LASER Talk CYLAND #50: Hybrid Ecologies: Natura Naturans
- Jun 15
- 6 min read
June 19, 2026, Ca' Foscari University of Venice
June 19, 12:00 PM — Sala Marino Berengo, Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Dorsoduro 3246, Venive, Italy
Participants: Silvia Burini, Alan Boldon, Carla Gannis, Alexandra Dementieva
Moderator: Natalia Kolodzei
Hosted by Silvia Burini, Anna Frants and Natalia Kolodzei
LASER Talk CYLAND #50: Hybrid Ecologies: Natura Naturans is presented within the framework of the Leonardo/ISAST LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Talks initiative — a global program of conversations and presentations connecting artists, scientists, technologists, and scholars.
Making the 50th edition of LASER CYLAND, Hybrid Ecologies: Natura Naturans continues this tradition by bringing together contemporary artistic practices and critical discourse focused on ecology, artificial intelligence, hybrid environments, and evolving relationships between human and non-human systems. Participants include Silvia Burini, art historian, curator, professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Director of the Centre for Studies in Russian, Central Asian and Caucasian Art (CSAR); Alan Boldon, artist, social entrepreneur, curator, writer, and founder of Weave, known for initiatives connecting education, culture, sustainability, and regenerative futures; Carla Gannis, a transmedia artist, educator, and Industry Professor at NYU Tandon, internationally recognized for her work exploring AI, mythology, identity, and internet culture; and Alexandra Dementieva, media artist known for interactive installations examining perception and technological experience. The discussion is moderated by Natalia Kolodzei, curator, art historian, Executive Director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation, and Co-Chair of Leonardo LASER Talks CYLAND.
The event is presented within the International Media Art Festival CYFEST 17: Natura Naturans: Human Beings, Nature, Landscape, on view at CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo through August 31, 2026.
BIOS
Silvia Burini
is Full Professor of Contemporary Art, Russian Art and Curatorship at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where she directs the CSAR – Centre for Studies in Russian, Central Asian and Caucasian Art. She is a scholar of Russian visual culture and contemporary art and a member of the scientific committee of CYFEST.
Her curatorial and research activity spans over fifty exhibitions along with numerous catalogues, including projects dedicated to Dmitri Prigov, AES+F, Valery Koshlyakov, Alexander Ponomarev, Grisha Bruskin, Lena Herzog, Sergey Kishchenko, Cristina Finucci, Francesca Montinaro, Marco Nereo Rotelli, Sissi, Nico Vascellari, and Fabrizio Plessi. In recent years, her work has increasingly focused on Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan, including the exhibition Uzbekistan: Avant-Garde in the Desert (Venice–Florence, 2024), the reinstallation of the Savitsky Museum in Nukus (2024-2025) and the Museum of Fine Art in Bukhara (2025). Through her research and curatorial practice, she actively promotes intercultural dialogue and the dissemination of visual culture across different geographic and disciplinary contexts.
Carla Gannis
is a transmedia artist, educator, and Industry Professor in the Integrated Design & Media Program at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. For three decades, she has examined how embodiment and identity are transformed by networked technologies, from avatar-based works to hybrid installations merging physical assemblage, speculative fiction, machine learning, and immersive environments. Her projects often use humor, absurdity, and historical remix to question the promises and failures of technological progress, while imagining more porous relationships among humans, machines, animals, artifacts, and synthetic beings. Gannis’s work has been exhibited internationally, including as a Midnight Moment in Times Square, a commission for the Whitney Museum’s Artport, and in solo exhibitions at Fotografiska, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, and Pérez Art Museum Miami. Her current research explores AI oracles, quantum frameworks, and non-human agency as ways to reimagine our relationship with a precarious planet.
Alexandra Dementieva
is a contemporary media artist whose practice explores perception, interaction, and the evolving relationship between humans and technological systems. Working across interactive installation, video, sound, and digital media, her artworks create immersive environments in which viewers become active participants rather than passive observers. Through responsive technologies and sensory experiences, Dementieva investigates themes of memory, agency, surveillance, and the construction of reality in contemporary technological culture. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, and media art festivals, contributing to current discussions on interactive art, hybrid ecologies, and posthuman. experience.
Alan Boldon
is an artist, social entrepreneur, curator, and writer specializing in initiatives that connect education, culture, sustainability, and regenerative futures. Mr. Boldon is also the founder and Director of Weave, an innovative venture establishing an international network of learning labs designed to explore collaborative pathways toward nurturing systemic wisdom. Throughout a distinguished career bridging arts, business, non-profits, and academia, he has held numerous leadership roles and served as a global strategic consultant, drawing on his background, including a Master’s degree in Psychology, to advise leaders and management teams on high-performance development and complex problem-solving. As a practicing artist, Mr. Boldon has exhibited his work extensively throughout Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia, and has been profiled for his creative practice on ITN. He is a highly sought-after public speaker who has delivered keynotes, workshops, and lectures for prestigious international institutions worldwide, and his expertise has been featured across global media outlets, including BBC Radio, BBC News, Canadian Radio, and Saudi state radio. He is the author of numerous publications spanning academic journals, exhibition catalogue essays, and book chapters, and has frequently contributed to the formulation of sustainable cultural policy for towns and cities globally.
Natalia Kolodzei
is a curator, art historian, and fine arts appraiser specializing in the art of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. Ms. Kolodzei is also the Executive Director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation (est. 1991) and, along with Tatiana Kolodzei, the owner of the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art. This collection contains over 7,000 artworks (including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photography, kinetic art, and digital art) by over 300 artists from Russia, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 1991, Ms. Kolodzei has curated or organized over one hundred twenty exhibitions in the US, Europe, and Russia, including From Non-Conformism to Feminisms: Russian Women Artists; Moscow-New York = Parallel Play; Concerning the Spiritual Tradition in Russian Art; From Leningrad to St. Petersburg at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York; and Geometric Abstraction: Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation at TMORA. She is the author and editor of multiple publications, including Oleg Vassiliev: Memory Speaks (Themes and Variations) (2004) and Vadim Voinov: Hermitage under a Full Moon (2005). She has also served as a co-guest editor for special issues of Leonardo, including Ferment (Volume 55, Issue 6, 2022) and Vulnerability (Volume 58, Issue 5, 2025). Natalia Kolodzei is an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts. She has also served as a co-guest editor for special issues of Leonardo, including Ferment (Volume 55, Issue 6, 2022) and Vulnerability (Volume 58, Issue 5, 2025). Natalia Kolodzei is an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts. She has organized and contributed to symposia and panel discussions for universities and exhibitions worldwide and, since 2020, has co-chaired CYLAND LASER Talks (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous).
Anna Frants
is an artist, curator in the field of media art. She graduated from the Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Design (Leningrad, USSR) and Pratt Institute (New York, USA). Founder of the nonprofit cultural foundation CYLAND Foundation Inc. Cofounder of CYLAND MediaArtLab and CYFEST. Frants’ interactive installations have been showcased at Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Video Guerrilha Festival (Brazil), Manifesta 10 Biennale (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia), Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany), Hatcham Church Gallery, Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), Dartington Estate (UK), Ca’ Foscari Zattere Cultural Flow Zone (Venice, Italy), MAXXI Museum (Rome, Italy), National Arts Club (New York, USA) and at other major venues all over the world. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Kolodzei Art Foundation (New York, USA) as well as in numerous private collections. She has also served as a co-guest editor for special issues of Leonardo, including Ferment (Volume 55, Issue 6, 2022) and Vulnerability (Volume 58, Issue 5, 2025). She has organized and contributed to symposia and panel discussions for universities and exhibitions worldwide and, since 2020, has co-chaired the CYLAND LASER Talks (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous). She lives and works in Miami, USA.
