The Man — Oldest Object in Second Life

Yeah, it's sexist as hell that the statue The Man (sometimes called The Statue of Man) is the oldest object in Second Life. Nonetheless, you can see all ten prims of it in old Natoma, and it's remarkably simple if exceptionally ancient, built on Friday, June 19th, 2002 by oldjohn Linden. From its position on what's called Philip's Hill, overlooking the Ivory Tower of Primitives, you can't help but feel some reverence for it (or, in our case, simply sit on it *grins*) and think back to how impressive it must have looked. "Let's push it over," quipped my partner Barbie. ;-)

a Petrovsky flux

One rule of thumb in Second Life: whenever blotto Epsilon (pictured below) and Cutea Benelli are up to something, it's worth investigating! This time it's a Petrovsky flux, a remarkable build hosted by the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas (and I've given up trying to think up quips about "We're not in Kansas anymore!"—but kudos to the Spencer and other college and university art spaces that offer artists the opportunity to develop new works in virtual environments). As with blotto's and Cutea's previous creation, Bogon flux, a Petrovsky flux remarkably and continually builds itself and self-destructs, changing its form each time as it extends into the sky, although certain elements are permanent enough that you can safely stand on them. Jean Tinguely would have been delighted.

Do explore. Near where you arrive be sure to click on the welcome sign to grab your "petrovsky noggin protector" and flying sheep (explore in style!). Some of the standpipes are actually teleport hubs that whisk you around the sim, and you'll find things like a little café in the sky, platforms connected by stairways or rickety ladders and, on the ground, a traversable tightrope. If you click quickly enough, you can hop a ride on one of the big flying sheep. As I'm writing this, the sound stream in the region is playing Gene Krupa's Wings On My Shoes, adding an additional touch of humor to the already delightfully silly (but oh so serious) build that a Petrovsky flux is.

Two excellent pieces of machinima are worth mentioning: one simply credited to SpencerArtKU, and the other by Toxic Menges. Enjoy.

Nemo Destruction

One last machinima on Nemo—this one is the end, the destruction. Captured throughout the day on October 29th, while the sim was closed except to four of us, this is more of a documentary than an art-piece. To see this in higher resolution, head over to my Vimeo page.

Second Life: Nemo Fin/End from Ziki Questi on Vimeo.