Shoot ‘em up (or shmup for short) is a computer and video game genre where the player usually controls a vehicle or character and fights large numbers of enemies with shooting attacks, typically of a highly stylized nature. In Japan, where the genre is still a lively one, they are simply known as “shooting games” and they are focused on avatar actions using some weapons. But what could happen when the weapons are instead “memes”? The game might become a memetic simulation as in Joseph Hocking’s Memetic simulation no.2.

Memetics is a neo-Darwinian approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer based on the concept of the “meme”. Started from a metaphor used in Richard Dawkins popular writings, it has later turned into an approach in the study of self-replicating units of culture. Continue reading

Invisible Threads by Jeff Crouse and Stephanie Rothenberg :: April 15, 2008; 8 -10 pm :: Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, 540 West 21st (between 10th & 11th) :: Free event + performances by current Eyebeam artists.

Think virtually. Buy locally. Invisible Threads - a virtual sweatshop - will be operating live from Second Life and Eyebeam as part of the Synthetic Times Beijing Media Arts Symposium closing reception. The mixed reality performance explores the politics of virtual labor through the creation of a designer jeans sweatshop in the online, 3-dimensional world of Second Life. Continue reading

Lisboa 20 Arte Contemporânea / LX 2.0 Project New Commission: Space Race #1 by André Sier.

Space Race #1 is a 3d simulation in which teams of autonomous elements compete for a mysterious green fuel, that allows for a spaceship, the only possible way of escaping, to take them to another planet, the next level of the game. The team members are always organized and operating according to the team’s internal logic, either it being looking for the spaceship and running to it, gathering fuel and working either together or independently. Each member is characterized by unique features and each group is organized in swarms that perform the required tasks in order to achieve their goal, conquering the spaceship and traveling to another world. Continue reading

Last summer, Cati Vaucelle at Architectradure tipped me off about Meta-Markets, a project which created a means to buy and sell units of social media. I penned an enthusiastic review of the project in the fall and continue to be engaged by this ongoing thought-experiment. Meta-Markets was authored by Burak Arikan, a graduate of the MIT Media Lab who is currently based in Brooklyn. This Friday, Burak will be taking part in a panel discussion entitled Real World Implications of Virtual Economies at the Turbulence Mixed Realities Exhibition and Symposium in Boston (and streaming live in Second Life). Continue reading

Experimental Territory Center & Social Laboratory - A Fred Forest Creation in Second Life :: Opening: February 28, 2008; 6 pm :: Christian Depardieu Gallery, Nice and in Second Life.

One week before the municipal elections, Fred Forest begins his think take for the future project. On this occasion, an initial theme will be developed from aesthetic, ethical, philosophical and social angle: Sustainable Development. In the the form of a simulated model calling out to our collective imaginations, Fred Forest furthers his Territory of the Artistic Square Meter project, first elaborated in a physical space (Anserville, 1977), then converted into a Network Territory on the Internet (Imagina, 1996), and now moved into a virtual space (Second Life, 2008). In order to access this space, you must first be on Second Life by making an Avatar of yourself. Continue reading

In contributing to the discussion on Second Life and the politics of virtual labor I’d like to report on a hybrid reality, social networking project I recently exhibited / performed at the Sundance Film Festival with Jeff Crouse, Senior Research Fellow at Eyebeam in NYC. The project titled “Invisible Threads” explores the growing intersection between labor, emerging virtual economies and real life commodities through the creation of a designer jeans “sweatshop” in Second Life (SL). The factory virtually manufactures designer jeans that are “teleported” into the real world upon completion and worn by real live people. Continue reading

Five works were commissioned by New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. specifically for the Mixed Realities exhibition. They are: CATERWAUL by Pierre Proske, with technical assistance from Artem Baguinski and Brigit Lichtenegger :: IMAGING BEIJING by John (Craig) Freeman :: NO MATTER by Scott Kildall and Victoria Scott :: REMOTE by Neill Donaldson, Usman Haque, Ai Hasegawa, Georg Tremmel :: THE VITRUVIAN WORLD by Michael Takeo Magruder, Drew Baker and David Steele. Continue reading

The Wooster Group: There is Still Time.. Brother :: Directed by Liz LeCompte - Developed with Jeffrey Shaw for his interactive panoramic cinema.

There is Still Time.. Brother is a commission for an installation that consists of an interactive projection for a 360° screen. The commission is rooted in the recording of a Wooster Group performance developed specifically to be viewed as a projection on a 360° screen. The video is revealed by way of a window that scans around the screen, never showing the whole of the projection at once. Continue reading

Feed: interactive installation to show how life is fed by media - According to Pier Luigi Capucci, nowadays the relationship between arts and life follows two different paths. The first and more ancient is deep-rooted in the organic matter and is inspired by scientific disciplines: biology, biotechnology and genetic. The second path, more recent, comes from different approaches: artificial life and robotics. The essential difference between the two (apart from tools, approaches and technologies in use) is that in the first path life is presented as it is, while in the second it is represented, i.e. simulated. Shane Cooper’s installation Feed, recently displayed at Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei’s Zone_V2_ Unstable Media, combines the two paths. The work is composed of two halves. Continue reading

TELECULTURE - Works by Chris Borkowski, Bethany Fancher, Gerald Förser, Taras Hrabowsky, Jennifer Jacobs, Eric Payson, Second Front, Mark Tribe, and [dNASAb] :: November 13 - December 14, 2007 :: Artist Presentations: November 13, 3-5 pm :: Reception: 5-7 pm :: Pace Digital Gallery, 163 William Street, NYC [between Beekman and Ann streets] :: Curated by Lee Wells.

TELECULTURE is a survey that brings together a diverse group of new media artists, whose work - ranging from photography to online virtual reality - embodies, a cross section of thought that investigates perceptions of identity in the early 21st century. Continue reading