User:TimoWardX21/Second Front (Second Life Performance Art Group)

Second Front, formed on November the 3rd, 2006, is comprised of a group of artists who collaborate in the virtual world of Second Life, creating digital performances influenced by the Theatre of the Absurd movement. Performing digitally, they have presented their work in Second Life and in galleries and in hidden spaces in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris, among others. Their work has been covered by numerous artistic and news publications on a number of occasions.

Influences

Theatre of the Absurd has appeared in many different forms. According to Abercrombie and Longhurst’s description of Audience, Theatre of the Absurd has been presented to both a simple and mass audience; however, one never claimed that Theatre of the Absurd had been performed through Avatars in a virtual Second Life Space until the year 2006. The world’s first ever virtual Second Life performance art group, Second Front emerged in this year.

As afore mentioned, Second Front operate in a unique way when compared with other artists who work within the discipline, Theatre of the Absurd. Although they take influences from various artists, such as Dada, Fluxus, Futurist Syntesi, the Situationist International and contemporary performance artists such as Laurie Anderson and Guillermo Gomez-Pena,(Reference) they choose to perform through Avatars in a virtual space, therefore, testing the notions of traditional performance, broadening the spectrum of possibilities in the field of performance art. In 2006, the Second Front was said to mirror the offline performance group, Western Front.

Members of the Group

The performance group has grown to include seven members, all from various areas of the globe; Gazira Babeli (Italy), Yael Gilks (London), Bibbe Hansen (New York), Doug Jarvis (Victoria), Scott Kildall (San Francisco), Patrick Lichty (Chicago) and Liz Solo (St. Johns).

Gazira Babeli

Since early 2006 Gazira Babeli, also known as Gaz, has been deeply involved in the virtual space of second life, working individually as an artist, performer and film-producer. Eventually, she became a part of the Second Front performance group, acting as a replacement for a former member; Loveless Finsbury, who disappeared from the virtual world. Gazira Babeli has performed with Second Front both in Second life and at other festivals and events. In 2007, she performed with Second Front at the biennial; PERFORMA07 in New York city, with their work; The Wrath of Kong.

Yael Gilks

Yael Gilks is also known as Fau Ferdinand. She was born in Isreal in 1964 but later based herself in London. She joined Second Front in 2007 and her experience with 3D online enviornments made her a useful contributor to the group. Her artistic practice encompasses a variety of different skills ranging from digital painting, makeup art, interventions to animation and performance art. It has been said of Fau Ferdinand that she is 'one of the most famous painters in Second Life' and that her art work is 'characterised by an eclectic style which buries echoes of surrealism and expressionism'

Bibbe Hansen

Bibbe Hansen is known as Bibbe Oh on Second life and is part of the Second Front performance group. Her work is extensive within the Second Front Group; indeed, she has taken part in a number of Second Front Performances, including Live Alien Home Birth performed in Kelwona in 2008 and Car Bibbe, performed in the Second Life virtual space in 2009. Also in 2009, Bibbe Hansen performed in Second Life's Therapy in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2010, she continued her work with Second Front in their performance of Virtual Fluxus which was participating in the Fluxfest at Columbia College in Chicago. In 2010, She also did work on a virtual piece named Vola vola, which was part of the Atopic Festival in France, Paris.

Doug Jarvis

Doug Jarvis is also known as Trans Spire in the world of second life. Not only is Doug Jarvis a member of the Second Front team, but is actually one of the founders of the group. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Open Space Arts Society and the Ministry of Casual Living in Victoria. Primarily his interests evolve around technology being a human attribute, therefore, his work engages with things involved with that concept, therefore making Second Front an ideal group for him to be working with. Specifically, his artistic disciplines include sculpture, drawing, performance, digital imaging, and the internet, redering human, real life experiences into a virtual, online world. Presently, he is working on MFA in Guelph, Ontario.

Scott Kildall

Scott Kildall, also known as the Avatar, Great Escape, is an American cross-disciplinary artist. He mostly uses information he gathers from the public realm as the inspiration for much of his work, researching relationships between the human memory and social media technology. Kildall has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Philosophy from Brown University and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has had artworks shown in galleries and museums across the world.

Patrick Lichty

Patrick Litchy, also known as Man Michanga on Second Life, is an artist, curator and theorist. He is also an animator for the activist, The Yes Men Group. He also features in their, The Yes Men film. He works in Second Life both as a solo artist and as part of the Second Front team.

Liz Solo

Lizsolo Mathilde, also known as Liz Solo in the virtual Second Life World is multi disciplinary with regards to her interests and areas practice. Not only is an artist punk, but also a performance aritst, a writer, an activist and a musician. Presently, she is working with Fau Ferdinand (also a member of the Second Front Performance group) as a co director of the Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance Simulator in the virtual world of Second Life. As well as being involved in the Second Front performance group, she is also a member of The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. Also, Lizsolo Mathilde is involved in two bands; Lizband and The Black Bags. she is particularly interested in and working with 'themes involving transhumanism, idealized community and intimacy in online virtual spaces.' Lizsolo Mathilde lives and works in the vicinity of Newfoundland in Canda. Also, she personally chooses to be an atheist and live her life as a vegan

Performances

The group have performed both in Second Life and live in various real world venues, such as Art Galleries and various Museums throughout the world including New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Brussels, Berlin and Vancouver.

Breaking News

Second Front first performed online in Second Life on the 29th of November, 2006, in an experimental performance titled ‘Breaking News’. Using absurdist methods, the performance played on the idea of an 18th century Town Crier, using 21st century TV news style facilities. The performers improvised the mock news headlines by playing on dialogue spoken in the chat box between the performers and other Second Life users, and announcing them as a ‘breaking’ or ‘developing’ news story.

Border Control

After gaining publicity from their first performance, Second Front were invited by artist John Craig Freeman (aka JC Fremont in Second Life), to create a performance in lieu with their gallery exhibition about the Mexican border at the online art gallery in Second Life, Ars Virtua Gallery. They created a performance titled ‘Border Patrol’, which, compared to the ‘Breaking News’ performance, was a more structured affair, as opposed to an improvised piece, which had been rehearsed at Second Front’s ‘home’, the BitFactory, and featured three acts. The first act, titled ‘Border Patrol’, was influenced by the growing militarisation movement on the North American border between The United States and Mexico. Using influences from the Dada cultural movement, the avatars donned tanks and helicopters as headpieces. The second act, titled ‘Red Rover’, was themed on a children’s game of the same name. However as opposed to the game (in which people try to break a barricade, or ‘border’, of people), the performers instead threw barricades at the audience. And for the final act, titled ‘Danger Room’, the performers chose to fire-bomb the performance space and attempted to push the audience out of the performance space by creating huge prisms to bounce them out. The last act was intended to incite a sense of danger, prompted by the age of the war of terror. The final act caused so much mayhem, in fact, that the server eventually crashed.

The Wrath of Kong

The Wrath of Kong is one of several performances that were created by Second Front, however not performed in the virtual Second Life Space. This performance was performed on the 3rd of November 2007 at Performa in New York City. The Wrath of Kong combines well known media icons, such as King Kong and Mario and Crew, bringing them together into the same performance. In The Wrath of Kong, King Kong begins by kidnaps a number of princesses. Shortly after, Mario and company launch an attack upon King Kong using biplanes and creating a spectacular air show and avoiding the barrels launched in their direction. Of course, Kong eventually met his death.

Halodel Dreams of the Minotaure

Second Front performed Halodel Dreams of the Minotaure on 21st of March in 2008. The performance had themes of drug use, escapism, manipulation and challenge to authority. The original draft for the structure of the performance was constructed by Bibbe Oh and Fau Ferdinand, and was then revised by the rest of the group. Fau Ferdinand plays the Minotaure, and the rest of the group are inmates in an asylum (Apart from Lizsolo Mathilde, who plays a nurse). The nurses wield enormous hypodermic needles, and admonish any behaviour from the patients that they deem unacceptable. During the performance, the Minotaure interacts with her other cellmates, and initially begins to challenge the nurses, who react by shooting her with a hypordermic needle. Affected by whatever drugs the needle was filled with, she engages into an intimate Tango with Theseus (played by Great Escape). The nurses then attempt to enforce new rules on the inmates and the Minotaure becomes angry. She attempts to take out the nurses, by trying to gore them with her horns. However, she is taken out by another of the nurses’ hypodermic needles and she is rendered unconscious. This causes her other cellmates, who witnessed these actions, to go crazy.

The performance caused so much pandemonium, that it caused the server to crash and the performance to end.

Grand Theft Avatar

Grand Theft Avatar was performed live at the San Francisco Art Institute in April of 2008, as part of the 'From Cinema to Machinima' Panel. In the performance, the group aimed to challengenge the authenticity and embodiment of virtual identities. The members of the group changed the appearance of their avatars and assumed the virtual identities of the members of the 'From Cinema to Machinima' panel. Man Michiniga, Great Escape, Tran Spire and Fau Ferdinand, playing bank robbers (and assuming the identities of Christiane Paul (curator), Scott Snibbe, Char Davies and Camille Utterback respectively), then proceeded to rob the 'Lynden Treasury' (Wirxli FlimFlam assumed the identity of Howard Rheingold, and played the bank manager, Bibbe Oh assumed the identity of Patty Hearst, and played the receptionist, Gazira Babeli played as a Janitor and Lizsolo Mathilde and AliseIborg Zhaoying played as security). After engaging in a gun battle, the robbers broke into the bank vault, stole bags of 'Lynden dollars', and then proceeded to 'Liberate' the money by throwing it out of a helicopter. As a final act, the robbers leapt out of the helicopter and rode H-Bombs into the sunset (in the style of Slim Pickens in the film Dr. Strangelove).

This performance was followed up five months later by the performance 'De-Value the Dollar', in which the performers celebrate, and then burn their acquired fortune.

Iron Lung Grand Prix

In June of 2008, Second Front were invited by a digital artist under the avatar name 'Ze Moo' in Second Life, to create a performance based on recent events in the Netherlands, in which a smoking ban was put in place on public areas and cafes in Amsterdam. It was Fau Ferdinand and Man Michinaga who came up with the idea for the performance. The Second Front members would race each other and drive around a simulated street model of Amsterdam in cars built out of Iron Lung machines, in an 'Iron Lung Grand Prix'). During the race, the members of the group took multiple breaks in which to have a cigarette break. A winner of the race was never officially declared, however, they agreed that, though they may not quite have ‘smoked’ each other, they had ‘smoked’ Amsterdam

Car Bibbe

The score for the performance Car Bibbe was in truth not written by any member of the Second Front group, but rather by Al Hansen,the fluxus artist, father of Bibbe Hansen, also known as Bibbe Oh. Al Hansen wrote this piece specifically for his daughter, The piece has been performed several times in different locations. The piece was presented both at Around the Coyote, the Fall of the Arts Festival in October 2008 and at the Bridge Art Fair Armory Show on March 7th 2009. The Piece has also been shown in various other places, including Dusseldorf.

Losin' It

Losin' It, performed in-world in January of 2009, by Fau Ferdinand (Yael Gilks) and Lizsolo Mathilde (Liz Solo), is a performance based on the theme of identity and self-discovery. Ferdinand begins the performance, suspended above the floor in a cage. His avatar is headless, and he circles the cage searching for his head. Mathilde is then dropped into the same cage, her avatar, also headless, and bumps into Ferdinand. They discover that they are both looking for the same thing (i.e. their heads), and they continue searching together. The pair discuss what they miss about their heads, and how they took them for granted as a virtual audience watches them from outside the cage. Through a series of singing, aerial ballet and dancing, they eventually find their heads, thus rediscovering exactly who they are.

Virtual Fluxus

Virtual Fluxus is The digital Performance group, Second Front's latest presentation. The piece was made for and featured in the Fluxfest at Columbia College of Chicago. Virtual Fluxus was presented on the 27th October 2010 and was over 25 minutes long. Those who were heavily involved in this Second Front piece were; Larry Miller, Patrick Litchy, Bibbe Hansen, Lissolo Mathilde and Yael Gilks. They were all either involved with Second Front or the Fluxus project. These associates met in Second Life's Reigeon of Oddessey and performed a Fluxconzert. The scores were composed by Larry Miller and Patrick Litchy.

Pong

Pong is a unique Second Front piece in which some of the avatar members of the Second Front team transform themselves into Gods and Godesses and locate themselves on a virtual Mount Olympus. In Pong, Gazira Babeli is the Medusa Queen whilst Bibbe Hansen is Calypso, who is the 'Goddess of Skanking, Reggae and good weed'. Fau Ferdinand poses as Medusa and Lizsolo Mathilde appears as the half sister of the Goddess, Persephone. The entire Second Front Group involved in this project were; Doug Jarvis, Patrick Litchy, Bibbe Hansen, Fau Ferdinand, Scott Kildall, Gazira Babeli and Lizsolo Mathilde. At first, the characters gather in the great God's waiting room. However, all too soon, the avatars all gather in a large virtual room to play Pong. The avatars are catapulted around the space, bouncing off the walls. The avatars shoot back and forth through the, enjoying the Pong experience.

Real Life meets Second Life

They have also experimented with performances that mix the Real Life world and the Second Life world, by using webcams to interact with their audience in public gallery spaces around the world.

Virtual Identity Theft: R U (4) Real?

'Virtual Identity Theft' was a performance-installation performed by The Second Front group, held simultaneously at an installation in-world and at a gallery hosted by SF Camerawork, a not-for-profit organisation in San Francisco, California, United States, in October of 2008. The performers invited gallery visitors to tell them what is good about their lives, as the avatars in Second Life were capable of many things such as flight and transformation, without the fear of aging, illness or death, they wondered why anyone would want a 'First Life'. The gallery visitors were able to view what was happening in-world on a screen and interact with the performers via a webcam. The performers took screenshots of the faces of gallery visitors, as well as the things that the visitors had told them that were good in their lives, and posted them in a 'Hall of Identities', as well as plastering them on items such as 'Wanted' posters, Milk cartons and Balloons, and share the experiences of what was good about 'First life'.

Acting as Aliens

‘Acting as Aliens’, performed by Gazira Babeli and Man Michinaga (Patrick Lichty), was performed simultaneously, live in Second Life and in the Kapelica gallery in Ljubljana, Slovenia in November of 2009. The group set up a space in the gallery with a webcam and a selection of items such as fruits, as well as pads of paper and pens. Gallery visitors were able to see the avatars of Babeli and Michinaga and vice versa. The gallery visitors were able to interact with the performers by writing messages on paper and showing them to the webcam for the performers to view, and the performers would react to the audience. The audience reactions were mixed. Some offered the performers food and drink, some discussed their personal issues, and some took exception to the whole idea of the performance. In essence, the audience became as much a part of the performance as the performers, practically becoming performers themselves.