Arts and Design

Topic: The Utopia of Interactivity in Contemporary Urban Culture

Among many tendencies we could track in contemporary art and design a tendency towards the growth of interactivity is one of the most striking, it is the one that shapes not only small gadgets but also great visions of future landscape of megacities. In this lecture, we will 1) observe the concept of interactivity in relation to the aesthetic turn which took place in the 1960s; 2) analyze the role of interactivity in the new media; 3) reflect upon interactive pieces of art or design and the new role of a spectator/user it suggests; 4) talk about the "limited" interactivity of earlier times and the "unlimited" interactivity provided by Artificial Intelligence and Internet of things today; 5) make some foresight assumptions about the impact further growth of interactivity in daily life and culture might have on the city life.

Topic: Modern City: Reality, Representation and Framing

There are cities (like Moscow, Paris or Rio de Janeiro) and then there is their symbolic representation in maps, layouts, in movies and photos. There are different "registers" of "reality" and different ways of interacting with urban space. The borders of the "frames" can be overcome: for example, one can wander around the German city, using the map of London. One can “reformat” “frames”: impose virtual space on a physical territory (like catching Pokémon in the middle of the city square), one can introduce actors who play the role of stereotypical citizens into the urban space, thus adopting a routine of everyday life and turning it into a work of art. One can "transfer" physical territory to the virtual space (e.g. an exact copy of the territory of Denmark in the game "Minecraft"). We will talk about this and many other things in our lecture.

Thus, in the lecture “The Modern City: Reality, Representation and Framing” we will

1) get acquainted with the theory of the map and territory,

2) find out the importance of the theory of frames in contemporary urbanism,

3) examine specific cases, among which are the practices of situational artists of the 1960s, the “social sculptures” of Pavel Althamer (one of the founding fathers of urban nonspectacular art), the social projects of Igor Zacharow-Ross and more.

Survival in the Future of Media

In today's information overload, media consumers can no longer tell what information is reliable from what is fake. Media employees, in turn, have their own challenges with standing out in the crowd of competiting bloggers, influencers and news outlets. To do so, they must tell inspiring stories with words, pictures, videos and other tools that can captivate their audience. Oleg Dmitriev, an HSE professor with 30 years of media experience will share his secrets of how to excel in a changing and challenging media environment, based on case studies of various international media outlets.

The webinar will be useful for:

-Anyone interested in modern media;

-Students of media or any other graduates who plans on working with media in the future;

-Young teachers of media studies.