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look for dispensers around the exhibition. If you would like to host a dispenser, drop Adonis Bussy or Jay Newt an IM.
And we have them in real life too!
All proceeds go to making Brooklyn is Watching better!
Greetings blog readers. This post is tangential to our usual fare of virtual and art world topics. It started as a passing thought, when I read that Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, looked forward to a future where Second Life drops its age restrictions and adults and children inhabit the same virtual world. I was then emailed this roaringly funny (and mildly offensive), must read blog post by my friend Dan, called C is for Kooky, where he laments Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster’s recent song and diet theme, “Cookies are a sometimes food”.
So, what am I talking about? It’s really this question: what kind of artists do kids who are treated as adults from day 1 become? Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that Philip was talking about something high-minded: self governed sims, a virtual world that more closely follows the organization of the real one, etc. And that Sesame Street wants to encourage kids to be fit and discerning when it comes to food; amiable aims all for sure.
And yet … I remember playing outside in vacant lots, sometimes with broken bottles. I remember when the Muppet Show had cigarette smoking and whiskey swigging winos on: in short I remember a time when kids were ignorant of the world’s dangers whilst being immersed in them, rather than being “educated” about and “kept safe” from them. I think this shift will be felt in the creative expression of the future, childhood is usually when creativity flows most unconstrained, yet increasingly, kids have to process reality in the same way as adults, and this will surely have an effect on their relationship with imagination.
What are your views?
While this is not happening at BiW I thought it would be of great interest to our community: UCSD graduate student Micha Cardenas (SL: Azdel Slade) is spending 365 consecutive hours immersed in Second Life.
This is not just a tech project, but indeed a “performance” meant to ask questions about identity, the trans-formative powers of media technology and parallels between human-avatar re-assignment and gender re-assignment. Heady stuff.
I just caught up with Azdel a few minutes ago and took some happy snaps. He’s going to be there for a while so go on and visit, here is the SLURL.
Azdel’s blog is here.
More info on the project is here.
While this in and of its self is amazing, I actually have something to say 
A few podcasts ago we discussed the Babbage Difference Engine. Most people, including myself, have never seen one and are only peripherally aware of this masterpiece of human innovation. Well, while learning more on the web, I discovered this:
A difference engine fully realized in Legos … with instructions!
So who can guess what I’m thinking?
That’s right … I challenge our artist community to build one of these bad boys in Second Life. Having one of these, working and available for anyone in SL to see will really allow so many more people to appreciate one of the giant innovations we all stand atop as we enjoy our techno-present.
After making it’s debut on Brooklyn is Watching, maybe you can put it in The Tech in SL.
So what does all of this have to do with art you ask? I will allow the informed art community on here to hash it out in greater detail, including the very interesting question of what this has to do with virtual art; but my experience is, that technological innovations and works of craft become identified as art in relation to a ratio between age and influence. The greater its influence on subsequent eras or the preciousness of its mere survival of time, in part make a human made object art. I believe this is at least one reason why in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art houses items such as beds and baskets from BC Africa.
In other news, Brooklyn is Watching blows up on Myrl.
This is your moment, seize it!