The exposition centers around four prints created by Lena Poturemets, a graduate of ITMO’s Art & Science Master’s program, which visualize the behind-the-scenes of IT infrastructure: an array of routine technical tasks usually hidden behind screens, interfaces, and dashboards.
In the author’s view, a modern user doesn’t usually see past the facade of a digital product, which masks complex and oftentimes chaotic system operations from data monitoring to error logging.
Her project brings this hidden reality to the surface and invites viewers to see it differently – not as technical noise, but as a self-contained environment with its own aesthetics and meaning.
Two prints from the Parsers series use a swarm metaphor to describe the workings of Sberbank’s R&D Center, which monitors and assembles data from third-party sources. Acting as worker bees, parsers collect nectar (data) from websites (flowers) and store it in honeycombs (data warehouses). Data status is reflected visually: flashing means the parser is active and dimming – that the source is unavailable. The composition also includes elements of working interfaces: metric graphics, status indicators, and error logs.
“Interdisciplanry collaborations between science, art, and technology have been around for ages. For me, it’s especially exciting to work and grow professionally in this field; I also enjoy observing the evolution of this synthesis in real time and playing an active part in the process. My goal was to visualize the inner processes of Sberbank and for that, I had to immerse myself in their workings. The outcome isn't an artistic representation of data in the traditional sense, but rather the search and creation of visual metaphors that reveal the complexity of these activities,” notes Lena Poturemets, an artist and a graduate of ITMO’s Art & Science Master’s program.
The Birth of a Digital User Profile. Photo by Sberbank
As part of the ongoing series of joint art-and-tech initiatives by ITMO and Sberbank, this project aims to reimagine the daily routine of IT specialists by showing that their day-to-day tasks, like coding or analyzing data, not only have a practical value, but can also be a form of digital art.
“The joint project by Sberbank and ITMO is a product of synthesis of high technology and art where humanities become vital to reflect on technologies and the evolution of emotional intelligence. The future of AI is deeply intertwined with personalization and deep context, and this project masterfully demonstrates the work of a feedback loop. While an IT team creates a digital environment, an artist gives it a new meaning through the visual form and lets developers, engineers, and researchers have a fresh perspective on what they do every day. In the long run, it can affect the quality of ideas and solutions, as well as the thinking culture within a technological environment,” says Yulia Rakovskaya, the managing director and the head of Sberbank’s R&D Center in St. Petersburg.
