Medialab Prado

The networked_performance blog, begun July 2004 by Joanne Green, Michelle Riel and Helen Thorington, is a project of the media arts organization turbulence.org. The blog chronicles art practice and research that is both live and networked. Mixed Realities is the current commission of turbulence.org. This paper presents the commissioned proposals as a point of departure to analyze current practice enabled by writable Web 2.0 technologies, programmable virtual worlds, and the networked real world.

Mixed Realities challenge our preconceptions of what constitutes "reality" asking producers to create environments that invite participants to act/perform in multiple spaces. Mixed Realities is a simultaneous exhibition that engages users in three discrete environments: the Internet (Turbulence.org), an online 3-D rendered environment (Ars Virtua SL – in the online synthetic world, Second Life), and physical space (Huret & Spector Gallery, Emerson College, Boston).

The works evaluate the concepts "virtual," "simulation", and "real" and provide experiences in which participants connect with one another and contribute to the creation of the work. They bridge multiple realities while maintaining autonomy; engage the user as a participant; include the dynamics of both one-to-one and one-to-many communication within the work; require collaboration between artists, programmers, scientists, and others; and encourage critical, social and cultural dialogue.

http://turbulence.org/blog/