Arts & Ecology move to Second Life
The German artist Dirk Fleischman is on a residency in Second Life as part of the project ‘Avatars don’t have bodies but they do leave footprint’. This is part of the international strand of Arts & Ecology, an ongoing series of commissions and residencies working with artists across the globe. The project aims to enable artists to explore the impact of climate change in challenging and provoking contexts.
Second Life is a virtual world inhabited by millions of residents from across the world design their own personas in the form of ‘Avatars’. Just like real life, the residents of Second Life have the possibility to build and contribute to the appearance of their surroundings.
As a host and project partner ZKM (the Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe Germany) are providing an area of land, plus technical support, on ZKM Island for Fleischmann to realise his proposal. Over the coming weeks, Fleischmann aims to create discussions around the carbon offsetting industry. Initial investigations are underway to calculate the carbon footprint of ZKM Island and from the Philippines and China where he will be based on other projects. Fleischmann intends to commission an online forest of 50 animated trees on ZKM Island that will mimic the actual growth of 50 real life trees planted Asia.
Look out for further progress on the Arts & Ecology website, www.rsaartsandecology.org.uk
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