Dr. Wladimir Velminski

Wladimir Velminski, born 1976, has been coordinating the research project “History and Theory of Media Regimes” at Bauhaus University Weimar since 2016. He studied mathematics, physics as well as media and Slavic studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Lomonosov University in Moscow. From 2002 to 2006, Velminski was a research associate in the project “Bild Schrift Zahl”, directed by Friedrich Kittler, at the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2006 to 2007, he directed the project “mathesis & graphé. Leonhard Euler – Im Paradies der Gelehrten”, which was part of the research project “Das Technische Bild”, managed by Horst Bredekamp, at the very same university. In 2007, Velminski took a position as researcher and lecturer at the Institut für Slawistik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he gained his doctorate in 2008 with a dissertation entitled “Form Zahl Symbol. Leonard Eulers Strategien der Anschaulichkeit”.

From 2009 to 2011, Velminski worked at the Slavisches Seminar, Universität Zürich, before being appointed as Researcher and Lecturer by ETH Zürich. In 2011, Velminski was awarded a Dilthey-Fellowship by Fritz Thyssen-Foundation, which he partly spent at the Medizinhistorisches Museum at the Charité Berlin and at ETH Zürich. 2015 he war Senior-Fellow at IKKM in Weimar. Apart from his academic appointments, Velminski has distinguished himself with two scientific films, among them LEONHARD EULER. IM PARADIES DER GELEHRTEN (2007), which was nominated as best European scientific film by the European Festival of Educational and Science Films.

RESEARCH PROJECT

Arrival of a cat at the display. History and theory of the first computer simulation of a living being

The planned project at the MECS in Lüneburg will involve the analysis of one of the first computer simulations of a living being movements. In 1968, three mathematicians of Moscow's Lomonosov University created a computer animation lasting 40 seconds — a cat's course. Under the direction of Nikolaj Konstantinov, the mathematicians decided to simulate the gait of the animal using the calculator BESM-4 and to record every slightest change on the paper. In the journal Problemy Kibernetiki (Cybernetics problems), the simulation of controlled acceleration of certain parts of the body is based on differential equations, as the six-year-later article "Programm, which models a mechanism and an animation about it" Order; the graphic interpretation of the cat was achieved using a character field. The parametrically dissected contours of the animal made it possible to simulate the arrival of the cat at the display.