Keyboard monument in Yekaterinburg

It is difficult to imagine life in the modern world without computer technology. In Yekaterinburg, thanks to such reflections, a Monument to the keyboard appeared.

Keyboard monument in Yekaterinburg
The idea to create a Monument to the keyboard came from the artist Anatoly Vyatkin in the process of working on the next project for the international exhibition. Spending a lot of time at the computer, Anatoly Vyatkin realized that the keyboard today is the same common subject in the home, such as a frying pan. In addition, we can say that the computer keyboard is an international symbol of communication between people from all over the world.

Huge keyboard in Yekaterinburg
The monument “KLAVA” appeared on the embankment of the Iset river in the capital of the Urals in 2005. The monument was created in an unusual format — it is the first landscape sculpture in Yekaterinburg. Arranged in a certain order, 104 concrete blocks with embossed symbols form an exact copy of the keyboard in a scale of 30: 1. One concrete key of the world’s largest keyboard weighs almost 100 kilograms, and the space bar is almost half a ton. The concrete keyboard covers an area of 16×4 meters. The keys of the huge keyboard have become improvised benches on which citizens and tourists can sit, relax a little, and communicate with each other. Thus, an ordinary computer keyboard helps people communicate on the world wide web, and a concrete monument to the keyboard (a kind of industrial garden of stones) — in reality.

Monument to the computer keyboard in Yekaterinburg
A huge concrete keyboard has become a modern cultural landmark of the city and a new brand of the Ural capital, however, despite the high popularity among Yekaterinburg residents and tourists, landscape sculpture has not received the official status of the monument. In fact, not recognized by the city authorities as a culturally significant object, the Monument to the computer keyboard is mentioned in all unofficial guides to Yekaterinburg. The huge keyboard was one of the contenders for the title of” Miracle of Russia “when the list of”7 wonders of Russia” was compiled in 2008. It was from the concrete keyboard in 2011 that they began to draw a red line on the asphalt — a circular tourist walking route through the historical center of Yekaterinburg, passing through the main city attractions. In the same 2011, according to the results of Internet voting, the monument was in the top ten most popular attractions of the capital of the Urals.

The monument to KEYBOARD
Long history of Yekaterinburg 3
Festival of contemporary art in an urban environment

Monument ” CLAVE»
By Anatoly Vyatkin

The author expresses his sincere gratitude:

To the curator of the festival Arseniy Sergeev
Festival Director Naila Allahverdiev
The coordinator of the festival Natalia Pastukhova

Project implementation unit:
Paul Plaksina “Stringer” / Stas Jakubowski
Evgeny Lukyanov “Master” / Constantine Basenko
Max Filenkova / Vitaly Bukharov “Rice»
Nikolai Knyazev / Oleg Shabalin / Anton Khudyakov
Gleb Shchipachev, Igor Kononov “Cook»
Ivan Kryukov

Separate thanks:
Eugene Tulisova, Victor Ananyev, Maria Dronova

Without protection of the city authorities the Monument to the keyboard is often exposed to acts of vandalism: around a monument there is a lot of garbage, and on concrete buttons there are various inscriptions. In 2011, the F1, F2, F3 and Y block keys were stolen, and the Apple logo appeared on the Windows key. After this incident, there was a proposal to move the monument to the city of Perm, as in the Ural capital of the keyboard no one cares, and the Perm Museum is very interested in such an art object. Residents of Yekaterinburg did not want to part with their unusual attraction. Restoration of the landscape sculpture was carried out by the efforts of volunteers and an initiative group on the money of sponsors-businessmen of Yekaterinburg. Since then, the monument annually arrange “Subbotnik on the Keyboard”, the main initiator of which was Eugene A. Zorin-Ural public and statesman, ” the father of the Ural Internet.” During the annual clean-up, garbage is collected around the monument, keyboard buttons are cleaned and painted, and competitions are held for throwing non-working computer mice and for lifting bundles of hard drives. And on the last Friday of July at a monument officially celebrate day of the system administrator with similar competitions.

Saturday on the Keyboard
In July 2016, a memorial plaque in honor of Yevgeny Zorin, who passed away on February 21, 2015, was installed on the End key.

Plaque in honor of Eugene Zorin
Evgeny
Aleksandrovich
ZORIN
29.01.1969—21.02.2015

For helping
in the restoration
Keyboard Monument
in 2011

ekbkeyboard.ru/zorin

The keyboard on the waterfront has affected the surrounding space: the Iset river, in the jargon was called I-Network, and the nearby house of the merchant Chuvilina came to be called the system unit. Increasingly, there are proposals to install near the monument to the keyboard monuments monitor, modem, computer mouse and so on.

System unit next to the keyboard in Yekaterinburg
Nowadays, computer technology is developing so fast that it may soon have to remake a monument to the keyboard In a monument to the laptop or tablet in a Monument.

They say that if you make a secret wish and print it on the Monument to the computer keyboard, jumping from button to button, and then jump on the Enter key, the desire will certainly come true. And in the case of a quarrel with a loved one or with friends, you need to jump on the Ctrl, Alt, Del buttons to “reset” the relationship. If possible, be sure to check out these urban legends by visiting the keyboard Monument in Yekaterinburg.