FlowerBall

If you were around in Second Life in 2007, you probably remember being wowed by FlowerBall, an installation created by Douglas Story (concept and physical structure), Desdemona Enfield (scripts) and AldoManutio Abruzzo (soundscape) that was on display at one of the the Princeton University sims—it was one of those things that everyone came to see. Now, Lothar Leborski—who in real life is Glenn Zucman, a lecturer in art history at California State University, Long Beach—has given Douglas and Desdemona space to recreate FlowerBell on the CSULB sim, where it will remain until mid-summer.

It's a structurally simple concept—a large, hollowed-out sphere with five phantom floors through which avatars can fly, the intersection with each floor triggering a layer of sound—but is remarkably beautiful to experience, both visually and aurally. You will arrive at a landing point where, in the background, the soundscape is loaded (and therefore you shouldn't teleport people directly into FlowerBell), where you should set the environment to midnight and where you should turn up local sounds. From there, follow the wayfinding signage to reach the immersive artwork, where you'll quickly discover how moving through the floors triggers layers of sounds (each is a 50-second soundtrack)—and how your movement and speed create a lovely doppler effect. Be sure to read the notecard, which provides more about FlowerBell, including its history.