new cultural geography

participation in the project "New Cultural Geography" as a mentor

Working with a group of participants to design and implement two public art objects

period: September 2022 - December 2022
location: "Boiling Point" space (University of Technology and Design, Saint Petersburg, Russia)
organizers: Saint Petersburg Innovation and Youth Initiative Support Fund. With the support of the Committee on Culture of Saint Petersburg.

project website

2022

Overload

The art object "Overload" invites us to reflect on the problems associated with the cult of workaholism and constant fixation on career achievements, when exhaustion and burnout become part of a generation's identity. The fast pace of megacities, the ability to take work home or to a café, force us and our personal devices to constantly multitask and have multiple tabs open. The concept of "successful success" has become a meme that is firmly woven into the code of modern life.

One of the columns in the "Boiling Point", called PromTechDesign, is completely covered in stickers depicting various gadgets. This, on one hand, references the tools of trade for representatives of creative industries and IT specialists who work in the space, and on the other hand, serves as a reminder of how many of them decorate their laptops with stickers. If you point your smartphone camera at the QR code on the floppy disk sticker and then at any image on the column, numerous pop-up windows with messages reminding you to take a break will appear on the screen.

Imagine this scene: while a freelancer ponders whether their seasonal depression is chronic fatigue, their laptop starts to overheat. Not only technology, but also a person can overheat from the amount of data being processed and requests being fulfilled, causing slow down and errors. The first aid in such a situation is to reboot. To cope with stress and fatigue, to reduce anxiety, it is also recommended for a person to "reboot": adjust their schedule, allocate time for hobbies, sports or dancing, distribute work hours in a way that allows for breaks and the opportunity to spend time with friends. In other words, give both yourself and your devices time to reboot and recharge.

Safe space

Objects that are usually found in children's sandboxes appear on the column in the small hall of "Boiling Point". They are made of plastic using 3D printing and seem to be sinking into the body of the column. The watering can symbolizes growth, the car, shovel, and scoop symbolize construction. The Easter cake mold depicting a unicorn is not accidental: after all, a unicorn company is a super successful startup that has received a very high market valuation. The entire project visualizes the term "sandbox," which is well known to all IT industry professionals. A sandbox is an incubator, a strategic polygon where one can safely and without fear make mistakes, try out their ideas, model a future project or startup.
The art object serves as a teaser for a quest played on the visitor's smartphone using augmented reality (AR). The viewer is invited to participate in the game, entering through a QR code located on the floor next to the column. The space is filled with sand, and a castle begins to be built and gradually grows out of it, symbolizing an emerging idea. The user is next to the castle, and enemies - devaluing phrases that each of us has heard at least once in our lives - "attack" it, destroying it, and the player must defend it. The game ends when the castle is built. After the game, you can go to a web page with stories of different figures in culture, science, IT, etc. who have realized their dreams despite difficulties.