On Artists and their Patrons: An SL6B discussion to help shape the future of the Arts

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

On June 1, the New Media Consortium's (NMC) CEO Larry Pixel (aka Dr. Larry F. Johnson) guest blogged here on a topic that has sparked a vibrant dialogue: On Artists and their Patrons: Nurturing Support for the Arts in Second Life®.

The arts in Second Life may be blossoming, but the level of sophistication in terms of sponsorship, promotion and funding still lags far behind Real Life. Also of much concern: lands that were previously available, and amply so, are drying up.

What do our artists and their patrons need to do to get up to speed? How can we encourage more of Second Life's residents to step up and provide meaningful support to the arts?

Please join us tomorrow for a critically important panel presentation to discuss how we can foster and shape the future of arts in Second Life... and begin to put them on par with their Real Life counterparts.

ON ARTISTS AND THEIR PATRONS, Nurturing Support for the Arts in Second Life

WHEN: Friday, June 26, 2009 at 7pm SLT - (60 minutes)
WHERE: NMC's Cooper Coliseum (teleport directly from here)

The session will be conducted in Second Life voice.

PANELISTS:

* Alexandar Vargas (multi-sim arts patron, including Welsh Lakes, artist)
* DanCoyote Antonelli (aka DC Spensley, artist)
* Douglas Story (artist)
* Mondray Chandler (RL Museum)
* Nur Mo (founder/owner of Poetik Velvets; patron)

Chair: Bettina Tizzy

GOALS:

* To inspire more land owners to provide significant land and other means of support to artists.
* To compare and contrast funding/support methods in Real Life versus Second Life. This level of sophistication and understanding has to begin with us.
* To encourage artists and their patrons to discuss expectations at the onset.
* To come up with a tool set, sort of a Chinese menu, that is mutually beneficial to both parties.

Many thanks to Larry Pixel for bringing attention to this important issue and to the NMC for their support and the use of their venue.

DanCoyote Antonelli responds to whiny residents and Linden Lab with art: Hostile Space

This morning, Juria Yoshikawa suggested that I take a look at the art installation that DanCoyote Antonelli (aka DC Spensley) had created at Brooklyn is Watching in response to resident Selavy Oh's temporary banning from Second Life® for allegedly abusing another resident with her art (see our previous post).

I took one look at Hostile Space and immediately contacted DanCoyote (we call him DC) to get the skinny.


In lieu of photography, I created this quick video to show you the piece.
Music: "Stars" by Beth Quist
Video: Bettina Tizzy

DanCoyote Antonelli: Hostile Space (teleport directly from here), is not really hostile in real terms. It is cheery and cute but removes the figurative conceit from the viewer's experience and literally intends to drop stuff on their heads. The viewers have been forewarned that it is Hostile Space.

So what Selavy did accidentally is being done deliberately to foreground the issue of whether it is correct to consider an avatar to have personal space. In the case of Selavy, it was literally an accident and on a known free-for-all art sim. It was unconscionable to suspend Selavy for the accident. I agree that making someone's avatar do stuff against their will is assault. I don't agree with Gazira Babeli on this. But an accident? Just silly. So Hostile Space is there to poke gentle fun at the whole concept of getting bonked on the head. So look out! Stuff WILL FALL ON YOU HERE! Bonka Bonka!

The artwork also references Adam Ramona with a sound component and yesterday I added some Mutant Hossies in the bottom part as a non sequitur element that also references Pavig Lok's reassembly of ant parts a few months ago. The Mutant Hossies are reassembled parts of a horse made by Nomasha Syaka and while not abstract like most of my work, are more in the spirit of the coming holiday.

I'll have to get with DC later to find out what kind of holiday celebrations he has!

DanCoyote Antonelli: Hostile Space has layers. Is the space hostile to the viewer? Is Second Life hostile to artists? And WTF are these surreal Mutant Hossies doing there anyway?

It's hip (this week) to be square-ish

In Real Life, a monolithic cube might make you think of the Kaaba in Mecca.


This photograph by Muhammad Mahdi Karim

In Second Life®, especially if it has some special physics feature, it makes me think of conceptual artist and scripter Selavy Oh. As art professor Amy Freelunch pointed out, Selavy has carved a niche for herself with pieces that almost always feature a cube or cubes falling, pushing or floating, such as some of her Tectonics series, and her Architectural Intervention piece.

Much of art in Second Life® requires some degree of technical/scripting skill to produce. This week, the theme seems to be physics... and cubes.

Those of us who spend even a wee bit of time at performance space and presentation/sandbox Brooklyn is Watching (BiW), have been aware for some time now that Selavy has been planning the opening of her "Nested Cubes" installation to the public today, at 4:30pm SLT (teleport directly from here)...



Selavy's Nested Cubes isn't really orange... I've been playing some more with Torley's Windlight presets

...so it came as quite a surprise yesterday when I discovered this piece by Hyperformalist DanCoyote Antonelli (aka DC Spensley) at about 1,200m above the Brooklyn is Watching space (teleport directly from here and take one of the chair tours he offers there).



Subtractive Reactive Social Sculpture by DanCoyote Antonelli

Notably, I inspected it and it was created July 22, 2008. Yesterday.

I immediately sent DanCoyote an IM that read simply, "rascal." He was busy working but his brief reply read... "I am a coyote." I have not yet been able to confirm that he understood why I was calling him names, and if his response addressed my implied charge or, shall we say... question. I hope to learn more.


Higher resolution version here
Music: "Neurofunk," composed by Michael Genato, ASCAP; published by Mike Genato Music, ASCAP and Freeplaynjj, ASCAP
Video: Bettina Tizzy

At any rate, I visited Nested Cubes recently with postdoctoral mathematician Seifert Surface (aka Henry Segerman), who's astonishing Noobility installation, created in collaboration with his brother, Art Laxness (aka Will Segerman), is now wowing the crowds over at Rezzable Productions' Black Swan (teleport directly from here). Seifert was my companion of choice for this expedition because of his knowledge of physics, especially as they are related to virtual art. As I expected, upon rezzing he was examining the piece with care. I hope he won't mind my sharing his comments as we reviewed it.

Seifert Surface: I checked to see if the things that fall are the same objects as the things you fly into. Not always the case... there might have been a switcheroo.

To mix it up?
Seifert Surface: For some reason or other. Eg, it could have been done so that the things you fly through go invisible and at the same time rez a physical cube in the same place... so it looks like you fly through the thing and it falls, when in fact the original cube is still there, just invisible. Then you bring back the original cube at a later date. That isn't what's going on here, though. The original cube is falling... invisiprims, and some sort of pusher. These are all good things to be experimenting with.

I later contacted Selavy to ask if she had used Keystone Bouchard's (aka Jon Brouchard) marvelous Reflexive Architecture scripts, but she clarified that all the scripts are her own. I also learned that Nested Cubes re-rezzes itself after a ten minute absence of avatars. "The viewer is an important part of this work, as in any work," she said.

~*~

Aha! Just as I was preparing to publish this piece, an email came in from DanCoyote Antonelli:

"Sel is a friend and I think a very big talent in Second Life... a rising star and diehard Hyperformalist.

My installation of the RSSS (Reactive Subtractive Social Sculpture) at BiW was in response to her cubic arrays in BiW and at Design Island. This is an example of similar morphology (cubic array) and completely different conceptual behavior. The demonstration of this fact accounts for my timing.

The piece I have at BiW was pioneered in late 2006 and is a well documented and coherent approach implicating the viewer into a sculptural relationship with the work. In fact, I contend that it implicates two viewers since the active viewer who is in the piece cannot see the length and breadth of the metamorphosis of the piece, so it takes at least two.

You know what they say... "The simpler the art, the more complex the explanation..."

It is majestic: DanCoyote's Antonelli's Tower of Light

Hyperformalist DanCoyote Antonelli (aka DC Spensley) has been away from his keyboard for several weeks, and while I have not yet had a chance to catch up with him, word has it that he is feeling refreshed. Drop in at Brooklyn is Watching (teleport directly from here) and look up and into his Tower of Light.



...but when you do, you must take his tour (look for the white chair) and teleport to the various sections of this epic installation. In particular, be sure to go about 1,200m and look down from there... then ascend to about 2,100m and discover the surprises tucked into one of the two large blue pods.




There is a very high degree of difficulty in portraying what can be seen there, so I'm especially excited to point you to Arahan Claveau's video of this installation with audio that gives it a mysterious and shimmering quality, not unlike Stanislaw Lem's Solaris.

In addition, Arahan created the first in what will hopefully be a weekly series of videos capturing one or more art pieces that have been rezzed at Brooklyn is Watching just prior to their Wednesday podcast, which I've had the pleasure of participating in two weeks running. That video will be posted on the Brooklyn is Watching blog later tonight.

DanCoyote Antonelli's music-driven virtual flight choreography

DanCoyote Antonelli's ZeroG Skydancers "Second Spring," - presented by the NMC - shatters so much new ground, it's a wonder I was able to walk out of the place in a straight line. And the music by ZeroOne Paz! I want that track on my iPod now.

This was the first weekend of the third season, and only my first time there. I admit now that I was worried that all the buzz I'd heard about past events was nothing more than feverish hype... but that theory has been squashed to bits.

ZeroG SkyDancers is virtual flight choreography, to an original sound score. As young as the metaverse is, it is easy to see that DanCoyote Antonelli is having an enduring influence, tearing through the mediums of dance and music and art and recasting everything in his path.

SkyDancers will run through the end of March, and tickets are $3,000L, but you'd better lock yours in soon or you'll be locked out. To keep lag outside, too, DC is hyper-limiting the seating. Contact DC@spensley.com for tickets.

Gary Hazlitt just filmed and edited this sparkling trailer.


You can see a higher resolution version of this here.

DanCoyote Antonelli overcomes Real Life constraints in Second Life; finds a home and venue for his art

The realm of any original theorist is a lonely place. I spent two engrossing hours with NPIRL'er DanCoyote Antonelli, and we only scratched the surface of the world this thinking man has invented for himself. Whether or not you agree with... or even understand his doctrines, know this: DanCoyote is making art history in the metaverse, and you can and should experience this masterpiece for yourself now at the Arts and Letters installation for Full Immersion Hyperformalism: (Teleport directly)
Bettina Tizzy: Who is DanCoyote and where is he/what does he do in real life?
Dancoyote Antonelli: DC Spensley is the artist behind the agent/avatar DanCoyote Antonelli. DanCoyote is a logo, not a personality. While I respect that people have a rich role playing life in SL, and know how important it is to many, it is not my project to role play in SL. I am called DC in both worlds. It is my project to merge the two through my art practice.

I am in San Francisco… have been a practicing, exhibiting artist here (in RL) for over 20 years. (My) work spans genre and medium. I am fortunate to have many different threads in my career, (and) while I create and display physical works in RL, I also have a burgeoning digital output as well. The two connect actually, theoretically and literally.

I have been attempting serious art with digital tools since Photoshop 1.0, so my research is many, many degrees older than SL. However, none of that work had a venue.


I thing the Web is a lousy place to show art. It is like TV in that all things become equal and flat on TV. Let’s say you have Gandhi on one side, and Britney Spears on the other in an interview on TV. The audience assumes they are both equal since they are being interviewed on the same show… but in fact, they are not. Gandhi is a world hero for the ages, Brit is a pop entertainer. Both contribute, but not in equal ways... so I do not like to show my work on the Web.

Bettina Tizzy: Please describe that aha! moment... when you realized that SL was the right venue.
Dancoyote Antonelli: I actually had an opportunity to get into SL in 2004, but was in for a few minutes and decided it was a strip mall; didn’t come back. In early 2006 I was at the San Francisco Art Institute doing a performance piece called "Love is Stronger than Hate," when a friend told me about a call for entries for Ars Virtua. Rubaiyat Shatner is the curator. I contacted him via email and he gave me instructions to meet him in SL.

As I (re)explored SL, I realized a few fundamental things. #1: This young culture was starving for serious art. Retail, porn and gambling were the dominant forms as they are in RL. I knew then I wanted to plant roses.

The second thing I realized is that my work was native in SL. I had finally found a home and a venue for work I had been doing on faith for a decade.

#3 is the third realization that people in SL are surrounded by cheap reproductions. The art market - such as it was - had topped out at 300 Lindens. I decided to do a conceptual experiment to begin to cultivate value in SL, and refused to make copies of my work for any reason. (I) don’t resell work after a collector acquires it. My first offerings were around 2700L.

Bettina Tizzy: So all one-of-a-kind pieces? Every single piece you make?
Dancoyote Antonelli: Yes, unique. My only concession is that I can display works, but not make them available for collectors. So in the last year and a half, the value of my work has evolved from 2700L to 150,000L. I sometimes display a work in a collection, yes, but never resell editions, prints, copies, etc. Unique objects are of great value to collectors… and art can, and does appreciate in value, just like in RL. This is not to say that I am all that interested in commerce. It was a conceptual experiment.

Bettina Tizzy: My read is that you are opposed to open source.
Dancoyote Antonelli: Many people jump to that conclusion. Open source is important for tools and delivery artifice. It is an enabler. (In any life,) your value in commerce of any kind is directly connected to the quality of your ideas. Ideas = creative capital. (I support it) by making some things open source. I have also done very public works at the OSMOSL (Open Source Museum of SL), an experiment with Brown University.

The feeling out there on the street is that open source means my content should be free. Tools and delivery should be free to encourage culture. Artists, like plumbers need to pay the bills; (get paid) for their work… and artists make creative capital.

Bettina Tizzy: Explain, in lay terms, what Hyperformalism is...
Dancoyote Antonelli: I use Hyperformalist to describe the art movement that the art world missed…the differential of technological proficiency and old school modernist dominance kept critics and thinkers from mainstreaming important developments in the boundaries of art. Part of my conceptual project is what I call “neologism.” I am a theorist as well as a practice person. Neologism = new word, in demonstration of theory.

Everything I do is abstract, but none of it is random. Hyperformalism is formalist abstraction, (as in) basic building blocks of aesthetic experience: form, shape, color, volume, etc, in hyper medium which allows for scripting and ersatz gravity.

The work I do in SL is not modeling for RL. I make it my mission to push as hard as possible to overcome RL constraints. It is my goal is to bring the Guggenheim audience into virtual reality to experience my work.

Bettina Tizzy: What tools do you use primarily?
Dancoyote Antonelli: (I) have been using Photoshop since 1.0. Another tool I use is a film production model. I use everything at my disposal. I own 10 Macs of every generation, and have software tools for every generation… many not available anymore.

Visual art is only a portion of my project. I also compose audio and perform. DanCoyote actually came into being as an audio performer at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco where my combo played at the "Bang the Machine" show: DanCoyote and the Alonso Quixano Experience. I am a fan of John Cage, in that I believe that the constraints of "music" are too limiting. The stream here (Arts and Letters) is my work.

Bettina Tizzy: I am listening. Describe it.
Dancoyote Antonelli: At different times…atonal, arrhythmic audio, hyperformalism, related to Edgard Varese.
Bettina Tizzy: but, but… that description sounds... so cold! I find it warm and conflicted, and earthy, and other worldly, at once.
Dancoyote Antonelli: It is warm because it is not practiced. I set up circumstances. I don’t dictate. I compose the circumstances of chance operations - like in Cage - but not for the same reasons. Cage was trying to take the hand of the artist out of the picture. That has been (proven) impossible. My hand appears in the possibilities, the set of potentials I bring to bear, not in the choreography of what occurs.
Bettina Tizzy: That is too theoretical. Take that down a few notches and explain it to me as if I were your grandmother. What do you mean?
Dancoyote Antonelli: I make noise, granny,
Bettina Tizzy: ahaha
Dancoyote Antonelli: …for its own sake... in complex ways that some call art and most call noise.

DanCoyote’s key collaborators are:
Patrons: Giulio Perhaps, Larry Pixel, Kitty Tully.
Scripters: ZenMondo Wormser, Qarl Fizz, Seronis Zagato.
Music: For the SkyDancer show: ZeroOne Paz, Mick Mahoney; for Arts and Letters: Jamie Timms with the JAMX Co-Lab.

Many thanks to DC for providing some of the photography for this post.