Gallerie Tournicoton http://tournicoton-art-gallery.blogspot.com/

ANNELIES IN WONDERLAND
Annelies au pays des questions
[de l’émerveillement au questionnement]

Lorsque nous entrons dans 2nd life, nous acceptons d’entrer dans un univers qui ne fait pas partie de notre plan de réalité habituel, “virtuel” disent certains et pourtant on pourrait aussi penser qu’il n’est que la manifestation de ce que les physiciens essaient de mettre à jour, à savoir la possibilité pour notre univers d’être multidimensionné, et la possibilté pour nous donc de commencer à nous comporter comme des êtres multidimensionnels.

L’image bien connue d’Alice empruntant un terrier de lapin figurerait les êtres que nous sommes, dotés d’un simple ordinateur, et qui se connecteraient à un univers bien étrange, de pure création ; nous seuls connaissons ce monde, car il est invisible aux yeux des autres.

Les physiciens suggèrent que les autres dimensions de l’univers seraient non pas très grandes, mais au contraire très petites ; curieux rapport de taille que
cette dimension de 2nd life, nous avons l’air de géants et produisons aisément des images très grand format, alors que la réalité ordinaire de ces images ne
dépasse pas la taille d’un écran.
Comme Alice, nous abordons ces territoires de création pure, cachés quelque part mais accessibles, où les codes sont à réinventer et les logiques à réinterroger.

Mariaka NISHI - 17 août 2007


As we enter 2nd life, we accept to enter in a universe which is not part of our usual reality plan, « virtual » some say.  However one might also think that it is but
the manifestation of what physicists are trying to unvover  ie the possibility for our universe to be multidimensional, and the possibility for us to start behaving as
multidimensional beings.

The famous image of Alice going through the rabbit’s burrow reflects our own selves,  equipped with a mere computer, and who would be able to connect to a strange universe, a universe of pure creation : we ourselves know this world as it is invisible to the eyes of others.

Physicists suggest that the other dimensions of the universe would not be huge ones but on the contrary tiny : sl, a strange size ratio, we seems to be giants
and easily produce large size pictures, whereas the ordinary reality of these pictures is the size of a screen.
 Like Alice, we come up to these territories of pure creation, hidden somewhere but accessible, where codes are to be reinvented and logics requestioned.

Mariaka NISHI - August 17th, 2007





REAL VIRTUALITY !

1. Introduction
2. Process and Result
3. Control
4. Virtuality and Ecology
5. The selfportraits of Mariaka

1. INTRODUCTION

What is the difference between 'virtual reality' and 'real virtuality'? Isn't it the same? Something virtual is something that doesn't exist in the material world, it's "false". Virtuality can be replaced by "falseness". By showing you some examples of real falseness (or false reality?) we want to rise questions about reality,
virtuality and the different relations between them.
And besides all this we hope our philosophic search also generetad something aesthetic, worth to see!

2. PROCESS AND RESULT

I took RL pictures in natural reserve "De Kooldries" in the North of Belgium, where I live. I spent a lot of time in this natural reserve during my youth. My passion for nature and wildlife started right there. These RL pictures were put on a panel in SL and I posed in front of them with my virtual body, my avatar. These photo sessions took place on the magical land of Cherry Manga, with her permission. You certainly need to visit her place! On some pics Cherry Manga poses too.

The result looks like I visited my favorite RL location in my avatar appearance. On a part of the pictures the illusion is complete, on others you can see the borders of the panel or traces of the transparent platform we used to stand on. This was made on purpose to reveal something about the way we worked. 
And to show the falseness of this reality ...

3. CONTROL

The winter pics were made 6 years ago. SL didn't even exist then ... Specially for this project I went back to make pictures on the same places. This shows the effect of time and season on the same places. There are lots of things we can not control in RL: seasons, time, ... And lots of even worse things: diseases, growing older, disasters, the fact that we are mortal, ...

The attraction of a virtual world is the controlability of things. We can set the light to day or night, snow and rain can be put where we want it. We can choose the looks of our virtual bodies, we don't grow older. In a comic book I read a virtual world is used to beat RL mortality. Deadly sick persons are held in an eternal coma and their brain is are connected to a SL-like virtual world.
At the same time the combination of control and virtual reality frightens us. If virtual reality becomes more and more important to us, who's gonna be in charge? What if the managers of our virtual reality are corrupt? Aren't we gonna loose selfcontrol by plugging ourselves in to virtual world?

Lots of the pictures we used are close-ups and microlandscapes. They make me look like a tiny insect. This reveals the mechanism that makes the pixel dreams of virtual reality work. We always want to believe what our eyes see!

4. VIRTUALITY AND ECOLOGY

Since my youth I'm intrested in nature and wildlife. It started with birdwatching, but afterwards all kinds of creatures caught my attention: plants, insects, mammals, ...
I know lots among them by their name and I'm intrigued in the way they survive and live together on our planet.

Since the start of my SL activities the time I spent outside in nature diminished significantly. Sometimes I feel guilty about that. Is it a sin to spend a sunny afternoon in a virtual world as SL when there is a fantastic natural reserve only 1 km away from your keyboard? Or not? With this project I placed myself in a symbolic way back into nature. But this SL project also braught me in a litteral way back to nature! I went outside several times to take pictures for this project.

Is virtual reality rubbish and contra-natural? Then the only world that counts is the material one, with all it's real living creatures. Or is the virtual world a part of the natural, material world? Birds once started making nests, mankind once started building houses. Was that contra-natural? Now we start creating a virtual world ... Maybe it's just a part of the Darwinist evolution of mankind. I can't tell.

Untill now we lived without a virtual world. SL and other similar virtual worlds can be a start of an important evolution. Untill now only a small part of the
population on earth tasted from it. If we all start living in a virtual world, do we still need a real one? Maybe we can start using all our natural supplies without any care for the planet and our cohabitants. After that we just retire ourselves to our virtual world ... That would be the most horrible, selfish result of the
creation of a virtual world I can imagine.

If a virtual panda looks, behaves and even smells like a real one, is it as good as a real one?

I have got another idea. If mankind retires itself completely to a virtual world, the rest of our cohabitants on this planet would relaese a sigh of relief. And finally the planet will get a chance to recover from all the negative consequences of our activities during the last centuries. Our planet would be a paradise,
so magnificent that it's almost virtual ...

5. MARIAKA'S SELFPORTAITS

The selfportraits of Mariaka Nishi and her texts also make us reflect about reality and virtuality. On some of her pics her androgyneous avatar seems to be lost in an artificial cyberworld. This makes an intresting contrast with the surroundings where my avatar can be found on our pictures ...



Text by Annelies FRATICA
Philosophic thaughts about the expo