RHIZOME_RAW: second life dramas

As another artist who has been performing interventions into Second Life for
over a year now, solo, and as part of the performance art group Second
Front, I'd like to interject a few words.

First of all, I feel that it's great that Odyssey has its first troll. It's
a good sign that it has that kind of cachet, as I was pleased when
protesters advocating better heathcare for my institution's security guards
came to my college island during its inauguration. Trolling is a net
tradition pioneered by people like Kandinskii, nn, Brad Brace, and others.
It's a good tonic.

Secondly, I ask what the function of the intervention was. Obviously, it
has gained some attantion, which is a core principle of tactical media. But
then, what is the sociocultural function? I can understand if Sugar pulled
Sal's objects if they were taking the sim offline - from the text, there
didn't seem to be any desire for dialogue. And by reposting, it's certainly
possible that Sugar could get Sal's 6th avatar pulled from the database for
tems violation, but I really don't see the value in that.

Although I am not part of Odyssey's administration, I do know that it was
founded to create a space where people could try to develop new forms and
NOT engage in the reiterative transmediated kitsch that you see in Second
Life so often. In my opinion, bombing Odyssey for perpetuating the banal
mimetic recreation of boring traditional art is like striking Greenpeace for
not protecting the environment well enough. Not the best context, if you
ask me. Actually, Sugar used to get in trouble for object bombing as art
intervention herself until she got backing to create an alternative space.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Has it fulfilled the purpose 100%? No. But
it is a damned good example of places where people are trying to explore
virtual worlds in other ways than just reposting their anime images, porn or
watercolors.

If Salvatore wanted to question commercial mimetic practice, he could
certainly go to the decor art island Artropolis which is marketing itself
similiarly to a Kinkaide-esque approach for Second Life, or any of the other
kitsch galleries. That is, aiming at mass marketing art using SL-based
memetics. Or look at half the artists covered in SLArt blog and have at it.

But most of them are not here, and I think that is the point.

Second Front is banned from about a dozen servers, and mainly by people who
take us out of context, which is understandable given the culture of the SL
community. Sometimes our probes have gotten chaotic, but we have rarely
shown disrespect to anyone without a lot of provocation. We're an agitprop
group, and that happens.

I think what Sal's doing is interesting; he just framed it badly this time.
He's protesting for pro-choice at Planned Parenthood…