Torley Island

We don't seem to see so much of Torley these days, but for ages he was the Linden we always heard from through his seemingly endless stream of lively tutorial videos. (He also has a endearing ability to not take himself too seriously—see this video!) But he's still with the Lab, posts on his profile and maintains a very active flickr stream. [Edit: Of course, no sooner do I post this than I see two new videos by Torley on direct delivery!]

One of the unusual things about Torley (for a Linden, I mean) are his personal island builds, which have changed over the years but have always been open to the public. Right now a visit to Torley Island takes you into a world of ... well, as you could expect for starters, bright pink and watermelon green! And particles, temporary physical objects dropping here and there, media on prims, his own music, pink and green curios, and just sort of lovable chaos—there's motion in every direction. And down on the bottom level you can rez a bumper car and play with your friends, so make sure to bring the gang with you.

Caisteal and the Blue Galaxy Sandbox

If you were ever to tell me that I'd fall in love with a sandbox, I'd say you had a screw loose. But yesterday I noticed a striking photo on Torley's flickr stream, and it's a ... sandbox! So off I went to the sim Caisteal, quite curious to see it, and it's gorgeous. The Blue Galaxy Sandbox is really there to support the store Blue Galaxy, located overhead, featuring designs by Ash Soyinka, but it's a public space and is a stunning location for photography or just wandering around. (Take the teleport after you arrive at the shop to get down to the sandbox.)

There are some simple rules here: "This sandbox is for avatar work and small builds only, anything bigger than 10x10 will be returned without warning. Please be friendly and respectful at all times or you will be ejected." So thanks to Ash and Blue Galaxy for creating this lovely space—I've already returned several times to take more photos (click to zoom in on these). I'll post images on my flickr stream.

Blue Galaxy itself is a "sci-fi fantasy themed shop and sim, unique clothing, avatars and accessories by Ash Soyinka and friends," and there are a ton of cool avatars and other things located there. And even the store area is pretty cool looking (photo below), so be sure to get some shopping done when you visit!

Charming and Magical Sewers

I have to admit that when I received a landmark from someone called "Down to the Sewers (most charming and magical sewer in SL)" it roused my curiosity. And what's down in these beautiful sewers are some magical creations indeed: an exhibition of lamps, entitled Fuse, by artist Trill Zapatero. Now, before you yawn and say, "Lamps? You must be kidding, Ziki," be assured these are no ordinary lamps! Trill says she needed to make a lamp for her shop, began to rummage around in her inventory, and built one using all sorts of odd pieces and colors, and that started what became an ongoing project. The lamps are actually for sale, too—mostly around the L$400 mark—and comprise about 30 prims or so. They're beautiful, imaginative, distinctive and fanciful. (Click on the images to zoom in.) Trill says she'd eventually like to "make a crate full of loose parts so people can make their own lamps," which would be loads of fun.

But if you do tire of the lovely sewers there's much more to see in the sim. First off there's BoHo HoBo (same landing point as the sewer), featuring ladies attire by Trill, and all the profits from this venture go to support the Afghan Women's Mission in support of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) to fund schools, orphanages and clinics for refugees of the Afghan war. Inside the shop you'll find a display about RAWA, and if you take the teleport you'll learn even more at the Afghanistan Virtual Museum, located elsewhere in the sim. Additionally you can visit the shop Meena, which features ladies attire ("Afghan inspired Bohemian clothes") and jewelry.

Also in the sim is the Grail Quest, an adventure that takes one on a journey to explore the meaning of life and love. (But that deserves its own blog post!)

Forgotten City

When I first set foot in Forgotten City back in February 2011 I couldn't quite believe my eyes: a stupendous city, astonishing in its complexity and exceedingly beautiful. In fact on seeing that one could rent a house in the city I did so immediately, even though I really had no need for it—I just wanted to be part of this place. (But I eventually came to my senses—I already had more than one home!)

The story goes that it's a city long ago deserted by its original builders, whoever they might have been, and although it's in a state of some decay its mechanical keepers do their best to maintain it. As Jenne Dibou and Mandy Marseille, the sim's designers, put it, Forgotten City is "a once great city where the prosperous residents were served by the miraculous mechanical automatons. The people have long since disappeared, but the automatons remained and still take care of the crumbling stone walls, abandoned halls and rusty fences."

The main entry point is on the citadel at the museum (the top left structure in these first two photos), from which you can fly around to see the city or use a teleport board. But I find it far more satisfying to walk (uncharacteristically for me), soaking in the beauty and little details everywhere. There are ways to get around: elevators, walkways, lifts, row boats and larger boat rides. There are hidden places here and there—for example, if you find the right walkway you can head underground to see what seems to be a huge power plant under the citadel.

You'll also encounter, everywhere, the mechanical automatons. They're harmless, I assure you, but dedicated to their tasks, and some will talk to you. (You may have seen the incredible installation at SL8B featuring some similar characters.)

If you are interested in renting a house or apartment here (and that includes cool places like the windmill, although I bet that's rarely if ever available), walk through the museum to the back side. Forgotten City is not an inexpensive place to live, but what a place!

Not all of the Forgotten City destinations are visible at first glance. To see some locations, such as the Post Office, you need to head down to the Harbor and take a boat. (The Post Office is quite different in appearance, a decaying tropical island.) You have to exercise some patience waiting for the boats, which come by only so often, and there's a schedule (to which the boats don't see to quite adhere) posted at the Harbor. Most of the boats head to the Post Office, but there are special boats called Cat-a-marans that arrive rarely, and they toss fish onto the dock. A circle of cats appears, waiting to eat them, but if you're quick you can grab them first, earning some points in the Gold Fish contest. (There's also supposedly Lord Barracuda's Submarine that comes by, but I've not seen it yet!)

Some external locations are reachable by teleport: the Race Track, Winter Park (which includes a Dance Hall, a Ski Lift and the Forgotten City Saloon), and the MW-537 Space Station, which has been overtaken by aliens.

Now, if the name Jenne Dibou rings a bell but you haven't been to Forgotten City, that's probably because you've purchased something from the "JD" Mechanical Toy Factory. Located overhead the city is the factory, and this place is worth a visit all by itself. (There are teleports throughout the city.) Filled with toys, games, avatars, curios, buildings, vehicles and all sorts of amazing little items, the factory is "where oddity meets quality." I want to buy one of everything here, although then I'd then have to purchase a sim just to rez all the Mechanical Toy Factory items in my inventory. I still remember playing the Shooting Gallery for long hours at the second Flashmans incarnation, where Martin Ren had rezzed a copy.

So become an explorer and head to Forgotten City. You won't be disappointed, I promise! If you get really addicted, you can even join the Forgotten City Explorers group. :)

Invisible Cities

The brilliant Italian novelist Italo Calvino has long been one of my favorite authors. Always pushing the boundaries of literature, he wrote with an amazing flair to vividly conjure up imaginary places and situations. Among his most famous works is Invisible Cities (Le città invisibili), published in 1972 (although personally I have always most loved the book that immediately followed in 1979, If on a winter's night a traveler (Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore)).

So when NicoleX Moonwall told me about a week ago that a collaboration was about to open at LEA15 called Invisible Cities I was excited to see what it would be, knowing also the names of the artists involved. Thirteen prominent Second Life creators participated: Cherry Manga, Marcus Inkpen, Fuschia Nightfire, Romy Nayar, Ux Hax, Hypatia Pickens, Lanjran Choche, NicoleX Moonwall, Rebeca Bashly, Spiral SilverStar, Leona80 Mhia and Nadiemekiere Adamczyk. (And it opened today, on my 4th rezday, so I decided to consider it a gift haha.)

In the book Invisible Cities, the explorer Marco Polo tells the aging emperor Kublai Khan of the cities he has visited, each city being a short vingnette. By the end of the book we are not quite sure they are all real, or even if they are different cities. For the Second Life installation, the artists selected four of these cities: Eudoxia, Armilla, Isaura and Emeralda.

As you arrive at Invisible Cities, you'll find yourself in a gateway area with doors to all the cities (photo at top—click to zoom in). This "ground floor" was developed by Cherry Manga. The doorways to the cities are all imaginative transport vehicles, and an additional place, Calvino's desk, is reached via a bubble set apart a bit from the other teleports.

The first city is Eudoxia (Floor 1, image above) by Marcus Inkpen, whose work I adore. It's the most "traditional" of the cities, suggestive of an old European space, but there's a surreal, dreamlike quality to it. Perhaps in a Kafkaesque way, all paths that lead off the main square seem to go nowhere, and are all nearly but not quite identical.

The second city, Armilla (Floor 2), by Romy Nayar and Ux Hax, is an alien world of railings, winding circular staircases, bathtubs (some of which you ride in), and slowly ascending lamps. There's lots of activity here, as if something is purposefully happening or going on, but what that purpose is is hidden from us. Overhead a large female shape gazes down, perhaps controlling or just observing.

The city of Isaura (Floor 3), by Lanjran Choche and Morlita Quan, is a city of words and phrases. Fragments of sentences stream by, surrounded by pipes and tubing. Here near the center and toward the bottom you can obtain a bubble transport—it can be a little hard to find, and the original entrance can be too—it's at 68/72.

The final city, Emeralda (Floor 5), by Rebeca Bashly, really is somewhat invisible—its buildings are partially transparent, and although we can see the insides we cannot enter. This is a water city, with gondolas (you can get your own at the landing point).

And there's one more destination: Calvino's Desk. You can reach this by teleporting from a bubble at the Ground Floor, and here you will find the passages from Calvino's book on each of the four cities, although you might find them easier to read on the installation's website (which curiously speaks of Calvino in the present tense, although he passed away in 1985).

Speaking of websites, the machinima created for this project is every bit as important as the physical installation. Invisible Cities has its own YouTube channel here, with five videos to view. Enjoy, and thanks to all the artists who brought this work together—I'd like to think that Calvino would have been delighted.

P.S. I'll be posting images on my flickr stream.

The End of the Susa Bubble Story

It's all over for the Susas. Today Rose Borchovski announced that the Susa Bubble Story installation, about which I've previously written here, will close this month. It's a fantastic artwork, and it's not a fixed installation—I found today many things had changed since I last visited not long ago—so drop by to visit before it disappears. There's more overhead, too.

And no, Hamlet Au, you can't add this to your silly "sim death watch" list, because Rose will be creating something new to replace the Susa Bubble Story. She's been working on it for several months and is eager to put it on display. And the Susas won't quite completely disappear—somewhere they'll continue (site to be determined) in a reduced way.

Field of View Opens at LEA26

Opening today at LEA26 is a new artwork, Field of View, created by Sowa Mai and Banrion Constantine, known collaboratively as Aequitas. (More about their past projects here on their blog.)

Surrounded by decaying objects along the edge of the sim (a ferris wheel, abandoned and dilapidated structures) is a watery field of floating cubes (or in some cases submerged). The top surface of each cube features constantly changing textures, and that's where visitors get to interact, as you're invited to add your own images to a cube or two (or more)—they'll become part of the ongoing stream of visual material.

As the creators say, "We hope you will participate by placing a gently used texture in one of the boxes in the center of the sim. Your texture will de displayed with others in an ever changing kaleidoscope of Second Life. Go ahead and add a couple if you wish. A picture of you, your avatar, your home, your workspace, pets, statements, prayers, testimonials. Enjoy the shift in perception that takes place upon seeing our creative output in relation to others." Through this gesture, the artists hope that residents will contribute to an ever changing and unpredictable mosaic.

Hazardous

Opening today is a lovely new sim called Hazardous. Imagined and created by Wendy Xeno, the designer of HuMaNoiD, Hazardous was commissioned by Dirk Talamasca and is owned by Mandingo Quan, who has also been involved in the design process. Mandingo (pictured just below with Wendy—as always, click to zoom in on photos) has very kindly agreed to keep the sim open to the general public, and he may eventually include a store overhead.

Visitors will immediately recognize elements Wendy Xeno's beautiful style and handiwork, but this isn't a carbon copy of HuMaNoiD—though no doubt it will become just as much a favorite for photography and quiet reflection. At the landing point are some very fun balloons you can grab (they're easy to miss) to take a flying tour around the sim—control them with arrow keys and page up/down keys. They're by Harleywan Haggwood, whose shop, Never You Mind, sells all sorts of eclectic things.

I've already spent quite a few hours at Hazardous, pestering Wendy ("Is it done yet?" "That's a cool script, can I have a copy?") and soaking in the feel of the region. (There we are, above—I'm not sure which one of us is wearing scantier clothes!) She's extraordinarily masterful at finding ways to combine existing objects into new things—while some of the items at Hazardous are her own creations, many are designed by others, presented here (as at HuMaNoiD) in ways that create striking new environments.

There's a tip jar near the entrance, so please consider giving something to Dingo to help with the cost of this significant new landmark. Enjoy!

P.S. I'll be posting more images of Hazardous on my flickr stream in the coming days.

New Home

Sorry for my prolonged silence, but I've been busy! About a week ago I decided my economical little quarter-homestead plot of land was simply not making the cut—I was always bumping up against my prim allowance—and so I bought a half-homestead. (I've got some other land elsewhere, but not nearly as nice.) My new home in the same estate as my old one—Reach Isles, owned and managed by Reacher Rau, and I'd highly recommend their excellent services to anyone. So I've been busy, as you might imagine, with landscaping and settling in. It's always refreshing to go through a healthy transition like this, and I'm feeling happy and content.

Most of the landscaping is from Green and Wild Design. I have a little inlet where i rezzed a boat by AM Radio, and shamelessly copied some ideas from my friend Wendy Xeno (creator of HuMaNoiD), who is busy working on a new sim that will open in just a few days—more on that in the near future. (Plus Wendy gave me some cool scripts to work with.) In the process I've discovered some fun new stores, too, like Never You Mind, Zacca and Alices Garden.

Back to blogging soon!

Tyrehl Byk

If you ever hear that the brilliant artist Tyrehl Byk (pictured below) is presenting one of his particle shows, go. You're guaranteed to be mesmerized and amazed for the better part of an hour as a dazzling parade of particles move around and over you in a stream-of-consciousness sort of performance. Usually in partnership with a musician, Tyrehl's events are presented in something of an amphitheatre—it's essential that you take a seat as you watch the performance, because your camera control is relinquished, allowing Tyrehl to zoom your view around in space to see the animations from various perspectives, including way overhead. (You can see the audience in the image above—click to zoom in.)

This evening I had a chance to catch an event at MadPea, presented in collaboration with the musician Ultraviolet Alter. While for this performance Ultra was composing on the fly, Tyrehl by necessity pre-planned the elements of his presentation and then engaged in a live interplay with the music. "We did an hour jam friday night—just the two of us so she could see the new effects I created," he remarked. "She has more ability to improvise than I do—I can't create the particles on the moment. I have to use what I've set out and use the camera angles to make them look interesting." He has a wide assortment of options from which to pick: "I have two computers, one with a HUD with over 200 buttons, and this one with a HUD with about 50." Tyrehl was quick to credit Najure Ibor with lending a hand for some of the trickier aspects of this evening's show.

Tyrehl is an artist in real life, with a body of conventional photography and another of pure non-commissioned digital art. He's planning to have "a more conventional gallery exhibit of some particle sculptures" in the near future—stay tuned. If I hear of upcoming performances, I'll tweet them, but you can also contact Tyrehl inworld to get on his listserv.

(And—at risk of sounding like a broken record!—I'll mention once again that it's always essential to tip these great artists when you can.)