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

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/news/3352

From  the Otago Daily Times (Online Edition),  J. Dignan, Monday 4 March 2010:

ChinePlus

Explosion Urbaine, Demain Sera Vert , Issue n.13 (Dec 2009-Feb 2010)

ART CONTEMPORAIN section, Regards-Les Paysages de la Ville, Jérémie Thircuir

CAO FEI RMB CITY

Se détachant du réel, Cao Fei sous l’avatar de “China Tracy” qui avec sa RMB City créée sur Second Life intègre la ville dans une complète virtualité. Intégrant nombre d’ éléments et monuments chinois, la ville se veut à la fois oeuvre et plate-forme de création pour l’artiste qui y situe la majorité de ses travaux: vidéos, expositions…

A Dramatic “Second Life” for Cao Fei, Davide Quadrio
FlashArt, International Edition, Vol. XLIII, No. 270
January-February 2010

As part of Artissima 16 Theater project “Blinding the Ears”, Arthub invited Chinese artist Cao Fei to develop her project “RMB City” –an experimental city and community on the Internet- in a live performance, where she continued her investigation into digital fantasyscapes and the physical world.

DAVIDE QUADRIO: Why did you use Yang Ban xi as a source of inspiration for this opera?
CAO FEI: I was fascinated by how Yang Ban Xi constructed a language of “control”, both of movement and politically charged gestures. I wanted to compare this to other ways in which contemporary social and economic systems actually control us. I thought that yang Ban Xi was a great way for communicating the universal principle of social control that also characterizes the consumerist society that “RMB City” represents and destroys at the same time.
DQ: Does “RMB City” describea world of the possible future?
CF: Second Life was created in the last century. AS Hu Fang said, “RMB City” is more connected to the idea of the past/future, both in its aesthetics and representations where buildings, elements and structures are sort of “remains” of the recent past/present time. In the video making of RMB City you can see the city while it is being built, with all the buildings that represent cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai, or other aspects of material culture that made China, my country, such a syncretic experimental place.
DQ: Picking up on this, what are the inspirations for your creations in “RMB City” and particularly for this new opera?
CF: I used high and low culture. Pop culture is what I experienced in the ‘90s and pop music is indeed so universal as to efficiently reach everybody. Of course I am able to combine it with complicated narratives that I build in the virtual stage. RMB City Opera is not based on cartoon animation but real recorded interactions between the characters appearing both in the virtual and physical stages. The huge images projected on stage filled all the space, and yet the two actors physically present were sometimes the center and sometimes the background of the action.
DQ: Is this opera a new chapter of possible experimentation for “RMB City”?
CF: When we started working on this project I was unsure about how to “transport” the density of “RMB City” to the stage. I thought this was going to be a very intriguing experience, and we will see if this interaction between different realities can progress.

The ACA Gallery of SCAD in Atalanta presents ‘NO LAB on Tour’, Dec.14, 2009-Feb. 7, 2010

The original project by Cao Fei and MAP OFFICE has been amplified with new images from a ’second line’ parade that marched through Savannah Sept.25:

http://www.acagallery.org/

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=34960

http://rmbcity.com/2008/10/no-lab-in-rmb-city-prospect1-new-orleans/

NAMOC (The National Art Museum of China in Beijing), in collaboration with Swiss CentrePasquArt, launches a new group exhibition featuring a dozen of media artists from both China and Switzerland.

“Time-lapse” reflects on the concept of time in its various meanings, its ‘localization’ in space and its representation and use in modern digital media.

It is a reflection on the time and space of our virtual lives, as narrated in Cao Fei’s videos of RMB City or Jin Jianbo’s dummy, an exhausted human figure surrounded by dozens of monitors absorbing his vital energy.

It is the suspended time spent in the heterotopical space of airports, highways, shopping malls, un-historical and un-relational non-lieux, transit spaces where thousands of people gather without really ever connecting one another.

"Republic of International Airport" Qiu Zhijie

It is the untangible time and space created by sound in the subtle and engaging work by Arthur Clay, “Hörroom”, an interactive installation of points and lines that act as media pendulum: the interaction of these sound modulators with visitors defines the space of the work itself.

It is the internal time of memory and loss, the time of modern age, the old rhythm of cinema and the contemporary time of the digital or, quoting from the catalogue, the “’perpetual present’ cut off from its temporality”(G.Deleuze, Cinema 1: the Movement Image).

For more info

On the exhibition: http://www.namoc.org/en/Exhibitions/200911/t20091110_118544.html

On Marc Augé’s Non-places: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/28/non-places-marc-auge-review

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art presents its latest collective exhibition on the new ‘Chinese Art Generation’, Breaking Forecast, 8 key Figures of China’s New Generation Artists (http://www.ucca.org.cn/portal/exhibition/index.798?op=current&menuId=19).

RMB CITY fake mountain at UCCA

SL fake mountain in RMB City

Among important names and notable voices of the young Chinese art scene, Cao Fei’s RMB City is also exhibited with a massive installation of our SL ‘fake mountain’. Inspired by artist JianJun’s original ideas on reality vs virtuality/fake/hyper-reality, RMB City erects itself in the shape of a huge fake mountain in the main hall of UCCA.
Like in a magic box, THE REAL is first represented in THE VIRTUAL world of SL (we quite obviously tend to represent what is already in our mind, what we already know and is part of our experience) and finally this new object repossesses THE REAL space of the gallery.
The work is multilayered and plays on different conceptual meanings but one thing that immediately crossed my mind while exploring new RMBCity piece is Calderón de la Barca’s play La Vida Es Sueño (http://www.enotes.com/life-dream).

What is real? Does it actually make sense to distinguish real and ‘virtual’ lives? Can human mind really perceive the limits between reality and illusion, or is maybe our life a blurred and unknowable dreamlike experience?
The idea of ‘life as a dream’ goes back to old platonic and Hindu theories of reality as illusion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(Hinduism). And quite interesting this coincidence adds to the list of recurring connections between Hinduism and SL world (we’ve already discussed the Sanskrit meaning of the term ‘avatar’ in a previous post http://rmbcity.com/2009/05/virtual-reincarnations/).
Has virtuality become our modern way of representing an unknowable and mysterious world?

“What is life? A frenzy.
What is life? An illusion,
A shadow, a fiction,
And the greatest profit is small;
For all of life is a dream,
And dreams, are nothing but dreams.”

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La Vida Es Sueño, Segismundo’s soliloquy

RMB City is ready to sail to Italy for the upcoming ARTISSIMA FAIR 2009 in Turin, next November (6-8 Nov 2009)  http://www.artissima.it/?lang=_en

As a new stage of its ever-changing life, RMB City takes part in Artissima 2009 with an experimental theatrical play inspired by the ‘Eight Models Drama’ theatre, typical of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
On the borderline between past and future, between classic and contemporary realities, the performance will explore the connections of real and virtual identities, using both physical and virtual spaces as a stage for interaction between actors and ‘avatars’.

Reflecting on the new meanings of the term ‘model’ in contemporary society, ‘RMB City Opera’ will present itself as a reflection on current forms of urbanization and new millenium’s identities.

Citizens of the old and new worlds, you are warmly welcome to join the show!

November 7th at 11.00 a.m. and 17.00 p.m.
Teatro Astra, via Rosolino Pilo 6, Turin, Italy

RMB City takes part in the 11th Swiss Sculpture Exhibition in Bienne (August 30-October 25, 2009): ‘Utopics, Systems and Landmarks’ presents 50 installations and interventions all throughout the Swiss town of Biel/Bienne created by artists, idealists, dreamers and thinkers from all around the world.  http://www.interversion.org/utopics/home-1

More's Utopia

The idea of ‘utopia’ dates back to 1516 when English humanist Thomas More published his fictional work on a new and ideal form of society: originally meaning a ‘no-place-land’, the term have been stretched and often confused all throughout the centuries with the term eu-topia, meaning ‘good place’ and it is related to terms such as ‘dystopia’, ‘counter-utopia’ and ‘heterotopy’.

Esperanto flag

Ranging from interesting and heterogeneous interventions, from the linguistic dream of a common language, the Esperanto, to some civic and community experiments, the exhibition mixes real and fictional worlds and is meant to detect the common urges, criticism and dreams underlying the search for a ‘different place’.

Freetown Christiania, Copenghagen

At the base of any utopian desires there’s a very concrete and tangible criticism of the contemporary society, of some political, social and artistic situations, sometimes it becomes a real escapist way of believing in a ‘better place’ sometimes it is just an intense and magical spell allowing human mind to go over its limits and possibilities…quite distinctly human imagination is the only element ‘utopianly’ without boundaries in life.

Our virtual SL world of RMB City is a perfect case of ‘no-place-land’ and I like to think of this second life of ours as an immense platform for imagination, hopes and spiritual renewal.

Famed writer, activist, and Second Life personality Hamlet Au put on his party suit on Sunday to help RMB City fete itself onto the SL map.

“Never mind the sex courtesans, dance first!” he urged gala guests (referring to the mei nu, or beautiful women, whose greetings in City Hall are intended to lure visitors into their sex parlor, one of the newest additions to RMB City).

And dance they did. DJ MoShang Zhao set forth a steady stream of ambient beats, and a full-to-capacity crowd watched as Iris Ophelia debuted stunning fashions inspired by RMB City from a variety of avant-garde designers.

The highlight was the world premiere of a new machinima from acclaimed filmmaker Lainy Voom, who created a mystical encapsulation of RMB City cloaked in the language and dreamy romanticism of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities”.

It was this particularly imaginative power that marked the first occasion in which RMB City’s people pulsed with a collective sense of energy and wonder, the same sort found in China Tracy’s own dreams.

Please stay tuned to Hamlet’s blog, New World Notes (http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/) for the best RMB City-inspired snapshots in the coming days.

PRESS RELEASE- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2009

September 13, 2009 @ 7 pm ( Second Life Time)
September 14, 2009 @ 10 am (Beijing Time)

“Is this your city?” asked the young man. The angel answered: “It’s yours.”

- Italo Calvino, “The Castle of Crossed Destinies”

Many of us are born into shelter, nurtured in the arms of people who guide us before allowing us to encounter our physical realities on our own. But imagine that you are born not into the arms of your mother, but into the arms of a city; and that you are grasped, embraced and cultivated by the towers and vessels, sounds and sights of a fantastical empire. For China Sun, the baby of China Tracy, this is reality from first breath. When China Sun asks “What is life?” it is RMB City who answers.

RMB City’s original manifesto envisioned freedom from the conflict between virtual and real, positing the city not as a mirror for determining cold hard truths, rather, as a partial reflector, a magic pond of sorts for discovering the complex, layered, and fuzzy strangeness of existence. An experiment in modern urban planning, RMB City is evolving into a compact, yet whimsical and decidedly complex setting for such discovery. It now begs questions such as: Can a decision made in second life affect the first? How does density, in turn, impact our destiny? What does it mean for life in a city to be sustainable? What is it like to fly?

The answers can be found by ushering in a new phase of RMB City, an era, beginning today, in which you are encouraged to not simply visit the city, but rather to live there. RMB City has a new mayor, SuperConcierge Cristole (RL: Jerome Sans), who will welcome newcomers by answering the questions of any visitor, be they philosophical, practical, or personal. New, interactive destinations in RMB City, like an experiment in noise and listening by Yan Jun, a dynamic UFO by Neville Mars, and a Sex Parlor by Cao Fei will challenge visitors to repeat their experiences in order to understand and interpret their inherent tensions. Finally, a new building, a Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in RMB City, will open for the public to enjoy.

Please join China Sun for RMB’s grand re-opening party, a celebration of energy, vitality, and action filled with prominent figures in the Second Life community. The gala, hosted by the venerable in-world writer Hamlet Au, will feature a fashion show and photography contest presided over by in-world designer Iris Ophelia, and the premiere of a new machinima by in-world filmmaker Lainy Voom. Additionally, all of the new additions to RMB City by its real-life artistic collaborators will be open for exploration.

RMB City is a place for, among many others, the flaneur, the voyeur, the laborer, the aristocrat, the scientist, the poet, the activist, the sage, and the child alike. You are encouraged to come in, visit, and make RMB City your home.

LOCATION: People’s Palace, RMB City (RMB City 1 (220, 16, 65))
TIME: Sunday, September 13 @ 7 pm (SL Time), Monday, September 14 @ 10 am (Beijing Time)

New to Second Life?

To join Second Life and visit RMB City, register for a free account at https://join.secondlife.com/

Need Help? info@rmbcity.com

About RMB City:
www.rmbcity.com

Developer of RMB City: Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space
Facilitator: Uli Sigg
Public Presenter: Serpentine Gallery
Chief Engineer: Avatrian

“Revolutionary Pleasure Area” and  “Second Life Tremors”

Original works by Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) and Neville Mars

August 28, 2009
11 am, Beijing Time

RMB City 1 (220, 16, 65)

Please join China Tracy for the unveiling of her Revolutionary Pleasure Area: RMB City’s first sex parlor.

Also debuting will be an earth-shattering new work by architect Neville Mars, creating tremors all throughout Second Life.

To visit, teleport to:

RMB City 1 (220,16,65)
or
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB%20City%201/220/16/65/

New to Second Life?

To join Second Life and visit RMB City, register for a free account at https://join.secondlife.com/

Need Help? info@rmbcity.com

About RMB City:
www.rmbcity.com

Developer of RMB City: Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space
Facilitator: Uli Sigg
Public Presenter: Serpentine Gallery
Chief Engineer: Avatrian