Yota Space digital art festival, St Petersburg

Sony Playstation
'Volume' by United Visual Artists - a movement reactive piece, produced in collaboration with Massive Attack and Sony Playstation
(Image credit: Laura Pannack)

With its neoclassical architecture and picturesque maze of snow-covered canals, St Petersburg may not spring to mind as the obvious location for a pioneering digital art festival, but today's artists using code as their clay are not the alien breed you might expect. When Wallpaper* made the chilly journey to Yota Space last week, we discovered a new wave of digital creatives sculpting surprisingly tactile and emotive works of art.

The festival is the first annual digital art exhibition by Russian company Yota - which delivers seriously speedy 4G wireless broadband. It's an ambitious venture that takes over five floors of a defunct shopping mall with a neatly curated mix of works by leading digital artists, including Jason Bruges, Chris Levine, Brian Eno and United Visual Artists.

Casting a soft glow over one floor is Jason Bruges' haunting 'Peasouper' installation, specially commissioned for the event. The British artist-cum-designer uses the fog-like fluid contained within four acrylic tanks as a surface on which to project images of the viewer in time lapse. By moving from tank to tank, you can literally chase your own shadow through the mist.

'It's a form of digital narcissism,' explains Bruges, best known for his 'Mimosa' light installation at Salone del Mobile, which mimicked the behaviour of plants, and his 'Flatliner' lights for Established & Sons. '"Pea Soupa" presents people's digital reflections. If no one's around, then it no longer exists,' he says. Vain though it may sound, it's a strangely mesmerising and soulful experience.

Equally immersive is '3Destruct' by French collective, AntiVJ, a few floors up. Using 3D projection mapping technology, the artists presented moving images on thin strips of fabric panels, suspended from the ceiling and accompanied by an eerie musical score. Visitors can walk through and interact with the somewhat disorientating installation.

'3Destruct' is part of a section of the exhibition curated by

http://www.onedotzero.com/" target="_blank" >Onedotzero - an innovative arts organisation that has been supporting digital collaborations for 14 years, largely through its touring festivals. 'It's a multi-layered piece that asks the viewer to become the performer,' explains Onedotzero founder and creative director, Shane Walter.

As does 'Augmented Shadow' by Korean artist, Joon Moon, albeit on a much smaller scale. The work uses tangible objects to produce artificial shadows on a tabletop, which take the form of miniature people, houses, trees and birds. Move around the blocks on the table and you can create your own narrative with the components. It's a quiet, contemplative and fantastical piece that exists somewhere between the virtual world and the real. 'Digital art has historically been quite masculine and hard but Joon's piece has a human sensibility and sensitivity,' says Walter.

This shift in tone is evident everywhere. For all its flashing lights, even Chris Levine's 'Alright Now' is surprisingly meditative. Gaze at the LED strips straight on and all you see is flickering light, but look past them, and words and images play back in your peripheral vision. These fleeting glimpses speak about the importance of the present. Blink and you'll miss it. 'The past is over, the future is not here yet, so all that matters is the present,' says Levine, who is best known for his holographic portrait of the Queen. 'My work is about new ways of seeing - about putting you in a mode of questioning.'

Levine is also interested in the sensorial impact of his work - a concern shared by United Visual Artists, who have brought over their 'Volume' installation, first seen in the V&A's John Madejski Garden in London. As you walk through its columns, you trigger different lighting displays and sounds, which come courtesy of Massive Attack. 'The users act as the conductors,' says UVA's Keri Elmsly. It's fascinating to watch people forge their own patterns of light and sound through the installation.

Elmsly is hesitant to describe UVA as 'digital artists'. 'It's a somewhat ghettoist term,' she says. 'The conversation here is about technology but the pieces don't necessarily speak about it. Technology is part of the fabric of daily life. The works are not defined by the tools that make them.'

In fact, UVA is currently exploring deliberately low-tech devices. 'We're going analogue,' says Elmsly. Similarly, French studio Lab 212's musical toy, controlled using Post-It notes, mixes digital with analogue and has a consciously old-school aesthetic that masks the mechanicism that drives it. This lack of emphasis on technological bling prevents the pieces from feeling gimmicky - an obvious danger with experiental digital art. Narrative is also important for a sense of authenticity - evident in the best works at Yota Space.

Throughout the exhibition it is clear that this new emphasis on 'digital' (whether subtle or more overt) blurs the boundaries between science, art, design and technology, which makes it rife with potential for collaborations. Links with the music industry already abound - from Chris Levine's sound and laser projects at Eden Sessions in the UK to UVA's partnership with Massive Attack - and the festival launch party was fittingly headlined by UK electro pop band Hot Chip. Even UVA itself is made up of photographers, architects and engineers, none of whom stick to their given disciplines. Such an ambitious festival, in scope, scale and execution, is sure to act as a catalyst to future collaborations - as well as being a visual feast in itself.

Peasouper

Peasouper' by Jason Bruges is a haunting piece that captures the viewer's image and projects it back in timelapse, using the fog-like solution within the acrylic tanks as a projection surface

(Image credit: TBC)

3Destruct

3Destruct' by AntiVJ. Using 3D projection mapping technology, the artists presented moving images on thin strips of fabric panels, suspended from the ceiling and accompanied by an eerie musical score

(Image credit: TBC)

Disorientating effect

You can walk through and interact with the installation to somewhat disorientating effect

(Image credit: TBC)

Alright Now

Alright Now' by Chris Levine

(Image credit: TBC)

LED graphics

'Alright Now' is made up of LED graphics stacked on top of each other...

(Image credit: TBC)

Strips of light

... Look at them straight on and all you can see are flickering strips of light, but look from left to right and the image plays back in your peripheral vision

(Image credit: TBC)

Graphics

More elusive graphics from 'Alright Now'

(Image credit: TBC)

Augmented Shadow

Augmented Shadow' by Joon Moon. The work uses tangible objects to produce artificial shadows on a table-top, comprising miniature people, houses and birds. Move around the blocks on the table and you can create your own, fantastical narrative

(Image credit: TBC)

77 Million Paintings

'77 Million Paintings' by Brian Eno. As its name suggests, the work consists of paintings by the musician-cum-artist, which are continually layered on top of each other

(Image credit: TBC)

Cassette Playa Videobooth

'Cassette Playa Videobooth' by Kin Design and Onedotzero. Inspired by Japanese purikura and clad in striking Cassette Playa fabric, the booth offers visitors the chance to create their own animated gif using four photographs taken inside the booth and overlayed with Cassette Playa graphics of their choice. The resulting animations are then posted online

(Image credit: TBC)

The piece

The piece was first unveiled during London Fashion Week

(Image credit: TBC)

Body Paint

'Body Paint' by MSA Visuals

(Image credit: TBC)

Own works of art

The piece allows users to create their own works of art

(Image credit: TBC)

Strata #3

'Strata #3' by Quayola. The Strata project consists of a series of films, prints and installations investigating improbable relationships between contemporary digital aesthetics and icons of classical art and architecture

(Image credit: TBC)

Classical images

Quayola overlays classical images with digital abstract graphics to show how the two can coexist

(Image credit: TBC)

Geological processes

Like in geological processes (referenced by the name, 'Strata'), layers belonging to different ages interact with one another producing new intriguing formations

(Image credit: TBC)

Strata

More from the 'Strata' series

(Image credit: TBC)

Strata

More from the 'Strata' series

(Image credit: TBC)

ADDRESS

Frunzenskiy Store Moskovsky pr, 60 St Petersburg

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Malaika Byng is an editor, writer and consultant covering everything from architecture, design and ecology to art and craft. She was online editor for Wallpaper* magazine for three years and more recently editor of Crafts magazine, until she decided to go freelance in 2022. Based in London, she now writes for the Financial Times, Metropolis, Kinfolk and The Plant, among others.