Streaming Video

So I haven't updated my blog in a little while... ahem.

I have been struggling with how to present my thesis study at the end of the year show... It's really hard to present my experiences and art pieces that I have created inside of Second Life without the piece just becoming about the medium itself. When I installed my virtual gallery at the awards night, I quickly realized that very few visitors were checking out the art, they were just asking questions about Second Life as though I was a spokesperson for Linden Labs rather than an artist.

I had a meeting with Mark Argo the other day and explained my perdicament to someone who was being freshly exposed to my project. At the end of the discussion we came up with the idea of not giving users control and simply presenting documentation of my study. Video/audio captures of my discussions with other virtual artists, photo demonstrations of some of the works I have built, etc. I like this idea in that it definitely overcomes the issue of the foregrounding my work/study rather than the medium of SL itself, but it feels as though its a bit of a cop-out in the sense that I am studying this very interactive, social, and dynamic medium but presenting it in such a static way.

With that said, I have been experimenting with streaming live video/audio into and out of SL and I think that might be a nice middle-ground for my presentation... I can show static documentation of my piece, but in addition, I will have a projection of Second Life and will feed live audio/video of the visitors into SL, projecting it onto a sculptural 3D virtual artwork that avatars can experience in the virtual world. So viewers will be able to see themselves in a live video feed into, and communicate with avatars looking at their enormous head through their voice.

I did a quick video/audio streaming test and the images above were the result. The first, just a large-scale flat screen, the second was the product of me getting a little more creative with the geometry that the live video is projected on.

I am assimilated.

I am assimilated...

Revised Proposal

I had yet to post my revised project proposal to my blog until now. You can view the .doc file here.

The revisions essentially consist of clarification that my piece no longer focusses on creating stand-alone virtual spaces which are designed in collaboration with homeless members of society. In lieu of this idea (which unfortunately never felt properly developed enough and was limited by the difficulties of it's execution [e.g. finding collaborators willing to work with me]) I am shifting my focus toward revealing the new aesthetics inherent within social, virtual realities as a venue for the creation of art. I feel much more comfortable with this project and am already well underway in my hunt for unique beauty that exists outside of physical reality.

Node Zero Gallery - Opening Night

Come see six breakaway artists challenge the boundaries of virtual art, at the debut reception ofthe Node Zero Gallery in Second Life on November 15th, 4pm to 7pm PST (SLT), at Vaoetere 60/196.

This genre-spanning show will mix photography,painting and installations that launch the gallery's on going mission: To explore the role and form of artin a world where few boundaries exist.

Featured are the photography of Todd Huffman and Devlon Duthie, interactive sculptures by FeathersBoa, and unique virtual creations by Hinton Sisters, Aiyas Aya, and Gary Douglas.
Check the Second Life Event Listings for "NodeZero", or visit http://nodezerogallery.com/ for moreinformation.

Bring your friends . . . but leave your preconceptions!

The event will be taking place...
When : November 15, 2007 4pm to 7pm PST (SLT)
Where : In Second Life - Vaoetere 60/196

Node Zero Gallery & Streaming

Things are going well in virtual-land. Above is a picture of me in my very 'art gallery'-esque homebase. I've uploaded some of my concrete poetry and put it on display, have built a few interactive objects, and (my favorite) I've been streaming live musical performances into Second Life for any visitors of my land to listen to. The moral of this story is that I am completely and entirely sucked in to SL. I just had to sink my teeth in and find the stuff that was beneath all the advertising and cybersex.

On the professional/school side of things, I've been making a lot of progress as well. I am officially curating what is to be called "Node Zero Gallery", which is a series of galleries nodes spread throughout the Second Life landscape and is dedicated to the exhibition of art which could only exist within the metaverse. The actual spaces are undergoing a rebuild now and we are shooting to have the main gallery space completely built by the 12th of November. (I was up late last night discussing the aesthetics of the gallery with a few people from different corners of the globe). On top of that, I've been doing quite a bit of networking to line up potential artists who may want to exhibit in the spaces. All of whom have been helping me to develop my skills and learn building/scripting so that I can build my own pieces (some of which are already underway).

So in conclusion, my thesis has become a hybrid of curation, virtual art creation and documented discussion.

the palace of memory...

I've been rather sick and home-ridden for the past few days, but it's given me a good excuse to mess about in Second Life a lot. I've mostly been building and scripting, learning about both... I've been reading a lot about both topics lately but hadnt really had a chance to commit some time to actually using the skills in practise. And I have to admit that it completely changes the Second Life experience. Second Life is definitely much more than an online game, there's something more going on for sure. 'Tis hard to explain but let it be known that I'm much more addicted now.

With that said, I actually have a plot of land. Here's a shot of it...

It looks a little blue, but that's because it is underwater... (Another benefit of virtual people not requiring oxygen). The plot of land was actually generously loaned to me by an Australian artist named Andrew Burrell (http://www.miscellanea.com). I met him through a virtual sound artist I chatted with a few weeks ago, and it just so happened that Andrew has been looking for other artists to surround himself with in his underwater domain. So for now I have the right to a small chunk of his land so that I can build things and leave them to persist between my sessions. Which is good news... My utmost gratitude to Andrew for his help and hospitality.

No matter what anyone says about the downsides of Second Life, the fact that I just happened upon an Australian new media artist based in Sydney, had a substantial conversation about art/etc. and he was friendly enough to set me up with a plot of land... The fact that I can do that almost accidentally is pretty incredible. The days of the artsies sitting at the french cafe are gone...

I should follow that with my realization that I have been pushing too hard to make my thesis project something that used 3D virtual universes as a platform, but was kind of half-committed to that idea. I think my fear just that working completely virtually was going to drive me insane and I had this urge to do something physical and social... But I think that over the past few days I have realized that if I am going to say anything interesting about this new medium, I really need to commit to it and explore the possibilities rather than just sticking one foot in the door... And as my aforementioned experience proves, there's no avoiding my piece being social if I frame it inside of the Second Life medium. So for all of the profs that I've been rambling to about my new idea of the hour, I think I've come full circle right back to my original idea. I am quite simply going to explore the new aesthetics that are made possible by collaborative virtual 3D spaces. Essentially, what I have always planned to do, minus the not-so-strong association with homeless people, strangers, etc. My collaborators will be people who I have a purely virtual relationship to. My focus will be on exploring/establishing aesthetics which are very separate from, but do not exclude (and perhaps even compliment) physical reality. I believe it is important that virtual 3D universes are seen as a powerful tool for the future, but not as something that will replace the physical world.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

So I've done a lot of thinking and talking about my project and I have decided to make a slight alteration to my proposal. I really am not sure that the ' 3D space designed by people without physical spaces' is how I want to frame my piece. I have been thinking about alternate groups of indivdual collaborators I could work with, and also ways that I could pull of the project all by my lonesome.

I was thinking of creating multiple 3D spaces which were modelled around musical compositions. So essentially, 3D visual stimulus that supports music which is part of an album I am working on. I like this idea in that I could certainly incorporate my concrete poetry which the supervisor's seemed to favor, but I feel as though that project undermines the fact that I am working in 3D space. It becomes less about my thesis statement.

Afterward I returned to the idea of collaboration, as I think that this is a big aspect to these 3D virtual universe technologies. Rather than focussing on a specific group of people to collaborate with, I realized that what I find more interesting is how the collaboration affects the authorship of these 3D worlds. So another option is to change my pool of collaborators from the homeless, to random volunteers, but with different group sizes contributing to each individual space. In essence, I will create one virtual space that is completely in my hands, it will be my baby and a direct expression of myself. I will then create a second space through a collaboration with a single other individual... We'll meet, talk about what we want it to look/sound/feel like and I will make it happen. Thirdly will be a space collaboratively created by a small group of people (3-5 seems like a logical number). And lastly will be a completely collaborative world, where anyone who I happen to bring the project up with can add a little piece of their own aesthetic values. The coherence and diversity of these separate spaces will become apparent when they are installed side by side.

Any thoughts?