josina burgess

nazz lane
velazquez bonetto

metaverse art
2008-2010 Nr.1
 This e-book dedicated to
Giorgio Vasari
(30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574)
 metaverse art 5

A publication of the
Artspace Diabolus Cybernetic Art Research Project (CARP) 2010

copyrights: Artspace Diabolus Cybernetic Art Research Project (CARP) 2010

Josina Burgess aka. Jose den Burger (Amsterdam Holland)
Nazz Lane (USA)
Velazquez Bonetto aka. László Ördögh Diabolus (Stuttgart Germany)

forward: DanCoyote Antonelli aka DC Spensley (USA)

Metaverse snapshots:
Helfe Ihnen
Igor Ballyhoo
Josina Burgess
MillaMilla Noel
Tyrhel Byk
Alizarin Goldflake
Chrom Underwood
Velazquez Bonetto

Text correcture: Rowan Derryth

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted, in a form or by any means, without the prior
permission in writing of the copyright owners.
This publication includes some words which have or are asserted to have
proprietary status as trademarks or otherwise. Their inclusion does not imply
that they have acquired for a legal purposes a non-proprietary or general
significance nor any other judgement concerning their legal status.
6 metaverse art

Haico Hax second artifical life - arena 2008

 metaverse art 7

josina burgess
nazz lane
velazquez bonetto

metaverse art
8 metaverse art
Contents
Metaverse Art 1
Forward: DanCoyote Antonelli 13
An Introduction to Metaverse Art by Nazz Lane 25
Cognitive Aesthetic by Velazquez Bonetto 31
My SecondLife by Josina Burgess 67
The Arts in Second Life Part One by Nazz Lane 99
Interviews: Myth Guyot 105
Tricia Aferdita 109
Cyanide Seelowe 113
Sasun Steinbeck 117
Tommy Parrott 125
Nebulosus Severine 129
Xander Ruttan 133
The Arts in Second Life Part Two by Nazz Lane 141
Interviews: Joy Ash 145
Yavanna Llanfair 149
Inarra Saarinen 153
Cher Harrington 157
Upo Choche 161
Slim Warrior 165
Preciousse Moody 169
Katie Reve 173
The Arts in Second Life Part Three by Nazz Lane 179
Interviews: Jilly Kidd 183
Desideria Stockton 189
Thinkerer Melville 193
Lauren Canetti 197
ItsNaughtKnotty Cannned 205
References 209
Artist index
DanCoyote Antonelli: 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,
24,108
Frieda Korda: 12,30
Maxxo Klaar: 30
Therese Carfango: 26
MillaMilla Noel: 27,127,174,184
Josina Burgess: 27,98,101,141,144,156,158,160,16
7 185,187
Velazquez Bonetto: 27,98,101,141,151,154,155,166,
167,185,187,192,202,203,204
cypress Rosewood: 141,144
Pirats: 29,150
Nonatus Korhonen: 100
shellina Winkler: 101,107
Solkide Auer: 107
Adam Ramona: 102
Christo Kayo: 102
Jack Shoreland: 102
Man Michinaga: 103
Gazira Babelli:103
Pixel Sideways: 104
Georg Janick:106
Four Yip: 110
Bryn Oh: 111,116,190,194
Chen Pitney: 112
Chi5:114
Ak Yip: 115
Sasun Steinbeck: 118,119,120,121,122,123,124
Comet Morigi: 126
Luce Laval: 128,196
Humming Pera & Gumnosophistai Nurmi: 130
Caravaggio Bonetto: 132,154,155,181,182,185,206,
207, 208
DB Bailey: 134,135,136,137,138,139,140
Haico Hax: 142,143
Second Front: 146, 147

Rose Borchovski: 148
Sicily Zapatero: 152
Diabolus-CARP: 162,164
nnoiz Papp: 166
Juria Yoshikawa: 168
Bingo Onomatopoeia: 170
Selavy Oh: 171
Igor Ballyhoo: 172,176,186,188,200
Artistide Despress: 178
Deruub Pastorelli: 179
Eifachfilm Vacirca: 180
Chen Pitney: 185
Caelreon: 198,199
metaverse art 9
Dear Reader,
This book will give you an insight of the Phenom-
enon: ART IN THE METAVERSE. We will show you
many different examples of what is created here
and from many different creators as well. Many cre-
ators that work in this Metaverse were so kind to
express in this book what they think and how they
use this virtual world as a tool to express them-
selves in a total new way. Its hard to show all and
everything, there is a constant process of creating,
pioneering and experimenting going on, but we
have tried to give you a good idea about what is go-
ing on right now in the metaverse. Dont expect this
to be a list of artists with their creations, we give
a random view of what is made and created, what
is written and what is thought about this wonderful
new world, The Virtual World.
Josina Burgess
Nazz Lane
Velazquez Bonetto
10 metaverse art

Josina Burgess Hyperformal

 metaverse art 11
ARTISTS: Eros Boa MillaMilla Noel Odysseyart
Adam Ramona Evaluna Sperber Miso Susanowa Pirats
Abstract Baroque Evo Szuyuan Misprint Thursday Second Front
Ak Yip Fau Ferdinand Miulew Takahe
Al Hoffman Feathers Boa MosHax Max PROMOTERS:
Alan Sondheim Four Yip Myth Guyot Angeline Blachere
Alizarin Goldflake FreeWee Ling Nazz Lane Desideria Stockton
AM Radio Frieda Korda Nicci Lane Cher Harrington
Amarynth Emmons Flower Exonar Nicolas Sack Cyanide Seelowe
Anita Fontaine Gazira Babelli nnoiz Papp Jilly Kidd
Anu Papp George Janick Nonnatus Korhonen Joy Ash
Arcana Jasnma Gleman Jun Patrick Millard Inarra Saarinen
Ariella Languish Gumnosophistai Nurmi Patric MOYA ItsNaughtKnotty Cannned
Artistide Despres Humming Pera Penelope Parx Katie Reve
Avatara Alchemi Haico Hax Pixels Sideway Lauren Canetti
Bingo Onomatopoeia Helfe Ihnen Rose Borchovski Nebulosus Severine
Bennet Dunkley Ida Abbey Sabrinaa Nightfire Preciousse Moody
Bryn Oh Igor Ballyhoo Sanam Sewell Slim Warrior
Caravaggio Bonetto Jack Shoreland Sandree Aubierre Thinkerer Melville
Calimera Lane Jenaia Morane Sarima Giha Tommy Parrott
Carly Frequency Joff Fassnacht Sasun Steinbeck Tricia Aferdita
Chantal Harvey Josina Burgess SaveMe Oh Upo Choche
Chen Pitney Juanita Deharo Sca Shilova Xander Ruttan
Chi5 Shenzou junivers Stockholm Selavy Oh Yavanna Llanfair
Cinega Soon Juria Yoshikawa Sennaspirit Coronet
CodeWarrior Carling Karl Merlyn shellina Winkler AUDIENCE:
Comet Morigi Kolor Fall Solkide Auer Artfox Daviau
Cristian Rexie Kourosh Eusebio Sisi Biedermann Calimera Lane
Christo Kayo Lamosca Velde Sicily Zapatero Chestnut Rau
Chrome Underwood Lion Igaly Sowa Mai Clovis Luik
Cypress Rosewood Lollito Larkham Stephen Wenkmann Dublin Rodenberger
Dale Innis Loup Erin Sunn Thunders Frutti Freschi
DanCoyote Antonelli Lucian Iwish Therese Carfagno Kitterannae Hifeng
Darcy Mokeev Luce Laval Thess Writer noname
DB Bailey Man Michinaga Tim Deschanel Oona Pinion
Debbie Trilling Magdeleine Rossini Tyrehl Byk Penelope Parx
Dekka Raymaker Man Michinaga Velazquez Bonetto Prissy Price
Del May Marion Rickenbacker Werner Kurosawa Rowan Derryth
Diavolina Kirax Marly Milena Wirxli Flimflam Siss Criss
DeNovo Broome Marco Manray Tayzia Abattoir
Deruub Pastorelli Maxxo Klaar ART GROUPS: Theo Finney
Eden Toll Medora Chevalier Avatar Orchestra Thirza Ember
Eeyore Ogg Mencius Watts Caelreon Uva Oxide
Eifachfilm Vacirca Merlino Mayo Cetus Vicky Dixon
Elfod Nemeth Morris Vig Diabolus/CARP Vive Voom
Em Larsson Myth Guyot Museo del Metaverso Wendy Swenson
12 metaverse art

Picture : Frieda Korda

 metaverse art 13

made here is that the word “space” is intended as

a more neutral term that does not infer any content,
while the word “place” infers some kind of shared
social location. This social location is also referred
to as the “Metaverse” used for a shared art expe-
rience is the focus of this book, hence the name
“Metaverse Art”.
forward What makes Metaverse Art interesting and impor-
tant? One way to look at this is to compare histori-
cally dominant media by saying “Radio is to TV as
TV is to Virtual Worlds. This means that TV has su-
perseded radio just as virtual worlds are presently
superseding TV. The distinction between radio and
TV is quite apparent, in that TV added cinema to
DanCoyote Antonelli aka. the radio experience bringing the moving picture
DC Spensley into common consumption. The distinctions be-
tween TV and virtual worlds are less obvious to a
culture still deeply enamored of the medium of tele-
vision and while both television and virtual worlds
are both experienced on a flat visual display, con-
ceptually they are very different.

Television and cinema are single point perspective,

According to Wikipedia, “TELEPRESENCE is a
communal, asymmetrical mediums. This means
set of technologies that allow a person to feel as
that the viewer of television gets only one view of
if they were present, to give the appearance that
a scene and that this scene is shared by everyone
they were present, or have an effect, at a location
who watches a program. What is perhaps even
other than their true location”. This is as true for
more important is that TV is an asymmetrical medi-
the telephone as it is for the virtual world of Sec-
um, meaning that the makers of the programming
ond Life. Virtual worlds are simulated space that
are empowered to express their voice, while the
becomes a place when we experience it together in
viewer is expected only to participate as a passive
mutual, simultaneous telepresence. This is just like
recipient of the ideas presented by the program’s
the shared space that can happen when you talk to
creators.
a loved one on the telephone on the other side of
the world, or the other side of town. The distance
Virtual worlds break from the asymmetrical model
between people is defeated by technology used to
and present the possibility of symmetrical (social)
create a third space, a place that is not here, not
communication between people. Virtual worlds
there, but shared a shared conceptual location.
present the participant with the potential to expe-
This new location is “live”. The distinction being
14 metaverse art
 metaverse art 15
rience ANY perspective to a scene and individu-
ally configure the means of presentation of this tual location for the next wave of art movements, a
perspective. What this means is that while TV was place that supersedes linguistic and national borders
“one size fits all” for all viewers and communal, and points to a new Alter-Modern culture. This is the
VWs are individual and configurable, while TV is culture of confluence, hybridity and syncretism.
single point perspective, VWs present the partici-
pant with the means to pick their own viewpoint and
literally intervene in a scene.

This ability of the viewer to intervene/interact is

a critically important aspect of virtual worlds and
means that they are inherently social and perfor-
mative. This social quality combined with network
transportability provides a foundation for unique
and international expressions of community. Social
media has freed community from geography and
the virtual worlds provide a metaphorical common
space for new concentrations of communities such
as the arts, performance and music communities
that thrive presently in Second Life. In any space
communities form from affinity, proximity and
shared language. In material space, physical prox- Picture 2: cinetic installation by DanCoyote Antonelli
imity is a factor that limits the size and therefore aka. DC Spensley
the critical mass of some communities.The virtual
community can aggregate from nearly any physi-
cal location over the network and provides new
opportunities for concentrations of affinity groups
that otherwise might not be possible. This book is
about one of these groups, an international cadre
of artists practicing in a shared social space that
supersedes geographic limitations and sets the
stage for an unprecedented flowering of the arts.
In the past, centers like Paris, Vienna, New York
etc. have been host to the major art historical mile-
stones, to movements that changed the very fabric
of culture. The shared virtual space for art is no
less than revolutionary in that it creates a concep-

Picture 1: cinetic installation by DanCoyote An- Picture 3: cinetic installation by DanCoyote Antonelli
tonelli aka. DC Spensley aka. DC Spensley
16 metaverse art

Picture 4: cinetic installation by DanCoyote Antonelli aka. DC Spensley in CARP metaverse art exhibition
metaverse art 17
18 metaverse art

Picture 5: cinetic installation by DanCoyote Antonelli aka. DC Spensley in CARP metaverse art exhibition
metaverse art 19
20 metaverse art

Picture 6-7: opening video show by DanCoyote Antonelli aka. DC Spensley in CARP metaverse art exhibition
metaverse art 21
22 metaverse art

Picture 8: opening show by DanCoyote Antonelli aka. DC Spensley in CARP metaverse art exhibition
metaverse art 23
24 metaverse art

Picture 9: cinetic installation by DanCoyote Antonelli aka. DC Spensley in CARP metaverse art exhibition

An Introduction to
Metaverse Art
by Nazz Lane
The idea for this book germinated from a three part ar-
ticle titled “The Arts in Second Life”, which I published
just over two years ago. The scope of that effort was
limited, due primarily to my limited knowledge of the
art scene and that age old question of “what is art”, and
especially “what is art in the metaverse”. With regards
to answering either of those questions, I left it up to
the readers to discern and decided to include as many
of the artists from the visual, performance and liter-
ary arts fields that I could identify. Then with a scope
established, I performed a search of groups and initi-
ated contact with as many as I could in order to take a
snapshot in time. I limited it also in drawing up a set of
survey questions, which were intended to capture the
elements of who was doing what and when, however
I neglected asking the much more important question
metaverse art 25
of “why they were doing it”.
Since publishing that series, I’ve drawn much plea-
sure from meeting many talented people in the arts
communities - viewing their creations, watching their
performances, the reading of prose and poetry and
in writing about them for several different metaverse
publications. And it was shortly after that initial pub-
lication when I met my collaborators for this book,
Velazquez Bonetto and Josina Burgess, co-founders of
the Cybernetic Art Research Project (CARP). Vela and
Josi are both well known as artists in their own right
and as leaders of the group “Art Space Diabolus”, they
are promoters of the arts in all forms and in multiple
contexts.
It was with the end of 2009 approaching and my
somewhat more comfortable knowledge of who was
doing what in the arts that I first approached Vela and
Josi with an idea of revisiting the survey to incorpo-
rate a much broader field of participants. It was in our
initial discussions and analysis of that first endeavor
where we decided to move away from a survey which
focused on, “the trends and events whether past, pres-
ent or future” and instead ask a set of questions that
focused on, “the creation and cognitive process”.
With that idea firmly planted and nurtured through
discussion and analysis of the “Cognitive Aesthetic”,
which is explored in more detail by Vela in the follow-
ing section, we established categories to describe the
forms of Metaverse Art and a methodology for con-
ducting the survey.
The taxonomy follows:
26 metaverse art
 metaverse art 27
Metaverse Art Expression Form Taxonomy:

Literature
Poetry
Inland sound objects
Collaborative inland sound productions
Soundtrack creation

2D
Metaverse snapshot and picture manipulation
Machinima, video kaleidoscope
Online broadcasting

3D
Static virtual space objects, installations
Costume and avatar design
Virtual architecture
Virtual landscape

4D Picture 2: Alien glow by MillaMilla Noel

Avatar animation
Kinetic virtual time-space artworks
Virtual art large scale complex
Cybernetic virtual time-space artworks
www.collaborative virtual time-space artworks
Virtual performance
Virtual theatre
Immersive 4d Cinema

Combinations of the different expression forms.

On the borderline of the art and science

(Manax synesthesia theatre, Emoticon, Graph theory
orchestra

With questions drawn, and the survey respondents

Picture 1: Therese Carfango

Picture 3: VJAZZ by Josina Burgess & Velazquez Bonetto

28 metaverse art
It is our hope that you enjoy this book.
identified the distribution and collection process began.
The list of those who replied is varied and long, with Josina Burgess
slightly over seventy respondents. We believe the results Nazz Lane
establish a framework for those who may choose to fol- Velazquez Bonetto
low, in assessing this nascent foray of humanity into the
metaverse as they explore their place in it through the
visual, performance and literary arts. I would like to ex-
tend a special thank you to all the respondents for taking
the time from their daily pursuits to reflect and explain
themselves to us and to posterity.

I’d also like to thank DC Spensley for writing the forward

to this book. In his characterization of the metaverse, he
makes note of a theme, one of community. It is a signifi-
cant aspect of the metaverse experience, this sense of
community. I’d be remiss in not noting the contributions
of groups like Caerleon, Odyssey, Pirats, Avalon, Artropo-
lis and the many others who create and use the meta-
verse to express themselves.

In my closing to that first series, I’d quoted something

from Kurt Vonnegut’s “A Man Without a Country”:

“Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with

nothing. We are dancing animals. How beautiful it is to
get up and go out and do something. We are on earth
to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.”

In fairness to Mr. Vonnegut, that had been written well

before the birth of Second Life and of virtual worlds.

In my commentary to his quote, I wrote the following:

“I believe that those surveyed for this and previous edi-

tions of ‘The Arts in Second Life’ would disagree as each
has built a community in this electronic metaverse of sec-
ond life. All are remarkable and every day they get up and
go out to do something for us and themselves. And it is Picture 4: Pirats art trush tower
something.”
metaverse art 29
30 metaverse art

Picture 5: Frieda Korda & Maxxo Klaar diabolus-CARP camera obscura 13

 metaverse art 31

representations (e.g. music, painting), demonstrat-

ing no direct benefit to sustain life.

From the early to the late ancient cultures of

Egypt’s Old Kingdom through the late Classical
Greece to Rome, we have received a wealth of art:
architecture, sculptures, frescoes and miniature.
Cognitive That they are referred to as such is an anachro-
nism, because at the time of their creation, paint-
Aesthetic ing and sculpture were not as art but as a craft, its
products, as products of crafts, but not artists. The
theater was already well developed and respected,
but essentially part of cultic acts.

“Artes Mechanicae” or the practical arts; were

Velazquez Bonetto aka. known in the ancient, medieval and renaissance
László Ördögh Diabolus times as skills that served the immediate livelihood.
In the monasteries the appreciation of manual la-
bor was first propagated in the 12th Century with
the “official” confirmation of the liberal arts analogy,
seven mechanical arts were compared. In the writ-
ings of Hugh of St. Victor, head of a convent school
in Paris, the individual crafts were; smithing weap-
ons, trade, stonemason and architecture, marine,
1. A Short Historical Overview
hunting, medicine, and the art of acting.
Art is by origin a cultic phenomenon, which devel-
The artes mechanicae were considered to be
oped simultaneously or in connection with prehis-
against the “Septem Artes Liberales” (seven free
toric cults or religions, with both painting and sculp-
arts) as inferior. While it was necessary for the ex-
ture, as well as music and dance having already
ercise or the study of artes liberales, a “free man
made an appearance in the Paleolithic Age. One
to be” could not exercise these practical arts. As
of the earliest examples of art includes the nearly
for slaves, it was therefore impossible to study
40,000-year-old ivory figures from the Lone Valley,
the artes liberales, only because these were for
Chauvet, and the cave paintings of the Lascau.
the free. These artes mechanicae were held to be
Historically, humans developed the arts as part of
lower in social standing than the artes liberals and
their contribution to the physical organization of
as activities of the unfree were held in an even
cults and rituals. In the early days of human de-
less prestige than that of the outdoors (such as the
velopment the emergence of art is one of several
artisans) in the artes mechanicae.
indicators for the formation of consciousness and
thinking. Art means in this context, operations or
32 metaverse art
 metaverse art 33
Even in ancient Greece, there are statements
that look disdainfully at these practical activities.
In his Politics, Aristotle makes his disdain for the
craft free path; “the craftsmen often neglected their
work and required debauchery ‘virtue’ as it needs
the slave, only insofar as they share in the slave
labor, namely, the position the craftsman is that of
a limited slavery (Pol. I, 13), and therefore he was
not a citizen (Pol. III, 5, VII, 9). (In the year 317
BC Attica was one of a slave population of 400,000
compared with 21,000 free citizens.)

The seven artes liberales (liberalia studia) are an-

cient in the canon of seven academic subjects.
From the artes liberales which has traditionally
been the basis of education befitting a free man,
the seven were first attested to in late antiquity.
In the medieval teaching organization, they were
seen as preparation for the study subjects theol-
ogy, law and medicine.

To Trivium included:

1. Grammar: Latin grammar and its application to

the works of the classical school writers

2. Rhetoric: parts of speech and style of teaching,

also with examples from the school writers

3. Dialectic or logic, reasoning and evidence on

the basis of the Organon

To Quadrivium included:

Picture 2: Seven liberal arts. Tübingen house-register (Tübin-

ger Hausbuch). The library of University Tübingen. From left
Picture 1: The Seven artes liberales “Hortus Deli- to right: Geometry, Logic, Arithmetic, Grammar (in center),
ciarum” by Herrad von Landsberg (1180) Music, Physics (instead of Astronomy), Rhetoric.
(wikipedia)
34 metaverse art
1. Arithmetic: number theory (concept of number,
number of species, number relationships) and also
a practical calculation

2. Geometry: Euclidean geometry, geography

3. Music: music theory and scales, among other

things as the basis of church

4. Astronomy: The study of the spheres, the ce-

lestial bodies and their movements, including as-
trology (the impact on the sub-lunar sphere, and
the people)

The importance of visual art and the artist’s work

Picture 3: Allegory of the Seven Liberal Arts Marten de
Vos 1590 Oil on oak panel, 147 x 200 cm
changed in the modern era with the transition to a
civil society where works had often been created
on behalf of the church and nobility. It grew with
an educated art collector, a new “Rezipiententyp”
and since the Enlightenment has become what we
mean as art, especially as the expressions of Fine
Arts. In the second half of the 18th and at the be-
ginning of the 19th Century, the educated classes
began; painting, creating sculpture, architecture,
literature and music as art in the modern sense
of the word, and to discuss it based on aesthet-
ics to qualify it as a category of art. There were
the Visual Arts with the classical genres of paint-
ing and graphic art, sculpture, architecture, and
several small forms, and since 19th century. The
Arts or Applied Arts said to be border area of crafts;
Performing Arts with the main divisions of theater,
dance and film art, then music, with the main vocal
lines and instrumental music, and literature with the
major genres epic, drama and poetry.

The Enlightenment prepared the concept of the

Modern Art that had been liberated at the end of
the Middle Ages, the artist and the autonomous
subject, became emancipated at the end of feu-
dalism, the Baroque work of art itself and became
Picture 4: Immanuel Kant
 metaverse art 35
autonomous. In the age of machinery, the division
of labor and automation was changing the status of
artisanal activity in the arts. Art does not exist any-
more in functional categories, but only out of itself,
becomes L’art pour l’art.

Expressions and techniques of art have expanded

considerably since the beginning of modernity, as
with photography in the arts. In the performing arts,
music and literature can be today, added also ex-
pressions of new media such as radio, television
and the internet. The traditional classification will
lose at least since the last decades of the 20th
Century with the search for the generalized and
globalised art in importance. Art forms such as the
installation or range of media to know the basic,
classical division anymore.

The concept of artistic avant-garde is outdated for

the emerging since the beginning of postmodern
art, as there may be in open societies and cultures Picture 5: internet POP-art
no universally direction for a pioneer. Therefore,
the term “contemporary art” is used to describe ar-
tistic works, or for acts that make in the presence
of something so noticeable that they contribute cul-
tural significance to the future. In this sense, free-
dom and contemporary art seems to ignore all the
conditions, rules and academic classification, all art
styles, art disciplines and cultural boundaries, while
simultaneously taking the liberty they ever reflect
for artistic needs, creation and use.

Such art represents a system of art that has

emerged is similar to the system science in the
course of industrialization. Contemporary Art as a
global and cross-cultural functioning system com-
bines the origins in different cultures, art history
on the theoretical foundations of art, which for the
Western art tradition of ancient philosophy as a his-
torical basis is especially important. Also contem-
porary art may be traditional lines, show through,
Picture 6: internet POP-art
36 metaverse art
such as painting, sculpture, dance, music, theater,
etc., however, it is distinguished precisely by its
theming in question types, overcome, expansion,
inter-disciplinary integration and irony. Today, pho-
tography and performance are in addition to paint-
ing and theater, while the media arts situate itself in
any case as it is both a media and relevant.

The word: “Cyberspace“ is known now as an art

Picture 7: Avatar, virtual reality scenario 2002 Diabolus
word, it is born from the word “Cyber“ (a short
form from the English word “Cybernetic“ that again
comes from the Greek word “Kybernetike“; “The art
of navigate“ and the word “Space“. (Wikipedia) On
the world famous Macy-Conferences in the years
1946 till 1953 Cybernetic was something of high
interest. Well known and famous scientists as Alan
Turing, John von Neumann and Heinz von Foerster
started here from scratch the modern computer
techniques and the program-architecture, which
today the basics for Cyberspace. The real Cyber-
space was opened by Second Life. So you speak
of web 3-D or so called Metaverse. The Meta-
verse’s are Internet-based virtual time space-infra-
structures. The miracle that we are experiencing
today: the Cyberspace, the dematerialized virtual
time-space, the worldwide webbed society. Where
we “surf around” with lights peed. An artist that is
NOT using this virtual universe as a challenge and
a goal doesn’t deserve the name “Avant Garde“.

2. Aesthetics

The traditional normative aesthetics assume that

there are universal and timeless criteria for the
taste full evaluation of artworks. In ancient Greece,
in close conjunction with the aesthetics of a great
blooming of art, it developed to a climax with spe-
cial effects until recent times. This essentially Greek
mythology shared with its humanized images of the
deities and the development of science, especially

Picture 8: Aristhoteles
 metaverse art 37
mathematics. Their discoveries were partly pro-
cessed directly in the art (such as the theory of pro-
portion) under construction; they also share a high
degree of theoretical penetration of the applicable
scientific aesthetic considerations.

The concept of aesthetics (in Greece) was used for

the first time as a sensoric perception in the 18th
Century by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten in the
context of a philosophical treatment. Baumgarten
is therefore often regarded as the founder of the
“Philosophical Aesthetics”, although even in the
ancient, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle dealt
with the issue.

The metaphysical aesthetics of German idealism

(romanticism) has been criticized as a prescribed
aesthetics that time does no longer justify. From
this critical attitude two streams were developed:
psychological aesthetics and art history (Fiedler).

Gustav Theodor Fechner in the 19th Century differ-

entiated between the aesthetics and the aesthetics
from below from above. The aesthetics of the top
are the “belles” aesthetics of traditional philosophy
and literature, aesthetics seen almost exclusively
in connection with art. The beauty of landscapes,
artifacts or scientific theories have been excluded
or at best dismissed as a marginal aspect. The aes-
thetics from below, in contrast, seeks an empirical
basis. They did not reduce the aesthetics of art, but
are regarded as an everyday “Schönheitserleben”
(experience of beauty) psychological phenomenon
that is found in experiments (so-called experimen-
tal aesthetics investigations).

The term refers to a formalism of art-historical

method of interpreting a work of art. The value of
the work lies in the autonomy of form. The formal-
istic approach of art emphasized qualities such as

Picture 9: Baumgarten, Aesthetica

38 metaverse art
composition, color, line and texture. Substantive
aspects and relationships such as subject, history
of the work, historical context and biography of the
artist, are secondary and are not treated. The for-
malists, as the main representative Henry Woelfflin
and Alois Riegl, thought a comparative analysis of
style, “exempt from personal evaluation and solve
the hermeneutical problem of art history by virtue”.
The formalist ideas of the 19th Century of Mod-
ern Painting served as an impulse to unfold more
freely, and the aesthetics of form and structure to
concentrate.

Wölfflin (1864-1945), aimed with the need to give

a firm basis of art history, a comparative analysis
of form and style of history. This should be free of
personal value judgments. The question of what
makes it possible to recognize a style that was
for Wölfflin in the visual appearance of art (form),
and human perception. According to the psychol-
ogy of perception, which was founded in Wölfflin’s
time, humans determined their own sensory per-
formance of the institutions, the optical perception.
Wölfflin transferred the history of seeing the form
and style, thus development and the perception of
a newborn to adult unfolds in stages, it would be
governed by Wölfflin develop the form.

Wölfflin initially differed in different styles to distin-

guish his employment field:

* Individual style (subjective vision and tempera-

ment of an artist’s individual style of painting-relat-
ed)

* Group-style (common design language of a

school, a country, cultural group)

* Time (Style parent, ‘pure’ form language)

Picture 10: allegory of the music, Vienna Albertina

 metaverse art 39

Clement Greenberg (1909-1994), one of the most

influential American art critics of the 20th Century,
always sought an assessment of art, which should
only be based on direct perception. He thus shares
the formalist assumption. He focused primarily on
materials and techniques that were used in the cre-
ation of an artwork. From his interest in the form
of his special appreciation grows of modernist
painting, which he founded in the same essay from
1960. In the process of self-criticism, the character-
istic of modernist painting, the painting represents
the problems that arise from their own medium,
and thus maintained their autonomy and self-de-
termination among the arts. The specificity of the
medium of painting lies in the inevitable flatness.
Above all, abstract paintings were down for Green-
berg no illusion of space and show only the “real-
ity”, the distribution of colors on the image surface
(“Art for Art”). Disappointed with the artistic impacts
of his program, the radical discarding all unneces- Picture 11: Rothko Gray-Black
sary, he turned away from the self-criticism and
called for the assessment of art according to their
quality. This quality in turn could be assessed only
on the basis of the visual, so the formal properties
of art.

Since the 20th Century, there are various attempts

to explore beauty and aesthetics with scientific
methods. This includes, for example, the aesthet-
ics of information from the second half of the 20th
Century, which eventually produced the cognitive
aesthetics. Science suggests that direct and hold
the information processing in our brain for the deci-
sive factor that is the determination as to the beau-
ty of an object. Beautiful objects are, therefore, with
some - but not too big - complexity that stimulate
the brain and stimulate them to pattern formation,
but not overwhelming.

The evolutionary aesthetics, in turn, tried to explain

Picture 12: Magneto-Resonance-Tomography
40 metaverse art
evolution-psychological preferences for certain col-
ors, shapes, landscapes or faces. What was good
for our ancestors, so the assumption has to be pro-
grammed into our genetic predilection.

Neuroscientific studies are attempting to find out

what happens in the brain when we find something
beautiful. Previous studies clearly indicate that
there is not an isolated “beauty center” in the brain
are, but that different brain areas are involved in
ascertaining the beauty of an object. These include
in particular those regions that belong to the so-
called “reward system”, as the nucleus accumbens
and the orbitofrontal cortex, evolutionarily younger,
generally in the decision-making and judgment-
making and play an important role. Scientists from
various disciplines attempt to merge these neuro-
scientific findings with artistic experiences (neuro-
aesthetics).

Picture 13: Akademy of Fine Art Vienna Atelier The XX. Century had had an important task: to
explain the assumptions classifications rules and
agreements void.

In this context, we are 2 very important messages

to permanently influence the development of art.

Marcel Duchamp: everything is art, everything de-

pends on the context. (Relativity, museum and gal-
lery context, white box)

Joseph Beuss: all people are artists (democratiza-

tion of creativity)

3. Cognitive Aesthetics

3.1. The Attention

Attention is the allocation of (limited) resources on

conscious awareness of content, for example, on
perceptions of the environment or one’s own be-
Picture 14: Akademy of Fine Art Vienna Atelier
 metaverse art 41
havior and actions, and thoughts and feelings. As
a measure of the intensity and duration of attention
is the concentration (Bleuler 1916/1983). The ap-
parent opposite, the lack of attention usually refers
to the finding of an interlocutor, or teacher, that the
attention of his partner is no longer on the required
job. Attention is directed to the occurrence of cer-
tain events, called vigilance.

The brain has a limited processing capacity, it can

handle not many stimuli. Therefore, it needs to se-
lect which information to the organism are impor-
tant and must be considered carefully and which
information will be less relevant and therefore can
be hidden. Some stimuli automatically attract atten-
tion (like a pop), on the other, attention would be
intentionally controlled. If information is not given
within five seconds of attention, they will be lost
(see for ultra-short-term sensory memory).

The process of attention allocation is character-

ized by this grant (orientation) and selection (selec-
tivity) of the objects and the related lack of attention
to other objects. The affection is characterized by Picture 15: we do all for the attention
increased alertness and activation, whereas the
selectivity has the function of a filter to separate
important and unimportant information from each
other. Be classified by the brain as relevant and
foremost danger signals, also unknown. Thus the
one hand, novel stimuli with careful attention (ori-
entation reaction) curiosity.

On the other hand, the attention to emotionally doc-

umented information, which is an indirect marker
for the importance for the organism. More emo-
tive the perception is, the easier it is for us to turn
our attention to it. Needs, interests, attitudes and
behavior will therefore play in the formation and
distribution of attention a major role.

3.2 Economy of the attention: Georg Franck Out of

Picture 16: Christiansen promi Talk-Show
42 metaverse art
money and information to the attention economy

3.2.1 Attraction economics

“It is no longer sufficient to be merely rich”. Who

wants to be somebody must already be a bit promi-
nent. That is, he must refer to another, intangible
income. Money alone has become something or-
dinary. The inflation of material wealth, while deep-
ening the divide between rich and poor missed
the naked money an almost ordinary train. Where
more and more people can afford the trappings of
material wealth, and one must look about the de-
sire for distinction for attributes that are more selec-
tive than high cash income. According to the law
of nationalization of former luxuries these attributes
under the privileges of the respective elites are still
recognizable to search. The common denominator
is the prominence of today’s elite.

The pursuit of material wealth is to remain true as

the primary motive of economic action. But even
those who imagine themselves behind nothing but
the money come to be, have, in fact any other in-
come in mind. They have by no means intended
to spend the money only for culinary feast and
physical comfort. They need the money to make
an impression on their fellow human beings. The
money gives them the possibility of ostentatious
consumption. The ostentatious consumption is the
development and maintenance of the role played
by their own person in a different consciousness.
The size of the role that plays in another person’s
own consciousness is another term for the amount
of income in respect fellowmen. The prominence
is the class of these income earners. They are the
basic needs of the body, once satisfied, then fo-
cuses on the role that plays in another person’s
own consciousness into the center of life content.
The reason is then that the self-esteem is more
important than the physical well-being. Only in the
Picture 17: to be attractive
 metaverse art 43
mirror of the other consciousness, we get to know
our self. Only in the esteem in which we learn from
others, we learn what we may think of ourselves.
The reception of appreciation is always associated
with that of attention. Because our self-esteem so
eminently depends on the appreciation that we re-
ceive from others is to ensure there was already
an order of self-esteem, respect for this rich intan-
gible income. Also for this intangible income, eco-
nomic theory has no idea. The quest for fellowmen
attention and the growing importance they play in
the tendons and aspirations of the people is now
crucial for the process that we experience as an
economic rationalization of more and more areas
of life. More and more people namely, take off
the habit, just waiting for that attention is the part
of those to which they respect themselves. More
and more people take the initiative; even directly
do business in order to maximize their income to
attention. A science that takes this trend seriously,
risks, perhaps the most important train stop by the
dematerialization of the economic process. So dif-
ferent because of physical and mental work, not
only by being psychological rather than physical
energy and costs of intellectual rather than physi-
cal capital handled. It also differs in the fact that in
addition to pay in cash that counts in attention.

Because it means in compliance with the masses,

is the presence in the mass media that is so attrac-
tive, because it offers unprecedented opportunities
for the enrichment of attention, pushing everything
that is moved by a higher ambition, into television
and because the income has to respect a charm
that makes the income of the money behind him,
exploding as well as the information on the inter-
net. Because the business is now operated the at-
traction with professionalism and a technical effort,
inferior to those of money-making no longer, we will
be inundated with torrential information. Not only
the scope of intellectual production and the attrac-
Picture 18: Attention for ever
44 metaverse art
tion to specifically released, targeted information
is published and marketed aggressively grown on
a gigantic scale. The growth rates of both are the
material production in the shade. The increase in
publicized, information competing for attention, but
there is a limited organic revenue and nearly con-
stant over attentive to energy. This energy is in the
form in which we ourselves have it, barely. She is
in the form of the donation that we receive from oth-
ers, desires. Your economizing in these two forms
is a scarce resource and as a sought-income, with
a spurt of economic rationalization of areas of life
connected, which is only comparable with that in-
dustrialization brought with it once. In it, the main
impetus of the progressive commoditization of the
social process, and together make one part of the
dematerialization of the economic process on the
other.

3.2.2 The new currency

“Is there a concept that summarizes the scarce en-

ergy in information processing and the coveted in-
come deprivation? Is there a measure that both the
attention that we exchange interpersonally, as well
as measuring the economic value of the news?”
There’s this term and there is this degree. The key
word is already fallen. It means attention. Attention
is the scarcest resource of information processing.

Attention is to make the donation as we exchange

with each other. Attention is the currency of the in-
tangible income. The attention that it finds is the
measure of the usefulness of the information. We
need attention to everything that we want to con-
sciously experience. Attention, we can also use
for literally everything possible. It is superior in this
global and universal availability requirement of the
money not only equal, but. As money is a chronic
shortage attention as soon as the offer goes to
uses of the possibilities of its realization. In contrast
Picture 3: Luigi Collani exhibition Airport Stuttgart 2007
 metaverse art 45
to money supply, total energy is attentive but not
multiplied. The revenue increases with the number
of beings who are aware of “da”. (The revenue per
capita respectively) per beings as consciousness
is almost constant. With the growth of its uses the
proceeds to grow into the role of attention in the ra-
tioning agent. The attention then rationed, rationed
the possibilities of experiencing how the money,
the material possibilities of life.

An adventure in itself interesting and exciting

growth BE MADE, the charming and obtrusive use
of the available options can be a bottleneck atten-
tion with inevitability. In the case of the purchas-
ing power of money can grow with the offer. In the
case of attention, it comes eventually to the point at
which begins the organic act restricting the supply,
more selective than the available money.

For a large and rapidly growing number of people,

the available attention the realizable sensation Picture 2: the cognitive mastering
possibilities cut sharply from the realm of physically
possible as the available money. It may even be a
bad criterion for fixing the age threshold between
the industrial and the information age that has
many of the significant majority of these. Competi-
tion could get through that this criterion is indeed
different, that the income of attention was more im-
portant than the money.”

The money has only quantitative aspects.

The attention as new currency has primary qualita-

tive aspects.

3.3. Cognitive science

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of

how information is represented and transformed
in the brain. It consists of multiple research disci-
plines, including psychology, artificial intelligence,
Picture 3: the sencoric and motoric cortex
46 metaverse art
Picture 2: Hyperformal Josina Burgess
Picture 3: prefrontal cortext activity
philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropolo-
gy, sociology, and education. [1] It spans many lev-
els of analysis, from low-level learning and decision
mechanisms to high-level logic and planning; from
neural circuitry to modular brain organization. The
term cognitive science was coined by Christopher
Longuet-Higgins in his 1973 commentary on the
Lighthill report, which concerned the then-current
state of Artificial Intelligence research. (Wikipedia)
Cognition (Latin cognoscere, “to know, learn, get to
know”) is the behavior-of a subsystem (for more ad-
vanced organisms, the brain) exported information
transformation. Cognition is a term used inconsis-
tently, with reference to the information processing
of people and will respect other systems. It is often
meant by “cognitive” thinking in a broad sense. Al-
though many cognitive processes are conscious of
the people, “cognition” and “awareness” is not the
same meaning. Thus, certain processes in humans
can be unconsciously and yet cognitively, an ex-
ample of this is the unconscious learning.
 metaverse art 47

Among the cognitive abilities of humans include,

for example, attention, memory, learning, creativ-
ity, planning, student guidance, imagination, rea-
soning, introspection, and the will, belief and some
more. Cognitive skills are of various sciences, stud-
ied how psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, neu-
roscience and artificial intelligence. The scientific
study of cognition is subsumed under the concept
of cognitive science.

In psychology, cognition refers to mental processes

and structures of an individual such as thoughts,
opinions, attitudes, desires, and intentions. Cogni-
tions can be understood as information processing,
learning new things and where knowledge is pro-
cessed, see the thinking and problem-solving.
Picture 2: brain activity detection MR
Cognitions include what individuals think about
themselves, their (social) environment, and its
past, present and future. Cognitions can influence
emotions (feelings) and / or be affected by it.

3.4 Borders of the human cognitive performance

“the basic Design of the human Brain” shows some

weaknesses in cognitive performance :

• perception (sensory) - Not all the information

available to be used, but heavily filtered, integrated
and changed in many other ways before they come
into the consciousness.
• Thinking - Working memory, in which there is
the mental manipulation of information, has a very
small capacity.
• Learning - Information stored in long-term mem-
ory information is often well in advance (for exam-
ple) with expectations that change as well as ex
post (e.g. through information below).
• Remember - the long-term memory “really” are
not commonly available existing information, the
Picture 3: cognition-creation modell
48 metaverse art

so-called retrieval problem.
• Motivation and concentration - fatigue, apathy,
distractibility, etc., can affect cognitive perfor-
mance.
3.5. The communication aspect: Art is communica-
tion
Watzlawick, P., Beavin-Bavelas, J., Jackson, D.
1967.
Some Tentative Axioms of Communication. In
Pragmatics of Human Communication - A Study of
Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes.
W. W. Norton, New York.
Axiom 1 (you cannot not communicate)
“One cannot not communicate.” Because every be-
havior is a kind of communication, people who are
aware of each other are constantly communicating.
Any perceivable behavior, including the absence of
action, has the potential to be interpreted by other
people as having some meaning.
Axiom 2 (content & relationship)
“Every communication has a content and relation-
ship aspect such that the latter classifies the for-
mer and is therefore a meta-communication.” Each
person responds to the content of communication
in the context of the relationship between the com-
municators. The word meta-communication is used
in various ways (and therefore not at all, by me)
but Watzlawick uses it to mean the exchange of in-
formation about how to interpret other information.
Just as the interpretation of the words “What an
idiot you are” could be influenced by the following
words “Just kidding”, it could also be influenced by
the relationship between the communicators. In the
metaverse art 49
example given, the word “idiot” might be accepted
quite happily from a close friend, but convey an en-
tirely different meaning in other circumstances.
Axiom 3 (punctuation)
“The nature of a relationship is dependent on the
punctuation of the partners’ communication pro-
cedures.” In many cases, communication involves
a veritable maelstrom of messages flying in all di-
rections. This applies especially to the non-verbal
messages. The “punctuation” referred to is the pro-
cess of organizing groups of messages into mean-
ings. This is analogous to the punctuation of writ-
ten language. In either case, the punctuation can
sometimes alter the meaning considerably.
For example, consider the occurrence of an angry
response after an interruption, the latter having
followed a suggested course of action. This might
be interpreted as anger at the suggested course
of action, if the interruption was “punctuated out”
of the sequence, so that the suggestion and the
anger were effectively grouped together as a tight
sequence. However, if the receiver punctuated the
information so that the interruption and the anger
formed a tight sequence, it might be interpreted as
anger at the interruption.
Axiom 4 (digital & analogic)
“Human communication involves both digital and
analogic modalities.” This one needs a bit of trans-
lating! The term “digital”, which today usually refers
either to numbers, computers or fingers, is used in
this axiom to refer to discrete, defined elements of
communication. These are usually words, but very
specific gestures with generally agreed meanings
would also qualify.
50 metaverse art

The term “analogic” also needs some translation. It

is a variant of analogical, the adjective derived from
analogy. It therefore refers to a correspondence, in
certain respects, between things which are otherwise
different. In this case, it describes a type of commu-
nication in which the representation to some extent
evokes the thing to which it refers. For example, shak-
ing a fist in front of a person’s face would evoke the
idea of violence.

What else needs translating? Oh yes, “modalities”.

As mentioned in Appendix 1, the word “modality” is
used in very many different ways. In this case, I think
Watzlawick is using modalities in the sense of types
or sorts of information transfer.

Axiom 5 (symmetric or complementary)

“Inter-human communication procedures are either

symmetric or complementary, depending on whether
the relationship of the partners is based on differenc-
es or parity.

“A symmetric” relationship here means one in which

the parties involved behave as equals from a power
perspective. The chance of airing all the relevant is-
sues should be greater, but it certainly does not guar-
antee that the communication will be optimal. The
parties could simply be equally submissive, or equally
domineering. However, communication between
equals often does work well.

A “complementary” relationship here means one of

unequal power, such as parent-child, boss-employee
or leader-follower. This is much more efficient in some
situations. For example, the unequal (complemen-
tary) relationship between soldiers and their officers
means that soldiers are very likely to obey a surpris-
ing order, such as “Get out of the truck and jump in the
river!” without delay – rather than debating it, perhaps
Picture 3: Comedia del Arte Naomi Devil 2002
 metaverse art 51
with great interest, but quite possibly at fatal length.

3.6. The aesthetics paradigm change

The traditional normative aesthetics assume that

there are universal and timeless criteria for the
taste full evaluation of artworks.

The cognitive aesthetic has basically other ques-

tions:

- Why do certain people prefer certain objects?

- What objects are perceived as beautiful or pleas-
ant?
- And what social and cultural conditions is aes-
thetic experience based upon?

In recent years, there is again a boom in aesthetic

research in psychology, which is due to several
reasons: The neuropsychology developed new
methods, practical questions of aesthetics are of
economic importance for Design, further leads the
interest in better understanding the complexity and
specificity of aesthetic experience. The cognitive
aesthetic research with empiric methods the neu-
ronal coding-decoding processes from the percep-
tion to the knowledge representation, and trace the
creation process from the concept to the material
or immaterial realization and broadcast.

3.6.1 The Creation Attitude (components of the cre-

ator behaviour)

Attiude described in the psychology of the summa-

ry overall assessment of a person, a social group,
an object, a situation or an idea, with content held
responsible for the assessment of long term mem-
ory. Examples of settings are prejudices, sympathy
or antipathy, or the self-esteem. Attitudes have af-
fective, cognitive and behavioral aspects. Sepa-
rately reared monozygotic twins have more similar
Picture 3: you, soviet propaganda poster
52 metaverse art
Picture 2: Conscious content manipulation
Picture 3: Conscious content manipulation
attitudes than fraternal twins, indicating a genetic
component. The attitude may predispose a person
in a certain kind of situation for certain courses of
action.
An attitude is a hypothetical construct that repre-
sents an individual’s degree of like or dislike for an
item. Attitudes are generally positive or negative
views of a person, place, thing, or event-- this is
often referred to as the attitude object. People can
also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object,
meaning that they simultaneously possess both
positive and negative attitudes toward the item in
question.
Attitudes are judgments. They develop on the ABC
model (Affect, Behavior, and Cognition). The affec-
tive response is an emotional response that ex-
presses an individual’s degree of preference for an
entity. The behavioral intention is a verbal indica-
tion or typical behavioral tendency of an individual.
The cognitive response is a cognitive evaluation
of the entity that constitutes an individual’s beliefs
about the object. Most attitudes are the result of
either direct experience or observational learning
from the environment.
3.6.2. Intervention preferences (social attitude)
from singular enjoy to social vision
Intervention preference is a concept, it assumes a
real or imagined “choice” between alternatives and
the possibility of rank ordering of these alterna-
tives, based on happiness, satisfaction, gratifica-
tion, enjoyment, utility they provide.
Here, different levels are possible
- Global Intervention preferences concepts/alterna-
tives
- Intervention preferences for a Society
 metaverse art 53
- Intervention preferences for a partial interest
group
- Intervention preferences for a family
- Intervention preferences for a person (individual-
ism, egoism)

Which qualitative cognitive effort expects the send-

er from the recipient?

- Broad and objective based knowledge spectrum

(weitsicht, breitsicht, übersicht, focus)
- On recipient group customized content spectrum
(for the sender is well known which recipient group
is the target of the message)
- No conscious content only a pattern
communicates(only perceptual joy null info)
- Conscious content manipulation (illusionism, pro-
paganda, advertising)

3.6.3. Message context preferences (expression

attitude) from fooling to knowledge representation Picture 2: the universum in middle age

How the creator would act on the cognitive system

of the recipient
Rational message context preferences (how many
cognitive effort expects the sender from the recipi-
ent)

Belief / certainty (Pistis)

Internal security in respect of a matter, emotional

confidence, self-evidence, no interest in holding
true subjective justification, revelation (religion)

Clue

Not know the facts clearly defined high uncertainty

unconscious, intuitive feeling without a clear intel-
lectual distinction

Presumption (Eikasia)
Picture 3: the universum today
54 metaverse art

Hypothesis about a situation likely is not necessar-

ily quantifiable, argumentative, depending on the
methodology of knowledge

Information
Content of a message however a message can
be true or false, may likely judge the quality of the
source

Opinion / belief (Doxa)

Is not fully aware of the fact or also in the field of
values (ethics / policy) on the extent of the knowl-
edge-dependent uncertainty (error suspected) or at
levels not possible argument, but not methodically
completed

Insight (Nous),
Spontaneous capture of a situation generally low
uncertainty by evidence and rational argument, but
often not methodically completed

Experience (Empeiria)
Direct experience of action and object relations, in
science, experimental results of high security, rely-
ing on accurate perception or measurement in the
observation by experienced examples of method-
ological theory and practice resulting in Science

Know (Episteme)
a) intersubjectively verifiable knowledge of facts,
very high level of security depending on the con-
cept of truth methodologically and conceptually
rational

b) knowledge of action, the success or indirectly to

the success of an action, training and habit

Knowledge(Gnosis)
act and result of inspection by and / or experience
gained knowledge, not necessarily intersubjective
 metaverse art 55
verification, very high security in inter-dependence
on the concept of truth methodologically and con-
ceptually rational, even pre-scientific

Know-How
An orderly system of protected knowledge. Nor-
mally is a cooperative group of scientifically devel-
oping, secure content, methodically and conceptu-
ally rational

3.6.4 Emotional message context preferences

Events lead to the perception of their cognitive ap-

praisal of emotion. This in turn triggers the custom
one event, but from emotion-specific action. This
pattern gives us an evolutionary advantage.

3.6.4.1 The “theory” of emotion research consists

of the following evolutionary chain of reasoning:

- An organism acquires a situation) is true (cogni-

tion, it is an indicator) (interpretation and evaluat-
ed) (Evaluation. The assessment has a rational (ie
rational) and affective (ie emotional) component.

- Indicates the direction of the emotion (pleasant or

unpleasant), whether the situation as it was inter-
preted by the living creatures, is for the animal or its
relative advantage or disadvantage. The strength
of the emotion reflects the importance of the situa-
tion for the survival and reproduction of the animal
or its relatives.

- The creature responds to the outcome of the eval-

uation with a particular behavior. Emotions thus
have a behavior-function:

- Pleasant emotions encourage the animal to re-

main in the current situation and act to preserve
the status quo.
56 metaverse art
- Unpleasant emotions encourage the animal to
turn away from the current situation or act to end
the current situation. The emotions out a solution,
for example Aversions or escape behavior to avoid
the unpleasant situation or an appetitive behavior
to search for a pleasant situation.

- In retrospect, it turns out if and how far it was from

the emotion-induced behavior of an appropriate
(adequate, suitable, appropriate) response to the
situation or not. The behavior was the more appro-
priate the more it contributed to the survival or re-
productive success [5] of the animal or its relatives.
In relation to the situation of inappropriate behavior
by a “false”, defaulting to the weak or strong emo-
tion to the animal or its relatives in the worst case
can cost the lives or prevent their reproduction.

- The trend most likely to its genes, which allow the

perception of a certain emotion, bequeath to the
next generation to be an animal when it

- A pleasant emotion (eg, comfort, pleasure, eu-

phoria felt) intense, the situation is more favorable
for the survival and reproduction of the animal or
its relatives, and

- An unpleasant emotion (eg fear, hunger, bore-

dom, feeling) all the more intense, the more ad-
verse the situation for the survival and reproduction
of the animal or its relatives,

and

- Responding to the emotion with behavior that is

appropriate to the situation.

- With the inheritance of the genes to the next gen-

eration that will be offered the chance to build on
the survival and reproductive success of the parent
generation, provided by the cognition, interpreta-
 metaverse art 57
tion and evaluation of induced behavior continues
as situationsadäquat turns.

The eight basic emotions are

* Fear / panic
* Anger / rage
* Joy / ecstasy
* Sadness / grief
* Acceptance / trust
* Disgust / horror
* Surprise / astonishment
* Curiosity / expectations

3.6.4.1 Cognitive emotion theory

Cognitive evaluation theory is used to explain emo-

tions as a result of interpretation and explanation of
the incident. Emotions are not the result of physi-
ological arousal. Representatives of the cognitive
assessment theories are Magda Arnold (1960);
Richard Lazarus (1966), Andrew Ortony, Clore and
Collins (1988).

Emotions arising between two cognitions: the fac-

tual cognition (belief that a circumstance exists or
will exist) and the evaluative cognition (evaluation
of a situation into positive / negative). The belief
that a situation has occurred or is imminent, led the
individual the facts evaluated against the require-
ments. Thus, situations are evaluated positively, if
they want them or are beneficial, whereas facts are
judged negatively if they are contrary to the wishes.
The emotion itself is in the experience of an object
proximate to the emotional or avoidant action im-
pulse, which is caused by the assessment.

Arnold found that emotion-varying estimates on at

least 3 factors:

- Rating: positive / negative?

58 metaverse art
- Presence / absence is: a state of affairs at pres-
ent, and certainly exist, or is in the future is uncer-
tain?
- Manageability: easy / difficult to cope with not /
too?
- establish future events: Estimated abilities a
positive situation, or avoid a negative facts
- maintain at current events: Estimated abilities
a positive situation, or stop a negative situation or
adapt

Examples

- Situation is present, / he maintained a positive / easy

Picture 2: the experimentalist sinus milieu
mastering -> Joy
- Facts are present, / negative / not overcome -> Sad-
ness
- Future facts / positive to bring about / with effort ->
Hope
- Future facts / negative / not sure preventable -> Fear
- Current affairs / negative / only with effort to solve
-> Anger

3.6.5 Creation modernity (Domain specific attitude)

sinus milieus from conservativism to hyperexperi-
mentalism

The basic value orientations of the message send-

ers and recipients:

Social milieu referred to in the strict sense, the so-

cial conditions, such as standards, laws, economic
and political factors, which is exposed to an indi-
vidual or a group. The Sinus-Milieu describes the
segmentation variables in addition to geographic,
socio-demographic and behavioral in recent years
has become increasingly important psychographic
variables. The science behind the idea of the so-
cial milieu sinus milieu is of the French sociologist
Emile Durkheim.
Picture 3: yin-yang
 metaverse art 59

The Sinus-Milieu group who are similar in their out-

look on life and living. The basic value orientation is
just as much into the analysis as everyday settings,
to work, to family, leisure, money and consump-
tion. Between the different environments, there are
points of contact and transitions.

The sinus milieus are shown in a chart that is divid-

ed along the vertical axis into five different layers of
upper and lower class. On the horizontal axis is the
basic attitude and outlook on life is presented to the
population. Which are subdivided into groups: con-
servatives basic orientation, basic orientation ma-
terial, hedonism, materialism and post post-mod-
ernism. With this arrangement, the distribution of
the population into different strata and groups will
be identified on the basis of the assets and lifestyle.

The Sinus-Milieu groups are:

1. Hyper Experimentalists
2. Established
3. Post material
4. Modern performers
5. Experimentalists
6. Civic midle calss
7. Traditions rooted
8. Hedonists
9. Consumption-materialists
10. Conservatives
11. Nostalgics

3.6.6 Creation Process

3.6.6.1 Thought (internal representations)

For all cognitive psychological models, it is as-

sumed that the inclusion of information for the de-
velopment an internal image of the information is
used, making use also of pre-stored images. These
Picture 3: ancient internal representation
60 metaverse art
internal representations are called as representa-
tion of an experience. The integration is already
stored

Images and the development of internal represen-

tations requires a design process whereby turn, the
dynamics of internal representations is described.

Under a internal representations today means

Picture 2: The VJAZZ event by Josina Burgess & Caravaggio
Bonetto
primarily on knowledge, experience and personal
feelings based population assessments, ideas and
perspectives that the interpretation of the world, af-
fecting the role of individuals within it and the view
on society. These beliefs are reflected and system-
atized and combine to create a cohesive whole,
then one can speak of a closed world view. Such
systems can also by a group of a company and are
shared even by many cultures. It is not possible or
difficult one whole internal interpretation to commu-
nicate. If we want content from our internal repre-
sentation to communicate with other recipients, we
have made -from affective reasons- a subset of our
internal representation together.

3.6.6.2 Content (communication based selected

subset from an internal representations)

It is not possible or difficult one whole internal in-

terpretation to communicate. If we want content
from our internal representation to communicate
with other recipients, we have made -from affec-
tive reasons- a subset of our internal representa-
tion together.

3.6.6.3 Expression Forms

Traditional media form taxonomy(real, material)

Visual Arts with the classical genres of painting and

graphic art, photography, sculpture, architecture,
installation, mixed media arts, and several small
Picture 3: avatar design by Caravaggio Bonetto
 metaverse art 61
forms, and since 19 Century, the Arts or Applied
Arts said border area of crafts,

Architecture | Comics | Crafts | Design | Drawing |

Illustration | Film | Glass | Graphic design | Indus-
trial design | Landscape architecture | Multimedia
| Painting | Photography | Pottery | Printmaking |
Sculpture | Typography | Mosaic

Performing Arts with the main divisions; theater,

dance and film art, radio, television, internet, per-
formance

Music, with the main vocal lines and instrumental

music,

Literature with the major genres epic, drama and

poetry.

Metaverse expression form taxonomy

(virtual, networked, collaborative, dematerialized) Picture 2: real/virtual

Literature,
Epic, drama, poetry
Inland sound objects
Collaborative inland sound productions (metaverse
orchestra)
Soundtrack creation

2d
Metaverse snapshot and picture manipulation
Machinima, video caleidoscope
Online broadcasting

3d
Static virtual space objects, installations (geometry,
sculpty, static textures)
Costume and avatar design
Virtual architecture
Virtual landscape

Picture 3: avatar design by Caravaggio Bonetto

62 metaverse art
Picture 2: Algorithmic Art by Diabolus 2001
Picture 3: Algorithmic Art by Diabolus 2001
4d
Avatar animation
Kinetic virtual time-space artworks (using of action
scripts, phisical objects, particles etc.)
Virtual art large scale conceptual complex (con-
sume, imagine)
Cybernetic virtual time-space artworks (using of
different event handlings and interactions)
www.collaborative virtual time-space artworks (col-
laborative audiovisual improvisation “VJAZZ”)
Virtual performance (emoticon)
Virtual theatre (the wall)
Immersive 4d cinema (the rings,metropolois)
Mixed environments
Combinations of the different expression forms
On the borderline of the art and science
(manax synesthesia theatre
Emoticon (emotion psychology)
Graph theory orchestra the dwarf choir)
3.6.6.4 Style
A way of expressive interpreting reality and decid-
ing which parts of it are worth observing and/or
emphasizing, as well as to what extent the artists’
emotions are expressed.
3.6.6.5 Techniques’
Among technology (from Greek [techne] “ability,
artistry, craftsmanship”) refers to procedures and
skills for the practical application of science and the
production of industrial, artisanal or artistic prod-
ucts. (Wikipedia) The original Greek word does
not distinguish between the current categories of
art and technology. Technique is basically the ap-
plication of specific methods, principles, singly or in
combination to achieve certain effects. Technique
can be understood as the ability of the people, laws
of nature, forces, and deploy resources to secure
 metaverse art 63
its existence or the satisfaction of his need for self
or convert useful. In addition to the physical needs
(food, clothing, and housing) are also cultural
needs, backed by the technology.

Technical skills in the metaverse environment and

in the metaverse art are very important. Here we
have to do something with a high-tech medium.
The technical skills of an artist affect the qualities
of an artwork, but not the only decisive factor. The
most important quality is, as always, how much an
artwork is in a position to influence the behavior of
the recipients.

3.6.6.6 The physical or Virtual Art Object

An art object is a physical or virtual object that is

considered to fulfill or have fulfilled an independent
and primarily aesthetic function. Physical objects
that document immaterial art works, but do not
conform to artistic conventions have transubstanti- Picture 2: the planet of the appes Human Rights Festival SL
ated into art objects. The term is common within
the “museum industry”.

Some writers have long made a distinction be-

tween the physical qualities of an art object and its
status as artwork. For example, a Rembrandt sev-
enteenth-century painting has a physical existence
as a painting that is separate from its identity as
a masterpiece. Many works of art, such as Duch-
amp’s famous Fountain, have been initially denied
“museum quality”, and later cloned as “museum
quality replicas”. There is debate as to why “art ob-
jects” made by artists are valued higher than craft
objects made by craftsmen.

Among practitioners of contemporary art, various

new media objects such as the DVD, the web-
page, and other interactive media have been
treated as art objects; such treatment frequently in-
volves a formalist (or “medium-specific”) analysis.
Picture 3: metaverse performance The WALL V3 performer:
Efrantirise Morane
64 metaverse art
The formal analysis of computerized media has
yielded such art movements as internet art and al-
gorithmic art. The purpose of “new media objects”
is not to replace traditional media, but to challenge
old media.
3.6.7 The Cognition Attitude (the components of
the recipient behavior)
The cognition process
Belke, B & Leder, H. (2006). Annahmen eines
Modells der ästhetischen Erfahrung aus kognition-
spsychologischer Perspektive, in: Sonderforsc-
hungsbereich 626 (Hrsg.): Ästhetische Erfahrung:
Gegenstände, Konzepte, Geschichtlichkeit. Berlin.
unter den Onlineveröffentlichungen der Freien Uni-
versität Berlin: www.sfb626.de/veroeffentlichun-
gen/online/aesth_erfahrung/aufsaetze/belke_led-
er.pdf
Why do certain people prefer certain objects? What
objects are perceived as beautiful or pleasant? And
what social and cultural conditions is aesthetic ex-
perience based upon?
It presents five stages of experiencing art, each of
which is connected to sequential processing stage
with a certain type of cognitive analysis is. Accom-
panied in varying degrees of conscious or uncon-

scious affective evaluation process is running, which
is due to cultural and individual life-learned evaluation
patterns. In the above stages of
- Perceptual Analysis,
- Implicit Memory Integration,
- Explicit Classification,
- Cognitive Mastering and
- Evaluation
does not represent a stringent and gradual progres-
sive processing, but a process of perception in the
course of processing may again fall back to earlier
stages, so feedback effects are possible. These are
indicated in the model as a feedback loop. Further-
more, the emotional baseline is where the individual
at the beginning of the perceptual process is impor-
tant.
3.6.7.1 The first stage of processing of perceptual
analysis is the sensory perception. This is about the
recognition of feature detection and pattern formation
processes in which the key variables such as com-
plexity, contrast, color, symmetry, order factors and
are perceived grouping effects.
3.6.7.2 In the second stage of processing, the implicit
memory integration is about the integration of uncon-
scious Memories. It depends on aspects of familiarity
or unfamiliarity, but also for the perception of prototyp-
icality, i.e. the extent to which corresponds an object
of perception to the ideas of a “type.”
3.6.7.3 At the third stage of processing, the Explicit
Classification, is about capturing the contents and
meanings of Assignment of styles. Respectively
on the available memory content evaluation criteria
come into play. This stage is also characterized by the
transition from automatic to conscious perception pro-
cessing. In fact it goes very quickly the qualities of art-
works to recognize. After only a fraction of a second
metaverse art 65
can be to tell whether two works have the same style,
but it goes even faster the substance rather crudely
(Augustin et al., 2008). We have also shown that it is
a peculiarity of the art that they might not must fully
understand: even a degree of ambiguity can be very
well received.
3.6.7.4 In the fourth stage of processing, cognitive
mastering, there is a specific interpretation of art. Here
the viewer tries to understand what it can mean the
work of art, what are the possible interpretations. In
psychology, cognition refers to mental processes and
structures of an individual such as thoughts, opinions,
attitudes, desires, and intentions. Cognitions can be
understood as information processing, learning new
things and where knowledge is processed, see the
thinking and problem-solving. Cognitions include
what individuals think about themselves, their (social)
environment, its past, present and future. Cognitions
can influence emotions (feelings) and / or be affected
by it. One can therefore hold that cognitions are all
the internal representations that are) an individual of
the world (subjective reality and are able to construct
themselves)
3.6.7.5 The final process of evaluation to include the
evaluation of the whole. Have I understood something,
it speaks to me? Important at this stage is how to deal
with ambiguity, ie, the ambiguity of the art object. The
whole process is accompanied by ever-increasing
emotional states, which in turn are evaluated and
lead to an aesthetic emotion. The emotional response
can at best be successful through interpretations and
solutions perceived as pleasure. If passed, the steps,
being built next to an aesthetic emotion (probably a
good feeling) is also an aesthetic case, now we can
say whether a work of art like.
66 metaverse art

Picture 4: Metropolis 4D cinema Revolution scenario Diabolus-CARP

 metaverse art 67

There I did spend a week or so to really learn how

to move and wear clothing and put 1 prim on the
ground. I was a total newbe, had no idea how
things worked, was not used to this new way of
“being”, exept I played ‘Runescape” for some time.

I found out this was NOT a “game” at all, this was a

total new world that opened slowly and my interest
grew by the day.

After the Help Island I thought I was ready to

My SecondLife search for the “real’ SL and stepped over to the big
wide metaverse.

Here I started soon to learn more by visitting NCI

Josina Burgess learning spots set up by Linden Lab (the providers
aka. Josina den Burger of SL) and then I found my way to the galleries and
musea.

I write 2006 here, Sl was still very young, also the

Art community was still small, RL paintings were
shown in buildings similar to what we have in real
life. I visited several “openings” of exhibitions at
a “sim” (a piece of so called land/space you can
When you tell a person who never heard of Sec-
buy or rent on SL) and started talking with several
ondlife about this Metaverse, they look at you as if
gallery owners, introducing myself as a artist and
you are some “game” addict and dont take you all
yes, soon I got my first exhibition where I hanged
to seriously.
my photographed paintings on walls.
It is a fact that explaining SL is not all to easy, you
really have to go there and find out yourself, and
Before I could hang them up, I had to go through
then not go for a glimpse but really look around
several stages. How do you put a photograph on a
and search the right communities that have your
prim? How do you modify? What is editting? What
interest.
is linking? All that I had to learn and those very
first steps were not easy, nobody helped me in that
For me my first steps on Secondlife came from cu-
time, all was to find out by myself, but I was eager
riousity, I saw a programm on television that men-
and tried again and again, learned from mistakes
tioned SL and so I searched for the site, made me
and became more familiar with the tools there
an avatar and landed in SL on a space called ‘Help
were.
Island”.
68 metaverse art
 metaverse art 69
Time passed,and I met many people interested in
art or artists themselves, I rented a little space for
myself and got a idea….SL has also sims full with
all kind of stores, avatars like to “look good” and
they buy or get “freebees” to dress themselves
up or get them a animal, dragon, elf or whatever
shape.
So I started with some freebee skirts I found and
by editting them I discovered how I could modify
them. Then I added the textures of a real painting
of myself on the skirt and that was very interesting.
I made more different skirts and attachements to
wear and called it ‘Wearable Art”. All of the sud-
den I had a small “store” besides my paintings and
form zero money on SL I started to earn a little by
selling them.
Being the first with Wearable Art, later many others
started to sell Wearable Art but they used paintings
from van Gogh or Monet, I used my own. Picture 2: Artspace Diabolus 2006

In Cetus, a place where many smaller and bigger

galleries were gathered I visitted a new exhibition
of a avatar called Caravaggio Bonetto, she did
bring her RL father into SL that day and some of
his paintings as well. The paintings had my inter-
est I was surprised of the great technique Cara-
vaggio had and more surprised about the work of
her father. He was standing aside and Caravag-
gio told me they were Hungarian and her father
could speak german. Her fathers avatar name was
Velazquez Bonetto and he became later a very im-
portant person for me as well in SL as in RL, but I
did not know that at that time.

I started to speak with Velazquez in german and

he told me a little about his work and the tech-
niques he used. It was a interesting conversation
and since he was brandnew on SL I did my best to
Picture 3: Artspace Diabolus 2006
Picture 1: Gallery Diabolus in CETUS gallery district
70 metaverse art
Picture 4: The MANAX theatre
Picture 5: The MANAX theatre
let him feel more comfortable there, not knowing
that he was a very experienced person that knows
all and everything about building and scripting and
programming!
Now and then I saw Velazquez at Cetus when there
was another exhibition and one of those times he
told me he had gotten himself a space at the ben-
volio sim and called it “Diabolus”
Of course I went over to see the place and was
stunned by the way he was building there.
Nothing remembered of RL buildings, forms were
different, shapes were different , all looked light but
sturdy in the same time, it was all floating on a plat-
form in the air and light and surrounding was totally
facinating.
Of course I went there more often and every time
we spoke about art, avatars and exhibitions he
wanted to have there.
Also he was experimenting with all kinds of build-
ing, scripting and my interest grew.
I stood long times next to him, watching how he
did build , asking questions and with unendless pa-
tience he teached me what scripts are, what they
do and how to use them.
Also he was doing a study on several avatars on
SL, some of them were very strange shaped ,
unique in the way they looked and Velazquez told
me about a certain caracter on SL called MANAX.
He showed me some pictures he made of this car-
acter and we agreed we should do “something” with
this image and caracter, the idea to do a project on
him raise and so we started working as a team.
MANAX
When Velazquez and me started with the MANAX
Project we were discussing in what form we should
do this. First it was important to tell the story and
 metaverse art 71
second , it had to be interesting for the viewers.

The figure MANAX itself was already very interest-

ing, the way his avatar looked was very special,
an almost abstract figure and when he moved and
posed for the pictures Velazques made the ab-
stractness was even more. Like a Picasso painting.
The way he acted however was not very friendly all
the time. He had a satanic sense of humor. Liked
to play with weapons and evil scripts that did harm
to other avatars or lands.

His place in SL was build in rough, iron materials,

with many traps verywhere, the people that sur-
rounded him got used to fell in pits or being orbited
away just as a joke.

He made it rain, but the rain was like blood and

covered the land you were standing on.
He let bombs explode everywhere and enjoyed to Picture 6: the MANAX theatre (immersion, interaction,
surprise you with all kinds of strange buildings and colaboration
they were never the same. His intelligent way of
building and using scripts for his creations were
stunning, even the fact that Linden Lab banned him
from SL didn’t keep him away from coming back
every time with a different figure and every time this
avatar was more complicated.

Velazquez used a part of the collection of pictures

he made from MANAX for an installation telling the
story in black and white pictures, you could walk
through and see how the avatar changed when
he posed in different positions. Like drawings, like
pieces of Art, no more like an avatar in SL.
Later on I used many of these pictures as textures
on dresses and named it the MANAX Collection.

The MANAX project was started with a poem I

wrote, telling the story of Manax, I found an ac-
tor from England 5imon Baker who did read the
poem and send it to us on MP3, also I asked Cy- Picture 7: Cypress Rosewood
72 metaverse art
press Rosewood , a musician living in the USA to
compose music for the project. He writes beauti-
ful etheric music with a filosophical background.
Sometimes very soft , then again with power and
undertones of darkness. He also agreed to play
live on stream when the Project would be ready.
Velazquez started to invent a total new Light Or-
gan. It spitted out images of the Manax caracter
in many colours together with particles of light in
many shapes and forms. It worked on commando
as well on automat and the particle emitter was
build in such a way that the particles were coming
from all around, even underneath you. The whole
Project was also based on the knowledge of Syn-
asthesia. Together with the music, the Poem and
the particle show the whole project was like an ex-
perience the viewer went through and all together
the whole project was a great success. We also
learned a lot again from this project, what was very
helpful later on with new projects.
Picture 8: MANAX project meeting with Cypress Roose-
wood The MANAX story

MANAX mc Millan was his name

He knew his powers were perfect
Would SL ever been the same
Without his Evil intellect?

There in his world of lonelyness

His kingdom ruled by hate and fear
Disciples following his mess
He made an island dissapear..

Yet banned He was by Second Life

And Linden Lab thought that He was gone
No one that knew His evil drive
He wasn’t ready, wasn’t done..

And XANAM yes he incarnated

With even more of angriness
And Secondlife now really hated
Picture 9: MANAX Project test
 metaverse art 73
By Him and only Him I guess

The Heavens started raining blood

And Avatarts just innocent
Exploded..oh He burned them good
And Xanam, no He never bend..

His brain so bright, full innovations

Did let him seek for new events
And with all of his great creations
He started like it never ends

Again He was eliminated

Again He came and was reborn
Now DEADLY was the one that hated
And MANAX / XANAM not forlorn

In animation told his story

His hate, his sadness and his grief
No ego, not a seek for glory Picture 10: MANAX avatar
An intellect beyond believe..

He at the end had to decide

That Real Life was Seconds close..
To execute his suicide
Eternal Real now I suppose..

I witnessed MANAX ‘s final end..

And learned that nothing can compare
To what You are or what You ment
To be, to want, to hope or dare

Its who You are. Your Innerbe

The only one You ever know
The Second Mirror let you see
That only You can make You glow..

Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenom-

enon in which stimulation of one sensory or cogni-
tive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experi-
Picture 11: MANAX avatar
ences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.
74 metaverse art

Many people with synesthesia use their experi-

ences to aid in their creative process, and many
non-synesthetes have attempted to create works
of art that may capture what it is like to experience
synesthesia. Psychologists and neuroscientists
study synesthesia not only for its inherent interest,
but also for the insights it may give into cognitive
and perceptual processes that occur in everyone,
synesthete and non-synesthete alike.
After the Manax project Velazquez and me started
working together on several small and bigger proj-
ects, he did build a “store” on Diabolus land and I
learned how to make “alpha’s” of the photographed
clothes I made and put them on a prim, this way the
displays were looking much nicer and way more in-
teresting then all the flat pictures hanging on walls
in other stores.
We started with several exhibitions that brought
people to Diabolus and we got in contact with great
Picture 12: MANAX artists also pioneering and experimenting on SL

The Diabolus space became to small and we de-

cided to look for more space. Also we decided to
split 50/50 of all the incomes from the dresses so
it helped a little by paying the “tier” for the land/
space.

Caravaggio, Velazquez rl daughter also participat-

ed, she was in RL very busy still with her last year
of studies at the Academy of Vienna, and she used
SL for several projects that helped her with her RL
study.

The 7Up Exhibition

All over Second Life you find all kind of clubs and
places where you can “dance”. Its something peo-
ple like to do in real life so also in this world.. “Dance
balls ”to stand on makes your avatar moves like
you were the best dancer in the world, so we de-
Picture 13: /up Josina Burgess Diabolus/CARP
 metaverse art 75
cided to grab a few of those “balls” and place them
around for an exhibition we held. The exhibition
was showing a few of the first sculptures I made
in SL. To make it more entertaining for visitors we
made a stage with instruments and streamed in
music from some records I made in RL.

One of the very first sculptures I made was a trans-

parent sphere with 2 transparent ovals inside, I
learned how to use scripts with objects and got my
first rotation script to let them move slowly. I cop-
ied the first sphere to become 4 of them and gave
them soft pastel colours.
Placed inside a black box the colours and move-
ments were very beautiful and walking through
them, you walked inside art and got different views
from different angles. I was exited about the effect
and used it later often for other sculptures and in-
stallations.
Picture 14: /up Josina Burgess Diabolus/CARP
Most of the sculptures were reacting indirect or di-
rect on avatars coming close.
Velazques showed me how to make a scarecrow
and left me to find out on my own to make new
ones. He wrote scripts to let them hop and jump
and dance at orbit or at random. I made several
and they looked pretty funny. Going in collision or
reacting on avatars passing by and giving off funny
sounds. We did put them in give away boxes as
presents to visitors.

We hanged images of my real paintings in the air

but turned them into peaces and put them on flexi
prims so new SL art was made. The paintings went
“dancing” as well in space and were floating and
circling around.

From sculpted prims I created colourful “rocks” and

added thunder sounds so when you walked in you
heard thunder rolling.
Picture 15: /up Josina Burgess Diabolus/CARP
76 metaverse art
Picture 16: /up Josina Burgess Diabolus/CARP
Picture 17: Ghost by josina Burgess
From a real painting I used the texture on a sculpt-
ed prim and it came out very interesting looking, so
I made a sculpture from that and called is “Birds”.
From that sculpture I made pictures and used
those again as textures on a new dress that I ani-
mated with a rotating script so it moved all around
the avatar.
I did build a big sphere with a change texture script
inside and different textures. Inside the sphere a
pose ball to sit on and getting a meditation pose.
Inside the sphere the textures changed colours and
with some sweet sounds the experience was com-
plete.
Later I made another one for 2 people to sit in and
meditate together.
The Ghost Cave
I had the idea to build a cave with ghosts inside.
Velazques and me used sculpted prims we made
in the Wings program to make the cave look “sl-
natural” . For the textures I used blue light and
inside every prim I put a blue light script to give it a
more sinister look. From 5 prims I made a “ghost”,
in photo shop I designed the faces and made them
very transparent and the robes flexi. Velazques
created a script that let the ghost react on every
avatar, following it and wrapping around you. I also
added some particle scripts inside the ghost that
made them look like floating in transparent, misty
clouds. A terrible “humming” sound that gives you
the shivers completed it. In the cave I placed some
particles I learned to made giving transparent mists
of green, black and white light. Some ghost lights
were also floating around in the cave. The whole
experience was really nice and inside the “ghosts”
nice transparent colours and images shown and
made every ghost a piece of art again.. Asll the to-
tal cave looked great and very “SL”
 metaverse art 77

`Black Widows`

From 4 sculpted prims I first designed in the Wings

program I did build abstract statues. That rotated
slowly changing forms that way. I added some par-
ticles like tears and also fire particles.
On the floor white mist coming up and burst out
particles to make the scene more dramatic.

`Birds 2`

Just 1 sculpted prim, made it transparent and used

the texture from the sculpture I made earlier for the
7UP exhibition. I added some particles as well to
make it more spectacular.
All was moving, changing and rotating.

“Twinkling Stars”
Picture 18: Windows by Josina Burgess Diabolus/CARP
In Wings I made a sculpted tweaked prim with
many small branches coming out. In SL I used a
texture on it that made it look like some sort of star.
With a texture change script it started to twinkle.
Some ghost lights added to it made it an abstract
Christmas tree.

“Sculpted space”

Again made in Wings and used with a change co-

lour script a sculpture that changed shape and co-
lours in an interesting way.

“Changing Flower”

Made from 1 sculpted prim, I added texture change

and a small fire particle in the middle. Also a rotat-
ing script to let it rotate slowly.
“Turning Sculpted Rose”
Picture 19: Changing Flower by Josina Burgess
A sculpted prim made as a kind of “rose”, just a Diabolus/CARP
78 metaverse art
rotating script on it and the right texture was enough
to give it the right look.

“Breathing Sculpt”

One sculpted prim with a nice texture and a “breath-

ing script.. A rotating script.let it move slowly and the
script let it go bigger and smaller, like breathing.

NEW HORIZON, and more..

I did build a huge sphere and inside I used a RL paint-

Picture 20: immersive/interactive particle space CARP 2
Josina Burgess
ing that slowly rotated…made a dubble floor, one half
transparant and a bit higher. On that I used a rl paint-
ing texture too….the outcome was amazing…all of
the sudden I found myself INSIDE my own painting
that slowly moved around me ..it was emotional and I
was very exited about it.
After that I did build some more big spheres with dif-
ferent emotions and atmospheres. Musicians played
in it and gaved concerts.
For Kourosh (a musician) I created a total surrounding
that fit to the music he plays, I did also for Al Hofmann.
Later Velazquez and me created more of these sur-
roundings with textures we specially made for the mu-
sic and emotions. It was no longer V-Jazz but more…

JOSINA’S WEARABLE ART AND MORE..

The Idea of using my RL paintings as textures on the

dresses I design was a good idea.
After me many designers in SL called their designs
also wearable art but use textures of known painters
like van Gogh or Matisse. Still I was the first and I like
that ?

My dresses, suits, capes etc did not only show tex-

tures of my RL paintings, I also created many new

Picture 21: Wearable Art

 metaverse art 79
textures in Photoshop and used them as well, all
unique and one of a kind.
The more I got familiar with using scripts, of course
I looked how to use them in dresses and capes and
fringes, texture change was great, also particles in-
side the dress or worn on the body created a great
new look. Velazquez did build us a fantastic mega
“store”where I displayed the dresses in a different
way as usual on SL, I made apha channels from
the pictures I took of the dresses and placed them
on 4.50 meter hight prims, it was much better and
showed the dress in a optimal way. I did not adver-
tise but the “mouth to mouth” way of selling was
good and this way I kept all exclusive.

For the projects as THE WALL V-2, THE RINGS,

and METROPOLIS I designed the costumes and
textures. For METROPOLIS also all the avatars.
Making avatars was a new challenge, the shapes
but most of all the faces and expressions on them Picture 22: Wearable Art
was fun to do. For METROPOLIS I made over 30
different avatars, all with their own specific looks.

Also for METROPOLIS Velazquez wanted to make

so called “Muybridge” figures. They had to be ani-
mated and placed on transparent prims to give a
illusion of a crowd.
I posed in many different poses and Velazquez
photographed them and used them with the pro-
gramm he wrote for the project. It was spectacu-
lar and really made the image of many people on
stage come true.

ALL THAT SCRIPTING….

Without Velazquez I never ever would had imag-

ined what I could create more on SL. every time I
had an idea he wrote the scripts for me, sometimes
I had so called “happy accidents” like the time that
I used different scripts together in a sculpture and Picture 23: CARP meeting, Josina Burgess, Caravaggio
found that all of the sudden the particles started to Bonetto, Velazquez Bonetto
80 metaverse art
Picture 24: cable biothops interactive sculptures by
Josina Burgess Diabolus CARP2
Picture 25: weather, immersive, interactive environment
by Josina Burgess Diabolus CARP2
stream.. Velazquez saw the possibilities and wrote
a new script combining all together.
That streaming also gave me the possibility to cre-
ate a exhibition called FACE of the SKY where
Velazquez build a fantastic surrounding on 7 plat-
forms with all the different moving sculptures, par-
ticles, streaming, rotating, flowing and changing…
We got a new tool that gaved us entrance of mak-
ing new particles and movements and we both
started to work with that, again we went on a jour-
ney of exploring and creating particles in different
ways, great fun and great outcome!
Without scripts its no fun to create something in SL
anymore, art least for me and for the work I cre-
ate there. I learned a lot, still dont really write them
totally myself, but I know how they work and I can
make changes in scripts so they do what I want
them to do. Thanks to Velazquez!
CARP
By showing art in exhibitions from several artists we
met many creaters and became good friends with
them, we discussed with them music, art, building,
scripting and learned from each other. Collabora-
tion was here the magic word and Velazquez and
me liked it very much to speak with others about
ideas they or we had and the idea raised to work
more together in teams.
From this all CARP was born. CARP stands for
“Cybernetic Art Research Projects” and this name
was in fact the idea of Velazquez .
The word: “Cyberspace” is known now as an
artword, its born from the word “Cyber” (a short-
form from the english word “Cybernetic” that again
comes from the greek word „Kybernetike“; „The art
of navigate“ and the word „Space“. On the world-
famous Macy-Conferences in the years 1946 till
 metaverse art 81
1953 Cybernetik was something of high interest.
Wellknown and famous scientists as Alan Tur-
ing, John von Neumann and Heinz von Foerster
started here from scratch the modern computer-
technics and the programm-architecture, today an
example for Cyberspace. The real Cyberspace
was opened by Secondlife. So you speak of web
3-D or so called Metaverses. The Metaverses are
Internet-based virtual time-space-infrastructures.
The miracle that we are experiencing today: the
Cyberspace, the dematerialized virtual time-space,
the worldwide webbed society. where we „surf
around „with lightspeed. An artist that is NOT us-
ing this virtual universe as a challenge and a goal
doesnt deserve the name „ Avantgarde“

This e-book dedicated to the pioneer of Cybernetic

Art Nicolas Schöffer. He was one of the most im-
portant artists of the second half of twentieth cen-
tury. Father of Cybernetic Art, thus of so-called Picture 26: cable biothops interactive sculptures by
„interactivity“, he wanted to bring a prospective and Josina Burgess Diabolus CARP2
non-backward-looking vision of Art, which could
help mankind to develop itself with a good hold
on true creative and liberating possibilities of our
times.

How we Work:
1. Open communication, co-laboration and co-
operation
2. Open idea and know-how exchange
3. Open audiovisual component and script ex-
change

Rules:
1. There are no rules. Inovation is not bind to any
rules.
2. Out of the first rule there are no further rules.

THE CARP MATRIX

Picture 27: interactive sculpture by Josina Burgess
Most of the Audiovisual Effects in SL exist from
Diabolus CARP2
82 metaverse art
Picture 28: VJAZZ (immersion, interaction, worldwide
collaboration) Diabolus/CARP3 J. Burgess, V. Bonetto
Picture 29: VJAZZ (immersion, interaction, worldwide
collaboration) Diabolus/CARP3 J. Burgess, V. Bonetto
random-generated and/or un-synchronised se-
quenzes, or based on prim/environment- events
or avatar-signals through sensors or collision. In
LSL there is one useful function. It is possible to
run more LSL scripts in combination in one task
(prim content). The outcome is an integrated total-
effect for one prim. This method is easy to run and
gives a fast building possibility. A collection of well
selected on each other-scripts. All different but well
defined and giving each a great effect are also us-
able in combination and is of value for the working
method. The script combinations sometimes pro-
duce totally unexpected but fantastic effects.
The CARP Matrix is a collection of “put into the
content and forget” script modules who are easy to
use in combination.
And then all really started....
Virtual JAZZ (VJAZZ)
I did build a sculpture and added a lot of different
scripts together in the prims, the outcome was
pretty spectaculair and I called Velazquez over.
He looked at it for a while and said : What did you
doooooo, but I have a idea! Like this many “ideas”
came to Velazquez, he rewrote scripts, wrote new
ones so they really did what we wanted them to
do and all at once. He also made a menu that we
could use to steer live and by hand, life on the spot
and improvise with forms, textures and colors. We
asked musicians to come and play live and in the
same time we played the V-Jazz. Musicians and
us were improvising both live and inspiring each
other. Evere time we do this its new and different.
The audience loves it and dances inside the colors
and enjoys the music.
In the virtual world visual effects will be freed from
the matter
Consequense : it is possible to work with visual ef-
fects in the same way as with abstract knowledge.
 metaverse art 83

Virtual Jazz is a collaborative-creative-technique

what is most easy to realize on SL.
From a characteristic view it has similarities with
brainstorming or with the Semantic Intuition.

Brainstorming is an idea of Alex Osborn and de-

veloped as a method by Charles Hutchinson Clark
to build ideas that produce new, eccentric ideas,
formed in a group of people. He called it after the
idea of this method: “Using the brain to storm a
problem”.
The Semantic Intuition is a creativity technique,
where from the combination of words and word-
images new ideas will be generated. Very well to
use in generating new product-ideas.

The difference:
Due a brainstorm session or with Semantic intuition
there will be a concept-improvisation with the goal Picture 30: VJAZZ (immersion, interaction, worldwide
to get new semantic combinations out of concept collaboration) Diabolus/CARP3 J. Burgess, V. Bonetto
improvisations. To solve problems. During a Virtual
Jazz session (VJS) collaborative components will
be combined and varied to create new audiovisual
effects. The essence of this Art-technique is: to
call the unexpected and let it help in the creative
process.

Improvisation: ( f. ital. Improvviso: unexpected.

Proviso : expected) means: to build, act or create
something without planning but ad hoc, sponta-
neous in the momentum. Improvisation means in
normal language the spontaneous, practical use of
creativity to solve problems at the spot.
Improvisation as a creative method was used until
now in music, dance, theater, television modera-
tion etc.

Our Virtual JAZZ Band exist from one or more mu-

sicians and two or more visual artists.
Picture 31: VJAZZ (immersion, interaction, worldwide
An abstract concept could be the lead, a theme and collaboration) Diabolus/CARP3 J. Burgess, V. Bonetto
84 metaverse art
Picture 32: The WALL V1 virtual theatre, Diabolus/CARP4
Picture 33: The WALL V2 virtual theatre, Diabolus/CARP5
basis for the participants, to bring together their
musical and visual components. Such as: black
and white, love, nature and so on. Absolute spon-
taneous versions are also possible.
In a Virtual jazz session its important that the par-
ticipants have no idea what the other participants
have in mind as audiovisual components.
The goal is: use the collaborative creation process
as a work of art.
Improvisation is the practice of acting and react-
ing, of making and creating, in the moment and in
response to the stimulus of one’s immediate en-
vironment. This can result in the invention of new
thought patterns, new practices, new structures or
symbols, and/or new ways to act. This invention
cycle occurs most effectively when the practitio-
ner has a thorough intuitive and/or technical un-
derstanding of the necessary skills and concerns
within the improvised domain.
The skills of improvisation can apply to many dif-
ferent abilities or forms of communication and ex-
pression across all artistic, scientific, physical, cog-
nitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines.
For example, music, cooking, presenting a speech,
sales, personal or romantic relationships, sports,
flower arranging, martial arts, psychotherapy, the
arts, and much more. ..Wikipedia..
THE WALL
Then….Debbie Trilling came with the idea to make
a “show” using the music of Pink Floyd’s THE
WALL, but with our own “message”and interpreta-
tion of the music and the words.
So we gathered a team of great people from all
over the world, UK, USA, Holland, Germany, Aus-
tria, Italy and used each others skills to start this
all:)
It was a big challenge, Debbie had the artistique
 metaverse art 85
direction, Velazquez developed new programms
and scripts together with Debbie and Elfod created
a WALL that could fall down on a certain moment.
Duggy created big dolls with the images of the
judge and schoolmaster.
All was controlled and in such a way that it could run
automaticly on command. The team had to learn to
listen to “cues” and react immidiately on that, als
we needed to replace avatars, skins, shape and
costume in a short moment, we had to find anima-
tions or make new ones for special parts. Together
with Junivers Stockholm I wrote a song, I wrote the
lyricks, Junivers the music, Junivers is in Sweden
I am in Holland , so we had to send files through
e-mail to each other.This way we composed and
worked together in a not easy way but the resutl
was fantastic and later when we did THE RINGS
we worked more together and sang together. All in
all it was a huge challenge and the first big show
we did set up as CARP. Picture 34: The WALL V3 virtual theatre, Diabolus/CARP10
From the moment we started with performing the
show the sim was full and the audience screamed
for more, also we got invitations from sim owners
to bring the show on their sim, so we played the
WALL on a 4-sim where more then 100 people
could come in the same time, later we played it on
anothr sim, specially emptied to make it lagg-less
for us. And every time we changed sims, Debbie ,
Velazquez and the team renewed the performance
and added new technology and developments.
From making the Wall we learned a lot and used
all that knowledge and new skills in every new
Show we did later on.

We started like:
Cybernetic Art Research Project proudly pres-
ents...

“THE WALL” by Pink Floyd at the Berlin sim

On July 21 1990, nine months after the dismantle- Picture 35: The WALL V3 virtual theatre, Diabolus/CARP10
86 metaverse art
Picture 36: The WALL V2 graphics by Elfod Nemeth
Picture 37: The WALL V2 graphics by Elfod Nemeth
ment of the Berlin Wall, Roger Waters and an all-
star cast performed “The Wall” at Potzdamer Platz
in Berlin. The performance was watched by a live
audience of 250,000 and half-billion people on TV.
And now, the Cybernetic Art Research Project
(CARP) bring “The Wall” to SL...
CONCEPT:
A specially commisioned mix of 6 to 8 songs from
“The Wall” album. Approx. 40 minutes duration.
40m x 20m wall made up of 160 bricks that will be
indivdually placed in position as the performance
proceeds. First the bottom few rows, then building
up at the sides to leave a “V” shaped opening. Thro’
the opening will be seen all sorts of effects. This
“V” gap will itself be filled in, and as the last brick is
placed in position the arena will plunge into black-
ness. A few seconds wait. Bright spotlights out to-
wards audience from the top of the wall...and....”Is
Anybody Out There?”...you get the idea.....
Immediately in front of the wall will be placed three
alpha phantom objects of 10m x 10m x 0.05m.
This will be raised 5m off the ground so that their
centrepoint is exactly level with the centre of the
wall. These will be used as a ‘screen projector’. By
changing textures will can give the illusion of graf-
fiti/slideshows etc and other such effects as being
on the bricks themselves.
The area in front of the wall, and up to its full height
will be wholely given over to spontateous aerobatic
dancers. With accompanying effects, ofc....
During certain songs, in front of the left and right
flanks of the wall will be animated prim puppets of
5 to 8 m height. (probably the schoolteacher and
judge). With accompanying effects, ofc....
At the climax of the performance we’ll apply a lil
force to each brick in the wall and let the whole
thing collapse. With accompanying effects, ofc....
 metaverse art 87
Ambitous? You bet!!
But we have a collection of the most talented peo-
ple in their respective fields here...so if it can be
done, let us be the first to do it!

“Mother, should I trust the government?”

WALLS. By Josina Burgess / Jose den Burger

They build Walls between countries

They declare each other Bad
They say: There is the enemy
But the Walls are in their head…

There are Generals and there are Presidents

And they all speak out to the crowd
To convince just everybody
That there´s a war that is allowed…

Look in your heart...to see Picture 38: The WALL V2 graphics by Elfod Nemeth
if there is a wall to break
and let your mind be free
just be real not another fake

All these men, great and mighty

Tell us “others” they are bad
But what real is and what is certain
Are the Walls right in their heads…

It is time to awaken
It is time that it is said
give us back what you’ve taken
Break those Walls in your head…

Break those Walls....

Break those Walls....

additional lyrics junivers stockholm

THE RINGS
Picture 39: The RINGS 4d cinema Diabolus/CARP6
88 metaverse art
The RINGS was an idea of Velazquez and Josina
and soon Junivers and Medora Chevalier joined
in and we brainstormed a while about what form it
had to be. We wanted to bring a message, a strong
one and still easy to understand. From making the
WALL we learned a lot and again we gathered a
team from all over the world and worked together. It
was great fun, again a bigger challenge and a great
spectacle, Every time again the sim was full and
CARP’s name was growing. We also made a book
about it that we gaved away as a gift, and from the
RINGS also a new group arised the RINGS discus-
sion group that now has a big amount of members
that stand strong for all injustice in the world and try
to find ways to reach pwople from all over the world
to create awareness.

The Rings or Homo Sapiens V2: 4d cinema or Vir-

Picture 40: The RINGS the first 4d cinema Diabolus/CARP6 tual reality rock opera grown from new forms of in-
Global Wood ternational artistic collaboration

400 years ago artists came together in Italy to cre-

ate the first performance of new work that brought
together music, drama, dance and the visual arts
– a form that became known as opera.

In the 21st century virtual reality is home to new

forms of artistic collaboration in which national and
art form boundaries disappear. New forms, as yet
unnamed, emerge. And new forms of social con-
nection reach across the globe, addressing the
pressing challenges of human survival and the way
we become divided from each other.

The Rings is a work created in Second Life by a

Picture 41: The RINGS the first 4d cinema Diabolus/
CARP6 KoTW
multinational team within the Cybernetic Art Re-
search Project (C.A.R.P). It has been developed
through months of collaboration. The creative team
is drawn from Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Austria and the UK. The performers are based also
 metaverse art 89
in Italy and France.

It takes the form of a rock opera with composed

lyrics and music, building and scripting, costumes,
shape changing, flight, dance and drama under-
pinned by new use of in world cinematic tech-
niques.

The Rings celebrates the miracle of the Metaverse,

the dematerialized virtual time-space. It asks - is
this where humanity can at last unite: to overcome
the forces that push us towards global destruction
and blames victims for the pain they feel. It reminds
us that we can be guided towards optimistic action
by great humanists and philosophers.

It ends on a note of optimism. We are invited to

unite and change the world. After alternate per-
formances there will be Rings discussion circles,
involving campaign organisations active in Second Picture 42: The RINGS the first 4d cinema Diabolus/CARP6
Life. Break those walls

Velazquez Bonnetto, CARP co-founder and virtual

reality artist said: “It is our responsibility as artists to
call the public attention to questions where further
thinking and searching for solutions is needed. The
message of this artwork comes on several chan-
nels and addresses both the emotional and the ra-
tional side of the viewer. The Rings may have many
different interpretations. There is nothing more bor-
ing than explanations at how it should be under-
stood and nothing more exciting and thrilling than a
simple and clear artistic language that can talk in a
second of visual delight about human questions of
huge magnitude.”

Junivers Stockholm, composer and director, said:

“For a long time I have believed in the potential of
the Metaverse to connect people in new and pow-
erful ways: to take humanity to a future of coopera-
Picture 43: The RINGS the first 4d cinema Diabolus/CARP6
tion instead of competition. Music has the power to
The Forest
90 metaverse art
draw people in to work on the answers to the major
questions of our time.”

Josina Burgess, CARP co-founder, lyricist and vo-

calist said: “We should never underestimate the
power of song to wake people up and to mobilise
people to change the world. From the beginning
of time it has brought people together in unity and
strength.”

Medora Chevalier, lyricist and choreographer, is

a campaigner against homelessness. She added:
“Many of the evils of our world can be tackled if
we open up our sense of connection to other peo-
ple and to nature in its beauty. Then we can stop
the exploitation of people and living things that so
threatens our world and future generations”

The Rings will be premiered at the Artspace Di-

Picture 44: The RINGS the first 4d cinema Diabolus/
CARP6 The Forest
abolus, Benvolio Second Life on Saturday 6 Sep-
tember 2008 at 1pm SLT (10pm CETs, 9pm GMT)
with a 2nd showing at 2.30pm (11.30pm CETs,
10.30 GMT). http://slurl.com/secondlife/Benvo-
lio/143/109/663/

Audiences are advised to arrive early as the open

rehearsals that have been held have attracted full
sims. Thereafter it will be performed on Sundays
and Thursdays at 2pm SLT.

Audience reaction to the open rehearsals:

Picture 45: The RINGS the first 4d cinema Diabolus/
CARP6 7 2 12
“I have never been so amazed in SL as I was when
I saw your project today. For the first time I realised
the great challenges of SL for the real world, thanks
to people like you. If you need some day a helping
hand for a project just IM me. Bye and go on like
this!”
“GREAT awwwwwwwwwsoooome show!!”
“Why can’t every Monday evening be like this?”
“If I could create 1/10 of yr scripts .. I’d very happy
!!!!”
 metaverse art 91
“Its very very awesome !!!!
“I’m very impressed”
“I crashed twice but ran back”
“I’m really touched”

The RINGS (Homo sapiens Version 2.0) protest

rock opera: Credits

Lyrics: Josina Burgess(NL), Medora Chevalier

(UK), Junivers Stockholm(S)
Music: Junivers Stockholm (S), Josina Burgess(NL)
Creative director/producer/builder/scripting:
Velazquez Bonetto(D)
Costumes: Josina Burgess(NL)
Special effects: Debbie Trilling (UK), Elfod Nemeth
(UK), Junivers Stockholm (S)
Scenario design and graphics: Velazquez
Bonetto(D), Caravaggio Bonetto(A)
Camera direction : Junivers Stockholm (S)
Concept KoTW: Medora Chevalier (UK) & Junivers Picture 46: The RINGS the first 4d cinema, after show
Stockholm (S) party
Script writer and director KoTW: Junivers Stock-
holm (S)
Narrator: Medora Chevalier (UK)
Panorama Photography: Jan van der Woning(NL)
Choreography: Medora Chevalier
Actors and dancers: Blanche Argus(S), Josi-
na Burgess(NL), Medora Chevalier(UK), Klute
Coppola(F), Efrantirise Morane (I), MillaMilla
Noel(I), Junivers Stockholm (S), Sca Shilova(NL)

The following animations are by Sca Shilova:

*the granny pushing the trolly
*the animation where everyone warms their hands
at the fire
*blanche jumping away from the knife and up
against the bus shelter
*blanche hugging her shoulders after being at-
tacked as she walks to the fire
*the animation of medora inviting juni to come to
Picture 47: Metropolis, Rotwangs Avatar, designed by
fire
Josina Burgess
92 metaverse art
*the animation of sca inviting josi to come to the fire

The technical innovations of the RINGS 4d cinema

production
1. The collaborative worldwide song composition/
recording/mixing technics.
2. A new automatic audiovisual timeline - recording
and controlling system.
3. The flying seat system
4. The 4d live-cut camera system
5. A new space animation record/play system

METROPOLIS

After an idea of Debbie Trilling to do a re-make

of “METROPOLIS” the fist science fiction movie
made in 1927 by Fritz Lang. Velazquez Bonetto
and Josina Burgess started with working out this
Idea to bring it to Second Life.
Picture 48: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Moloch Machine
Here the challenge was even bigger, then now we
diabolus CARP 8-9
wanted to create a 4d cinema/Play that was totally
new and technicaly a high stand.

Of course the team was eager to work on this new

Picture 49: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Heart Machine
diabolus CARP 8-9
show as well and we found new amazing people
with great skills to work with us. Velazquez wanted
to use a controlling system better then what we
tried in the RINGS. The audience had to fly in their
seats from scene to scene, also camera’s were
build in every seat so the audience had nothing
more to do then lean back in their seats at home
and watch. The camera’s showed every close-
up, overlooks and great views. The team learned
to work with the “personal messenger” Velazquez
developed so every actor became through IM the
cue to react on and to teleport right away to the
scene where he or her had to act. All the music for
METROPOLIS was specially written by nnoiz Papp
and we tried to let the whole show stay close to the
Icon metropolis is and not force it into a total differ-
ent message. All was kept in black/white and grey,
 metaverse art 93
only the actors were full colour.
Also for the first time the so called “Muybridge” fig-
ures were introduced. There where a crowd had to
be in a scene we placed many prims with animated
images of avatars, like “workers” or “disco guys”
or “people in garden” or “children”. Josina made
the avatars and gatered the animations, Velazquez
Photographed all the positions and activated them
on the prims. It was a ideal solution and the impact
was overwhelming. We played Metropolis from
march till december 2009 with a full sim every time,
where people came on the sim 21 hour early to be
sure to have a seat. Debbie did filmed every show
and they are all to see on YouTube.

Velazquez Bonetto: rebuild the Whole Metropo-

lis, wrote programms and scripts, situated every
scenery at its place and brought new technology
into SL .
Picture 50: Metropolis 4d cinema the worker city di-
Josina Burgess: created all the caracters, avatars,
abolus CARP 8-9
costumes and together they used Muybridge simu-
lations for mass groups where needed.
nnoiz Papp: wrote and composed the music spe-
cially for Metropolis.
Windyy Lane: build the upperclass scenery and
made all the animations
Sca shilova: build the robot and the animations for
it.

the actors are:

Debbie Trilling
MillaMilla Noel
Efrantirse Morane
Josina Burgess
Velazquez Bonetto

A Camera system is build in the seats where the

audience will sit , also the seats, with audience in
it, will fly around in Metropolis form scene to scene
to be a “part” of the whole.
Picture 51: Metropolis 4d cinema, Rotwangs labor
diabolus CARP 8-9
94 metaverse art
Its so far the biggest project ever done on SL, it
took months of working, building,creating, rehears-
ing and animating.
The actors/avatars playing the key figures teleport
from stage to stage and perform in between cam-
era close-ups.

The whole Metropolis is a 1 hour breathtaking

experience on SL, but not only on SL even in RL
people will be able to watch this via You Tube as a
new way of making a artistique event going beyond
borders.

To give you an idea of the work that was put in to

make this project work: some ïnside information..

http://secondarts.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/carp-
presents-metropolis-in-second-life/

Picture 52: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Chatedral Morris Vig

CARP presents “Metropolis” in Second Life

Posted on April 19, 2009 by Morris Vig SECOND

ARTS

I’ve been hearing that the CARP/Diabolous team

responsible for the inworld tour de force of Pink
Floyd’s The Wall was at it again, this time making
an inworld version of Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 sci-
ence fiction silent motion picture, Metropolis. To-
day, I finally got around to attending a performance.

[Side thought: It’s like Josina Burgess, Debbie

Picture 53: Metropolis 4d cinema, the the soundtrack
creator nnoiz Papp
Trilling and their partners in the SL theatric arts at
CARP know exactly what trips my artistic trigger. I
love Pink Floyd and Roger Waters’ work, hence my
enjoyment of The Wall. In the Viggy collection of
classic movie DVD’s, Metropolis (even my crappy
version of it) sits right alongside Citizen Kane and
Casablanca. The history of the Metropolis movie
 metaverse art 95
is really something interesting, too...click here for
more info on that. But I digress...]

My verdict (like mine is important…a debatable

point)? CARP’s Metropolis is at least the peer of
their version of The Wall, if not its superior. The
subject matter for both stories is equally grand, and
CARP uses Metropolis as an allegory for the state
of the world much like they did with The Wall:

So we see Lang’s vision of the future…the ev-

erlasting difference of the rich and poor, the elite
and the worker, the greedy people on the top and
the suffering masses…very much alive today as
now we see what greediness of the elite did to the
world- economics and us, the people.

Today we are living a crisis that is maybe worse

then the one just after the War.
Picture 54: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Robot by Sca
The main message of Metropolis was that it gave Shilova
a solution to Post-War Germany to attempt a Social
Market.

This in fact is what Metropolis as a movie created

at that time. And this was exactly 60 years ago!
Are we powerless and resigned ?
Or do we change this future?
Do we change our own Metropolis?

With that as foreshadowing….there’s MUCH more

after the fold, including a 100-plus piece slideshow
to document this visual treat…

Technically, you have to start with the theatrical

set. This is a dense build that minimizes the use of
prims (perhaps CARP needs to be in a double-prim
sim like those in Bay City and Nautilus!) and maxi-
mizes the use of textures to achieve the dramatic
effect. As you will see below, the textures are both
rich and grand. They also use textures as a means Picture 55: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Robot by Sca
Shilova
96 metaverse art
to demonstrate masses of characters – the chorus,
if you will – and accomplishes this with impressive
effect. How to ensure that the many, many tex-
tures load in a reasonable amount of time in a full
sim? Easy – they took the first six minutes of the
show to display credits and literally pre-load the
entire pack of textures used in the show. Genius.

This compact build also allows for attendees to sit

in custom-scripted seating and be “physically” (this
is a virtual world, so it can’t be physical,but hope-
fully you get my meaning) moved from scene to
scene. The seating also is a marvel – three sets
of seats, flying around the set like a choreographed
guided tour of the property. Viewers also place
themselves at the mercy of the flying seats – no
need to use flycams or mouseview…just sit back
and enjoy the ride.

Picture 56: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Moloch Ma-
chine
Lastly, the one thing you can’t see in the slideshow
below: Music. The score for this show is really
strong. It’s electronic in nature and complements
the show quite well…just like the textures, the ani-
mations, the costumes…

So here’s the slideshow. It’s quite a show, all 60

minutes of it. And, like The Wall, the Metropolis
company invites the attendees down to the floor to
celebrate the show once it’s done. Can’t beat that!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22475787@N04/
sets/72157615929909533/

Helfe Ihnen (leader of the odyssey art)

posted in flickr 28 mar. 2009

Metropolis is a ‘must see’ in SL!

Picture 57: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Muybridge
animation
What the team has made is absolutely stunning
and at the top level of what is possible in SL. On
the other hand you see sometimes what is missing
in SL in technical and esthetical possibilities. Acting
 metaverse art 97
seems to stay very difficuilt.

Information by the team: The whole Metropolis is a 1 hour breathtaking experi-

After an idea of Debbie Trillling to do a re-make of
METROPOLIS the fist science fiction movie made
in 1927 by Fritz Lang, Velazquez Bonetto and Jo-
sina Burgess started with working out this Idea to
bring it to Second Life.
Velazquez Bonetto rebuild the Whole Metropolis,
wrote programms and scripts, situated every scen-
ery at its place and brought new technology into
SL .
Josina Burgess created all the caracters, avatars,
costumes and together they used Muybridge simu-
lations for mass groups where needed.
Nnoiz Papp wrote and composed the music spe-
cially for Metropolis.
Windyy Lane build the upperclass scenery and
made all the animations
Sca shilova build the robot and the animations for
it.
ence on SL, but not only on SL even in RL people will
be able to watch this via You Tube as a new way of
making a artistique event going beyond borders.
And….still we are looking for new challenges, never
ready, never tired to create, work together with many
great and talented, professional people. The all live far
away from each other, in fact in RL it would be totally
impossible to work together like this, all are comitted,
all give a lot of free time volontairely to create new
ways of Art, new ways of entertainment and work to-
gether, sharing ideas and same time have a lot of fun
as well. Its something to be gratefull for. The meta-
verse makes all this possible!
Josina Burgess/Josina den Burger

the actors are:

Debbie Trilling
MillaMilla Noel
Efrantirse Morane
Josina Burgess
Velazquez Bonetto

A Camera system is build in the seats where the

audience will sit , also the seats, with audience in
it, will fly around in Metropolis form scene to scene
to be a “part” of the whole.

Its so far the biggest project ever done on SL, it

took months of working, building,creating, rehears-
ing and animating.
The actors/avatars playing the key figures teleport
from stage to stage and perform in between cam-
era close-ups. Picture 58: Metropolis 4d cinema, performing in
camera closeups
98 metaverse art

Picture 4: Diabolus/CARP Picture 59: Metropolis 4d cinema, the Muybridge animation

 metaverse art 99

gested that maybe it would make a good topic for the

next Lane’s List. “Yes! Oh Nazz, that would be so awe-
some, you could call your article “The Arts in Second
Life”!” she exclaimed.

After our conversation, the question she posed began

to intrigue me more so I decided to do some prelimi-
The Arts in nary research. Opening a search window I typed “arts”
in the group search tab which brought a load of hits
Second Life and, as I sorted through them, it was apparent that
an SL art community was substantial and active in SL.

Part One “This is going to take some time,” I said aloud while
looking at and sorting through the information. Sigh-
ing, I leaned back in my office chair and tried to put
some boundaries around this effort. I begin thinking
Nazz Lane about her reply to my question, what did she mean by
Thursday, January 17, 2008 the arts, and her answer in a roundabout way suggest-
ed a border line between the visual and performance
arts. There, seemingly, was an initial scope, arbitrary to
be sure, but one that could be fleshed out to create an
image of the state and direction of such a broad topic
as “The Arts in Second Life”.

“So where do I go from here?” I asked aloud and my

It was shortly before the New Year holiday,
cat gave me a look that suggested I keep silent and let
one morning, while chatting in game with a friend
her sleep. Taking her advice, I returned to the search
that had sparked the idea for this edition. We’d been
results and began to break out the results into the
comparing notes on a singer we’d each heard per-
two categories, making notes of group names, char-
form. She had been enthralled by his voice and I had
ters and owner names. It was still a lot of information,
commented that while he did have a good range his
but a good start I thought: “Now I need to figure out
work with the guitar needed practice. She laughed at
what to ask them.” Again aloud, which apparently was
my comment and then asked: “What do you think will
more than the cat could bear as she stood and gave
happen in the musical scene and, really, in the over-
me one of those cat looks suggesting a low level of
all SL art scene in 2008?” After laughingly suggesting
tolerance for people. She stretched and then scurried
that the question is one that probably could be best
out of my office to find a place where she could nap
answered in December of 2008, I asked her what she
undisturbed. Undeterred by her antics, I continued my
meant by the arts. “Well, I’ve been to a lot of galler-
work.
ies, seen so many live concerts and have gone to two
ballets. I’m just curious about what the New Year will
With a desire to acquire a cross section of people to
bring us,” she replied. Smiling as I responded, I sug-
100 metaverse art
 metaverse art 101
speak with, I chose from my search the larger member-
ship groups and the ones that implied in their charter
a clear scope of the activities. The individuals I spoke
with and questioned for this edition are noted. “So,
now I have a list of who to talk with, but what should I
ask?” As I thought about it, I reflected on my RL expe-
riences. It had always been helpful to me in knowing
what direction I should take when I had a clear idea of
where I’ve been, and what were the trends that may
affect the course I’d chosen. Thinking on that while
getting a fresh cup of coffee, the list of what to ask be-
gan to formulate in my mind. Returning to my office, I
sat down and my fingers hit the keyboard to generate
a short list of questions.

After assembling the list of people and the questions,

I then disseminated, collected, reviewed and consoli-
dated note cards. Here is Part One of a survey on “The
Arts in Second Life”. Part Two will follow soon and its Picture 2: sculpture/architecture by Shellina Winkler
focus will be in the area of the performance arts.

Picture 1: doppelgänger, Temporary self portrait by Picture 3: worldwide audiovisual improvisation (VJAZZ) by
Nonnatus Korhonen. Portrait Island, The National Portrait Velazquez Bonetto & Josina Burgess. Art Space Diabolus
Gallery, Canberra benvolio
102 metaverse art

Picture 4: Exhibition doppelgänger,Autoscopia 2009 by Adam Ramona, Christo Kayo. Jack Shoreland Portrait Island, The
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
 metaverse art 103

Picture 5 doppelgänger, Code portraits by Man Michinaga. Portrait Island, The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

Picture 6: Exhibition doppelgänger, iGods by Gazira Babelli. Portrait Island, The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
104 metaverse art

Picture 7: Pixel Sideways

 metaverse art 105

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?

When we started our work in SL last year, we were ab-

solute beginners. At this time, we could not say how
our work will develop. Six weeks later, we finished our
artwork “I’ll be your substitute whenever you want
me”. We did not have any concrete expectations and
didn’t think about things like that during our work,
Myth Guyot but when we saw it after finishing, we could say things
developed great. As we see it, our concept is to ask
Artist about “what is real” works. Also, what works is creat-
ing emotions during the trip through the cave and
the maze. So things have evolved very good from our
view.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

Art in the common spaces of SL will develop more.

There are lots of art locations. But many of them
show only this art called “single prim art” and use SL
as a platform to show things and works from the “real
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
world” they live in. We think that more artists will use
art world and why were they significant?
SL as a field of experimenting with new forms of 3-D
and interactive art. The interesting thing is not to dis-
We think that the interactive sculptures on the island
turb this “nice created” second world anyway, to work
of Odyssey Gallery are one of the most significant art
subtly.
works using the technical possibilities of SL. Then next,
the project “Second Art” in which we were participants,
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
too, because of the different concepts to work within
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
SL using the special technology of this platform. When
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
we built our labyrinth, we heard from other residents
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
that we had created something really new in SL. The
way we were playing with typography, they had not
No, we have not explored other virtual 3D worlds.
seen this before anywhere in SL. Then, lastly, the work
from Natalie Bernewitz and Marek Goldowski, with the
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
sounds of the water towers of New York.
ings, influences etc.)
106 metaverse art

Picture 3: Georg Janick arena 2008

 metaverse art 107

Our work will continue, but at this moment we cannot

say anything about a new project. We think, it is good,
to keep the eyes open about new interesting art-proj-
ects. Then it will be interesting, if these political mo-
tivated demonstrations will continue and if they will
become a political force. We will keep you informed
about our new works.

Picture 2: freedom by shellina Winkler & Solkide Auer

Picture 3: freedom shellina Winkler, Solkide Auer

108 metaverse art

Picture 4: DanCoyote Antonelli arena 2009

 metaverse art 109

thing we have envisioned come to light and more. The

growth and the great people we have attracted here
have been really positive. I look forward to continuing
this positive trend and working with all the wonderful
personalities we’ve connected with.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

I think that the increase in the sense of community

Tricia Aferdita in the art world has been significant. Having started
out from scratch here myself, I can honestly say that
Artist, Promoter having someone who’s willing to go out of their way
to help you get started is a real gift. I think the SL art
and Gallery Owner world is leaning away from the lone, self-promoting
artists and leaning more towards artist collectives
and communities where they can all work together
towards the goal of making people aware of their art.
There have been more outreach projects, idea sharing
and communities forming in recent months that make
me hopeful this is a continuing trend.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
art world and why were they significant?
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
I think recognition by outside entities such as the
I have explored a couple of other virtual worlds. I
Corsa Guide was really significant. I think the future of
found them to be too linear and restrictive. There
making art in SL a viable business is to expand the RL/
was, pretty much, a plan you had to follow to get any-
SL connection and make SL a place to go to view art
where. Creativity was limited and I was quickly bored
in a 3D environment that is more ‘explorable’ than a
or frustrated. It actually motivated me to do more cre-
website.
ating and building here in SL, something I hadn’t been
doing.
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
not?
ings, influences etc.)
I am really happy with the way things have evolved for
Cetus Gallery District continues to grow and expand.
us in Cetus this last year. We have literally seen every-
110 metaverse art

Picture 1: Four Yip asena 2009

 metaverse art 111
Some of my plans in Cetus include working outside of
the artistic box a little, adding some new things to the
District. We are developing a great events team in or-
der to expand Cetus as an events venue. In addition,
we are adding more charitable events, starting with
this month’s campaign to raise awareness and funds
for the artists still struggling in the aftermath of Hur-
ricane Katrina. We will be fundraising and holding
events all month to benefit this, including live music
and a Masquerade Ball and Art Auction.

Picture 2: Bryn Oh

Picture 3: Bryn Oh
112 metaverse art

Picture 4: Chen Pitney arena 2008

 metaverse art 113

the top-ranking artists/patrons were given in Novem-

ber, and the gala and release of the list of winners was
on the 1st of December. This year’s event was a big
enough success that it will become an annual event
and we anticipate it becoming a much larger event in
the coming years. For more information on the ‘Best of
SL Art’ project, please visit http://art.krystalepic.com/
index.php?q=node&page=13 and, to view the list of
winners, please visit http://virtualartpedia.a.wiki-site.

Cyanide Seelowe com/index.php/Best_of_SL_Art_2007.

Virtual Artist In early December of 2007, I launched ‘VirtualArtpedia’

(http://virtualartpedia.wiki-site.com), a wiki-site with

Alliance
a focus on the Second Life art community. I started
the wiki with the intention of providing the public
with a central, objective source of knowledge about
the art community that the community itself would
be responsible for; this is also part of an initiative to
spread the word about Second Life’s art community,
as it is considered by many to be the backbone of
Second Life. The wiki is still in its early stages, but the
site boasts over 1500 pages of content and 50 articles
about the art community in its first month of opera-
tion.
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
art world and why were they significant?
The Abyss Museum of Ocean Science, built by Rezago
Kokorin and Sunn Thunders, was opened in 2007. It is
2007 was the first year of Krystal Epic’s ‘Best of SL
an aquatic environment that combines art and educa-
Art’ project. This event was broadcast to Second Life
tion in what can easily be summed up as a breathtak-
as an opportunity to recognize creators, leaders and
ing collaborative installation. For a list of press releas-
volunteers for their achievements in the Second Life
es and articles, as well as project logs by the creators,
art community. Members of the community could
please visit http://abyss-secondlife.blogspot.com/.
nominate themselves or their favorite figure in the art
community for any of four categories: Best Artist in the
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
Creation Arts, Best Artist in the Performing Arts, Most
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
Influential Venue and Owner, and Most Influential Pa-
why not?
tron, Collector, Curator and/or Supporter. Nominations
for the Best of SL Art 2007 occurred in September, all
Setting up expectations for how things will evolve in
members of the community were invited to review
Second Life sounds like an easy way to set oneself up
the nominations and vote in October, interviews of
114 metaverse art

for disappointment. There are so many brilliant and
creative minds at work already, and each day brings
us a handful of new residents who exhibit amazing
potential; Second Life, as far as I see it, is a collective
consciousness, and all of the different elements that
compose this consciousness make it the most unpre-
dictable beast in existence.
What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?
I think that the ‘Best of SL Art’ project will have a signifi-
cant impact on the community, now that it’s out of its
first year. Since the community is aware of this event,
they have a specific goal to shoot for now; I think it will
motivate people to put that extra “oomph” into their
efforts if they consider that people might be voting for
them to be the Best Artist in the Creation Arts or Most
Influential Venue Owner of 2008.
metaverse art 115
ground, looking through Group Notices in groups such
as ‘Art & Artist Network!’ and ‘Creatives, Artists and Mu-
sicians’ and talking to as many people as you can at as
many events as you can attend. You will, of course, hear
about popular happenings such as Oyster Bay’s events or
Sasun Steinbeck’s ongoing contributions to the art com-
munity; these things are important, but the information
is easy to come by since its common knowledge. If one
actually puts some effort into reading group notices and
talking to Average Joe, it’ll become increasingly clear that
some of the most amazing accomplishments in Second
Life are hidden gems that are waiting to be discovered.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

I haven’t had the opportunity to explore other virtual

worlds (outside of the occasional close-ended video
game) and so, everything I do in Second Life is pretty
much a product of Second Life influences. Inversely,
Second Life has inspired me to explore the idea of
digital cultures and the histories thereof.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

ings, influences etc.)

The best way to gauge that is to keep one’s ear to the

Picture 1: sculpture by Chi5 MdM arena 2008 Picture 2: installation by Ak Yip MdM arena 2008
116 metaverse art

Picture 3: installation by Bryn Oh MdM arena 2008

 metaverse art 117

events in SL, just like the year before. On 1/1/07, we

were at about 150 galleries and, one year later, at 400.
This in itself is an amazing achievement for art in SL.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?

Sasun Steinbeck I think the steady, straight-line growth of the number

of galleries in SL has been a bit of a surprise to me. I

Art Gallery Owners

never had any idea I’d reach 400 galleries on the list,
this number is just staggering. On 5/1/2006, when I
first started recording these numbers, there were only
50 galleries on the list.

The other trend that I would have predicted is to see

more art that takes advantage of SL’s unique ability to
script objects in interesting ways to create fascinating
audio/visual experiences for the observer. Douglas
Story is a great example of an artist that collaborates
with scripters to realize very unique and stunning au-
dio/visual experiences that interact with and really
engage the viewer. vIn my opinion, SL is just ripe for
more of this kind of art. This is SL’s unique palette and
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
we need more artists to understand it, explore it, and
art world and why were they significant?
try bold new things that simply can’t be done any-
where else.
The biggest is, most definitely, the introduction of
sculptie prims. This has enabled a whole new era in 3D
What were the trends that began last year that will
art in SL. The types of sculptures you can produce has
have the greatest impact in 2008?
been expanded and changed immensely. Sculpting
with “regular” prims will always be an art form in itself,
Sculptie-based art will become a major presence as
as will traditional 2D texture art, but sculpties have
more artists learn the skills necessary. There will be
and will change the nature of SL sculpture forever. Its
more experiments with scripted, immersive, multi-
potential remains to be tapped and we have yet to see
sensory, engaging art experiences that will make big
very many masters of this new art form emerge.
news.
In the last year I can’t really point to any other monu-
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
mental milestones, but rather a steady and consistent
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
growth in the number of art galleries and art-related
118 metaverse art
 metaverse art 119
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

No, SL keeps me busy enough :)

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

ings, influences etc.)

We will see more galleries that will demand a higher

percentage of the sales of their artists’ artwork. This is
both good and bad. The costs of running, promoting
and keeping traffic consistently high at a big art gal-
lery are very high and time consuming. Though the
artists get less out of each sale and more of each sale is
going toward the costs of running the gallery, the ben-
efits are that more people are attending events and
visiting these more visible galleries and therefore buy-
ing more art. There will always be galleries that host
other artists’ work for free because they want to help Picture 2: Sasun Steinbeck MdM arena 2008
promote art in SL and their costs are not high, but as
SL continues to grow and the art-purchasing market
expand, you will see more large galleries that charge
commissions for art to help keep the gallery running
and successful.

You will see the influence of some of the premier sculp-

tie experts like Light Waves spreading to other artists.
Seeing what is possible can capture the imagination
of new artists that get inspired to learn the necessary
tools to create amazing sculptie-based sculptures and
this type of art will begin to spread.

Picture 1: Sasun Steinbeck MdM arena 2008 Picture 3: Sasun Steinbeck MdM arena 2008
120 metaverse art

Picture 4: Sasun Steinbeck MdM arena 2008

metaverse art 121
122 metaverse art
 metaverse art 123

Picture 5-6: Sasun Steinbeck MdM arena 2008

124 metaverse art

Picture 7: Sasun Steinbeck

 metaverse art 125

Yes, Second Life’s growth was explosive in 2007, as

were the introduction of many small art galleries.
Knowing the potential of SL, I knew it would only be a
matter of time until thousands of galleries would pop
up, which is the case now.

What were the trends that begin last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

Tommy Parrott Interactive art. Wall hangings are great, but people

Art Collectors of want interactivity. Artisans are beginning to fill this

need the public wants, changeable art that either

Second Life
suits mood or makes a statement. Static art in SL is,
unfortunately, not what SL art is all about. It IS about
the freedom to create WHATEVER you can imagine.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

Yes, I have signed up with Hipihi.com. But, no, SL was

my first virtual world and, therefore, my favorite, so
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
others will be influenced BY SL.
art world and why were they significant?
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
Second Life becoming an artisan Mecca, RL artisans
ings, influences etc.)
flocked to Second Life in 2007 in droves. The ability
to exhibit in a digital medium such as Second Life is
That I cannot say as Second Life is an ever-evolving
enticing to many. Once the learning curve is behind,
presence with new talent coming in on a daily basis; I
YOU are your only limitation to what can be created.
would have to say that 2008 will be an explosive year
The significance of this is simple, it will be a universal
for SL, as its growth of real-world presence will prolif-
gathering place for artisans of all types to create many
erate around the globe, as the art scene in Second Life
wonderful works (static, interactive auditory & visual
has in 2007.
presentations).
ArtWorld Market – Managing Editor and Publisher,
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
SLART™
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?
126 metaverse art

What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
art world and why were they significant?
The NMC multi-sim art show ‘NMConnect’, which
brought together a huge number of visual and per-
forming artists. DanCoyotAntonelli’s sim-wide “full im-
mersion hyperformalism” installation at NMC, which
was supposed to be up only for a week during the
Creativity Symposium and is still up. The publication
of SLART™ in RL, which brought the SL art world to the
RL art world, and provided archival documentation of
the early uses of SL as an art medium.
metaverse art 127
Not significantly.
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, openings,
influences etc.)
We are preparing to open the SLART™ Academy with
classes, workshops, and publications directed toward the
creation and distribution of art in virtual worlds. In Febru-
ary, we are planning to present the SLART™ Festival.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?

Yes. People are recognizing that SL provides a unique

creative medium for artists, including live streaming
performance.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

Realization by artists that the business of art has many

parallels in SL and RL, but that the copy ability and re-
producibility of works requires more attention to the
artist-dealer contract, alertness to IP infringement,
and proper settings of permissions when creating
works.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

Picture 1: virtual environment by Comet Morigi MdM Picture 2: Milla Milla Noel Alien Glow
arena 2008
128 metaverse art

Picture 3: Luce Laval MdM arena 2008


Nebulosus Severine
Art & Artist Network
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
art world and why were they significant?
In no particular order for chronology or importance,
here are several milestones I can think of that had an
impact on SL art in 2007:
* The formation of Bettina Tizzy’s NPIRL group, which
has united some of the most influential and creative
artists who use Second Life as a medium;
* The Rezzable SIMs, such as Dark Swan and the
Greenies installation, which devote entire SIMs to a
particular theme or work;
* The return of Starax Statosky, now known as Light
Waves, who is arguably SL’s most well-known and best
loved artist;
metaverse art 129
* Brian Eno’s ‘77 million Paintings’ installation, prob-
ably the most significant example of an SL-RL cross-
over art event;
* The Second Life 4th Birthday celebration, which
gathered together a wide range of artists, builders,
and content creators, and was attended by thousands
of residents, despite the massive technical problems
plaguing the event.
* Burning Life 2007, which was handled complete-
ly differently than any other year, causing a huge
amount of controversy and drama for many residents
involved, including the censoring of a sculpture by
Cheen Pitney and resulting outcry as a result.
* Project Open Letter, written to Linden Labs and
signed by many residents frustrated with the repeated
techinical difficulties with Second Life. Many SL artists,
some of the most passionate content creators, were
among the thousands of residents to add their signa-
ture to the letter. http://www.projectopenletter.com/
* The controversial “Keeping Second Life Safe, To-
gether” post in the official Linden blog raised con-
cerns of Free Speech and Free Expression for many
SL artists. http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/31/
keeping-second-life-safe-together/
* Massive inventory losses affected many residents,
among them important and highly respected content
creators, such as Arcadia Asylum, whose frustration
led her to leave Second Life for good.
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?
I personally did not anticipate the population of Sec-
ond Life to grow so drastically. As a result, the art
world has exploded here. I expected the art world to
grow, but not as much as it actually did!
What were the trends that began last year that will
130 metaverse art

have the greatest impact in 2008?
Artists selling “limited editions” of their work. This
practice arose a fair amount of controversy, docu-
mented in part in ArtWorld Market’s SLArt blog: http://
slartblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/no-more-phony-
limited-editions.html
Immersive sound installations, such as those created
by Juria Yoshikawa, Daruma Picnic, and Adam Ramo-
na.
Art SIMs, in which an entire SIM is devoted to a gallery
or installation, such as the Rezzabor the collaborative
‘Dynafleur’ project on the Princeton South SIM.
Artist collectives, in which several significant art-
ists with similar styles occupy a shared major gallery
space, such as Oyster Bay (mostly sculpture) and The
Cannery (featuring Snapshot photography).
Art blogging. Many individual artists and art collec-
tives have blogs now. It’s a great way to document
events, gatherings and achievments as blogging is
often the easiest (and usually free) way of creating
a personal webpage. Many artists also have accom-
panying Flickr accounts to document their work and
supplement their blogs.
“Mixed reality” events, SL art galleries or events that
have a real life/first life equivalent occurring at the
same time.
Live music events. These have been going on for a
couple of years, but 2007 was the year that probably
saw the greatest influx of new musical acts. I believe
Picture 1: Humming Pera & Gumnosophistai Nurmi
metaverse art 131
that this trend will continue to grow in 2008.
Windlight. While not a “trend,” is something that will have
a huge impact once it is fully integrated into SL. The at-
mospheric possibilities are almost endless for artists who
are able to control SIM settings, and I imagine many will
take the opportunity to incorporate Windlight aspects
into their installations. There is also a new option for
prims, “Glow,” which will give sculptors even more to play
with while building.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that had
any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you have, has
what you’ve done there been influenced by what you’ve
done or not done in SL?
Second Life is my first 3D online environment, so I have
no outside influences from any other online worlds or
MMORPGs.
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, openings,
influences etc.)
I’m usually too wrapped up in my own projects to know
about new events until they are happening! I am definite-
ly looking forward to what Windlight will bring; I hope
Linden Labs will be able to release a stable version of it
this year. I’ve also got several personal and collaborative
projects in mind for this year but, so far, those are all top
secret!
132 metaverse art

Picture 2: Caravaggio Bonetto Emoticon diabolus-

CARP

Xander Ruttan
Promoter and
Gallery Owner
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
art world and why were they significant?
One event struck me as a milestone, and that was
the in-world exhibition of Gottfried Helnwein’s work.
Until then, SL’s art world seemed to be more about
either do-it-yourselfers (self-promoting artists with-
out significant RL art world repute), or presentation of
major art world historical figures, shows which raise
a lot of questions about copyright infringement and
deceased artists’ estate issues. Helnwein is a high-
profile, living artist and, while the art world establish-
ment lacks consensus about the merit of his work,
he has as least some RL art world credibility. His SL
presence came at a time when few, if any, other major
contemporary artists or high-profile RL galleries had
metaverse art 133
yet to venture into SL (and really have not come into
SL even now, so long as average SL residents are not
significant collectors of RL contemporary art. The RL
galleries must, by necessity, go where the monied art
audience is found.) Cetus is well-positioned to attract
RL galleries as its design reflects the RL environments
where they typically set up shop - places like New
York’s Chelsea gallery district, or the Pearl District in
Portland, Oregon, where I lived.
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?
Cetus Gallery District has unfolded very much accord-
ing to the original vision I had for it. In many ways, Ce-
tus has exceeded my expectation by attracting great
people, including a lot of RL art world people. We
have a thriving community here of more than 30 gal-
lery owners and residents who have joined in to col-
laborate and do charitable works (for example, raising
money for needy artists still struggling to recover from
Hurricane Katrina). Many Cetus residents have been
there from the start, so it’s also one of the more stable
art communities in SL. We’re celebrating our one-year
anniversary throughout January ‘08. And we have a lot
to celebrate, having been chosen Best Cultural Site in
SL in the Corsa Guide popular vote this first year, and
also among the Top 6 Most Influential Art Venues in
SL in the ‘Best of SL Art’ event a couple of months ago.
What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?
The trend I have been seeing that will mean the great-
est success for the SL art world is the mirroring of RL
art world practices. The trend is toward providing
more substantial or scholarly information and au-
thentication, toward a bit more restraint in creating
134 metaverse art
 metaverse art 135
environments in which art looks good, is allowed to
be seen as important, and a trend away from gim-
micky, self-indulgent spaces which compete or fail
to flatter the artworks shown. Just because one CAN
build a multi-colored, patterned, flashing, spinning
fluorescent-looking SL gallery space doesn’t necessar-
ily mean that’s a good way to design an art exhibition.
It also doesn’t mean it’s art, when SL artists use every
trick afforded them by SL tools. Just because it flashes
and spins or has a tricky script doesn’t make it art or, at
least, good or important art. I think the trend is toward
SL artists deepening the concepts behind their art to
reflect the unique virtual culture we live in here, to-
ward a more truly indigenous art, and for RL artists to
present their RL art in surroundings that dignify things
just a bit more. Whimsy is good but it’s just one of
many vibes to explore. For some galleries, a little more
realism and attention to detail wouldn’t hurt, and I see
a growing interest toward that among the Cetus art Picture 2: Cetus Gallery District architecture by DB Bailey
dealers, especially. The realism is part of what attracts
them here in the first place.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

So far, no other virtual world intrigues me. I’ve read

about There.com, about MTV’s forays into virtual life-
style stuff with Virtual Lower East Side, but SL is the
only environment whose founders had the courage
to give us powerful tools and the freedom to create
what we want. Of course, that cuts both ways - a lot
of people glimpse SL at a distance on first visit and
pronounce it horrible-looking. But that’s the price for
user-created content. There is a lot that is worth con-
sidering in SL but, just like RL, you have to sift through

Picture 1: Cetus Gallery District architecture by DB Bailey Picture 3: Cetus Gallery District architecture by DB Bailey
136 metaverse art
a lot of bad stuff to find it. I’m willing to do that.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

ings, influences etc.)

In addition to our One-Year Anniversary Celebration

mentioned above, Cetus will be relocating to its own
SIMs and expanding. This will greatly improve our
residents’ visitors’ experiences and performance. Our
growth has been explosive, even as overall SL popula-
tion has declined, so we are now nearly full occupancy
with a waiting list for certain kinds of spaces here. In
other new Cetus-related developments, I’m organiz-
ing solo exhibitions of a few very high profile RL artists
for Ruttan Gallery, which is my own space among the
various other art galleries I lease to others here in the
District. But the biggest project under construction
here is the Cetus Museum of Modern & Contemporary
Art, for which a board of directors is forming, an effort
made up of RL art world people, with curatorial input
from RL art museums that will give it some of the best-
developed exhibition and art education programming
in SL. It has RL nonprofit status so it will be governed
very much like a RL arts institution, and be able to at-
tract tax-deductible contributions and grants. Our
goal is to create a dynamic conduit for the RL art world
so that RL and SL art and artists may flow more freely
between worlds in a more permeable way. The Cetus
Museum promises to advance Cetus’ mission and vi-

Picture 4: Cetus Gallery District architecture by DB Bailey

metaverse art 137
138 metaverse art

Picture 5: Cetus Gallery District architecture by DB Bailey Picture 6-9: Cetus Gallery District architecture
by DB Bailey
metaverse art 139
140 metaverse art

Picture 10: Cetus Gallery District architecture by DB Bailey

 metaverse art 141

nating, collecting, reviewing and consolidating note

cards, here is Part Two of a survey on “The Arts in Sec-
ond Life”. Part Three, the last of this series will follow
soon and its focus will be on Literature in Second Life.

The Arts in
Second Life
Part Two
Nazz Lane
Sunday, January 27, 2008

Live musical performances have been woven into the

fabric of Second Life so tightly now that even the Lin-
dens have posted a message letting us know how to
find out what is happening as we log into SL, suggest-
ing we seek out a concert or performance to attend.
Whether it’s the sweet voice of a jazz vocalist’s render-
ing of a standard, or that of a ballad, or the delicate
pirouette of an SL ballerina, or actors on a stage, there
is something for all residents of this metaverse. This
edition is Part Two of “The Arts in Second Life”. Part one
focused on the visual art community with contribu-
tions from artists, gallery owners and promoters. Part
Two will follow in a similar vein with the perspective of
performance artists, group owners and venue owners.
Picture 1: cypress Rosewood in Fotoproject by Josina
After assembling the list of people and then dissemi- Burgess. Scripting: Velazquez Bonetto. Art Space
Diabolus benvolio 2009. 12. 05.
142 metaverse art

Picture 2: Second Artifical Life by Haico Hax MdM arena 2009

metaverse art 143
144 metaverse art

Picture 3: cypress Rosewood concert in Fotoproject by Josina Burgess, diabolus.CARP 2009

 metaverse art 145

I didn’t think of how I should come or go into the Mu-

sic business. I took it how it came but I had my line
where I wanted to go and everything was just awe-
some.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

I see that more and more classical musicians are com-

ing into SL and that’s really great. I know of so many
great opera singers, classical musicians, and they are
Joy Ash really great.

Mediaculture Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
Group have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

I’m not in any other virtual worlds because I have so

much work in RL and SL with Mediaculture, so there is
no free time for other virtual worlds.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

ings, influences etc.)
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
A lot of new musicians, really great musicians and
cant?
bands will enter SL. Mediaculture has two projects go-
ing on in RL and that will be really a big thing with
I think that the milestone was that more and more re-
Second Life. Also next will be the copyrights about
ally remarkable musicians came into SL, if you look at
music in SL.
the biography of some: Siham Palmer, Napthali Hawks,
Cyberpiper, MoShang and a lot more. It’s just I can’t
count everyone, the list would be too long *smiles*
and I don’t want to hurt any other musician I didn’t
count.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?
146 metaverse art

Picture 1: Second Front performance MdM arena 2008

 metaverse art 147

Picture 2 Second Front performance MdM arena 2008

148 metaverse art

Picture 3: Susa by Rose Borchovsky

 metaverse art 149

places in SL. Despite widespread interest in classical

music, I am still surprised at how few places there are
streaming good classical music.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

Hopefully, more top quality performances from the

likes of Origin Rang, the Schumanns and other excel-
lent classical performers. I started the group “Clas-
sical Pianists”, which now has 76 members, with the
Yavanna Llanfair intention of getting classical pianists together, and so
that event organizers have a forum where they can
Classical Pianists advertise for performers, and advertise performances.
There are some top class pianists in the group, some
of whom are willing and keen to perform live in SL,
and I hope that event organizers will use this increas-
ingly as a source for contacting willing performers.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
Not recently, no. I was a Cybertown resident, but SL is
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
just so far beyond that technology that it is not really
cant?
comparable on the same scale.
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
live in Second Life in October - the first orchestra to
ings, influences etc.)
give a live performance here. Also, Origin Rang’s live
piano performances - a true virtuoso, and a truly
Hopefully, an expanding of classical music events and
amazing experience.
places, I’d love to see my own ballroom in Basilisk be-
ing more used, where anyone can select from a range
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
of classical streams.
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?

I opened a classical ballroom back in September,

because I felt there was a lack of true classical music
150 metaverse art

Picture 1: pirats art trush tower

 metaverse art 151

Picture 2 Velazquez Bonetto Imagine, run for your life

152 metaverse art

Picture 3: Sicily Zapatero Imagine diabolus-CARP 2009

 metaverse art 153

not foresee this kind and amount of success! Six hun-

dred members, a large company, a 6 month run of our
first ballet “Olmannen”, demands for Euro and more
performances.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

Inarra Saarinen Well, again I have to point to dance performing art

that is truly art and does not rely on pose balls or
Second Life Ballet HUD’s. We are moving beyond sex, gambling, and club
dances in SL and towards the arts.
Founder and Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
Artistic Director had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

I have worked with the Internet and performance a

great deal in the past. I worked simultaneously with
performers at geographic distances. I also worked
with the ability to dance with images.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
ings, influences etc.)
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
cant?
Again, speaking for Second Life Ballet, we are looking
forward to some First Life/Second Life collaborations
Well, the founding and first performances of Second
and explorations.
Life Ballet *smiles* As far as we know, this is the first
and only performing ballet group in virtual space.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?

Yes and no. Yes, in that I did have the goal to have cho-
reography in progress, an active performing company,
and to start being seen in First Life publications by the
end of this year. This has happened. No, in that I did
154 metaverse art

Picture 1: Caravaggio Bonetto, Velazquez Bonetto Imagine, New York International Knowledge Exchange outside
metaverse art 155
156 metaverse art

Picture 1: Josina Burgess Imagine, New York International Knowledge Exchange inside
 metaverse art 157

sored by iCommons, USC Center on Public Diplomacy,

and Linden Lab. Success indicators were:
o Mixing the Two Worlds (Real and Virtual)
o Reaching More People via Second Life
o More Awareness and Use of Broad Sharing Vision,
Principles and Methodologies
o Successful SL Conference Experience for iCommons
and USC

Audio Consultant, DJ, MC for PHILANTHROPY IN

VIRTUAL WORLDS EVENT, USC ANNENBERG PUBLIC
DIPLOMACY ISLAND: Philip Rosedale and Jonathan
Cher Harrington Fanton conversation about philanthropy in virtual
worlds. Combining USC staff, MacArthur Foundation
Audio Consultant staff and Philip Rosedale into one stream via Skype
and Winamp to 4 joined SIM’s while MC’ing the event
and DJ’ing SL Live Artists songs - each approved by
Jonathan Fanton, MacArthur Foundation President.

Hostess, MC, Coordinator: Streaming seminars with

MMAC - STREAMING AUDIO IN SECOND LIFE SEMI-
NAR: How to stream audio to SL community. “Again
by popular demand, given the number of queries by
people seeking how-to info, Dash Renoir, Director of
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
the Multi Media Arts Center (the MMAC), has set up
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
another tutorial seminar, STREAMING AUDIO IN SEC-
cant?
OND LIFE. He has asked SL audio consultant Cher Har-
rington to arrange and moderate the next panel.”
Key milestones for me on a personal level in the per-
formance arts world were:
Production coordinator of “Catch A Rising Star” for
Dublin with artists such as Johnny99 Gumshoe, UFS
· Fox 11 News Los Angeles Interview: http://www.dub-
Hyde and Matthew Perreault performing for the first
linsl.com/media.html
time in SL. Catch a Rising Star was a showcase for up-
· Newsweek Interview
coming Live Artists, new or not so well known in SL,
· Entertainment Director for iCommons Summit 2007
from the first time portraits, installing audio programs
in Second Life: http://www.icommons.org/isummit07/
to a successful two hour show in the Dublin SIM.
, 15-17 June, Dubrovnik, Croatia, REAL WORLD, 15-17
June, Ilha de Intercambio, Second Life, VIRTUAL REAL-
Manager: SL Live Radio: First dedicated all SL Live Art-
ITY. PURPOSE: To create a parallel iCommons Summit
ist Station: http://www.slliveradio.com. Courtesy of SL
2007 conference in virtual reality in Second Life, spon-
158 metaverse art

Picture 1 Josina Burgess Hyperformal


Live Musicians, Radio Cher, and PickSL Dublin Services:
(http://66.34.54.162:8014 ). Pick SL Dublin Services
and Radio Cher have been providing SL Live Artist re-
cordings online since September 2006 and July 2007,
respectively, and have combined forces in November
2007 into one SL Live Radio service to make more mu-
sic available to artists and listeners.
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?
Things are growing at a fast pace in SL - I hear com-
plaints about only 25 group and TP issues - when I
remember one TP point per SIM and 10 groups per
avatar. I see this with the influx of live artists into
SL - the number has more than doubled in the past
year. Everyone has such wonderful ideas and there is
a place for all in Second Life, it truly is a community. I
believe that this community spirit will carry over and
expand - designers, artists, scripters, venues, educa-
tors and more - all working together more efficiently
to produce outstanding products, services, entertain-
ment and talent that will become known beyond SL to
the real world.
What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?
One trend I see that I believe will have an impact on
2008 is Simulcast streaming - where the artist streams
from a real life show into a Second Life venue.
Simulcasting began in the Dublin SL SIM over a year
ago by simulcasting live shows weekly from The Bed-
ford in Greenwich, UK into the Blarney Stone: http://
www.thebedford.co.uk/ . The Bedford (also known as
The Bedford Arms) is an English public house situated
in Balham, London. It is a well known venue for weekly
live music nights, featuring acoustic sets from up-and-
coming new artists and established acts. This year,
metaverse art 159
Dublin will be simulcasting biweekly with two additional
venues streaming into the Blarney Stone. Simulcasting
is about finding new talent in local regions and getting
them heard worldwide, getting them into SL when they
weren’t already big famous stars, either, but regular tal-
ented musicians.
Additionally, musicians such as MidKnight Auer, Tone
Uriza and Forsythe Whitfield are seeing simulcasting as
a way to combine SL and RL effectively - sales and pro-
motion to two worlds at once. MidKnight Auer streams
from Stingaree in RL San Diego, into SL’s Diegoland Club
Wicked weekly, using a soundman and two microphones,
as does Tone Uriza with his band, Tony and the Torpedoes,
from the Boondock’s Lounge in Arizona once a month.
Also, Forsythe Whitfield is planning to take his RL show
from Montreal, Canada, and simulcast - announcing the
brand-new CD while performing to both SL and RL audi-
ences at the same time - on February 29. He is selling the
CD to in-world audiences through an mp3 kiosk and then
to the RL audience in person.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that had
any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you have, has
what you’ve done there been influenced by what you’ve
done or not done in SL?
I was a beta tester for The Sims Online, and promotions
director and DJ for a radio station there. To ask someone
to listen to your station, they needed to have an outside
audioplayer and paste the URL in the player. Each listener
was a chore to get - many did not have Winamp, Media-
Player, etc! Tip jars and pay were unheard of, we did it for
the love of music. When I came to SL and saw you could
step into a parcel and automatically hear music, this
amazed me. But most of all, what changed my life was
hearing RL musicians play live and streaming into a vir-
tual world. I DJed for a while in both worlds, but I found
160 metaverse art
as Dublin, Diegoland and Zurich, each month, for an
exchange of cultures, ideas and activities.
that SL with its “advanced” streaming technology and live
artists, was the place I wanted to be.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, openings,

influences etc.)

I see more SL-RL interaction in the form of simulcasting,

cd sales, artist promotion and a closer interaction be-
tween real world talent and SL Live Artist talent, as well
as in-world collaboration.

· Biweekly simulcasts into SL Dublin from the RL United

Kingdom, with new talent showcases

· Forsythe Whitfield will be releasing a new CD in Mon-

treal, Canada and at the same time performing in SL, to
both SL and RL audiences on February 29

· The expansion of SL Live Radio from inworld into the real

world, as well as more real world radio stations streaming
into SL, such as liveireland.com into Dublin

· More mega events such as the Philanthropy in Virtual

Worlds event and the iCommons, combining 4 SIMs and
speakers reaching out to audiences inworld and world-
wide

· More educational groups in SL, offering classes inworld

such as the San Diego Community College’s graphic arts
class being held in Diegoland SL on January 19 http://
www.theseventhsun.com/0108_SDclass.htm
· More musicians creatively collaborating using programs
such as Ninjam, like Komuso Tokugawa and MoShang
Zhao. They recently joined together to bring SL the MoKo
LoCo Ambient Blues Trance project, called “SynaesthAsia”

· In 2008, the Cruise ship “Galaxy”, owned by Bill Stirling,

will be on its “Grand Voyage 08 - A Celebration Around
the World”. The ship will “dock” at various locations, such Picture 4: Fotoproject by Josina Burgess
 metaverse art 161

we could by streaming the actors’ lines in and choreo-

graphing the movement of the actors to the lines.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?

Short answer, yes, and no, *laughing*. But, in all hon-

esty, I did not know what to expect or how live theater
performances would be received in SL. With the feed-
back that I have received, I can safely say that there is
Upo Choche definitely a place in SL for live performances and the
general public loves it. One of the things we set out to
Act Up Theatre do was to see if theater in SL would be possible and
to see how receptive performers and patrons alike
Company would respond. The response has been overwhelm-
ing and the support has surpassed any expectations
or visions I may have had.

What were the trends that begin last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

The utilization of voice in SL will, undoubtedly, have

the biggest impact. Some other things that will have
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
an impact are the cracking down of casinos and re-
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
moval of gambling devices. General chit chat that I
cant?
have with friends and colleagues is that clubbing is
becoming stale. I think that we will see a decline on
I would venture to say that the grand-daddy of all
the clubbing/sex scene and there will be a shift to
milestones in Second Life is the introduction of voice
other forms of entertainment for the residents. One of
to SL. Having founded Act Up just before it was intro-
the outcries that cropped up with the internet when
duced, we had the unique opportunity of seeing the
it first started out was all this pornography that was
difference between streaming a play and actually
all over the place and the easy access to it all. Second
performing it ‘live’ with voice. One of our patrons com-
Life seems to be in direct parallel to the internet when
mented on the difference it made in the production
it first came into being. As the internet matured and
of our shows. While we were quite pleased with the
people matured with this new medium, the waters
results, it was nice to have a viewpoint of someone
settled down a bit and the internet has become a
who attended both of last year’s performances to get
positive force in the lives of many. In 2008, I believe we
feedback. Voice in Second Life makes live theater pos-
will start to see the signs of Second Life maturing, as
sible in SL. Before that we could only mimic it as best
162 metaverse art

well as the residents maturing a bit (myself included,
I’m not exempt LOL), and realizing how it, too, will be a
more positive force.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
I have dabbled a bit in other virtual worlds and read
up on different ones. I have never taken the time to
fully explore them outside of your typical MMO such
as WoW, FFXI, Guild Wars, etc....
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
ings, influences etc.)
I think 2008 will offer residents new forms of entertain-
ment that were not possible before. Since the found-
ing of Act Up, I have seen standup comedy and variety
shows surface. To help with this driving force, Act Up
will be holding workshops at the beginning of this
year to help educate and get people involved in per-
forming live over the internet. One of the shows we
have planned is “Midsummer Night’s Dream” to open
in, well, midsummer.
Astrin Few – Live Music Enthusiasts and Jazz Enthusi-
asts
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
cant?
Picture 1: 4D cinema production Metropolis, the
Moloch Machine 3d anaglyph foto, diabolus-CARP
metaverse art 163
I can’t think of any key milestones this year. I had hoped
that the live music portion of SLCC07 might be a mile-
stone, but I don’t believe it was. There’s been steady
growth of the live music community, but no major water-
sheds that I know of, which is fine.
Looking back to the start of last year, have things evolved
the way you thought they would? Why or why not?
I had no preconception of how SL live music would
evolve in 2007 or any previous year. I just sit back and see
what happens.
What were the trends that began last year that will have
the greatest impact in 2008?
Again, I know of no significant new trends in 2008.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that had
any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you have, has
what you’ve done there been influenced by what you’ve
done or not done in SL?
No, I have not.
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, openings,
influences etc.)
Singing Arc, at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas on March 1st:
this will be the largest, dedicated live music event to date
and, essentially, the second of its nature since the much
smaller event in Philly in March, 2006. It is a significant
venue (400+), has sponsorship, and 11 outstanding SL
musicians and is, therefore, a big step in the area of RL/
SL music events.
164 metaverse art

Picture 2: CARP 4D cinema production Metropolis, burn the witch

 metaverse art 165

there is the pulling out of corporate sponsors for live

music, namely Pontiac and Ratepoint. At the moment,
running a live music venue does not generate income,
certainly not of any significance to the venue owner,
hence the pull out of a few corporate sponsors. Al-
though events such as Secondfest (award winning
festival in SL by The Guardian and Intel) did create
opportunities for SL musicians and media attention.
Also, the opening of the Orange Island which aims to
support the music community, too, was important. I
set up a Forum for SLMC (Second Life Music Commu-
Slim Warrior nity) which has brought many people together, DJ’s,
venue owners, musicians, etc, so we can discuss all
Independent matter for music in SL that’s done really well. We have
also seen a great increase in the number of SL radio
Musicians Group stations, i.e., SL Live which now has over 2000 listeners
and they only play music from SL musicians.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?

Yes, it has been wildly exciting, not to mention the

diversity and talent that I hear every day in SL. It’s a
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
fabulous place to be *smiles* and to be part of it is
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
inspiring.
cant?
What were the trends that began last year that will
When you say milestones, what do you mean be-
have the greatest impact in 2008?
cause there is a lot happening? I’ll assume you mean
significant activities in the music community. Well,
Trends that we will be seeing will be, finally, the edu-
for example, there are now 200-plus live musicians
cation of the audience on how they need to support
in SL, I remember in 2005 there were only 8. So, from
live music in SL by donation of Lindens to artists, rath-
last year to now, there has been a steep growth in the
er than leaving the brunt of all costs to venue owners,
music community and 45 of the 200 plus are women.
as has been the case for the last two years. It is not
There are also a number of bands now in SL, several
sustainable as it runs now. We will also need more user
of which I use. I won’t talk about the celebrity band
based systems whereby we can eliminate the need for
appearances in general. They have no bearing on the
a middle person booking an artist and charging astro-
SL music community. They are PR splashes, basically,
nomical fees to book gigs. Lastly, the realization from
and one doesn’t ever see that celeb in SL again. Then
166 metaverse art
 metaverse art 167
many musicians that they cannot continue to charge
RL prices for playing a gig in SL. It will be about team-
but I’m sure we will see more of that this year. As any on-
work between venues and musicians. There are some
line community grows, it goes through phases and what
people who feel they can hop on the bandwagon and
most people don’t realize that, as a music community, we
charge both venue and musician. And many musi-
are very small in the big picture but it is gaining more
cians who come into SL under the impression they are
impact in RL than ever before. We are all pretty loud when
going to get rich which, of course, is not the case. The
we want to be *smiles* and better as a group voice than
introduction of voice in SL has meant another avenue
only one. I do think 2008 is going to be a very exciting
for musicians to use as a method of performing, too.
year. In June, I am planning a seminar in London on mu-
We also see NInjams and multi-jams occurring, not
sic on virtual platforms which, of course, will concentrate
on a regular basis, but slowly growing. That’s been a
on SL as a showcase. The response has been tremendous.
wonderful thing. The first instrumental duet was with
Astrin Few and Flaming Moe and I did the first singing
duet live with Melvin Took, Melvin lives in Texas and I
am in London.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

No, I don’t really explore other virtual worlds. I have

looked at many but I do think, at the moment, SL is
certainly leading the rest in terms of immersive and in-
teractive experience for live music and visually, as well.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

ings, influences etc.)

There has been a great deal of interest, RL media-wise,

in online virtual performances, especially in the UK,
and we are beginning to see RL labels and PR compa-
nies scouting in here. I had a 4-page article out in Per-
forming Musician and, since then, I haven’t stopped
answering mails. RL/SL crossover is occurring already

Picture 1: nnoiz Papp, Velazquez Bonetto dwarf Picture 2: worldwide audiovisual improvisation
choir, inland sound project (VJAZZ) by Velazquez Bonetto & Josina Burgess. Art
Space Diabolus benvolio
168 metaverse art

Picture 3: Juria Yoshikawa

 metaverse art 169

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

I don’t know if this is a ‘trend’ but, towards the end of

the year, I noticed more all day events. I really like that
back-to-back kind of event, great lineups of talented
people, one after the other, is great.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
Preciousse Moody
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
Second Life Music ings, influences etc.)

The music scene is ultimately what keeps me here

in Second Life. I think, in 2008, Second Life will start
to show its true potential when the music industry
gets more involved than they already have. Not just
as a place to come and listen to people but, also, as
a place for people to collaborate, network and make
important real world contacts. SL live music rocks!
May influence travel scenarios and crossover concerts
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the
and events into real life. A good example of this is the
performance arts world and why were they signifi-
recent news of the SL music performance in Vegas...
cant?
look it up.
Although I have no basis for comparison, for me, SL
music was the best in 2007. The best quality of musi-
cianship SL has to offer... I found the talent from the UK
and Canada to be particularly awesome!

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?

Not really, because I didn’t really expect anything from

the start.
170 metaverse art

Picture 1: inland sound installation by Bingo Onomatopoeia MdM arena 2008

 metaverse art 171

Picture 2: cynetic installation by Selavy Oh

172 metaverse art

Picture 1: an angel saw the light by Igor Ballyhoo


Katie Reve
Pilot Theatre
Company
What were some of last year’s key milestones in
the performance arts world and why were they sig-
nificant?
The Performance Arts World, which encompasses
live theatre, is a wide and varied stage. Large com-
mercial production playing in London’s West End,
plays at the National Theatre, regional repertory
creating new works every 3 months, concert halls
and opera houses receiving one night gigs or week-
ly programs hosting productions, bring theatre to
towns and cities across England. Arts centres with
smaller capacities. Then there are the companies
that tour and have no permanent venue fueling the
physical venues, commissioning new writing, tour-
ing to schools, to prisons, to village halls and com-
metaverse art 173
munity centres, even outdoor venues.
This is true of theatre in the UK.
Pilot Theatre is a mid-scale national touring com-
pany, partly funded by the English Arts Council.
They are in residence at the Theatre Royal in York,
which has its own repertory company. Pilot Theatre
opens its production there before going on tour or
transferring to London. Pilot Theatre does have
a national profile and has won awards and much
critical acclaim for their work.
Marcus Romer, the Artistic Director takes the com-
pany in innovative directions engaging, particular-
ly, in new technologies, not for gimmick but in ways
that evolve expectations and drives narrative with-
in the company’s work redefining what live perfor-
mances can achieve. The use of projection is not
new, but the projection of active MySpace content
adds a new feature. Pilot Theatre’s latest work is
for audiences 13 – 18, but is enjoyed by teens and
adults alike, had its script developed in MySpace in
collaboration with MySpace users.
In answer to your question about ‘significance to
the performance art world’, it is difficult, as being
at the eye of your own storm often prevents us, as
active practitioners, evaluating our work in context
with our contemporaries and the bigger picture.
There is work emerging which combines live per-
formance with the notion of how the digital world is
influencing our lives. I saw Facebook, the musical,
last year at the Edinburgh Festival. There is theatre
exploring arts and science, bringing together future
concepts and using IT and performance to engage
its audience. Unlimited Theatre has looked at the
subject of quantum physics and teleportation, in-
forming and entertaining audiences. Again I saw
them at the Edinburgh Festival and continue to fol-
174 metaverse art

low their work. The power of theatre to politicise
and inform was part of the 20th Century’s dialectic.
I think our evolving digital world, and the creative
input it desires and necessitates to be vibrant and
engaging, is part of the 21st Century dialogue, arts
and science, voyages of discovery, a new renais-
sance. Pilot’s presence in Second Life is part of
that awakening. A new realm, a new interaction
and new ideas exchange, a new format. But all
connected to live performance.
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?
I, at PCM, and my avatar, Katie, discovered Second
Life in Dec 2006. I think the collaboration of new
media with live performance and its implications on
how society will see itself and respond to the world
around us in the future is profoundly linked. The
tradition of theatre to educate, inform and reflect
society’s challenges is key to understanding cyber-
space and bring people on board to engage with
technology and consider what it means, whether
it’s necessary, and whether it’s good or bad, is part
of social drama. The questions and debates I don’t
think happen enough. I was looking for people
sharing this IT and theatrical vision. Pilot Theatre is
part of that journey. Established in July 2007, Pilot
Theatre’s home hub was intended to hold a simul-
cast in Second Life of our opening night of ‘Looking
for JJ’ at the end of September, giving us the oppor-
tunity to invite an audience not usually able to see
Pilot’s work. Being an arts company, the financial
weight of such a project was enormous. My first job
Picture 1: Caravaggio Bonetto: Emoticon per-
formance photo: MillaMilla Noel
metaverse art 175
was to research and bring in quotes for the project.
Expenses aside, the overriding problem, even if we
had the money, was the real world infrastructure of
uploading a live media stream on to the internet from
locations without dedicated upload access. Domes-
tic wi-fi or networked business infrastructure, not
specifically IT focused, would prove inadequate and
the solution was going to be hard and impossible to
install in the time we had. So we decided to establish
what we could with the resources and finances we
had. Having a presence in Second Life was seen as
an important step for the company. What we have
today has come from this original concept. The em-
phasis, however, is always on the live event. We,
now, at the beginning of 2008, have a Second Life
presence and its future is very fluid and integral to
Pilot Theatre’s future work as a promotional tool or a
delivery platform.
What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?
We are still looking at simulcasting a live show. We
have a live collaborative project in July, looking at
new media and the arts called ‘Shift Happens’ tak-
ing place in UK and Second Life and a storytelling
project with a 3D realisation yet to be fully conceptu-
alised, but I am very excited about working with the
writer, Richard Hurford, and Marcus Romer to make
this happen.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced
by what you’ve done or not done in SL?
I am excited about myrl.com’s notion of being able to
take AV’s to other worlds. I want the constant of be-
ing able to take Katie with me to explore other virtual
176 metaverse art

worlds. Identity and SL are of interest to me also.
I haven’t had my curiosity spiked enough to check
any others out. I know they exist. Pilot is interested
in establishing a presence in the Second Life Teen
Grid in the future.
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events,
openings, influences etc.)
2008, we have the ‘Shift Happens’ event on July 3,
much planning still to be done. A potential simul-
cast from New York to Old York! and SL with the
next production of Catcher in the Rye, and the sto-
rytelling inworld collaboration details of which are in
the brain-storming stage.
Circe Broom – Circe’s Circle of Sound
What were some of last year’s key milestones in
the performance arts world and why were they sig-
nificant?
The proliferation of venues gave musicians a far
wider choice, and the opportunity to reach a wider
audience. More people learned about live music in
SL.
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?
Well, I think that when the floodgates opened to the
free accounts, the entire world here changed. A lot
of that is for the worst. Anonymous griefers haunt
the venues now, and are replaced with another as
Picture 2: virtual sculpture by Igor Ballyhoo
CARP metaverse art exhibition
metaverse art 177
soon as they are banned. It is an ongoing problem
which I hope Linden Labs finds a resolution for. As
for live music in SL, more and more musicians have
discovered that performing in SL is a good way to gain
fans for their RL careers, or to help get started in a RL
career. It is good for audiences in SL, as there are far
more musicians in here per capita.
What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?
*Laughing* The population in SL skyrocketed this
past year.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
Well, I’ve seldom found a dragon to slay in SL; most
dragons I know are friends of mine. Yes, and nothing
compares to SL, even with all the bugs.
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
ings, influences etc.)
Last year, I would have said that more and more RL
corporations would be funding the arts in here, but I
no longer believe that. I have seen corporate funders
come and go, and the one thing they have in common
is that they all seem to go, they have not found a way
to make SL pay off enough.
Many thanks to those who contributed and to Tini
178 metaverse art

Picture 3: Consume level 10. Artistide Despress

 metaverse art 179

it is to get up and go out and do something. We are

on earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any
different.”

I’m awfully fond of just “farting around” so I’m reluc-

tant to dismiss his statement in whole. I believe that
those surveyed for this and previous editions of “The
The Arts in Arts in Second Life” would disagree as each has built
a community in this electronic metaverse of Second
Second Life Life. All are remarkable and every day they get up and
go out to do something for us and themselves. And it

Part Three is something.

This is the last in the series, I do hope you’ve enjoyed

hearing from these extraordinary people on what
Nazz Lane they’ve done and are planning to bring to our Second
Sunday, February 3, 2008 Lives in 2008. Here is part three of a survey on “The
Arts in Second Life”.

While reading Kurt Vonnegut’s “A Man Without a

Country” recently, I’d come across an interesting com-
ment he’d made regarding electronic communities.
The chapter recounts how, in his writing life-time the
technological impact had brought changes and, from
his view, not for the better. He presents the reader a
vignette of his routine in sending off marked up pages
to a typist. It’s a delight to read and its theme revolves
around the contact and interaction with his fellow
New Yorkers. He begins with the picking up of an en-
velope at a stationery supplier, then a visit to the post
office and concludes with his mailing by dropping off
the envelope with the pagers. He then tells the reader:

“Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up

with nothing. We are dancing animals. How beautiful Picture 1: opening event Deruub Pastorelli
180 metaverse art

Picture 2: Eifachfilm Vacirca Arena instalation 2009

 metaverse art 181

Picture 3: Global Wood by Caravaggio Bonetto

182 metaverse art

Picture 4: Imagine: CEO Barbie by Caravaggio Bonetto Foto:MillaMilla Noel


Jilly Kidd
Written Word
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
Literature community and why were they significant?
The first milestone was the first SL Book Fair in Spring
2007. I helped to organize this with a team of people,
the main ones being me researching and finding ex-
hibitors, Selina Greene offering her land as the venue
and organizing the event, and Roman Zeffirelli doing
the build. This was a milestone because we gathered
together publishers, writers and people involved in
book design and production, all in one place, in a way
that paralleled the London Book Fair. By gathering
together, the exhibitors could attract traffic in a way
that’s difficult if they are in isolated locations only of-
fering their own books, designs and writing. Exhibitors
stayed after this event to create what is now Book Is-
metaverse art 183
land and Publishing Island. This is a commercial area
now and I wanted to work nonprofit with writers so I
moved on to develop that project.
The development of broadcasting on SL. As part of
the book fair, we encouraged authors to make appear-
ances reading from their work using podcasting, but
they still had to reply to audience questions in text.
Afterwards I started an author interview show called
“Meet the Author” which is broadcast on SLCN.tv,
Second Life’s cable network. SLCN streams this show
live and I can talk to authors by phone anywhere in
the world while the audience on SL can listen and ask
questions by IM. The author reads, is interviewed and
replies to questions all in live voice. This makes it like
a professional television interview and is well in ad-
vance of what was being done for literary shows ear-
lier in the year. The show is also streamed live online
and archived for people to see on the website so it can
also be seen by people who don’t use SL. In this way,
SL and RL have merged for this type of show. Another
effect is that authors have seen the show online and
have been attracted on to SL to join the literary com-
munity here. This show is for published authors and
you can see it on http://www.slcn.tv/meet-author
The advent of voice. With voice becoming gener-
ally available, the types of events I’ve been describing
have become much more widespread. Anyone can
hold a reading in voice even if they don’t have access
to a stream or broadcasting technology - and they can
film it and post to YouTube. The move from small iso-
lated writing groups to big events and projects, like
the ones I work on, helped get all of this started as
we could get the land and the technology. Now I’m
very happy to see an explosion of writing and literary
events all over SL, with some professional authors ap-
pearing in cafes here and there, and writers gathering
on beaches and in venues to read out and share their
184 metaverse art
 metaverse art 185
work.

The development of major SIMs for writers and pub-

lishers. Growing out of the projects described above,
major SIMs have developed for writers and publishers.
Book Island and Publishing Island are a professionally
run venture with regular events. As a nonprofit orga-
nizer, I was surprised to be picked up by two very gen-
erous landowners who provided free space for me to
work with writers. The first was Johnny Austin at the
Joysco Convention Center who provided the venue
for me to start my “Meet the Author” show. The second
was Thinkerer Melville who provided a large parcel of
land on Cookie Island to let me work with writers.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not? Picture 2: virtual sculpture by Chen Pitney

Things haven’t developed how I imagined at the be-

ginning of the year as I only imagined getting the
writers’ community together to enjoy friendships with
writers across the world. The potential of SL has made
it a much larger enterprise than I could ever have
known.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

I see performance as being the way forward in 2008

and the next trend. We will still have the fairs and exhi-
bitions to let writers display their work in various ways
- with virtual books, links to websites, links to audio
and live readings. In 2007, we had the largest ever
writers’ exhibition in SL - the Autumn Writers’ Exhibi-

Picture 1: MillaMilla Noel

Picture 3: living architecture nnoiz Papp concert by
Velazquez Bonetto, Josina Burgess & Caravaggio
Bonetto
186 metaverse art

Picture 3: axis mundi by Igor Ballyhoo


tion. We will continue to have these events to bring
the writing community together and to let others see
all or our work.
I see performance as the next big trend. Writers and
publishers are increasingly wanting to have their work
displayed not just as text, but brought to life on stage,
film and audio. On Cookie Island, we have a team of
people under Thinkerer Melville, who are very involved
in performance in SL and RL, so we’ll be bringing all
sorts of performance art to SL. This isn’t just literary - I
also look for talented comedians and live singer song-
writers who perform on our Saturdays Wild show on
Broadway Live Island. All of this is to encourage live
original writers in all forms on SL.
metaverse art 187
volved with the Written Word and taking SL seriously as
a place to have a presence. On January 30th, we’re host-
ing an event for the Poetry International organization
(contact Ardor Foden who represents them here). This is
a major Dutch poetry organization which also publishes
international poetry and has links to national poetry so-
cieties. We’re helping them make a film of their RL poets
reading in SL and this will be shown in the Written Word’s
Red Sky Club on Dutch National Poetry Day January 30th.
The film will be followed by readings by some published
poets on SL including a reading from my book. Hope to
see you there!

We also have Written Word competitions every month

for L$5,000 prizes and publish virtual books with the
winners. Writers here are also published online on
our site http://www.writtenword.org.uk/ and can do
a free online poetry workshop on my website mes-
sage board http://www.communigate.co.uk/london/
justpoets

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

I was never on virtual worlds before so I had no idea

what would be possible. I think coming to a virtual
world as a total newbie can make you look at the
potential in a totally different way, but I had a steep
learning curve. The good thing about SL is that there’s
plenty of free help available so we learn fast.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

ings, influences etc.)
Picture 4 worldwide audiovisual improvisation
(VJAZZ) by Velazquez Bonetto & Josina Burgess. Art
More RL authors and organizations are getting in- Space Diabolus benvolio
188 metaverse art

Picture 5: eternity is watching you by Igor Ballyhoo

 metaverse art 189

the one we are most proud of is a full scale Dante’s

Inferno used to teach the novel Linden Hills by Afri-
can American novelist, Gloria Naylor. Designer Eloise
Pasteur created an awesome 3D version of Hell based
on the text of the Inferno. Another milestone includes
winning a Foundation for Rich Content grant to create
the Literary Holodeck which allows us to pass out our
open access builds to anyone wishing to use them.
Additionally, we won a Texture Support grant from
the V3 Group which helps offset the costs of texture
uploads. Continued support from SLCN.tv allows us
Desideria Stockton to offer engaging prizes to students. Finally, Intellagirl
Tulley and Typerwriter Merlin’s book, Second Life for
Literature Alive! Dummies, features Literature Alive! as an example,
and that is an excellent milestone for us.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?

Literature Alive! has grown in ways that I could never

have imagined. It started out as just me and my stu-
dents. Once Eloise Pasteur came on board, we were
able to build engaging environments that moved be-
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
yond the “standard” college environment. As we met
Literature community and why were they significant?
more and more people and collaborated with more
of the educational community, we grew in leaps and
Literature Alive! has really come of age in the last
bounds. Daliah Carter, a student from the pilot group
year. It went from a small project, just involving my
at LCCC, is now my assistant. We really are blessed by
students, to a grid wide project that targets not just
how Literature Alive! has grown, but I think it is truly
student but also residents. Educational Designer, Elo-
telling of the desire to have edifying content in the
ise Pasteur, came on board as a volunteer early in the
grid. People WANT cool places to go that don’t involve
year, and, her arrival marks the most significant mile-
money. The sciences have been doing a tremendous
stone. In the quest to provide edifying grid content to
job (ISM, NOAA, Genome), and now literature is duly
residents, Literature Alive! seeks to provide immersive
represented.
environments that allow participants to engage the
environment even when classes are not in session. In
the past year, we have developed over 27 sites for lit-
What were the trends that began last year that will
erature, and we have highlighted the work of about
have the greatest impact in 2008?
117 authors. While all of our builds are milestones,
190 metaverse art

I think the educational community is growing expo-
nentially, and there will be more of a call for collab-
orative projects. In the fall 2007 semester, my students
participated in the World University Exchange pro-
gram headed up by Elmo Wilder. This brought togeth-
er students from the US, Canada, Korea, France, and
Japan. I think more of these partnerships will surface
as we learn how to use SL as a collaborative and social
educational tool. I also believe that more universities
and colleges will legitimize virtual educational tools.
In the past year, many of us have faced great resis-
tance on our real life campuses, but as more and more
articles are published in peer review journals like In-
novate, the more we will find legitimacy for our work.
Legitimacy leads to funding in many places, and many
people are starving for institutional funding. I think or-
ganizations like NMC, ISTE, and Elven will continue to
grow as people collaborate with each other and seek
professional development. These organizations have
been leaders in providing cutting edge development
opportunities, and I anticipate that they will continue
to grow. Finally, I think more educators will try to uti-
lize the teen grid for high school projects. Fred Fuchs,
at FireSabre Consulting, and Global Kids are doing
amazing development work and I anticipate they will
continue to grow.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
I have toured a few other virtual worlds, and they are
OK. If Second Life didn’t exist, I would certainly use
Picture 1: immersivavirtual environment by Bryn
Oh
metaverse art 191
them, but SL has the best graphics (so far). I do believe
that someone will build a better virtual world, so SL
has the challenge of keeping up with the competition.
However, I believe Linden Lab is full of a lot of heart; this
model wasn’t built on making money, it was built on a
dream to change the world. The philanthropy in SL, the
work of the MacArthur Foundation, and the work of resi-
dents working together for a cause (breast cancer, Relay
for Life, The Virtual Orphanage Project) are all marks of
long standing commitment to global service.
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, openings,
influences etc.)
Literature Alive! will be creating a full SIM ghost town for
the reading of Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Mas-
ters. Students will be working together to create visual
and audio-prim poems by Maya Angelou. Students will
be working at the VIT world campus to build a tenement
museum and a progressive era timeline. We are still look-
ing for a home for the Inferno, but will be doing a small
scale version of it on land donated by MillionsOfUs. I am
fortunate to have the amazing Eloise Pasteur and Daliah
Carter on staff, and we will work together to create rich
environments that provide access to literature. Profes-
sionally, I am guest co-editing Innovate on an issue on
virtual worlds. Literature Alive! hopes to establish a pres-
ence on the teen grid, as well. Most importantly, we hope
to maintain our mission: we hope to create a lifelong love
of learning through a lifelong passion for reading :)
192 metaverse art

Picture 2: Run for your life by Velazquez Bonetto

 metaverse art 193

Possibly another milestone is the appearance of

Broadway Live Island, a cluster of SIMs related to
Broadway theater. These are being developed by Tom
Polum, an experienced Broadway producer/artist.
This, along with the ballet production by IBM and the
documentary produced by Molotov Alva, mark the
entry of real world cultural activities into SL.

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
Thinkerer Melville why not?

Communication Things move so fast in Second Life that I’m not sure
I had a firm idea of how things would develop. I ex-
Arts pected that the advent of voice capability would lead
to the developments cited above, but I had no idea
that things would move so fast.

I started actively using surrogates (Skype, TeamSpeak)

for SL voice before the real thing became available.
I encouraged both Lauren Weyland and the Act Up
players to use the TeamSpeak server to get ready for
performances in voice. I suppose others were doing
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
likewise. So I think one of the reasons things move fast
Literary world and why were they significant?
in SL is that many people are bringing lots of previous
experience with them.
Voice. Many literary activities depend on oral com-
munication. Poetry reading, once done in streaming
audio, changes from a monologue to a conversation
What were the trends that began last year that will
when you have voice. Plays can be more naturally
have the greatest impact in 2008?
done in voice and really require voice (oral reading) for
collaborative development. Even written prose ben-
I think the milestones mentioned above represent
efits from oral reading in a group.
“proof of concept” steps in the cultural development
of Second Life. As to the greatest impact, that is a
Other milestones that I would identify are develop-
judgment call that depends on the viewpoint of the
ment of live comedy acts (Lauren Live) and live the-
caller. I will pick a sleeper on that. One of the groups
ater (by the Act Up group in July and October). Both of
I am working with wrote about seven plays last fall.
these are in response to the arrival of voice capability.
These are all in a series to be called “Tales of the Meta-
194 metaverse art

verse.” I see this as a demonstration of the potential for
collaborative writing in Second Life. Last summer we
realized (the Act Up players) that our rate-limiting fac-
tor was going to be the availability of suitable scripts
with the necessary permissions to use copyrighted
material. Now that the INKsters have demonstrated
that they can produce the kind of scripts that are
needed, I expect that capability to have a big impact.
Another trend I saw start is the development of mul-
timedia art. (That’s the name I made up for it.) It is the
combination of several forms of art, such as poetry,
music, and 3-d graphics. Elros Tuominen makes some
interesting versions of active art. I am now using them
in a video I am making and expect to combine one
of them with music and voice script I have written to
produce a video. I hope to get other people to explore
other ways of combining art forms in collaborative art.
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?
I have not explored other virtual worlds except super-
ficial inquiry. My impression is that SL is the only VR
world where I could work with older, professionally
experienced people – the kind who would seriously
interact with literature and art. I would suggest that
art and literature in a virtual village work better than
art in a lonely garret.
What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
Picture 1: noizz Papp concert in immersiva. Virtual
environment by Bryn Oh
metaverse art 195
ings, influences etc.)
Predictions are really hard to make, especially about the
future.
I expect to see the development of theater groups, some
touring with a repertoire of one-act plays that they can
offer to interested theater venues. Some of these plays
will no doubt be produced as videos and perhaps even
used in ways that generate a little income.
I also expect to see an increase in comedy performances
– both solo and skit format.
Molotov Alva’s documentary, “My Second Life” has been
sold to HBO and should run this spring. I expect that the
production of a marketable video out of Second Life will
stimulate much more activity of this kind. More gener-
ally, I expect continuing change in the demographics
with a substantial increase in the number of people with
“grown-up” interests – business, professional, cultural, lit-
erary, entertainment – the kind of things people would
look for if their company wanted to move them to a town
they had never heard about. Such people enjoy and sup-
port the cultural amenities of a community and I expect
they will do that in the virtual community of SL.
196 metaverse art

Picture2: Consume, Grand Illusion by Luce Laval

 metaverse art 197

I would have to say, with the invention of the voice

chat, bringing more feeling and strength into read-
ings, more jazz / coffee shops opening up and theatre
coming full fledged into Second Life, there have been
wonderful changes. I hope to see more in the future,
including widespread discussions and a library of ma-
terial written by SL residents, for all to share.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

Lauren Canetti Again, I would point out that the voice chats, along
with the larger population of intellectual people seek-
Arts and Literature ing intellectual activities would be the largest impact.
I personally have 200 people in my arts and literature

Group group just chomping at the bit for more to soak up.

Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that

had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

I have been involved with other virtual worlds, and

What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
in all of them I have found myself, not drawn to their
Literary world and why were they significant?
tasks and storylines, but drawn to the intellectual con-
versations among the members... much of my time
I would have to say that in the last couple years that I
was spent sitting around a table in an involved dis-
have been here, I have seen interest groups move from
cussion. This is what brought me to SL and what fuels
the standard, carefree events and groups, to some-
my desire to stay here... I am not bogged down with
thing more intellectual and thoughtful. The bringing
meaningless tasks, unobtainable goals, I am able to
of books into SL and the constant creativity of its own
enjoy an evening with a nice glass of wine and some
residents provide a huge backdrop for cultural and in-
strong intellectual pursuits.
tellectual discussion of many works.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

Looking back to the start of last year, have things
ings, influences etc.)
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
not?
I see the theatre expanding in the next year, and am
198 metaverse art
 metaverse art 199
hoping to get myself involved in that.

I personally am excited to be reformulating my book

study group and an art discussion group after a recent
illness. Thankfully, I have someone else running the
group in another area of the world, so we are hoping
to have more participants, expand the views, etc.

I believe that expanding coffee shops to having more

poetry readings and, eventually, putting together a li-
brary of works from the SL residents themselves will
be a wonderful goal to obtain in the future.

Picture 2: Caelreon consume

Picture 1: Caelreon consume

Picture 3: Caelreon consume

200 metaverse art

Picture 4: my brain connected to the metaverse by Igor Ballyhoo

 metaverse art 201

shop “The Book Doctor” and pick up a few note cards

to edit and stories to work on. Instead, I have been
busier than I ever imagined with RL work, paying RL
dollars all because of my virtual shop on Book Island.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?

I think that avatars’ thirst for good books to read will

continue to grow. I also think that more and more
people come to SL as a place to market their work.
Angeline Blachere There are readings and workshops and a thriving liter-
ary community.
Book Island Events
and Discussion Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

I have not explored any other virtual worlds. I consider

SL the most serious one for my needs and my market.

What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-
Literary world and why were they significant?
ings, influences etc.)
I think the opening of Book Island as a free standing
Definitely more events, book fairs, and readings and
SIM and the subsequent addition of Publishing Island
as the reputation grows others will follow.
paralleled the growth of the literary scene in SL. The
SL literati hunger for places to find books, read books,
My friend and I met again over morning coffee as I was
display their works, and actually publish their work.
finishing up this last part of the series. She’d comment-
ed in surprise at all that had gone on this past year
and what was in store for SL’ers this New Year. “Nazz,
Looking back to the start of last year, have things
what will be the next subject for your list?” she asked.
evolved the way you thought they would? Why or why
I replied, laughing, that I hadn’t even had a chance to
not?
think about it. “Well, you’ve been so wrapped up in
this and we’ve not had much together time of late.
Definitely not the way I thought, but the reality was
Maybe you could take me … hmmmmmm …..I know!
much much better. I thought that I would open my
202 metaverse art
 metaverse art 203
*She puts hands on her hips while turning the upper
half of her body slightly to look at Nazz over a shoul-
der. She bats her eye lashes and curls her lips into a
smile whispering seductively *… somewhere roman-
tic,” she said. All I could do was grin and nod my head
in agreement.

My special thanks to each of you who contributed

to this edition and Parts One and Two, from me, the
humble recorder of your activities. And, also, a thanks
to all whom I didn’t touch for this series of articles that
are building communities in Second Life.

Picture 2: Museo del Metaverso, Cyberlandia by

Velazquez Bonetto

Picture 1: Museo del Metaverso, Cyberlandia by

Velazquez Bonetto
Picture 3: Museo del Metaverso, Cyberlandia by
Velazquez Bonetto
204 metaverse art

Picture 4: Museo del Metaverso, Cyberlandia by

Velazquez Bonetto
 metaverse art 205

Looking back to the start of last year, have things

evolved the way you thought they would? Why or
why not?

Things seem to be going about as one would expect.

A little drama, a lot of expansion. There’s no way to
keep up with all the events now. Second Life seems
to be growing up. If only we could get the Lindens to

ItsNaughtKnotty give newbies the tools to help them get connected to

other people on arrival, rather than worrying about

Cannned how to alter our appearance, it would do wonders. I

tell every new person I meet to join as many groups

INKsters
as possible right off the bat. We’re needlessly limited
to 25 groups and a meaningful Second Life is all about
collaboration and creation. Why the Lindens don’t
make that more evident to new arrivals is still a mys-
tery to me.

What were the trends that began last year that will
have the greatest impact in 2008?
What were some of last year’s key milestones in the SL
Ummmmmmm, I expect real world entities will find a
Literary world and why were they significant?
way to make Second Life more than just a place for
cheap advertising. Big interactive builds with highly
Last year, SL saw an explosion of cultural events. Es-
creative designs seem to be evolving every day. My
tablishment of Cookie SIM and sLiterary sim were key
hope is the tools will continue to evolve to allow more
components for authors. At least two other SIMs are
artists access to easier tools so that people don’t have
dedicated to book-ish themes. The number of periodi-
to be professional programmers to create new and
cals paying for news stories grew. Theatrical groups
interesting things in Second Life. From a literary per-
received the gift of voice chat ... which the rest of
spective, I’m betting we’ll see “the metaverse” come
us curse! The grid became stable enough to reason-
into its own as a literary genre that is distinct from sci-
ably hold large group meetings without fear of lag
ence fiction.
or crashing. And, of course, the INKsters was founded
and, I might be biased, but we’ve been digging the au-
thors out of the woodwork all year and have a pretty
Have you explored other virtual worlds and has that
amazing group together now and we continue to
had any influence on what you’ve done in SL? If you
grow every week.
206 metaverse art
 metaverse art 207
have, has what you’ve done there been influenced by
what you’ve done or not done in SL?

I’m a chat room addict. This is a fancy chat room where

you look for the LEAST popular rooms, instead of the
most popular. Being able to do a 3D web design while
hanging out with people who have similar interests
is quite charming, too. My experience with other vir-
tual worlds is fairly limited, but I’ve been to enough of
them to know that our ability to create our own con-
tent here is unique and quite wonderful.

What can we look forward to in 2008? (Events, open-

ings, influences etc.)

Well, I can only speak for the INKsters. We’re going to

continue the daily competitions. I hope to find the rest
of the writers in Second Life and put them all to work. Picture 2: CYBER MALL by Caravaggio Bonetto
:D We’re expanding our critique group, our land hold-
ings, our publications, and probably our workshops.
We’ll do everything we did this year, on a much bigger
scale. Ultimately, my main goal is to find those people
who feel a calling to become authors and help them
find the tools to make their inner voices come alive. If
I can help somebody do that, then I’ve made Second
Life a better place.

Picture 1: CYBER MALL by Caravaggio Bonetto Picture 3: CYBER MALL by Caravaggio Bonetto
208 metaverse art

Picture 4: CYBER MALL by Caravaggio Bonetto


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website: diabolus.ning.com
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212 metaverse art

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http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_josina_burgess_1
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_josina_burgess_2
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_junivers_stockholm
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_sca_shilova
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_velazquez_bonetto_1
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_velazquez_bonetto_2
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_velazquez_bonetto_3
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/carp_creators_elfod_nemeth