CIRCUIT LA CORSE, MEEWALH SIM, SECOND LIFE MAINLAND, 9 August — Over the course of VB/CO’s history our performance works have covered a wide range of aesthetic and ideological territory, but it’s probably fair to say that they have moved generally from more scripted to more individualistic. In VB04 – Prism, for example, we all wore the same avatar and fit in a precise style program. By contrast in VB28 – The Seniors Project, we asked ourselves only to imagine a future self, and to bring that imagining together as a group in a specific time and place. In our most recent performance VB41 – Rock the Casbah, only the Air & Land campaigns were in our previz, the missing Sea battle was improvised on the spot by Laurel Leavitt and Yordie Sands.
In parallel to the performance evolution at VB/CO has been the content evolution at the iRez Virtual Salon. Conceived 3 years ago as a documentation space for performance works, iRez has become a work in its own right, exploring Avatars and Identity in our 21st Virtual Century. Among many topics we’ve considered civil rights and human rights as they relate to avatars and pseudonymous identity. We’ve considered the Nymwars and the sometimes oppressive regimes of virtual nation-states like Facebook and Google+.
Of course a virtual nation-state like Google denying an Avatar their civil or human rights is not a violation of the same magnitude as a State or a Culture denying a physical person their rights. I am painfully aware that real people have been murdered because of their sexual orientation, raped and mutilated because of their gender, denied access to a living wage because their ethnicity, shamed because of their body image, forgotten because of their age, and ignored because of their ableness. Even though discrimination against pseudonymous identities does not rise to the same level, what I do believe is that it is, in kind, the same sort of event. It is still declaring some group “better,” and some group “less,” it is still declaring some class of people as “other.”
I can think of no better way to have a voice than to speak up, no better way to be seen than to rise up, no better way to celebrate the diversity of who-all we are and can be, than an Avatar Pride Parade.
For VB37 – Sitting is the New Smoking, we mapped out a 5k walking course through 21 regions of the Second Life Mainland, and with a Start/Finish line at Circuit La Corse. Since we already have this wonderful, exactly 5km course mapped out, I propose a 2 lap or 10k pride walk. The entire course only has a single “turn” you have to make, and this time we’ll station someone there to make sure walkers don’t go the wrong way! 😀
VB42 – Avatar Pride Parade
Saturday 12 January 2013
Saturday 5 January 2013
Saturday 29 September 2012
Saturday 8 September 2012
10am PDT / SLT
1pm EDT
17:00 GMT
18:00 BST
19:00 CEST
Sunday 13 January 2013
Sunday 6 January 2013
Sunday 20 September 2012
Sunday 9 September 2012
01:00 HKT
03:00 AEST
Come as the avatar you are… or any other avatar you’d like to be for the day…
R E L A T E D . M A T E R I A L S
• iRez / Civil Rights Home Page
• iRez / Identity Home Page
• VB04 – Prism
• VB28 – The Seniors Project
• VB37 – Sitting is the New Smoking
• VB41 – Rock the Casbah
Agnes Sharple
Botgirl Questi
Bumblebee (Wendz Tempest)
Canary Beck
Carissa Arthurine Somerset
Eva Marie
Fuschia Nightfire
George Coghill
Ironyca Lee
Jeremy Owen Turner
Joseph DeLappe
Kathleen Cool
Katie Vizenor
Krista Hoefle
Kristine Schomaker
Lizzie Gudkov
Aero Bigboots
RMarie Beedit
Marmaduke Arado
Isabella Medici
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nathan Shafer
Pixel Reanimator
Ravanel Griffon
Scarlett Luv
Strawberry Singh
Tabitha Raincloud
Toni Tyldesley
Trilby Minotaur
Vanessa Blaylock
Xue Faith
Yordie Sands
Erm… ok. Just one question, err… erm… do I have to become gay or somethin? hehe
haha, no no, it’s not a “GAY Pride” parade… it’s an “AVATAR Pride” parade…
We’re celebrating our identity as avatars… as sexy human avatars… as funky artist avatars… as avatars in wheelchairs… as avatars with wide hips… as avatars that look like sticks… as Furry avatars… as Tiny Avatars…
Avatars are real people… avatars are intelligent beings… we are celebrating our many identities!
i was just being silly. i can’t wait to pick my quirkiness. hehehehe
On thing seriously though, I would love to try to reach out to as many different communities as we can… I hope I can get some peeps from the SL/RL group Gimp Girl, many of whom are in virtual wheelchairs to join us… we should totally reach out to Furry & Tiny communities… and it’d be great if YOU want to go poke around your old Geisha stomping grounds and see if you can drag a few peeps in to join us! 🙂
I’ll see what I can come up with, Vanessa.
I’ve reread the article and enjoyed the girls with the great boobies again. /me giggles.
My connections with the geisha houses, sadly, have gone unattended for too long. And while I still have friends there, I’m afraid that the commitment required would to allow me to ask them to join might be too great at the present time. I’ll visit with friends at okiyas on Little Yoshiwara and Hosoi Ichiba, and if there are enough old friends I’ll try to get something going.
Otherwise, I feel I represent women adventurers to some extent. We could each wear our favorite adventuring outfits… perhaps. I think women are far more vulnerable in real life when they venture out into the wild. Here in Second Life, we enjoy a special freedom and safety that we can never fully achieve in real life. What do you think of this idea? That I try to gather some women adventurers?
Love it!
Yay!
Ok, I’ll go for it then. Women adventurers in second life. i can really get behind this. btw, it’s skeery for women to hike off into the mountains in real life. sure, there are bears but there’s always the danger of much worse.
yessy
Kathleen’s written about how The Salon was such a potent place for women… and perhaps VR can be that today…
Anyway, the Avatar Pride Parade will be great no matter who shows up… but I do think it’ll be nice to try to include whoever we can
Okie dokie, I’m chekcing in. Are we on for tommorrow? I’ve bot my dancing shoes and I’m ready to roll if we are a go.
Thanks so much for asking Yordie — as you were kind enough to notice elsewhere, Our Young Miss Vaneeesa has been somewhat MIA with the start of the new academic year.
Avatar Pride Parade would be a great event even if it was just the 2 of us walking, but I think it’s worthy of rallying a bit larger group, which YMV (Young Miss Vaneeesa) has, thus far, failed to do.
Therefore, THE AVATAR PRIDE PARADE IS RESCHEDULED TO SATURDAY 29 SEPTEMBER @ 10am SLT / 17:00 GMT/UTC
I may be on the road on the 29th but if I’m near an internet connection, I’ll hop on an march my avie right up the center of the parade route.
Oh gosh Yordie – so sorry! 🙁
Uggh – it’s always something.
Did you move already? Or is that part of it?
Thanks for everything Yordie. And most of all, thanks for being Yordie! 😀
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
I’ll send you a message in FB and explain the status.
oooooooh… we like “Status Updates!” 😀
Activity is already picking up at the Start / Finish line in Circuit La Course!
[caption id="attachment_12862" align="alignnone" width="540"]
Xue opened a small satellite gallery, “Gallery Xue / Circuit La Course” at the Start / Finish line. She’s going to pass out free water so Avatar Pride walkers don’t get dehydrated[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12863" align="alignnone" width="540"]
Pixel and Gina came by to check out the new gallery and the Avatar Pride Parade route. They’re not sure Xue’s water station will be enough and suggested seeding rain clouds![/caption]