You might find no longer on Amazon the Version I published on August 16, 2022. Don’t worry if you have the first-day print. I corrected five typos and added a word I said in 2008 at the Dr. Dotzler Conference at DRUPA 2008: ““Nur ein gedrucktes Buch enthält die Realität“ – „Only a printed book contains reality.“ In 2007 I created Avatarkunst [Dr. Dotzler published it in 2007]. Just 15 years later we know that electronic books are fluid, the content can change at any time by the ones who are able to do so … There might be good reasons for doing so, but it might be also that BBIWY is on board.
Some readers might know that this blog is old, has tradition and that the daily events are blogged on different sites. So let me tell you about this blog and how it came to it. At the end I will tell why this headline.
Avatarkunst is one of the oldest blogs about Avatars & Art, maybe the oldest indeed. It is set on default for all my connected blogs like usercreatedrealiy.com – that’s why it comes sometimes in forms to “don’t panic and avatarkunst.wordpress.com“. Kunst means Art and transformative art – so used in New Slovenian Kunst – standing for former complicated relationships between Germans and Slovenians – as conventional art has still such a relationship with Digital Art. So Avatarkunst shall it be as avatarart might gain an even more complicted relationship.
Dr. Gerhard Dotzler is an art historian and one of the pioneers and publisher of computer art. As he retired he donated in late 2016 his archive containing correspondence with all the old masters like Max Bense to ZKM Karlsruhe. Dr. Dotzler told me as I asked him some years ago what he thinks of my doing – after laughing for a moment – that I am the creator of Avatarkunst. Why I ask he asked? Then he outlined why he sees it this way. Avatarkunst is an artform that Avatars look at art in virtual worlds reflecting themselves and the art they looking at. I always thought I created Paramerterkunst and Computer Minimal Art. I published about the balance between man and machine when it comes to generative art and stochastics in cybernetic esthetics. That the computer generates and the user says “stop” by pointing on an artwork on the screen defining “it” by this doing to a work of art, granting it later the signature of the human being – I would add as Art Blue writing in rezmagazine on AIs as the workforce of the future – leaving the hard working computer grieving behind (*LOL*).
Dr. Dotzler published some art calendars in the 80s and 90s with my works of Parameter Art and Computer Minimal Art on it. We even gained some prices for them. So he shall best know. Now over the years I have to agree on his early prediction more and more. Avatars in virtual worlds become them self a matter of art. Social art is a fact in art studies, in social media art. Linden Lab has recently launched Bento as an extension to Second Life Mesh Avatars where bones are being implemented in head and fingers to make the animations more realistic. I spoke with some body creators like Maitreya and they say the women are crasy about to get them. They are quite expensive. In total you need for a good looking but still basic avatar 10.000 Linden which is 38.00 Euro or 39.00 US Dollar. That’s quite interesting as the concept of Second Life is based – since 2004 – on land tiers and on free to run avatars. I saw this happening – quite amused, but full aware and anticipating the situation – that even in an academic student course limited to one week the ladies in the seminar asked how to get “better hair, better skin” and that they modified their shape from a realistic “that’s me as I am” to a “this I like to be” …
It did not help much that I said to the students on their way to becoming teachers: We shall concentrate on the didactic and technical approch “how to get an artwork uploaded and presented in a virtual realm”. Avatars are just now for us the tool to act inworld. Some days ago I found out that XFire has stopped to work – after 13 years of operation. All the videos we uploaded to Xfire in this seminar (called “I in 3D”) are gone. Luckily a student has made a backup on youtube so I could link there for the Immersivia book I am writing on.
Here it comes an old document where Avatarkunst was born. Keep in mind it was 2009 – no Mesh – no Bento. The male student at the beginning Attard Magic aka David Cassar has still his standard looking – we said “noob” – most of the other students (David was the only man in the seminar) changed “for the movie, for the recording, for being seen in public” – being seen by you now after eight years.
I said I will add a word on Dr. Gerhard Dotzler. He told me last year that he has to give up on health implications and offered my foundation some of his stock. I sadly had to deny. I dont have the capacity to store tons of papers and prints. I sent him a copy of the Molly Bloom calendar 2017 we printed – and it returned today as “undeliverable”.
I started to write on a book IMMERSIVIA at leanpub. Here comes the SAMPLE BOOK as PDF. It needs some updates, but it is now in beta, so you may be able to read and give feedback.
Personal invite for artists. You are invited to come today at 11.30 SLT, grid time = 19.30 GMT London time = 20.30 CET Paris/Rome/Berlin time [in Second Life] to see what is behind this art featured in CBC artnet:
Be on a photo with Robin Banksy, be in the next rez Magazine where Invisible Art will be presented by Art Blue.
IM Art Blue or PatriciaAnne Daviau for the TP at 11.28. We leave the place at 11.55 and go to the HG Safari HQ (The Embassy in SL to a trip to opensim worlds).
Place yourself where the red boxes are in this picture:
We meet at South Horizon, but we dont see the other regions around, why?
I predicted in 2011 that everyone will be forced to update user made 3D worlds or “everything is gone to dust”. I have some regions on older server versions running. They can be reached by the hypergrid.net [frozen] viewer and are set on frozen databases. Thats my mission. One part is VULCANICUS. All contributions to VULCANICUS – The Volcano of Art – will be coverd in a booklet “SECOND DOWNLOAD” for the ones who want to see first on print what they may experience by a visit. Now welcome to the Hypergrid Safari! Here are some photos how South Horizon will again look after “the painter” was here again to make it all seen by OS 0.8. This might be the last update I do on the conserved regions as my long time student and developer “Daniel” will soon leave the university time behind to make “real” money in industry.
I have not included photos of Roots and War [by JadeYu Fhang]. This part of the installation was not affected by the server changes. You may do photos on your own 🙂
VULCANICUS is not only a 3d-installation of pieces of art made of prims and sculpts. It offers some interactions. There are scripts inside. Hidden functions 🙂
On Wednesday, June 25, the HG Safari will visit RIFT HORIZON – the “landing point” in grid Metropolis. From this point you see VULCANICUS best. You may create an avatar in OSgrid [prefered language English], Francogrid [prefered language French] or Metropolis [German and English] and join HG Safari – search for Thirza Ember in OSgrid.
I copy the group information: Hypergridding! This group helps people new to hypergridding to discover destinations, new friends and all the fun that goes with grid jumping. We meet Wednesdays at 9 PM Central European time (12 noon SLT)
IM Wizard Gynoid Fuschia Nightfire or Thirza Ember if you would like to invite the group to come visit your region.
I spoke of interaction and scripting happens in VULCANICUS as well – worth to visit with students in arts and informatics. I found a good [and short] posting on it: http://tomcat-stable.hcmc.uvic.ca:8080/ach/site/xhtml.xq?id=164
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Avatarkunst 