The Brooder at Galeria Olga Santos

The Brooder was originally conceived as a virtual installation on Second Life.

The crossover between virtual worlds and tangible world (especially the virtual and tangible artworlds) is not easy. With funding you can make something quite spectacular, but still not easy…

Artists, curators and critics from the virtual art world often complain about using these worlds just to simulate the tangible artworld, disregarding the specificity of virtual worlds’ media and possibilities.

When showcasing our virtual world in the tangible world, we have faced the exact opposite problem. Sometimes people want to replicate the experience of being immersed in a collaborative virtual environment, and the possibilities they afford. We don’t believe immersive experiences in the tangible world are impossible. That would be quite foolish, because there has been plenty of immersive art in museums, galleries and public spaces. What we find impossible to replicate is the experience of being immersed in a creative collaborative virtual environment in a museum or gallery, etc. We can provide a computer with an avatar logged in the specific space of the virtual world you want to show. But that is definitely not the same experience as having your own, expressive avatar actually exploring and interacting with that place.

In this exhibition we decided to show in tangible world all the things you can create using virtual worlds, like virtual photos and machinimas, but which are now a different thing, not the virtual world itself.

We think art from virtual worlds should be experienced in virtual worlds! But we can make other artworks there, to be experienced in the tangible world. This connection is important, not only because any form of expression is a valid way of expression, but because it connects different audiences and places.