Cyprus Vital Signs – A Journey to Enchantment, aims to raise awareness on the impact of human activities on the island of Cyprus, investigating the socio-environmental repercussions of local tourism by inspecting, describing, transforming and narrating data generated by tourist activities. The work is composed of 10 video animations and a 360-video experience conveying the histories and the reality of the socio-environmental crisis.

Unfolding as a polyptych voyage towards an enchanted reality, the work is based on digital and physical datasets which are analysed, presented, and interpreted through a somewhat kaleidoscopic gaze. Scavenged by autonomous algorithms, hyperlocal and general datasets left behind by tourists are read as socio-environmental indicators and compiled into a daily report, while an open-source and continuously updated website makes available all the resources that continuously inform the project. The work culminates with a synergistic hi-tech/low-tech printmaking process, shifting the gaze from the deluging instrumentalization and the mega-views of our world towards the landing on an enchanted earth, the restoring of distance between objects, and the awakening to a new future-preserving cosmology.

This project was developed in the framework of S+T+ARTS Repairing the Present, through the Artist Residency hosted by RSC CYENS CoE, in the partnership of PwC Cyprus. 

CREDITS:

The project was realised with the support from Myrto Aristidou, Marios Constantinides, Stella Taousiani, Stratis Pantelides, Kyriaki Yiakoupi, Marios Charalabous, Maria Loizou, Alex Charalambous, Giorgos Dimoglou, Angela Ionnidou, Kleanthis Neokleous, Stefanos Papadas, Maria Ioannou, Marina Neophytou and the insights and assistance from all the CYENS Thinker Maker Space team and facilities.

Music by Julius H., Evgeny Bardyuzha, 24414830, AleXZavesa, Oleksandr Stepanov, Oleksii Kaplunskyi, Dream-Protocol and DivKid from Pixabay.

Joseph Hovadik is a French-born, Guatemala-based visual artist with a background in geology, data science and art. He works in a wide range of styles and media which include painting, works on paper, prints, digital media and datasets. His artmaking can be playful and inconsequential, or explore dark and humorous takes on the multiple concurrent global crises.