Second Wall-ker Art Center....

"Second Wall-ker Art Center or Dancing About Architecture" (ZKM Island and Director's Lounge, Berlin 2008). Ok, this snapshot was taken just when co-performer Man Michinaga was announcing the concept and context behind our dancing architecture performance. Because we announced all this, it comes as quite a surprise that some bloggers felt "upset" by our performance because they felt griefed by our dancing walls but it was not as if we did not tell people in advance what we were up to and it was OUR performance so there was nothing to grief. People were there to be a part of that performance so we did nothing out of context. When things are live, nothing can be predictable though...even after the context has been announced so when someone is invited to a Second Front performance, they need a little disclaimer typed out for them in order for them to understand what they are getting into. Anyway on another note, to prove that this event happened in realtime, you will notice that there was a tiny typo that says "mueum" rather than "museum"..If this was just a machinima film, you would see everything typo-corrected to look SLick so there you are...that was a screenshot live as it happened.

Hey there Blue Maomarines, Blue Berliners, ZKM-heads and wispy wallflowers!

Yes, the rumour is true! Second Front has managed to escape from rehab and have returned to creating new performance art classics in Second Life!

Second Front's performance last week called "Second Wall-ker Art Center - Dancing about Architecture" was a smash hit (hopefully the attendees did not get too sore from the smash hit...sigh)! This performance was actually a sequel to the original "Second Wall-ker Art Center" performance at the MART Museum.

Second Front with the curatorial help of Olga Wunderlich at the Director's Lounge and the ZKM Staff ensured that the topography of virtual space has been restored to its most pure and natural state - that of a completely segregated ghetto of walled land-plots....heheheheheheheheh! This event was part of the Berlinale in...yes! In Berlin!

We performed as an intermission of sorts for some other performance that had something to do with boxing philosophers or something somewhat profound like that...

Well, there will be a video all about it very soon so for now, this is just a preliminary summary of what happened... In the meantime, here are some more photos for you...

Speaking of realtime typos, this may have been a typo and/or an example of clever wit but it is quite interesting to hear Bobzilla Carnell say "hell all" when the walls began to dance at a frenzied pace. This picture was taken to show the title-text clearly and also to focus on the fine detail of one of the walls (bricks, mortal and all).

Here is a pic of co-performer Bibbe Oh getting "floored" by pressing the "h" key (h = horizontal)... Maybe people thought we were griefing them because some people felt as if they were trapped in the walls... This claustrophobic sensation should have only been temporary though unless they also had their eyes glued to that groovy disco Op Art floor...WHOA!


Bibbe was not the only person hooked on "h". Co-performer Great Escape enjoyed assuming the horizontal position many times over... Walled floors like this look really great when acting as a counter-balance to the Blue Mao ceiling tiles...time for a cultural revolution, comrades!

Here is AliseIborg Zhaoying showing off her new Post-Rehab look, that of an elliptical (or is it ecliptical?) doll-face....heheheheh...

Here is an aerial view of Alise showing the viewer how it is easy to peel back the veil of SLebrity rehabilitation. We can also see Tran Spire's supersized burger in the background...Was it a Quarter Waller? Heheheheheh.

This captured quote from SaveMe Oh is worth keeping on our blog-wall..."I will not hang my Rembrandt in this museum"....heheheheheheh. What about a kinetic Rembrandt? On a more formalistic note, this pic is a good illustration of how the speech bubbles were occasionally cropped into pieces by the imposing walls...

This pic was taken to show off the hamburger one of the many props used to show our pre-occupation with the aesthetics of prop-art...heheheheheheh.

This pic was taken to show aspects of the interface. For example, one of the dance moves is there for you in plain view... The fastdance2 move was one designed by Odyssey's Curator, Sugar Seville for the purpose of turning the entire audience into a bunch of puritan wallflowers, relatively speaking. This pic was also taken to once again brag about the amazing decor on Locusolus... How often do you get to see a palm tree juxtaposed next to an action carpet (Pollock style) close up outside of Las Vegas? I wonder if Gumnosophistai Nurmi was feeling somewhat Californian when he declared this architectural opus as "Radical Architecture!"?

How about this for a jazzy wall configuration? Maybe inspired by the sexiness of this wonderwall ensemble, Ze Moo felt compelled to say: "where are the orgy pose walls?"

If you look closely, you can see one of the ZKM Island Curators, Aristide Zabelin. Once again, Second Front have made a very aesthetically pleasing configuration. That faceball on the right is reminiscent of Tony Oursler's RL work, wouldn't you agree? I think you can see why we like to divide the seemingly open-ended virtual space using walls, right? The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse's instrument builder, Bingo Onomatopoeia had the zeitgeist all figured out when he said, "walls are prototypical in virtual environments".

Here is a sneak preview of Gazira Babeli's wall canvas and Wirxli's (me, the blogger) photograph of his/her RL clone, Phil Spector.

"No windows? (They) must be Mac lovers" - Chantal Harvey... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GOOD ONE, CHANTAL! AWESOME! More great puns, more Great Walls and more orgiastic floor detail...Even the crowd looks great! So, what were all the griefing complaints all about? It was a perfect consensual moment shared by all, wasn't it?

Griefing even at its more artistic would never look as aesthetically pleasing as this...gaze at the interplay between angled walls and shadow spectors...er...Spectres... Doesn't the crowd appear overshadowed by the walls while posturing like wallflowers... All and all, there is another brick in the ART!


This is yet another shot of the spectre....er...Spector, Curator and token palm tree.



One of the best walls on display had a portruding pile of shopping carts being rammed through the pestle of the brick-laid pelvis...Was this Tran Spire's wall? If the pink flamingoes from the past are any indication, this was likely Tran's wall.

This pic was taken towards the end of the performance. The Blue Maos gave us the visual signal that it was about time to wrap up our performance. We did not get the hint though until the Director's Lounge curator, Olga Wunderlich in Berlin said, "the DJs are ready to go"...

This pic was taken right at the climax of our performance...There is nothing more sublime than a floral firework explosion of Blue Maos. Even the Cultural Revolution never reached this pinnacle of pixellated perfection.