I have left Second Front!

Here is a pic of myself hanging out in a property that is acting as an unofficial tribute to the popular multiplayer video-game, (the) World of Warcraft in Second Life.

Hey there Second Front fans!

The news and rumours surrounding my recent disappearance are now official. I have decided to leave Second Front in order to focus on solo performances, smaller-scale collaborations, my RL family and academic research.

These past 2 years have been a very wild ride. It seems like yesterday when I first proposed starting a performance art group based on the Western Front Society in Vancouver.

I remember the exact day quite well.... November 21, 2006 happened to be my RL Wife's birthday and I had edited my avatar's appearance to my trademark style probably 6 hours before we celebrated her birthday over dinner. Naturally, she was the first one I asked to join Second Front. Basically, a few days after that, I asked everyone that I thought would be a good fit for the group via email solicitations and the core ensemble of 4 members had already been assembled. By about 2 weeks, we had grown to 6 and shortly after we had recruited even more high-profile Second Fronters such as Gazira Babeli. In fact, we had our first performance documented within a week of forming.

So now, change is in the air. In September, I am returning to Graduate Studies at Simon Fraser University's School of Interactive Arts and Technology. I am working towards a Masters of Interactive Arts there. This should give me the necessary excuse to further explore virtual worlds under the guise of "homework"... tee hee! ;-)

Also, I have been spending every Sunday with the Ars Virtua Guild (yes, the same group as the Contemporary Art Museum in SL) in the World of Warcraft as we have been developing my performance art series there.

So, lets just say that I have been extremely busy with all my other projects and upcoming research. You might not hear too much about Wirxli in the near future since some of my other projects involve my ALTs. I will still leave the door open though to collaborating with individuals from Second Front - I still love and respect them all and I am sure they will produce sublime (and realtime) work.

As for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, I am still unsure how often I can still commit to rehearsals since most of my free time has been on weekends and most of their rehearsals are on Tuesday afternoons. I will keep you posted with what happens there. Speaking of which, I promise to blog about my most recent AOM composition. I am still waiting for more archives to arrive before I am ready to blog that particular posting.

Ok, stay tuned for more sporadic Wirxli postings in the near future :-)