What’s On You and AI: Through the Algorithmic Lens

I Belong to Me

Evi Kalogiropoulou

Image1/2

Photo: Stelios Tzetzias

I Belong to Me, Evi Kalogiropoulou (2021)

A video-art work that explores the boundaries of humanity by posing the question of what the lack of touching each other means: At a dystopic non-place, void of time, where the boundaries between man and machine have become indistinct and —eventually— meaningless, abandoned human and machine bodies melt under the merciless sun. Can the, as they catharsis to be delivered by the deus / human ex machina?

“I Belong to Me” – the new short film by Evi Kalogiropoulou – takes us into a dystopian workplace at the Perama shipyards, where a longstanding ban on physical contact has turned human interactions into otherworldly simulations. The suppression of touch among the workers has alienated their communication, transforming the boatyard into a charged landscape of alienation and repressed sensuality beyond stereotypical heteronormative desires.

Hinting at the existence of an omnipresent but invisible monitoring mechanism that runs the boatyard, the film follows the story of Giorgos (Giorgos Mazonakis) – one of the older workers and manager at the yard – to profile human relationships and exchanges as shaped by everyday lives in which the visual subordinates the emotional.

Title: I Belong to Me

Directed by Evi Kalogiropoulou

Medium: Video

Starring: Georgios Mazonakis

With: Angela Brouskou, Myrto Kondoni, Xenia Dania, Lorenzo Sarjan, Kevin Zans Ansong, Jordan Genidogan, Vassilis Koutsogiannis

Year: 2021

Duration: 20:07

Location: On display at Pedion tou Areos in "YOU AND AI"

An Onassis Stegi production commissioned by You and AI Festival

Curatorial Direction: Afroditi Panagiotakou

Screenplay: Yorgos Teltzidis based on an Evi Kalogiropoulou idea

Cinematography: Evan Maragoudakis

Editor: Fedon Gretsikos

Music
Original Composition: Κid Moxie

“Aniko se mena” [“I Belong to Me”]
Arranged & orchestrated by Kid Moxie featuring Giorgos Mazonakis based on the same-titled song written by Nikos Terzis and Panos Falaras
Creative Producers: Afroditi Panagiotakou, Kostas Kalimeris, Christos Lainas

Movement: Giannis Nikolaidis

Sound Engineer: Dimitris Demirakos

Set Design: Evelina Dazenta, Anna Zotou

Costumes Design: Georgia Boura

Makeup Artist: Maria Vezyraki

1st Assistant Director: Makis Sebos

Production Management: Vasso Stergiou

Drone: Giannis Korfiatis

Also appearing: Faye Tzouma, Elias Petrou, Adrian Shuli, Andrit Shuli, Dimitris Baltas

2nd Assistant Director: Evi Chatzipieri

Production Assistants: Fotis Zaminos, Giorgos Pappas, Focus Puller, Nikos Sebos

2nd Camera Assistant / DIT: Emilios Charalambous

1st Assistant Sound: Aris Arachovitis

Gaffers: Dimitris Mantzaris, Christos Theodoropoulos

Dresser: Kyranna Gioka

Makeup Artist to Giorgos Mazonakis: Stellar

Hair Curator: Alexandros Balabanis / Lock Hair Lab

Jordan Genidogan is represented by VN Models agency

Color Correction: Dimitris Karteris

Sound Lab: I hear voices

Sound Design & Mix: Leandros Dounis

Equipment Rentals: Karamanos Studio, Mateco

Van Rentals: Giorgos Bikas – G. Chrysogiannis

Production Rentals: Filmtools

Catering: Mamas on the Road

Neda Film Support: Isabella Alopoudi

Accounting: Giorgos Pandis – Giannis Dontis

Film Insurance: 4U Insurance Consultants, Dimitris Koutsonikas

Executive Director / Scientific Consultant of You and AI Festival:¨Prodromos TsiavosProduction Management / Onassis Stegi: Vassilis Panagiotakopoulos

Producer: Amanda Livanou

Line Production: Neda Film

Filming took place at Hellenic Shipyards of Perama S.A.

Special thanks to Mr. Victor Restis, the Shipyards’ management and employees Director Mr. Giorgos Kafkarisios and to Giannis Liaskos, Stefanos Zygouris, Stelios Vervatis, Aris Lambrakis, Giannis Vlachos

We would like to thank for their support and collaboration:

George E. Patoulis Regional Governor of Attica, Vassilis Kokkalis Deputy Regional Governor in charge of Civil Protection and Environment, George Dimopoulos Deputy Regional Governor Central Sector of Athens, Evangelos Matsoukis Advisor to the Regional Governor and Advisor for Pedion tou Areos infrastructure and operation, Directorate of Parks & Groves Region of Attica: Efthymios Kokmotos Director of Parks & Groves, Kalliopi Niora Head of Design and Planning Department, Frosso Samiou Employee Pedion tou Areos Department, Anastasia Petala Head of Secretarial Support

All employees at Pedion tou Areos Department, Directorate of Parks & Groves

The Environmental Cultural Association ‘We Insist Pedion tou Aeros’

Many thanks to Chrysostomos Theodoroudis, Monica Papadatos, Panagiotis Tsomidis, Thanasis Kanatselis, Giorgos Atsalakis, Vassiliki Panagiotopoulou and Themos Anastasiadis family, Giorgos Stergiou, Thodoris Vassilopoulos, Evangelos Polychronopoulos, Dimitra Fouka, Elias Ktistakis, Giorgos Papadimitriou, Katerina Seferli

As well as the following companies and stores:

Progressive, Atsalakis Shipyard, To Steki tou Manoli, Art of Sound, Tsomidis Support

Curatorial note

This work by Evi Kalogiropoulou takes the same approach as the You and AI Festival: technology itself appears almost nowhere and yet is omnipresent. Inside a boatyard – a non-place set between land and sea where luxury yachts are built by people who will never get to travel themselves – male and female workers labor away mechanically and passively, almost in a trance. Their bodies, resigned to machine control, are starved of human touch, even in the moments when they need it most: to soothe their pain or bring a climax to their lust. And yet, no one ever touches anyone. That is the cardinal rule. A rule so deeply rooted inside of them that they no longer require surveillance. Even the drone that appears and oversees them from time to time seems not to have any real purpose. Much like their work, which seems to have no real purpose either. Why is it that humans are doing the work and machines are doing the supervising? Or is it that humans don’t exist at all? What is human, and what is machinic? And if, in the end, we manage to break the rules and come in contact with one another once more, will we become more human? Or can we at least make the machines we ourselves created understand us better?

Kalogiropoulou has chosen to talk about the human body and beauty, the futility of work and paranoid surveillance settings, but also about blood and physical isolation, about gender and sexual desire and their limits.

The role Giorgos Mazonakis plays in the film correspondingly appears enigmatic and autobiographical. Is he human or a machine? Where did he come from, and why, in the end, is he able to break such deeply-rooted rules? What is the nature of the eroticism he exudes?

By placing a figure like Giorgos Μazonakis within Kalogiropoulou’s dystopian setting, “I Belong to Me” – raises fundamental questions relating to artificial intelligence: Can we break the rules and break out of boxes? Can we go beyond predetermined roles and perspectives? Can we belong to our own selves?

Kalogiropoulou’s film is a film about human nature and, as such, is a film about artificial intelligence.

− Ioli Kavakou