Gazira Babeli's 2nd Solo Show - 1st in RL!

Find more videos like this on Museo del Metaverso

This opening night video footage is by the Curator of the Museo del Metaverso, Roxelo Babenco. This opening was so fabulous, I wish all RL opening nights could be as surreally sublime and aesthetically pleasing as this!
Seriously, you just HAVE to check this video out! I can watch this over and over and over! This is one of the most fantastic documents I have EVER witnessed!

Here is the official exhibition poster. As you can see, it is Gazira's first show in RL. It looks like the curator Domenico Quaranta is making an official catalogue for this exhibition and I think that my Second Front colleague Man Michinaga (Patrick Lichty in RL) as well as performance art legend Alan Dojoji (Alan Sondheim in RL) . I hope I can read a copy in RL :-)

Hey there Gazophiles and Generation-Idol Idolaters!

My Second Front colleague-in-crime Gazira Babeli just had a legendary retrospective show in both Odyssey Island and in RL at the Fabio Paris Gallery in Italy.

Here is the official press release for this show:

OPENING
Saturday, March 15th 2008

'Real Life'
fabioparis artgallery, 6 PM
Catalog curated by Domenico Quaranta

'Second Life' - Locusolus 9 AM SLT

Gazira Babeli is an artist who lives and works in the virtual world of Second Life, where she was born on 31 March 2006. Like all inhabitants of virtual worlds she is an identity construction known as an avatar, but unlike them, she does not acknowledge the presence of a “human” controlling her. In this short space of time she has earned attention and respect with her provocative performances which explore the issues of the body, space and identity in virtual worlds. Babeli acts like a virus, unleashing earthquakes and showers of icons extrapolated from pop culture, or spreading epidemics which deform the bodies of other residents of Second Life. “Gaz” has become a multivalent term, and a household name in her virtual world. The aura of mystery that surrounds her has engendered a kind of legend, which quickly moved beyond the confines of Second Life.

Gazira Babeli is a “virtual” artist, but her work is “real”. She explores the body, space, identity. She compares her oeuvre with art history. She talks about us. She is closer than we think, with our multiple identities, our way of representing ourselves, our lives in front of the screen. To those who ask her if there is a point in living in a virtual world, she mockingly responds: “What about you? How’s life in Microsoft Office?”. Seen in this light her work acquires meaning and efficacy even outside the world which generated it, as her numerous appearances in shows and festivals demonstrates. Now, in this solo exhibition at the Fabio Paris Art Gallery, the artist presents a selection of works that reflect the two fundamental poles of her oeuvre: her world and her identity as a virtual artist. Babeli lives in a simulated world, a realistic, 3D universe generated by castles of computing code, yet “inhabited” and experienced on a daily basis by millions of people. Her work explores the conventions and contradictions of this world, addressing concepts like time, space and the body by simply manipulating language. Her work is ‘performance’ in the purest sense of the term: language which generates action. Bodies change shape and come alive; giant towers collapse and then rise from their ashes once more; mysterious forces and objects take possession of us. But Babeli’s main work is Gazira herself, and the knowing manipulation of her legend, as shown in the video triptych Saint Gaz' Stylite and the movie Gaz' of the Desert (March 2007), the first high definition film entirely shot in a virtual world. Babeli mixes hagiography and slapstick, surrealism and country music, to tell the story of her life behind the screen, midway between isolation and sociality, asceticism and temptation.

Gazira Babeli has taken part in festivals and exhibitions in Italy (Peam 2006 - The Diamond, Pescara 2006; V07, Venice) and abroad (Deaf 2007, Rotterdam 2007); and with the collective Second Front she took part in Performa 07 (New York). A year from her birth, the retrospective Gazira Babeli: [Collateral Damage] (10 April - 31 May 2007), put on in Second Life in a museum-sized venue, represented a definitive confirmation. In the space of two months the show attracted more than one thousand visitors. Her work has also elicited the attention of publications like El Pais, La Stampa, Liberazione, Exibart, Der Spiegel and Kunstzeitung. Gazira Babeli is her first solo exhibition in the “real” world.
http://gazirababeli.com

The exhibition will also see the publication of a book, Gazira Babeli (edited by Domenico Quaranta, with essays by Mario Gerosa, Patrick Lichty and Alan Sondheim).

And.... Here is the other press release for the show...

*GAZIRA BABELI*

Saturday, march 15, 18.00 pm

Fabio Paris Art Gallery
via Alessandro Monti 13 - 25121 Brescia
tel. 030 3756139 - Skype: fabioparisbs
www.fabioparisartgallery.com
From march 15, to april 30
15.00-19.00 pm everyday except holidays

Second Life, Locusolus simulator 9 AM SLT
Party<->Crasher<->Party
Second (Real) Audience vs. Real (Second) Audience
Anti-Invitation (No Invitation Needed)
Crash the party! Crash your car! Crash the Sim!
All Live!
Eat! Drink! Barf! Love! Hate! Sleep! Dance!
Do Art! Think! Fight!

Ok, I know you really only wanted to check out this blog to look at the photos from the opening day/night to see if your avatar appeared in one of the pix...it is all about "see and be seen" anyways so....here you go...lets hope/pray, you were visible enough to blogged about at Gaz's show...

Worship the Golden Gaz! Here I am with Gaz impersonator, Violette LeShelle. I must say though that she was not the only impersonator that evening. Not to be outdone at the opening, I realized that I also had to fit in to some degree and at least wear an official Gaz hat for solidarity ;-) I think the official golden Gaz bust set the tone for the whole evening and for her place in virtual history. Overall, I would say that Gaz has reached the point of absolute deification which is perfectly fine in my books since Second Front is also along for the ride ;-)

This is the closest I was able to get with showing the entire audience that managed to attend Gaz's show at its peak. Gaz herself guestimated that about 65 people were stuffed into this Black Cube Aquarium. Well, at least it was white inside enough for all the conversative art critics...heheheheheheh ;-) I am glad that Olga took pictures of the gallery cube itself because I had no idea what kind of space I was hanging out in...I was so strung out from the art strung onto the walls to notice...WHOA!

This pic shows the a special camera angle that I took that illustates the intermediary space between gallery-space and ummmmmm.... "art"-space....I mean, life is art and art is life especially in Second Life, right? SIGH! Well, on Locusolus the whole area is self-consciously arts-infested and that is a good thing, right? On another note, I hope you like the coloured orbs that people were playing with inside the gallery. All I had to bring to this event was my token Toyota Scion...ooops! I did not mean to make a product placement...if only I could invoice Toyota for this...SIGH! Yes it is true that my avatar was nodding off throughout the exhibition. This had nothing to do with my interest in the show, for the record. In fact, it even had nothing whatsoever to do with drug use (honest)!!! Rather, my RL duties happened to siphon off my attention span at the same time the peak of this opening occurred... TRIPLE SIGH!
Oh, I should also mention that another Second Front colleague was in attendance and this was none other than Bibbe Oh...Yaaay!

Here is a side view of the gallery crowd and (yes, of course) my Scion. Also featured in this gratuitious group photo is the curator Domenico Quaranta's new look and Olga's own Gaz impersonation.

Here are some great examples of Gaz's trademark deformed avatars that Second Front used for the Spawn of the Surreal Performance a year ago. I loved the highly detailed pictures that Gaz had produced. The detail was so high, we could just about see our own reflections and Great Art, of course is entirely based on the degree to which we can gaze at our own glamourous reflections, right? I also loved the gold SLeaf detailing on Gaz's bust statue... I guess Gaz has truly entered the lapdance of luxury this time and has rezzed at least one brass ring...woo hooo! I am truly happy for her as everyone knows in SL, wealth = total happiness :-)

Here is a picture of myself with Man Michinaga who is also a colleague with me in Second Front. Man is in his/her trademark incarnation of Ciccolina. Behind us, you can see more reflective paintings that Gaz had made. I love the Goth poses! The whole show was truly amazing...I was in awe of all of the images and this is coming from someone who usually only cares about Performance Art.

Here I am with a deformed incarnation of Odyssey's curator, Sugar Seville as well as another Second Front colleague Fau Ferdinand who sported her own golden avvie. Also included in this scene is a piece of holographic sirloin steak...well, it is a hologram of some kind of meat offering...hmmmm.... Maybe it was the meat-confusion or perhaps the proliferation of biohazard signs but Sugar Seville seemed to remark, "I cant see anything with this mega prim twirling around".

Once again, we have a richly detailed (but necessarily gilded) group portrait with the understated and unrezzed Gazira Babeli herself with our favourite videographer nearby - Evo Szuyuan.

Congrats to Gaz on yet another mindblowing and overflowing retrospective show!

Please stay tuned for Second Front's next performance at Dorkbot Paris this friday at 12:30 PM SLT....

Solo Performance at Burning Life!

Wirxli Flimflam's performance "Clearance-Cut: Self-Exorcism to relieve the collective guilt of The Purple (Wo)Man [especially those who are blue in the face]".
September 28th, 2007 for the Burning Life Festival on Odyssey Island.
Videography by Evo Szuyuan.
If you cannot see this embedded video, please click here for the direct YouTube link.

Hey there performance art censors, burning lifers and Lindenpolooza SLam Dancers!

Before I begin my blurb, I would like to give special thanks to Evo Szuyuan for offering to produce this edited machinima document for me at the last minute....zillions of thanks, Evo! :-)

Phew! I am still reeling from my recent solo performance at the Linden sponsored Burning Life festival on Odyssey Island.

I must say that I am really exhausted from venting out almost all of my ancestral guilt at those poor tourist-ready totem poles... Well, I was actually venting more blood and anger towards myself since it was about guilt after all. I mean, as any ol' Europeanized SLemale will know full well... the best way to abuse others is also to abuse yourself twice as much and geez, did I get a full chainsaw lasceration! YUCK!

For the record, I just want to clarify that I am NOT Anti-Aboriginal or anything like that...quite the contrary actually. If one pays close attention to the title, I think my position on the subject will be clear...

I am referencing the violence of cultural clearcuts and if you look closely, I am actually punishing myself over my ancestral guilt (yes, the colonial excesses of the Purple [Wo]Man) and honoring my ancestors in the purist of ways - going on a complete hyperliberal murder-suicide rage with a chainsaw...ok? I only pushed over some of the smaller totem poles to show how touristy and artificial they were. Ok, now that is off my chest (the guilt and the chainsaw wounds are still on my chest though), I hope you will feel the visceral and emotional force of my performance.

That day also happened to be the official Burma Protest day in SL so I wore the red-shirt designed (I think) by my orchestral colleague, Junivers Stockholm. Yes, I know that I am mixing up political messages here but it was simply coincidence that I was dealing with two very polemical issues at once..honestly. I guess you could summarize by saying that my position on the whole matter is no so clear-cut...heheheheh.

Ok, now that you have watched the above video, here is a chance for me to give you a sneak preview of the performance's history...

Here is the only pic I took of this performance and it was not even taken on performance day. If anyone who attended my performance has any additional photos, please send them to me and I will blog it. This action shot is actually the sole documentation from my rehearsal the day before which actually barely happened due to poor me hustling and scrambling to find extra totem poles and a self-mutilating chainsaw at the last minute.... You can read all about it below...

***BREAKING NEWS FROM THE NEAR FUTURE - NEW PHOTO PROVIDED BY MIULEW TAKAHE...

AND NOW...

...THE MAKING OF CLEARANCE CUT...

Well, this performance piece has been in the works for quite a few months now.
I do not have any photodocumentation of my most recent totem pole shopping fiasco but I will tell you about it quickly before I show you the rest of my photos from a much earlier time in ancient pre-history (relatively speaking)...

Basically, I forgot to buy the rest of the totem poles that I needed to perform and then I had to scramble some more at the last minute as well as a working (well, actually a stihl-ish "glitchy") chainsaw...sigh!.

Originally, I was going to perform at my Second Front colleague Great Escape's Stone Pike location but at the time, I felt that I need more poles than the one species I bought from Gwynnyth Charming. So, I only bought one pole then and I should have stocked up on more of them to prepare much earlier for the growth of my totem pole forest. Turns out, Gwynnth's store was "closed" due to some Linden-side server teleportation issues a couple of days ago so that freaked me right out of my tree when I realized I wanted to buy 9 more poles of her design!

Anyways, Gwynnyth contacted me directly and helped me buy the rest. Meanwhile, I scouted for smaller totem poles that were obviously more two-dimensional and therefore, perfect for acting as the feeble interior-decoration facades they were intended to be.

While shopping for additional poles, Bibbe Oh and Cleo Hultcrantz from the Third Rail Gallery of Current Art came to my rescue and donated enough L$ to purchase all the poles I needed...phew!

All this was happening while trying to find a functional self-mutilating chainsaw. With the help of Sugar Seville, Gazira Babeli and my romantic partner, Tea Chenille, we were able to secure a suitable one.
Warm thanks to all of you as well! :-)

Anyways, here are some photos of my first totem pole shopping excursion on Notata Falls - the same place where iHeart Kuri plans to perform...

For some reason, I did not see this lovely tall totem pole for sale. By perching on its wings, you get a great aerial view of Notata Falls but I guess it would have been too tall for Evo (my videographer) to crop in all the performance angles...

Ok, maybe it was not so tall in retrospect but by zooming out, the Falls and the surrounding encampment looked rather sublime! I know, I know! I am a Romantic at heart! Sigh!

Now THIS was the totem pole I really wanted but all I saw was the smaller version for sale...sigh! I must admit that I also had a brief shopping spree at the local gift shop but I will not disclose what I plundered...er... "re-re-patriated" ;-)

If I remember correctly, I swore I saw some cyberpowwow dancers dancing on that field below. I wonder where they disappeared to?

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse in Chicago, Berlin and Regensburg...

If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.
OFFICIAL VIDEO INFO: The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is a pioneering New Music Ensemble in the popular virtual world, Second Life. This is a promo video from the AOM's recent concert tour in Berlin. The composition being performed for this promo is Fragula by Miulew Takahe. This video clip was recorded directly off of a screen in real life (RL) by Eifach Vacirca on behalf of the Kunstnet community. For the hi-rez movie links, go to the Kunstnet posting and to the direct download...

Here are members of the Orchestra getting ready to perform one the earliest classics from our repetoire for the SLCC in Chicago. This aforementioned composition is called WNK and was created by our German HUD builder, Bingo Onomatopoeia.

***UPDATE FROM THE NEAR FUTURE....
BINGO ONOMATOPOEIA HAS BEEN INTERVIEWED ON THE RADIO IN BERLIN ABOUT THE AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE... HE IS THE LAST SPEAKER ON THIS AUDIO EXCERPT... TO LISTEN TO HIS AUDIO INTERVIEW IN GERMAN FOR DEUTSCHLANDFUNK (A NATIONWIDE STATE-OWNED RADIO STATION), CLICK HERE...***

Hey there Contemporary Classicists, Bavarian Beermongers, and Gesamtkunstwerk Gamers,

This past weekend has been a frenzy of ear-frequency activity... The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse had officially launched their 2007 World Tour at the SLCC in Chicago and within a day had played the Kulturforum in Berlin's famous Potsdamer Platz!

Here is the official website for more information about our final event in Berlin...

Be sure to look carefully at both the official AOM and xxXtenxion blogs for info but in the meantime, check out more photos below and amuse yourself with my quasi-witty text commentary (in Italics, for tradition's sake)....

AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE's CONCERT FOR THE 3RD ANNUAL SECOND LIFE COMMUNITY CONVENTION IN CHICAGO:

Here is a close-up of some of the orchestra members (myself included) getting ready to dance to Bingo's in-world breakbeats...

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse in Leerer Beutel - Regensburg...

Here is the Orchestra at Leerer Beutel in Regensburg. The photo on the wall is showing documentation of the RL component of this festival set up by Pomodoro Bolzano and Maxxo Klaar. Klaar also curated a panel called Dresscode Avatar and a headphone festival for all the off-world Bavarians to enjoy :-) Speaking of headphones, in the furthest right-hand corner, you can see two bohemian Bavarians enjoying the live tunage with the help of virtual headphones... Oh, you have probably also been somewhat intrigued with Nnoiz Papp's new avatar. Alot of my camera angles were calculated to display his exotic form...If you more closely at Nnoiz, you will see his custom designed snake-charmer "oboe" and this large fog-horn on his back that he premiered during his performance in my composition for the 2nd set for the Regensburg crowd called SLippery SLope....You will read more about that below...

Here is another angle showing even more gratuitous profiles of myself and my classical-colleagues-in-crime...

In this picture, I was able to document the 3 Wonders of the World which official are: I - The bling bling from my shades, II - Evo Szuyuan's "pink" bunny SLippers and III - The charming visage of Nnoiz.... Oh, I must also namedrop one of our charming videographers, Angrybeth Shortbread...In a sense, she remains the fourth wonder of the weird world called the Metaverse...

In this pic you can get a better sense of how claustrophobic the performance space actually was....I guess one should not complain since I think we were actually performing in a restaurant, after all ;-) Aside from the classically connisseured crowd, you are probably also dilligently studying the pop-up window in the upper-left region which happens to be the notecard score for Miulew Takahe's composition, Rue Blanche...All Orchestra performers have to read scores just as an Orchestra in RL would... I am sure the crowd of mostly Germans appreciated our level of professionalism and efficiency ;-)I must say though, that we usually need more headroom when performing this piece...Thank goodness my SLippery SLopes were not installed here....oh, for the context behind my "Slippery SLope" composition, you will need to scroll down past this next photo below (I am ever the shameless self-promoter, eh?)...

Here is a close-up of those phone-y Bavarians....heheheheheh! Placed efficiently on the wall is the schedule of events in Regensburg.... I am guessing though that you first impression of the scheduled events was that it was for some sort of Euro-Glitch-Rave taking place in the middle of a virtualized Black Forest, right? Hmmmm... I wonder if Poli Papp depicted in this photo is actually related to Nnoiz Papp? Hmmmmm.....Poli want an Oboe?

My composition SLippery SLope (2007) was re-performed in Virtual Haidplatz/Regensburg...


Here once again we have the Orchestra lining up for a group photo in commemoration of the (approximately) 1 month anniverssary of the previous performance of my first in-world composition, "SLippery SLope" (2007) at Virtual Haidplatz... Ok, to save you and me precious blogging time/space, just click on my previous blog postings to watch the video, observe the dress rehearsal, hang out with the SLopes, the first official rehearsal, the composition's world premiere in London and the history behind this composition.... Oh, and also check out the archive of recordings located here, here, here and here... As much as I like to re-hype my own compositions, I certainly loathe having to explain it every single time...sigh! The only major differences between this performance and previous performances of this composition are threefold: 1 - I actually finished the Slippery journey first... 2 - The AOM's dedicated architect DeThomas Dibou considered making my SLopes a little more Slippery than usual but decided instead to merely re-install them at a slightly different geographical orientation.... 3 - Nnoiz Papp played his brand new snake-charming oboe and added a middle-eastern flavour to the score...I hope someone recorded and/or video-documented this performance!

Here is proof that I was the very first avatar to complete the previous two SLopes before anyone else. Some of the more lag-luster Orchestral performers accused me of cheating but I actually did not land on the ground for any considerable length of time...For the most part, I landed on the same SLope that I ascended on and since I am the composer of this piece, I do not consider this to spatial "loophole" to be a form of "cheating" ;-)

This is further evidence (nay, proof) that the actual essence of my composition is experiential and non-competitive in nature....If my composition was a form of competitive sports, you would have seen me being mugged by the rest of the Orchestra by now ;-) But seriously for a minute, this piece was composed in good spirits and was intended to be more of a subjective and participatory experience than simply a "game"....

AOM's bonus performances from the 2nd set in Virtual Haidplatz for Regensburg...

Well, because I actually came in first instead of last like last time, we managed to complete this composition ahead of schedule so we decided to play a couple of our classics from our immortal repetoire... So, once again, we played Bingo Onomatopoeia's WNK as a sort of extended encore...

Since the audience's enthusiasm was on the borderline of being overwhelmingly positive and fanatical, we just HAD to perform Miulew Takahe's visually stunning composition, Fragula.... It became rather apparent to everyone present for this performance that we needed a much more substantial RL venue to absorb the ecstacy and mania embedded into the emotional content of our compositions and fortunately, we had one such venue booked in Berlin... In a matter of minutes, we blasted a splash presentation at the RL Postdamer Platz in Berlin!

AOM's 1st set at Potsdamer Platz (Kulturforum) in Berlin...

Here we are at the Odyssey Ampitheatre peforming our 1st set for a very large RL concert in Berlin's Kulturforum (aka. somewhere in the Potsdamer Platz downtown). I have not seen the photodocumentation from the RL side of the screen but I am sure (well, I hope and have faith) that the audience attendence was at least as big as the in-world one. You are probably focusing your gaze on the 3 pop-windows mentioned 3 dance moves...yes, one of the moves says "Bored Dance" but that does not mean that I was bored while playing Bingo's "WNK" composition...On the contrary, I merely started with this template dance to make the Flashdance...er... "fastdance" (designed by the owner of Odyssey, Sugar Seville) look that much more ecstatic and luniverian...ummmm...is "Luniverian" a word?

AOM's 2nd set at Potsdamer Platz (Kulturforum) in Berlin...

After a merciful 2 hour lunch-break (dinner break for those in Berlin's local time-zone), the Orchestra reconvened to perform the oldest of our Golden Oldies - Fadheit (2006) by Maximillian Nakamura. And yes, the pop-up window is Nakamura's elegant notecard score.... As for those square buttons, click here to read what they are. Since we craved a change of scenery, we decided to perform underwater (naturally) so we could host an evening on Top of the Pops called "Drowning Amongst The Classics". In other news, the guy with the punky green hair and fashionable minimalist white suit and tie ensemble is none other than my good friend and possible future collaborator, Nyko Nakamura (no known relation to Max)...

Here we are on the verge of completing our concert in its entirety. Again, you can get a sense of the population density partaking in our audio phantasy...

...did I mention that consumers of classical music can appear quite eccentric at times? Heheheheheheheh....

xxXtenxion Panel in Regensburg...

If you cannot see this very fun and glitchy machinima music video of the panel by Jori Tokyo, click here.

DRESSCODE AVATAR - TURNING OVER A SECOND LEIF...

Here is the panel of two moderated by Maxxo Klaar (perched on top of an official Wirxli poster) and co-facilitated by Miulew Takahe. This pic was taken at the exact point where Maxxo was beginning the lecture. If you click on this above pic to zoom in on it a bit, you will notice that Maxxo was wearing headphones since his collective, Pomodoro Bolzano had just organized and curated Regensburg's in-world headphones festival in Second Life. This headphone fest was part and parcel of an art event extravaganza called art.xxXtenxion. This official "Dresscode Avatar" panel discussion began with the other blue-skinned guy, Gumnosphistai Nurmi. Here is an important sidebit to note...the middle poster shows some AOM avatars posing with their RL biological selves...

***UPDATE FROM THE NEAR FUTURE***

HARS HEFFERMAN HAS BLOGGED ABOUT THIS PANEL.

Hey there avatar performance art and academic panel fans,

Just over 12 hours ago, I was on a quickie panel for a somewhat candid discussion about the relationship between my RL and SL self - I should assure you now that although it would be better to declare to the paparazzi otherwise, my relationship to my self(s) is strictly platonic :-)

I did not really elaborate all that much about my meta-banal RL life as a biological avatar named Jeremy Owen Turner. In fact, you can probably figure out exactly the kind of things I confessed by reading about my previous blog posting where I was interrogated by Dr. Alpenluft Laws. Those Swiss avatars really know how to cut through the archetypes and dig deep beneath the pixellated skin...sigh!

In terms of the academic side of my RL and SL life, I simply attend other panels like the Borders conference at Ars Virtua to sit and look pretty as they are usually fantastic places to scoop up new fans and if I really need to appear intelligent and "selves-conscious" (yes, in the plural sense), I can simply parrot the classic writings of Dr. Sherry Turkle.

People have it all wrong - it is the Age of Gemini and NOT Aquarius, OK?

Well..uhhh...ok..The Age of Gemini only applies to those Greek philosphers that cope with the world through dual-rimmed glasses...er....uh..... Geez, anyone have a Turkle book handy? I am not looking so bright and clever anymore! ;-)

Hmmmm...the last time I looked pretty smart was at my artist talk that was part of the Dorkbot series....Hmmmm... Well, nothing substantial to add for this posting today...it is 1:43 AM SLT (Second Life Time) at the moment so I should probably just publish this now and go to bed but before I do, here are some more pix to appeal to those who only tolerate me for the eye-candy I provide at a moment's notice...

Here is a shot of the audience including a couple of reporters (such as Carrie Sodwind and Aidan Aquacade). At this point, we were offering refreshments as Gumno/Leif had plenty of drinks to pass around and realized that the audience must have been getting quite thirsty after Gumno/Leif went into detail the parallels between his SL self and his RL self (Leif Inge).

Here is another angle showing the opposite side of the lecture space at art.think.box designed by DeThomas Dibou. It should be noted that although the SL space was designed for Berlin, the RL portion was projected directly into a venue in Regensburg.

After the panel, it was back to business and we returned to rehearsing the classics...

AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE's REHEARSAL FOR FRIDAY's and SATURDAY's WORLD TOUR DATES IN CHICAGO, BERLIN AND REGENSBURG:


Here we are rehearsing a true classic from our repetoire.... This screenshot is from AOM's very first composition called Fadheit (2007) by Maximillian Nakamura at the Odyssey Ampitheatre. I should add that the AOM is pleased to introduce Lizsolo Mathilde from Second Front as our newest orchestra player... We will be playing all the golden oldies at the Odyssey Ampitheatre and in Maximillian's underwater location for our performance in Kulturforum (Potsdamer Platz) in Berlin.

For this final pic of this posting, I wanted to show you our brief "Fragtest" (a "Fragtest" is when we play Miulew Takahe's Fragula composition to test out the venue's bandwidth) in Regensburg's virtual space at art.think.box in Leerer Beutel. For the record, Leerer Beutel is a gallery and cinema in both the RL and SL manifestations of the Bavarian mecca, Regensburg. I have just heard that the RL version of Leerer Beutel even has a restaurant...wow! You can read the schedule of events in Regensburg's Filmgalerie Cinema by clicking here.

Repairing the PR Office - Just another routine day...

Here is Fau Ferdinand arriving at my PR office to fill in my...errr... cracks....ummmm... ;-)

Hey there performance art and Martha Stewart fans,

This is just a quick blog tonight to show you what a routine day looks like for me when I am not busy being my usual glamourous SLebrity self....

As you can see, utter banality can exist even in an idealized virtual world such as the virtual world, Second Life.

My performance artist friend and colleague, Fau Ferdinand has offered to weld the cracks in my PR Office on Odyssey Island. The cracks in the office were cause by all the crackling theory sentences in that burning pyre in the middle of the office....there were cracks in the pixellated glass though - honest 2 gawd!

Fau at first thought it was some sort of remediated Kristallnacht event she was taking part in but I did not have any bling-bling champagne handy so I had to call it something...er.... Kunstlernacht.

Anyways, Fau did a great job at welding my office back up to "normal" so I gave her a L$5 honourarium.

Here are two more pix from the event...

Here is a pic of the moment right when I paid L$5....she seems happy and grateful for the remediation, right?

My buddy Catherine Omega....err....Kappa showed up on the scene to be part of the final photo shoot for this blog posting..yaaaaay!

Well, I guess I should have focused on blogging more important things like hanging out with DC Antonelli earlier this eve and Second Front's Interaccess workshop series...but uhhhh.... next time :-)

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse Performance for Enniv Zarf's Sculpture Competition...

If you cannot see this video, click here.
If you want to see Wirxli with his/her usual clothes on, you are out of luck! ;-)

Here are the assembled members of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse after completing today's show at Enniv Zarf's Krystal Epic compound ...We were all trying to cram ourselves in front of our tiny logo on display at Zarf's SintixErr Gallery for a photo-shoot... I think we need a larger logo...sigh!

UPDATE FROM THE FUTURE:
Plurabelle Posthorn has reviewed this show on the Virtual Artists' Alliance blog.

Hey performance art and new muzak fans,

I have just finished performing with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.
I am really tired in RL right now (mega headache) but hey, I was able to make it in time to perform...phew!

Once again, we performed Rue Blanche by Miulew Takahe and WNK by Bingo Onomatopoeia.

Unlike previous performances and rehearsals of these two compositions, Loop Luo streamed the event live in both audio and video formats for those outside SL to check out the concert as it happened...

I am hoping to get some archives from this event very soon so please stay tuned to this blog..in the meantime, check out these photos and the rest of this blog...

This pic was taken right at the beginning of the concert..Check out the cars in the background..they were offered as prizes or maybe it was part of Enniv's car competition or something... Expect to hear alot more on the subject of the "best cars in Second Life" very very soon :-) That curvy thingy on the right is the Bingophone, I think...

I forgot to mention that we performed as part of the Spirit Fens Art Festival also known as "Artomatic". Hmmm...the festival seems to be based in Washington, DC - I wonder if our performance was projected into a RL gallery there? I will have ask Enniv more about the details behind our performance venue as I had no idea about any of this until I read the giant billboard hyping the sponsor(s) on the wall...always good to know who your sponsors are...I wish to thank Enniv Zarf for inviting us, by the way... Speaking of sponsors, it was great to see that SL Reports was officially covering the event...it helped that they also acted as one of the many official sponsors for this festival :-)

...at this point, we were firing up Bingo's composition... Oh a quick tangent - I really like Miulew's shirt! :-) I think the whole event went quite well...phew!

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse Concert at xxXtension...

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.


If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.

It is first thing in the morning in SL (but late afternoon in Europe and Scandinavia) and we are just about to perform some found sounds...

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIO PODCAST ARCHIVE FROM THIS CONCERT...

Hey performance art, La-Z Boy and new muzak fans,

Ok, I am blogging this behind schedule because RL is starting to gradually take over my Second Life ... I am basically in denial as I type out this blog - I am still under the delusion that I can successfully multitask both lives (not to mention all my avatar ALTs and their respective blogs)...

Sigh! The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse concert at the xxXtension space in Regensburg (Odyssey Island) began at 6:30 AM SL time which meant I had to wake up at 6 AM and I am NOT a morning person...sigh! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Well, I hope this was videotaped so I can just embed the video into this blog and not have to descrive every detail of this event...I really could with more sleep in RL..just thinking about it is making me very sleepy and woozy.

The event itself though was quite active...the venue was filled to capacity and got rave realtime reviews from the audience in attendence...

Here was the official press release from co-performer, Miulew Takahe:

"AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE /* will perform on saturday the 12th may on virtual Haidsplatz on 7am SLT / 4pm CET.

'FOUND SOUNDS' is the main theme of the performance: the daily sounds in our lifes - the aural signposts of life - so present everywhere - so seldom listened to - so often taken for granted.

Welcome to Haidplatz/Odyssey on saturday for a listening bliss and visual experience made with the HUD's of Bingo. Beware! Your listening will never be the same - listen deeply!"

Here are some more pix...I hope to have links to additional audio and video archives very soon...

It is true...for this found-sound intro warm-up piece, we are literally just standing around, hanging out and telepathically transmitting our found sounds from our inventory directly into the public platz...

I took this pic because I just luuuuuv Evo's pink bunny booties? Who is this hipster, anyway?

Here we all are finally feelng prepared enough to play Miulew Takahe's composition called Rue Blanche (2007)...

...and here we are in mid-performance of "Rue Blanche"....

Here is the in-world-premiere of WNK (Wee Nee Kresch) by Bingo Onomatopoeia of Pomodoro Bolzano fame... It should have been called "Wee nee Krasch" as his piece crashed the whole simplatz and we had to reboot one-by-one...sigh!

Heheheheh...I need at least one new gratuituous self-portrait on my blog from time to time...In the background, you can see Bingo moving balls along a his abbacus-like instrument...once his 3rd ball got rolling, we also got rolling and played our scored-out samples...

Here I am posing with a nearly-realtime pic of this concert that was rezzed like moments before this snapshot was taken..I decided to pose with this pic from the recent past...kind of like having a parallel dimension as a backdrop, eh? Am I getting nostalgic? You be the judge ;-)

Ok, this snapshot must have taken towards the end of our concert as I am dancing my ass off to the breakbeat snippets that Bingo had sampled for our gratuitious use/abuse (yes, "gratuitous" is the word for today's posting)...Seconds later, I had inherited Sugar Seville's custom "fast dance" moves before passing out onto the comfort of my RL bed....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....