Bruce Damer in Vancouver and 3D Harbour!

Here is a group pic featuring a pic of Noel Paul Stookey of Virtual Party and Peter Paul and Mary fame... I am the one who looks like an i-phone or a stretched out mixing console. Bruce Damer is the pharoah avatar below me and Emailman is the blue spiky guy from England...

Hey there Traveler Avatar Community Members and Assorted Blog Readers,

Yes, I realize it has been almost a full year since I last blogged here and I humbly apologize for my relative lack of activity in Traveler lately.

Those in the Traveler community have not seen much of me lately because I have been spending alot of time as a performance artist named Wirxli Flimflam in the mainstream virtual world, Second Life.

I do, however, truly miss all the Travelers I have come to know over the years and being back here again reminded me of all the fond times I have spent with the Traveler community these past few years. Digitalspace Traveler in general is a much closer community than in the more urban reality that belongs to Second Life.

Anyways, I returned to Traveler today because my friend Bruce Damer (who currently owns Traveler)gave a speech in Vancouver where I live...He actually gave a talk very close to where I live (about a 5 minute drive) but I could not attend in person due to the fact that my 2 year old son was being far too demanding to bring him along with me so I worked out a compromise with Bruce that I attend via Traveler instead.

The in-world portion of this event was hosted by Nick at 3D Harbour. Nick was actually the very first avatar that I ever met in Traveler way back in 2001 so this event was a sort of homecoming for me. I have always thought of Nick as the virtual equivalent of my guardian angel as he was the first to make me feel truly welcome in a potentially alienating virtual world.

Well, I was able to chat with Nick and his new friends Emailman and Circuit Breaker a fair bit (Magnus and Woo were also there) before Bruce arrived for a brief discussion about Traveler. I was also allowed to speak before the physical panel (I guess this presentation was projected into the conference space) and summarize what Traveler and its community meant to me... I should summarize here by saying my work as a documentarian and co-producer of this community back in 2003 for a DVD called AVATARA became much more than merely that of a cultural anthroplogist, I was an embedded community member from day one...

Well, here are a few more photos to help commemorate this nostalgic event:

Here I am posing with the Pharoah of Digitalspace, Bruce Damer...As you can see, my son was exhausting me behind the scenes....look how heavy my eyelids were drooping when this photo was taken... Sigh!

In this pic, I am posing with Nick (left) and a mixing console (right). Nick did a great job of creating this coffeeshop space in 3D Harbour!

Here is another pic where I zoomed out to show more of the space where Bruce was about to lecture in. I really like that laser-buttressed diamond down by the piano there...

As it was a chilly day in vancouver, I thought I would have my avatar cozy up right next to the fireplace...er.... IN the fireplace! OUCH! ;-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR...IT IS FINALLY 2007!

If you cannot see the video above, click here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - WELCOME TO 2007!

My name is Onto Distro and I am a performance artist from Vancouver, Canada who exhibits avatar performance art in the Digitalspace Traveler voice-chat community called Techworlds.

With me in this video is Dominic (Seattle, WA), Yacky (Santa Cruz, CA) , Tinker (Lima, Peru) and Alex (Battleford, MI). I highly suggest turning up the volume on your speakers when listening to this video as Dominic's voice sounds a little faint. He has a valid reason for being soft-spoken though as he was working on a tug-boat while hanging out in Techworlds. Tinker's voice switched briefly from male to female as his wife possesed his avatar to wish us all a New Year. MaxieX was also in the room but was not awake at the time so she regrettably did not appear in this New Year's greeting.

This New Year's message is primarily for the residents of the avatar world, Second Life.

I also happen to be an avatar performance artist in Second Life called Wirxli Flimflam.

I am hoping that Second-Lifers can also experience the community in Digitalspace Traveler...this is my New Year's Resolution for 2007. I am aware that some residents of Second Life are curious to experience the worlds in Digitalspace Traveler so I hope that you can visit my avatar and chat away in these wonderful embodied vitual spaces.

Please scroll down to view the archives from 2006.

Cheerios and Best Wishes,

Onto Distro

NEW VIDEO! HAPPY AMERICAN THANKSGIVING!

Video: Onto Distro (Vancouver, Canada) and Speaceman (Belgrade, Serbia) wishing everyone a happy American Thanksgiving. Canadians have already had their holiday and Serbians do not celebrate Thanksgiving at all but we were in a festive mood despite having no real connection to the holiday except perhaps a virtual connection...hee hee!

Hello there, bloggers!

If you cannot see the embedded video above, click on the direct link here.

Here is our American Thanksgiving Greeting recorded just a couple of hours before this blog was posted. Speaceman aka. Goran was a very friendly and chatty fellow who told me all his stories of the conflict that happened with Serbia in the tragically recent past. I hope he stays in touch with me as I would love to know more about life and the contemporary art scene in Belgrade!

Also, I wish to extend my formal thanks to the Techworlds avatar chat community for creating this room and for allowing us to exist!

Cheerios,
Onto Distro.

NEW! Video of Onto Distro testing out a new 3D blogworld!

...this video documents my first visit to what could potentially be my new 3D Blog. This avatar world was developed in France. It looks like I can upload streaming video and embed it directly into this avatar world which would be useful. Perhaps I will make a special avatar performance for this space? This video does not have any audio.

Below is a photo of me getting ready to enter my 3D blog for the first time. As you can see, I transferred my general "Onto Distro" essence directly on to my brand new humanoid form. I might change my hair colour to white, what do you think?


...and as a little bonus, here is a quickie video of my portrait being rendered into a noisy sound composition. I used Coagula to make this sound out of my portrait...

NEW VIDEO! ONTO DISTRO ATTENDING A LIVE CONCERT BY "IMAFLOATNKITTY"!

Hey there bloggers,

Here I am at the live avatar concert by imafloatnkitty...they sound great! I hope they have an official website and play again! Quite the catty ensemble! I decided to arrive as my original avatar self. I remind people of an audio-mixing console when I used to look like this so I figured it would be the most appropriate expression for the dress code.

imafloatnkitty is probably only the 2nd official avatar band to ever play in Techworlds or in Digitalspace Traveler, for that matter. The first known avatar band is called The Gates (ca. 2002) and comprises Gateskeeper and Gatescrasher....

Speaking of The Gates...scroll down, to see a celebrity sighting...

Cheerios,
Onto Distro

NEW VIDEO! GATESKEEPER FROM "THE GATES" SPOTTED AT AN "IMAFLOATNKITTY" LIVE CONCERT!

Hey there bloggers,

While I was attending and being a videographer for the imafloatnkitty concert in the room WorldsAway at Techworlds, I spotted Gateskeeper from the first avatar band, The Gates. He was checking out the scene.

Cheerios,
Onto Distro

NEW VIDEO! ESCAPE FROM MAURITIUS!

Hey there bloggers,

This is the video that will be screened in Mauritius on November 10, 2006.
Krishna Luchoomun is one of the many organizers who belongs to the pARTage association and from what I understand, it will be for their pARTage group exhibition.

I wish to thank the whole association of pARTage for allowing me to perform there and screen this video. I plan to be available live at 17:30 PM Mautitius local time on November 10th to appear once again as a fleeing Cyberdodo and if caught by the audience, will answer their questions and comments.

For this performance, I am claiming to be a reincarnated dodo bird who disguises himself as a dragon (me) to avoid being detection from the local inhabitants.

This Cyberdodo has no torso and can fly...he is one of the few who can escape extinction on Mauritius.


Cheers,
Onto Distro

NEW VIDEO! Onto Distro's Announcement for the Yahoo Time Capsule!

YOUTUBE VERSION...


GOOGLE VIDEO VERSION (same video)...



Hey there bloggers!
Here I am in my original ONTO avatar form to speak to some Extraterrestrial (ET) and Extradimensional (ED) entities from beyond our earthly realm. I am speaking inside a cyberspaceship invented by Dominic from the Techworlds community...Check out the You Tube video above!

I also give tribute to Alfred Lambremont Webre's Exopolitics strategy for "alien" diplomacy.

Also, check out the Yahoo Time Capsule Project.
Cheerios,
Onto Distro

Distro's Hype Video for Extreme Solutions Unlimited

Hi there bloggers,

Here is my video where I officially recite hype for the brand new media arts group, Extreme Solutions which was founded by Douglas Davis in New York.
This announcement was recited in a room designed by Antonio DML for the Techworlds avatar community.

Douglas will be formally be announcing the creation of Extreme Solutions on one of his own blogs very shortly...stay tuned!

Avatarial regards,
Distro.

My first video blog

Check out this video...I plan to post many more in the near future.
I have just uploaded a new video at Saatchi Gallery's site in London.
Check it out at: http://video.saatchigallery.com/artist/details.php?id=11301

I am looking for someone to commission me to make some virtual sculptures in Digitalspace Traveler that only the collector (and/or curator) can see....and now, please scroll down to read more of my blog....

I am Distro, welcome to my blog!

question period in Tehran on July 28th

...here is a photo of an Iranian girl asking me questions about the aesthetics of my performance (and of Cyberspace in general). A guy named William who was visiting from London, translated her questions from Persian to English for me. And yes, that is my good ol' demonic red avatar self being broadcast directly into the gallery space.

This photo was taken by Hadi Kalhor.

Tehran performance attendence on July 28th

..as you can see, there was about 30 people attending my performance at the Azad Gallery in Tehran. I am not sure how many of these people asked me questions. I think there were about 5 or 6 people asking me questions after my State of the Union address. This photo was taken by Hadi Kalhor.

Tehran Performance a Success!

My performance on July 28th, 2006 that was broadcast in the Azad Gallery in Tehran (Iran)turned out to be very succesful and a very fun and illuminating experience for me. Above is a picture of myself and the curator Barbad Golshiri doing a tech-check a day before the event took place. Barbad's avatar eyes acted as the Azad Gallery's camera into this virtual and interactive space.

The online world only crashed 2 times which in the Traveler Digitalspace community is a miracle.

This performance which was called
"Distro's State of the Union Address: A contingency plan for Cyberspace" opened up the opportunity for the Iranian Artistic and Intellectual community to interact and chat with my avatar and discuss the utopian possibilties for Cyberspace itself to act as a community of refuge and support.

This performance was also the first in a series of International performances being organized by Douglas Davis and his collaborative curatorial group called Extreme Solutions. Extreme Solutions is planning to host many more physical and disembodied performances between North America (Vancouver and New York) and Tehran. You can check out his blogs at: www.douglasdavis.blogspot.com

Here is the official speech from Extreme Solutions (authored by Douglas Davis) that I recited during the performance in Tehran:

"THIS AVATAR PERFORMANCE IS THE FIRST FIRECRACKER FROM EXTREME SOLUTIONS,
UNLTD;, CO-FOUNDED BY DOUGLAS DAVIS, BARBAD GOLSHIRI, NEDA RAZAVIPOUR,
AND JEREMY TURNER--THREE SOCIETIES ACTING AS ONE CULTURAL DISCOURSE, CONSULTING WITH NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, JOHN CARL WARNECKE IN SAN FRANCISCO, FRANK GEHRY IN LOS ANGELES, AND OTHERS DETERMINED TO PROVE IN A SERIES OF PERFORMANCES THAT LIFE
DENIE DEATH, LOVE KILLS HATE WITH SHEER PLEASURE,, THE WEB AND THE BLOG
ARE THE FUTURE, GOD, ALLAH, JESUS, AND MOHAMMED ARE ONE, AND THAT JANE
BELL (Douglas's Wife - ed.)IS IMMORTAL, ALONG WITH ALL OF US NOW INTERACTING THROUGH MY AVATAR. WATCH OUT! WE ARE COMING AFTER YOU IN 2006 AND 2007 TO OFFER
YOU A BILLION-LINE ONLINE DRAWING IN WHICH YOU WILL BE THE SUPREME
STAR."

So in addition to reciting this promo-text for Extreme Solutions I also delivered a long winded State of the Union Address modeled after Jimmy Carter's 1978 original address...here is what I recited in its entirety:

"Greetings Azad Gallery, Barbad Golshiri, Members of the Iranian artistic and intellectual community, Curators and Critics:

My name is Distro and I am one of the artistic representatives of the Digitalspace Traveler avatar community.

It has been about 5 years now since I first re-materialized in disembodied form as a square-head and later a red dragon head and eventually produced art comfortably as a free agent in this paranormal online dimension known to most of you as Cyberspace.
I appear tonight to fulfill one of my duties as an artist avatar in Cyberspace: to give to your artists—and to your physical Nation, Iran—information on the state of the Virtual Union.

Culturally, philosophically, and in spirit, the state of our Union is sound.
The realm of Cyberspace is a free domain, a global, a virtual and an ethereal domain—and so we will remain.

I want to speak to you tonight about who we are and where all of us, especially those in danger must go, about what we have done and what we must do.

Each generation and nation of artists regardless of cultural upbringing has to face circumstances not of its own choosing, but by which its character is measured and its spirit is tested.

Artists of this generation in Iran in particular have been the most connected in online culture in recent memory and so this is one of the many reasons why I seek direct solidarity with your various endeavors.

I am now pleased to announce that in 14th Century Iran, many artists in Tehran may no longer have to deal with feelings of isolation and desperation alone.

We can now play in a world where peaceful UN observers will never again be caught in the crossfire of this perpetual insanity, we call the “real” world.

At such times, the risk of feeling trapped inside the “real world” can be equally great. It becomes the task of artistic visionaries and avatars to call forth the vast and restless energies of your artists and intellectuals to transcend towards the future.

It's an achievement that belongs to every individual whether they be Iranian or Canadian. This unity ties together, and it towers over all our efforts here in Vancouver and Tehran, and it serves as an inspiring beacon for all of us who have chosen to transform from a human into an avatar.

As an Avatar, I've had to ask you, Azad art Gallery, and you, the Iranian people, to embrace the idea that in your year 1385, the virtual grass is finally greener on the other side.

We here in Tehran, Vancouver and in the Traveler community must move away from the specter of crisis management.

We must establish clear goals for the future-immediate and the distant future—which will let us work together and not in conflict.

Never again should we neglect a growing crisis like the perceived clash of civilizations, where further delay will only lead to more harsh and painful solutions.

Every day the offline population spends trillions of dollars on depleting material resources, watercolor kitsch, so-called “reality TV” and foreign wars.
This slows their aesthetic growth, it lowers the value of the dollar overseas, and it aggravates restlessness and technophobia when they are at home.

Now we know what we must do—increase creativity and connectivity. We must cut down our dimensional dependence on the material world. And we must use more of those pixels which are plentiful and more permeable.

We must be fair to people, and we must not disrupt an artists’ creativity and budget.

Now, that sounds simple, perhaps even Utopian. But I recognize the difficulties involved. My main task in Cyberspace this year, providing all involved still has a computer and modem connection available to consistently journey to this world, is Iran’s future connectivity.

We must continue the connectivity and further cut modem crashes and bandwidth deflation.

Now, I didn't have any simple answers for all these problems. But I am promoting a contingency plan that is working, because it's available, discrete, and new.
We will keep contributing our virtual welcome mats to maintain the momentum of the current cultural tensions and to keep open the lines of communication among the leaders of Iran’s Intelligensia.

We Iranians, Canadians and World Citizens (even Americans) have a great deal of work to do together as Avatars. In the end, how well we express our calling will depend on the spirit in which we approach it.

I am now available for the remainder of this evening for questions and answers you may have about becoming part of this growing Cyberspace community and for how one such as yourself can transcend your biological body and genetic identity and become a tele-dimensional avatar.

You and me and the Azad Gallery....We are an artistic community, a beloved community, all of us. Our individual fates are linked, our futures intertwined. And if we act in that knowledge and in that spirit, together, we can move megabytes.

Thank you very much. I am now officially available for any questions or casual correspondence."

My speech lasted about 20 minutes and then I was available for questions and answers from the Azad Gallery audience for the remaining 3 hours. The questions were great and very challenging. The topics of the questions ranged from the Baudrillardian concept of Hyperreality to the controversial topic of government survellience and community Utopianism and the ethics of escaping the pressures of the "real world".

Tehran Tech Check

Here is a sneak-peek behind the tech check. This is pic is of the Azad Gallery space (offline) where Barbad Golshiri is manning the communications console and preparing the space for my live avatar performance which was broadcast on July 28th, 2006 in Tehran, Iran.

My Avatar Performance in Tehran, Iran

LIVE INTERNET PERFORMANCE

Date and time: Friday, July 28th, 2006, 4 - 8 PM (Standard Time + 0330 UTC)


Avatar Performer: Jeremy Owen Turner ("Distro") - Vancouver, Canada
Gallery Broadcast Location: Azad Art Gallery (No 41, Salmas Sq, Golha Sq, Tehran - Tel: +9821-88008676)

Cyberspace Location: "The Matrix" in OzGate. www.OzGate.com
To know more about the artist, please download the attached doc file (CV).

For more information please contact
ideatron@gmail.com or barbad@gmail.com


زمان: جمعه، ششم مرداد ماه 1385، از ساعت 16 الي 20.

مكان پرفورمانس: گالري آزاد، ميدان گلها، ميدان سلماس، شماره­ي 41.

تلفن: 88008676

براي آشنايي بيشتر با اين هنرمند، فايل وُرد ضميمه شده (CV) را داونلود كنيد.

September 11th - my virtual makeover and a retro SSTV transmission

Hey there bloggers,

I went to Shoppers Drug Mart's virtual makeover page...what do you think?
I think I look very fetching.



This makeover session took place in the future - September 11th, 2006
The best thing about blogging is the ability to revise history :-)


Happy Makeovers,
Distro
p.s. prepare for a real blast from the past next...

blast from the past

Hello Bloggers,

Here is what I used to look like between the years of 2001-2004...

I can still look like this if I choose to (I just took this pic of me in my old incarnation of "Onto Distro" in Oseberg, Techworlds).

I will need to go through my old archives to show genuine screenshots from those innocent times...

Most of you now know me as the dragon avatar below...

Flux-Aid - Proposal for Franklin Furnace

Hi again,

I just finished chairing an avatar conference for the Web Biennial in Istanbul. It was a great success! Panelists included: Patrick Lichty, Teoman Madra and Dimitris Fotiou. The video should be on www.webbiennial.org very soon.

In other news, I am applying for an avatar performance grant at Franklin Furnace in New York. It will be called "Flux-Aid" and will be a tribute for the original Fluxus Collective on 80 Wooster Street where my friend Douglas Davis lives - www.douglasdavis.blogspot.com

The pic above is of me in a Subway Train...I plan to perform 47 original Fluxus performances in Traveler. Fluxus is one of the very first performance art collectives in the world and they began in NYC...I hope to have pix of myself rehearsing these classic performances very soon.
For now, it is just a pic of me in the subway...

Here is the list of performances I plan to re-enact:

SELECTED FLUXUS AVATAR PERFORMANCE LIST:

Distro
Formal Plea To Save The Fluxhaus At 80 Wooster Street (2006)

Eric Andersen (ROOM TBA)
Opus 46 (1963)
Opus 9 (1961)
Opus 11 (1961)
Opus 13 (1961)
Opus 21 (1961) - Announce X
Opus 23 (1963)

George Brecht
Word Event (1961)
Word Event, Fluxversion 1 (1961)

Henning Christiansen
Dialectical Evolution V (Date Unknown)

Jed Curtis
Music For My Son (Date Unknown)
Opus 1 (Date Unknown)

Luce Fierens
Possible Flux Performances or PostFluxGames (Excerpt, 1987)

Bici Forbes
Become Invisible (1966)

Peter Frank
Thank You Piece (Date Unknown)
Paradigm (For Dick Higgins, 1983)

Lee Heflin
First Performance (Date Unknown)

Dick Higgins
Danger Music Number Eleven (For George, 1962)
Danger Music Number Seventeen (1962)
Danger Music Number Thirty-One (For George Maciunas, 1963)

Bengt af Klintberg
Identification Exercise (1966)
Orange Event Number 1 (ca. 1963-1965)
Orange Event Number 7 (ca. 1963-1965)
Orange Event Number 8 (ca. 1963-1965)
Orange Event Number 16 (ca. 1963-1965)
Orange Event Number 24 (ca. 1963-1965)
Forest Event Number 6 (1966)

Alison Knowles
Shuffle (1961)

Takehisa Kosugi
South No. 3 [Malika] (1965)

Bob Lens
#257 (Date Unknown)

Jackson Mac Low
A Word Event for George Brecht (1961)
Thanks - A simultaneity for the people (1960-1961)

Larry Miller
Chewed Drawing (1968)

Yoko Ono
Wall Piece for Orchestra To Yoko Ono (1962)
Fly Piece (1963)

Willem de Ridder
Nap (1964)

Anne Tardos
Bean Snow (for Alison) (1994)

Ben Vautier
Radio (1961)
Nothing (1962)
Run (1963)
Mystery Food (1963)


Wolf Vostell
Audience Piece No. 8 (1965)

Robert Watts
Washroom (1962)
Subway Event (1962)

Emmett Williams
The Gift of Tongues (1962)
Vocal Struggle for Dick Higgins (1963)
Duet for Performer and Audience (1961)
For La Monte Young (1962)

Another Subway Pic

Only my intro performance will take place in this Subway train...

Here is another pic of me on the Subway Train

Instructions

If you wish to summon your new cyberspace pal, chant the name "Onto Distro" and then scroll down through the previous posts....

one moment please...

...

please be patient...wait right there

I am closing in on you...

closer and....

closer....

one sec...

almost there....

Greetings!

Welcome to my blog!

Greeatings Traveler! Thanks for summoning me from the TV set. My name is Onto Distro... You can call me "Distro" for short.

Welcome to my official blog :-)

I have been many things (avatars) to many people. Here is my newest incarnation.

Stay tuned for more about my life in the avatar community, "Digitalspace Traveler".

See you soon,
Distro