Editing Alexei Shulgin

{{Short description|Russian contemporary artist}}
{{For|the football player|Aleksei Shulgin (footballer)}}
{{multiple issues|
{{tone|date=March 2016}}
{{BLP sources|date=January 2022}}}}
[[Image:Alexei Shulgin (1987).jpg|thumb|Alexei Shulgin, 1987]]

'''Alexei Shulgin''' ({{langx|ru|Алексей Шульгин}}; born 1963 in [[Moscow]]) is a Russian born contemporary artist, musician, and online curator. Working out of Moscow and Helsinki,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/ashulgin/|title=Piet Zwart Institute- Alexei Shulgin|accessdate=2008-04-29|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419014508/http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/ashulgin/|archivedate=19 April 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> Shulgin established the Immediate Photography Group in 1988 and started his career in this area of study. After 1990, he shifted his interests from photography to the Internet, and in 1994 founded Moscow-WWW-Art-Lab [https://web.archive.org/web/20080501082440/http://sunsite.cs.msu.su/wwwart/ WWW Art Lab], collaborating with many artists from [[London]] and [[Slovenia]]. That very same year, Shulgin created an online photo museum called "[[Hot Pictures]]".<ref name=BIO>{{cite web| url= http://xlgallery.artinfo.ru/authors?id=73| title= Alexei Shulgin XL gallery| accessdate= 2008-04-29| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080510025644/http://xlgallery.artinfo.ru/authors?id=73| archivedate= 2008-05-10| url-status= dead}}</ref> In 1997, he continued with the invention of Form Art ([http://www.c3.hu/collection/form Form Art]) and the introduction of the Easy Life website ([http://www.easylife.org Easy Life]). In 1999, Shulgin became Webmaster at FUFME, Inc. Since 2004, Shulgin has been a co-owner of Electroboutique ([http://electroboutique.com Electroboutique]).

==Highlights==
Particularly involved with [[software art]] and [[internet art]], he is a part of the [[readme]] culture and uses code as a form of art. In 1997, he released his first interactive work, Form Art,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Form Art - Alexei Shulgin|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/form-art-alexei-shulgin/wwGzKzE1h3uCqQ|access-date=2022-01-20|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en}}</ref> in which only minimum factors are programmed in the form of [[HTML]]. Navigating this site requires aimless click-throughs of blank boxes and links, which lead the viewer through 19 pages of "form art" animations. Behavioral expectations are subverted by frequently overriding default functionality of basic form elements such as radio buttons and list boxes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alexei Shulgin {{!}} Form Art (1997) {{!}} Artsy|url=https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alexei-shulgin-form-art|access-date=2022-01-23|website=www.artsy.net}}</ref>

Shulgin is probably most well known for his ongoing so called "386DX" performances,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-10-27|title=NET ART ANTHOLOGY: 386 DX|url=https://anthology.rhizome.org/386-dx|access-date=2022-01-20|website=NET ART ANTHOLOGY: 386 DX}}</ref> in which he manipulates an antiquated computer with [[Microsoft Windows]] version 3.1 and an [[Intel 80386|Intel 386]] processor to perform [[MIDI]] (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) renditions of popular music hits while a synthesized text-to-speech voice "sings" the lyrics. Shulgin describes his project, which he began in 1998, of electronic covers as "the world's first cyberpunk rock band."<ref name="NMA">{{cite book |title=New Media Art |last=Tribe |first=Mark |author2=Jana, Reena |year=2007 |url=https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/New+Media+Art |publisher=Taschen |location=Germany |isbn=978-3-8228-3041-3 |pages=84–85 |access-date=2008-04-30 |archive-date=2010-07-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705010735/https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/New+Media+Art |url-status=dead }}</ref> Shulgin and his software have given live performances in many different locales all over the world, from the San Diego/Mexico border, with Shulgin on one side and his computer on the other, to the streets of [[Graz]], [[Austria]], where the machine was actually given money as if it were a real person for playing the music.<ref name="NMA" /> Shulgin encourages his audience to also manipulate the early Microsoft software- with the self-release of his cover songs on an enhanced cd titled ''The Best of 386 DX'', which included the same first version of Windows that he used, followed by the release of ''Biggest Smash Hits'' on the [[Staalplaat]] label.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biggest Smash Hits, by Alexei Shulgin/ 386 DX|url=https://staalplaatlabel.bandcamp.com/album/biggest-smash-hits|access-date=2022-01-20|website=staalplaat label|language=en}}</ref>

==Exhibitions==
*2012, Electroboutique, Requiem [http://mamm-mdf.ru/en/exhibitions/requiem/], [[Мультимедиа Арт Музей, Москва]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book
 |last = Baumgärtel
 |first = Tilman
 |title = net.art - Materialien zur Netzkunst
 |publisher = Verlag für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg
 |year = 1999
 |location= Nürnberg
 |language= German
 |edition=2nd
 |pages=120–127
 |isbn = 3-933096-17-0}}

==External links==
* [http://www.easylife.org easylife.org website]
* https://web.archive.org/web/20080419014508/http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/ashulgin/
* https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Alexei+Shulgin
* https://web.archive.org/web/20080501082440/http://sunsite.cs.msu.su/wwwart/
*[http://iasl.uni-muenchen.de/links/GCA-VI.3e.html#HTML Thomas Dreher: History of Computer Art, chap. VI.3.2 HTML Art]  with a wider explanation of Alexei Shulgin's "Form Art" (1997).

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shulgin, Alexei}}
[[Category:Net.artists]]
[[Category:1963 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Russian male artists]]
[[Category:Russian digital artists]]
[[Category:Kandinsky Prize]]