Inhuman Resources Exhibition

Hey everyone!

Yes, I know you have not heard from me in ages and I always promise (esp. in the New Year of each year) that I will be back in SL but the truth is, RL is just way too busy for me these days...sigh!

However, I (including my RL self) am curating a new show at the Alternator Gallery in Kelowna called "Inhuman Resources" on April 11th, 2009.

This show includes Liz Solo from Second Front and Mez Breeze.

For Liz's show, Second Front and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse will be adding performance enhancements and Mez's collection of metaphysical avatar selves who will be communicating with each other in Second Life, Twitter and World of Warcraft is going to be super cool!

Well, here is the official hype below...maybe I will see you there in-world? The SLurls will be announced at the last minute so stay tuned for more info as it happens!

INHUMAN RESOURCES
Featuring artists Mez Breeze & Liz Solo
Curated by Jeremy Owen Turner

Opening Reception: Friday April 11 at 8 PM SLT (SLurls to be announced)
Admission by donation - Refreshments served
Artist Liz Solo and curator Jeremy Owen Turner in attendance.

Panel discussion 7pm
Performances 8pm
Party until midnight

Workshop Sunday April 12 @2pm
A Presentation on involvement in the music world: Featuring Liz Solo and more!
Admission by donation
Two new media performance artists from Newfoundland and Australia express themselves through the most popular virtual chat-worlds, video games and social networking sites. Using Second Life, World of Warcraft and Twitter as their chosen mediums of expression, these performances are literally out of this world!

Solo explains, “The gallery exhibit features a series of installed machinima (machine generated animation) pieces and a projected synthetic environment, all created inside of the virtual world of Second Life. Via an avatar the gallery visitor will be invited to explore the virtual space and interact with it. Visitors can wander in a field of giant eggs, play with virtual instruments, care for virtual infants, experience being virtually born from an egg.”

Liz Solo aka Lizsolo Mathilde (St. John's) will perform Live Alien Home Birth during which she will call on her friends Second Front - and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse for support and coaching.

Mez Breeze aka Netwurker Twin (Australia) will use multiple manifestations of her core identity to coordinate a post-human and trans-dimensional literary ritual only possible (so far) in virtual worlds.

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 :-)