Art & Science

Career Options: graduates may become artists within Art & Science; art-entrepreneurs, or create their own projects and startups in Art & Science; work as museum or independent curators, museum designers; graphic designers and 3D-modelers for hi-tech companies; science illustrators; artists who work with hi-tech innovations for the enterprise industrial cluster. Besides, graduates may study Art & Science in academia and then become PhD students.

Art & Science is an interdisciplinary area of contemporary culture, located at the intersection of the rationally scientific and intuitively artistic ways of exploring the world. These two areas are connected, allowing not only to understand science but also to see its beauty and creative capacity. Art & Science provocatively and defiantly goes beyond the traditional understanding both of art and science, creating a wide field for innovations in society.

The first “Art & Science” program in Russia is created for those whose wish is to overcome any disciplinary boundaries. It allows to master the required skills in science and engineering for artists who are already engaged in the artwork and who would like to find new ways of expressing their creative initiatives. At the same time, the program is designed to reveal the creative potential of those who have some practical experience in the spheres of IT and Computer Science, Robotics, Photonics or Biotechnology, and who are seeking for new ways of development and communication.

The basis of the studying process is a problem-based learning approach which allows you to fully immerse yourself in the chosen area, which forms critical thinking and the skills of independent search for solutions and teamwork. Interpretation of the global world challenges is the backbone of this program. Theoretical knowledge and practical skills that help you to consider the topical problems of present human being in new context are built up on this backbone. Within two years, students are working with global challenges of modern world, creating their own artistic project that is connected to one of the challenges. This project work takes the form of art-residency.

Benefits of the Program

• The cultural environment of St. Petersburg allows students to get immersed in the atmosphere of art, and the modern high-tech laboratories at ITMO University provide great opportunities for creative and scientific collaboration.

• A unique atmosphere of a research university with a huge range of modern laboratories in IT and Computer Science, Optics and Photonics, Robotics, and Biotechnology.

• Addressing global challenges of the world is a way to think globally and ambitiously.

• The interaction with international partners is an integral part of the program. Faculty of the program is theorists, curators and artists from Russia, the USA, France, Great Britain and Denmark.

• The program structure provides opportunities for international academic exchange and internships in European universities that allows to obtain unique international experience in a new and modern domain of digital culture.

Contents of the Program

The list of disciplines 

General Courses

• Posthuman Studies — 3 ECTS

• Digital Culture — 6 ECTS

• Data Processing and Analysis — 3 ECTS

• Data, Culture and Creative Industries — 3 ECTS

• Applied Artificial Intelligence — 3 ECTS

• Electives: Creative Technologies / High tech Business Creation / Thinking — 4 ECTS

• Soft Skills Electives: Emotional Intelligence / Internationalization of research / Negotiations, Influence and Conflict Management  — 4 ECTS 

• English for Specific Purposes — 4 ECTS

Core Courses

• Introduction to Art and Science — 3 ECTS

• Ethics in Science and Technology — 3 ECTS

• Audiovisual Art Practices in Contemporary Art — 3 ECTS

• Contemporary Art — 3 ECTS

• Intellectual Management of Creative Projects — 3 ECTS

• Basics of Visualization of Professional Material — 3 ECTS

• Curation and Science Museums in Innovative Cultural Systems — 3 ECTS

Majors

• Major 1 “Art & Science in Natural Sciences” (elective)

  • Art and Natural Sciences: Theory, Aesthetics, Discourse — 3 ECTS

  • High Technology and Materials in Contemporary Art — 3 ECTS

  • Design and Prototyping Objects in Medium-Specific Areas Using Technologies of Natural Sciences — 3 ECTS

• Major 2 “Art & Science in Exact Sciences” (elective)

  • Art and Exact Sciences: Theory, Aesthetics, Discourse — 3 ECTS

  • High Technology and Materials in Contemporary Art — 3 ECTS

  • Design and Prototyping Objects in Medium-Specific Areas (Robotics, DIY, VR, Digital Art) — 3 ECTS

Practical Training and Master's Thesis

• Practical Training — 45 ECTS

• Practical Training for Master's Thesis — 9 ECTS

• Master's Thesis — 6 ECTS

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