From Yukihiko Yoshida: Avant-garde-like “Super-flat”, Web 2.0 media dance performance tool in Archidemo by Gekitora Gackt from “inetdance Japan”. Gekitora intends “Dance-performance that can be appreciated from any angle 360 degrees”, and does various experiments in Archidemo.

Gekitora choreographs both dancers and avatars. It is fantastic experience for him to choreograph avatars, because artist can share only pure movement of motion with many users in Internet. Now, A series of four dances can be tested with the dance-pad. A free body expression act is done in the weightless space. Those expressions reminds users of the space suit of “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Continue reading

SwanQuake is a unique project involving the ongoing making of an interactive artwork comprising 3-D computer graphic environments and motion-capture driven characters created from a variety of materials and methods by an interdisciplinary team gathered together and led by Igloo.

In each of the pieces, using a game controller, the viewer navigates freely throughout the 3D computer graphic environments. The spaces are comprised of both exterior and interior landscapes, each thematically, visually & sonically distinct where users can interact with avatars to create new performances / performance spaces. Continue reading

Ars Virtua presents Need, an emerging artists exhibition in collaboration with the ICAM program at the University of California San Diego :: March 20, 2008; 7 pm SLT :: Second Life (Teleport).

The idea of a separate set of needs for ones Second Life is both absurd and fundamental. Abraham Maslow provides an interesting hierarchy for us that other than a few differences lays over the synthetic world very nicely, however avatars are not the people they represent and as such do not have the same needs. The Virtual Environments class at UCSD takes a look at the difference and similarity in this space, this borderland between avatar and human and reflects on different aspects of need for both. Continue reading

MILLENNIUM FILM - Personal Cinema Program - Winter Series 2008: Alan Sondheim :: March 15, 2008; 8:00 pm :: Film Workshop, Inc. 66 East 4th St. New York, NY.

CUTTING THE EDGE. Alan Sondheim, Azure Carter, Sandy Baldwin and Gary Manes have been working for the past several months at the Virtual Environments Laboratory, West Virginia University, Morgantown. Sondheim will be presenting the results of that research, which involves avatars, human modeling, phenomenology of virtual lives, choreography, motion capture, and a host of other issues. Continue reading

“[…] 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 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. Continue reading

[Image: “The Cornfield” – Second Life’s prison simulator] “Abstract: This Exegesis and accompanying artworks are the culmination of research conducted into the existence of surveillance in virtual worlds. A panoptical model has been used, and its premise tested through the extension into these communal spaces. Issues such as data security, personal and corporate privacy have been investigated, as has the use of art as a propositional mode. This Exegesis contains existing and new theoretical arguments and observations that have aided the development of research outcomes; a discussion of action research as a methodology; and questionnaire outcomes assisting in understanding player perceptions and concerns. Continue reading

lotu5 wrote: I would like to announce this project I am beginning to work on. It is in a preliminary stage, as I am still seeking funding, but I do have early commitments from the Center for Research in Computing in the Arts (CRCA) and from two collaborators, Kael Greco and Christopher Head.

Becoming Dragon: Stage 1 - Overview: I am interested in exploring the question of how technology can facilitate new somatic practices of gender and sexuality beyond male and female and even beyond the limitations of what we consider human. Using a conception of identity and a process of social interactions and feedback loops, I plan to use the online public space of Second Life as the site of my investigation. Continue reading

Fatherboard, the SuperAvatar, is an avatar that - escaping from the virtual worlds (or from the computer generally speaking) - forms into a physical shape. It is similar to cyborgs - but is not a cyborg - and it is made out of the (recycled) hardware components of the computer where it comes from. Fatherboard steps in to the “real world” and starts interrelating with the human beings (the audience). The essence of its dialog with humans is to be found in the idea of a confrontation between the “artificial” intelligences and the ones of their creators. The whole show is theoretically based on the concepts expressed in the Polymorphic Intelligence (see Polymorphic Intelligence 1, 2) and the Big Sieve theories, by Luigi Pagliarini. Continue reading

Mixed Realities: An International Networked Art Exhibition and Symposium :: Opening Reception and Performance: February 7, 2008; 5-7 pm :: Huret & Spector Gallery, 10 Boylston Place, 6th Floor (Tufte Center), Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts; Turbulence.org, and Ars Virtua (Second Life: Teleport) :: Floating Points 5: Mixed Realities Symposium - February 8-9, 2008 :: Bordy Theater, 216 Tremont St., Emerson College; Emerson Island (Second Life: Teleport); or watch the webcast.

Participants include: Burak Arikan, Drew Baker, John (Craig) Freeman, Eric Gordon, Usman Haque, Drew Harry, Scott Kildall, Gene Koo, Pierre Proske, Michael Takeo Magruder, Victoria Scott, and David Steele. Continue reading

RL Control of SL objects and avatars

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