Second Life, as many of you know, has a fantastic potential for artistic expression. It was a Blur is a premiere example of the capabilities of Second Life in this artistic arena.
Bringing together numerous artists and designers from across the grid, Radio Signals has curated a show which invites viewers to immerse themselves in a truly stunning and visually interesting environment – the likes of which I have never seen in Second Life or anywhere else, for that matter. With a strict texture palette consisting of only two flat colour squares and varying transparency levels allowed, the way objects created interact with the environment and with each other proved both a challenge and a delight.
The artificial environment is like a pristine blank canvas upon which these 3D objects become flattened – where depth has no meaning beyond an almost ‘theoretical understanding’ of it within the space. You know that if you move your camera around, it is going to show you a different angle of what is most definitely an object with more than two dimensions, but because of the textures used and the structure that surrounds them, they seem to lack the third in a space that seems endless. Only the blurriness and size of objects far away, combined with the people who are traversing the area provides hints of depth. It is quite incredible to feel that the space these objects occupy is both condensed, and yet might continue on forever within the very same instant.
What also makes this exhibition most interesting is the ability for the viewers to become active participants in the art. Many of the installations were supplied with poses, sounds and animations – built-in methods by which visitors could feel a part of the work. This could also be enhanced by purchasing wearable art and design pieces, which were created specifically to enhance people’s ability to blend with their surrounds and make a statement once back in the ‘real world’ of Second Life. The following are some of the products I created to compliment my installation work. They are now available at It Was a Blur.
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Similar to the environment, I wanted my products to mimic a similar colour scheme and two-sided nature. Thus, these skins come in Pure and Sullied. I want to include a picture of the Spheres here (I created them in both the Pure and Sullied shades also, to blend perfectly with the skins when worn), however my ads for them do include some pixel nudity… so I’d better not, I suppose! The first image in this post does show it off adequately – it is the sphere upon my back!
I also created three sets of jewelry which I have not surprisingly entitled ‘Blur’ for people to remember the exhibition by.
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You can see some more images I’ve captured of the exhibition wearing two of my own wearable art offerings on my ‘It was a Blur’ set on Flickr.
You can visit It Was a Blur too, between now and August 16th.
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