Anton Vidokle. Still from “Immortality for All: a Film Trilogy on Russian Cosmism”. 2014–2017. HD video. Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space
In accordance with the current anti-Covid rules and regulations, the public program will be held in a hybrid online/offline format. To visit offline events you will be asked to provide a QR code which should confirm that you either had a negative PCR test (valid for 72 hours after being registered), you were vaccinated by a vaccine recognized by the Russian authorities (non EU vaccines are recognized at the moment), that you have had Covid-19 in the past 6 months (should be registered in the Russian system gosuslugi.ru).
Face coverings are required for all visitors, even if you are vaccinated.
Online events will be posted on the festival website and will be available to everyone.
Participants
Bettina Forget (Canada–Germany)
Christiana Kazakou (Greece–UK)
Yiannis Melanitis (Greece)
Patricia Olynyk (USA)
Daniela de Paulis (Italy–Netherlands)
Emilio Vavarella (Italy–USA)
Victoria Vesna (USA)
Anton Vidokle (USA)
OFFLINE
Anton Vidokle (USA)
Cosmist Aesthetics
November 17, 19:00, Youth Educational Centre of the State Hermitage Museum
Since 2013, Anton Vidokle has been working on a series of films about the philosophy of Russian Cosmism. To date, this series includes the film trilogy “Immortality for All”, as well as ”Citizens of the Cosmos” and “Autotrofia”. Part historical research and part scripted fiction, these films evoke central desires of cosmism — rejuvenation, emancipation, universalism and transformation of living and dead matter — and enact them in the context of ordinary life in various parts of Russia, Japan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Italy, and other locations. Employing a diverse cast of characters including amateur and professional actors, taxi drivers, museum guards, artists, farmers, scientists, dancers, librarians and many others, these films often function as educational experiments, both for the participants as well as the eventual audience.
The lecture will be held in English with consecutive translation into Russian.
Anton Vidokle
Artist and editor of e-flux journal. He was born in 1965 in Moscow, USSR, and lives in New York, USA, and Berlin, Germany. His work has been exhibited internationally at such venues and art festivals as Venice Biennale (Italy), Documenta (Kassel, Germany), Bergen Assembly (Norway), Shanghai Biennale (China), Istanbul Biennial (Turkey), Berlinale International Film Festival (Germany), Center Pompidou (Paris, France), Tate Modern (London, UK), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia), and others.
Emilio Vavarella (Italy–USA)
Between Form and Information
November 21, 14:00, Youth Educational Centre of the State Hermitage Museum
The first in-person lecture of Emilio Vavarella in Russia will follow the online retrospective of his films in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kansk in 2018–2020. The artist will discuss his artistic research at the intersection of interdisciplinary art practice and media experimentation through the lenses of his two projects: “The Other Shapes of Me” and “The Other Shape of Things”. The second project is produced through heterogeneous technologies and techniques, including 3D-scanners, data manipulation and 3D-printing. The first project is the result of Vavarella’s research into the origin and current applications of binary technology: from weaving to programming, algorithms, software, automation processes, up to the complete computerization of a human being.
Several sculptures from Vavarella’s series “The Other Shape of Things — 2. Datamorphosis” will be exhibited at the Hermitage Museum as part of CYFEST-13.
The lecture will be held in English with consecutive translation into Russian.
Artist and researcher. PhD candidate at Harvard University, USA. His work merges interdisciplinary art practice and theoretical research and is centered around the study of the relationship between humans and technological power. Venues that have exhibited Vavarella’s work include: MAXXI Museum (Rome, Italy), KANAL — Centre Pompidou (Bruxelles, Belgium), MAMbo Museum (Bologna, Italy), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago, Chile), National Art Center (Tokyo, Japan), and Contemporary Art Museum (Zagreb, Croatia). His work has also been shown at many media art festivals, such as EMAF — European Media Art Festival, JMAF — Japan Media Arts Festival, and Stuttgarter Filmwinter (Germany).
Victoria Vesna (USA)
[ALIEN] STAR DUST
Signal to Noise: Molecular Light for Russia
Online, November 26, 7PM (MSK) / 11AM (EST) / 8AM (PST)
[ALIEN] STAR DUST: Signal to Noise has evolved from a site-specific installation into a global, collaborative and participatory virtual guided meditation bringing participants into a space of healing and transcendence through visuals and vibrations. Due to times of crisis and quarantine it became evident that the connection is more vital than ever and stardust became the medium and the metaphor for contemplation and connectivity.
This meditation is created by the artist specifically for CYFEST-13 and will focus on the Chelyabinsk meteor that fell in 2013. Audiences are guided to follow the breakup of the meteor and stay centered as all falls apart, and the star dust is mixed up with various anthropogenic dust. Before the meditation, there will be a talk about the project followed by Q&A after the collective gathering of minds.
Talk: 40 minutes
Meditation: 9 minutes
Q&A: 15 minutes
Voice: Anna Nacher, Rhiannon Catalyst, Dasha Dafis (Russian)
Sound mixing: Paul Geluso, Clinton van Arman
Animations: Debora Isaac, Eli Joteva
Audio / Visual editing / mixing: Ivana Dama
Live animation: John Brumley
AR: Zeynep Abes, John Brumley
alienstardust.com
ONLINE
Daniela de Paulis (Italy–Netherlands)
Artistic Research through Radio
De Paulis’ work reflects upon notions of reality as presented by the natural sciences, especially radio astronomy, neuroscience and space research. Her aim is to create filmic and highly subjective experiences in the mind of the participants that generate memories which continue to be re-interpreted over time. Her projects aim at resonating with different conceptual and existential meanings according to the experiential heritage of each participant, reaching for a culturally and socially diverse audience.
Radio technologies have informed her artistic thinking and practice for over ten years and have allowed her to create pioneering and influential works in the field of art-science. The two main projects that contributed in shaping her current work are “OPTICKS” (2009-ongoing, www.opticks.info) and “COGITO in Space” (2013-ongoing, www.cogitoinspace.org).
“OPTICKS” is a live panel discussion streamed on the Internet, usually from the cabin of the Dwingeloo radio telescope, gathering thinkers from different fields, as well as the general audience. During the event, participants and people viewing the performance from around the world are guided through а virtual journey into the cosmos by means of radio waves.
“COGITO in Space” is also realized at the Dwingeloo radio telescope. This work allows participants to send their brain waves into the universe while viewing a video of the Earth seen from space in virtual reality. “COGITO in Space” is a unique and innovative combination of VR, neuroscience (specifically electroencephalogram or EEG) and radio technologies.
Media artist, licensed radio operator, radio telescope operator. Former contemporary dancer. Her work combines radio technologies, neuroscience, radio astronomy and live performance art with innovative projects engaging the global community with outer space. From 2009 to 2019 she has been artist in residence at the Dwingeloo radio telescope in the Netherlands. Since 2010 she has collaborated with a number of international organizations, including Astronomers Without Borders. De Paulis is a member of the IAA SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Permanent Committee. She exhibits her work internationally.
Patricia Olynyk (USA)
“Dark Skies”: A Meditation on Nightfall
This presentation by Patricia Olynyk will explore “Dark Skies”, her multi-media installation inspired by the penetrating effects of nightfall. Motivated by the artist’s concern with light pollution and also the recognition that communications satellites, which clutter the night skies, will soon conceal our view of outer space, “Dark Skies” offers a meditation on two distinct timeframes on the 24-hour clock simultaneously, a condition that can only exist by way of technology. Activating both the visual and aural senses, the installation captures the visceral qualities of a key cinematic moment — sundown. Olynyk will also discuss the environmental effects of obtrusive artificial light, which likewise impacts brain wave activity and the circadian rhythms of human and non-human lifeforms alike.
Multimedia artist, scholar and educator exploring art, science and technology interrelationships. Born in Canada. Olynyk received her MFA degree from the California College of the Arts, USA, and spent four years in Japan as a Monbusho Scholar and a Tokyu Foundation Research Scholar. She currently directs the Graduate School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. Her work has been featured in Venice Design 2018, Italy; Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Saitama Modern Art Museum, Japan; and Museo del Corso, Rome, Italy. Olynyk co-directs the Leonardo/ISAST NY LASER program, New York, USA, which promotes cross-disciplinary exchange between artists and scientists. Lives and works in the USA.
Danielle Siembieda (USA)
Collide: Impact
Let us envision a space where complimentary minds move and collide into one another, resulting in a radical collaboration. Situated environments that allow for friction, swift contact, time and knowledge can create the most important ideas of the 21st century. The Creative Director of Leonardo/ISAST, Danielle Siembieda, discussed how Leonardo activates creativity to push the boundaries of today and unleash the possibilities of tomorrow.
Artist and creative entrepreneur. She defines her practices as “Alter-Eco Art” bridging Eco-Art practice and New Media at the intersection of environment, technology, and community. Her most recent project “The Art Inspector” began in 2009 as a method to reduce the carbon footprint of art. Creative/Managing Director of the enterprise think tank Leonardo/ISAST, an organization that showcases work in the intersection of art, science and technology. She is also a member of the Ocean Memory Project, a collective of artists and scientists looking at what happens below water. Her work has been presented globally, including the 01SJ Biennial in the heart of Silicon Valley (USA), the National Gallery of Denmark (Copenhagen, Denmark) and the Youth Educational Center of the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia). Lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA.
Yiannis Melanitis (Greece)
A Humanized Transgenic Butterfly Named Leda Melanitis
Yiannis Melanitis, a conceptual artist, will speak about his research on inserting his own human gene into the genome of a butterfly with the same name: Leda Melanitis. In the discourse of art and biology, his practice raises issues of identity, truth and epistemology in the context of creating a hybrid organism.
Conceptual artist, sculptor and painter. Born in 1967 in Athens, Greece. Αfter studying painting, sculpture and digital art at the Athens School of Fine Arts in Greece he began working in multiple mediums including bio-art, installations, drawings and sculpture. His research draws from the physical sciences, philosophy, epistemology and politics to synthesize cross-disciplinary ideas within the discourse of art and science. Melanitis' work has been exhibited internationally. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He has published essays on art and philosophy in English and Greek.
Christiana Kazakou (Greece–UK)
Transdisciplinarity: Narrative Spatial Trajectories
Disciplines have different languages, and so they have different literacies. In all disciplines, space is a representational strategy. As humans we inhabit multiple spaces; they may be mental, psychological, virtual, physical, performative, experimental and social.
Even though “narrative” is a term often found in theater, here it is used as reform; a social process and experimentation between human systems, languages and space. Space is everywhere in modern thought and different disciplines use spaces with different meanings.
Transdisciplinary researcher, curator and artist. Following her studies on Art & Science (MA) at Central Saint Martins (London, UK) she began curating and producing projects for numerous innovative companies, networks, festivals, cultural organizations, NGO’s and social enterprises working across the spectrum of the arts, sciences, technology and society. Her curatorial and artistic practice explores the complexities, interconnectedness and open-ended dialogue between art and science discourse that can influence perceptions lurking beneath “known” definitions and spatial disciplinary boundaries.
Bettina Forget (Canada–Germany)
Exoplanet Zoo: Contemplating Alien Worlds Though Art and Science
To date, over 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered, and scientists are still trying to find the best way to categorize them. Bettina Forget’s project “Exoplanet Zoo”, developed during her time as artist in residence at the Mont-Mégantic Observatory in Canada, proposes to create a taxonomy of exoplanets using 3D printing technology. The artist inserted exoplanet data such as a planet’s mass and semi-major axis into the code of a 3D model of a simple sphere. The substituted numbers “glitched” the sphere, producing unexpected new shapes. The resulting menagerie of exoplanet prints suggests new ways of thinking about extrasolar environments and the possibility of life beyond Earth. In this context, Bettina discusses her work as Director of the SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence program, where she facilitates dialogues between art and science.
Artist, educator and researcher. Director of the SETI Institute’s Artist-in-Residence program in Mountain View (California, USA). In this capacity, she facilitates the collaboration between artists and SETI researchers and creates opportunities to disseminate the resulting art projects to a wider audience. Bettina’s creative work focuses on space sciences, sci-fi, and feminism, inspired by her avid interest in amateur astronomy. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Art Education at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). Her academic research examines the recontextualization of art and science, and how transdisciplinary education may disrupt gender stereotypes. Bettina lives and works in Montreal, Canada.
