Sunday 3 February 2008

Poppies everywhere



Hmmmmmm.

Since visiting Goodwind Seiling's installation, I have been dreaming of poppies and thinking about the experience of art installation in the virtual world. It struck me that Second Life provides such an obvious path for visual artists to invite a different kind of engagement with their work. Seeing Humming, as the avatar, inside the core of the installation, encased in the soft womb-like bubble, triggering the sounds, being mesmerized by the slowly shifting patterns of the screen ... something quite different seemed to be taking place at the intersection of Humming and me, the flesh and blood being sitting at this computer. Seeing such inviting and compelling images let me imagine what it actually might be like to BE Humming, sitting in a soft amorphous floating bubble, tiny being inside a world of shifting velvety poppy petals.

The image of Humming, in her mostly blue water textured clothing, inside the poppy-filled dome seemed out of place somehow. I decided to go back to the installation and think about letting Humming become more visually in tune with installation in the short period of time that I had to be there. The theme of dissolving, losing identity, is what compels investigatation. So why not dissolve in a world of poppies? Why not let the art transform the avatar and make visible the impact of the art?

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