The Visual and Cultural Research Laboratory merged with the YSU Center for Contemporary Art Research (headed by Lena Prenz and Alyona Glukhova) and was renamed the Laboratory for Visual Culture and Contemporary Art Research.

The laboratory conducts scientific research, organizes research seminars and scientific conferences, implements educational, multimedia and art projects. After EHU moved to Vilnius in 2005, the Laboratory continued its activities, including research, educational and artistic projects both in Belarus and Lithuania.

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Selected dates:

1999

The Visual and Cultural Research Laboratory was founded at the European Humanities University in Minsk by Almira Usmanova and Andrei Gornykh.

2005

After EHU moved to Vilnius, the laboratory continued its activities, including research, educational and artistic projects both in Belarus and Lithuania.

2013

The laboratory merged with the YSU Center for Contemporary Art Research (headed by Lena Prenz and Alyona Glukhova) and was renamed the Visual Culture and Contemporary Art Research Laboratory.

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The main activities of the Laboratory:

Conducting research seminars, scientific conferences, summer schools;

Conducting scientific research and publication of results (monographs, collective collections, translations);

Development of training courses on visual culture and development of educational projects (including within the framework of Bachelor's and Master's programs at YSU);

Creation of educational audiovisual multimedia products;

Educational and expert activities in the media and the field of modern visual culture (art and film criticism, etc.);

Art and film projects (festivals, exhibitions, curatorial activities, etc.)

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Research priorities:

Medialization of knowledge and digitalization of the humanities (digital humanities);

Professional vision and visual literacy in everyday practices and scientific discourses;

Anthropological and cognitive aspects of the development of the latest information technologies;

Artistic Research vs. academic studies of visual culture;

Contemporary art of Belarus in the context of Eastern European transformations;

Gamification and cultural transformations

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Exhibitions, art projects and festivals:

From 2010 to the present - Untitled: Retrospective - festival of student films and educational videos (organized in 2019-2020 by Karolina Rynkevich, Vlada Shevkunova, Almira Usmanova)

Game& Scholars (heads - Victoria Konstantyuk and Alesya Sereda, 2017 - 2020)

Art and curation in the digital age (coordinator - Elena Tolstik, 2017 - 2018)

Series of lectures and workshops “Going Digital: the Forms and Formats of the Medialization of Knowledge Inside and Outside of the Academia” (2015, organizers – Galina Orlova, Almira Usmanova)

Roland Barthes - 100 (2015, leader - Almira Usmanova)

Seminar “Digital Epistemology for non-digital born academy: visualization, zoom and curation” (2015, organized by Andrey Gornykh, Almira Usmanova)

Artes Liberales is an exhibition and educational project (“Gallery of Modern Art “Ў” (Minsk, Belarus), 2012-2017 (Curators: Almira Usmanova, Olga Salakheeva, Tatiana Artimovich, Natalya Nenarokomova, etc.)

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Membership in associations:

Membership of the International Association for Visual Studies, established in 2010. Since 2010, we have been members of the Visual Culture Studies in Europe network of academic programs.

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Academic partners:

Higher School of Economics, Moscow (Master's Program in Visual Culture)

Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University (Master's program "Art Criticism")

Lithuanian Institute for Cultural Studies

International Association for Visual Culture Studies

Visual Culture Studies in Europe

Center for Visual Studies in Zagreb (Croatia)

Communication Studies at the University of Vaasa (Finland)

Media and Communication Studies at Södertorn University (Sweden)

The Nordic Summer University

Non-academic partners:

National Art Gallery

ERSTE Stiftung

Open Society Institute

Goethe Institutes in Lithuania and Belarus

French Institute in Lithuania

Embassy of France in Belarus

Art magazine pARTisan.mag

Gallery of Contemporary Art "Ў"

'ZERNE' Performative Practice Platform

Art-platform "Art-Activist"

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Center leaders:

Almira Usmanova, founder, director

Andrey Gornykh, founder