Second Life and Machinima – Eastern Bloc
- Location: Eastern Bloc, Montreal, QC
- Date: January 23rd, 30th, & February 6th, 2016
- Duration: 3 days
- Instructors: Skawennati, Darian Jacobs, Erica Perreault
Overview: A three-day workshop held at Eastern Bloc where participants learned the basics of Second Life and machinima production. Three groups of participants used the skills they learned to create their own short machinima movies.
Otherworldly Nature Documentary. 2016.
by Anna Eyler & Nicolas Laointe
This project functions as a formal exploration of the Second Life environment framed as an otherworldly nature documentary.
The Gift. 2016.
by Eli Larin
Based on “The Gift,” a Star Trek Voyager episode, this short Second Life video takes place on the starship Voyager, in its jail cell. Seven of Nine, a Borg who’s just been disconnected from her collective, tries to come to terms with her new freedom. Captain Janeway helps her by convincing her of the strength to be found in individuality and Seven’s new collective; the human race.
160cm tatoué dans Second Life
par Christelle Proulx
160 cm tatoué dans Second Life est une tentative de reproduction du vidéo documentant la performance intitulée 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People mise en place par l’artiste Santiago Sierra en 2000 à El Gallo Arte Contemporáneo in Salamanca en Espagne. Il s’agit d’une performance pour laquelle Sierra a payé quatre prostituées héroïnomanes pour se faire tatouer une ligne dans le dos dans un espace d’exposition. L’artiste l’explique ainsi : « Four prosititutes addicted to heroin were hired for the price of a shot of heroin to give their consent to be tattooed. Normally they charge 2,000 or 3,000 pesetas, between 15 and 17 dollars, for fellatio, while the price of a shot of heroin is around 12,000 pesetas, about 67 dollars. »[1] Selon l’artiste, ce type de performance cherche à confronter les problématiques du travail et des minorités dans une économie capitaliste mondiale. En intégrant ces formes d’exploitation dans le milieu de l’art, Sierra travaille sur les frontières de l’éthique.
La re-performance dans Second Life a d’abord cherché à mettre de l’avant son statut de reproduction en utilisant une capture d’écran de la première image de la vidéo originale disponible sur YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7P9YMwIfxc). Le machinima se termine également sur une reproduction de la photographie iconique de la performance. Reperformer ce projet controversé dans Second Life permet de pointer différentes interrogations sur l’hypersexualisation, les genres, le marché capitaliste, les fantasmes et la marginalité dans la plate-forme Second Life.
[1] http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sierra-160-cm-line-tattooed-on-4-people-el-gallo-arte-contemporaneo-salamanca-spain-t11852/text-summary
On Day 1 participants focused on learning the basics in Second Life, how to navigate the virtual environment, customize their avatars, communicate with others in-world and how to build 3D objects. View our blog entry about Day 1.
Days 2 & 3 were devoted to creating their machinimas. Participants were asked to choose a simple scene from a movie or music video to then recreate and film within Second Life. On Day 2, participants shared with the group their chosen idea for their machinima and then began creating the characters and sets needed. View our blog entry about Day 2.
On Day 3, participants used screen capture software to film the scenes within Second Life and then proceeded to edit their screen captures into a Machinima using film editing software. View our blog entry about Day 3.
We would like to give a shout-out to our fantastic participants for their hard work and dedication. Please take the time to view their works above.