Maria X

Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka maria x] is a PhD Candidate at the Goldsmiths Digital Studios and Drama Department, University of London & Sessional Lecturer at Birkbeck College FCE

Currently, I am a Ph.D. researcher in Arts and Computational Technologies at the Digital Studios http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cccc/digital-studios.php of Goldsmiths College, University of London. I have studied theatre (BA Hons, School of Theatre Studies http://www.upatras.gr/education/departments/the.php?lang=en, Univ. of Patras, Greece). Since graduating in 1996 I have worked as a performer, producer, curator, initiator and events organiser for numerous cross-disciplinary cultural events and activities.

Between 1996 and 2002 I worked with Fournos Centre for Art & New Technologies http://www.fournos-culture.gr (Athens, Greece), originally as an administrator and curator. In 1998 I co-founded, along with Manthos & Dodo Santorineos, Fournos? Directors, the 1st Hellenic Art & Technology Festival. This was the first art+tech festival to be launched in Greece, and had a strong focus on artistic experimentation and production from countries of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region. The festival, renamed as Medi@terra in 1999, soon gained both the support of the Greek state and the respect of the international community. The festival became international in 2000. For the years 1999-2002 I was the Co-director of both Fournos Centre and Festival.

At the same time, I was founding member of ?Ludo Ergo Sum?, a collective of performers and theatre theorists focusing on contemporary approaches to staging Greek tragedies (1997-2003), and ?Thision: a Theatre for the Arts?, an association initiated by the director Michael Marmarinos, aiming at the promotion and production of innovative, experimental, interdisciplinary and multinational performance work and the presentation of such work to the Greek public (1998-). I also collaborated with ?Omikron Theatre Company? as a producer (1998-9), ?Diplous Eros? company as a performer (1996-8) and ?Rosemary on the Top of the Hill? company as both performer and producer (1999-2000).

In 2002 I was offered a residency at the CICV Centre in Belfort, France, as researcher in the field of networked performance. In that same year I left my post at Fournos and moved to London, to undertake a Ph.D. on networked performance practices and visions.

maria in ireland

While in London I worked as Community Participation Officer at the Albany Cultural and Community Center in Deptford (2003-5), Visiting Lecturer at the Drama Department of Goldsmiths College (2005), and Instructor at the Department of Media and Fire Arts of Richmond , the American International University in London. I was also Category Supervisor for the Machinista festival in Glasgow (2004), as well as member of the Organizing Committee of the ?Computational Models of Creativity in the Arts? workshops, organised by Goldsmiths & Birkbeck Colleges, University of London, and the University of Surrey (2006).

Currently, I am the Coordinator of the transdisciplinary Thursday Club events at Goldsmiths College, as well as Co-director with Rachel Zerihan of the forthcoming event INTIMACY: Across Visceral and Digital Performance (Goldsmiths College & Laban centre, 7-9 December 2007). I am also a Sessional Lecturer at Birkbeck FCE and Tutor for WEA.

I have lectured and/or curated in the following events, among others:

* CHArt 06 (London, 2006)
* Journeys Across Media
(Reading, 2006)
* Forensic Futures: Interrogating the Posthuman Subject.

Open Forum (London, 2006)
* Intimacy ? Goldsmiths Thursday Club
(Chair)
(London, 2006)
* Practice as Research in Performance Conference
(U.K., 2005)
* Emergences Conference (Paris
- France, 2004)
* Machinista Festival (Glasgow, 2004)
* Mediaterra events (Greece / Serbia /
Slovenia, 2001)
* Communication Front (Bulgaria, 2001)
* ISEA 2000 (Paris ? France, 2000)
* Interferances Festival (France, 2000)
* CCA Tributes to Contemporary Arts (Romania, 2000)
* Balkan Artscapes ? Mediaterra (Athens
- Greece, 2000)
* ComputerSpace http://www.computerspace.org (Bulgaria, 1999)
* Visionaria http://www.visionariamedia.org (Italy, 1999)
* Video Art Festival of Thessaloniki (Greece, 1998)

For more info on my projects visit www.cybertheater.org ; www.intimateperformance.org