ALEXEI SHULGIN

Artist, curator, musician

born 1963 in Moscow
lives and works in Moscow

1988 Founded "Immediate Photography" group
1994-95 Teacher of photography/contemporary art at United Art Workshops, Moscow
1994 Created electronic photogallery "Hot Pictures" on the Internet
1995 Founded Moscow WWWArt Centre (http://redsun.cs.msu.su/wwwart/)
1995-96 Seminars on WWW/Internet at Moscow WWWArt Centre
1997 Invented Form Art (http://www.c3.hu/collection/form/)
1997 Started Easylife site (http://www.easylife.org/)
1998 Formed 386 DX Cyberpunk Rock Band (http://www.easylife.org/386dx)
1999 Webmaster of FUFME, Inc. (http://www.fufme.com)
2000 Teacher at Pro Arte media lab, St. Petersburg

Participated in hundreds of exhibitions and conferences on photography/contemporary art/new media/communications.

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386 DX is the world's first cyberpunk rock band. For two years it questions ability of computers to replace humans - and the answer is always positive. The long awaited competition between live forms and robots has started. 386 DX performs it on the most basic level - the level of a street musician.

386 DX consist of one computer. Both sounds of musical instruments and vocals are synthesized in real time, using text-to-speech and midi software.

The band has performed in many locations in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia - not only on streets but also in clubs, bars, concert halls and museums. The first CD - "The Best Of" has been released in 2000.

386 DX consists of:
- CPU: Intel 386 DX
- RAM: 4 Mb
- Hard Disk: 40 Mb
- Sound: Creative 16
http://easylife.org/386dx

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G.H. Hovagimyan.

From: Report on Interferences Festival, Belfort France

Perhaps the best performance was that of Russian artist Alexei Shulgin. He also captured first prize in the performance art category for his performance "386DX" (http://www.easylife.org/386dx). Alexei came onstage with a computer keyboard hanging from a guitar strap slung around his shoulder. He looked like Joey Ramones of the Ramones punk rock band. A synth voice announced that the human onstage was merely decoration. After starting up the first song Alexei pantomimed various guitar playing gestures using the keyboard as his ersatz axe. A screen behind him pulsed with a cheap geometric light show animation synchronized to the music. This is one of those applications one can download from the internet for free. A sort of kiddie light show. Indeed, the midi sound tracks for each song played are freely available on the web from pop music midi sites. The first song was a droll rendition of "California Dreamin'" originally done by the Mamas and the Papas. The male synth voice sang along in the stilted comic manner of synthetic voice. The high point of the concert was the synth voice singing the Doors song "Light My Fire." Indeed, the whole concert was a string of mostly American rock hits. The European audience cheered and applauded in recognition as each subsequent song began. What this points out is a very sharp analysis of the pervasiveness of American media products throughout the world. At one point the 386dx
band launched into the Sex Pistols song, "Anarchy in the UK." This moved a couple of the audience's young fellows to start doing faux moshing and slam dancing and yes I know The Sex Pistols are British. What I found most intriguing was the subtext of commonality of experience created by rock music. This appears to be an epoch just passing and is currently being replaced by the shared experience of a global internet. Structurally speaking, Alexei a Russian artists refers to American media but filters it through both web accessibility and a European point of view.