Invisible People

Opening today, Saturday, November 16 at 12:30 pm (now, as I write this) is a tour de force by Rebeca Bashly. Entitled Invisible People, the artwork is situated throughout Lost Town (La Città Perduta), a space curated by sivi Kelberry and AKILAE Gant, which has had a string of excellent recent artistic installations. What Rebeca has installed are twenty-one people—just people you might see as you roam around a small city square—partaking in various activities. (Click on these images to zoom in.)

As Rebeca says:
    This is a story, presented thru camouflage body art,
    about all those people that you pass by
    on the streets every day and never notice them...

The trick in seeing the artwork is that it must be seen from a very specific angle. The middle and lower photos here are of the same location—you'll notice one person sleeping on a bench, while another walks along with a basket and cane. What Rebeca has done, remarkably, is to wrap the figures with the textures behind them, but only from a certain vantage point. You'll notice in the middle photo that the figure walking isn't seen correctly—the texture isn't visible, but it is on the figure on the bench. In the third image, it's the walker with the cane who is captured correctly. As the textures align, the figures meld with the back and, in a way, seem to partly disappear. It can take a little time to get the textures to align precisely, and it's delightful fun. Rebeca adds that visitors who correctly document all twenty-one invisible people will receive a free sculpture from her.

Avalon Town Closing

Today came the news that the multi-sim Avalon Town will close at the end of the year. For seven years a home to innumerable art galleries and exhibition spaces, as well as home to dozens of artists, Avalon has been a bastion of the arts in Second Life. The announcement of the estate's closing states, "We are saddened to pass on the news that at the end of the year, Avalon Town will be closing. As many of you know, our estate owner, Colleen Kesey, is a wonderful and generous woman, and has given us many years of fun, creativity and mischief in Avalon Town. The decision to let it go was a difficult one, but as the path of her life has changed, the time has finally come." Comprising several sims, the key arts districts in Avalon Town are Tabula rasa and Ars Lunga, with additional arts spaces in Vade Mecum and other nearby regions.

The announcement continues, "We will not 'go gentle into that good night', however. The estate will remain open until the end of the year. We will have a few more events if possible. Stay tuned for plans for a grand finale party on December 28th. If you are interested in buying a sim, Colleen is selling them for 1L. Please contact Ethan Westland or Tricia Aferdita if you are interested...We would like to collect your favorite stories, memories and photos of Avalon from over the years. Please send Ethan or Tricia any full perm photos, note cards with stories, etc. We will be compiling them in some format or another for everyone to share."

Lost Second Life

Opening tomorrow, Tuesday, November 12, at 11 am slt at Anita Witt's Dryland Gallery is an exhibition of my work entitled Lost Second Life. When Anita suggested the theme of "Lost Second Life" several months ago, I was intrigued and excited.

I thought it would be easy, just sifting through images and selecting a few here and there, but it turned out to be a surprising challenge. For starters, there were more than 15,000 photographs to look through, and it turned out that many weren't what I would consider exhibition quality. And then there was the title itself: Lost Second Life somehow implied a comprehensive survey of all that had come and gone, and that's not really what either Anita or I originally envisioned.

This exhibition is not intended to be a survey of all Second Life locations that have come and gone over the past few years. Hundreds of places—ranging from iconic locations such as the Lost Gardens of Apollo and Omega Point to Gorean and other roleplay sims—have disappeared, and I can't claim to have ever visited or documented many of them. Additionally, although I've been taking images in Second Life for a long time, my serious work in photography really dates from early 2011.

So the exhibition is, rather, simply a reflection of varied places that have come and gone. Some, like Greenies or AM Radio's installations at the IDIA Laboratories sim, were locations almost everyone in Second Life visited, or so it seemed. Others, such as a 2304 Rain or Coney Island, 1922, came and went so quickly (sometimes in the space of only a few days) that few people ever got the chance to explore them. I did discover, happily, that one place that had been gone just returned a week ago—Lemondrop's Forest—so one planned image has now been omitted from the exhibition!

Older images—ones that I thought captured essential places but aren't of the highest quality (as SL photography has changed over the years with the introduction of anti-aliasing and environmental settings)—are included in smaller sizes here and there on easels, while newer images are mounted on the gallery walls.

The Machine

Now open and continuing through the month of November, as part of the LEA Full Sim Art Series, is The Machine by Lilia Artis and Moeuhane Sandalwood. Visitors enter a space in which the inhabitants believe they have created the perfect world:

    We have solved all our problems. Thanks to our ingenuity.
    We have cured all illnesses. Thanks to our technical savvy.
    We have cheated death. Thanks to our code.
    We invented the machine.
    The only thing left to do:
    Keep the machine running that keeps us running.

As the creators explain, "The creatures have created a perfectly functioning world. They live in the ever present. As a sound community. With joined minds and spirits. Interconnected. Completely. They run the machine – and are run by the machine. They are the machine. The peak of innovation. The end of evolution. Their creation. They are a society without memory. Their history a mere shadow. Because there is no need to remember. Why remember what is of no value. They are perfect." The top level of the build, where visitors arrive (top image), represents this utopian environment, where the citizens and the machine are interconnected. But underneath this (subsequent images, going down) lies a past, and visitors can head below to discover what it is and how it relates to this new civilization. (Some of the entrances to the three levels below aren't easy to spot at first—just look for openings in the floor.)

Lurking at the bottom of it all is a dark, abandoned world (lowest image), and one that we might recognize as our own, although in great decay. "What if a society sets progress through technology as their top priority? Perfection above everything else?" pose Lilia and Moeuhane. Lilia tells me, "We did the planning together, the idea, then Moe set up the grand layout and I concentrated on making the textures, but of course it also was a mix, meaning him doing textures too and me building up things. We really collaborated with every step." The notecard you'll receive as you arrive will guide you through the build with additional information.

Island of Lost Dreams Closing

The Island of Lost Dreams, about which I blogged here back in February, will be closing its doors in the next few days. The sim features the work of Jenne Dibou, perhaps best known for Forgotten City and the JD Mechanical Toy Factory, and opened its doors in August 2012. But the sim won't go out without a fanfare—tomorrow, Saturday, November 9, there will be a farewell party at 2 pm slt, and the sim may be around for a few days after that. When you arrive, just grab a visitor tag (you'll need to join the group), and then click on the barrel (the one that says "Teleport to Castle") to reach the ground area.

Through a Glass Darkly

Opening tomorrow, Friday, November 8 at 2 pm slt at The Rose Theatre & Art Gallery is an exhibition of recent works by photographer Benjamin Glendale entitled Through a Glass Darkly. The show presents a collection of monochromatic images (or nearly so—a few have a hint of color), and as several use the recurring motif of a 1930s-era automobile, we might tend to think these are images from another era. They're delightfully evocative in that respect and attractively composed. If you come to the opening reception, note that the preferred dress code is black and white.

(LCD) Special Zone CD - Little Planet

I knew when I spotted (LCD) Special Zone CD - Little Planet on the SL map, with its curious overhead design and bold colors, that it would be something unusual. I admit to being a bit stumped when I arrived—the sim's information described it as a "Sonic Sim," which I took to mean, you know, sound, and I couldn't find much in the way of sonic activity. But finally it got through my thick head: sonic as in Sonic the Hedgehog, related to the Sega game series and its many spin-offs, which immediately explained the look of the sim.

Special Zone is obviously designed for fun and games—in fact, to literally put you right inside the game. I know next to nothing about Sonic culture, but judging from the number of avatars in the sim it has a healthy following here. If you're curious, there's a little mall that sells avatars, and sim owner and designer Lugana Rysniq (BlackLaguna Mighty) is a maker of Sonic-related avatars through his store, Lobster-Cat Designs. I found it a fun place to roam around and explore—no visitor tags are required.

Seni Seviyorum

Resplendent with rich fall colors against a glowing blue sky, the sim Seni Seviyorum consists of two sides, one owned and designed by RY (Ryu Asalia), with contributions from さぁこ (Kyo Asalia); and one owned and designed by ろん子 (Lonco), with contributions from 沙桃 (xPumyx) and さの (Sanako Luv). ろん子's island, to the southwest, is marked by silver birch trees (from Studio Skye) covered in yellow and orange leaves that lazily float to the ground. A caravan from Zigana provides the base for a cozy encampment. On RY's island to the northwest, the colors are deeper, with trees and vegetation from HPMD and alirium, and a windmill stands tall over an intricately decorated home.

Those two islands on the west half of the sim are linked by a wooden walkway standing just over the surface of the bright blue sea. The eastern half of the sim features an entirely different climate—a tropical setting on a single island (divided neatly in half, north to south) in the shape of a crescent moon. Somehow it manages to meld well with the two deciduous islands to the west. From overhead, you'll notice that the seabed has been crafted into the shape of a heart. The entire sim is a beautiful area for photography, wandering and relaxation.

...give the numbers!

Several weeks ago, Giovanna Cerise opened her exhibition Arithmos at LEA17 (about which I wrote here), and she hinted that more was to come. Today, Sunday, November 3, at 1:30 pm, the second part of the sim's installation will open, featuring the work of several additional artists who were invited by Giovanna to explore the same theme. Entitled ...give the numbers!, it includes artworks by Alpha Auer (top image), Ataro Asbrink, Betty Tureaud, Daco Monday, La Baroque, Noke Yuitza, Paola Mills, Pol Jarvinen (central image) and Taralyn Gravois (lower image).

While Giovanna's work on the lower level of sim explores the full gamut of all the digits and mathematics in general, the artists here were asked to select a single number to investigate, and several of them chose the same ones. Personally I found Alpha Auer's and Ataro Asbrink's works most to my liking (and, frankly, some not at all). Here is a list of the artists (direct teleport links on their names) and the number each selected:

Alpha Auer - 5 (and the work is entitled 5555555 55555 555) - She writes, "In 5555555 55555 555 the number 5 has replaced all the glyphs of the Lorem Ipsum text. What you see looks like a text, complete with headlines, sub-heads and a body text. What you read however are only combinations of the glyph 5 made to look like words and sentences. Through the glyph 5 I invite you to construct your own meaning, to look at text as a playful device instead of the conveyor of 'serious information' that we normally consider it to be."

Ataro Asbrink - 7 - "It's all fantasy," he tells me. "I made something fairytale-like." With a focus on the stars and things celestial, Ataro's work features coded movies and other interactive elements—be sure to click on everything.

Betty Turead - 7 - The 7 planets features, as its name suggests, the seven planets known to the ancient Sumerian-Babylonian culture—the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Sit on each, and have your sound turned up.

Daco Monday - 0 - "A gurgle, a sip of zero ...
"a nothing!
"Above, below zero ...
"hot, cold
"positive, negative ...
"stable zero!
"White, democratic, mediation, meditation ....
"generates all colors, encloses them!
"A circle, a center, a point, a vacuum ...
"year zero, a beginning, an end
"a nothing, a more ...
"past or future?
"A multiply ...
"a zero is zero!"

La Baroque - 4 - A grouping of 2D and 3D artworks explore the number 4 in various ways, and an accompanying notecard provides an extensive map and explanation of each item or groupings of items.

Noke Yuitza - 3 - "The number 3 is in nature, in our culture and in ourselves. Is the Trinity exposed in its multiple meanings present in religion, science and philosophy, in the division of time into Past, Present and Future, in the Three Powers, in You, Me and That which unites us or disjoint us and in the Id, Ego and Superego of Freud."

Paola Mills - 5 - "A number that hovers in the air, a number that sinks into the skin of the body, a number that explodes in the head to free your nightmares. So many numbers to express the emotions and inner fears. A due tribute to the cries of despair for all the outcasts of the world. I’m not builder, I’m not photographer, but I still believe there is compassion in the human race."

Pol Jarvinen - 8 - I went back and forth over whether this investigated 0s or 8s, but I think it's the latter.

Taralyn Gravois - 4 - "When I took this number, I had no idea how much it really is represented in all things—science, religion, sports, entertainment...I couldn't pick one theme...so I share many."

Nuville Horrors

It takes guts (sorry) and a certain amount of bravura to open, with fanfare, a Halloween-themed sim two days after Halloween. But so it was with Nuville Horrors, which greeted its first visitors today, November 2nd. Designed by Suetabulous Yootz and Anya Ohmai, the build welcomes arrivals at a landing point that explains the admission fee structure: L$100 for a single pass (twelve hours), or L$800 for "permanent access throughout the time we open," which runs through February 2. Usually a bundled package fee like that would suggest that one would want to return at least eight times, and that going for L$800 would be the wiser deal. The need to return to any sim like this eight times in a short amount of time suggested rich rewards, so I was curious as to what I'd encounter, with "a ride to enjoy and 50 gifts" included.

I opted for the L$100 twelve-hour deal, and boarded the bus, which whisked me off toward Nuville. Along the way the bus traveled through a number of Halloween-oriented scenes, observable only from inside as we sped by, but they looked encouraging and well-designed—I had to resist the temptation to exit the bus. (A view out the front window of the bus is pictured at the top.) Finally, we arrived at the terminus and were deposited at the steps of a hotel (middle image), where we received a HUD and a basket. From there, the adventure continued inside, up one floor at a time (all essentially identical, lower image) and door to door. Knocking on hotel room doors often resulted in the receipt of a treat or prize. Occasionally a door would open, revealing a sparsely decorated room, and several of these, too, contained prizes. But after about the fifth or sixth floor, I must admit I was beginning to wonder if this was all there was to it–and indeed it was. I found it, frankly, a bit boring. And the prizes? Well, various pieces of candy to wear or eat (often the same item in different colors), a raven to perch on your shoulder, a scarecrow greeter, sunglasses that say "boo," and so on, plus a few Halloween-oriented avatars, all of which add up to 50 items. For me, it's mostly stuff that will head into the trash or at best be stuffed away for almost a year. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't fork over the additional L$700.