Obama Music Fest in Second Life

There's going be a two-day an Obama Music Festival in Second Life. The "Obama for President" group in SL are inviting Obama supporters to congregate on September 27-28th.


Saturday Sept 27th : Live performances


Sunday Sept 28th : Live DJs

Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings

The Long Now Foundation presented the North American Premiere of Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings in June 2007 at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. A parallel event was also run in Second Life organized by Blueair.tv and built by Annabeth Robinson at which Brian Eno attended.

Cheen Pitney - Second Life Artist

An interview with a artist who is commissioned to make public sculpture in Second life. It's interesting that the sculpture are so reminiscent of the statuary found in public square in or cities and town. Apart from the fact that they are not reliant on gravity and float, little difference seems to be gained from the potential of a new media in a new context.

Synthetic Performances

A series of reenactments of historical performances inside synthetic worlds such as Second Life. All the actions are performed by Eva and Franco Mattes through their avatars, which were constructed from their bodies and faces. People can attend and interact with the live performances connecting to the video-game from all over the world. The series started in January 2007.


«It was such a good idea, I'm sort of jealous that it never crossed my mind» Marina Abramovic, ARTnews, February 2008

Strange cross world moments in second life

It's been a while since I've had time to do anything on second life or the blog - I've realised that this really needs time and practice (and purpose, so that you can go on with a task and hopefully have someone who can advise).

Had a great meeting - unplanned - with Lulu Minnelli a couple of weeks ago. I had checked on quickly to have a look and remind myself of what we'd been doing, when Lulu came on line - just as well as I'd managed to fall from the Planet CLTAD platform, down on to the SLCF area and couldn't figure out how to get back to where I was supposed to be! I tried flying, jumping, hovering but couldn't get there and hadn't set it as a 'home' location - Lulu to the rescue! She created a wee teleporter box that would get me back - easy? Well in theory, but you have to select the thing and I couldn't remember how you did that, so I watched Lulu say cheerio and thought 'oh oh', I am still stuck here. Lulu to the rescue again! She came back and got me out, talking me through it - remember, you're typing on second life if you don't have a microphone, so it's a bit odd and slow trying to communicate. So Lulu suggested that I call her, and in second life, gave me her mobile number. As I sat in my office, looking at my virtual avatar Lyberty republic and that of Lulu Minnelli on my 24" monitor, I picked up my 'real' phone and dialed Lulu's non-virtual self in her office and she talked me through some of the basics - it was very very strange; in a nice way. The other - 'real' person behind Lulu is in my head as I'm talking to them, with the knowledge I have of what job they do, what they look like- yet I'm looking at our alter virtual personas and trying to problem solve for my other self - the one that feels completely like a 2 year old taking it's first steps! As we chatted in the virtual world, I told Lulu about the blog, and, in second life, within seconds Lulu was commenting on it - not, 'I'll check this later', but while we were still chatting in second life Lulu, through the power of a big screen, was able to multi-task - and due to my limited abilities on Second life, I was majorly impressed!

That's one of the strange but interesting things about second life - the avatar whose back of head you always see, as, just like in real life, you can't see your own face - however, unlike real life, you are outside of yourself as you look from the perspective of your avatar but with a slightly more encompassing view of the world in that you're in your own field of vision. It's full of odd dynamics like this - your clumsiness with the tools and controls feels exaggerated as you watch 'yourself' and perhaps that's what's so peculiar, you can watch yourself learn in second life - seeing and smiling at yourself as you make mistakes...

Learning to hover

Took a quick look around today and had a play with some of the functions - managed to turn night into day and make the transparent surfaces glow - will take a picture next time I'm in. I also practised my hovering - not easy! But here you can see a shot looking down on the space as I hover - erratically.

I managed to drop out of the platform again and found myself flying in space above water and unable - again- to get my bearings. Used the map function to locate myself and head towards land, then mastered the flying controls enough to get back over the giant wall!

Sculpture 'in world'

The build tools are much like those in most 3D applications. Alter, combine and link ready-made objects. In this image, Brancusi's endless column and sleeping muse meet in second life.

Late night building and getting lost

I got a bit lost tonight - literally. One minute I was in the designated space, then the next, I'd hit a button and found myself outside, floating in the middle of nowhere - that's one way to master your flying skills! Finding this hard - I do something and it's almost by accident - then I can't remember how I did it to do it again. A wee bit frustrating - will have to be more methodical, but think Scottish hawker and I need to build together, so that I can see how he is doing things. Also worried that we are maybe using up a bit too much of the space, when there are others who need to work there too - so best take some photos and clear up behind ourselves I think! Also - so we don't just keep building (or I don't just keep building), we need to define a wee project - aims - and try to do it - as you can see it's getting a bit busy in there.

Would like to see if you can do more free-line like forms rather than the ready made ones. SH - you seem to have started this - how did you do that? make the alterations to the forms?

First contact 2

This is a shot of a first attempt at building in Second Life.

Lulu Minnelli invited myself - Lyberty Republic - and Scottish Hawker to Planet CLTAD, where she has very generously given a group of us some space for a 3 month period to see what we might do together. This has come along at a great time - Scottish Hawker and I are embarking on a small Learning and teaching research project, where we hope to build up enough skills to take a small group of students into Second Life and consider the possibilities for studio based practice and also think about the kinds of research questions it throws up by being in there - in world.

Scottish Hawker unfortunately couldn't make a workshop in London (he was delivering a workshop on uses of the VLE), so, with my much more limited skills, I attended the seminar at CLTAD in London, which introduced a group of us to some of the basics of being in Second Life - it really is a whole new world and felt a little strange on the first visit; like it would be to most new places, except this isn't like any place I've ever been - I don't even spend much time in 'gaming' worlds. Today, going back in for an hour, and meeting people that I 'knew', was a very different experience. It's strange how happy you can feel when in amidst the newness, you see an avatar that you recognise or that recognises you and sends out a message. I remember several years ago attending a conference in New York - it was heaving with people. As I walked along a street just off Times Square I heard someone call my name. I walked on, as I thought it couldn't be me - I didn't know anyone in NY. It came again, louder and more frequent. I stopped this time and there, across the street was a friend from Islay - Islay! A small island off the west coast of Scotland! She knew I was there in NY at the conference and came looking for me! Second Life meetings felt a bit like that today - you look for and find one another.

From the workshop, it was clear that so many people have experienced a shared skepticism from others about the virtual and Second Life more specifically, so being around a group who were open to the possibilities was incredibly refreshing and reassuring that the obstacles you might experience, are actually (sadly) the same across locations, institutions and individuals.

There's a lot to get your head round for sure, but like anything new, you've just got to try it and see where it goes. We had giant forms hovering in space, rotating, changing scale, colours - even with very basic skills, things are happening that prompt more specific questions to help take interests forward. It seems true - you do need to go 'in-world' to get your head round what this might do and offer.

first contact

Lyberty Republic and Scottish Hawker's first visit to PlanetCLTAD with Lulu Minnelli