bestbefore is the name under which Andreas Karaoulanis, a Greek animator based in Berlin, makes hand-drawn and stop-motion animation under the tagline “the innocent joy of spontaneous animating images”.,Trained in computer science and animation, he works across interactive media design and animated film, blending digital and analog approaches with real-time visuals triggered live as part of the VJ culture.
His work has been shown in museums in London, Moscow, and Paris, and he has worked as a freelance media artist for institutions including the Berlin Academy of Arts, Ircam-Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens.He has often collaborated with sound and video artist Patrick K.-H., with whom he has produced animation and music duets under names including chaoskampf, sometimes joined by composer Antonis Anissegos.
For Onassis Stegi, Karaoulanis animated arachnesound, a 2021 film accompanying a 36-track audio collection by AGF made with Greek women sound artists and singers as a homage to Greek female poets. For the Onassis Foundation, he provided the imagery and sound for a project in which a rapper recited four poems by C. P. Cavafy to mark 158 and 88 years since the poet's birth and death. With composer David Hahn, he made Lightning on Saturn, an abstract piece combining electric guitar and Moog synthesizer with recordings of Saturn captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
By September 2021 Karaoulanis was releasing animation on Tezos under the handle @adrere, per a collector's comment noting they had just collected a piece from him.,A 2022 feature on his bestbefore_collection NFT collection described it as reimagining stop-motion animation in bold colors and abrupt, attention-demanding movement, highlighting pieces including Pass the pepper, I'm confused, Goodnight my little light bulb!, and burn to be burned.
