The Serpentine Gallery celebrated the launch of the next phase in its installation of RMB City by Cao Fei with a virtual interview in Second Life. JuliaPeytonJones Popstar (the avatar of Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, Serpentine Gallery) and HansUlrichObrist Magic (the avatar of Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery) chatted with China Tracy (Cao Fei’s avatar), but who knows who is really behind the keyboard? For this event, China Tracy temporarily became ‘the People's Avatar’, a medium, channeling multiple unknown voices and visions. The dialogue was intended to challenge notions of identity, performance, and narrative and will be documented as an episode of RMB-TV, a new conceptual platform to examine RMB City as a theatrical stage.
Viewers could log on to Second Life to be part of the live event, which took place in RMB City’s ‘People’s Park’ and is being broadcast in the Serpentine Gallery Lobby.
RMB City is a virtual-reality city located in the 3-D internet-based world of Second Life, an online platform in which participants create a parallel reality where they can live out their dreams through their digital avatars. RMB City was realised within Second Life by Beijing-based artist Cao Fei as an online art community and public platform for creativity. The Serpentine Gallery commissioned the artist in 2008 to develop and present RMB City both at the Gallery and via its website.
The installation in the Gallery Lobby presents visualisations of RMB City as well as computer access to RMB City in Second Life, exploring the intersection between virtual and real space.
After a period of construction, RMB City is now open online and the Serpentine’s new installation reflects the next phase of the project’s development, experimenting with concepts of community, lifestyle, history, narrative and public interaction.
About Second Life:
Second Life was conceived as an online platform for participants to create a parallel reality in which to live out their dreams and has 14 million registered users. Each user is represented by an avatar, a digital figure that they can customise and control. Cao Fei, as her avatar, China Tracy, has constructed a virtual city that will continue to grow and change over its two-year run with the participation and support of leading international art institutions and networks.
About Cao Fei (Second Life: China Tracy)
Born 1978, Guangzhou. Lives and works in Beijing, China.
Known for her multimedia installations and videos, Cao Fei is acknowledged as one of the key young artists emerging from Mainland China. She mixes social commentary, popular aesthetics, Surrealism, and documentary conventions in her films and installations. Her works comment on the rapid and chaotic changes that are occurring in all facets of Chinese society.
To visit RMB City:
Join Second Life for free here then click here for link directly into RMB City.
Developer of RMB City: Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space
Facilitator: Uli Sigg
Public Presenter: Serpentine Gallery
Chief Engineer: Avatrian
Cao Fei
RMB City: Overview 02
SecondLife Video Still
Courtesy of RMB City © 2008
Cao Fei
RMB City: Overview 03
SecondLife Video Still
Courtesy of RMB City © 2008
Cao Fei
RMB City: People's Slum 01
SecondLife Video Still
Courtesy of RMB City © 2008
