October 2, 2007
Art Installation in Second Life Wows Educators
If art schools around the world start introducing their students to “hyperformalism,” credit can go to DC Spensley, who invented the term to describe abstract three-dimensional works created using software and personal computers.
On Monday, Mr. Spensley, known in Second Life as the avatar DanCoyote Antonelli, led a group of educators on a tour of his stunning art installations in Second Life that feature brightly colored sculptures that become more vivid and lively as one approaches them, an experience Mr. Spensley calls “stealth architecture.”
In one installation, greenish and orange objects that look like ribbon candy float around in space. To fully experience the immersive aspect of the art, Mr. Spensley asks visitors to turn off Second Life settings that enable users to see water, sky, and land.
Mr. Spensley said the purpose of his art is to help people experience a sense of wonder. He said he had been dreaming about a space like Second Life since he was a child, a place where he could fly and build “on a monolithic scale.” —Andrea L. Foster
Posted on Tuesday October 2, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
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Sigh! If the example is representative, I’m not impressed. It is poorly composed, has muddled perspective, lighting and color, among other problems.
— Kaleo Oct 2, 07:23 PM #
Ignorant people with closed minds always make me laugh…
Amazing work Mr. Spensley!
I truly enjoyed viewing the installations.
— Dan Oct 2, 08:19 PM #
Spensley’s work seems to be mere escapist art, art for video games. It has no relationship with the real world. It is otherworldly. Mystic. “Wonder.” If this mysticism doesn’t readily present itself to the viewer in the work itself, just read what the artist has to say about it on his Web site. Here’s a sample:
“It is the role of a contemporary artist to remind us of our capacity for wonder. Wonder is an affirmation that our being holds experiences that transcend practicality and cut through ideology in such a way as to make wide eyed innocents of us all again. And while the creation of wonder is far from the only role of the artist, it is the one that has always enchanted me personally and the core reason I still engage in the “art “mode of cultural production. I feel it is important to make a distinction between practical matters: what is required and aesthetic matters: what is desired. I think “what is desired” reflects more truly the nature of being, than the requirements of material existence so I support the distinction between modes of production and call some art and some modes other names. I choose to believe (and to demonstrate) that art exists, and support the assertion that this is an important distinction in the minds of people.”
I never cease to wonder at the artists who try their best to describe what they do in abstract terms. I can imagine that his work will appeal to the video gamers and the Oprah crowd — a large market indeed!
So, yes, call me ignorant if you will. I do tend to ignore art that is safe and sanitized enough to hang from corporate walls. But I also agree that Spensley’s work is “amazing,” amazing in the word’s etymological sense: “from Old English amasian, from a- (perfective prefix) + masian, to confuse”. Like sleight of hand, wonderful.
Then again, maybe I didn’t “fully experience the immersive aspect of the art.”
— Herbert Morgan Oct 3, 10:13 AM #
I guess artists that can’t do anything of value in the real world have to try to make it in an imaginary world.
— D Oct 3, 10:38 AM #
As presented here—a 2D snapshot of a 3D walk-through experience—I agree that it looks silly, and does nothing to improve my sense of wonder. But that’s not a fair judgement, since it can only truly be experienced in the same way that Richard Serra’s art works can—by walking around (and through) them. That said, I think art in SL (or other virtual worlds) is still taking baby steps…
— David Noah Oct 3, 11:29 AM #
In the early 90’s my 8 year old daughter had a kid’s computer art program that produced stuff just like this. If I new her stuff would someday be declared genius, I wouldn’t have given the computer to the toxic waste recycler, and I wouldn’t have had to spend all that money on her college education.
— marci Oct 3, 02:32 PM #
this is super cool i really like it :]
— Ashleigh Oct 16, 10:59 PM #