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LADY JUSTICE BEAUMONT.
Lady Justice Beaumont (Margaret Dragu)
"Mature but not old; Lady Justice aka Lady J
is without question the world's most ubiquitous artist model!
Formerly called Justita, and earlier Themis, Dike & Ma'at. Seen in
paintings, sculptures, & friezes; also on chachkas on E-Bay.
Activities: Seeking & Representing Justice
Interests: performance art; agit-prop and satire;
visual art and video; dance; yoga."
FAU FERDINAND - Image by Marco Manray.Fau Ferdinand (Yael Gilks) is an Israeli Second Life performance artist currently based in London. Ferdinand is the newest member of Second Front.
Performance description: “
All n00bs are Sailors is a playful and very energetic act , dealing with the love hate relationships Second Life veterans have with what they call n00bs. A n00b is simply a new Second Life user which a veteran can identify right away .The typical n00b is usually not aware that she/he might be disturbing or trespassing and that even though SL is an environment out of science fiction books , the other users are subject to the same basic emotions and needs. The veteran in the act is wearing a very unusual avatar and behaves very unusually too as she is hoping to attract a n00b to have fun with and show off with all those scripted tools she's got ...”
BEA BOX.
Bea Box is guest curated by
Skawennati Tricia Fragnito of the Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace Network (AbTec).
Bea Box (Bea Parsons) is currently a Research Assistant for Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) and is exploring Second Life as a means for art-making.
“You Want a Piece of Me? is based on the experience of consuming cultural goods in order to experience another culture or to ‘become the other.’ As a woman of Aboriginal and European descent, I have often experienced the feeling of existing outside of either of my heritage backgrounds. I have searched for belonging through the use of cultural signifiers such as traditional food, music, art, and personal adornment. For this performance, I will share the experience of being a visitor to one's own culture.
You Want a Piece of Me? will be created for and performed in Second Life, the on-line virtual world. I will create a skin which will transform my avatar into an edible woman made of cake. The skin will wear stylized Native Americana kitsch as she hosts a birthday party. Participants will be invited to cut a piece of my avatar and ‘eat’. The performance will end only when the avatar has been completely consumed by the party guests. While the birthday party will foster an atmosphere of play and celebration, the act of eating the avatar will insinuate a darker tension, implicating cannibalism or self-sacrifice.”
iHEART KURI.
iHeart Kuri was curated by
Skawennati Tricia Fragnito of the Abooriginal Territories in Cyberspace Network (AbTec).
iHeart Kuri (Bonnie Quaite)is a student of Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec who has also completed the First Nations Community Studies Program at Camosun College in Victoria, BC.
“Using Second Life as an environment to act out fantasy and dream, my avatar, iHeart Kuri, will build, script and wear an enchanted, oversized dream-catcher that captures other avatars. It is said a dreamcatcher catches the good dreams which slide down the soft feathers and into your head while the bad dreams get tangled in the web and are burned off with morning light. Such sacredness is available at the nearest tourist shop. Even if they are not made as a gift from someone you know, I still believe. iHeart's dreamcatcher is so powerful that it can catch people. iHeart's first performance with this enlarged and enchanted dreamcatcher would take place in Notata Falls, an idyllic, romanticized, synthetic Indian village in Second Life. I was very intrigued by this location because it is precisely everything I try to avoid: an over-the-top, stereotypical, preserved dream. Yet, it was the first place I ever took part in pow wow dancing and I have to admit it was satisfying. iHeart will use her extra-large dreamcatcher to catch other avatars and all the hopes and dreams that they embody.”
Note: iHeart Kuri's performance was moved from Notata Falls to Tombstone, Arizona.
EBA HAX.
Eba Hax (
Tagny Duff) is a Montreal based artist-researcher currently in residence at SymbioticA, the art and science collaborative research laboratory situated in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia.
Duff’s performance interventions, net art and video works have been exhibited in Canada and internationally.
“Skin relations #1" - Second Life visitors are invited topose with Eba-Hax for a portrait snapshot while receiving a piece of Hax’s skin as a gift. The piece of skin can be attached to each avatars’ own body and worn as a skin graft, an accessory or it can be discarded/deleted as waste. In Second Life the appearance of avatar ‘skin’ is considered of utmost importance. For the newly initiated into SL, the first rite of passage is selecting from a limited palette of ‘skin colours’, genders and body shapes to create and remix an avatar identity. The tremendous focus on developing avatar appearances and building of bodies in-world has contributed to the generation of a growing market industry in the buying and selling of skins. These skins never decompose or die. They are traded in for new ones, repurposed, stored as inventory and/or deleted. The trade of digital skins on SL evokes current issues of proprietorship embedded in the practices of trading human/animal tissue culture, organs and skin biopsies in biotech and medical industries. SL constructs a world where the skin is owned by acreator and if it is ‘lost’- that is left intentionally or unintentionally as waste (primclutter)- it will be automatically returned to the owner. Human skin waste, on the otherhand, does not legally belong to the body it came from under certain circumstances. Hospitals, morgues, research and commercial institutions may sell amputated and/or surgically removed tissue that is no longer used by the host without consent from the ‘donor’. This performance action and series of snapshots provokes a rethinking of the exchange of skins on SL- skins that are often anthropocentric and devoid of any interactionwith the microbial world necessary for growth and decomposition of the skin - in relationto that of the use and recycling of human skin.”
TRAN SPIRE.
Tran Spire, an avatar resident of Second Life (SL) is taking a journey off of the grid and into the World of Warcraft (WoW). Inspired by the early field work of Franz Boas and the ethnographic films of Jean Rouche Tran Spire is venturing into another realm to explore life beyond the Linden State. Utilizing participatory observation methods to immerse himself into the environment of WoW, Tran will be campaigning for avatar freedom to roam beyond the confines of ones proprietary metaverse. Tran is reaching out to residents of the World of Warcraft to recognize the limitations of avatar agency and to collect some awesome souvenirs. Tran Spire will perform gestures and present artifacts from his inter-world journey to viewers who will be encouraged to participate in the rituals and customs observed and collected in WoW, experience the feeling of being in another world, and to engage the issues of avatar rights and freedom to travel beyond the limits of ones code. Title:
"Wow! Tran Spire visits World of Warcraft."
MAN MICHINAGA.Man Michinaga (
Patrick Lichty) is the co-founder of Second Front, a performance art group in Second Life. In real life, Patrick Lichty is a Professor of Interactive Arts and Media at Columbia College in Chicago as well as the Editor-in-Chief of Intelligent Agent magazine in New York. The title for Michinaga’s solo performance is
"RGB (Events, 3 color score)". The Score: Patrick Lichty RGB (After George Brecht) All computer screens create images from the additive colors red, green, and blue. The tension between red, green, and blue in the tangible and virtual worlds call for the summoning of events of these colors. Call them down from the sky. Turn into them. Paint all the walls. Red – Green – Blue. It’s all there is. Score: Red from the sky Green from the sky Blue from the sky Turn Red Turn Green Turn Blue Burn Red Burn Green Burn Blue Three Red Things Three Blue Things Three Green Things Screen Add Red Add Green Add Blue...
SECOND FRONT.
Second Front - "Theatre of the Subliminal" (Guest curated by
Ars Virtua)
Second Front is the pioneering performance art group in the online avatar-based VR world, Second Life. Created in 2006, they have already performed extensively, including in Vancouver, Chicago, New York, and has been featured in publications including SLate, Eikon, Realtime Arts (Australia), The Avastar (published by Axel-Springer, Germany) and most recently in Exibart (Italy).
NYKO NAKAMURA.
Nyko Nakamura (Identity = Classified) is a secretive avatar performance artist in Second Life. Performance details have not yet been disclosed but the title announced at the time of the performance was
"14 Extra Open Slot Minutes (Courtesy of Nyko Nakamura & LIVE) While Eating a Sandwich in Real Life." Note: Nyko’s webpage is Top Secret and unavailable to the public at this time.
