Russia's Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre exhibits 'techno-positive' future
The space of the exhibition, the presented works of art and scientific instruments give the visitor the opportunity to trace how, for half a century, artists and scientists, inspired by each other's discoveries, formed a new view of the world. The additional STArt exposition will continue reflections on the relationship between scientific knowledge and artistic activity.
The All-Russian open competition of projects Science.Technology.Art (STArt) was held with the participation of Yandex in 2022 and was focused on developing new forms of dialogue about science and supporting projects by contemporary artists in the Art&Science genre. The participants of the competition were offered to create an art project on the topic of a techno-positive future and the coexistence of man and technology in the next 50 years.
The exhibition includes the works of four of the 15 winners of the competition: two interactive installations and two photo projects that reveal images of the robotic future. The four halls of the exposition present the works of Dmitry Tochilkina and Natalia Zybina, Konstantin Semyonov, Natalia Yankelevich and Elena Tash, Natalia Ershova and Maxim Mikhaltsov.
The exhibition begins with the interactive installation "Contact", which was an attempt by the authors to explore, measure and visualize the difference in human perception. With its help, visitors can take part in an experiment that demonstrates how the original idea is transformed when it is passed from one person to another.
In the next interactive installation, Minesweeper, the field of the famous game becomes a universal space for the creativity of robots, which is based on the objects most accessible to them - figures and numbers. The visitor is invited to think about how works of art could look like if robots themselves began to create them along the way of their development.
In the third hall, the photo project "New Anthropology" is presented, which comprehends the impact of augmented reality technologies on everyday human life in the future. A series of photos, videos and costumes show how people can change their appearance and clothes in a few seconds thanks to AR contact lenses. However, the bright virtual shells that have become part of the image cannot replace relationships with loved ones who are ready to accept the imperfections of the body.
The photo project “The Fifth Quarter”, which concludes the exhibition, takes visitors to the future, where a person is supplemented by implants - biological systems that help people with hereditary diseases, monitor the condition of the fetus in pregnant women and even correct age-related changes, providing the owner with immortality. The photographs show people who have decided to implant and edit their genes.