VB24 Performance Document

In 2011 VBCO/Multiverse has chosen to fly beyond the nest of Second Life
http://vaneeesa.com/2011/01/06/vbcomultiverse-2011/

The February stop on our odyssey, VB24 – Multiverse
http://vaneeesa.com/2010/12/29/previz-vb24-multiverse/

is an ambitious multigrid re-envisioning of our ill-fated VB22 / Burn2 performance
http://vaneeesa.com/2010/10/05/previz-vb22/

In 3 identical architectures
on 3 distinct grids
we simultaneously occupy 3 parallel homes on 3 parallel worlds and enjoy home cookin at
Biscuit Peninsula, VB/CO, InWorldz
Biscuit Bay, An Li, Second Life
Biscuit Beach, Waterworld2, OS Grid

VB24 – Multiverse

Saturday, 12 February 2011
8-10pm GMT
InWorldz – OS Grid – Second Life

Wardrobe: Denim Shorts & Knit Tops in a unique color for each grid (see the original VB22 Previz for an explanation of the Patrick Nagel “Duran Duran” colors)

InWorldz / Duran Duran Teal
Aero Bigboots
Esperanza Freese
Obveeus Lee
Trilby Minotaur
Vaneeesa Blaylock

Second Life / Duran Duran Night
Agnes Sharple
Heather Zapatero
Rose Borchovski
Tuesday Blackheart
Ush Underwood

OS Grid / Duran Duran Golden
Michelle Argus
Obveeus Lee
Pure Drop
Rosebud Tanglewood
Vaneeesa Blaylock

The “House with the Ocean View” has existed in Second Life since production for Burn2 back in October, and the House was export/imported to InWorldz in December, but there was no VBCO/Multiverse presence on OS Grid. I’m not aware of an “Open This End” or “Art & Artists’ Network” on OS Grid, in fact I really don’t know how to communicate with the residents, artists or otherwise, of OS Grid…

So I tried the only thing I do know how to do… go to the main OSG lounge and, uh, “spam” the local chat with my request.

See my “Rez Power” post for info on how much nicer/easier it is to Export/Import objects between grids that don’t include Second Life:
http://vaneeesa.com/2011/02/16/rez-power/

MA Rentals Showcase:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/MA%20Rentals%20Showcase/146/182/22

Biscuit Beach, Waterworld2:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Waterworld2/70/34/25

Michelle restarted the region for us, but to no avail. It was nearly impossible to get anyone in or out, or to see the peeps who made it over today. My overall sense is that OS Grid runs a bit better than InWorldz, but… not today! 🙂

Still, it was exciting to create an outpost on a new world (grid) and to connect to a few peeps there. InWorldz was my first “other grid” and that will always make it special. Still, IW governance and its economy are essentially “SL Lite.” If there’s less “DMCA-Your-Ass” sensibility there, it may mostly be due to the lower traffic levels. By contrast, OS Grid, like Reaction and other “EDU-ish” grids, has a more Wikipedia-like sharing-of-knowledge sensibility that is perhaps better aligned with VBCO/Multiverse’s (or at least with VB’s) ideology. I’m excited about future performances on OS Grid. Local Chat Shouting in the OSG Lounge isn’t bad, but I hope to discover even more effective ways to communicate with arts interested OSG Residents.

And before this all feels too much like dissin SL, the dramatically larger scale, activity, traffic, and development of SL must be appreciated. Perhaps SL predominantly has first-to-market advantage, or perhaps SL has the most viable model, either way, it should not be discounted. Nor should we forget to appreciate the many SL organizations like Builder’s Brewery, Rockcliffe University, Sensual Stoneworks, and others, who instead of giving you fish, teach you how to fish.

In the end I honestly do love all these worlds. Each is an extraordinary place. I feel so lucky to taste them. To dip my toes in their waters. To meet a few of the souls that inhabit them.

A message from Heather Zapatero:

What bullshit! I can’t believe they made me take off my nice dress and put on this crappy top and these butt-ugly shorts! As if it isn’t bad enough being told, “Welcome to the world – you have one week to live” they make me spend part of my lousy week IN THIS???

I’ll tell you one thing for sure, a lot of peeps think the worst thing about Vaneeesa is her stoopid noob hair, but it’s WAY her hideous taste in clothing! How does this woman get off calling herself an “artist” when she makes us wear crap like this??? Incredible! Disgusting.

Uggh. How humiliating. Please never show this picture to anyone.

And that was our adventure.

Three worlds.

Three homes.

Simultaneous, parallel living. Across many Grids. Across the Multiverse.

And what of these worlds and these lives? Are they real? Illusory? Self-delusory? Perhaps we have already asked this question too many times. Perhaps we will continue asking it until the end of time. Perhaps we should simply choose to live in places where we find some aspect of truth and humanity, wherever they may be.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

— Macbeth

Since my exile from Virtual Black Rock City and Second Life I have wandered, perhaps not so much in the desert, as in the void. People in worlds of every conception have lived real-fake-physical-virtual-fake-fake-real-virtual-real-fake-physical-fake-real-real lives far beyond anything I have known. Still, small as this journey may have been, it has indeed been a sinuously undulating and unpredictable string of dominoes appearing mirage-like each before it falls upon another.

As we planned for our 9-day virtual re-envisioning of Marina Abramovic half a year ago, I never imagined that any persons such as Heather Zapatero or Faith Reanimator would ever exist, yet they have come to be and have now altered the course of my being forever. I never imagined, indeed I dreaded, leaving my beloved Second Life. That Biscuit Bay would be joined in alternate dimensions by Biscuit Beach and Biscuit Peninsula was far beyond any contemplation.

For all the richness in all the souls in all these worlds, there is, none-the-less, still a sense of being lost. Of wandering in the void. I don’t know where one’s Facebook “being” or “soul” or “self” is…

When Heather’s week was over she cried.

When Faith’s week was over she was proud.

With VB24 we bid farewell to the “VB/CO” Region of InWorldz. The 4-month odyssey there passed in an instant. Wasn’t it only yesterday that Trilby was showing me Combray and discussing the opportunities there?

Trilby, Agnes… Heather, Faith… InWorldz, OS Grid… all these souls… all these worlds… if not the full spectrum of a life-giving sun… then at least, so many tiny lights….

— VB