Coincidence Institute: Introduction to Environmental Calculation (Special Project for the Prepared Surroundings Festival – 2020)
The coincidence method was initially based on the issue of superdetermined detection of the main conflict of a situation—and of a possibility of a protocol that would help to resolve a situation and to increase the degree of the realness.
To reveal the main conflict, one is driven to see coincidences. But drive alone is not enough: basic literacy is also necessary to enable a person to read. The most important breakthrough in the development of the coincidence method over the last years was the development of an environmental calculation tool based on a minimal touch typology, that allowed for this kind of reading to be accessible to everyone. The special project of the Coincidence Institute is dedicated to this theme and its practical implementation.
One of the imperatives of the Institute’s activity is the popularization of the knowledge to make it accessible to everyone. In this project, the latest developments will be presented and processed into tangible sensory objects.
The project consists of three parts. First part—the environmental calculation theory and its application within the general philosophy of coincidences as well as within the everyday human practice. Second part—ETM (environmental time machine), sound synthesizer built upon the environmental calculation principle, slides, principle scheme, and live set. Third part—performance Environments of a Knitted Glove, connecting environment types and precise bodies and their touch, that allows the realization of a “body synthesizer.”
Coincidence theory, ETM, body synthesizer.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Coincidence Institute is a metaorganization allowing for the coordination of theoretical and practical efforts of various groups working with coincidence. Founded in 2020, the Institute continues the work of the Coincidence International while embracing interdisciplinary theoretical and critical commitment (reinterpretation of the truths), development of new protocols of work, and approbation of the results based on practical cases and presented objects. The Science Council of the Institute decided to promote the project in the field of contemporary art. This strategic move is inspired by the fact that the current projects of the Institute are well accepted and recognized by the art and culture institutions.
Members of the Institute: Yoel Regev, Alek Petuk, Nikolai Ulyanov, Yury Plokhov, Anton Struzhkin.
BKB Group was established in early 2019. They produce reenactments of artworks, staging of performances, and reconstruction of public events. The group uses various methods of group work and experiments with different types of communication inside the team. According to the members of the group, ‘”We see a contemporary art project as a collective and educational project that transforms and educates. Another important aspect is the work with the coincidence theory and our non-creative position—today, we think that it is important to process what already exists, underpinning revolutionary intensities in the already known and reproduced. Thus, our interest in reenactments and repetitions. As Gilles Deleuze has said very precisely: ‘something is repeated as different’”.
Members of the group: Alek Petuk, Arseny Balakirev, Luba Yagdanova, Antonina Yurchenko, Yegor Dvinyanin, Anna Brandush, Joe Featherwind, Anastasia Yakimenko.