There have been many articles about WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon, but few authors have delved down to specifically address individual work. However, Dave Barton at the Orange County Weekly recently wrote a critical review of the work at Laguna Art Museum but added there are “A few glimmers of hope”. The article closed with a very positive review of our piece, /hug.
“The piece that made the biggest impression on me was an installation that comes from a collective called /hug (slashhug), whose volunteers seek out and assist “noobs” (new players) who may otherwise get “ganked” (gang killed) by more experienced players. Hippy-dippy though it may be, the group’s preference for an anarchist spirit of cooperation and service over rape, pillage and competition seems such the antithesis of the stereotyped fanboy, I couldn’t help but have admiration for their insurgency. They offer a much-needed critique—and the lone voice of dissent—to the game, as well as much of the exhibition.”
/hug at Laguna’s WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon opens to much win! Many thanks to Grace Kook-Anderson who was incredibly helpful and absolutely wonderful to work with. We had a blast at the opening parties last weekend and are just now getting our heads together again. The week we spent installing rather than sleeping didn’t help much either. Tons people showed up, to see WoW concept art, WoW fan art, and WoW based art. It was a unique mix of museum patrons, press, and blizzard execs. The green grog was free flowing and I even ran into some old friends that are now associates of the blizz corporate machine. The press conference was hilarious, the highpoint for me being when one reporter asked the blizzard crew, “What will you do when the Internet is full?” The show itself was amazing. The juxtaposition of work from professional artists, cooperate artists, and skilled fans emphasizes the extent that this game has permeated our culture. From sketches to machinima funerals, patrons witness the ramifications of a shared experience that has reached a global level. I am currently organizing volunteers to walk visitors through some fundamental /hug missions such as our fishing for food drive. I am also working on getting myself back down to Laguna to do some live outreach during blizzcon. The Show has only just begun.
My 3rd Faction friends and I are now in the midst of finishing up installation on our grand debut of /hug. For the past several months we have performing outreach events around the Silicone Valley and Demon Soul. All of these events have now culminated in our big unveiling at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach California. The exhibit, WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon, opens this weekend and runs through October 4th. If you are in the SoCal region come check it out. Laguna will be hosting WoW related art events all month in conjunction with the show.
…And now, a message from /hug.
My current work with the Azeroth based artist collective, has manifest its self as a non governmental humanitarian aid organization, like the Red Cross in WoW. This virtual outreach project has become known as /hug (Slash Hug). We had one outreach session at the Zer01 corporate office grand opening on April 22nd and we have another outreach event scheduled for June 5 in conjunction with the Sub-Zero block party. Currently I am finalizing edits on a PSA for our first mission. My character, JoeTheHealer, is a frail n00bish clothy that gets some leveling help from some unlikely friends. I’ll post more videos as we complete them. The culminating show will be opening at Laguna Art Museum on Sunday June 14th as part of WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon.
I helped shoot, acted in, co-wrote the script for, and edited this intro video. My friends decided to redub my voice with Ali’s. I guess I don’t sound pretty enough to be the voice of a forsaken undead.
This is Liz Solo’s promo video. She essentially did it … solo.
This is a early brain storming session I recorded. At least I think that’s what we were supposed to be doing.
I haven’t posted in a while because I have been scrambling to finalize two exhibitions in the next two weeks. SubZERO, Zer01’s annual technology and art gallery openings and block party is almost upon us. The grad opening and festivities will be taking place Friday June 5, in San Jose Downtown’s SoFA District along 1st St, with shows running throughout the month. This is much earlier than last year plus I have a solo piece, “Media – Me” as well as a large scale collaboration “/hug” that were both accepted into the show. I am only freaking out slightly.
Media – Me (Media Minus Me) is an idea that has been in my head since 2006, maybe even earlier and I am finally beginning to realize it. It will be exhibited as part of Remote/Control at Works/San Jose.
This project deals with feelings of media bombardment, surveillance, personal irrelevance and disconnection in our ever advancing society. An old style video camera and an eighties style cabinet TV with bent rabbitears inhabit the space. The subjects facing the camera and television are displayed as silhouettes of static while the -background remains crisp and clear. The rabbitear antenna on the TV can be manipulated by the viewer to increase/decrease the “reception” of those inhabiting the TV screen space.
The problem is it has been incredibly hard to find cool looking old style rabbitears these days and finding a cool old cabinet tv? Forget about it. Also with all the adaptors I have to go through from my tv transmitter into the computer, the signal looks more like pirated cable than bad reception. But maybe that’s just as meaningful.
Tech Tools of the Trade:
Contemporary New Media Art
April 17 - June 28, 2009
Now showing at the de Saisset Museum. This show is full of win and I am not just saying that because I am in it. If it didn’t require a drive and a bunch of paperwork I would be bringing my class there on a field trip. I am very hored to be part of a show with such big names like Jim Campbell, Alan Rath, Lynn Hershman… come on! This will be the fourth showing for “Looks very Tidy” which has been touring around the globe and the metaverse. The best news ever is that this marks my very fist piece of work in a museum show. So please check out the exhibition, the whole thing is fantastic.
That was me, not too long ago. I apologize for letting my site start to wither for a bit with no new updates. Stuff has been happening but I have had to be conservative with my computer time. I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome last year and it got to the point where I had to get surgery on my right wrist. I was pretty much out of commission for the last few months. Now I am back at work and teaching and arting again. So I will try to get back into a routine of posting blog entries once again. I just have to limit my computer usage to four hours a day and do a series of stretches every 20 min. I think I can make it work.
Concurrent with the New Media Caucus panel Space: The New Frontier at the National CAA 2009, “@” is an exhibition that examines space and site.
With simultaneous locations in Los Angeles and Second Life (SL), “@” challenges artists to consider place & placelessness from within the context of networked culture.
The physical gallery space will be replicated within SL, featuring an actual window between the virtual and real worlds to observe and be observed.
The exhibition space will feature a floor-to-ceiling projection and a streaming video camera. This wall will serve as the interface between the Real Life (RL) in the gallery and its replication in Second Life.
The intent for “@” is to exploit the philosophically rich mirroring between RL and SL, as well as the paradoxical condition of being the observer and observed.
CALL FOR WORKS:
Three aspects to the show will be curated separately but are expected to connect conceptually:
1) installation in RL: a heterotopic space - “other space” or “alt space”– that contains the projection from SL and that can be modeled in SL. The artist is not responsible for creating the SL model.
2) video screenings: works concerning space and place vis-à-vis RL and SL. These works will be screened in an adjacent space in RL and streamed in SL
3) works based in SL that may cross RL boundaries. Objects and performances originating in SL that consider and make use of the synergistic interplay of RL/SL localities. Work may exist in either or both spaces.
Exhibition site: Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA, and Seventh Eye in Second Life.
Installation will take place at the end of February
Formats:
- Works may be in any medium. ( submissions must be web links)
- Physical works MAY be reproduced in the SL space.
- Please consider the exhibition context and propose new and existing works that fit this hybrid space.
- Links to high compression downloadable quicktime are recommended, suggested length is 3-5 minutes.
- The gallery is approximately 20′ x 60′ (detailed diagram available upon request)
Deadline: January 26
Please send proposals or documentation links to:
gallery@arsvirtua.com
This Christmas eve I got a chance to sit down and wish some Christmas cheer to some of my friends. Trying to be creative and clever I decided to create original works of pixel art and send handmade cards. I was going to draw all these out on graph paper with crayons and mail them but I severely underestimated my time and Christmas was drawing near. So most of them were emailed, with their digitalness preserved. Some of them are purely original and some have obvious references. Each work is related to whom(s) it was sent, so if you don’t get it, don’t worry its not you. Thanks for reading.
Everything below is Creative Commons with attribution.
Once again Ars Virtua plays host to the Streaming Museum. The Streaming Museum 2 is the second show featuring exhibitions opening on all seven contents and the 8th continent Second Life. You can read the full press release at ArsVirtua.com. We are located in world on the roof of our gallery in Butler. To teleport there in game you can follow this slurl.
For this iteration they asked all hosts to do 20 second promo bumpers for their location. This is ours. Enjoy.
Someone at the OC Weekly likes us.
Concurrent with the New Media Caucus panel Space: The New Frontier at the National CAA 2009, “@” is an exhibition that examines space and site.
