Cost to Upload Art to Second Life
At present that the Internet is ubiquitous and many of us adopt email, instant messaging and online conversation rooms to live conversation, it was but a matter of time before our cultural pursuits followed us online equally well. Now, a "virtual world" known as 2nd Life (www.secondlife.com), is offering a venue for the art world to expand its terrestrial (aka offline) presence into an online terra incognita.
During my jaunts in Second Life, I came across a group of artists, including Filthy Fluno and Gracie Kendal, chatting on Artopolis near upcoming shows, happenings and existent life info about their own lives. The fine art is by Filthy Fluno.
What is 2d Life? (affectionately referred to as SL). It is "a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity," according to the website, where users, called "Residents," manipulate online personas chosen "avatars," who interact with each other. Information technology costs zip to register as a Resident, create an avatar, wander the SL mural, and run into, appointment and have sex with other avatars. However, in gild to participate in the SL economy and pay for anything from a haircut to a piece of work of art, yous must invest in the SL currency, which is called Linden Dollars (at an exchange charge per unit of one USD to 250 LD).
Nether the public radar for so long, this past February, SL marked a major milestone of four million registered accounts and revenues of over i million USD a day. This seemed to poise SL on the cusp of a broader social relevance.
Artists from around the world have been drawn to SL's burgeoning culture scene. Southern Californian painter, Gracie Kendal, logged onto SL for the first time last Oct: "…[I] fell in love with this virtual world. Started going to live music events, and going to the fine art galleries. And I realized this is a peachy venue for getting my art out in that location and seen past and so many more people. I started to upload my art into SL, and rented a gallery space and from at that place, people started to see my fine art and I got invited to testify at other galleries…it has been wonderful ever since."
Kendal and some friends joined forces to institute ane of the many thriving online art colonies: Artopolis (http://artropolitans.com/). She also started "selling" digital images of her piece of work to other Residents to decorate their "homes"—"Since I started selling in November, I average nigh 30-forty sales a month," Kendal says—though her prices are hardly in the PaceWildenstein range, hovering effectually the 400 to 500 Linden Dollar mark ($1.80 to $2).
Non just are artists posting or creating piece of work in SL, but an online journal nearly SL art, appropriately titled Slart (http://slartmagazine.com), has emerged under the guidance of veteran creative person Richard Minsky. "I saw that there was no critical evaluation of the art in SL, and that nobody was bringing the fine art that was existence created there to the attention of the outer world," he says.
Minsky explains there are over 200 art galleries in SL's Gallery Owners Group and artists from many disciplines are regulars. "There are many artists who photograph their art and import it to SL in the hope of either attracting involvement in the global market place or in selling enough…to pay their rent in SL," he says. "There are also artists whose work bridges both worlds. And in that location are a growing number who apply the in-world object cosmos tools to brand art, including sculptural and scripted works."
For the skeptical who question the utilize of SL and doubt that it can have any existent impact, SL supporters tin indicate to a growing number of corporations that are obviously non content with terrestrial globalization but are at present branding the virtual earth likewise, including Full general Motors, Dell, and IBM. The web-based globe has its own Reuters news agency (secondlife.reuters.com), and is home to a "college campus" of the New Media Consortium (NMC), which consists of 200 international colleges, museums, corporations, and organizations dedicated to exploring new media and technologies. (SL has besides been the scene of terrorist attacks, similar the three gun-toting members of the SL Liberation Army who shot customers outside an SL American Apparel shop.)
Bathsheba Dorn's "RhombdO." Bathsheba Dorn uses the creative tools of this metaverse to build sculptures that evolved from Bathsheba's "real world" editions of 3-D bronze and stainless steel prints, bachelor via the Internet. Photo past ArtWorld Market place for SLART.
On the New Media Consortium campus is the Aho Museum, which recently hosted a retrospective of StarAx, one of the superstars of the SL art world. Fortunately, for those of us not at the ane-solar day show—which was attended by 150 users—information technology was captured for posterity and available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUgGgTCbcgE). Curated by the Aho Museum'southward Tayzia Butchery, the evidence included more than than 30 pieces, some every bit high as 25 (virtual) meters.
Everyone has their favorite SL artists, and Kendal readily offers her own, "I love Esch Snoats and Filthy Fluno. They have crossed, or blurred the boundaries between SL and real life. They accept incredible talents with their mediums and information technology actually transfers well into SL…there are some incredible photographers in SL, whether transfering real life images into SL similar Sinsabar Holgado, or taking SL photographs and digitally altering them with Photoshop, as Marisela Bouchard."
Eager non to exist left in the cold, museums and galleries are also logging on. Soho art dealer Jen Bekman has reputedly gear up store, the George Eastman House in Rochester, Northward.Y. has had exhibits, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum has mounted a virtual version of the photo exhibition, "Our Walls Behave Witness: Darfur — Who Volition Survive Today?"
Wade1's art gallery in Artopolis.
An additional creative outlet for SL artists (and not-artists equally well) are the avatars, which can easily plough into works of art in and of themselves. A white male user could portray himself as a black woman ane day, a small forest beast some other and an Asian male person the adjacent. Sometimes the avatars become and so elaborate that they can resemble post-apocalyptic guild kids or pimped-up anime characters.
Kendal says she prefers to simplify things betwixt her online and offline selves, "I am a 34 year erstwhile female in existent life. Exactly like my avatar, no deception there." SL's makers, Linden Labs, believes there'south a big future for art in SL, and Robin Harper, Vice President of Community Development at Linden, explains that SL was intended as a place for collaborative creativity from the kickoff. "The fact that artists have been so successful suggests to me that we've been able to requite them the tools and inspiration that we hoped they would have," she says. "The one complaint I have heard is that pricing in SL isn't loftier enough to back up fine art every bit a full time job."
"In Kenzo" represents a type of resident that is working to transform an avatar into fine art. Photo by ArtWorld Market for SLART.
While artists who have made the digital leap ought not plan to retire soon, if recently reported rumors are truthful that IBM may be amassing an online fine art collection, so those paltry Linden Dollar prices may very well leap once corporations start snapping up the best online fine art.
In terms of quality, the fine art produced and/or exhibited in SL doesn't nevertheless reveal a Picasso or Pollock hiding in the matrix, and some of the piece of work tends to be more than kitschy than inspired, but an elevation of standards may only be a matter of time. Harper says that Linden is doing as much as information technology tin to support SL's art scene, "Terminal year we gave out a US$four,000 fellowship to two students in Second Life, who are as well students at the Fine art Establish in Chicago. The fellowship was for exploring Second Life as a new medium for creativity in the visual and performing arts, and was awarded past a panel of reviewers from effectually the world. I hope to go along this program, and this year am looking at supporting an artist in residence plan that's being put together by iCommons in Croatia."
Kendal is equally optimistic well-nigh the future for SL. "I tin can definitely see a future for art in SL. SL is a piece of fine art itself. In that location are so many artistic people that take come into this amazing globe. And more coming in every day. And not only artists, but art connoisseurs, art promoters, curators and and then along. I accept a friend who works in PR and runs 2 galleries. She is always looking for new artists and even commissions work. Another friend runs an fine art promotion company. As more people come into SL, more people will create and buy fine art here. And it is a perfect venue for helping to sell our real life works too."
What the cyber-future holds for SL fine art is anyone'due south guess, but, in the hither and now, in that location are obvious advantages for artists and collectors, even if they tin't physically touch the objects beingness exhibited and sold. Harper explains, "I bought a sculpture at a benefit and information technology was different from real life in that 1) I could afford it and 2) it was like shooting fish in a barrel to transport."
While every SL artist may take her or his reasons for logging on, Kendal shares her ain: "Whether it's our first or 2nd life, there are endless possibilities to what we tin do, especially in SL. So why not live each twenty-four hours to its fullest. Why not become that famous, or infamous creative person, in SL that eludes us in our real lives. As long every bit I don't accept to cut off my ear."
A complete transcript of Hrag Vartanian's interview with Slart editor, Richard Minsky, is available at: http://hragvartanian.wordpress.com.
Correspondent
Hrag Vartanian
Hrag Vartanian is a writer, critic, and designer. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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Source: https://brooklynrail.org/2007/04/artseen/secondlife-art
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