From RMB City
Our First Mayor!
After his interesting speech at the People’s Hall on Jan 16 2009, UliSigg Cisse (RL: Uli Sigg) officially commenced his term of office, this week, he gave his value “Do not do anything that I wouldn’t do”.
What will he do? What you will do?
NO LAB in LACOSTE
NO LAB in RMB City, originally created for Prospect.1 New Orleans by Cao Fei+MAP OFFICE, is being presented “on tour” in Lacoste, France at the Galerie Pfriem du SCAD from Jan 17-Mar 15, 2009.
NO LAB: Cao Fei and MAP office
Galerie Pfriem du SCAD, Lacoste, France
Vernissage, 17 Janvier. 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
NO LAB in Second Life, landmark: RMB City 2 (96, 170, 31)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB City 2/96/170/31/
Learn more about NO LAB:
Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) ‘s blog post on NO LAB in LACOSTE, SCAD, FRANCE
NO LAB on Youtube
NO LAB on Tour.1 (SCAD/Lacoste, France)
RMB City: NO LAB, New Orleans Biennale Preview Day 1
NO LAB, New Hope—by James Au
NO LAB opening in Real Life New Orleans & Second Life RMB City
RMB City: New Orleans Biennale coming soon, 1st, Nov
RMB City ‘s AD in the second life
RMB City Opeing AD in CHINA TOWN
http://slurl.com/secondlife/China%20Town/138/93/29
Our first life is aleady full of commecial info, you can barely get way from them even you
don’t want them at all. You might encounter with them in an elevator, in a cab or whatever
place you can image.. For me, secondlife is also a visual leading world at least for now,everything
is visual,so why not placing our AD board in other islands or sims,we do things the same in our first
life, i mean, why not?
Again,Ranking systerm is another systerm for our modern people.
we choose best seller for books/CDs/Films..ect. You don’t even to have
a second thought,so, just believe it!
Just a reminder ,RMB CIty is in the 3rd
place of Seconldlife SEARCH-SHOWCASE:-)
RMB City AD in CHINA
http://slurl.com/secondlife/China/128/128/7
RMB City in SL SEARCH-SHOWCASE
明和电机！Maywa Denki！
明和电机发明的乐器
好几年前明和电机出品的Knockman，一个不断敲打自己的头的小机器人，迷倒香港众多潮人，当时本人作为一位大龄文艺青年，对各种潮物敬而远之，Knockman和其背后的明和电机都没有深究，只视之为时尚玩具制造商， 殊不知明和电机实为艺术家。
明和电机，听起来是做电器之类的公司，实际上，明和电机确实曾经是经营电机／机械生意， 在某博客搜到 明和“前身是土佐阪市创业于1968年的一间制造石，生产早期飞机零件，1979年因为财务的原因结业”。当时社长的两个儿子土佐正道 (社长) 及土佐信道 (副社长)在1993年东山再起，飞机零件不做了，明和电机摇身一变成为结合机械和思维的艺术公司。
明和电机的产品，有三条主线：三条生产线：鱼器系列（Naki）、筑波音乐（Tsukuba）和Edelweiss系列。 当中最“有用”的只有一样：鱼骨形电线， 其它的呢，均被定义为“没用”， 例如鱼器Naki系列的“圣鱼车”， 是以车中的圣鱼游动的方向来确定车的行走方向， 很多时车只会在原地打转。
结合科技／新媒体与艺术，明和当然不是第一人，也不会是最后。当别的艺术家把科技用于艺术，明和电机却透过技术诘问“用处”，这让我想起最近有人问起RMB City 的用途是什么，是居住用途？还是装饰呢？到底我们怎样界定“用”呢？然后就会发展到怎样求界定建筑和栖居（可参考海德格尔德文章筑，居，思／ Building, Dwelling, Thinking）。到底什么是有用 － 这个资本主义体系的中心－ 是生产剩余价值，还是生产剩余快感？还是巴塔耶所讲的（萨德式的）使用价值？
此乃圣鱼车
浮世绘 Ukiyoe
最近突然又对浮世绘感兴趣，因为月斋芳年的无惨绘。
很多人以为浮世绘必然是木版画，其实当中也有些手绘的， 大部分是版画倒是事实， 所以浮世绘大多线条硬朗干净， 不管世山峦，楼阁，桃树（梵高就曾经临摹过）还是艺妓的肌肤。但是越是干净越是歌舞升平，就更让人想气底下的尘埃，污水和意难平。
浮世浮世，我们以为自己在看画，自己的处境却处在画中人的凝视下。
身处虚拟世界，一如置身浮世绘，繁花似锦，海上波光潋滟，连性都那么干脆利落，一click 完事，然后，再来，追求jouissance极乐再不受肉体羁绊，貌似自由自在。可是，SL 这个可视性极高的空间，就是一个环形监狱，你的一举一动被安插在别人和自己的注视下， 而且不管事实上有没有人在看，只要你相信有人在某个角落某个时间以某种理由看着你，你无疑就是任由大他者目光的宰割。
这种凝视绝不是“你站在桥上看风景，看风景的人在楼上看你”。
China Tracy on Tonight Live
China Tracy appeared on Tonight Live, a SLCN talk show hosted by Paisley Beebe, talked about RMB City.
To watch the show: http://slcn.tv/tonight-live-paisley-beebe-11jan09
China Tracy in the eyes of Four Yip
(From left to right:) Four Yip's China Tracy, China Tracy in Second Life, Cao Fei
Four Yip, a Second Life artist from the Netherlands, is famous for his painting of various SL avatars.
Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy), just like other avatars that Four Yip illustrated, has never met the painter in real life. After talking to China Tracy, Four Yip started to delineate his own China Tracy according to her temperament, interests which he grasped in the conversation.
In her blog, Cao Fei commented that Four Yip’s China Tracy possess a unique, sentimental, illusionary aura that is not expressed in her real self nor her SL avatar.
original post on Four Yip’s China Tracy painting (on Cao fei’s blog)
Three layers (and more multiplying)…
It’s interesting to think about the difference between the different layers of:
– the real
– the virtual
– the fictional
If the virtual is a copy of the real – maybe the fictional is even more real, as it acknowledges the presence of its own “illusory” qualities.
It seems especially relevant to the next phase of RMB City – as an open city. How will these layers intertwine in the development to come?
(Note on this picture: taken yesterday morning, just past dawn, in RMB City – I like how the strange light seems to flatten the buildings and my body into one plane, a smoother cartoon version of RMB’s virtual “reality”, somehow more fully “fleshed out,” similar to Four Yip‘s portraits… this is how I imagine RMB City when I close my eyes)
Welcome!
People gathering at People’s Hall
Today, 10 Jan 2009 (Beijing Time), the day of RMB City’s offcial opening, after China Tracy (RL:Cao Fei) gave her speech about her expectation and enthusiasm about this city, more than 90 Second Life citizens witnessed the appointment of the first mayor of RMB City UliSigg Cisse (RL: Uli Sigg). We are delighted to see so many people enjoyed this fantasia built out of pixels.
China Tracy says that RMB City is a “biao pi cheng shi” (literally “skin” city in English), this maybe a resonance of what Paul Valéry wrote: “the deepest thing in man is his skin”.
RMB City team has to thank all people who showed up at our opening and shared the lovely ceremony with us.
People listening to China Tracy’s Speech
China Trcay and UliSigg Cisse, the first mayor of RMB City
Hamlet Au and UliSigg Cisse
Fireworks at People’s Waterpark
Huang He’s “Virtual Feng Shui” project
Watching sunset at People’s Park
The night before…
We are now counting down… Amidst all the chaos, late this evening I found myself suddenly in a quiet moment, alone in the presence of only the jumping carp and flying swans, and the majestic wheel turning above it all. It was an instant of such surreal beauty that it made me remember again why this project is so special.
Tomorrow we will welcome you. We can hardly wait.
Dispatch from Freeway Mayo
“Today I had lunch with friend who knows the concept of RMB City. He just got the RMB City opening announcement today. He was so excited! He said he could not believe that this project has been realized, after one year since I first told him this project. He thought it was only a joke. I told him: ‘You should trust us and we would go forwards to do it when we said so!’
Yes, it has been one year, the imagination of RMB city finally is closer and closer to share with others. Even though there are so many changes in the process of building up the city, and it will still keep changing, we learned so much from this and keep changing our perspectives with the world in the process of encountering this project. We shape and are shaped by this unspeakable WORLD.”
– Freeway Mayo (RL: Zhang Wei), CEO of RMB City
NO LAB on Tour.1 (SCAD/Lacoste, France)
NO LAB in RMB City, originally created for Prospect.1 New Orleans, is being presented “on tour” in Lacoste, France at the Galerie Pfriem du SCAD from Jan 17-Mar 15, 2009.
More information about the project:
“NO LAB in RMB City” is a new collaboration between Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) and MAP OFFICE created for Prospect.1 New Orleans, the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States. A special section of Cao Fei’s RMB City, a virtual art community under construction in Second Life, has been transformed into a stark, surreal vision of New Orleans. Based on MAP OFFICE’s research and drawings about post-Katrina New Orleans, the NO LAB parcel of land is a similar investigation into the landscape (physical, cultural, historic) of this unique city.
China Tracy will be on SLCN’s Tonight Live
China Tracy is invited to appear at Tonight Live, a premiere culture and entertainment talk show run by virtual tv channel SLCN in Secondlife (3:30pm on Jan 11, Secondlife time) / 8:30am on Jan 12, Beijing Time). Don’t miss it!
Landmark in secondlife: Tonight Live Studio (51A), Northpoint (177, 117, 33)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Northpoint/205/140/32.
RMB City Grand Opening: Ceremony & Celebration, Jan 9-10, 2009
Announcing the Grand Opening of RMB City
January 2009 – December 2010
Public Opening Ceremony & Celebration in SecondLife
Jan 9, 2009: 6pm-8pm (SecondLife Time)
Jan 10, 2009: 10am-12pm (Beijing Time)
Venue: People’s Palace (RMB City Hall, aka Sigg Castle)
Landmark in Second Life: RMB City 1, RMB City 1 (153, 32,126)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB City 1/153/32/126/
After more than a year’s gestation, we are proud to announce the official opening of RMB City to the public. We invite you to join the opening ceremony and the celebration to follow, as well as to truly explore for the first time, “Your City in Second Life”.