Virtual Stevie Wonder: Streaming Performativity in Second Life
Embedded in one of the 3D objects in my Virtual Peale (Center) exhibition is a description of the process I use to make visual images: Neural style transfer is an optimization technique used to take three images, a content image, a style reference image (such as an artwork by a famous painter), and the input image you want to style — and blend them together such that the input image is transformed to look like the content image, but “painted” in the style of the style image.
There is a lot happening in this virtual showing: my avatar, the artwork itself, the purchase information when the art is clicked on, the notecards visitors receive when they click on the kiosks next to the art. Visitors (as avatars) can interact/communicate “in-world” such as through the Chat (voice or text).
Another aspect of the Second Life experience is virtual performativity that refers to the capacity of communication to trigger actions. Theories of performativity can include social media (ex. Instagram or IG) and virtual reality. Instead of simply documenting what takes place in IG/SL, there is a kind of ‘meta experience’ that involves the performers and their audiences.
Instagram (IG) has become a platform where people can watch their favorite artists/DJs perform live such as squaring-off and sharing music from their catalogs. I’ve been showing up for Verzuz events in IG, including one between Jill Scott and Erykah Badu. Questlove, whose IG sessions have been popular, streamed an earlier Verzuz battle between Teddy Riley and Babyface from his own IG account. This is when I started to think about the meta-experience. From Starr Rhett Rocque:
[P]eople’s hopes were dashed when Teddy could not get his sound together — that’s when this entire situation became a saga. He had several mics set up, a band, and a hype man, and not only was it distracting, but the mics created an echo that made it impossible to enjoy the music. Neither Teddy — who came off like a Luddite attempting to use IG Live for the first time — nor any of the people in the studio with him could figure out how to get the sound together…
People were switching over from the live performers’ IG accounts to Questlove’s to experience the event together. We had the view of our screens as well as Questlove’s live stream that showed us the Verzuz battle. There were multiple entry points: each one presented a different perspective and created a different experience for the creators and participants.
When Riley’s IG account went down, Babyface picked up his guitar to perform. Those of us in Questlove’s account could hear the reactions of people who were present in his room, as well as see reactions in chat and on social media. During his Monday session last week, Questlove announced that his team had created an IG account for Stevie Wonder to host a 24-hour marathon for Wonder’s 70th birthday. The event included six DJs, including Questlove, and each DJ had four hours to play music.
During the Wonder marathon I created a new Deep Dream portrait and put it on display in Second Life. Performances in virtual 3D reality can be live or synchronous and/or asynchronous. I experimented with creating a live video stream using YouTube and Twitch into SL by using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). After the event was over, I left kiosk/screen in SL that plays one of Stevie Wonder’s performances via YouTube.
Currently, the Stevie Wonder art in SL cycles or moves to the left in a loop and right next to it is the video of Wonder playing via YouTube. I’m working on setting up a media player (in SL) to stream a live performance by Baltimore’s Afro House into the Virtual Peale exhibition space, then create virtual art (2D and 3D) around that. The SL avatars can perform, as well.
The Greek term “meta” literally refers to something “above, beyond, or about” something else. The meta-experience in SL changes peoples’ points of view (they can see parts that they can’t see in real life) and changes the scope of time and space.