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.

The myth of Babel comes alive: Babelswarm

In September of 2007, the Australia Council for the Arts announced the winners of its $20,000 (Aus Dollars) - then the equivalent of $4 million Lindens - Second Life arts residency.

Now, Adam Ramona (aka Adam Nash), Mashup Islander (aka Christopher Dodds), and Justin Clemens (a senior lecturer at the School of Culture and Communications, Melbourne University) have just unveiled the fruit of that grant: BabelSwarm.

I contacted Adam, whom I've written about before, and asked him to explain the concepts and workings behind this new effort.

Adam Ramona: Babelswarm is an interactive audiovisual installation based on the myth of Babel and the principles of swarming. It is a mixed reality installation, with a Real Life installation at the Lismore Regional Gallery, New South Wales, Australia...



...and a Second Life installation at the ACVA sim - Australian Centre for Virtual Art, (teleport directly from here).



Adam Ramona: All chat in the sim is monitored and stored to an online database. Voice triggers in the Real Life gallery, or interaction within the Second Life sim, trigger the sky to rain down phrases from the database. These phrases fall apart upon spawning, and the individual letters are programmed to try to reform the word they came from. Unfortunately for them, all they know is their original position in their word. They don't know what the word is or what letters they are. An emergent tower of letters forms, constantly recombining upon interaction with avatars and other letterforms. It is an emergent audiovisual interactive sculpture constructed dynamically by the users themselves.



Adam Ramona: Each letter chooses one of a range of sounds upon birth. These sounds are sourced from many different Real Life people saying the phrase "And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech," the first line of the Biblical story of Babel (Genesis 11), in their native language, including Cantonese, Greek, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Malay, Romanian, Singhalese and English. These sounds are harmonically effected using my rational scale. Each letter has two states: hibernation and seeking. When seeking, it is actively looking for other letters to reform its word with. When touched by an avatar in this state, the letter will die. When hibernating, it sits still waiting to be reactivated into a seeking state by either a touch/collision from an avatar or collision with a seeking letterform.



Now that BabelSwarm exists in both real and virtual form, the possibility of setting up that installation in other Real Life galleries and museums is entirely plausible. More information is available here.

Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden to shutter its doors

Sad news for Second Life's art world...

As art venues go, Oyster Bay, which celebrated its first year in existence this past January 11th - a major milestone in itself, considering that the average length of time people own a specific property in Second Life is two months - has been simply first rate. It was here that I discovered many artists, including Starax Statosky, Cheen Pitney, and elros Tuominen.

Its founder and owner, Morris Vig, has maintained a lively environment in celebration of the arts, including the much acclaimed "ArtTalks," vibrant gallery concerts, and a Balloon Festival, as well as dedicated shows of pivotal importance, such as "Hidden Starax!,” “14 Days, 14 Sculptures,” and the “Black Tie and Blues” Machinima premiere.

Morris made the announcement on his Second Arts blog just now, stating that "It is with no small degree of sadness that I am announcing the forthcoming closing of Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden and Aquarium." He went on to explain that "I haven't been able to give it the attention it deserves," given the time he has had to allocate to his Real Life position which he assumed in August of last year.

Morris will continue to blog and is considering a number of ideas for what to do with the half-sim estate he owns and that the Gallery now sits on. While we are breathing a sigh of relief to learn that Morris will continue finding and sharing the best of the arts in our metaverse with us, we cannot but join the many artists who will surely morn this important loss to our community.