I’m currently in Slovenia with my partner, who is slaving away as we speak installing his artwork in the Kibla gallery, Maribor (this year’s European Capital of Culture). As ever, I’ve come along because I always enjoy visiting a new place, meeting new people and having an opportunity to wear a nice dress/quaff free wine at an exhibition opening, but of course I am also naturally obligated to make myself useful by passing the duct tape, unpacking boxes and fetching the coffee as required.

Michael’s artwork is called ‘Visions of our Communal Dreams’, ‘a virtual/physical art installation exploring issues of hybridity, embodiment and collective creativity in the Avatar Age’, created in collaboration with Drew Baker, Erik Fleming and David Steele (more info here), and although the coding, 3D modelling etc involved in this opus is something I can be of little help with, I have been helping out here and there with various activities this week other than passing tools to people up ladders! The exhibition is being accompanied by three days of workshops run by Drew and Michael where local students are being given the opportunity and training to create their own avatars and 3D objects to add to the virtual space, so I am documenting these sessions so that Kibla has some video footage and photographs of them for their archives.

Also, I’ve just finished this teeny weeny graphics job:

These icons are for the buttons on the computer keypads that generate the items pictured in the virtual world – press the flower button, and flowers will appear (if only things were that easy in real life!)

Icons for the keypad buttons which generated 3D birds, butterflies and flowers in the virtual world

Born button pusher – Photo taken by Michael Takeo Magruder at Kibla, Maribor, Slovenia 2012