The Science Museum presents its latest free exhibition entitled Electroboutique Pop-up. The installation showcases the work of Alexei Shulgin and Aristarkh Chernyshev, two Russian artists who specialise in innovative, interactive artworks, incorporating the latest electronic technologies. In a museum full of redundant technologies this display makes a surprising and refreshing change. The exhibition is named after the production company, media art gallery and artist collective established by Shulgin and Chernyshev – Electroboutique. Electroboutique Pop-up is funded by The Art Council England, with additional support from the Guido Charitable Trust and the Thistle Trust.
Shulgin and Chernyshev's works explore pop culture, media and art histories through live data, custom-made software and electronics. The artists use the term 'Creative Consumption' to describe the audiences' interaction with the artworks. The works raise a variety of questions about the production, design and technology of art, and encourage visitors to think about attitudes to corporate social responsibility, consumerism and capitalism.
Electroboutique Pop-up – Highlights of the Exhibition
All the artworks have been created during the last seven years, with some being specially commissioned for the exhibition. Highlights of the exhibition include:
- 3G International is an over-sized distorted iPhone 3G fashioned in the style of Tatlin's Monument to the 3rd International. In about 1920 Vladimir Tatlin, a Russian artist and architect, planned a monumental, utopian, building to be erected in Petrograd, now St. Petersburg. Tatlin's tower was intended as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern (the third international). Although it was never built, the tower is regarded as an avant-garde icon, contrasting sharply with the iPhone, a symbol of technological progress and mass consumerism. 3G International makes strong connections between the art and design of the early 20th century and the hi-tech designs of the 21st.
- Final Adjustment is an interactive TV-installation protected by a thickly-padded casing. The television changes picture when you whack it!
- Media Mirror II is compulsive viewing: a digital mirror uses the latest electronic technologies to show the viewer their own enhanced 'tele-portrait' reflection.
- wowPod invites visitors to plug in their own iPods allowing them to view their mp3 files, videos and podcasts in an exciting and unique way.
- The Way I See It! is a sculpture resembling a giant pair of sun-glasses. The work combines pop- and op-art with psychedelic club culture and interactive art. Visitors play their own music on an in-built MP3 player. As they dance along to the music their image is picked up by a concealed camera and appears inside the piece.
Electroboutique Pop-up, which will be open from 23rd November 2011 to 14th February 2012, is suitable for all ages. Further information is available from the Science Museum.
Frances Spiegel - Frances Spiegel, B.A. Hons. (Open)., Dip.Eur.Hum., read Art History/European Modern History at the Open University.
