“The Quiet” to disappear?
My favorite piece of SL art ever is set to disappear in about a week if it doesn’t get a new home. AM Radio’s magnificent The Quiet - the artist’s most personal and, in my mind, important piece to date – is losing its home due to the impending price increase. Of course, the weird irony here is that AM’s work was recently featured as the start page for SL – a terrific move on the part of Linden Labs to endorse and support a work of SL art that I was thrilled to see… except that it would be even more terrific if they could help the guy out by giving him a sim to host this really major work.
LL most likely won’t, so are there any kind benefactors out there who would be willing to contribute some land to the cause? It kills me to think that we’re losing this piece. It’s one of those perfect examples of SL art that can’t be reproduced in photographs or machinima or the like – it must be experienced in world, as it makes use of so many of the features of SL that are specific to the medium.
If SL has anything resembling a cultural history (and I believe it does, and the need to preserve its history will become more and more important as we try and get this field to receive the credit and attention it deserves), then this piece is definitely right up there in the canon. Losing it would be devastating.
wouldn’t you think with how much they use his stuff on the front page, linden lab could take it out in trade? ie in exchange for using his work for free, they give him an island.
bryan campen said this on December 26, 2008 at 6:26 pm
AM does deserve a space for this work, but I also think Linden Lab could and should donate a certain amount of land to the art community in general, like a permanent Burning Life concept.
Arahan Claveau said this on December 26, 2008 at 7:16 pm
[...] that are blowing through the real world. “The Quiet”, an iconic piece of SL sculpture, is due to disappear next month, as its creators can’t keep up with the rent. More generally, hundreds of sims are being [...]
A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall « Second Life Shrink said this on December 27, 2008 at 2:14 am
Something perhaps of interest to AM is this blog post about Burning Life.
Notably -
“Official designation of Burning Life as a Burning Man Regional, which is a worldwide network of year-round, local, Burning Man communities.”
Arahan Claveau said this on December 27, 2008 at 4:54 am
“Linden Lab …donate …land to the art community”, I agree with this sentiment, however this would have only ever been a possibility during the ‘early adopters’ stage, in the pragmatist stage which LL are now promoting, it’s an attitude of paying ones own way, but it seems with exceptions, i.e. the USS compromise: http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/12/19/hoist-the-mainsail-and-head-for-the-high-seas/ although I believe the motive on LL’s part is purely based on short to mid-term economical returns.
Dekka Raymaker said this on December 28, 2008 at 2:23 am
[...] what AmyFreeLunch is suggesting: AM Radio’s magnificent The Quiet - the artist’s most personal and, in my [...]
Will AM Radio’s “The Quiet” go silent? « Second Arts said this on December 28, 2008 at 4:35 pm
re: Dekka “it’s an attitude of paying ones own way”
Except for the fact that Linden Lab is not actually paying its own way when they use an artist’s work for free to promote Second Life.
In any other medium the artist would be compensated pretty well, and in this case compensating him with an island would actually help Linden Lab increase traffic over the coming year. It’s without much serious dispute the best work in SL, a pretty great promotion of Second Life and not any skin off Linden Lab to provide him a sim, “Burning Life” projects aside.
If they love the work so much, they should start preserving it out of self interest and a strong sense of self-preservation.
bryan campen said this on December 28, 2008 at 7:50 pm
How much would it cost to buy a plot of land for this work to exist on? If AM set up a “donate” button on a website about it, i’d give him a few bucks immediately and I bet a bunch of other people would too.
Jay Van Buren said this on December 28, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Bryan, I assume that The Quiet was signed up as part of Winterfaire, therefore giving SL the right to use photographs for promotion, but I do also believe that the TOS states that LL has a right to all contents available in SL for their own promotion anyway. However, I do agree that when The Quiet goes, it will be a sad day.
Jay it’s not the cost of the plot, the plot it is on is already paid for, it’s the month to month expense of tier fees that needs to be found. Also, we should all remember this is happening to many residents who are also losing their open space sims and that LL is cause of this, if they truly wanted sites like this to continue existing, they would have found a better method of control for the resource usage.
Dekka Raymaker said this on December 28, 2008 at 10:25 pm
well, how much is it per month? Maybe he AM could just charge a $5 admission fee? Maybe a few hundred people could all pitch in a few dollars and fund it for a few months or whatever – you’d think with so many fans, AM’s work could find a way to become economically sustainable, and in my opinion no matter what the economic model it would not take away from the artistry of his work.
Jay Van Buren said this on December 29, 2008 at 12:31 am
Well yes that’s a solution, but what does AM want to do? I do know that money he raises on his own site all goes to charity. It would be interesting to know how this effected Rezzable when they started to charge a fee for The Greenies Home too.
Dekka Raymaker said this on December 29, 2008 at 1:35 am
Costs, are $95 a month starting January 5th and then $125 a month in June 2009
Dekka Raymaker said this on December 29, 2008 at 1:36 am
An artist cannot desire things such as impressive wall space, or become enamored with the reaction to art work. The granters of both are merely looking for the same. Instead I expect nothing. I create art because it is the way in which I structure my thought and communication. That will happen with or without space.
As far as requiring a fee, I recall reading of some efforts in 19th century France to pedal especially gruesome Baroque paintings in the backs of carts, covered by curtains. For a small fee you could glimpse the horror behind the velvet. I’ll leave that for those who amuse and profiteer. I am looking to do neither.
Sometimes change can be good. Sometimes the worst of times, or even something as silly as an economic downturn spurs the creativity and drive of new players to create new solutions and presents new challenges for artists to solve. I’ll stay there in the trenches, and let the land owners worry about their land. As a painter I don’t ever recall worrying about the economics of a wall.
AM Radio said this on January 3, 2009 at 7:38 am