1. The document analyzes art and performances in Second Life, noting how it allows for low barriers to expression, strong support for creating and sharing, and informal mentorship. 2. It discusses an example performance by Gazira Babeli that engaged avatars in both Second Life and a real art gallery, demonstrating participatory culture. 3. After the event, users generated online content reflecting on and spreading information about the performance, feeling engaged as performers themselves.

1. Art Experiences and Participatory Culture:the Performance Paradigm in Second LifeLaura Gemini, Giovanni Boccia Artieri,LaRiCA |Advanced Communication Research LabUniversity of Urbino “Carlo Bo” - ItalyRN07 Sociology of Art - Art and Virtual SpaceEUROPEAN SOCIETY OR EUROPEAN SOCIETIES?Lisboa, 2-5 Sept 2009

2. aimof the reaserch and backgroundThe aimofthistalk istoanalyse Second Life as a privileged place to observe the evolution of the art system in contemporary society. The analysis is based on the General System Theory and the mediological approach of art, that is the consideration of structural coupling between art and media which characterizes the evolutionary process of these social systems.

3. research backgroundThe function of the art system is: to produce new forms, to carry out removed possibilities, to make visible a state of virtuality of the world, to make experience of a different way to observe realityArt has always found its most interesting challenges in technological and media languages.

4. research backgroundVirtual Art and the dynamics of the immersion show how just insight the online world the art territories are more and more expanded towards the last boundary of the overcoming of the difference between the artist’s acting and the audience experience. mixed-media performance

5. centrality of the participatory and co-productive dimension to the process of the event creation.hypothesisof the researchThe art in SL seems to accomplish one of the main aims of the Historical Avant-Garde: art as life, a central and “active” role of the spectator at a cognitive and experience level . Here we can see the contemporary transition from the representation to the performance.

6. hypothesisof the researchSome examples can be useful to understand the evolution of the communication and the audience’s change of its positioning perception in communication. And this is possible (also) through the privileged gaze of art. The users generation of creative contents is one of the ways to observe – through art – how the communication is changing and how the relationship between individual and society is changing as well.

7. Second Life Second Life is a persistent online world, a communicative context in which the elements that characterize the change of paradigm of the communication converge and become evident. In SL we can proceed towards the more advanced level of the convergence and participatory culture (H. Jenkins) and the revising of the relationship between production and consumption.Second Life is a persistent online world, artificial, and above all a creative and aesthetic environment.

8. art in Second Life Insight Second Life there’s who translates his/her creative streak by creating artistic works – paintings, sculptures, installations – and performances without being either a creative or a real artist in RL, or a professional as well:amatorialvocation for Second Life celebrities

9. Art in Second Life Several professional artists of the Real Life are stimulated by the aesthetical and performing potentialities of Second Life:- they have move part of their research by exploiting the formal and relational characteristics of the artificial environment.

10. researchmethodologyAn “in world” ethnographic research about art and performances concerning with the works by some of the most important figures of the artistic research in Second Life. The relationship between the avatar/spectator and the participatory cultures arising around the performing works/actions and generating widespread creativity as User Generated Contents: posts, books, videos, photos.

11. Some casesthatmightbementionedMoya Janus aka Patrick Moyapainter and performer in Real Life and in Second Life.

12. Some casesthatmightbementionedEva and Franco Mattes - 01.org is an artistic couple who became famous for the artistic testing of the net and for the re-enacting insight Second Life of some of the most important performances of the ‘70th:- Synthetic Performance.

13. researchmethodologyThe artistic performance as the ideal format of the artistic expression of a space-performance as Second Life is. We report an example in order to observe how the art in Second Life is the expression of the collapsed communicative contexts which expand the practice of creativity in performing terms: - participation is the core business of an artistic work in Second Life and of a more and more performing imaginary.

14. Gazira Babeli Party Crasher PartyA mixed reality event:the opening party-performance by GaziraBabeli made in march 2008 both in Real Life Fabio Paris Art Gallery - Brescia, Italy and in the Locusolus island in Second LifeA clear example of the participatory culture and of the role of the performing audiences.

15. 1. Low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagementHere the involvement has been considered as the main and declared element of the party.

16. 1. Low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagementInfo about the event:Gazira Babeli "Come together": previewIn "fabioparisartgallery" (Brescia, Italy) the exhibition by GaziraBabeli will be held from march 15th to april 30th 2008

17. 1. Low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagementInfo about the event:A messagetoallmembersofOdysseyContemporary Art and PerformanceThe first major real life show ofmy favorite SL artistGazira Babeli opens TODAY! Join us at 9AM SLT on Locusolus-thisis the SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Locusolus/179/183/28Ifyouhaven't seenGazyetthisyour chance tomeether, seenewworks and be part ofthishistoricevent. Hopetoseeyouthere!xoxoSugarVisitOdysseyContemporary Art and Performance at: http://odysseyart.ning.com

18. 2. Strong support for creating and sharinga) The active participation of the avatars to the “bright ideas” of Gazira guaranteed the success of the event.

19. 2. Strong support for creating and sharingb) users generated contents after the eventhttp://luoghisensibili.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/gazira-babeli-postcard-da-una-mostra-arte-di-sl/http://incertezzacreativa.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/gazira-babeli-64-people-who-thinks-that-sl-audience-is-a-b-side-audience/Gazira non è STYLEPosted by Roxelo Babenco on 18 March 2008 at 3:56pmSend Message View Discussions

20. 3. The informal menthorship[10:37] Olga Wunderlich: I like Super mario Better![10:38] Fan - Come to Me!: Enter Mouselook to shoot me![10:38] Frieda Korda: burn baby burn!!!![10:38] sigmaseiWriter: ciao a tutti[10:38] MillaMillaNoel: ciao sigma[10:38] Sacha Bowie: ciao[10:38] Man Michinaga: i'm afraid the box has not done me well.[10:38] Alida Hammerer: come si fa a diventare statua di gazira?[10:38] CHIMERA (Wear): Touched.[10:38] Sacha Bowie: se volete ho del sushi[10:38] You: aiuto[10:38] CHIMERA (Wear): Touched.[10:38] MillaMillaNoel: Neu ti immoli[10:38] CHIMERA (Wear): Touched.[10:38] Gazira Babeli: tasto destro sulla base bianca[10:39] CHIMERA (Wear): Touched.[10:39] CHIMERA (Wear): Touched.Insight Second Life the logic of exchange and gift also concerns with the knowledge that a user shares with another one in order to help him learn and use the languages of Second Life.Throughout the party directions by suggestions in chat and by avatars in IMin chat and by avatars in IM

21. 3. The informal menthorshipAfter the party: specifications in order to correct possible mistakes in the posts, etc.http://luoghisensibili.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/gazira-babeli-postcard-da-una-mostra-arte-di-sl/http://incertezzacreativa.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/gazira-babeli-64-people-who-thinks-that-sl-audience-is-a-b-side-audience/Gazira non è STYLEPosted by Roxelo Babenco on 18 March 2008 at 3:56pmSend Message View Discussions

22. 4. Members believe that their contributions matterThe active participation of the avatars is a guarantee for the success of the performance, for the success of Gazira as an artist: the spectators are the performers, aware of the role that they can and have to play.After the event: the comments, the tales and descriptions, images and videos uploaded and downloaded became part of the communication about the event, about the artist, about the research in SLAn example not to be missed Party CrashAdded by Roxelo Babenco at 4:24am on March 17th, 2008View Videoshttp://odysseyart.ning.com/video/video/show?id=685033:Video:15503

23. 5. Members feel some degree of social connection with one anotherFrom the exchanges in the IM (private chat) or in the public one to the comments in the posts, to the ping backs or the threads in the social networks (ning, twitter, friendfeed, etc.) the users connect to one another, getting to know and they are free to contribute to the memory of the event, to make public and shared the different interpretations. And they are aware that they are likely to be evaluated for their opinions. Gazira Babeli: 64 people…Whothinksthat SL audience is a B-Side audience?The Party Crash by GaziraBabeli at Locusolus was narrated by Liu Lunasea in her blog “L’incertezzacreativa” (Creative Uncertainty) with the incisiveness of the news item and with accurate hints for a reflection about total performance involving avatars, objects, places and sound, and, above allo, us who were in front of a computer. It’s worth reading…Continue PostedbyRoxeloBabenco on 17th March 2008 at 5:32pm — No Comments (Add)

24. Some conclusionsArt in SL is a fascinating phenomenon from an aesthetic point of view. But from the point of view of the sociology of the art communication it is also an important place to observe a mutation in progress. This mutation involves the system of art and the individuals and their positioning perception in communication. Individuals become more and more active, in a creative way, they can join the audience with a new kind of awareness as a performing audience and connected publics according to the participatory culture and thanks to the digital and its grass root logics.

25. Some conclusionsWe don’t know if the spread creativity could improve the contemporary art. Second Life could be an useful example to understand, through art as a social system and a place of observation of society itself, the evolution of the communication and the audience’s change of its positioning perception in communication, therefore the relationship between individual and society.

26. Thanks.Liu Lunaseaaka Laura GeminiJoannesBedrosianaka Giovanni BocciaArtieri