[-empyre-] SL Atavism (sic) & Second Front

[mez breeze]

On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 8:38 AM, Patrick Lichty <voyd at voyd.com> wrote:
> Hello, Empyreans...


Wb Pat:)

[read (4 those not in the synth loop: wb = welcome back;)]


>  Sorry to be so silent for the last couple months (a holiday on the Net, and
>  an eternity in SL), but I've been very, very active in the physical,
>  presenting & publishing.


Is this presenting + publishing _about_ ur
usage/experiences/creativity in SL? Just wondering if u r seeking 2
validate ur SL manifestations within traditional prosperity channels
[socioeconomic/literary etc]?


>  Of course, I speak from the problematic position of researcher and a leader
>  of SF's only performance art _troupe_, Second Front.  In the two years that
>  we have been working, only duos like the Mattes, and singular artists like
>  Cao Fei, Scott Kildall, and Gazira Babeli (the last two of which are pert of
>  SF), seem to have made the poke into the somatic gesture in SL, which I find
>  very curious.


So ur gauging the categorisation of "performance art" in SL by a
conscious recognition/labelling of it as such? I'm curious as 2 how u
assess SF as the singular performance troupe in SL given the depth of
user population + aggregated sense of how broadly _performance_ can be
defined.


>  Perhaps a better analogy is to ask the function of the different forms of
>  art being explored in SL - Social, Formal, Political, promotional ;) .  I
>  think that for many of Second Front, SF is analogous to a complex
>  sociotechnical tool-platform, like Flash with Flesh.  I'm sure we of Second
>  Front would be exploring other forms, which we do - YouTube, Blogs, and we
>  are also doing work in World of Warcraft.


This again prompts issues alluded 2 back in the aug discussion + also
the beginning of this round - if indeed the very concept of _art_
adequately reflects the situation c[reative]urrencies that r being
consistently generated within these type of augmented platforms?

[eg in WoW there has recently been a new patch (2.4) that provides new
MMOE content + various functionality modifications. 1 of the changes
allows for the linking of talents/spells in2 the global trade chat
channel; this has spawned a type of _MMOE Patch Poetry_, with players
making both workable + expressive collaborative sentences with the
embedded talents.]


>  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  We then, are a sociovirtual performance art group that is more interested in
>  online interaction, somatism, cultural discourse abotu the virtual,
>  Formalism, and affect than SL as the end-all, be-all of platforms, which I
>  think is another grand misnomer.
>  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


So Pat, y do you seem intent on positing SF through traditional
channelling markers such as a "performance art _troupe_"? Is it a
handy way of bridging that eternal communciation lag that occurs when
genre_melt or fomentation occurs?


> SL has a very specific culture of
>  control based in its citizenry, that tends to favor a rather conservative,
>  technotopian, entrepreneurial view of art that valorizes the shiny,
>  technically adept, or even the merely pretty and popular.


As i typed back in aug 07:

"my concern is the precedence this sets in terms of future conceptions
of alternative reality platforms. although these changes _shouldn't_
have obvious detrimental effects concerning artists|griefers
endeavours|experiments, my concern is that as SL's underpinings are
created along a capitalistic|cartesian axis, the effect on grassroot
MMOE charavatar's ability 2 maintain an allegiance|adherence 2 the
world + the communities formed there will influence this range of
experimentation [cross-terra(plat)forming seems the most interesting
angle 2 pursue instead]. SL artists|code.performers risk becoming
ghettoised, with less manipulation of teleprescence/glitches/gaps or
worse, their actions being channelled thru stratified, Linden
Lab-restricted categories as the fauxtecture crumbles in2
geophysically-governed detrius - a sign of frozen output."


Chunks,
:Netwurker.Mez [FB]
:Bowwtoxx [WoW: Demonsoul]
:Gossama [WoW: Bloodscalp]
:Netwurker.Twin [SL]

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