This article addresses a pressing and widely discussed issue: what culture is, and how natural origins and artificially created qualities — shaped in the course of the cultural-historical process — correlate and interact with each other. The author argues that defining culture as a “second nature” of man represents the most adequate interpretation of its essence. It emphasizes that addressing the existence of culture in the modern world requires an integration of natural sciences, humanities, and political and legal approaches. This is because the issues extend beyond the creation and consequences of using bio-inspired properties and materials; they also concern the uniqueness of Homo sapiens and the diversity of cultures, cultural-historical types, and civilizations. Much of the discussion centers on questions first posed in philosophy and science by N.Ya. Danilevsky, specifically his distinction between the “all-human” and the “universal-human”. When examining the relationship between the natural and the artificial in nature and culture regarding man’s “second nature”, a variety of terms, phrases, and definitions are used. Attention is drawn to the special significance of conceptual and terminological frameworks when considering forecasts and development projects using approaches, constructs, and tools referred to as non-biological, extra-biological, supra-biological, and similar “products” created through scientific and technological progress. The conceptual and terminological set is quite representative, but it lacks explanations of the meaning of certain definitions and linguistic constructs. Unambiguity is required in the use of terms and concepts. The issue is focused on the challenges and risks associated with the proposed creation of the post-human.

The perception of the significance of environmental problems and their solutions is determined by society’s cultural level, individual attitudes toward nature, and the visibility of natural transformations through anthropogenic activity. Ecology is widely perceived among the population not as a science of the interaction between the organism and the environment, but rather as an activity aimed at protecting the natural environment, known as environmentalism. The most radical movement to environmental protection is ecologism, which regards humans not as part of the biosphere, but merely as a factor in its pollution. Digitalization, which has affected virtually all spheres of human activity and is associated with a changing perception of the real world through digital devices, complicates the interaction between humans and nature. At the same time, the worsening environmental problems are leading to an increased importance of methods for developing environmental culture applied in interaction with the natural environment. The psychological and cultural characteristics of human perception of the natural environment in the current situation have been insufficiently studied. The aim of this study is to analyze the cultural phenomenon of the ecological trail as a tool for shaping an environmental worldview. Ecological trails are used in tourism and in educational and awareness-raising programs. Three paradoxical aspects of the eco-trail microcosm can be identified. First, the eco-trail is essentially a cultural shell through which immersion into a pristine natural environment occurs. Second, by promoting the mass dissemination of ecological culture, the eco-trail fosters a unique individual perception of nature, which occurs not so much on an intellectual and communicative level as on a synesthetic and even sensory-emotional one. This significantly distinguishes it as a tool for disseminating ecoculture from the digital environment and educational processes conducted indoors. The third paradox of the eco-trail is that the very concept of “trail” is existential; that is, etymologically, it can be seen as humanity’s desire to find a way out of the current crisis in its relationship with nature.

Effective implementation of the goals and priorities of the Strategy of State Cultural Policy for the Period up to 2030 requires developing regional cultural projects, increasing public access to cultural institutions, and modernizing cultural infrastructure. Art festivals are an important component of the creative industries, a key tool for sociocultural design, and a sought-after form of cultural entertainment, all of which contribute to the development of domestic tourism. This study aims to analyze the specifics of organizing and administering contemporary art festivals, considering their needs across different audience groups. The analysis reveals several characteristic features of such events: cross-disciplinarity, trans-historicity, social engagement and inclusiveness, and cross-territoriality. Open source data — including reports and media publications on festival financing, and organizer interviews — provide the empirical basis for the article. Contextual and comparative methods guide the research. The findings describe Russian festival practices and the challenges encountered in their organization. Innovative fundraising approaches then emerge from the results: a combined system for attracting additional funding sources, upcycling art objects, activating civic engagement through crowdfunding, fostering co-creation, and integrating digital art forms.

The enduring significance of Ancient Egyptian art and its appeal to many subsequent generations can be explained not only by the antiquity and long history of this civilization. Ancient Egypt demonstrated to the world a remarkably coherent and unique culture of a colossal scale, which manifested in virtually every area of human activity. Interest in it arose as early as the Antiquity, was renewed during the Renaissance, strengthened during the Age of Enlightenment, and culminated in the Historicism movement. The next wave of Egyptomania occurred in the first third of the 20th century, when a fascination with Egypt manifested itself in various spheres of culture and art: architecture, interior design, fashion, design, theater, cinema, literature, etc. Textile production has been and remains one of the most important and significant industries associated with these fields.

In this article, the author first addresses the issue of textile Egyptomania (the “third wave”) of the late 20th and early 21st centuries and explores the least “researched” issues in this field. The aim of our study was to identify the spheres of cultural influence of the ancient Egyptian civilization’s heritage on the modern textile industry, as well as the nature of the depth of this influence. The following objectives are consistently addressed: evaluating the relevance of Egyptomania as a phenomenon and the reasons for its manifestation in the modern world, defining and substantiating its chronological boundaries, and characterizing the most popular areas of textile Egyptomania (fashion, textile production, and carpet weaving), as well as the tools for its transmission. Based on an analysis of modern fabric samples, the study identifies key artistic and stylistic trends, along with the innovative approaches employed for their implementation. In textile ornamentation, reflecting the technological features of modern production, six artistic and stylistic directions in the interpretation of the Egyptian theme are identified. It is noted that textile and carpet art exhibit similar development trends. The author concludes that Egyptian Orientalism of the late 20th and early 21st centuries maintains a stable presence in the contemporary artistic context (functioning less as an exotic trend, and more as a manifestation of a well-established classical tradition). It is shown that textile Egyptomania, which manifested in fashion in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, can be regarded as a profound cultural phenomenon, as it transcends local boundaries, influencing art and contributing to the resolution of social problems.

This article is dedicated to a critical analysis of the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creation of choreographic works. The author positions AI as an ambiguous tool, the use of which is associated with fundamental ethical, aesthetic, and methodological risks. Based on a critical review of existing research in this field, the article identifies a core problem: the dissonance between the technical mindset inherent to engineering and the needs of artistic creation, which require technological solutions to be subordinated to the unified concept of a performance. The article proposes conceptual and ethical foundations for resolving this contradiction through a creative strategy for interacting with AI. The strategy is based on the idea of the primacy of artistic intent and the mediating rather than authorial role of AI. Thus, the goal of the methodology and the presented creative strategy is not to offer instructions for use, but to outline the boundaries of the appropriateness of using AI and the conditions for preserving the author’s intent in a work created with technological mediation. The central thesis is that the value of such an experience lies not in the automation of creativity through AI, but in the ability of AI to act as a catalyst for new artistic thinking, a tool for expanding the imagination under the unconditional dominance of human authorship. Emphasis is placed on the need for choreographers to develop new skills related to the ability to set AI tasks, critically evaluate the results, and possess broad professional erudition. Successful integration of AI into choreography is only possible if the technology is subordinated to the artistic goals defined by the human creator. This is one of the criteria for preserving the humanistic essence of art.

This article examines the digitalization of a collection of Yakut khomuses (jew’s harps) as a means of preserving the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Sakha people. The khomus is considered a symbol of Yakutia’s spiritual culture and is included in the register of intangible cultural heritage of Russia. A review of research on the khomus, an instrument that has remained virtually unchanged for 5,000 years and exists in the cultures of nearly 90 countries worldwide, is presented. The main varieties of khomus, traditions, and characteristic performance styles of khomus music are analyzed. Modern technologies for 3D digitization of artifacts — structured light, laser scanning, photogrammetry, and digital modeling methods — are considered. Particular attention is paid to the methodology and implementation of technologies in the creation of digital copies of khomuses from the collections of the world’s only specialized Museum and Center for the Khomus of the Peoples of the World (Yakutsk). The following stages of the work are discussed: exhibit preparation, 3D scanning, photogrammetry, data post-processing, and manual 3D modeling. The specifics and challenges of scanning metal objects (glare, artifacts, and excessive mesh density) are highlighted, along with solutions that combine photogrammetry with manual model refinement. The research results and project developments of the authors are presented — 3D models of Yakut khomuses in a format suitable for integration into virtual museums, databases, and AR/VR applications. A digital collection of jew harps, jointly created by specialists from the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and the Khomus Museum and Center of the Peoples of the World, is on display. It is in demand primarily in museology, musicology, culture, and education. In conclusion, the digitization of ethnocultural treasures, particularly national musical instruments, using an interdisciplinary approach is an effective means of preserving and updating the cultural heritage of the Sakha people in the digital age.

The creation of 3D models of Yakut khomuses is important both for archiving formal parameters and for preserving heritage in a new, digital form.

This article explores the appliqué art of the Yukaghir artist N.N. Kurilov (born 1949), analyzing its origins, thematic content, and specific features of compositional structure. The topic is highly relevant as N.N. Kurilov’s artistic legacy, embodying the culture of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of North-East Russia, is a unique phenomenon in contemporary Yakut fine art. The novelty of this study lies in its comprehensive analysis of the artist’s appliqué works, which allows for the reflection of the multilayered cultural heritage of the Yukaghir people. The sources for this inquiry include appliqués from various periods, interviews, articles, and publications containing information about the artist’s creative journey. The study employs methods of comparative analysis, synthesis, and description, as well as a compositional approach to the works, alongside iconological and iconographic techniques.

In this article, the appliqué is defined as the “art of cutting” — a distinct form of fine art in which N.N. Kurilov works. The study identifies the thematic and compositional features of N.N. Kurilov’s appliqués. It traces the origins of the artist’s work back to the decorative and applied arts of the Yukaghirs — fur mosaics and pictographic writing on birch bark — and highlights his influence on contemporary folk arts and crafts in Yakutia. It demonstrates that the appliqué technique serves as a style-forming factor in N.N. Kurilov’s creative output.

Since the mid-1960s, Russian culturology and Western cultural studies have evolved in parallel, dynamically, seeking points of intersection while also exploring the conceptual and institutional foundations of their respective formations. This process has stimulated self-identification within both academic traditions concerned with the study of culture and the representation of its phenomena. Among the cultural phenomena that have steadily drawn scholarly interest for centuries is the museum — a subject that currently commands particular attention.

This article provides a comparative analysis of museum representations in Russian culturology and Western cultural studies, utilizing the “cross-shaped contradiction scheme” (also known as the “Celtic cross” method, developed by V.I. Razumov with the support of Yu.M. Gorsky, and N.I. Moiseeva). This method rests on studying opposites that contain pairs of contradictions. The pairs examined were “culturology vs cultural studies”, “culture vs power”, and their pairs of contradictions: “high culture vs mass culture”, “official power vs unofficial power”, “activity-based vs behavior-based culturology”, and “culturalist vs structuralist paradigms of cultural studies”.

Given that culturology and cultural studies are not synonymous but rather have different histories, themes, goals, objectives, and methods, it was hypothetically assumed that the study of the museum phenomenon would also differ. The analysis revealed a contrast between two museum images, propagated by Russian culturology and Western cultural studies. Following D. Cameron, these can be described as the “museum as temple” and “museum as forum”. It has been shown that these two images are beginning to “move” toward one another, because the processes of globalization and cultural integration are leading to the blurring of boundaries and causing mutual influence between scholarly traditions. All this may indicate either an expansion of the museum’s conceptual boundaries, a loss of its identity, or a new norm within the cultural situation of metamodernism.

This article is devoted to the little-studied problem of the post-war reconstruction of Leningrad in the context of the socio-cultural transformation of the architectural environment and public interiors. It focuses on the artistic and production experience of creating decoration and furniture equipment for the historical interiors of the Baron Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing — the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry named after V.I. Mukhina, — the St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Industry named after A.L. Stieglitz in the 1950s as part of the educational process. The relevance of the study is caused by the need to identify the relationship between the curricula of higher education of different years and industrial activities based on historical examples. Of particular importance is the search for effective interaction between higher education institutions and enterprises of the real sector of the economy to solve the problem of import substitution. The article considers artistic and design solutions for the decoration and equipment of the rest room in the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry named after V.I. Mukhina (Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial University) in accordance with the socio-cultural context of the first decade after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The shapes and decoration of the pieces of furniture for the lounge were created in the school’s experimental research workshops as industrial prototypes. They reflect the traditions of Russian classicism of the first quarter of the 19th century, features of the Art Deco style, and artistic techniques of the Stalinist Empire style. For the first time, information about the interior designers and manufacturers of industrial prototypes for this set — painters, architects, cabinetmakers, and students of the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial University’s department of master craftsmen — is introduced into scientific circulation. The study also presents photographs from the academy’s archive and graphic art from the methodological collection of the Department of Monumental and Decorative Painting. The findings can be applied in museum and university practice, as well as in educational activities.

The author divides postmodernist concepts that have influenced architecture into two groups: new postmodernist concepts and established concepts that have received new interpretations within postmodernism. This article focuses on the former, examining concepts such as pastiche, simulacrum, deconstruction, the fold, and the death of the author. In architecture, the postmodernist concepts of pastiche and simulacrum formed the postmodernist agenda proper. Underlying neomodernist discourse are deconstruction, the fold, and the death of the author, reflected in deconstructivism, nonlinear architecture, and minimalism. The influence of postmodernist concepts on Russian architectural practice is uneven: the period of the 1990s and early 2000s was dominated by pastiche and simulacrum, while deconstruction gave way to the fold in the late 1990s and 2000s. The leadership of various artistic forms in embodying a particular concept is demonstrated, particularly in architecture, where the concept of the fold, due to its specifically spatial and plastic nature, is most clearly reflected.

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