Looks Very Tidy

John Bruneau and James Morgan of Ars Virtua have created a piece entitled "Looks Very Tidy." The work originates in the 3D virtual engine of Second Life and is made up of three elements. Vacuum cleaners were created in the environment and rendered into real space with a 3D printer, a movie of the pair vacuuming the gallery (Ars Virtua) and a rotatable model of the Second Life vacuum cleaners are also featured.

Vacuuming is a fundamentally mundane process that relies on the nature of terrestrial reality (dirt & dust). When transposed into a game world it takes on an absurd quality and the drudgery becomes purely performative. Furthermore since the vacuum cleaner if functionally useless it becomes an object of pure fetish or "sculpture."

Press

Emma Wilcox, "Robotic Vacuum Cleaners paint Gallery Aferro on 4/21", Rhizome, Apr 16, 2007

Fiend Ludwig, "Ars Virtua hosts CADRE Speaker Salons", First Person : Second Life, Apr 12, 07

Exhibitions

2009: Tech Tools of the Trade: Contemporary New Media Art, The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara Ca, Curator: Kathy Aoki (invitational)

2008: Streaming Museum, Seven Continents and Second Life, Federation Square, Melbourne Australia, Curator: Kerrie-Dee Johns, Ars Virtua New Media Center, Dowden, Second Life

2007: On / Off - Art in the Digital Era, Cabrillo Gallery, Aptos, Ca (juried) Curator: Sheila Malone

2007: Our Man in Havana: The Vacuum Cleaner in Art, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ. Curator: Emma Wilcox

Links

Gallery Aferro Exhibitions Archive
De Saisset Exhibits
Looks Very Tidy at Ars Virtua