Avatar Orchestra Metaverse at Wien Modern!

Hey there Graphic Scorekeepers, Electronic Conductors and Wagnerian Wienerphiles!

Yes! Finally, the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse have played perhaps their highest profile blockbuster show in RL so far by scoring a gig (pardon the pun) at none other than the ultimate showcase for all those "Modernist" yet still "Contemporary Classical" composers, Wien Modern. I am sure you know that Vienna is musically speaking, the cultural capital of the Western World (not to be confused with merely the Westcoast World). So to be a historical part of this city's most important contemporary music festival is sure a treat...it even beats Darmstadt!

The Orchestra's founder, Maximillian Nakamura was there in Vienna in RL to ensure that everything went along smoothly and on time. Thanks Max! :-)

Here is the official history and mandate of the festival that occurs throughout various cultured sites in Vienna:

"Following an initiative of Claudio Abbado, since 1988 international composers, artists, interpreters and ensembles have been invited to present the wide variety and artistic creativity in the world of sound. Wien Modern is a festival of contemporary music - and also provides a platform for Modern Dance, new visuals, texts and film.

Since 1988 international composers, artists, interpreters and ensembles have been invited here so that all the different artistic facets connected to the world of sound can be experienced. Wien Modern is a festival of contemporary music - and also provides a platform for Modern Dance, new visuals, texts and film."

Oooops! I noticed that Wien Modern quoted itself at least once in that body of official text...oh well, more excuses for me to place some hyperlinks in there but maybe they should rename themselves, Wien Postmodern? ;-)

Anyway, instead of an overture, the Orchestra played full-length versions of 4 original compositions (well 5 if you include the Birthday Encore..ummm..I guess that does not qualify as "original"...does it?). Two of the 4 compositions were World (both SL and RL) Premieres! Here is a quick summary of all them in chronological order...

I - MIULEW TAKAHE - FRAGULA...

Photo by Evo Szuyuan.Just have a look at the pattern on the floor! Wow! Just looking at that pattern reminds me of being at Wien Modern!

Takahe's composition is part of the AOM's standard repetoire and is still extremely fun to play. For this performance, we interacted with Second Front co-member Gazira Babeli's installation called Come Together. After sticking together, we branched out across Virtual Haidplatz like pollen snagged by bees strung out on Viagara!

It really was an epic and sublime sight to see and unless there is a forthcoming video and audio document of it...well...I guess you just HAD to have been there ;-)

II - MAXIMILLIAN NAKAMURA - URSONATA...

Click here to listen to the live audio recording of Ursonata.


The composer Maximillian had two very special HUD interfaces designed. The stripey horizontal bar on the bottom of the screen allowed me to change the fricative sound effects that was triggered by my gun. The tiny square buttons on the right of the screen corresponded to different fricative syllables and drone samples that I could also improvise with.

As I mentioned earlier, Maxi (not to be confused with Maxxo) is the founder of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. Without him, we are nothing ;-) Maxi (as his alter-ego Shintaro Miyazaki) lives in Berlin in RL these days so fortunately he was local enough to check out the Wien Modern performance first hand. He was even able to share a coffee break or two with Wien Modern's curator, Berno Odo Polzer. I think it was Berno himself who invited the Orchestra to play. He was also the one who mentioned that the Production Coordinator named Barbara Lebitsch was having her birthday so Maxi and Berno planned a special surprise birthday encore...well, more on that later but lets focus for now on Maxi's 2nd AOM composition and its World(s) premiere.

This piece Ursonata is both an ode to Kurt Schwitter's classic Merz era equivalent to slam poetry and Gazira Babeli's installation of the same name which Second Front (my other group) used for our performance of The Gate at iMAL in Brussels a couple of months ago. Hmmm...now that I think of it, Maxi also used Gaz's mutation script which was used in Second Front's Spawn of the Surreal performance that took place almost a year ago...wow! I guess I was serious when I said that the festival should have really been called Wien Postmodern!

At any rate, it was a very fun piece and it reminds me of the days in RL when I was a music composition student at Uvic. My teacher at the time, Christopher Butterfield is quite well known around the globe for his performance of Ursonate ("Ursonata" in English).

III - WIRXLI FLIMFLAM - RIESENRAD...

Photo by Evo Szuyuan.Here is an overture...er..overview of the ferris wheel.

Click here to listen to the live audio recording of Riesenrad.

Ok, my own composition also had a World(s) Premiere at Wien Modern. I have already blogged about it in the post below this one so you may as well just go there. To summarize, it was a Maximinimalist (cross between Maximalist and Minimalist) ode to all the classic and modern Vienna-based composers and is probably currently getting derided by the critics as being more Fantasia than Fantasia.

Speaking of Vienna-based composers, I sure wish our Orchestral colleague Gumnosphistai Nurmi had his own composition called "Avatars Brew" ready because he certainly has had direct experience with channeling the Greatest Composer Ever To Live in Vienna (well, until Falco).

IV - BINGO ONOMATOPOEIA - WEE NO KRESH (WNK)...

Click here to listen to the live audio recording of Wee No Kresh.

Photo by Digital Randt.

It was Bingo who designed all the custom instruments and HUD interfaces for the Orchestra and it was also Bingo who recorded each composition in realtime while performing, coordinating, giving tech support and yes, even showcasing his own composition.... ALL HAIL TO BINGO!

Bingo's piece WNK is also a classic repetoire piece like Miulew's (Takahe's) Fragula.

Bingo's composition is unique in that it is the only one that you can DANCE to.

Hmmmm...did I mention Wien Postmodern a bit earlier on? ;-) Maybe it is time for a parallel festival.

My buddy Digital Randt (who is also an instrument interface designer) took some kewl photos so I figured I had better at least show another one he took of WNK....

Photo by Digital Randt.

V- HUMMING PERRA AND THE AOM - FRAGGY BIRTHDAY CELLO CONCERTO Op. 1 "Barbara"...

Click here to listen to the live audio recording of the Birthday Concerto.

Click here to download and watch the video of this Birthday Surprise in Vienna (RL).



Well, Humming Perra did an awesome job playing Happy Birthday on the laggy Hypercello designed by Robbie Dingo (not to be confused with Bingo). As a Modern form of accompaniment, Miulew conducted the Orchestra players and instructed us to improvise using the gear that Bingo designed for Fragula. All in all, it was a great time where the red wine was flowing the snow was blowing...er....maybe I should save all this talk about the snow blowing that occured during an backstage interview with me for the next blog... SNIFF! SNORT!

AOM at the Eslöv Biennalen in Sweden...

This is the official logo for the Eslöv Biennalen 2007.

To see Dizzy Banjo's photos from this event, please click here.

Also, Dizzy Banjo blogged this event...

Hey there Ladonians, repetoire requesters and Eslövbirds!

Normally, I would blog in chronological order but at the moment, I am still too blogged down with documentation flooding in from Second front's PERFORMA show in NYC that occurred over the weekend as well as still being totally back-blogged with video footage to digitize from the Second LIVE event in Mid-October.

Regardless of the fact that I have been lagging down from my documentation duties lately, I felt I could at least blog this morning's orchestral performance in Eslöv now since the little documentation that I have is already sufficiently comprehensive and complete.

This Biennial was curated by the Ladonian Minister of Art, Fredrik Axwik and the festival garnered some recent global publicity due to the fact it had banned the controversial Swedish artist and Ladonian Secretary of State, Lars Vilks from even publically attending the event...

Well, enough about politics, here are some more snapshots from the orchestral repetoire...

Here we are at one of our usual rehearsal spaces on Odyssey Island about to play Miulew Takahe's Rue Blanche. Since Miulew is one of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse's Swedish members, we felt it was best to spotlight his compositions for the performance.

Here is a picture of us playing Maximillian Nakamura's classic composition, Fadheit at an exotic location that looked like some sort of psycho-delic Neo-GOA installation from the prehistoric era (at least relative to SL's existence) known as the RAVE decade (1990s).

Here is a performance of Miulew Takahe's Fragula in an even more exotic location (well ok, I am just saying this to up the hype ante, if you know what I mean)...

Here is another snapshot showing Fragula in action :-)

AvaStar Orchestra Metaverse...

Here is a clipping from The Avastar Issue #45 (page 12) about the Avatar Ochestra Metaverse's performance at the Avastar news headquarters which was streamed live into the Zollverein in Essen, Germany as part of the official closing ceremonies for the 1st Annual Architecture and Design Competition in Second Life that was hosted by the Ars Electronia festival in Linz, Austria.

Here is the same article but this time excerpted from the German language edition.

Here is a view of the English Avastar article from the perspective of the 2 page spread.

How many Orchestras do you know in RL with the guts to perform in an indoor swimming pool owned by the biggest tabloid in the world?

Hey there fellow AvaStars and New Music Party-Hardies,

Phew! I have barely recovered from the rehearsal of my new Orchestral composition, titled "Riesenrad" (rehearsal archives will eventually be posted alongside the world premiere at Wien Modern in November).... This virtual fatigue has been augmented by my curatorial, archiving and moderation duties at the Second LIVE component of Vancouver's LIVE Biennial of Performance Art. All of this has literally just taken place last week and within minutes of achieving freedom, I was on-call once again to perform this morning with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse for a special gig at the AvaStar tabloid headquarters in SL (and also, at one of their HQ locations somewhere in RL in Essen, Germany). In true SLebrity fashion, we played in their HQ's indoor swimming pool!

We performed Miulew Takahe's Fragula composition twice and followed-up the performance with an exclusive interview with the AvaStar staff moderated by their Editor-in-Chief, Regis Braathens. Unfortunately, the composer was unable to attend to conduct Fragula but Maxxo Klaar did a great job filling in for Miulew.

Here are some more photos...

At this point, most of the AvaStar staff (reporters and editors) as well my SLebrity colleagues began to arrive... It was at this time, I felt it was appropriate to break out (just for myself) the champagne glass ;-)

It was around this time that the glamourous Maxim-Gal #95 and famous fashion designer, Callie Cline asked if there was a party going on. Well, it certainly looked like a party but alas, it was yet another new music recital - sorry to disappoint! I guess it probably did not help that I was chugging a luxurious glass of sparkling champagne while performing in zero-gravity - that is usually a recipe for a party...Heheheheheh ;-)

Pauline Oliveros in Second Life!

This is probably the first ever photo-document of Pauline Oliveros (Free Noyes) in Second Life unless of course, Miulew Takahe took a quickie snapshot first...sigh! For this pic, I literally just gave Pauline my Rue Blanche gear (including the backpack) so Miulew could guide Pauline through the process of testing out the orchestra's inflatable backpack. For the record, Miulew got a compliment from Pauline about his zany SLippers! She must have been envious of these SLippers because she was definitely acting like a classic shoegazer with all the times she was bending down to check out her own plain-jane pair ;-)

Hey there 20th century and contemporary classical new music legends and musicworking mythmakers!

I know I promised in my last blog posting that I was taking a mini blog-break for the rest of September in order to focus on composing my new orchestral piece called Riesenrad but I could not help myself because due to recent developments, there was just a little bit more to blog...

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of giving the electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros (Free Noyes in SL) a tour of the hip art scene on Odyssey Island and also with the help of Miulew Takahe, a demonstration of the performance gear we use in our Avatar Orchestra Metaverse group. It is our hope that Pauline/Free takes up our offer to join the Orchestra and maybe even compose a new piece for the ensemble!

Well, no promises yet since Pauline had some server problems and was unable to hear the HUD-generated sounds properly. I am guessing this is because Second Life's active-user population has actually (not just virtually) doubled in the past couple of weeks alone! When the sounds were playing fine, the metaverse averaged about 20,000 simultaneous avatars and now it is pushing the envelope beyond the 40,000 mark!

Well, I am hoping Pauline/Free returns again to give Second Life a Second Chance.

At the very least, I managed to invite some friends over to take a few more snapshots of with her to celebrate her in-world debut...

A few minutes later, my friend Bibbe Oh dropped by to say hello. This was at the point that we were trying to impress Pauline (Free) with our sensuous sine tones but for some reason, those sine bits never seemed to transmit that afternoon...sigh!

For awhile, we thought that maybe the lack of transmitted sound had to do with the lagginess of the room so we moved to a more open area known us locals as Virtual Haidplatz. Sugar Seville, the curator of Odyssey Island, joined us there to also say hello and to try and help us figure out the situation that was blocking us from giving a flawless demo of our orchestral instrument(s). Unfortunately, the sound situation did not improve...sigh!

Eventually, we simply gave up on the whole sound check idea and decided to give Pauline a quick tour of some other landmarks on Odyssey Island such as....of course, my own PR office! ;-) Since I was in full-throttle PR mode, I invited my glamorous German art-blogger friend Olga Wunderlich to drop by since she happened to be in-world at the time. My glass of red-wine started to get a bit cold (maybe I am just cold-blooded or something) so I warmed it up by standing in the middle of my fire which by the way, is still successfully burning a bunch of negative reviews written by disgruntled and jaded critics....heheheheh! Oh, I forgot to mention that I am proud of this pic because I think I successfully captured the stylish aloofness that is second-nature to all those involved in the SL art world ;-)

I guess it was just a matter of time before we had to show Pauline the blight (not a typo, I really mean "blight" and not "bright") side of life on Odyssey Island. I think the fact that Ian Ah sleeps in a squat directly underneath my PR office is proof that virtual worlds are not always the Utopias they pretend to be. Yes my friends, there is a digital divide in Second Life and it is deepening...er...widening ;-)

I hope you like this photo. I managed to get everyone to line up for an official group shot in front of the main gallery on Odyssey Island called Exhibit A. By the way, I have a solo show there next month..stay tuned!

...and here is one additional angle of us doing one more group pose before saying our mutual farewells....

Wirxli ON THE SPOT!

SPOTTED! Wirxli FLimFlam once again makes an appearance in the SLebrity gossip section of The Avastar on Page 16 of Issue #36.

This is from the German language edition of The AvaStar Issue #36.

Hey there SLebrity, Celebrity and assorted fans of a spotty variety!

Well, I was trying to take a brief vacation from blogging but sure enough, the media's limelight...er... the spotlight always seems to find me and manages to successfully illuminate my pink hair and drag me back into the fray.

So, as you can see from the above evidence, the tabloid media-zine known as The AvaStar found me speaking on a panel at the xxXtenXion festival in Regensburg and even successfully squeezed a soundbyte from me where I admitted that the magazine itself helped to shape my identity....and despite what you usually read in the tabloids, this time what I was quoted on saying is 100% accurate! For the record, I REALLY said that the AvaStar has molded me into who I am...in fact, they are the core and essence of my very being! Wow!

Check out these other photos below for additional mentions of me that help to further illustrate the excesses of my roccoco ego that is swirling and spiralling out of control (ok, that part is a tabloid-esque lie) within the sassy media frenzy known as SLebrity Life....

This is the full page spread of the "a-stars" gossip column.

Here are Evo Szuyuan (videographer - seated on the pic's left hand side) and Miulew Takahe (coordinator - seated on the pic's right hand side) from the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse previewing the new and improved machinima document of my recent in-world orchestral composition, SLippery SLope. They seem to be watching this sneak-preview at Ian Ah's lounge on Odyssey Island.

Here is Evo's personal nomination for me as the "Best Performing Artist"... Please visit this link here and vote for me on Enniv Zarf's Krystal Epic website.

SLippery SLope Video!

Wirxli FLimflam - "SLippery SLope" (2007)
Video recorded and edited by Evo Szuyuan. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.

Hey there in-world music composition fans,

Finally, Evo Szuyuan has recorded an accurate and sublime machinima version of my first composition for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, called "SLippery SLope" (2007).

Many many thanks to all the Avatar Orchestra performers as well as Evo Szuyuan for reflecting the composer's original intention in the form of a fantastic video/audio edit!

Also, super thanks goes out to:

A) DeThomas Dibou who designed and built these special architectonic SLopes exclusively for my composition.

B) Bingo Onomatopoeia for the customized HUD performance interface design for my composition.

C) Miulew Takahe for coordinating the Orchestra rehearsals as well as engineering the audio recording archives.

D) DannyDarko Raymaker for taking the very first video-document of SLippery SLope.

E) Maximillian Nakamura (the Founder of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse) for helping me develop the first performance HUD for SLippery SLope.

To learn more about the history and context (including the performer credits) behind my very first music opus composed exclusively for the Second Life universe, click on these previous blog postings:

1) SLope SLipping and hanging out.

2) SLippery Slope's in-world Premiere for the Pages exhibition in London. This first performance includes the first machinima video archive by DannyDarko Raymaker (video recording) and Miulew Takahe (audio recording) as well as the full transcript of the official notecard score.

2) SLippery Slope's dress rehearsal.

3) Thursday's SLippery Slope rehearsal.

4) Bingo's HUD help in his Hometown.


Also, check out these audio podcast archives recorded and collected by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse co-founder, Miulew Takahe in reverse-chronological order...

I - Recording of the studio version of SLippery SLope recorded by Hopi Jun and Miulew Takahe for the official machinima performance for Evo Szuyuan's videography.

II- The second half of the official machinima re-take peformed in reverse-SLope order to generate bonus video material for Evo Szuyuan.

III- Documentary recording of the 1st official performance of SLippery SLope.

IV - HUD test for SLippery SLope (the composition-in-progress).

SLippery SLope Strikes Back!

Except for the photoshopped and censored friends list on the left hand side, this is an authentic in-world screenshot showing the assembled orchestra about to ascend the first blue SLope designed by DeThomas Dibou. On the left, you can see the colourbar performance HUD interface designed by Bingo Onomatopoeia and the Hypercello performance HUD interface designed by Robbie Dingo and yes, the notecard score designed by me, Wirxli Flimflam :-)

Photo by DADA RAU.


Photo by DADA RAU.


Photo by DADA RAU.


Hey there Hyperclassic(k)al music(k) and Gesamtkunstwerk Fanatix,

On the July 22nd, 2007 - news-waves reverberated throughout Second Life's New and Classical music scene... SLippery SLope Strikes Back! The architectural component of my very first composition for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse called "SLippery SLope" was re-installed by our in-world designer DeThomas Dibou last week so our videographer, Evo Szuyuan could make a more accurate video-document of our realtime embodied virtual music performance.

Also, one of our composing colleagues, Miulew Takahe was able to officially employ the services of his sound engineering intern, Hopi Jun and create a more studio-friendly audio-snapshot of my composition.... Yes, it is true, to get the full experience and intent behind my Gesamtkunstwerk, you would have had to have actually been there as your avatar self and live in the moment.... But hey! These recently recorded documents are going to lure you very close to the "real" thing.

If you want to read the contents of my composition's notecard score in more detail...just click on this blog posting here and scroll down...

Well, here is what I have for you from these two new performance sessions so far to display:

1) Miulew and Hopi's audio recording of the entire first full take of the 2nd performance (including the hyperclassical instrument tuning before we officially performed my composition).

2) Another audio recording by Miulew and Hopi where we flirted with the idea of climbing my musical SLopes in reverse in order to get some extra bonus video-footage for Evo's special forthcoming machinima-esque presentation.

I should also give credit here to those Avatar Orchestra performers who I have not mentioned yet in this posting...If you performed with me on this day and I have left out your name and/or your hyperlink, please contact me in-world right away so I can revise this posting.... Ok, here is a list of some of the other Orchestral Players on SLippery SLope:

Gumnosohistai Nurmi
Junivers Stockholm
Way Sands
BlueWave Ogee
Maxxo Klaar
Jannne Janus
Paco Mariani
Nnoiz Papp

Nnoiz Papp also had a friend named DADA Rau who took some great snapshots and was also able to archive the chat-history transcript from this performance.

In other post-musical news, it has been a really busy past week in Second Life. Along with Second Front, I have been interviewed twice by Ian Daffern for the Globe and Mail as well as presented a special workshop for Torontonians yesterday at InterAccess Gallery. I will be blogging this whole mediated experience very shortly...

In the meantime, please explore the rest of this blog while scrolling down and stay tuned for Evo's video of "SLippery SLope" as well as future blog postings from yours truly... :-)

PAGES Exhibition in London - Day Two...

Wirxli Flimflam - "SLippery SLope" (2007) [Video/Audio Excerpt]

"SLippery SLope" (2007) composed for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse by Wirxli Flimflam. DeThomas Dibou was the architect for this site-specific composition. This is a salvaged excerpt from the in-world premiere which combines the video archive from DannyDarko Raymaker with the audio recording from Miulew Takahe. This video is not in sync with the audio and is not an accurate portrayal of what avatars witnessed live. If you cannot see this embedded video excerpt, please click here.

***UPDATE FROM THE NEAR FUTURE - SPINSTER VOOM HAS BLOGGED THIS EVENT...AND HAS ALSO PROVIDED ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT THIS EVENT***

**ANOTHER UPDATE FROM THE NEAR FUTURE - MIULEW TAKAHE FROM THE AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE HAS ALSO BLOGGED THIS EVENT***

Hey there performance art and new muzak fans,

Finally, I have posted some salvaged archives from Saturday's performance event that was part of Spinster's PAGES (PgUp) exhibition in London.

Anyways, it took me forever to post the above video with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. Saturday was really stressful in that I was scrambling to find someone to video-document my premiere of "SLippery SLope". Fortunately, DannyDarko Raymaker was able to record the video component and then I just need to find someone with audio. Miulew Takahe had a very live and raw recording from his avatar's perspective (yes, the composition is very subjective and spatial) so I mixed in his audio archive with Danny's video excerpt and what we have as a result is a very confusing and non-synced video...but hey, it is better than nothing and I am extremely grateful to Miulew and Danny for helping me to document my transient composition. I was going to re-perform it just for a machinima muzak video but I found that DeThomas Dibou had already de-installed the SLopes from Virtual Haidplatz on Odyssey Island...sigh! Oh well..I can always compose a new piece and ensure that it can be re-performed over and over...

Ok, some of you are wondering what the whole concept is behind my composition.
Well, I already summarized in an earlier posting so if you just click on this link here and scroll about half-way down, you will see my official PR paragraph about this composition.

However, I think it is about time I displayed for you in fine print exactly what my official notecard score for the composition looked like...

This might not make much sense to you as a reader but thankfully, it made sense to the members of the Orchestra...phew! The text you are about to read below was actually not as daunting as it first appears. For starters, I guided them through the spatial aspects of the composition a couple of times throughout our scheduled rehearsal times. In addition, I ensured that the score was seperated into a "HUDer" score and a "Classicist" score so the performer only needed to focus on their unique role within this very spatial and SLope-specific composition...

Ok...here is my full conductor's score:

"SLippery SLope". Full Conductor's Score by Wirxli Flimflam, 2007

There are 3 different coloured SLopes designed by the Architect, DeThomas Dibou: Blue, pink and purple.

There are two unique roles in this composition that an orchestra player can choose:

CLASSICISTS wear and play a scripted pitched instrument (eg. cello or flute)

HUDers wear 2 HUDs made by Bingo (performance HUD and Info-Receiver HUD)

If you fall off any SLope:

CLASSICISTS = Play c-b-bflat over and over in loop while returning to the 1st blue SLope (or after 5 minutes of performing, returning to the SLope you fell off of).

HUDers = Everytime you recognize one of the 3 colours on the clothes or hair of an audience avatar, play a button that corresponds to that colour (blue, purple, pink) while returning to ascend the Blue SLope. (or after 5 minutes of performing, returning to the SLope you fell off of).

Note: Wirxli will play both the role of the HUDer and the CLASSICIST and will do some improv soloing while climbing the SLopes.

Blue SLope (top buttons in HUD)

CLASSICISTS = Play b-flat drone on scripted instrument (ex. cello)

HUDers = play from the blue buttons on the HUD if you see these Regensburg landmarks while on the SLope:

a) Wolf Lesen und Lernen
b) wittl musik
c) any avatar in the audience that is wearing blue...

Pink SLope (middle buttons in HUD):


CLASSICISTS = Play b drone on scripted instrument

HUDers = play from the pink buttons on the HUD if you see these Regensburg landmarks while on the SLope:

a) Wolf Lesen and Lernen
b) Reise Studi/Haifplatz
c) Rossini cafe bar and restaurant
d) Any avatar in the audience wearing pink

Purple SLope (bottom buttons in HUD):

CLASSICISTS = Play c drone on scripted instrument.

HUDers = play from the purple buttons on the HUD if you see these Regensburg landmarks while on the SLope:

a) Avastar Vending machine
b) Lepanto
c) Peppers
d) Any avatar in the audience wearing purple.

The piece is complete once every CLASSICIST and HUDer have successfully climbed across all 3 SLopes without falling.

Ok, there you go....that was the score...not too difficult to follow, right? ;-)

Well, here was the one pic I took of the premiere...

Yes, it is true...this is my only photo from my composition's premiere. I was too busy performing and conducting the performers of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse...sigh! You can see that I am acting as both a "HUDer" and a "Classcist" for my role as I have Bingo's HUD interface and the Hypercello's keyboard interface on my screen which was designed by Robbie Dingo. If you have any other photos of my compositional premiere, please email them to me at ideatron@gmail.com


The second in-world premiere to be featured on saturday was "Fragula" by Miulew Takahe. It is quite a fun and dynamic piece as you can probably tell by my theatrical and gymnastical backflips. I consider Fragula to be the most frenzied composed for the orchestra so far. I have since nicknamed it "Count Fragula". I was seriously fragged that morning so I was pleased to let all my aesthetic frustrations out. Here is the official audio recording from our performance of Takahe's Fragula.


Here was what happened earlier on in the day...

Earlier in the day, I collaborated with my adopted daughter Fwwixli Swindlehurst for our very first public performance together called "Ageplay Performance Residue #1". You can read all about it on our collaborative blog and on the curator Spinster Voom's blog.

Juria Yoshikawa's 4...

Hey ambient installation fans,

I quickly managed to squeeze my lanky avatar into Juria Yoshikawa's collaborative installation at the White Cube Gallery called "4" just hours (or maybe days) before it officially closed down for the next artist in line.

I was very immersed in that space... I could have faffed my precious time away there for hours, it was so refreshing and calming!

It was super ambient and I was allowed to both dive and float around this multi-floored condo space. It is too bad this installation has to disappear..I hope someone will be able to re-install it somewhere else so I can continue to bathe in its quadragenic atmosphere :-)

Because I am lazy, I am just going to parrot for you here what seems to be her official press release:

Installation art by Juria Yoshikawa.
Original soundscapes by composers Miulew Takahe, Bingo Onomatopoeia, Auxillary Snook and AldoManutio Abruzzo.

At White Cube Gallery
June 3rd to July 4th

Week 1: 6/3-9 Miulew Takahe
Week 2: 6/10-16 Bingo Onomatopoeia
Week 3: 6/17-23 Auxillary Snook
Week 4: 6/24-7/4 AldoManutio Abruzzo

4 weeks, 4 installations and 4 composers. "4" is Yoshikawa's latest installation work and collaboration with composers Miulew Takahe, Bingo Onomatopoeia, Auxillary Snook and AldoManutio Abruzzo.

Given a month in a 15x15 meter cube shaped art space, she chose to use a single number as the beat to create to. The idea is simple, to install a new artwork and create a new composition in the gallery each week. The minimalist number concept then extends to the 4 SL musicians - one each week.

Each composer is given a single number 1, 2, 3 or 4 to create a soundscape based on their musical interpretation of that number. Yoshikawa will use each of the 4 weeks to extend her ongoing exploration of light in immersive spaces. Yet this time, she will take on the challenge of using the art space itself as the raw material of the sculpture.

As with light, sound, motion and time - the art space is material for the creator. Can a simple number inspire? Please join the artists at 4 to find out.

Here are some more photos I took of my brief appearance there earlier "today" (it was actually night, in my time zone)...

Here I am diving straight into the floor...lol! Am I going through the rabbit hole to visit Alice in Wonderland? I hope the building is insured

After awhile, I chose to be a floater instead of a diver...phew! Now I can keep my head above light ;-)

I almost decapitated myself while stuck in this floating pose...Is my torso really connected?

Ok, now I am really floating...yaaaay! I can now have a closer look at White Cube Gallery's neighborhood.

I invited my friend Catherine Omega to join in the fun. Since she was about to go to bed in RL anyway, I figured this installation would help put her to sleep...heheheh!
Catherine and I are thinking of performing here with our friend Pravin DeSantis.

PAGES Exhibition in London - Day One...

"Rue Blanche" by Miulew Takahe. Video recorded by Evo Szuyuan. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.


"Fadheit" by Maximillian Nakamura. Video recorded by Evo Szuyuan. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.


"WNK" by Bingo Onomatopoeia. Video recorded by Evo Szuyuan. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.


"Vicky's Remix" based on "Vicky's Mosquitos" by Hars Hefferman. Video recorded by Evo Szuyuan. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.

Here I am buried in the crowd that is eager to watch myself and my colleagues peform in the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.

Hey there peformance art and new muzak fans,

Yesterday was the first day of the PAGES Exhibition Festival called "PgUp" that was being broadcast live in RL at the Notice Gallery in London. Spinster Voom was (well, still is) the curator.

***NEWS FLASH FROM THE NEAR FUTURE: Spinster Voom has blogged a posting from this event.

For the first part of the day, my new muzak group, the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse played the classics from yestermonth. These included: Rue Blanche by Miulew Takahe, FADHEIT by Maximillian Nakamura, Vicky's Remix (based on an early improvisation called "Vicky's Mosquitos" by Hars Hefferman) and WNK by Bingo Onomatopoeia.

***NEWS UPDATE FROM THE NEAR FUTURE - To listen to performance of "Rue Blanche" from this event on the 28th, click here.

After those classics were re-played, I suddenly became an audience member and really enjoyed myself while checking out the next performance of the day...

FAU FERDINAND AND GAZIRA BABELI - All nOObs are Sailors (performance, 2007)


If you cannot see this embedded video, click here. This video was recorded by Evo Szuyuan. Please watch the whole video to see what happened to me at the very end of the performance...

The performance begins with Fau asking for a nOOb in the audience to volunteer as a participant in her performance. The obviously naive nOOb named Hopi Jun is called to the stage for the sacrficial offering...

At first, Hopi does not mind being in a Hot Pot Cauldron full of scolding water (what a nOOb, his nervous system has not even activated yet!)...but then when he finds he is trapped in this cannibalistic concoction, he screams for a teleport from the frying pot into what hopefully is not a fire...

Somehow, Hopi managed to get TP'd out of harm's way. I guess he was only needed for a few minutes - enough to add some flavour to the Cream of nOOb soup! It was at this point that I gave Fau a bottle of Absynthe in order to ensure that the soup was truly tasty...I guess at one point, Fau herself had a sip of the fairy sauce as she was getting quite tipsy...no wonder she reached for her...machine gun!

I was one of the few people sitting down and to my surprise, Fau gunned me down in front of the fountain...I guess that Abysinthe made her a little wOOt lOOpy! Well, I was alive enough to ensure the audience (curators, critics and collectors etc etc) that my recent death should enhance the value of my work for future generations. ;-)

Here is a better angle of Fau where you can see her DOOM-esque machine gun. Gazira was a collaborator in this performance but I guess she decided to stay on the sidelines for as much as possible...probably to avoid Fau's friendly fire...lol!

After her performance finished, we watched an in-world machinima video that was edited by Gazira and Fau...It was very tribal and trance-y, I must say... I felt I was having some sort of shamanistic near-death experience with all this minimalist drumming that was ensnaring my fragile psyche. Well, it must have only been a near-death experience because I was soon back on my feet and thanking the Lindens-on-High for my Second Salvation!

Stay tuned, for my next 2 performances happening on June 30th early in the morning in SL... I will be premiering my new composition "SLippery SLope" with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and will also be performing with my adopted SL daughter, Fwwixli Swindlehurst.