This is for my friends who have wondered what art I have been up to ...and why

A Room Between

For the past several years I have been working in and exploring what I consider to be a genuinely new art medium. It is so new that it barely has a name. Some call it Virtualism, which I will call it for the sake of simplicity. What I am talking about is art that is made with and can only be experienced in, 3D virtual world environments. This is a medium that only exists in the computer.

the Hall of Chairs from "Phantoms of Absence"

The essence of this medium is creating immersive installations or experiences that you navigate in a 3D world. These encompass space, avatar interactions, animation, sound, music and scripted code. It is possible to hint at these environments with photos or videos, but to truly capture the experience one must occupy and interact with the virtual space. It is the difference between taking a picture of the woods, and standing in one.

The hall of Lanterns from "Phantoms of Absence"

Virtualism favors interactions and dimensional experiences that are not possible in the real world; an aspect that makes for a unique and completely new art form. What can be made and experienced in these worlds approaches manifesting a dream. Gravity is defied, scale is immense or tiny, the the fantastic is manifest, the mundane becomes transcendent.

A Little Soap Box

About 160 years ago saw the invention of photography. A little over 50 years after that saw the advent of cinema. Both of these were new mediums, similar in some respects to what came before but fundamentally their own and in many ways, radically different. Each of these new and modern art mediums originally mimiced their predesesors. Photography imitated painting. Cinema imitated theater. But it was not long before artists began to experiment and these mediums grew over time into unique art forms which continue to evolve and grow. However, in the begining and for some people, long into their development, these mediums were not considered art. Today you would be hard pressed to find academic denial of these art forms.

detail of "Vessel"

Virtualism is in much the same boat as photography in its infancy. There are galleries and arts institutions that are dabbling with virtual art but that circle of validation is small. Most people and many in the art world are simply unaware. It is difficult for art galleries to get behind this medium as its commodification is almost non-existent. A few years ago some avant garde artists with real world reputations sold installations or virtual sculptures for real money, but these people all had art world cred ($ales) going in. In terms of sales these were exceptions and rare. Currently in virtual worlds like SL, people sell what are essentially virtual reproductions of real life paintings or prints for virtual currency. I have done this myself in the early days. It was a way to expose your art to a broader audience. But the amount of money collected could buy you a mocha grande once a week.

I have only scratched the surface here. There are many vectors of discussion that I could elaborate on like where is this going? But I will save those for another time. I hope you enjoy the images, video and links:)

Flickr links in reverse chronological order:
Adagio, my latest and currently installed
A Room Between, shown at the French museum: Pirats
Phantoms of Absence, a multi-level sim sized installation shown at the Musei di Roma Capitale
To Sleep, Perchance, a large installation also shown at Pirats
Vessel, a full sim installation at the University of Western Australia
Reach, a multi-level installation shown at Erato

Enjoy:)