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Our New Mayor’s Speech!

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Last Saturday (Beijing Time), RMB City’s new mayor AlanLau Nirvana (RL: Alan Lau) gave his speech about his STIMULUS PACKAGE :

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“The time for talk is over, the time for action is now”
The RMB City Stimulus Package

To the people of RMB City. Thank you for choosing me as your second Mayor. We have a huge task ahead of us. That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. This isn’t some abstract debate. Thousands are losing their jobs, people are not spending, and our streets and buildings are deserted. Excess and greed have taken us here. There is a sapping of confidence across our land; fear that our decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.
We must now act on a broad stimulus package to bring prosperity back to RMB City and its avatar citizens. We need to create a harmonious society, where new collaborative programs will stimulate our citizen’s minds, and where fast growth will be complemented by slow dreams.
The time for talk is over. The time for action is now! Let us learn our lesson: continue your excesses, not on borrowing and spending, but on dreams and ideas instead!
The stimulus package I am proposing has 3 parts: create jobs, offer aid to those who need it the most, and stimulate the minds of our fellow avatar citizens.

Job creation. The idea is simple: let’s put our citizens to work doing the work that RMB City needs to get done. I am calling on all bankers, hedge fund managers, and those who lost their jobs in the crisis, to come join me in constructing new monuments and recreating our ancestor’s grandeurs. Think big! And add to the already impressive cityscape of RMB City. Senators, I ask that you approve the funding to support this much-needed infrastructure spending.
Financial/housing aid. We need to offer immediate relief for struggling avatars under the crisis. Today, I signed a memorandum requesting the People’s Bank to give out Linden dollar to support those in need. This is part of the TARP program that I have outlined before in my campaign. Each citizen is entitled to L$10. We want you to go spend in SL, and stimulate the economy! In return, we ask that you tell us how you will spend the money, so that we understand your desires, hopes, and dreams, so we can plan for a better city in the future for you.
The housing bubble in SL has prevented many from building their own homes. Openspaces price has gone by 50%. And Mainland remains prohibitively expensive for many. We at RMB City welcome you to come set up your homes in People’s Neo Village, where you can take temporary refuge.

Mind stimulus. Our citizens’ minds are no less creative and are not yearning for less than when this crisis began. We need to keep our fellow citizens engaged, and let tourists see RMB City as SL’s leading creative and cultural hub. I am calling on SL’s best performers to come show your talent in our city. I propose to follow through on the plan laid out by our first Mayor, UliSigg Cisse, to host the “RMB City Super Avatar” contest. Come, and we will offer RMB City as your theatrical stage to show us your best to millions in SL.

Inaction is not an option that is acceptable to me and it’s certainly not acceptable to the people of RMB City – not on jobs, not on aid to those who need it, not on mind stimulus; not at this critical moment.
So I am calling on all Senators to rise to this moment. No plan is perfect. But the scale and the scope of this plan is the right one. Today, we begin in earnest the work of making sure the world we leave our next generation of avatars is just a little bit better than the one we inhibit today.
We have duties to ourselves, our city and the world; duties that are challenging but that define our character. This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
I am eager to work with all of you as we stand up to meet the challenge. That’s what the people of RMB City are looking for. That’s what I believe we can deliver to our avatar citizens, and the generation to come in the future. Thank you.

Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, April 26, 2009 @ 11:33 pm

RMB City @ Socially Active: An exhibition of interactive artworks exploring contemporary sociality

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24 April – 30 May 2009

Artists:
Aram Bartholl, Cao Fei, Rafael Lozano‐Hemmer, Paul Notzold,
Thomson and Craighead

Curated by:
Rachael Baum, Vivian So Hyun Choi, Helena Copsey, Sue‐Na Gay,
Grace Zihua Lu, Sara Taylor

UNIVERSITY GALLERY, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX,
WIVENHOE PARK, COLCHESTER, CO4 3SQ

www.sociallyactive.org.uk

Socially Active
is an exhibition that consists entirely of interactive artworks, which aim to explore and
question the effect that modern technologies have had on contemporary sociality.
Socially Active will present works by internationally renowned artists;
Aram Bartholl, Cao Fei, Rafael Lozano­Hemmer, Paul Notzold and Thomson and Craighead. In addition to the interactive
artworks in the gallery, please join us by participating in a series of events such as film screenings,
talks, Flash Mobs and multiplayer gaming nights.

By encouraging visitors to interact and communicate with each other through the artworks,
Socially Active will transform the gallery into a vibrant social space. Functioning as a hub for a
network of events and interactions, Socially Active will reach well beyond the physical confines of the
gallery. Visitors can shape and contribute to the exhibition in a variety of ways, both physical and
digital. User created content is encouraged within the gallery. Visitors can also upload, access and
discuss their experiences on our website.

With the emergence of new social technologies people are able to connect and communicate with each
other in faster and more efficient ways than ever before.

Socially Active
is inspired by the debate that
surrounds the use of these technologies, for example the growing popularity of social networking sites
such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Blog,Events,News,RL Events — Nokan Vlodovic, April 22, 2009 @ 3:43 am

Save the Date: Speech by new Mayor AlanLau Nirvana + Preview of “People’s Limbo” Project

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Date: April 24th, 8pm SLT / April 25th, 11am Beijing

Venue: People’s Bank, RMB City

Teleport: http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB%20City%203/119/174/29/

RMB City 3 (119, 174, 29)

On April 25th, RMB City will host a special event, featuring press conference by newly-inaugurated Mayor AlanLau Nirvana (RL: Alan Lau), and a preview of the People’s Limbo interactive art project.

Mayor’s Speech:

After his inauguration on April 18th (see www.rmbcity.com/blogs for full coverage), Mayor AlanLau Nirvana announced a press conference to reveal his exciting new “RMB City Stimulus Package”, with innovative (and possibly controversial) ideas on promoting energy, action, and community growth in RMB City and the virtual world.

People’s Limbo Preview:

After the speech, Mayor Nirvana will invite all attendees to a special sneak-preview of “People’s Limbo,” a multi-phase project staged around RMB City. People’s Limbo seeks to rediscover the roots of this word, coming from the Latin limbus which literally means “edge,” here in the context of the global financial crisis. Risk and opportunity will be opened to individuals via interactive games and installations, just as the seals in Revelations. Instead of following the dominant narrative and throwing stones at particular capitalists, we would like to contemplate on capitalism itself, in order to deliver us from the illusion of “to sleep in the guise of waking up.”

More about People’s Limbo Level #1:

“B for Bubbles

U for Utilitarianism

B for bondage

B for bonds

L for Labor

E for Equity

B for bubbles

B for Bonds

Bubbles grow crazily

Then they are all gone!”

We sincerely invite you to join us in the RMB City bubble pool! In this space that is filled by dazzling bubbles that grow bigger and bigger and burst all of a sudden, you can indulge yourself in the bliss of trusting in the mirror phases in the bubbles. When one bubble disappears, more bubbles emerge to replace it, what a wonderful mechanism for the world!

Please join us for the opening of a new chapter in RMB City history!

Biography of AlanLau Nirvana (RL: Alan Lau)

Alan Lau was born in Hong Kong and educated in the UK. He is currently a partner with an international consulting firm. A nomad that lived out of a suitcase for the past 10 years, he uses economics and art to make sense of the world around him.

Blog: http://alanlau999.blogspot.com/

Visit RMB City:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB%20City%201/153/32/126/

www.rmbcity.com

Join Second Life: www.secondlife.com

Developer of RMB City: Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space

Facilitator: Uli Sigg

Public Presenter: Serpentine Gallery

Blog,Events,News,SL Events — Nokan Vlodovic, April 21, 2009 @ 10:51 pm

Los Angeles Times on RMB City/ Cao Fei in H-Box

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Los Angeles Times, Apr 12, 2009
By Christopher Smith

Four new works were commissioned for the
H BOX in 2009, and they will have their world premieres at the OCMA show. The artists are:
Matthew Buckingham

The 46-year-old New York-based artist has had 76 public exhibitions and 16 solo shows over the years. “He makes films that are almost documentary-like,” says Benjamin Weil, artistic director of the H BOX. His new work, “We Knew About the Cave,” focuses on the finding of the Chauvet cave paintings — mankind’s earliest known drawings that may date back as far as 32,000 years — in southern France in 1940, but then hidden away and kept secret from the German occupation. Buckingham’s work, using accumulated images and self-made drawings, relates these events in a fashion that reminds Weil of visual detective work.

Cliff Evans
At 32, Evans specializes in taking found elements off the Internet and blending still and moving images and animation. A quick and stunning introduction to his work can be found on YouTube by searching “Mount Weather.” “He creates eerie, mesmerizing collages,” says Weil. Evans’ “Citizen: The Wolf and Nanny” is an animated piece showing how a constant flow of images changes our comprehension of the world.

Kota Ezawa
Based in San Francisco and Berlin, the 39-year-old Ezawa specializes in cel animation and bases his drawn work on famous media moments. A few years ago he produced a noted piece tied to the O.J. Simpson verdict. His 3-D animated work for H BOX is based on the first national broadcast of the Beatles and Rolling Stones on British TV, which he blurs together into a cacophony. Weil notes that “he puts two songs from the concert together, creating a sort of single band, with nine players, in a compelling mix.”

Cao Fei
The 31-year-old native of Guangzhou, China, has been living part of her life as China Tracy, her avatar, on Second Life. Here, she uses Machinima, a gamer technology from the early days of online gaming, to record sessions in virtual life. This new piece focuses on her buying a piece of virtual property in which she creates a drifting, dystopian world that taps into “stark imagery of a futuristic place, that may remind some of the future shown in films like ‘Brazil’ and ‘Blade Runner,’ ” says Weil.

Blog,Press — Nokan Vlodovic, April 20, 2009 @ 1:59 am

CONSTRUCTING RELATIONSHIPS: a conversation with Markus Miessen

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CONSTRUCTING RELATIONSHIPS

a conversation with Markus Miessen
People’s Monthly, Issue 1
People’s Monthly: What does RMB City mean to you?

Markus Miessen: It presents us with a parallel reality. Although it is a virtual space, I would not call it a virtual reality. As a space, it exists in real time, produced in the non-virtual world, through an interface that allows for a reality that transcends the physical boundaries that our everyday world consists of.

PM: In SL, the state of PLAY is the crucial drive/ right for avatars, instead of survival in a society, or gravity as the Earth’s law. What do you think about how this affects virtual architecture?

MM: I am not sure whether ‘play’ is the right term here. I agree that the fact that it is a parallel reality turns the in-between, the communication between the two realities, into something playful. An avatar is a computer user’s representation of himself/herself or alter ego, a construct of the real, an interface and embodiment of the user. In this sense it is not too different from using a phone or sending an E-Mail. Now, one could argue that the difference lies in the memory of the system, the factor of growth, the factor of a history. Whereas most telephone conversations, SMS or E-Mails tend to be two-way conversations (between two individuals), SL builds up a visual and physical memory in a non-physical reality. It is not too different from building up a collection or an archive — of art, books, objects or dinge (“things”) of sorts — but this one can be accessed, altered, and interacted with in a completely different way. The question, however, is: what is really at stake here? I think that SL, if used smartly, like in your case, can become a test-bed for politics on various scales. On the other hand, if used as a simple game-tool — an interfacing facilitating the ‘state of play’ as you call it — it can easily become as banal as Facebook.

PM: What do you think is the biggest challenge to an SL architect? For real-life (RL) architects, how do essential parts of RL’s structure (such as physics, natural disasters, environmental problems, political concerns, and economic limitations) affect things like visual style, scale, and usage?

MM: Architecture is the constructing of relationships: spatial, social, and political. A wall can separate, but a wall can also unite. A single sentence, spoken out or typed into one’s keyboard can produce the same effects though. I wouldn’t necessarily distinguish between structures or architecture in reality and in SL, other than in terms of urgencies, scales of effect and economies. A disaster in SL is manageable; in the real world it is often not.

PM: What are the meanings of “to build/construct” and “building/construction” in SL?

MM: There are many different kinds and notions in regards to the act of building and construction, the most obvious one being the construction of physical structures that are both haptic and visible. There is also the construction and successive act of building up knowledge, constructing discourse, facilitating interfaces and the implementation of social spaces for physical and non-physical interaction. The only species of building that SL does not comply with is the one of haptic structures.

PM: What is unique about constructing a city, compared to an object or a building? If you can easily drag your building into your pocket (inventory), delete or remove it; or if you can fabricate your identity, education or lifestyle, how would this affect the rationality and order in city planning?

MM: I think a city cannot be consciously constructed. It is the long-term result of several professional, non-professional and everyday practices. The reading of a city, although the result of a multitude of historic and contemporary authors, is always personal. Therefore, there is never a singular New York, but countless New Yorks, there is never a picture-postcard of Beijing, but many diverse and conflicting narratives, sometimes hugely public, sometimes inherently private.

PM: In your opinion, how could SL architects inspire RL architects?

MM: Architects, urban planners and any other professionals and non-professionals that are engaged in spatial practice can learn from the interactive everyday qualities of SL. The interaction between individuals is essentially the driving force for the production of space. Any wall, any piece of physical matter places, tends to be a negotiation within a field of social and political forces.

PM: The last yet very basic question is: what do architecture and architects mean in RL nowadays?

MM: I would not make that distinction and I hope that, one day, your distinction becomes meaningless.

Markus Miessen

Architect, researcher and writer migrating between London, Berlin and Zurich. In 2002, he set up Studio Miessen, a platform for spatial strategy and critical cultural analysis. As an architect, Miessen is partner of the Berlin-based architectural firm nOffice. He is the author and editor of several books including Space of Uncertainty (Müller + Busmann, 2002), Did Someone Say Participate? An Atlas of Spatial Practice (MIT Press, 2006), With Without – Spatial Products, Practices and Politics in the Middle East (Bidoun, 2007), The Violence of Participation (Sternberg Press, 2007), and East Coast Europe (Sternberg Press, 2008). He has been teaching at the Architectural Association since 2004 and is the Director of its nomadic Winter School Middle East, which he initiated in Dubai. He has lectured widely, including at Columbia, MIT and the Berlage Institute, and is currently a Visiting Professor in Shiraz (Iran) and a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, elaborating on his thesis regarding the Uninvited Outsider.

www.studiomiessen.com
www.noffice.eu

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Want to read more articles in People’s Monthly—RMB City ‘s official newsletter?
You can buy a copy of People’s Monthly Issue #1 at
Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou)
The Shop by Vitamin Creative Space (Jianwai Soho, Chaoyang District, Beijing)
Or leave us a comment 🙂

You can shop for more Vitamin Creative Space/ RMB City publications at the Shop on Tao Bao

Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, April 17, 2009 @ 3:21 am

RMB City at Alternate Realities at Spencer Museum of Art

Alternate Realities:
Installation explores themes of Second Life

Opening
Time: April 4, 2009
Venue: 20/21 Gallery Conversation Wall & Process Space

An upcoming exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art invites viewers to consider how art and virtual worlds overlap and enhance one another. Alternate Realities, opening April 4 on the 20/21 Gallery Conversation Wall, will present images that address avatars, social networking and constructed realities. Visitors can also access the Spencer’s Second Life ® Island at a computer station in the gallery’s Process Space.

“We’re exploring the ways that we can combine different learning styles and new technology like Second Life® to create an engaging museum experience,” Jessica Johnson, IMLS Grant Project Coordinator says.

Second Life ® is an online virtual world where participants create avatars to interact with others. On the Spencer’s Second Life ® Island, visitors can learn more about current exhibitions Climate Change at the Poles and Trees & Other Ramifications: Branches in Nature and Culture at the real-life Spencer by watching videos exploring climate change, listening to a traditional Inuit story, and viewing replicas of Patrick Dougherty’s tree-branch sculptures. Johnson says incorporating Second Life directly into the gallery space provides viewers with another perspective on the issues Climate Change at the Poles and Trees & Other Ramifications: Branches in Nature and Culture present.

Alternate Realities incorporates works primarily from the Spencer’s collection to explore ideas from Second Life®, such as avatars and social networking, but also includes borrowed works such as the Qi of RMB City—a video filmed entirely in Second Life by Chinese artist Cao Fei. The piece follows Guangzhou-based artist Huang He (Second Life: Master Q) as she investigates how one would apply feng shui, the ancient Chinese spatial methodology, to an entirely virtual space. With interactive installations and performances Huang He creates her own modern mythology and explores ways to manipulate the qi (invisible energy flow) of RMB City and the digital realm. Cao Fei’s video goes one step further to experiment with the notion of performance, ritual, spectacle and narrative involving this project upon the greater stage of RMB City.

“I hope it helps people learn something new about art and about themselves in ways they might not have contemplated or expected,” Johnson says.

Spencer Museum
• Website: www.spencerart.ku.edu
• E-mail: spencerart@ku.edu
Gallery hours
Tues., Wed., Fri., & Saturday 10 AM—4 PM
Thurs. 10 AM—8 PM
Sun. Noon—4 PM
Closed Monday
Museum Shop closes 30 minutes before the galleries close.

• Free parking in Lot 91 after 5 PM on weekdays and all day weekends, excepting home football games.
• Parking garage adjacent to Kansas Union is $1 per hour weekdays, free on Saturdays and Sundays (but unavailable on home football games).

Blog,Events,News,RL Events — Nokan Vlodovic, April 9, 2009 @ 2:18 am

Save the Date:Portrait of Self-Exile(Part 1) @ The Shop

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Portrait of Self-Exile(Part 1)

Opening: 4pm, 11th April (sat.) 2009
Location: the shop

Performance: Lee Kit, Knowles Eddy Knowles

You will encounter these art works in Portrait of Self-Exile(Part 1):
Pak Sheung Chuen: Lost in Torino
Duan Jianyu: On the path to silent, I meet a rabbit
Cao Fei: Nu (Anger)
Heman Chong: Star (Imploded)
Chu Yun: Black Label
Hu Xiangqian: Sun
Zhou Tao: Obstacle
Xu Tan: Keywords—Life, Existence, Survival
Zheng Guogu: Punishment of illegal land use
Koki Tanaka: How to Draw a Line On the Road

the shop
Address:B1-1503, Building 15, Jianwai SOHO,39 East 3rd-Ring Rd.,Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100022, China,Tel/Fax:0086-10-59004374
Email:
Reservationbeijing@vitamincreativespace.com
For Press hecong@vitamincreativespace.com
More on
vitamincreativespace.blogbus.com
www.vitamincreativespace.com

Portrait of Self-Exile begins loosely from a re-reading of Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums; this thread is allowed its errantry, its errancy. Last summer British artist Sigrid Holmwood’s traveled to a hippie community in the Western United States and her resultant group of paintings manifests a shade of Dharma Bums existing in today’s world. At the same moment, Pak Sheung Chuen wandered the environs of Torino, Italy, trying to lose his bearings. Chu Yun had his friend bring up his nearly empty reserve bottle of “Black Label” whiskey from Shenzhen to Beijing, and the remaining contents were consumed. The normal course of daily events was detoured with subtle maneuvers by Koki Tanaka. Xu Tan’s Keywords school picked up the recurrent and the granted that lay in our ordinary language. For the duration of summer, Hu Xianqian’s naked body absorbed the Southern sun, darkening languidly on a dilapidated porch.
These and other occurrences may co-exist but take co-existence as a condition to test; not with a declaration but through everyday engagement. To impose exile on oneself is a manner of opening up another space, and searching for alternative ways of life, of measuring the various depths (or volumes, or scales) of alternatives. The individual who begins this gesture does so from his or her own position, thereby plotting a portrait.
Portrait of Self-Exile, loose and divergent, comes together, depositing a new geological layer on the shifting terrain of the shop, under Jianwai SOHO.

A reading event of the Chinese translation of Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums will be arranged to take place in the shop in May, and is conducted by Yan Jun. Please check back for further news.

Note: Portrait of Self-Exile (Part 2) will be open at Vitamin in Guangzhou from June to September 2009.
There will be a book launch of 2 new books published by Vitamin in CIGE:
1. Battery City: A Post-Olympic Beijing Mini Marathon (Conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist);
2. Master Q’s Guide to Virtual Feng Shui (a special project by Huang He for RMB City)

For Chinese Press Release, press here

Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, @ 2:10 am

My blue skin

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记得刚开始注册Second Life的时候,拿着有限的Linden Dollar 当然马上走去装身,Second Life 里面的成衣店非常多,但是我走访了近30家店,都找不到我想要的东西:一个能面(能乐演员的面具)和淡蓝色的皮肤( 穿什么衣服倒是其次)。在Second Life 里面, 皮肤如衣服,可以换。

很小的时候,忘了是什么机缘,我看过印度教几个主神如Shiva和Krishna的画像,他们都是一身蓝色皮肤,那非常美(尤其是Krishna一直是以青年男子形象出现)。对于蓝皮肤,包括历史学家人类学家近年都带来了不少现代解释:甲认为蓝皮肤是力量的象征,因为自然世界里的天空,海洋,河流,冰川都是套套叠叠深深浅浅的蓝(这种说法体现了古人观察事物的直观特色,其实就波长来说,蓝色和紫色波长最短,在大气层里面被散射,不像有些波长较长的可见色光,直达地面);乙又说印度教各神常在高地修行,由于长期缺氧导致皮肤发蓝。。。我在一个网站看到有关蓝色皮肤的三百多种病理解释,但是最吸引我的是一个说法是银中毒,银中毒,真是“富贵病”。

以前曾经设想过做一个“造神系列”的项目,把不同的神的特征套在人的身上。Guy Ernest Dobord说基督教里神所应许的天家比地上的国更为重要,是一个“符号胜过实物、副本胜过原本、表象胜过现实、现象胜过本质”的好例子。所以把不少神的视觉形象/物质性抽出来,再强加在脆弱,最“肉”的人身上,是反其道而行了。不少神灵在历史上本来就是人,通过这个实验,希望可以通过刻画人-神-人这个圆,将历史的断层-叙述的剧变-做个切片检查。

在神的选择方面,除了黄大仙,天照大神等等,Krishna当然也是我心水,开始时考虑是否可以通过跟液体银的长期接触, 造成银中毒,再把左手臂变蓝(科学达人不要笑我),最后发现失败。听说美国一老人以服用液体/胶质银补身,导致全身变成灰蓝色-这是个不可逆转的生理变化。这样啊,唯有在Second Life暂时过过瘾。。。我去过SL几家有皮肤贩卖的商店,在选购过程中惊异于Second Life里面人们对皮肤想像力的缺乏,看来看去都是跟现实的黑白黄人种翻版,也有别的如红蓝绿,但是不属于主流选择。后来别人送了我这个不特别出色的蓝,看来最好自己开发个特别的蓝色,然后注册,好像克莱恩那样。以后你要用,需要问过我,哈哈。

Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, April 2, 2009 @ 2:03 am

Hear What the Mayor Says

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RMB City interviewded its first mayor UliSigg Cisse, see what the mayor and also RMB City’s facilitator say about RMB City and being a mayor of it….

1.Why are you interested in RMB City? What attracts you about it?

Because I will learn. New concept, new technology, breaking new ground for old boring questions like what is the piece, where does it start, where does it end, what is an exhibition, what is a collectible item. Pushing the limits is my game. And I am the facilitator…. And besides I really like to work with Cao Fei and Zhang Wei: they are mostly fearless people.

2. Why did you decide to collect this particular virtual building (“People’s Palace”)? What does it mean to you?

If I collect I have to think big. It is the heart.

3. What ‘s the differences between this piece and other pieces in your contemporary art collection? Does it have a special meaning or function in your Chinese art collection system?

It is meant to extend the scope of my collection into new space – virtual and real at the same time, collecting a process, bits, and real pieces. If it will not [extend the scope], and if it will not make me sweat, I will be upset. Actually I perceive myself more a researcher who is just fortunate to have means to acquire some results of his research.

4. RMB City is an open project, full of possibilities and creativity. It welcomes the active involvement of art institutions and collectors. Are you planning to be involved in this project, and if so, how?

I already am. I am the Facilitator. Nobody knows what that means, it is so virtual, that we really like it… I am giving some ideas and some support to make it possible, that’s all.

5. How do you feel that the building you collected is going to serve as the RMB City Hall? As the City Hall of a virtual city, what function do you think it should have?

I like this idea even though it limits my own possibilities with my building. Which functions? A parking lot, an avatar-bar to get drunk in and envision new worlds, a mailbox to drop these visions… No hierarchy, no rules.

6. If you serve as the mayor of RMB City, how will you preside over the city’s development direction?

I would certainly look like an excellent mayor, but I am born lazy. And the first thing I would have to introduce is hierarchy and rules: eliminate enemies threatening RMB City. Define cultural values, determine bad artists and bad art, avoid central government intervention, deflect Linden-$ crisis. Of course, also open up borders, go green and elect RMB super girl. Attract the best avatarminds. Do many competitions! These are any mayor’s secrets.

7. What do you think is the relationship between this virtual city and contemporary Chinese cities?

Maybe none – but maybe we will be surprised and RMB City will be a role model. It will very much depend on the artist, the people collecting the buildings, and visitors. Will they still maintain their limitations ingrained by lifelong reality? Will they be able to think without boundaries? Then something new and useful for real Chinese cities may arise.

8. What is your concept of a Utopian city?

sinoswisszurichbeijing – situated in the alps but with Chinese food, and no avatar with more than one vote – that would leave nothing to be desired.

Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, April 1, 2009 @ 3:40 am

Matching Games: Who is China Tracy?

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Last time we already revealed that China Tracy that showed up at the “marathon-dialogue” that take place in RMB City, was actually five people who are:

Hu Fang (SL: HuFang Scribe, creative advisor to RMB City),
Uli Sigg (SL: UliSigg Cisse, 1st Mayor of RMB City),
Alan Lau (friend of RMB City, may hold “high office” in RMB City soon…),
Mian Mian (SL: MianMian Sorbet, writer and artist of the “Love Letter to an Avatar” project),
Huang He (SL: queenshoe Voom, aka “Master Q,” RMB City’s own Feng Shui Master).

Let’s try to match the following texts which are the transcripts of the Marathon discourse on March 20, 2009 (the day of RMB’s installation in Serpentin Gallery) with the above-metioned people who played the role China Tracy on that day.
(Note: all the lines said by “You” are actually spoken by China Tracy)

[3:16] You: what you have seen here is part of the outcome after the opening of RMB City
[3:16] Hansulrichobrist Magic: as Dieter Roth said EVERYTHING the magazine of everything
[3:16] You: there have been different kind of cultural activities which are shaping the new life in rmb city

[3:19] You: daily life becomes the way that revolution exists
[3:19] Hansulrichobrist Magic: Lyotard did les Immateriaux after that he wanted to do a show on Resistance it remained unrealised
[3:19] Hansulrichobrist Magic: RESISTANCE IN SECOND LIFE
[3:19] JuliaPeytonJones Popstar: Revolve daily life
[3:20] Hansulrichobrist Magic: can Second Life be Resistance?
[3:20] You: for a revolutionary means of transport, do you want to try to fly?

3:25] Hansulrichobrist Magic: China Tracy are we a community
[3:26] Hansulrichobrist Magic: production of communicy
[3:26] Hansulrichobrist Magic: community production reality production
[3:26] Hansulrichobrist Magic: China Tracy did your identity change
[3:26] You: Don’t do things that I would not do
[3:26] Hansulrichobrist Magic: What does freedom mean
[
[4:04] Hansulrichobrist Magic: what is knowledge
[4:04] You: fabricated experience.
[4:04] Hansulrichobrist Magic: is RMB City art for all?
[4:05] You: it seems like it is…
[4:05] Hansulrichobrist Magic: what is RMB Citys relaton to the market?
[4:05] Hansulrichobrist Magic: it feels urgent that we have decommodified institutions
[4:05] Hansulrichobrist Magic: can RMB City be a decommodified CITY
[4:05] You: it doesn’t seem like it makes a lot of money..

3:55] You: we are chinese, we don’t talk about political things — we just do it.
[3:56] Hansulrichobrist Magic: anything else you would like to say
[3:56] Hansulrichobrist Magic: where is criticality to be found today

[3:56] Hansulrichobrist Magic: Warhol or Beuys?
[3:56] You: To marry Hans Ulrich!
[3:56] Steve Memotech is Online
[3:56] You: marry to Hans Ulrich in 3rd live
[3:57] You: life

Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, @ 3:33 am

China Tracy @ Modern Weekly

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China Tracy (RL: Cao Fei)has just finished a photo shoot for Modern Weekly. In these photos, China Tracy are wrapped by virtual outfits inspired by great fashion brands including Viktor & Rolf and Alexander McQueen.

VIKTOR & ROLF SPRING SUMMER 2009 fashion reference: Hussein Chalayan and Viktor & Rolf

Before the virtual ourfits were made, the data of China Tracy’s body figure was sent to Sine Wave, a Second Life builder who would make the virtual outfits that would be later fitted on China Tracy. It does sound more or less like the process of having your suit tailor-made, but think about when texture is eliminated from fashion, what is the fashion? How is the our hunger for feeling – that is functioned with your skin – going to be solved? Is that just like what Roland Barthes exchanges between signs and fashion…on a flat computer screen?

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Blog,Press — Nokan Vlodovic, March 26, 2009 @ 2:21 am

No Sweat! The marathon at RMB City

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(RMB City News) Yeatserday (March 20), as a special SL event for RMB City’s reinstallation in Serpentine Gallery, London, from 10am to 11am (London Time), China Tracy (RL: Cao Fei/ ???), JuliaPeytonJones Popstar (RL: Julia Peyton Jones )and HansUlrichObrist Magic (RL: Hans Ulrich Obrist ) had an interesting dialogue which took form of a marathon in RMB City.

The marathon started at the “Bird’s Nest” (People’s Park) and then China Tracy decided to bring the two marathon-ers to RMB City’s People’s Entertainment Television (yes, the CCTV hanging in the air), the event finally wrapped up at one of Huang He’s virtual feng shui devices – the Gourd of Wood, where three tree-shaped green beams appear when being activated by three people. China Tracy, JuliaPeytonJones Popsta and HansUlrichObrist Magic all enjoyed the “wood element qi” which brings kindness and peace.

RMB City team has extracted some inspiring discourse among the three yesterday.

[3:18] JuliaPeytonJones Popstar: Revolution is everything!
[3:19] China Tracy: infiltration is better
[3:19] JuliaPeytonJones Popstar: It’s part of the everyday here and always
[3:19] Hansulrichobrist Magic: Beuys said La Rivolutzione siamo noi We are the Revolution does China Tracy agree
[3:19] JuliaPeytonJones Popstar: Subversion
[3:19] JuliaPeytonJones Popstar: Subversion the best
[3:19] Hansulrichobrist Magic: or Resistance

[3:27] Hansulrichobrist Magic: what is a nano second on second life
[3:27] Hansulrichobrist Magic: nano second life
[3:27] Hansulrichobrist Magic: ever nano second ever life
[3:27] China Tracy: because that would represent a reduction of freedom
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Want to learn more about what happened and what words bounced out at the verbal/virtual marathon ? Stay tuned to the RMB City blog

Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, March 20, 2009 @ 11:39 pm

Odyssey

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Just revisited the site Odyssey (Odyssey 66, 225, 100) – “a simulator in Second Life dedicated to art and performance”, I again saw the crazy lump of different images which repeat themselves and overlap and collage with each other. There was one point that I could not even see myself (I mean, my avatar) in the dazzling colorful… thing. It maybe just another eyeblinding piece but also be a metaphor of the media world filled with explosions of information (visual, audio, textual…) and hyperreality.

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Blog — Nokan Vlodovic, March 18, 2009 @ 12:59 am

RMB City’s reinstallation at Serpentine Gallery!!

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Opening Date: 20th March, 2009
Venue: (Real Life) Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London
(Second Life) http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB%20City%201/153/32/126/

Developed by Chinese artist Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space, RMB City is a utopia/ heterotopias constructed in the virtual platform “Second Life”. Through sampling and collaging various Chinese cities and exchanging symbols in the real and virtual worlds, RMB City attempts to build another reality, or crystal images that break away from simple dualisms between “virtual and real”, “East and West”…

RMB City just celebrated its official opening in January 2009 and will be reinstalled in Serpentine Gallery starting from 20th March 2009. Through videos and computer portals to RMB City, this reinstallation connects the virtual fantasia with the public space.

At 10-11am (London time), 20th March, China Tracy (RL: Cao Fei) will have a dialogue with Second Life avatars of Julia Peyton Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist in People’s Park (http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB%20City%203/93/78/23) in RMB City. A mind-relay in the virtual realm is highly anticipated.

See you there.

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For more info: http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2008/05/cao_fei_rmb_city.html

Visit RMB City:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMB%20City%201/153/32/126/
www.rmbcity.com

Join Second Life: www.secondlife.com

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

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Blog,Events,News,RL Events,SL Events — Nokan Vlodovic, March 17, 2009 @ 3:55 am

美轮明宏

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黑玫瑰公寓
一直非常喜欢日本电影,可能是中日两国有些文化渊源。
从朋友那边借来了日本导演深作欣二的六十年代作品黑玫瑰公寓(1969,Black Rose Mansion),朋友说我常常一点小事就要生要死的戏剧化作风大有电影里面黑玫瑰之风范云云。片中的黑玫瑰并非香港电影里的女侠盗,却是神秘又吸引的歌女,歌女手中一朵黑玫瑰是她的动情银针,当歌女遇到真爱,玫瑰会由黑转红,最后故事以悲剧告终(不透露剧情了)。

电影的Femme Fatale老土情节对我来说不是卖点,倒是电影的坎普氛围和“妖气冲天”地反串女主角美轮明宏才是戏中亮点。美轮明宏原名丸山明宏,生于1935年,17岁作为歌手出道,翻唱Edith Paif 等歌手的法国香颂,丸山有种中性美,而且有种诡异的气质,连唯美至死的三岛由纪夫也忍不住要赞丸山为天人。丸山的妖气不单迷到了三岛,也促使鬼才寺山修司以其话剧团天井桟敷之名度身定做的《青森県のせむし男》和《毛皮のマリー》。 丸山在某年觉得受到感召, 脑海中出现“美轮”二字,继而把自己的名字改为美轮明宏。近年丸山仍旧活跃艺能界,包括为宫崎峻的哈尔移动城堡里的荒野女巫配音, 其招牌造型是其一把染成鲜黄色(真是黄色,不是金色)的秀发,看上去大有草间弥生婆婆的风范。

看到丸山的青春从盛到衰,看到他一头色彩鲜艳,camp爆的头发,他无论在台上台下都一样脸谱化的作风,然后想想他因三岛切腹自尽而一夜白发的传言,就觉得一堆堆华丽的符号的场景,在他上面劈头劈脑的倾泻而下,最后还是剩下他独自在一间放满各色假发的房间,唱着久违的香颂。
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年轻时的丸山明宏,确实有些三岛的小说人物的风格。

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现在的美轮明宏

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美轮和三岛

Blog — Tags: , , — Nokan Vlodovic, March 12, 2009 @ 1:23 am
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