A person cannot exist and act in the world without transforming it into a conceivable totality, and therefore without giving it a form. This way of interacting with reality is only possible when we distance ourselves from it and take the position of an observer. In his new book, Mikhail Yampolsky addresses the problem of form not only as a way of transforming material in art, but also as a fundamental category of human consciousness. That is why the author proposes to consider this work as an outline of a new approach to theoretical anthropology, through the prism of which Yampolsky considers the options for the emergence of forms external and internal worlds, draws attention to both their interpenetration and disintegration, which is especially relevant today. Mikhail Yampolsky is a historian and theorist of art and culture, philosopher, film critic and philologist. Professor at New York University, Doctor of Art History. Before moving to America, he worked at the All-Russian Research Institute of Cinematography and the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Among the books published in “UFO”: “Language - Body - Case: Cinema and the Search for Meaning” (2004), “The Weaver and the Visionary. Essays on the history of representation, or On the material and ideal in culture" (2007), "Through a glass darkly": 20 chapters on uncertainty" (2010), "Prigov" (2016).