Art Metropole

#10082

The Adventures of Nar Duell in Second Life - The Low Life Epic

Date

2012

Publisher

self published

Format

Artists' Books

Details

Softcover

Size

16.5 × 25.5 × 1 cm

Length

20 

Description

A comic book of adventures shared with Heller’s avatar, Nar Duell.

The translation of the virtual adventures into comix style documentation is a natural expression of the experience of spending time in ‘Second Life’. The superficial and arbitrary nature of virtual life is mirrored in the ‘pow, bam, zap’ aesthetic of the printed page. Nar Duell’s adventures are transmogrified into narrative. The graphic novel supports the illusive nature of the work with the concrete and historical reference to print – a travel guide, and captures the essence and detail of what has been deemed alien and exotic by the outside world, and makes intimate that which is generally seen as inaccessible.

Nar Duell is a name loaded with meaning. Nar denotes proximity, near and lose; and is comparative, an approximation. Duell encompasses the notion of doubling, a variation of the real.

The majority of ‘Second Lifers’ choose to self-represent as young, thin, idealized body types. These surrogate-selves are fondly referred to by the participants as “Barbie and Ken on steroids”. In contrast, Nar Duell is a neo-feminist prototype, who wears her superwoman cape and stilettos along with a hard hat (she builds things in ‘Second Life’ so is often on construction sites) both defines and defies the norms, undercutting her ‘sex appeal’ and objectification with pragmatism and function.

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