Benedict Yu's Virtual Museum

For my third proposal at Islands International Art Park, I proposed on the idea of building a virtual museum of my own. The spark of this idea came from the coronavirus where most of the museums and galleries are closed. The Art Basel has also moved online and the result wasn't as great. With this uncertainty in the art industry, I started to build my own safe space and to explore some areas that I have never explored before.

I got to know Occupy White Walls from watching a Youtube Channel, The Art Assignment. This is a game developed and pre-launched on the platform, Steam. I thought the game could be easily played on my Macbook but I realised I need a strong Windows PC in order to run all of the graphics and complex functions. I got the boss of iPaper, who stays 2 minutes away from Islands, to help me out. He sells stationary items but has a prior knowledge to cyber security. He built a second hand PC from different components and lended me. Really want to thank him for the help.

The following writings and photos will be about my progression in the building my virtual museum in the game, taken in a form of diary:

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Sections Dictionary:

1. Artist

2. Major Artworks Reflection

3. Construction Usage

4. Income Total

5. Reflection

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Day 1: just started off with my construction

Artist:

Gustav Klimt

Tibetan artwork, unknown artist

Torii Kiyonaga

Kamakura Period of Japan (Buddhism)

Contemporary digital artist:

Kirsten Zirngibl

Sam Kelly

Major Artworks Collection:

Gustav Klimt : 7

Tibetan artwork, unknown artist : 1

Torii Kiyonaga : 16 woodblock prints

Kamakura Period of Japan (Buddhism) : 9

Contemporary digital artist:

Kirsten Zirngibl : 5

Sam Kelly : 2

Income Total: 21960 virtual credits (vc)

Reflection:

-met Daisy, my artificial intelligence art advisor in buying artworks

-spent all my money and went bankrupted

-bought some artworks from the Asian cultural context and digital works as well

-gallery is only opened for 30min to earn money like what??

-how do I built a second floor?

-other people’s galleries are impressive, I wonder when can I have all the money to execute what I have in mind

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Day 2: expanding to 2nd floor

Artist:

Egon Schiele

Torii Kiyonaga

Katsushika Hokusai

Toshusai Sharaku

Alphonse Mucha

Contemporary Artist:

Sam Kelly

Major Artworks Collection:

Egon Schiele : 7

Sam Kelly : 12

Torii Kiyonaga 31 (full set)

Katsushika Hokusai 8 (full set)

Toshusai Sharaku 13 (full)

Alphonse Mucha 4

Construction Usage:

floral tiles 80 x19

Expansion of space: 20

Suno Sundao (Sky purchased)

Income Total: 228,716 vc

11224

Reflection:

-starting to realise that I cannot just randomly spend money, I have to be more aware of how much money I have.

-if I save up enough money, I can purchase a whole collection of an artist’s works. I don’t want to come back to Daisy to see what collections do I miss you, it is too much work.

-if I collect the money and knowing how much I have spend on artworks and construction, I can determine the ratio of buying artworks and construction usage. I think it will be very important. I cannot have too many artworks that I purchased and I don’t have space to show. Is that like museum where they have too many artworks in the storage? I feel like the game should have a physical space for storage because it shows the intensity of how much they have to pay for keeping the artworks conserved and preserved. But of course, it is digital game, digital game only need virtual space to store the info

-I feel like the game should spend more time to keep the artworks’ value with what they should be. So we won’t just buy whatever we like, we will bring an honour and respect to the artworks. It is like you save up so much money to purchase a good artwork, or like a great weapon or armour

Calculation:

-Day 2 income is around 10 times more than Day 1. If I really check on gallery every 30 min consistently, I can really earn money from it.

-I bought 76 artworks today(around 152,000 vc), 20 space expansion (around 75,000), and 19 tiles(1520 vc)

=artwork purchased is 66%

construction site is 34%

-This should be the ratio of my expansion for my museum

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Day 3

Artist:

Lyubov Popova

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Helene Schjerfbeck

Robert Delaunay

Wassily Kandinsky

Contemporary Artist:

Martin Husz

plx31tr4sh

Ramon Gamez

Major Artworks Collection:

Lyubov Popova 2

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy 6

Helene Schjerfbeck 13 無性主題

Robert Delaunay 3

Wassily Kandinsky 25 (full collection)

Martin Husz 4

plx31tr4sh 4

Ramon Gamez 1

Construction Usage:

Expansion of space: 27

tree 5184

Grass tiles 420 , x3

Ocean tiles 680, x6

Sakura sky 2940

Fireworks sky 910

Furniture and sofas 1496 + 864, x4

Black neon ceiling 1496

Yellow ceiling light 160, x10

*Enigma Ball with Emission 25000

Christmas ball emission medium green 1260

Staircase 945

Income Total: 463,698 vc

Reflection:

-my background music for my gallery is more in the Asian context, make me think is it because I bought many Chinese artworks?

-I’m already level 17? That’s fast

-this game really makes me discover a lot of great artists that I have never know before, but they are great! Love these artworks and artists.

-30~50 people online

-starting to build ice glazier platform but then regretted it. It looks so ugly.

-want to put some weird artworks in the glazier area

-buy one more space just for me to jump off the cliff

-bought a lot of lights because it’s so dark

-after visiting “straycatz” and “skullgetti” their galleries, I really got inspired to build a bigger and better gallery. I discovered some great artworks from their galleries!

-my income has increased by 2 times compared to yesterday

-after checking with OWW discussion forum, they are having a storytelling contest. They hope they can find meaningful stories from the way the players are building their galleries.

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Day 4

Artist:

Itō Jakuchū

Joseph Stella

Piet Mondrian

Thomas Moran

Caspar David Friedrich

Contemporary artist:

LUNA

Peter Mohrbacher

Alberto Elorduy

Kelly King

Hubble Space Telescope

Major Artworks Collection:

Itō Jakuchū 19

Joseph Stella 7

Piet Mondrian 4

Thomas Moran 1

Caspar David Friedrich 7

LUNA 4

Peter Mohrbacher 6

Alberto Elorduy 1

Kelly King 4

Hubble Space Telescope 21

Income Total: 619,769 vc

Reflection:

-from Discord this platform, I am able to see different perspectives of things and the way I can construct my space. I am also looking into different new artists and their works to be collected.

-after chatting with a few people that are really experienced on OWW, they have recommended me to build my space carefully, because you cannot reverse the space you have purchased. There is a limit to the space you can curate and expand

-I added some players’ Instagram! Am I too involved in their lives? But I am so curious though haha

-today I didn’t expand my space at all! I took the advice :) Currently I will be getting more money and save them to buy more artworks

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Day 5

Artist:

Michelangelo

Major Artworks Collection:

Michelangelo 1

Construction Usage:

Expansion of Space: 19

Decoration: 34156

Income Total: 632,862 vc

Reflection:

-today I don’t have much time to work on mt construction but I took the advice from other players, I will think through what do I really want to build. I will save up money and to expand the areas I need first then I will choose what materials and themes I want to construct.

• have maxed out my level haha

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Day 6

No Artist Purchased

No Construction Usage

Income Total: 596348 vc

Reflection:

-when I am busy in real life, it is so hard to keep up with what I want to do on OWW

-I want to save up money, enough money for me to find what I want to build and build everything up at once. Probably I can start tomorrow :)

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Day 7

Contemporary artist and collection:

Jakub Karol Kowalski 2

Liis Tuula 1

Jason Paschal 6

Alberto Elorduy 1

Zapatoverde 2

Jessica K Ballantyne 1

Construction Usage:

Space expansion : 157

Total decoration usage: 79238

Income Total: 952544 vc

Reflection:

-finding many artists dealing with the idea of gender inequality

-spending a lot of time finding artworks that suit the theme I have in mind

-I finally have the time to think through and to determine what themes and narrative I want to direct

-I have chosen the construction to be based on the “cross” for crucifixion. The top part is the God’s territory and the below part is the idea of gender fluidity. The left side is about technology and the future and the right side is about current, my art practice.

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Day 8

Artist:

Egon Schiele 18

Gustav Klimt 1

Construction Usage:

space expansion : 64

Total Decoration : 33914 vc

Mask 2309

Arctic 3400

Income Total: 762,227 vc

Reflection:

-Jae offered me a sky as a gift! So happy :)

-I got to know Jae from Discord on the discussion channels. His galleries are amazing and he has been playing for quiet sometimes. He lives in Mississippi.

-Jae has purchased quite a number of decorations for me. I have a few that I love so much! Like the cherry blossom and the light sculptures.

-I finally got the time to completed my construction for the exhibition hall: “Gender Fluidity” I used many of Egon Shiele’s artworks to depict the sexuality of “masculinity” and “femininity.” But these are too subjective and biased.

-I planned to use the structure of a cross, to build up the whole entire chambers. The top head is the Christ, which represents my religion and my beliefs. The below part of the cross represents sex and human flesh, which is going to be talking about gender fluidity. The left side will be talking about technology and the future, and the right side might be talking about my current art’s interpretation and its practices.

-I am a bit afraid of how provocative and sensitive the curation might gets. Because there are many religious works, including Amida and other Buddhism gods. I place these works in between the Christ as the head and humanity as the bottom part of the gallery. I believe that Buddhism, Kuanyin and Amida have no gender, they are genderless.

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Day 9

Artist:

Marianne Von Werefkin 3

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1

William Blake 1

Leonardo Da Vinci 4

Norman Rockwell 1

Sigrid Hjerten 6

Michelangelo 4

Abbott Handerson Thayer 1

Contemporary artist:

LUNA 1

Alberto Elorduy 1

Zdzisław Bekiński

Manuel Pena 2

vgyjh 1

Martin Husz 4

construction usage : 20091vc

Sparked mask 983

Income total: 932336vc

Reflection:

-I am finally done with the gallery of gender fluidity! It took me a lot of time but I finally complete the first construction. I will be working on my second one soon, the technology side.

-Today Electra finally came into my studio to check on my progress of construction. I have explained to her the construction and the artworks.

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Day 10

Artist:

George Frederic Watts 1

Yves Klein 1

Ferdinand Hodler 1

Kazimir Malevich 1

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1

El Greco 1

Wang Hui 1

Kano Hideyori 1

Contemporary artist:

Laslo Iera 2

Jessica K Ballantyne 1

Johannes Wewetzer 1

Construction Usage:

Space Expansion : 8

Income total: 431696 vc

Reflection:

-Kelly got my artworks into OWW!

https://kultura.oww.io/web/#/artist/id/1309/Benedict_Yu

-many people started to see my artworks and came to my gallery, my artworks are purchased over 86 times!

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Day 11

Currently, I have 103 works being purchased, collected by 33 buyers. I am deeply pleased during this time of coronavirus, I am still able to reach out.