FLOWS | Frederick University Presentation Series
DETAILS
Description
As part of WIP Festival 2026, Frederick University presents FLOWS, a series of presentations bringing together perspectives from visual culture, communication, art and design.
Inspired by the etymology of the word “flow”, the series unfolds as a continuous stream of artistic, design and research practices in which the significance of process is re-evaluated and adapted to contemporary methods and technologies.
Moving across themes of technological transition, digital communication, memory, sustainable fashion and cultural representation, the presentations explore different processes of transformation: from the ways new technologies reshape established creative practices and forms of communication, to the translation of personal memories into physical objects, the rethinking of clothing through circular systems, and the continuous reinterpretation of inherited cultural symbols.
Together, the presentations approach flows as a condition of change — a movement between past and present, analogue and digital, tradition and innovation, through which ideas, materials, images and meanings are continuously transformed.
Presentations
1. Costas Mantzalos, Professor of Visual Culture
The End – Transition and Change through New Media and New Technologies in Art and Design.
This presentation examines ongoing transformations in contemporary artistic and design practice through the lens of evolving digital technologies and new image-reproduction media. The information age and the continuous development of digital tools create both challenges and opportunities for artistic practice, altering not only technical processes but also perceptions of printmaking as a creative medium.
Through a historical and theoretical approach, the presentation seeks to reconsider the concept of transition in contemporary art and design and explore how integrating new technologies can support the field’s continuation and renewal. The digital era doesn’t signal the end of creative tradition but the beginning of a new stage of development, where tradition and technological innovation coexist and expand the medium’s expressive and creative boundaries.
2. Evie Lambrou, Assistant Professor of Communication
Thinking Through Images – Multimodal Literacy and the New Grammar of Digital Communication
Digital communication is no longer primarily about words. Images, videos, sound, memes and their combinations make up the communicative landscape in which younger generations read and create with an almost innate fluency, often adapting more quickly than our institutions. This talk approaches that fluency with the seriousness it deserves, treating the meme as a genuine rhetorical form and the image as a medium with its own grammar.
Tracing the transition from oral speech to written language and then to multimodal expression, the talk examines what it means to be literate in an age where meaning is shaped through the coexistence of multiple modes of communication rather than through text alone. At the same time, it highlights why this new form of literacy deserves the same respect accorded to written language for centuries.
3. Anna Michaelidou, Master’s Student in Visual Arts
Traces of Memory – Transforming Personal Stories into Timeless Forms
Nima (“thread” in Greek) is a postgraduate research project that creates small, original sculptures through 3D printing based on the personal memories of loved ones. Participants share stories, photographs or objects, which the artist then translates into unique abstract forms. The title symbolises the thread that connects memory to form, the past to the present, and one person to another.
4. Eliana Antoniadou, Designer/Educator, Master’s Graduate
How to Create an Ethical Wardrobe
How You Curate an Ethical Wardrobe is a master’s thesis project that explores how digital technologies can promote more ethical and sustainable practices in the fashion industry. The project proposes a fashion brand supported by a mobile application that offers an interactive shopping experience featuring garments made from organic materials and produced through transparent, ethical processes.
The app encourages users to help create new garments by donating clothing they no longer wear. Through an interactive visualisation process, users can see how their own clothing is incorporated into the final design before production, transforming discarded garments into unique, contemporary fashion pieces. The project aims to reduce textile waste, extend the lifecycle of clothing and encourage a shift away from fast fashion toward a more conscious, circular and ethical approach to clothing consumption.
5. Marios Paschalides, Master’s Graduate, and Charis Theocharides, Undergraduate Graduate
Aphrodite Re-formed Activation II
Inspired by the installation of the same title, this presentation revisits and reconstructs the goddess Aphrodite as a representational symbol subject to compression, repetition and distortion. The presentation proposes an understanding of the symbol as a living interface, shaped through an ongoing process of transforming its inherited forms.
1. Costas Mantzalos
Professor Costas Mantzalos was trained as a visual artist and specialised in information design in the UK at the University of West London and De Montfort University. He then pursued a higher research degree at the University of Central England, where he investigated the history of postmodern graphic arts in Cyprus. His academic career started in 1989 at Frederick University in Nicosia, Cyprus, where he still works in the Department of Arts and Communication. For several years, he was the Dean of the School of Arts, Communication and Cultural Studies.
His teaching and research focus on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teaching and learning. His main teaching areas are information design, research methodologies and contextual studies for undergraduate and postgraduate students; he uses a variety of methods that support efficient and engaging teaching and learning, as well as the promotion of visual intelligence, literacy and competence. He has been an active keynote speaker at conferences in Cyprus and abroad.
Parallel to his academic career, Costas is a design consultant for international organisations such as Hilton Hotels, Tetra Pak, Unicef, as well as the co-founder of TWO|FOUR|TWO, a two-person art group. The arts collective has had shows in Amsterdam, Athens, Dortmund, Erlangen, Melbourne and Nicosia, and has participated in various art events and festivals in Athens, Berlin, Bucharest, Naples, New Delhi, Frankfurt, Paris and Thessaloniki.
2. Evie Lambrou
Evie Lambrou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Arts and Communication at Frederick University, Cyprus, where she teaches Journalism and Media Communication. Her academic background brings together journalism and communication, psychology and politics. She holds a BA and an MA in Journalism and Communication, an MSc in Psychology and a PhD in Politics.
Her teaching and research focus on the intersection of media, psychology and digital communication, with particular attention to social media practices, media effects, online interaction and evolving communicative behaviours in digital environments. Her work examines how media technologies shape how people produce meaning, communicate identity, participate in public discourse and interpret contemporary culture. She has worked in academic institutions in the UK and Greece and has taught across areas such as media theory, digital media, journalism, communication, media psychology and social media communication. She is also an experienced adult educator, with teaching and training experience across academic, professional and community contexts.
Alongside her academic work, she has served as Research Director for the regional branch of the international NGO Watchdog for Women’s Rights and has contributed to research, public engagement and communication initiatives. She is also an experienced communication consultant and volunteers as a media and communication expert with NGOs.
Her current interests include multimodal communication, digital literacy, visual culture, social media and the changing forms of public expression in digital environments.
3. Anna Michaelidou
Anna Michaelidou is a fashion and textile designer whose practice explores sustainability, material culture, memory and storytelling through textiles and objects. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fashion Textiles from the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). After graduating, she completed an internship at the atelier of Dutch couturier Ronald van der Kemp, where she gained experience in couture craftsmanship, upcycling and circular fashion practices.
Anna is currently pursuing an MA in Visual Arts at Frederick University in Cyprus. Her ongoing master’s project, Nima (Traces of Memory: Sculpting Personal Stories into Lasting Forms), explores the emotional connections between people, objects and memory, investigating how personal narratives can be translated into abstract sculptural forms.
Alongside her artistic practice, Anna founded Yiavri Mou, a sustainable fashion brand rooted in upcycling and craftsmanship. Through one-of-a-kind garments made from reclaimed textiles, the brand celebrates the value of handmade processes, cultural heritage and thoughtful design, encouraging a more conscious relationship with clothing and the stories it carries.
4. Eliana Antoniadou
Eliana Antoniadou is an educator with a professional background in fashion design, pattern making and interdisciplinary design. She currently serves in Cyprus’ Secondary Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system and has also contributed to entrepreneurship education initiatives through the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth. She holds a First Class Honours BA in Fashion Design with Business Studies from the University of Brighton, UK, and an MA in Interdisciplinary Design from Frederick University, Cyprus, graduating with distinction and receiving the University’s Academic Excellence Award.
Her professional experience spans the fashion industry, creative entrepreneurship and education, having worked as a fashion designer, pattern cutter, entrepreneur and vocational educator. Throughout her career, she has combined professional practice with teaching, drawing on experience from both industry and education to inform her work.
Her research has explored the development of a human-centred digital platform that encourages more informed and sustainable fashion consumption through transparency, sustainability and an interactive shopping experience. Her current interests include sustainable fashion, craftsmanship, inclusive education, entrepreneurship education, and the role of design in fostering inclusive learning environments and meaningful educational experiences. She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches that connect design, education and innovation to address contemporary social and environmental challenges.
5. Marios Paschalides and Charis Theocharides
Marios Paschalidis is an interdisciplinary visual communication designer and PhD candidate in the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts at Cyprus University of Technology. His practice is positioned at the intersection of graphic design, typography and visual arts, with a particular emphasis on visual communication archives in Cyprus. Marios holds a BA in Graphic and Advertising Design (2018–2022) and an MA in Visual Arts and Interdisciplinary Design (2022–2024) from Frederick University, as well as an MA in Philosophy and the Arts from the Hellenic Open University (2023–2025).
His visual communication work has been included in numerous international initiatives across a wide range of venues, exhibitions, educational contexts, and research projects. He’s a member of the Cyprus Association of Graphic Designers and Illustrators (CAGDI) and the Semiotics and Visual Communication Lab (SVC Lab), and a partner of the nonprofit organisation Sic. Contemporary Culture and the 15m² mobile exhibition platform.
Charis Theocharides is a multidisciplinary graphic designer based in Nicosia, Cyprus. His practice operates at the intersection of graphic arts and visual design, developing a language shaped by anti-pop sensibilities and an intuitive approach to unconventional image-making.
Drawing from rave culture, experimental publishing and the urban textures of everyday Cypriot life, Charis constructs visual narratives that move between the familiar and the uncanny. Working across typography, print, moving image and spatial graphics, he combines sound, form, texture and found references to produce immersive visual environments rooted in experimentation.
Influenced by both independent cultural production and design principles, his work engages with tensions between order and disruption, nostalgia and futurity, precision and improvisation. Grounded in the rhythms of street culture and the visual landscape of Nicosia, Charis’s practice considers design as a means of developing experience, atmosphere, memory and affect.