Transmute

The Transmute exhibition, curated by Camille Turner, features two “mixed reality” projects that explore the economic and cultural intersection of SL and the bio-world. The works are by artists Lynne Heller and duo Scott Kildall and Victoria Scott.

No Matter by Scott Kildall and Victoria Scott is an installation that exposes differences in value of the material and immaterial worlds. SL builders were commissioned to create “imaginary objects” that appear in myth, literature, philosophical riddles and popular culture. Examples include: Pandora’s Box, The Holy Grail and Schrödinger’s Cat. The No Matter website profiles the builders along with their hourly wage and the cost of each object. Paid in Linden dollars, builders received market value payment of about $1.50 to $12.00 for their objects when translated into real currency, a fraction of what they would have been paid in the physical world. Proprietary data was then extracted from the objects so they could be smuggled out of SL and translated into real-world paper sculptures. The resulting objects are displayed in the gallery along with a video of their virtual counterparts.

Dancing With Myself by Lynne Heller is part of an ongoing journey with her avatar Nar Duell. In this experimental work, Lynne, a former dancer, explores the social phenomenon of dance as a common activity in SL. This performative installation inverts the usual relationship between the maker and her avatar. Nar is experienced as a person-sized projection in the space rather than a small object on the screen. Instead of the user, seated passively, jacking into SL through a series of mouse-clicks, Lynne’s whole body interfaces with the virtual world. Programmed to perform a random sequence of movements, Nar leads the dance and Lynne follows.