[-empyre-] Things happen- Introducing Annabeth and Patrick

[Melinda Rackham <melinda@anat.org.au>]

Things Happen

When I go to Second life things happen..

I was at The Port looking at AngryBeth Shortbread's recreation of  Brian
Eno's 77 Million Paintings and went straight to Amazon and bought the whole
Brian Eno back catalogue to replace my destroyed vinyl.  ( you should get  a
percentage Annabeth!)

And nasty things happen too..  I was at an event the other day at ABC Island
for a forum with the first Second Life artist in residence Brad Kligerman,
and I discovered that the Island had been blown up a few months earlier..
<http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/vandals-bomb-abc-island/2007/05/22/117960140
0256.html >

And then things make other things happen -  "Spawn of the Surreal" - the
title of  a celebrated performance by Second Front -  the virtual
performance art group Man Michinaga,  Patrick Lichty's alter ego, co-founded
is now a the alter ego of  SL art critic Domenico Quaranta
<http://www.domenicoquaranta.net/blog>

If there is anything Second Life can do well it is  Spawn - TV, blogs,
prizes, residencies, real-estate moguls, terrorists, hit men, books, plays,
comix, videos.. We now act in First Life the way we act in SL...
< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkgNn50k14 >

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---> Annabeth Robinson is a UK based Digital Artist and Educator. She is a
senior lecturer in Design for Digital Media, at Leeds College of Art and
Design. Prior to her current interest in Second Life Art,  she predominantly
worked with Moving Image and has worked collaboratively with other artists,
notably Andy Eccleston & Ron Wright, animating their soundscape project
'Acousma', as well as being a producer and editor of short drama and
documentry films. 

Annabeth has been working in Second Life for two years, where she works in
the online community as officer for The Port,  and runs her college's sim
The Collective. Her own practice explores active and passive avatar
interaction with digital Installations. Previous work has included the UUID
Polyphony, created for Ars Virtua's 'Transposition' Exhibition, June 2006,
and Avatar Harp, created for Pixel Dolls, Meat-Space and Everything All at
Once - Seattle Bumbershoot Art Festival, Sept 2006.

Recently she was commission to re-create Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings,
as a concurrent exhibit in Second Life to the North American Premiere.

Links: 
http://www.annamorphic.co.uk/

--->Patrick Lichty is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer,
independent curator, co-founder of the Second Life based performance art
group, Second Front, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and
Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. His work spans over 15
years, dealing with media narrative/criticism and information aesthetics
under many different contexts. He works in diverse technological media,
including painting, printmaking, kinetics, video, generative music, and
neon. Venues in which Lichty has been involved with solo and collaborative
works include the Whitney Biennial as well as the International Symposium on
the Electronic Arts (ISEA).

For the past three years, Patrick Lichty has been a participant in the
onlinevirtual world, Second Life, but became active in October after
founding the virtual performance art group Second Front with Jeremy Turner,
Doug Jarvis,Scott Kildall, Gaz Babeli, Liz Mathilde, Penny Browne, and a
rotating cast of regulars. Since then, he has created the BitFactory virtual
artspace (now I AM Columbia island, Columbia College Chicago's official
island), co-founded the Upgrade! SL node with James Morgan/Ars Virtua, and
Intelligent Agent's in-world presence.

Lichty's virtual practice follows his persona-based work by featuring
various avatars-as-object/performance as Man Michinaga, Mini-Man, Amanda
Michinaga, and La Cicciolina, among others.  Using these personae, Lichty
questions the construction of artist-as-art-object in constructing "avatar
personae", and participates in Dadaist gestalt-performances with Second
Front.  In addition, his service projects aim to promote New Media artists
in Second life, as well as creating a solid foundation for new pedagogies in
SL at Columbia Chicago. Recent works, like (de)constructing Cicciolina have
been featured in Eikon Milan, and Exibart Magazine.

Links:
http://www.voyd.com
Http://iam.colum.edu/Plichty
http://www.intelligetnagent.com
http://slfront.blogger.com (Second Front)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Regards  
Melinda
--
Dr Melinda Rackham
Executive Director
Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)
PO Box 8029
Station Arcade
South Australia 5000
ph: 61 8 8231 9037; fax 61 8 8231 9766
http://www.anat.org.au
director@anat.org.au

Australian Network for Art and  Technology (ANAT) is supported by the Visual
Arts and Craft Strategy, an  initiative of the Australian, State and
Territory Governments;  the Australian Government through the Australia
Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the South Australian
Government through Arts SA.