You are cordially invited to the launch of the Windhorse Project Mixed Realtiy Preview

In a first for Manchester, a group of international artists are celebrating exhibiting their original art in a Second Life gallery with a Mixed Reality event at MDDA.

Those attending will be taken on a tour of the virtual gallery on big screen, and a digitally made moving image Windhorse Project sequence will play in a darkened room. There will also be laptops and high-speed wireless broadband available to those who wish to independently explore the exhibition at their own pace.

The exhibition features artist Vanessa Cuthbert’s Windhorse Project, which takes the central idea of a prayer flag to a group of contemporary artists who each made a banner to express something that they cared about, with an overall ecological theme. Initially exhibited in Manchester as part of The Cornerhouse/MIRIAD ‘State Legacy’ venture, this project has continued to evolve since its auspicious beginnings, and is now hosted by Leeds University’s Second Life presence, Education UK, in their innovative ‘Art at the EDGE’ virtual gallery.
 
Dr. Erica Wright brings the Windhorse Project into Second Life, and explains ‘Bringing this project to the prestigious ‘Art at the EDGE’ gallery, is an important step forward for real world art. Second Life offers the global art audience chance to experience high end contemporary art in a whole new way, simultaneously viewing art in a gallery setting from armchairs and computer desks around the world. Through sharing the experience of viewing and discussing real art with others in a much more immediate way than is possible with other social media, Second Life’s excellent free communication facilities allow for live conversation, note sharing and instant feedback about the art being viewed remotely. The potential benefits offered to artists and educators by this technology are simply breathtaking.”
 
In addition to the Windhorse Project’s virtual world presence, the original printed banners will continue to travel the globe, as new destinations present themselves. Vanessa Cuthbert says, “The Windhorse banners are part of an exhibition chain that began in All Saints Park and Righton Gallery, on the ‘Oxford Road Corridor,’ Manchester, a route that has been used throughout history for marches and protests. I hope to continue this project by sending the banners to other locations in the real world, so the banners themselves will be carried off into the universe, in a sense, and the message will spread. The next host will add more banners and decide a wide range of cultural, social and political differences on their journey. The banners will change and be weathered, maybe subject to graffiti, and this will reflect the impermanent and ever-changing conditions that we are all subject to.”
 
This is an opportunity to meet some of the Windhorse Project artists and key figures from Manchester art, education and digital society at a MDDA/MIRIAD/MANCHESTER DIGITAL hosted event.

This event takes place on the 16th September 2010 5-7 pm