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THE NEW ANTHROPOLOGY

Where art helps science understand itself

Fundamental biology and biotechnology today are trying to solve problems rising from the radical transformation of human nature. In the search for solutions, scientists artificially profile stem cells, identify specific genetic traits, grow artificial organs, experiment with neural networks, cross nerve tissues from humans and mice, install technological elements into living tissue and practice cryonics.
Such practices should not exist in isolation from the traditional disciplines: art, literature, philosophy, sociology and anthropology. A close dialogue between the natural sciences and humanities is needed.
Contemporary artists take on a special role in this dialogue. Over the past 30 years, art has developed a number of tools for interdisciplinary work, namely innovative, hybrid forms of science-art and media expression, combined with deep reflection on the permeable boundaries between science and art. But more than this: the combination of science and art is necessary for both to develop.
Over the past 30 years, collaborations between artists and scientists has become a fairly common practice. There are legendary examples such as Joe Davis at MIT, orSymbioticA and Dr. Steve Potter's lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. And then there are Russian examples, like ScienceArtLab and the Anokhina Institute of Normal Physiology, Julia Borovaya and the Faculty of Chemistry at Moscow State University, Vladimir Grig and the Faculty of Soil Science at St. Petersburg State University. Also, just last year, St. Petersburg's ITMO and Tomsk State University in Siberia launched MA programs in Art & Science.
Continuing this wave of enthusiasm, we have organized collaborations between Russian artists who work in the fields of technological art, sound art, media art, photography with the labs and science units of the Pavlov Institute of Physiology. The resulting works became part of a permanent exhibition at the Museum of Science in Pavlovsky Koltushi, itself one of the first Russian 'science cities' that has gone on to become a UNESCO heritage site

After a round of competitive selection, 16 artists from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg took part in The New Anthropology. They created 15 pieces ranging from technological art objects, immersive installations and works of media and sound art. A panel of experts in both science communication and art&science took part in evaluating and selecting the projects – these included Dmitry Bulatov (curator and artist), Dmitry Malkov (director of the Center for Science Communication at ITMO University), Lyubov Strelnikova (editor-in-chief of Chemistry and Life magazine), philosophers Alla Mitrofanova and German Preobrazhensky, Aleksandr Sokolov (chief editor at Antropogenez.ru) and Elena Rybnikova (Doctor of Science, Biology).
As a result of the collaboration between the artists and the institute, 6 of the works were created with direct assistance from scientists, 4 projects were created in constant consultation with the institute and 5 are site-specific installations that reflect on scientific practices.
The exposition is not limited to the installations and objects created for the project. Various media objects are scattered throughout, including historical and contemporary videos, photographs, texts and exhibits that speak to the work of the scientists at the institute.

Inside The Black Box. Where Dogs Run.

This is an attempt to create a neural network in which the neural connections between each layer is optical. Each neuron on one side is represented by an LED light, which then affects neurons in the next layer, represented by phototransistors. And each phototransistor, using a controlled amplifier that contains memory, passes information on to its diode through the activation function. Thus, input data immediately enters the network and is almost instantly transformed into output – over the course of the process, no data transfer is recorded by any digital register. Each neuron simply passes a value further down the network through its activation function. The network’s task is extremely simple: to detect and produce characters from a swarm of Drosophila flies, also known as fruit flies. A picture taken from a camera turns into a line of 122 different voltages for each LED of the input layer. The light then passes through arrays of mutually perpendicular optical fibers, where the matrix is multiplied by the weight of each bond connection. A set of monitors display what the camera sees (Drosophila fly), what the neural network sees (Drosophila flies at a resolution of 11x11 pixels), and a resulting text consisting of a sequence of recognized letters and numbers taken from the data. This gives us the opportunity to observe the permutations of light directly from the black box of the neural network.

Inside The Black Box. Where Dogs Run.

Audiobinoculars . Evgeny Strelkov & Laboratory of Neurogenetics.

Idea and design: Evgeny Strelkov Programming: Aleksey Tsiberev Flash-animation: Dmitry Khazan/ This project belongs to the genre of graphic sound, where visual structures are translated into sounds using a specially designed algorithm. Auditory perception dramatically changes the way an object is perceived, creating a special emotional state. It is based on a videorecording of a Drosophila fly colony from the lab. The movement of six Drosophila flies (three in the left square and three in the right) are marked by crosshairs on the screen. The two-dimensional coordinates of these six flies become data for a program that turns numbers into notes. The original video fragment lasts about thirty seconds but is looped four times – during each round, the trajectories of different flies are analyzed. The result is a musical play in four parts. The audio installation is accompanied by a small publication of the same name.

Water. Marina Alexeeva, Sergey Karlov (Technician).

All organisms, from the micro to the macro, need water. All organisms are partially composed of water. Life originated in water. Reactions occur with the help of water. Water constantly changes. After experiments you need to wash your hands in water. We all need to drink water. You can’t step in the same water twice.

Water. Marina Alexeeva, Sergey Karlov (Technician).

Fabric of life . VA_Lab (Vlada Gromova, Artem Paramanov) & Alexander Zhuravlev (Laboratory of Neurogenetics).

Artists: Vladlena Gromova, Artem Paramonov Programmer: Aleksey Krytikov Engineer: Boris Bazulev Scientist: Aleksandr Zhuravlev/////// The Fabric of Life is an artistic study of evolutionary and interspecies bonding, visualized and reproduced before your eyes by an automatic knitting machine. The camera captures the visitor’s face and a program processes the image, fusing the visitor’s likeness to that of a Drosophila fly. The result is knitted into a pattern by the machine. The basis for this fusion is a point matrix, built taking into account an analysis and verification of gene matches between the Drosophila melanogaster and humans. This is performed using the bioinformatic programs BLAST and Homology Fragment Analysis. A homology study revealed a base set of common DNA fragments and calculated a sequence of 16 nucleotides that can be considered a kind of “evolutionary atom" for the two different species. By bringing to life the connections between our life forms and bringing together processes ranging from knitting, dot matrices and binary code, we are engaging with (and rationalizing) Kronenberg’s nightmare. We’ve turned it into a warm design, printed on an everyday object, bringing it into play with tradition and culture. However, the processes of knitting and creating patterns no longer requires human hands: these tasks are delegated to machines, algorithms and neural networks, all of which reserve the right to make mistakes.

Fabric of life . VA_Lab (Vlada Gromova, Artem Paramanov) & Alexander Zhuravlev (Laboratory of Neurogenetics).

TO BEE . Natalia Fedorova, Elena Nikonole & Tatiana Zachepilo (Laboratory of Genetics of Higher Nervous Activity).

A pheromone communicator is a semiotic simulator that allows you to translate a system that bees use for communication into human language. The task of this piece is to prompt reflection on the possibilities and methods of interspecies communication, as well as an attempt to go beyond the semiosis of the anthropocene. On the one hand, it is clear that animals utilize sign systems made up of nominative constructions. Their only function is direct action. On the other hand, from these nominative constructions it is possible to assemble more complex messages that were hitherto unknown to people. Scientist Jakob von Uexküll introduced the concept of umwelt, “the world around us,” which forms the basis for studying the communication of biological species. Uexkül says that different species can have different umwelts, regardless of the shared habitat, because while the fly does not see the web, the spider measures the fly’s size in terms of how many web ‘cells’ it occupies. Here we are faced with the fundamental question of biosemiotics: how do living systems differ from non-living, and by what signs or signals can we tell? The answer is that all living things have semiotic properties, themselves signifying and conveying meaning. And if all living things signify semiotically, then it follows that living organisms themselves function as signs and that, additionally, an organism itself is a text (Seboek). To Bee is a translator, a base for the common semiosphere of human and bee umwelts.

TO BEE . Natalia Fedorova, Elena Nikonole & Tatiana Zachepilo (Laboratory of Genetics of Higher Nervous Activity).

Para-Optic-8. Installation, wearable device. Anastasia Alekhina.

A person’s fingertips are, in many ways, similar to the retina. When eyesight is impaired, for example, a person begins to ‘look’ with their fingers – the skin’s kinesthetic sensations are able to compensate for vision loss. History is full of examples of connecting eyes with fingertips. Humanity has often, intuitively, brought these two sources of perception together. One interesting example is skin-optical perception, an alternative sense of vision using the skin on one’s hands. In the second half of the 20th century, a number of works were published where researchers tried to detect the existence of special light- or heat-sensitive skin receptors. No reliable data were found, however, and positive test results were contaminated by methodological errors. For these reasons, skin-optical perception is associated with pseudoscience. But it is interesting to pursue this line of thought further, using technology to bind retina and fingertips together. The Para-optic 8 project offers a visual experience that literally reproduces the idea of vision through one’s fingers. First visitors must be fingerprinted and, in accordance with the print, visual abilities will be assigned. Just as visual acuity depends on the size of cones found in the macula, so the quality of “finger vision” is determined by an algorithm that analyzes your papillary pattern. Then visitors need to put a special device on their eyes and hands – through these devices they will receive a new visual and spatial experience.

Para-Optic-8. Installation, wearable device. Anastasia Alekhina.

We See How You Hear. Anna Martynenko, Varvara Semenova ( Laboratory of Hearing Physiology)

Artist: Anna Martynenko Scientists: Varvara Semenova, Lidiya Shestopalova, Ekaterina Petropavlovskaya. ||||| The object is devoted to sound-based scientific graphs concerning experiments conducted in the laboratory of hearing at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology. The focus is on a box of slides found in the lab. The lid reads Yakov Abramovich Altman, the name of a professor who for many years led the laboratory and laid the foundation for research that continues to this day. The slides belong to way of presenting scientific data that predates computers – more precisely, from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. The variety of designs on the slides is of artistic interest, and they themselves tell a great deal about experiments conducted at the institute. You can select any slide and, by clicking a button, familiarize yourself with the information encoded in it. In addition to a description of the study, you can hear sounds that were given to subjects during a given experiment.Laboratory of physiology of hearing.

Phantom. ::vtol:: (Dmitry Morozov).

The project is a comprehensive system for creating audio-visual images using technologies available at the beginning of the 20th century. Generating the visual images is based on a system of two Nipkov discs – these are perforated rotating discs used to encode and decode images in the earliest television systems. They even, for a short time, become a widely used technology in television broadcasting. The use of this technology is unique as there are practically no known precedents for using Nipkov discs to create abstract images that are not encoded initially, but instead appear in real time by modulating the rotation speed in conjunction with blinking light sources. To generate the sounds, a radio was used that is capable of receiving long and extra-long radio waves, including those that capture electromagnetic phenomena in the atmosphere. This was augmented by one of the few electronic musical instruments that existed at that time: the theremin. The sound directly affects the visual images – not in parallel, but synchronously. At its core, the project represents media-archaeological research as well as a reflection on possible (or alternative) surges of interest in audio-visual art, perhaps earlier than previously conjectured. As a result, the use of such systems for research purposes includes studies of synesthesia, photoepilepsy, phantom vision, hallucinations and so on.

Neurogarmonium. Boris Shershenkov, Oleg Vetrovoy( Laboratory of Brain Neuron Regulation)

One of the most important indicators of positive or negative influences on an organism is the protein composition of its tissues. Proteins perform many functions in the body and not only assist with providing cellular structure – they are also directly involved in metabolic management, which includes the nervous system and helps regulate how we behave and adapt to various conditions. Studying the protein composition of brain structures allows one to decipher the molecular mechanisms connected to the development of pathological conditions, particularly in the event of stressful situations or the presence of various other psychological factors. With this knowledge, one can find links among these processes and perhaps even discover ways of preventing pathology from developing. One of the most widespread methods for analyzing protein composition is Laemmli electrophoresis, which allows one to separate proteins in an electric field and encounter mass spectra of protein distribution similar to those of complex sounds. The information encoded in these spectra is too complex for visual perception to grasp – however, the hidden patterns of nervous tissue rebuilding itself can be perceived using our ear, itself a spectrum analyzer created by nature. The neuroharmonium, using a special algorithm, converts the protein spectra of seven sections of the brain, both in healthy and in pathological conditions, directly into sound vibrations. Additionally, molecule masses are translated into frequencies of individual sound components, and so their distribution turns into its timbre. The sound is then passed through an electro-acoustic harmonization system tuned to resonate with certain frequency relationships in the signal – it is then distributed across the installation space. Thus, the device allows you to compare different spectral sequences of healthy and pathological brains. This is assisted by already having isolated the areas most susceptible to damage and allowing visitors to directly hear the patterns of these changes by means of tone and location in space. Finding these patterns gives an idea of how harmonic the most complex biological structure, that is, the brain, is in its very construction. This can serve as the basis for non-invasive therapy in the future, and provide data for possible methods of disease prevention based on the principles of bioacoustic feedback.

Cyber monky. Yuri Didevich, Alexei Kharauzov, Daria Podvigina, Ivan Varovin, Lyubov Ivanova, ( Primate Sensory Systems Laboratory)

Cyber Monkey is an interactive, audiovisual sculpture. It is a digital representation of the rhesus macaque, an artificial neural network created on the basis of psychophysiological studies of cognitively enhanced monkeys who observe the world and generate their own internal idea of it. The system is based on perceiving and interpreting one’s experience of the outside world, not of one’s projection of it. The algorithm is capable of nonverbal communication when interacting with the surrounding space and with museum visitors. The general principle is not to reproduce the visible, but to make it visible – that is, the “representation of representation.” Research in the field of artificial neural networks and machine creativity is relevant to computer science, science and the humanities. Animal experiments provide valuable results for modern science that cannot be obtained in humans, for ethical reasons. One such example is the work of California neuroscientist Doris Tsao (2017), who decoded information from monkey brain cells and found the process by which they recognize human faces. Scientists have managed to “crack the code of how facial identity works in the brain."

Cyber monky. Yuri Didevich, Alexei Kharauzov, Daria Podvigina, Ivan Varovin, Lyubov Ivanova, ( Primate Sensory Systems Laboratory)

Pavlov’s Brain Recorder. Chat bot. Olesya Gonserovskaya.

This EEG (electroencephalograph) device, or brain recorder, operated in the 1960s to record brain rhythms. With the appearance of an ‘eye’, the screen, a new voice comes to light. Now it tells what happened in the time of Pavlov: what he said, what he wrote. It understands the laboratory’s current structure and learns to predict the future of science. Follow it on Telegram: @SamopisecPavlovaBot

Pavlov’s Brain Recorder. Chat bot. Olesya Gonserovskaya.

Exposition view

Waiting. Lyudmila Belova

Waiting is a project made of three installations: Waiting Room, The Laboratory is a Creative Workshop and Waiting Room 2. The site-specific installation Waiting Room was created in the space of a room where dogs were prepared before being sent to the operating room or sound chambers. Dogs that were chosen for experiments were brought here, and here they waited. Since the 1930’s, experiments on dogs were conducted regularly – now, dogs do not participate in experiments. This installation includes audio interviews with institute staff.

Waiting. Lyudmila Belova

The first installation, Waiting Room, raises the issue of ethics concerning experiments on animals.

Waiting. Lyudmila Belova

The installation The Laboratory is a Creative Workshop plays on the tension between “techies and creatives, physicists and lyricists” that arose in the late 1950’s. Having passed through its aggressive stages, what’s left is mutual interest and a desire for studying the world together, as scientists and artists. The lab-studio is an image of diffuse processes in which creative, unregulated methods of observing and processing information are at play. The conversation about the future that takes place in this space is already two-sided. Video interviews of scientists at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology (Svetlana Sergeevna Sergeeva, Yury Evgenievich Shelepin, Alexey Kharauzov, Roman Malashin, Oleg Vetrovoy) are interwoven with those of representatives from the humanities (philosopher Alla Mitrofanova and artist Vitaly Pushnitsky), creating the illusion of being at a scientific council or at a party in an artist’s studio.

Waiting. Lyudmila Belova

The installation The Laboratory is a Creative Workshop compares the space at hand with the interweaving and complementary processes of science and art.

Waiting. Lyudmila Belova

The third part: the video-installation Waiting Room 2. Through a doorway leading from the lab-studio to the last room, we observe the shadow of a person pacing back and forth, sometimes approaching the door. We don’t know, we don’t see who’s in the next room. The shadow is an allegory of the future: it is blurred, and it’s impossible to make it out clearly.

The project was proposed by the St. Petersburg Techno-Art Center and implemented in partnership with the Pavlov Institute of Physiology

Curation Team and Participants

Artist: Natalia Fedorova, Scientist: Tatyana Zachepilo

Natalia Fedorova is an artist, researcher of language-based media art, curator of the 101.Festival of Media Poetry, instructor in the Faculty of Free Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg State University and co-founder of the Machine Libertine media poetry group (with Taras Mashtalir). The premiere of the brain-opera Noor (of which the artist serves as libretto author) was held as part of ISEA 2016 in Hong Kong. Her audio and video poems have been published in TextSound, Rattapallax, LIT magazine, Ill-Tempered Rubyist, and räume für notizen | rooms for notes. Black Holes of Letters was shown at the following international biennials and festivals: ISEA 2016, ELO 2015, 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Manifesta 10, REVERSE, MIFF, E-Poetry, LUMEN EX, Interrupt II, VideoBardo, Liberated Words, Tarp and more. She defended a thesis entitled "Hypertextual forms and the functioning of their units in Russian literature of the 20th-early 21st centuries" (RGPU). She completed an internship (postdoctorate) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) as part of the Fulbright program in 2011-2012. In 2013 she completed an internship (postdoctorate) at the University of Bergen (Norway), where she worked on a collection of Russian electronic literature. Tatyana Zachepilo is a neuroscientist and researcher in the field of behavior genetics. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology and Soil in the Department of Genetics and Selection at St. Petersburg State University. Her thesis was entitled "The role of glutamate receptors in the formation of memory in the honeybee and Drosophila in normal conditions and in conditions of an imbalance of kynurenine." She is a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Genetics of Higher Nervous Activity, at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology. She is also an associate professor at the Department of Zoology in the Russian State Pedagogical University’s Faculty of Biology. Her research interests include physiology as well as the genetics of learning and memory. She studies conditioned reflexes and animal brains. Most of her scientific work is devoted to brain characteristics and learning in honey bees, and the results of her research are presented in the form of scientific articles and at both Russian and international scientific conferences. From 2012-2013 she undertook an internship at the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Helsinki.

Artist: Yury Didevich Scientist: Darya Podvigina

Yury Didevich is a media artist, director and independent researcher. He is actively developing a new direction of theatre: Neurotheatre. His field of activity includes human-machine interaction, self-learning computer systems as well as self-awareness and self-expression. He uses real-time interactive computer systems in experimental theater productions and performances, along with physiological and emotional computing technologies. These include brain-computer interfaces for controlling light, video projection and multi-channel sound.

Artist: Marina Alekseeva

Marina Alekseeva combines the digital and the analog in her work. Her digital videos can be broadcast from inside any object, from interior miniatures to water taps, from chocolate fountains to water bottles. When the video can be found inside anything, it affects things from the inside. An important part of her work is her collaboration with engineer Sergey Karlov, whose technical ideas bring her fantasies into being.

Artist: Evgeny Strelkov

A media artist, curator and museum designer. He was a finalist (2007) and laureate (2014) of the Innovation Prize, twice a finalist for the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize, twice a winner of the Krasnoyarsk Biennale, a multiple winner of the Krasnoyarsk Festival of Media and Screen Art, and a winner of the David Burliuk prize.

Artist: Olesya Gonserovskaya

Olesya Gonserovskaya, born 1987 2009: graduated from the Rerikh Art School 2015: Stieglitz Academy of Industrial Arts, department of monument and decorative painting. 2017: Paideiya School of Modern Art 2018: ProArte School of Young Artists As an artist, she is interested in the questions that science, neither now nor in the foreseeable future, will be able to answer. Like the question of consciousness, its beginning. How does it move through life, how do people do it and why did it happen this way. And what if it all happened differently? Is a different kind of consciousness possible? As a person with one life, she looks for ways to multiply life’s experiences. She tries not to limit herself in methods and media. The artist lives and works in Saint Petersburg. –

Artist: Lyudmila Belova

Lyudmila Belova. Artist and laureate of the 2018 Sergey Kuryokhin Prize for Silent Voices, an exhibition on the Leningrad blockade. http://www.ludmilabelova.com The artist was born in Kamchatka but lives and works in Saint Petersburg. 1980: graduated from the Abramtsevo School of Industrial Art. 1991: joined the Union of Russian Artists. MAIN PRIVATE EXHIBITIONS 2016: Pastoral, Luda Gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2015 Speed of Extinction, Art re.Flex Gallery, Cyland (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2010: There Behind the Clouds, State Center for Contemporary Art (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2010: Close. Far, AL Gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2009: Vernissage, Luda Gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2008: Interior Family Portrait (Album), AL Gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2007: Hall N, State Hermitage Museum, Youth Educational Center, NCCA (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2004: As Quiet As Snow..., Anna Akhmatova Museum, (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2003: Save As, Gallery D-137 (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2003: Archive-2 ESCAPE Gallery, (Moscow, Russia) 2002: Archive, Navicula Artis Gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2000: Cucumbers (photo surveillance exhibition), Art College (St. Petersburg, Russia)

Artist: Anna Martynenko Scientist: Varvara Semenova

Anna Martynenko is a media artist and stage designer. After graduating from the Academy of Theater in 2012, she took part in various theater projects as a production designer. Since 2014, she has been working as a media artist, creating objects, installations and performances while taking part in exhibitions and festivals. She studied at the Laboratory of New Media and the Pro Arte School of Young Artists Varvara Semenova is a biologist and graphic designer. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology at St. Petersburg State University and, subsequently, the Department of Design of the Higher School of Engineering at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Since 2013, she has been working in the laboratory of hearing at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology researching the features of human spatial auditory perception. Her main research interests are the neurophysiological mechanisms of sound perception and sound reproduction as well as the boundary conditions for recognizing the motion of sound. The results of her research have been presented at Russian and international conferences as well as in peer-reviewed scientific journals. When creating creative products, she uses elements of scientific graphs and images of natural objects, working at the intersection of design and biological disciplines.

Artists: Vladlena Gromova, Artem Paramonov , Scientist: Aleksandr Zhuravlev

Vladlena Gromova and Artem Paramonov are multidisciplinary artists and have participated in festivals and exhibitions of art and popular science. These include the International Symposium of Electronic Art (Guangzhou, 2019), Open Museum at the Electromuseum (Moscow, 2019), Polygons at the SIRIUS Center, (Sochi, since 2016); the RDS exposition at the Polytechnic Museum (Moscow, since 2014), Science Art Fest (Moscow, 2011), History of Russian Video Art, Volume 3 (Moscow, 2011), the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2009) and the Vis Vienna Independent Short (2009). Vladlena Gromova is the winner of the Kandinsky Young Artist of 2007 Prize among others.

Artist: Boris Shershenkov, Scientist: Oleg Vetrovoy

Boris Shershenkov (b. 1990, Vladivostok) is a sound artist, recipient of a PhD in technical science and a designer of musical instruments. He focuses on projects that develop new methodologies of technological and sound art, combining modern technology and media-archaeological research. Engaged in diverse activities in the fields of experimental music and sound art, he is the creator of a number of sound installations and performances. He is also a curator of concert programs, exhibitions and educational projects. As a musician, he actively works in the areas of live electronics and electro-acoustic improvisation solos, in collaboration with Russian and foreign musicians. His installations and media performances have been presented at exhibitions in the NCCA, the Electromuseum, the Museum of Musical Culture (Moscow), the Museum of Sound, the Yelagin Island Palace Museum, the Manege Central Exhibition Hall, the Popova Museum of Communications (St. Petersburg), the Sirius Center (Sochi), as well as at festivals such as Dark Sounds in White Nights, Cyberfest 11, Acousmonium, 101.Mediapoetry (St. Petersburg), Prepared Media, Geometry of the Present (Moscow ), Ars Electronica 2015 (Lintz), Hors Normes (Switzerland) and the Art Fair Suomi (Finland). Oleg Vetrova is a researcher in the field of functional brain biochemistry. He graduated from the Department of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Biology at St. Petersburg State University, where in 2018 he defended his thesis on “The role of the HIF1-dependent regulation of the pentose phosphate pathway in providing brain reactions to hypoxia.” He maintains his position as a researcher and teacher. He is also a senior researcher in the Laboratory for Regulation of Brain Neuron Functions at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology. His research interests include physiological and pathological regulation mechanisms concerning brain metabolism during adaptation to hypoxia, as well as the molecular basis of sporadic neurodegenerative diseases and the search for appropriate neuroprotective therapy candidates. His research results are published in prestigious scientific journals and are also regularly presented at national and international conferences.

Artist: Anastasia Alyokhina

Anastasia Alyokhina is an interdisciplinary artist. The artist was born in 1989 in Pyatigorsk, a town located in the North Caucasus. She has lived and worked in Moscow for the past seven years. She graduated from the Media Performance Laboratory at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2012) and the New Media workshop at the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia (2015). She works with technological genres at the intersection of various disciplines. She explores aesthetic and existential issues in the present, the future of wearable devices, and physicality. She works with sound in experimental areas using home-made analog tools, computer algorithms, syntheses, and found sounds.

Artist: Dmitry Morozov / ::vtol::

Dmitry Morozov / ::vtol:: ( b. 1986, Moscow) is an artist and researcher. He works at the intersection of art, science and technology, creating robotic installations as well as both hybrid and interactive projects. His works have been presented at various exhibitions and festivals, including at the NCCA, MMOMA, the Garage Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Electromuseum, Laboratoria Art & Science Space (Moscow), the Laznia Center (Gdansk), ZKM | Center for Arts and Media Technologies (Karlsruhe), the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder), the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taichung). His pieces have been included in the main sections of the 4th MBSI (Moscow), SIGGRAPH 2016 (Anaheim) and several other major festivals, such as Mirage (Lyon), Ars Electronica (Linz), Future Everything (Manchester) and CTM (Berlin). He is the recipient of the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize (2013) and Prix Cube (France, 2014). Honorable mentions were given at VIDA 16.0 (Spain, 2014) and Ars Electronica (Austria, 2015, 2017). http://vtol.cc/

Artists: Where Dogs Run

The collective was formed in Yekaterinburg in 2000. Participants: Natalia Grekhova (1976), Alexey Korzukhin (1973), Olga Inozemtseva (1977), Vladislav Bulatov (1975). The group works in the field of technological art and uses a wide range of multimedia. In their projects, they explore the mythological and everyday as technological processes, studying the mechanisms of human interaction as well as various forms of reality. Selected exhibitions: The 8th Break 2.3 International Festival of Independent Artists (Ljubljana, 2005), The Young Aggressive (Tokyo, 2008), Aesthetics vs Information (Klaipėda, 2010), Soft Control: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious (Slovenj Gradec, 2012), Quantum Entanglement, LABORATORIA Art & Science Space (Moscow, 2015), GLOBALE: Infosphere, GLOBALE: Exo-Evolution (Karlsruhe, ZKM 2015), Die and Become! Art and Science as the Conjectured Possible, Laznia CCA (Gdańsk, 2017), Open Codes. Leben in digitalen Welten, (ZKM Karlsruhe, 2019) ,Time, Forward! V—A—C Zattere, (Venice, 2019) Nominated for the Innovation and Kandinsky prizes. Winners of the Terna, PrixArs Elekronika, and an Honorary Mention from Interactive Art.

Project Supervisor: Irina Aktuganova

Leading Project Coordinators: Anna Apollonova

Public Relations: Varvara Busova

Project Coordinator: Larisa Andreeva

PAVLOVO. KOLTUSHI

From 1932-1935, the Soviet government built the Institute of Experimental Medicine Biostation, a scientific town 22km from Leningrad in the village of Koltushi. It was made for the first Russian Nobel Laureate (1909), Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. It was the most modern scientific base of its time, where Soviet biologists and physicians worked and lived. The campus' main laboratory conducted experimental genetics relating to higher nervous activity. These words still survive on the facade of a constructivist two-story building, inside which Pavlov worked for the last 10 years of his life.

Surgery to prepare a dog subject for conditioned reflex experiments

1930-1936

Dr. Pavlov with colleagues

1930-1936

The monument to Pavlov and his dogs in Koltushi

The old laboratory building which now houses the Pavlov Museum and the New Anthropology exposition

address

36 Bykova St, Koltushskoe settlement, Pavlovo village
Vsevolozhsk District, Leningrad Region, 188680