Mittels Super8, CD-ROM, Video, Farbkopie und Computerprints bietet Michael Brynntrup auf 56 raffiniert generierten Bildern Privates und Ornamentales. (...) Michael Brynntrup spielt mit der Reproduzierbarkeit von Medien. Eine Frage ist die nach der Autorenschaft innerhalb technologischer Medien. Dabei bewegt er sich zwischen dekorativem Privatvergnügen und gewissenhafter Analyse. Für die schwule Kunstszene ist er eine der wichtigsten Identifikationsfiguren.
Zwischen technischer Finesse, medialem Overkill und ästhetisiertem Technoposing sucht er nach 'that strange old thing called aura', der, wie er glaubt, den Medien innewohnenden Spiritualität. - Endlich mal einer, der nicht auf den ganzen Fortschrittsmist reinfällt.
(PRINZ Stuttgart, Kunsttest, 1/96 - Axel Pfänder)

Exhibiton & Transformation - Was passiert, wenn die bewegten Bilder und die multimedialen Ereignisse an ihren Ausgangspunkt zurückfinden und ihren Reproduktionscharakter sichtbar machen? (...) Vom Spiel mit der Eigendynamik innerhalb der ästhetischen Möglichkeiten reproduzierbarer Medien ausgehend, forscht Brynntrup "nach einer den Medien immanenten Spiritualität." (MB)
(...) Die Angelegenheit erscheint äußerst komplex und äußerst 'ästhetisch' zugleich: (...) Bei der »Herz.Sofortsetzung« handelt es sich keineswegs um stupides Durchexerzieren diverser Medien. Dafür tritt das experimentelle und analytische Moment zu deutlich hervor. Trotz unterschiedlicher Medien wie Super8, CD-Rom, VHS-Video, Farbkopie oder Computerprint, die teilweise auf absurde Weise zur Präsentation gelangen, verbinden die einzelnen Bild-Generationen die Freude an der Unsicherheit des Prozesses und die generelle Fragestellung, was verbleibt vom transformierten Menschen nach dem Bad in den Medien?
(Filmwinter, Festival Katalog 1996 - Ulrich Wegenast)

Exhibiton & Transformation - What happens, when the moving pictures and the multimedia events return to their starting point and the charcteristics of reproduction become apparent? (...) By playing with monumentum within the aesthetic possibilities, Brynntrup researchs into a spiritualism inherent in the media. (...)
The matter seems to be extremely complex and 'aesthetic' at the same time: »Herzsofort.Setzung« is under no cirumstances a mindless rehearsal of various mediaforms. In spite of different forms like Super8, CD-Rom, VHS-Video, colour copy or computer print, that are presented sometimes in an absurd manner, the single generation of the pictures are linked by the pleasure lying in - the uncertainty of the process, also in the formulation of the question. What remains from the transformed man after his bath in the media?
(Filmwinter, Festival Catalogue 1996 - Ulrich Wegenast)

Transformations-Aktion
Via ISDN-Leitung wird Michael Brynntrups Video "Herzsofort.Setzung" vom Filmhaus Stuttgart zum Künstlerhaus Stuttgart digital übertragen und über Videogroßprojektion präsentiert. Die bewegten Bilder können vor Ort vom Zuschauer manipuliert werden, wodurch das Video seinen hermetischen Charakter verliert. Der Zuschauer hat die Möglichkeit über einen Farbdrucker eine individuelle Momentaufnahme des Videos als Ausstellungsposter-Unikat mit nach Hause zu nehmen. Dieser Test demonstriert zugleich die Möglichkeit einer Internet-unabhängigen Bildübertragung und gibt einen Blick in die Zukunft der Präsentation von digitalisierten Filmen. Michael Brynntrup steht während der Aktion zum Gespräch zur Verfügung.
Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, 3. Stock, Samstag, 6. Januar, 18.00 Uhr
Einführungsrede & Vortragsperformance zum gegebenen Anlaß: Harald Braun.
Die Aktion findet mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Deutschen Telekom statt.
(http://www.wand5.de/fiwi96/aus.html)

»Herzsofort.Setzung!« wiederum ist ein Spiel mit dem eigenen Bild, Metamorphosen, Narzißmus, Selbstbespiegelungen, Selbstreflexionen, Selbstzersetzungen.
(EXTRA!, Wien, 15.10.98 - Walter Hiller)

In »Herzsofort. Setzung« / »Heart. Instant(iation)« (1994), too, via rephotography and digital alteration Brynntrup manipulates an already stylized image of himself, transforming it to the rapid patter of a camera clicking, so that we are left with the impression of the total, albeit virtuoso, mutability of the subject-image. Although his face is cut into frames and rearranged like a Cubist puzzle, Brynntrup is right in denying this to be an "art of disjointed body parts"; instead the picture becomes itself alive via the pulse of the clicking camera and computerized music. The serialization draws us closer and closer into the face, forcing us to study it; yet in the maelstrom, depth reverts into the opposite of sheer surface. Nothing is revealed about the intimate self, although here as elsewhere in his films, Brynntrup puts himself on display. Or, precisely because the human visage can be so maleable and anamorphically changed, our eyes are captivated by its two-dimensional image. It exerts a fascination not unlike the optical illusions of Baroque, allegorical still life. (...)
Does the tatoo signify that writing which cannot be erased? But even the tatoo etched into the skin was first traced from a former drawing onto Brynntrup's arm. It too marks the temporal succession of the copy and punctuates additional deterritorializing alterations to Brynntrup's appearance. His body becomes yet again the surface, the screen on which to project other pictures, a process that he takes to prodigious heights in »Herzsofort«, where he alters and superimposes images of himself at dizzying speeds. At such a tempo, the act of viewing becomes one of forgetting rather than recording the transformations of the visage.
(Alice Kuzniar, "The Queer German Cinema", Stanford University Press, July 2000)

Der Filmemacher mag das Mehrdeutige und liebt es, wie er sagt, "Halbwahrheiten" zu streuen und "Verwirrung zu stiften", ein Bild seiner selbst zu entwerfen, das immer nur den Charakter einer flüchtigen Option trägt. - Oft genug sind diese Bilder von nicht allzu festem Bestand, sondern einer permanenten Verwandlung ausgesetzt. Wie beispielsweise in »Herzsofort.Setzung« (1996), wo sich zum rhythmischen Kameraklicken ein koloriertes Polaroid von Michael Brynntrup fortwährend verändert.
(epd-film, Frankfurt a.M., September 2000 - Helmut Merschmann)

As in virtual reality and the fantasy of the cyborg, there is no longer an exterior material boundary to the self. It is this proximity of this film to virtual environments that I want to explore further, for I think Brynntrup has cannily tapped into what Vivian Sobchack calls the "Culture of Quick-Change" or Celia Lury "Prosthetic Culture," theorists who argue that we already live inside technology, that we don't just use it as a tool, but are living within its fictional space (for instance, as we become agents in a video game or in virtual reality).(...)
(Alice A. Kuzniar, Virtual Selves and Prosthetic Genders, talk given at Cornell University, Ithaka NY, October 2000)

Eine CD-Rom zur umfassenden Selbstdarstellung ist vor allem für Kurzfilmer eine reizvolle Perspektive. Michael Brynntrup macht es mit »NETC.ETERA« vor: (...) Für die meisten Formate eignet sich die Präsentation auf dem Rechner hingegen durchaus: Das Selbstporträt »Herzsofort.Setzung II« (1996) zeigt in guter Qualität ein Kopierspiel, ein endloses Herauszoomen aus einem Polaroid-Porträt, bei dem vom Rand her immer neue Facetten in die Vorlage eingeschmolzen werden.
(film-dienst, Nr.17/01, August 2001 - Günter H. Jekubzik)

In the process, nothing is revealed about the intimate self, although here as elsewhere in his films, Brynntrup puts himself on display. (...) This collapse of distance and differences presupposes an exchange between what Brynntrup aligns as "Mensch/Maschine/Medium/Material." In a statement about Herzsofort-Setzung, Brynntrup explains his desire to study the perception of media itself. He speaks of its spirituality and the "Eigendynamik" of technology (the dynamics peculiar to it). In the cyborgesque exchange of man and machine, the media themselves are anthropomorphized as possessing senses and even spirituality. Brynntrup moreover eroticizes the tactility the apparatus imparts. In order to create the sense of the immediacy and spontaneity of the technological and in order to respond instantly to each retake, Brynntrup used in this multi-media project what he calls the most direct forms of reproduction -- those of videoprint, photocopies, and Polaroid shots. He simulates a permanent present. To the same effect and contrary to preconceived notions of technology, Brynntrup marvels not at its precision and calculability, but at its potential for chance and chaos. Conversely, he borrows from the hard, scientific discourse to refer to himself: he is the variable who is mathematized. He is the object of dislocation: "Ich bewege mich aus mich selbst heraus" (I move out of myself). (...)
Furthermore, instead of the photo being the supplement to the self (an image representing the self), here the self is the supplement, for one cannot retrace, in the reconfiguration of each successive shot, the originating moment behind Brynntrup's serialization. He reminds us that there is nothing "real" behind each image, only another image which preceded it, in infinite regression. (...)
The film foregrounds its constructedness, artistry, and performance, so that we sense the individual who has left traces of himself in what he has created. The paradox is that this self-staging is driven by the paranoia of being overwhelmed by the unlimited capacities and the self-generating dynamic of the apparatus. - Brynntrup referred to Herzsofort-Setzung as "autogenic manipulations," a phrase suggesting masturbatory pleasure.
(Alice Kuzniar, "The Problem of Agency in the Digital Era: From the New Media Artist Michael Brynntrup to Run Lola Run", Rutgers German Studies - Papers Series, New Brunswick, NJ, 2003)

Der Multimediakünstler mathematisiert zunächst sich selbst, indem er in narzisstisch-expressionistischer Manier stumm mit Bademütze vor der Kamera hopst oder sein Polaroid-Porträt gleich 50-Mal vervielfältigt und verfremdet.
(Siegessäule, Berlin, April 2004 - Andrea Winter)

"Ich male mein Leben lang nur mich selbst", sagt Brynntrup und hat diesbezüglich mit »E.K.G. Expositus« sein Opus Magnum geschaffen. Ein abendfüllender Dokumentarfilm über sich selbst als Künstler und Medienmenschen. (...) Hineingelötet hat Brynntrup »Loverfilm« (1996), »Aide Mémoire« (1995), »Herzsofort.Setzung II« (1996) und »Kein Film« (2000) - alles treffsichere Werke konkreten Filmanarchismus', jedes für sich mit klaren stilistischen Qualitäten.
(Schnitt, Nr.34, April 2004 - Oliver Baumgarten)

Einer seiner Kurzfilme (»Herzsofort.Setzung II (autogene Manipulationen)«) zeigt Bilder, die sich am ehesten als Zwischenablagerungen multimedialer Entstehungsprozesse beschreiben lassen: fotografiert, abgefilmt, kopiert, computerbearbeitet etc., gewinnen sie von Generation zu Generation an künstlichem Eigenleben. Der Ausschnitt eines anderen Filmes zeigt ein in ungezählte Puzzleteilchen zerlegtes Selbstbildnis.
(film-dienst, Nr.08/04, April 2004 - Stefan Volk)

Rather than being a film about the omnipresent Brynntrup as a person, »E.C.G. Expositus« exhaustively explores the obsessive reproduction of images of the self, superficial and glib in themselves, both playful and unsettlingly claustrophobic in their seemingly endless variations and elaborations. The whole movie can be looked at as the extension of one of the shorts that it contains, »Heart.Instant/iation II (Self-Generated Manipulations)« (»Herzsofort.setzung II (autogene Manipulationen)« ) (1996), which follows an image of Brynntrup for over seven minutes as it is subjected to numerous alterations and manipulations by being passed through a variety of different media. This largely jocular interrogation of the image is carried through many of the intricate processes of doubling, repetition and sometimes subtle recontextualisation that he subjects his material to throughout »E.C.G. Expositus«. The result is a vertigo inducing audio-visual hall of mirrors, the subjects of which are Brynntrup's own voice, face and body.(...)
(http://www.sensesofcinema.com, Maximilian Le Cain - February 2005)

It is possible to view E.C.G. as the elaboration of one of the four short films Brynntrup integrates into its structure, Herzsofort.setzung II (autogene Manipulationen) (Heart.Instant/iation II (Self-Generated Manipulations)) (1996). This short follows an image of Brynntrup for more than seven minutes as it is subjected to numerous visual alterations and manipulations by being passed through a variety of different media.
(Being Michael Brynntrup, http://www.sensesofcinema.com, July-September 2005 - Maximilian Le Cain)
biografischer Artikel | biographic review

Brynntrup leaves narrative and denotative logic behind for a rich associative web of images that push the viewing subject into a kind of cognitive overload. These pieces are difficult to describe, to put into words, precisely because they are specifically experimenting with visuality.
(Randall Halle, "Toward a Phenomenology of Emotion in Film: Michael Brynntrup and The Face of Gay Shame", In: Modern Language Notes, Volume 124, The Johns Hopkins University Press, April 2009)
biografischer Artikel | biographic article, excerpt on »Heart.Instant(iation)«

Der Blick in den Medienspiegel bildet in letzter Konsequenz nur sich selbst ab. Brynntrup ist sich dessen durchaus gewahr. Nicht umsonst arbeitet er in unablässiger Folge mit Selbstreferenzen und -Zitaten, und deren Verfremdung. In Herzsofortsetzung wird das Selbstbildnis bis zur Unkenntlichkeit reproduziert, dient als Hintergrundtapete für weitere Selbstinszenierungen, die wiederum reproduziert und verfremdet werden.
(Programmtext, Directors Lounge, Berlin, Juni 2011 - Klaus W. Eisenlohr)
Still, we could proceed further and say: on a final level, the gaze into the mirror of media does only reflect on itself, the media gaze. Brynntrup, being very aware of this, uses endless arrays of self-references, self-quotations and their alterations in his works. In “Herzsofortsetzung”, his self-portrait is duplicated so that the variations start to be unrecognizable copies of the original, being used as wallpaper for another self-portrait cycling through another repeated process of replication.
(Program notes, Directors Lounge, Berlin, June 2011 - Klaus W. Eisenlohr)

Michael Brynntrup has always been the self-reflexive artist par excellence. “Self-reflexive” is here to be understood in two distinct ways. For one, his work is a sustained inquiry into the impact of the visual medium on its object of representation. For instance, in 'Herzsofort. Setzung' (1994) he deploys videoprint, photocopies, and Polaroid to reproduce and alter his image, thereby demonstrating the cyborgesque intersection of man and machine. On his website (www.brynntrup.de), he has ebulliently termed the result “autogenous manipulations,” “the ECG of metempsychosis,” and “the electrographics of the 4th dimension.” Via successive shots Brynntrup manipulates a stylized picture of himself, so that we are left with the impression of the total, virtuoso mutability of the subject-image. The changes occur to the rhythm of the steady heartbeat of a camera clicking and the techno music of Jay Ray. This visual as well as aural seriality endows the short film with an aura of a limitless technological sublime. The artist cuts his face into frames, enlarges it, paints it, places it on a grid, and rearranges it like a Cubist painting and into a puzzle. At one point we see his image suddenly within a computer terminal, suggesting that the subject is lodged inside the matrix of the new media. The serialization draws us closer and closer into the face, forcing us to study it. Yet in the maelstrom, depth reverts into the opposite and the impression is left of sheer surface and tantalizingly brief, mosaic-like pieces. Brynntrup reminds us that there is nothing real behind each image, only another image in infinite regression.
“Self-reflexive” also means that Brynntrup repeatedly interrogates who the self could possibly be in the age of digital reproduction, and here too 'Herzsofort. Setzung' is a prime example. The psychoanalyst Adam Philips has written: “If, as Freud suggests, character is constituted by identification—the ego likening itself to what it once loved—then character is close to caricature, an imitation of an imitation. Like the artists Plato wanted to ban, we are making copies of copies, but unlike Plato’s artists we have no original, only an infinite succession of likenesses to someone who, to all intents and purposes, does not exist. Freud’s notion of character is a parody of a Platonic work of art; his theory of character formation through identification makes a mockery of character as in any way substantive. The ego is always dressing up for somewhere to go. Insofar as being is being like, there can be no place for true selves or core gender identities.” As 'Herzsofort. Setzung' suggests, there is “no original, only an infinite succession of likenesses.” There is “no place for true selves or core gender identities” in the performative world of gender and selfhood, especially as the self cannot be extricated from the medium that represents it.
(Alice Kuzniar, "Michael Brynntrup’s Cinematic Antidote to Yellow Fever", In: GELBFIEBER, Catalogue of the Exhibition, HBK Braunschweig, May 2012)