MYKONOS 120708

Sound and Image

Mykonos

What about the island of Mykonos?
Mykonos is a famous island for celebrities. From my first visit 15 years ago I was impressed by the packed alleys during the nights, and how different the daily life is in the mornings.
I focused on the island’s environment and more specific to areas where there are posters, adverts and signs. What about them? Financial the whole Island is depending on tourists’ visits. So in every free space beside the roads or in the urban areas you can see signs, advert posters, in order to inform tourists of stores or events that take place on the island. These posters since they are colorful consequently create a total different urban space that often is kitsch and dirty from the scratched papers. Despite the characteristic architecture of this Cyclade Island it is obvious how awful it has became the “Chora’s” area from the wires which are set above people’s heads and homes.
Parties are the main way to have fun and to enjoy yourself in Mykonos. Usually the first parties begin early in the afternoons at the beach bars and continue onto the music clubs later. Young tourists get to parties by motorcycles. They drink and dance to the rhythm of the Dj’s music and consume a lot of alcohol which is one of the reasons for fatal accidents. In the beginning my idea was to take photos of the posters and to make comments about the Island’s environment and how posters affect the island’s look. Furthermore, my intention was to find out about the island’s lifestyle and tourists’ day life. I photographed during the day while I was walking in the “Chora” and even when I was on the buses going to the beaches.The photos are in colour because it is easier to give the feeling that this island is a “party island” full of colours and music. Some of them are blurred and that didn’t bother me since my intention was to document this situation in every place that I visited. I avoided photographing people because I wanted to give their existence through the sound. In addition, this approach would emphasize, firstly the human absence from the island’s mornings day life and on the other hand these large amount of adverts consequently means a lot of visitors to these parties.

Concerning the sound I used the Olympus digital voice recorder WS-300M. I recorded the environment sound from many parties in order to fill with sound the slideshow. I was interested not only in the music but also how the people sang, screamed and spoke to each other during the party.

The interesting part of this project was how this story can be told by combining sound and image. It is general true that both these elements can express an idea more powerfully and successfully. This challenged me a lot since I wanted the human absence of my photos to be covered from the sound and so to support my idea. The story is divided into three parts. Firstly, there is an introduction that states the place and the signs of the “Chora’s” space. Secondly, the posters for the parties which can be found in any place around the island and finally a comment about “Chora’s urban” environment which is full of wires.

The narration is a dialogue between me (the photographer) and my friend that visited the island of Mykonos.

I produced this video from the Windows Vista Movie maker and the sound process from NCH Wave Pad Sound Editor. Finally, from Windows Vista DVD Maker I burnt the DVD.


2008-08-27
Greece, Thessaloniki
Stamatis Zoumpourtikoudis