Presence and Transience in a virtual world

A couple months ago I started a performance/installation  called “Binge and Purge.” My plan is to delete my entire Second Life inventory over a 5 month period by rezzing the objects on a sim and deleting them. I am also …

Virtual conceptualism? How do you explain art created in virtual worlds?

 

 

 

I just found out I was awarded a Linden Endowment for the Arts Land Grant for the second time. How cool is that??? The first time I received this amazing grant, I created my huge immersive installation Ce n’est pas une peinture which was a huge success and had many many visitors who would come and spend hours floating around. Well, this is a bit different. This is a more conceptual departure. I wanted to challenge myself and do something that was more meaningful and thought provoking. Like I don’t already have enough to challenge me right now…LOL

As many Art Historians working in Second Life have done before, I am trying to figure out how to bring this work into the real art world. I do this by mixing realities with my works such as And one man in his time plays many parts and A comfortable skin, but how do you explain the virtual world and the art that is created here to the real art world? What if we use the term virtual conceptualism? Of course this isn’t a catch all word. There are many forms of art created in the virtual and digital realm, but how to describe it theoretically and intelligently so people understand is another challenge.

And how to do you show  the work to the real art world. Of course there is machinima (filmmaking), photographs (snapshots) and live projected performance but is this enough to engage a real art world audience to embrace the medium?

 

 

So this is just the beginning of my new installation piece…

“15000 and one”  or “DEAD END” (tentative titles)

Have you ever wondered what is in someone’s closet? Their storage unit? Their cupboards? Their purse?

I am going to use my Linden Endowment for the Arts sim to unload my inventory/digital-virtual-closet (Up to 15000 prims) and fill the sim (virtual space) with objects from my almost 7 years of being a Second Life resident. The concept has to do with the idea of spectacle, curiosity, voyeurism. exhibitionism, temptation, public vs private, memory and nostalgia. It is also about the collections one creates in Second Life. The life we live here and the items that we buy/obtain and the meaning behind them.

Who is Gracie Kendal? And what is she hiding?

More to come…