2010 Micro total art, Drawing and Painterly space; Stelarc in sl/rl; MobileMusicDome

The following are extracts of a chapter of a book - "Micro Total Art : Painterly spaces in the Virtual World".
They will be incorporated into one big volume of works completed in the virtual world from 2007-2011

35 a) Painterly, fumato space by layering transparencies

Gray color studies w mixed textures, flat collage graphic forms

No clutter land - this place, the owner says no clutter, and she bought the land to keep it free and open. She gave me the impression that this is her expression of luxury; a kind of "mental space" luxury - because its linked to specific virtual world real estate values - and she asked me to set the land to sunset to enjoy the prime land scenery.

Large sections of flat colors w contrasts and two mini focus points to show distance

35 b)Silver colored cube Dome, how about that? A pearl in misty land! Only a picture in sl - will never look like this in real life!
However, I like this as a fumato type of painting!

Combination of flat graphics (see the purple tree with leaves) and the fumato layering of grass/mist in forground, and precision drawings style of the cubes with real life texture from photos.
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Ambiance:

Ambiance:35 c) Examples of ambiance as a driving focus of a sim.

1 Image and connotations: Old books from 18th century (culture w a capital C), purple velveteen contemporary sofa (style w S), Persian silk rug (luxury w L), w gray washed wood floor (organic semi natural stylish wood, chic green as opposed to rustic green : Nature as a style). Looking out into an esthetic wilderness of electric blue (jazz, Blue). Pre-established sitting pose - one of relaxed, uncouthness. Visit Exhara here!

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4 Here sitting outside, however, this sofa is not in coherance with the sofa inside. Its much more "mass market" general public product type of sofa. Heavy, rough, and solid unlike the rest of the furnitures in the rest of the building.

5 Colors recalls a v famous real life painter who does hyper-realistic paintings in the 80s, always with a mysterious element, implied intriques in detective novels. Here we could recreate this ambiance in sl - and walk into it, to be part of it. All tableaux are "e-bonsais" in our time.

6 Blue grass on Sand dune scenery, Swannjie as human figure in a painting.

7 Blue grass on Sand dune scenery, Swannjie as human figure in a painting.

Fairy Tale Magic:

Fairy Tale Magic

8 A playful huge clothes pin, you get "pinned" ! "Alice in wonderland" type of magic, change of scale.

9 A playful huge clothes pin, you get "pinned" ! The figure struggles waving arms and legs; fun tableaux, "Alice in wonderland" type of magic, change of scale.

10 Children book illustration magic, like the Beatrice Potters Rabbit books; sweet and pure. A world of uncomplicated enjoyment of everyday. Washing clothes, tea time. Chat, reading story books.

11 Happy Moods, a fairytale type of environment with rabbits, mushrooms, poses of snuggly warmth. Visit here!

Mixed-Reality:

Mixed-Reality:

12 HIPIC, based in China. A mixed reality installation, people are invited to upload images via online web and the imagaes are displayed in sl, at HIPIC sim. The Chinese name of HIPIC sim, and project is called "swallowing images" - at huge quantities of pictural data, it is absorbing and displaying w no organisation, no selection, all pictures. You line up your pic at the web end, it gets displayed on this end. What else do they do w the jpegs uploaded? Are they destroyed or they go into a mass storage for future use? Whatever use there might be? This is a v rich bag of data - because it takes time to upload images, who would bother to do that? Would they actually see their pictures displayed at a particular time?

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17 The HIPIC image presentation screen project located in China sim (ongoing, go have a look; here!

HIPIC is a catch as catch can (just like in real life) flux of images showing a particular group of peoples images could be linked to "Avatar Parade" project exhibited in Paris, Grand Palais; by Flying Soul Scribes, a graduate student project from Le Fresnoy, France.

This is playback of the real life scene so sl people can see whats in rl at Grand Palais.

Swann Jie participated to experience from both ends, the rl and sl, the making and the preparation of the model; from both ends. In "Avatar Parade", all avatars are invited to come to a live "parade" in sl, filmed by a camera studio (realistic sl virtual semblance construction), the avatar is then recorded and displayed (re-diffused) on a wall at Grand Palais, but the model and the organisers were not able to know when the appearance would be displayed. So, its also a random display and watched - including sometimes there might be interruptions for whatever reasons, technical, etc. There is a real life camera installed at the sl end (the other end in rl + sl) and when I got to Grand Palais, I am very impressed w the Avatars who came to the parade! Beautiful outifts and animations. Whoever participated in the parade had put a lot of time into it. I asked the artist sl Flying Soul Scribe, what would he do with the data of all these avatars? He said, he had not any particular plans yet. But what an ensemble of beautiful characters! Who would like to review this parade? Its like a live comic book of characters all lining up one after another for the duration of the show in rl. (The parade was not visible in sl, only in rl Grand Palais, Paris).

This random display of recorded images is very common in todays image filled worlds - seas and seas of random image and viewers meeting for a short 1mn or 3 secs.

In traditional painterly spaces, whether in Gainsboroughs country scenes, or Turners stormy seas, or Wen ZhengMins beautifully quiet glittering waves of a lake surface in fine lined drawings; they invite us to spent time infront of the tableaux.

Comics books are not for lingering of images appreciations - most of them are not intended for that purpose as it is contrary to the flow of the story gets into the way of the actions - with a fews exceptions such as Chris Wares work do you admire the graphic art for art itself and not for the story telling.

Chris Wares' comic books or rather Graphic Novels, are perfectly executed picture book art that goes beyond ordinary comic book story tellings. His story books are not "story driven" picture books. His stories are frozen moments recreating, recounting a special bleak, bitter sweet ambiance of a period of America, the lower working class, the gray bleak America, the growing up of children; lives of people.

When avatars stays completely in sl, then Sl could be seen as a running comic book, starring the avatars, everyone is a character in their own fairy tale.

Crossing Boundary: MobileMusic House with HuaHui Cubes
The MobileMusic House using HuaHui Cube Project by Swann Jie is a Cross Boundary experiment par excellent, says Georg Jenck (rl Prof Gary Zabel). So Swann Jie has been invited to join Caerleon Arts Sim, because here we have artists all working on sl, sl+rl, and the collective is strongly supported by Linden Lab too. Linden Lab is as real as you can get in real life in the construct and world of Secondlife!

Swann Jie approached a lot of mixed reality groups, people who are strong user of the mixed-reality platforms. And its easily seen who is ready to put their reality into action. The "Adoption of a Cube" plan was put into place. It is at the cusp of sl economics and rl economics. Each cube exists in real life as in Virtual World of secondlife.

Is 20euros (26us$) a huge sum in real life?
Is it a huge sum in sl?

Is 20euros for 11cm3 of real estates (a real life space in a real life house occupying a real life piece of land) for the duration of a live time a "good deal"? Why do people join in the "Adopt a cube" or refuse?
What could you do with this tiny space?
You could use it as a Window of self expression of yourself from real life to an online presence.
The Virtual World aspect is parallel - when you need to put real money down for a real life cube; what does this interchange imply? Would it be useful in a real life way?

Somebody bought a real life post card from Swannjie in 2007, at the beginning of the sl to rl projects, the card is used to prove to the receiver that, sl exists, and the person would like payment for the service he has rendered to the receiver. The person got paid after that; he also said, Swannjie Postal Service is the last recourse for him to get his money (real life money for service rendered in sl for an sl project).

So when a project exports from sl to rl, involving rl money and time, what is the purpose of this? If "Art and idea" are not sufficient - what might be the "use" ? We need a "Third Life" to explore this area. sl+rl cross boundary projects are probably explicable best in the context of Third Life. How? We will need to set up context to show this.

How could you explain the taste of ice-cream to a child who is asthmatic, who cannot eat anything cold, who wants to eat ice-cream so much that he asked his mom, can we not cook it? Then it wouldn't be cold.

In real life, a real life museum is interested to exhibit the house; and in Virtual World many sims has offered to house the MobileMusic House. What does all this mean?

As with many new ideas, how many people would pass into action?

An experienced rl/sl press person told me, that 90% of Virtual World avatars are here for Escape - I said, like hiding? Like hiding under bed covers just before sleep, for fun, cozy fun? She said "Escape" is better word.

A new movie is out R U There, shot in real life and Secondlife. Collaboration: Dutch/French/Taiwanese film; director:David Verbeek. With Stijn Koomen, Huan-Ru Ke, Tom De Hoog
I have not seen it, but a reviewer who did wrote that to his surprise, "the moments of quietness and peace were mainly achieved in sl... "; Youtube of trailer here. The director has a show reel, with another film called "Shanghai Trance" - the Shanghai Trance trailer somehow has some unreal qualities to it. Seems like a real life replay of some sl scenerios.

Actually sl is a very rudimentary version of real life, anybody using sl as a rl "escape" is really adorable because they are a little like children whos able to take a twig and imagine it to be a telephone. The calm and peacefulness is a cleaned up world with one single focus.

That is also why a painting is always more intense than a photo - somebody has selectively chosen certain elements to be shown, whether they are very talented or simply earnest in the attempt, it shows desire and focus, that most photos somehow lack.

Maybe, whether its simply a search for ambiance; or the quest for childhood magic, all these places are really what people are searching for. Its an accessible place with low entry barrier. Anybody could access it, unlike paintings in pre-internet, pre virtual world days - it takes a lot more self motivation. In the Pre-internet virtual world days, you have to use your imagination to project yourself in the privacy of your head into a flat graphic representation - and you can never be sure if the other really sees what you see. On the otherhand, even with the Virtual World, you could only say for sure that you had the "same references" but you can never be sure of whether you are really there with the other, together.

Here in the Virtual World, in chatrooms, you could mutually support each other, you could IM somebody and somebody will answer. Whoever answers is your friend.

That somebody might never hold up to your real life "inspection"- and vice versa - but the platform and tool has its place in real life and that is very very very good for a lot of people.

Crossing Boundary : A Third Life

Gallery of Stelarc work, owner Pyewacket, under the direction of Stelarc

Stelarc and his bots, w Swannjie - for a souvenir picture! (Stelarc said that he likes Swannjies footprints! That, is an inworld observation! In sl reality)

Stelarc Initiative Gallery w Stelarc talking live, Pyewacket gallery owner and journalists, robots. Visit here!

Stelarc said in his presentation for University of Sussex, a couple of days ago, in a private sl show and tell in his Gallery, diffused live to a real world audience complete with Questions and Answers, that

He sees that we need not a Secondlife, but a Third Life, a space where people deploy in a cross boundary type of way. For his full presentation, please contact Pyewacket, the gallery owner, visit to the Gallery here, the Gallery is housed by RMIT.

I have also recorded the talk, one hour, very complete and clear presentation - he definitely was in real life, deploying the sl platform to its best.

I was able to attend the talk without having to be there in rl, and be actually there in the gallery! while real life audiences are watching from the real world - it would be very interesting - if we could also see a video feed of the real life audience.

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Mobile Music Dome