APARTE GALLERY recently presented a complex event for emerging artists, students at “George Enescu” National Universtity of Arts: the project “Parallel Universes”, exhibition of cyanotypes and animated imagery and some collateral events held by SOPHIA HADJIPAPA & DEMIE ENGLEZOU from the European University of Cyprus, Nicosia. The conference “From manual to digital to manual and back again: A talk on the transference of media” by Sophia Hadjipapa & Demie Englezou, raised questions such as: “is it possible in this day and age not to think digitally? Would that mean pretending that the digital camera, the internet, and all these they entail, were never invented?” Even if we create analogically, the whole process of our thinking, from the conception of an idea, our access to information - a necessary part of research - and the means of experimentation, the necessary interconnections and combinations that make up the creative process, cannot bypass our digital reality.

On the other hand, even the most ardent digital creators, who produce their work entirely on the computer, hide a little black book in their chest, where they reverently place with a pencil, all their ideas in their most embryonic form, because a piece of them (still?) needs the tangible transition of a mental image to the paper.

Later on Demie Englezou talked about “Movement in art” and the principle of making images that appear in motion. It can also refer to the path the eye takes through the artwork, often to create a sense of action or to emphasize a particular area, otherwise called a focal point. Movement is an essential element of many art forms, and its power lies in its ability to transform the static image into something dynamic and alive. The speakers aimed - through their own practice - to explore that intermediate area, in the artistic process, where thought and action constantly and imperceptibly meander between the digital and the analogue.

Staring with the few basic principles, the presentation followed the process of filmmaking and Animation in the comparison with the New Media Motion Graphics, exploring possible definitions, methods, approaches, and potential futures of filmmaking and also explore making expanded moving image projects.

The starting point for this project was a series of illustrations that Sophia Hadjipapa had initially designed as digital illustrations accompanying two poetry books, published in 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria, written by poets Vasilka Petrova- Hadjipapa and Georgi Constantinov. The illustrations were shown as limited-edition cyanotype prints on A3 archival paper in November 2021, in Nicosia, Cyprus and gave the idea for the current proposal.

”In this project we are interested in the intersection between media and the transference of attributes from one medium to another creating new, hybrid forms: first, Sophia Hadjipapa moved from manual to digital to manual again, ending up using cyanotype, a medium traditionally used in Photography, for drawing prints, thus creating a medium that is neither photography, nor drawing, nor printmaking but also maybe all of those.

Secondly, Demie Englezou build on these static images to create moving ones, thus creating works that are neither just animations nor just drawings.

And then, there is also the level of text. The transmutation of poetry into visual form and it’s repercussions in the static and moving image”, pointed out the project team.

For the exhibition in Iasi, cyanotype large prints of the illustrations were presented, together with simultaneous projections of moving images/ animations based on these illustrations, where the textual element of the poetry is also interwoven.

For those intrigued by the technique used in the exhibition and want to try it themselves, Sophia Hadjipapa offered a cyanotype workshop.

"Cyanotypes are one of the oldest photographic printing processes in the history of photography. The distinctive feature of the print is its shade of cyan blue, which results from its exposure to ultraviolet light. When the blue print emerged, cyanotypes were traditionally used for reproducing the technical drawings of architects and engineers until the arrival of photocopy machines. However, with its versatility and affordability, the technique was adopted by photographers soon after its discovery. Now artists of all kinds use this technique experimenting to print not only photographs by any kind of image, as is the case with Sophia’s prints", we found out from the organizers.

In a two – hour workshop Dr Sophia Hadjipapa guideed the participants into printing their own cyanotype. They could either do a cyanotype print from scratch by using found materials as leaves and feathers, or, they could bring their own image scanned and inverted, ready to be printed as their negative for their cyanotype.

Then the Screenings of the Best Films of the International Motion Festival were presented.

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Dr. Sophia Hadjipapa is an active visual artist living in Cyprus. She is Associate Professor of Fine Arts at the Department of Arts of the European University Cyprus. She holds a BA in Painting from the National Academy of Arts of Sofia, where she also completed an MA degree in Painting and a PhD in Art History and Theory. Besides painting she has worked on video art,interventions in Public spaces, installations and participatory projects, illustrations of poems, covers of books and lately theater stage design.

Demie Englezou holds a Master’s degree in Computer Animation from the National Center of Computer Animation at Bournemouth University 2001 and a B.A in Graphic Design from the University of the West of England Bristol in 2000. She has created a large number of animated short films and Motion Graphics and participated in international film festivals, exhibitions, and art projects. She is a Lecturer and the program coordinator of the Graphic Design Program (BA) at the European University Cyprus. Her research interests are based on the Motion Graphics & Broadcast Design, Social Media Design as well as 3d Computer Animation.