SaveMe Oh - A Retrospective

“Give me hot or give me cold – just never give me tepid.”

-Trad. prob. derived from Revelations 3:16

SaveMe Oh Retrospective by SaveMe Oh

SaveMe Oh is one of the most interesting and unique artists currently working in Second Life. She herself is not however easily categorised, and neither is her work – if indeed the two can in fact be split.

She has been ejected and banned from more SL regions, art galleries and installations than anyone else I can think of.

SaveMe has, among her other talents, an unerring ability to piss people off.

Although SaveMe is a prolific filmmaker, a creator of in-world installations and a performance-artist of some repute it is probably fair to say that, actually, it is “SaveMe Oh” herself that is the “artwork”. And I don’t say that lightly; I am quite aware how trite and clichéd it may sound.

SaveMe’s mere presence always causes an effect – sometimes hot, sometimes cold – but never tepid. I have been at a number of exhibitions where worried curators have in hushed whispers asked, “Is SaveMe Oh coming?” More often than not their ban hammer is primed and ready.

And make no mistake - there is no doubt that SaveMe’s presence can be disruptive; there is no doubt she is capable of being wicked, even cruel; and there is also no doubt she is openly critical of other artists.

But despite this – perhaps even *because* of this – her work always carries with it a sense of humour and fun…so long as you yourself are not the target!

I first met SaveMe – and I wouldn’t expect her to remember this – but I first met her at an AM Radio installation, no less, when I’d only been in SL a few months. At this particular installation it was possible to “spray paint” graffiti onto the side of a railway locomotive. I was there to film a sequence for No Self Control; SaveMe was there for her own nefarious reasons. We both wanted to use the spray-paint tool at the same time. SaveMe graciously let me go first. I studied her profile, as I do most anyone who comes into my range, and found my way to her films and blog. I have to say, it took me a while to “get it” and actually enjoy what she is doing. Over the last 2+ years I have had long discussions about her work with Iono Allen and Tutsy Navarathna, both of whom respect what she is doing; I have also watched many of her films and also attending her installations and performance art.

As recognition of her work, AviewTV are currently running a retrospective of SaveMe’s machinima. The venue, like SaveMe herself, is larger-than-life, fun and utterly uncompromising.

I spent two hours there on Sunday evening and will return again during the week. Her movies are streamed to various “screens” of all shapes and sizes. It was very enjoyable and I recommend it.

I had seen many of SaveMe’s films before. Some of the films contain nudity, many are provocative or controversial but the one common thread running through all of them is their *great* soundtracks!

Whether it be a self-hypnosis track, a Leonard Cohen song, El Tigre, Elvis Presley, Bessie Banks, Minnie Riperton, Billy Brown or any of a host of many others the choice is always engaging, and often fun.

Using her work to convey her ideas, concepts, feelings, disdain and scorn seem important to SaveMe. If SaveMe has an opinion she'll find one way or another to express it regardless of what we might think of that opinion or of her for expressing it. And if SaveMe’s intention is that her work provokes a response, any response, then she has succeeded beyond most any other artist I know of in Second Life. I certainly doubt that SaveMe is attempting to make us gasp with her technical prowess or regale us with special effects; I suspect this is of little or no interest to her.

Selecting one of SaveMe’s films to embed here was quite difficult. There are many I could have chosen. In the end I opted for ‘Go To Hell’ released three years ago. The reason is that is seems to be a personal story and conveys personal emotion, something I enjoy in any film but which is particularly difficult to do in machinima.

Check out SaveMe’s blog, the ninety-odd films on her Vimeo channel and visit the Retrospective for a better appreciation of SaveMe’s work and her influence – both hot and cold – within the Second Life art community.

Crazy Horses!

JayJay Zifanwe – a guy whose name is re-occurring on this blog more times than can possibly be healthy for a happily married man – circulated a notecard stating that the UWA Grand Finale Artworks for 2009/10 and 2010/11 would be on display at the UWA Winthrop region until end of January 2012.

Naughty Nataly & I went along for a look-see.

Now, whereas I can be pretty opinionated about what I like and don’t like, Naughty Nataly can be downright caustic.

I have seen grown artists brought to tears as she pummels them with her rapier-like bluntness!

I like my virtual 3D installation-art to be immersive and engaging. I do not want to stand and simply “look” at a piece of work.

I want to sit on it and walk on it.

I want the hear it.

I want to collide with it, I want to touch it.

I want to be sensed and detected.

I want to engage with it. And be engaged by it.

I want to immerse.

There is much work in SL which accomplishes this. Equally, there is much that does not.

A certain amount of virtual 3D art consists of rotating prims containing a texture animation script. The complexity of the prims might differ from installation to installation, as might the size. The intricacy of movement will likely vary too. Similarly, the texture and its accompanying animation script will differ.

But, unfortunately, when I see such work, not only do I fail to be excited or motivated but I often think “we’ve seen this all before.”

SaveMe Oh – l’enfant terrible of the SL art world – has aptly, and really rather astutely in my opinion, labelled such work “screensaver art”.

Now, that’s not to say that SaveMe and I will necessarily always like the same art. Not at all. Further, I strongly suspect she would not like my own work at all, if only because of the use of After Effects, but on the question of "screensaver art" – and a number of other issues – we are certainly in agreement.

With all this in mind, Nataly & I fly around the UWA Winthrop region quickly discounting various installations and investigating others.

And then we came across ‘The Wild Wild World of Illusion’ by RazorZ – and stop dead in our tracks.

This is a fabulous installation.

It ticks off all the boxes on my personal checklist of what an ideal virtual 3D installation should be, and - importantly - should *do*.

It is also great fun with a gentle but skilful “Keystone Kop” type sense of humour.

RazorZ uses the installation to compare Second Life with the Wild West of the old USA and more recently ‘spaghetti western’ films. I totally get that and toyed with similar concepts and sentiments in my machinima ‘Showdown’.

In ‘Showdown’ I used clips from Michael Crichton’s ‘Westworld’, Lawrence Kasdan’s ‘Wyatt Earp’ and Sergio Leone’s ever-classic ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ to reinforce the spaghetti-western-type “showdown” that was about to occur in Second Life. RazorZ himself cites ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ as an influence in his installation.

I made a short film of ‘The Wild Wild World of Illusion’ (embedded below) but would like to say that to really *experience* the dynamic energy of this installation, to be properly deceived by the skill of its illusion, to see how detailed and fun it truly is – well, y’all just have to go teleport over and see it for yourself. But hurry, it will be gone at the end of January!

Nataly enjoyed this installation *so much* and had *so much* fun that she almost stopped being naughty for a few minutes!

Almost.

“Pixie-Squeak,” she said, “I want to rugby-tackle those horses to the ground and take them home and have their babies.”

“Nataly!” I said for probably the twentieth time that day, “That is *so* naughty!”

Pixie xx

Being Bobo Puddlegum

"The reason I will not exhibit this picture is

that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul."

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

(click to enlarge images)

For at least a year Bobo Puddlegum and I have been kicking around ideas for a machinima loosely based on the 1999 black comedy-fantasy ‘Being John Malkovich’ – a film which, seriously, if you haven’t already seen you really should make the effort to track down and watch.

It is brilliantly original, funny and, in parts, really quite bizarre.

Just like Bobo himself in fact!

However due to schedule conflicts, other project commitments and RL generally, none of these ideas have managed to come to fruition.

Three nights ago though, I had a dream!

Usually my dreams involve giving finite but infinitely-expanding blowjobs to respected UK physicist Brian Cox – a name which has more Freudian connotations and psychoanalytic comedy-value than anyone truly deserves, no matter how bad their karma. Whenever I dream of Cox, I always wake suddenly when, just as I approach the event horizon, Brian prematurely ejaculates down my throat at the speed of light.

I dream some weird shit sometimes.

But this particular dream, which dear reader I assure you I have no intention of boring you with, managed to combine elements from Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’* with ‘Being John Malkovich’, Bobo Puddlegum and, significantly, the forthcoming 2012 MachinimaUWA V machinima contest.

Like I said, I dream weird shit sometimes.

Because of encouragement from Iono Allen, Glasz Decuir and Tutsy Navarathna, last month I finally committed to entering a machinima into the UWA 5 contest.

The dream of three nights ago provided the broad conceptual subject matter for my MachinimaUWA V entry. No! It doesn’t star Brian Cox (although I am sure I could find an opening or two for him!) but rather a film which is to be entitled “Being Bobo Puddlegum”.

Bobo & I will need to work out the details and finalise a script. We’ll also need to know what the MachinimaUWA V theme will be. However, there are some things which are already clear:

1)    It will not be disrespectful to other peoples’ art work. Although, most likely it *will* be irreverent this will be done in a respectful and humorous way.

One day I intend writing about the work of SaveMe Oh who frequently walks the precarious tightrope between irreverence and disrespect. The debate rages which side of this equation she most often falls!

2)    It will not be a porn movie. I cannot rule out nakedness – Bobo’s natural state – but it most certainly will not be pornographic and very unlikely to have any sex scenes.

I understand and accept the fact that this almost certainly means that this particular film will be of no interest in certain circles. This is fine.

3)    It will essentially be a comedy. We hope. Or light-hearted, at least.

With all that settled, Bobo & I thought it only right to give Jayjay Zifanwe fair notice to organise a Plague Doctor,  because that pandemic pestilence that is the Puddlegum’s are about to befall the previous piety and purity that is MachinimaUWA.

Sorry.

Bobo & Pixie Puddlegum xx

* 'The Importance of Being Earnest' is subtitled 'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'

The 'Being Bobo Puddlegum' poster created by Bobo Puddlegum.

All other images by Pixie Puddlegum.

The 'Plague Doctor' performed by Tutsy Navarathna at Innsmouth region