Vladimir Grankovsky

Photographer, neuroscientist, media artist, and PhD researcher in computer science.

Vladimir Grankovsky approaches the world as something to be reconfigured — pushing perception until it bends, breaks, and reforms. His work spans brain-computer interfaces, experimental optics, and embodied systems, all driven by a simple but disorienting premise: what if perception is far less fixed than we think?

He is also the artist behind CAPTCHA — a sarcastic humanoid robot that has been quietly harassing people around the world since 2023.

Captcha

There are artists who arrive from design, code, sculpture, or sound. Vlad arrives from somewhere more elusive: the inside of perception itself.

His practice consistently probes the same set of questions: How rigid is human perception? What happens to the self when sensory inputs shift? And what can machines reveal about consciousness — not just technically, but experientially?

Selected explorations

Out-of-body perception experiments
Building on psychologist George Stratton’s inversion experiments, Vlad developed VR systems that allow him to perceive himself from outside his own body. He wore these systems continuously for days, testing how quickly — and how deeply — the brain adapts to altered perspectives.

Brain–computer interface
He designed and built his own EEG device, creating a functioning brain–computer interface — not as a product, but as a direct, hands-on inquiry into the boundary between mind and machine.

Computational consciousness
His PhD research explores whether consciousness can be expressed computationally. As Donald Knuth writes:

“Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don’t fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it.”

Vlad’s work lives precisely at that intersection — between what can be formalized and what must remain experiential.

Other experiments
From lie detectors based on skin conductance to early social network visualizations and physical experiments like a Biefeld–Brown lifter, his work reflects a continuous, hands-on curiosity about systems — biological, social, and technological.

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A scientist’s curiosity.
An artist’s intuition.
A builder’s hands.

🔗 vladimirgrankovsky.net

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Meet Vlad at the ART+TECH Festival 2026 『 The New Human 』

ART+TECH Festival [2026]

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