Ok, Alright

Disclaimer: I am jet lagged...feeling loose.

The symbol on the flag above means something like - "Ok, Alright". I think. It is according to the signs that were scratched onto fence posts, sidewalks and walls by hobos on the move looking for safe shelter. Read You Can't Win (a cautionary tale written by hobo Jack Black in 1926).

I read this review of the recent Second Life Community Convention, written by Andrew Sempere aka Tezcatilopoca Bisiani. He describes almost precisely why I find myself continually returning to SL, giving up valuable time to this seemingly intangible endeavor. Community is his operative word and perhaps that's why I starting thinking about the community of hobos...signaling to one another, "hey, it's ok, it's alright, stick around..." . He writes, "Why would an otherwise sane and healthy adult professional work a full work week and then spend hundreds of hours logged into a virtual world? Why, exactly, do we care so damn much? In its specifics, the answer is as varied as each of us, but in general it all ends in relationships, and community, and the sheer joy of building a world with people of like mind." His enthusiasm is motivating, the diversity of his projects is inspiring, and he uses the word "thrilled" in his review. I like.

Leap before you look...

"The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap..."
-W.H.Auden

See you in a couple of weeks, dear readers!

hope you enjoy your summer holidays...

The Cult of Personality

Artist Kasabian Beck asks us to consider celebrity within Second Life in his latest exhibition at Hotel Dare, “Slebrity™”. Presented against the spare white walls of the gallery are several panels depicting the names (in an also spare, sans serif font) of well-known personalities – creators of all types - within SL, seen in the image above. Struck by the cult of personality in the metaverse, Beck muses on “the very idea of virtual notoriety, how it is sought, attained and why it is or is not important...” I wasn’t familiar with all the names presented in the gallery which is an important point. It’s possible I might not have known any of the names – what meaning would the exhibition have had for me then? The names chosen have been curated – by the artist – revealing his own particular world experience. This exhibition will mean something different to each viewer and ought to inspire discussions about what I call the “flux” of personality. What most of the names have in common is that they are brilliant self-promoters. In art, reputation can be considered more valuable than in many other fields where celebrity is cultivated. Look at the Young British Art movement of the mid ‘90s; young artists, with small bodies of work behind them, created retrospectives and museums dedicated to themselves, to protest the English art institutions that had belittled them. Is the tone of this exhibition condescending? Do these names have any value at all as ideas or things to disagree with?

Virtual fame is the same as any other kind of fame, earned and unearned. As psychologist James Houran writes, “we need celebrities as much as we need food, water and shelter. We need them to feel connected.” These names on the wall are humans, not martians, not simply avatars. We condescend to these human fundamentals, our desire for celebrity, at our peril because we are human – not always wonderful but very predictable and found in all environments. A thought-provoking exhibition...go to Slebrity and have a think.

The Quiddity of Objects, 2 of 2

In rl I work with contemporary artists and many of them create installations. One could categorize their work as conceptual art. After a number of years working with this genre I’ve come to reappreciate more traditional arts, or, rather, craftsmanship. I’m eager to see the hard work, the time spent, illustrated in the construction of a work of art. The time an artist spends making offers insight into the working process in a way that conceptual art may often not.

As I make my way around the galleries and museums of SL, I look with a rather critical eye at both virtual art and the presentation of real life art in the virtual world. When I heard the Smithsonian was sponsoring the Latino Virtual Museum I was excited to see what they’d produced. It’s the Smithsonian after all. Curated by Olga Herrera, the museum includes selections of paintings and archives from the Archives of American Art and other Smithsonian collections. I ambled toward an oversized photograph of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera...and squinted. I refocused, cammed back and forth. Nope, still blurry. I tried out a few other images and they were all out of focus. The technology of SL allows us to dig deep, get close, immerse, and it’s up to the curators to ensure they take full advantage of the technology. It’s not enough to throw a photograph, or other object, into the metaverse for mere presence if it’s not useful to visitors. While the LVM provided much text about the image, they seem to have forgotten about the value of the photograph alone. I’d like to see the flowers in Frida’s hair, study the works of art hanging on the wall behind her, or the food on the table in front of her. One photograph has a hundred stories to tell and the curators should allow the visitor to make their own observations.

The Smithsonian might take a look at the Dresden Gallery , a replication of a rl museum. The paintings are carefully rendered. Each is cataloged with basic, tombstone information. Almost minute details can be observed, as in this detail of a painting by Johann Thiele (The Elbe Sornewitz in Hoarfrost and Fog, 1741), making it useful for both the general browser and the scholar.

On the making of objects in SL - the real masters can be found in our 3D artists, like AM Radio, whose builds are thoughtful replications of real life things always elegantly assembled. Just look at the swirling hoses on this engine.

Or the felted platter and transparent plastic cover of a turntable, made by maclane Mills. The details observed are the fingerprints left by reality on the imagination of these artists. Both Mills and Radio capture the quiddity of an object – its “whatness”. It’s a testament to their receptivity and curiosity about objects, as well as their technical skills that make them craftsmen. Wrote Brahms, “Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.”

Freak out, part. 1 of 2

(Disclaimer: I know I've been focusing on art a lot.I can't help myself. But I will expand, I promise.) The next two posts have to do with the quality of art. I have something to say about what I see presented online. First of two entries...

I used to work for an art moving company. We’d pack and crate paintings, photographs and sculptures for collectors, galleries and museums. I remember being in a storeroom, a van Gogh painting resting on its back, thinking how lucky I was to be this close to a work of art, no alarms or guards to shoo me away. My boss said “Go ahead, touch it.” I blinked at him. “Really?” He nodded and giddily I touched the surface of the canvas, tracing my fingers over the hills and valleys of aged paint.

It was electrifying, feeling the brush strokes, and I began to get an idea of how the master worked his magic. There is a phenomena called Stendhal’s Syndrome or hyperkulturemia – the feeling of being totally overwhelmed when regarding a work of art or anything of great beauty; the heart races, you feel faint, dizzy, mad even. People have been known to react violently too. At the museum I work in, a man ran into the galleries, slashed two paintings with a knife, and ran out again. Beauty can inspire pain when it feels unattainable. There are times when I’m working with a great work of art when I feel almost besieged by beauty. I stare endlessly into a canvas and try to put myself in the artist’s mind – looking as he looked – taking in the scene before him as he transports it from eye to brain to arm to fingertip to canvas. I am overcome. I run.

patience is a virtue

waiting patiently...sort of...for internet access to resume