Egor 'Eji' Kraft

(空羅太瑛士)

is an

artist and thinker

whose work

acknowledges

the disrupted modern condition

as a consequence of

radical techno-cultural

planetary reconfiguration.

He lives a mobile life,

splitting his time between

Europe and Asia,

with homes in

Tokyo (東京) and Vienna,

as well as deep ties to

London,

Berlin,

and his native St. Petersburg.

Kraft's multi-award winning work

has exhibited in

museums, galleries and festivals worldwide.

He is a lecturer at

European and Asian universities,

author of publications

and

speaker at international conferences.

His research driven practice

involves

thought-objects,

AI models (人工知能模型),

data-monuments,

films,

essays,

hardware contraptions (機械),

web-based executions,

virtu-real embodiments,

investigative inquiries,

hacktivist interventions,

speculative proposals,

hyper-poetry

and

other forms.

These efforts are informed by

speculative philosophies_

Content Aware Studies

Content Aware Studies#Autoesthetics#Engistemics#ReverseArchaeology#SyntheticHistories#Cognitecture

Initiated in 2018, ongoing.
A critical and technical exploration of the capacities of AI models to reconstruct missing fragments of objects from classical antiquity and generate synthetic historical documents carved in stone. This work questions the epistemological qualities of AI-accelerated historiography, akin to 'reverse archaeology'.

Content Aware Studies

#ReverseArchaeology #SyntheticHistories #Cognitecture #AIsthetics #Engistemics

Initiated in 2017, ongoing.
Marble, polyamide, machine learning algorithms, custom software, original dataset, multichannel video installation.

A critical and technical exploration of the capacities of AI models to reconstruct missing fragments of objects from classical antiquity and generate synthetic historical documents carved in stone. This work questions the epistemological qualities of AI-accelerated historiography, akin to 'reverse archaeology'.

The New Color

The New Color#Infodemics#Infollution#Knowlegistics#EngineeredTruth

2011-2018. Online intervention. 5-ch. video installation, film, website: thenewcolor.net, book.

An online mystification concerning a parascientific breakthrough discovery of a never-before-seen colour. The digital myth took the form of a fictitious company's website, video adverts & mockumentary interviews to become a viral sensation attracting mass attention online.

The New Color

#Infodemics #Infollution #Knowlegistics #EngineeredTruth

Initiated in 2011, ongoing.
5-channel video installation; HD film; website: thenewcolor.net; book, edition of 50.

Model Collapse Studies

One and Infinite Chairs#Cyberdolia#Infollution#Autoesthetics#Engistemics

2023. ckpt-format file of a collapsed Stable Diffusion Ai model, film-essay.
A text-to-image AI model was given the prompt “A single chair on a white background.” After six iterations of retraining on its own outputs, the autocannibalised model lost ability to produce realistic chair images, but non-figurative digital noise instead. Thus revealing model collapse and fragile computational ontology corrupted by recursive data feedback loops in AI architectures.

One and Infinite Chairs

#Cyberdolia #Infollution #Autoesthetics #Engistemics

A text-to-image AI model was given the prompt “A single chair on a white background.” After six iterations of retraining on its own outputs, the autocannibalised model lost ability to produce realistic chair images, but non-figurative digital noise instead. Thus revealing model collapse and its fragility to recursive data feedback loops.

Model Collapse Studies

Cyberdolia, EssayArticle

On Cyberdolia, Essay

#Autoesthtics #Cyberdolia #Engistemics

2025.
Written for Moscow Art Magazine №127

The essay explores the parallels between errors in AI image recognition and biases in human visual perception. It illustrates how both AI and humans misinterpret patterns for reasons that are both similar and different.

Tactical Archiving

Hashd0x. Proof of War#Infodemics#NetzSchmerz#Softvereignty#EngineeredTruth

Initiated in 2022. Custom built sofware & hardware camera, smart contract protocol, mobile app.
Hashd0x is a series of tactical open source soft- & hard-ware prototypes, designed to combat misinformation in photographic & video content. The software tools revolve around issuance and registration of instant & tamper-proof hashmark, blockchain native alternative of watermark and a proposed fix for our computationally accelerated & disturbed information ecology.

Hashd0x | Proof of War

#Infodemics #NetzSchmerz #Softvereignty #EngineeredTruth

2022, ongoing.
Custom hardware & software, mobile apps, smart contract, web platform, LED screen, smartphone, server.

Hashd0x is an artist initiated dApp addressing disinformation via on-chain evidence. The work Proof of War uses it to 3D-scan a bombed house in Borodyanka, storing drone images on-chain as an uncensored record of war crimes.

Tactical Archiving

URL Stone#Engistemics#VirtuReal#EpisteMachine

2015. Marble, JPG File, 2-ch. video, GPS sensor, website;
The work investigates the longevity of media by juxtaposing the same information in two fundamentally different mediums: a text set in stone and a .jpeg file on Wikimedia servers. The investigation ends when one is lost, revealing its less durable qualities. Which one? Only time will tell.

URL Stone

#Engistemics #VirtuReal #EpisteMachine

2015.
Marble, JPG File, Wikipedia article, dual-channel video, GPS sensor, website.

The work examines the longevity of media carriers: text carved in stone vs .jpeg file on Wikipedia. Both reference each other. The first to vanish reveals its fragility.

Tactical Archiving

Scatterchive#Infollution#Knowlegistics#Softvereignty#EngineeredTruth

2022. E-ink screens, plexiglass, open-source software, fragments of films by investigative journalists.
The Exo-Censorship Tactical Proposal protects investigative journalism. Censored archives are safeguarded against blocking by being hosted as tiny data bits across thousands of nodes on decentralised networks.

Scatterchive

#Infollution #Knowlegistics #Softvereignty #EngineeredTruth

2022.
Electronic Ink screens, Plexiglass, Swarm Blockchain and Swarm Nodes, Fragments of films of investigative journalists.

The Exo-Censorship Tactical Proposal protects investigative journalism. Censored archives are safeguarded against blocking by being hosted as tiny data bits across thousands of nodes on decentralised networks.

Tactical Archiving

Twelve Nodes#MindMining#Infodemics#Infollution#Softvereignty#InterFaith#ComputEcology

2019; Marble, e-ink screens, custom software & circuit boards, flag.
'Twelve Nodes' addresses the importance of ethical issues in relation to the misuse of personal data and proposes a collective design for the Fair Data standard, inspired by the Twelve Tables – the first written legal code of ancient Rome.

Exonomics (Disruptive Economies)

Exonomics

Decentralised Embargo#AIoT#NetzSchmerz#Softvereignty#ComputEcology

2022. EnBW contract, multi-GPU server, Ethereum mining software.

A custom-built supercomputer in a Berlin gallery uses energy from Germany’s largest Russian gas importer to create electricity. The computer mines cryptocurrency for the Ukrainian state, converting Russian gas into humanitarian aid. It critiques Germany’s hypocrisy in financing both sides of the conflict.

Exonomics

The Aura Protocol, EssayEssay

Air Kiss

Air Kiss#AIgency#Algocracy#Softvereignty#TechnoGnosis#ComputEcology#Cognitecture

2017. Film, 19’34”, 5-ch. video installation, book.
A film, presented in a form of 5-channel video installation, looking at a near future, where governance has largely been outsourced to Artificial Intelligence in the speculative context of Moscow in 2050 where a high degree of automation is present.

Air Kiss

Air Kiss 5-Channel Video Installation

Air Kiss

Air Kiss Film

I Print, Therefore I Am#Knowlegistics#EpisteMachine#TechnoGnosis

2014. Modified printer, plotter paper, 5 litres of ink.

A modified digital printer is able to continuously perform printing on a looped-back sheet of paper, running throughout the entire duration of the show (two month), is repeatedly reproducing one line of text: ‘I Print Therefore, I Am’.

Chinese Ink#Autoesthetics#TechnoPlural#TechnoGnosis

2018. E-ink screens, GAN Ai model, custom assembled dataset, custom-loop server; custom developed playback software driver.
E-ink screens are set to display moving images streamlined by an AI (GAN) algorithm trained on images of inkblots and set to generate similar images at the rate of thousands a minute.

PropaGAN#Infodemics#MetaParanoia#NetzSchmerz#EngineeredTruth

2022; Custom build server, steel, ML algorithms, custom dataset, stereo sound.

The generative GAN Algorithm is synced to an audio file to which it matches the ongoing morphing moving image based on a dataset of explosions, smoke and clouds.

Kickback#Infollution#NetzSchmerz

2014. White t-shirts, film; duration: 02'19".

A series of interventions, where an newly purchased plain white T-shirts from a fast-fashion clothing chain, were screen printed with the short text messages, and returned them for a refund. Unaware of the modification, the store restocked the T-shirts with artists messages, featuring them in the store prominently displayed and available for purchasing.

The Link#VirtuReal#InterFaith#EpisteMachinery#ComputEcology

A 3-metre metal and plexiglass object with LED-lit engraved text — http://this-is-the.link/between/the/real-and-virtual — is displayed in public spaces with a 360° camera. The URL, also a full sentence, leads to a live panoramic video stream of the installation site.

The Moment, The Past#InterFaith#EpisteMachinery

2014; LED display board; documentation film: 01’13”

Emitting the brightest possible cold, white light - the text running across the LED display board repetitively states: “...This very moment, has already become the past – This very moment, has already become the...”

Unfolding#Knowlegistics#VirtuReal#EpisteMachinery#Cognitecture

2011. Movement sensor, PC, film; duration: 1'35''.
The general human question infinitely sinks in the depths of a sequence of virtual space architecture. Each new mouse click takes us away from an answer and question just as each following step of the development of media environment and virtualization moves us further away from the understanding of what makes reality real.

Air Kiss

Exonomics & Interfaith

Air Kiss#AIgency#Algocracy#Softvereignty#TechnoGnosis#ComputEcology#Cognitecture

Air Kiss

#AIgency #Softvereignty #TechnoGnosis #Cognitecture

2017-2018.
Film, 19’34”, five-channel video installation, book.

The multi-channel video installation portrays scenes of a future in which governance has largely been outsourced to AI. It is set in a highly automated Moscow in the year 2050.

Air Kiss 5-Channel Video Installation

Air Kiss

#AIgency #Softvereignty #TechnoGnosis #Cognitecture

2017-2018.
Film, 19’34”, five-channel video installation, book.

The multi-channel video installation portrays scenes of a future in which governance has largely been outsourced to AI. It is set in a highly automated Moscow in the year 2050.