Russian paganism of the 21st century in the representation of neural networks: “Has this really happened?”

Annotation

Modern Russian paganism is now an integral part of the religious map of the Russian Federation. In connection with the increasing role of artificial intelligence, the article tries to analyze the variational/invariant images of modern Russian paganism in the mapping of Russian neural nets (“Masterpiece”, “Ideogram”, “Recraft”, “Artgeneration”). As text “platforms” for drawing generation the following requests were made: “Russian warrior-rodnover of the XXIst century”, “Russian mother-in-law of the XXIst century”, “Russian pagan temple of the XXIst century”, “Modern Russian pagan Idols”. As a result of the pilot study, the following conclusions can be made: first, when creating images of modern pagans, neural nets primarily pay attention to the design of symbolic signs on chevrons, clothing, decor of temples. Secondly, the elements of appearance (secondary sexual characteristics, ceremonial clothing, tattoos) of the pagans of the neural nets in many ways copy the “religious appearance” of the real representatives of the community under consideration. Third, drawings of temples and idols of neural nets do not contradict, and sometimes quite correspond to real cult prototypes.

Keywords

modern Russian paganism, neural net, symbolism, visuality, sacred space, idols.

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This research was supported by funds from the strategic academic leadership program "Priority 2030" of Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.