Virtual Event Lab Now Open 24/7

After an evening of searching for just the right neighborhood, financial machinations and heavy construction Alex and Clay succeeded in establishing the first ever Fishbon Event Lab in cyberspace. The project is a scale model of the actual studio at 46 Helena in Santa Barbara, except this virtual home is on the waterfront in the Second Life neighborhood of Celerio. One neighbor, a hottie named Jamie has a teahouse (she's into Zen) and a woodsy retreat in the sky above her property complete with waterfall and pool. Our property looks out on the yacht club. Behind us is criminal punk mastermind Galante Famiglia's gambling operation with Darth Santa at the blackjack table. There are boutiques and classy residences, things to do and see. To find out more about Second Life and open a free account, go to http://www.secondlife.com/. Alex is the resident Virtual Fishbon Cell guru and you can email him at: lxpk@empowerthyself.com

Event Lab in cyberspace 100m in the air on our own land. 

Working late, Event Lab under construction. 

Alex meets next door neighbor, Jamie 

New member Joshua Soy 

Blackjack break with neighbor Darth Santa 

Flame World Apocalypse

On Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Fishbon Event Lab nabobs gathered to witness the brief rise and spectacular fall of Flame World. The kaleidoscopic environment was an hexagonal framework of mirrors, a speaker-mounted Flame Funnel, and specially designed trashcan pedestal. After spending he first part of the evening creating figures deserving of immolation, Event Lab agents took their places around the fiery pit. Unfortunately, the intensity of the purifying flames was too intense for the humble speaker that drove the audio control. In an instant, the speaker was engulfed and the ceremony needed to be relocated to the street outside the Fishbon Studio. A handy Fire Snake was pressed into service and the figures met their demise after all. There was catharsis, release and healing for all but a few obstinate cardboard characters. Later in the evening, a hand-held surveillance camera provided real-time backstage images.

It begins with the Hexagon. 

Figure creation 

Flame World before the apocalypse 

Head on fire 

Natalie commits her figure to the flames 

Dancing in the dark

Nathan toasts his alter ego. 

Mark in Mirror Reality 

Hand held camera image. 

Second Life, Videos and Fire Speaker Plans

On Wednesday, January 11, undercover Fishbon Event Lab operatives convened for a personal tour of virtual universe, Second Life. Alex led the assembled through the process of logging on to set up a free account, choose an avatar complete with a range of options (hair, facial characteristics, clothes, shoes, etc), and set out into the amazing virtual world created by nearly 200,000 residents of this multi-player online environment. After the tour, plans were made to build a Virtual Event Lab in SL (details to follow). Later in the evening, Wes showed two amazing videos, "Sutured Moment" and "Modular Radiation". In Sutured Moment, photos were brought into a Jitter matrix and operated on by a custom object that combines pixels from different frames in the 3D buffer based on a map provided to the object. Modular Radiation uses optical video processing to manipulate live television imagery along with software written with Jitter to process the feedback in the system. In a sidebar, flame speaker feasibility was also discussed. For more information, check:

Second Life:
http://www.secondlife.com/
Wesley Smith Video Projects:
http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/~whsmith/projects.html

Ted and Ronit share a moment during
Second Life Demo 

Flame Speaker Plans 

Map of part of the Second Life Virtual World 

Second Life Virtual Club 

Shopping in Second Life 

Still from Radiation 8 

Hallie in "Sutured Moments" 

Still from Wes' "Sutured Moments" video 

Digital Psychic and New Year Plans

On Wednesday, January 4, 2006, Fishbon Event Lab agents were recalled from their far-flung stations around the planet for a Year End Review and session with Dominique's Digital Psychic. In the first part of the evening, the Psychic took questions from all comers and miraculously answered correctly 100% of the time. Easy questions? Not a chance. The human body was one, a lemur, another. This device was surely the result of "intelligent design." Unfortunately, try as they might, agents were unable to hack it to give lottery results, so it was relegated to the only partially life-changing pile and the attention shifted elsewhere. For the second part of the evening other deep questions were considered. What should we do in and out of the Event Lab in the coming year. After much discussion it was decided that in the future Group Projects with Public Performances would be undertaken between covert actions. Projects would be based on seasonal themes and elements would include: music, performance, lighting and projection, fire, fashion, storytelling and more. Operatives also responded enthusiastically to the possibility of Field Trips and other freelance fun.

Ask a question, enter the response. 

Dominique operates Digital Psychic 

Answer: It's a lemur. CORRECT!