Ektoras is a filmmaker and a Senior Lecturer in architectural history and theory. He is the course leader of the Architectural History, Research and Writing MA and the coordinator of the Critical and Contextual Studies module in undergraduate Architecture.
Ektoras Arkomanis
Ektoras has taught on various courses and modules at London Met since 2007.
He is currently researching and shooting his second feature film, A Season in the Olive Grove, about the area of Eleonas in Athens.
Ektoras recently edited a volume called Migrations in New Cinema (London: Cours de Poètique, 2020). He has published essays on film (notably in the journal Architecture and Culture,) and on architectural history (notably Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture, 21st ed, London: Bloomsbury, 2020).
Ektoras is a member of the Now What collective, together with Lucia Medina and James Thormod. Now What was established in 2020 to enable discussion on equality, diversity and the decolonisation of curricula in architectural education.
Ektoras is interested in cities in films, and particularly informal places, marginal in the conscience of the city. He explores his interest through filming, writing, and teaching the postgraduate course Cinema and the City (2007-present). His research and practice are broadly influenced by modernist and imagist writing, visual anthropology and the performative turn.
A Season in the Olive Grove (film: 2014-present) and Migrations in New Cinema (book, 2016-2020)
Ektoras is currently collecting notes, stories and footage for a film about the area of Eleonas in Athens. Once known as the ancient olive grove of the city, Eleonas is a place of industry, leftover spaces with muddy roads, abandoned factories, kilns, etc. It hosts various migrant populations, scavengers’ markets and small businesses such as tanneries and cargo transport companies. Eleonas is the city at its most entropic state. It changes constantly, so the film aims to preserve a record of things that keep shifting or disappearing.
Since its conception the project has expanded into various areas: film screenings, book chapters, conferences, workshops, a series of open lectures, and much more.
Ektoras has recently edited Migrations in New Cinema (London: Cours de Poètique, 2020), a book about migrations, changes and displacements in the city, as seen on film, and through the eyes of emerging filmmakers, artists and writers.
Another London, 2011-2014
Ektoras' debut feature film, Another London (UK, 2014; 60 min), is a documentary about architecture and urban space in London, in collaboration with architectural writer Robert Harbison. The film includes stories about: Nicholas Hawksmoor and Baroque London; currently contested zones such as Deptford, with its atmospheric creek and its colourful high street; modern architecture in the form of Laban Centre, Deptford Lounge and the Stephen Lawrence Centre; eccentric classicists, such as John Soane, and the river, still the thread of many of London’s narratives.
Ektoras is a member of the research centre CreATurE (Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement) in the School of Art, Architecture and Design.
- Supervisor, PhD
- Module leader, Histories (MArch – RIBA 2; Architectural History, Research and Writing MA; MA in Architecture)
- Module leader, Cinema and the City (MArch – RIBA 2; Architectural History, Research and Writing MA; MA in Architecture)
- Module leader, Critical and Contextual Studies, Levels 4 and 5, Architecture (BA Architecture – RIBA 1)
- Tutor, Dissertation Studio 1: Another Place (BA Architecture – RIBA 1)
Ektoras welcomes proposals for PhD/MPhil supervision on subjects related to film and/or architectural history.
Films
- Director/producer: A Season in the Olive Grove (work in progress)
- Director/producer: Passage Variations (UK, 2019; 16 min)
- Director/producer: Another London (UK, 2014, 60 min)
Books (edited)
- Arkomanis, E. (ed.) (2020). Migrations in New Cinema. London: Cours de Poétique.
Book chapters
- Arkomanis, E. (2021). Passage Variations; An Elliptical History of Migration in Eleonas. In: S. Ewing and I. Troiani (eds.) Spaces of Tolerance (London: Routledge)
- Arkomanis, E. (2019). Italy 1000–1400. In: M. Fraser (ed). Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (21st ed.). London, UK: RIBA; University of London; Bloomsbury Publishing. 910-927
- Arkomanis, E. (2019) Invented Memories: Notes on Filming Industrial Ruins in Eleonas, Athens. In: I. Troiani, H. Campbell (eds.) Making Visible: Architecture Filmmaking (London: Intellect, 2019)
- Arkomanis, E (2014) Early Renaissance. In: D. Jones (ed.) Architecture: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson. 172-177.
- Arkomanis, E (2014) Mannerism. In: D. Jones (ed.) Architecture: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson. 204-207.
- Arkomanis, E (2014) Baroque. In: D. Jones (ed.) Architecture: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson. 222-227, 230-231
Journal articles
- Arkomanis, E. (2019) Passage Variations; An Elliptical History of Migration in Eleonas. Architecture and Culture, 7(1), 95-111
- Arkomanis, E. (2015) Invented Memories: Notes on Filming Industrial Ruins in Eleonas, Athens. Architecture and Culture, 3(1), 57-64.
Other essays, articles and reviews
- Arkomanis, E. (2021). Atypical Notations. Ektoras Arkomanis on Maeve Brennan. LUX Moving Image (online)
- Arkomanis, E. (2020). Letter to a Young Architect. Architectural Review, 1474 (September 2020), 69
- Arkomanis, E. (2013). The Iron Horse; Bigger than Life; Accatone. Film International, 11
- Arkomanis, E. (2012). Some thoughts on recent Romanian cinema and Corneliu Porumboiu’s films in particular. Film International, 10
- Arkomanis, E. (2011). Films and Cities: The World, Film International (online)
Practice-led research outputs
- Arkomanis, E. (2020). Passage Variations. AAD Design Research Portfolios. London: London Metropolitan University.
Exhibitions and media
- Arkomanis, E. and Dabrowska, A (2020). The Invention of Narrative. AAD Research Seminars.
- Passage Variations (film screening), Infrastructures of Care (exhibition); University College London (UCL), 2019
- Arkomanis, E. and Catina, A. (2015). The Listening Project (BBC London / British Library)
Selected conferences and workshops
- Imperfect Theories; Film notes on 'Bare Life' and Everydayness in the Eleonas Refugee Camp (conference paper); 16th RAI Film Festival 2019 Conference; Bristol, 2019
- Imperfect Theories; Film notes on 'Bare Life' and Everydayness in the Eleonas Refugee Camp; AAD Research Seminars, London Metropolitan University, 2019
- The Skin of Walls and Animals; Film Notes on Work, Labour and Materiality in Kerameikos and Elaionas, Athens (conference paper), Art, Materiality and Representation 2018, British Museum/SOAS; London, 2018
- Postcards and Skin; Work and the Forgetting of Work in Elaionas (conference paper) Moving Images – Static Spaces. Architecture MPS; Istanbul, 2018
- Making Films, Lists and Postcards; The Research Seminars, London Metropolitan University, 2018
- Work/Memories of Work (film screening), Visual Anthropology and the City, UCL; London, 2016
Ektoras is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He mentors colleagues in the School of Art, Architecture and Design towards fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
Twitter: @Ektoras_A
Instagram: arch_history_ldnmetarts
Email: h.arkomanis@londonmet.ac.uk
Portfolio
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