Mix a bunch of 100% Chinese, some Cantonese, some half-castes, some Italians and some foreigners; place them on the most postmodern theatrical stage in the heart of ancient historical Torino, add a bit of virtuality, some superheroes and some ‘yan ban xi’ outmoded costumes and TURN ON THE FOOTLIGHTS!…

November 7, 2009, A rainy night in the Northwest of Italy
Audience: ‘RMBCity Opera’ is the only performance repeating twice in Artissima theatre program…it must be quite interesting, tough very bizarre…
RMB City: we must test the CCTV model on the Astra Theatre stage…where the bloody hell are Superman and Superwoman?…
Voice-off: …having some pizza in the nearby…
Neo: I’ve taken the red pill, Trinity, and now I think I’ve stepped out of the glass into a new vivid reality where people eat REAL food (mainly ‘spaghetti’ and ‘pizza’) and build REAL houses and monuments…
Audience: What’s this weird ballet about? They look like robots in old-fashioned military costumes…
RMB City (with trained voice): “Perhaps it was a mad dislocation of the times and the body: revolution and ballet, revolutionary model and consumption – these taught the toe love and hate”
Voice-off:…China Tracy is backstage trying to seduce some lighting technicians! Somebody go and get her!!!
Cao Fei: Here it goes again: the snobby lunatic is unleashed…no way to stop her now! Batman, go and get her with your superpower!
Voice-off: …also having some pizza in the nearby…
Cao Fei: :-@!This world is a mess! Let’s close the doors, turn off the lights and login to SL!
Audience: Bravo!
…Neo: “Whoa. Déjà vu.”

China Tracy and Gianna Yebut’s photos from Artissima Art Fair and ‘RMB City Opera’, Turin, Nov 2009

What happens when a historical and ancient town in the northwest of Italy meets with China Tracy’s virtual city?

How does an empty stage look like before the frantic and mad show of an Art Fair begins?

Have a look at these pictures of our ‘Voyage to Italy’…

RL Torino

empty 'stage'

the show begins...

Italians enjoy 'Live in RMB City'

...Chinese, too!

'RMB City Opera'

Opening next May 2010 Shanghai Expo is expected to be one of the major social, cultural and political Chinese appointments of the last few years, if only for the huge sums of money poured into the event and its symbolical significance as the first international expo taking place in a developing Country.

Shanghai Expo will become a platform of exchanges and discussions on social and urban issues such as the environment, pollution, ecology, cultural heritage, Chinese customs, science and technology and the remodeling of communities in the city.

To what extent these RL values can be applied to a virtual environment? Are these issues somehow also relevant in SL and RMB City in the specific?
On-line worlds are not threatened by pollution and ecological alarm, they’re also dispensed with the increasing problem of traffic and lacking of livable places.

Nonetheless, virtual worlds, and RMB City amongst them, are based on an aggregate of people and some shared values, interests and dreams.
The theme of Expo 2010 ‘BETTER CITY, BETTER LIFE‘ shares the same implicit utopian urge incidental to any real and virtual society. In Shanghai as well as in RMB City history and the past blend with progress and the future, ancient values and traditions find their way amongst modern models and new standards of life and Chinese paradigms overlap cosmopolitan issues.

The funny mascot of Shanghai Expo, ‘Haibao’, reminds the Chinese character for ‘people’ (人)(http://www.easytourchina.com/china-specials/emblem-mascot-of-shanghai-expo.htm) and our virtual city is ‘People’s City’, a city built on and made of any individual contributions, made of persons and their dreams.
The only hope we have for a better world is to use our imagination to invent a new one.

Your City is Mine
My City is Yours

“There are no nationalities or borders here; we are all world citizens in a future world where everyone lives his second life and creates his own values.” — China Tracy (RMB City Citizenship Announcement: http://rmbcity.com/community/)

In view of the upcoming celebrations for the 60th Anniversary of the Republic of China, I came to think about Patriotism and national values.
The intrinsic meaning of celebrating anniversaries resides specifically in its emotional and ritual significance of keeping a community together through historical memory and common beliefs.

Quite often, though, the original importance of a specific anniversary gets lost in the flow of time, and what is left is merely a common sense of affiliation to some settled ideas, such as traditional customs or religious celebrations (with the feeling that the more these celebrations lose track with their original significance, the more they become a simple excuse to have some extra holidays!).
But despite this loss in meaning, they still keep their original sense of keeping the community together and in this way they are still to be considered an important occasion of mass aggregation and power.

RMB City saint patron

What I’m wondering now is whether or not on-line communities undergo this same patriotic and national processes so typical in any RL societies.
I am still very doubtful about this subject, but I have the feeling that the crucial elements inspiring patriotic and national values are completely lacking in the virtual space (thankfully or not): the sense of affiliation to a common lineage, tribe, nation, state, religion, customs and traditions doesn’t belong to the vast, multi-cultural, intra-national and heterogeneous ocean of the net.
On-line communities and virtual worlds belong more to the ‘non-space’ of infinite possibilities, to that UTOPIA of chances and exchanges that doesn’t define any specific Nation and community.

But if we wanted to take it less seriously, we could initiate a SL anniversary on June 23 (this year would have been the 6th one) and celebrate our almighty ‘Linden Lab’ God in the form of His embodied son Philip Rosedale.

Proposals for the national anthem and flag are warmly welcomed!

New opening in RMB City

Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday 25th August 2009, 11 a.m. (Beijing time) for new RMB City opening: Chinese artist Yan Jun will present his new sound project ‘Never Real Sound’…come and experience this mysterious, ‘disturbing’ project in the new vibrant atmosphere of our virtual city!

French artist Christian Boltanski

Talking about art and new standards of life (virtual identities as well as the contemporary trend of ‘performed’ existences, Big Brother style) some days ago I read a very interesting article about French artist Christian Boltanski’s new extravagant project (unfortunately I’ve only found the original interview made by Le Monde to the artist: http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2009/07/29/christian-boltanski-je-joue-une-partie-contre-le-diable_1223806_3246.html and another Italian article on the subject: http://www.repubblica.it/2009/08/sezioni/persone/pittore-francese/pittore-francese/pittore-francese.html?ref=search).

A bizarre Australian millionaire, hardened gambler and art passionate, decided to literally ‘buy’ Boltanski’s life for 8 years: from January 2010 he will live in a cave in the man’s property in Tasmania and will be observed by cameras and visitors for eight years (note that Boltanski is already 65); he will be free to live his live ‘normally’ and express his needs and desires but for eight years he will constantly be subject to the irreverent eye of the cameras and to his superb ‘master’s wishes.

This already extravagant project becomes a real bet with death, due to the internal clauses of the contract: if Boltanski dies, his millionaire master will become the beneficiary of his life annuity, if he survives he will instead be due to pay Boltanski back of a huge amount of money.

The unforgettable scene from Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal": the knight plays a chess game with Death

In my opinion, the project is challenging, original, unacceptable and grotesque at the same time, but it’s nonetheless a very significant and multifaceted work, and it especially arouses many interesting issues:

First of all, the idea of a massive invasion of the public sphere into the private one in modern society (“I’m being watched, therefore I am”?);

Secondly, it is a peculiar overlapping of life and art: most of Boltanski’s work is actually imbued with this sense of loss, inexorability of time and memory:

could this project become his own personal way of immortalizing his life into a piece of art?

Is this simply a mere contemporary interpretation of the classical ‘memento mori’ motif and a way of securing his presence even in case of ‘extreme eventuality’?

I don’t really know the answer, but of one thing I’m sure: in this crazy game with Death, the incredible and even unexplainable human compassion and attachment to life will drive people to root for this man!

At this stage of my ‘limbo’ journey, after numerous adventures and new encounters I decide to take a rest and fly towards the seventh location of ‘People’s Limbo’ inside ‘People’s Tower’.

Up to this point, I’ve learned many lessons: I’ve learned how to fight laziness and committed myself to maintaining the good harmony of my city, I’ve found a job and brought new hope through the arms of freedom and creativity, and I’ve finally learned how to re-equilibrate my internal Qi, because the only way to solve problems in the outside is by re-harmonizing our internal rhythm.

I fly inside ‘People’s Tower’ (RMB City 3 179, 186, 88 (Mature)- RMB City 3) and let myself fall down the long tunnel conducting to the main hall (fellow avatars will notice the weird similarities with Alice’s journey to ‘another world’).
The place is actually an information centre whith newspapers and journals suddenly popping up in the air and surrounding your avatar with unexpected and, I must say, quite aggressive piece of information, from the recent economical crisis to the historical event of Beijing Olympic games and even some political propaganda.
I’m sure this place conceals some hidden meanings and I start to think about journalism, news and the role of information.

When does journalism go beyond news?
Where’s the limit between information and sensationalism, or between information and propaganda?
Does a neutral and objective journalism even exist or is it always conditioned by personal opinions and perspectives? How has information and communication changed with the advent of technology and on-line platforms?
In a digital era when anybody can write on a blog and comment current events and news, how can we distinguish between reliable and non-reliable sources of information?
Does this multiplication of sources grow at the expense of clearer and more in-depth journalism?
Carmelo Bene, a contemporary and controversial Italian director, used to say that information doesn’t ‘inform OF facts’ but ‘inform FACTS’ (playing on the original Latin significance of the verb ‘inform’, which literally means ‘to form, to shape’).

SL and virtual platforms are to be used with special caution, as an immense pool of knowledge, creativity and inspiration but always aware of their potential for misinformation and myths.