22nd Annual Conference of the Centre for Russian, Soviet, Central, and
East European Studies at the University of St Andrews

Red Laboratories: Exchanges between Science and the Arts and Culture in
Eastern Europe and Russia
1 June 2013, 9.00-18.45
Scotland's Secret Bunker
Troywood
St Andrews
Fife KY16 8QH

The Centre for Soviet, Russian, Central and East European Studies at the
University of St Andrews is pleased to announce the opening of
registration for its 22nd annual conference 'Red Laboratories: Exchanges
between Science and the Arts and Culture in Russia and Eastern Europe'.
The conference will examine the influence of shifts in scientific
thinking and technology on Soviet and Eastern European design,
architecture, literature, and cultural identity, and, conversely, will
ask how literary and cultural developments impacted on Soviet science
and technological advancements. The conference will take place on 1 June
2013 in 'Scotland's Secret Bunker', a nuclear bunker built in 1951 that
would have served as a Regional Seat of Government in the event of a
nuclear war, but which today functions as a Cold War museum.

Programme

9.00-9.30
Registration

9.30-11.00
Session one:
Science and Design (chaired by Jeremy Howard)

Tom Cubbin (University of Sheffield)
'Technical Aesthetics or Artistic Design? The arts-science debate and
the revival of Soviet design during the 1960s'

Andres Kurg (Institute of Art History, Estonian Academy of Arts)
'Feedback Environment. Design and Cybernetics in Estonia in the Late
Socialist period'

David Crowley (Royal College of Art)
'The Body Electric: Cybernetics in Eastern European Art in the 1960s'

11.00-11.30 Coffee Break

11.30-13.00
Session Two:
Science and Literature (chaired by Sarah Dillon)

Muireann Maguire (University of Oxford)
'Gorky the Vivisectionist: Scientific Metaphors in Gorky's Prose'

Victoria MacKenzie (University of St Andrews)
'"Anchors in the high seas of feelings": The use of science in the
poetry of Miroslav Holub'

Jonathan Owen (University of St Andrews)
'Killing Einstein: Representations of Science and Scientists in Czech
Crazy Comedy'

13.00-13.45 Lunch

13.45-15.15
Session Three:
Science and Identities (chaired by Jeffrey Murer)

Andy Byford (Durham University)
'The identities of a '(pseudo)science': The case of early-Soviet
paedology'

Hannah Proctor (Birbeck, University of London)
'Identity as Non-identity: Abstract Thinking, Utopianism and
Experimental Methodologies in the work of Lev Vygotsky'

Victoria Donovan (University of St Andrews)
'The 'Fiziki-liriki' debate: shifting ideals of scientific achievement
in 1960s Soviet culture'

15.45-16.15 Coffee Break

16.15-17.15
Round Table Chaired by Scientist (tbc) from the University of St Andrews

17.15-17.45
Real Ale Reception

17.45-18.45
Keynote Lecture
Andrei Zorin (University of Oxford)
'War as metaphor of science. Major Soviet scientific projects of the
second half of the XXth century'

Registration is required for admittance to all sessions as there are
limited spaces available. All delegates, apart from St Andrews staff,
students and residents - for whom the conference is free - must pay a
registration fee. This rate includes the following – registration,
coffee, lunch & tea. The cost is £50 for full delegates and £25 for
post-graduate students. To register please email vsd2st-andrews.ac.uk.