[...] BIW podcast 21 [...]

Left by Brooklyn is Watching » Blog Archive » Arahan Claveau’s video of Ichibot Nishi’s “episodic.atomized” on August 1st, 2008

Great podcast this week, I need to listen to it again and then will reply properly.

But can I just say “DanPeyote”, HAHA!

Left by Arahan Claveau on August 2nd, 2008

Wow – another super-hot podcast.

BTW, the fish hook dress is something that was auctioned recently, but I bought it when it was originally sold. Don understood me completely with the way I modeled it. Marvelous.

Next, and I may go in order of time in cast, as it’s long, about my shopping list of artists -remember that much of it was non-inclusive. The contemporaries I mentioned were primarily for certain topics, like Bourgeois for sue of space object and identity, Marclay for his commentary on sound and pop music culture, Murakami for his intersection with commerce, Tiravanija for his creation of social “Happenings”, and also Miranda July for her use of crowdsourcing in her Learningtoloveyoumore.com Whitney Bi nod. Hell, even Duchamp for his questioning objecthood. I think each of these artists are worth investigating for inspiration and investigation to bring into relief the contrasts between physical and virtual worlds. There are a ton more I could mention (even Jeff Koons); I think the idea that I’m trying to get at is that SL is not a sudden cultural emergence without precedent.

The same goes for SL based art. As Bakhtin said on his writing on intertextuality, no work exists in a vacuum – we are influenced by many sources. To say that Second Life as an art milieu, or even medium without anything ever like it is at best a think marketing ploy, and at worst the denial of thousands of years of efforts before you.

However, to think about reiterating previous forms in virtual worlds, Connie Yowell at the MacArthur Foundation (I said this before earlier) mentioned that we come in rebuilding what we know in order to get a foothold in a new milieu. The question stems from Foundations studies in art school – how does one master the basics before getting into more experimental work?

Sometimes, the the use of common tropes from art culture in Second Life are used as contextual points of departure from which larger conversations can emerge. Gazira Babeli’s Second Soup (Pop Art HATES You) begins from the ubiquitous Warholian icon of the soup can painting, then translates it and expands on it as it is realized in virtual worlds. The can is now a bot-dialogue that plays on the traditional “don’t touch” taboo, as well as Warhol’s simultaneous sentimentality and dispassion, even bemused hostility as the patron is confronted by the work.

To understand the work being made in SL, we have to understand that Second Life is a clash of contexts, and as Jay Van Buren has said, projects like the Brooklyn is Watching Podcast is the meeting of one niche microculture (contemporary art) with another (SL). Therefore, there are a lot of people not coming at the question of art in SL from a Contemporary or Critical perspective, but from more lay, enthusiast, commercial perspectives.

HOWEVER, this is not suddenly defining a “High” and “Low” culture in SL, as I don’t think that distinction is as well defined as it was. It comes from context, intent, position, audience. I think that we are seeing that at Brooklyn is Watching, we have two cultures being overlaid, and contrasting the two. And, like Don alluded to, there are common cultural tropes in all cultures. like the Hubbard ant vs. Warhol’s Soup.

This is not saying that there is not any “bleed” across contexts, as Don’s read of Misprint Thursday’s umbrella piece is favorable, although she claims no connection to the art world. This is saying that the context of Brooklyn is Watching is about the facts of the work being seen and its context in relation to Jack the Pelican, which I think is really useful…

A good example of this was when I was part of the Computer arts forum on Compuserve from 1990 (or so) through 1994. Most of us were not high artists, and we were engaging in a form of digital “folk art”, like developing animated GIF art with embedded multimedia. Most of us were exploring the possibilities of the coming mass Internet, and it reminds me of what I see in SL. Yes, our forum was given an article of “up and coming cyberartists” (cyber being the prefix before New Media came into vogue), but in the end, it was the company celebrating the content on its network.

From that, one can say that group was pioneering, but that is a much more complex story.

Also, James and Don’s thoughts on formalism reflect the discussion of formalism in net.art in the late 1990’s. From this Alexei Shulgin, Vuk Cosic, JODI and others were creating a net.art “label”, but curators like Steve Dietz, Peter Weibel, Jon Ippolito and Christiane Paul were coming to understand that net art was something that was dependent of a 24/7 live network from which it could operate upon. While I agree with Don that the discursive emphasis on medium is dated (i.e. Greenbergian formalism), a “real” SL formalism would be reaching into the Grid itself and representing fundamental aspects of its structural aesthetics as medium. This would exploit the inner/implicit mechanics of the platform.

Other formal points of SL which are important and that few artists are engaging with are the social, and the affective. The social aspect is not merely leaving a whiteboard out to be scribbled upon, that’s merely interactivity. The social refers to interpersonal dynamics created by the work and an investment with the work. The piece that comes to mind first is Adam Ramona/Nash’ piece that gives you a prim in-world that is attention starved and you have to go visit it every so often or it cries for your company and eventually dies. This plays on affect and social relations (albeit with a bot), and I would also love to see an Alternate Reality artwork (like ARG’s) incorporating SL as a component.

This week’s contextual interventions like Ichibot’s “Freak Accident” and Oxo’s “Glow Path” are also really nice plays upon the existence of the control tower and its signifiers. Its position as a form of hegemonic center (control tower) makes it a nice space for statments, although other artists have merely used it for an implied affiliation with JTP by proximity.

Converrsely, the points about “She Dances a Merry Jig” are also well taken. The possibility/probablility of 360 degree viewing is a challenge for the artist, and it often causes problems.

From that conversation, the fact that seeing one abstract, swirly tortured prim after another gets a bit tiring. Although there are people who are really exploring techniques from an interesting perspective, I think that after a point in time, one either stays with expansions on basic shape building or moves on to more conceptual work.

On the other hand, Misprint, who does not have pretentions to the art world, got an amazing review, as did the maze. I think that this is a testament of criteria being based on sensibility. I will think about Don’s thoughts on economy of solution and sensibility. The funny thing is that MP’s umbrellas were an hour build.

But on the other hand, can we look at the work from the idea of sensibility in regard to Don’s comments on color choices, forms, etc. as an indicator of a refinement of the work? Is this culturally specific? I won’t go into Don’s statement on the unsophistication of the general audience in SL, which I might agree only within a certain art context, because a lot are not from that context. But then to comment on James, I also agree that there are things being hashed out, and that a lot of art shows the freshmen and the seniors when you really look at it.

As far as the DC griefing incident is concerned, I think that there was a good conversation about the Kruger event, presentation of the work, and sophistication.

Lastly, I would love to consider the multi-layered idea of objecthood in SL soon. When talking in an art context, can we say that an avatar is an artwork, given intent? Secondly, following from Lucy Lippard’s work in the 60’s and 70’s of chronicling conceptual artists whose work was to deconstruct the concept of the object, what is the validity of the object in SL? Is it conceptual, formal, symbolic, affective? And, given the existence of Object-Oriented Programming since the 90’s, does this give an added irony to the idea of the “object” as representation-code in virtual worlds?

I’ve talked enough.

Left by patlichty on August 3rd, 2008

Another really good commentary on SL art in general is Domenico Quaranta’s commentary on the “Kiss the Sky” show at NMC.

http://spawnofthesurreal.blogspot.com/2008/05/kiss-sky-or-what-is-art-without.html

Left by patlichty on August 3rd, 2008

There were many interesting points raised in this podcast but I came away even more convinced about one thing. Projects like BiW are essential to get involved with, it opens up an intelligent, critical dialogue and approaches the work as equally as if it were in a physical gallery. Most serious SL artists would welcome any opportunity that improves the chances of acceptance by the established art world but so many do nothing to contribute to the discussion, content to live a hermetically confined existence.

It is a big problem and relates to what was said in the podcast about SL primarily being intended as a social platform. Breaking outside of those boundaries and limitations is essential if there is to be any significant progression.

Now Patrick has given me much to think about…

Left by Arahan Claveau on August 4th, 2008

“On the other hand, Misprint, who does not have pretentions to the art world, got an amazing review, as did the maze. I think that this is a testament of criteria being based on sensibility. I will think about Don’s thoughts on economy of solution and sensibility. The funny thing is that MP’s umbrellas were an hour build.”

To clarify – Misprint does have “suspended prententions” to the art world. Formally trained? Yes. Pretentious-no. I’m glad Don and the BIW gang liked it. Now I can sell it for one meeeeeeeelion linden. HEH.

Left by Misprint Thursday on August 5th, 2008

[...] Discussed in podcast #21 [...]

Left by Brooklyn is Watching » Blog Archive » “Episodic.Atomized” Ichibot Nishi on July 6th, 2009