More SL Art in RL

My friend Ariel Brearly was asked to submit Little Red one of her pictures for "Synthetic Masquerade" a RL Art exhibit taking place at SomeArts gallery in San Francisco's Bay Area opening on November 6th and running till November 26th. She also pointed me to a youtube video about the exposition.

I have to say I liked what I saw. It seems to be a nice mix of pure SL Art, and virtual wold derived or inspired art with a focus on the avatar as a representation of ourselves. The RL exhibit is mirrored inworld giving you a chance to visit it too and that's a very nice touch.



At the inworld exhibit I found a notecard with this statement from Capn Kurka, the curator for this exhibit:

As technology becomes more prevalent in our everyday lives, much of its impact on how it affects us psychologically goes mostly unnoticed. One of the few ways technology allows us to mold how we perceive ourselves (and how we want to be perceived) is expressed through the creation of an avatar for either a game, virtual world or website chat.

Current studies show that by the year 2010, seven out of ten people worldwide will have control of an avatar.

The works included in this exhibit will show the public many different ways artists perceive an avatar and no doubt many of the works will be a creative reflection of deep personal desires and fears along with concepts of beauty and ugliness.
The word “Avatar” originally came to mean "an embodiment, a bodily manifestation of the Divine. Since 1985, it has come to mean “a computer representation of a user.” Since the 1992 novel SnowCrash, the term Avatar was used to describe the virtual simulation of the human form in the Metaverse, a virtual-reality version of the Internet.

Some avatars are animated, consisting of a sequence of multiple images played repeatedly. Other avatar systems exist where a pixelized representation of a person or creature is used, which can then be customized to the user's wishes. Flat GIF based avatars are readily found in most chat room based websites.



Do visit whether it be in SL or RL, it is sure worth a look!

Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jamville/170/119/23 (and teleport to the main gallery)

Firenze, the aftermath

Earlier this week Frank Koolhaas, curator of the Rinascimento Virtuale exhibit in Firenze, organized an in-world meeting to talk about the catalogue, answer some questions and catch some impressions. I will not detail all that was said since it ended up a fairly long meeting but let me try to summerize what was said.

Frank explaining

First Frank briefly introduced the whole project (quotes are edited for clarity):

Frank Koolhaas: this is a project to read on different levels. The first level is the exhibit at the museum. The natural history museum of Florence is one of the most important in Europe, and the building where the exhibit is hosted is the section of anthropology. The reason why we chose this location is the following: first of all giving a strong legitimization to SL art, hosting it in a great museum and then creating a relation between anthropology and this new kind of art. it's not just the art of a social network but an art conceived as a social network and that's completely new. It was made in Florence, the cradle of the first Renaissance. This way, we could suggest that these people, these artists, are the interpreters of a new Renaissance.

Then we have another level: the catalogue. It's glamorous, filled with art, conceived like a work of art by Cristian Contini (Grocon Emoto) It's also a document about SL art, a way to show all these great artworks to the ones who don't come in RL.
There are images but also texts. The texts...a crucial point because there is something to say. I firmly believe that here in SL there are many talented people, some very creative people. And doesn't matter if they began to be artists yesterday.

About 25 avs turned up for the meeting

He then gave the word to Asian Lednev who actually did the design of the exhibit. He put firm emphasis on what a unique chance it was to use the antropology section of the museum of natural history because of the juxtaposition of the old culture and this new digital one. The crowd didn't dispute this but critical questions were raised as to how the SL work was actually displayed in the museum. Some were very adamant it was even degrading how some pieces had been treated.

The discussion went on with Bettina Tizzy making a few points and asking a few very pertinent questions.

Bettina Tizzy: I want to preface by saying that I appreciate all your hard work, Frank, and the work of all the others who were involved in creating all manifestations of this exhibit. My concerns are as follows:

1) For the opening night, many SLers traveled hundred if not many thousands of miles to be there. They were
a) Not informed that there would be a catalog nor that it was not ready
b) Not informed of peripheral events such as the booth that appears in your flickr stream
c) In fact, they weren't informed of anything other than a very very cordial greeting by Frank, and that was nice

What they did find, is the larger blown up pics on the floor ... leaning against the installations. There were some thumbnails, but no explanation that these thumbnails were identifiers for the images portrayed in the videos.

I appreciate the concept of SL art being exhibited in an anthropology museum. That is a good concept. However, the implementation was was [so] poor, that it shamed me. I do understand that later, over the course of a few days, the larger images were raised and placed above the showcases. I have worked with many museums in my life and I realize how VERY VERY hard it is to work with them. However, I think that the association of anthropology and SL art could have been realized by working with the museum in another space, but under the "auspices" of the museum. Since you were obligated to work within the confines of what was already there. As I was saying to you in conversation earlier, Frank... I think that part of the problem here is that you did not convey some of these important things to those who had spent a small fortune to be there and placed their trust in you. Communication is a good thing.

Bettina, Cienega, Kynne & myself

Bettina went on to state that her main fear is that SL Art would become trivialised and that was the reason for her concern with the images she saw from Firenze.

The meeting went on for a good while longer but I think the main points had been made by that time. One thing noteworthy is that Bettina revealed they are working with some of the top publications in the world, even though she couldn't reveal details yet. She sure got me curious :-)

Personally I think the concept of a recognised cultural institute especially an ethnographic museum hosting digital art is a great one. It looked to me however the practical limitation of the place made it really difficult to truly integrate the SL artworks resulting in work standing on the ground or on top of high display cabinets. The SL works were added instead of integrated and that is a nice opportunity lost in my view. I think this was also the reason why so few works were actually shown in printed form. Asian argued it was a matter of poor resolution of the pics but I'm afraid to say that doesn't hold water knowing the kinds of sizes most people sent their pics in.

A pic by Mecca at the exhibit

I think another reason why people felt let down was the fact so many pics were invited for the exhibit. Asian mentioned about 150 different artists. Seeing I was asked to send in a selection of 22 pics (and from what I heard from others some had a lot more). That would make at least individual 3300 pictures and most likely a whole lot more. How can you expect to show such an amount of work ? Maybe a more discriminating approach would have been favorable or at least would have left fewer people somewhat frustrated.

As Bettina pointed out the communication wasn't really clear either. I assume some of that has to do with the language barrier. I've seen a lot of blogs and online articles in Italian leading up to the event but very little in English. Because of that I think the perception of the whole event may have been a fair bit different in the Italian community as compared to the rest of the world.

One last thing: I still feel proud to be part of it even if in a very small way. Unlike some others at last week's meeting I am not going to scream blue murder over the way my work was treated. I still don't consider what I do Art with a capital A. Time and the RL art critics will tell what future SL Art has. In that respect this exhibit was a first and something has been set in motion even if it wasn't perfect or what we had dreamed of. I certainly don't regret travelling there if only for the wonderful people I met. Thank you Frank / Mario for inviting me.

About the exhibit:

- it is still open until January 7th, 2009
- it consists of (according to Asian Lednev)* :

• 150 artists
• 46 printed works
• 13 plasma screens
• 30 electronic picture frames
• 46 printed curtains

About the catalogue:

- It's been said that the catalog will be available to all participanting artists at shipping cost
- Regular sale price will be around 30 €.
- it is not sure when it will be available as it is still being printed.
- thumbing through the whole in-world version of the catalogue at the meeting place I was a little disappointed to find just a single one of the pics I submitted.

* I can't say these numbers correspond to what I remember seeing while I was there for the opening evening

Fun in Firenze

So Mylena and I are back, back from our trip to Firenze that has left us with some absolutely unforgettable memories. We arrived in Italy on Sunday evening after spending two days in a lovely hotel in the Vercors region in France. There we had a lovely 10 course "menu de degustation" accompanied by a wine tasting on Friday evening. Saturday we spent an afternoon picking mushrooms under the watchful eye of a local guide and mushroom expert. We ate what we picked that evening and it sure was yummy. We had a good giggle with one of the other hotel guests who looked like she was an avatar that somehow escaped SL. All through dinner she wore a white woollen hat, fingerless gloves, a leather jacket with metal studs and big ass boots that looked like they were made from an awful lot of prims.

She even had prim lashes !!

Arriving in Firenze was a bit of a shock. We made a little tour around the old center on Sunday evening and found it to be absolutely overrun by tourists and all in all really dirty. It must have been a Sunday thing however because when we walked the old narrow streets from piazza to piazza on Monday things had been thoroughly cleaned up. Being very curious we also walked past the Museum of Natural History where the exhibit would take place joking it would be too funny if it all turned out to be an elaborate hoax. But sure enough the big Rinascimento Virtuale poster adorned the facade of the building.

Not a hoax after all.

Tuesday we spent on touristy stuff. Walking around, visiting the sites but all the while at least my thoughts were with what would happen that evening. A little after six we were at the museum. At first I heard nothing but Italian around me in the crowd that had gathered in the courtyard of the building for the opening speech. I was disappointed not to see any familiar faces. I was starting to fear no one would show up. Then all of a sudden I heard this guy being interviewed by some reporter spell out his SL name An-dro-me-ga Vo-la-re ... Yay, found one ! While saying hi to Andro I heard "Hey Loki !!". Turned out to be Track Hax who was talking to no one other than Nyla Rossini and her husband. We went on to have a look at the exhibit and there they were; Silver, Keiko, Luther, Pilgrim, Raul, Khamudy and Angie. It was really like meeting up with old friends and meeting a few new ones.

ltr Kham, Raul, Nyla's hubby Matthew, Nyla & Andro

I'll be short on the exhibit itself. Let's say it was a nice try but there was not that much SL-Art on display and clearly set up not too interfere too much with the normal collection of the museum resulting in pics being on the floor leaning against display cabinets or pics being almost two meters up on top of cabinets. A setup made of a number of those picture display frames was a nice idea but most of them stayed dark or displayed the setup menu. In the end everyone gathered around one big size monitor displaying an endless stream of pics while once in a while someone would go "hey that's yours!" or "Yay, one of mine". There were a few viewing booths set up to show some machinima. All in all a bit of a disappointment but the company largely made up for it. I'll probably write about the exhibit itself in a later blog.

One of Ariel's dreamy pictures on top of a display cabinet

After we'd seen what was there we decided to go for drinks but first went to pick up Hio at his hotel. Contrary to popular belief he is not actually green in RL but apart from that Hio is Hio. We ended up at an Irish pub on piazza della Signoria chatting, laughing, teasing, gossiping and generally having a great time. If someone listened in on the conversation they must have thought we were completely nuts with all the "woot" "lol" and "Yay" going on. We ended a really great evening having a late dinner at a nice restaurant barely big enough to seat all thirteen of us. You should have seen the waiter's face when Keiko wanted ketchup to put on her fettuccini bolognese ... priceless !

Strike a pose! Or was it hop on a poseball ?

Wednesday was a day of more sightseeing and touristy stuff which I won't bother you with. On Thursday we met up with Silver, Keiko, Luther, Pil & Kham again and strolled through Firenze, had a very good late lunch on one of the countless terraces and did some shopping. Sometimes RL can be so like SL only the food and wine are better in RL, in Italy anyway. More great food that evening when Luther prepared us some delicious pasta dishes at the apartment where they were staying. I picked up a few bottles of wine and a bottle of limoncello and we spent the evening chatting about everything and anything sitting outside on the apartment's little roof terrace around a couple of candles. A wonderful ending to an exciting few days.

ltr Luther, Keiko, Nyla & Pilgrim

It was really funny to see how we all got along so well and without any awkwardness about actually meeting for the first time in RL. I guess you can role play as much as you want but in the end the real person behind the av always shows through so in a way you really know the people even if you have never met them. It really makes me want to meet so many others I met in my time in SL because how ever much fun SL can be, nothing beats sharing a meal with real people.

I thank my lucky stars I got to meet all these lovely people.

Track, it was good to see you there. You should have tagged along on Tuesday.
Andro, it was really nice meeting you and it's a pity you couldn't stay longer.
Nyla, I still hear your wonderful laughter. It was great to meet you and your husband.
Angie, I love the pictures you took with my camera. I'm sure we'll see more of each other in world after this week.
Pil, Don't think we've seen each other in world all that much so far. So great to get to know you a bit better. Hope things went well in Portugal.
Raul, I can see why Gany loves you to bits. It was my privilege to meet a great guy like you.
Kham, what can I say apart from "I love your mind" héhé. Great meeting you too.
Luther, man that pasta was great! Hope to see more of you in world.
Hio, pity we didn't get to talk a bit more, still, it was really great to meet you!
Keiko, you sweet thing, it may sound a bit odd but I love you to bits.
Silver, meeting in person after all this time was wonderful. I sure hope it was a first and not a last. See you in world soon!
Mylena, thanks from the bottom of my heart for a wonderful trip.

Now let's all think long and hard for the next excuse to all meet again ;-)

Firenze here we come !

The countdown has begun. Three more days and Mylena and I will be on our way to Italy. I wrote about "Rinascimento Virtuale", the exhibit of SL art in Firenze, in an earlier post. It opens on the 21st of this month. Well, the route is planned, the hotels are booked and we'll be arriving in Firenze on Sunday. I hope to attend the vernissage on Tuesday but I'm still waiting for confirmation. I sure hope to meet the organisers and Frank Koolhaas in particular. It sure looks like they have been doing a great job. I promise I'll write more about it when I'm back.



There is of course also another dimension. This exhibit is the perfect occasion to meet a few people I have known for a good long while but never met RL. I'm putting it mildly when I say I'm really excited about that. I don't know how many will be there but I hope there will be plenty. It would be so much fun if we could all get together and tell SL stories, whine about flickr drama, exchange tips and tricks and all of that without even touching a keyboard. What a novel idea! Anyway, if you read this and are going there too please leave a comment or let me know. I would hate to miss the opportunity to meet you too ;-)

Take action Linden Labs

After all the commotion of this weekend regarding my exhibit at the Cannery I have taken down the exhibit as a whole. I was not prepared to alter the picture and just taking the one down wasn't an option, the zodiac as we know it has 12 signs not 11.

A lot has been said and discussed and I would sincerely like to thank those who offered their support or contributed to the ongoing debate.

I think however it's time to draw a few conclusions. What all this has shown me is that Linden Labs have no clear rules on what is tolerated and what not. Add to that the fact they are both judge and jury and we all have a problem on our hands. I am still convinced my picture is NOT "broadly offensive" yet a Linden (Harry) in all his wisdom decided after a complaint it was. This is not acceptable! Either there are clear and well defined rules and it's just a matter of applying the rules or they deliberately keep the rules vague but in that case there as to be a DEMOCRATIC way to decide whether or not a violation of TOS has been committed.

The way LL operates now is, in my view, a recipe for disaster because it allows individual people to settle personal differences or even just enforce personal views by means of launching a complaint with Linden Labs. This type of situation has throughout history led to gross cases of abuse and a lot of suffering. Being banned from SL is not exactly the same as being sent to Siberia or find yourself forced into a re-education program but just the same something should change: either we get clear rules or a REAL form of appeal in case of a complaint.

Related links:

http://www.vintfalken.com/virgins-are-broadly-offensive/
Thanks Vint!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29384057023&ref=share
http://www.avatarsunited.com/en/groups/second-life/worldwide/the-world/linden-lab-say-excuse-to-loki-popinjay
Thanks Nadine! An apology would be nice but I don't count on it.
http://shoshanaepsilon.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-does-broadly-offensive-mean.html
Thank you too Shoshana

Is Loki a pervert ?

It's been a while since I posted here. That is mainly because I had little or nothing to tell you. Linden Labs changed that last night by sending me an e-mail that made me wonder whether to laugh or cry.

Dear loki Popinjay,

This email is notification of action regarding your Second Life account,
loki Popinjay, for violation of the Second Life Terms of Service or
Community Standards. The violation in question occurred on August 29, 2008 in the region of Cannery Rezzable.

Violation: Community Standards: Broadly Offensive Content or Conduct

Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of
sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar
portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic
violence, and other broadly offensive content are never
allowed or tolerated within Second Life.

Nude photo of young girl holding a teddy bear needs to be removed
immediately. Alternatively, you may cover up the nudity with photo
alterations.

Action:
No additional action is being taken at this time.

Appeal Process: The decision to suspend your Second Life access was
reached after investigation of your use of the Second Life software and
service. If you would like to appeal your suspension, you may contact
Second Life Support, in writing, at the address below:

Second Life Support
Linden Lab
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111

You may also appeal electronically by filing a support ticket via the
support portal at http://www.secondlife.com/support/

Please provide relevant information that you believe would explain the
above violation. Linden Lab reserves sole discretion in considering
whether to take any action on a written appeal.


This is the picture in question:

'Virgo'

Now, you have to know this picture is part of the Avatar Zodiac series I made for SL5B where it was on display until the very last day. Without complaints. It's been on display at the Cannery for weeks now. Without complaints ... till now.

Avatar Zodiac at SL5B

Frankly, how stupid and narrow minded do you have to be to find this picture offensive? It is in no way meant to be sensual let alone sexual in nature and all "bits" are covered. Since it was meant for SL5B where strickt guidelines were enforced as to what would be allowed and what not I actually added some hair to cover a nipple.

Is it me who has the distorted view here? Ah well, guess that's what you get when you live in some "Sodom and Gomorrah" called Belgium where the government only this week bought a painting by James Ensor for the Arts museum in Ghent depicting not one but TWO completely naked girls for 2.8 million €.

'Kinderen aan ochtendtoilet' by James Ensor

What bothers me the most is the procedure LL seems to follow. Probably some redneck complained and LL takes action by ordering me to remedy the situation. Last I looked the correct way to act would be to check the complaint and if found correct at least give me a chance to defend myself. In this case I would be very surprised if the complaint was indeed checked and the above mail is surely not a question for my view on the matter. Even more so it states I get a chance to "explain the above violation". It is not even questioned if it actually IS a violation.

That said I don't like to be nailed to the cross for being a pervert. In my opinion this picture is not in violation of TOS. So I'm not taking it down until my time at the Cannery is up and I will protest the supposed "violation of TOS". Surely there must be a few Lindens with some common sense...

Oh, and to answer the titel: of course Loki is a pervert, just not this kind ;-)

UPDATE:

I just received this notice from Harry Linden:

Hi there,

Linden Lab has reviewed, at your request, a discipline action recently taken against your account.

Our investigation shows that the discipline was correctly applied.

If any further information is required, Linden Lab will contact you regarding this incident. Otherwise, please consider the matter resolved as no further communications will be sent.

Guess I was wrong about the common sense

Snippets on Friday 07/11

My sincerest appologies for missing two weeks. What can I say? I was just too busy preparing SL5B and enjoying the music at the world's best rock festival last weekend.


Cannery Gallery

Always something happening at the Rezzable Cannery. When Vint Falken asked me to put up some work at the Cannery about a week prior to the opening I didn't really know what to put up. Having worked my ass off to get pictures ready for SL5B I had little else lying about and I didn't want to just pick some from my Flickr stream. With a week to go there was no time to make decent new ones. Contrary to popular belief I do have a first life as well.


Long story short: I decided to put the Avatar Zodiac up at the Cannery in a slightly different form. So those who didn't have a chance to see it at SL5B can now get their butt over to the Cannery. It's worth a visit anyway. There is also work to admire from Leou Aeon and the amazingly talented Andromega Volare and more to come.

Go there straight from here

Avatrait

Pestilence and Heroine are showing this month at Avatrait. On July 12th at 1pm SLT you can ask your questions make your remarques or just admire the art on the walls at a meet and greet with Pestilence and Heroine.

Go there straight from here


Artists Park

This is the last week to see the work of Petr Vanbeeck and Silverdrake Sparrow at the Artists Park. The show will close on the 19th. As of June 21st they will be showing ew, never seen before, one of a kind images again by Petr Vanbeeck & Silverdrake Sparrow.


Twilight Gallery

Belmakor Pintens invites you all to Twilight Gallery this Saturday the 12th at 1pm SLT to see six amazing artists put their work on display.

Didih Merlin
Ghostalker Wise
Hinata Ivory
Ilian Garrigus
Prad Prathivi
Vallys Baxter

Go there straight from here


Music

Riona Rimbaud is organising a huge music event on July 13th & 14th featuring Kiku Seitan, Cyberpiper Roelofs, Yan Etzel, Angelina Ozsvar, Cedric Renoir, Sinatra Cartier, and the multitalented Nephie Eerie.


The event is meant to raise funds for the fight against cancer so be there!

Go there straight from here