Arts in Second Life

Arts in Second Life is an artistic area of a 3D social network (called Second Life) that has served, since 2003, as a platform for various artistic pursuits and exhibitions. SL Photography is one of the most popular forms of artistic expression with images known as "snapshots" produced while travelling through Second Life's virtual environment. Many of these snapshots are displayed through various mediums that include Art Galleries, Machinima websites and Second Life Magazines.

Second Life has created an environment where artists can display their works to an audience across the world. This has created an entire artistic culture where many residents display art in the museums, galleries and homes they can buy or build using Second Life's powerful tools. Gallery openings even allow art patrons to "meet" and socialize with exhibiting artists and has even led to many real life sales.

Numerous art gallery simulations (called "sims") abound in Second Life. Among the more popular galleries are the Sisse Singhs Art Gallery, the Windlight art Gallery and the Horus Art Gallery. Among the most notable of these was the art gallery sim Cetus Gallery District, the world's first virtual online urban arts district. Cetus was modeled on real world analogs such as New York's Chelsea gallery district as a mixed-use arts community of virtual galleries, offices, loft apartments, and coffee houses. Its many tenant-run businesses featured weekly live music performances, gallery openings, and literary events such as the virtual book launch for "Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human," by Tom Boellstorf (Princeton University Press; 2008). Cetus was chosen Best Cultural Site in Second Life in 2007, and its creator avatar Xander Ruttan (real world arts professional Aaron Collins of California), was among the most influential art world avatars in SL. Cetus resulted in many ongoing collaborative efforts among the SL community of artists, designers, writers, and virtual builders from across the real and virtual worlds. (Cetus was later bought by virtual artist DB Bailey and converted into a personal art project).

The modeling tools from Second Life allow the artists also to create new forms of art that in many ways are not possible in real life due to physical constraints or high associated costs. The virtual arts are visible in over 2050 "museums" (according to SL's own search engine).

In 2008 Haydn Shaughnessy, real life gallerist, along with his wife Roos Demol hired a real life architect, New York based, Benn Dunkley to design a gallery in Second Life. Dunkleys goal was to design an interactive gallery with art in mind in a virtual world. "Ten Cubed" is a radical departure in art exhibition, a futuristically designed gallery showcasing art in a unique setting. On January 31, 2008, "Ten Cubed" was launched. For its inaugural exhibition, Crossing the Void II, owner and curator Shaughnessy selected five artists working in and with modern technologies. These artists included Chris Ashley based in Oakland, California, Jon Coffelt based in New York, New York, Claire Keating based in Cork, Ireland, Scott Kildall based in San Francisco, California and Nathaniel Stern originally based in New York, New York now in Dublin, Ireland.Real life as well as Second Life editions are available from the gallery.

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