Shelley Brigit Harding
Suspended Animation: Between Myself and Another
An Exploration of Transcendence and Embodied Virtuality.
Through an exploration of virtual space I have become interested in the nature of embodied virtuality and the impact of such interactions on our physical and emotional lives. When engaging in online virtual worlds such as Second Life, as my avatar Brigit Batriani, I became aware of the conception of transcendence as a key facet. Occupying virtual space inevitably requires an adjusting and reforming of the structures of space, movement and time. Essentially virtual worlds can allow a user to transcend some barriers and borders that are less flexible outside of the virtual realm. Whether the barriers are political, physical or psychological, the attraction for the user of Second Life is embedded in the opportunities that these kinds of transcendence manifest.
Second Life functions as a largely user-created, multi-user platform. This platform allows for the user to create space, and to a large extent consider one’s own vision within the space. It is fundamental here to consider the model of utopia, as Second Life certainly has the potential to function as a kind of utopist space.
The notion of both play and exploration has been central to my practice, as I have intended to create artwork based largely on personal experience, allowing my responses to shift over time. My experiences within Second Life have shaped my understanding and analysis of virtual space immensely. Each experience within this virtual realm has further sparked creative responses and reactions, which have come together in the form of a multi-media installation. The installation is an opportunity to share my experiences with an audience and a chance for the audience to become a part of my virtuality. My works hinge somewhat on the notion of self-portraiture, as I am essentially dealing with the online incarnations of myself. I am particularly interested in considering the word avatar as a vehicle, synonymous with the notion of multiple selves; performative, promotional, fantasy, representational.
In an attempt to communicate the experiences I have encountered I have bought together several different artworks within an installation. A darkened room contains a series of video works displayed on computer monitors mounted on the wall, a large projection and several object works. Creating an installation space that an audience can walk into and experience on each viewer’s own terms has been integral to the work. My intention is to parallel the kind of immersion experienced when engaging online, whilst simultaneously maintaining a level of extrication and dislocation. Within this parallel I see the opportunity for both a playful, gesticulate approach and a critical, analytical one. It is imperative that the space reflect the two, as such has been the nature of my understanding the virtual realm.
Sound plays a large role within the installation space, as the sounds of Second Life, both ambient and specific to various kinds of interactions, will be audible within the entire installation. This loop, embedded with the sounds of many hours and different locations visited, will provide the expansive Soundscape of Virtuality.
Suspended Animation is the title I have given to a series of four looping video works. Mounted on the wall, these computer monitors devoid of tools of communication and the means to interact become static and removed. The videos explore the places in Second Life where the programming and coding takes over from the user and the avatar becomes momentarily locked in a kind of action, an animation. These animations take the form of tai chi, meditation, dancing and relaxing. These works are representative of the kind of disconnection experienced when the user is no longer directly controlling their avatar and the programme creates a new kind of pseudo-autonomy for the simulated, extended self. Slowly and delicately, looping and repeating, suspended and animated, they never progress nor regress; the state of suspended animation.
The second video work within the installation, A Virtual Reality, is one that will perhaps only be encountered by the viewer once they have turned to leave the installation. This projection also contains material gathered from Second Life, however this time the interactions depicted are very much motivated by the user, myself as Brigit Batriani. As Brigit moves throughout her virtual world she encounters many kinds of relationships. She discovers a highly sexualised community, reaches borders and barriers, and teeters on the edges of worlds where programming ends, entering a non-space of sorts. This video is an opportunity to explore the overwhelming veracity of the virtual world, the perhaps unexpected kinds of similarities and bizarre divergences that create a fascinating and complex experience of embodied virtuality.
Accompanying the audio and video works in the installation is a series of object artworks. These works take the form of calendars, mugs, mouse pads and photo albums.
Sexy Girl Brigit Batriani 2010 Calendars contain twelve images of Brigit Batriani as a pin-up icon of the virtual realm. She is a symbol of the massive, ever increasing emphasis of the sexualisation of the avatar within Second Life. She is the reduction of the human to a purely aesthetic, representative form introduced and inscribed by another user. She retains little authenticity and yet she begins to generate an expansive identity of her own.
Artbox Mugs comprise the next element. Artbox is an interesting simulation in Second Life within which the user can project their avatar in the place of a person or object from prominent art works and popular television shows and films. These mugs, printed with images of Brigit participating in the Artbox simulation, represent the place of commodified material, reflecting the commercial platform of Second Life. By taking the imagery out of second life and onto a saleable object I intend to both undermine and repeat the commercial structures of the sim.
Life Quote Mouse Pads displayed alongside the monitors are again the point of both connection and distance. They highlight the nature of inherent physical involvement with computers to interact online, and yet they speak of a disconnection, the point at which the user disengages physically. Each containing a single ‘life quote’ paired with an image from second life, they emphasise the absurdity and paradox of an attempt to fulfill a life through the pursuit of a second virtual life. The insipid life quotes and the images themselves both point toward a loss of identity and self, potentially experienced when engaging for extended periods of time in virtual worlds.
Snapshot Postcards are a collection of images captured from Second Life sent from Brigit within the virtual realm to me. The texts on the reverse sides of the postcards are email messages and updates from various Second Life groups that have landed in my inbox. The coupling of these two components emphasises the point of connectedness I share with my avatar. This play on occurrence and memory draws on the nature of reality, virtuality and experience.
Activated and animated alongside the video components, each of these object works contains its own complexities while each can also be assigned a simple counterpoint pertaining to the nature of online experience. The calendars: time, the mugs: commodifiable material, the mouse pads: human interaction/desire, the photo albums: memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment