Lost in App Land

I admit it. I've made a few shots with my Big Girl camera over the last couple of weeks, but for the most part, I'm lost in Appland.

That's right, Apple had made more money off of me on photographic apps. I've downloaded a few new ones, and I've continued to play with the ones I wrote about in my last blog post on the subject, becoming more conversant with them. I've started to combine and layer the different apps, because they all have strengths and weaknesses.

TiltShiftGenerator - Fake DSLR offers just a few features, but one really makes it stand out. If any of you 2.3 regular readers of this blog are also fans of my artwork, you'll know that I dig a tight depth of field and a fully-blown aperture. TiltShiftGen enables me to get an extreme variation of that affect with my iPhone. A variable position and size "blur zone" lets the user close in on what they want to highlight; it reminds me of the Lensbaby, which my friend Mark Lindsay highlighted recently in a Facebook post. Other less-interesting settings enable the user to vary saturation, brightness, and contrast, as well as apply a variable-degree vignetting effect. Your source photo can be from your iPhone's Camera Roll or you can shoot on the fly. On the left you'll see the source photo; on the right, the same image after applying this app's effects. $1.99 by Art & Mobile.

Kim Criswell asked me recently about camera zoom apps. The lack of any sort of native zoom capability on the iPhone's camera is one of my biggest pet peeves; as far as I can tell, application developers have managed to make up for that absence only in a limited fashion. One I like for its simplicity is CameraZoom Pro. CamZoom Pro supplies no filters or effects, focusing instead on zoom, resolution, and "camera burst." You can select the size of your image (ranging from 640 x 480 to 1280 x 960) and customize "burst count" (ie, the number of "frames" shot), selecting from one, three, five or seven. The app offers gridlines to help you stabilize the camera as much as possible during the shot, and enables you to preview your image before saving it. The zoom function works reasonably well in very good light but basically dwindles down to "nearly useless" in very poor lighting or indoors ... which is what I expected. First you'll see the true distance image with the raw zoom below it, both shot at 800 x 600. Below that, two comparable zoomed images, on the left shot at 800 x 600, on the right shot at 1280 x 960. The final image, as a bonus, is the zoomed bird feeder image with applied effects using Best Camera. By Punicasoft, 99 cents. There's also a free version.

An app I've just recently downloaded but haven't had time to play with very much yet goes by the bold descriptive name of 7.0 Megapixel Camera + ZOOM. It uses a "custom algorithym" to boost your iPhone camera performance to what it estimates to be 7.0 and 5.0 megapixel resolutions in addition to zoom, a self-timer that can be set for 3, 5, 10, 15 or 30 seconds; and a time-lapse option from 15 seconds to 15 minutes. One major convenience already easily noticeable: you snap a picture by simply touching the screen anywhere, rather than having to aim for a small and sometimes awkwardly-placed button. By CrowdCafe, 99 cents.

More images and more apps coming. Do you have apps installed on your Droid or iPhone? Let's see some samples of your work! Send a couple of images to me via email along with a few details about the app and I'll post them here.

Social Studies on BlogTalkRadio: Digital Media for Promotion of Art and Artists!

It's time for another installment of Social Studies on BlogTalkRadio, hosted by me! This time we'll look at Digital Media for promoting art and artists. Special guests for this episode are Mark Lindsay of Mark Lindsay Art and Washington DC-based artist Dana Ellyn. Both of these folks are working the social networks hard to get their work and their names out into the public eye. We'll hear all about their tips, tricks, trials, and tribulations. Whether you're an old hand at promotions or just beginning to think about using the web, digital media and social networking, you're sure to learn a little something from these two cutting-edge professionals!

TUNE IN SATURDAY at 7:30 pm EASTERN STANDARD TIME to listen live, or come back any time to check out the show on-demand!

Either way, you'll find us on my show page at BlogTalkRadio! Or, use the widget in the blog sidebar to access the show.

Then head back here to my blog for further discussion and commentary!

Join us!

Photographic AppTitude

Many fine art photographers have had the cringe-inducing experience of being approached in the field by a stranger and told with great enthusiasm, "Oh, I'm a photographer too!" This exclamation was often followed by the stranger producing a digital point-and-shoot or SLR never taken off "auto" and showing a string of pedestrian snapshots in an attempt to demonstrate their point. This began happening with startling regularity as 35mm SLR cameras became popular in the consumer market. I admit that, in part, I moved from 35mm photography to medium format largely because NO ONE ever looked at my four-and-a-half-pounds-without-the-finder-or-the-lens Pentax 67 and thought for a moment that their Canon Rebel was roughly equivalent.

I've gradually come to accept the fact that digital photography is here to stay and has some interesting qualities that are worth exploration/exploitation. I have only recently purchased my first digital SLR (a Nikon--old habits die hard) and am gradually becoming comfortable with it, producing images that look simply like "my" work. Digital cameras are, after all, simply tools; ultimately it is the intent, skill, creativity and vision of the user that distinguishes artist from hobbyist from dweeb-with-a-camera. Interestingly enough, my favorite digital camera these days started out as my least-favorite digital camera--I'm talking about the camera on my iPhone.

Before I got the iPhone, I was using a Samsung Blackjack which had a tremendous camera with optical zoom and a host of in-camera adjustment options. It took wonderful images, so when I fired up the camera on my iPhone and found it largely optionless, with no zoom and no adjustment settings, I was extremely disappointed. But I've recently been exploring photo apps for the iPhone, and my disappointment has been largely erased by fascination.

Here are a few of my favorite Apps:

Best Camera was my first iPhone camera app. It provides 14 "effects" that can be applied to newly shot images or to images from the phone's image library. You can choose from basic changes like light, dark, warm, cool, contrast or desaturation or apply color tone effects like candy, jewel, or Paris. You can also change the presentation of the image (make it square or apply a frame) and the app's settings let you select working sizes ranging from 480 x 480 to 1600 x 1600, in addition to the image's original size. It also makes image sharing particularly easy, with in-app sharing links directly to your Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter accounts, as well as your email. By Ubermind, $2.99.

If you're a Polaroid enthusiast, you'll love ShakeIt. Wildly simple, this app from Nick Sayes and Kevin Wong lets you choose your frame (instant picture, peel-apart, or frameless) and apply it to a new or existing image. The image then "develops" on the phone screen while you watch; shaking the phone speeds the process along. The resulting image doesn't have the crazy cyan overtones of true SX-70 images, but the colors are flat and soft like the Polaroid pictures you might remember from childhood. 99 cents; there's also a free ShakeIt Lite.

Still more options are offered for your image-making fun by the Hipstamatic. This seductive little package is a camera-within-your-camera, and comes with a selection of different "lenses," "films," and "flashes" all of which produce unique effects in live-shot images. Insidiously enough, there are additional lenses, films, flashes and packages that you can purchase (and of course I got them all and had spent $8 at the App Store before I even realized it). You can mix and match them all, depending on your mood. Loads of fun, and a genius time- and bandwidth-waster, with easy in-App upload to Facebook, Flickr, or email. By Synthetic Corp. Basic package is $1.99, but a warning ... you won't want to stop there! The four optional "Hipstapaks" are 99 cents each.

Retro Camera is another option-packed PhotoApp that lets you apply a huge variety of special effects to either newly made or already-saved images. In addition to basic edits like size, position, and rotation, Retro Camera offers you a "toolbox" that enables you to choose your "film," as well as alter the image's contrast, grain noise, and texture. You can apply blur, or color effects, and select from more than 20 frames in 16 colors. One caveat--your images will not automatically save, so remember to "save" after you're satisfied with the final result. The free version leaves a logo at the bottom of your finished image (easily removed with Photoshop, if you're so inclined) and runs ads at the top of the app; the paid version is only $1.99. By CLBITZ Ubiquitous Communications.

There are, of course, literally HUNDREDS of camera apps out there; I've already identified more I would love to play with. I'm coming to consider my iPhone images their own art form. If you're an iPhone user, I'd love to hear from you about your favorite camera apps; if you've got the Droid or another App-based phone, let's hear what kind of creative chops you've been able to discover! Meanwhile, you can check out some more fun App-based images on Facebook.

Gallery as Experience

My most recent installment of Social Studies, my BlogTalkRadio show, was quite interesting. If you are one of its 3.9 regular listeners, you'll know that the topic was the role of brick and mortar galleries in the current climate. I obtained comments from a range of folks, including gallerists, artists, collectors and art patrons ... I also drew from my own experience with galleries and alternative spaces, as well as the anecdotes of friends.

I found surprising the incredible range of interpretation of essentially every aspect of the question I was investigating. The notion of "art" ran the gammut from anything exhibitable (and some things not exhibitable) to Work By Dead Masters. The value of art was identified as monetary, aesthetic, cultural, spiritual. "Galleries" were viewed as "formalized spaces for exhibitions" to "only named and recognized venues in the Major Art Capitols" to "storefronts for the commerce of art."

However, all the commenters referrenced the brick-and-mortar art gallery as a place to be with art. Not a place to buy, not a place to sell, not a place to show, but a place to experience.

My favorite comment on this point came from Laura McConnell, a friend and art patron from Baltimore, MD. "Just as print media and books have their tactile experiences, galleries give a sensory and tactile experience for both the artist and the viewer that other promotional mediums just can’t offer."

So. If we consider the provision or creation of a sensory, tactile shared experience as the real raison d'etre for brick-and-mortar galleries, where does that leave us? How can galleries enhance and capitalize on this idea? What new expectations does this set up for the artist? For the gallerist? For the art-viewing public? I'll try to tackle those questions on a future segment of Social Studies; in the meantime, I welcome your comments here (as long as they are in a language I read, which means ENGLISH or FRENCH, and advance the discussion and aren't "i like ur article" spam--those comments will be rejected, sorry.)

Social Studies on BlogTalkRadio: LET'S PLAY WITH OUR FOOD!

We're going down on the farm for the second installment of Social Studies, my BlogTalkRadio show. Join me on April 24 at 7:30 pm EST to hear the live wrap-up and commentary on my day's adventures, along with pre-recorded interviews, sound clips, and miscellaneous craziness. I'll also be posting to Facebook in real time, and you should check back here for photos, video, recipes, and more!

Just use the embedded player below to listen in; call in to 347-215-8403 to join me on the air! Can't make it at 7:30? No problem! Use the player or access the show page at BlogTalkRadio and check it out on-demand!

Art Life Now on BlogTalkRadio!

I've started a BlogTalkRadio show!

SOCIAL STUDIES debuts today at 6:30 pm EST. Our topic for this first show is (duh) Art Life Balance, where I hope to discuss the measures we take to keep the art flowing while also managing our family lives, paying the bills and so forth.

It's a live show, so listeners can call in and offer their own perspectives and comments. Details below:

When: Saturday, April 3, at 6:30 to 7 pm, EST.

How: all you have to do is register as a listener at www.blogtalkradio.com
and tune in to http://tobtr.com/s/984917.

Want to chat with me live on-air? Just call 347-215-8403 during the broadcast and I'll patch you in.

Can't catch it live? Just go to BlogTalkRadio.com anytime after the
broadcast and listen on-demand or access it as a podcast via iTunes.

I hope all 2.3 readers of this blog will join me :)

Small Moments of Feeling Small

I got dissed today by an organization I really respected, and it's made me feel really, really small.

And for once, it was not about my art. It was, of all things, about a non-art job. But it was a job I was, I'm sure, supremely qualified for, with an organization I have a long-standing respect for. I had lots of great ideas and was very excited about the prospect of contributing to the success of this organization. The application process was odd, to be sure ... an initial application was to be a letter, the "second interview" a second letter, the third level a phone interview. This despite the emphasis in the job description on the importance of collaboration and teamwork among the staff, and the implied value of fitting in and getting along. My initial application letter was apparently reasonably well received and I was invited to write a second letter, and take a written proofreading test ... all this for a "digital-media" (sic) position. But I wrote the second letter with great pleasure, took the proofreading test, and popped them into the mail, looking forward to moving further in the process for this job that I was already thinking of as "my job."

Then I saw the job announcement reposted in a strange location on, of all places, CraigsList, and began to feel uneasy.

I got the "thanks but no thanks" note from them today. It was at once cheerful and dismissive, saying they had taken my candidacy seriously but needed someone who was "adept at a wide range of things." And yet their interview process had tested my capacity to follow directions, write two letters, proofread for grammar and punctuation errors, read for comprehension, and use the US mail. Again, for a job in "digital-media" (sic).

Granted, things are not so good right now. I'm very sick with some kind of flulike thing and my outlook is not the best. I'm maybe a little bit lonely and struggling to keep up with housecleaning. My animals are causing me stress and worrying me. So it's possible that this has hit me a little harder than it might have otherwise, but I'm finding it hard to shake off the feeling of insult and unfairness, this notion that I was not given a chance, that my actual capabilities were not valued but instead I was judged based on some capricious secret handshake.

Truth is, I don't want to be evaluated based on whether or not I fit into the secret club. I don't want to work for someone who doesn't believe in what I'm doing, doesn't see the interent value in it. I don't want to be part of a team that's not sure whether I should be a member. There is a substantial chance that this position would have suffered all those indiginities,and that other positions out there would provide more challenge and other organizations value my contribution more highly. Yet I am affected still by this rejection; as I said, it was an organization I respected (and still do respect) so I can't just write them off as stupid ... and yet, the dismissal of me from consideration for this position that I was so completely qualified for with so little examination of my real qualifications seems odd at best.

I hope tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow WILL be better. But right now, it is still today and I remain disturbed.

On Writing: Part 1

North Carolina has a sort of "Twilight Zone" quality to it. I mean that in the nicest imaginable way; things just sort of come out of left field here, and what you expect is almost never what you get. Strange, given that this seems to be a state that likes literality in its place names--in the course of a 40 minute drive today, I crossed the Deep River, the Rocky River and the Big River, and discovered a town park called "Town Park." But the people here, born-and-bred Carolinians--they're the surprises.

For example: my farrier. Good guy, does good work. Funny. His favorite descriptive word appears to be "peckerhead." He's "a little bit of a bigot" (his words), but honest and straightforward. I like him; my horse likes him. Upside down under my horse, he mentions that he's been meaning to write. "I have connections in the literary circles here," he says. I tell him he should definitely write if he feels the urge, literary connections or no. "Clyde says the same thing," he says, shifting my horse's foot to get a better angle. She yanks back for a moment, prompting him to interrupt his train of thought with a gentle but firm "Now you stop that."

When she gives in, he comes back to topic, talking and filing at the same time. Clyde is encouraging him to write. Other friends too, and his wife. A few more first names get mentioned. I tell him that I "used to write" and that I'm a voracious reader, and he lights up a little bit more. He lets my horse take her foot back and pats her on the flank, standing up straight to stretch his back and give them both a little rest. "You might have heard of some of my friends, then," he says, and then without a hint of pretense rattles off a who's who of North Carolina authors, all old friends. "Clyde" turns out to be Clyde Edgerton. When he gets to Jill McCorkle, I stop him. "You really do have some outstanding literary friends," I say. He nods. "Yeah," he says, tapping my horse's leg to ask her to lift another foot for him. "Anyway, I keep meaning to write, but I just haven't gotten around to it."

In California, my farrier was pure farrier, not meaning to do anything but trim and shoe horses and spend weekends in Reno with his wife and adult children, gambling. When he worked on my horse, we talked about how silly the politicians in Sacramento were being, about horses and other horse people. In North Carolina, my farrier is a writer and a reader and a friend to some very big names. Undoubtedly when he visits we'll talk about how silly the politicians in Raleigh are being, and about horses and other horse people. But we'll also talk about books, and reading and writing, and what his literary limelight friends are doing.

When he finally does do some writing, I know it will be something interesting.

Me, I've also been meaning to write. But so far, all I've managed to do is blog. And that's the topic for my next post. :)

is moving art?

My headline is a riff off of the name of a project by my dear friends (and very talented artists), Lauren Usher and Lisa Rasmussen, which you can check out here. Their premise is broad and inclusive and compelling ... mine in this post is blogger-centric and specific, yet I hope not so self-referential that the 2.3 regular readers of my blog fail to find some relevance in it. Anyway, I'm going on a bit without getting to the point, so without further ado, here it is:

In one week or less, I am going to be moving 3,000 miles. Just me. And my cats. And the horse. My stuff and my horse will travel in luxurious fashion, with someone else driving them and doing all the heavy lifting such a move entails. Me ... I will be driving, pulling a small UHaul trailer containing my essentials (coffee maker, futon, computer) and irreplaceables (artwork). My four cats will be in carriers in the back seat. I thought about Lauren and Lisa's Art Cart project and blog ... and I wondered, in my contrarian way ... so if art can be brought to unexpected places by a thing on wheels, and Art is Moving, can the thing on wheels be my vehicle and the very act of moving itself be the art?

This is a question I intend to investigate during the 5 day trip and beyond. Right now, though, I'm overexcited and drinking champagne, so I must go try to calm myself down. More later on specific thoughts as they occur.

@fterglow

I've been avoiding saying it, but I think now I can say it ... "@" was a success, and has miles to go before it sleeps (er, sorry, Robert Frost).

If you're one of the 2.3 regular readers of this blog, you'll know that I spent the last few days at the College Art Association Conference in Los Angeles, and you'll further know that I was one of the curators for @, a show sponsored by the New Media Caucus in conjunction with CAA and the Southern California Institute of Architecture. I and my colleague James Morgan dealt with the Second Life portion of this joint real life/Second Life project. 

This was an enormous undertaking, which became orders of magnitude more complicated simply due to the extensive use of technology and the fact of attempting to curate something in a RL space we'd never seen, that was located a very long way away from any of the curation team (who variously came from Texas, Michigan, and Northern California). I frequently felt less than useful, although according to my co-curator this is not the truth of the matter (and it must be only my impression, as he has asked me to work with him in the future on  other projects). But I have to say I am very happy to have gotten involved.

I have very bad cellphone pictures of the RL exhibit, which I will share with you momentarily. But the show and its concept are such a hit, we are taking it on the road.

Conversations are underway right now with a variety of venues in several locales. We'll keep the SL part in place, but the RL aspects will change with each venue, involving a local artist or group of artists to construct the very important RL installation in each locale. I'd like to see more interaction between the SL artists and the RL audience ... a day of artists' talks, for example, that would involve both the RL and SL artists.

Would you like @ in your space? Let me know. In the meantime, watch this space. Crappy camera-phone pictures coming.

Have I finally found the Holy Grail? Is this what new media is? Er, are? whatever?

curmudgeon

There is something about conference presentations that brings out the curmudgeon in me. Really, nothing gets me going worse than some over-degreed sufferer of OFS (Omnipotent Faculty Syndrome) honking vociferously about the "dangers" and "fallacies" of something I happen to be immersed in, and with which he has, in all probability, no actual experience whatsoever.

Today's winner of the "Not This Again" award shall remain nameless, but the focus of his terse little academic tirade was essentially to attack both the idea that computers can inspire and enhance creativity and the veracity of online communities. "It's not that I think these groups aren't important in some way," he said smugly, the OFS leaking out of the very pores of his skin, "it's just that I have a hard time calling them communities. "

If you're one of the 2.3 regular readers of this blog, you know that I am very passionate about online communities, not only as a forum for artwork and artistic exchange, but also as a social platform. Basically, Mr. OFS was saying that my entire artistic thesis is invalid and possibly even damaging to society. He then went on to blather a bit about the "dangerousness" and "isolation" that computers inspire ... which is thinking basically contemporary to the 1970s and Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock.

Really, sir. It's 2009. Have you not been paying attention for the last 30 years?

This is when my inner curmudgeon got the best of me. In another time, I would have sat quietly and tried to take in this point of view so antagonistic to my own, so completely informed by nothing even remotely resembling my experience. I would have tried to question my own ideas and reactions, and tried to comprehend where the speaker was coming from.

Today, I got up and left.

There is something to be said for being open to opposing points of view and interpretations of expereince that do not mirror our own. But there is also something to be said for believing in your own path. While I do the best I can to let the waters of life wash over me without stress, I also now feel that, if the water is too cold, I have not just the option but possibly the responsibility to get up and move to a different spot.

Artists face this challenge on a regular basis. What we do is often misunderstood or even denigrated. It is often labeled "elitist" or "pointless" or "unproductive." Or, even more frustrating, "easy." How many abstract painters have heard someone standing in front of their work mutter "my kid could do that"? How many photographers working in the field have been beseieged by strangers toting camera phones or all-automatic SLRs who blithely announce "oh, I'm a photographer too"?

Are we contributing members of society or not? It's not a question your average engineer ever gets asked.

It's enough to bring out the curmudgeon in anyone.

Beige

It's my second day at CAA, and all I can think is "beige."

The sessions I've been to have not been so good, leaving me thinking that either 1) this is a way of considering things that is so completely foreign to me that I cannot understand it or 2) academics can suck the life out of anything. So far, out of three sessions that made even the briefest mention of Second Life, I have seen the same two really impossibly annoying and small-minded projects (in my humble opinion) extensively referenced like they were the second coming of Jesus ... although one presenter's style and contextualization suggested her comments were heavily tongue-in-cheek. I have watched otherwise lively and engaging people become stiff and boring behind the podium. I have heard the most exiciting things I know of in art rendered superfluous and dull by rote, bloodless presentations.

Oh well. At least I had a nice lunch today.

Our long-labored-over show "@" has its opening reception in just a few hours. I still need to make a run to the hotel business center to get the curatorial statement printed out, and maybe a few copies made as well, but I think we are basically set ... and if we aren't there is not much I can do. I think a pre-show cocktail is in order.

More later. With photos.

Planes, Explains, and Automobiles ... CAA 2009

Well I made it to L.A. The drive from the airport to the hotel was longer than the flight from Oakland to Los Angeles, and as the hotel is a fair distance from the convention center, it looks like a lot of time is going to be spent standing around waiting for shuttle busses. I was torn tonight between heading off the the Gala and just going to bed at 8 pm, but I wound up not doing either ... I was digging my room service when my delightful co-curator called and I wound up whipping out a curatorial statement for the show ... which is only fair.

(My co-curator is quasi-famous in Second Life, where his avatar goes by the fabulously schizophrenic name of Rubaiyat Shatner. He is kind of the embodiment of that dichotomy. I like him very much. His avatar calls himself a Futurist. I once knew in real life a delightful person whose literal job title was "futurist," he was frequently hired to speak at conferences I attended on future trends and their potential impact on a particular industry. He once told me that the thing he liked best about being a futurist was "by the time the future gets here, the check's already cleared.")

Anyway, working on this show has been an eye-opening experience in a lot of ways. There are some astonishing technological feats on display, both as artwork and as the guts of the show's mounting, which is in and of itself something of a work of art. One of the best things has definitely been the friends I've made among other artists ... people who are geniune, fun, interesting, smart, and open. I'd met other artists in Second Life before, and found them to be clique-ish and slightly snotty, very much members of an "in crowd" performing for other members of the same "in crowd."

In the wise words of my new friend Mencius, "those people are NAIRL." (Not Artists In Real Life. Okay, so that's a little bit of an in-joke in and of itself, sorry.)

The other eye-opening thing is that these people seriously seem to have NO IDEA about promotion. None. Not a droplet. Not an iota. Zero. Zip. Nada. Maybe I just don't understand the crowd, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to run one of these puppies myself from beginning to end just to see what would happen if things were well and seriously promoted. Maybe my keen interest in New Media needs to expand into a more active role in the New Media Caucus. Maybe. (In my copious spare time, no doubt, but there we have it.)

Where You "@"?

It's almost time for another meeting with my tribe, aka the College Art Association conference. I'll spend four days surrounded by artists, academics, and artist-academics, plus the usual scary collection of freshly-minted art degree holders looking for work. (I am not freshly minted, but will, in fact, be looking for work.)

However, the most important aspect of CAA for me this year will be New Media Caucus exhibition "@" . This is not just because I have it in my head that I am keenly interested in new media (which you will know if you are one of the 2.3 regular readers of this blog), but also because I am one of the curators. I worked with James Morgan on the Second Life aspect of the show. James is sorta kinda famous in Second Life as the founder of Ars Virtua.

The reception will take place simultaneously in both "real life" and Second Life, as does the show itself.

---

New Media Caucus Reception: for the Exhibition "@"
9 PM Thursday February 26

real life location:
WM Keck Lecture Hall
Southern California Institute of Architecture
960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013

(The building entrance and parking lot are located at 350 Merrick St,
between 4th Street and Traction Avenue.)

Curated by James Morgan, Leslie Raymond, E. Marie Robertson, and Vagner M. Whitehead, with "Analog Interactivity" curated by xtine burrough, plus an SL performance by Second Front and live cinema by Be Johnny and Potter-Belmar Labs

driving instructions

Second Life location:
Arts Virtua Convening Space
Seventh Eye
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seventh%20Eye/32/86/48

(NOTE: If you're coming to the reception in SL, you might want to set yourself to log in to home beforehand. The work of Second Front is frequently known to crash sims. And no, I'm not kidding.)

---

Come Play in My Art Project! ... announcing STROLL v. 2.0

Welcome to all 2.3 readers of this blog! It's so nice to see you again!

You may remember that I attempted to get folks to STROLL n the the spirit of the Hausmann-era flaneur awhile back, to limited results. I've recast the project somewhat and want to issue that invitation again. This time there is a specific date for your participation, although the otherwise general absence of rules remains the same.

Here's how to participate in STROLL:

1. On Jan. 18, at any time of the day or night, go for a stroll. Keep in mind the attitude of the Hausmann-era French flaneur: a stroll was pure recreation with a hint of consumerism in it, namely consumerism of the locale itself and the notion of consuming some "leisure time." Your stroll may be from anywhere to anywhere, alone or with others, but the one stipulation is that is must have no purpose other than the act of strolling itself ... no fair strolling down to the grocery store to get milk, for example.

2. Document your stroll! Snap photos, record sounds, or take video along the way, create digital or pen-and-paper sketches, pick up "found objects," draw maps or diagrams, or capture your stroll in poetry, prose, music, performance or simple descriptive notes. Be as deep or as shallow as you like, as thoughtful or as reactive. There are absolutely NO LIMITATIONS and better yet, NO EXPECTATIONS! ANY kind of documentation is 100% acceptable! I'm also interested in any reflections or thoughts you have about the idea of strolling strickly to "consume" your "leisure time."

3. Talk to me! Email me at emarie@lineofsight.net to let me know you've taken a stroll, and tell me what sort of documentation you made ... if you're comfortable with it, you can send your documentation along as an attachment at the same time. If it's a 3-D object you've constucted (or something you found and picked up along the way) or anything that is otherwise not electronically transferrable, include a brief written description. We'll then talk about what form your documentation can best be presented in.

4. Stay tuned for the exhibit! All our documentation will be collected and coordinated into simultaneous Real Life and Second Life gallery exhibitions. You may be listed as a collaborator on the project, or remain annonymous. Second Life work featuring or credited to avatars will NOT be coordinated with Real Life names unless you request it, and no real life or Second Life identifying information will be shared with anyone else for any purpose EVER.

Remember, this project is also being replicated in Second Life. If you have an avatar and would like to do a Second Life stroll in addition to your Real Life stroll, please feel free to do so! For information on how to submit your information from a Second Life stroll, see "Let's Be Real," the blog of my avatar, the lovely Asimia Heron.

If you have any questions, please email me!

Okay, everybody, get out there and STROLL!

Love and New Media

If you're one of the 2.3 regular readers of this blog, you'll recall that I went to the College Art Association conference in Dallas in February, where I attended a number of sessions on New Media, as I have it in my head that I am keenly interested in New Media, although no one seems to be terribly sure what "New Media" actually is. (Or are. Whatever.) One of the people I encountered there was a fellow by the name of Pat Lichty. He's a performance artist, new media artist, academic, and nerd--like most of the other people attending those sessions including myself, frankly--and he has a really interesting, rock-star-like energy to him. (This is a description that I imagine would make him laugh in disbelief, but it's the honest truth.)

My interaction with Pat wasn't extensive; I shook his hand after the panel and said something fabulously generic like "intriguing presentation." And it was an intriguing presentation, on the part of all the panelists. But I am thinking more about something he said during his presentation that just popped out of his mouth almost a propo of nothing, which struck me as odd at the time but now makes so much sense it's almost prophetic:

"We don't talk enough about love in New Media."

At the time, I thought Of course we don't, why would we? And I still really have no idea where he was going with that comment, as there was no follow-up and no elucidation at the time; it simply was said and floated in the air like a hopeful fairy, then dissipated with no further discourse. But interestingly enough, my entire artistic practice has morphed and changed over the last few months to focus almost exclusively on love and new media as its thesis.

I am, as you may recall, all about boundary-challenging, and this is the ultimate boundary-challenger.

It began with the evolution of my "Sexy Delusions" collaboration to include people in the virtual world of Second Life: deconstructing marriage and relationships that develop in a place where there are really no legal, social, or cultural expectations around these things, and the questions I have about whether such unions, made purely on some kind of emotional commitment, are somehow different or the same as the unions that come about in so-called Real Life. I was interested, too, in the notion of "emotional commitment" in a virtual world. I had already met some people for whom getting "married" in Second Life was really a precursor to taking the relationship out of Second Life and into Real Life, as I mentioned in an earlier post, The Art of Romance. But equally intriguing were the people who married in SL but had no intention of ever transferring their relationship to RL for whatever reason. Why were these people pairing off, I wondered? What was the real context of this kind of role-playing?

The answer: they aren't role-playing. They're falling in love, getting involved in relationships, suffering the same stupidity and complexities and strangeness of Real Life entanglements. The expressions are digital; the emotions are real.

I had already figured this out intellectually. But then my avatar, Asimia, fell in love, completely out of the blue. And the gentleman in question ... his avatar has fallen in love with her. It's difficult and challenging and scary. There are hurt feelings and panics and more drama than there should be. But in the final analysis, they love each other; completely and utterly, with a blazing intensity and a stark realness of emotion that one would not expect (at least, that I did not expect) from two individuals who have a clearly stated intention of NEVER taking the relationship outside of Second Life's digital container.

And yet, it is not role-playing. It is as real as real gets.

This is probably not what Pat Lichty was thinking about when he said we don't talk about love enough in New Media. He may not even remember that he said it. But I have to thank him for saying it all the same; it's become the underpinning of what I hope will be an extraordinarily rewarding and rich artistic practice that will enable me not only to learn more about my fellow human beings and avatars, but also to better understand myself, both as an artist with an idea and as a woman with a heart and soul.

The Art of Romance

This Second Life thing just gets more interesting all the time.

As I continue to plan out my (our) collaborative art project exploring the views and expectations of partnered avatars on SL and mixing it with the expectations of partnered people in RL, the universe is seeing fit to provide me with more and more data.

First, I came across an article on a study out of Stanford that seems to confirm that there's a lot of "leak" between SL and RL, and what you do in SL can have a strong positive effect on RL. You can read it in this issue of Time Magazine online.

Second, I began checking out the profiles of some partnered avatars and discovered that for many, getting married in SL seems to be a prelude to moving the relationship into RL. This is certainly not true for all, but I did find many cases in which people were planning on pulling up roots and moving hundreds of miles away to be near the RL owner of the avatar they'd married, because the emotional component of the relationship was very real, even if the physical aspect of it was a purely digital expression.

I was already fairly sure this was true, having experienced it myself in a variety of little ways. But I experienced it in a BIG way a couple of nights ago.

You see, on Tuesday night, Asimia had a date.

She met the gentleman involved the night before at a jazz club on the sim where she lives. She was actually dancing with someone else when this particular gentleman caught her (my?) eye, and despite having a very pleasant dance partner already, she couldn't take her (my?) eyes off this other gentleman. He walked across the floor, she (okay, damnit, I) almost got carpal tunnel running the camera controls around to watch him. He sat at the bar, she spied on him with an overhead view while chatting with her dance partner. He was stunning, and this is really saying something, because in Second Life, everyone is as attractive as they want to be. He was elegantly dressed. He seemed poised and just a touch aloof. And he had fabulous, thick, gorgeous, blond flowing hair almost to his waist.

He turned out to be friends with Asimia's dance partner, and tossed a few wry, witty comments their way. Delightful.

He was, in short, the man (avatar?) of her (my? our?) dreams.

Asimia's been in SL long enough to know that it frequently does mirror RL in one particular way: guys who make a fuss over you and say they'll call, frequently don't. Their profiles all say they don't want any drama, then they promptly set out to create it. Well, I truly don't want any drama, and the first time this happened I was surprised and a little hurt. But by the third or fourth time, I had adjusted and really felt that it didn't matter. Asimia is, after all, in SL for art and for art alone.

And then he showed up.

Long story short, Asimia's dance partner departed for another venue and she took a chance and went over to talk with Mr. Handsome. He was not very talkative at first, but he got her a drink and then asked her to dance. Asimia flirted hard, and at one point it crossed my (her?) mind that she was probably trying too hard. But, no matter. They had a little fun, then his friends IM'd him to come join them. They exchanged "friend" cards, she told him about her art party on the 22nd, and he left. And she (we) figured, that was that. As his avatar disappeared, Asimia tried to fan the virtual flush from her face and said to no one in particular, "It's a good thing I don't meet guys that look like that every day."

So the next day when he IM'd her and invited her to join him at the beach, she was very surprised. Very pleased, but surprised. And a little suspicious and more than a touch guarded. But she put on her beach wear, and accepted his offer, and found herself at a fun and people-filled beach club where they danced and drank and chatted (he's still not very talkative) until heading over to Asimia's house to hang out on the beach there for awhile. Evening came, as it does every four hours in SL, and they changed into more elegant clothing and headed over to the Jazz Club to hear the new DJ.

The new DJ was playing smoky, sensual soul. The dancing was close and slow. It was phenomenally romantic. After the sun came up again, I had to go, so that meant Asimia did too. Mr. Handsome escorted her home and said a proper good-night at her front door.

The point of all this is the next day, I—not Asimia, we're talking about ME—felt this pleasant calm lovely sensation of little endorphins sailing around in my brain. Asimia's highly pleasant SL experience with a handsome fellow avatar affected me exactly the same way as if I had had the experience with a handsome gentleman in Real Life.

People come into SL for a lot of different reasons. I think I'm beginning to understand that for me, SL is a tool for visualization. I have created Asimia very much in my own image, but at the same time she is a projection of my best and highest-idealized self. As she experiments, whether with furniture-making or crafting prims into NPIRL sculpture or romance, I reap the benefits in unexpected ways.

... if a woodchuck could chuck wood ...

So in the last post I asked the musical question, "How big a bang will Berkeley Big Bang be?" For me, it was more like a *boink* than a bang.

Not to say it wasn't interesting ... it was. I especially enjoyed Bert Dreyfus, a professor emeritus from UC Berkeley's Philosophy department ... it never ocurred to me to wonder what Heidegger or Descartes would have thought of Second Life. He's been on Second Life, although he admitted it's been about six months since his last visit. I'm guessing, crusty old SL veteran that I am (today, in fact, is my rezzday ... all you terrans can go look up what that means), that he actually hasn't spent all that much time in SL, because he kept talking about shared mood and how you can't share mood in SL in all the subtle ways you can in person. Actually, I find it's pretty easy to pick up on and share mood in SL. It's a heavily intuitive thing, but it happens and it seems to happen fairly easily.

Philip Rosedale (or, as we like to call him in-world, Castro Linden ... er, I mean, Philip Linden ...) is responsible for the company that has made Second Life possible. He spoke after Dr. Dreyfus, and was all excited about how webcams will soon enable you to reflect your facial expressions and hand gestures in SL in real time. Frankly, this sounds dreadful to me, because sometimes my avatar is feeling something completely different than what I'm feeling. I don't WANT my RL facial expressions to become pasted onto her; it will limit her expression. (And now, I'm sure there are some psychologists who want to talk to me ...)

Oh well, enough of that. Day One of BBB '08 was allegedly about "Embodiment." Ironically, I was suffering from bodily "interference" and wasn't 100% healthy on Day One, so I don't tend to remember many details from that day except for Dr. Dreyfus, Rosedale's kid-like nuttiness and enthusiasm, Kimiko Ryokai's real-time image capture "paint brush" (which everyone who was at the conference now wants to own, it's so cool), and introducing myself to Lynn Hershman and having her look at me like I'd just dropped a dead fish on her foot. In general, although I spoke to a few people in the audiences, it was an off day for me and I found myself feeling shy and stupid and annoyed.

Day Two was Art/Science day, co-sponsored by Leonardo. I was more focused on this day (generally feeling better), and loved the descriptions of the projects and collaborations between artists and scientists. Some presenters, like Camille Utterback, were one-person artist/scientist collaborations--she herself writes the software that she uses to produce her weird, lovely interactive video installations. Others like Melinda Rackham from the Austrailian Network for Art and Technology and the Exploratorium's Jennifer Frazier, were fun, enthusiastic and bright and really brought home the point that this kind of work, aside from the heavy political implications it can sometimes have, is also fabulous for highlighting that sense of mystery, wonder, and curiosity we so often mercilessly squelch as adults. I came out of it not quite feeling like I'd found my tribe, but also not like I'd been hit by a bus. Somewhere in between.

In poopy news, apparently I didn't get onto the CAA program for 2009; the deadline for responses has passed and I never heard anything at all about my paper proposal, which I thought was terrific. I guess maybe the panel chair wanted to pack the session with uber-successful theoretical SL artist-types and didn't feel like someone who is in the process of making her way and carving out her place who could make it all relatable deserved a voice. (See? I'm not bitter.)

How Big a Bang Will "Berkeley Big Bang" Be?

It's almost here: Berkeley Big Bang '08. For me, that means two solid days of immersion in New Media art, in which (as the 2.3 regular readers of this blog will remember) I believe myself to be keenly interested. This may turn out to be the ultimate test, however; I'll either come out of this energized and motivated from two full days with "my tribe," or depressed and anxious about whether or not I'm really interested in moving in this direction.

It's such a big direction, you see. "New Media" continues to be wildly loosely defined. I was initially concerned when I felt like I couldn't accurately define it (see my previous post, What the Hell is New Media Now?), but it appears that slippery slope affects the organizers of this conference as well. Just scanning the program, it seems to be video, video installation, photographic installation, Second Life, "networked embodiment," film, alternative reality games, performance, music, digital design, and art/science interaction. There is a lot of emphasis on social networks and connection, sensuality, and experience. That word, experience, seems to pop up a lot.

The connection I'm making from all this is, maybe "New Media" is about how we experience the world in a new way that is unique to this particular technological epoch. I'm already lurching off in that direction to a certain extent. I'm either on to something, or I'm a day late and a dollar short. I suppose this conference will help me figure that out.

Day 1's theme is "Embodiment: New Media and the Body" and features a lot of talking about Second Life, including a presentation by Philip Rosedale, SL's founder. On Day 2, the theme is "Remix: From Science to Art and Back in the Digital Age." If you want to know more about the conference, you can check out the web site; the charge for attending is an incredibly measly $3 per day.

Immediately following Berkeley Big Bang is "01SJ: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge" in San Jose. If I'm not festivaled out, I might roll down that way Saturday or Sunday and check it out. San Jose seems to be working hard these days to position itself as a meaningful dot on the Bay Area art map. Even so, I'm not entirely sure who this festival targets. Ticket prices suggest that there's a "fundraising" focus in place: $75 for a day pass, or $125 for a "VIP Festival Pass." And it's not entirely clear what this covers aside from admission to all the arts venues you can make yourself get to during your day. Most broke artists, like myself, will probably go for the "Museum Pass" which covers admission to SJMA, the Tech and "Future Films" at Camera 12, and is a whopping $15. That works for me.

You can learn more about "Zero1," as the marketers are trying to get us to call it, by going to the official festival web site.

How big a bang will Berkeley Big Bang be? Well, I dunno. I'm still doing what I do and trying to expand it. Big Bang may indeed be a Big Bang for me, or it may just leave me feeling banged up.

Une Avatar d'un Certain Age ... Quoi?

I've spent more time hanging out in Second Life by this point, maybe more time than I should have, and I'm learning a lot. Namely, just like in real life, some people are just plain great to know, some people are jerks or weirdos, and sometimes a weirdo can turn out to be just plain great to know. (For example, the person with the best, most formal manners we've met so far also turns out to be a member of every S&M/bondage group or club in the Metaverse. It's not something he brings up with Asimia, though, so it's all good. They have mostly talked about international politics.)

Also in parallel to real life, people are damned hard to get to sign up for art projects.

I thought for sure I'd be getting a few takers for my project, Stroll. And I was hopeful to have a few for my other project, Une Femme. Although Une Femme has come to be based more on age rather than marital/relationship status, and it's hard to tell how old someone's avatar is supposed to be. The one constant is that everyone seems to be "not old." But there are plenty of "partnered" avatars (like Asimia's landlords, Jazzy and Hab), so perhaps for SL I'll shift the focus a little bit and make it about relationship-building in SL. Clearly, the metaverse makes hooking up for anything remarkably easy. What makes two people decided to "get married" in SL? And how do you stay married? Certainly in real life, there are decided rationales and advantages, both legal and social: tax breaks, the advantages of pooled incomes, inheretance issues, child-rearing, societal expectations, on and on ... (and some people say they don't see why gay folks want the right to get married!)

In SL, though, the motivations have to be different. The advantages, aside from the pooled income thing, are not the same and in fact are all but non-existant. So what makes a SL marriage desirable? And what makes it work? What are an avatar's expectations of this kind of relationship, and how are the different than expectations in RL?

And if those expectations and experiences were laid out for us, I wonder could we tell which was which?

*bing*. New art project ...