Ok, Alright

Disclaimer: I am jet lagged...feeling loose.

The symbol on the flag above means something like - "Ok, Alright". I think. It is according to the signs that were scratched onto fence posts, sidewalks and walls by hobos on the move looking for safe shelter. Read You Can't Win (a cautionary tale written by hobo Jack Black in 1926).

I read this review of the recent Second Life Community Convention, written by Andrew Sempere aka Tezcatilopoca Bisiani. He describes almost precisely why I find myself continually returning to SL, giving up valuable time to this seemingly intangible endeavor. Community is his operative word and perhaps that's why I starting thinking about the community of hobos...signaling to one another, "hey, it's ok, it's alright, stick around..." . He writes, "Why would an otherwise sane and healthy adult professional work a full work week and then spend hundreds of hours logged into a virtual world? Why, exactly, do we care so damn much? In its specifics, the answer is as varied as each of us, but in general it all ends in relationships, and community, and the sheer joy of building a world with people of like mind." His enthusiasm is motivating, the diversity of his projects is inspiring, and he uses the word "thrilled" in his review. I like.

Leap before you look...

"The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap..."
-W.H.Auden

See you in a couple of weeks, dear readers!

hope you enjoy your summer holidays...

The Cult of Personality

Artist Kasabian Beck asks us to consider celebrity within Second Life in his latest exhibition at Hotel Dare, “Slebrity™”. Presented against the spare white walls of the gallery are several panels depicting the names (in an also spare, sans serif font) of well-known personalities – creators of all types - within SL, seen in the image above. Struck by the cult of personality in the metaverse, Beck muses on “the very idea of virtual notoriety, how it is sought, attained and why it is or is not important...” I wasn’t familiar with all the names presented in the gallery which is an important point. It’s possible I might not have known any of the names – what meaning would the exhibition have had for me then? The names chosen have been curated – by the artist – revealing his own particular world experience. This exhibition will mean something different to each viewer and ought to inspire discussions about what I call the “flux” of personality. What most of the names have in common is that they are brilliant self-promoters. In art, reputation can be considered more valuable than in many other fields where celebrity is cultivated. Look at the Young British Art movement of the mid ‘90s; young artists, with small bodies of work behind them, created retrospectives and museums dedicated to themselves, to protest the English art institutions that had belittled them. Is the tone of this exhibition condescending? Do these names have any value at all as ideas or things to disagree with?

Virtual fame is the same as any other kind of fame, earned and unearned. As psychologist James Houran writes, “we need celebrities as much as we need food, water and shelter. We need them to feel connected.” These names on the wall are humans, not martians, not simply avatars. We condescend to these human fundamentals, our desire for celebrity, at our peril because we are human – not always wonderful but very predictable and found in all environments. A thought-provoking exhibition...go to Slebrity and have a think.