Apmel har ju en sagolik förmåga att peka på saker som oroar, berör och upprör. Läs mer om Linden Labs övergrepp att stoppa konstverket nedan från en pågående konstutställning i SL på "Min avatar heter Apmel". Där finns dessutom flera ytterligare intressanta länkar.
Det av Linden Labs stoppade konstverket "Kiss" av Rose Borchovski
Motiveringen som Linden Lab lämnade för att stoppa konstverket var: “The images on your build are in violation of our general rating, to be clear: Nudity is not allowed at art events with a general maturity rating.”
Detta är ett upprörande övergrepp på yttrandefriheten och den konstnärliga friheten! "Den djävligt gapiga minoriteten" (som ibland kallar sig "The silent majority") synes ha fått genomslag hos det räddhågsna Linden Lab!
...och jag är minst lika upprörd att jag inte fick reda på att protesten mot Lindens övergrepp skulle äga rum, jag hade velat vara där!
P.S. Att jag inte fick reda på protesten visade sig nu bero på att jag inte var inne i SL, Apmel berättar nämligen att han spammade svenskchatten (Swedish People in SL) så mycket han vågade - och han brukar våga mycket!
P.P.S. Jag beslutade mig också för att lägga in regissören Peter Greenaways protestskrivelse till Linden Labs här!
"Dear Courtney Linden,
As a reaction to the rejection of Rose Borchovski ‘s art installation : The Kiss at the Celebration Sim, I would like you to read this.
It seems to me incredible that you are enforcing censorship concerning nudity in public forums on Second Life.
Traditions of nudity in Western Art have for centuries been legitimate, honourable and creditable.
The cyperspaces of Second Life - and Second Life has so far proved itself to be among the very best of such events - are among todays' cutting edge of visual languages - continuing an enviable tradition of new technologies in the visual arts now that the orthodox cinematic arts are proving themselves moribund and archaic, and enforcing new efforts to avoid artistic elitism and the encouragement of egalitarianism in artistic expression Any artist worth his or her salt, always must engage in contemporary technologies - it has been the very reputable tradition of the most worthwhile artists that has benefitted us all. Visual artists have always taught us to look. The man-made world owes them everything.
Just because you have eyes does not mean you can see. And the political and social emancipation of the naked and the nude by artists has been essential for humanist civilisation - it has given you and me great liberalities of thinking and self-respect.
Whatever else you think you may be doing with Second Life, you have created a very sophisticated tool that combines traditions of painting with cinema and the graphic arts in present tense terms that permits visual expression of language like never before. Do not underestimate what you have created - but to remain creditable you simply cannot enforce reactionary hypocritical standards that have been so discredited over the last five hundred years.
Like any self-respecting artist of course I am against gratuitous exploitation that demeans and insults intelligence and sensibilities but by your blanket censorship you are now doing both those things - insulting artistic intelligence and demeaning sensibility.
I suspect you are responding to pressure, to some form of mind-police, certainly to some form of political correctness that is related to money and the slow swing to the political right that is happening all over the world related to civilisation's fear of financial insecurity. Don't go that way. You are endangering a tool that is greater than you.
When the cultural histories of the early 21st century are written from hindsight, you will undoubtedly find the possibilities and successes of Second Life being eminently lauded and praised. Too many art forms in the 20th century have been stunted and deformed and deflected into ineffectuality and banality by small mindedness. If you really insist in so-called protection of innocence (and I really wonder what that really is - is it a synonym in fact for ignorance and intolerance?) then do so on a careful case by case basis with intelligence and foresight. This will be troublesome for you to do, if you want to do it well. But it will be very well worth your while,
Yours, hoping you will see sense, and not be influenced by short-term gain.
Peter Greenaway, film-maker."
Censorship always sucks, Linden Lab, but this was totally outrageous!
