Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Centre Opens Exhibition at Technoprom 2023 Forum
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On August 22, 2023, the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Centre (HCMRC) opened an exhibition as part of the Technoprom 2023 forum in Novosibirsk. On the opening day, more than 300 people visited the stand, of which more than 50 took part in an interactive ‘anthropologist simulator’ and a visual attention test. The HSE News Service reports on the exposition and the feedback received by the experts.
The Technoprom 2023 international forum in Siberia is a platform for building interregional and international cooperation by drawing on specific projects, cases, and technological developments. For the tenth anniversary forum, HCMRC prepared an exhibition of infrastructure clusters featuring an interactive ‘Anthropologist Simulator’. Participants were tasked with identifying animal and human skulls in a gamified format. Visitors were also invited to take a neuropsychological test to assess their visual attention and task-switching abilities.
The core of the exhibition space consisted of five sculptural reconstructions of ancient people from around the world, including the famous Sungir man. The reconstruction conveys the appearance of a man who lived almost 30,000 years ago. The HCMRC project included repeated study of paleoanthropological material. With the help of computed tomography, a study of the endocast and nasal sinuses was carried out and the probable cause of death was established. The exhibition also featured sculptures of an African Australopithecus, a Neanderthal man from La Ferassie, and a sculptural reconstruction based on the skull of a man excavated at the Kuznetsovo 1 modern-era burial ground (Sakhalin Island). Each of them is a copy of the works of famous Soviet and contemporary anthropologists.
‘As usual, the anthropological cluster was the most time-consuming part of organising the stand—the preparation and installation of the reconstructions began long before the exhibition opening. For the neurocognitive cluster presentation, it was necessary just to connect the equipment (laptop, tablet, eye movement recorder) and make sure that everything worked as planned,’ says Anna Izmalkova, researcher at HSE University’s Centre for Cognition and Decision Making. ‘The preparation of our exposition at the Technoprom forum was carried out in an extremely short time, so we had to act quickly and precisely. Making a mistake was not an option,’ adds Olga Voron, Deputy Director of the HCMRC Head Office.
‘HCMRC’s participation in the forum is aimed at solving several problems. On the one hand, we participate in a round table to present, discuss, and promote the scientific results that our centre has achieved and that directly correspond to Russia’s scientific and technological development. In particular, we show results in such innovative areas of human potential research as digital culture, platform employment, and ethical issues behind the spread of biohacking. On the other hand, with our exhibition, we show a unique example of interdisciplinary interaction between anthropologists and neurocognitive scientists and cooperation between HSE University and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The great interest shown in our exhibition demonstrates that there is a field for finding new scientific and applied cooperation,’ explains Maria Nagernyak, Director of the HCMRC Head Office.
Visitors to the exhibition were interested in the specifics of diagnosing and preserving cognitive functions, the development of a method for reconstructing faces from skulls, and HCMRC’s scientific projects and infrastructure. ‘The interactive Anthropologist Simulator stand was very popular; visitors could try their hand at identifying animal and human skulls there. Students, PhDs, and tech company executives enthusiastically joined the discussion of the signs that distinguish a panda skull from a grizzly skull.Recording the eye movements of experienced anthropologists made it possible to look at the problem again through the eyes of an expert,’ adds Anna Izmalkova. At the forum, the organisers were asked about the applied aspects of research. HCMRC actively develops the most relevant fields today, from neuromarketing and computerised methods for diagnosing cognitive functions to reconstructing a human’s appearance based on their skull.
The exhibition brought together not only Russia’s leading scientific researchers, but also politicians, public figures, and those who are interested in the latest scientific achievements. One of the key aims was to show how to effectively connect a large number of different disciplines with each other and discover what results can be achieved through interdisciplinary cooperation.
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