samedi 6 octobre 2007

Attend the Second Life exhibition

The exhibition is open. Click here to teleport yourself directly to our virtual exhibition site.

Not yet signed up on Second Life?

Download the programme at the following address: http://secondlife.com/community/downloads.php, then create your avatar here!

Second Night, the "Nuit Blanche" in Paris on Second Life

On Saturday 6 October, internet users worldwide will be able to take part in the Nuit Blanche organized by the Paris local council. Second Night will be displayed both on Second Life and in the Jean Musy room at Hôtel d'Albret, 31 rue des Francs-Bourgeois (Paris, 4th district).

Avatars and Parisians are invited to wander through the virtual or physical location of their choice to discover the work of around ten international artists. Architecture, politics, the place of the individual [in society], security, prostitution: the works displayed raise questions regarding the various aspects of Second Life, which is a penetrable mirror of the real world.

Based on a proposal by Daniele Balit and Christophe Bruno.

Press

"Des pavés à l'écran : la Nuit Blanche sur Second Life"
Le Point, 5 octobre 2007

"Exposition virtuelle, Second Life s'invite à la Nuit Blanche"
Le Monde, 4 octobre 2007

"Second Night à Nuit blanche"
Libération, Ecrans, 4 octobre 2007

"La Nuit Blanche parisienne s'invite sur Second Life"
LeJournalduNet, 4 octobre 2007

"Pour sa 6ème édition, la nuit blanche se dématérialise"
LCI.fr, 4 octobre 2007

"Nuit Blanche en résistance sur Second Life"
Les Inrockuptibles, 2 octobre 2007

"La Nuit blanche parisienne sur Second Life"
Le Figaro Economie, 1er octobre 2007

"Nuit virtuelle"
Nos Futurs, Blog L’Express, 1er octobre 2007

"La Ville de Paris sur Second Life"
Pointblog.com, 28 septembre 2007

And also France Inter, ITV, Canal+, France Culture, Europe 2, RFI, LCI ...

vendredi 5 octobre 2007

Stock exchange crash

At the end of August 2007, one of the main online banks, Ginko Financial, went bankrupt. The company offered high returns to its customers, which it could only finance through payments by new customers. As the prohibition on gambling resulted in many residents asking to recover their funds, the bank could not honour its commitments. 190 million Linden dollars (USD 750,000) went up in smoke. Legal proceedings will be held before the American courts. This bankruptcy resounds the Russian bank, MMM, which had a similar pyramid structure in 1997.

"Terrorism" on Second Life ?

At the end of 2006, a libertarian group appeared on Second Life. The “Second Life Liberation Army” (SLLA) criticised Linden Lab’s authoritarianism and is demanding the introduction of an avatar/voice system on Second Life. SLLA mainly makes a name for itself by “bombarding” virtually the Reebok and American Apparel stores. The media is in a rush to announce the onset of “virtual terrorism”, although SLLA’s bombs, which are inoffensive for “residents” and buildings only cause disturbance. A video of the attack on Reebok is shown below.


A new territory for evangelization ?

Probably inspired by the presence of Jewish temples, mosques and other Catholic churches on Second Life, the Italian Jesuits declared Second Life to be a “mission territory” in August 2007. The Vatican stated that it was prepared to “accept enthusiastically the challenge” and affirmed that it was considering creating an official website for the Catholic church on Second Life.

Second strike

"You have often wanted to take part in a picket strike out of solidarity but have always lacked the courage to take the risk? Take advantage of a new opportunity on Second Life”. The RSU (Rappresentanza Unitaria IBM Vimercate) trade union, which represents IBM’s Italian employees, organised the first strike on Second Life at the end of September 2007.


Hacking

In November 2006, hacking software, “copybot”, threatened Second Life’s economy. Creation of a group of “residents”, LibSecondLife, enables the persona of avatars to be cloned as well as their clothing, which is nevertheless supposed to be protected by intellectual property rights. Linden Lab encouraged residents to bring proceedings before the American courts and developed copybot detection software.

Diplomacy

Following the pioneering Sweden and the Maldives, Estonia is due to open its embassy shortly. Their objective is to increase knowledge of their respective countries.

Electoral campaigns

French politicians imitated American presidential candidates by using Second Life during the presidential campaign. Ségolène Royal’s campaign committee, “Désirs d'avenir”, was close to Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential majority and Francois Bayrou’s centrist party (Modem). The arrival of the National Front in the virtual world caused demonstrations by residents, who demanded the prohibition of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s party from Second Life (see video).

Protection of minors

In June 2007, indignant about the “possibility of imitating sexual relations, including rape, bondage, zoophilia and scatophilia scenes”, the Familles de France association brought legal proceedings against Linden Lab in its capacity as the production company of Second Life. The association’s claims were dismissed.

Second Big Brother ?

n an attempt to reply to concerns regarding minors and improve confidence in sales transactions, Linden Lab has created an identity checking system. It enables the company to compare data provided by residents (passport number, etc.) with governmental data files. The system is optional but is however required to access some restricted zones (mainly erotic material) in the virtual world.

mercredi 3 octobre 2007

Presentation of Second Night

Paris at the time of the virtual world

For the first time, a local council with the size of Paris is investing in the Second Life virtual world. During the Nuit Blanche, the local council is presenting an exhibition called “Second Night” and highlights the futurist, committed and often iconoclastic work of around ten international artists.

In a virtual building designed by the architect Ignazio Mottola, visitors from around the world guided by their “avatars” will be able to discover works crossing utopia and reality. Cameras in the physical location of the exhibition at Hôtel d’Albret, in the 4th district, will broadcast the Parisian show in real time.

Night owls will be able to discover the universal world of Second Night there thanks to the design composed of computers and screens. Walkers will even be able to create avatars on site at the start of the walk and meet some artists whose works are real bridges between the two worlds and indeed influence their performance…

An artistic project on Second Life

Second Life is a virtual world invented in 2003 where millions of users meet who have created an avatar. Unlike the beginnings of the internet, Second Life is a world created by a private company, Linden Lab. An actual economy based on a currency called Linden Dollars, which can be exchanged into US dollars, has been developed in this “parallel” world. Banks, estate agents, recruitment companies, all types of stores selling virtual articles, concerts, cultural activities, educational centres, political groups, stock exchange crashes, casinos (recently prohibited), activists, strikes, virtual criminals and obviously artists have appeared on Second Life.

This virtual world has witnessed the mass arrival of the entertainment industry, political world and private companies. However, behind the dreamlike dimension of landscapes and architecture, avatars surf freely based on three dimensions in the space – it is possible to fly like in a dream. Other more masked dimensions of this world can be explored:

The latest stage of pop where star avatars are increasing in quantity

The new fragility relating to identities which depend on one click


An exacerbation to the point of being absurd of the concept of market value

An ecological masquerade in which an avatar in Second Life uses as much energy as a middle class resident of Brazil (1,752 kWh).

An oppressive society where avatars’ movements are monitored and analysed and each prank is reported and punished instantly.

An after-taste of the end of utopian societies, at a time where the concept of territory only tends to treat people in terms of migratory flows of “labour values”.

During the Nuit Blanche, the two locations to visit the exhibition as an avator or an individual will display a perspective on this changing world. The event will bring together artists’ practices who, beyond the concept of reproduction, are faced with the various aspects of Second Life.

Among the artists invited, Valéry Grancher will put on a play on the issue of denouncement and crime on Second Life, Miltos Manetas, a wink at Andy Warhol through the imaginary world of video games. Etienne Joubert studies the issue of origami in relation to avators’ bodies, Christophe Bruno and David Guez analyse the issues of migratory flows and social networks. Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita will ask real people to recount scenes that they have experienced in Second Life. Around ten artists will be displayed in total.

vendredi 7 septembre 2007

Andreas Angelidakis - "Cloud House" (2007)

Born in Athens in 1968, lives and works in Athens.
Member of the Neen movement and a qualified architect, he works at the intersection of digital culture and architectural production. His works often mix virtual objects and real works. He intends to inaugurate a new type of architecture which make humans and machines better suited. Here Andreas Angelidakis presents a video-conference on his work, based on the different aspects of the Internet. He also exhibits a building in Second life. Angelidakis explains that as early as the first sketches on-line in a virtual universe, visitors can come to see the projects being drawn up and walk around. Construction and production are mixed together to form only one.

Selected solo exhibitions :

2006 « Hotel Blue Wave », INMO Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
2005 « Blue wave », Mu Foundation, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
2003 « Neen World », The Breeder Projects, Athens, Greece.
2001 « Visionnaire 34 featuring Andreas Angelidakis », Visionnaire Gallery, New York, USA.

Selected group exhibitions :

2007 « Sohno Da Case Propria », Casa Encenida, Madrid, Spain.
2006 « SuperNeen », Pack Gallery, Milan, Italy.
2004 « NeenToday », Mu Foundation, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
2002 « Big Brother : Architecture + Surveillance », National Museum of contemporary art, Athens, Greece.
2002 « 12th city », with Armin Linke, 25th Sao Paulo Bienial, Brazil.


Internet Site : http://www.angelidakis.com

Christophe Bruno et David Guez - "Second France" (2007)

Respectively born in 1964 in Toulouse and in 1967 in Gennevilliers.

David Guez, an artist working on community platforms and the issue of intimacy, associates with Christophe Bruno, well-known for his hacks of Google's mechanisms, in order to present Second France, a participatory utopia version Web 2.0. : on the occasion of the Nuit Blanche of Paris, become a shareholder and a priviledged partner by participating to the creation of Second France.
Christophe Bruno is also one of the two curators of the Second Night Exhibition.

Christophe Bruno's awards :

2007 Winner of the Share Festival in Turin
2007 Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain. Winner of the ARCO Prize New Media
2003 Shortlisted at the Ars Electronica Festival

Christophe Bruno's exhibitions (selection):

2007 New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
2007 MOCA, Taipei
2007 Laboral Cyberspaces, Gijon
2006 Rencontres Internationales Paris Berlin
2006 « Neterotopia » Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2006 Transmediale, Berlin
2006 Galerie Sollertis, Toulouse, personal exhibition
2005 ICC, Tokyo
2004 Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris / ARC
2003 Contemporary Art Biennal, Tirana
2002 Vidarte, Mexico City

David Guez's personal exhibitions (selection) :

2006 « XOR », Gallery of Young Creation, Paris, France
2001 « HEROESSE », Beaux-arts de Lyon, France

David Guez's collective exhibitions (selection) :

2007 Production residency at the Centre Pompidou
2006 « Filefestival », Brazil
2001 « Les cinémas de demain », Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2001 « Interactive screen », BANFF, Canada
2000 « Net.congestion »
Festival, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas
2000 « European Media art festival », Osnabrück, Allemagne
2000 «
International Festival of new cinema & and new media », Montréal, Canada
2000 « Version 2000", Centre pour l'image contemporaine, Genève, Suisse.


Christophe Bruno's website : http://www.christophebruno.com/

David Guez's website : http://www.guez.org/

Agnès de Cayeux - "Je cherche Lily Drake" (2007)

Born in Paris in 1966, lives and works in Paris.

Agnès de Cayeux is looking for Lily drake. Lily is 22 years old and bisexual. She charges 750 Linden dollars for 30 minutes with her, and 1350 Linden dollars for 30 minutes with her and one of her girlfriends. Lily Drake likes listening to music, meeting interesting people, watching films and dancing. She likes shopping, lots and lots of shopping.

Selection of gestures
2007 "Second Life, a Possible World" (ed.) Essay. To be published in October. Des Petits Matins, Paris
2007 Justagurl23. Video, 43 mn. SCAM Writing fellowship. To be released on october 22.
2007 "Mutant Being, Me Connected" Book. L'Eclose, Paris.
2007 "MissKitten". Digital impressions.
2006 "Level 7" Video. Festival P., Centre Pompidou, Paris.
2005 "In my room. Variable piece: 1) a reading room (http://www.arte-tv.com/inmyroom) ; 2) a book, Arte Editions and L'Eclose, Paris, 2006,, Paris, 2006 ; 3) z network installation (Arte festival, Art Centre, Noisiel, 2005 ; Flash Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2005 ; Théâtre Paris la Vilette, Paris, 2004).


Internet site : http://www.agnesdecayeux.fr/

Claude Closky - "Me2" (2007)

Born in Paris in 1963, lives and works in Paris.

Claude Closky is interested in the ordinary and extra-ordinary events of our daily lives. He tampers with signs, codes, systems, shapes to break them down, rebuild them and to deride set formulate. Here, he presents “Me2”, a work in which his avatar – or yours – is renewed each time it is called (when the Web page is reloaded). So many false identities which simultaneously hide and reveal their owner’s identity. In the version of “Me2” presented in the Second Life space, the pixelled, low-tech and two-dimensional aspect of the images are the exact opposite of the artificial 3D bodies of the virtual residents.

Selected solo current exhibitions :

24/09/2007 -22/03/2008- « Fall - Winter » 2007-2008 Font Collection, FR66, Paris, France.
02/05– 12/10/ 2007 "Love and Fear", Concert Hall, Threshold Artspace, Perth, Australie.

Selected group current and upcoming exhibitions :

13/10/2007 – 15/03/2008 : « The Leisure Class », Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australie.
12/10– 10/11/2007 « Ready Media », Salon - Museum of Modern Art, Belgrade,Serbia.
05/10/2007- 13/10/2008 « Stardust », MACVal, Vitry-sur-Seine, France.
22/09– 13/10/2007 « Whatever? », Off limits, Madrid, Spain.
19/09/2007 Biennale de Lyon, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
16/09/2007 – 6 jan 2008 « Beautiful People (and the secret wound) », Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
13/09– 16/10/ 2007 « Le Minuscule dans la ville », Le Pavillon, Pantin, France.
10 /09– 27 /2007 «Nous habitons cette ville (ce livre) », Métro Saint-Germain, Paris, France.


Internet sites : http://www.sittes.net/ ; http://www.closky.info/

Alain Della Negra et Kaori Kinoshita - "Furries" (2007)

Born respectively in Tokyo in 1970 and in Versailles in 1975, live and work together in Paris.
Second Life offers those who wish to live in this virtual world the opportunity to create, manage and develop their own alternative reality. With all these options, and a constantly increasing population, Second Life has political ramifications. Who decides which rules should be applied in this virtual world? Which laws and measures should be enacted? Where is the border between virtual and real, how is it transformed? Here, Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita present two videos: “Furries”, specially designed for the Second Night physical space, devoted to owners of avatars with hybrid appearance, half-human, half-animal, and “Newborns”, in the virtual space where two “residents” talk about their virtual existence. The videos are at the porous interstice between the real and virtual worlds.

Yona Friedman - "La ville spatiale" (1958 ; 2007)

Born in Budapest in 1923, lives and works in Paris.

Yona Friedman is an architect and theorist of visionary urban planning of international acclaim who is working at creating achievable utopia. He sees his role as an architect not as a designer, but rather as a consultant in charge of helping residents to draw up their own buildings. With his “ville spatiale” (spatial city), designed in the 1950s, he intended to enable citizens to organize the city freely, to build housing for which any modification, transfer or destruction would only incur low costs due to their mobility and possible reuse. It is built up from this in successive layers. There are few constraints: the resident can move the housing freely around the implemented network. Due to its straddled system, the spatial city can be superposed onto any other city. Working with Friedman, and under the leadership of Helfe Ihnen and Marianne Sewell, a group of architects came together to create an urban area according to the spatial city principles on Second Life.

Selected recent exhibitions :

2007 « Yona Friedman », Museum of contemporary art, Lyon, France.
2006 « Utopias réalizables », CAAC, Sevilla/Alicante/Madrid, Spain.
2004 « Archisculpture », Beyerler Foundation, Basle, Switzerland.
2003 « Utopia Station », Venice Bienial, Italy.
2001 « Ville spatiale », Yokohama Trienial, Japan.
2000 « Théorie et Images », Institut français d'architecture, Paris, France.

Valéry Grancher - "Le bureau des délations" (2005)

Born in Toulon in 1967, lives and works in Paris.

Valéry Grancher works with all types of media, video, photo, painting, sometimes advertising and marketing via Internet and is interested in the mediation relation which can exist on an individual level between media and daily realities, more than subjective perceptions.

Second life is becoming not only a video game but also a duplicate of the real world’s taboos and a new surveillance tool intended to conduct legal trials for fantasies with criminal sentences which are equivalent to those given for real crimes:

A man who created an avatar of an eight-year-old girl and made her a virtual prostitute was sentenced as if he had put a real little girl on the streets (United Kingdom).

Similarly, the bright sparks who put virtual bombs in worlds devoted to major brands were sentenced as if they had organised a real bomb attack, etc.
In view of these legal precedents: are all hard core gamers serial killers?
In order to parody and reveal this situation worthy of a schizophrenic pathology, I decided to create an office in this world, so all avatars can come to officially denounce all the crimes that they have witnessed!

More than a police station, a real entity in this world will play the part of a security policy for our new French presidency!

Selected solo exhibitions :

2007 « Arts aux Poles », Nikon Europe Gallery, France.
2005 ; 2006 « The shiwiars project », Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
2006 « Internet paintings » Incognito Gallery, Paris, France.
2005 "The shiwiars project", Analix Forever Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland.

Selected group exhibitions :

2007 : « Google art : How to hack google ?" New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
2007 : « On fait le mur » Espace d'Art Concret, donation Honegger Albers, Mouans Sartoux, France (2007)
2005 ; 2006 « Ecrans » Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France
2005 « Neen », Sketch Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2002, 2004, 2005 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
2004 - 2005 « Pages jaunes », MAMCO (Museum of contemporary and modern art), Geneva, Switzerland.
2004 « En parallèle » Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France.
2003 "Hasselt biennale" MUHKA Contemporary Art Musuem, Antwerp, Belgium.

Internet site : http:/www.nomemory.org/

Etienne Joubert - "Artiste sans tête" (2007)

Born in Boulogne-Billancourt in 1971, lives and works in Paris and Toulouse.
Etienne Joubert has been developing his work on the link between art, origami and new technology since 2005. He is a decapitated artist. His body is in Second Life while his lifeless head lies on the other side of the screen, in the tangible world. His skull is in origami, made from paper folded into a multitude of modular and configured shapes. Etienne Joubert calls out to real people who pass him by but they do not answer. His words are condemned to float between the two worlds. He wanders, groping around, and talks to the other avatars he meets in Second Life.

CV

2006 : Creation of the Internet site Ordigami.net
2004 : "Zones de Confluences", exposition collective, Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France
2003 : "Reader", interface de lecture collective, Salle Michel Journiac, Paris, France
2002 : "Gammes", pièce en ligne du collectif Téléférique pour la galerie Maisonneuve, Paris, France
2001 : "Folders", online workpiece for the Mudam site, Luxembourg.
2000 : "Démo" by Téléférique group, galerie Le Sous-Sol Gallery, Paris, France
1999 : Création of the download Internet site Téléférique.org


Internet site : http://ordigami.net/

Miltos manetas - "SuperMario sleeping" (1997 ; 2007)

Born in Athens in 1964, lives and works in London.

After getting noticed for his oil paintings on canvas of technological objects (games consoles, screens, etc.), he created many video installations from video game sequences in particular. He initiated the Neen movement, which sees itself as a creative and opportunistic use of technologies for a purpose that is completely different to what was originally intended. Here, Miltos Manetas presents a new version of his play, “SuperMario sleeping”. The symbolic character of Nintendo consoles, dozing, is in the exhibition space on Second Life: it is a nod in the direction of the famous film “Sleep” by Andy Warhol.

Selected solo exhibitions :

2007 « The internet paintings »,Blow de la Barra Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2006 « Dogs and cables », Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York, USA.
2005 « Manetas and animations », Sketch Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2004 « Memoirs of the Devil », Cosmic Gallery, Paris, France.
2000 « Neen », Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA.

Selecte group exhibitions :

2007 « Dazed and confused versus Andy Warhol », Baltic centre for contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.
2005 Valencia Bienial, Spain.
2005 Praga Bienial II, Czech Republic.
2004 « Mediacity Seoul », Seoul art museum, Seoul, South Korea.
2000 « Murakami-Manetas, PinkSummer, Genoa, Italy.


Internet site : http://www.manetas.com/

Second Front - "28 avatars later" (2007)

Second front is an artists’ collective founded in 2006. Influenced, in particular, by movements such as Dadaism, Fluxus, situationist international, or contemporary artists such as Laurie Anderson, Gomez-Pena, Second Front creates theatres of the absurd that question the notions of virtual personification, online performance and virtual narration. Here, the collective shows a video of a zombie attack.

Members : Wirxli Flimflam (Jeremy Owen Turner, Vancouver), Doug Jarvis (Victoria), Tea Chenille (Tanya Skuce, Vancouver), Gazira Babeli (Italy), Aliselborg Zhaoying (Penny Leong Browne, Vancouver), Man Michinaga (Patrick Lichty, Chicago), Lizsolo Mathilde (Liz Solo, St. Johns) et Great Escape (Scott Kildall, San Francisco).

Internet site : http://slfront.blogspot.com/

jeudi 6 septembre 2007

Curators : Daniele Balit and Christophe Bruno

Daniele Balit is an independent curator and art critique . He is co-founder of the 1:1 projects agency, (www.1to1projects.org), based in Rome and London since 2006, developing, producing and presenting contemporary art practices.
He explores the field of new media while keeping his distance for criticism, which enables him to extend the debate to exhibition theory issues, in particular in terms of venue, size and receiving artworks.

infos on Daniele Balit's projects: http://del.icio.us/daniele_balit

Christophe Bruno is an artist based in Paris.
His web site: http://www.christophebruno.com

Architect, new media design : Ignazio Mottola

An architect who graduated from the Milan Polytechnical Institute in 1987, he rounded off his training in Munich and Rome, where he worked with the Purini Thermes firm. In 1991, he set up in Paris, mainly working with the Catherine Furet and Gilles Bouchez agencies.

In 1994, thanks to his expertise in the field of digital design, he worked for the CD-ROM publisher Montparnasse Multimédia, one of the benchmark digital creation studios in the world at the time. His works, "Musée d'Orsay", "Cosmos", "XXéme siècle" and "Histoire de France", successes with the general public and critics alike, were awarded several prizes in France and abroad.

In 2001, he worked with Realviz, and specialised in 3D visualisation for the Web. In 2004, he was appointed project manager, for the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI / Les Ateliers), of CHIPS, a European research project based on new hybrid digital products and services and on interactive architecture.
At the same time, he designed geolocation services for mobile telephony with the start-up Newtgames.
He currently works with various world-class architects and designers: Jean Nouvel, Christian de Portzamparc, Paco Rabanne and Groupe 6 Architectes have already entrusted him the task of illustrating their projects.

He also works on responsive architecture concepts, particularly on the creation of interactive boutiques for a prestigious fashion designer.
His " la Machine de Lombroso " installation was exhibited during Nuit blanche 2005 in Paris: it is also published on " Rhizome " and " we make money not art ".
A second interactive installation, " Viso ", will be exhibited in the Town Hall of the 4th arrondissement during Nuit blanche 2007.

Internet site :http://www.bartproject.com/