Selected WORKS

Started in 2011, ongoing to this date

Started in 2018, ongoing to this date

Ascending order

2018

Hashd0x

2022

The general human question infinitely sinks in the depths of a sequence of virtual space architecture. Each new mouse click takes us away from an answer and question just as each following step of the development of media environment and virtualization moves us further away from the understanding of what makes reality real.

Interdisciplinary artist & researcher Egor Kraft lives and ​works in Tokyo and Vienna. His practice is informed by media ​theory, speculative philosophy, computer science, Ai, film & ​research-based art.


While the new website is in the works, this page serves as a ​temporary showcase of selected works, CV and links. Kraft ​teaches at Kunstuniversität Linz and other European ​universities. His recent written work includes peer-reviewed ​papers on AI & historiography published by City University ​Hong Kong and Museum of Synthetic Histories published as ​conference paper for Politics of Machine 2021 at the ​University of Arts, Berlin.


You can view selected works below or download portfolio.pdf ​and selected cv.pdf, view films on Vimeo or send an email. ​For updates, you may follow Instagram & Twitter.

The New Color

An on­line in­ter­ven­tion and mystification of a scientific break­through of a discovery of pre­vi­ously ‘non-existent’ colour. Presented in a form of a website of a fictitious American company, video ads and mockumentary interviews became a viral sensation attracting mass attention on the internet.

Content Aware

Studies

Artistic inquiry into technologies of artificial neural networks (AI) and machine learning to reconstruct missing fragments in sculptures and friezes from the periods of classical Antiquity as well as to generate never-existed, yet genuine documents of synthetic histories.

URL Stone

2018

The work investigates the longevity of media carries by juxtaposing the same information being held by two fundamentally different mediums: a text carved into stone and a .jpeg file hosted on Wikipedia. The investigation is not complete until one of them is lost, thus re­veal­ing its less durable qual­i­ties in the site of the other. Which one will be lost first? Only time will tell…

Decentralised Embargo

2022

A 4-GPU computational sculpture. Using energy from a german provider, which burns Russian gas to create electricity. The sculpture completes proof-of-work in real-time for the Ethereum blockchain, thus mining Ethereum currency directly into the official cryptocurrency wallet of Ukraine. Russian gas thus gets directly monetised into humanitarian aid for the Ukrainian people, via the means of the german hesitation to employ an embargo on Russian gas.

Hashd0x is a tactical software, designed to combat widespread disinformation technics by enabling instant and spoof-proof on-chain evidence capture & forensics tools through registration of metadata and content hashing involving decentralised storage networks.

The New Color

An on­line in­ter­ven­tion and mystification of a scientific break­through of a discovery of pre­vi­ously ‘non-existent’ color. Presented in a form of a website of fictitious American company, video ads and mocumentary interviews became a viral sensation attracting mass attention on the internet.

E-ink screens are set to display moving images streamlined by an AI (GAN) algorithm trained on images of inkblots and set to generate similar images at the rate of thousands a minute.

Hashd0x

2022

Hashd0x is a tactical software, designed to combat widespread disinformation technics by enabling instant and spoof-proof on-chain evidence capture & forensics tools through registration of metadata and content hashing involving decentralised storage networks.

2022

2014

URL Stone

The work investigates the longevity of media carries by juxtaposing the same information being held by two fundamentally different mediums: a text carved into stone and a .jpeg file hosted on Wikipedia. The investigation is not complete until one of them is lost, thus re­veal­ing its less durable qual­i­ties in the site of the other.

Air kiss

2017-2018



A film, presented in a form of 5-channel video installation, looking at a near future, where governance has largely been outsourced to Artificial Intelligence in the speculative context of Moscow in 2050 where a high degree of automation is present.

Twelve Nodes is a collaborative research project presented in a form of a video installation. It concerns itself with current issues surrounding the ethical treatment of personal data, speaking to the urgent need for more regulation, considering the large-scale misuses of geopolitical scale that have occurred over the past years.

the link series

2015 - 2016

An object with a brightly illuminated hyperlink is exhibited in various locations, including public spaces. The URL is the complete sentence: http://this-is-the.link/between/the/real-and-virtual. A webpage located at the given address displays a real-time streamed 360° camera view of the actual site.

2014

Works Catalogue

Started in 2011, ongoing to this date

2018

Chinese Ink

2018

tvelwe nodes

2019

uncensorship architecture

‘Uncensorship Architecture’ provides an infrastructure proposal to protect journalistic data and investigative work from censorship and geopolitical blocks. Using de-centralised blockchain storage infrastructures journalistic archives become safe from censorship and IP-blocking.

this very moment

i print therefore i am

A modified digital printer is able to continuously perform printing on a looped-back sheet of paper, running throughout the entire duration of the show (two month), is repeatedly reproducing one line of text: ‘I Print Therefore, I Am’.

Emitting the brightest possible cold, white light - the text running across the LED display board repetitively states: “...This very moment, has already become the past – This very mo...”

COntent aware studies

Started in 2018, ongoing to this date

Artistic inquiry into technologies of artificial neural networks (AI) and machine learning to reconstruct missing fragments in sculptures and friezes from the periods of classical Antiquity as well as to generate never-existed, yet genuine documents of synthetic histories.

2022

2022

ascending order

2015

The general human question infinitely sinks in the depths of a sequence of virtual space architecture. Each new mouse click takes us away from an answer and question just as each following step of the development of media environment and virtualization moves us further away from the understanding of what makes reality real.

2014

Kickback is a series of interventions into global fast fashion retail stores, in which the modified goods have been returned for further retail to establish critical commentaries on current consumption-production ethics.

decentralised embargo

A 4-GPU computational installation supplied with the energy provided by EnBW (client of Gazprom Germania), a german provider, which burns Russian gas to create electricity. Russian gas thus gets directly monetised into humanitarian aid for the Ukrainian people, via the means of the german hesitation to employ an embargo on Russian gas.

propagan

The generative GAN Algorithm is synced to an audio file to which it matches the ongoing morphing moving image based on a dataset of explosions, smokes and clouds. Public justification, political rhetoric and weak arguments echo into dust, fire and ash in a direct visual allegory.

kickback

Selected CV

Biography

Egor Kraft (born 1986 in St. Pe­ters­burg, raised in Sweden, lives and works in Tokyo, Vienna & Berlin) is an in­ter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist work­ing at the in­ter­sec­tion of arts, me­dia, tech­nol­ogy, film and re­search.

Egor ac­quired his ed­u­ca­tion from Ger­les­borg School of Fine Art (SE), Moscow Rod­chenko Art School (RU), Acad­emy of Fine Arts Vi­enna (AT), Cen­tral Saint Mar­t­in’s Col­lege (UK), Tokyo Gei­dai Uni­ver­sity of The Arts (JP) and ‘The New Nor­mal’ at Strelka In­sti­tute (RU). He was af­fil­i­ated as a re­search fel­low at the Uni­ver­sity of Southamp­ton (UK) and Tokyo Gei­dai Uni­ver­sity of the Arts (JP).

He par­tic­i­pated in Ars Elec­tron­ica (AT), ‘Open Codes’ at ZKM (DE), 5th Ural In­dus­trial Bi­en­nial, 5th and 2nd Moscow In­ter­na­tional Bi­en­ni­als for Young Art, WRO Bi­en­nial (PL), IM­PAKT Fes­ti­val (NL), Vi­enna Con­tem­po­rary (AT), Man­i­festa X (RU), WRONG Bi­en­nale (WEB), 1st Kyiv Bi­en­nale (UA) and a num­ber of in­ter­na­tional shows in­clud­ing those in Her­mitage Mu­seum, Russ­ian Mu­seum, ZKM (DE), Garage Mu­seum (RU), MOMMA, MAMM, Art & History Museum Brussels (BE), Short Film Festival Cologne (DE) and many other in­ter­na­tional events.

He lec­tured and led guest sem­i­nars in Win­ches­ter Schools of Art (UK), Royal College of Art (UK), New Me­dia Lab (RU), HSE Uni­ver­sity (RU), University of Arts Linz (AT), University of Hong Kong (HK) and other institutions and pro­grammes. His es­says and re­search pa­pers were pub­lished in peer re­viewed jour­nals and pre­sented at Art Ma­chines 2 (HK), Pol­i­tics Of The Ma­chines (DE), Im­pakt Fes­ti­val (NL) and other con­fer­ences.

Egor has re­ceived New Tech­no­log­i­cal Art Award in 2022 (BE). He was also nom­i­nated for var­i­ous prizes in­clud­ing the State In­no­va­tion Art Prize twice (RU), Kuryokhin Prize twice (RU), Kandin­sky Prize (RU), Cre­ative En­ter­prise Award (UK), the Pul­sar Prize (FR) and Lu­men Prize (UK). He is a fel­low of STARTS Res­i­den­cies (EU/UK), Garage Mu­se­ums Art & Tech­nol­ogy 2019 (RU/DE) and BMKÖS Austrian federal grant pro­grammes.

In 2017 he was in­cluded in the New East 100, a list of peo­ple, places and pro­jects shap­ing our world to­day by Lon­don based Calvert Jour­nal.

Works in Public Collections

MAMM Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, RUS

Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art, RUS

Ripley’s, Orlando, FL, USA

Cyland Video Archive, USA | RUS

Colección Solo, Madrid, ESP

ZKM, Center for Art & Media, Karlsruhe, DEU

Solo Shows

Selected Publications

22022 Lies, Half-Truths & Propaganda [The Bad, the Worse, and the Worst] | alexander levy, Berlin, DEU

2019 Human (un)limited | Ars Electronica Export, Moscow, RUS

2019 Content Aware Studies | Alexander Levy, Berlin, DEU

2018 Ákkta | Anna Nova Gallery, St. Petersburg, RUS

2014 Wanderings 2.0 | Rundum, Tallinn, EST

2012 Now is Just Right Now | Taiga Space, St. Petersburg, RUS

2008 State of Mine | Gerlesborgskolan, SWE

ARTISTIC DIRECTION

M2017–2022 Artistic & design direction at Ethereum Swarm | A software protocol for decentralised peer-to-peer storage architecture

teaching

2023

IMSc in Art&Science at ITMO University | St. Petersburg, RUS Ai in Art Theory & Practice Module

Institut für Medien & Visuelle Kommunikation | Kunstuniversität Linz, AUT Course: Kunst- oder Bildproduktion in Zusammenhang mit Al

2022

OKV Magazine | Feature article on NTAA by Benedict Vandaele | BEL

Recycling Beauty | Fondazione Prada, ITA

The artist in a science lab | Maya Jaggi | Le Monde Diplomatique, FRA

E-Relevance. The role of Arts and Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence | Vuk Ćosić, Vladan Joler, Régine Debatty | Council of Europe, EU

What does art bring to science and technology? EU's "S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology & the ARTS)" | Miki Kanai | Bijutsu Techo Magazine, JP

2021

Nero Magazine | Article AI As experience of the Limit by Daniela Cotimbo | ITA

The Practice of Art & AI, Gerfried Stocker, Markus Jandl, Andreas J. Hirsch | Book

CLARA: Perceiving Matter; article by Dr. Hallie G. Meredith & Sarah Barnett | Washington State University, USA

Art Press | Feature article by Dr. Dominique Moulon | FRA

2020

The Art Newspaper | Top 50 most promising Russian artists | RUS

2019

Calvert Journal | Russia Z Curated by Olesya Turkina | GBR

Strelka Magazine | Do Machines Dream Of The Pergamon Altar? Interview by Yulia Gromova | RUS

Nero Magazine | Article AI As experience of the Limit by Daniela Cotimbo | ITA

2018

TK-21 | Ars Electronica article by Dominique Moulon | FRA

2016

Metal Magazine | Interview by Mercedes Rosés | ESP

Aesthetica Magazine | Exhibition feature article by Jack Castle | GB

2015 – 2011

Zing magazine | CHN

Creative Applications | GBR

It’s Nice That | GBR

EGOR KRAFT


Born 1986 in St. Petersburg lives and works in Tokyo & Vienna


WEB


kraft.studio

studio.work



CONTACT


studio@egorkraft.com



PLATFORMS


Vimeo

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook Page

Substack Page

Aesthetics of industrialisation, shock-&-awe campaigns, tactical trickery between facts & fiction, fully automated ruralisms, speculative narratives, thought-objects prototypes, deep timescales, proto-continental geographies, self-declared enclaves & self-sovereign networks, ultra-wideband connectivites, exponentially increasing capacities, monopolised data echo chambers, media geologies, logistics & information superhighways, techno-organic bodies, politics of planetarity, synthetic cognitions & sensations, quantitative machine-rendered regimes, non-human agencies, ultrasonic interventions, big-time proposals, ambient security protocols, new memory architectures, unfettered data collection regimes & wholesale surveillance, digital autocracy circumventions, unstable climates, feedback loops, genetic machine developments & more.


All these and many other cognitive perspectives reconstitute the aspect of what we define as human in a new geological epoch. In how far is this aspect subject to technology? Is it recognised as autonomous, unpredictable, divergent or diverse? How does it coexist along with the ever-growing order of machine rendered regimes? A further investigation of these industrial conditions suggests new political, ethical, philosophical & aesthetic challenges. How are these challenges manifested within the artistic production, as in primordially ‘human’ project? And does the notion of a ‘human’ project necessarily suggest its human-centric nature? In my work, I'm concerned with the ontologies of human and non-human agencies and epistemics of technologies often expressed in a form of speculative models & thought–object experiments. It involves artificial information systems, computational technologies, films, interventions, texts & various material productions. Via speculative narratives, I tend to highlight frictions between the human reasoning and quantitative orders rendered by machines, industrialisation & anthropogenic interventions at large.

Residences

Selected Lectures and Talks

On Practice & Research Interests

2022 Geidai Tokyo University of the Arts | Tokyo, JP

2019 STARTS Residency | University of Southhampton, GBR

2017 Wakefield Art House Nominee; Wakefield, GBR

2017 Quartariata Residency, St. Petersburg, RUS

Grants

2023 AETeCHO, Milan, Zaragoza, ITA, ES

2023 Escape Fake 2.0, co-funded by the European Union and the European Media and Information Fund. AUT | HUN

2021 BMKÖS Perspektiven. Innovation. Kunst, AUT

2019 STARTS Residencies, EU | GBR

2019 Garage, Art & Technology Programme, RUS

2023

PublicSpaces Conference 2023: For a Collective Internet | Amsterdam, NDL

Weizenbaum Conference | Berlin, DEU

2022

NECS Lecture Series “Content Aware and Other Case Studies” | European Network for Cinema and Media Studies

Histories of the Avant-garde and Contemporary Disruptive Technologies | NY, USA

2021

Art Machines 2 Conference | City University of Hong Kong, HKG

Politics of the Machine Conference, Rogue Research | Berlin University of the Arts, DEU

AI Artathon 2.0 | Riyadh, SA

2020

Winchester School of Arts | Talking Heads Lecture Series, GBR

Winchester School of Art | Guest seminar on AI and speculative narratives with AMT Research group prof Jussi Parikka & Ryan Bishop, GBR

2019

Content Aware Studies in conversation with Nadim Samman | Alexander Levy, Berlin, DEU

Human (un)limited | Ars Electronica Export, Moscow, RUS

LINK | Stiftung Niedersachsen | Kunstverein Hannover, DEU

2018

MMOMA, Daemons in the Machine | Artist Talk / Moscow, RUS

Impakt Festival | Panel "Black Boxes for Fiction Makers" | Utrecht, NLD

New Media Lab | Artist Talk | St.Petersburg, RUS

ITMO University | Artist Talk | St.Petersburg, RUS

Cyfest 11 | Artist Talk | St.Petersburg, RUS

2017

Smolny College | Series of talks | St. Petersburg, RUS

ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art | Artist Talk | Moscow, RUS

NCCA, National Center for Contemporary Art | Artist Talk | Moscow, RUS

Selected Screenings

2022

Everything will be fine | Tactical Tech, Berlin, DEU

2020

Athens Digital Arts Festival | New Aesthetic: Macht & Kontrolle - All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace | GRC

2019

Charon Cycle Screening | Tick Tack, Antwerp, BEL

Short Film Festival Cologne | DE

2018

To Touch The Sky | NCCA Kalinigrad, RUS

CYFEST11 Digital Video Art Program | New York | St. Petersburg

2017

Citizen 6 part of Art Athens | Athens, GRC

The New Normal Showcase | Strelka Institute, Moscow, RUS

Enclave Gallery | Ambient Intelligence | London, GBR

2016

Felt Book | Human Resources | Los Angeles, CA, USA

Felipe Castelblanco’s Program | Royal Academy America, NYC, USA

CYFEST Digital Media Program | Bogota, NYC, St.Petersburg, Mexico

Selected Honours & Awards

2023 Austrian Blockchain Award in ‘Best smart technology’ | Vienna, AT

2023 S+T+ARTS Prize Honorary Mention | EU

2023 ArtEcho Fellowship Recipent | EU

2023 Escape Fake 2.0 Grant Recipent | EU

2022 New Technological Art Award | Jury Award Winner, BEL

2021 Re:Humanism, 2nd Edition | Winner, ITA

2020 Top 50 Most Promising Russian Artists by The Art Newspaper

2020 Lumen Prize | Shortlisted, GBR

2020 Born Digital Award nominee, WEB

2020 Listed in 49ART

2019 Kandinsky Prize | Young Artist of the Year nominee, RUS

2019 Garage Museum Art & Technology Grant winner, DEU

2019 Innovation Prize | New Generation nominee, RUS

2019 STARTS Residencies fellow, EU

2019 Kuryokhin Prize nominee, RUS

2018 Pulsar Prize Finalist | Paris, FRA

2017 New East 100 by Calvert Jour­nal, GBR

2017 Innovation Prize | New Generation nominee, RUS

2015 Nova Art Prize nominee, RUS

2014 Kuryokhin Prize nominee, RUS

2014 Creative Enterprise Award nominee | London, GBR

Selected Education Experience

2022-2023 Geidai University of the Arts | Tokyo, JPN

Research visitor in the Intermedia Arts department


2017 Strelka Institute: The New Normal | Moscow, RUS

Programme director Benjamin H. Bratton


2014-2015 Central Saint Martins College | UAL London, GBR

Fine Arts, track 4D


2011-2016 Academy of Fine Arts | Vienna, AUT

Diploma studies in Arts & Media


2009-2011 The Rodchenko Art School | Moscow, RUS

Class prof. Alexei Shulgin* | *BFA, Media Art


2007-2008 The Gerlesborg School of Fine Art | Bohuslän, SWE

Foundation year


1998-2004 Art School №1 | St. Petersburg, RUS

Prelimiary Artistic Studies

Selected Group Shows & Festivals

2022

NTAA’22, New Technological Art Award | Zebrastraat Ghent, BEL

He Aprendido Que Tienes Que Rezar Por Lo Que No Conoces | Sala Amós Salvador, Logroño, ESP

NEAR+FUTURES+QUASI+WORLDS | Palazzo Borsa, Bologna, ITA

Things | ART4 Museum, Moscow, RUS

Everything will be fine | Tactical Tech, Berlin, DEU

Codes and algorithms. Wisdom in a calculated world | Fundacion Telefonica, Madrid, ESP

Navigating the Digital Realm | DG Connect, Brussels, BEL

2021

Millennials in Contemporary Russian Art | Russian Museum, St.Petersburg RUS

Writing The History of the Future | ZKM, Karlsruhe, DEU

Re:Humanism 2 | MAXXI Museo Nazionale Delle Arti, Rome, ITA

You & AI: Through the Algorithmic Lens | Onassis Foundation, Athens, GRC

OSMOS, Fluid aesthetics | Electromuseum, Moscow, RUS

2020

Still Human | Colección Solo, Madrid, ESP

Accrochage | alexanderlevy gallery, Berlin, DEU

NEAR + FUTURES + QUASI + WORLDS | STATE Studio, Berlin, DEU

Ars Electronica Garden: Datasets vs Mindsets | Electromuseum, Moscow, RUS

2019

Kuryokhin Prize Nominees 2019 | St.Petersburg, RUS

WRO Biennale 2019 | Wrocław, POL

Non-Aligned Networks | Valletta Contemporary, Malta, MLT

Artificial Intelligence & The Intercultural Dialogue | Hermitage, St.Petersburg, RUS

Innovation Prize Show | Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod, RUS

Writing the History of the Future | ZKM, Karlsruhe, DEU

Cosmoscow | Moscow, RUS

5th Ural Industrial Biennial: Main Project | Yekaterinburg, RUS

Kandinsky Prize Exhibition | MOMMA, Moscow, RUS

Art Düsseldorf | Alexander Levy Gallery, Düsseldorf DEU

WRONG Biennale #thescreenisnotthelimit | Online WEB

Learning Machines | Electromuseum, Moscow, RUS

2018

Cyfest 11 | Stieglitz Academy, St.Petersburg, RUS

Vienna Contemporary, Solo Booth | Vienna, AUT

Innovation as Method | Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg, RUS

Paradoxical Hybrids | Electromuseum, Moscow, RUS

Open Codes | ZKM, Karlsruhe, DEU

Ars Electronica | The Galleries, Linz, AUT

Sciencefest | Saint Petersburg, RUS

Pulsar Art Prize | Paris, FRA

Daemons in the Machine | MMOMA, Moscow, RUS

Impakt Festival | Utrecht, NLD

The New State of Living | PERMM, Perm, RUS

2017

Art Athens: Citizen 6 | Athens, GRC

Innovation Prize | MUAR, Moscow RUS

he New Normal Showcase | Strelka Institute, Moscow, RUS

Par­al­lel Vi­enna: For­mat.STRK | Vi­enna, AUT

Ambient Intelligence | En­clave, Lon­don, GBR

2016

Play­room | Union Stu­dios, Lon­don, GBR

Deep In­side, V Moscow In­ter­na­tional Bi­en­nale for Young Art, RUS

It­inéraire Bis | Sa­lon-de-Provence, FRA

Rod­chenko Art School 10 Years | MAMM, Moscow RUS

All Eyes On Me | Pech­er­sky Gallery, Moscow, RUS

Corridor I: Onkalo | Insitu, Berlin, DEU

2015

What to say if there is nothing to say | Udarnik, Moscow, RUS

Musing the Boundaries | Kuryokhin Center, St.Petersburg, RUS

"Pop Mechanics” Trail | Kuryokhin Center, St. Petersburg, RUS

Contacts

Links

Studio

Tokyo | Berlin | Vienna



Contact Email

studio[at]egorkraft.com

Kraft Studio © 2023



Egor Kraft

Artist, Director & Founder

Anna Kraft

Production & Communication


Artem Konevskikh

Ai Research & Development