Tocsin

Genre:sound sculpture | Exhibiting institution:Trinity Church | Year of creation:2009 | City/Country:Cologne / Germany |

Material:aluminum frame | Equipment:40 megaphones, microphone, audio amplifier, sound mixer | Dimension:120 x 120 x 120 cm | Weight:80 kg |

tocsin

toc“sin (?), n. [f., fr. of. toquier to touch,
f. toquer (originally, a dialectic form of f. toucher) + seint (for sein)
a bell, ll. signum, fr. l. signum a sign, signal. see touch, and sign.]
an alarm bell, or the ringing of a bell for the purpose of alarm.
the loud tocsin tolled their last alarm. Amplified bell

40 megaphones of different sizes and capacities are fixed to an aluminum frame made in the shape of a bell. All audio inputs are grouped together and connected to one single microphone. The microphone is hanging in the center of the bell just below the megaphones. Only a temporary de-energized system prevents the inevitable audio feedback. As soon as the visitors disturb the microphone from its suspended state, the audio system automatically starts up and the deafening roar of a 40-megaphone chorus of amplified feedback collapses on the bell-ringer.

The Magic Lamp

Genre:multimedia installation | Exhibiting institution:KHM, Academy of Media Arts Cologne | Year of creation:2008 | City/Country:Cologne / Germany |

Material:office table, office chair, user guide, porn videos | Equipment:modified reading lamp, mini projector, laptop, internet connection | Dimension:180 x 90 x 120 cm | Weight:14 kg |

In the center of the room there is a desk. On the table stand a laptop and a desk lamp. The laptop seems unfolded backwards: half ajar, with rear side directed to the workplace. In this situation, the laptop is useless as a computer, but it will do as a handy book stand. So it is: a users manual for the laptop lies on the display with its cover open for reading. Instead of a light bulb, a small video projector is inserted in the lamp bowl. The projector is connected to the laptop. The laptop – to the Internet. The table lamp projects color porn videos from the Internet upon the black-and-white pages of the users manual.

The Mobile Seance

Genre:multimedia performance | Year of creation:2007 | City/Country:Kassel / Germany |

Location:Kassel, Cologne, Chemnitz / Germany, Moscow / Russia, Kyiv / Ukraine, Madrid / Spain, Lyon / France | Equipment:headset, horn speaker, audio amplifier, sound mixer, portable TV-receiver DVBT-TV, modified remote control, Arduino | Hardware:modified wheelchair, car battery | Duration:2 years |

The spiritualist medium is riding a modified wheelchair offering a three minutes “mobile séance” for 1 euro. A slim mobile TV screen is fixed on his chest and coin chute between his legs. As far as 1 euro is being put into the coin slot the introduction instruction manual appears on the screen, offering people to use a TV remote control for choosing any TV channel. Medium is transmitting sounds to the audience he is receiving from TV set into his headphones. As far as three minutes are over the machine is asking to put another coin.

Refrigerator

Genre:video sculpture | Exhibiting institution:MAC Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon / France | Year of creation:2007 | City/Country:Kassel / Germany |

The video is projected on a refrigerator door, which records a process of filling this refrigerator with food. The actual duration of the process counts exactly two minutes, starting from the moment when the refrigerator was still completely empty until the moment when it was completely filled up. The video was shot in two passes (one minute each) so that the order of the first and second parts were rearranged. In the end, the viewer always sees two different video sequences that constantly overlap each other: one sequence reproduces the primary procedure, and the other reproduces the procedure that was performed with one minute to spare. It becomes impossible to determine the actual sequence of events: the refrigerator seems to be constantly filled with the same food, but it never becomes completely full and never completely empty.

Performance:Andrey Ustinov | Camera:Andrey Ustinov | Video editing:Andrey Ustinov | Production:School of Arts and Design of Kassel |

Sagen Sie A

Genre:video installation | Year of creation:2006 | City/Country:Kassel / Germany |

A news anchor in Tagesschau studio (German news program) says “Ah”. The image becomes smaller and shifts to the depth of the screen, revealing that the previous scene was just a live broadcast on a studio monitor behind the anchor. At this point, the same scene appears again: the same news anchor says “Ah”. This image also becomes smaller and shifts into the depth of the screen, making it visible that the previous scene was also just a live broadcast on a studio monitor behind the anchor. And so it goes agensieaon and on. The spectator finds himself as the companion of a feedback loop in the endless zooming in. Gradually, the time gap between the sequences decreases, the speed increases, and the particular “Ah” sounds merge into an uninterrupted AAAAAAAAAAAh-scream. Finally, the scene jumps out of the camera viewfinder while the camera remains filming. Now the spectator can see the entire perspective of the blue screen studio, where the anchor sits without pants and screams continuously into the camera.

A

original medium: mini-DV, 4:3, PAL
technology: digital editing, digital animation
duration: 1.00 min.

The A letter transforms into a railway track. On the rail, a screaming head is lying. The scream drowns in the rumble of the train. The scene with the head on the rail transforms into a picture of blue skies with a cloud floating in there. The cloud transforms into ASCII code: A! Finally, the ASCII code fills the whole screen, and the sky turns into a monotonous cobweb of “A”s. Then, the sky cobweb is torn down, and, followed with a scream, falls back to the track. THE END title is accompanied with the fading out rumble of the leaving train.

performance, editing, animation: Andrey Ustinov
camera: Levi Gendlin

Funny & Tasty

location: café McDonald’s, Moscow / Russia
material: McDonalds food, paper, scissors
duration: 30 minutes

In the restaurant there is a big table served for the corporative party. All participants of the action are getting paper masks of Ronald McDonald and the scissors to be able to cut out the orifices for eyes and mouth. They are putting masks on and eating hamburgers and cheeseburgers and drinking Coca Cola with masks on.

performance, movie: Andrey Ustinov
participants: artist group “Leto”
camera: unknown

Expulsion from Paradise

Genre:video performance | Year of creation:2002 | City/Country:St. Petersburg / Russia |

The naked “Adam” and “Eve” walked through the dining room of a McDonald’s from one occupied table to another, feeding on the food of the confused visitors. The outraged McDonald’s staff and the robbed visitors violently drove the “Adam and Eve” out of their “paradise”.

Narcissus

Genre:video | Year of creation:2002 | City/Country:St. Petersburg / Russia |

Material:toilet bowl, urine, tap water, voice | Medium:mini-DV, 4:3, PAL | Software:Yuri Popov | Duration:1 min. |

The white bottom of a toilet bowl gradually fills with a long-lasting stream of urine. When this process is complete and the waterfall waves slowly subside, the beautiful face of the urinator appears on the shimmering golden urine surface and says, “I love you!” With these words, both the urinator’s face and his urine are washed away forever.

Performance:Andrey Ustinov | Video editing:Andrey Ustinov | Production:PRO ARTE Institute, Foundation for Culture and Arts |

Moses

Genre:video performance | Exhibiting institution:Media Art Forum | Year of presentation:2001 | City/Country:St. Petersburg / Russia |

Location:Art Center Pushkinskaya 10 | Material:black suit, white shirt, black tie, Old Testament, voice | Equipment:video monitor, VHS tape recorder, VHS player, VHS camera, headphones, microphone | Duration:6 hours |

A TV anchor reads the six-day creation story. There, he repeats his own spoken text, which he hears simultaneously through his headphones, which are connected to a rear monitor. This monitor plays a VHS tape where the same anchor is retelling the same text from an earlier recording. The current scene is recorded in the same way and is now played instead of the previous VHS tape. Now the anchor repeats the text from the last recording. And so it goes on and on. With each subsequent reading, the anchor makes small unintentional mistakes. These mistakes are then repeated again and again. On the top of that, there are coming the new ones. With each new performance, the mistakes multiply enormously until the original biblical text is no longer recognizable.

Performance:Andrey Ustinov | Camera:Yuri Popov | Curating:Nikolai Kononikhin |