My work “memorySLot” has moved far from the startpoint. I knew from the beginning that this piece would not have a fixed outcome, because the aim was to work processual within my theme trace and memory and poetizing the datastream.

My memory SLot is the blue light sphere in the memory scape – a sphere in which you can look into the past. She is a slot as in holder of memories. It points at the computer as an archive of memory. For many people it is important to have a big memory card in the slot of the computer, so we can store our documents, pictures, videos and information.

We store traces of our thoughts, of our lust for information and new experiences on the computer. The traces become memories of what we have been working with and acknowledged as important to remember. “Memory SLot” is a poetization of this data stream. Without memory you are always a new face.

My memory SLot is also a slot as in Slot Machine. Where you gamble and deal there is light. Light attracts people and signalizes life. The flashing light symbolizes Second Life as a free zone for buying and selling. When there is a customer in the shop – the red light goes on. This is the eventzone – zone for experiencing, playing, keeping and discarding as the notecards in SL ask you: do you want to keep or discard?

So this lead me to instead of working with creating an organic body – breething and embodying her – my way led to working with light as the main metaphor.

Moving images are also a a question of light; of creating an illusion. In this piece the moving images are from real life but in SL they becomes an abstraction of light from a metropolis.

You can keep the memories by finding the url to the video clip in your chat history. You click and you get directed to the website for the video and here you can download the clip to your own computer. – And this is an open piece in that sense, that I can upload new videos in the url refreshing and updating the memories of the memory SLot.

Is Second Life an illusion; a grotesque mirroring of reality without consequences and trace of our actions? Is Second Life a new form of illusionistic theatre, where we can perform, act out and understand situations from the real life through our avatars? Are our experiences in SL virtual or real? Experiences and memories are real no matter in which world they are created.

So you trade with her. You feed her with a trace of you – leaving your name and thereby your profile – for a flickering glimse of her memory. You become registered at least as customer.

memorySLot by Annette Finnsdottir/Nettska Dreamscape 2008
sl scripts: Johan Bichel

electronics & rl-programming: Jacob Remin
electronics: Mogens Jacobsen

lightsigns: Hans E Madsen
Sound: Kenn Mouritzen
Graphics: Nis Sigurdsson and Skiltebanden

We presented the artist Nis Rømer and his “Hans Blix’s glasses – A memorial to the Iraq war” and Jan Northoff and his “Second Life Art Festival@newBerlin”.

RealityHUB Naja Nielsen took the photos from the event.

Installationview from Statens Museum for Kunst into Second Life and Second Life ArtFair@newBerlin by Jan Northoff

Guests at the launching of 3.exhibition in the exhibitionrow “Virtual Moves”

RealityHUB Gylle Svanholmer hosts the launching on the Tagging Art Platform in SL.

ArtistTalk with Nis Rømer

ArtistTalk with Jan Northoff

Installationview from “Hans Blix’s glasses – A memorial to the Iraq war”

Launching guests listening

Jan Northoff with Peter Kirkhoff from Karriere

Accident Designs is his own development studio and it is amazing what he can do. He designed the platform for Tagging Art, optimized our blog and he has scripted for many of the artists in the Virtual Moves-exhibitions.

Johan has been working with me on developing Memory SLot coming up with scripting and designsolutions. He is also hosting memory SLot 500 m up in the air above his land The Raft in SL.

Johan as Sophie Zhu scripting on memory SLot

It has been fascinating to work with moving images in the 3-D invironment. In SL you can use moving images as textures wrapping it round the 3-D objects and you are thus released in some ways from the flat screen. At one point I wanted moving white light on my platform which I would create with videoclip. Johan suggested to script white light made with particles instead of importing videoclip and this makes this beautiful light mood on the platform.

Another brilliant solution Johan came up with was the stars. I would like the avatars to trade traces of them for a flickering memory of memory SLot. This could be done by giving memory SLot an object from the inventory. But that could be quite dangerous, Johan pointed out. Some avatars might give memory SLot big objects or scripts which could destroy the artwork and make it impossible to see. It was too dangerous an opening. He suggested a very intuitive interface for the interaction between the avatar and the artwork. We decided that the avatar could leave a trace in form of his/her name on a glimpse of light. More I will not reveal before the launching tomorrow.

On Johans wiki (wiki.accidentdesigns.com ) you can find the some of the scripts Johan has written for memory SLot. They are open source free for you to use.

Jacob uses Arduino for my project and I visited him at the workspace on Nørrebro, which he shares with the 8bitklub (www.8bitklubben.dk). 8bitklubben works with – and intermediate – creative technlogy and they just hosted a workshop at the Royal Academy of Art.

Jacob had been testing the interactivity of memorySLot with Johan Bichel in SL the night before. Johan is the SecondLife-advisor of Tagging Art and has been doing a lot of scripting for the artists in Virtual Moves. They met as their avatars: Johan as Sophie Zhu and Jacob as Kuba Juutilainen.

Johans avatar Sophie is the flying object scripting the test object in SL.

Jacob showed me how the signal from SL worked perfectly with the php-script and the light in the lightbulbs shifted from one to the other as it was supposed. We just need to put a soundeffect on, then the RL-part of memorySLot is ready.

We presented the artist Ida Grøn and her “Keep in Touch” and Kristoffer Gansing & Linda Hilfling and their “Calculating ‘Danmark’”.

RealityHUB Maja Nydal Eriksen took the photos from the event.

Art Manager Anne Holmfred presents Tagging Art and their project Virtual Moves in gallery 6 at Statens Museum for Kunst. Curator Iben Bentzen from Tagging Art is standing by.

Blogmaster Annette Finnsdottir from Tagging Art presents the blog.

Calculating “Danmark”

Kristoffer Gansing presents Linda Hilflings and his work: Calculating “Denmark”. Johan Bichel, Tagging Arts SL’s advisor, on Kristoffers left side and Linda Hilfling on his right are listening closely with the other guests.

Ida Grøn presenting her work “Keep in Touch”.

A guest with a glass of Russian Champagne and Ida Grøns “Keep in Touch” behind her.

Linda Hilfling in front of hers and Kristoffers calculator with the Danish Taxoffice in SL in the background.

After the presentations there was time for relaxed conversations: Artist Mogens Jacobsen with Elisabeth Cederstrøm from Statens Museum For Kunst, Kristoffer Gansing with friend and Art Manager Anne Holmfred with her boyfriend Peter.

Calculating “Danmark” and launching guests