My "Endangered Species Zoo Maze" closed with the end of 2011. During that time, two articles were written about the maze.
Victoria Lenoirres wrote a nice one on the UWA blog. The other was sent to me as a note card in SL by SlowJoe Short. I'll copy and paste it below. If you didn't get a chance to visit the maze zoo, you will soon have a chance to visit the zoo but without the maze. In February (maybe sooner), I'll construct a holodeck that displays animal in it's enclosure. At some point, maybe I'll have a big enough space to set the entire thing up again, but it will be quite some time before that happens.
The Empty Tank
by SlowJoe Short
I was hunting for art. I knew I needed to write something and had a list of artists I could interview, chat with, dissect art theory and generally prod with small sticks of wit. I love doing it. I am an artist in the real world and a designer and I love the blurry lines and second life is full of cultural blurry lines. I also love to write and spout to anyone who is willing to read so this task is a small labour compared to many jobs I can think of.
Lately however, I have come to reflect on an awful year. 2011 has been "Annus Horribilis" for me personally with some dear personal friends and family shaking off this mortal coil and leaving me to cope with the world and it's unfeeling cruelties. A couple of SL friends too either dreadfully ill or passing away.
What has this to do with an art exhibition you may ask? Clarity is imminent. The point being this, I found the thought of expounding or debating the merits or otherwise of non-existent digital art quite an onerous task in comparison with these aforementioned events. I decided to take a different tack and sought something a bit less prone to pretentious, something that could either back up it's claim to worthiness or leave the claim unstated. I looked around and found what I thought could be the answer… the Endangered Species Zoo Maze!
So I set off to UWA SKY SIM SERIES (DEC) - LunaMetamorphia's Zoo on a piece of land owned by UWA. Their statement says it is an experimental area for collaborative scientific visualisation. UWA (University of Western Australia). Supported by iVEC, the hub of advanced computing in Western Australia. I think it's great that educational authorities support and encourage. We should try to encourage big business to do likewise but that's a whole other project I am on.
The idea up at the maze is to create two interesting takes on Zoos. One; As it eponymously states, to house it in a maze. I love mazes. They run through our genetic psyche. They are deep in our histories with mythological significance since Daedalus created one to contain the Minotaur. Deep stuff. Take Two; to make the zoo occupied only by endangered species. So there we have it. Topical, worthy, artistic and entertaining. I set off with a Teleport whoosh.
I got the maze idea pretty quickly. I flew over and looked down. It is not an intricate or highly crafted maze. It's simple, rudimentary. No dismal cul-de-sacs like in RL mazes but perhaps rather ALL cul-de-sacs. Each creature exhibit is housed in it's own rounded enclosure with high hedge like constructions. Inside each area is a tele porter to go where you want to go so there is no delineated route or arrows to follow. Some of the construction did seem rather rushed, lacking in the fine detail that may have enhanced it but it's something one is prepared to overlook in light of the honourable subject.
Each creature is contained in a glass dome. Some have young cubs as in the maned wolf and some you need to search to find, like the butterflies and parrots. It was mildly entertaining and I have spend worse 40 minutes in second life believe me.
Only when I came to the Marine Tank did my whole stance change from one of relaxed note taking and appraisal to one of provoked thought. Not because the Marine Tank contained beautiful creatures soon to be condemned to history by our callous disregard as human beings or as part of a Darwinian law (take your own stance on that one). There were no finback whales or short nose sturgeon. In fact it was empty. So endangered perhaps that they were lost to even cyber reproduction. Regardless, it was empty. Could almost hear my thoughts echo within the glazed wall. Then I noticed the info box at the front of the glass stating:
"Apologies. Due to a RL Death in the Family This Exhibit May Not Get Finished"
It made me think about my recent events both sides of the cyber border. Here we are in second life being distracted and halted in our tracks by events surrounding the end of first (and only) lives. We try to separate the two but ultimately one will always dictate to the other. There can be no precedence from the second life side in the big important things in first life. It's ironic. Sardonic almost. There is Lunametamorphia creating creatures from binaries, pixels, vectors and bitmaps in order to point out their near extinction and on the other side a life flickers out.
We can play small gods. we can create versions of ourselves in any gender, species, colour or size. We can do all of this limited only by our imagination and skill sets but ultimately that is the extent of our jurisdiction. The rest is owned by our god or nature or whatever the your belief systems proscribes. We are temporal and fragile and while we have some say in personal decision making processes the big stuff is way over our heads.
Art does different things for different people. Means different things to different people. It can also evoke something in us. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally. It's perhaps not for the art to decide that. I am glad Luna's creation might raise an awareness. I am glad it may entertain. I will be happy if those being entertained make allowance for the obvious upheaval bereavement can cause. We are not an endangered species but we are all endangered beings and that knowledge makes me appreciate the moments.
Maybe the Empty Tank is the heart and soul of this piece.
