Welcome to Sowa’s Disco with music by ScotStyle
September 12, 2009
August 18, 2009
Preserving Virtual Art
Does virtual art need to be preserved in a format other than its native format?
Will the programs surrounding it change to a degree that it will not be supported by anything like its original program?
Exporting
Making a 3d model precludes scripting as does hologram presentation.
Machinima, done thoroughly, can convey a strong representation.
Native support
Maintaining a server with the original programming or something close to it could give us a space however antiquated to preserve the art in its original form. At this junction it seems to me to be the only real way to preserve it.
Future
Will we have a hologram image which reacts to the human form the way the scripted piece reacts to the avatar? Will we want to bring it out of the computer or will everyone be quiet comfortable going in?
Commerce
Do we need a first life commerce apart from the first life act of entering the virtual world and rezzing a numbered version of the piece?
May 25, 2009
Aequitas June 2009
Social media has drawn together a group of international artists to New York for Aequitas, an exhibit of art based on childhood experiences.
Artspace OSA in New York City and the virtual community of Second Life will host a joint exhibition of international artists: paintings, digital work, and virtual world installations during the month of June 2009.
Artists can be a solitary lot but with the advent of virtual worlds and web 2.0 they are finding each other and communicating in the way they know best: making and exhibiting art together. This disparate group of artists, having never met face to face, nevertheless finds a common ground in exploring their childhood for art.
Sowa Mai, also known as the artist Stephen Beveridge, conceived and planned this exhibit as an extension of the relationships he had formed in the Second Life virtual world with artist/avatars from different time zones and cultural backgrounds.
The exhibit in Washington Heights, New York City will display paintings and digital work by the human artists. An exhibit in the Second Life virtual world will consist of (art) installations and scripted objects by the human artists’ avatar counterparts. Both exhibits are based around the theme of mining childhood experience for art.
Dekka Raymaker Andrew MacLachlan Penumbra Carter Beth Olds Nebulosus Severine CM Pauluh Sowa Mai Stephen Beveridge David Ferrando Banrion Constantine Robert Garlick Elif Arat
Aequitas
Artspace OSA
June 1 – June 30, 2009
Reception Friday June 19th. 6:30-8:30
178 Bennett Ave @ 189th St, NYC
1 train to 191st Street | A train to 190th Street
Second Life Version
Caerleon Art Collective
June 26 – July 3, 2009
Reception June 26th. 6:30-8:30slpm
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Art%20Collective2/108/48/24/
Contact:
Stephen Beveridge
212 928 8351
SowaMai@gmail.com
February 5, 2009
“No Man is an Island”
The “No Man is an Island” is aimed at that social creature in Second Life created by such a creature called an avatar. It is an experiential exhibit in that the avatar participates rather than merely observes. Once inside the outer walls there is one way out and it is through the wall of fear, past the comments of the others, and up together on the ladder.
When the avatar approaches the tower he is given a notecard explaining, not so much, but beginning the journey. Whispers surround the avatar saying free me, love me , respect me, in English and Italian. The fear tower changes to love as the avatar approaches. Proximity affects the message. Text begins to appear in the chat window making statements about the avatar apparently by other avatars nearby.
Statements of Love and statements of Fear. There 100’s of drawings and text in each cube activated by touching. Continuous touching on certain boxes pulls up the picture of the avatar and a message allowing him entry in to the column.
Inside the column is a scroll with visual message telling you to turn on your video stream and asking you to sit on the poseball which has your avatar climb the ladder. The ladder allows you to climb right through the roof which is the only way out of the column and the box which enclosed it in the original exhibition. As you climb there are faces floating up with you to wherever the ladder leads. (Im not telling you)
No Man Is An Island
A virtual journey created by the avatar for the avatar.
Opening Reception on January 28th
Show ran from January 28th – 30th
Aequitas is a non-profit multinational conglomerate of dada intellectuals involved with the exploration of biological impulses and their effect on modern psyche through the medium of anti-conceptual physics and minor abstractions.
The intent is not to make a clear statement, but to overwork and overwhelm with endless details and muddled effects thereby confusing the viewer in to believing they are witnessing something beyond their grasp and therefore true, fine art.
– Banrion Constantine and Sowa Mai
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee (Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, #17).
– 17th-century English poet John Donne
If people allowed themselves to experience the pain of others — they would not be able to inflict it: no bombs, no murders, no tortures, no attacks of any kind.
If people allowed themselves to remember that the bell of judgment, like Donne’s bell of death, tolls for them, and that their guilt would cause them to pay the price of their vengeance and hatred, of the pettiness of their projections — there would be only peace and no judgment of others.
If people recognized that air, water, and nuclear pollution symbolize caring only for the satisfaction of their greed to the blatant disregard of others, and that such selfishness but hurts them — they would cease to pollute in an instant.
For who would rape minerally rich lands, wresting in righteous wrath treasures that were not theirs, knowing it was their own treasure of love they were losing?
For who would willingly choose the murderous thought system of specialness, inflicting pain and suffering upon another, knowing it was their own death they were plotting?
Finally, which government would willingly choose the murderous thought system of imperialism, inflicting pain and suffering upon others, knowing it was their own riches they were plundering?
– Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.
A Journey to One through two.
An awakening from a dream of death.
Please keep arms and legs inside at all times.
There exists
in the wall of fear
A keystone clear
A message spoken
only you can hear
Aequitas thanks:
Carleon
Franz Kafka
Glyph Graves
John Donne
luce Laval
Innula Zenovka
Remnant Ashbourne
Davy Maltz
Neil Young
ArchTx Edo
Roxelo Babenco
Arco Rosca
But in the darkness he can now perceive a radiance that streams inextinguishably from the DOOR OF THE LAW. Now his life is drawing to a close. Before he dies, all that he has experienced during the whole time of his sojourn condenses in his mind into one question, which he has never put to the doorkeeper.… “Everyone strives to attain the Law,…how does it come about, then, that in all these years no one has come seeking admittance but me?” The doorkeeper perceives that the man is nearing his end and his hearing is failing, so he bellows in his ear: “No one but you could gain admittance through this door, since this door was intended for you. I am now going to shut it.”
– Franz Kafka
“ARENA” Event – Hosting the largest art exhibition ever staged in Second Life, held in coordination with Virtual Renaissance, the exhibition to be held in Florence at the Museum of Natural History in the Festival of Creativity .
spoiler below..
The chat text which added to the sense of disorientation was created by a script and used the names of avatars walking within 10 m of the column. The column also detected avatar proximity and responded by changing the text fear to love.
click 4 or 5 times on any 2nd row cube until you see a form asking for your agreement then agree and walk through the prim it will remain phantom for a short time so be quick
January 5, 2009
cooked goose?
Interesting post at NPIRL. I will provide a link to the article along with some of the key points for me. (I need to separate them from the text to facilitate my thinking due to ingrained self taught short attention span) (I was reading Bob Dylan’s bio last night and he talked about forcing himself to read long poems and memorize passages to offset or wean himself away from the tv, 45rpm, 3 min song lazy thought pattern.)
The Work of Art in the Age of Computational (Re)Production ***
Posted by Alpha Auer…
Key points (for my understanding)
a very vital component of artistic practice is no longer present with us today. Or at least not immediately and obviously so. Does artistic output still serve the intrinsic purposes of humanity? Or has art simply lost its cause?
For millenia art provided the visual narration of religious concepts.
(this is what I was doing with my “Choose Again” exhibit in New York last year and will continue with the Arena presentation January 27th. 2009)
With the advent of the Bourgeoisie in Europe after the 16th century yet another demand was charged upon artists: The newly individuated and wealthy Citizen no longer settled for just the glorification of religion, but sought personal glorification as well. The outcome was the genre of portrait painting, as well as interiors, landscapes and still lives, with which the European Burger adorned his estate.
the whole “business of art”, as it had been practiced for thousands of years found itself in a precarious position of re-evaluation. Of a need for creating personal agendas and purposes that would continue to provide an outlet for that intrinsically human attribute we call creativity.
Up until the early decades of the 20th century the research of the visual elements of art themselves – of light, of space and of object culminating in pure abstraction, served the bill. And it seems to me that the present day phenomenon of conceptual and indeed post-conceptual art is not faring much better.
Then came a brief dabble in an investigation of the human subconscious during the middle of the 20th century – but ultimately it was all self propelled, self instigated and could sustain its own momentum for only so long.
(These last two areas are the path of my abstract painting) (Ok so I am behind a wee bit sue me)
unless we provide an intrinsic purpose for it, and one which transcends that famed holy cow of “creative self expression” at that, our artistic goose is pretty much cooked! Overcooked, if anything, should you ask me… 
.
Personally, I have created Syncretia entirely by the credo of “livability” as opposed to “viewability” and my future efforts in metaverse creativity will follow along these lines as well, since to me this seems to be a thoroughly viable means of providing context to artistic endeavor today: The provision of usable objects and spaces serving the ritual of behavioral change and consequent self discovery through play.
Well what do you think? It looks to me like I am still rooting about in the subconscious for myself and for the viewer I am providing the visual narration of my spiritual concepts. But then what was “Ghost Story”?
January 2, 2009
Story of Stuff
Recommended viewing
Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.
Victor Lebow
The modern industrial economy works like this: resources are dug from a hole in the ground on one side of the planet, used for a few weeks, then dumped in a hole on the other side of the planet. This is known as the Creation of Value. The Creation of Value improves our quality of life. Improvements in our quality of life make us happier. The more we transfer from hole to hole, the happier we become.
Unfortunately, we are not yet transferring enough. According to the Worldwatch Institute, we have used more goods and services since 1950 than in all the rest of human history. But we still don’t seem to be happy. Indeed, over the same period, 25-year-olds in Britain have become ten times more likely to be afflicted by depression. One in four British adults now suffers from a chronic lack of sleep, and one fifth of schoolchildren have psychological problems. Over the past 13 years, mental health insurance claims have risen by 36 per cent. American studies suggest that between 40 and 60 per cent of the population suffers from mental illness in any one year. The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2010 depression will become the second commonest disease in the developed world. Unless we start consuming in earnest, we’ll never experience real joy.
George Monbiot
December 4, 2008
Ghost Story?
Looks like we might have another chance to rez Ghost Story version 3. Its set for Tuesday, the 8th of December at 8pm SLT. at Liss Spacepark as part of the Art and Angst exhibit put together by the lovely Estelle Parnell.
Sowa gets ready to rez Ghost Story just in time for Christmas
“Get off the cross honey, we could use the wood”
November 30, 2008
Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them. ~Hugh Miller
The project was ready to go. Due to an administrative error it was all returned to inventory days before the event. It was the first time such a thing had happened to me in SL (like it happens all the time in FL) and I searched for who to blame while projecting a face of calm and resignation befitting my illusory construct called Sowa. It was an accident. I told myself it was no big deal but it appears to have been a bigger deal than i thought. It broke the chain of my SL and i logged on less and less.
It feels like I am coming back now. I am writing here is evidence. (Oh I like that sentence) Not much else to say about it but it shows me how little I know about myself and my sensitivities. As if i didn’t know that already. I guess it shows me how SL packs an emotional wallop just like FL.
The Brooklyn is Watching version of Ghost Story in the last post never got noticed as far as I could see. (Update: they must be looking cause they noticed it now here.) The Cybertopia version got returned. The studio version got crushed. We tried to rez it at the edge of a sim and it dropped 2000 ft and collapsed in to itself. lol I don’t know how Ban ever found it, she’s a wonder. So we are rebuilding it and it will be part of Estelle’s Art and Angst exhibit. It sure qualifies for that angst part.
September 30, 2008
Sowa Mai’s Ghost Story
Hoorray!
I got a new place to set up Ghost Story at the Brooklyn is Watching sim.
These guys are lurking in Second Life behind a giant TV in the basement of Jack the Pelican. Nice folks they follow you around with a wee eye thingy and talk about you on their blog. Oh did I mention they give us a place to build stuff? cool
now I gotta figure out how to get bubbles and shoot it again, Maybe a wee bit smoother too.
