Interactive Skimboard Game
Opening celebration
RMB City Hall, SL Time: Thursday January 13, 2011, 4pm
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB%20City%201/140/28/86

An intrepid meditating monk surfs amongst the remains of a once famous town.
He glides over the relics of a flooded RMB City, facing obstacles of all sorts.
In a post-disaster landscape, seemingly made from colour handwritings, this surfing journey is a thoroughly planned, fully conscious full-length drama with all the dramatic conflict pre-planned and built in, or an interactive movie where each player picks her own paths.
If what we are gliding over is not a wave but the remnants of this city, a building, or an event, or even if what we are gliding over is civilization itself, or ideology, then this surfing journey really is a slightly different, game version of RMB City itself.
The monk-avatar, his heart at ease, his board light, constantly overcomes the obstacles but never reaches anything resembling a final destination.
Similar to certain phenomena in life, throughout constant elevation of the soul through transmigration, RMB City Surfing Game guides the player through a journey of self-cultivation.

To play the game in Real Life, please visit Cao Fei’s installation in the exhibit “Real Virtuality” at the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, opening January 15th, 2011. More information can be found here:
http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/2011/01/15/detail/real-virtuality/

Full speech of the 5th RMB City Mayor, Supernova Sibilant:

December 13, 2010, Second Life

Welcome to RMB City Playground. We gather to honor cycles.

First, we honor the cycle of a new mayoral term for RMB City. I believe our destiny will stretch our imaginations. In ancient China, imagination meant to take a journey in your mind – a play, a dream or the afterlife offered the cultural spaces for such journeys. Today, we honor RMB City as that site for our imagination to roam in its most delirious capacity.
Second, we honor the cycle of life and death. As mayor, I bring you a children’s playground and a place for the dying. Sites for eternal reivention. Sites for imagination.

Of course, you think there is no childhood and no death in Second Life. Is that so?
Finally, we honor the cycle of RMB City. This invention was originally conceived as a two-year experimental platform, a creative incubator of sorts. Though the RMB City artworks will of course live on, Cao Fei has always intended to close the city in Second Life in late spring/early summer 2011.
Now, I will show you a new way to tour RMB City. Come watch as I choose my destiny with the Tarot.

Tarot Card II The Popess Master Q The mystical repository of a secret and ancient world’s balance, she combines body and mind and through a silent and mysterious language, she guides you towards the right current

Tarot Card V The Pope Mao The supreme master of education and improvement, he guides his herd of believers towards progress through belief in sacrifice and a glorious common fate

A bunch of curious citizens met today in People’s Playground to welcome RMB city 5th Mayor Supernova Sibilant. Clad in her shining armor, this new dauntless heroine of the new millennium set the city off on its final journey.

As a tribute to the upcoming metamorphosis of the city, Supernova inspired a playground and a place for the dying as both ‘sites of eternal reinvention’.

“We gather to honor cycles, …I believe our destiny will stretch our imaginations. In ancient China, imagination meant to take a journey in your mind – a play, a dream or the afterlife offered the cultural spaces for such journeys. Today, we honor RMB City as that site for our imagination to roam in its most delirious capacity”.

The audience, intrigued by her insightful words, reacted in contrasting ways: some burst into ovations of excitement ♪♪♫♫♫APPPPLLLAAAUUSSSEEEE♪♪♪♫♫♫, some felt provoked by her words and left the stage, some chose to meditate in silence, floating in midair.

We then all moved to a magic tarot carpet, picked a card and scattered around the island in search of our destiny: whether teleported to the city’s graveyard or to the enigmatic half-moon dangling from the sky, all of us had to face our own fate and decipher the code of our SL existence.

We now invite you all to travel the island in search of your destiny and share your stories with us. A letter box will also be placed in RMB City to satisfy your insatiable curiosity and leave messages to the new mayor Supernova.

Stay tuned for more information and welcome our new captain Supernova Sibilant!

“The Life & Death of RMB City: The 5th Mayor project”

Through this, endless, perpetual cycle we are thrown into a world, and eventually washed away by its eternal wave. Like water, we splash on the rocks in constantly shifting forms, and like foam we finally dissolve into air.

How many worlds are we expected to see? How many forms to assume? On the rise and fall of a lullaby we choose a tarot card to know our destiny in RMB City. We set out to conquer the space, then in a blink of an eye, the wave rolls back and we are bound to become something different, over and over again.

On the occasion of its 5th Mayor Inauguration, RMB City enters a new phase and begins to embark on its last journey. Guided by its new mayor, Alexandra Munroe (Supernova Sibilant), and in search of its final destiny, RMB City invites you to consult the tarot and face your own fate.

Tracing back the most eminent moments and figures of the city’s journey, we will play our last game and face our final destiny, waiting for a new world to stand out on the horizon.

http://www.alternativearchive.com/caofei/article.asp?id=479

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The 5th Mayor Ceremony in RMB City:
Tuesday December 14, 2010, 11am (Beijing Time)
Monday December 13, 2010, 7pm (SL time)
People’s Playground (RMB City 4 42, 217, 95)

RMB City Project is developed by Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) and Vitamin Creative Space
Facilitator: Uli Sigg (SL: UliSigg Cisse)
Public Presenter: Serpentine Gallery (London)

Photo by George Shuba

Dear Molly,

following up your outstanding performance at RMB City “Naked Idol” event, we would like to ask you a few questions. Are you ready to undress your imagination once more?

1. What does nudity represent to you both in the real and the virtual dimension?

“Would you let me walk down your street
Naked if I want to?” – Moby Grape, 1967

I think of the soldier standing naked at the entrance to the asylum in the film Le Roi de Coeur. http://www.renesch.com/images/king_of_hearts%20poster.jpg

I think of Jim Morrison surrounded by police on stage after being suspected of exposing himself.

I think of the covers of “nudist” magazines on city newsstands years ago. They always seemed to be playing volleyball.

Considering Second Life nudity the first thing I think of is the inevitable noob walking around naked.

I have seen nude beaches in Second Life where no one is naked. Nudity in Second Life is I think something that every resident has thought about. We are simply pixels yet nearly no one would allow themselves to be seen without clothing.

I remember logging on once. Many sims were down. People were rezzing in welcome areas instead of their normal locations. 40 people in one place. Lag making it impossible to move or teleport away. Nearly nothing was rezzing. I snapped some pictures and posted one on the SL Flickr group. My photo was removed by a moderator for violating the no nudity rule in spite of the fact that those there looked like dozens of grey, featureless mannequins piled into a closet.

My own first experience with public nudity in Second Life occurred while I was setting up a snapshot. I was making an avatar parody photo of Duchamp’s painting Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2. I was adjusting poses in the set I had built for the photo when I thought I had crashed. Actually the sim had gone down. I restarted and rezzed naked in the Ahern Welcome Area rather than my previous location. I quickly flew up 300 meters and put on some clothes.

2. How would you describe your Naked Tour through RMB City and what do you think is the true and bare nature of the island?

I have been interested in RMB City since it was first announced. It’s cosmopolitan mixture of old and new and of east and west is exciting. Still emerging from the time of Mao yet facing the future. This is the sense I have of RMB City and it influenced my choice of avatar I used for the naked idol event.

3. What do you think a ‘Naked Idol’ is or should be? A moment of transgression, embarrassment, freedom or what more?

I approached the event as a “fun” event. I wanted to participate and I wanted to see what others would do. I had planned to have a Guan Yin like avatar riding on a bed of swirling clouds and carrying auspicious objects. The event was for me a challenge rather than a contest. I was disappointed that I didn’t finish what I had planned. I instead arrived to see what the others had done.

I feel the event did allow the participants to explore the idea of what does it really mean to be naked in a pixelated world.

-Molly Montale

Dear Vivienne,

following up your outstanding performance at RMB City “Naked Idol” event, we would like to ask you a few questions. Are you ready to undress your imagination once more?

1. What does nudity represent to you both in the real and the virtual dimension?

In the real world it represents vulnerability and lack of pretence; in a virtual environment, there’s something more of artifice about it (as there is with all of our self-representations in virtual space); nudity in a virtual space is in some ways less vulnerable and yet possibly more exposed (as we appear here not as we are but as we would like to be).

2. How would you describe your Naked Tour through RMB City and what do you think is the true and bare nature of the island?

As a collective expression of fantasy and imagination given reality in pixels.

3. What do you think a ‘Naked Idol’ is or should be? A moment of transgression, embarrassment, freedom or what more?

Not transgression nor embarrassment; freedom, yes…and in a virtual context a visible challenge to preconceived bourgeois ideas of nudity as necessarily a sexual rather than creative or individualistic expression.

Thank you very much, see you!

Gianna, RMB City

see full article at http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2010/06/live-nude-avatars.html#more

In her opening remarks, China Tracy mused: “RMB City began on the premise of distance: between first life and second life; between real people and avatars; between realities that penetrate dreams and dreams that project onto realities; between visible and invisible, between you and me.”

Is there a distance between our bodies and ourselves? Naked Idol encouraged its participants to attempt to bridge that gap, and the result was many an exposed, uncensored, creative soul. Our grand prize winner, Vivienne Graves, was adorned with tattoos and a pair of cat legs. When asked about her inspiration for her naked skin, as well as how it feels different to be naked than otherwise, she remarked “I identify with a lot of traits that are considered ‘feline’: independence, curiosity, playfulness…and the avatar is a way to represent that….as a catgirl it’s possibly more an expression of something a bit feral and untamed?”

Well said, Vivienne. Our first runner-up, Molly Montale, fit right into RMB City with a high-tech, shiny, glittery skin with Chinese characters scrolling across it. She explained that her “nakedness” was representative of “21st century China”, in that the country has “the advantage to move strongly into the future”. Our second runner-up, Ford Roffo, took a decidedly Simian approach. His monkey suit avatar skin provided some laughs, and lots of inspiration, when he explained “I am already a human in RL, why come in here where I can be ANYTHING in the world, and a lot not in this world, and just choose to be a human again?”

Congratulations to all of our excellent, and stunning, naked participants: Jose Ravenheart, Storm Vayander, najlah Jewell, Tersa Vella, Vax Sirnah, Pussycat Catnap, Nella Boccara, GoSpeed Racer, Sonya Swindlehurst, Eleri Ethaniel. Finally, thanks to our three judges, who didn’t look so bad in the nude either, if I do say so myself!

We encourage you all to go untamed!

Group Shot! Naked Idol in RMB City: Prize Winners and Judges

Grand Prize Winner Vivienne Graves

Naked Idol Competitors (Face the Judges)

Great Ass!

Second Runner-Up Ford Roffo

RMB City is holding a Naked Contest in SL.
On June 13, 2010 (8pm SLT) come naked. Naked could be anything! Undressed or overexposed. Highly costumed or almost invisible.

The winner wins 30000 L$
Judging panel: Hamlet Au, Rodion Resistance & China Tracy

‘Naked Idol’ is a statement of freedom. We want you to:

• UNDRESS YOUR IMAGINATION
• SET YOUR AVATAR FREE
• COME NAKED THE WAY YOU FEEL YOU ARE

Rules:

1. Join the “Naked Idol” Second Life group!
2. Come to People’s Park (RMB City 3 105, 129, 22 (Mature)) on June 13, 2010, 8pm SLT.
3. After assembling in People’s Park, the Naked flash mob will travel to five sites in RMB City for a naked dance. Our panel of judges will select the best naked avatar.
4. The fight for the ultimate Naked Idol will be held in People’s Park, where the selected avatars will be asked to perform their personal Naked Show
5. May the best avatar win!
6. As a hailing homage to our winner we will finally hold a SL naked tour outside RMB City

We’ve been looking everywhere, wandered about the city and inspected any secret spots of the island but we couldn’t find you. Where are you, WangGuowei Wasp???                              Reliable sources and undeniable clues tell us you’re still there, hiding from who knows what or whom, or maybe playing a merciless game to trick us all.                                                       RMB City’s celebrated storyteller HuFang Scribe had some interesting insights about the poet’s disappearance and he wove an absorbing discussion with Mayor E3a Digital about this mysterious story:

Here’s an extract of their SL chat:

[1:18]  E3a Digital: I would like to know why Wangguowei’s ghost chose to come to RMB City

[1:19]  Hufang Scribe: I hope it’s a kind of re-birth for him, who is considered as the last intellectual

[1:19]  Hufang Scribe: at the beginning of Chinese modernity

[1:29]  Hufang Scribe: mountain and water, i think RMB City captures the spirit of  Chinese classical landscape painting, that’s probably one of the reasons why Wangguowei would like to stay here

[1:29]  Hufang Scribe: water is a metaphor of floating energy

[1:30]  E3a Digital: And the mountain?

[1:31]  Hufang Scribe: and the mountain is the balance of this energy

[1:32]  Hufang Scribe: they have to be togher, but urban is the space

[1:33]  Hufang Scribe: where the high raised buildings are actually replacing the mountains

[1:34]  Hufang Scribe: While the Chinese landscape painting, suggests an ideal state of life

[1:57]  E3a Digital: Is Wanguowei a hero?

[1:59]  Hufang Scribe: he doesn’t want to be , but the time pushed him to be, I think that’s one of the reasons why he committed suicide

[2:09]  Hufang Scribe: did you notice these sheep?

[2:13]  Hufang Scribe: they’re called Yugong

[2:13]  Hufang Scribe: they can bring rain, and in WangGowei’s story, they become very sad after his disappearance

[2:16]  gianna Yebut: what’s this tower and why are we here?

[2:17]  Jia Nootan: perfect for dancing!

[2:20]  Hufang Scribe: Maybe he stopped for a while on the L-shaped balcony of the CCTV Tower and sat at a solitary table, facing an empty chair, delicacies laid out before him but no one to share his wine with. Maybe he followed the Changjiang River as it flowed to the sea, looking for the most peaceful retreat this city could offer. Like a traveller in a traditional Chinese landscape painting, no bigger than a fingernail, wandering between river and mountains.

[2:23]  E3a Digital: Hufang, try the Vodka. You can drink it.

2:27]  Hufang Scribe: here the detective wants to get some clues from the boss of the hotel, because Wang Guowei lived nearby in the urban village

[2:27]  E3a Digital: I now have a hangover..

[2:27]  Hufang Scribe: yes, totally

[2:42]  Hufang Scribe: rents have been raised so much within the urban developement, so the the urban village is the temporary urban solution for young immigrants, poets, musicians, artists as well

[2:44]  Zilla Warrhol: this is my favorite spot

[2:44]  Zilla Warrhol: its very mystical

[2:48]  gianna Yebut: do you think wanguowei found some anwers here?

[2:52]  Hufang Scribe: master Q helped the detective a lot to find Wangguowei’s traces…

[2:59]  gianna Yebut: this is a field, and a grave at the same time…..

[2:59]  gianna Yebut: ….for a while I thought Wangguowei was buried here…

[3:00]  Hufang Scribe: no, it’s for Leman Brothers

[3:01]  Drama Emor: who its leman?

[3:01]  Drama Emor: from USA?

[3:01]  Hufang Scribe: it’s the place to bury captialism

[3:02]  gianna Yebut: or a place to bury any -ism

[3:03]  Hufang Scribe: yes, and it’s also a self-sufficient farming system

[3:04]  Hufang Scribe: this is the place where the detective met Marx and asked him some questions

[3:08]  Jia Nootan: yeah, what is coming out from the bottle?

[3:08]  gianna Yebut: this is where all the city’s dirt flows together

[3:09]  Hufang Scribe: water again, here the detective met China Tracy and learnt what RMB city means

[3:09]  China Tracy: 对不起，我可能无法告诉你更多的，因为第二人生没有记忆；但这个城市，始终在延伸，没有尽头，所有的一切都将飘向远方……

Sorry, I can’t tell you more, because this Second Life has no memory. This city continues to stretch, there is no end. Everything flows far far away….

[3:10]  Zilla Warrhol: i wonder what it would be like to have no memory

[3:14]  gianna Yebut: wow this place is beautiful!!!!

[3:14]  Jia Nootan: if I were wangguowei, I would choose to live here

[3:14]  Hufang Scribe: yes, but Wang Guowei has left, to where, we don’t know

[3:15]  gianna Yebut: are there places like this in RL?

[3:15]  Hufang Scribe: i don’t think so,maybe RMB City is the best context for his rebirth,

[3:17]  Hufang Scribe: let’s enjoy here and think about Wang GUowei’s spirit

This is an open-end story, and like an oral tale whispered around a bonfire in times gone by, it still requires many tellers to be solved

Dear citizens, may WangGuowei’s spirit lights your way…

We invite you to take part in this new irreverent project and ask you to investigate your nakedness in SL.

Can you imagine this superb scene of many avatars flying naked over the city?

They laugh and dance, exhibiting their boldly huge breasts and deformed long tails. Some of them are falling into pieces, or walking around as bare skeletons, some of them are even losing their human shapes and resemble more the clouds in the sky or a gentle symphony in the air.

We invite you to ‘get naked’ beyond your physical limitations and to reincarnate your avatar into a new form of higher freedom.

…stay tuned for more info…

http://status.secondlifegrid.net