Machine I Am

Night Gardening

2010-09-03T16:30:00.001-07:00

Night Gardening
by lizsolo Mathilde/Liz Solo and Fau Ferdinand/Yael Gilks
2010 Odyssey Performance Art Festival
People and avatars from around the world garden simultaneously in the virtual world of Second Life and in a quiet backyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Starring Liz Solo, Fau Ferdinand, Patrick Lichty, Mike Kean, Anne Pickard and many avatars.
More performances to come in this series including Night Swimming and Night Painting.

See:
Odyssey - http://www.odysseysimulator.blogspot.com
Liz Solo - http://www.lizsolo.com

Your Discarded Guitar

2010-09-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Chromatose

2010-06-10T15:41:00.001-07:00

Steve Abbott and I had a great time co-hosting this year's Chromatose Animation Festival - a presentation of the Black Bag Media Collective. Here we are pictured above in a photo by Nauris Nikans admiring one of the videos as it plays in on our monitor.

The Chromatose Anymation Festival takes it name from an invented word chromatose - meaning critical overdose of color (created by me and steve) and the word anymation coined by the Croatian anymator Tom Jantol. For a full explanation of the concept of anymation here is a link to Tom's Anymation Manifesto. Tom Jantol is an old friend and friend of the BBMC and I am his number one fan.

Tom's work was featured throughout the festival. The Chromatose Anymation Festival also screened new animations and machinima from around the world, including videos by Osprey Therian, Rose Borchovski, Pyewacket Kazyanenko, Robbie Dingo and over two dozen others. The festival also screened Eat the Feeling - a piece I created for the React 2010 exhibit in collaboration with Vancouver's Erik Hoff Rzepka.

Azdel and Echo

2010-06-09T06:43:00.001-07:00

It has been more than a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with Micha Cardenas and Elle Mehrmand (a.k.a. Azdel Slade and echolalia Azalee in SL) as machinimatographer. I have been documenting some of their performances in Second Life, most recently virus.circus.touch that took place simultaneously at Squeaky Wheel in Buffalo New York and live in the virtual environments of Second Life.

Here is machinima of the performance from the Second Life Perspective:

And here I have superimposed the real life video of the performance and the machinima of the performance. Much is suggested here, in terms of ideas for merging live real and virtual performance - in video anyway. (live performance footage starts at about 2 minutes in)

Here is the video of the live performance from the New York perspective, shot by by Alice Alexandrescu

virus.circus.touch // micha cárdenas and elle mehrmand from azdel slade on Vimeo.

I love Azdel's guts. And Echo's guts. And guts.

Expression is Not a Crime

2010-05-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Super 8 film shot as part of a Nickel Film Festival/St. John's International Jazz Festival collaborative project. Filmmakers were challenged to shoot a piece in-camera, with no edits and have it scored by a partner musician. I shot film to reflect my thoughts on the fancy new anti graff writing by-laws brought in by St. John's City Council in 2008. This piece of film was originally called "311" (the phone number citizens can call to report seeing graffiti) and was scored by Russtafari.

Today I thought I would edit the rolls to a song I have written on the same subject. After experimenting for awhile I discovered that the reels fit perfectly on top of the song in terms of time, which was kind of freaky. So here is the first reel up above and the second reel below, both edited in camera and laid on top of "Expression is Not a Crime" from my "alien" CD. Mike Kean, Steve Abbott and Alex Pierson play with me on this track.

It is pretty funny how some of the images work with the song here:) I may eventually re-edit a new piece using both reels, as so many edits are suggested. Please contact me or just take this footage to re edit if u r so inclined, and please repost if you do:) Lots of recognizable St. John's faces in there.

Melody Neglected at RCA

2010-05-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

This month Resource Center for the Arts hosted a live reading of my newest play - Melody Neglected - in the freshly renovated LSPU Hall Second Space. This reading was the final part of the Write On program - an excellent annual playwright workshopping process, this year facilitated by Ed Riche. I had a real dream team of actors working on this one, as you can see below.pictured here: Amy House (RCA Artistic Animateur), Megan Coles, Emily Bridger, Colin Furlong, Geraldine Hollett, Liz Solo, Nicole Rousseau, Neil Butler, Didi Gillard-Rowlings. photo by Peter Rompkey.

Slide Show at Eastern Edge

2010-05-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

I am stoked to have been contacted by Elly Clarke of the Clarke Gallery in Germany (via our mutual friend Scott Kildall - thanks Scott!) and asked to present my Slide Show - A Trip Around the World by Liz Solo - at the Eastern Edge Gallery on Saturday, May 8 at 3 PM. This slide presentation is a part of the traveling WUNDERKAMMER show. WUNDERKAMMER is making a one-day appearance at The Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John's, Newfoundland. The show presents the work of all 11 Berlin-based/Clarke Gallery artists whose work was already shown on 22nd April in Berlin and introduces two new works - by Canadian artists Eryn Foster and Terry Piercey.

Curated by Elly Clarke and Jessica Brouder, Wunderkammer is the German translation of Cabinet of Curiosities and this is the first Clarke Gallery exhibition to travel beyond the confines of Elly's Berlin apartment. WUNDERKAMMER in St. John's has been brought to Canada from Berlin in Jessica's hand luggage. WUNDERKAMMER in St. John's incorporates sculpture, photography, painting, drawing, performance ephemera and A Slide Show by... Liz Solo (at 3pm).

We are very grateful to Eastern Edge Gallery for hosting WUNDERKAMMER in St. John's. Eastern Edge Gallery is Newfoundland and Labrador’s first non-profit artist-run centre established in 1984. Overlooking the St. John’s harbour, Eastern Edge offers support, professional development, a sense of community, information and resource-sharing and a meaningful context for contemporary artistic activity.

CLARKE GALLERY PRESENTS:
W U N D E R K A M M E R
in St. John's
8th May 2010, 12pm-5pm

With A Slide Show by Liz Solo at 3pm

Eastern Edge Gallery
EXHIBITING WORK BY THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS:
Jessica Brouder
Elly Clarke
Julian Eicke
Eryn Foster
Alexander Heaton
Liz Fletcher
Sophia New and Dan Belasco / plan b
Terry Piercey
Christian Sievers
Vajra Spook
Anna-Myga Kasten
Kym Ward
Andrea Winkler

mail@clarkegallery.de
http://www.clarkegallery.de

technésexual

2010-04-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

On February 20, 2010 Adzel Slade/Micha Cardenas and ecolalia Azalee/Elle Mehrmand presented technésexual - a hybrid reality performance - simultaneously at East of Odyssey and at the LACE's (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) GUTTED event, curated by Dino Dinco. I had the pleasure of documenting this event from Second Life. Azdel and echolalia are working with ideas here that I also wish to explore - especially the interfacing/connecting of the avatar and the human body via various sensors and and devices - read more about technésexual below. This video documents the Second Life component with sound coming from Real Life via SL's voice interface. Most recently this video was screened at the University of California, San Diego's Open Studios 2010. See: http://ucsdopenstudios.com/2010/

About technésexual
(from www.transreal.org)
"In technésexual the performers commit playful erotic acts in physical and virtual space simultaneously, using devices to amplify the sound of their heartbeats for the two audiences. An electrocardiogram was used to monitor the heart rate with an Arduino/Freeduino, playing a recording of the heartbeat at the correct rate using Puredata. Temperature sensors modulate the audio based on touch. DIY biometrics are used to bridge realities with audio, finding ways of exploring the space between realities.

technésexual opens discussion on the multitude of sexualities outside of the restrictive LGBT formulation and homo/hetero categories, which are rooted in binary gender assumptions. The mixing of realities in this project can be seen as paralleling our own experiences mixing genders and sexualities, queering new media. Virtual worlds such as Second Life facilitate the development of new identities, allowing for unimagined relations and relationships. technésexual looks closely at these new relationships, how they affect our everyday lives and horizons of possibility."
See also:
http://www.transreal.org
http://bang.calit2.net/elle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lotu5/se...
http://odysseysimulator.blogspot.com

The Death of An Avatar

2010-04-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

On Valentines Day, 2010, the artist known as Wirxli Flimflam publicly took his own avatar's life over his unrequited love for the artist known as SaveMe Oh. This machinima documents the sad event. To find out more see Wirlxi Flimflam's Memorial Blog:
http://www.wirxliflimflam.blogspot.com
And SaveMe Oh's Blog:
http://www.savemeoh.wordpress.com

Eat the Feeling

2010-02-26T10:56:00.000-08:00

Ronald McDonald and his Little Buddy prepare for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
A machinima video created for the React2010.com site by Liz Solo and Erik Hoff Rzepka. React 2010 is a web and gallery exhibit of the Alternator Center for Contemporary Art in Kelowna, B.C. - "engaging artists and the global community in a conversation about the values surrounding the Olympics."
See http://www.react2010.com
Special thanks to Gazira Babeli for "McBarfin"

"machine i am" at MMIF

2010-02-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

My hybrid machinima/film/video machine i am premiered this weekend in Real Life at the 2nd Annual MaMachinima International Festival at Planet Art in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and simultaneously in the virtual world of Second Life. I was tele-present for the whole event via Second Life. The MMIF was an exciting, star-studded, jam-packed day of machinima with entries from all over the world. It was awesome to see so many machinimators in one place and to learn about how they are all working. Machinimatographers are pushing hard in all directions and in multiple dimensions of the metaverse to advance the medium of machinima forward. It was great to be among others working with the same vocabulary and to see how the themes other machinimators are working with resonate and intersect in so many places with the work I am doing. It is downright heart warming, really. Read MMIF founder Chantal Harvey's MMIF Opening Remarks, from her blog.

Here is a link to machine i am on youtube - this will only be up for a limited amount of time before I do one final tweaking edit and release the finished, finished version. You will have to watch it in three parts, here is Part One, you can find Parts 2 and 3 on my YouTube Channel

There was so much to love at the MMIF - the fabulous Pyewackey Kazyanenko showed a piece of 3D machinima, Double Dutch - and I just happened to have my 3D glasses handy. Trippy!

Fau Ferdinand submitted Therapy by The Second Front which I loved to see again - shot by Osprey Therian of one of our performance pieces.

I learned about new tools people are using for machinima including In Movies (PC only) and Movie Storm (Mac friendly) - these are not virtual real time spaces but machinima generators. Not as interesting to me as online spaces, because of the missing element of virtual embodiment - but the animations are quite seamless and I have downloaded and am going to experiment a little with Movie Storm.

A very memorable piece from the MMIF was from Ogogoro called In Pursuit of a Third Term - a machinima made in Movie Storm about police corruption in Nigeria. View it by going to the Nollywood Channel - In Pursuit of a Third Term.

Like Ogogoro, taking risks and raising consciousness is a focus of many machinimators. There were commentaries on war, especially historical-based pieces and many others with references to the ethos of WW2 - reflecting and questioning our own troubled times. Machinimators are also exploring the classic "fairy tale" through machinima, as well as examining the notion of idealized space and of reconciling our relationship to the natural world via the loving application of technology to nature (and vice versa). I saw these ideas reflected in many pieces, such as Osprey Therian/Vivian Kendal's most awesome sci-fi piece Virtual Reality in the Future (if you saw my 2002 installation Museum of the Mind this is actually kind of freaky):

There was also some downright brilliant artistry, as in this surrealist gorgeousness of Lainy Voom/Trace Sanderson's Push

There was more and more blurring of the boundaries between different virtual worlds, something I play with in machine i am and illustrated with some fine comedic prowess in Phaylen Fairchild's entry to the festival - Phaylen Seeks a World of Warcraft Guild. Nothing I like more, really, than mixing up one virtual world with another, especially when WoW is involved, so much potential for comedy:

In total fifty four machinima pieces were presented at the MMIF. You can view them ALL by going to The MMIF 2010 and clicking the On Demand button and then MMIF 2010 selections.

Here's a few shots taken by Pyewacket Kazyanenko of lizsolo Mathilde presenting at the MMIF in Second Life, the film playing on the screens in the background.

Here you can see me smoking three cigarettes at once. I was a little nervous.

REACT 2010

2010-02-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

There is a gallery opening today for the REACT 2010 project at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in Kelowna, B.C. Curated by Jennifer Pickering, Jason Baerg and Arthur Schwimmer.

"We are engaging artists and the global community in a creative cultural conversation about the values surrounding the Olympics."

I am very happy to have been invited to show a series of new pieces as part of this gallery exhibit. My theme: Ronald McDonald and the Olympic Torch. That's a little test image above. REACT 2010 also includes a web component, of which I am also proud to be a part. To see all the work by REACT 2010 artists please visit the REACT2010 WEBSITE

I have also been working on a new video to accompany these images. It is a collaboration with Vancouver based artist Erik Hoff Repzka/Xisuthra Loma called Eat the Feeling. Stay tuned, I will post here soon.

Here is a link to an article on the exhibit from the Kelowna Times:

http://www.kelowna.com/2010/02/12/olympic-art-show-offers-a-different-perspective/

Black Bags, Catmanduah, Monsterbator

2009-12-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

SL Retrospective - "Nature"

2009-12-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

My retrospective Nature - a look back at my three years of working in virtual space - opened on December 11, 2009 on Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance Simulator. The show is a combination of installation, photo documentation, sound and video work and it runs until March 2010 on Odyssey in Second Life.

Everything Popular is Wrong

2009-10-22T16:42:00.001-07:00

This is an experimental machinima exploring some new ideas I am working with concerning culture and commodity. This video is an excerpt from a solo performance/installation that took place at Eastern Edge Art Gallery, St. John's and on Odyssey Island, Second Life - presented as part of the Eastern Edge Art Marathon, August 2009.

Sound score: PWRHM by Humming Pera/Tina Pearson, performed by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.

Text by Oscar Wilde, Liz Solo and local St. John's events listings.

This is Distorted

2009-10-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

I am very proud to say the new punk-rock-comedy-hour This is Distorted premiered at this year's Rock Can Roll Music and Media Festival.

This is Distorted is an ongoing multi-media series by Liz Solo, Sherri Levesque, Steve Abbott, Glenn Tizzard, Mike Kean and Anthony Brenton. The first episodes took place September 25 and 26th, 2009 live at Distortion. Photographer Jai Me - who also acted as volunteer projectionist for the two live performances - snapped some great pics from the booth.

At the beginning of the show, feeling insecure about being in front of so many people, the troupe covered the audience in sheets. We gave them flashlights and asked them to document what happened underneath the sheet with cell phone cameras.

Here Liz Solo, Steve Abbott, Sherri Levesque and Newf, the baby harp seal, work on a scene from "The Great Newfoundland Play".

Newf, the baby harp seal, delivers his premiere stand-up performance, commenting on the clubbing scene in the city, and, among other subjects, his conspiracy theory that the weed shortage on George Street is directly related to Danny Williams' hoarding problem.

Sherri delivering an hilarious stand-up routine on the trials of being single and her unconventional solutions.

Liz, Steve and Mike rocking out at the end with "Evil Drunks" by Dogmeat BBQ while Sherri rocks out with hula hoop.

Second Front perform at Eyebeam/Release "Avvie Road"

2009-10-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Second Front Performance Art Collective have just released our second DVD of machinima from our latest performance work. We celebrated with a performance at the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center.

Pictured above - Lizsolo inside the Crypt as Tut's Mummy Zombie with Fau Ferdinand and Tran Spire also as mummies. The next picture is lizsolo as Tron, Guardian of the Crypt. Images taken in performance on Friday October 9, 2009. THE CRYPT was performed simultaneously live at the Eyebeam Center in NY, New York and at the Eyebeam sim in Second Life as part of Eyebeam's Second Life Performance Night.

Explorers discovered the crypt deep inside of Second Life - a crypt filled with artifacts! As Tron it was my role to protect the sacred treasures from plunder. After a fierce battle with Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider and other explorers I/Tron was defeated.

Pictured below - Man Michinaga as Tomb Raider taking over the crypt and Bibbe Oh as a Zombified explorer.

After the performance we met up on the roof of the temple to dance and to celebrate the release of our second DVD - Avvie Road. Find out more on the Second Front Homepage.

/hug Instructional Video

2009-07-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

It has been my pleasure over the last months to be collaborating with Ars Virtua members and others on the Third Faction /hug Project.

This video was created for the gallery presentation /hug opened last month at the Laguna Art Museum. This installation, a part of the show WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon - runs until October 11, 2009. The video was shot and edited by me, with script by Thomas Asmuth and featuring appearances by many /hug members.

about /hug
/hug is a project of The Third Faction Collective. The Third Faction is an affiliation of geographically dispersed entities with a collective interest in exposing binary systems in synthetic environments via in-world performances, the collective operates simultaneously across various platforms including World of Warcraft and Second Life.

Third Faction members question the politics, allegiances, and narrative conventions of Synthetic Worlds. the cross-factional collective officially formed in World of Warcraft on valentine’s day 2008 in a self-declared temporary autonomous zone.
see also www.thirdfaction.org

about /hug installation:
/hug” [ or slashhug] is a Third Faction project which has established a non governmental aid organization in World of Warcraft. This exhibit is a mixed reality installation that demonstrates the work of the /hug collective and is inspired in part by the Red Cross. This installation encourages viewer interaction in carrying out Non Governmental Organization of Azeroth missions via hands-on participation.

The picture below was taken remotely by Sliz (my WoW avvie), participating in the opening live from St. John's, Newfoundland via World of Warcraft and ustream, along with Bowwtoxx, coming from Australia, and other /huggers present both inside of World of Warcraft and live at the Laguna Art Museum. The installtion, which features demonstrations of missions and video and printed information on the work of /hug, is part of the WoW Emergent Media Phenomenon show, currently installed at Laguna Art Museum, curated by Grace Kook-Anderson. See more images from the project on the /Hug Flickr Page

Kelowna Rocks

2009-06-25T10:35:00.001-07:00

This wicked photo is by Kelowna based photographer (and great guy) Paul Lewenden. (Paul was also indispensable during the technical set-up of the Alternator installation - see next post)

So this is Liz Solo playing for bunny and Silverado Socrates with horsehead - in a limo, of course.

My trip to Kelowna was totally great. Jen Pickering - gallery director of the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art- was a wonderful host and arranged many exciting outings and workshops during my stay out West. One of the events was a road trip, in a limo, through the mountains and deserts of the Okanagan. A video of this trip - "Great Friday" - is coming soon from the Alternator folks. Can't wait. I am halfway through writing a song called "Kelowna Rocks" and thinking about another new song called "Bunny in a Limo".

Live Home Alien Birth

2009-06-24T22:11:00.001-07:00

These photos are from the performance of "Live Home Alien Birth" that took place at the Alternator Centre for the Contemporary Arts in Kelowna B.C. in April 2009. Performance by Second Front and the Avatar Orchestra metaverse. Much more documentation from this project coming soon. These photos by the amazing Bibbe Hansen of the Second Front

Losing It

2009-02-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Caged and suspended , Fau Ferdinand & Lizsolo Mathilde are looking for something most people take for granted ..

Second Front have just released a new machinima made by Osprey Therian. The video was conceived by Fau Ferdinand with Bibbe Oh. Losing It was performed at RMIT Creative Media in Second Life by Fau Ferdinand and lizsolo Mathilde. Sound by Zeb Vindaloo, a.k.a. Robert Gilks. Special thanks to Pyewacket Kazyanenko.

Click the link to watch the vide on Blip tv

Losing It on Blip

Birth

2009-01-30T20:03:00.001-08:00

More on the avatar body. My avatar has been pregnant. Several times. She has given birth to many creatures but in these images she is nursing her tiny avatar baby on Odyssey Island in Second Life. This theme of birth is both a part of the Machine I Am Project as well as being explored in depth in my upcoming piece "Live Home Alien Birth" - with Second Front. Live Home Alien Birth is a Second Life based performance and Gallery Installation. It is programmed at Alternator Gallery for Contemporary Art - in Kelowna, B.C. - a joint show with Networker Mez (a.k.a.) Mary Ann Breeze of Ars Virtua for April of 2009. I am working on a new virtual instrument and composition for the Birth Piece with Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.

Fau and I

2009-01-30T19:39:00.000-08:00

I have been playing in Photoshop again, quite fascinated now with manipulating images from Second Life. Am looking into making prints in the coming months. Here are some experimental images taken while hanging out last night with Fau Ferdinand. I find the inner structures of the avatar body very interesting.

My Little Blue Fairy

2009-01-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

The following images are from the upcoming "Machine I Am" release. This little blue fairy - my main avvie in SL - plays an important role. Here she is dancing at the Last Art Center in a scene from the piece.

Methods for Contacting the Dead

2009-01-27T19:09:00.001-08:00

Here are some images I created for a group show curated last summer by the amazing Jo Cook. The show took place at Lucky's Gallery in Vancouver. These images document the many divination techniques I used in virtual space in efforts to make contact with the dead. The video piece below, "neila ni" was also a part of this show.

The work from the show has been published in an artist's book - here is the description from the publisher's page at Perro Verlag - Books by Artists

"Documents of Psychic Amateurs is the first volume in a quarterly publication dedicated to the dissemination of research by both faculty and students at the Institute for the Science of Identity. Volume 1 no.1, 2008, is 58 pages, 8.5” x 11”, perfect bound with 24 full colour pages and 34 black and white pages printed on various coloured papers. The first issue represents the work of 20 artists: Aby W. Blake, Mark Connery, Jo Cook, Mily Goodden, Claudine Hubert, Sally Ireland, Doug Jarvis, Malena Kirlianova, Chris Lloyd, Ross Angus Macaulay, Billy Mavreas, Michael McCormack, Tammy McGrath, Wesley Mulvin, Florentine Perro, Sally Rees, Liz Solo, Julie Voyce, Matt Warren and Frances Zorn. Published on the ocassion of the exhibition, International Psychic Amateurs Work/Study (iPAWS) at Lucky’s Gallery in Vancouver, Canada. Printed in a limited edition of 50 numbered copies. Perro Verlag, Vancouver."

Video by Liz Solo and Teri Snelgrove. Song from my "alien" CD release.

Avatar Body

2009-01-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

I have been working in Photoshop with images captured in Second Life and am in the process of creating a full series themed around the Avatar Body. Here are a few early experiments.

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

2009-01-27T11:13:00.000-08:00

I have been having a great time working with the super cool online orchestra - Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. Members participate from all over North America, Europe and beyond. We perform frequently - compositions created by members of the collective. We play the compositions on virtual instruments also designed by artists of the collective. I have been working on my first instrument - The Birth HUD - part of my general exploration of the virtual body. I hope to play the Birth HUD in a new piece with AOM this month - will post details.

Instruments in SL are generally HUDs (Heads Up Device) that can be programmed to play sounds, generate particles or and/or animate your avatar. Many of our performances also involve merging Real Life players with virtual players - what we sometimes like to call "hybrid-reality" performance. Here is an early machinima I made of AOM giving a concert at U21 Global in Second Life.

ChouChou

2009-01-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

My good friend aurel Miles is always introducing me to the work of artists in Second Life. aurel is a writer who contributes to Second Life publications including the Second Life Herald. When she was writing an article on a new installation/environment in SL by the artists of ChouChou she asked if I would create a machinima to accompany the article. The video is below.

It was an interesting experience to work with the material because it really gave me a sense of the artist's intentions, something I wanted to be sensitive to, and the story of the space sort of evolved as I edited. In general I have been approaching the editing process intuitively, allowing one clip to suggest the next one.

WoW Science Conference

2009-01-27T09:47:00.001-08:00

I'm back at blogging. I have been so immersed in this project all year that I had to drop the blog for awhile. But now it is time to document and start preparing for the release of "Machine I Am" - a standalone video piece that merges real and virtual spaces by pushing machinima, online performance and video together. In the piece I draw from my own real experiences of exploring virtual space. But....More coming on that later.

For now..

I am going to play catch up and document some of the stuff I have been doing this year. When I last left you I was pretty heavy into the Warcraft. While I am still working in WoW the focus of my work this year has really shifted to the online environments of Second Life. (I do have a have a neat new WoW based project coming up soon with Ars Virtua - stay tuned for the lowdown on that. Still in early planning stages but going to be very exciting!)

My friends at Ars Virtua told me about the first WoW Science Conference which took place over three days in May 2008. WoW Science Conference was a meeting of scientists, researchers, artists and interested people gathering in-world to discuss research in World of Warcraft. It was, in a word, awesome. The discussion were very interesting and gave me a great deal to think about. If you play WoW you also can understand how cool it was to attend such a huge gathering of characters. Each day after the Conference we went on an adventure, visiting shrines, undertaking raids. On Day Three there was a wedding.

I documented all three days on machinima. The material was extensive and it was quite intense going through it, so in an effort encapsulate the experience but not spend a year on editing - I took the text from the chatlog, edited it and ran it through a text to speech generator to form the voice for the soundtrack and then I edited clips together chronologically. The effect is a sort of hypnotic. The one voice speaking is actually made from words spoken by many people so don't mind the contradictions:)) The videos from Day One and Day Two are posted below. I will edit Day Three soon and post it as well.

Slizzle Dreams...

2008-03-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a rough edit of the second in my experiments merging machinima. In this little video my level 7 Blood Elf Huntress (world of warcraft character) falls asleep after a hard day hunting the Wretched. She dreams of Second Life.
I have been working in both WoW and Second Life this week. I have created quite a few WoW characters to play with and am truly enjoying the interface and shooting lots of tests. Soon I am going to start incorporating Real Life digital video and see what kinds of effects I can come up with. Ultimately all of this will lead to an epic narrative tale.. the story is slowly developing..

World of Warcraft™
World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Questing for Sigilbringer

2008-03-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

So.. I have been shooting away in WoW and also trying to get my levels up so I can have access to lots of props and have knowledge of the lay of the land. I have been spending some of my time working with Sigilbringer - a.k.a. media artist Jeremy Owen Turner - who is developing his own rather esoteric project in World of Warcraft based on the shaman character of Sigilbringer. On Sunday nights we meet up with the friendly folks from Ars Virtua. They run guild in WoW that works with artists interested in intersecting/interpreting the environment, creating new work inside of the environment and also just having good old fashioned gaming fun. My Sunday night WoW sessions have been devoted to working with Sigilbringer to help him on his Shaman based piece. Mostly we have been working on leveling and getting Sigibringer all of his totems - something he will need for the final manifestation of his piece.

Here is a little documentation of Sigilbringer and Dorka ( a shaman I created to assist Sig in his quest), accompanied by Woshaman of Ars Virtua, attempting to Vanquish those frigging Betrayers. Woshaman teaches us the value of having a healer in our midst. After all the the slaying we sleep at Razor Hill Inn.

World of Warcraft™
World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

First Baby Step

2008-03-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Find more videos like this on Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance

This is a rough-cut of my first experimental merging of machinima. Here Sliz of the Horde in World of Warcraft encounters Lizsolo Mathilde of Second Life. This video demonstrates some of the ideas I am exploring with this project. The edit is still a little rough but you will get the idea.

I plan to experiment with techniques and ideas for a few months before heading into my main shoot and will generate a series of these short videos. I have had lots of technical issue fun finding the right screen capture program for my mac but finally settled on Snapz Pro and am editing with Final Cut. I am about to upgrade my computer soon and hope to improve the overall quality of the machinima I am shooting. Having a great deal of fun.

World of Warcraft™
World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

The Mighty Sliz, of the Horde, is born!

2008-02-25T14:45:00.001-08:00

The Mighty Sliz has come into being, born online last night in the Demon Soul realm of the World of Warcraft. I am a Troll Mage. My first order of business was to up my stats and get familiar with the interface. I spent a few hours at this and must say I found WoW to be pretty Wow. My character took to the place right away and I have completed enough quests to reach Level Five. I had been advised to join the Horde - as that is where the group Ars Virtua have their guild and I am hoping to collaborate or at least interact with this cool online artists collective.

Then it was time for my meeting with Sigilbringer - a.k.a. Jeremy O. Turner - my long time friend and collaborator. We have been working together in virtual environments for five years and this meeting marks the beginning of what looks to be another exciting chapter in our collaboration. Jeremy and I also work together with the The Second Front Performance Collective in the online world of Second Life and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, also in Second Life. We have done presentations and performances in the virtual worlds of Onlive Traveler and the text based world of Achaea . And now here were are in World of Warcarft, pondering the strange new environment.

We waited for the crew from Ars Virtua to arrive. Ars Virtua are an artist's group working in Second Life who also have some work developing in the World of Warcraft. I am reproducing part of their mission statement here - direct from their website - as it touches on ideas I am interested in and explains some of the concepts artists are working with in virtual frontiers:

from arsvirtua.com: "Ars Virtua is a new media center and gallery located entirely in the synthetic world of Second Life. It is a new type of space that leverages the tension between 3-D rendered game space and terrestrial reality, between simulated and simulation... Ars Virtua brings the art audience into "new media" rather than new media to the museum or gallery, and calls upon its audience to interact with the art and one another via their avatars within the space."

Cool or what?! Lots more interesting stuff to read on their website, do check it out - Ars Virtua. Here are some of the people from Ars Virtua meeting up with us for the first time:

I know some of these folks as their Second Life personas but it will take me awhile to get it all straight in WoW. We had a little conference and created a plan to complete quests to up Sigilbringer's stats so we could move out of the Valley of Trials and into the game.

Good old Nobleorc and Ignobleorc helped us out alot, not to mention Shivvy, who really kicked some wild boar ass.

I was happy to see that my character/avvie/toon/SLoon could dance and I spent some time after the wild boar hunt and cactus apple collection practicing my moves.

Amazing in Amsterdam

2008-02-25T14:33:00.001-08:00

Below is my first machinima piece, made about a year ago, an experimental video called Amazing, music by Lizband. It is currently being presented in Amsterdam in an installation context as a part of this PlanetArt Project. For those in the area the exhibition is happening 24/7 t/m 28 feb 2008 at PLANETART - ViolaVirus, an exhibition space of young artists, Weteringschans 181 Amsterdam.

Merging Machinima

2008-02-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Machine I Am Project blog - created to document my adventures in Machinima, virtual-space based and intergrated performance. I am currently experimenting in the virtual environments of Second Life and the RPG World of Warcraft. I am also tooling with video game environments, especially S-NES.

I am developing a new video work that will merge machinima with other forms of video and live performance. Stay tuned here as I experiment with ideas. I plan to invite some very talented people from the virtual art world to collaborate with me. I will document all the adventures here.

I am also actively working with other virtual space based projects - please visit:

I AM COOP Project

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

The Second Front Performance Collective