Second Front
Second Front Ends the World
Last month, the avatar performance group Second Front brought an end to the world, joining forces with Nostradamus, Mayan prophets and the Book of Revelations in order to bring to you the world we encounter now. But what we didn't know at the time is that the end of the world is not a decisive moment, but a way of behaving--not an event but an attitude--an artistic performance that insists on continuation even when its objective is an ending to the world that we know. Not a time of new beginnings but rather a time to obsess about the ending that never happened.
This is the post-game show for the end of the world.
It's like a bad song stuck in your head, or the lingering smell of garlic on the breath of the person sitting next to you on the bus. In the virtual world these intentional actions may be called "griefing," a process of purposefully provoking others in a particular way. Griefing is not quite bullying, but it's close. Whistle a tune so that others can't help thinking of it too; avoid showering just so others can be subjected to the smell of yesterday. Or, when performing in a virtual world, use animations, scripts and virtual bombs to make sure the system knows you're there. This is how Second Front approaches their performances as well--griefing the system in an attempt to keep the fun from ending.
And so, just when you thought the end of the world had come and gone, it's back. A story that just keeps on ending.
