We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anastasiya Kopteva a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anastasiya, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?

The most important lesson I learned through past roles has been to be passionate, and share and grow that energy with those around you. When I worked as a neuroaesthetics researcher at the Laboratory for Non-Invasive Brain Machine Interface Systems, I was surrounded by an absolutely incredible group of researchers and artists. With this group and the overlap in passions, we consistently went on tangents discussing topics such as creativity and consciousness, which ultimately helped bolster our ideas and work. Initially, I was brought into the laboratory as a dance consultant who could aid in the study of the “Brain on Dance”. However, since I was actively passionate and working to further delve into the study of the neural correlates of artistic creation and perception, I was offered a longer-term position (huge thank you to Dr. Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal for the opportunity and mentorship). Without sharing my passion and drive for the work, I would not have had the opportunities granted by the work — the incredible conversations, exploring those interesting and complex questions, and the ability to share my love of the subject with the world (conducting experiments and explaining the research to patrons of art museums across the United States and Mexico and showcasing the work at venues such as the Smithsonian, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and MFAH).

Bonus: Be on time and present. While this seems like this would be a given, it is surprising how often people don’t ‘show up’. I was once the only one who showed up on-time for a music video shoot, had the opportunity to play a larger role, and was extended an offer for further collaboration due to dependability.

Opportunity rarely finds the people who are not there to see it. Be present, be passionate, and create your own adventure.

Anastasiya, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

One of my main passions is solving problems through innovative solutions, often connecting seemingly disparate ideas, methodologies, and mediums.

Working in management consulting, I am able to explore complex business problems and opportunities, and provide strategic guidance.

I am also the co-founder and Chief Artistic Officer of ExquisiteMorphs. ExquisiteMorphs provides curated AI art for a variety of uses; we have created visuals for movies, DJ sets for large events, music artist cover art, and more.

Always interested in exploring the world through creation of art, I also explore the world of sound and story as a recording artist and songwriter for Level 3 Music Group and as a dancer for select projects.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part about being a creative for me is the collaboration aspect. I am most in my element when working with an interdisciplinary group, and co-creating something unique from the skills and perspectives across individuals. There is immense beauty in ideating and immense satisfaction in solving a problem or creating something new. Sharing the success on the journey provides greater joy, and the ability to share that joy forward with an external audience experiencing the finished product is icing on the cake.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When I was younger, I didn’t always feel like an “artist”. My initial activities growing up were predominantly competition dance and martial arts, which both activated my perfectionist tendencies with the feeling that movements were binarily correct or incorrect. As I have grown up, my perspective of my own artistry has evolved. As I ventured into ballet, contemporary, modern, hip-hop, and improvisational dance, I experienced greater variation in storytelling – through choreography, and even more in decisions and movements. I gave myself more liberty to explore and create something I may not like, creating something novel from familiar components with the aim to expand the boundaries of what I have seen before, and what I have experienced.

In parallel, I was further introduced to the concept of site-specific performance, creating experiential works inspired by or in collaboration with the chosen performance location. This helped me further frame my thoughts about my own artistry – for myself, I predominantly find value in use-case driven creativity, so this conceptually helped me create the box I wanted to work in, and explore the solutions that fit (including creating space for spontaneity).

My perspective of art and artistry is still evolving, and that is okay; I have left behind the need for a concrete, unchanging definition. I look forward to continuing to explore interesting questions through creative pursuits and collaborations.

Contact Info:

• Website: anastasiyakopteva.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anastasiyakopteva/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasiyakopteva/
• Other: exquisitemorphs.ai Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1DGw92SUvn0pR5bfiG2o76 Coffee Reviews: https://goo.gl/maps/ebAaJZ2wNpir8oGAA

Image Credits
Joomi Lee, Mehdi Hassine, Natalie Linde, Svetlana Linde, Michael Cheong-Leen