Becoming Dragon - a 365 hour immersive performance in Second Life

Becoming Dragon - a 365 hour immersive performance in Second Life
December 1-16th
Opening December 1st, 7-9pm
Daily Hours, 11am-7pm

Where: The Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA),
Atkinson Hall, Visiting Artist Lab #1613, UCSD, and in Second Life at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seventh%20Eye/186/12/35

Contact: Micha Cárdenas, 619-750-8851, mcardenas@ucsd.edu
or IM Azdel Slade in Second Life

Poster here: http://sdhacklab.org/becomingdragon/bd-poster2.jpg
http://sdhacklab.org/becomingdragon/bd-poster2-1024.jpg
http://sdhacklab.org/becomingdragon/bd-poster2-700.jpg

Calendar of Events throughout the performance, all times are SLT, Second
Life Time, which corresponds to Pacific Standard Time. Attend these
events by coming to the space in second life or real life or going to
one of the broadcast locations.

Dec 3rd, 3pm,
Voice Chat with Sandy Stone, also broadcast at the LGBT center at UCSD.
"Gender and Desire in Virtual Worlds"
http://sandystone.com

Dec 4th, 6pm
Transgender Artists and Transformation, panel at the Rubber Rose
http://therubberrose.com

Dec 5th, 5pm
"Something is Happening"
UCSD Symposium on Performance and Affect
http://visarts.ucsd.edu

Dec 8th, 6pm
Voice Chat with Stelarc
"The Body in Transmission/Transition: Learning to Live in Mixed Realities"
also broadcast in Tijuana live at Lui Velazquez
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au
http://luivelazquez.com

Dec 10th, 2pm
Voice Chat with Brian Holmes and Rubaiyat Shatner
"Imagining New Worlds, Biopolitics and Self-Governance in SL"
http://arsvirtua.com
http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/

Becoming Dragon is a mixed reality, durational performance in Second
Life, in CRCA's Visiting Artist Lab #1613 of the Atkinson Hall building,
on the UC San Diego campus. The opening begins at 7pm on December 1st,
2008 and the performance will run for 365 hours. The performance is
Micha Cárdenas' final MFA project.

Becoming Dragon questions the one year requirement of Real Life
Experience that transgender people must fulfill in order to receive
Gender Confirmation Surgery (Sexual Reassignment Surgery), and asks if
this could be replaced by one year of Second Life Experience to lead to
Species Reassignment Surgery. For the performance, Micha Cárdenas will
live for 365 hours immersed in Second Life with a head mounted display,
so that all she will see is Second Life, and a motion capture system to
map her movements into Second Life. The performance space will be open
to the public for the duration, during the hours that the building is
open, 9am to 7pm. During the entire duration of the performance Micha
will stay in the performance space at CRCA and in Second Life.

Becoming Dragon is receiving support from the Center for Research in
Computing and the Arts, CalIT2, University of California Institute for
Research in the Arts, Ars Virtua, the gallery@calit2, the b.a.n.g. lab
and the Embodied Cognition Lab of the cognitive Science Department.

See the performance in Second Life here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seventh%20Eye/186/12/35

Read Micha's live blogging from Second Life during the performance at:
http://secondloop.wordpress.com

Hours and Location:
CRCA, Atkinson Hall, Room 1613
Hours: 11am-7pm, Opening Dec. 1, 2008, 7pm,
Continuing for 365 hours, roughly 3 weeks

First Floor, Atkinson Hall
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093
Map & Directions: http://atkinsonhall.calit2.net/directions/

post.thing.net

Becoming Dragon - a 365 hour immersive performance in Second Life