Digital Art: Ideas, Histories, Personalities
A lecture on The Phenomenon of Digital Art
The course aims to provide a comprehensive overview of digital art through the lens of its key concepts. Together, we will examine the aesthetic of digital art, how it is devised, produced and functions within the art world and art market. Participants will be encouraged to participate in the conversations, readings and discussions, while analyzing digital art works from different periods.
Topic 1 - Algorithm
The first lecture explores algorithms, rules, instructions, systems thinking, on the one hand, and notions of chance, randomness and glitch, on the other hand, as fundamental elements of aesthetics of digital art. Starting with Norbert Wiener’s cybernetics and the theories of Abraham Moles and Max Bense, we move to computer and algorithmic art of 1960s and 1970s and then proceed to today’s generative art.
Topic 2 - Artist vs Machine
The second lecture examines changing models of authorship in digital art: the individual artist, the collective, interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and engineers, and the emergence of the human–machine collaborations. Historical examples from E.A.T., early computer poetry, and algorithmic music — including Pierre Barbaud and Iannis Xenakis — allow us to consider how computers transformed the creative process which lead to the speculation about the art in the era of AI.
Topic 3 - Identity and Body
The lecture focuses on the projects involving human, robotic, virtual, and cybernetic bodies: from technologically mediated performance and dance to the experiments with bodily extension (e.g. Stelarc), robotic art, avatars, and virtual identities. As a separate note, we will talk about the emergence of cyberfeminism as a critical response to technology, gender, identity, and embodiment.
Topic 4 - Rhizome
This lecture shifts the focus from body and the figure of an artist/viewer to non-bodily presence through computer vision and surveillance. That will lead us to the conversation about decentralized structures, such as networks and rhizome. We dive in the text-based realms of hypertext and canonical works of net artists such as Olia Lialina and JODI.
Topic 5 - Database vs Archive
Contemporary culture is to a big extent driven by data. The lecture examines database and archive as two different models for organizing information, knowledge and memory. We will discuss Lev Manovich’s database projects and theoretical concepts and Refik Anadol’s data sculptures, among the others.
Topic 6 - Immersive Environments
From the idea of archive through the phenomenon of memory theatre we come to the idea of immersive environments and the way we can deconstruct those. We consider large-scale immersive practices such as those of teamLab as well as virtual and augmented reality. Additionally, we explore the boundaries between immersive art, spectacle and entertainment.
Topic 7 - Games
The lecture returns to the concepts of rules and systems but these are now approached from the perspective of participant or player. We start with the idea of interactivity which is fundamental for digital art and proceed to explore how artists devise games or utilize the existing gaming environment.
Topic 8 - Infrastructure and the Economics of Digital Art
The final lecture shifts attention from individual artworks to the systems that allow digital art to circulate. We map digital art ecosystem: digital-native galleries, artist-run studios, self-organized spaces, museum collections, online platforms, and marketplaces. We consider the challenges of digital art for traditional models of collecting and selling art, including questions of provenance, preservation, and reproducibility.
About:
Anna Chaplygina is digital producer and art mediator. She graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities with a degree in Cultural Studies. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Open Laboratory at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
With over 15 years of experience in digital communications and production, she has worked with major advertising agencies and global brands. As part of the Open Laboratory, she has been involved in art mediation projects and public programmes exploring media and contemporary art.
Her research interests focus on the history of digital art and how technology transforms creative practices.
The lecture will be held in English.
*Dates are subject to change
Topic 1 - Algorithm
The first lecture explores algorithms, rules, instructions, systems thinking, on the one hand, and notions of chance, randomness and glitch, on the other hand, as fundamental elements of aesthetics of digital art. Starting with Norbert Wiener’s cybernetics and the theories of Abraham Moles and Max Bense, we move to computer and algorithmic art of 1960s and 1970s and then proceed to today’s generative art.
Topic 2 - Artist vs Machine
The second lecture examines changing models of authorship in digital art: the individual artist, the collective, interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and engineers, and the emergence of the human–machine collaborations. Historical examples from E.A.T., early computer poetry, and algorithmic music — including Pierre Barbaud and Iannis Xenakis — allow us to consider how computers transformed the creative process which lead to the speculation about the art in the era of AI.
Topic 3 - Identity and Body
The lecture focuses on the projects involving human, robotic, virtual, and cybernetic bodies: from technologically mediated performance and dance to the experiments with bodily extension (e.g. Stelarc), robotic art, avatars, and virtual identities. As a separate note, we will talk about the emergence of cyberfeminism as a critical response to technology, gender, identity, and embodiment.
Topic 4 - Rhizome
This lecture shifts the focus from body and the figure of an artist/viewer to non-bodily presence through computer vision and surveillance. That will lead us to the conversation about decentralized structures, such as networks and rhizome. We dive in the text-based realms of hypertext and canonical works of net artists such as Olia Lialina and JODI.
Topic 5 - Database vs Archive
Contemporary culture is to a big extent driven by data. The lecture examines database and archive as two different models for organizing information, knowledge and memory. We will discuss Lev Manovich’s database projects and theoretical concepts and Refik Anadol’s data sculptures, among the others.
Topic 6 - Immersive Environments
From the idea of archive through the phenomenon of memory theatre we come to the idea of immersive environments and the way we can deconstruct those. We consider large-scale immersive practices such as those of teamLab as well as virtual and augmented reality. Additionally, we explore the boundaries between immersive art, spectacle and entertainment.
Topic 7 - Games
The lecture returns to the concepts of rules and systems but these are now approached from the perspective of participant or player. We start with the idea of interactivity which is fundamental for digital art and proceed to explore how artists devise games or utilize the existing gaming environment.
Topic 8 - Infrastructure and the Economics of Digital Art
The final lecture shifts attention from individual artworks to the systems that allow digital art to circulate. We map digital art ecosystem: digital-native galleries, artist-run studios, self-organized spaces, museum collections, online platforms, and marketplaces. We consider the challenges of digital art for traditional models of collecting and selling art, including questions of provenance, preservation, and reproducibility.
About:
Anna Chaplygina is digital producer and art mediator. She graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities with a degree in Cultural Studies. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Open Laboratory at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
With over 15 years of experience in digital communications and production, she has worked with major advertising agencies and global brands. As part of the Open Laboratory, she has been involved in art mediation projects and public programmes exploring media and contemporary art.
Her research interests focus on the history of digital art and how technology transforms creative practices.
The lecture will be held in English.
*Dates are subject to change
DATE
September 27, 2026, 2:00 PM
October 25, 2026
November 29, 2026
January 17, 2027
February 21, 2027
March 21, 2027
April 18, 2027
May 23, 2027
October 25, 2026
November 29, 2026
January 17, 2027
February 21, 2027
March 21, 2027
April 18, 2027
May 23, 2027
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