Collaborative Art, collective bullshit?

Now, much has been said about inspiration both in these pages and other blogs, but I have never considered the idea that inspiration can truly be a joint effort. Is inspiration by committee possible?

I ask the question for two reasons.....firstly, unsurprisingly, the British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest came last. Life has become so wonderfully democratic in the Free World we live in that YOU can “have your say” about most anything, with a few exceptions of course, (Afghanistan, Israel, freedom fighters, what you have in your luggage, who governs you, etc etc..) but..... you are allowed to vote for.....yes....you guessed...which song WE should enter for the Eurovision Song Contest (Europe has long included Israel!). ..

..so..... as the general public are mostly morons (that’s only based on the people I have met and is not a scientific study) ...they chose the worst of the songs on offer, of course. These are the people that the Boys want in SL, the great mentally unwashed.

Which brings me round to the Boys, again. Now... I did a fair amount of moaning last year about SL6B....and as that time has crept up on us again (people were trying to keep it quiet so I wouldn’t apply)... it is time for me to moan some more.

1) why, oh why, oh why... do people have to invent a Theme? Why not, just as a suggestion....say...”build the best thing you can build”???

2) If you are gonna have a Theme...I could not in 7 years of thinking about it come up with a worse idea than....Unexpected Collaboration. omg omg omg.

“Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals — for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of leadership can be social within a decentralized and egalitarian group. In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources. Collaboration is also present in opposing goals exhibiting the notion of adversarial collaboration, though this is not a common case for using the term.

Structured methods of collaboration encourage introspection of behavior and communication. These methods specifically aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem solving. Forms, rubrics, charts and graphs are useful in these situations to objectively document personal traits with the goal of improving performance in current and future projects.

[I include also the following with tongue in cheek] Since the Second World War the term "Collaboration" acquired a very negative meaning as referring to persons and groups which help a foreign occupier of their country—due to actual use by people in European countries who worked with and for the Nazi German occupiers. Linguistically, "collaboration" implies more or less equal partners who work together—which is obviously not the case when one party is an army of occupation and the other are people of the occupied country living under the power of this army.” (Wikipedia)

now...sorry....if you got lost there..... for me the bit “by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus” is the bit that does it for me.....

“Consensus is defined in English as, firstly - general agreement and, secondly - group solidarity of belief or sentiment. It has its origin in a Latin word meaning literally to feel together.

The formal process of achieving consensus ideally requires serious treatment of the considered opinion of each group member: those advocating the adoption, say, of a particular course of action, genuinely wish to hear those who may be against the proposal, since discussion, it is supposed, can only enhance ultimate consensus. The hope is that in such circumstances action, or the adoption of group opinion, without resolution of dissent will be rare. A consensus rather than a voting process is often employed with this intention, as well as to minimize any possible damage to interpersonal relationships.”(Wikipedia)

Now...add to this the idea that this consensus could be arrived at as an "Unexpected Collaboration"....Duh!

What an amazingly wonderfully democatically CRAP IDEA..... this returns us full circle to the question...Is inspiration by committee possible?

Art is not like building a new Ford.
Art is not construction, although some may be necessary.
MichaelAngelo did not ask the cloakroom attendant which colours she thought he should use.
Art is, in no way, shape or form a democratic process.
Art is elitist in nature....

....and I see “Collaborative Art” as a crap mock-democratic pathetic pseudonym for Communal Bullshit...... and I defy anyone to show me an amazing, life-changing piece hanging in a gallery anywhere in the world which is a collaboration.....(or....as I am often wrong.... what percentage of masterpieces are collaborative efforts).

Let’s hope SL7B will do better than Josh Dubovie (UK entry)....

:))

Midnight Maple...

Another tree I have just saved from extinction.....



....it's called the Midnight Maple and is being bred for production....




and, unlike sion chickens, bunnies and other FunnyFarm creatures, it doesn't need feeding...

So the Sion Chickens and UWA battle it out for the Linden Prize, amongst others, and, apparently the blogs are discussing the pro's and cons...not that I have been reading those much.

I have read a couple of good posts from Dusan and a couple from Botgirl which I will no doubt get my head clear enough to write about later.... it's full of tennis at the moment...(congats to Sam (the Ozzie) Stosur)....tho I do like Justine's tennis....

...in other news.... I got my book...Virtual Treeline...it's an excellent round-up of current tree freaks in SL and will be a great collectors item one day as it's fairly expensive so I shouldn't think there will be that many sold.

...also....sold my first trees in Inworldz....coolio...

I will be surfacing next week after the French for a brief while until Queens (start of the grass court season) followed by Wimbledon...hmmmm....I should be back to normal after that.......

If you need me tho...I'm around...


:)))

UWA, Glyph and other bloggy stuff.

Well, popped over to UWA to see Wizzy’s new sculpture, which is well up to her normal standard....and loved Nish Mip’s Umbrellas, below, and ....








I’m always a sucker for this type of thing by Ginger Lorakeet, (tho I missed FreeWee’s humour)... and Samara Borkatron's presentation of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" moved me more than I expected...

Sharni Azalee, inspired by Avatar, in her piece I See You, has a strong, emotional side which talks of identity in a more subtle way than Cat's....but they are related pieces, I think...

Cat Boccaccio's piece, Identity Crisis, is very striking, and slightly mesmerising.


Loads of other good things there....too many to mention...



Then last night I had to visit Glyph’s new installation at IBM (IBM exhibit C (14,124,23) which was very worth seeing...

....lots to see at ground level.....hidden stuff etc....then above this he has bacteria who have avis.... well...as far as I understand...single cell organisms are monitored in RL and their movements shown on SL prims (shaped like cells).....

To put it more adequately....
”This isn't just a simple RL/SL communication project it is literally real life mediated and projected into a new virtual existence. Somewhere in the bowels of Perth in the Studio of Electronic Arts at Curtin University, WA, Australia there is a lonely petri dish sitting on a bench. Inside this petri dish is a colony of Protozoa. Their movement is captured through video microscopy and then converted into a real time data stream and sent to SL.

Julian's part in the collaboration is the physical world part, that is, to capture the data and stream it into sl where I pick it up and transform it into a SL existence. He collects his cultures from local Perth ecosystems and isolates particular microcommunities in these samples, then tracks their movement and reproduction through digital microscopy, converting the data into a set of coordinates and id numbers.

I met Julian at the inaugural Australian Centre of Virtual Art LAB (http://www.acva.net.au/) where I had been discussing possibilities for transforming data between worlds. Julian works with mixed reality data transfer systems, using real biological data to create bridged mixed reality environments. With a few stops and starts the collaboration on the Cells project went from there.”

Lots of arty types were there and lots of arty friends... a generally very amusing bunch.

Meanwhile..... Emerald_Viewer_1.23.5.1635.exe has been released by Modular systems...... which I havent tried yet, but Wizzy said the alpha fix was noticeably better.... will wait for further enlightened comments....

I am currently watching the French Open and Chelsea Flower Show this week so my interests are somewhat varied....expect no great SL presence, tho some new trees are in the offing....

Oh, and my show at IBM will now be in September...also on IBM C like Glyph and Miso...

My Virtual Treeline book is in the post....exciting...can’t wait...

:))

another shop, Inworldz

Courtesy of GaiusJulius CaesarAugustus, who owns the surrounding malls, and Rosa Dagostino who made it happen.... there is now another place to buy my stuff Inworldz..... at Adirahuriye 92/211/26... I think thats right...I'll get it into my Profile eventually...


:))

Virtualism.

Raven has posted the idea that the type of art some of us do (those that aren't busy making poor reproductions of RL) could or should be called Virtualism.

This idea has been generally warmly greeted by most as a good idea, various blogs and associated comments seeing it as a pretty good name.

I like that it is concise and unpretentious.

A name can help to group a number of disparate efforts into a 'movement', which is what I see Virtualist Art as being.

I have long hated the term Immersive because... there is no Non-Immersive art, i.e. all art wants to draw the viewer/listener into the piece and involve them emotionally.... there are no non-immersive sims in VW's...so .....why call something immersive?

Virtualism, however, would obviously imply an art form rather than a method of reproducing RL in digital form, in a world where bits/bytes replace atoms.

It has certainly provoked some discussion and is symptomatic of the 'coming of age' process of any movement or culture that it becomes self aware and calls itself by a name. The success or failure of a name is the degree to which it sticks, i.e. how many of us will say, now...I am a Virtualist.

:))

Inworldz shop.... and show.

Stefanik Dagostino, a very nice man, has given me some space at his new gallery in Inworldz. He has plans for some big shows with lots of different artists....and I have been busy in a little corner of his site....

The above building is not by me...its his "Painted Palace"...





So...I have put a few things for sale in a rather traditional Soror-style corner.... everything is copy/mod in Inworldz, I have decided and very cheap....






The sim is called Artlandia..... and the address is.....well...see my profile...(soon) or use the map.......(just managed to delete the address...Duh!!)

:)))

The Book, Virtual Treeline by Juanita Delaro

Virtual Treeline by Juanita Deharo | Make Your Own Book

Juanita has put together a book of images from her shows at Virtual Treeline Galleries, and, of course, I am happy to see my Oak on the front cover....

I look forward to seeing 'it in the flesh', and it will be interesting to see what sort of reviews it gets.

Best of luck, Juanita.
xxxx

:))

Blog stuff

Well, 25,000 visits, and apparently around 38,000 page turns. I know that isn't much in terms of some sites but it feels like I must be doing something right for so many people to follow my musings and stuff.

Thank you all who have followed this blog, I shall carry on, hopefully amusing you all slightly and sharing my joys and irritations at the art world and the Boys various misdemeanours...

...and... this month was a record for new visitors...so welcome to all..

It seems that 35% of you have Macs, you come from 52 countries, and 25% of you read more than one page..... excellent.

xxxxx
:)))

Virtual Treeline V

...or..."now that's what I call a tree".....

This is by Marcus Inkpen, full details of him...here.... He has planted this whopper at Virtual Treeline and it is well worth a visit.....here...

Sharni Azalee is also showing in what seems to be the final show at Treeline, more's the pity, so it is doubly worth a visit....

Sharni I mentioned in a previous post and, as usual, Juanita has spotted new talent and showed her work.

....another great show...


:))

Nessuno Myoo at Pirats, La Manufacture.

I have often mentioned Ness before in these pages as one of our most talented prim benders. He is, of course, more than that, having a good eye for composition and harmony, he is a talented sculptor.

He is showing two pieces at Pirats, the one pictured above is called The Tale of Angels and it stands opposite a piece called The Secret Escape of Puppets. The escape one is my favourite, but not easy to photo...well...that's true of any sculpture I guess, but it is worth visiting to see for yourselves.

It's here..





....and Pirats continue their showing of many artists over in the White Velvet Gallery where I saw one piece I liked a lot. I am very picky when it comes to 2D art in SL...but this one pleased me....Its by JudiLynn India.


:)))

Slow sunday...

Been just messing about this weekend without doing anything very fruitful....

Managed to plant the new tree at UWA....see above....Wizzy planted herself...

...and...have to recommend Dusans post....great machinima...here......

..otherwise back to work to earn a crust....have a good week...

:)))

Experimenting with the Future.

In the spirit of Second Life v 2.0 , being, apparently, an Early Adopter, I have included here two images.....

The image above is a screenshot of a photo of a stereo I played at a really good party I had a while back....




...and this is a screenshot of a photo of a TV screen I saw a good movie on....

Now....details of the experiment....

1) load this web page onto a prim in Second Life...

2) take a photo of this prim...

3) show this photo to your RL friends via Facebook

4) ask them if they would like to rent virtual land in order that they could rent a virtual prim house in which to see this webpage...

5) make a graph or other statistical tool to demonstrate what a great policy the Boys have conjured up to lead us all into The Future.

6) Photoshop (or Gimp) the image onto the above TV....and start again from 1) through 4)

7) if you have completed these steps....get therapy...


:)))

more Inworldz....

...by popular demand...a couple of snaps...

:)))

70 sims for the arts.......

MetaMeets 2010 Mark Kingdon Keynote | Metaverse TV
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Well, this sounds great........


:))

more trees....

Finally got the Tree Sisters up for sale on the beach.....




...and....made a new tree in Inworldz which I think is probably the friendliest grid ...and stable.... it has got money now so hopefully the builders and clothesmakers will move in cos I am currently wearing shoes which my Auntie would have liked, but then that's quite appropriate as my current RL hovel is wallpapered in my Aunties style (and she's been dead 20 years...well..she believed in reincarnation, so she's probably been reborn as a virtual bunny by now)... its called the Mango Gourd Tree...




...and the Bluebird Orchid is for sale on my beach now, too, at last....yes...I have been a little behind recently...still that's life, They say (tho They say a lot of things, most of which is crap)....

:))

Bunny Madness....

Caro Babenco: "Oh look..I got seduced by the words..."I sold a bunny for 35K...'... plus a whole lot of other stats, spoken in dulcet tho business-like terms, by Cali, who has PAID for 3 Homestead sims from her bunny profits......"

...thus begins the tale of bunny obsession....




Caro Babenco: "It's hit ALL my obssessive buttons...Endless prowling of markets to get a fix (i.e. bargain bunny).. Spending LLs I had set aside for tier! (that bit should perhaps be anonymous :) )
....... Then there is the genetics..(melts on her keyboard)..I have this thing about numbers, orders, and punnet squares just turn me on! (drools)"




" I've been trying to mix and match breeds, work out how to get the best bunny for my buck (pun intended!) hehe...."

Well, they are apparently very popular with families who use SL, obviously, but for Caro....has this all got out of control..??




.....Are these the words of a true junkie???
" I did think I could control this tho... I was going to ONLY get Holland Lops, Havanas and maybe one other, and ONLY get features like gems and silky or rad furs, so I could breed them into lines.... But after a while, the others start appearing cute to you, and then u see Bargains..."

Caro Babenco: "I know some people who are 'rescuing' bunnies. The idea of unwanted, unloved bunnies has been too much for them, and they are finding them homes!"

Now, as this bunny business becomes a boom industry ( "I'm in 3 groups that are constantly spewing msgs - I mean one every 30 seconds. There are TONNES of people doing this..") one has to ask how many bunnies SL can take before this self-inflicted griefing sinks us all in fluffy bunny tails.

So, Caro Babenco, Bunny Mistress Extraordinaire, is the person to get more info if you feel this is something for you, just IM her, she's got 90 at the moment and they are breeding................yes.....fast...

and, interestingly enough.... while LL messes up everyones SL experience with a stupid new viewer... they could maybe learn that a decent bunny may be the answer to the mass-population of SL.. ...turn SL into a FunnyFarm and thousands will sign up...

....just remember Australia, tho.....

:))

General Erection Flop

Well, apart from the media, of course, who can now continue spouting pure crap for weeks to come...the rest of us, (those who are not so naive that they think anyone they vote for has one single cell of altruism in their bodies) we are sooo bored to the back teeth with it all that Guy Fawkes (the only terrorist who we are allowed to support) would be acclaimed as a hero were he now to appear and finish what he started.

The British Public has spoken with one voice, and they have said ...."errrrmmmm"... all brain cells having been dimmed to a 5 watt flicker after weeks of lies. Democracy has prevailed...well...not quite....and we will now get a Fascist Government to replaced the fascist "Socialist" Government we have lived with for years.

22%, approximately, of the British public voted Conservative (Fascist), whereas only 18.95% voted Socialist (Fascist).... so....that will make a big difference to everyone, won't it, having a blue fascist government instead of a red fascist government.

Isn't democracy wonderful.

One Green MP tho, no, not an avatar, a Green Party Member of Parliament... so, that's a start, I guess.

The most interesting thing about politics is how incredibly boring it is. No one has any new ideas, it's all just arguing about where we are gonna save money... like an endless discussion about which supermarket to visit. The fact is that we are pretty similar to Greece...broke. Years of rearranging rocks in Afghanistan has cost more than SubPrimeGate and everyone has been promised Everything.....so disappointment lurks just around the corner with a big stick.

Me??... well I just carry on weeding posh people's gardens...

...smiling.... mostly.

:)))

Open Sim thing

Ahhh... the joys of scalable prims.......

:))

UWA ....... time for people's choosing

Yes, the time has come round again to pop over to UWA and put in your votes for the art you like....

I did just that and was blown away, as usual, by some new, some old.....




Wizzy...wizard of all thingies geometries has turned her E8 into a moving visual media geo thing like a fractal (sort of) ....hmm....you try and explain it.....




Sledge Roffo surprised me, cos I normally am not much impressed by this type of art....but this piece...'dots blue v 4'..(could have tried harder on the name, maybe..) has an elegance and balance I really liked. This would grace the walls of any virtual house...




Penumbra Carters beautiful rich textures are a real joy.....




...and I loved Miso Susanowa's piece too... I knew who had built it before I looked at the name tag.




Now, Julez Odigaunt's piece I really liked too....I got taken by a devil...:)))... "julia's magic mirror" ... fun...




Haily Jewell's pice was a burst of moving colour too...

However...Glamorama Flux has built the sort of house I would like to see more of in SL...very good....too good to photo....you have to go see ...(tho the screens behind may be a bit too busy...)...and such a great name too......

...and Ub Yifu has a very 'cosmic chill' sort of build there too which I liked a lot...

.......all in all, probably the best art show in town....

:))

The new huge UWABOSL Amphitheatre

It takes a bit of vision, a bit of money and guts.....




...the biggest venue in SL is not (of course) sponsored by the Boys, but exists due to the balls and generosity of Frolic Mills (Best of Second Life) and the University of Western Australia, under the guiding hand of Jayjay (who is fast becoming Artist Hero of the Year)...




The build itself is by Patch Thibaud and, more or less finished tho the pixels are still drying.....




.....whoops....who left that fungi lying around..??




It has the theoretical possibility of showing 50 avis onstage with a 150 audience, being built at the junction of 4 sims....

...this obviously poses it's own problems, but the capacity will no doubt justify the technical difficulties of moving around over sim boundaries...(another bug LL has had years to fix)..

I am personally amazed at how much UWA has achieved here in SL in such a short time (compared with how little LL has done for artists in such a long time) and am very impressed that Frolic Mills has the foresight and openhandedness to give back to the culture that has made him rich.

Good old-fashioned sponsorship.....well done.

Now...if anyone has a show they want to put on..... or if you would like to be the Director of such a huge venue......contact Jayjay until a new Director/Events manager is appointed......

...in the meantime, I would like to say thankyou on behalf of us all to those who actually DID this.


:))

Party time at Skellig Medb, Clissa.

On the lovely island Maeve and I have created we got together for a bit of a party last night.....partly to celebrate my rezz day, and partly to show what we have been up to ....



The Born Again Pagans kept us on our toes....



With the talented Hexx, accompanied by Madame, playing live, chilled music offshore, underwater......



Old and new friends popped in...... here are some of them...



TheDove looked stunning, as usual...... Jannne in the background there...



...and Selavy who I hadn't seen for ages popped in.....



....Nur was looking rather oriental.....



...and Miso always does....:))



Maeve, owner and master mind of the place.



Madora, with a stunning texture on that green shawl/scarf....



Lalo, bloggist extraordinaire....



junivers grooving....



...and I was very happy to see Caro, who I have known for almost 3 years now....



Betty, as bee, was gracious and complimentary as always...



Anti was sort of slow boogying....



...and Aliz.... perfect.....

Then Chrome turned up and a few of us went for a slow wander round the island with pleasant conversation under the stars..

...a perfect day...... that's what life's about...


:)))