the wedding

the heads have fallen
the couch did break
the cake was eaten
the wedding was fake!

the bots with bodies
saw you naked and naughty
where was your dress?
you were such a beautiful mess
the bride stipped bare

INVITATION NOTECARD

The performance of 01.10.10 a wedding

SLURL
UPON ARRIVAL PLEASE TAKE THE TELEPORT TO THE CATHEDRAL

You are invited to the SL wedding performance of Selavy Oh and Misprint Thursday on Sunday January 10th at 1pm slt. THIS IS A FAKE WEDDING. IT IS PERFORMANCE ART. The performance is a reflection and celebration of "creative community" and how we intersect and play off each other's work, ideas and environments. The objects, costumes, props and personas in this performance are reflective of the playful and creative domain of SL art.
Why a wedding? The performance of a wedding grew out of a poetically whimsical "faux proposal" from Misprint Thursday to Selavy Oh. The proposal was accepted and the faux partnership was formed. From there, the fantastic thread has unraveled leading us to this culminating encounter. We are all "wed" in our experiences and connective creativity in this environment in many ways aren't we?

To view the performance:
Set to Midnight
Have your sounds and video enabled
Grab the Info In the Cathedral Foyer when you arrive

In keeping with the performance please feel free to participate by dressing any combination of "ecclectic formal".

Much thanks and appreciation to Corrine Cerise for the generous land use to host this event and Marko Seurat for providing the wonderful builds on said land.

Tremendous YAY for all the artists and actors to participate in this fast paced, fun and surreal community art event. CHEERS!

ARTISTS:

Misprint Thursday and Selavy Oh
collaborators and co-conspirators in performance

Marko Seurat-Set Design (cathedral and sky build)
Bryn Oh-Catherdal Art curated and placed by Marko Seurat
Suzanne Graves-Cathedral Art curated and placed by Marko Seurat
ColeMarie Soleil-Machinima Documentation
myvegancookbook Bolissima-Costume for brides
Dekka Raymaker-Wedding Documents
Solo Mornington-Rings
L1Aura Loire-Nuptial Couch
Rod Mandel-Interactive Wedding seating
Ze Moo-Minister 1
Xenophile Neurocam-Minister 2
Penumbra Carter-Minister 3 and cake creator
Joonie Jatho-Deflowered Girl
Arrow Inglewood-Best Man and Ice Sculpture creator
Captain Pike-Usher
Positive Hinterland-Bridesmaid
Negative Overland-Bridesmaid
Dekka Raymaker-Wedding Documents
curmudgeon Krasner-Witness
Peri Afarensis-Witness
Azdel Slade and echolalia Azalee-Augmented Reality Performance
Oberon Onmura-Reception Art
Jo Ellsmere-Reception Chairs
Maya Paris-Table Centerpieces

concept, idea, organization, poem, and notecard text by misprint thursday. for some pictures, see blog posts of chestnut rau and apmel. reposted by azdel slade at transreal.org! mentioned at post-medium critiqué. mentioned again at art:21 by nettrice gaskins.

erasing the spiral

poster by helfe ihnen, 2009

Opening Nov 7, 2009, 1pm SLT at East of Odyssey. Curated by Helfe Ihnen. Text for the exhibition (see below) by Nusch Ray.
Blogged by soror nishi, tangoafton apmel, and alpha auer. further pictures taken at the opening by Helfe Ihnen, and machinima by Helfe Ihnen, bark Aabye, Saveme Oh!, and Siss Criss. Recommended in Linden Lab's destination guide. yet another blog by apmel about positive!

"A dormant earthquake spread into the fluttering stillness, into a spinning sensation without movement."

Robert Smithson, 1970

In 1970, Robert Smithson constructed the Spiral Jetty, a large earthwork in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. The Spiral Jetty was visible only for two years and then became submerged in the water of lake. Even though Smithson didn't anticipate the drowning, the idea of entropy, of the inevitable change of his sculptures by the forces of natures was a central element of his work.

"Erased de Kooning Drawing is iconic because it stands for an era when something seemingly negative could, in fact, turn out to have positive repercussions."

Vincent Katz, 2006

In 1953, Robert Rauschenberg asked Willem de Kooning, whether he could erase one of his drawings as an act of art. De Kooning agreed, and, playing his part in the performance, gave Rauschenberg a drawing that was specifically difficult to erase. This "Erased de Kooning" has become one of the most important works of art of that period. In an interview, asked what this act meant for him, Rauschenberg answered: "It's poetry".

Selavy Oh's work erasing the spiral consists of scripted terraforming covering almost the whole area of the art simulator East of Odyssey in the virtual world of Second Life. A spiral slowly emerges out of the virtual water, white spheres cover the ground like pearls, structuring the ground and reminding of the salt crystals in Smithson's work. And suddenly, like a splash, a huge wave consisting of virtual ground forms and propagates over the water, erasing the subtle traces of the spiral. Then the cycle recommences and the spiral is slowly rebuilding.
Apparently, Selavy Oh's "scripted landart", as curator Helfe Ihnen calls it, refers to both these icons of modern art. But what could be more pretentious than attempting to re-enact Smithson's work, so depending on the context of nature, in a virtual setting? And, if that was not enough, to erase it by an earthquake simulation, pretending this to be a reference to Rauschenberg?
Or did we fall into Selavy Oh's trap when asking this question? Is this the question we should ask ourselves, just to realize that we are looking at a piece of software, producing an illusion of water and earth, of creation and destruction? The reference as an illusion, pretension as calculated or simulated provocation?
But there's more about it. We, as visitors, can also trigger the wave: when we let our avatars fly and land in the shallow water, the wave is released and erases Selavy's spiral. Even the small platform, a simple representation of the space, can be used to trigger the wave by clicking on it. Doing this several times may eventually lead to complete chaos, uncontrolled waves emerging everywhere, erasing the spiral before it is even drawn.
Admittedly, this playful destruction is amusing, and watching the intertwining waves shovelling avatars and white spheres around is an enjoyable experience. Perhaps, it is this tension between sophisticated pleasure and ironic reference to art history that makes this piece an excellent contribution to Odyssey's programmatic role in the yet underestimated world of virtual art.

Nusch Ray, November 2009

irregularity

irregularity, conceived for burning life 2009, consists of 1872 identical poles. the poles are arranged so that they form edges of a three-dimensional regular grid of 2.5x2.5 cubes. by omitting cubes and edges, the remaining poles, still organized in a regular grid, form a hollow sphere. thus, constructing the sphere can be conceived as removing those parts of the grid which do not contribute to the shape, like a sculptor carving wood.
initially, the structure is completely symmetric and regular, but becomes more and more irregular over time. each visitor actively participates in this transformation: when avatars fly through the structure and collide with it, the edges touched fall down and the structure temporarily becomes damaged. after a certain time, which depends on how many visitors are present, the edges will start to rise and slowly move back towards their original position. however, they never end up in exact the same position, thus resulting in an accumulative disarrangement of the structure. read also bettina tizzy's NPIRL blog post, poid mahovlich's metanopsis blog (with interview), ana's blog, and michele hyacinth's blog with her picture of the work at the end of burning life after a week full of visitors, showing the avatar-induced distortion of the installation.
a slightly different version was shown at Brooklyn Is Watching and was discussed in podcast 74.
sounds: samples of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate (performed by Kurt Schwitters, original recording May 5, 1932)

state of formation

presented by IBM EXHIBITION SPACE (IBM 3, Secondlife)
Curated by Andrew Sempere (Tezcatlipoca Bisiani)
OPENING: 2pm SLT (5pm EST) SEPTEMBER 16th, 2009
SLURL: IBM 3/83/39/22
IBM SPACE: Gallery Information

UNTIL: December 1st, 2009

blogs about state of formation:

• tezcatlipoca bisiani (the "official" blog)
• soror nishi
• arahan claveau
• hamlet au
• masoon (a japanese blog, no idea what's written there)
• avenue magazine, october 2009, page 219 ff (by nazz lane)
• featured in lyric lundquist's sideways time

notecard text for the show by Mab MacMoragh:

An expressionless blank avatar turns, seeming to be a fountain statue, centered over a dark round basin.  Around the well, little black cubes crawl on a white ground splattered in black, a big white cube orbits the air generating a suspended vanishing trail in its wake, and five identical white chairs await.  All is enclosed within a constantly transforming structure of semitransparent panels screened with typeface characters.

Selavy Oh's state of formation reveals itself only to the one willing to explore the installation beyond its superficial appearance. Beginning outside, the visitor walks through moving lettered planes and leaves behind short-lived traces of landforms risen in the water ringing the center.  Finally, the visitor reaches the inner boundary to sit on each of the chairs facing the fountain--and to surrender control.  The visitor's fixed gaze is taken over in a brisk encounter with changing viewpoints and flashing images.

fourty four flowers

forty four flowers is a sound piece for mab macmoragh's sim eryri, and has also been shown at the artificial lawn of brooklyn is watching (mentioned by jay in a comment to this blog, but erroneously attributed to another work, see other comments). invisible moving sound sources play the names of forty four flowers, whispered by two different speakers. the visitor is confronted with the contradiction between the simulated environment, the invisible whispering human voices, and personal memories evoked by the flower names.
voices by amy freelunch (amy wilson) and arahan claveau (steve millar). arahan also made a video (well, more a sound recording) of it, see it here.

dancing mountains

the dancing mountains are the first artwork in Second Life using scripted terraforming. dancing mountains, being more a sketchy proof of concept than a fully developed piece of work, gained much attention for pushing the boundaries of artworks in virtual worlds. thanks to bettina tizzy for the blog at NPIRL, and mab macmoragh (see soup blog) for giving me the possibility to realize this work.

the galleries: final show

machinima by penumbra carter

contribution for the final five show of Brooklyn Is Watching, on display in SL at East of Odyssey and in RL at Jack The Pelican Presents in NYC (picture of the gallery setup).
contributing artists:

• Arahan Claveau – "Adrift"
• Dekka Raymaker – "Artbortion"
• comet Morigi – selected works
• Oberon Onmura – "Fight for Order"
• Misprint Thursday – "Suspended Hang-Ups"

see also mab macmoragh's soup blog, comet morigi's blog, moncherie afterthought's blog post at BiW, and the interview with jay at the npirl blog, and it was mentioned at art:21 by nettrice gaskin.