Yoko Ono Commissions Recreation of Her "Peace Tower" Memorial to John Lennon in Second Life

Ono's Twitter feed, the PEACE TOWER in SL

Imagine a major conceptual artist commissioning a recreation of her work in Second Life -- it's easy if you try. Just announced via her Twitter feed, Yoko Ono has commissioned a version of her IMAGINE PEACE TOWER on an island of the same name in SL.  Like the real version in Iceland, it depicts a beam of light shooting into the heavens. It will be unveiled this Friday, October 9th, to honor the birthday of her late husband, John Lennon, for whom the edifice is dedicated. Here's all the details on Yoko Ono's official site.

The project came about, according to Role Magazine, after metaverse development team Herzog Brenham built a recreation on their own, emailed screenshots of it to Ono, only expecting perhaps they might be featured on her site. Instead, Ono introduced Brenham to the creators of the real world tower, to trade notes and start a sanctioned version, and the project proceeded from there. That Ms. Ono approved this extension of her work into a virtual world isn't entirely surprising; only a few months ago, she had an active hand in the final development of the epic videogame Beatles: Rock Band. For Second Life, however, this is almost certainly the most prominent SL installation sanctioned by a major world-class artist, eclipsing Brian Eno's painting tour from 2007 and Chris Marker's occasional dabbling. I thrill to see what other artists will do with Ms. Oko's inspiration.

Hat tip: Leeza Catteneo and Delinda Dryssen. Image credit: Yoko Ono.

Comments

[Delinda Dyrssen]

Well should be a good thing for sl.. in my opinion much better than having a Nissan or Coca Cola around.. but then again I value art more than cars and soft drinks. Thanks for the Hat Tip Hamlet

[Earth Primbee]

My favorite part of this is Yoko saw the creative efforts of the team as a potential collaboration rather than jumping on the WE WILL SUE YOU bandwagon.

Just one sign of what forward instead of backward protectionist thinking can do for the world.

I think John would be proud of everyone involved.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Sending a case of instant karma (the good kind) to everybody involved. Well done!

[Leeza Catteneo]

This is so exciting! Thanks for the Hat Tip Hamlet! I'll forward it to Jura Shepherd who discovered the "Tower" and wrote the article for ROLE Magazine =D

yay!

[ColeMarie Soleil]

*can't wait until opening and is very exciting*

[Jura Shepherd]

I hat tip Sesi Ackland since she actually told me about it but either way it's just kinda cool. As Delinda mentioned, it's one thing for a huge company to bring their brand into SL but this is a whole different thing. Although I didn't speak with her, my gut says Ono "gets it" and to me, that's really the coolest part.