c h a i r at IMOPCA

Yesterday night the Invisible Museum of Post Modern Art opened the new c h a i r show, featuring chair art and art-chairs from over a dozen artists (including myself).

Visit c h a i r at http://slurl.com/secondlife/IMOPCA/169/121/122/ until, ok, I'll have to admit here I have no idea how long the exhibit runs! Visit fast ;)

Live Blogging from within SL with Viewer 2.0 Beta

Nice. I am writing this entry on the face of a prim inworld.
Heres's a video I just recorded at UWA's monthly winners party. This time inside Nyx Breen's winning flagship building entry. Video in video by ColeMarie Soleil, viewed on my newly adapted alien tablet - now a functional web-tablet. (Which, unlike the RL iPad plays Flash ;P)

EDIT:
I also took this video - I originally Live-video-streamed it with Ustream from my Nexus One handset, displayed it on my web-tablet an thus created an infinite regression ...

I talked

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of speaking at the University of Western Australia 3D Art & Design Artist Talks about Cocktail-Robotics in general and especially inworld.

Equipped with a few slides I faced an attentive audience, and I think my mention of a Virtual Cocktail Robot Award 2010 fell on fertile ground.

You can find a transcript of the presentation at UWA blog: http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2010/01/artist-talks-magggnnus-woodget-cocktail.html

Thanks to Quadropop Lane and Jayjay Zifanwe for the invitation and friendly reception!
(Snapshot: Quadropop Lane)

One Million L$ Sculpture

I present to you: Cheers an interactive sculpture that has been showing at places like SL6B, Brooklyn is Watching, CYlandSL and currently UWA Imagine Challenge over the last year. A (very) limited edition of one piece is available for purchase on the virtual shopping platform XStreetSL.

Originally I raised the price of this artwork to L$ 1000000,- on XStreetSL a few weeks ago as a reaction to their proposed listing fees - with an item description containing a paragraph on how I could keep all of my items listed for a good while if someone bought this piece for that price just once. (Whereas otherwise I will have to remove a lot of listings that don't sell frequently enough, but still generating occasional income as of now.) I changed the available quantity to one and removed it from other marketplaces, where it had been listed, but never sold so far.
After an intervention from XST authorities I removed all text not related to the work itself, which is fine, apparently the price itself proves to be attracting eyes to my works, and in the end I don't really want anyone to buy "Cheers" for other reasons than wanting to have it.
The price also seems to be attracting attention from startled users who are seeking clarification on the price in the item's discussion thread: https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=discussions&ItemID=1420408.

Guest at Brooklyn-is-Watching podcast

I had the honour of being invited to join #76 (or #75?) of the Brooklyn is Watching podcast to talk about SL artworks along with Pinkpink Sorbet, Misprint Thursday, Jay Newt ... and Dancoyote Antonelli (in RL: DC Spensley) who embarassingly enough had to remind me to credit him for the artwork shown in this video sneakpeak of the recording:

... In which the topic of proper crediting along with plagiarism and related issues were discussed at lentgh, triggered by a series of photos displayed showing SL sceneries that were at least in part recognizable artworks themselves, with an artist who's on record not welcoming fan-art. By a "photographer" who had the leisure to put a (c) in the picture's description. Without crediting the original artist, which has to be considered morally wrong if nothing else.
Not my fault your artwork covers all of the sim and is in the view at all times, DC! *shakes virtual fist*
(Actually the video ends with a tour of DC's installation we took after finishing the podcast ...)

The podcast will go live within the next few days, so keep checking the brooklyniswatching website regularly!

"Electric Alien"

Today as part of Cyberfest Andrey Bartenev's performance "Electric Alien" was video-streamed into SL at CYlandSL Media Art Lab while inworld visitors were given alien avatars to wear and be part of the SL-side random social choreography.
It was a lot of fun despite I was having problems with viewing the stream ... after the performance we found out riding the Alien-Ghost-balloons when they were turned physical was great entertainment, as you can see on the pic above, and the Aliens brought a couple yummy Uodka Martian cocktails.

You can still come and get your own alien avatar and check out the themed room downstairs from the main gallery for the next few days, I suppose until Cyberfest ends Nov 29th!

Cyberfest Opening Photos on Flickr

Cyberfest opening streamed from St. Petersburg live into CYlandSL gallery in Second Life.
Photoset on Flickr

Cyberfest Opening in about 2 hours! (7am SLT)

The opening of Cyberfest being imminent, I am in last preparations for my performance/interactive installation "Physical Attraction".
I will be blurring the line between those two art-forms by making it so that it is not clear who rezzes what of the physical objects that will be let loose. I will be pulling stuff out of my inventory, but visitors will trigger the rezzing of objects as well when the step on my little sensors!
If you can join us at CYland SL Gallery!

Cyberfest 2009: Nov 20-29

Cyberfest is the only International festival of cybernetic art in Russia (i.e. art, that combines living, biological and somatic substance with technical and computer devices). CYBERFEST is carried by CYLAND media laboratory, organized by National Center for Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg Branch and non-commercial organization Saint Petersburg Arts Project, New York.

We are preparing a bunch of inworld contributions to this international event with mixed reality components - especially busy we are kept by the making of the avatars that are going to part of the Andrey Bartenev performance. Below a shot from Andrey's RL Electric Alien ...

The date for the Bartenev performance has yet to be determined, but as we had opportunity to learn last year - Cyberfest's organizers are no less chaotic in their planning than we in our RL ventures ;)
So, please come by CYland SL, the inworld gallery anytime between Nov 20-29 to learn more about the schedule. SLUrl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chronocules/214/224/2001/
A bunch of RL events will be streamed into SL, there will be an opening of some sorts, Pinkpink Sorbet will make a tour through the gallery and parts of SL for the RL visitors, and more ...

SnailsLab Video

Here's a video from last Sunday's CYland SL opening - featuring Pinkpink's painting RL snails!

Snails Lab Pictures

Here's my snapshots from Sunday's CYland SL opening, complete with live-painting snails on the video stream ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifzr/sets/72157622612000482/
And here's qDot Bunnyhug's pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qdot76367/sets/72157622487293035/ who got them online right during the event!

And the CYland Flickr Group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/1267956@N23/

Snails Lab - Opening of CYland SL

Our russian friends (http://cyland.ru) have been developing an inworld gallery which is due to be opened sunday next week.

Cyland Media Art Lab, an artistic laboratory based in St. Petersburg and New York, arrived in SL! As it opened its doors quietly in summer we now want to point out that there will be an opening-event on Oct. 18th, 10 am SLT!
["Every snail is an artist." - video streaming from RL]

Pinkpink Sorbet will be streaming painting snails from her RL home and Magggnnus Woodget has been preparing a couple snail themed surpises!
Join us for the event Sun Oct 18th, 10am SLT - There will be robots. And there will be cocktails! Follow this SLUrl for a teleport.

Betty Tureaud Exhibition Opening

Today Betty Tureaud opened her exhibition "Cube of Infinity" at Danish Visions. Inside a gigantic cube there is plenty to explore, colorful kinetic installations and most striking an ensemble of tall robot figures - a dancing couple and a mother and baby!
The exhibition runs for one whole month, here's the Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Danish%20Visions/166/114/497, it's sure worth visiting.

The title 'cube of infinity' describes a form but it doesn't gives us a clear idea of size. infinity isn't something that we are confronted with in our direct life. the work shows elements of classical attributes and concepts from western religion. such as Memento mori, purgatory and the traditional idea of a supernatural realm. (inkspots Voom)

CYland Media Art Lab inSL

This spring the St. Petersburg media arts gallery CYland commissioned Pinkpink Sorbet with creating an inworld presence in Second Life (TM). Since Mechatiki have been honored to assist in the effort we noticed the place has been looking more and more complete as the summer progressed, and first random visitors are showing up. Yet there hasn't been an official vernissage and we are wondering when we will get to munch free pixel sandwiches. Our Magggnnus Woodget will address this question in the following interview with Miss Sorbet:

M: CYland SL has been quietly opening it's doors to inworld visitors during the summer, but there hasn't been any official opening yet ...
P: That's right. We allow already residents to explore the inworld gallery as it evolves right now, and we will have a kind of opening event in October with Pinkpink´s SnailsLab. Then in November during Cyberfest, which is organized by Cyland in RL in St. Petersburg, we will have a mixed reality event in which CYland SL will be presented officially to the outside world.
M: What can one see at the gallery right now?
T: There is already a lot to see and explore at CYlandSL - several videos from the CYland archives are being streamed, there are a number of info-displays and notecards to find which give some background on CYland in the real world, as well as interactive artwork like a representation of Anna Frants's RL interactive piece Drum Painting and of course the sculptures by Mechatiki.
M: There is a significant number of ashtrays at the gallery ...
P: Right. Those are a personal project of Pinkpink - some of them are vehicles to explore the gallery in, others are pieces of furniture, which for example circle over the gallery. I am hatching a plan for an inhabitable ashtray the size of a house. In general that is one of the things I love about second life - that it gives you the architectural freedom to ignore conventions that consider gravity or weather and other RL nuisances. Here we can have an open air gallery floating 2000m above the ground.
M: An important part of CYlandRL seems to be to have artists in residence. Is that part of the plan for cyland SL as well?
P: In some form yes. We are thinking of working together with the RL artists to represent some of their work inworld, but also to approach inworld artists at some point to show here.
M: I heard Anna Frants and Sergey Teterin of CYlandRL have been at this year's Burning Man event in Nevada. are you planning on participating in Burning Life in October?
P: Yes, Anna and Sergey are Burners now. And no, we won't have parcel at BL - mostly because the mode of allocation confused me and the landrush times were not so Euro-friendly but i plan to go there as a spectator and witness the creativity of inworld Burners.
M: Tell me about the mixed reality event in november.
P: Cyberfest is happening from Nov. 20th-29th and features a variety of international media artists. I will be in St. Petersburg to present the virtual CYland to the real life festival visitors. The RL festival will be video-streamed into SL and the virtual gallery will be displayed on one or more computers in the real world. I am planning to set up a PC for visitors to go inside the virtual world and show them around the gallery and help them interact with the SL environment.
M: That sounds groovy. Thank you for the interview. I wish you the best! The Slurl for CYland SL is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chronocules/218/211/2001/ btw.

Miss Sorbet has also recently opened a blog for CYland SL - http://cyland-sl.blogspot.com/ that you can watch for future events.

Oillonaire

An animated sculpture that reacts to the greeting "good day sir" when spoken in chat by drawing his hat. With his right hand Oillonaire toasts with an Oiltini, what else.
Have a first hand look inworld at CYlandSL gallery.

It's Raining Fish

Recreating an unexplained natural phenomenon, this interactive installation makes it rain fish. (All fish involved are animated using Puppeteer)
When a visitor steps on one of the two dark rings on the ground, "physical" (they interact with environment) fish start falling from the air and helplessly twitch around (for a minute, as they are "temporary"). Visitors can both kick the fish around or move it using the mouse and play fish bowling sorts of or something.

The big fish in the center reacts to the visitor too. When it is touched it goes through an agitated animation.

Visit It's Raining Fish at Brooklyn is Watching!

SL6B Public Lab Video

A short video of the Mechatiki Public Lab at the Second Life 6th Birthday Exhibit.

"The Future of Virtual Worlds"

"The Future of Virtual Worlds" is the motto that Linden Labs posed onto Second Life 6th Birthday Exhibitors. Mechatiki Public Lab's answer is simple: "The future is kinetic and interactive."

On our parcel in the "SL6B Polaris" region, which occupies the south-east corner of the cluster of SL6B regions, we released several species of kinetic creatures in an open-air experiment.
After almost a week of studying their behaviour we are able to present some preliminary findings:
- Hupfi: a creature that has been witnessed to show lively movement in a confined space (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxyusJnl92g), has been a lot calmer in the open environment, only occasionally escaping the no-roof container and barely winding up immobilized at the parcel border.
- Pet Creatures: bred from the ordinary Marsdog this creature's escapist behaviour seems to be directly proportional with it's size. The largest specimen had to be brought back in from the parcel border most often, while the two smallest individuals have been moving around inside the parcel all the time.
- Flag Creature: the reliable "foot soldier" among our creatures behaved very much like expected. moving along slowly but steadily, covering a lot of ground. Has wound up on parcel border only once so far (involvment of avatar interaction can not be excluded).
- Right Arm: this one had the most curious expectancy attached, for when released for the one and only time before this current experiment, it took off towards the sky at one point, never to return. Has not happened here so far happily/sadly (?).
- Walkies II: demonstrated calculable behaviour by calmly creeping along the ground, helplessly twitching and thrusting.

Visit until June 29: slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B Polaris/148/44/2

SL6B Upcoming

It's about to tell the world Mechatiki Research are establishing a Public Lab at Second Life's 6th Birthday event, opening June 23rd.

We are currently preparing the the proper fencing to keep the chance of escaping creatures at a reasonable minimum.

At the exact opening of the events we will release various live kinetic creatures on our parcel and watch what they are up to for the next week! (Inviting you - the public - to interact with them.)

Here's the SLUrl already, though I don't think the public can access the sim before June 23rd ..

... There will also be free drinks.

Brooklyn is Watching Podcast #60

Recurring readers may remember I mentioned that I had exposed a family of kinetic Marsdog sculptures to the visitors in SL as well as RL of Brooklyn is Watching - an interworld art project interfacing a Second Life sim with a gallery in Brooklyn.

Last weekend it was kindly discussed in the weekly podcast - click here to listen to it.

This was a really, really interesting listen for me , for more than one reason. Firstly my art was being discussed by people I had never met in either world - interesting, but a situation that can easily occur in real life too. So taking into account that the few lines of info I had provided on the brooklyiniswatching website were disregarded I thought my work scored pretty good - the four debaters at first didn't know what to think of or do with the objects, and yet they were discussing one of the larger ones (I suppose from listening to the podcast) in it's seeming stasis, lying on the back, gradually finding  out about the tounge-sticking and feet moving, ending up learning about the physical character of the sculpture through collision. I regard the discussion a win for my art in that it seemed be able to make four guys talk about it quite intelligently about it for several minutes without saying it sucked big time - on the contrary it seems to have invited interaction.

To me the discussion had a special twist and was particularily interesting because one of the panelists apparently wasn't familiar too much with SL itself, so his reaction to Second Life art was not filtered through the lenses of limitations seasoned users are aware of and generally was to be expected to approach the works with a more intuitive attitude than someone who has internalized the workings of the UI. 

While I have never met any of the illustrious round I have already had time to google the two non-regulars ... and the one I suspect must be the SL noob, Jason Robert Bell, is not only author of a caveman-robot comic, but he is also selling what I have just ordered as a first gift for little Emma Danger over the pond: a little plush Caveman Robot!

All in all the podcast has made me curious for more, Brooklyn is Watching is definitely a project to watch for some serious world connecting art discourse. Follow this SLUrl to visit the inworld location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Popcha/72/140/27.