Tranquility Dreams

Kylie Jaxxon recently encouraged me to visit Tranquility Dreams (part of White Dunes Estates), landscaped by her friend (and excellent sim designer) Elvira Kytori, who has created sims such as the gorgeous Timeless Memories (read here and here). With pine trees and scrappy vegetation on rolling dunes suggestive of the mid-Atlantic coast, possibly around the Outer Banks, the sim provides lovely views along the shoreline, with beach homes throughout.

The beaches and shorelines are for the most part open to the public, and include many spots to wander, relax, cuddle, or soak up the sun. Those visitors who find themselves enthused by the region might want to consider renting one of the homes, all of which, when rented, will likely be off limits to foot travel, as inviting as they appear.

The quiet sounds of the waves lapping the shore and the piercing cries of the gulls permeate the soundscape, so be sure to have local sounds turned on. I've used the sim's default windlight in the first two images here (brightened a little), but others work as well, and photographers will not doubt enjoy experimenting with the opportunities presented by Tranquility Dreams.

Skip Staheli and Regi Yifu at BOSL Art Gallery

Opening tomorrow, Saturday, September 5, from 10 to 11 am, is an installation and exhibition by photographer Skip Staheli and interactive artist Regi Yifu at the new BOSL Art Gallery. Widely appreciated for their excellent quality, Skip's images are presented here as projections, so it's essential that visitors turn on advanced lighting model — otherwise, the canvases will simply appear to be blank. It's also important to select a dark windlight setting, and although Skip and Regi suggest Ambient Dark, I found the even darker Phototools- No Light more to my liking. Either way, one will immediately see the gallery come to life with a kaleidoscopic montage of projected images. "I saw Regi's lightshow the other year, and I suddenly thought, 'I have to ask him if he wants to do that with me!'" Skip told me as we talked about the collaboration. (Above, he inspects an image.)

Skip's 28 photographs are displayed on a series of flat surfaces, but the images won't be immediately intelligible, as they're projected by Regi using three distinct light channels (image immediately above). As visitors approach them, a "bump" into a prim in front of each image causes the channels to converge, thereby displaying the composite photograph (image immediately below). "It takes some practicing," Skip encouraged. "You really have to bump in the middle and stay connected." I also discovered that my own camera settings — I use Penny Patton's — actually made it more difficult to see the images. So if, like me, you've changed your camera angle, you might want to switch it back to fully enjoy this exhibition. But these are minor points, and I provide them more as helpful insight to visitors than as criticism of the installation.

For those visitors who can't use advanced lighting model, Skip has helpfully mounted the original images on the reverse of the display areas. The beautiful projected images that slowly rotate through the walls and ceiling of the spaces (such as shown below) were provided by Regi, who also offers to visitors some delightful wearable elements, including body lights that project onto your avatar, making you one with the installation, and a personal projector to help you find your way in the dark. Those who enjoy the experience will no doubt also want to visit Regi's own space, the Regimade Light Gallery. The exhibition will continue for three months, into December 2015.

Final Call for Boarding at Tierra de Fuego

It may not be very safe to fly out of Tierra de Fuego, judging from the looks of the wrecked planes at the airport, but it's also your last chance, as Ash (Ashratum), the sim's owner, announced its impending closure on Sunday, September 6. The airport and environs opened in December 2013 (see a blog post here from January 2014) and quickly became a quirky watering hole for the sexually adventurous, as well as for photographers interested not only in the sim's distinctive look, but also in opportunities for erotic images.

Set amidst a desert scene, the sim's primary focal point is its airport and extended runway, lined by hangars, maintenance facilities and a café. Further afield are a fleabag motel and a seedy joint called The Waiting Room, with opportunities for sexual encounters at many locations. (The sim does not shy away from its adult agenda in the least — often with a dash of humor — and photographers such as Ash, Phil Sidek, Mich Michabo and others have contributed to its reputation, with many photos in the sim's flickr group.) Thanks to Ash and her friends for having shared Tierra de Fuego with the Second Life community.

Faces of Longing and Grief

Opening today, Wednesday, September 2 at 1 pm slt, is Faces of Longing and Grief, an exhibition of images by Maloe Vansant at the Dathúil gallery, curated by Lucy (Lucy Diam0nd). Nearly all of the photos are facial shots, capturing a mood or moment of longing or grief, as the title suggests. Saying, "That's what I try to express with my pictures," Maloe offers two quotes: "The Portuguese call it saudade: a longing for something so indefinite as to be indefinable. Love affairs, miseries of life, the way things were, people already dead, those who left and the ocean that tossed them on the shores of a different land — all things born of the soul that can only be felt." (Anthony De Sa, Barnacle Love); and "Now something so sad has hold of us that the breath leaves and we can't even cry." (Charles Bukowski, You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense).

What is particularly challenging for a Second Life photographer attempting to capture subtle emotions is that the default avatar's ability to express is very limited — the face is generally static, aside from a strongly affected-looking optional smile, frown, wink and so on. The photographer must therefore resort to light and color in an attempt to draw forward or suggest some emotion, and several of Maloe's images do this particularly well. The artist has generously set all of the images for sale for free, so those who admire her work will certainly be adding to their collections. The exhibition will remain on display through the end of September.

Recursion

Now open at LEA27 is Recursion by FreeWee Ling, a fascinating array of artworks centered around an interactive "Fibonacci Recursive Rezzer" that invites endless play and investigation. As FreeWee explains her her notes to the installations, "One of the most powerful creative techniques for any artist in any medium is recursion. In technical terms, recursion differs from repetition in that what recurs is similar to the original iteration, but may be altered in some systematic way...Creating large or complex objects in SL is made easy by the ability to duplicate, rotate, and/or resize objects. And such recursion is easily automated using rezzer scripts and building algorithmically."

The Fibonacci Recursive Rezzer generated both the patters of prims above (both shown in some detail to avoid depicting neighboring objects), and it was quite fascinating to watch it work — and I found it almost impossible to stop playing with the device, which presents the user with an almost limitless set of variables. The recursive patterns it generates reveal themselves through a variety of angles and perspectives.

Another interactive building device, Aperture, is nearby on the sim, allowing changes to a huge collection of prims rotating in space. And there's much more, with dozens of artworks, some scripted and some not, including the mesmerizing Giant Swirlygig (the bright green thing in the photo above, although it's not always green), a fanning ray particle emitter, giraffes on fire, and a Heavy Sliding Vault Door that reveals something within. They're all remarkable expressions of FreeWee's apparently endless imagination, and warrant repeated visits to fully enjoy.

Photos don't begin to convey the true feel of the sim, which is filled with movement in every direction. I would recommend using a high graphics setting to bring out the detail in materials such as shown below. (Click on any image to zoom in.) FreeWee will be in residence at LEA27 through December, and, if past installations are any indication, she'll be adding and transforming the space over time (indeed, one area is presently under construction).

Failure To Thrive [ The Gray Child ]

At first glance, Failure To Thrive [ The Gray Child ] at LEA15 by Storm Septimus looks magical: stars twinkle across the velvety sky as the quiet waters of the sim envelop rocks, ruins and odd flowers made of dinosaur vertebrae and peacock feathers. But venture more deeply, and you'll enter a dark world — or perhaps a gray one — imbued with themes of deep depression: macabre doll children at a table eating some of their own, a flock of birds stabbed with scissors, a female figure whose heart is ripped from her chest with barbed wire. And here and there are "failure doors" with short phrases about the "gray child" — "The Dark child is here/my sadness/my anger/my hurt," "The Gray child surrounds me/She has no name/her shape and form are mine," and others.

In describing the sim to my friend Honour McMillan for the LEA blog (read here), Storm spoke candidly about her struggles with depression, the ways in which the sim's themes reflect her challenges, and the task of building something that expressed her experiences. (I'll not repeat them here, but Storm's remarks do much to illuminate her artistic thinking and process.) As I wandered Failure to Thrive, I struck up a conversation with another visitor, Kalia (Kaliaharva), who put it very elegantly: "She has managed to capture so much here in the sim that I find it quite eloquent and beautiful — it must take a lot to look at yourself so deeply, honestly and then share yourself like this."

Despite the dark themes, the sim possesses an eerie beauty, and great care has clearly gone into its development. The artist offers two very explicit windlight setting suggestions — one for low resolution (which she prefers) and one for high (which I've shown here). Storm credits her close friend Gemini Carver with the support she needed to realize the installation, adding, "The building kills me. It's only after that I get to see it through other peoples eyes ... I'm enjoying it more now for sure." Her residency at the sim will continue until the end of December.

Naked (possibly nsfw)

There are things you can do in Second Life that you probably just can't do in real life, like stripping off your clothes and going sailing. And that's the sort of thing you can do at Naked, a group of nine adult sims comprising The Naked Rocks, Bare Naked Angels, Naked Bondage, The Naked Ocean, Naked Sailing, Naked Sea, The Naked Depths, Naked Edge, and the sim Naked itself, all connected into a giant square. In addition to the sailing, which is a major pastime among visitors, the sims feature several art galleries and many locations for intimacy.

Naked is owned by the trio of The Cat (Catredivivus), Devorax and Jessica Belmer; additionally a quartet of additional estate managers keeps an eye on the day-to-day health of the sims. One, my friend Io Bechir, talked with me (photo above — she's on the left) about the life of the sims: "Sailing is a huge part of this place thanks to Jess' work — it's become quite a unique little destination for casual naturist sailors. We also have some amazing art in the galleries here from Cat's personal collection. And, of course, Jessica's wonderful gallery on Naked Bondage. We think it's a very sweet and playful combination of art, sex, and sailing. We always have more experienced sailors willing to help newer folks — since we're not really a sailing-first estate, I think people feel more comfortable learning here."

Nakedness is required (and celebrated) throughout the sims with several exceptions: the main landing point (where one can learn more about Naked), all the art galleries (including Jessica's LHOOQ gallery, about which I wrote here), and the naked bondage area in the sky (a playful location for the more adventurous, photo immediately below). Although sex isn't per se what the sims are about — and not all visitors are there for sex, to be sure — there are plenty of opportunities for couples (and even groups) throughout the Naked sims, some private and some more public.

Several of the sailing sims are primarily water, with occasional buoys or lighthouses to mark boundaries, but those with land are beautifully designed and quite inviting. Visitors who enjoy sailing can rent a boat slip — there's about a month's wait as I write this. It's possible the Naked sims may change hands later this year, but "nothing's certain, yet," Jessica shared with me. "One way or another, they'll be around." Thanks to Froderick Massey, whom I met at the sims, for taking me out on his sailboat to tour (top image).

The Art of Seduction

Now up at The Art of Seduction Gallery, owned by Sirenity Soon and Lelu Anatine, is a beautiful inaugural exhibition featuring works by Sisi Mortensen, Peace, Gunnar Cadeyrn, Strawberry Singh, Jammie Hill, Pink Sky, Lana Quicksand, . Kiki, Ayla Barzane, Mr. & Mrs. Munro, Charlie Namiboo, Kirin01 Resident, Jordan Giant, Bevie Oh, and Keely Mistwood. The exhibition opened on July 15 and was to close on August 15, and I had intended to write something about it prior to an August vacation — but as it's still on display, this is a quick post to suggest those with an interest in erotic photography pay a visit before it disappears.

Impressions

Many Second Life residents are no doubt familiar with Inara Pey through her blog, Living in a Modemworld, which stands unrivaled as the leading news site on Second Life and related topics in virtual reality. But many may not be familiar with her fascination with the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and in particular his iconic design for Fallingwater, a home created for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh in a fairly remote section of southwestern Pennsylvania in the 1930s. She now shares that interest at Impressions: a personal view of Second Life on LEA6, which features a remarkably accurate model of the home (at least to my eyes, having spent enough time at the real life location to be struck by Inara's detailed work).

Explorers will really get a pretty good sense of what the real life Fallingwater is like, minus the fragrance of the wooded land around it. A couple visitors have seemed stumped as to where to enter the house: simply head up the walkway, turn left, and you'll see a little doorway near the antique car, and that leads into the living room, just as in the real thing. It's Inara's second attempt at recreating Fallingwater (and the guest house, which sits up the hill): "The first version I did was guesswork based on photos," she says. "Later, I found a set of floorplans for the main house and the outbuildings, and they sent me off on rebuilding in 2011/2012." Some minor adjustments have been made for avatar height (Wright's homes have some notoriously narrow and small spaces, particularly bathrooms and hallways) and camming issues. It's not a "modern" mesh build, but that's really besides the point, and Inara has reproduced as closely as she can the original Kaufmann furnishings, which are still in the real home.

But there's more to the Impressions project: throughout the interior and exterior of Fallingwater are photographs and videos by Inara taken on her many trips around the grid, and sculptures and photos by CioTToLiNa Xue, whose work Inara recently discovered. You'll be able to see the location and date of any photo by checking in edit — for example, on a bedroom balcony stand two photos from Checkmate taken in July 2014 and one photo of Cantrip de Savor taken in January 2015 — and videos are clearly labeled. CioTToLiNa's works are well incorporated around the house, including one, donna uomo abbracciati in mano, that overlooks the falls (photo below). Additionally, the wooded sections of the sim themselves are delightful, and wanderers will find secluded spots of refuge here and there. Impressions will remain open until September 30, and the Fallingwater reproduction isn't likely to be recreated again in Second Life, so this is a one-time chance to experience the remarkable space. To learn more, read Inara's own thoughts on the installation on her blog here.

The Noble Summer Residence

Blossom Noble contacted me today to share that she and other members of the Noble family — famed for creating sims such as Noble Goes Dutch (about which I wrote here about a year ago) — will open their private home to visitors for the next week. Simply called The Noble Summer Residence, it's a charming island sim featuring a central dwelling, beaches and a smaller island off to the southwest, all beautifully picturesque.

"We wanted to give people an opportunity to see it before we change to something new," Blossom explained. "Not sure if the next project will be public, but it just might be." The residence will likely close to visitors at the end of the day next Friday, September 4.