Month: January 2013

The Arrival of a question of departure …

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Arrival
The Arrival

Rose Borchovski’s latest installation at the Linden Endowment for the Arts opened on January 11th. I missed the actual event, but popped along to visit last week, and thought it time I got around to putting words to thoughts and reactions to the piece.

The Arrival is a full sim installation which is both a standalone piece and a continuation of the saga of her Susa’s – child-like beings of a mischievous and sometimes malevolent bent. Here they have captured a fish, and celebrations of the fact turn to questions as the fish dies literally beneath them as they use it as a stage for their jubilation; are they to blame for the poor fish’s demise?

The Arrival
The Arrival

Or that’s one of four explanations Rose gives for the piece. The others include memories from childhood, the inspiration of other artists, and even the influence of religion. In introducing the piece on the LEA blog, Rowan Derryth provides thought-provoking insight into the work which includes more on the possible origins of the piece – and I’ll leave you to go read her thoughts.

Quite how you interpret the work is up to you – you can follow Rowan’s thoughts, which are themselves based on commentary from Rose herself, or you can let your own thoughts percolate as your explore. The latter, by the way, is best done by using the teleport at the arrival point to get you started.

The Arrival
The Arrival

For my part, I found the piece something of an allegory / metaphor for how we humans behave, always busy exploiting this, that or the other, congratulating ourselves on what we can achieve and how we can enjoy everything, with little thought for what might happen when things are gone and we’re left to ponder our own role in their disappearance / extinction …

The Arrival is a fully immersive installation. The level of detail is stunning and ranges from the macro to the micro, plus there is a complete sound scape to take-in (scripted sounds rather than a media feed, so you’ll need sounds active to fully appreciate the work), and all manner of things to touch and prod – and which may surprise you in return. You’ll need to take your time as you explore, not only to make sure you experience all the interactive elements, but also because the detail really is amazing – a genuine tour-de-force as to what can be achieved in SL both in terms of art and in immersive, engaging environments. Make sure, as well, that you accept the region’s windlight settings on arrival, if asked. They are as much a part of the piece as anything else.

The Arrival
The Arrival

The Susas themselves are (as ever) marvellously made and beautifully expressive, particularly when there are grouped together when their child-like innocence is dispelled by looking into the eyes of several of them and witnessing a mischief which might border on malice lurking there. There also seems to be something of a hierarchy among them, as well, which is also hinted at in their expressions.

There is a charm and a disquiet about the piece. The charm comes in part from the very evident care with which all the piece within the installation have been created created – witness the line of peguins going for a dive towards the top of this piece. It also comes from the early sections of the piece where there is much merry-making and happiness, and well as wonderful little touches which are a delight to find (a little book with swimming fish!).

The Arrival
The Arrival

Move deeper into the installation as the story progresses, and the disquiet grows. Full credit here to Caer Balogh, a long-time collaborator with Rose, and her incredible scripted sound scape, which does much to set the mood as it is realised the fish is dead and questions arise. It was towards the middle of the piece that my own conscience was pricked and my thoughts turned to the potential for the piece being a allegory / metaphor, as mentioned above. A scene with two Susas tearing at one another’s faces and biting one another did little to quieten the unease; and while it certainly gave pause for thought, it most certainly did not put me off continuing my explorations. Like many outstanding pieces of art, The Arrival seeks to challenge, not offend.

The Arrival
The Arrival

All in all, this is a fabulous piece of art for all of these reasons and more, and very definitely worth a visit to explore, consider and participate in.

So, now you’re hooked, why not go and see what tales you can land for yourself?

Related Links

The Arrival
The Arrival

LEA Full Sim Art series – next round of applications sought

Posted on by Inara Pey

The LEA Full Sim Art series has a new call for proposals for the period March 2013 – February 2014.

All artists in SL are eligible to apply to have a full region provided for them for a period of one calendar month in which they can host a show of their choosing.

As with previous Full sim art series, successful applicants will receive:

  • A full, 15,000-prim region (inclusive of the media) – not all the prims have to be used!
  • The freedom to choose when to open the show to the public
  • Coverage within the LEA and UWA blog & potentially in any other blogs confirming their continuing support of the series

Access to regions will be granted to successful applicants on the first day of each month, and must end and be cleared from the region on the last day of the month.

How to Apply

  • Send a Notecard in-world to both Jayjay Zifanwe and Bryn Oh, which includes:
    • Your name and the name of anyone who might be working with you on the project
    • A 100-word description of your plan for your show
    • Give your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preferences for the month in which you would like to use a region (from March 2012 through to February 2013 inclusive)
  • Applications must be received no later than midnight SLT on the 10th February, 2013.

With thanks to Bryn Oh

Music, philosophy and mystery, all served with a spoonful of sugar

Posted on by Inara Pey

Once again, the Seanchai Library will be presenting a round of stories and readings in Voice this coming week, with the continuation of a number of stories and a look back on 50 years of writing and music…

As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.

Sunday 27th January

13:30 – Tea-time at Baker Street

Boredom is a terrible thing; when it strikes, it leaves most of us listless, wanting, distracted and, well, bored. For the great Sherlock Holmes, not even a walk accompanied by Doctor Watson, in which the minutiae of every day life might otherwise be a source of distraction, can lift the gloom brought about by a dearth of cases.

However, on their return to 221B Baker Street, the Great Detective discovers he has missed a visitor – a Mr. Grant Munro, who, Holmes deduces, must be of a disturbed state of mind as he left behind his valued pipe – valued because, as Holmes points out to Watson, it has been repaired when broken, rather than replaced.

When Munro returns, Holmes and Watson hear the story of Munro’s deception by his wife Effie. She had been previously married in America, but her husband and child had died of yellow fever, whereupon she returned to England and met and married Munro. Their marriage had been blissful — “We have not had a difference, not one, in thought, or word, or deed,” says Munro — until she asked for a hundred pounds and begged him not to ask why. Two months later, Effie Munro was caught conducting secret liaisons with the occupants of a cottage near the Munro house in Norbury. And thus, Holmes and Watson are off on The Adventure of the Yellow Face.

Join Caledonia Skytower and Corwyn Allen as they continue a journey through The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

18:00 Mary Poppins (at Magicland Park)

mary-poppinsMade famous through the hugely successful 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews and a wobbly accented Dick van Dyke (albeit an adaptation despised by Travers herself), and more recently the focus of a successful West End and Broadway stage production, the adventures of the famous umbrella piloting nanny need no real introduction here in terms of their story.

First published in 1934, Mary Poppins was actually the first in a series of stories about the character written by Travers between 1934 and 1988, all illustrated by Mary Shephard, the daughter of Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows illustrator, E.H. Shephard. Mary actually took the job on account of her father being too busy with other work, and later became regarded as a co-author of the tales.

Join Caladonia at Magicland Park as she continues with Part 2 of this magical tale.

Monday 28th January, 19:00 – Notwithstanding: Stories from an English Village

notwithstandingFamous for his more exotic locations and stories such as Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Red Dog, Louis de Bernieres used England for the setting for a series of short stories written early in his career.

Located in and around the fictional village of Notwithstanding, which is somewhat based on the village of Worley in Surry, where he grew up, the stories were various published in newspapers, etc., prior to being brought together into this single volume in 2009. Semi-autobiographical in places, the stories are rich in English rural detail and contain references to many real-world locations in Surrey, and allow de Bernieres to ruminate on a part of English life he believes to now be vanishing.

Join Caledonia Skytower as she dips further into de Bernieres’ England.

Tuesday January 29th, 19:00: Inkspell

Faerie Maven-Pralou continues Cornelia Funke’s young adult which forms the second part of her Inkworld trilogy. The books chronicle the adventures of teenager Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes that she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud. Mostly set in Northern Italy and the parallel world of the fictional Inkheart book, the central story arc concerns the magic of books, their characters and creatures, and the art of reading.

In Inkspell, a year has passed since the events related in Inkheart, the first book in the series. Not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of Inkheart, a book that has characters that come to life. Resa is back. The fire-eater, Dustfinger, wants to go back to his wife daughters-who are in the story. When he finds a crazy, self-absorbed psycho storyteller, Orpheus, who can read him back into the book, he goes into the pages. Soon Farid convinces Meggie to read him into the book so he can warn Dustfinger of Basta. But Meggie has figured out how to read herself and Farid into the book Inkheart.

Wednesday January 30th, 19:00: Quite a Year for Plums

plumsAnyone who has read the best-selling Mama Makes Up Her Mind or listened to Bailey White’s commentaries on NPR knows that she is a storyteller of inimitable wit and charm. Now, in her stunningly accomplished first novel, she introduces us to the peculiar yet lovable people who inhabit a small town in south Georgia.

Meet serious, studious Roger, the peanut pathologist and unlikely love object of half the town’s women. Meet Roger’s ex-mother-in-law, Louise, who teams up with an ardent typographer in an attempt to attract outer-space invaders with specific combinations of letters and numbers. And meet Della, the bird artist who captivates Roger with the sensible but enigmatic notes she leaves on things she throws away at the Dumpster.

Kayden Oconnell is joined by Caledonia Skytower as they continue to read from the novel.

Thursday January 31st, 19:00: A Pirate Looks at Fifty

jimmy-buffettThe music and writings of Jimmy Buffett’s are known to millions. In A Pirate Looks at 50, written as he reached his half-century, Buffett presents his ultimate philosophy on life and how to live it and he takes his readers on the remarkable journey which he took to celebrate this landmark birthday.

The book spans everything from the legendary pirate coves of the Florida Keys to the ruins of ancient Cartegena. Along the way, we hear a tale or two of how Buffett got his start in New Orleans, how he discovered his passion for flying planes, and how he almost died in a watery crash in Nantucket harbour.  We follow him to jungle outposts in Costa Rica and on a meandering trip down the Amazon, through hair-raising negotiations with gun-toting customs  officials and a 3-year-old aspiring co-pilot.

Join Shandon Loring as he presents the ultimate backstage pass into the wonderful, wacky life of Jimmy Buffett.

Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and additions to the week’s schedule.

Note that throughout January and February, all donations to Seanchai Library SL will go to the real-world charity, Doctors Without Borders! Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

Related Links

SL project news: week 4 (3): viewer, CHUI, SSB, more materials, oh my!

Posted on by Inara Pey

SL Viewer Beta

Issues within the 3.4.5 code have prevented viewer releases progressing through beta, with the code stuck in QA while LL tackled them. However, it appears the majority are now either fixed or on their way to being fixed, and an updated beta viewer should be appearing next week, which should see the beta viewer come pretty close to alignment with code in the development viewer, with the latter only having “a couple” of things not added to the beta branch.

Communications Hub User Interface (CHUI) Project

There have been a rapid series of merges between the CHUI project viewer code and the development viewer recently (as seen in my Viewer Round-up Page and weekly summaries), helping the former to keep pace with the latter, with the most recent CHUI development release (3.4.4.269464) being made on January 25th.

Speaking at the TPV Developer’s Meeting on Friday 25th January, Oz Linden indicated that a formal merge of the CHUI project viewer code with the development viewer code branch “pretty soon” (possibly in the next two weeks, putting it ahead of the server-side baking project). However, according to Nyx Linden, the plan will be to not merge CHUI with the server-side baking project for as long as possible, so that TPVs have the choice of deciding whether they wish to integrate both projects into their own code at the same time or not.

CHUI is viewed as potentially the more problematic implementation for some TPVs to undertake as it involves more widespread changes to the UI, and, and project lead Merov Linden pointed out, the need to refactor a number of areas within the viewer to work with the CHUI elements. As some TPVs have already made substantial changes to the communications floater and other aspects of the communications elements of the UI, there is also a need for these TPVs to work through the code and see how it works with / impacts / breaks / undoes the changes they have made, in order for them to make a proper determination as to which code to adopt / maintain, and which code to ignore / discard.

Avatar Baking (Server-side Baking or SSB)

Work in progressing on all sides of this project, with the various TPVs working on integrating the initial code release from LL into experimental versions of their viewers (with varying degrees of success) and LL working on “bug stomping” and fixes. As commented on in my week 3 project report, there are concerns over the speed of releases for updated code from LL and general visibility of JIRA items.

Nyx Linden was on-hand at the TPV Developer Meeting on the 25th January to provide an update and field questions.

Nyx linden discusses server-side baking at the TPV Developer meeting (stock)
Nyx linden discusses server-side baking at the TPV Developer meeting (stock)

In terms of the server-side code, there have been a number of fixes which should have rolled-out to Aditi on Thursday 24th January, although the status of these had yet to be confirmed at the time of the meeting. Various issues are still to be fixed, such as some avatars being reported with heights which don’t match LL’s computations (particularly very small / petite avatars and very big avatars), which may be down to a mis-match between the way some viewers are calculating avatar height and what the server is anticipating receiving in terms of a value range.

The viewer code has also been receiving a number of updates and fixes, which should be available for use by TPVs and in an updated version of the project viewer in the next day or so. These updates include a required fix for an issue whereby edits make to a wearable item are not saved unless the user also changes something else they are wearing (for example, edits made to a blouse are not saved unless the user swaps the pants they are wearing).

Currently, and so far as I’m aware at the time of writing, Cool VL viewer, Singularity and Radegast all have experimental builds of their viewers / clients which incorporate the code and which are being used purely for testing purposes, with Exodus planning to start merging the code shortly. Niran’s viewer has reported issues with the new code “breaking” RLV/a which (so far) haven’t been reported by other TPVs.

Given the overall pace at which things are progressing on LL’s side, particularly with CHUI and dealing with issues uncovered within SSB itself, it is likely the original eight-week window for TPVs to integrate the SSB will be extended inasmuch as the deployment of SBB to the main grid is now likely to be slightly later than LL may have originally anticipated.

Continue reading “SL project news: week 4 (3): viewer, CHUI, SSB, more materials, oh my!” →

Blocksworld – LL’s latest acquistion

Posted on by Inara Pey

LL logoI actually missed this yesterday, despite tending to look-in on LL’s Press Room on a daily basis. I did so yesterday, but Pete Linden must have been waiting until I’d done so before slipping the announcement that LL have acquired Blocksworld in their latest move in the world of “shared creative spaces”

Blocksworld is created by Boldai AB, a team of three programmers who jokingly refer to themselves as being, “From the country that gave you Minecraft and the country next to the country that invented Lego”, and is described as, “A perfect mix of Lego and Minecraft.”

Currently available for the iPad – although the Bodai website suggests there are (or were) plans to port the game to other platforms – Blocksworld allows users to create 3D models of just about anything they can image from a set of defined shapes / tools such as cubes, wedges, rockets, wheels, motors These models – which can be cars, planes, animals, people, spaceships, etc., come alive with realistic physics simulation, and users can play, interact with, or even blow-up their creations.

Commenting on the acquisition, Linden Lab’s CEO, Rod Humble, said, “Blocksworld is a great fit with what we do at Linden Lab,” said Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab. “It’s a very user-friendly complement to our portfolio of shared creative spaces. We’re happy to have the Blocksworld team join Linden Lab and are looking forward to bringing Blocksworld to the App Store worldwide soon!”

As with Creatorverse, a key aspect of Blockeworld is the ability for users to share their creations with others to explore, play with, and modify / remix them to make them their own.

Blocksworld looks designed to appeal to the creatively minded of all ages, with an intuitive, easy-to use interface. To promote the product, the team behind it last year produced as couple of video trailers, one of which – the “Honest Trailer” is a slight tongue-in-cheek piece which promotes the product in an imaginative and fun way which perfectly encapsulates the product and fixes it firmly in one’s mind.

…Perhaps LL should let the Boldai team brainstorm how to promote SL?

Related Links

“Quick Tips” and the return of Torley

Posted on by Inara Pey

There was a time when the words “Torley Linden” and “Second Life” were synonymous with one another. His was frequently the first Linden name and voice users would encounter on entering SL, where his weekly TuTORial and Tip of the Week videos were a much-loved and enjoyed Thursday event through the old (and vibrant) Second Life website.

That’s how I started a post back in November 2012, both celebrating Torley Linden’s presence in SL over the years and lamenting the fact that of late, we’ve rarely heard from him other than via his profile feed (I think the last “official” output from him which was in any way visible to many was a TuTORial video in July 2012).

In that post, and elsewhere in this blog, I made mention of both Torley’s video TuTORials and “Tip of the Week” videos which over the years helped many an SL user (old and new) make better use of the viewer and get deeper into the many and varied things which can be done in SL.


An early Tip of the Week video from Torley Linden

The Tip of the Week videos were often an anticipated part of people’s SL on Thursdays, and were, back in the “old” days of the SL website, a featured part of the SL home page and (for a time) the TuTORIAL videos did actually feature on the dashboard.

Then LL, in their wisdom, saw fit to stop the production of these videos and remove them from the dashboard. In doing so, something was lost in terms of getting people  – especially those new to SL – familiar with both using the viewer and getting around and doing things in-world.

Now, it seems they are back in the form of a new “Quick Tips” series of videos, the first of which launched yesterday, and which are once more hosted by Torley himself.


The first of the new “Quick Tip” videos

The new video is designed to give beginners a quick overview on how to use the Avatar floater to quickly change one’s own appearance.

At 1.01 minutes long, it is a very superficial soundbite and doesn’t touch upon the deeper nuances of avatar customisation – but this doesn’t necessarily detract from it. In a world where people want instant answers and have short attention spans, it provides enough of a kick-start to get people playing with their appearance – particularly since the Avatar floater was (wisely) replaced as the “open by default” floater by Destinations when the Basic and Advanced view modes were merged – so the ability to change your in-world appearance isn’t that obvious from the get-go. If there is any niggle with the new video, it is perhaps in that it references another without indicating where it can be found (because it has yet to be released …), which might cause some frustration*.

The blog posts indicates that the Lab intends to release a series of these videos “over the next few weeks”, which suggests there may be a finite number of videos in the run. Hopefully, this will not be the case, and the Lab will continue the series beyond a “few weeks”, giving tips, tricks and explanations in much the same way as the Tip of the Week videos used to provide. Given that the company has recently taken the plunge with Amazon and will shortly be linking-up with Steam, it is important more guidance and support for new users is provided in some manner, particularly as the new user process is still (for the time being at least) very hands-off.

In this, the question as to how visible the videos are / will be is a concern. Simply posting links to them to the SL dashboard potentially isn’t enough. The videos – and the YouTube channel carrying them – needs to be more fully presented, preferably in a dedicated panel in the dashboard where they might have a higher visibly than on a rolling list of blog links. It would also be handy – and assuming the current new user process isn’t going to be massively overhauled – if the videos could be made available in-world at the current Destination Islands, to at least provide some guidance to new users the first time they arrive in-world (although this would perhaps be more informative if more basic guidance on “getting started” were also covered – such as using the Camera floater and controls).

That said, and even if LL don’t fully leverage the videos, and assuming broadcasting YouTube videos within SL is less of a challenge now than it was following changes at the Google end of things, the videos might hopefully be a useful resource for the various help islands and mentor areas run by groups and communities within SL.

As it stands, it’ll be interesting to see where this new series goes, how long it lasts – and how effectively LL will try to put it in front of new users. In the meantime – Friendly Greetings, Torley, and welcome back!

* Update: Having just dug around the SL YouTube channel, I wonder if the reference is to this video, and we’ll be seeing it resurrected in the near future? The video is apparently e-mailed out to new users on signing-up (although I didn’t receive it when I last signed-up for the purposes of keeping an eye on the “new” Destination Islands), so are the new “Quick Tips” also going to be mailed to new users?