A Virtual Art Show that Would Not be Possible in Real Life

Click to see large (pretty crazy stuff here)

UPDATE: The last day to visit the Garden of NPIRL Delights is June 23, 2008 (teleport directly from here).

Press Release

Rezzable Productions, the largest developer of public spaces in virtual worlds, and Not Possible in Real Life (NPIRL), a working group dedicated to identifying, sharing and showcasing well conceived and realized content creation that would not be possible in Real Life, have joined forces to hold the largest-scale art show of its kind in the metaverse: The Garden of NPIRL Delights.

Taking a page from Hieronymus Bosch, Rezzable and NPIRL have enlisted the participation of over 100 of Second Life®’s artists, architects, builders and coders to construct the NPIRL Garden of our collective dreams, spanning four simulators/islands to illustrate: the Underworld, Earth, and Paradise.

NPIRL’s inaugural build festival, sponsored by Rezzable Productions, will open its doors to the public on Friday, May 16th through June 22nd, and hold numerous events, including music (both live and DJs), and tutorials. Musicians interested in performing at the Garden should contact Gweneth Lange. For all other events, please contact Vint Falken.

Rezzable has provided the following sims for the event: Rezzable Create, Rezzable Design, Rezzable Discover, and Rezzable Explore. A slurl to the event will be posted on this blog, as well as a new event-dedicated website produced by Vint Falken of Rezzable Productions, which will showcase each participating artist. If you have the Garden HUD, you will be able to teleport into the Garden from anywhere in the grid, too, to a new spot each time.

The content creation tools in the online world of Second Life provide an unprecedented palette for artistic and intellectual expression. Most of the natural laws of physics are not obligatory or even necessary. We can walk (or fly) through walls, and walls themselves can expand or contract wildly, or teleport a visitor to an entirely different place. In virtual worlds, architects and fashion designers are given unfettered new freedoms. The body can be exposed to extreme heat or cold or comfortably wear a display of exploding fireworks or shattered glass.

It is in this novel environment that a new school of thought and practices have emerged and taken on a life of their own, and the terms “NPIRL” (Not Possible in Real Life) and “PIRL,” (Possible in Real Life) have become lexicons in virtual worlds.

This is not a routine build festival. In fact, it is the first time that such a large number of mostly well-known and well-regarded artists, architects, and scripters have come together to not only embrace and demonstrate art and architecture and landscaping that is “not possible in Real Life,” or NPIRL, but also to construct it around a theme so surreal that a similar effort could not be duplicated in Real Life.

That many of the participants are artists or architects or art directors already, in Real Life, is irrelevant. In Second Life they go toe-to-toe with a full time chef, a financial planner, a magician, and a post doctoral mathematician.

"While most of the artists are seasoned content creators, a number of the participants are relatively new to virtual worlds or have never been a part of a build festival. This isn’t just about bringing in the best artists, but also about building a community of people who appreciate and enjoy creating things that are NPIRL," said Bettina Tizzy.

“It is not true that the online experience of Second Life consists only of fantasy Role Play, shopping for virtual goods and cybersex, or even of digital and sometimes shallow duplications of things that exist in Real Life, said Jon Himoff (aka RightasRain Rimbaud), president and CEO of Rezzable Productions. “It is about user engagement in an immersive 3D world that doesn’t even exist in online games, such as WoW. If you give people in Second Life a chance and a little structure – not a lot – they create art that is native to this new environment. For the Garden, we have joined together to push the bar way up in this new frontier, which is both an artistic and technological experiment.”

Many surprises await the visitor, and multiple visits will be necessary to fully discover all that the Garden offers, including a new sculpture by Light Waves, a multi-layered environment created by Darek Deluca that spans four sims at 3000m altitude, and individual and group installations by over 100 artists.

Every effort has been made to inform the visitor and facilitate a quality experience: guided tours in a vehicle especially created by Lumiere Noir and scripted by Darek Deluca; a Garden HUD by scripting wiz Miki Gymnast that enables you to see and learn about each work; and Landmark-Ready notecards have been especially prepared by Corporate Jay. Miki Gymnast and Pavig Lok devoted countless hours to working with the artists to harmonize the scripts in coexisting installations. The sheer number of scripts that are running would normally crash most sims.

“We are also taking this opportunity to educate the Second Life visitor about the IP rights of artists,” added RightasRain. “Upon arrival, visitors will be asked to attribute any photography and Machinima to the artists whose work they portray.”

“Rezzable Productions put their entire team to work and provided every resource necessary and/or imaginable to help bring this about. I’d like to especially thank LittleToe Bartlett and Beatrix Newt, without whom the careful layout and planning and nurturing of the artists would not have been possible, and the many NPIRLers who gave selflessly of their time,” added Bettina.