NMC Campus Observer

November VWEx

NMC Virtual Worlds : Nov 9, 2009 10:36am

What is art in a world made of art? Our next NMC Virtual World Expeditions will be exploring this concept on November 12th at 10:00 AM PST(check local time). This week we will be exploring NMC’s art museum, the Kristi Aho Museum of Art.

SLURL: Aho Museum of Art

From its earliest beginnings in Second Life, the NMC and the Aho have been committed to supporting the arts and artists in Second Life, and do so through purchases of art, art-focused events and programs, alliances with leading artists and arts organizations in Second Life, and fellowships to promising artists who need studio space or other forms of assistance.

The Aho Museum aspires to showcase the finest examples of art that can be found in Second Life. The resources of the museum include the museum and the gardens surrounding it on the NMC Campus as well as the satellite museums, performance spaces, and exterior galleries on the island of Ars Simulacra. The museum’s curator and guiding force is Tayzia Abattoir, a long-standing and much admired patron of the arts in Second Life. Tayzia will be joining us as a guest speaker on Thursday to talk generally about art in Second Life as well as to discuss the collection, which strives to provide an encyclopedic showcase of virtual art forms and includes sculptures, interactives, recreations of real life art, computer-mediated drawings and paintings, scripted and computer-generated art, virtual photography, and machinima.

The museum’s current structure, designed and created by our very own NMC architect Chris Holden, is the second home of the Aho Museum, and was built on the same spot within the NMC Campus as the museum’s first home. The museum’s new building features a one-of-a-kind design intended to provide a fitting setting for the artworks which fill and surround it. The galleries in the museum are supremely flexible, and provide a variety of ways in which to display, light, and experience the art of Second Life. The building itself is an interactive piece of art, and over time, the exterior walls slowly change in response to their environment.

We hope that you will join us and add to the discussion on what defines art in a virtual space like Second Life, as well to to share your own thoughts on the art community in Second Life.

Also, please keep in mind the following helpful tips:

• You’ll need a Second Life avatar account to join us. If you do not have one already, please feel free to use our customized registration portal at http://sl.nmc.org/join/. Once you register, you’ll log in at our NMC Orientation sim which will have lots of information to get you started.
• Make sure that you have voice chat enabled and are able to hear before the event starts. Voice will be the preferred method for our speakers, though you are more than welcome to discuss and ask questions directly in the chat channel. If you are new to SL voice, please see these handy guides to get you started.
  • Voice Mentors: Getting Started with Voice
  • Can you hear me now? 7 VOICE CHAT Video Tutorials!
• Be an early bird! The expedition “sets sail” promptly at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (check local time) and we’d hate to have anyone miss the boat due to avoidable technical issues.
• Share your photos! If you are planning to take pictures, tag them in flickr with “VWEx” so that we can all find them easily!
• It is a shame to end the discussion simply because time runs out! Please feel free to continue sharing, learning, and teaching via the comments on this blog entry and the follow-up summary, in case you miss the session.

Originally published at NMC Virtual Worlds

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