Selected WORKS
Started in 2011, ongoing to this date
Started in 2018, ongoing to this date
Ascending order
2018
Hashd0x
2022
Interdisciplinary artist & researcher Egor Kraft lives and works in 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.
Content Aware
Studies
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…
The New Color
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 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.
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.
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.
Started in 2011, ongoing to this date
Chinese Ink
2018
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’.
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
i print therefore i am
‘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.
Works Catalogue
uncensorship architecture
2018
tvelwe nodes
2019
this very moment
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...”
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
decentralised embargo
propagan
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.
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.
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.
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
teaching
ARTISTIC DIRECTION
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
M2017–2022 Artistic & design direction at Ethereum Swarm | A software protocol for decentralised peer-to-peer storage architecture
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
EGOR KRAFT
Born 1986 in St. Petersburg lives and works in Tokyo & Vienna
WEB
CONTACT
studio@egorkraft.com
PLATFORMS
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
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
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
Grants
Selected Screenings
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
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 Honours & Awards
Selected Education Experience
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