Last year, three Australian artists were awarded a $20,000 grant from the Australia Council to produce an artwork for virtual world Second Life. Well, it's live, and it's called Babelswarm - an interactive sculpture based on the Tower of Babel - complete with a companion exhibition in the real world at the Lismore Regional Gallery.
The idea involves visitors typing in words, and seeing letters fall from the sky to make up the tower. It also supports voice input from within Second Life, or in the Lismore gallery. One of the three artists, Christopher Dodds, has explained to the Sydney Morning Herald the appeal of working with virtual art:
“Inside Second Life the user can walk up to these sculptures and interact with them - get inside them, move around them. This is the inherent beauty of virtual art - it’s possible to create objects and experiences that aren’t possible in the real world.”
They’re now taking the idea further, with plans for an Australian Centre of Virtual Art, to curate these kinds of artworks, taking in a website and a gallery within Second Life.
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