We have played enough in the digital world: SPbU Professor Tatiana Chernigovskaya
At the VI St Petersburg International Forum, the General Staff Building of the Hermitage and SPbU have held a round-table discussion “Contemporary arts in the changing world. China. Russia. USA”.
The event was visited by an artist Mihail Chemiakin, a neurolinguist Tatiana Chernigovskaya, an urbanist Alfredo Brillemburg, and other Russian and world’s leading experts. They discussed how the contemporary arts will develop and whether it is, politically and geographically, put in frames.
The mission of the art today is to save people from the negative influence of the state-of-the-art technologies, says SPbU Professor, head of the Laboratory for Cognitive Research Tatiana Chernigovskaya. “We have played enough in the digital world. We are always glued to our computers and gadgets, and we can do nothing about it. The virtual reality is more than ever gaining momentum, so is what American are about to declare an epidemic or pandemic of psychic disorders. Now we are living with the “Google” generation, the children who have a blurred border between the real and virtual worlds. And it is dangerous”, — said the Professor.
The world today is transparent, says Tatiana Chernigovskaya, everybody knows everything about everybody: what we ate yesterday and what wine we bought. It makes a human genome the most secret information. Still we themselves can let the cat out of the bag as sequencing will be performed by humans and the information will be stored in someone’s data base. The only thing that can help humans is art.
The idea was supported by SPbU Professor, Doctor of Art Studies Tatiana Yurieva: “The world today is incredibly heavy and is constantly changing. The artists can save it. With time a crucial factor, life is highly challenging: we are exposed to and have to process so many different things. Our mission is to exclude aggression. We must revive honour, dignity, and consciousness”.
One of the key speakers was an artist Mihail Chemiakin who has long since lived and worked in the USA. Russia has a unique way how it can develop its art. “Things come in threes. We have created the greatest ever metaphysical art: a Russian icon. Then we have an unprecedented phenomenon that influenced European and American art: Russian avant-garde. And now we are in for the third surge that will have a potential to influence the world”, — said Mihail Chemiakin.
The moderator of the discussion was Candidate of Art Studies, SPbU Associate professor Ivan Chechot. The event was also visited by researchers and artists: an architect, founder of the Urban-ThinkTank, Professor of the Swiss Higher Technical School Alfredo Brillemburg; head of the department of the latest trends in the State Russian Museum Aleksandr Borovskii: an artist Dmitrii Gutov; an art-critic Gleb Ershov; and director of the museum and art gallery of the Hong Kong University Florian Not.
About Forum
The VI St Petersburg International Cultural Forum was held in November 16-18, 2017. The Forum’s organisers: Government of the Russian Federation, Government of St Petersburg. The VI St Petersburg International Cultural Forum is supported by charitable foundation «Arts, Research, and Sports”.
The Forum has two parallel flows: professional and public, and three fields. The extensive business programme can be of interest to anyone in culture. The business programme has 14 sections headed by the Russia’s leading experts who create an agenda. The platform can help implement the projects and sign agreements in culture. The festival programme features a number of events in St Petersburg.
The Forum awards the following prizes: “An Art patron of the year” for considerable contribution in the cultural projects and a prize of Anatolii Lunacharskii that is a unique prize awarded to the worker of non-creative professions in culture.