CADRE Speaker Salon – Camille Utterback

20Apr07

Camille Utterback speaks. In SL and rl.

The day before yesterday I attended another in the series of Speaker Salons – this one featuring pioneering artist and programmer Camille Utterback – hosted by the The CADRE Laboratory for New Media at the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University, and simulcast in-world at the Ars Virtua New Media Center (Dowden, 45,59,51).

I am not an art critic, nor am I, in any way, an authority on art or artistic endevours. Nevertheless, I was very impressed with the scope and genuine interactivity of her work. Especially charming was a piece called Text Rain, where a visitor to the installation can ‘catch’ gently falling text as it rains down from above, and then, with a sweep of the arm, send it floating back up again.

I will refrain from further rusticated analysis, and direct the curious reader here, where scores of writers more learned than I have written about Utterback’s work. However, I will say that Second Life would seem to be a Pandora’s Box (but in a good way) waiting to be opened for artist such as Ms. Utterback; and I look forward to one day seeing the children of her unleashed imagination roaming across the grid.

Pandora, John William Waterhouse, 1896

This series has showcased some seriously talented and interesting speakers, and there is still one left, featuring Neighborhood Public Radio, an independent, artist-run radio project committed to providing an alternative media platform for artists, activists, musicians, and community members. It is on May 1 at 6:30pm Pacific (and SL!) time.

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