Tatiana Plakhova by Anne Lea Pfistner

Tatiana Plakhova

“I fell in love with these digital images from Russian designer, Tatiana Plakhova the moment I laid eyes on them and the fact that on her Behance Network page for these she has audio of Boards of Canada’s Zoetrope didn’t hurt at all. I’m not sure how she’s creating these images but they’re beautiful.”

Tatiana Plakhova is a russian artist, graduated from the “Moscow State University” where she finished her master's degree in social psychology. Feeling, that she was not a psychologist, Tatiana Plakhova decided to attend the class of font designer Tagir Safaev at the High Academic School of Graphic Design. Today, the artist is working on Complexity Graphics illustrations from both of her homes in Tel Aviv and Moscow.

Influenced by her studies as a psychologist, Tatiana Plakhova uses a mathematical style in her art “to help illustrate everything from biological cell to the space and meditative worlds.”

Her aim is to “show a new way of “infographic” drawings. Because everything we see is biological, mathematical or geological information. It can also be cultural patterns or any other thing. Complexity Graphics works are based on mathematical simplicity and harmony.”

Her “art combinations of design and scientific perception of the world” can be seen on her own website Complexity Graphics, where Tatiana Plakhova is uploading her artwork. Inspired by microscopy photos and botanical images, the artist uses this natural structure as an inspiration to create her fractal like overlaying.

“Tatiana [Plakhova] subdues what’s mechanical in favor of the manual, what’s scientific remakes into organic, what’s alien and distant she represents personally. Tatiana continues to develop her fascination with the patterns found in the vocabulary of folk art, but also the design of biological organisms and the architecture of cosmos. She combines the aesthetic experience of viewing art with that of observing nature. Her work embodies how balance and harmony can emerge from chaos; it plays with our natural curiosity to explore visual stimuli".”

Chosen Works

North Atlantic

In her art “North Atlantic”, Tatiana Plakhova shows a series of photos from snowy mountains to the ocean which she combines with moving graphics or fractals. Shown as a movie she underlines her art with music, which brings a sense of depth to her work. Tatiana Plakhova uses this simplicity to show the way of connection but also her connection to the nature. She is dreaming of future cities. Future cities that are connected to the nature, future cities that work with the nature and future cities with a big data information storage in architectural form that could be transparent and by that connected to the nature.

Due to the lack of information I could find for “North Atlantic”, I took over other information I found about the artist and by that be able to find answers for Tatiana Plakhovas art.

In the ocean, everything is movement. The ocean is a living space by billions of living creatures. The ocean can be wild and chaotic, it can also be calm and meditative. In a simple way, Plakhova shows once more that everything is connection, and everything is connected. The nature itself is a highly meditative space, where we as humans have the duty to care about. Tatiana Plakhova is very much aware of the fact everything is connected to nature and her aim is to make us realize how important it is to live with the nature and not against it.

Scientific background

Networkism

“Networkism means simply that everything is interrelated through networks and systems of networks. Networkism is in essence a shift in perspective from the Individual to the Relational. Specifically, this shift is from today’s individual-based society (including social systems that are largely based on maximizing gains to individual actors) to a relational-based society (creating social systems that are largely based on maximizing gains for society at large)”

For the artist everything is connection. Not only the connection of art and science, but also the connection of human beings to nature. Nothing exists in the absence of its relationship to other things. As already explained above, Tatiana Plakhova is dealing with future cities connected to the nature. Transparent architecture, that could work with the nature.

"You can either call it Complexism or Networkism ... where imaginary landscapes of interconnected entities are the prevailing theme."

Networkism could be seen as way to understand the future or rather future thinking. The last couple of years happened to become the most important when thinking of networking. Facebook, What’s App or smartphones are only a few examples of how our networking and connecting has changed and how future thinking leads us more and more to a deeper connection among each other. We as humans are constantly developing. We are constantly working on a smarter world and on smarter solutions. In the graphic above, it is clearly shown, how our future might change or rather how it is already changing. “Future thinking projects forward through rational, deductive reasoning and application of a very creative mind to the constituent parts and, how these parts will be brought together in the future and to what end […]. Both future thinking and networkism entail envisioning the future you want. Future thinking helps you to rise above small thinking so you can identify and then create big, impactful changes. Networkism permits you to see the roadmap to execute your big impactful changes, or, if you see the world negatively, for how to survive the incredible transformations taking place. Future thinking is almost invariably an individual or small group effort — how executives at Ford can envision the future and how to translate that vision into action. Networkism is a collective psychological or philosophical shift in how we view the world and is more of a how to than a what or a where.”

Methods

By testing the method of my artist, I started to ask myself, what feelings would I wand to express. Thinking of Tatianas Plakhovas art, words like meditation, powerfulness or calmness popped up.

I started with a background picture, taken myself on which I overlayed several pictures to approach step by step the feelings I want to achieve.

This picture is not finished yet and will be continued. Also another method will be tested on Tatiana Plakhovas art.

Keywords

//infographic

noun: infographic; plural noun: infographics

a visual representation of information or data, e.g. as a chart or diagram.

"a good infographic is worth a thousand words"

//cosmos

noun: cosmos

the universe seen as a well-ordered whole.

"he sat staring deep into the void, reminding himself of man's place in the cosmos"

a system of thought.

plural noun: cosmoses

"the new gender-free intellectual cosmos"

//complexism

noun: complexity

the state or quality of being intricate or complicated

"an issue of great complexity"

synonyms: complication, problem, difficulty, twist, turn, convolution, entanglement; More

antonyms: simplicity

a factor involved in a complicated process or situation.

plural noun: complexities

"the complexities of family life"

//nature

noun: nature; plural noun: natures

1. the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.

"the breathtaking beauty of nature"

synonyms: the natural world, the living world, Mother Nature, creation, the world, the environment, the earth, Mother Earth, the universe, the cosmos, natural forces; More

the physical force regarded as causing and regulating the phenomena of the world.

"it is impossible to change the laws of nature"

2. the basic or inherent features, character, or qualities of something.

"helping them to realize the nature of their problems"

synonyms: essence, inherent/basic/essential characteristics, inherent/basic/essential qualities, inherent/basic/essential attributes, inherent/basic/essential features, sum and substance, character, identity, complexion More

the innate or essential qualities or character of a person or animal.

"it's not in her nature to listen to advice"

synonyms: character, personality, disposition, temperament, temper, humor, make-up, cast/turn of mind, persona, psyche, constitution, fibre

"it was not in Daisy's nature to be bitchy"

inborn or hereditary characteristics as an influence on or determinant of personality