“Frequencies 3.0: The Magic of Super Technology,” a collection of science art projects created with the participation of Skoltech researchers, is currently on display at the Khodynka Gallery in Moscow. The exhibition will run until Nov. 6.
A result of a collaboration between artists and Skoltech researchers, the exhibition presents works of art that combine scientific knowledge and artistic creation to leverage the power of art in affirming the human aptitude for harmony and balance in the face of the battle between technology and nature.
The exhibition features interactive installations, as well as multimedia, digital, and video art.
While working on her “One Artsapiens ID” project, the artist Anna Kabirova wondered how our brain responds to color, sound, and smell. Researchers from Skoltech Neuro and the head of the research group at Skoltech AI, Maxim Sharaev, helped her find the answer: They recorded Anna’s EEG in the lab while her brain was trying to grasp three colors, sounds, and smells. They used the EEG data to image the brain at work and then applied a special tool to transform colors into sounds. The team ended up having digital generative 3D installations that visually embodied the brain’s response to each color converted into a sound wave. The artist and the researchers expect to find new channels of human perception of the world so that any individual regardless of their aptitudes could connect with art in unexpected ways.
In the “Waveform” exhibit created with the scientific guidance and assistance of Maxim Sharaev and Skoltech Neuro researchers, its author Anastasia Gross reflects on the agency of humans and machines and its boundaries. The team looked at how the brain deals with three different states and recorded the artist’s EEG, which was converted into sound waves and then into an averaged waveform. Applying the graphic score method transformed the waves representing the three distinct states the artist experienced into choral singing. Viewing the voice as a way of emotional expression, the artist tried to comprehend human physical and mental abilities and explore their boundaries.
Anna Mitereva created her project, “Drinking the Blood of the Earth,” jointly with researchers from Skoltech Petroleum. For the first time ever, the team succeeded in producing oil from wine alcohols in a lab environment. In an effort to join a nonsensical idea and rational techniques, the artist expands the scope of approaches to comprehending the world. The exhibition also features a video in which chemists magically transform alcohol, an accessible product of modest value, into oil, a valuable and hard-to-recover commodity.
“Black Baroque 3.0. Hexagonal Songs,” created by artist Valia Paella under the guidance of Dmitry Krasnikov, senior research scientist at the Skoltech Laboratory of Nanomaterials, is a sound art installation that attempts to hear the Earth through carbon nanotubes, an advanced material that should help ease the heavy burden of the carbon footprint. The project takes a step beyond collaborative creation, turning it into the co-creation of an object and matter where the object is naturally embedded in the sonic environment. The sound sensor attached to the nanotube base in the soil registers the Earth’s “breath.” The daylong recording is converted into an audio file that you can listen to anytime by clicking on the QR code. Interestingly, sound-conducting carbon nanotubes are widely used in radio electronics. An episode about the project appears as a short film in Skoltech Science Film Lab’s almanac “16 Ways To Change the World,” which was shown at the recent Contemporary Science Film Festival (FANK).
Another project, “Evolution,” created by Gleb Solntsev and Skoltech scientists, consists of a UV-print on a double-layer Plexiglas sheet and a dynamic AR 3D sculpture. Assistant Professor Dmitry Kolomenskiy of Skoltech Materials, who served as the project’s science director, studies featherwing beetles, the tiniest known beetles, which can cover a distance of nearly a thousand times the length of their body in just one second. This amazing capability is studied digitally, so from the artist’s perspective, these insects exist in both the real and the digital worlds, just like humans. Seeing as the insect ended up having such bizarre wings through evolution, the artist is wondering where evolution will lead humans as a species.
Inspired by their successful collaboration, the artists and scientists are planning to replenish the exhibition with new art objects and bring it to other Russian cities.
“… One Artsapiens ID.” Maxim Sharaev, head of research group at Skoltech AI. Skoltech Neuro employees: Ivan Ninenko, PhD student Gurgen Sogoyan, lab engineers and research assistants Maxim Egorov and Maria Bogatkova.
“Waveform.” Maxim Sharaev, head of research group at Skoltech AI. Skoltech Neuro employees: Ivan Ninenko, PhD student Gurgen Sogoyan, lab engineers and research assistants Maxim Egorov and Maria Bogatkova.
“Drinking the Blood of the Earth.” Skoltech Petroleum employees: PhD student Anastasia Ivanova, engineer Nadezhda Khaustova, and research intern Alina Bazhanova.
“Black Baroque 3.0. Hexagonal Songs.” Dmitry Krasnikov, PhD in chemistry and senior research scientist at the Laboratory of Nanomaterials, Skoltech Photonics.
“Evolution.” Dmitry Kolomenskiy, an expert in fluid mechanics and assistant professor at Skoltech Materials.
Contact information:
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