Live Home Alien Birth is a live, hybrid-reality performance and gallery installation that investigates the avatar body. The project has resulted in multiple online and hybrid-reality performances throughout 2008-2009 as well a gallery installation and performance at the Alternator Center for Contemporary Art in Kelowna, B.C..
In this project my avatar experiences virtual pregnancy and childbirth in the online world of Second Life. While sleeping in her virtual bed on Odyssey Island, my avatar was abducted by aliens and impregnated by their technology. Subsequent ultra sounds revealed that I was carrying multiples! After exploring the clinics and pregnancy packages offered by various establishments in the virtual world, I decided on a home birth. I relied on support and coaching from my friends Second Front and Avatar Orchestra Metaverse during the labor and delivery of my many virtual children—at home.
This popular project has enjoyed many presentations in the form of performances, concerts and demonstrations, often with the participation of with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and/or the Second Front. I constructed a series of four virtual musical instruments that became a part of the soundscore to the project.
Live Home Alien Birth was developed with the support of the BBMC. Travel related to the project was funded by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.