Stelios Manousakis (1980 | GR/NL) is a Cretan-born Netherlands-based artist exploring relationships between time, space, body, system, and sound. His practice lies in the convergence of art, philosophy, science and engineering; it extends from performances, to environments and installations, to compositions, fixed media, and music for dance and film.
His work is particularly concerned with the invisible and the ephemeral, and with shaping sensation, perception and experience in time. It typically employs listening as a key interface for understanding the world and as a medium for targeting the deeper strata of psyche and brain. Visceral yet cerebral and research-based, his works aim to communicate through raw sensory experience while being complex and multilayered. They are often designed as emergent (eco)systems or organisms, involving software that he develops and some type of feedback process – audio-based, algorithmic, between systems, machines and/or humans. Over the last dozen years, Stelios has been exploring the impacts, side-effects, phenomenology, and hidden properties of communication infrastructure, with a particular focus on wireless (‘hertzian’) media.
Stelios’ work has been shown in 35 countries and 5 continents in varied festivals, performance venues, centers, museums, galleries, film houses, underground and public spaces, including ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica, dOCUMENTA, Museum Reina Sofia, London National Gallery, Dutch National Opera, Seattle Art Museum, The Place, The Lowry, Eye Filmmuseum, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Rewire festival, Audio Art festival, November Music, IEM Graz, International Computer Music Conference and New interfaces for Musical Expression. Stelios has also received several international awards. Besides his solo work, he frequently collaborates with other artists and has co-founded several music and multi-/inter-media groups. Together with duo partner Stephanie Pan, he is the co-founder, co-director, and co-curator of the Modern Body Festival and Modulus Foundation (Stichting Modulus).
Stelios studied music (Diploma Cum Laude in Highest Music Theory, GR) and linguistics in Greece (BA, National University of Athens), Sonology in the Netherlands (MMus, Institute for Sonology, Royal Conservatorium The Hague), and holds a PhD in Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS, University of Washington, Seattle, US).