
HSE ART GALLERY Opens Unusual Exhibition ‘Sonic Fiction: Designing Sound Spaces’
Noah’s Ark below decks, a utopia about the happy coexistence of all life forms, the universe of tinder-dating — HSE ART GALLERY’s new exposition has turned the gallery into a sound theatre, a mix of fictional and real worlds, where visitors are transported by sound. The unique sound exhibition ‘Sonic Fiction: Designing Sonic Spaces’ was created by students of HSE Art and Design School (of the ‘Sound Art and Sound Design’ Programme and others) as well as famous Russian and foreign artists. The artists and curators told the news service about the concept of the exposition, their work, and sound and neural networks.

British Scholar on Exploring Russian History
On February 9, the HSE International Laboratory 'Russia’s Regions in Historical Perspective' hosted Janet Hartley (London School of Economics), who presented her recent monograph The Volga: A History of Russia’s Greatest River. The presentation was part of a joint lecture series between the Laboratory and The Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation. HSE news service spoke with Janet Hartley about her interest in Russia, her experience travelling and doing research in Russia, and the books she has written on Russia.

Brain Activity Can Reveal the Severity of Autistic Traits
A team of researchers from Russia and Israel applied a new algorithm to classify the severity of autistic personality traits by studying subjects’ brain activity. The article ‘Brief Report: Classification of Autistic Traits According to Brain Activity Recoded by fNIRS Using ε-Complexity Coefficients’ is published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Planning for Babies: How Many Children Russian Families Would Like to Have
Over the past quarter-century, the socially accepted reproductive norm has hardly changed in Russia: most people still believe that two children per family is the ideal. The reality, however, is more diverse, and both largeand childfree families are increasingly commonplace. A new study by HSE demographers looks at changes in public opinion in Russia between 1995 and 2019 concerning the optimal number of children in the family.