Ludica

As computer games increasingly include affordances for player creativity, new art forms are beginning to conflate consumption and production, practices that constitute a kind of digital folk art emerging wtihin online game worlds. For ISEA, Ludica has created a virtual art park within the online world Second Life, designed to showcase these new forms of cultural production. Ludica curators,  ChingALing and China Bling (Jacki Morie) and Artemesia Sandgrain (Celia Pearce) solicited proposals for “site-specific” installations, performances and interventions from current Second Life artists and designers, the ISEA and electronic arts community, and international digital arts and game programs at Universities. Within The New West exhibition, fully populated by the curator's selections, was projected on a large screen in a darkened room.  People could visit the space virtually from wherever they were in the world via their Second Life avatar.  Guest avatars were available  on several computers at the ISEA conference itself for attendees to also visit the thirty plus exhibits.   The large screen display projected the visitors exploration and navigation of the virtual exhibition space. Additionally, performances and interactive selection were scheduled throughout the conference week.
Ludica's goal, besides showcasing the amazing range of artworks being created in virtual worlds, is to extend the ISEA electronic arts festival beyond its geographical location, making it accessible to a wider audience beyond those who can physically attend the exhibition in San Jose.