The practice of media artist Katarina Kano constitutes a profound inquiry into the ontology of the digital image. By merging 2D animation and sculpture, she develops a hybrid aesthetic in which the choice of medium is dictated not by technical tools, but by the necessity of constructing a unified conceptual field.
Kano conceptualizes contemporary art through the lens of new media, proposing that digital projections be viewed as a new form of “distributed presence.” Her method—animating the inanimate—lies in infusing static forms with dynamic, digital content. Here, sculpture serves as a physical anchor for an elusive digital substance, while animation imbues matter with a temporal, almost sacred breath.
Her works establish a mythos of digital immortality; she creates “digital spirits” that dwell within monitors and explores the transformation of the human “Self” as it migrates from physical space into the ether. It is an attempt to probe the boundaries of life and its representation within a technologically mediated reality.
Katarina Kano was a nominee for the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize 2022 and is an annual participant in the Digital Mechanics festival of interactive projects and media art at the Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Contemporary Art. She was also a nominee for the Erarta Prize 2023.
From 2022 to 2026, she is actively participating in media art exhibitions and festivals, as well as various other international and Russian projects.
Education: Saint Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts (SPbSUCA), Department of Cinema and Photography
Kano conceptualizes contemporary art through the lens of new media, proposing that digital projections be viewed as a new form of “distributed presence.” Her method—animating the inanimate—lies in infusing static forms with dynamic, digital content. Here, sculpture serves as a physical anchor for an elusive digital substance, while animation imbues matter with a temporal, almost sacred breath.
Her works establish a mythos of digital immortality; she creates “digital spirits” that dwell within monitors and explores the transformation of the human “Self” as it migrates from physical space into the ether. It is an attempt to probe the boundaries of life and its representation within a technologically mediated reality.
Katarina Kano was a nominee for the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize 2022 and is an annual participant in the Digital Mechanics festival of interactive projects and media art at the Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Contemporary Art. She was also a nominee for the Erarta Prize 2023.
From 2022 to 2026, she is actively participating in media art exhibitions and festivals, as well as various other international and Russian projects.
Education: Saint Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts (SPbSUCA), Department of Cinema and Photography
about
animation of the inanimate
My practice explores the ontology of the digital image, seeking to understand its essence at the moment it transcends its role as a sign, a copy, or a shadow, to acquire its own reality.
I employ the synthesis of 2D animation and sculpture as a tool to construct a new network of agency. Within this system, sculpture acts as an active actant (in the spirit of Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory): it acquires a body capable of resistance, silence, and dialogue. Animation here becomes a digital flow that resonates with matter, contends with it, and permeates it. Their interaction generates a hybrid presence—a shimmering third state existing at the intersection of the material and the virtual.
My method is the animation of the inanimate. This is a fundamental principle of creation aimed at constructing a digital aura. Countering Walter Benjamin’s thesis on the loss of uniqueness through technical reproducibility, I transform animation into a tool for the restoration of the aura. It manifests as a flash of an event: by imbuing a static form with temporal breath, I turn the object into a unique occurrence. Its value lies in the moment of encounter—here and now, in the space between pixel and hardware, between light and shadow.
Working with the logic of the simulacrum, I create digital spirits that produce a new form of presence, possessing their own gravity, time, and memory. These images possess complete autonomy; they exist as self-sufficient entities where the image attains the right to speak in its own name.
My works are a meditation on the transformation of the human "I." For me, the cyborg is a "seam"—the point of contact between the body and the non-body. My creatures, living within this transition, capture the process of the subject's migration into the digital ether, demonstrating the permeability of the boundaries of the human "I."
The digital immortality inherent in my research is a process of dissipation and the infinite multiplication of the self. It is a dynamic of repeatability and multiplicity, where we transform into data, avatars, and traces. In this transition, the boundary between the living and the constructed blurs, revealing a world where forms of life and matter merge into a single flow.
I endow objects with metaphorical agency, learning to hear their voice and inviting the viewer to listen.
My practice explores the ontology of the digital image, seeking to understand its essence at the moment it transcends its role as a sign, a copy, or a shadow, to acquire its own reality.
I employ the synthesis of 2D animation and sculpture as a tool to construct a new network of agency. Within this system, sculpture acts as an active actant (in the spirit of Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory): it acquires a body capable of resistance, silence, and dialogue. Animation here becomes a digital flow that resonates with matter, contends with it, and permeates it. Their interaction generates a hybrid presence—a shimmering third state existing at the intersection of the material and the virtual.
My method is the animation of the inanimate. This is a fundamental principle of creation aimed at constructing a digital aura. Countering Walter Benjamin’s thesis on the loss of uniqueness through technical reproducibility, I transform animation into a tool for the restoration of the aura. It manifests as a flash of an event: by imbuing a static form with temporal breath, I turn the object into a unique occurrence. Its value lies in the moment of encounter—here and now, in the space between pixel and hardware, between light and shadow.
Working with the logic of the simulacrum, I create digital spirits that produce a new form of presence, possessing their own gravity, time, and memory. These images possess complete autonomy; they exist as self-sufficient entities where the image attains the right to speak in its own name.
My works are a meditation on the transformation of the human "I." For me, the cyborg is a "seam"—the point of contact between the body and the non-body. My creatures, living within this transition, capture the process of the subject's migration into the digital ether, demonstrating the permeability of the boundaries of the human "I."
The digital immortality inherent in my research is a process of dissipation and the infinite multiplication of the self. It is a dynamic of repeatability and multiplicity, where we transform into data, avatars, and traces. In this transition, the boundary between the living and the constructed blurs, revealing a world where forms of life and matter merge into a single flow.
I endow objects with metaphorical agency, learning to hear their voice and inviting the viewer to listen.
ARTIST STATEMENT
