Second Front

In a previous mission (see Grand Theft Avatar Post) Second Front stormed the Linden Treasury in Second Life and relieved the vault of millions of Linden dollars. Now Bibbi Oh, Man Michinaga, Fau Ferdinand and lizsolo Mathilde arrive on Odyssey Island by stolen helicopter (pictures not available) to celebrate their new found fortune.

All the beautiful money is laid out in a big pile and then we dance..

and dance..

Until one among us grows silent and finally speaks - admonishing us - “What have you done? You have become greedy and corrupt”, says the wise Old Hippie.

Hmmm. Yes. So what to do?

As the wise Old Hippie suggests - “Burn the Money”! It is the only answer.

And so we build the pyre high.

and as all the beautiful money burns..

we dance..

and dance…

and dance…

Until the sky grows black with smoke.

Later, when the smoke has dissipated and the people have gone we have only question left for the Old Hippie - “Now what?”

Second Front built a Large Hardon Collider with the intention of using it. We got together in October at the GOGBOT Steampunk Festival for the First Experiment.

View of the Large Hardon Collider:


Man Michinaga prepares the team to activate the device.

Fau Ferdinand stands to the ready.

Liz Solo begins to program the device for ignition.

Man gives the word and the Large Hardon Collider powers up.

Bibbe Oh, Tran Spire and Great Escape take their place as particles inside of the device and prepare for their journey around the Collider.


The Collider in action:




The device at maximum power, something is happening!



Behold! A baby Black Hole is born!

It is Great Escape, transformed!



Creating a Black Hole was only one the mysteries of the Metaverse we unravelled that day. Check out this cake! (and Olga Wunderlich as mermaid!)

This September Man Michinaga went to Skopje, Macedonia as part of the UPGRADE! biennial world gathering of New Media artists. He presented a live performance of “The Hansen-Ono Piano Method”, (an extension of Al Hansen’s historic FLUXUS work “Yoko Ono Piano Drop”). lizsolo was present in SL and sat at the piano as Man Michinaga played, until, inevitably, she was crushed. The performance was also projected large in RL in Skopje. See also Man Michinaga’s Post about this event. Here are a few images from SL before the crash:

lizsolo Mathilde and Fau Ferdinand dance between realities and await visitors to Second Front’s Virtual Identity Theft installation at SF Camerawork Gallery in San Francisco and simultaneously at the in-world installation in Second Life. (see also Virtual Identity Theft post)

12:36] : heh
[12:38]Fau Ferdinand: if anybody is sitting at the booth
[12:38]Fau Ferdinand: we are here
[12:38] Fau Ferdinand: talk to us

[12:38] lizsolo Mathilde: yes please
[12:38] Fau Ferdinand: prove that you are real
[12:38] lizsolo Mathilde: talk to us
[12:38] Fau Ferdinand: we know we are

[12:38] Fau Ferdinand: what about you ?
[12:39] Fau Ferdinand: we are the real ghost in that machine
[12:39] Fau Ferdinand: or screen
[12:39] Fau Ferdinand: talk to us

[12:40] lizsolo Mathilde: oooooooooooooo’
[12:40] Fau Ferdinand: we’d like to know

[12:40] Fau Ferdinand: what makes you tick
[12:40] lizsolo Mathilde: who you are
[12:40] Fau Ferdinand: and what you had for breakfast
[12:41] Fau Ferdinand: what are you wearing
[12:41] Fau Ferdinand: what do you read
[12:42] Fau Ferdinand: what brought you here
[12:42] lizsolo Mathilde: do you listen to music?
[12:42] lizsolo Mathilde: what kind?
[12:42] lizsolo Mathilde: are you maried?
[12:42] lizsolo Mathilde: have children?
[12:42] lizsolo Mathilde: what is your favorite colour
[12:42] Fau Ferdinand: don’t get us wrong
[12:42] Fau Ferdinand: we’ll answer your questions
[12:43] lizsolo Mathilde: yes
[12:43] lizsolo Mathilde: anything you wantto know
[12:44] Fau Ferdinand: see ?
[12:44] lizsolo Mathilde: nything?
[12:44] Fau Ferdinand: we’re talking to our imaginary friends

[12:45] Fau Ferdinand: those on the other side of the screen

[12:45] Fau Ferdinand: don’t really exist
[12:45] Fau Ferdinand: all that is real is in here

[12:45] Fau Ferdinand: on our side of the screen
[12:46] lizsolo Mathilde: Yes, well this is quite obvious
[12:46] lizsolo Mathilde: I don’t believe in the other side
[12:46] Fau Ferdinand: only avatars and cats are real
[12:46] Fau Ferdinand: the rest
[12:47] Fau Ferdinand: are just myths
[12:47] lizsolo Mathilde: yes
[12:47] lizsolo Mathilde: not real
[12:47] lizsolo Mathilde: just stories
[12:47] Fau Ferdinand: memes though
[12:47] lizsolo Mathilde:
[12:48] Fau Ferdinand: some avatars believe they have other lives

[12:48] Fau Ferdinand: not as good as ours
[12:48] lizsolo Mathilde: It is an illusion, just a dream that seems real
[12:49] Fau Ferdinand: nightmare actually
[12:49] Fau Ferdinand: an avatar that misbehaves

[12:50] Fau Ferdinand: get banned and supposdly chucked into the other side of the screen hell
[12:50] lizsolo Mathilde: Oh what a nightmare that must be!!
[12:51] Fau Ferdinand: luckily
[12:51] Fau Ferdinand: we know better than that
[12:51] Fau Ferdinand: so we don’t live in fear
[12:52] Fau Ferdinand: some avatars can get so supersticious at times

[12:52] Fau Ferdinand: but though I can’t spell
[12:53] Fau Ferdinandu: I know better
[12:53] lizsolo Mathilde: hahaha
[12:53] lizsolo Mathilde: yes I too know better
[12:54] Fau Ferdinand: now where is our lady of the desert ?
[12:54] lizsolo Mathilde: I do not know.
[12:54] lizsolo Mathilde: Perhaps lost in the desert

[12:55] Fau Ferdinand: or played russian roullette with the wrong guys
[12:55] lizsolo Mathilde: I hope that is not the case
[12:55] lizsolo Mathilde: But our lady of the desert is very adveturous
[12:55] Fau Ferdinand: the world is falling to pieces
[12:55] lizsolo Mathilde: adventurous
[12:56] lizsolo Mathilde: poor world
[12:56] Fau Ferdinand: and all we have for keeping it together
is baloons
[12:57] Fau Ferdinand: not much eh ?
[12:57] Fau Ferdinand: who knows
[12:58] Fau Ferdinand: we might pull it through
[12:58] Fau Ferdinand: get some glue
[12:58] Fau Ferdinand: naa
[12:59] You: gaffer tape
[12:59] lizsolo Mathilde: Gaffer Tape is an amazing material
[12:59] Fau Ferdinand: yeah
[12:59] lizsolo Mathilde: could possibly hold th whole world together if you had enough of it
[12:59] Fau Ferdinand: excatly
[12:59] Fau Ferdinand: let it all fall to pieces
[13:00] Fau Ferdinand: we’ll gaffer humpty together again
[13:00] lizsolo Mathilde: yes we will
[13:00] lizsolo Mathilde: we know how

[13:02] Fau Ferdinand: times up
[13:02] Fau Ferdinand: times up times up times up

[13:02] Fau Ferdinand: all hail the great shamalama ding dong
[13:03] lizsolo Mathilde: shamalama ding song

Here are a few images from the SF Camerawork opening with Gazira Babeli, Tran Spire, Great Escape, Man Michinaga, Fau Ferdinand, Bibbe Oh and lizsolo Mathilde:

Welcome installation artist fans!

On this day, Second Front unveils its first-ever gallery installation at SF Camerawork (in San Francisco) called Virtual Identity Theft.

Chuck Mobley, the curator of the show, is the first lost soul. Have you seen him? 

Come visit the installation in-world (running until November 1st).

Howzit goin’, all purveyors of Pixels…

Patrick/Man here.  For those of you who don’t know I’ve been a sitting critic at Jack The Pelican Gallery for the past couple months with their “Brooklyn is Watching” region on Popcha.  However, our friend from Brooklyn, James Kalm (another regular at BiW) has given a great review of the project in the Brooklyn Rail.  He especially loved being “dry humped” by Gaz’ “Second Soup”…

Glad to oblige, James…. Glad to oblige.

Hey, Virtual Performance Fans

(and drinkers of grappa)
On the 13th of September, I went to Skopje, Macedonia as part of the UPGRADE! biennial world gathering of New Media artists, representing the Second Life node.

For this event, I did a live performance of “The Hansen-Ono Piano Method”, which is an extension of Al Hansen’s historic FLUXUS work “Yoko Ono Piano Drop”.  In this action, my avatar (Man Michinaga) sits at the piano, while rains of pianos, anvils, sheep, and other whatnot rain upon me with cacaphanous results.

My schedule had been run amok by rain, as it was an outdoor space.

However, at 10:30, we had a shot of Grappa, plugged in, and decided to do it.  Lizsolo was online, joined me, waved to the crowd, and joined me at the piano.

The image you see is from the site; we had about 100 or so people at the location, with projection and live EJ/VJing happening that night, being run in part by our Paris friends Karol and Toto Donat.

However, the screen went live, and I set loose torrents of Mario snow as Man sat calmly at the piano.  The crowd cheered.  The pianos began falling; woo hoo!  Lastly, I was wearing Gaz’hat, and the question marks rained from the sky.  All was well.

The show was ended at about 10 minutes by hitting the power switch, and I announced that I had crashed the sim.  This was actually closer to the truth, as when I relogged in later, my sim manager at Columbia, had told me I had brought my sim to a screeching halt. As Gazira would say, “Ahahahah!”

The other funny thing is that after performaing a piece “In the Spirit of Fluxus”, I had fallen asleep by mistake, and at 4 AM, my old friend Larry Miller of FLUXUS called to see what I was up to.  Preternaturally strange.

I got to the airport by the grace of FLUXUS.  Also, thanks to Bibbe OH (Hansen) for her input on this piece.

I’ll upload images soon.

In Second Life, Lynden Labs owns huge amounts of land, makes their own laws and mints their own currency. They are, in effect, a nation-state. On April 14th, 2008, Second Front raided the Lynden Treasury. We plotted, we attacked and we freed the Lynden Dollars. Presented as a live performance at a panel discussion hosted at the San Francisco Art Institute, we impersonated the panelists to disguise our true identities in this historic raid.

View the video Grand Theft Avatar event by following this link to bliptv:
Grand Theft Avatar

Ze Moo invited Second Front to the Amsterdam Sim to comment the smoking ban in Amsterdam cafes and public spaces. So, what to do, what to do? Would we smoke each other? Could we smoke ourselves? It was Fau Ferdinand and Man Michinaga, late one night in the SF Laboratory, who eventually came up with the brilliant plan! A race through Amsterdam, each of us driving our own specially modified, personally customized, fully loaded, Iron Lung Machines! lizsolo’s alien-themed “Lungster” is pictured above, created by Man Michiniga.

Second Front Iron Lung Races!
photos by Great Escape and lizsolo Mathilde

At the Starting Line

Great Escape takes an early lead.

Smoking makes you high! Bibbe Oh and Gazira Babeli take to the sky.

Smoke Break! Gazira, Bibbe, Fau Ferdinand and lizsolo stop for a puff.

lizsolo, Great Escape and Man Michinaga take another smoke break.

With so many smoke breaks and combustible distractions the race never really ended. Though there was no clear “winner” of the Iron Lung Races in this, the first SF Sports event, we smoked Amsterdam.

Welcome to the Second Front Blog 2.0.

Second Front are busy kicking it into high gear with a full slate of performances and presentations scheduled for the Fall. To prepare for the upcoming season of mayhem the Second Front took some time to relax. We let our inner Gods out and visited Olympus…

Here Gazira Babeli, Medusa Queen, sits in the Waiting Room of the Gods:

Bibbe Oh (Calypso, Goddess of Skanking, Reggae and good weed), Fau Ferdinand (Medusa) and lizsolo Mathilde (half-sister of Goddess Persephone) arrive and also take a seat in the waiting Room of the Gods, with mysterious observer in the background (mysterious observer turns out to be friend - Window Oh).

Tran Spire was so excited he could not sit down.

We reminisced about the last time we were here, visiting Olympus together, with Man Michinaga and Great Escape. This photo was taken before lizsolo found her perfect Goddess dress. Great Escape’s wingspan as Icarus was so impressive.

And Man Michinaga’s God persona, Prometheus, was an absolute hit with the ladies:

Here we are gathering around the flame preparing for the Main Event. Yes, there is really only one reason to visit Olympus at this time of year - to play the Gods’ favorite game - PONG.

Gazira at the flame:

A great action shot of Fau Ferdinand taking a run at the flame:

PONG! Bibbe Oh is Ponged and takes flight:

PONG!

Second Front’s time playing Pong at the site of OlymPong was documented on machinima. View the video on Blip TV at the link below.

Pong on Blip Tv

Here are the Gods on the roof of the OlymPong Building in beautiful downtown Olympus. After we had been sufficiently Ponged we erected images of ourselves to admire, another favorite pass-time of the Gods.

Stay Tuned for post about Second Front’s Smoking Races in Amsterdam! Coming up..