Panel Statement

This panel presentation will consider, debate and reflect upon the exhibition `Kritical Works in SL’ to be presented at ISEA2009, with respect to online and real-world curatorial practice. The particular focus for this panel will be on virtual worlds and the Second Life platform developed by Linden Labs when understood as a creative space for exhibition.

‘Kritical Works in SL II’ is to present works selected by an international panel of referees and will be shown both inWorld and in an Art Gallery environment. Building upon, and extending, phase one of the Kritical Works project, this new exhibition will continue to showcase artworks produced in, and for, Second Life and raises such questions as: How well does the ‘idea’ trans-locate across virtual and gallery spaces? To what extent does an inWorld exhibition anchor a virtual world into a physical environment? As phase two of the Kritical Works project, this exhibition will not only present the SL island artworks and trans-locate them into a real-world gallery space, it will also present the virtual artists invited, while documenting and recording the in World curatorial process itself. This peripheral but valuable data will then help to inform the interrogation of a new form of curation through panel discussion.

The panel will bring together experts in the fields concerning online/real-world curation and collaborative practice, with artists developing creative projects in virtual world platforms.

• Lizbeth Goodman – Creating Collaborative Spaces and Platforms
• Beryl Graham & Sarah Cook (CRUMB, UK) – Second Life Sceptic
• Kate Pryor – Whose Art World Is It anyway?
• Paul Sermon (UK) – Liberate Your Avatar
• Annabeth Robinson – An Artist’s Adventure in the Metaverse
• Denise Doyle (UK) – Curating Kritical Works in Second Life  Full text (PDF) p. 34