We, Minotaur Dreams

Photograph shows AliseIborg Zhaoying in 'AWAY' state due to sim crashing with Wirxli Flimflam in far right, Tran Spire and Liz Solo in background.

Hallucinating in absences, within the padded walls where mythical memory and unknowable circumstances clash. We are not what we seem, and the monstrous is beautifully fragile in the throes of sim crashing and uncertainties of our psyche. We drug our memory, drown in our stories of centuries ago to surface in the chaos of action - memory - action - consequences. The logic of disorder lives in a minotaur and we, within the traces of its dreams - ironic, benign, glorious.

Haledol Dreams of the Minotaure

Economie 0 - Upgrade! Paris....

This pic was taken at the beginning of the artist talk for Upgrade Paris. The official website for the streaming live video of the event is listed right on the picture itself.

Hey there Parisian Upgraders, Senegalese Ultra-Nationalists, and bribed critics!

The intro pic above gives you the impression that our artist talk at Upgrade Paris went smoothly and on time but actually for the first part of the day, we were unsure if we had schedule at the correct time! There was alot of confusion between AM and PM and SLT (Second Life Time/Pacific) time zones. Were we supposed to meet at 5 PM or 5AM and was it in France's local time zone or in SLT? One of the curators, Toto Donat had troubles signing on apparenty, so we could not find her online...we figured that maybe we had already missed our talk like 12 hours ago...sigh! There was no sign of any curator nor any other speaker (including a bunch of curators and artists from Senegal who were scheduled before us).

It was a good thing that we killed some time at Club Neptune just in case one of the curators would sign on and tell us what was happening. Fortunately, co-curator Karolwojtyla Sobocinski signed into SL in the nick of time and apologized for being late.

Here is a pic of us dancing at Club Neptune while waiting for the curator to show up...

What better way to wait for a curator and discuss future shows than to dance your ass off?

Waiting for the curator(s) to arrive was a good idea because we managed to talk alot about our earlier performances and they even publically acknowledged that we are now an "established institution"...wow! I guess it has been awhile since we formed in late 2006!

During the talk, it was slightly confusing as to exactly what was happening in Paris. There were two people in RL controlling Karol's SL avatar (Marika and Karol, one guesses) and they were also fiddling with the video camera in Paris which we could not see...in fact, our SL audience only consisted of one avatar but that one avatar was a camera from which an indeterminate number of RL audience members were checking us out. Karol tried to keep us on topic with regards to the ways in which SL's economy influences our performance. We bribed Karol behind the scenes until he/she was content with our answer ;-) But basically, we talked about squatting abandoned corporate headquarters, delivering pizza for free, unintentionally interrupting stock market transactions, bribing critics and hiring bodyguards for disproportionate prices. No one in their right mind would actually think we were really inspired by something as banal as the economy, right? Heheheheheh...Speaking of sponsorship to stimulate the economy, it was great to see Ars Virtua's logo represented at the venue.

Wow! Look at that detailed Google Map! What is that doing on the floor? It does not look like Wall Street at all! ;-) Ok ok, actually it is a map of Beijing...The artist talk was held on the site of JC Fremont's installation, Imaging Beijing. As for the event itself, it was around this time that we were begging Karol (or perhaps Toto/Marika Dermineur if she happened to be behind the avvie) to get the audience to ask us some questions because we were running out of anything relevant to say...usually, it only takes us a total of 2 minutes before we give up on talking about anything and feel the compulsion to launch some rockets and/or explode over and over again! We were unusually patient and self-disciplined today...we even kept our clothes on...phew!

Bibbe Oh was finally able to join us to wrap up the Q&A session with Upgrade Paris...She left the Club Neptune earlier at a time when we all felt that we were too late for our own talk but then Bibbe heeded a desperate IM from us to rejoin the fray and answer a concluding question about the new European taxation system in Second Life...it did not seem to matter though since only one of us in attendence was living in Europe.

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.

Gaz and fish from "I Want to Eat Fish & Chips", Tate Modern, January 15, 2008

 Man in Ze Moo's cage w/Ad Breda

Amsterdam/

Montevideo MediaArt Center, Amsterdam (RL)

Virtual New Year and Second Front

Hello, Second Front Fans!

Man Michinaga here - They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, "No, no, no..."
Let's see if I last as long as Any Winehouse.

I: Update -
Last Fall was really amazing, Second Front was in tremendous demand, we were globetrotting like mad. That's the source of the Chinese curse, I think "May you get what you wish for." By the end of December, the major performance twice a month had us mirroring great acts like Blondie and Metallica. Whew. Virtual rock stars are not unlike the tangible ones. No use in talking about who, what or how it happened, we took a break over the holidays.

It's funny, in the virtual, taking a normal holiday seems like taking this big hiatus. Strange how virtual worlds have a different sense of time than the physical world. But now that the holidays are over, there is a ton of things going on with SF, although many of them are not necessarily under the SF banner. Nothing top secret here.

Next week, Great Escape (Scott Kildall) and his partner Victoria Scott are showing their Imaginary Objects as part of the Mixed Realities show in Boston, Lizsolo just got a grant for some machinima, and I'm working on some small pieces and the backlog of machinima pieces from last fall, including Wrath of Kong, Russian Roulette, and more.

We are doing a piece on ZKM island for Director's Lounge in Berlin in February, and also another piece in Paris... More on that as they happen. In addition, there will be a small piece in Kansas City in March.

II: The Premature Reports of SF's Death, & SL Art as a whole.
Yes, there were rumors of our demise after Miami. Not so, but our focus and ways will be 'different' than last year. Imagine performances with 2-3 artists, unannounced interventions, traditional SF performances, as well as possibly fully "re-formed" forms of SF. It was just that it's hard to have a full-time first and second life...

Marco Manray and I were talking about the nature of SL art, and we seem to agree that the first era of SL art passed late last year. This is because most of us (Gaz, Marco, the Twangs, myself) have upcoming RL shows of SL work, signalling the bleed-over of SL work as contemporary art. The first Generation, who we called Virtualists, set the foundation for contemporary art in virtual worlds. We are in the second generation now, and it's a real challenge.

I believe there will be three main groups - the SLart crowd, who will focus on the SL community as a primary audience, the RL/SL artist who is the contemporary artist using SL as a tool, and the ones who try both. I tend to be inthe first category, but SF as a whole might be between 1 & 2...

3: SF in Europe
"I Want to Eat Fish & Chips", Tate Modern, January 15, 2008
Fau and Man got together in London (the REAL one) and went off to the Tate Modern to answer MTAA's sponsored piece in NYC "I Want to Make Tamales" by Elaine Tin Nyo. (http://www.tinjail.com/over_the_opening/2008/01) We invited friends involved with Furtherfield.org, and went up to the 7th floor, where we commenced to get tamales, and through the Wi-Fi, Gaz Babeli was on Losoculous in SL with many fish on sticks. The good-old-fashioned cod was amazing, as was the Dandelion and Burdock Soda...

"Hacking the Cage" with Ze Moo
When Man went to Amsterdam to speak (in part) on Second Front at the Video Vortex conference at the Institute for Networked Cultures, he suddenly wound up at Ze Moo's "Couple in the Cage" installation in the Amsterdam district which was also in the Video Vortex gallery installation in Amsterdam. Immediately, Patrick/Man grabbed a keyboard and invaded Columbia College's sim with the Male of the two, Ad Breda, The administrators were confused at Columbia, but witht he understanding this was a Second Front intervention, the alert was cancelled...

However, for the next two weeks, Man, Fau, GE, and Gaz visited the cage and even hacked their way inside to question the safety of the cage itself with anime figures, fire lizards, and robots.   Today, though, the cage was sold, and the two inhabitants were set free, now all we have to do is find them.

However, afterwards, Gaz and Fau interrogated Man from within a block of solid carbonite... Why this was done is still up to debate, but it seemed good at the moment.

Second Wall-ker Art Center at MART Museum

During the interrogation, an invite came from Pei Twang to come to an italian opening at the MART museum of art in SL. Since we have been working on a piece called the "Second Wall-ker Art Center", everyone donned 20 meter square walls and engaged in some "Dancing About Architecture".  Unfortunately, I don't know much Italian, but Gaz tells me that "bannato" is a very nice word...  Marco Manray liked the piece very much, and sent me some great images.

So, that's about it for now.  No mysteries, a few surprises, but some very human avatar-artists are going into the next generation of virtual performance art... 

I'll try to get more images up soon.

Art Basel Miami Vice!

What happened here? Is this an official performance or an excuse to squander Second Front's official invite at the Zonal Contemporary ArtFair in Miami? Perhaps this performance is all about squandering any conventional expectations for what traditionally constitutes a formal "performance" in favour the more divine cause of partying like a maniac? OK, you can blame the recent influx of virtual snow (cocaine) this wintertime as the primary cause for this downhill Telecultural snow crash. Here is a pic of what the event "Art Basel Miami Vice" looked like at its peak/climax before everything was snorted, sexxxed and eventually sucked down the drain (and up the group's nose orifaces).
Yes, you are not hallucinating - those actually are ostriches in an orgy room with some paranoid ego-crazed cokehead performance artists arming themselves to the teeth while inviting a bunch of their employees and friends to take part in this decadent debaucle! So, how did this all come to pass? Do these actions deserve some avatarial discipline and maybe even some rehab for the holiday season? Ho Ho Ho, time to read more about it below...

Hey there Boogie Nightlights and Vice Squads with dayglo fannie packs, pastel Armani Suits and two-day stubble!

This posting is the beginning of the documentation from our most recent performance in Miami.

Here was our official press release written by Man Michinaga:

Press Release:

Second Front's

Art Basel Miami Vice

Dec. 6, 2007, 3:30 PM PST/SLT

In conjunction with

Gosia Koscielak Gallery @ Miami, NOW Art Fair

http://www.gosiakoscielak.com.
TELECULTURE: Dreams at the Epicenter @ Zones Art Fair

The Atlantic Basin Project, RCA Gallery., St. John's Newfoundland Canada

Press Contact:

Patrick Lichty, Second Front
voyd at voyd.com

Second Front Blog:
http://slfront.blogspot.com

To commemorate the arrival of Second Life based performance to the
shows surrounding Art Basel Miami, SL's first performance art
collective, Second front, are creating an event entitled "Art Basel
Miami Vice" This work is in conjunction with the TeleCulture
exhibition, curated by Jillian MacDonald and presented by Lee
Wells/PAM at Zones, Second Front works presented by Gosia Koscielak
Gallery, as well as live projections at the Atlantic Basin Project
and at The Project Room, Columbia College Chicago.

Scenario:

Recent successes have catapulted Second Front to the heights of the
virtual art world. And, in coming to Art Basel Miami, SF has fallen
in with the proper scene of art-world decadence. Hovering limos,
pastel suits, .45 caliber pistols, seas of virtual coke and sexual
peccadillos with flocks of ostriches invade Miami nightlife. Will SF
fall in with virtual Colombian drug cartels? Will they even sell a
painting? And what about the Ostriches?

Art Basel Miami Vice is an expose of the Miami art world underground
nightlife with all its drama, danger, and wildlife.

Thanks to all of the sponsoring institutions for making the piece
possible, and check the Second Front Blog around Christmas for more
information...

So that was how we mythologized this event, here are some more photos to prove to you that the "myths" are in fact, very REAL...

So, the evening did not exactly begin without a hitch. Perhaps we were trying a little too hard to keep our cool but the fact was, we were begging to be chilled-out even more by our recently minted stash of Second Snow. Already, withdrawal was causing some organizational mix-ups as we were trying to coordinate two limos and two limo drivers. We spent so much of our hard earned Linden bux on cocaine (before Fau bailed us out, it was costing us L$30 a line...yikes!), we resorted to hiring a chimp named Clint and our friend Blued Food as the limo drivers (the ones Second Front planned to hire bailed out on us at the last minute, perhaps they had their own vices to pursue at all cost or maybe they knew that we would not be able to pay them on time due to our own expensive pursuits...sigh!). So anyways, here is a pic of some of the SF members trying sit properly in one of the limosines... The initial plan was simple: 1) just drive every member in 2 limos down the hill maybe 2 or 3 blocks and then, 2) arrive in SLebrity style at our Miami Villa designed from pre-fab parts by Gazira Babeli...Yeah, that was the "plan" but every coke-head has a half-baked "plan" waiting to hatch, right?


At the time this pic was taken, we managed to fish one of the limos out of the water (we were so high, we thought all limos in SL were amphibious) and also spotted one of our favourite members of the paparazzi, Marco Manray. He hitched a ride with us in more ways than one...Usually in RL, the paparazzi chases behind the stars sitting in the limosine but this time, the paparazzi was chasing with us while IN the limo...this kind of logic only makes sense in SL or for those who are too high on nose candy to care.

The black limo may not have been able to swim through water but Blued Food's more luxurious white limo was able to hover (a la the movie Blade Runner) us up to the top of the Villa for the commencement of the party's Phase One. Since only Blued's limo was working properly, he had to pick us all up in two driving installments since each limo only seated 4 (other than the driver)....Well, at least we were able to "pay him in kind" for his services rendered as you will read in the upcoming...er...lines ahead ;-)

Within minutes of disembarking the entire Second Front group and the entourage from the limo and onto the Villa's rooftop patio, the Second Fronters wasted no time and began to line up and er.... "perform" at the altar next to the hot tub and the interactive copy of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies book....SNIFF! SNORT! "ME FIRST!" "NO, ME FIRST!" Does this sound familiar? In the artworld and rockstar world, we call these selfish and greedy attitudes a form of "successful group dynamics" ;-)

By the time this pic was taken, most of the group was sober enough to head downstairs to snort some additional lines of coke in the main lobby... It took Lizsolo Mathilde and Wirxli Flimflam (yes me, the blogger du jour) quite a few minutes (perhaps hours) afterwards to move our noses off the tray upstairs and proceed to the "2nd course" portion of the powder buffet... Liz and I are used to getting bogged down with lines and lines of something...these days, we call this ritual part of the "grant writing application process".... "OH! WHAT A FEELING!"

Finally, the party moved to the main lobby downstairs and in hardly any time flat, Second Fronters were flattening out both their nasal cavities and their spines...fortunately, there were couches! It was also at this time that we (including the "paparazzi") began inviting more of our friends to show in order to "further subvert the conventional expectations underlying a conventional performance"...er...some BS like that anyway. What we really wanted was more hot pixel-prims for the orgy and since Second Fronter Fau Ferdinand found some free refillable coke (only available to VIP SLebrities like Second Front), we felt that the more would indeed be the merrier :-)

Here is yet another pic of us huddling around the couches... It was great to see our friends Bibbe Oh and Chi5 Shenzhou there and the group was also introduced to Marco's friend, Bettina Tizzy. A little later in the evening, the Italian Film-maker Finally Outlander (oh wait, he was there almost at the beginning of the snortfest, actually) and also the Berliner Blogging Artist, Olga Wunderlich joined in to indulge in the action and also.... Yes, the performance artist Bea Box was also there and the rest is probably just a blurry blizzard at this point...

Here is where we see the third and final phase of our "performance". The "performance" culminated in a surreal orgy and fiendish coke-snorting session that left most of us paranoid and ego-maniacal. The bedroom coke orgy was so intense, you could even see if from this zoomed out pic... I think Second Fronter Man Michinaga had the right idea and bailed before events took their natural turn for the worse. Some Second Front members (like Great Escape, AliseIborg Zhaoying and Tea Chenille) were super-wise by either staying home sober or simply snorting their own supply at home. Blog readers can rest assured that this performance party very likely seriously burned us out and perhaps Second Front's New Years Resolution for 2008 will be to check into Rehab...sigh! At the very least, we hope the curators at Miami were forgiving enough to consider booking us in the near future...

WRATH OF KONG at PERFORMA 07, NYC

Photo by Penny Leong Browne (a.k.a. AliseIborg Zhaoying)

On Nov 3, 2007, Second Front performed Wrath of Kong at PERFORMA 07, part of The Second Biennial of New Visual Art Performance (October 27-November 20, 2007)

Based on the iconography of King Kong and Donkey Kong, Second Front saves the real Princess Peach (Man Michinaga s.k.a. Patrick Lichty) and defeats King Kong (Gazira Babeli) in this epic remix that had our avatars ascending up ramps and ladders to the top of the Empire State building where the Great Kong had captured Princess Peach in its grip. Second Front launched their attack by flying biplanes (Great Escape a.k.a. Scott Kildall and Tran Spire a.k.a. Doug Jarvis), riding up ramps in a lime-green motorscooter (Tea Chenille a.k.a. Tanya Skuce), wearing flaming barrels (Wirxli FlimFlam a.k.a. Jeremy Turner) and shooting laser guns (AliseIborg Zhaoying a.k.a. Penny Leong Browne) all to the retro sounds of arcade games. Other strategies of assault had Wirxli FlimFlam throwing barrels from ramps and gunfighter Fau Ferdinand a.k.a. Yaels Gilk shooting ammo from atop an attacking biplane flown by Great Escape. Versions of Princess Peach were also deployed to distract the Kong from the real Princess Peach (Man Michinaga) with Tea Chenille as the adorable miniature Cabbage-Patch-like doll, and AliseIborg Zhaoying posing as the pixellated 2D Princess Peach and acting as a love interest decoy by spraying pherenomes at King Kong. Liz Solo sent minute-by-minute reportage to both the audience below and those in (RL) NYC who anxiously awaited news of the rescue of Princess Peach.

The pics here show some Second Front performers standing in victory on the body of the defeated Kong.

WRATH OF KONG at PERFORMA 07, NYC

Photo by Penny Leong Browne (a.k.a. AliseIborg Zhaoying)

On Nov 3, 2007, Second Front performed Wrath of Kong at PERFORMA 07, part of The Second Biennial of New Visual Art Performance (October 27-November 20, 2007)

Based on the iconography of King Kong and Donkey Kong, Second Front saves the real Princess Peach (Man Michinaga s.k.a. Patrick Lichty) and defeats King Kong (Gazira Babeli) in this epic remix that had our avatars ascending up ramps and ladders to the top of the Empire State building where the Great Kong had captured Princess Peach in its grip. Second Front launched their attack by flying biplanes (Great Escape a.k.a. Scott Kildall and Tran Spire a.k.a. Doug Jarvis), riding up ramps in a lime-green motorscooter (Tea Chenille a.k.a. Tanya Skuce), wearing flaming barrels (Wirxli FlimFlam a.k.a. Jeremy Turner) and shooting laser guns (AliseIborg Zhaoying a.k.a. Penny Leong Browne) all to the retro sounds of arcade games. Other strategies of assault had Wirxli FlimFlam throwing barrels from ramps and gunfighter Fau Ferdinand a.k.a. Yaels Gilk shooting ammo from atop an attacking biplane flown by Great Escape. Versions of Princess Peach were also deployed to distract the Kong from the real Princess Peach (Man Michinaga) with Tea Chenille as the adorable miniature Cabbage-Patch-like doll, and AliseIborg Zhaoying posing as the pixellated 2D Princess Peach and acting as a love interest decoy by spraying pherenomes at King Kong. Liz Solo sent minute-by-minute reportage to both the audience below and those in (RL) NYC who anxiously awaited news of the rescue of Princess Peach.

The pics here show some Second Front performers standing in victory on the body of the defeated Kong.

"Theatre of the Subliminal Front" at LIVE 07, Vancouver

Photo by AliseIborg Zhaoying (a.k.a. Penny Leong Browne)

Second Front performs at the Western Front in Vancouver as part of the LIVE 2007 Biennial of Performance Art, October 20, 2007.

Inside the "Theatre of the Subliminal Front" Second Front members discover they are both the performers and the subject of a meditative action-painting. To the beats of a gong in a Hermann Nitsch soundtrack, Second Front performers shoot paint cans that splatter paint on impact, exploding colour onto a scene that depicts the performers' avatars as paper cut-outs getting crucified in the "theatre", with Nitsch paintings, crosses and a billboard of the Second Front setting the stage. In the final scene. Second Front performers play dead, releasing their souls from their avatar bodies.

Guest-curated by James Morgan of Ars Virtua and Jeremy Turner.

Second Front's own video coming soon!

In the meantime, check out these photos by Tran Spire (a.k.a. Doug Jarvis)

Second Front performs at "The Gate", Opening for the iMAL in Brussels

October 4, 2007 - (20:30 SLT) Interactive Media Art Lab, Brussels, Belgium



Video by Penny Leong Browne a.k.a. AliseIborg Zhaoying

Second Front performed on October 4th to both a live RL audience in Brussels and at Odyssey in SL. The performance happened through a RL and SL portal space, The Gate, featuring a bi-directional video stream on a 4 metre x 4 metre screen projected live for the opening of the iMAL - Interactive Media Art Lab's new space. The show is organized and curated by Yves Bernard, Brussels, Belgium. Second Front performance curated by Domenico Quaranta.

Fau Ferdinand has joined Second Front!

If you cannot see this embedded video, click on the direct YouTube link here.

Here is a sublime performance documentary machinima video of Fau Ferdinand in her siren form videographed by Evo Szuyuan. It is from performances like these, where Second Front felt the strong need to actively recruit her into the group.

SECOND FRONT IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE FAU FERDINAND AS OUR 9TH MEMBER....

PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR UPCOMING BLOGS ABOUT HER FIRST PERFORMANCE WITH SECOND FRONT AT iMAL in BRUSSELS....

Here is a more humanoid portrait of Fau Ferdinand found on the New World Notes article, The View from Jerusalem.

"ZOMBIE ATTACK: 28 AVATARS LATER" VIDEO!

TO SEE THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION OF THIS MOVIE, CLICK HERE AND THEN VIEW FULLSCREEN...


This is the lower-resolution YouTube version. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.

This video probably looks like a blank black screen to you but this is because Google-Video insists on picking the intro still-image as the very first frame...sigh! Anyways, this video is actually at a slightly higher resolution than YouTube. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.

TO WATCH THE REST OF SECOND FRONT's VIDEOS AT HIGH RESOLUTION, PLEASE VISIT THE OFFICIAL BLIP TV VIDEO ARCHIVE, CLICK ON THIS SENTENCE.

Here is the official info about the video....

Second Front is a pioneering avatar performance art group in the mainstream, virtual world, Second Life.

This video is a machinima document of a live performance by Second Front.

For this performance, Second Front members transformed into zombies and ventured out on a quest to eat and therefore, infect other avatars.

Eventually the zombie horde climaxed in an intense suicide pact.

This video was edited by Great Escape (Scott Kildall) in the style of George Romero.

The footage was recorded by Gazira Babeli and Man Michinaga (Patrick Lichty).

The members of Second Front are:

Man Michinaga (Patrick Lichty)

Wirxli Flimflam (Jeremy Owen Turner)

AliseIborg Zhaoying (Penny Leong Browne)

Tran Spire (Doug Jarvis)

Lizsolo Mathilde (Liz Solo)

Great Escape (Scott Kildall)

Tea Chenille (Tanya Skuce)

Gazira Babeli (classified)

Cameo appearances included the SLebrities: Fau Ferdinand, Rubaiyat Shatner (Ars Virtua Curator) and Olga Wunderlich among many others...

"28 Avatars Later" - More Zombies!

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Here's some close-up footage of Second Front zombies in action.
Video footage by AliseIborg Zhaoying a.k.a. Penny Leong Browne.

"28 Avatars Later " - More Raw Footage!

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Second Front recently transformed themselves into zombies. Here's footage from "28 Avatars Later" where Second Front and other infected avatars joined together in the final act at Rausch's Combat Sim in a phantasmagorical dance of the undead. Video footage by AliseIborg Zhaoying a.k.a. Penny Leong Browne.

"28 Avatars Later " - Raw Footage from Zombie Garden

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Here's some excerpted raw footage of Second Front zombies, biting and infecting other avatars at Zombie Garden. Video footage by AliseIborg Zhaoying a.k.a. Penny Leong Browne.

ZOMBIE ATTACK! 28 AVATARS LATER...

SOME BRAINPOWER REQUIRED: SECOND FRONT GAINS NEW UNDEAD ALLIES WITHIN SECONDS OF ASCENDING THEIR GRAVES...
Photo by Great Escape. This pic illustrated well the disciplined nature of Second Front. Even with only 5 of us there at the very beginning, we managed to rid ourselves of any healthy flesh and got straight down to the nitty gritty task of infecting new zombies to act as SF cameo-appearances....

***UPDATE FROM THE NEAR FUTURE...
OLGA WUNDERLICH HAS BLOGGED THIS PERFORMANCE!***

Hey there splEEn-spOOks, thriller-seekers and other blood guzzling hobbyists,

About a week ago, Second Front drank some bad blood and turned into zombies en masse.

Always suckers for more popularity, the motley crew of avatar performance artists decided to turn their particular crisis into an opportunity and seize the Day of the Dead...

Consider this blog posting to be kind of like a photo-essay - you know, the kind that TIME magazine might publish or something ;-)

Ok, no point in describing everything in excruciating theoretical detail, here are some more pix from our performance called "Zombie Attack! 28 Avatars Later"...

Photo by Great Escape. Without a moment to waste, Second Front congregates at the "Stuff on Pikes" graveyard and gradually chomps the masses of flesh-filled nOObs in their group pursuit of the Quest for Brains...

Photo by Great Escape. Left-Right: Great Escape, Macky Oh (an infected nun with a groovy sk8board), Olga Wunderlich (stunned like a deer caught in headlights and waiting to be infected), Gazira Babeli (background) and Wirxli Flimflam.

Photo by Great Escape. It looks like Olga is pretending to hang around Great Escape and Macky Oh as if nothing unusual has happened. She was probably hoping that no one would take notice that her flesh was full-figured and her brain was still intact...ooops! Great Escape (the zombie with the most brain cells still in his head), saw opportunity knocking! ;-)

Photo by Great Escape. Olga is the very first victim of the evening. Great Escape has the pleasure of getting first dibs on her supple pixel-flesh. Perhaps this is Great Escape's form of gratitude for being interviewed by Olga a few weeks ago...heheheheh!

Photo by Great Escape. The infection works! Olga is Second Front's very first cameo zombie!

Photo by Great Escape. Here is a revealing pic of AliseIborg Zhaoying, Wirxli Flimflam and Macky Oh.

Photo by Great Escape. Here is a close-up of Lizsolo Mathilde as a zombie.

Photo by Great Escape. This pic was taken the minute Man Michinaga joined us. This moment was important as Man Michinaga's Aons-old arrival signaled the rest of us to officially commence Second Front's zany zombiefest.

Photo by Great Escape. Second Front members shown from left-right: Man Michinaga, Wirxli Flimflam, Tran Spire and Great Escape.

Photo by Great Escape. Great Escape's next victim apparently ownes the Graveyard (according to "reliable sources") so it is likely that she was eager to be victimized as soon as possible.

Photo by Great Escape. Ok, this pic shows that the "chaos" of our zombie dance was in fact perfectly choreographed. It would not be suprising if Ulrika Zugzwang would be pleased with our thrilling coordination.
Left-right: Great Escape, Tran Spire, Wirxli Flimflam, Liz Solo and some cameo zombie with some fancy blue shoes.

Photo by Great Escape. This might look like a scene straight out of an Ulrika Zugzwang machinima movie but actually, this pic shows Second Front getting enough blood and guts to channel the legion of cacodemons from the Doom Trilogy.. You might know the Ancient saying, "We are Legion for we are plenty".

Photo by Great Escape. BRAAAAYYYNNNZZZ! WE NEEEED MOOOREE NOOOOOB BRAAAYYYYNZZZZ! The zombies begin to look desperate so Second Front sends forth a scavenger scout (Wirxli) to hunt down more nOObs in other designated land-plots.

AND YET, SECOND FRONT's HORDE BORES QUICKLY AND THEY STILL NEED MORE FRESH BRAINS...

Photo by Great Escape. Gazira Babeli and AliseIborg Zhaoying have gleeful fun coordinating the feasting activities of the zombie horde.

CURATE OR BE CUREATEN: ARS VIRTUA's CURATOR GETS INFECTED BY SECOND FRONT!

Photo by Great Escape. The Unholy ritual is complete! Ars Virtua's curator Rubaiyat Shatner has been successfully infected by Great Escape. From this point onward, Institutions and Performance Artists will forever be bonded in blood (and brains, of course)!

Photo by Great Escape. We think this winged zombie used to be Olga Wunderlich, but now we are not so certain.... I think we missed the missing link in this part of her evolution towards full-blown zombiehood...sigh!

Photo by Great Escape. Finally, we found a zombie training basement where we could test out our newfound brainlessness.

Photo by Great Escape. Here we are practicing our devious dance moves for MUNCHFEST 2007.

WELCOME TO THE DEVIL's PLAYGROUND!

Photo by Great Escape. At this point, we had teleported to The Devil's Playground where we were able to locate more brains and innards for our cause...

Photo by Great Escape. Here are some cameo-zombies having a field-day with each other in the Devil's Playground. Great Escape is doing a great job of micro-management here. Who says zombies are incapable of efficiency? ;-)

BLOOD RED-BERETS: WOULD YOU LIKE ANY THRILLER FRIES WITH THAT?
QUENCHING BRAINTHIRST AT THE EIFFEL TOWER IN NEW-PARIS...

Photo by Great Escape. At this stage in the "game", we had entered New Paris in order to find the Eiffel Tower. The French are always sitting ducks waiting to be consumed by Performance Art! In the foreground from left-right are the Second Front members: Great Escape and Tea Chenille. Yes, most of the pictures feature Great Escape this time and this is because he was in charge of taking the photos...lol!

Photo by Great Escape. If you look above, you will see that our friend Fau Ferdinand is one of the poor infected souls forced to make an appearance as a cameo-zombie for Second Front. If you look a little more closely, you will also noticed that we use teddy bears to lure in our prey...Mwua-hahahahahaha!

Photo by Great Escape. Here is another pic showing Great Escape faffing around with our zombie cameo-fodder.

THE CARNIVAL OF BRAINLESS CARNAGE CONTINUES IN THE LOCAL nOOb SANDBOX...

Photo by Great Escape. Here we have Second Front members Liz Solo and (yes, again) Great Escape playing in the sandbox when they should be on the hunt looking for fresh nOOb blOOd. At least they were dancing the authentic zombie dance since they were adhering to the measured grid-lines of the local venue. Context is everything when it comes to Second Front performances, even when one has to resort to line-dancing!

Photo by Great Escape. Either it is photographic propaganda or Great Escape appears to be the most successful with hunting down fresh meat! Perhaps, his grid-dance mentioned above was a way to focus his leftover virility and brainpower in a calculated effort to seduce more avatar bodies? Long Live The nOOb Flesh!

Photo by Great Escape. Some of the nOObs in the sandbox were genuinely afraid of us and tried to flee from this performance artist epidemic.

IRISH (S)CREAM, ANYONE? THE CARNAGE CLIMAXES IN A LAGGY DUBLIN NITECLUB...

Photo by Great Escape. The Monster Mash! Here we are in some packed (and therefore, laggy) bar in Dublin full of drunken Irish rowdies who were really cheery and pleasant (what's new?)...in fact, some of them were even brave enough to get close to our infectious (s)pores!

Photo by Great Escape. As you can see, there was plenty of tantalizing Irish nOObflesh to be had...YUMMY TREATS! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....BRAAAAAAYNNNNNZ! NEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDD BRRAAAAYYYYNZZZ!

Photo by Great Escape. Some of the more well-accomplished table-dancers managed to avoid our infectious grooves entirely and stick to their own non-sticky shimmy. I guess in a way, anytime after midnite is fair game to pretend you are undead!

Photo by Great Escape. Here is another view of the Irish dancefloor... Zombie Bloody Zombie! I will follow!

Photo by Great Escape. Here is a great aerial view of the Irish party bash!

SUICIDE-SAUCE: ENDPARTY IN RAUSCH's COMBAT SIM...

Photo by Great Escape. Finally, we decided to re-visit our old "haunt" (pardon the pun) - the Rausch combat sim where we once performed our Martyr Sauce intervention many (full) moons ago...

Photo by Great Escape. Left-Right: Tea Chenille, Great Escape, Man Michinaga, Liz Solo and Wirxli Flimflam.... MMMMMM! Some freshly rezzed brains just begging to be eaten in the safe zone of the combat sandbox! Hmmm..which side to eat first, the left side or the right of the brain? Oh well, all this sort of theoretical thinking was too lively for us so we figured it was best just dance our hearts out (in some cases, literally).

Photo by Great Escape. Here we are again dancing further and further into conceptual Goth oblivion...Hmmm...I guess we had too many brains for our bite, eh? Sigh!

Photo by Great Escape. Here is a good aerial pic showing you the kind of mayhem-sauce we were dipping into for dinner. We had a surplus of brains that day which might explain the epic length of our performance.

Photo by Great Escape. Finally, we decided to try some suicide sauce with our brains to enhance the flavourless flavour and sure enough, it was Second Jonestown without the snipers! I mean, we were in the safe part of the combat zone after all, right? Mass suicide is the best way to gain mass appeal so we figured we would try this method for a change..usually, we act like real martyrs and just re-enter the space but....uhhhh... it is all for the sake of art-stardom, right?

Photo by Great Escape. Most of us are dead at this point but you will notice Tran Spire (standing in the center with the turquoise hair) seems to be gaining weight from all this liquid gluttony. Oh wait, maybe it is the vodka that is keeping him alive and supersizing? He did die by the end of our performance, this much is guaranteed.

Photo by Great Escape. Here is a good shot of the bulk of us who have successfully opened Heaven's Gate to see yet another banal safe zone in a combat sim, sigh!

So much for the White Light! SIGH! Adios, performance art fans! Stay tuned for the up and coming "Zombie Attack: 29 Avatars Later" movie coming to your blog-theaters soon.