SL Retrospective - "Nature"

Everything Popular is Wrong

This is an experimental machinima exploring some new ideas I am working with concerning culture and commodity. This video is an excerpt from a solo performance/installation that took place at Eastern Edge Art Gallery, St. John's and on Odyssey Island, Second Life - presented as part of the Eastern Edge Art Marathon, August 2009.

Sound score: PWRHM by Humming Pera/Tina Pearson, performed by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.

Text by Oscar Wilde, Liz Solo and local St. John's events listings.

This is Distorted

I am very proud to say the new punk-rock-comedy-hour This is Distorted premiered at this year's Rock Can Roll Music and Media Festival.

This is Distorted is an ongoing multi-media series by Liz Solo, Sherri Levesque, Steve Abbott, Glenn Tizzard, Mike Kean and Anthony Brenton. The first episodes took place September 25 and 26th, 2009 live at Distortion. Photographer Jai Me - who also acted as volunteer projectionist for the two live performances - snapped some great pics from the booth.

At the beginning of the show, feeling insecure about being in front of so many people, the troupe covered the audience in sheets. We gave them flashlights and asked them to document what happened underneath the sheet with cell phone cameras.






Here Liz Solo, Steve Abbott, Sherri Levesque and Newf, the baby harp seal, work on a scene from "The Great Newfoundland Play".



Newf, the baby harp seal, delivers his premiere stand-up performance, commenting on the clubbing scene in the city, and, among other subjects, his conspiracy theory that the weed shortage on George Street is directly related to Danny Williams' hoarding problem.



Sherri delivering an hilarious stand-up routine on the trials of being single and her unconventional solutions.



Liz, Steve and Mike rocking out at the end with "Evil Drunks" by Dogmeat BBQ while Sherri rocks out with hula hoop.

Second Front perform at Eyebeam/Release "Avvie Road"

The Second Front Performance Art Collective have just released our second DVD of machinima from our latest performance work. We celebrated with a performance at the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center.



Pictured above - Lizsolo inside the Crypt as Tut's Mummy Zombie with Fau Ferdinand and Tran Spire also as mummies. The next picture is lizsolo as Tron, Guardian of the Crypt. Images taken in performance on Friday October 9, 2009. THE CRYPT was performed simultaneously live at the Eyebeam Center in NY, New York and at the Eyebeam sim in Second Life as part of Eyebeam's Second Life Performance Night.

Explorers discovered the crypt deep inside of Second Life - a crypt filled with artifacts! As Tron it was my role to protect the sacred treasures from plunder. After a fierce battle with Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider and other explorers I/Tron was defeated.




Pictured below - Man Michinaga as Tomb Raider taking over the crypt and Bibbe Oh as a Zombified explorer.




After the performance we met up on the roof of the temple to dance and to celebrate the release of our second DVD - Avvie Road. Find out more on the Second Front Homepage.

/hug Instructional Video

It has been my pleasure over the last months to be collaborating with Ars Virtua members and others on the Third Faction /hug Project.

This video was created for the gallery presentation /hug opened last month at the Laguna Art Museum. This installation, a part of the show WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon - runs until October 11, 2009. The video was shot and edited by me, with script by Thomas Asmuth and featuring appearances by many /hug members.

about /hug
/hug is a project of The Third Faction Collective. The Third Faction is an affiliation of geographically dispersed entities with a collective interest in exposing binary systems in synthetic environments via in-world performances, the collective operates simultaneously across various platforms including World of Warcraft and Second Life.

Third Faction members question the politics, allegiances, and narrative conventions of Synthetic Worlds. the cross-factional collective officially formed in World of Warcraft on valentine’s day 2008 in a self-declared temporary autonomous zone.
see also www.thirdfaction.org

about /hug installation:
/hug” [ or slashhug] is a Third Faction project which has established a non governmental aid organization in World of Warcraft. This exhibit is a mixed reality installation that demonstrates the work of the /hug collective and is inspired in part by the Red Cross. This installation encourages viewer interaction in carrying out Non Governmental Organization of Azeroth missions via hands-on participation.

The picture below was taken remotely by Sliz (my WoW avvie), participating in the opening live from St. John's, Newfoundland via World of Warcraft and ustream, along with Bowwtoxx, coming from Australia, and other /huggers present both inside of World of Warcraft and live at the Laguna Art Museum. The installtion, which features demonstrations of missions and video and printed information on the work of /hug, is part of the WoW Emergent Media Phenomenon show, currently installed at Laguna Art Museum, curated by Grace Kook-Anderson. See more images from the project on the /Hug Flickr Page

Kelowna Rocks

This wicked photo is by Kelowna based photographer (and great guy) Paul Lewenden. (Paul was also indispensable during the technical set-up of the Alternator installation - see next post)

So this is Liz Solo playing for bunny and Silverado Socrates with horsehead - in a limo, of course.

My trip to Kelowna was totally great. Jen Pickering - gallery director of the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art- was a wonderful host and arranged many exciting outings and workshops during my stay out West. One of the events was a road trip, in a limo, through the mountains and deserts of the Okanagan. A video of this trip - "Great Friday" - is coming soon from the Alternator folks. Can't wait. I am halfway through writing a song called "Kelowna Rocks" and thinking about another new song called "Bunny in a Limo".

Live Home Alien Birth

These photos are from the performance of "Live Home Alien Birth" that took place at the Alternator Centre for the Contemporary Arts in Kelowna B.C. in April 2009. Performance by Second Front and the Avatar Orchestra metaverse. Much more documentation from this project coming soon. These photos by the amazing Bibbe Hansen of the Second Front