Artists consider Adult Content ratings in Second Life, and I reach my own conclusions

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Let me first say that I understand Linden Lab's motivations for rating (see "Upcoming Changes for Adult Content and sections of the Second Life® grid. In fact, about three months ago, I decided to rate my own sim PG in support of my desire to make it newbie friendly. Newbies already have a lot to deal with when they arrive, and rezzing next to a couple that's copulating in the woods (I still don't get why people do this in very public spaces, but eh) is, in my view, too much of a test, not that I enjoy coming upon these situations myself.

However, I do prefer environments that provide for the greatest level of individual freedoms within a framework of accountability, and I always worry when any entity takes it upon itself to tighten controls over what is right and wrong. I do believe that Linden Lab will rue the day it ever decided to walk this lawsuit-happy path. Notwithstanding special viewers and other automated processes, they are going to devote copious amounts of precious time and resources in arbitration.

Tateru Nino over at Massively is still working on her coverage of this story. "I can't find three people in SL that can all agree on what's allowable in a PG sim," she told me. She shared a few more very fascinating insights in a Not Possible IRL group IM immediately following the announcement, so I'm especially looking forward to her post, which may come as soon as tomorrow.

I was immediately curious to hear what people in Second Life's art community opined on this topic so I did a quick roundup.

New media superstar Gazira Babeli was busy making some interesting changes to how the Odyssey sim will appear on the map when we spoke (we'll have to wait for the next system refresh to see it). Gaz and I agree that this is going to consume a great deal of Linden Lab's time and resources. "That means decadence. Resources lost in details always result in decadence," she said.

Artist and lead creator of many of the grid's most popular sims, including the Greenies, Pavig Lok: Part of me says "about time" and part of me says "best option available" and part of me says "dammit the unicorns and fae have gone from our world, curse you loss of innocence!"

Artist and founder of Second Life's art-critique mecca Brooklyn is Watching, Jay Newt, responded to my email this way:

"It's a really interesting question. It seems to me a little like the movie rating system, and I like the movie system, because it is voluntary. There is the category "unrated" and you know that that means: "who the hell knows what it is going to be." I wish they would make these categories for SL content voluntary in that way so you could advertise your content as fitting into one of those categories or you could elect not to participate in that particular categorization scheme and then people would know that they are just taking their chances coming to your sim.

I also think that SL artists will likely get upset over this because of what they think will happen as a result and the truth is that none us of us knows what will happen as a result. It could be that most places will list themselves as "adult" just to have the freedom to do what they want, even if they aren't about sex or violence, and there will be no stigma attached to that label...

We're all jumping ship from SL as soon as there's a large enough community on some un-regulated open source distributed server system anyway, right? :)"

Hyperformalist and producer/director of ZeroG SkyDancers DanCoyote Antonelli offered an intriguing perspective: "If any company leans on the US legal system in their Terms of Service and are protected by US laws, they should also follow through and support the right to free speech provided for in the US Constitution. Want to be protected by US law? Then provide US rights as outlined in the Bill of Rights.

Leading fashion designer and artist, Eshi Otawara: "If the concern is children, this still will not stop them from entering Second Life and pursuing their curiosities. It's the responsibility of the parent to supervise their child. As far as adult content being 'offensive' to adults, I am sorry to say- there is far more of both natural and less natural human activity that offends a lot of us on a more profound level then adult content ever can. But in those cases it is socially acceptable so those who don't agree must conform or keep quiet in the least.

"For me, this is just another step that Linden Lab, unfortunately, must make - to protect the company from the people whose state of mind is so unfortunately fragile they cannot handle functions of their own bodies and who are indoctrinated into false pretensions that assuming what is commonly and unfortunately for human kind referred to as 'purity' vs. embracing the human nature provided to them at birth by whatever/whom ever one chooses to put faith towards makes them somehow more in control of anything. For the rest of us, there are always contentedness, laughter and hope Darwin takes care of it in the long run."

Finally, artist and co-founder of Arthole, the often-controversial arts center that will surely be affected by these new rules because it sits on the mainland, Nebulosus Severine, wrote back a very thoughtful response.

"As you know, I have some very strong opinions on the upcoming changes in SL that would restrict a lot of so-called Adult content. The way LL is handling it is still so unclear to me, and I keep going back and forth from optimism to pessimism.

I don't have to worry about all aspects of this new policy. I am already payment verified, so my presence in SL won't be limited; that is at least some relief to me.

However, I have already taken preliminary steps in considering what will have to be done with Arthole. Arahan and I will be talking soon to figure out what to do. I know he and I both agree that we must have absolute creative freedom to address any subject matter with our art. As we frequently choose controversial topics, I think the safest bet would be to move Arthole to an Adult piece of land.

However, this will limit the access of several friends who, although adults, are not age-verified (for their own personal reasons), and wouldn't be able to come visit Arthole, if it does end up on Adult land. That is really frustrating and heartbreaking.

Not to mention that I have had the same piece of land in Kress for nearly 4 years. I suppose a move isn't that big of a deal, but it's still an inconvenience to say the least.

When it comes right down to it, I believe that LL is censoring SL. I've read their arguments to the contrary, and I don't trust their supposed reasoning. And with their proposed definitions of what "Adult" is, it seems as though they'd have an easier time making a new PG continent and keeping THAT all together. The Mature rating is effectively useless, too. Why not divide the grid geographically into "Adult" and "All Ages" and keep it simple?

Seriously... "illicit drug use" will be considered "adult"? I have never been to a live concert in SL that did NOT have an avatar (or three, or ten) smoking on a prim joint or tripping on scripted 'shrooms.

Anyway, I could go on and on. My bottom line is that I distrust and despise ANYTHING that would seek to restrict freedom of expression. I consider censorship to be one of the biggest violations of human rights. I know LL is a private company, but the more that censorship is imposed on people in any community, the more people start to just accept it as a fact of life, and THAT is dangerous," concluded Nebulosus.
~*~

"Why not divide the grid geographically into 'Adult' and 'All Ages' and keep it simple?" suggests Nebulosus. This sounds appealing, smart and effective doesn't it? And cost and resource thin, right? Oh, wait! Isn't that what is already in place? Which leads me to conclude...

Why change a system that just needs to be implemented properly?

Is this just busy work that will result in the same-ole same-ole put in place just to hush some fundamentalist and ultra conservative groups, at the great expense of art facilities like Arthole?

See also: What will happen to art?

Wondrous solutions provided for most of your virtual discomforts...

Posted by Alpha Auer

Every so often I like to air out my brain. Especially with the nice northerly breeze we always get in the archipelago, the effects can prove to be most beneficial, I find. Thus, I am always on the lookout for seemly brain costumes with which I can flaunt my virtual grey matter and one of my ultra favorite ones comes from Cortech Enterprises.



"Flaunt your largest organ!" So tells us the creator of this wonder, Total Chastity, and continues: "Thank you for your interest in the Cortech Brain Jar, we trust it will provide many unsettling hours of mild distaste and horrified stares from your friends. The speech centres of the brain are linked to two antennae mounted on either side, broadcasting your thoughts as you type (Erm..well, sort of) and the loudspeaker fitted to the front will also show furious activity when your avatar is typing."

However, the aids provided by Total Chastity to all of those vexatious little problems and emergencies that tend to come along in a virtual life certainly do not end with the brain jar alone. The Cortech Jetset, comprised of boots, jetpack and crash helmet, designed by Total Chastity and Pavig Lok and scripted by Goodwill Epoch is yet another indispensable must-have - and furthermore is free for you to run off and just grab one.





Once again the creators inform us that this "is the complete solution to intra sim transport in Second Life®. The package consists of a jetpack, a pair of jetboots and a rather fetching helmet complete with goggles and faintly amusing springy radio antenna. There are two sizes of boots now in the package -- pick the pair more appropriate for you avatar and adjust them accordingly.

SecondLife imposes restrictions on flight above certain heights (around 200 metres). Many people in SL already have flight assistance scripts active in other gadgets (The very popular Mystitool, for example). If you haven't then your jet boots or jetpack may be helpful. Without flight assistance you may have great difficulty flying in certain areas above to 200 metre ceiling."

For those avatars wishing for a more stylish flight solution, the somewhat pricier (but then when it comes to these things one always does get what one pays for, doesn't one?) Cortech Hardware Wings will be just what the doctor ordered:



And finally, yet another free item: For all those lonely virtual hearts out there - your very own petmech shoulder companion/tiny avatar:



You can obtain all of these wonders by Total Chastity at Cortech Enterprises, to where you can teleport directly from here.
;-)

"bfa after Durer - the Ern Malley piece"

Posted by Alpha Auer

There it stands, deceptively innocent, on the corner of Pavig and Littletoe's parcel at Popcha - a flat white panel; a beautiful drawing on one side, a beautiful poem on the other. Aaah... I have to work my way very carefully around this one, mind my steps... The wise thing to do would be to contact the artist and get the inside scoop and then proceed to write this post based on what I have learned.





But I am not wise: I am following the somewhat dangerous adage that if a visual work does not offer me enough to draw me in, based solely upon what I see, then it is probably not worthy of too much consideration to begin with. Perilously conceited of me, in our day of endlessly long art catalog introductions and reviews which instruct as to precisely what it is we are meant to see in a work of art and also how exactly we are meant to look at it. But nonetheless, I will follow my own nose: This double sided panel seems to tell me things and provoke thoughts that in all likelihood fall outside the intentions of the artist - and if that is indeed the case, then so be it.

...

The Ern Malley incident is a poetry hoax which occurred in Australia in the 1940's, involving the poets James McAuley and Harold Stewart, and played upon Max Harris, the publisher of the modernist Angry Penguins literary journal. Harris was indeed taken in by the beauty of the 17 poems that were sent to him by someone named Ethel Malley, proclaiming that these were poems written by her deceased brother Ern Malley. Thus, Harris enthusiastically promoted the poems in his journal, completely unaware of the fact that Ern Malley was an invention of McAuley and Stewart's. They had written the whole of "The Darkening Ecliptic" in an afternoon, writing down the first thing that came into their heads, lifting words and phrases from the Concise Oxford Dictionary, a Collected Shakespeare and a Dictionary of Quotations: "We opened books at random, choosing a word or phrase haphazardly. We made lists of these and wove them in nonsensical sentences. We misquoted and made false allusions. We deliberately perpetrated bad verse, and selected awkward rhymes from a Ripman's Rhyming Dictionary." Their ultimate aim was the discreditation of late modernist poetry, of which Max Harris was a huge proponent.

Although initially successful to the point where Max Harris was in fact completely discredited for not having been able to discriminate between hoax and reality, the passage of time revealed that the fictitious poetry of Ern Malley long outlived the poetry of either of the hoaxers. Robert Hughes wrote: "The basic case made by Ern's defenders was that his creation proved the validity of surrealist procedures: that in letting down their guard, opening themselves to free association and chance, McAuley and Stewart had reached inspiration by the side-door of parody... The energy of invention that McAuley and Stewart brought to their concoction of Ern Malley created an icon of literary value, and that is why he continues to haunt our culture."

...





The front of the panel shows a fine pencil drawing which brings to mind the panoramic engravings of cities during the late Gothic and Renaissance periods. And indeed, this one here is a very fine re-interpretation of Duerer's watercolor of Innsbruck. However, an Innsbruck constructed of organic shaped sculpties which are sandwiched between the panels and indeed bleed out into the back. Forms that are referenced from a medieval city's skyline but quickly proceed to acquire a life of their own - emergent, fluid forms of growth reminiscent of the biological drawings of Ernst Haeckel. But the fact that the template drawing generating such imaginative craftsmanship is none other than "Innsbruck 1495" leads us straight back to Ern Malley, since the first of the 17 Malley poems is entitled "Duerer: Innsbruck, 1495". And sure enough, the flip side of the panel reveals the poem itself:

"I had often, cowled in the slumberous heavy air,
Closed my inanimate lids to find it real,
As I knew it would be, the colourful spires
And painted roofs, the high snows glimpsed at the back,
All reversed in the quiet reflecting waters —
Not knowing then that Dürer perceived it too.
Now I find that once more I have shrunk
To an interloper, robber of dead men’s dream,
I had read in books that art is not easy
But no one warned that the mind repeats
In its ignorance the vision of others. I am still
the black swan of trespass on alien waters."

...

So, what is the secret message that revolves around Ern Malley which Pavig Lok would have me be riddled with? The piece is hermetic, which to me is one of its main attractions. I really do not want to know, I would prefer to live with the mystery. And I would really much rather go down my own path of musings which the piece has provoked in me, follow my own train of thoughts. Good art - really really good art, powerful art does that to you: It inspires you and so help me God, right now I am most definitely inspired!

...

A fictitious character, whose poetry outlived that of his two creators. And this brings to mind yet another creator of fictitious identities, the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, with his countless heteronymic identities, creating a world of imaginary people, circumstances and places. The self that generates many selves. Some closer to what we perceive to be our real selves, some more shrouded in fiction. And who is to say what is more real? Reality or fiction? What is more valuable? The somewhat stilted verse of the twosome that created Ern Malley or Ern Malley himself, who unhindered by formality and convention proceeded on to a level of creativity, which was beyond the scope of the "real" persona of its instigators.

I am of course, talking about avatars and alts - the many many selves that we create out of our one self. The lives we create that proceed to develop acts of creativity that seem to lie beyond the scope of the imaginations of our everyday, Real Life selves. These days I am heavily involved with my 5th alt: No Real Life look-alike/act-alike Alpha but a being quite unlike myself, somewhat confusing to behold even to me, her creator. And yet who is to say which one of us is more real? Or indeed carries the greater potential for creative realization?

...

Thank you Pavig Lok!

...

You can teleport to Pavig Lok's "bfa after Durer - the Ern Malley piece" directly from here.

Finally, a full web browser for Second Life that works

My technical expertise is puny at best, so I'm pleased to share this excellent news with you via the words of guest blogger Pavig Lok. While this Aussie is most often described as the lead creator of Greenies Home Rezzable (teleport directly from here), and a SecondLife Hobo, Pavig is also the artist who gave us quite an education on Intellectual Property via the Intellectual Property Garden. Pavig is a veteran of virtual world technologies and artificial intelligence.


By Pavig Lok

We've been waiting for a long time for web integration in Second Life. Sure, the applications are limited, and you can use an external browser, but hanging out with some folk and all viewing and chatting about something in world is really what Second Life® is all about. I've been working on something along these lines myself, but today I was happy to read in Virtual World News that a true browser had arrived in Second Life.

Up until now our options have been fairly limited. Back in March, the Lindens introduced web parcel media, which allows anyone with land rights to show web pages just like QuickTime movies were previously. Unfortunately, these pages are static, unscrollable, uninteractable lumps. (They can be animated or refreshed by JavaScript, but few folk notice because so few pages implement this, and there's no real way to trigger it through interactivity.) So accessing the web in Second Life has been a dreary affair.

Finally, someone has given us a full web browser in Second Life which, despite its limitations, is actually usable. Corro Moseley of Daden Limited has come up with a browser that listens to chat and can navigate to whatever page you say. On its own that's just a media controller really, which you could code in about five lines if you were a scripter. You can't scroll either, as that's something the Lindens won't let us do. This browser however, has something I've never seen before - it follows links! You can bookmark pages, Google stuff, and popout whatever you're looking at to an external browser. With this functionality it's actually fairly comfortable to use.



Link following, though, is the real magic. The browser filters pages you request through a proxy server which trawls through the page and extracts the links embedded in it. When you request a link, it searches through this data and tries to create a match given what it knows of the page. All you need to do is say part of the name of the link and voilas, browsing! (If any techies doubt this is magical, I only have to mention that the proxy is written in Perl, the "Swiss army chainsaw" of Unix programming :P).

Unfortunately, the Daden browser can't read text embedded in pictures - so if a website is poorly designed and not accessible to screen reading applications then searching for the link will fail. Many websites, unfortunately, suffer from this problem, but if you think it is an annoyance for us, it is a deal breaker for the blind, who must rely on screen reading software to browse the web at all. So if you tinker with this browser and find that it loses its link-following ability on certain sites, spare a thought for the visually impaired who deal with this every day, and waggle your fists defiantly at the website creators.

The Daden Navigator can be played with (and purchased for L$2,400, which is reasonable considering they run a backend server) by teleporting directly from here. The components are copyable so you can install it at multiple locations. You will need to either be a land owner, or on group land be allowed to deed objects to group to get it to function.

PS. If the name Daden rings a bell, it may be because they were behind the Google maps build blogged about earlier on NPIRL.

The Garden

UPDATE (June 24, 2008) - After a spectacular two month run, the Garden of NPIRL Delights - produced by Not Possible in Real Life and sponsored by Rezzable Productions - has ended. Thank you to everyone who made it possible and to all who enjoyed it.


by Alpha Auer (aka Elif Ayiter)

I have been taking walks around the four sims that constitute the Garden of NPIRL Delights, and as I have been looking at the displayed art work it has begun to dawn upon me that Garden itself is the really important thing that is going on here. It transcends its content.



What hits you the moment you land inside is the spontaneity, the gaiety, the total "joie de vivre," of the work that stands here. And the companionship: Newbie builder stands here shoulder to shoulder with seasoned veteran - no competitions, no awards. All equals in one huge playground. With a total freedom that even includes terraforming privileges! In effect, quite different from what would have been par for the course under Real Life conditions.

True, there is a theme: The Bosch triptych. One that certainly gives you plenty of rope to hang yourself with if you choose to do so. And admittedly, some of us have in fact done exactly that: I would be lying if I said that I am perfectly OK with everything that is on display in there. But conversely (and much more importantly) there are pieces in there that had me quite breathless with their energy, their imagination, their narrative ability - and above all else... their individuality. And if that utter freedom of expression had not been fostered in the first place, these art works would simply not have materialized.



And here is the divine irony (and I love it!): The Garden has achieved cohesiveness, has managed to become bigger than the sum total of its content. This is, of course, precisely the sort of thing that any curator worth his or her salt shoots for - to achieve this kind of Gestalt. Now, I do have this rather wicked theory that in quite a few curated exhibitions in Real Life, certain kinds of artistic output tend to get turned down simply because they go off too much on their own; they are too difficult to categorize and to fit within a mainframe. So, you may end up with this dreary monotony of unindividuated output in rank and file. But hey!!! Who cares? It's a strong theme, forget the individual art work please!



Bettina Tizzy has not forgotten about the individual art work. She has put the individual first, to the point where not everything on display in the Garden passes full muster when viewed with a gimlet eye. That is the chance that you take when you allow full freedom, do not set up tight boundaries, do not shoot for a particular "look" or a "concept." And, am I glad that she did take this chance... What is exquisite more than makes up for what isn't fully up to scratch. But exquisite or not - all is individuated to a truly remarkable degree: Gutsy in its individuality is the phrase that I think that I am looking for.



I think the way that the Garden pulls its manifold content together is by virtue of its landscape. I have to say that I find this landscape and the way it has been conceived of and implemented by Littletoe Bartlett nothing less than inspired. The hills are there for a good practical reason: They function very much as separators between art installations, much as walls in a Real Life gallery space would do. But there is much more going on here, in that the entire landscape transports me directly into one of my favorite worlds, the world of the late Gothic illuminated manuscript.

This is very similar to the detailed, ornate, velvety and yet touchingly naive backdrops of those medieval scenes, that can be glimpsed through narrow windows in front of which wimpled ladies exchange devotional books with chivalrous gentlemen. Didn't the Limbourg brothers paint this very landscape into all of those Books of Hours that they designed for their patron, the Duc de Berry?


The Apostles going forth to preach from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

Of course, I have no idea that this was, in fact, the effect that the landscapers of the Garden were after but this is definitely the feeling that the rich, soft ground textures (again by LittleToe Bartlett and Pavig Lok) and the hills and hillocks, all rolling into a gentle sea give me. And then comes the foliage, the trees of artoo Magneto that share the space with those of soror Nishi. The delicate touches of Ravenelle Zugzwang and Bettina herself.

All told, I am very glad to have been part of this show... to have been able to wander inside the Garden of NPIRL Delights as one of its content creators.

The Garden of NPIRL Delights is blossoming

There were about 40 content creators signed up nine days ago when Rezzable Productions made the four sims available for our joint effort - the Garden of NPIRL Delights - and the Not Possible IRL group's first-ever build festival.

That number has mushroomed. We had more than 40 people at a noon Town Hall meeting yesterday - our first - and today I think we stand at over 110 participating creators.


Click to see large

Not all builds are in place and there is so much work left to do, but people are collaborating with each other at a furious rate. Just today, every installation got a prim bonus to blend their work with that of their neighbors.


Click to see large

The "bonus and blend" idea came from a person who has contributed so much to this effort that even if she never does another thing, she's left a deep mark of goodness that none of us will forget: LittleToe Bartlett.


Beatrix Newt, Lauren Weyland, Pavig Lok, and the chillin' fridge is LittleToe Bartlett

It was Lag-tastic!

It stands to reason that a call for Not Possible in Real Life builds would generate a lot of scripty creations, and about four days ago, the lag got so bad, that one of the sims was disappearing off the map a few times a day. Sim crossings were laughable.

Pavig Lok studied the situation and alerted us to a few trouble spots. Miki Gymnast came in, fresh from knee surgery in Real Life, and worked with dozens of builders to optimize their scripts. I was worried that participants would throw up their hands or freak out and leave, but a funny thing happened... people started to really cooperate and collaborate, seasoned builders with newer ones, expert coders with other expert coders... and suddenly, you can breathe on all four sims. The lag is gone.


Click to see large

There have been all sorts of heroes and heroines along the way. I still don't know how Beatrix Newt can take on so many responsibilities (site allocation, terraforming, parcelling, tour supervision, and much more) and still appear calm and in control.

And Lauren Weyland... will you ever forgive me? She needed bio input from every participant, so I helpfully issued a notice providing the wrong email address and promptly logged off to a busy Real Life schedule. Ouch. Sorry folks!

Ah well... these stories and hundreds more will only matter to those who are living them, very intensely, on four very special sims these days. I've had very little sleep, and I know I'm not alone in this, but when I look at the Garden and how it is blossoming, I wouldn't have it any other way.

The Garden of NPIRL Delights will open its doors on May 16th.

Pavig Lok's "Intellectual Property Garden"

Despite the smallish size of Pavig Lok's avatar, this well-honed and witty character packs a powerful punch: great intelligence, a breadth of knowledge that spans many fields, and uncompromising sincerity.



It was my recent pleasure to co-curate, together with In Kenzo (aka Evonne Heyning), and Delia Lake, a group art exhibition in Second Life featuring the works of over a dozen artists. The occasion was the opening of the International Justice Center, a “virtual clearinghouse for information and action in support of global justice and the International Criminal Court,” and the theme: Visions of Global Justice. While Pavig is best known as the lead-creator of Greenies Home Rezzable, and for being an active participant in the Second Life Hobo community, there is another side to this person that I admire, so given the opportunity to invite four artists, I was very pleased when Pavig agreed to participate.

Tasked with conceiving and creating an original and themed art installation with less than 100 prims, Pavig weighed in with a concept and an 18 prim 3D sculpture that shatters the notion that virtual worlds are useful solely as mindless sources of entertainment: the "Intellectual Property Garden," (teleport directly from here).



Pavig describes the piece as follows:

"A child is seen in a field blowing a dandelion. The flower and seeds are composed of copyright symbols, which can also be seen growing wild in the field. To the child the dandelion represents making a wish. To the adult it is a garden pest which stifles the growth of preferred plants. Every adult knows this when they teach a child to blow dandelion seeds, yet they encourage the child to spread the pest throughout their garden. Is this responsible stewardship?"

Now, I have always found Pavig to be deliberately succinct and someone who generally uses the fewest number of words possible to convey a message, so imagine my amazement when the notecard that accompanies this piece goes on to say the following:


What has intellectual property got to do with justice?

The practical application of justice is law. Law, we know, primarily concerns itself with property and ownership. Crime and punishment is a much simpler domain than that of property, where establishment of rights is by definition far more abstract – less universal. Property exists nowhere in the world, only in contract, agreement, or the award of possession through lawful interpretation of a chain of events.(1)

History, however, provides endless examples of the application of law in ways which may offend our natural sense of justice. One need only look to the distribution of ownership by kingdoms, states, politics and corporations in one's lifetime for many examples.

With ideas now increasingly falling under the umbrella of property law, the abstract idea of ownership becomes increasingly ephemeral. Whilst initially conceived as a protection for the individual, copyright is now increasingly owned by corporation – the modern kingdom. Those who wish to trade with us must agree to be annexed into this kingdom – to practice our conception of justice and ownership over ideas. They become subject to our proprietary rights.

There is some protection in justice as applied by law, but can we be sure natural justice is served. Copyright, patent law, access to technologies, educational materials, information in general; the bread and butter of intellectual property is not distributed evenly.(2)

Just as property law divides the map of our land into rectangles representing right of passage or tresspass, intellectual property segments our intellectual environment into no-go zones based on the provenance of thoughts and ideas. Our children grow and are educated in this environment; our business and nation building, and thus the day to day struggles of our people, are practiced within it.

When corporations in far countries can own; the tools and stories we use to educate our children(3), our own genome and thus our ancestry and makeup(4), the genome of the diseases that kill us and the formula for their cures(5), the living structure of the plants we sow and breeds of the animals we harvest(6), the design of the tools of our industry and anything which we invent ourselves which resembles or replaces them(7); then can we be sure natural justice is being served.

_________________________
Footnotes:

1 We know that property law deals with abstracts in that it's primary unit of exchange, money, is itself ephemeral. The value of these tokens is simply one of agreed consensus within the market – a consensus which shifts to and fro on a daily basis, and thus is removed from any intrinsic value that the Dollar, Euro or Yen may represent. This has arguably been the case since the abolition of the gold standard.

2 Access to a system of law does not imply a balanced justice system. Intellectual Property law, such as copyright and patent law, requires a large and highly developed infrastructure to establish provenance. When new players enter an IP regulated market – such as is the case through recent “free trade” agreements, where right to trade is contingent on adoption, adherence and acknowlegement of existing intellectual properties and systems of law – we should expect the new entrant to start at a severe disadvantage. A smaller nation trading with the USA is a fine example. In the United States almost anything patentable has been patented. This includes, for example, a button on a website that says “buy” - something which should seem obvious and un-patentable as a pre-requisite for patent is novelty. It is unreasonable to expect a smaller nation to compete with the established body of patent claims which exists on such a granular level in developed nations. For the significant social costs of implementing a patent system on developing nations see: Samuel Oddi, The International Patent System and Third World Development: Reality or Myth?, 1987 Duke Law Journal 831 (1987).

3 Educational use of existing materials covered by copyright comes under either a licensing or fair use provision in law. As the rights under copyright are extended, fair use provisions come under pressure. Now the mere threat of litigation presents an economic burden on educational institutions, who must now practice citation and study of copyrighted works defensively. These increased costs alone, and the restrictions on use of works for education to avoid them, are changing the practice of education even in affluent nations. In jurisdictions where the development of IP law has outpaced complimentary fair use provisions, this burden is correspondingly increased.

4 Since sequencing of the human genome, various parts of it have been subject to ownership under intellectual property law. Particularly famous cases of this pertain to genetic sequencing of indigenous populations, who may have a body of native law concerning ancestry, and thus their genetic heritage. Unwittingly transferring property rights to the unique sequence of their DNA brings native law and intellectual property law into conflict. Can a corporation own what makes one ones-self without informed consent? How are the benefits of ownership of this property distributed? Distribution of advantage can be worth considerable sums in cases where natural immunity to diseases within a genome confer towards a commercial treatment for disease – a situation where western property law is often poorly structured to remunerate donor groups. For further research on ethical and other concerns, the “human genome diversity project,” and “the genographic project,” and controversies surrounding them, are a good starting point.

5 Contention may arise in the patenting of gene sequences of disease. The first company to genetically sequence the SARS virus now owns it – though our natural sense of ownership would say it is owned perhaps by nature or humanity, if the concept of ownership is even an appropriate. This right of ownership under intellectual property law however, allows the company to contest a right to part ownership or interest in any cure which may be developed. It is not hard to see how such a system could be abused. Biological patents are nothing new, and neither is controversy regarding their use as a barrier to legitimate research. Compliance with a system of biological patent precludes nations with weaker economies from engaging in research on equal terms by eating up research budgets in order to comply with legal licensing against a stronger unit of currency. With over half a million gene patents filed in the last few years, biological patenting has entered a new era, and controversy will continue as law continues to adapt to this new area of intellectual property.

6 For evidence where IP affects crops, one need look no further than the “terminator seeds” controversy. In order to protect the biological intellectual property of it's own nation, the US Department of Agriculture developed a genetic method to turn second generation seeds sterile – a so called GURT or Genetic Use Restriction Technology. Of course, the outcome, should this technology hit the market, is that smaller nations, indigenous and rural farmers, would become dependent on the agricultural industry for seed on a seasonal basis. This undermines the 12,000 year old practice of saving the best seed from each crop for sowing the following season. Similar issues can be found in biological patent and “usage rights” on animals for breeding purposes. Overlap between patent rights to plant materials and long established law such as plant breeders' rights is another source of contention.

7 The use of patent law to stifle technological development is well documented. Arguments of this sort cite a “negative right” the patent holder gains, allowing them to exclude competitors from exploiting a similar invention they may develop independently. The legal burden of producing prior art in such cases can preclude the competition from proving their case even when they may have developed the invention first. When this is the case and a patent is contested, the competitor may be forced to cease development of the invention, or pay a licensing fee for use of the others' IP.
_________________________

During an "artist talk," at the gala opening of the show, Pavig went on to explain:

"I came here tonight ready to engage in a complex diatribe about art – about art being too complex to be specific. The irony was not lost on my closest friends, who put me right. For that I am truly thankful.

My rant was full of the exact hubris I was arguing against. That we, as artists, “hide our statements within a cryptic mishmash of semiotics.” So I set out to hoist myself with my own petard, by overcomplicating discourse on overcomplicated art about a complicated subject; justice.

I realized that everything I wanted to say about art had been said before, much more eloquently and concisely, by Charles Bukowski. It's a quote I've written at the front of all my journals to remind myself not to talk around things but to them – hoping to become more of a poet really, than a rather well read intellectual boor.

He said;" An intellectual is someone who says a simple thing in a difficult way. An artist is someone who says a difficult thing in a simple way." This is precisely the message I hoped to impart.

The theme of justice can be discussed endlessly – it is complex, multifaceted, confusing, just too darn hard to address. As a friend said to me: “the world's biggest economic / political problems are not hidden from the public in any way, there just to complex for the public to comprehend.” Yet we all have a sense of justice which we are sure we know intimately – this is natural justice.

We all know natural justice from our basic moral stance. This is something bodies such as the United Nations seek to codify, in their statements of basic human rights. We should not allow folk to be subject to violence. We should not allow folk to starve so that others can become obscenely rich. We should not displace folk from their land. We should implement systems to minimize the possiblility that these offenses to basic human dignity happen.

The principles of justice are simple – it is in the implementation of justice, our laws, systems and so on, that they become complex. Law is the formalization of justice – the justice system – and in being so complex it is sure to have it's faults and loopholes.

My piece is about Intellectual Property as it relates to justice. Though I deliberately haven't talked about this before – I'm, sure you all know, I.P. Law is a subject of concern to those in virtual worlds. My piece implies that I.P. Law is part of our environment. For folk who spend their time on the web and in SL all property is virual, intellectual property. Our sense of basic justice often touches on intellectual property issues due to this. I'm not here to preach to the converted.

Intellectual property however is part of all of our environments, and impacts real world concerns as well. As the notecard in my piece illustrates, it is of profound significance to issues we may not expect. It has implications for justice which are complex, multifaceted, not at all cut and dry. It has justice implications outside what we may percieve as it's narrow domain. It is a complicated matter.

So I tried to make my piece say some very simple things about the concept of intellectual property:

It is part of our envirnoment, like a weed or a flower.

IP and justice are related. It is in the justice commons – the subject is relevant to the context.

Our view of intellectual property is naive and obscured, and personal. It is a childs view. We see the shadow of it (a flat view like the shadows on the walls of Plato's cave) but not the whole. Every viewer sees it slightly differently (as the exact shape is dependant on viewing angle).

IP may have a dark side – though it's an idylic scene, it's black after all. (More detail on this aspect is revealed in a notecard in the work onclick.)

And Intellectual property is like the dandelion. Kid's may call them “fairies” but gardeners call them weeds. If we spread it throughout our environment without concern for the implications, eventually we'll have to weed it out where it becomes a pest.

Hopefuly my piece acts as an invitation for people to discuss the complex issues surrounding intellectual property. As law it is one of the tools of our formal justice system. We must watch IP law closely as it develops to ensure justice is the outcome."


Many thanks to the MacArthur Foundation, Global Kids and the Justice Commons for hosting this event, together with the USC Network Culture project. Special thanks, too, to In Kenzo, for giving me the opportunity to serve under her as co-curator, thereby allowing me to learn much about how to curate an art event in virtual worlds. In addition to Pavig Lok, the following artists created original art works for this show: Tuna Oddfellow, AM Radio, Tooter Claxton, Juria Yoshikawa, Dancoyote Antonelli, Filthy Fluno, elros Tuominen, Chance Abattoir, Adam Ramona, Josina Burgess, Velazquez Bonetto, Junivers Stockholm.

Brooklyn is watching (us)

Pavig Lok, lead creator of the inimitable Greenies Home Rezzable, put a bug in my ear about a new mixed realities project that is just getting underway in Second Life. It sounded promising, so I set out to learn more.

Since March 1 and for a year, artist Jay Newt (aka: Jay Van Buren) of the Real Life art gallery Jack the Pelican Presents is going to navigate the virtual world of Second Life and hobnob with les pixelated artistes as part of his conceptual art project Brooklyn is Watching.



"BROOKLYN IS WATCHING" FAST FACTS

* "Brooklyn is Watching" is a project sponsored by Popcha, a New York based media technology company, and taking place simultaneously at the art gallery Jack the Pelican Presents in Brooklyn, New York and in Second Life. A performance space and presentation/sandbox in Second Life have been set up for this. (Teleport directly from here) An avatar, in the shape of an eyeball and under the name Monet Destiny will view and project the goings-on there at all times onto a large screen monitor at the Real Life gallery.



* A computer at the gallery will run the Second Life application at all times when the gallery is open (every day from 9am to 3pm SLT, except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays) – via the eyeball avatar Monet Destiny - and when visitors to the gallery so choose, they may drive the avatar and take it wherever they want. The BiW avatar is scripted to follow anyone who approaches the stage, if its not receiving any commands from a person at the gallery. The stage itself, is rigged with a giant spring that raises the stage suddenly and violently when someone in the tower presses a special button, catapulting anyone on it, off it immediately. This creates a ‘gong-show‘ effect where people in the gallery can express their displeasure or boredom with the activities on the stage.

* Avatars will be able to send a jpg snapshot to the gallery and anyone inside the gallery will be able to email snapshots back to the BiW avatar. A dedicated blog will document the exchange and other activities.

* A weekly podcast called “Brooklyn is Watching” will be recorded at the gallery featuring 'guest stars’ from both the Real Life art world and Second Life. The format will be unabashedly patterned after Diggnation, a popular podcast about tech-news.

Jay Newt: Brooklyn is Watching is about “cultural colonialism,” marketing, the attention economy, critique, dialog, power-relationships, and the difference between potential and actual with four parts spanning the virtual, 3d space of Second Life, the two dimensional “traditional” Internet and the ultimate hipster mothership, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is an artwork, an entertainment product, a venue for critical dialog and a marketing vehicle. It also will be a hell of a lot of fun.

Bettina Tizzy: Who is Jay Newt in Real Life and what are you all about?

Jay Newt: I am a painter mostly. Born in Kansas... moved to NYC in 1997 to get my MFA in painting at Parsons. I first found out about Second Life from Rubaiyat Shatner - who I met at a College Art Association conference. He told me about it and I got in world - this was about 2 years ago - and I immediately had this feeling on the back of my neck like "oh my god this going to be huge." It was like the Internet was in 1994... just about to break out.

I got involved in Ars Virtua - one of the early "serious" virtual art galleries - helping curate some things and sitting on the board that selected artists in residence, and then that gallery gave me a virtual show, which was really when I got more emotionally involved.



Jay Newt: Jack the Pelican Presents has been around for about five years. It's a gallery run by Don Carrol who has been an artist and an art critic for years. JTPP has an international reputation. When I had an artist residency in Holland, I was amazed that people had heard of this Brooklyn gallery that is a few blocks from my studio, and the same thing happened when I visited London. It's got a better rep in Europe than it does across the East River in Manhattan.



Bettina Tizzy: ... and your own art? What is it all about?

Jay Newt: I make paintings, and do events. The paintings are of stuffed animals, spaceships and fursuiters. The events have, up to now, been artworld-furry world combined happenings, like the "fursuit portrait paintoff' which I've done in Rotterdam, Brooklyn and Kansas City.

Bettina Tizzy: Are you a furry?

Jay Newt: I'm not. I call myself a "fan of the fandom." One of my furry friends calls me a "meta furry." I am fascinated and delighted by furries, partly cause I just don't quite get it and never will.

Bettina Tizzy: How close to your original idea is "Brooklyn is Watching?"

Jay Newt: It really is very close. Boris Kizelshteyn built everything just like I drew it.



Jay Newt: I'm convinced that Second Life is the future. So what is "fun" to me is to create a venue where people can show their stuff and have an audience that will take them seriously and help "break" Second Life to the wider world, especially the NY art scene. It's like a portal into another country or something.

Amy Freelunch (aka Amy Wilson) is a good friend of mine and for years we've shared a blog. She's a painter, and has been shown in lots of prestigious places. She went through a whole "SL sucks" and then "wait, no it doesn't" process. Had to do with meeting the right people.

In May 2007, she published a book called Postcards from Second Life.


That's me, in an avatar by Yoa Ogee, interviewing Jay Newt

Jay Newt: We will have a weekly podcast starting next week. It will use the blog as its agenda to record everything that happens... well, everything of interest. We're just a bunch of people in Brooklyn with our own slant on things and no apologies for being biased.

Bettina Tizzy: What is Williamsburg, Brooklyn like?

Jay Newt: It's New York's young artist neighborhood, but it's also full of 23 year old trust fund kids with art degrees, and lots of people who work in media, advertising, etc. It's really cool and really annoying sometimes. Have you ever seen "Hipster Olympics?" That was filmed in Williamsburg, like a block from this gallery.



According to artist and scripter Sasun Steinbeck, there are 404 art venues in Second Life. Sasun knows this because, for the past two years, she has managed a gallery information kiosk system she created - and updates every week - that has dispensed 115,375 gallery lists, so far.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of the city of New York, and also the most populous borough, with more than 2.5 million residents. It is said that if Brooklyn were an independent city, it would be the fourth largest in the United States. Brooklyn has its own Sasun Steinbeck, better known as the Brooklyn Arts Council.

Brooklyn has many neighborhoods, but the two most recognized for their art and gallery scenes are the DUMBO district (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), and Williamsburg, which in 1992 was declared "The New Bohemia" on the cover of New York magazine. For years thereafter, Williamsburg - blessed with low rents, and a belly-to-belly proximity to the seat of power in the Americas: Manhattan - began its ascent up the hipster hill as buzz about it being a haven for the artist community got louder and louder. This had the reverse desired effect however, and rents have nearly doubled in the area in a very short while.

Metaverse Journal interviews Pavig Lok - My thoughts: top builder, lead creative... but an even better mentor

There's an excellent interview and a good read today by Lowell Cremorne about Pavig Lok - one of the true Giants in Second Life (and height has nothing to do with this... my avatar towers over Pav's) - at the Metaverse Journal.

Being a Second Life Hobo, I had the good fortune to meet Pavig very soon after my rez day; surely in the first week. Pav's influence on me is incalculable. Yes, Pav's builds are always brilliant in concept, always executed to perfection and invariably great fun. If I were to choose collaborators for any build project, Pav would surely be somewhere on the top of that list.


Pav on the far left, at one of many fun Hobo field trips

Importantly though, since day one, Pav has been a mentor to me and to countless others, a go-to-person for any kind of question, whether technical or how to handle a prickly situation, and above all, Pav has been a friend. It's not been a sentimental or maudlin friendship, but one built on my deep respect and appreciation. Heh, I don't believe I've ever even hugged Pav! In fact, it's unlikely I would have stuck around had it not been for Pav's support, gentle but honest nudges to quit being (insert any infraction here), balanced and always fascinating insights, and unending nuggets of advice.


Pav on the far right at yet another Hobo event; always there for the important stuff

I can't teleport you to a build to show you Pavig's greatest work. I can only point to myself and scores of others who are better people because of this one extraordinary Pastiest Hobo.

Money: You can't have it... yet

all photography by Arahan Claveau

About a month ago, NPIRLers had a 24 hour preview of a mysterious sim that is part of an even larger mystery. Last week, I invited master of narrative photography, Arahan Claveau, to go back and capture just a few glimpses... mere hints... of what we saw there, to share with you.





It's as yet incomplete... about 60% there, I'm told. Creation dates appear to begin in December, 2006... and end in April of this year. Built primarily by Light Waves, with several important elements by Pavig Lok and a few by Littletoe Bartlett, this is the same team that gave us the Greenies, but it is not a Rezzable sim.



Doors are open. Someone came or left in a hurry.



Called simply "Money," the sim is dripping with atmosphere and intrigue.



It's clear that something terrible has happened, but we're not sure what or why.



Some discoveries, as you explore, are goose-bump-inducing.



Others seem to be important parts of the puzzle.



In a few days, I'll share a little more of what I've discovered...



...and the answers I have are surprising, indeed.



No slurl... yet.

Not Possible in Second Life? Without huge prims...

Without huge prims... Greenies Home Rezzable by Pavig Lok, Light Waves and Littletoe Bartlett would cease to exist.
Slurl: Greenies

This week's notice to you Busy People

This notice was issued to NPIRL members on August 10, 2007, in-world.

* NOMASHA SYAKA'S BLENDER
We are lucky lucky lucky to have Tayzia Abattoir in the group. What a treasure trove. She giggled when she learned that I had not experienced Nomasha Syaka's Blender. Take a friend (and maybe an enemy, too ^.^) and follow the trail of apples to the last one. Touch and "eat it."
Nomasha's Blender
~ Nomasha... welcome to our group! I'm afraid I drooled a little bit over your guitars and sculptures, too.
~~ Nomasha owns the group "I use my nose to type..."

* URASIMA CLOCK ISLAND
Dali-esk, monochromatic, other-wordly, and definitely NPIRL. Numbers dash about and squeal.
Urasima
All the info is in Japanese... so I watched the video at Crazy-Genius . Anyone know these builders?

* JAPANESE STEAM PUNK + fusion
Can steam punk - in its varous SL manifestations - ever be NPIRL? Sound off on the blog. But first check dis place out. Later, you can take the hot air balloon, and lazily work your way down to the diff levels. Teleporter in the cafe, btw, is the cardboard box. This visit will take a bit of time, is well built, and is a pleasant way to unjangle your nerves after a hectic day.
Forbidden Island

~~ time sensitive! ~~
* Juria Yoshikawa's "Blink" is having a closing party tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm SLT. He's also been fiddling with fire... take a look...
NO SLURL as the event has ended

Here's the video of the closing party - fun! - featuring the music of AldoManutio Abruzzo

~~ fyi ~~
* Some NEW excellent things at the Greenies Home Rezzable, created by NPIRL member Pavig Lok and team.
Greenies Home Rezzable

Welcome to our new members:
- Amalthea Blanc
- AngryBeth Shortbread
- Avi Arrow
- Felix Wakmann - thanks again for the fab SLBrowser freebie, Felix. You guys gotta check it out. Really.
- Finny Yates
- Jurin Juran
- Matthew Kidoman
- Nomasha Syaka
- Scope Cleaver

Fondly,
Bettina Tizzy

Special preview of the Greenies Home Rezzable

Dear Friends... I worry about showing you this because you will then be truly spoiled. This is going to be one hard act to follow. Our very own Pavig Lok (with just a wee bit of assistance) is responsible for this helluva build. Come for a preview soonest! Not sure when it is opening to the public.

Greenies Home Rezzable

Notice originally issued to the NPIRL group on July 10, 2007