Month: October 2023

I confess that I find myself caught in a dichotomy of viewpoints when it comes to AI art; on the one hand, there is a huge potential for using AI tools to enhance the creative process and allow the artist to produce some truly stunning and innovative art. Countering this are the twin concerns of the potential for AI tools to be terribly degenerative towards genuine artistic skills under the guise of “democratising art for all”, and the fact that very often – as with Midjourney, the current darling of art AI proponents – those behind such tools are content to raise a large middle finger towards concerns of copyright & artists’ rights as they pull “source” material from wherever they deem fit.

As a result, I’ve tended to exercise caution in reviewing exhibitions of AI art in Second Life. Not that I deem it unworthy or have doubt towards the artists concerned; rather, it is the fact that it is not always easy to identify the broader provenance for such art in terms of a potential for it to incorporate elements which might be regarded as violating the copyright of others. Fortunately, there are artists and exhibitions with SL utilising AI where the provenance for the pieces lays so clearly with the artist’s imagination and skill, they can be seen and enjoyed entirely in their own right and without the broader questions surrounding the use of AI intruding.

Such is the case – once again – with the work of Monique Beebe, who recently opened On the Move at the recently relocated Kondor Art Centre, operated and curated by Hermes Kondor.

On the Move is not just an exhibition; it’s a leap into a new era of artistic expression. Whether you’re a connoisseur of art and technology, a futurist, or simply an admirer of the creative process, this exhibition promises to leave you spellbound and questioning the limits of human and AI collaboration. … An exhibition that pushes the boundaries of creativity through the fusion of MidJourney AI, cutting-edge Gen2 MP4 technology.

This might sound a grandiose statement as the official introduction to On the Move, but I guarantee you it is not. I’ll also guarantee that the still images provided here do not come close to the beauty and creativity found within each of the collection’s images, every one of which is imbued with a richness of motion and life founded on Monique’s own creative eye and ability to capture thought, emotion and humanity.

As I’ve frequently noted in covering her work, Monique – or Moni to her friends – is one of the most gifted individuals to enter the Second Life art world; an artist whose expressiveness is utterly captivating and who is herself wholly captivated with the creative process. She had been active in Second Life for nigh-on a decade prior to her first public exhibition in February 2017 – an exhibition which came about thanks to the gentle and considered encouragement from Dido Haas, taking place at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. Avatar-centric, it was an exhibition which immediately captivated me (see: Hidden Faces in Second Life), and led me to becoming a keen follower of Moni’s work over the intervening years.

Indeed, following Moni’s evolving expressiveness, her ability to challenge herself by constantly evolving her technique and style, the manner in which she has driven headlong into a variety of creative processes – photography, art, digital recording – all the while refining her abilities and extending her craft, has for me been an utter delight. Her desire to learn, to grow her art and cultivate new skills towards that end has led to a series of exhibitions startling in their beauty and emotional content, and which just under a year ago saw her present her first exhibition utilising AI tools, also at the Kondor Art Centre (see: Monsters, Demons and Chess in Second Life).

As per its own introduction, On the Move once again utilises AI (MidJourney), with Moni combining its algorithmic power with still images, video and animations to produce 14 looping images-in-motion; a veritable tour de force in a mastery of digital techniques and incredible expressions of beauty and artistry which transports us instantly into the worlds of Moni’s imagination and creative expressiveness.

From the simple turn of a (Tilda Swinton-esque) head and slow blink of eyes (Eyes are mirror of the soul) to the utterly enthralling Where the magic begins, these are pieces which honestly sit well above the ability of mere words to encompass. Each is a visual essay in its own right – but more to the point, it is in their motion that their emotional depth resides, each one pulling us towards its narrative and passional core; as such, they really should be seen first-hand. Further, they collectively stand as a triumphal validation of the multiple hours of learning, trial, error and perfection of technique that have enabled Moni to offer art which is both truly representative of the positive potential of AI and digital capabilities as the tools (rather than the subsummation) of genuine artistic expression and creativity.

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Centre (Royal Tea, rated Adult)

It’s been a goodly while since I’ve written about the The Peale Museum in Second Life; however, an invite from Eme Capalini offered an intriguing invitation to hop along and take a look at their latest exhibition, featuring a very unique artist by the name of Lee Boot.

ICYMI, September 2020 saw the opening of a new public experience in Second Life entitled Virtual Peale, a collaborative effort between Virtual Ability Inc., Linden Lab and – most importantly, The Peale Centre for Baltimore History and Architecture, located in the first purpose-built museum building in the United States (and today a US National Historic Landmark) the Peale Centre. This has, since 1814, been a centre for art, history, community and learning, and within Second Life, the Virtual Peale has continued this long tradition, offering exhibitions of art and learning, centred on an in-world reproduction of the physical World Peale Centre in Baltimore, USA. However, rather than wibble on about it here, please feel free to read more about the project within Baltimore’s Peale Centre in Second Life, a piece written to mark the opening of the centre in SL, and which I was graciously allowed to preview ahead of time.

The new exhibition – Abstracts & Artifacts – is fascinating on a number of levels. Encompassing both the physical world Peale Centre and virtual Peale, it marks the first major gallery-oriented exhibition of Lee Boot’s work for about two decades. It is deeply rooted in Boot’s background as an artist and a researcher – he is the Director of the Imaging Research Centre (IRC) within the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) – and is also innately (if tangentially) linked to The Peale’s unique history as a place of learning and education, something he touches upon in an introductory video to the exhibition and which I’ve taken the liberty of embedding here†.

Within Virtual Peale – and as is usual for the Centre – Abstracts and Artifacts is located in the “upper floor” gallery space. To reach it, either use the TP board close to the landing point or enter the Peale Building and take the stairs up to the upper floor and walk through the “doorway” to the exhibition area – you’ll be automatically teleported up to the exhibition space (where a door on the wall behind you on arrival will take you back down to the main building).

On arrival you will have the opportunity to view the introductory video, whilst a sign under it notes that there is a sequence to the exhibit visitors are asked as to follow, using the arrows on the floor. The first of these directs visitors back to an opening statement, framed as a question:

What if it were normal for artists to have careers working side-by-side, on equal footing, with other researchers and policymakers who determine how we improve education, or public health, or how we catalyse economic development in our communities?

– Abstracts & Artifacts, Virtual Peale, October 2023

This is a question of immediate intrigue in its scope and context – and one which might well have some throwing up their hands in horror at the idea of the “trendies” and “lefties” (or whatever) stirring the mix and exerting influence on matters of health and education. However, as the introduction goes on to note, there is a strong justification for considering the idea it represents:

It’s hard not to talk about culture and think about the arts. and artists make media which now, more than ever, are the central systems and currencies of our lives.

– Abstracts & Artifacts, Virtual Peale, October 2023

There are truths within the above statement that may have about them a certain dichotomy. All too often, we are used to considering the cultural and societal of art in a historical context: what it says about the generations who came before us, their outlook on life, the nature of their culture; how it might aid us in similarly understanding the nature and structure of civilisations which came well before our own, and to whom their surviving art is the one expression we can physically grasp in terms of offering a window into their times.

However, in looking back in time, it is important to note that throughout much of humanity’s history, both art and science were closely intertwined; it is only relatively recently that they have branched away from one another – and then largely as a result of artificial constructs modern society has opted – possibly to our detriment – to enforce (e.g. those  in education being required to choice between the study paths of “the arts” and “the sciences”, with often limited opportunities to combine the two beyond a certain point). Further, art is ever-evolving, harnessing new means to present itself – to utilise the very capabilities wrought through “the sciences” to communicate, to enhance and enrich, to inform.

This is the trust of Lee Boot’s work;  he has combined his Master of Fine Arts (painting) with the disciplined approach of research, evaluation and data interpretation / analysis, to develop and direct science-driven research enterprises. This has allowed him and his fellow researchers and students at URC to prototype and develop novel media and visualisation technologies specifically aimed at promoting awareness / understanding of a broad range of social issues: the aforementioned health/wellbeing, education and economics development through to the likes of social justice, democracy and climate change.

Twenty-five years ago, media artist Lee Boot stepped away from a promising artworld career to join scientists and others doing research to find ways to meet some of our most significant public challenges. For more than twenty-five years he has brought artist’s thinking into rooms where it is seldom seen. Literally and figuratively, he has coloured outside the lines, spilled paint on his colleagues, flipped the script and reframed conventional thinking to reimagine how we meet the challenges of our time and better ground our efforts in the cultures, experiences, and lives of the people they are intended to serve.

– Lee Boot biography

Within Abstracts & Artifacts the artist offers (in keeping with the title of the exhibition) pieces of abstract art, together with text elements which frame ideas as questions. The individual pieces of art partnered with the text elements might at first appear to be entirely random but each has a form and substance within it when studied, serving to illustrate and amplify the ideas posed within the written interrogative.

That the clarity of meaning may not spring forth at once should not be taken as a negative; the art is as much about altering perception as it is about illustrating an idea; ergo, it should engage the grey matter sitting between the ears, and may do so is so subtle a manner that repeated study of individual piece might well be required. In this, and as Boot notes in his video introduction, each section of the exhibition should not be considered as text + images, but as a visual interpretation of ideas drawn from a sketchbook used to formulate concepts and thinking.

Within the centre of the exhibition space is an area devoted to previous projects formulated by Lee and the URC, and it is worth taking the time to view these. Those elements taking the form of video screens (like the TVs within the main exhibition) can be touched to receive an introductory note card on each exhibition and a link to watch the video through a browser on Vimeo†.

All told, a genuinely engaging exhibition revealing the rarely-seen work of an artist-researcher at the forefront of disassembling the artificial barriers between art and science / research – my thanks to Eme for the invitation, and apologies for not making the opening. While visiting, do be sure to take in the ground level Peale Centre’s displays, both indoor and in the grounds.

SLurl Details

• Virtual Peale (The Peale Museum, rated: General)

† Please note the videos presented in the exhibition may require you to log-in to Vimeo.