They’re Virtually Famous

Imagine an art gallery where you can not only touch the works on display, you can walk over them, sit on them, even fly through them. Such actions would doubtless send security staff into apoplexy, but in Second Life, the world is your oyster.

Today three Australian artists unveil their exhibition Babelswarm in the 3D virtual world of Second Life, an interactive sculpture based on the mythical Tower of Babel. For those who like the old-fashioned gallery experience, there is a "real" show at Lismore Regional Gallery.

Christopher Dodds, a visual artist, Adam Nash, a musician and 3D real-time artist, and Justin Clemens, a writer, all from Melbourne, were last year awarded a $20,000 artist-in-residence grant from the Australia Council to create a work for the online social networking world - believed to be the largest grant of its type.

Their real-time 3D work Babelswarm combines swarm theory - the outcomes of collective behaviour - and the story of humanitys effort to build a tower to the heavens, only to have it destroyed as punishment for such arrogance, along with mans unified language.

Residents of Second Life, represented by their computer-generated avatars, can speak or type messages into the installation; voice-recognition software converts their words into letters that fall from the sky to create a tower. Lismore Gallery visitors can take part by speaking into a microphone and watching their contribution to the installation on a wall-sized screen.

There is also an essay by Clemens, which will be available in printed form (only 100 copies) or online.

Dodds has been a resident of Second Life for two years, and set up Info Island so that he and Nash could experiment with graphic sculptures.

Doddss spiky-haired avatar, Mashup Islander, was approached last year by an avatar from the Australia Council who was researching Australian artists working in Second Life.

"Inside Second Life the user can walk up to these sculptures and interact with them - get inside them, move around them," Dodds says. "This is the inherent beauty of virtual art - its possible to create objects and experiences that arent possible in the real world."

Nash says another attraction is how work evolves as visitors make their contributions. "Well be watching it to see what emerges and how it grows," he says of Babelswarm. "There isnt any point when its finished … Part of the enjoyment of working in this medium is the constant joy and surprise of seeing how these things behave when you let them loose in this environment."

Nash, a performer and composer, began his virtual career with the group The Men Who Knew Too Much.

"We began working shows about 1997 that involved performances in virtual environments," he says. "In those days it was a little less sophisticated than now. Virtual reality was the buzzword, and people talked about living in a 3D fantasy universe."

He is full of praise for the Lismore Gallery and its director, Steven Alderton: "It was one of the first to be really interested in what we were doing and really understood it. Its not common to meet somebody with a good understanding of the potential."

Dodds and Nash are embarking on a new venture, the Australian Centre of Virtual Art, with the aim of curating virtual art.

Dodds says: "It will start with an extensive website, interviews with artists and academics before we set up a gallery in Second Life where people can display their art. It will be all the things you would experience in the real world, but the criteria is that it is innovative. Were looking at making art that is not possible in the real world, taking the medium and pushing it as far as they can."

Musicians, including Duran Duran and Suzanne Vega, have performed "in-world", and last year Australias Internet Industry Association bought an island to showcase independent artists. The ABC became the first Australian media organisation to establish a presence in Second Life when ABC Island opened to visitors for a trial last year.

Second Life is home to more than 300 virtual galleries, which are accessible 24 hours a day to an unlimited number of people in every part of the world. The latest issue of Step Inside magazine notes: "Though one could argue that all of Second Life itself is art, artists are using the unique tools of SL to redefine art itself."

To access Babelswarm, go to www.babelswarm.blogspot.com and follow the links.

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