Installation: Sergey Katran
Sound: Oleg Makarov
It is not known for certain in which year it finally broke down, but it can be confidently stated that the last time it was seen functioning was in 2012.
The Optimism Generator is a South Korean invention. With the help of this device, a person of any gender and age could, in just a few minutes, receive such a set of electromagnetic stimuli that it was enough to trigger several decades of uncontrollable outbursts of joy and self-satisfaction — both inward and outward — within a healthy, mature organism.
However, the effect, and especially its duration, varied from patient to patient, depending primarily on the individual’s initial temperament. If a person was bitter and irritable, speaking briefly and harshly, almost like cawing, their optimism would dissipate within hours. But if someone was kind by nature, inclined to yield in an argument — even when they knew they were absolutely right — just to avoid conflict, like skimming the foam from a rich fish broth, then such a person could live for an entire year happily without resorting again to the support of optimism generation.
When and under what circumstances the device appeared in Lenin Hills also remains unknown. Some link its appearance to Steve Jobs’ visit to Moscow in 1985. Allegedly, along with his determination to supply Macintosh personal computers to the Soviet Union, the young entrepreneur also intended to introduce South Korean Optimism Generators, distributed by the well-known British company Elektrosonic. However, we have not found any evidence confirming this, aside from indirect indications — Steve Jobs was indeed extremely optimistic about such a deal with the USSR, even after it was rejected. The Soviet state nevertheless acquired at least one personal computer for a multimedia installation in the new building of the V. I. Lenin Museum at Lenin Hills.
One thing, however, is certain: the museum’s collection preserves a unique specimen of the broken Optimism Generator. Even inoperative and half-disassembled, the Optimism Generator is still capable of imparting to visitors’ psycho-emotional state the necessary impulses and motivation.
Text: Sergey Katran
