The exhibition showcases artworks by students and graduates of the Master’s program Art & Science. With the help of cutting-edge technologies – including the Sberbank-developed neural network Kandinsky – the artists explore the way in which humans communicate with nature and historical heritage.

“The Art Farm at Tsarskoye Selo is the first large-scale project held at the Imperial Farm complex following its renovation. The museum only possesses a few items that you could consider ‘display objects’ in the conventional meaning of the word – just a few paintings, blueprints, and porcelain. But the farm’s architectural design, its history, and its inhabitants – these are great material for a creative reimagining. We were glad to see the artists from ITMO respond to our initiative, and for Sberbank to support the project. I’m confident that these works, which were created specially for ‘Crypto / Farm’ and combine history, art, and technology, will be interesting, worthy of discussion, and appealing to a wider audience,” says Tatiana Andreeva, the deputy director for development at Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Preserve.

"String Codes" by Lyudmila Fridman and Anastasiia Verzhbitskaya. Image courtesy of ITMO Art & Science Center's press office

The exhibition includes seven multimedia installations that utilize digital technologies – 3D printing, AI, VR/AR, and video and sound art – to represent Imperial Farm’s historical and natural heritage. For instance, decentralized digital systems represent analogous processes in agriculture; and interactive video mapping is used to combine traditional sewing techniques, plant ornaments, and blockchain network architecture. The artists used 3D printing to create porcelain dishware and, with the help of neural networks, imagined the exotic animals that once lived at the Imperial Farm. Visitors will also be able to use VR to see the historical complex from a bird’s eye view, control digital “rivers” though interactive bacteria, and check the time with a modernized copy of the scientist Carl Linnaeus’ flower clock.

“Crypto / Farm is an artistic space inspired by the sociologist Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory. There’s no hierarchy here between human and non-human entities: people, animals, bacteria, objects, and technologies all become full-fledged participants of the situations depicted by our artists. This building, constructed in the 19th century for experiments with nature and agriculture, now becomes a laboratory where we explore the interactions between cultural codes, biological forms, and AI algorithms,” says Olga Vad, the curator of the exhibition and the head of the Art & Science Master’s program.

The exhibition will be accompanied by lectures, discussions, guided tours, and talks by artists, scientists, experts from Sberbank, and the staff of the museum-preserve.

The exhibition opens on June 6, 2025 and will continue until November 2, 2025. Entrance is free. Find the full event schedule here.