The Laboratory for Visual and Cultural Studies was founded in 1999 at the European Humanities University in Minsk by Almira Ousmanova and Andrei Gornykh. The Laboratory organizes research seminars, scientific conferences, different educational, multimedia and art-projects. After the relocation of EHU to Vilnius in 2005, Laboratory continued its activities, including research, education and art projects – in both Belarus and Lithuania. In 2013 the Laboratory merged with the Center for Studies of Contemporary Art (CSCA, managing directors Lena Prents and Aliona Glukhova), and was renamed in Laboratory for Studies of Visual Culture and Contemporary Art.
Main goals of the Laboratory
organization of research seminars, scientific conferences, summer schools;
curatorial activities in the field of contemporary art, with a special emphasis on research exhibitions;
publication of scientific and research books (including translations);
designing of academic courses on visual culture and development of educational projects in this sphere;
creation of educational audiovisual multimedia products (as a part of a general strategy for medialization of social and humanitarian sciences;
providing art and media expertise in the field ( art, film critique, etc.).
Research priorities
Medialization of Knowledge and Digital Humanities
Professional Vision and Visual Literacy in Everyday Practices and Scientific Discourses
Anthropological and Cognitive Aspects of Information Technologies
Artistic vs academic research and contemporary Visual Culture
Contemporary Belarusian Art in the context of East-European Transformations
Kanstantsiuk, Viktoriya “Invisible Violence: tyranny of infinity and enjoyment in
incremental games (on the example of the online game “Christmas Tree”, Stark Game), pp.56
– 70 – https://journals.ehu.lt/index.php/topos/article/view/1116;
“Belarus in the Focus of Academic Research: A Conceptual Reset”. The thematic volume of
Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media, Issue 22,
2023 (edited by Almira Ousmanova and Robert Zalesky) – https://digitalicons.org/
Ousmanova, Almira; Zalesky, Robert “Belarus in the Focus of Academic Research: A
Conceptual Reset. Editorial”, in Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central
European New Media, # 22, 2023, pp.i – viii (https://digitalicons.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DI22_00_Editorial.2.pdf);
Stebur, Antonina and Olga Davydzik ”Features and Effects of the Digital Technologies in the
Belarusian Protest”, in Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European
New Media, # 22, 2023, pp.23 – 44 – https://digitalicons.org/issue22/features-and-effects-
of-the-digital-technologies-in-the-belarusian-protest/
Фурс, Вероника. “Особенности семиотического исследования трансмедийных
франшиз”, Вестник Казахского национального женского педагогического
университета. 2023;(1):60-74. – https://vestnik.kazmkpu.kz/jour/article/view/837/552
Фурс, Вероника. “Cемиотика вымышленных миров: идеологическая (не)однородность
трансмедийных франшиз (на примере повествований в жанре фэнтези и историй о
супергероях)”, Вестник Казахского национального женского педагогического
университета. 2023;(2):71 -83 – https://vestnik.kazmkpu.kz/jour/article/view/857/560
Alain Fleischer Laboratories of Time ( ed. By V.Fours and A.Ousmanova, translation into Russian).Minsk, Propilei, 2014
Shtalenkova Ksenia Money and Ideology. R/evolution of Belarusianness in a length of 100 years. EHU, 2018
Topos (theme – E-Effect: Digital Turn in Humanities and Social Sciences), co-editor – Galina Orlova,) – № 1-2, 2017
Ousmanova A. “Opierając się obrazom: reprezentacja a rewolucja. Idea rewolucji w šwiecie post utopijnym lub powrót reprezesjionowanych”, Obóz : kwartalnik społeczno-polityczny, 56-57 (2017), pp.16 – 32
Ousmanova A. “Ontologies of Multitude, Capital and Digital Future: Notes on the Margins”, in Шаги/STEPS, Vol.3, # 2, 2017, pp.154 – 167
Ousmanova A. “E-Burned Knowledge: The Production and Dissemination of Knowledge after Digital Turn”, in Topos, 1-2/2017, pp.7 – 27
Ousmanova A. ‘The Poetics of the Unspeakable and “le filmique” in the works of Roland Barthes”, in Topos, Journal for Philosophy and Cultural Studies, 1-2/2019, pp.150 – 176
Gornykh A. Trava-Trata-Travlia: Tarkovsky’s Psychobiography à la lettre”. REFOCUS: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky (Edited by Sergei Toymentsev). Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
Gornykh A. “Photography as a medium: Proust’s Punctum in Lacan’s Mirror” // in Topos. Philosophical-Culturological Journal, No. 1-2, (2019). p. 117-135.
Gornykh A. «The movement of capital and “moving pictures”: to the genealogy of cinema» // Cinema / Capital. St. Petersburg, Seance: 2018. p. 7-29.
Gornykh A. “The Internal Enemy in the Information War (Donbass Ideological Palimpsest),” in Ideology and Politics. Logos and Pathos. Humanities in the Condition of War. № 3 (11), 2018. P. 148-171
Gornykh A. “Capitalism and Anxiety” in Topos. Philosophical-Culturological Journal, No. 2 (2013), 12-30.
Konstantiuk V. The Letter of Pleasure and Jouissance: Between Barthes and Lacan // Topos. 2019, iss.1-2, p. 135-144.; Discourse of the University and Fate of Knowledge in Era of Digitalization // Perekrestki. 2018, iss.1, p. 129-142;
Konstantiuk V. Digital Mediation and the Disappearance of Fundamental Virtuality // International Journal of Cultural Research. 2017. iss. 2(27), p. 140-146;
Konstantiuk V. Mapping Digital Anthropology. Book review: Digital Anthropology/ ed. By Heather A. Horst and Daniel Miller. Topos. 2017, iss. 1-2, p. 293-299.
Antonina Stebur and Aleksei Borisionok – curators of the art exhibition in Lithuanian
National Art Gallery “If Disrupted, It Becomes Tangible. Infrastructures and Solidarities
beyond the post-Soviet Condition” (March 31 st – June 18 th , 2023) http://new.ndg.lt/exhibitions/past/if-disrupted,-it-becomes-tangible.aspx
Film! Film! Film!
FFF! is a common space for the film community where everyone can join in exploring film
theory and analysis and share their articles & films on the platform. The project aims to unite
students who are into cinematography and give voice to them. At the same time Film! Film!
Film! acts as an educational source and provides lots of theoretical information and articles
on different topics.
Soviet/Lithuanian Cinema: Reconstruction (Alexandra Ihnatovich, Almira Ousmanova, LitPRO film and cultural project, (EHU, LITHUANIA, with Alexandra Ihnatovich, 2010)
HESP OSI Summer and Winter Schools for University lecturers – on Visual and Cultural Studies (14 sessions, from 2000 to 2015) – https://www.viscultstudies.org/schools
Museum (2011) – a solo art exhibition of Ruslan Vashkevich in National Art Museum in Minsk (curated by Almira Ousmanova and Ruslan Vashkevich)
In the framework of Artes Liberales Project – hundreds of events were organized in between 2012 and 2017, in Minsk ( each year, during 3 weeks, appr. 45 different events – lectures, workshops, performances, round-table discussions, exhibitions, concerts, screenings, etc.) – more details see here
Membership in associations
Member of the International Association for Visual Culture Studies, which was established in 2010. Since 2010, we are also members of the European network of academic programs in visual culture (Visual Culture Studies in Europe).
