Following the successful Second Life launch of ‘the wide sky’, Liz Solo’s Archive’s Virtual Installation and Museum Exhibit currently housed on the Odyssey Simulator in Virtual Space, IOTA: DATA is pleased to launch the Archive website, home to nine new machinimas here:

http://www.thewidesky.ca

Often recognizable for its use of Second Life aesthetics, machinima takes on a video game ideology by creating an online space with a defined structure and goal for its participant, but interrupts this traditional gaming relationship through unexpected interventions that challenge the built environments’ social and political infrastructure.

In ‘the wide sky’, users may view the story in linear time or opt for the interactive timeline and be presented with a choice at the end of every video, generating alternative outcomes.

“The Wide Sky” is a story based on the fragmented memories of a scientist desperately trying to make sense of her deteriorating world. “During a recent archeological dig into the deep future, researchers discovered a damaged memory sphere embedded in the floor of an uninhabited forest planet. Though much of the sphere was corrupted some of the data was retrievable. This Archive documents the artifacts that were recovered.” To log into the virtual installation in second life please follow the instructions on this page:

https://thewidesky.ca/about-the-archive/

Liz Solo is a performance artist, media artist and a musician. She creates media and live performances that incorporate online virtual communities and MMORPGs. She is a founding member of The Black Bag Media Collective (based in St. John’s) and the Second Front (an online collective) and is a composer and performer with The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (an online orchestra). Her performances, videos and online events continue to be screened and presented around the world.

IOTA is an Invigorator of unconventional artistic and social practices, focusing on art forms based in technology, social interventions, and life science. IOTA has three distinct wings: INSTITUTE for research, INTRA for public interventions and STUDIOS for the support of its roster of artists. IOTA: DATA runs under the INSTITUTE’s research projects. http://www.IOTAinstitute.com

Read an essay on the work by Isabelle Arvers:

IOTA-DATA_Carpenter Chan Solo

This project is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.