Author: Anastasia Chernysheva
Anastasia, the 1st a year Ph.D. student of the History Department. My research endeavors might be categorized as the history of arts, sciences, and technologies. Exploring more science-oriented topics in the previous years – scientific materialism in Germany, popularization of Darwinian theory, the dual discovery of global warming in the US and USSR, I was largely interested in the exercise of creativity. A year and a half ago, amid the quarantine life reflections, I realized that it’s not possible anymore to struggle between the two supposed opposites, ‘two cultures’ – arts and sciences. The project of reconciliation I resulted to pursue in graduate school is devoted to the history of electronic music technologies (‘sound’ machines, synthesizers, but also groovy scientists and science-inspired artists), with the focus on the Midwest and the UIUC.