Viva la Vida, Viva la Emotion

Today at the Virtual Worlds London Convention one of the panel members - don’t ask me _which one, RaR took home my Smarties and ate my notes - mentioned that a great story line - be it a television series, a game or something else - should have the power to make you cry, emotionally involve you. I must say, I did not stumble over such content in Second Life yet. Except for our virtual roaches maybe. Aurakyo Insoo’s Viva la Vida might be one of the first virtual world art works that has such a huge influence on avatars and the humans watching over their shoulders.

Go take a look at the original size!

A Tribute to Life

Viva la Vida - a tribute to life, as creator AuraKyo Insoo puts it - is a sequenced performance, taking up a complete (Rezzable) sim. As part of the Visions project, where artists get the chance and scripting-, promo- and whatever-else-they-need-support to port their virtual artistic vision to a whole-sim-build, AuraKyo created an engaging pathway through birth, life, suffering, death and in the end, salvation. Containing tons of little secrets, symbols such as a giant ark, a sound excerpts, compelling images, ups and downs, and things to click - hear, hear, Prok! - this ‘virtual ride’ with Miss Insoo as your guide is something that will definitely not disappoint you. If you have a mind willing and/or capable to think about what it sees & experiences, that is.

In this performance I want to tell what I feel with humility, because I believe that we must do something by the suffering of others and this world that dissolves in fragments. I really hope that you can live a beautiful moment of your life here. “Come on, the Ark will start the trip!” True the exhibition it becomes very clear AuraKyo Insoo is not a native English speaker, but rather than taking away from the experience, it adds to it, making it more easy to get to the essence of what she wants to share with us, in the mean while leaving some of the interpretation of her words & sentences to the audience, forcing our - sometimes tired brains - to think.

Visiting Viva La Vida

I advise taking some friends - or even complete strangers - along on your visit of this celebration of life, because you are bound to stumble over, into and under things, which will make you go ‘huh?’ and where you will want to consult others on what they think it means. I took Loaf and Roxette, whom made excellent companions! ;)

AuraKyo Insoo stipulated some rules - that make lots of sense, btw! - for photography/machinima which you should read before visiting: All the content of this installation has copyright reserved, that means that you can take photographs and video and show them only if you mentioned the creator and the place, but you can not manipulate and sell them because this is a non commercial creation. Thanks for understanding. For more information see: DMCA Copyright Legislation.

Of course you need to know, where the exhibition is. Rezzable 10 is your virtual world destination to teleport to! ;)

Thanking AuraKyo for her Viva La Vida

If you appreciate AuraKyo’s work of art - 100% guaranteed you will - make sure to leave a small - or huge - donation in her tip jar. I’ll add a little non-L$ donation to that. As her Viva La Vida inspired me to make my own interpretation of her work by adding some image & pixel manipulation, I return to her the idea & result that originally belong to her. I ’shot’ the snapshot above, but by this transfer all rights to the full, giant version go to AuraKyo (& corresponding human). It’s all hers now, to do with as she pleases. Does that make sense as a ‘thank you’?

PS. I’m not including much pictures, although Viva la Vida is definitely worth taking them. It’s my opinion you should see & experience this yourself!

PPS. Credits go to Madame Maracas and Ana Lutetia for helping me with the title of this blogpost! ;) The other optional title I had in mind was: ‘This is what Second Life was created for’.

PPPS. I left a secret behind when visiting the ark. Guess which is mine?

Tags: aurakyo insoo, rezzable, SLart, virtual art, viva la vida