A New Virtual Gallery?!

I just ran into and spent some 'virtual' time with a guy named Gary Bukowski... (Oh dear lord save me from myself and this virtual world).

Anyhow, the long story short is that Gary is a veteran to SL who is a founding member of a 'virtual content creation' agency called "The Wishfarmers". We got discussing art within SL and he is hilariously opposed to the majority of what he says he sees regularly. He claims that most 'virtual artists' are painters who scan in their paintings and show them as flat one-dimensional objects; but he is more interested in exploring what the inherent aesthetic of virtual art making truly is. He wants to forget the rules of art in the corporeal world and explore the potential possibilities that SL gives us as art-makers.

The reason this is relevant to my thesis is not simply that Gary is interested in the exact subject matter that I have chosen to study, but also that Gary is a landowner who is more interested in starting a virtual gallery to showcase this new kind of experimental art, rather than making it himself. So if all goes well, Gary and I may become close collaborators in founding a new 'virtual art' gallery which can host some of my works.

My First Week As A Virtual Person

So I cracked and am succumbing to everyone's encouragement to pursue my thesis inside of Second Life. I've signed up and have spent a little time running around inside the virtual universe; I must say that it's pretty insane.

So far my experience has shown me that 70% of Second Life is not really all that impressive. This majority of content inside the virtual universe doesn't really recognize the possibilities available to it and therefore just models itself after the real world; there's barren streets filled with obnoxious advertising, desperate consumers frantically searching for something to spend their Linden dollars on, and no real attention to detail. At first I was a little disappointed in this, the idea of an 'alternate reality' (which is what Second Life is) has so much potential to be mind-boggling and unfortunately a lot of Second Life doesn't quite live up to it. It's either a get-rich-quick scheme or a place to pick up virtual dates...

However! After this initial disappointment, I gave SL another chance and am (unfortunately) getting pretty addicted. The other 30% of the universe is incredibly talented people, using a completely new medium to do really cool things. Today I reserved land next door to the Ambassador of Second Sweden (who is in charge of representing the entire country of Sweden inside Second Life), I listened in on a live philosophical teaching by an elderly philosopher in India, and I met a few SL-artists who are already interested in participating in my thesis. It's insane the possibilities that SL affords us. Kind of scary really considering I don't get out much as it is...

With that said, I'm starting to understand what exactly my thesis is. Second Life literally is a new medium for expression. Like many contemporary mediums, it involves and blends many old media (sound, video, image, 3D, etc.) but it does that in a way which is undeniably social and comes with it's own set of rules... I've been looking for virtual land to purchase inside the world and have come to realize that a large plot of land to house all of my art that will come from my thesis is not entirely feasible (it's simply too expensive). So what I believe I might have to do is make contacts and rent small parcels of land, incorporating my artworks into the architecture and landscape of Second Life. Inherently, SL is pushing me to collaborate.

I'm still just scratching the surface, but I think that there is some validity in my undertaking 'the exploration of the aesthetics and sensibilities of collaborative art-making in 3D virtual universes'.

I still haven't bought any cool clothes for my avatar though...