Magic and wonder is on display from DanCoyote Antonelli and fellow Second Life artists at Kiss The Sky, a “definitive group exhibition of Hyperformalism” at the NMC Arts Lab [SLurl] .

Hyperformalism, a term coined by Antonelli’s RL entity DC Spensly, is “non-figurative abstraction in hyper-medium and has been known to include abstract objects arranged in simulated space, navigable on a network as well as expressions of reactive and interactive artwork behaviors and geometric or algorithmic pattern play in 2, 3, and 4 dimensions.” But forget about that - set your guitar on fire, crank your draw distance up, and and go and see it for yourself.

Another Update: I am a regular Nostradamus! As predicted again, The Economist has once more referenced Second Life. This time in a March 2008 article - OK, so I predicted April, but I was only a couple of issues off - titled Break down these walls (History suggests that open standards will once again trump “walled gardens” on the internet). If the pattern continues, there will be another one in summer 2008.

Update: As predicted in the last sentence of the original post, The Economist has again referenced - and linked to! - Second Life. This time in a December 2007 article titled Getting serious (Virtual worlds are being put to serious real-world uses—and are starting to encounter some real-world problems). If the pattern holds, there will be another one in April 2008. Stay tuned.

The Economist magazine, described by its own (boastful, but arguably true) words, is “the premier online source for the analysis of world business and current affairs, providing authoritative insight and opinion on international news, world politics, business, finance, science and technology, as well as overviews of cultural trends and regular industry, business and country special reports.” And has, in the last 18 months, published five stories about (or mentioning) Second Life, several of which were also chosen to be read on the weekly “This Week In The Economist” podcast.

Although Economist articles are published anonymously, it is likely that all were written by Economist Bay Area-Technology Correspondent Andreas Kluth. Extensive (OK, not so extensive) investigation has failed to scent any whiff of editorial impropriety, and absolutely no evidence has been uncovered that the CEO of Linden Lab, Mr. Philip Rosedale, coerced Mr. Kluth to write such a slew of stories and shout-outs about his company. Maybe SL is simply rich fodder for the New Media journalist. Decide for yourself:

Look for the next story around Christmastime.

Fiend Ludwig and Typist are separated by the boundary of anonymity.

Anonymity shields Typist from prying eyes and leaves him free to traverse his Real without concern of recognition or retribution. It deflects criticism and accountability. Fiend can say anything, however vile, and Typist can expect protection.

Anonymity is Typist’s Charon. It carries his soul across the Stygian divide between the Real and the Virtual. However, Typist is much concerned for the reputation of his representative there. For across the ford flows revelation. Typist takes great pains to be accountable; to say nothing too vile. Anonymity empowers Typist to transport himself - so himself it should be.

Most fear the Virtual, for they cannot navigate its marshes. They dare not. They have heard many enter but few return. They cower in the Real.

Some, a meagre cadre, need no Charon. By Herculean force they bypass the Cerberus of privacy and stride, freely exposed, on both banks. They are the proselytizers, the New Priests. They will set the way forward, and walk on, regardless of converts.

The rest - and Typist is one of these - negotiate with the dark boatman for passage, and watch from the far shore as their avatar traverses a place they can never go, never touch, but always feel.

There, in the Virtual, Fiend is Real - a entity independent from, but eternally bound to, Typist. Fiend’s history is not Typist’s history. Fiend’s friend’s are not Typist’s friends. But Fiend’s soul is Typists soul.

And anonymity masks much but reveals all.

—————-

This short discourse (ramble? gibberish?) on the idea of Fiend as Real was fomented by a very interesting discussion presented by the CBC Radio 1 program Ideas (Second Life and First, October 1, 2007, direct link to MP3 here) exploring “the confusions and contradictions of online identity.”

(Picture credit: Crossing the Styx, etching by Gustave Doré, 1861. Public Domain.)

What I saw recently from interactive media application developer i3D (formerly Metaverse Tech) confirms my opinion that these guys should have won the Electric Sheep Company/Edelman SL Business Plan contest, as they continue to develop sophisticated tools for use in SL that stretch the bounds of creativity and functionality, while remaining inherently intuitive and useful.

The latest wonder is the vHUD. Although they wrote about it a couple of weeks ago on their company blog, it is to be officially introduced at noon (Second Life time) today, in the Metaversed sim, where they will hand out vHUD prototypes for anyone to try, and announce a working relationship with SLCN, including three new SLCN channels for the vHUD.

This is perhaps the most intriguing and sophisticated HUD I have ever used. Based around their equally innovative Silver Stream System (SSS) technology, the vHUD can stream individually customizable RSS feeds (I am following the RSS feed from Metaversed on my demo vHUD in the image above), HTML, videos (here is a very short video of the vHUD streaming a machinima promo video), and searchable Flickr images to an avatar’s UI. It can also display a list of SSS enabled regions SL, which includes clickable teleport links. “Basically, something for everyone to get their SL info with while they are inworld,” says i3D’s Anthony Reisman.

i3D will distribute the vHUD free of charge, with plans to support continued development the product with unobtrusive, targeted ads. “Most people don’t mind ads, as long as they have relevance to what they are doing,” says Reisman, “so we are going to do our best to implement a relevancy system. When viewing content or an ad, the user [will be able] to put feedback into the system about the ad’s relevance to the location they were and the content they were viewing. We don’t need to store data about the person providing the feedback, just whether the ad is good or bad, relevant or not, and over time, collect enough data so that the ads are relevant to what people are doing and watching.” i3D will also announce today that they have a working relationship with SL Exchange to explore the potential for implementing these ads.

Reisman summarizes SSS for those interested techies: SSS consists of a back end that takes care of interfacing RSS, HTML, etc into a stream that can pass into SL, and an ‘in-world’ server that manages the various streams. This allows the client terminals (such as the vHUD) to simply request content without that terminal having to be owned by the landowner or even caring what media calls are required. Since the owner of the terminal doesn’t have to be the landowner, they retain full control over what content is served based on how they configure that particular terminal. A single SSS server on a Sim can handle requests for any terminal in that Sim regardless of the owner of the terminal, server, or the land.

Cristiano Midnight has written an open letter and started a petition protesting the decline in stability and usability of Second Life over the last year and a half. He writes:

project open letter was started after I read yet another open letter in a third party forum begging Linden Lab to fix myriad problems that have been going on daily for more than a year, in some cases extending years. Since Linden Lab had worked actively to cut off two way communication methods (the removal of the official discussion forums as well as restricting commenting on their blog), I knew a post on a third party site was not going to get any attention.

As I thought more about it, I realized that just because we no longer have a centralized place we can raise and discuss issues collectively does not mean that we do not have a voice. While an individual forum post may not draw much attention, the visibility of an open letter on a large number of SL web sites and blogs, along with locations in SL would at least help to get attention to the message. Whether it can bring about change remains to be seen, but the effort so far has been worthwhile.

On Monday, April 30th, the letter will be sent to Linden Lab, and will be posted on participating sites. The letter will remain for a yet to be determined amount of time, based upon the response received. It is not an effort to embarass or anger Linden Lab, who we do have a great amount of respect for. It is simply using the tools we have available to express ourselves collectively, since other outlets have been removed.

Ultimately, it comes down to wanting Second Life to survive and to flourish, not to continue to languish under current conditions. It is something that benefits all of us, and Linden Lab especially. It is much easier to retain customers when things work as promised.

Thank you to everyone who has helped with this project, from helping to compose the letter (not an easy process by any means) to adding your signatures and including it on your sites. Your efforts have shown how important this is to you as well, and that makes it very gratifying. Special thanks to the Second Citizen forum members who actively participated in this process from conception, and to Vivianne Draper, whose original, sincere open letter provided the inspiration for this project.

I had a chance to have a quick chat via email with Camille Utterback after her talk at CADRE. Here are her thoughts:

I’ve been thinking about what one of my installations would be like in Second Life with no absolute physics, and no ‘real’ bodies. It seems it would be very ‘meta’ - using a representation of your body/self in a simulated world to manipulate another screen based representation within this screen based representation. Russian dolls. Are there any mirrors in SL? It seems there’s no need since you’re looking at your representation from the outside all the time anyway?

In the non-SL world, my work feels magical because a representation seamlessly responds to you. There’s a tension between the ’self’ and the on-screen representation. It seems SL is already creating this tension / pleasure inherently.The ‘outside-ness’ of seeing one’s representation is already built into SL, so I’m not sure how my work would be compelling on this level? Also, my installations are so much about one’s kinesthetic experience - I can’t figure out how this would translate into SL. Do people like doing other activities in SL for the visceral not social feel of them? Exercise, roller coasters for example?

Since people identify so strongly with their avatars though, I do think they would feel like it was ‘them’ who was catching letters in Text Rain, for example. Hmmm.

Hmmm indeed - interesting questions posed. Also, I like the characterization of the real world as the “non-SL world.” Thanks to Camille for these thoughts, and remember, still one CADRE Speaker Salon on the bill.

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.

April 18, 2007. 5:33 PM SLT. Search/Events/Arts and Culture.

DiscoQuinn Freeloader says:

Come buy some of my Art, so I can afford to apply for art school!
I need to make $600us for my application fee. But I am very poor and mentally ill in RL.
(…)
Kill, kill, kill in the name of looooove.

Upon visiting his/her gallery, some interesting art nonetheless.