artistic portfolio

video

Third (2022, stop-motion)
Metal Dreams (2021, stop-motion)
Non-Safety (2021, stop-motion)

performance

Breathe Performance (2021, electronic performance)

interactive installation

Through the Fake Cardboard Window (2021, interactive installation)

generative graphics

Curiosity (2020, mediascreen video)
Metaphor of the Sea (2019, VR)
Noise Room Fest (2020, live performance)
Red Light Performance (2019, live performance)

sonic experiments

Sonic Gun (2021, musical instrument)
Wave2 (2021, data sonification)
Distance Synesthesia (2021, data collection instrument)

applied and UX design

Pattern Box (2015-2017, video)
Experimental learning mode for mobile navigation apps (2021, UX concept)

theory and science fiction

Collapsing Time and Matter (2021, term paper)

Third

A story about how a simple dinner can separate loved ones and friends when the Third breaks through the screen.

Idea:

A short frame-by-frame animation on 'At the Table' topic, about the impact of television propaganda and military rhetoric.

Content:

To implement the project, the author built a specialized hardware-software complex for recording and processing frame-by-frame animation. The main material used in the animation is metal nails of various sizes. Class “Trick der Sterne” by prof. Kati Barath, Ulrike Isenberg (WiSe20-21)

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    stop-motion video, sound

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, Panasonic GH4, Blackmagic ATEM Mini, Vegas

Physical image capture kit and Touch Designer module

Actual images from the animation

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Metal Dreams

Curious eyes gaze into sparks in the night sky. It is filled with movement that carries messages.

Idea:

Is this flow of information trying to mimic reality? Or is this all our interpretation? Let's focus on something simple. And metal. The author set out to explore the possibilities and principles of analog frame-by-frame animation, supplemented by real-time digital image processing. The result is a short animated film about a universe in which nails, an allusion to the digital environment trying to mimic real-world objects.

Content:

To implement the project, the author built a specialized hardware-software complex for recording and processing frame-by-frame animation. The main material used in the animation is metal nails of various sizes. Class “Trick der Sterne” by prof. Kati Barath, Ulrike Isenberg (WiSe20-21)

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    stop-motion video, processing
    Lasse Bornträger
    sound

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, Panasonic GH4, Blackmagic ATEM Mini, Vegas

Physical image capture kit and Touch Designer module

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Actual images from the animation

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Non-Safety

Violence at the door slices the world around us with its iron teeth. Do we close our eyes enough to deal with it?

Idea:

The author continues to develop interactivity tools for developing step-by-step animations. The result was a short film about the learned helplessness of citizens in the face of repressions, embodied in the image of the teeth of a metal saw. The work draws attention to the problems of Russian civil society and the state's attempt to liquidate the International Memorial, organization protecting the memory of victims of political repression.

Content:

Rough and minimalist animated sketches, inspired by the work of William Kentridge, use the textures and shapes of real metal hacksaw blades as a backing. The looping, morphing, unrefined design, framerate shifting video tracks and soundtrack based on the same metal saw blades, create a sense of growing menace. The project continues to explore the capabilities of idiosyncratic hardware-software system for creating non-standard step-by-step animation. Class “Trickfilmkurs” by prof. Kati Barath, Ulrike Isenberg (SoSe21)

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    concept, saws layer, montage, sound
    Anastasia Guzenkova
    concept, drawings

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, Panasonic GH4, Blackmagic ATEM Mini, Vegas

Preliminary materials and updated workspace

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Actual images from the animation

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Breathe Performance

Sound-generative performance based on the appeal of sensory data to randomness

Idea:

Opening the veil of others' sleep, watching them breathe in a minimalistic setup. When sound entities made of field recordings and synthetic oscillators subordinate to random generation principles. Where 3D soundscape subordinates to sensory data

Content:

15 virtual sound sources were flying around the audience with filtering parameters controlled separately and randomly by 4 performers in a quadro sound setup. 5 temporal phases meant different stages of sensible sleep, connected to different sets of sound (falling asleep, travelling, escaping from a chase, finding harmony and washing out with rain and sea). Breathing of the performers captured by sensors was their own adventure of finding within the soundscape entities connected to their own scenario and communicate with them. Course "Electronic in Performative context" by prof. Mattia Bonafini (SoSe-21).

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    idea, virtual environment, perf.design
    Qianxun Chen
    performing with sensors
    Caroline Schlingemann
    performing with sensors
    Melissa Wedekind
    performing with sensors
    Chi Him Chik
    saxophone

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, ZigSim, Zoom H4n Pro, GyrOSC

recording sound scenes

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building replication and a randomness network

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venue and team

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performance photo

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Through the Fake Cardboard Window

Interactive installation about the experience of being lonely in corona times

Idea:

The impossibility to plan and foresee, the lack of trust in authorities, media and statistics, the anxiety had already built a different mental state in people involved in that. The idea of the project is to reflect and try to reproduce the state of the fake environment, loneliness and anxiety through 3 key elements - digital content, material embodiment and a physical interface to connect them. Visitor doesn't have any capability to change the covid stats, the news and the way people on the streets behave.

Content:

The project was implemented as an interactive video installation consisting of 1) a dummy painted cardboard wall with a window, 2) projection screen with a video lapse of a city street (Saint Petersburg, Russia, window view during self-isolation), 3) LCD screen with daily covid statistics and news headlines, 4) Controller interface (Arduino) for navigating within the timeframe of the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic (01.04.2020-01.07.2020 - 1 frame per 20 seconds)). 4) The work was developed during the course "Art +/&&|| Design" by prof. Henrik Nieratschker (WiSe20-21).

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    idea, virtual environment, performance design

Links

Instruments

idea, concept, data collection, videos, interface, physical installation

Photo shooting, converting and assembling in a sketch

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Installation prototype modelling in Touch Designer

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Controller interface prototyping and assembling

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Physical installation assembling

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Curiosity

Willingness to take risks by opening the veil of secrecy and, instead of answering, get even more new questions

Idea:

Representation of Curiosity as the inner core of digital utopia and an unconscious desire to ask a question to the reality.

Content:

The work was built by mixing generative graphics and prerecorded video and adapted for demonstaring on a large media facade of Yeltsin Center with unusual shape (2200 square meters). It consisted of three parts, representing the process of transition from Curiosity to action, variability and the desire to capture attention as well as the collective experience as a source of identity formation in the digital environment.

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    idea, virtual environment, performance design

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, Vegas Pro

The project collected different source of media in TouchDesigner environment and then rendered as a video. Finishing was made and sound was added in Vegas Pro

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Work was sent to apply for a contest and was published on a website

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Then it was demonstrated live on a media facade

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Metaphor of the Sea

Audiovisual adventure through the clouds of associations inside the tunnel of thoughts and images related to the perception of water element

Idea:

The experience of creating an immersive and interactive environment for musical expression and perception of the sea through direct and indirect associations.

Content:

The work reveals the idea and atmosphere of the sea through the effect of immersion in a three-dimensional interactive sound and visual environment. A user in the Oculus Rift moves through a tunnel built of adjectives describing the sea. To move, the user must play his own unique melody on the electronic calimba. During the journey, the user is surrounded by luminous and sounding models of marine life.

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    idea, scenery, generative graphics, VR setup
    Anton Ivanov
    textures, background, presentation
    Artyom Makarov
    sound settings, calimba

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, Oculus Rift S, Electronic kalimba

Textual information, simplified geometry, sounds and 3d audio rendering, as well as Oculus environment, were combinated in Touch Designer

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Audio-interface and audio-reactive modules were added and connected to textures, image filters and camera route.

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The work was presented to the public at the festival.

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Noise Room Fest

Drone&Ambient experience through the language of nature

Idea:

Visualization of intangible rhythm, cyclicity, symmetry and harmony of music, through a combination of natural landscapes and geometry

Content:

The work is based on author's video footages, filmed in Morocco, Berlin and the Leningrad region in 2019. Reflex hunt for rhythm and symmetry was the core theme and was revealed through the spray of a waterfall, blossoming flowers and man-made structures, shifting and changing one to each other in combination with complex geometries.

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    visuals
    Tim Six
    drone music

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, Panasonic GH4, Vegas Pro, Novation LaunchControl XL

Video footages were filmed in May-July 2019 and converted to HAP format in Vegas

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A modular interface consisting of videos, effects and additional generative graphics was built in Touch Designer and then connected to the Novation midi-interface

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Final live performance was carried out at the festival

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Red Light Performance

The Poetry of Concrete and the Ripples of Brickwork

Idea:

An empty, freshly created and still untouched space of the new leisure complex had completely white walls which were ideal for creating light installations. For this reason, the author decided to select his video footages on architecture thematic - brick buildings of abandoned factories, concrete colonnades of viaducts, road junctions and bridges. In the symbolic act of video performance, the history of places filled with meaning and experience of the past comes into contact with a completely new environment of the future but leaves no material mark.

Content:

The work is based on author's video footages, filmed in Saint Petersburg in 2019 (Red Triangle abandoned factory, West Speed Diameter and Kanonersky island). The music scene was based on a custom SoundCloud playlist, consisting of instumental and ambient tracks. The selection, processing of content and the creation of effects was carried out right during the performance.

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    visuals

Links

Instruments

Derivative TouchDesigner, Panasonic GH4, Vegas Pro, SoundCloud

Photos and screenshots

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Sonic Gun

A portable synth and an open platform for sonic experiments and distance

Idea:

The author created a tool for reproducing the synesthetic equivalent of the distance between objects in space in a form of a physical interface that playback sound with different characteristics. The author strived for creating an artifact that provides playful interaction and easy development and updating.

Content:

Author decided to embody the musical instrument in the form of a sci-fi gun. It became a fierce means of Sonic Fiction in the form of a console gamepad, attaching an interface to the basic concept of pointing at the target. It uses the Klangstrom board platform and incoming digital and analog signals to generate and process a real-time audio. It gets data from a laser distance sensor (LIDAR) as well as analog input via 6 buttons and a pressure sensor for triggering and changing individual sound parameters - frequency, modulation, filtering. Gives the possibility to modify the signal processing settings to obtain a different sound character within Arduino environment.

Authors


    Viacheslav Romanov

    https://www.facebook.com/viacheslav.romanov.9

Links

Instruments

Arduino, Klangstrom board, Dremel, Soldering iron

Building physical elements

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Enclosing the board

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Testing outside

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Wave2

Generative sonification experiment with covid hyperobject and related statistical data

Idea:

Inspired by projects to sonify the biological properties of the coronavirus spike protein, the author sought to reproduce in musical generative form the open statistical data on coronavirus infection (from January 2020 to April 2021).

Content:

Most of the composition is based on the number of daily and total infections, deaths and recoveries in the world (from the covid observer portal), and Apple mobile activity index (how often users navigated every day). The rhythmic and emotional picture of growing anxiety is formed through binary transformations, minor scales and frequency modulations based on weekly and monthly dynamics. Using the Wellen library for Processing language (developed by Dennis Paul), the author is experimenting with the available classes and methods and plans to create various generative works based on data from cities and countries around the world.

Authors


    Viacheslav Romanov

    https://www.facebook.com/viacheslav.romanov.9

Links

Instruments

Processing, Wellen library for Processing

Working with 2 datasets (COVID Observer and Apple Mobility Trends)

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Building basic visualizations for composition

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Building a sketch in Processing

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Distance Synesthesia

Reproducing distance through alternative artistic means of expression

Idea:

A rethinking of distance between objects, by reproducing its characteristics through alternative artistic means of expression (generative sound, video). Interaction with the created instrument is showing the significance of the chosen observation point, the trajectory of movement, as well as the environment itself, as they allow to fill the sequence of recorded data, a kind of "choreography".

Content:

Distance data is obtained through the laser distance-measuring sensor (LIDAR) and saved as individual sequences to an SD card. Sound indication allows you to get an idea of the characteristic of the sound in real time. The collected data can be processed in any program working with text files. The device also allows you to send current distance signals via USB cable to the serial port.

Authors


    Viacheslav Romanov

    https://www.facebook.com/viacheslav.romanov.9

Links

Instruments

Arduino, Derivative TouchDesigner, Digital Thermometer

Tool assembly

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Collected data example (.txt file)

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Data visualization (sonified as a waveshape) examples

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Pattern Box

Affordable and customizable lighting solutions for home

Idea:

The general idea of the product is to provide a choice of patterns and colors that reflect the individual characteristics of the user. Adjustable glow color allows the user to project the inner world and his or her emotional state on the surrounding objects. In addition, the decorative lamp was made affordable and easy to manufacture (including the possibility of self-assembly and painting)

Content:

Experimenting with patterns and forms, adding manual finishing assembly and painting, we tried to find the most interesting and non-standard combinations.

Authors

    Viacheslav Romanov
    design, assembly, painting
    Irina Perevalova
    distribution
    Ivan Shchupov
    engineering, production

Links

Instruments

Corel Draw 13, Laser cut (plywood), paint (acrylic)

Modelling in Corel Draw and adapting to laser cut. Manual assembly and painting. Adding electrics (AC cords, switches and RGB remote controlled lamps

Displaying

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Experimental learning mode for mobile navigation apps

A vivid alternative for better knowing about what is going on around and how to get there

Idea:

By frequently using navigation maps the user becomes stick to the schematic representation of spece rather than to real environment and its landmarks, which leads to the issues with corellating between them. The solution may be found in a navigational mode, aimed to help users with orientation in space by using landmarks and decision points instead of street names

Content:

The idea is to lesser the timeuse of navigational software, mitigate “dark concepts of HCI”, and help users to better memorize key visual inputs and build stronger orientation connections.

Authors


    Viacheslav Romanov

    https://www.facebook.com/viacheslav.romanov.9

Links

Instruments

Figma, Google Maps

UX concept presentation

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Collapsing Time and Matter

Media theory term paper in fictional multimedia format

Idea:

Discussions about the nature of matter, the relationship between time and space are a component of a whole philosophical branch, including questions of ontological, epistemological nature. The aim of the work is to explore and present the views of Kodwo Eshun and Timothy Morton, in the context of their interpretations of the concepts of time and space, associations with the creative and cultural practices of electronic music, to illustrate and model them in the format of a reproduced dialogue.

Content:

This term paper explores the interpretation of time and space in the works and interviews of Timothy Morton and Kodwo Eshun, as well as researchers of the topic of environmental criticism, Afrofuturism, and Sonic fiction, by simulating fictitious dialogue in an imaginary environment, with these authors and Oswald Wiener as moderator. The search for interconnections in their approaches draws attention to the importance of the role of language, logic and politics in shaping the perception of time and space. They are changeable in the direction from a monopolistic future and linear time to a multiple futurality free from the predominance of constructions of appropriation and restriction of access.

Authors


    Viacheslav Romanov

    https://www.facebook.com/viacheslav.romanov.9

Links

Instruments

Tilda.cc, TouchDesigner, YouTube Music, Fuji X20.

Screenshots

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