-empyre- lab3d reader

the dimensional internet

In May 2003 lab3d , a symposium and exhibition surveying of the world of the dimensionalised Internet and the landscape of computer games produced by Kathy Rae Huffman at Cornerhouse , Manchester, UK. Works form artists John Klima (USA), Feng Mengbo (China) Michael Pinsky (UK), Melinda Rackham (Australia), Anthony Rowe of SquidSoup (UK), and Tamiko Thiel (Germany/Japan)were installed throughout the gallery. Additionally over 20 works from the international juried Web3dArt2003 exhibition including Simon Biggs (UK), Steve Guynup (USA), Roya Jacoby (Germany/USA/UK), Patrick Keller (Switzerland), Michael Arnold Mages (USA), Adam Nash (Australia), Ales Vaupotic & Narvika Bovcon (Slovinia), Ayoub Sarouphim (Lebanon/USA), Edward Tang and Przemyslaw Moskal (USA), and Grégoire Zabé (France) were shown on monitors simultaneously at Cornerhouse, the ICA London, Folly in Lancaster, and the Experimental Art Foundation, Australia. Curators from several of these partner organisations including Lina Dzuverovic-Russell at ICA London, David Osbaldeston at Cornerhouse, Taylor Nuttall from Folly Gallery, Lancaster and Melentie Pandilovski of Experiemental Art Foundation, Adelaide will also join the discussion.3. Accompanied by a series of workshops and seminars, lab3d provided perhaps the most comprehensive overview of this diverse and intriguing arena to date.

Yet another dimension was added to this wide-ranging investigation in June 2003 when -empyre- online forum hosted in-depth discussion on the issues raised by these shows with artists from both lab3d and Web3dArt2003. The lively forum with many members of the -empyre- online community, who made particularly generous and insightful contributions to the debate, dissected many issues including the nature and renderings of 3d space; 3d games relation to 3d art; the creation of narratives within virtual environments; the cultural specificity of 3d art; and the aura of the 3d art object. Collectively -empyre- explored virtual environments as reactive organisms or artificial life, wandering into the aesthetics of single and multiuser worlds and the specific, though not insurmountable issues of showing and funding 3d interactive networked artworks in a gallery and museum system set up to show less physically interactive art forms.

The full texts of the forum, can be accessed online in the -empyre- archives for June 2003 and will be additionally archived for posterity in the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art at Cornell University. For a more comprehensive yet detailed version, a freeware Reader, with texts form both the offline lab3d symposium and the online forum, co-edited by Taylor Nuttall and myself, co-produced by Cornerhouse and Folly will be available later in 2003 for web download or from participating organizations.


click here for the discussion in June 2003
lab3D
the Dimensional Internet