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 Code, Season 1: WangGuowei Wasp”, a Second Life game

29 March, 2010

In 1927, the poet Wang Guowei threw himself into the murmuring waters of Beijing’s Kunming Lake, never to be seen again in the first world.

Now, almost a century later, a rumor is afoot: was that Wang Guo Wei’s avatar that was recently spotted in Second Life? Yes, “Wangguowei Wasp” was seen in RMB City, only to swiftly vanish once again, leaving a trail of clues in his wake.

Beginning on March 29, 2010, and for one month thereafter, you can become a Second Life detective and help to solve the mystery of his latest disappearance This compelling mission will involve exploring the most secluded back alleys of the island and interacting with the most mysterious characters in all of RMB City. A curious eye and open-minded heart will help you to unearth Wuang Guowei’s secret. At the end of the game, the most intrepid explorers will be awarded with an unexpected prize.

Live launch of RMB City Code on March 29th is in conjunction with the exhibition
“Utopia Matters” at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin.
Further information on “Utopia Matters” at http://www.deutsche-guggenheim.de/

New to Second Life?

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

Landmark in Second Life: RMB City 1, RMB City 1 (153, 32, 126)

Need Help? info@rmbcity.com

About RMB City:

www.rmbcity.com

You can find out more about RMB City on our online platforms:

http://vitamincreativespace.blogbus.com/

http://twitter.com/RMBCity

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39154892568&ref=ts

www.youtube.com/user/RMBCityHall

http://vimeo.com/user889612

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMB_City

Utopia Matters: From Brotherhoods to Bauhaus

23 Jan-11 Apr 2010

RMB City takes part in a major exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin.

Exhibiting an extensive range of works from different art currents and spanning 130 years of Art History, Utopia Matters investigates the representation of ideal society and alternative worlds in the works of various European and American artists and groups.

Among prominent works from Primitivism to the Nazarenes, from the Pre-Raphaelites to Neo-Impressionism, RMB City presents a unique and ‘cozy’ installation of its virtual space. Playing on the idea of ‘private utopias’ and the splitting between a ‘real’ and physical space and a virtual ideal world, RMB City takes the shape of an intimate room where visitors can actively experience its virtual existence. Through SL portals, videos, press material and old project installations visitors can actually enter Cao Fei’s utopian world as if they were in their own bedrooms.

As intimately suggested in RMB City exhibition slogan, If What We See And Touch are real, What We Breathe And Feel Are Virtual.

For more info:

http://www.guggenheim.org/berlin/exhibitions/utopia-matters

http://www.alternativearchive.com/caofei/article.asp?id=406

Last Sunday January 10th RMB City celebrated its 1st Anniversary.

Here’s what Erica Dubach said in her first official speech as mayor of our community:

Congratulations to the team for the incredible island, the incredible experience and congratulations for reaching the 1st Anniversary, half time of the whole project. I have an incredible admiration for the work that Cao Fei and all of you have done here: you’re really working at the frontier of digital Art and this is why I’m so excited to be mayor, because I think that what you’re doing is absolutely groundbreaking. You are exploring a new technology that deserves a lot of credit and you’re doing it with unbelievable creativity and energy and you have my admiration. The reason I accepted the request to be mayor is because I believe that this technology has a great future I think Second Life and what you’re doing here is the way that people will interact in the future on the Internet and I would like to take a moment to explain what I mean and put in context what I think your work means.
I think that SL is the best example of a virtual world and its potential, there are many of them out there, about 150 to 200 different virtual worlds but SL allows an explosion of creativity that has not been seen in other worlds in the same way so what this means is that SL is very large and very active. For example, if you measure the transactions SL is the 175th largest city in the world, the largest country in the world and every single day ¼ of a million objects are Beijing produced by the residents such as you, so this means also for anybody visiting it that they have just this incredible richness of an experience. This island here and what you’ve done here is one of the best examples of this. What’s happening in the Internet in parallel, not just in SL but if you’re looking at Google Maps or Google Earth, for example, is that there is more and more emphasis on 3 dimensional work, recreating buildings and having people walk through this buildings. There’re also more and more opportunities for people to interact with each other on social networks, like Facebook, and people are having more and more interconnecting levels with different avatars and personalities; you can shop today for clothing on line and you have an avatar. I firmly believe that these two trends are going to convert and what you’re doing today in SL is learning about what digital Art means in an art form that will only expand in the future. So these two technologies are really coming together in a way that is important. This is why I think what you’re doing needs to have as much visibility as possible. I think what I’d like to do as a mayor is to connect these two trends , as a mayor I would love to have this city to be visited by as many as possible. So instead of building something else in addition onto this island, I would love to have people go through this space, RMB City, and really see it for what it is. So… as mayor, I would like to announce that we would like to combine the two worlds of the SL and the people outside by inviting people onto the RMB City Code, which is a treasure hunt through the city, there will be codes throughout the city, there’s a story and ancient mystery to be unfolded and in the end the person who can unlock the code will receive a special mysterious object and will be able to understand the city better. I’m looking forward tremendously to working with you for this next three months. Thank you

Following Erica’s exciting speech RMB City announced the upcoming ‘RMB City Code’ game:

RMB City staff and the new mayor E3A Digital are glad to disclose a new enthralling and arcane project: RMB City Code, the new intriguing ‘SL decoding game’ in RMB City and the first project of our mayor’s agenda
An inedited ancient story is to be revealed next February in RMB City. A mystery has to be unfolded, a puzzle to be solved, the quest is hard and the price unexpected. You will get to discover the city in order to disentangle the riddle, you will touch the dirt and the opulence of RMB City…
Open up your eyes and come to explore the island as you’ve never done before! As mechanized robots numbed by daily routines and everyday gestures, we pass by places and towns without grasping the small hidden details and uncommon treasures anymore. This is a game for those who want to start ‘seeing’ with new eyes, for newbies and old acquaintances who want to (re)discover the ‘legend’ of RMB City. Look for signs and get immersed into an ancient tale of Chinese mystery, the best explorer will be awarded with an unexpected precious prize…
Dear avatars, you will find yourself immersed in a complicated secret that will keep you involved until its final solution, you won’t be able to avoid it, the city and the mystery won’t let you go until the very end…
The end is just the beginning of another journey…we’ll all wait for you to discover the mystery of this code and experience RMB City with us

After the official announcements and the presentation of the the new marketplace we all broke out into dance with our most affectionate friends, a gorgeous China Tracy in her specal Viktor & Rolf dress and baby China Sun.

RMB City invites you to a special gathering on January 10th, 2010, at 12 am SL time, 4 pm Beijing time. The location? The brand new People’s Marketplace (RMB City 1 205, 53, 66 (Mature)). The occasion? RMB City’s first birthday, and the inauguration of its fourth mayor, Erica Dubach, aka E3a Digital. A special announcement about an exciting new mission, the RMB City Code, also awaits.

Come and join China Tracy and the newborn China Sun in the stalls of our new bazaar. Buy a new costume for your avatar. Watch the dancers of RMB City Opera perform their revolutionary choreography. Last but not least, come to hail E3a, our new captain in chief, as she speaks to us about the increasing relevance of our virtual world.

Erica Dubach E3A Digital, Fourth Mayor of RMB City:
Born in 1969 in Switzerland, Erica Dubach travels the digital world in search of the new and interesting, both professionally and personally. As E3a Digital in Second Life, she has connected the virtual world to the real world using RFID technology. RMB City is destined to achieve the same leap in the context of art. As Erica in Real Life, she is a PhD candidate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich) since February 2007, and a senior researcher in the Auto-ID Lab University of St. Gallen / ETH Zürich since February 2009.

RMB City Code, a SL decoding game, Coming Feb 2010

Announcing Mayor E3A Digital’s first project, RMB City code.
A series of codes have been planted in RMB City, where the mystery of an ancient story is waiting to be discovered. You may embark upon different experiences to try to crack them. The moment you unfurl the web, you will revel in an unexpected surprise…….

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/

Andrew Burrell, "Temporary self portrait, in preparation for the singularity"

Exhibitiona main hall

Gazira Babeli, "iGods"

Cao Fei, "iMirror"

Nash-Dodds-Clemens, "Autoscopia"

Patrick Lichty, "CodePortraits"

What better place for presenting the theme of doubles and replicas than the heterotopic (namely ‘other place’) world of SL?
Inaugurated last October and running through the 23rd March 2010, Doppelgänger features works from seven SL and media artists, from Cao Fei to Gazira Babeli, from Patrick Lichty (aka Man Michinaga) to Andrew Burrell (aka Nonnatus Korhonen) to the trio Adam Nash (aka Adam Ramona), Christopher Dodds (aka Christo Kayo), and Justin Clemens (aka Jack Shoreland).
Exploring the theme of multiple identities, the exhibition is a voyage into the realm of digital online spaces as an escapist and mirroring image of our reality. Every artist represents his personal ‘portrait’ of the contemporary Doppelgänger figures in our digitalized era, virtual doubles reflecting a slightly distorted image of our ‘real selves’.
On these spaces and on these alternative lives we project dreams, expectations, insecurities and desires, exaggerated, surreal or fantastic versions of ourselves that don’t ultimately depart so much from our ‘real’ identity(-ies).
Utopia of a world where you never grow old, your skin is always bright and smooth, your jobs interesting and adventurous, I wonder how many of you would sell their souls to make their avatars ageing instead of them…

For more info on exhibition and artists:
http://www.portrait.gov.au/exhibit/doppelganger/
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Portrait%20Island/223/60/32
Gazira Babeli (http://www.gazirababeli.com/index.php)
Patrick Lichty (http://www.voyd.com/)
Andrew Burrell (http://miscellanea.com/)

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

‘Fashions of China Tracy‘, the photo shoot recently commissioned by Modern Weekly magazine becomes part of  ‘Dress Codes’, the third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video in New York:

http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.5394877/k.97DE/Dress_Codes.htm

http://rmbcity.com/2009/03/fashionable-china-tracy-modern-weekly/

This year New York major exhibition focuses on the theme of FASHION and presents a wide range of projects relating to this ‘minor art’ and its connection with other artistic media and cultural phenomena.

Exhibiting over 100 recent works by 34 artists from 18 countries, ‘Dress Codes’ explores the realm of fashion as an artistic expression and a sociological manifestation.
As a multilayered language, infused with cultural, anthropological, historical and social meanings, clothes, apparels and accessories define one’s external identity and contribute to the construction of one’s social self.

ICP created its own charming avatar for the show, a beautiful and intriguing ICP Seda, who, through in-gallery computer stations, presents China’s Tracy costumes in the world or RMB City.

The event, and specifically China Tracy’s project, even received some attention by one of the most preeminent US cultural magazine, The New Yorker, and appeared in the ‘Talk of the Town’ section of last October 12 issue:

Imagine that you could be reincarnated into a new life, that you could go back to birth and take your first steps in a new world…

A fantastic, exciting and unpredictable journey, the video ‘Live in RMB City’ follows the first breaths, fears and curiosities of newly born China Sun, the baby of China Tracy, in Second Life. The camera follows baby China Sun’s wanderings and explorations in a revived RMB City, inspired by brand new additions created by a team of artist, writer, architect, and philosopher collaborators, and infused with a fresh stream of life.

Commissioned by Tokyo’s Shiseido Gallery for a 2009 Cao Fei solo exhibition, ‘Live in RMB City’ is a dreamy children’s tale on the mysteries of (real and virtual) life. Accompanied and instructed by the attentive guidance of an extravagant cyber-mother, RMB City’s newest born baby wonders through old and new buildings, weaving the net of an articulated journey between past, present and future.

The secrets of virtual existence are slowly unveiled in RMB City, a world where mothers never grow old and buildings can become ice-creams, and yet the deeper meanings of life remain unanswered because, as China Sun starts to learn, there is only one way of explaining it, and that is through poetry and imagination:
“If my little boat sinks, it has gone to another sea.”

From Cao Fei’s blog:

http://www.alternativearchive.com/caofei/article.asp?id=387

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

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