Natasha Konradova
Journalist, Researcher, Author of popular academic and artistic projects, Coordinator of the Zukunft Memorial educational program "Man in History. (Post)Soviet experience"
Born in Moscow in 1974. In 1996 she graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities, and in 2001 defended her PhD thesis in cultural studies. Since the early 2000s, she worked in Russian magazines and online publications as a journalist and editor ("Polit.ru", "Russian Reporter", "Snob", "Around the World", Radio Liberty, etc.). In 2015, she moved to Berlin, where up until 2018 she worked at the Free University on a research project on the history of the Russian Internet ("Archaeology of the Russian Internet: telepathy, teleconferences and other techno-utopias of the Cold War", Moscow: Corpus, 2022). Co-author of the projects "Ural Mari. There is no death" (with the support of the Khamovniki Foundation, Moscow, Innovation Prize for 2020) and "Undesirable Paths: Informal Relations between Citizens of the GDR and the USSR" (with the support of the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur), as well as a number of books, exhibitions and multimedia projects, mainly dedicated to exploratory art and media archaeology.
Since 2023, she has been working with Zukunft Memorial to relaunch the school history competition and the "History Lessons" website.
Since 2023, she has been working with Zukunft Memorial to relaunch the school history competition and the "History Lessons" website.
The Unknown: Between Science and Mystical Practice. The History of One Pseudoscience
The twentieth century experienced several waves of scientific and technological enthusiasm, when the supernatural was considered only temporarily unknown and attributed to science domain. As far as new communication methods were concerned, scientists were approached by special services or military with an offer of financial support, which was immediately followed by secrecy. This is exactly what happened with alternative research in the 1930s and 1970s when scientists' interest in "human potential" brought big government money and total isolation of the studies.
The relationship between scientists and intelligence services has always followed this model. On the one hand, they have conflicting objectives: to learn the truth and to acquire new weapons; to let the world know about new discoveries and, on the contrary, to prevent "strategically important" information from leaking out. On the other hand, intelligence agencies have by default more resources while scientists cannot do science without serious institutional support. As long as scientific experiments were funded by the intelligence services, both sides benefited from cooperation. But in the end, everyone lost and science in isolation became a mystical practice.
In the presentation I will examine the history of alternative research in XX century, from telepathic experiments to the search for Shambhala, and the impact of secrecy on the frontiers of scientific knowledge.
The relationship between scientists and intelligence services has always followed this model. On the one hand, they have conflicting objectives: to learn the truth and to acquire new weapons; to let the world know about new discoveries and, on the contrary, to prevent "strategically important" information from leaking out. On the other hand, intelligence agencies have by default more resources while scientists cannot do science without serious institutional support. As long as scientific experiments were funded by the intelligence services, both sides benefited from cooperation. But in the end, everyone lost and science in isolation became a mystical practice.
In the presentation I will examine the history of alternative research in XX century, from telepathic experiments to the search for Shambhala, and the impact of secrecy on the frontiers of scientific knowledge.
Natasha Konradova
Journalist, Researcher, Author of popular academic and artistic projects, Coordinator of the Zukunft Memorial educational program "Man in History. (Post)Soviet experience"
Born in Moscow in 1974. In 1996 she graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities, and in 2001 defended her PhD thesis in cultural studies. Since the early 2000s, she worked in Russian magazines and online publications as a journalist and editor ("Polit.ru", "Russian Reporter", "Snob", "Around the World", Radio Liberty, etc.). In 2015, she moved to Berlin, where up until 2018 she worked at the Free University on a research project on the history of the Russian Internet ("Archaeology of the Russian Internet: telepathy, teleconferences and other techno-utopias of the Cold War", Moscow: Corpus, 2022). Co-author of the projects "Ural Mari. There is no death" (with the support of the Khamovniki Foundation, Moscow, Innovation Prize for 2020) and "Undesirable Paths: Informal Relations between Citizens of the GDR and the USSR" (with the support of the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur), as well as a number of books, exhibitions and multimedia projects, mainly dedicated to exploratory art and media archaeology.
Since 2023, she has been working with Zukunft Memorial to relaunch the school history competition and the "History Lessons" website.
Since 2023, she has been working with Zukunft Memorial to relaunch the school history competition and the "History Lessons" website.
The Unknown: Between Science and Mystical Practice. The History of One Pseudoscience
The twentieth century experienced several waves of scientific and technological enthusiasm, when the supernatural was considered only temporarily unknown and attributed to science domain. As far as new communication methods were concerned, scientists were approached by special services or military with an offer of financial support, which was immediately followed by secrecy. This is exactly what happened with alternative research in the 1930s and 1970s when scientists' interest in "human potential" brought big government money and total isolation of the studies.
The relationship between scientists and intelligence services has always followed this model. On the one hand, they have conflicting objectives: to learn the truth and to acquire new weapons; to let the world know about new discoveries and, on the contrary, to prevent "strategically important" information from leaking out. On the other hand, intelligence agencies have by default more resources while scientists cannot do science without serious institutional support. As long as scientific experiments were funded by the intelligence services, both sides benefited from cooperation. But in the end, everyone lost and science in isolation became a mystical practice.
In the presentation I will examine the history of alternative research in XX century, from telepathic experiments to the search for Shambhala, and the impact of secrecy on the frontiers of scientific knowledge.
The relationship between scientists and intelligence services has always followed this model. On the one hand, they have conflicting objectives: to learn the truth and to acquire new weapons; to let the world know about new discoveries and, on the contrary, to prevent "strategically important" information from leaking out. On the other hand, intelligence agencies have by default more resources while scientists cannot do science without serious institutional support. As long as scientific experiments were funded by the intelligence services, both sides benefited from cooperation. But in the end, everyone lost and science in isolation became a mystical practice.
In the presentation I will examine the history of alternative research in XX century, from telepathic experiments to the search for Shambhala, and the impact of secrecy on the frontiers of scientific knowledge.