Boston Is Watching

Here's a unique opportunity to get acquainted with a whole new art medium, the diverse and visually-thrilling world of virtual art!

Please join us Saturday, April 25, from 1 - 4:30 pm in the Boston Room at the Boston Public Library for "Boston Is Watching," a Boston Cyberarts Festival event organized by Karina Mitchell, which will present in-depth look at a kind of art that is simply not possible in real life. (The Boston Room is the first door on left at the Boylston Street entrance.)

"Boston Is Watching" is a mixed reality presentation highlighting artwork created in Second Life (SL), an online virtual reality environment. It is a spin-off of the wildly successful blog called Brooklyn Is Watching (BIW), created by Jay Van Buren and Boris Kizelshteyn, which posts weekly podcasts of panelists reviewing Second Life art displayed on BIW's property in Second Life.

Come Go With Me_detail (c) Martha Jane Bradford / Alizarin Goldflake

Presenters and exhibitors include (real life name / Second Life name / city-state):

Jay Van Buren / Jay Newt / Brooklyn NY

Lori Landay / L1Aura Loire / Boston MA

Matthew Fishman/Tuna Oddfellow / Cambridge MA

Shava Nerad/ Shava Suntzu/Cambridge MA

Karina Mitchell / Misprint Thursday / Berlin NH

Martha Jane Bradford / Alizarin Goldflake / Brookline MA

Beth Olds/Penumbra Carter /Wisconsin

Jeffrey Lipsky / Filthy Fluno /Tyngsboro MA

The afternoon will kick off with a keynote presentation by Lori Landay/L1Aura Loire, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Berklee College of Music, followed by Jay Van Buren / Jay Newt providing, via lecture and projected video, an overview of the art, reviews, podcasts, blogs, photos, films and documentation of the work that has been presented at BIW. Other presentations will include a compilation machinima from Penumbra Carter's BIW footage, a short video on Alizarin Goldflake's immersive art by Martha Jane Bradford, and displays of 2-D artwork by Karin Mitchell / Misprint Thursday , Martha / Alizarin, and Jeffrey Lipsky / Filthy Fluno.

If a connection to Second Life is possible, Martha /Alizarin will give a tour of her Second Life studio. A brief description of how to navigate in SL will be followed by an opportunity for the audience to try SL for themselves by exploring as an avatar logged in to Second Life.