The Girlfriend Experience Revisited

I have tried several times to reach The Girlfriend Experience unsuccessfully. Today I decided to attempt to contact Martin Butler to find out more information about how this project is coming along. I recieved an email from Mr. Butler today in which he referred me to his website The Liminal Institute. I discovered:

The Liminal Institute is an international performance unit. It was brought to existence by a group of artists who share the belief that performance work can – and should – cross the boundaries and definitions between dance, theatre, live art, visual design, music, pop culture and lifestyle.

The ‘liminals’ also share a passion for using just anything that comes across their path at a given moment. Movement, sound and text, fashion and action, pictures and video, low-fi electronic objects and other gadgets are mixed into hybrid performances. The performance space is playfully re-shaped, creating sensible environments for the body in performance. An appreciation of standstill and pose is cultivated as much as a genuine desire to move.

Any space can become liminal for a certain amount of time. The Liminal Institute was founded in 1998 in Amsterdam by Eva Meyer-Keller, Erik Pold, Martin Butler, Tomas Fredrikson, Adelaide Bentzon, Nicole Beutler, Lito Walkey and Paul Derksen.

According to Mediamatic.net, which is an Amsterdam company. The Girlfriend Experience is only available every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:00 pm until 11:00 pm, Amsterdam time, and will conclude on March the ninth 2007.

There are only four people available to become avatars, and they will be able to be observed live at the Analog Villa, which is the Mediamatic Exhibition space in Amsterdam.

The rampant growth of online avatar communities such as Second Life and World of Warcraft has enabled the creation of a personal online social and economic existence. Simultaneously this triggers inherent questions about this existence, as it questions what the consequences will be for first life, or reality.

The title of the project, The Girlfriend Experience, denotes the paradoxical character that online social interaction has. On one hand, the safe anonymity by using the avatar, on the other the intimate releases and projections that can spread easily. For Martin Butler is this the merging of two apparent extremes, anonymity and intimacy, which characterizes an important part of contemporary social traffic. The best paid prostitutes are the ones with whom the client feels as though he is with his girlfriend, or with whom he has a Girlfriend Experience.(quotes form Mediamatic)

I am not certian I will ever be able to make the connection with The Girlfriend Experience, but Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 1:00 pm my time (central time zone) I will make efforts to establish contact with a living avatar, and will let you know the out come.

[addendum] I was able to reach The Girlfriend experience today February 01, 2007. My connection through Skype to Amsterdam was horrible, but I encourage you not to let my connection be a guide for you as my computer is not always performing up to acceptable standards when it come to voice communication. I would hope others would attempt to make a connection with The Girl Friend Experience, and leave a comment about your experience.

I think it was agreed that the young lady I choose will leave a comment on this blog… I say I think because I was barely able to hear her. I did see her writing down, over the web cam, the url for VTOReality.com. (I think)

I would truly like to hear from others who reach The Girl Friend experience and it appears things have slowed down there and it is not so difficult to get through to them.