Suspended Animation: from HOKUSAI to OCTOPUSSY to SECOND LIFE

2.11.09

from HOKUSAI to OCTOPUSSY to SECOND LIFE

Hokusai....The Floating World

From WIKI

The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (蛸と海女 Tako to ama^?, Octopus(es) and Shelldiver) is an erotic woodcut of the ukiyo-e genre made around 1820 by the Japanese artist Hokusai. Perhaps the first instance of tentacle erotica, it depicts a woman entwined sexually with a pair of octopuses, the smaller of which wraps one of its tentacles around the woman's nipple and kisses her, while the larger one performs cunnilingus. Hokusai created The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife during the Edo period, when Shinto was making a resurgence; this influenced the piece's animism and playful attitude towards sexuality. It is a celebrated example of shunga and has been reworked by a number of artists. Similar themes of human females having sexual intercourse with sea life have been displayed since the 17th century in Japanese netsuke, small carved sculptures only a few inches in height and often extremely elaborate.

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Introduction

Occupying virtual space inevitably requires an adjusting and reforming of the structures of space, movement and time. Virtual worlds can allow a user to transcend 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 lies in the opportunities that these kinds of transcendence offer.

My works hinge 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.

My 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.

Project Overview

During the first semester my work focuses around my exploration of virtual space. I am interested in what it means to embody virtual spaces and how these kind of spaces have come to shape our lives. This blog will document my explorations of Second Life and other social networks, my research, ideas and artworks that begin to deal with these concepts. My understandings and ideas about the writing of William Merrin and N.Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway and Anthony Vidler among the work of artists such as AES+F, Micha Cardenas, Pipilotti Rist and many more will appear here.

While researching I have engaged in many different forms of networking and some of the work I complete will also be displayed on a Facebook group page I have created, O.S.N.A.A -Online Social Networking Addicts Anonymous.

Second semester I am working toward my completion of my project for SITE in Nov. I'll continue to update the blog with thoughts, ideas, pictures, video, frustrations....

Essentially I'm now beginning my final installation project. This will incorporate several video and object works that come together as a body of work for assessment. I'm thinking of a working title of 'Suspended Animation: Between Myself and an Other' (OR Another)....Still an exploration of my online self, understanding online experience as conflicted, uncanny, uneasy, indescribable, affective, communicative, surreal.