Ars Virtua: Projects

/hug

"/hug" [ or slashhug] is a Third Faction project which seeks to establish a non governmental aid organization in World of Warcraft. This exhibit is a mixed reality installation that demonstrates the work of the /hug collective and is inspired in part by the Red Cross. This installation encourages viewer interaction in carrying out Non Governmental Organization of Azeroth missions via hands-on participation

Borders, Boundaries & Liminal Spaces

The Ars Virtua Conference: "Borders, Boundaries & Liminal Spaces" was originally conceived to be an extension of our concept of the new media center. It also seemed logical to have a conference about liminal spaces inside of one. Truly, the conference afforded us an opportunity to interrogate the space more thoroughly. Aside from the specifics of the topics covered (remains, the body from within and without, present and future, and the manipulation of the system) the conference was particularly enlightening with respect to the engine of Second Life and communication within that medium.

Not a Hero (in the traditional sense)

Not a Hero is an experiment in roleplaying, carried out by John Bruneau. Dave, is the character John become.

"For me, Dave embodies the fantasy of the banal. He lives in a world of paperwork and office politics not demon slaying and magic. I perceive Dave as the fantasy character's fantasy. He doesn't have to worry about warring factions or situations of life and death. Like many Americans, his life is simple and his big problems are trivial in the grand scheme of things. Dave isn't unaware of the violence and war going on in the world in which he lives, it simply doesn't directly affect him. To Dave the undead are mythical but deadlines are all to real."

Looks Very Tidy

John and James have created a piece entitled "looks very tidy." The work originates in the 3D virtual engine of Second Life. Vacuum cleaners were created in the environment and rendered into real space with a 3D printer, and a movie of the pair vacuuming the Ars Virtua gallery.

Vacuuming is a fundamentally mundane process that relies on the nature of terrestrial reality (dirt & dust). When transposed into a game world it takes on an absurd quality and the drudgery becomes purely performative. Furthermore since the vacuum cleaner if functionally useless it becomes an object of pure fetish or "sculpture."

Tribute to Jean Baudrillard

On March 17, 2007 at 4 pm SLT Ars Virtua held a small wake for the passing of Jean Baudrillard. The event was held in World of Warcraft and telecast into Second Life in our first trans-instance event. As a tribute to Jean Baudrillard's life and work I felt that it was appropriate to use the world of simulation to deliver my message through the highly popular simulation gaming environment found in World of Warcraft. As part of the continued simulation which we call artmaking this tribute can be seen as an initial foray into a synthetic world for a purpose in which it was not necessarily built.