In which Amy provides a reality check, suggests an ambitious possibility, plays some good music, looks at Solo Mornington’s fantastic Newark is Watching Tower and its popping eyeballs under a giant blue office chair, and takes in Rose Borchovski’s Susa Bubble storybook characters in The Kiss

Oh, Newark. by Amy Freelunch

The story of Susa Bubble – Rose Borchovski Artwork by Iono Allen (link)

Watching Newark is Watching 1 by Mab MacMoragh (link)

29 June 2010

Virtual Artwork filmed in Second Life® at Newark is Watching on Push

Inside Newark is Watching on Push:

Betty Tureaud : zoom ball 01; zoom ball 02
Blue Linden : Blue’s Office (chair)
Corcosman Voom : Brush Fire in Snow
Dancoyote Antonelli : Hephaestus Platoncator; Untitled (huge flapping object in the sky)
Kicca Igaly : Regeneration
nessuno Myoo : The Giant Deep Red Loop A Tribute to Zoe Keating
Oberon Onmura : Exploders
Solo Mornington : Newark is Watching Tower; Jiggly Eyeballs
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Outside Newark is Watching on Push:

Arahan Claveau, Dekka Raymaker, L1Aura Loire, Misprint Thursday, Oberon Onmura, Penumbra Carter, Selavy Oh, Solo Mornington, Sowa Mai : Bridge to Newark is Watching from SL7B

Oberon Onmura : Untitled (circled mountains)
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Inside Newark is Watching on Push on 29 June 2010 but not shown in machinima:

Ester Dreier : Beuys’ Oaks
Kilara Balnarring : SL7B Shepherdess outfit box
Mason Wylie : Deluxe Barbie Box
nand Nerd : Great Dodecahedron (large)
Rod Mandel : KOONSBALL!
shellina Winkler : ICE COLD BLUE; Revolving Doors
SuperKawaii Mub : Michelangelo’s David (Plastic)
Tree Kyomoon : Get Forked
Werner Kurosawa : cicp
Xenophile Neuro : XN AEP Impulse Rezzer 2.0
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Rose Borchovski’s installation The Kiss was autoreturned by Newark is Watching before Mab could film it. Rose’s Susa Bubble virtual installations can be seen at many locations in Second Life®. A good place to start is Two Fish SIM (SLurl)
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Visit Newark is Watching in Second Life® SLurl

(crossposted)

Amy Freelunch, Radio, Watching Newark is Watching, podcast, video | 12 Comments »

Brooklyn is Watching tower tear down by Sowa Mai (link to video)

Saturday night, 19 June 2010, at 9:15PM ET (6PM SLT) the old IKB (International Klein Blue) tower, built by Popcha, with the big marquee proclaiming ‘Brooklyn is Watching’ was attacked, demolished, and taken over by the new Newark is Watching tower built by Solo Mornington. The insurgent event was to be viewed live in Gallery Aferro in Newark, New Jersey. The audience there were able to drive Monet Destiny, the everyman eyeball avatar who likes to watch, around to see the bit of native Second Life® there is on Push SIM. There was a good turnout and the evening ended with a series of poofs, bangs, tickles and flames.

Newark is Watching officially came into being.

Bitches at Newark Art Event by Firery Broome (link to larger view slideshow on black)

Another version of the creation story for the Newark is Watching tower composed of a stack of precariously balanced shifting-hued cubes and its columnar logo pillar alongside in an interesting echo of Joseph Beuys and his 7000 Oaks : The old tower saw the new tower across the way and got so excited it jumped the distance to be one with the new NIW, proving once again then that love can build a bridge. Or a dream can cross a few bridges.

Which is true? Both! This art is about possibilities!

BIW2NIW by Oberon Onmura (link to video)

Oberon’s video (above) is of the journey from Jack the Pelican Presents in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to the Gallery Aferro in Newark.

The first Newark is Watching podcast with Jay introducing RL Newark’s Gallery Aferro owners Emma and Evonne can be heard here (link)

And if you’re interested, here’s the first blogpost on the old Brooklyn is Watching blog that charted the course for what was to come- an amazingly accurate plan, as it turns out (link)

All the old Brooklyn is Watching podcasts are still available for listening on iTunes (link) and FeedBurner (link)

Visit Newark is Watching blog (link)

Visit Newark is Watching in Second Life® (SLurl)

(crossposted)

Collaboration, Newark is Watching, Sowa's podcasts, podcast, video | 2 Comments »

This is the final week of Brooklyn is Watching before it hands over the prims to Newark is Watching. evonne has posted this notice on the Newark is Watching blog. I think there’s going to be a tower takeover event then but I don’t actually know any details! Gallery Aferro will be showing Newark is Watching to the public in their New Media Room (link for event). Come if you can and help inaugurate the new space! Will there be chaos? Probably. Will there be someone at a party in an art gallery watching? YES!

On June 19th, from 7-10 PM EST, the RL public attending Gallery Aferro’s 2nd annual benefit party will be able to operate Monet and look around. Not sure what to expect, but there will be more people in the gallery than at almost any other time of year.

So if you want to say hello or watch as Monet staggers a bit, please do visit.

Visit the Newark is Watching blog

Newark is Watching, RL | No Comments »

I’m Shirley Marquez, and I’ll be your blogger. I’m going to be writing here regularly about art at Brooklyn is Watching; I’ll mostly be looking at new installations, but I may write about existing pieces from time to time. Besides enjoying art and music, I’m a model, and I was a greeter at Virtual CSI:NY.

Just before the weekend, Fearchar Enoch placed two works; he has already described them in an email that was blogged here by Amy Freelunch. In short: Fearchar took two pictures and used the images as both the sculpt texture for the prims and the image on the prim surfaces.

Fearchar raises the question: is it art? In large part, that depends on your feelings about found art; that is, art that is discovered by the artist rather than being intentionally created as art. The original pictures (if they were applied to a normal flat surface) would be art in the more traditional sense, but the sculptured prims are happy accidents. To my eye they are successful accidents.

Fearchar’s first object (shown below) is an image of the BIW tower. As a shape, this is the more interesting of the two pieces; I found the play of angles and colors fascinating. The second is Fearchar’s profile picture; the interest here is the enigmatic hint of a face, distorted by the complex shape of the prim.

What I would change: lose the rotation script. I would have preferred to be able to enjoy these sculptures at leisure and use my camera to choose my own angles, rather than having them constantly rotate. I would also like to see the original texture for the Tower sculpture; you can see Fearchar’s profile picture by looking him up in Search.

As always with sculptures, still pictures can’t capture the full effect! Come examine yourself, and move your camera to get different points of view. Try forcing different times of day; I especially liked Sunset.

Virtual Worlds, art | 2 Comments »