Kristine Schomaker’s “My Life as an Avatar: The Gracie Kendal Project” and “1000+Avatars”

Jan 2012 27

Kristine Schomaker’s
“The Gracie Kendal Project” & “1000+Avatars”
via Skype Video

4pm 30 January 2012, at RL HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden

In “The Gracie Kendal Project” Kristine Schomaker investigates our obsession with the notion of the physical ideal through her own relation to her alternative ego Gracie Kendal, the Second Life avatar. The interaction between Gracie Kendal and Kristine Schomaker has resulted in virtual dialogues between the two, revealing the conflicts and even dependency of her dual selves, as well as the influences and impacts that one has upon the other.

“1000+Avatars” is an off-shoot project from “The Gracie Kendal Project”, however, in its own right. By documenting individual portraits of more than 1000 avatars in Second Life, the project bears testimony to the avatar constructions of our time, and witness to the unique composition of our desires in the pursuit of that construct.

Gracie Kendal/Kristine Schomaker is a new type of Second Life artist. Rather than pursuing the futuristic vision of the technological possibilities of the virtual, her projects firmly place themselves within social, historical and psychological contexts in which “[t]he avatar becomes a vehicle for personal and public reflection.”

Yoshikaze is proud to organize a presentation by Kristine Schomaker on 30 January, 2012. The presentation will be held from 4pm at HUMlab, Umeå University, via a Skype video connection with Kristine Schomaker in her location in Los Angeles.

Yoshikaze curator: Goodwind Seiling/Sachiko Hayashi. Yoshikaze is part of SL HUMlab activity.

Posted by Jim in Art, HUMlab-SL, Second Life, Virtual Worlds No Comments »

Digital religion

Jan 2012 26

At the international conference ”Digital religion” at the University of Colorado at Boulder about 100 researchers gathered to develop and discuss what is happening when religion goes online. I participated with a paper presentation on “Churches in Virtual Reality – The Paradoxical Relation Between Innovation and Tradition”, and Tim Hutchings (former postdoc here at HUMlab) presented on “CyberBibles: New Media and Sacred Text”. Empirical studies were intertwined with theoretical approaches. See link for full program and videos.

Digital religion is of cause nothing new – religious groups have been online since the 80s, even though religious online commitments have grown considerably in the web 2.0-era. There has however been a tendency to make a distinction between “religion online” (representatives within the religious sphere with a presence online) and “online religion” (religion performed and experienced online), but there is a shift going on within the field.

Today it seems more and more anachronistic to make such a distinction since internet is becoming increasingly integrated into our everyday life due to further developed hardware (for example mobile devices) and software (for example social media). Instead it is more relevant to talk about a “third space” in between the digital and the analogous, a transformation which calls for new theories and methods.

At the same time the need to put contemporary use of new media in a historical context was pointed out (which I am, as a historian, really happy about). This is not the first time new media changes the way people gather and communicate.

People at the conference also expressed a wish to have a more multi disciplinary approach to the study of digital religion. Right now it seems like research on digital religion is coming from communication studies and social science, but theologians, historians, philosophers (and other disciplines of cause) can together contribute to paint a broader picture of this growing and complex field.

Posted by Stefan G in digital humanities, religion No Comments »

Arts Campus

Jan 2012 24

I spent the afternoon at the Arts Campus. Here is a photo from the new Academy of Fine Arts – the Wood Workshop:

photo

The Arts Campus will be (and already is) a marvelous platform and possibility. HUMlab-X is still a bit dusty, but energizing and exciting.

Posted by Patrik in Arts Campus, HUMlab-X No Comments »

Winterplay at the Artistic Campus

Jan 2012 20

SAM_1351

SAM_1357

As we are getting closer to the official opening of the Artistic Campus the more opportunities appear for collaborations between the present institutions. As part of HUMlab I recently got the honor of holding a lecture about gaming but also in a small amount being part of the related week-long workshop arranged by the Umeå School of Architecture, The Umeå Institute of Design and the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts.

The title of the workshop was “Winterplay” and participants consisted of students from all three schools. The assignment for the students was to consider “interaction between people” as the main theme, when they tried to develop “games” as a tool for interaction, and implement them with snow(as the main material).

Its been really interesting to see how the students open heartily embraced both the material and the concept and developed some really fascinating games. Far from the digital context that most of us in HUMlab are used to it has been crazy fun and surprising. How about “Zombie Wars” or a game of “In Your face”? There is everything from advanced boardgames to physical collaborative puzzle/course games to catch the flag with a zombie game. With the energy present among students and teachers alike during the workshop it’s not hard to imagine what a creative place the Artist Campus will turn into and how lucky HUMlab-X is, laying just in the middle of everything, both giving and receiving dynamic ideas.

SAM_1365

Posted by calle in Art, Arts Campus, HUMlab-X, architecture, game development No Comments »

Using the new screen

Jan 2012 19

We used the new screen to introduce the lab to a group yesterday. People sat on the couch and drank their coffee. It went well.

P1000723

Posted by Stephanie in Uncategorized No Comments »

Fau Ferdinand aka Yael Gilks at HUMlab

Jan 2012 15
 
HUMlab and the Yoshikaze Second Life “Up-In-The-Air” Residency presents
Fau Ferdinand aka Yael Gilks
23 – 27 January 2012
@ HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden
Opening Hours: 8am – 4 pm Weekdays
Opening: 23 January Between 2pm – 4pm
Artist Talk at 2pm
——————————————————————————
“On virtual landscapes and real feelings.
Photons, camera lens, screen, eye -  mashed then mashed again.
Are landscapes seen from afar not virtual ? I can hardly see a thing but colour anyway, unless it’s on a screen near me soon.
The shrinking field of view, that particular scene  affects me – that  bird I couldn’t save. The cat too fast and ants have spread the word. Life abounds around death.
I join in, giving up on quality  to make believe I’m really there though I was there.
Inflation and deflation of an avatar that was death before processing. Death gets pregnant by Deformation.
The avatar, as the persona, is a battlefield.
I’m what eats me.
Distress grabbed.” 
(Fau Ferdinand)
——————————————————————————

Fau Ferdinand, a.k.a. Yael Gilks, is an established Second Life performance artist, who has produced memorable works since her entry into SL in 2004.  Her work manifests metamorphosis of life, often dealing with the theme of life and death,  from one state of existence to another,  in a manner almost expressed as surreal.  Dissolving in fluidity, her subjects enter her world through the dreamscape which surrounds her Self.

During her residency at Yoshikaze, she has taken a step into a new direction, in which video/machinima proceeds not only as a mere documentation of her virtual performance but as a hybrid medium of the virtual and video art for which she expands her theme as the end result.

Between 23 – 27 January 2012 at HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden, Yoshikaze is pleased to present her first independent video work “Bird Funeral” which she has completed during her Yoshikaze residency.  In addition the exhibition offers an opportunity to experience two additional derivative videoworks, into which “Bird Funeral” with the elements from the virtual world has metamorphosed itself through the techniques of moving image.

Currently Fau Ferdinand/Yael Gilks is a co-director and co-curator of SL sim Odyssey.  Her work “Bird Funeral” completed at Yoshikaze is online at http://vimeo.com/32119484.  The remains of “Bird Funeral” can be experienced inworld at Yoshikaze residency spot: http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/84/216/701.

Curated by Goodwind Seiling/Sachiko Hayashi in collaboration with HUMlab.  The poster designed by Beatrice Rosberg at HUMlab.

Yoshikaze “Up-in-the-Air” Residency (www.slurl.com/secondlife/HUMlab/95/215/351) is a Second Life residency programme run by Sachiko Hayashi together with SL HUMlab sim manager James Barrett from HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden. As part of HUMlab, its 3264 sqm land in Second Life supports SL artists in their pursuit of virtual art practices and researches.  For inquiries, please contact: goodwind.seiling@gmail.com.

Yoshikaze is funded and hosted by HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden.

Yoshikaze blog: http://yoshikaze.blogspot.com
Yoshikaze vimeo: http://vimeo.com/yoshikaze

Posted by Jim in Art, HUMlab-SL, Second Life, Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds, digital art No Comments »

Vernissage research presentation

Jan 2012 13

This is Simon Lindgren, professor of Sociology, talking about his research in the project Youtube as a Performative Arena (and doing it very well). This was part of the large-scale vernissage we hosted yesterday. Great fun!

Simonsmallscreen

What you do not see here is the crowd. The room was packed with people.

Posted by Patrik in events, screens No Comments »

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