Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University Puts AI and Wind to Work Making Music
Radio LETI BIT is a permanent public sculpture unveiled on 17 June 2021 at Sevkabel Port, Saint Petersburg, Russia, that uses wind movement, piezoelectric transducers, and neural-network algorithms to compose and broadcast original music continuously through an online radio station, making it the world's first installation of its kind.
The campaign was created for Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University, known universally as LETI, by Saint Petersburg creative agency Decembrist, with production handled by Cooldown Production. The brief operated on two simultaneous planes. First, it served as a 2021 university admissions campaign designed to position LETI as an institution where engineering and creative ambition meet. Second, it functioned as a public memorial to Alexander Stepanovich Popov, the Russian scientist widely credited in Russia with the invention of radio. The choice of radio as the sculpture's visual and conceptual anchor was therefore both historically resonant and institutionally precise.
The installation takes the form of a vintage radio receiver from which 144 fine metal rods emerge, each standing between four and five metres tall. Arranged so that they visually reference the double-helix structure of human DNA, the rods vibrate when wind passes through them. Inside the structure, a computer running neural networks receives data from piezoelectric transducers that measure each rod's oscillations. The artificial intelligence then acts as a composer, drawing on a large sound library to assemble a musical composition in real time. That composition is audible immediately at the Sevkabel Port site through speakers built into the structure, and simultaneously broadcast to any listener anywhere in the world via the online radio station letibit.ru. Because wind patterns never precisely repeat, the music never repeats either. The installation thus renders the university's technological identity in a form that is experiential, public, and genuinely infinite.
Russia's higher-education sector faced structural headwinds in 2021. According to globaledurussia.com, the Russian higher-education market experienced an estimated decline of approximately four percent in 2021, with reduced international enrollment among the contributing factors. In that context, domestic universities competing for a contracting domestic applicant pool needed differentiation that went beyond traditional media.
The Interfax national ranking assessed 341 Russian universities and institutes in 2021, evaluating them across education, research, social environment, international cooperation, brand, and innovation dimensions, according to interfax.com. LETI's decision to anchor its admissions campaign to a genuinely novel technological achievement addressed the brand and innovation axes of that framework directly, offering proof rather than assertion.
The competitive pressure was real. ITMO University, one of LETI's most visible rivals in the Saint Petersburg technology-education market, had run a 2020 admissions campaign called Digital Native that, according to News Itmo Ru, reached a reported audience and generated substantial application volumes, establishing a benchmark for digitally native university outreach in Russia. Meanwhile, in the engineering-technical ranking published by raex-rr.com, Bauman Moscow State Technical University ranked first in 2021, signalling that Moscow institutions held prestige advantages that Saint Petersburg universities needed to actively counter.
Decembrist's strategic response was to sidestep the conventional admissions playbook entirely. Rather than producing a film or a social media campaign, the agency created a permanent artefact at Sevkabel Port — a cultural destination already associated with modern trends and technology in Saint Petersburg — that generated continuous earned attention. By commissioning the world's first AI-and-wind music sculpture, LETI made a claim about its own capabilities that no competitor could replicate. The online radio station letibit.ru extended that claim into a persistent broadcast, ensuring the campaign lived beyond its launch date and reached audiences in Russia and internationally.
The creative concept behind Radio LETI BIT rests on a single elegant proposition: the university that studies electrotechnology should itself generate electricity, signal, and sound. Decembrist resolved that proposition into physical form through a sculpture that is simultaneously a monument, a musical instrument, and a broadcast transmitter.
The choice to model the structure on a vintage radio receiver was not decorative. It placed the installation in direct visual and conceptual dialogue with Alexander Stepanovich Popov, whose connection to LETI gives the university much of its historical identity. The 144 metal rods rising four to five metres from that radio body introduce a second layer of meaning: according to the campaign documentation cited by Letitoday Ru and Decembrist Agency, the rods were designed to recall the structure of human DNA, positioning the university's intellectual output as something organic and evolving rather than mechanical and fixed.
The technical execution required genuine engineering precision. Piezoelectric transducers embedded throughout the structure capture the oscillation frequency and amplitude of each rod as wind moves across them. That data feeds into a neural-network system running on a computer housed inside the sculpture. The artificial intelligence then interprets the oscillation data as compositional parameters, selecting and arranging sounds to produce music in real time. The system was designed so that no two compositions would be identical, which means the online radio station letibit.ru functions as a genuinely live and perpetually original broadcast.
Production credits documented by iliashalashov.com and Sostav Ru name Anton Mokhov and Nikolai Tsaryov as producers at Decembrist, with Ilya Shalashov also credited among the agency personnel who brought the project to completion, alongside production company Cooldown Production. The integration of architectural fabrication, sensor engineering, neural-network programming, and broadcast infrastructure into a single coherent installation represents a level of cross-disciplinary production craft that remains rare in experiential advertising anywhere, and was without precedent in Russia in 2021.
No independently verified performance data measuring application volumes, reach figures, or broadcast audience numbers for the Radio LETI BIT campaign is publicly available. The absence of published metrics is consistent with experiential installations of this type, where the primary value is earned media attention, cultural positioning, and long-term brand equity rather than a single measurable conversion event.
What can be assessed structurally is considerable. The installation at Sevkabel Port in Saint Petersburg created a permanent artefact that generates ongoing impressions for LETI without recurring media spend. The online radio station letibit.ru ensures that the campaign's output — music composed by wind and artificial intelligence — reaches listeners in Russia and internationally on a continuous basis, giving the university a media channel that it effectively built rather than bought.
The campaign's claim to be the world's first sculpture to compose music using wind and neural networks is documented across multiple independent sources including campaignsoftheworld.com, decembrist.agency, letitoday.ru, and Fontanka Ru, all of which covered the installation at launch. That category-defining claim is itself a durable communications asset for LETI, one that functions across admissions marketing, research credibility, and institutional reputation simultaneously.
Clapboard rates Radio LETI BIT at 83 out of 100. That score reflects the campaign's conceptual originality, its technical ambition, the discipline with which Decembrist resolved a complex brief into a single coherent physical object, and the strategic intelligence of building a permanent installation rather than a time-limited campaign. The primary factor limiting a higher score is the absence of published outcome data that would confirm the admissions impact of the investment.
Radio LETI BIT is the world's first sculpture to compose music using wind and artificial intelligence. Installed at Sevkabel Port, Saint Petersburg on 17 June 2021, it uses 144 metal rods, piezoelectric transducers, and neural-network algorithms to generate real-time compositions broadcast on the online radio station letibit.ru.
LETI commissioned the sculpture as its 2021 university admissions campaign and as a public memorial to radio inventor Alexander Stepanovich Popov. Designed by agency Decembrist, the installation positioned LETI as a leader in artificial intelligence and engineering innovation within Russia's competitive higher-education market.
Decembrist, a Saint Petersburg creative agency, created the Radio LETI BIT campaign. Cooldown Production served as the production partner. Agency personnel credited by iliashalashov.com and sostav.ru include producers Anton Mokhov and Nikolai Tsaryov, alongside Ilya Shalashov among the core project team.
The sculpture stands at Sevkabel Port, a cultural and technology destination in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where it has been a permanent installation since its unveiling on 17 June 2021. Visitors hear the AI-generated compositions through speakers built into the structure, and remote listeners access the same music via letibit.ru.
Piezoelectric transducers inside the sculpture measure the oscillation frequency and amplitude of 144 wind-driven metal rods. A computer running neural networks interprets that data as compositional parameters and assembles original music in real time. Because wind patterns never precisely repeat, according to decembrist.agency, the music never repeats either.
Clapboard rates Radio LETI BIT at 83 out of 100. The score recognises the campaign's conceptual originality, technical ambition, and the strategic discipline with which Decembrist resolved a complex brief into a single permanent public installation serving both admissions and institutional reputation objectives for LETI in 2021.
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