Double Happiness Manufacturing

DH Jeans at LABoral in Gijon Spain

November 16th, 2009 - No Responses

InvisibleThreads

Oct 22-April 5, 2010
http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/exhibitions/show/108

Double Happiness Jeans are now being sold at LABoral Center for Art in Gijon, Spain! Our jeans are part of an exhibition called FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History curated by Steve Dietz and Christiane Paul. With all this academic art world rigor, can we still be considered kitsch?

Curators statement:
FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History addresses the current moment in history where the wreckage of political conflict and economic inequality is piling up, while globalized forces—largely enabled by the “progress” of digital information technologies—inexorably feed us forward. The exhibition title references Paul Klee’s painting Angelus Novus, which Walter Benjamin famously interpreted as an “angel of history” transfixed by the wreckage of the past that is piling up in front of him while being propelled backwards into the uncertain future by a storm from paradise (progress).

The exhibition, curated by Steve Dietz (Artistic Director of the 01SJ Biennial) and Christiane Paul (Director of the Media Studies Graduate Program, New School, NY; Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts, Whitney Museum of American Art) features 29 artworks by 27 artists and artist teams. The projects are presented, as if in the rear view mirror of progress, in sections relating to five themes: the “wreckage” of the 20th century created by wars and conflict; the countermeasures of surveillance and repression that the state as well as global capital set up in an to attempt to maintain control; the aesthetics and symbolic language of the media of our times; the forces of economic globalization such as outsourcing and migration; and the possibilities of reconstruction and agency.

Together, the projects featured in FEEDFORWARD create a complex picture of the global political and social forces that drive us forward. The exhibition features both the problematic aspects of the present and future, and the potential for collectivity and responsible action. At the nadir of the current global economic crisis, FEEDFORWARD is in effect about cleaning up after the 20th century and asks the question, what is progress now?

Double Happiness Jeans featured at SLB6 -starts Tuesday

June 22nd, 2009 - 3 Responses

On June 23, 2009, Second Life turns 6 years old. Double Happiness Jeans will be featured at SLB6 – Second Life’s 6th Birthday extravaganza. The Birthday theme this year is The Future of Virtual Worlds.

Come visit our kiosk thru June 30th and get a free t-shirt:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Velocity/215/158/24

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About the theme:

We are LIVE from Dallier’s Hope, 800 Light Years away we are spiraling through outer space on a Meteor disovered by Space Explorer Ghorman Dallier in 2499 while searching for new worlds to inhabit! Although we’re too far away from the sun to see it and any flora has to be kept in an AEC (Artificial Environment Chamber.) we still know how to throw a party!

The future is open to all sorts of interpretation, and to encompass the future, we looked to the past. In the beginning of Second Life, pioneering residents looked over this vast, empty landscape that was full of potential and promise. Everything was new to everyone, the concept of virtual worlds, the way we would adapt to custom content, how we would use the tools provided to us and incorporate our own vision was all still yet to be discovered. It all began with an great open space, and the inspiration provided by the seemingly simple idea “Your World, Your Imagination.”

Six years later that world is merely a memory as time has moved at warp speed with the advancements of technology and adaptability of the platform. A few hundred users quickly became over a million. It has become a staple in education and commerce on a global scale. Never could have those early residents of that vast open world predict how Second Life would evolve.

With that in mind, we took our Exhibitors far away from the green grasses and sandy beaches of their Second Life Grid and sent them into the stratosphere as the first colony of Dallier’s Hope. A vast, open landscape waiting to be developed by the first new residents of the future of Virtual Worlds. What becomes of this great “Rock” remains entirely up to them, how they adapt and harness the power of their imagination to make something from next to nothing as they share their personal visions of what they believe the future holds.

Virtual anarchists attempt to unionize DH workers!

December 29th, 2008 - No Responses

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On Thursday, December 18th, a week before Christmas, the Double Happiness factory was almost overthrown by virtual anarchists claiming to be affiliated with the virtual pranksters known as Second Front. The hysterical rioters attempted to take over the factory with at least 300 lbs of explosives and bottles of hairspray. Chanting “Happiness, not Double” while the Dead Kennedy’s “Kill the Poor” blasted from their iPhones, the hooligans tried to force our happy Double Happiness workers to unionize. Only a few avatars exploded but in virtuality no one was hurt in the incident and production continued to run smoothly during the joyous, holiday season.

The attack happened during a tour of the factory with potential investors BIW (Brooklyn is Watching), an affiliate of Jack the Pelican Presents in the trendy neighborhood of Williamsburg, New York in the USA.

View live footage recorded from our surveillance cameras

10 Simple Steps to Your Own Virtual Sweatshop

December 1st, 2008 - No Responses

Are repressive labor laws and expensive real estate getting in the way of owning your very own sweatshop? With this simple and effective training video, learn how to virtually produce your dream product with telematic manufacturing.

If you missed the screening at the DC International Film Festival you can still learn how to become a virtual entrepreneur by clicking below:

watch video

Double Happiness Jeans at Olives

June 16th, 2008 - One Response

Double Happiness Jeans are on display at Olive’s in Carroll Gardens Brooklyn as part of the exhibition Windows Brooklyn. Through June 22nd. http://windowsbrooklyn.com

Double Happiness Jeans at Synthetic Times: Media Art China 2008 event

April 16th, 2008 - No Responses

Live from Eyebeam in NYC and Double Happiness Manufacturing in SL, customers purchased their stylish Double Happiness Jeans at the Synthetic Times Symposium closing event on April 15.

Synthetic Times: Media Art China 2008, a Cultural Olympics project, opened at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing this June 2008. The exhibition launched earlier in NYC with programming co-organized by the exhibition’s curator, Zhang Ga, the MoMA, Parsons School of Design and Eyebeam. www.mediartchina.org/events/newyorkmoma

Pix courtesy of Metaverse Evangelist Annie Ok.

Invisible Threads closing night at the Sundance Film Festival

January 25th, 2008 - No Responses

As we finish our first mega-successful season at Double Happiness Manufacturing in Second Life and in real life at the Sundance Film Festival, we want to take an evening to celebrate our loyal workers, our amazing builder, Nix Sands, and our talented documentarian, Xantherus Halberd. Without you guys, this project could not have happened, and we are very grateful to all of you for taking part. So Doctor, Torin, and I will be hosting a party at “The Warehouse” on Eyebeam Island in Second Life (slurl) tonight Friday, January 25th, with DJ Astrud Sands.