The Eternal Internet Brotherhood poster
Interview explaining the project (read below) or
or check latest issue of Dazed and Confused
LuckyPDF: Can you tell me about your upcoming project 'The Eternal Internet Brotherhood'? How did it come about, and how does it relate to the other activities of The Angelo Foundation?
Angelo Plessas: The Eternal Internet Brotherhood is an initiative of The Angelo Foundation for a 30 day cooperative camp that will host artists, curators, writers and friends who will work and explore ideas of deeper spiritual virtuality and at the same time interested in exploring new visual codes and behavorial modes. The Eternal Internet Brotherhood will be held every year in a different location, chosen for it's beauty, history, culture and comfort level.
The Angelo Foundation is a non-profit organization that introduces new ideological and semiotic strategies. It’s an open, apolitical organisation whose main focus is to help introduce new rules in artistic, educational and institutional structures. Our logo is an empty head, which signifies an open mind, though we are not against empty heads of course. The AF was founded in 2007. Since I started the foundation I always want to work with other people to share vision, ideas and fun. Last year my Foundation organized successfuly a summer Music School which included poetry readings, sound compositions and meditation sessions. The school functioned in a structured way for 3 months even though it was very casual. It was hosted at the National Museum of Contemporary Art which is hosted as the Athens Conservatory which unavoidably we could not have full-control of it. So I thought why not teleporting all these ideas in a more idyllic and casual situation, spending more time with great people in a beautiful place but also creating new stuff at the same time. In Greece hospitality it's still a tradition but everybody is under so much pressure because of this never-ending crisis. Apart from continuing my ancestors tradition I chose Greece as the symbolic birthplace of new ideas and practically because it's more accessible to people who are probably more urged to learn new things.
LP: I understand the location for the camp, this year being cited on the island of Delos, is integral to the project. Can you tell us a little more of your choice of location and how this relates to creativity and the internet?
AP: Yes Delos is an islet off the coast of Mykonos- one of the busiest islands of the world. So practically we are taking advantage of wi-fi infrastracture which is very important for our projects. At the same time we will stay in a deserted and a beautiful island with the most glorious ancient history of the Western Civilization. Delos was the main cult centre of ancient Greece. Every year there were held fairs to glorify god Apollo, the god of Music, Visual Arts but he was also a healer, an entairtainer etc. These fairs were really radical in terms of entertainment. People were going to Delos to have fun in the most uninhibited way with no taboos including all kinds of people beyond class and financial backgrounds. It was a space of liberty and collective experience. So many common definitions of how I see theinternet..
LP: Will there be incarnations of the project outside of Greece?
AP: Yes of course. I am planning to bring this project in warm places so next for 2013 I will organize it in South India, for 2014 we do Southern California, for 2015 we do Thailand and for 2016 we do Brazil to coincide with the Olympics.
LP: What are the aims of the 'Eternal Internet Brotherhood' gathering?
AP: After I realized the creative integration of the offline and online modes of well-being but also it's importance in sparking a liberated intellectual evolution, this initiative aims to reveal how an all-union system of disciplines will spark universal energy. The Eternal Internet Brotherhood is a space of total intellectual liberty and will act as post-privacy outpost. I hope it will enable us to escape from the visual provincialism of technology within which we now live.
LP: I understand it's yearly and the range of people attending will be broad, will the attendees be invited/curated or is this a more casual affair?
AP: Yes it is an annual event and I will organize it at a time when it's the ideal at these places I mentioned above. I plan to curate a program of activities and events and then I will make a selection of people that I think can correspond to these. I will also try to invite people that they will like each other as we will all live together for a month. Then I am very open if these people propose other people, and self curated strangers are always great. The experience has to be communal friendly and casual at the same time. Nobody will be obliged to follow all the activities because overall my idea is to offer free vacation and relaxation but at the same time people will be great to give and create something for our (micro)community in this (hopefully) idyllic context.
LP: Can you give any examples of who is attending? and are there any participants in particular which you are exited about?
AP: The list is under construction but of course it is oriented to people they love emotionalizing technology and use new phychoenergetic systems. Generally I want to bring people who their work expand notions of communication, distribution, dissemination, compression, simultaneity and the participation of the audience.
LP: Do you think/hope that the work of 'The Eternal Internet Brotherhood' gatherings will spill out into the wider world beyond the thirty days in these remote locations? And in what ways do you envisage this occurring?
AP: I really hope our ideas and projects will be heard outside the boundaries of our immediate friends and circle.
LP: From my understanding the project has a strong aspiration of the legacy of intellectual evolution, can you tell me more about this?
AP: This project will be a space where you will experiment and subvert intellectual legacy. I would say an intellectual randomisation. The random, the fragmentary and the unstructured are the three pylons of knowledge of theInternet- Nation.
LP: Does collaboration and cooperation play an important role in the project? Is the project network aware or orientated?
AP: Yes.
LP: And how do you think this relates or mirrors the community of creative people working online at themoment?
AP: Its is the same but in a way better location.
LP: Can you tell me about the day to day activities of this cooperative camp and some examples of specific projects?
AP: We will do:
Workshops for internet craftmanship
Animated Gif Bazaar
Flash animation Bricolage
Invisible Demonstrations and Sensational Projections
Poetry Readings
Live streamed meditation sessions
Random Writing Rituals
Automated Freedom Perfomances
Online Personality Development Lectures
Net-Agri-cultural Demos
Magnet Yoga sessions
