Nikita Vlasov. People and Robots

/ Art /

Technology and art have always gone hand in hand. One was an instrument, a way of development or expression for the other. In the literal sense, technology gave way to art in the Stalinist building on ul. Nagornaya, 22 on Tatarka. Previously, this brick building with columns housed the Kyiv Institute of Automation, but now the former offices of the advanced scientific research association have been occupied by the workshops of one and a half dozen contemporary Ukrainian artists. Workshop owners created their own informal community under the conventional brand #nahirna22. In autumn, everyone was invited here for open doors, and in winter, artists held two exhibitions. Nikita Vlasov's exposition was supposed to be the third. But after the announcement of the quarantine, the artist transferred it from the assembly hall of the institute to the virtual space.

The theme of his new graphic series Peøple and Robôts is man in the digital era. PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA went to visit the artist to find out about the project. In the workshop, we were greeted by the smell of carcasses, robots with square eyes looking from paintings on the walls, and Nikita Vlasov himself.

PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: Let's start from the beginning. You are an architect by education. How did you become an artist?

Nikita Vlasov: Yes, I have an architectural education. But architects are such people who can do many things. We were taught everything at the institute, including drawing. I can't say how I am-then he suddenly became an artist, it was rather an evolution. It's just that at a certain period of my life, this skill became the most interesting for me. It happened in 2014, when I became interested in Chinese mascara. But long before that there was a long practice of drawing - at the institute I was engaged in animation and took part in international festivals, then I created illustrations for many publications. The most fruitful collaboration was with the magazine "SHO", for which I illustrated the literary section for 10 years. But then I mainly used a computer and a tablet. Then he pushed the equipment aside and returned to the paper.

Editor of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA magazine Elena Panchenko and Nikita Vlasov in the artist's workshop

PM: Do you think you have found your direction?

H.V.:I found only the starting point. He has not yet reached the plateau, on which you can walk and walk. Just the new Peøple and Robôts series is a further development of my "calligraphic art" technique, but with a touch of futurism. At the same time, I have another series — and this is pure abstract calligraphy introduced into geometric ultraminimalism.

PM: What place does art have in your life?

H.V.: For me, this is one of the parallel tasks. As if you go to the task manager on your computer, there are background processes. That's how I make some sketches or sketches all the time. Yes, I can switch to something else — create video art, installations, interior projects, but graphics/calligraphy matures in me all the time, is stored in a special "pot", from where it then comes out as finished works. The creative process is endless, and most of the time it happens in the background.

Peøple and Robôts is a development of the "calligraphic art" technique, but with a touch of futurism

PM: Still, art is not the only sphere of your activity. How do you position yourself? Who are you - an architect, designer, artist?

H.V.: Artist.

PM: That is, he is still an artist, but in a broader sense? The one who is called an "artist" in the Ukrainian language?

H.V.: "Artist" is a good word. Yes, rather so.

PM: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the direction of your creativity is graphics for interiors. After all, your paintings are often used as part of the decor?

H.V.: When I draw, I am completely focused on other things. I do not create my works specifically for interiors. But as objects of art, they really often look good in both private and public spaces.

PM: Recently, the debut of your multimedia project Piano&Paint — Duo Performance took place. You drew with ink in real time to classical music performed by pianist Artem Yasinsky. How did this collaboration come about?

H.V.: I got a call from my good friend, creative producer Polina Velichko, who saw my video art with Chinese ink, and offered to make a concert in this format - live music and animation with Chinese ink in real time. It turned out to be a very interesting project. By the way, these two rolls contain the entire concert drawn on paper. First and second department. Only a few pieces are missing, which I cut out and gave away.

The creative process is endless, and most of the time it happens in the background

PM: How many meters did you get?

H.V.: I didn't have time to measure. One is 30 meters and the second is 20 meters. And maybe even more. Just now, the mascara in my eyes stopped pouring and the Bach in my ears stopped sounding (Ulybaetsya). The project was very complicated. In fact, this is a way out on very thin ice.

PM: Why?

H.V.: We have never had such projects before. Those calligraphy shows that are held in Japan to classical Japanese music have a completely different format. And the audience there is used to such performances. And with this project, we entered the field of classics, that is, the conservative field of music, about which people have a concrete idea. Chinese ink in such a thermonuclear form somewhat influenced the music, it was unusual for people. It's like watching a fight for an hour and a half to classical music! People are used to looking at ink in a static form on paper. And we are used to listening to the classics silently, sitting in the hall, often with our eyes closed. And here the ink constantly flowed on the screen and the pictures changed. In places it was a movie and very intense. I began to fit into the rhythm of Bach or Britten. I wanted to squeeze an extreme amount of very expressive calligraphy into every second. In any case, it was a good experiment.

PM: What are you going to do with these drawings now?

H.V.: What to do? Work "on mistakes". I want to analyze the material now, when emotions and passions have subsided. After all, it was an experiment not only for the audience, but also for us and Artem.

PM: Will there be a continuation of the project?

H.V.: I really hope for that. I even had a dream to work on the works of one of my favorite composers, Eric Sata. He is undoubtedly the composer of the Chinese carcass. And I'm almost sure that the second concert will be quite the second. I will no longer force the public to watch the quarrel (Улибается).

PM: Your new exhibition of works is due to open soon. Tell me more.

H.V.: The exhibition will be held from April 2 to 16 in the assembly hall of the Kyiv Institute of Automation. The exhibition will consist entirely of the new Peøple and Robots series. Here is the stack - most of the works that will be presented there.

PM: It turns out that your new series is not just mascara anymore?

H.V.: Yes, I use spray paint for graffiti and stencils. I wanted to mix graffiti and calligraphy and experiment in such a hybrid style. I like the simplicity, multi-layeredness and "roughness" here. Also, this is a reference to my favorite artist, Richard Hambleton. He had a technique conceptually very similar, he drew graffiti in New York — black figures of people in a calligraphic style.

PM: There was no desire to go out?

H.V.: There are a couple of ideas for projects. I don't want to talk about it yet.

I wanted to mix graffiti and calligraphy and experiment in such a hybrid style

Photo: Yury Ferendovych

PM: Let's go back to your new series.

H.V.: The new series appeared as a logical continuation of the previous one, which was called "Lacuna". I had many sketches for her, and when you draw sketches, branches often appear. I began to put them aside and form an independent series, which I later called Peøple and Robôts.

PM: What is this project about?

H.V.: I often wonder where the line is between when a person is a conscious and aware person, and when we stop being human, switch off, lose control and become comfortable being controlled. These are questions related to advertising, government manipulation, social networks, and games. We look at everything through square eyes, as through a matrix, it is very easy to turn us on, turn off, switch. It is enough to put one event in focus - and in our perception it immediately overlaps another, possibly more important one. We see one thing and not the other. We live in a world of such gaps. We are biological machines that can be programmed and reprogrammed. For most of our lives, many of us live on automatism, unconsciously repeating certain daily rituals. We imperceptibly transferred the function of memory to gadgets, which have already become our external memory, and so on. However, a person still has the ability to reflect and imagine, which in the near future is not yet foreseen in artificial intelligence. Neural networks, which everyone is so afraid of now (and with good reason), still need a base to develop. They can come up with an infinite number of texts, graphic works, designs, whatever, but for this they need data. At the same time, they themselves cannot generate anything. A person has a collective, genetic memory, there are archives that allow them to return to past experiences and come up with something based on this-that's yours. Neural networks do not yet have such an opportunity. This is a good loophole for a person, and everyone can still turn off the robot in himself and look at the world with different eyes. Actually, I raise these questions in my new series - the boundaries of human and man-made. Well, I visually explore all this through the technique of Chinese ink and graffiti.

Editor of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA magazine Elena Panchenko and Nikita Vlasov in the artist's workshop

PM: Do you look cautiously into the future, in which new technologies dominate?

H.V.: For me, this is a twofold situation. Man has always strived to simplify life, everyday life, to speed up many processes, hence all this progress and the future now. But now humanity is at such an interesting point where the Golem creates itself. And it is about to turn on, but how to turn it off will be incomprehensible. And do we need to be able to turn off the ego? After all, this is a question of free will as one of the important components of intelligence. This is well written in the fantastic novel "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons. He brilliantly modeled the process of human and artificial intelligence coexistence. And he described at what moments they start to fight, where they cooperate, and where they parasitize each other.

We are biological machines that can be programmed and reprogrammed

PM: And where is the place of the artist and art in this world of the future?

H.V.: Yes, probably there. Now artificial intelligence and neural networks appear in humans. And the story of photography repeats itself: when photography appeared, everyone shouted that it was the end of painting. But in fact, the appearance of photography gave an impetus to the development of new directions - impressionism and, ultimately, all modern currents. Photography did not kill painting, but gave birth to cinema and animation. New technologies gave rise to new digital art. But in our dimension, digital art is like a fish pulled out of water. It seems to me that it should live there, in digital reality. And a person will gradually learn to perceive him there. Probably, this is our further evolutionary development. After all, art generally has no purpose. Often this is a reflection, an artist's reaction to certain events or experiences. But any art creates new slices of reality. By the way, computer games are also a form of art, since game authors are already engaged in the creation of absolutely real new worlds. If they answer the question of how art will change, then I think that in the near future it will focus on the digital dimension plus games. I don't know... For now, ink and paper are closer to me.

 

Interviewed by: Elena Panchenko

Photo: Yury Ferendovych