Art 2.0: identity, role play and performance in virtual worlds

© 2011 Georgie Roxby SmithArt 2.0 – Identity, Role Play and Performance in Virtual Worlds is a studio based research project positioned within the virtual world of Second Life. Focusing on identity as a key provocation, the project explores new possibilities of the use of virtual reality software in contemporary art through repositioning “in world” performances into physical installations to create mixed reality video and installations. The key difference in methodology is my approach to the work from an installation paradigm rather than code or script based models used by new media artists. The work breaks with traditional forms of visual arts practice - installation, new media art, video art, and performance - and attempts to bring them together in one "event". This exploration not only questions the “bastard space” in which this work exists but also the nature of identity in the virtual realm and how the image of identity affects the nature of contemporary art and performance in this new frontier. The project is supported by research on role play and identity and the work of artists and theorists who utilise Second Life as a primary medium. Beginning with an examination of how role play and identity have been explored by contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin, Mariko Mori and Cindy Sherman and drawing on virtual world theorists such as Patrick Lichty, the creative component of this project includes installation, mixed reality performance and machinima. Your Clothing is Still Downloading is a multi dimensional installation which includes a live performance by the real life performers and Second Life avatar performers, pre-recorded machinima and video, a live video stream into Second Life, a virtual build of the gallery in Second Life and live projections within the gallery space. This work – which explores identity and desire - is accessible both in the gallery and via a Second Life portal. The technical demands of this work on the system often results in a major crash, negating the work in its process. / dead daddy explores themes of identity and death in virtual worlds. The work is a four video horizontal projection composed of Second Life and re-photographed images of my dead father in a 21st Century “exquisite corpse.” The final work iObject is a four video machinima where the identity of my Second Life self-portrait avatar is completely negated