Day: January 10, 2016

Windlight Fellows January-February 2016

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Windlight Gallery
The Windlight Gallery

Now open at the Windlight Art Gallery, the January-February 2016 Windlight Fellowship exhibition sees exhibits by Ceakay Ballyhoo, Eleseren Brianna, Jarla Capalini, Warm Clarity, Glitterprincess Destiny, Hana Hoobinoo, Victoria Lenoirre, Carley Noonan, Autopilotpatty Poppy, Jamie86 Resident, Jazsintha Resident, and Tempest Rosca.

On offer is another rich mix of styles and subject matter – landscapes, avatar studies, some abstract work and some images from the physical world. It is this mix of styles and subject which makes the Windlight Exhibitions more than worth the visit; the Gallery design encourages the visitor to focus attention on each artist in turn whilst at the same time allowing individual styles and approaches to be compared and contrasted, helping one to appreciate further the skills evidence by each artist in creating their work.

Jarla Capalini - Windlight Gallery
Jarla Capalini – Windlight Gallery

There are a number of artists in this group whose work I know and admire, and several who are new to me, but whose work I’m rapidly coming to admire as result of seeing them at Windlight. While I don’t like to seem as if I’m picking favourites at an event like this. I have to admit that I found myself drawn back time and again to Hana Hoobinoo’s and Jarla Capalini’s images; the latter offer rich portraits and landscapes with a marvellous painted quality to them, while Hana’s present a beautiful ethereal quality.

But all appearances of favouritism aside, all of the images on display through January and February are guaranteed to please and entice those who visit the gallery; so be sure to add it to your list of places to visit, and if you wish to find out more about the artists, be sure to read the special Meet The Artist articles in the Windlight blog.

Hana Hoobinoo Windlight Gallery
Hana Hoobinoo Windlight Gallery

Footnote: Due to issues with Second Life, the formal opening event for the exhibition has been rescheduled for 14:00 SLT on Saturday, January 16th, with formal attire preferred. However, the gallery is still open for people to visit and see the art on display.

The Windlight Artist Fellowship Programme

As a part of the magazine’s desire to help promote and support artists and photographers, Windlight Magazine and the Windlight Gallery operates the  Windlight Artist Fellowship Programme. This allows artists to apply for free exhibition space at the Windlight gallery for a period of 30 days. Applications are open to artists from across Second Life, and the criteria for acceptance can be found in the Artist Fellowship Programme application form.

Windlight Gallery
Windlight Gallery

Related SLurls and Links

A Snow Crash, magical necklaces and forgetful clowns

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s time to kick-off another week of story-telling in voice, brought to our virtual lives by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library, as we move from Christmas to New Year celebrations. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.

Monday January 11th, 19:00: Snow Crash

We all know Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash as one of the inspirations behind Second Life. Now Gyro Muggins opens the pages of this modern classic.

Snow CrashIn the 21st Century, Los Angeles is no longer a part of the United States, but is instead run by a variety of corporate and other factions, which much of the city divided into sovereign enclaves. Mercenary forces via with private security firms; drugs and the private vehicle reign supreme and where hyper-inflation is rampant.

Within this strange and complex world exists the Metaverse, an omnipresent 3D “Internet of everything” in which people can roam as avatars. It is in this world that the aptly named Hiro Protagonist (and former pizza delivery driver) operates as a sword-welding heroic warrior and bounces between the virtual and physical worlds as the self-styled “last of the freelance hackers.”

However, when his friend and fellow-hacker Da5id, falls victim to the mysterious new drug Snow Crash, which exists in the virtual world as a computer virus capable of infecting machines connected to the Metaverse and in the physical world as a viral infection which attacks the central nervous system, Hiro sets out to learn the truth of what is going on.  Working with his virtual business partner, the 15-year-old Y.T., Hiro  digs into the truth behind Snow Crash, leading him (and Y.T.) to the doors of  fibre-optics monopolist L. Bob Rife and his acolytes and minions, including the highly dangerous Raven.

Tuesday January 12th 19:00: Pearl

PearlFaerie Maven-Pralou opens the covers of the first book in Lisa Pinkham’s the Doll Collection series.

Everything changes for Addy on her 12th birthday, when she receives a mysterious gift of a collection of dolls and an opal necklace imbued with magical powers.

Soon, Addy finds herself transported to a beach where she meets a mermaid, Pearl, and where she can swim with and talk to underwater fairies and enjoy the company of min-reading dolphins.

But all is not as safe as it seems; when Pearl vanishes and Addy’s magic necklace is stolen, Addy is left with no way home and without a friend – and she must confront the thief on her own, trusting that the magic which resides in her is enough to put things to rights.

Wednesday, January 13th 19:00: LonnyDonny

Caledonia Skytower continues a journey through some of the writings of MJ McGalliard, bringing us LonnyDonny, Stories Told in the Dark Book 1.

What happens when identical twin Rodeo Clowns are afflicted with amnesia? All their lives they’ve been more or less one person. But, what if they can’t remember which is which? There’s also Frito Chili Pie.

Thursday, January 14th, 19:00 Time Travel Thursdays

With Shandon Loring – Also presented to be presented at Seanchai Kitely and Seanchai InWorldz. Check session post during the week for specific grid locations).

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

The featured charity for January / February is Heifer International, working with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth.

Additional Links

“Project Sansar”: an Amazon ECS case study

Posted on by Inara Pey

Most of us are curious as to how “Project Sansar” will / won’t / might / might not work (with some already going to far as to pretty much write it off before even seeing it, which to me seems a tad premature).

In her own digging around, reader Persephone came across an interesting piece of information, and was kind enough to pass me a link to a case study from Amazon concerning the Lab’s use of Amazon’s EC2 Container Service (ECS) and Docker technology within Project Sansar.

Amazon’s ECS is a “scalable, high-performance container management service that provides cluster management and container orchestration”, which Linden Lab uses to run “the containerized web applications and back-end services of Project Sansar”.

Docker is an open-source technology that allows a developer (e.g. Linden Lab)to build, test, deploy and run distributed applications –  all the code, runtime elements, system tools and libraries, etc, – within a “container”, a method of operating system virtualisation. The upshot being it allows an application to be presented as a standardised package for rapid and consistent deployment, regardless of the environment in which it is to be used.

Precisely what “back-end” services for “Project Sansar” are being deployed in this manner isn’t clear; I’m certainly no technical expert and so am open to correction / other ideas.

However, we do know that a key element of “Sansar” is the ability for customers to build and deploy their own gateways (e.g. websites / web portals) to draw their own audiences into the experiences. So, is the use of ECS a means of achieving this? Presenting customers with a packaged environment in which they can build and deploy their own “Sansar” gateways? Or might it be the mechanism the Lab are looking to use to handle the management and scaling of support systems such as the chat, asset and other services  – many of which do appear to be of monolithic design with Second Life, and which sometimes don’t scale particularly well.

The Lab's diagram for using Amazon ECS for instancing
The Lab’s diagram for using Amazon ECS (images Linden Lab / Amazon) – click for full size

Could it be that the mechanism might actually be for more than just “back-end” services – such as the actual packaging and presentation of “Sansar” experiences themselves? We know that the Lab are wrestling with the issue of optimising “Sansar” experiences and their content so that they present a performant experience across a range of client platforms.  We also know the Lab intend to provide a means by which experiences can be rapidly deployed when needed (e.g. the WordPress  / You Tube analogy of build and then push a button to deploy) or rapidly scaled via instancing to meet the demands of large audience numbers.

Both of these requirement would seem – to my untutored eyes at least – to fit with the model being presented, although both would tend to suggest the use of ECS beyond the support of “back-end” services.

As it is, we do know the Lab already use Amazon’s services for presenting some of their SL-related services – so developing an existing relationship with the company for the benefit of “Project Sansar” would appear to make sense. At the very least, the case study offers the potential for further “Sansar” questions to be asked at the next Lab Chat.