα ισόγεια καταστήματα άνοιξαν και τα πρώτα μπαρ - σημεία συνάντησης. Οι συνθήκες αυτές αποτελούν όμως συχνά πρόσφορο έδαφος για φαινόμενα gentrification (Αλεξανδρή 2015). Η αρχική φιλική συμβίωση των εναπομείναντων καταστημάτων, καλλιτεχνικών χώρων, δημιουργικών γραφείων και κέντρων διασκέδασης διαταράχθηκε και η ραγδαία αύξηση της νυχτερινής ζωής οδήγησε στον εκτοπισμό καταστημάτων και δημιουργικών γραφείων. Μουσικά και ζωγραφικά στούντιο παραμένουν, προς το παρόν, στους ορόφους των κτιρίων. Πώς ακούγονται όμως, μέσα στην βουή της νυχτερινής διασκέδασης, και πώς ερμηνεύονται;
Θα θέλαμε να αφουγκραστούμε τις φωνές των μουσικών στούντιο και των ανθρώπων τους (DeNora 2000, Finnegan 2007) και να καλέσουμε και άλλους να κάνουν το ίδιο, χωρίς η έρευνά μας να καταστεί παρεμβατική και χωρίς να συμβάλει στην απώλεια της “προφορικότητας” των φωνών που προτίθεται να ακούσει. Ταυτόχρονα, θεωρούμε σημαντικό τα πορίσματα της έρευνας να ενδιαφέρουν και να μπορούν να επικοινωνηθούν πρωτίστως στους ίδιους τους ανθρώπους του πεδίου (Χαϊδοπούλου-Βρυχέα 2013), καθώς και σε ευρύτερα πλαίσια εκτός ακαδημίας. Οι παραπάνω προβληματισμοί μας οδήγησαν στη σκέψη της χρήσης ψυχογεωγραφικών παιχνιδιών (Tuan 1977, Lefebvre 1974 & 1991) μέσα στην ίδια την ερευνητική διαδικασία, ως μέσο εκκίνησης και επικοινωνίας της έρευνας. Μέσω των ψυχογεωγραφικών παιχνιδιών εισάγεται το τυχαίο στην ερευνητική διαδικασία με επιδίωξη την επικοινωνία έως και τη σύγκλιση καθημερινότητας, τέχνης και ερευνητική διαδικασίας. Ανοίγεται έτσι ένας γόνιμος διεπιστημονικός χώρος συνεργασίας της χωροταξίας και της μουσικολογίας, που καθιστά δυνατή μια δυναμική, από-τα-κάτω ιστοριογραφική προσέγγιση στο ταχύτατα μεταλλασσόμενο παρόν της περιοχής και των μουσικών της.
---
Research games for the “other” voices of Valaoritou area
Alexandra Karamoutsiou
(Critical Music Histories / Music Studies, A.U.Th.)
alexkara87@gmail.com
Vivian Doumpa
Independent Researcher , Urban Planner & Geographer
vivian.doumpa@gmail.com
The Valaoritou Area is currently known, especially among the local youngsters, as Thessaloniki’s heart of recreation and nightlife. In the beginning of 2000, following the closing down of most of the area’s textile stores and manufacturing and the vacancy that occurred, many artists started to rent these cheap, yet ideal for them, spaces that were to be found mostly on the upper floors of the industrial buildings. In the meantime, small-scale recreational activities and meeting points, such as bars, started to show up on the ground floors. These conditions are often considered as a much fertile ground for gentrification phenomena (Alexandri, 2015). The initial, neighbourly co-existence of the remaining shops, the artistic spaces, the creative offices and the relevant night-time economy got disrupted by the rapid development of the mainstream night life. This unregulated development led to the displacement of the shops and the creative offices. However, and for the time being, the music and artistic studios still remain on the upper floors of the area. How do their sounds mingle with the buzz of the night-time? How can they be interpreted?
We would like to listen to the “voices” coming out of these studios and the people who occupy them (DeNora 2000, Finnegan 200&) and invite other people to do the same. Our research shall not be invasive and will safeguard the “orality” of these voices that it seeks to listen to. At the same time, we find it crucial that the research outcomes are mostly interesting and can be communicated to the same people of the field (Chaidopoulou-Vrychea 2013), as well as to the audience outside the academia. The aforementioned considerations led us to the selection of psychogeographical games (Tuan 1977, Lefebvre 1974 &1991) as a methodological tool for this research procedure, and as a means to kick-start and to communicate the research itself. Through the psychogeographical games we introduce the element of randomness in the research process, by seeking the communication as well as the convergence of daily life, art and research. Thus, it is possible to establish a fertile, interdisciplinary platform for collaboration among the fields of spatial studies and musicology, where a dynamic, bottom-up historiographical approach can be developed, within this rapidly changing present of the area and its musicians.
Papers by Alexandra Karamoutsiou
Forum Historiae, Jan 4, 2021
F or over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have be... more F or over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have been meeting at do-it-yourself (DIY) rehearsal and recording studios in Thessaloniki. These studios are located on the upper floors of old buildings, especially on the west side of the city centre, above stores and bars and outside of the recorded, official and local histories of musical life. From the mid-1980s these places were the springboard for a series of crucial musical osmoses, operating as places of communication and networking but also the formation of musical collectives. With the DIY ethos as common ground and Thessaloniki as their urban site, several different kinds of popular music idioms (from hardcore, punk to reggae and trip hop) blossomed throughout these 30 years of ceaseless musical creation. But is it sufficient to describe these musical activities under the term "music scene"? The use of the "music scene" concept outside the field of journalism started during the 1980s as a critical opposition to the term "subculture". 1 Music scenes have 1 PETERSON, Richard A.-BENNETT, Andy. Introducing Music Scenes. In PETERSON, Richard A.-BEN-NETT, Andy (eds.
F over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have been ... more F over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have been meeting at do-it-yourself (DIY) rehearsal and recording studios in Thessaloniki. These studios are located on the upper floors of old buildings, especially on the west side of the city centre, above stores and bars and outside of the recorded, official and local histories of musical life. From the mid1980s these places were the springboard for a series of crucial musical osmoses, operating as places of communication and networking but also the formation of musical collectives. With the DIY ethos as common ground and Thessaloniki as their urban site, several different kinds of popular music idioms (from hardcore, punk to reggae and trip hop) blossomed throughout these 30 years of ceaseless musical creation. But is it sufficient to describe these musical activities under the term “music scene”?
Μουσικές ιστορίες πόλης: η ιστορία των αυτοσχέδιων μουσικών στούντιο της Θεσσαλονίκης, 2023
This thesis is a multidimensional historical record of the D.I.Y. music studios of Thessaloniki, ... more This thesis is a multidimensional historical record of the D.I.Y. music studios of Thessaloniki, and the practices that developed in and around them. Those makeshift music studios or otherwise provadika (rehearsal spaces) are extra-institutional, self-managed musical spaces, where musical processes and alternative forms of sociability produce lasting blends that pervade the musical life of Thessaloniki over several decades. However, the action of these spaces remains largely undocumented. Starting from the historiography of popular music genres and drawing from recent epistemological work on D.I.Y. and alternative popular cultures, this study seeks to shed light not only on the studio spaces themselves, but also the multiple network nodes they triggered within the city. The narrative focuses on the first twenty years of their presence in Thessaloniki (mid-70s-early 90s), as well as on the D.I.Y./D.I.T. (do-it-yourself/do-it-together) music network that emerged in and around the studios during the 80s: self-curated concerts and festivals, independent record releases, pirate radio and self-published fanzines. The structure of the thesis is developed around three main research questions: 1) What is the sociopolitical and cultural framework through which makeshift studios emerged? 2) How did the studios develop during the years 1975-1994 and what music groups were involved in this practice? 3) What role did these spaces play in the musical life of the city? These questions are approached through original interviews and archival findings, and are examined from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining methods and concepts from historical musicology, popular music studies, sociology of music and urban geography, to situate the research in the emergent field of urban music studies. Makeshift music studios are ultimately conceptualised as intricately sustainable musical spaces with heterotopic and temporarily autonomous characteristics, which sometimes transcend their materiality and form networked, inter-generational paths all the way to the present.
Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni ... more Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. θαη ζαλ αλαςπρή θαη ζαλ κέζν εκπέδσζεο ησλ ζπλεθηηθώλ κύζσλ ηεο θνηλόηεηαο» Από: Christopher Small, Μνπζηθή, Κνηλσλία θαη Δθπαίδεπζε, ζει 42. Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. Κοινωνία, Ιδεολογία και Πολιτικι ςτισ τελευταίεσ όπερεσ του Mozart: θ περίπτωςθ του Don Giovanni και του Μαγικοφ Αυλοφ. 4 «Η τζχνθ είναι πάντα ιδεολογικι» Janet Wolff 7
ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 1 Ο : H πνξεία πξνο ην 4΄33΄΄, ε πξώηε ηνπ εθηέιεζε θαη ην δήηεκα ηεο ζεκεηνγξαθίαο .………... more ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 1 Ο : H πνξεία πξνο ην 4΄33΄΄, ε πξώηε ηνπ εθηέιεζε θαη ην δήηεκα ηεο ζεκεηνγξαθίαο .………………………………………………………ζει: 17 -29 1.1: Αύγνπζηνο ηνπ 1952 ζην Maverick Hall ……………………………….ζει: 17 1.2: 1948-1952: ηα βήκαηα πξνο ην 4΄33΄΄ …...………………………….ζει: 18 -24 1.3: Οη παξηηηνύξεο ηνπ 4΄33΄΄ .…………………………………………ζει: 25 -29 ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 2 Ο : Ζ δηπιή αηζζεηηθή ππόζηαζε ηνπ 4΄33΄΄ ….………..ζει: 30 -45 2.1: Σν 4΄33΄΄ θαη ν επξωπαϊθόο κνληεξληζκόο ..……………………….ζει: 30 -40 2.2:Σν 4΄33΄΄θαη ε κεηακνληέξλα αηζζεηηθή ..………………………….ζει: 40 -45 ΚΔΦΑΛΑΗΟ 3 Ο : Σν 4΄33΄΄ θαη ε έλλνηα ηνπ κνπζηθνύ έξγνπ. 3.1: Από ηε κνπζηθή ζην κνπζηθό έξγν………………………………….ζει: 46 -51 3.
Keep it Simple, Make it Fast! : an approach to underground music scenes (vol. 5) ed. Paula Guerra, Sofia Sousa, 2022
From 1974 until 1981, Greece was experiencing the transition to parliamentary democracy (Metapoli... more From 1974 until 1981, Greece was experiencing the transition to parliamentary democracy (Metapolitefsi) 3 with a right-wing government trying to restore the democratic state's institutions but being uncapable to follow the radicalization of young people (Sklavenitis, 2016, p. 104). At the same time the first steps of a DIY culture and its artifacts (bands, studios, zines, pirate radio stations etc.) took place in Thessaloniki Greece (Karamoutsiou, forthcoming). According to Vernardakis (2014) during the 80s Greece was facing the effort of the neoliberal political and ideological domination and institutionalization. To what extend could we say that the radicalization of the youth was empowered and expressed through DIY ethos and its artifacts and vice versa? Could we assume that DIY music practices were being, an alternative to 'The Capitalist state of Metapolitefsi' (Vernadakis, 2014)? The afore questions will be answered through stories of the DIY music scene of Thessaloniki from the 80s.
Theater/Drama & Performing Arts in Education: Utopia or necessity? (Edited by Betty Giannouli, Marios Koukounaras-Liagkis), 2019
The workshop combines methods of theater and music education with aspects of urban geography. The... more The workshop combines methods of theater and music education with aspects of urban geography. The facilitators invited the participants to engage into an embodied experience of the public space around the Moraitis School and to transform it creatively into a performance. The participants selected elements of the surrounding environment and transferred them on paper in the form of a graphic or verbal score. The scores got mixed and then performed by the group by the mean(s) that they chose to use (sound, movement, speech, image). The scores were performed in groups within a collective performance.
The workshop is based on the "open works" tradition, as formed by the experimental music and the Fluxus movement of the 1960s and 1970s (Nyman, 1999). The participants were invited to play, experiment and act via an educational process which overcomes the borders of formal educational tools and rather becomes the occasion for a didactic approach based on self-action and creativity (Kanellopoulos, Stefanou, 2015). Today, performing arts justify their role in school daily routine, by putting forward specific educational and learning objectives. By introducing contemporary artistic trends, such as performance, in the school framework, we aim to reflect on the structural roles of the student and the teacher, as well as on the learning and teaching process itself (Primavesi, Deck, 2014).
Pages 389-397
Not Just a Zine: the “Rollin Under” Zine and Thessaloniki’s DIY Music-making (1985 – 1990). Thessaloniki’s DIY Music Scene, Dec 21, 2020
From " underground " music studios into public space: the story of a local DIY scene that claimed... more From " underground " music studios into public space: the story of a local DIY scene that claimed the buildings and streets of its city. Thessaloniki, in Greece, is one of the cities, where deindustrialization in the late 1980s left behind urban gaps. These empty spaces, often entire buildings, became the hotbeds, where the DIY music scene informally developed. Valaoritou area, up to this day, hosts the formal and informal music studios, where the city's underground acts meet and make music forming a network of overlapping sub-scenes and genres. This scene seems to be introvert and its performances occur in few & specific places, regardless of the availability of popular recreational venues. However, right before the economic crisis, there seems to have been a shift in this attitude, with some acts deciding to claim the streets and public spaces of the city, starting-probably-with the Street Parade self-organised event in 2008. To what extent did this intervention become a public expression of the DIY music scene and what was its imprint in the city's music, cultural or even social life? How do the urban gaps relate to this musical expression, and the development of a local DIY scene? We wish to listen to the voices (DeNora 2000) of Thessaloniki's underground scene and establish an interdisciplinary experiential approach that highlights the popular identity of the local music scene, by merging tools from musicology and spatial studies. In order to avoid being invasive, increase our embodiment and open up our research to non-academic people (Chaidopoulou-Vrychea 2013) we have chosen psychogeographical games (Debord, 1995) and open interviews as our main researching tools. Our goal is to develop a dynamic, bottom-up historiographical approach, within this rapidly changing present of the area and its musicians.
“At the mercy of modernization…”: Histories of DIY music-making scene in Thessaloniki, the case o... more “At the mercy of modernization…”: Histories of DIY music-making scene in Thessaloniki, the case of “NAYTIA” band.
For over twenty years now, musicians of different backgrounds, ages and educational backgrounds, meet at DIY rehearsal and recording studios in Thessaloniki. These studios are located in the upper floors of old buildings, especially at the west side of the center of the city, above stores and bars and outside of the recorded, official and local histories of music life. From the late 80s those places had been a springboard for a series of crucial musical osmoses, operating as places of communication, networking but also formation of musical collectives.
Among many histories of DIY music-making scene in Thessaloniki, this presentation narrates the remarkable history of punk group “NAYTIA” which has been the first band of Thessaloniki that went to a European tour in 1988 along with “Chaos UK”. Also was one of the first bands that tried to modernize its equipment and recorded its first album “European Revival” at Papazoglou’s studio Agrotikon on 1992. That album was released by their own label called “Athanati Greek Leventia Productions”. Finally, it is very likely that “NAYTIA” was the only punk hardcore group of its time that had a female member as a drummer and vocalist.
Critically reflecting upon interviews and preliminary archival research around the activity of the punk group “NAYTIA” operating on the area from 1988 to 1994, I will address the following questions: What was the political and sociological context within which this band was formulated, in relation to the urban development of Thessaloniki? What were the means of production and promotion (for example, musical partnerships such as pirate radio stations, fanzines, album releases and public actions and events e.tc.)? Finally, in which ways does this music group seem to have affected Thessaloniki’s and Greece’s music life in general? Eventually, I hope that crucial epistemological and methodological issues of music historiography will arise.
http://iaspm2017.uni-kassel.de/
Deindustrialization has affected many cities with “urban gaps” that later got planned with cultur... more Deindustrialization has affected many cities with “urban gaps” that later got planned with cultural and recreational activities, leading in many cases to gentrification (e.g. the case of Temple Bar in Dublin) (Alexandri, 2015). The Valaoritou Area, in Thessaloniki Greece, is a similar case, where the artistic and music scene informally developed since the 1990s, and which offered to the country some of its major popular acts. However, the recent development of mainstream nightlife has started to change the atmosphere that was previously relevant to the music produced in the local studios. How do their sounds historically mingle with the urban buzz of day and night? How can they be interpreted?
We wish to listen to these voices (DeNora 2000, Finnegan 2007) and establish an interdisciplinary experiential approach that highlights the popular identity of the local music scene, by merging tools from musicology and spatial studies. For this quest, in order to avoid being invasive, increase the embodiment of our experience and open up our research to non-academic people (Chaidopoulou-Vrychea 2013) we have chosen psychogeographical games (Debord, 1995) and open interviews as our main researching tools. Our goal is to develop a dynamic, bottom-up historiographical approach, within this rapidly changing present of the area and its musicians.
* should you be interested in this research, please contact us in person * Ερευνητικά παιχνίδια ... more * should you be interested in this research, please contact us in person *
Ερευνητικά παιχνίδια για τις “άλλες” φωνές της Βαλαωρίτου
Αλεξάνδρα Καραμούτσιου
(Critical Music Histories / Tμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών Α.Π.Θ)
alexkara87@gmail.com
Βίβιαν Δούμπα
Ανεξάρτητη ερευνήτρια , Πολεοδόμος - Αστική Γεωγράφος
vivian.doumpa@gmail.com
Η περιοχή της Βαλαωρίτου είναι γνωστή, ιδιαίτερα για τη νεολαία, ως η καρδιά της νυχτερινής ζωής της Θεσσαλονίκης. Στις αρχές του 2000, με το κλείσιμο των περισσότερων υφασματάδικων και βιοτεχνιών της περιοχής, δημιουργήθηκαν κενοί και φθηνοί χώροι, ιδανικοί για καλλιτέχνες, που σύντομα νοίκιασαν τους ορόφους των κτιρίων. Ταυτόχρονα, στα ισόγεια καταστήματα άνοιξαν και τα πρώτα μπαρ - σημεία συνάντησης. Οι συνθήκες αυτές αποτελούν όμως συχνά πρόσφορο έδαφος για φαινόμενα gentrification (Αλεξανδρή 2015). Η αρχική φιλική συμβίωση των εναπομείναντων καταστημάτων, καλλιτεχνικών χώρων, δημιουργικών γραφείων και κέντρων διασκέδασης διαταράχθηκε και η ραγδαία αύξηση της νυχτερινής ζωής οδήγησε στον εκτοπισμό καταστημάτων και δημιουργικών γραφείων. Μουσικά και ζωγραφικά στούντιο παραμένουν, προς το παρόν, στους ορόφους των κτιρίων. Πώς ακούγονται όμως, μέσα στην βουή της νυχτερινής διασκέδασης, και πώς ερμηνεύονται;
Θα θέλαμε να αφουγκραστούμε τις φωνές των μουσικών στούντιο και των ανθρώπων τους (DeNora 2000, Finnegan 2007) και να καλέσουμε και άλλους να κάνουν το ίδιο, χωρίς η έρευνά μας να καταστεί παρεμβατική και χωρίς να συμβάλει στην απώλεια της “προφορικότητας” των φωνών που προτίθεται να ακούσει. Ταυτόχρονα, θεωρούμε σημαντικό τα πορίσματα της έρευνας να ενδιαφέρουν και να μπορούν να επικοινωνηθούν πρωτίστως στους ίδιους τους ανθρώπους του πεδίου (Χαϊδοπούλου-Βρυχέα 2013), καθώς και σε ευρύτερα πλαίσια εκτός ακαδημίας. Οι παραπάνω προβληματισμοί μας οδήγησαν στη σκέψη της χρήσης ψυχογεωγραφικών παιχνιδιών (Tuan 1977, Lefebvre 1974 & 1991) μέσα στην ίδια την ερευνητική διαδικασία, ως μέσο εκκίνησης και επικοινωνίας της έρευνας. Μέσω των ψυχογεωγραφικών παιχνιδιών εισάγεται το τυχαίο στην ερευνητική διαδικασία με επιδίωξη την επικοινωνία έως και τη σύγκλιση καθημερινότητας, τέχνης και ερευνητική διαδικασίας. Ανοίγεται έτσι ένας γόνιμος διεπιστημονικός χώρος συνεργασίας της χωροταξίας και της μουσικολογίας, που καθιστά δυνατή μια δυναμική, από-τα-κάτω ιστοριογραφική προσέγγιση στο ταχύτατα μεταλλασσόμενο παρόν της περιοχής και των μουσικών της.
---
Research games for the “other” voices of Valaoritou area
Alexandra Karamoutsiou
(Critical Music Histories / Music Studies, A.U.Th.)
alexkara87@gmail.com
Vivian Doumpa
Independent Researcher , Urban Planner & Geographer
vivian.doumpa@gmail.com
The Valaoritou Area is currently known, especially among the local youngsters, as Thessaloniki’s heart of recreation and nightlife. In the beginning of 2000, following the closing down of most of the area’s textile stores and manufacturing and the vacancy that occurred, many artists started to rent these cheap, yet ideal for them, spaces that were to be found mostly on the upper floors of the industrial buildings. In the meantime, small-scale recreational activities and meeting points, such as bars, started to show up on the ground floors. These conditions are often considered as a much fertile ground for gentrification phenomena (Alexandri, 2015). The initial, neighbourly co-existence of the remaining shops, the artistic spaces, the creative offices and the relevant night-time economy got disrupted by the rapid development of the mainstream night life. This unregulated development led to the displacement of the shops and the creative offices. However, and for the time being, the music and artistic studios still remain on the upper floors of the area. How do their sounds mingle with the buzz of the night-time? How can they be interpreted?
We would like to listen to the “voices” coming out of these studios and the people who occupy them (DeNora 2000, Finnegan 200&) and invite other people to do the same. Our research shall not be invasive and will safeguard the “orality” of these voices that it seeks to listen to. At the same time, we find it crucial that the research outcomes are mostly interesting and can be communicated to the same people of the field (Chaidopoulou-Vrychea 2013), as well as to the audience outside the academia. The aforementioned considerations led us to the selection of psychogeographical games (Tuan 1977, Lefebvre 1974 &1991) as a methodological tool for this research procedure, and as a means to kick-start and to communicate the research itself. Through the psychogeographical games we introduce the element of randomness in the research process, by seeking the communication as well as the convergence of daily life, art and research. Thus, it is possible to establish a fertile, interdisciplinary platform for collaboration among the fields of spatial studies and musicology, where a dynamic, bottom-up historiographical approach can be developed, within this rapidly changing present of the area and its musicians.
Forum Historiae, Jan 4, 2021
F or over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have be... more F or over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have been meeting at do-it-yourself (DIY) rehearsal and recording studios in Thessaloniki. These studios are located on the upper floors of old buildings, especially on the west side of the city centre, above stores and bars and outside of the recorded, official and local histories of musical life. From the mid-1980s these places were the springboard for a series of crucial musical osmoses, operating as places of communication and networking but also the formation of musical collectives. With the DIY ethos as common ground and Thessaloniki as their urban site, several different kinds of popular music idioms (from hardcore, punk to reggae and trip hop) blossomed throughout these 30 years of ceaseless musical creation. But is it sufficient to describe these musical activities under the term "music scene"? The use of the "music scene" concept outside the field of journalism started during the 1980s as a critical opposition to the term "subculture". 1 Music scenes have 1 PETERSON, Richard A.-BENNETT, Andy. Introducing Music Scenes. In PETERSON, Richard A.-BEN-NETT, Andy (eds.
F over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have been ... more F over 30 years now, musicians from different scenes, ages and educational backgrounds have been meeting at do-it-yourself (DIY) rehearsal and recording studios in Thessaloniki. These studios are located on the upper floors of old buildings, especially on the west side of the city centre, above stores and bars and outside of the recorded, official and local histories of musical life. From the mid1980s these places were the springboard for a series of crucial musical osmoses, operating as places of communication and networking but also the formation of musical collectives. With the DIY ethos as common ground and Thessaloniki as their urban site, several different kinds of popular music idioms (from hardcore, punk to reggae and trip hop) blossomed throughout these 30 years of ceaseless musical creation. But is it sufficient to describe these musical activities under the term “music scene”?