Open now at the DaphneArts Gallery curated by Angelika Corral and SheldonBR, is an ensemble exhibition entitled Imagine, and “focused on promoting a peaceful communication, bringing together some great SL photographers from around the world”.
It features individual pieces by Angelika Corral, Anouk A, Bay Addens, Burk Bode, Good Cross, Hills, Io Bechir, Isa Messioptra, Jammie Hill, Joslyn Benson, Maloe Vansant, miu miu miu, MM (mysterr), Paola Mills, Senna Coronet, Tutsy Navarathna, and Zib Scaggs.
“The metaverse Second Life is a community that, in its own unique way, resembles the dream which was eloquently presented by the English songwriter and performer John Lennon in his song Imagine, (1971).” the curators explain in the notes accompanying the exhibition. “By this, Lennon, shared his dream of a world without borderlines, where people could live in a brotherhood of man, with noting to live or to die for…”
Using the song as a point of inspiration, the artists were asked to share their visions as dreamers. The result is a series of images which are incredibly diverse in approach and content – but at the same time, incredibly emotive and powerful. Some of them take the title “Imagine” itself as a starting point, while others use lines or phrases from the song’s lyrics, while others present titles unique to themselves, all of which again reflect the rich diversity of thought and feelings expressed.
Given all of the images in the exhibit do demonstrate some amazing talent, it is perhaps unfair to single out one our two for specific mention. Nevertheless, I have to admit to finding myself utterly captivated by Isa Messioptra’s Above Us Only Sky, seen on the left of the topmost image in this article, and also to Burk Bode’s Imagine John Comes Around The Corner in SL, seen directly above, left.
Also accessible via teleport in the foyer area of the gallery, is the Atelier studio featuring Angelika’s and SheldonB’s own art, which again I cannot recommend highly enough.
Congratulations to Angelika and SheldonBR on yet another stunning exhibition.
This summary is published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 4.0.4.314579 (dated April 28) – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer download, release notes
Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions) updated to version 5.0.0.314884 on May 5th – several updates related to joint offsets and meshes and slider changes (download and release notes)
For the second time in less than a month, SpaceX has landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket on a platform at sea, bringing the total of successful landings the company has so far achieved to three.
The landing came at 05:30 GMT on the morning of Friday, May 6th, just nine minutes after the rocket had lifted-off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a successful mission to carry the Japanese communications satellite JCSAT-14 to orbit.
Following separation, the first stage of the Falcon 9 1a rocket performed a series of flight manoeuvres referred to as “boost back”, which culminated in the first stage making a successful touch-down on the deck of the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, the same craft used to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket to lift the CRS-8 resupply mission to a safe rendezvous with the International Space Station in April.
The recovery of the booster stage was actually an unexpected event – SpaceX had believed that the nature of the mission would more than likely result in a failure to achieve a successful landing.
“Given this mission’s GTO [Geostationary Transfer Orbit) destination, the first stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely,” SpaceX representatives stated ahead of the launch.
The Falcon 9 1a first stage secured on the deck of Of Course I Still Love You, following the successful May 6th landing. Credit: SpaceX
Ideally, the company would like to bring all of its boosters back to a touch-down on land, as was the case with their first successful landing in December 2015. However, some mission profiles mean that the Falcon 9 cannot carry sufficient fuel reserves to complete a set of “boost back” manoeuvres that would be enough for it to make landfall, so some landings at sea are inevitable if SpaceX is to get anywhere close to recovering the majority of its launchers.
Nevertheless, with three successful landings under its belt, and three first stage rockets requiring refurbishment in order to be able to fly again, SPaceX boss Elon Musk jokingly conceded, in a Tweet made after the landing, “May need to increase size of rocket storage hangar!”
The “Boiling” Waters of Mars
An international team from France, the UK and the USA have produced the strongest evidence yet that the distinctive recurring slope lineae (RSL) features seen on the slopes of Martian craters are produced by liquid water. And not just any water; the study suggests the water is “boiling”.
RSLs have been the subject of intense debate and discussion since 2011; in essence, they are ridges and rills which appear on the slopes of hills and craters, notably in the equatorial regions of Mars during the summertime. The significance here being that on Earth, identical features are always the result of free-flowing water. As the “recurring” in the title suggests, the Martian RSLs appear to be active – frequently renewing themselves on a seasonal basis, with new RSLs sometimes also appearing at the same time.
Two images showing the flank of the same crater, revealing what appear to be active RSL, periodically renewed during the Martian summer. Credit: NASA/JPL
However, the low pressure of Mars’ atmosphere means that water cannot survive long on the surface unprotected: it will either freeze or sublimate. So the idea of it surviving long enough to create trails in the sides of craters had many scientists scratching their heads. Then, in 2015, a NASA study put forward evidence RSLs might actually be the result of water containing a strong suspension of mineral salts – magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. Such minerals could be sufficient enough to prevent water exposed to the surface environment on Mars either immediately freezing or sublimating.
Building on this idea, the French-led international team used blocks of water ice containing the same minerals and placed them on the slope of a simulated Martian crater housed inside a special Mars Chamber at the Open University in the UK. When the pressure in the chamber was reduced to the ambient surface pressure on Mars and the temperature adjusted to a typical Martian summer’s day, the team found the ice would melt, producing a liquid mix which effectively “boiled” filtering into the sand and moving down-slope. As it did so. the resultant vapour “blasted” sand grains upwards, creating ridges which would collapse onto themselves when they became too steep, forming channels almost identical in form to Martian RSLs.
Rosemoor is the name of a collaborative region design by Arol Lightfoot and Krys Vita (who designed the popular Kaleidoscope I wrote about here). “This one was meant to be fun!” Krys told me as Caitlyn and I paid a visit a few hours after the region had opened its doors slightly ahead of schedule, “welcome to our zoo 😛 .”
Rosemoor presents visitors with a low-lying island of grass and sands, just a couple of craggy plateaus offering genuine elevation in the south-west corner. The “zoo” Krys mentioned as we chatted, sits to the north-west, close to the landing point. It takes the form of Everlag Park – a place which has clearly seen better days at some point. Now the paint is fading, dirty and chipped on the entrance, the sign having partially fallen from its place above the archway, while the buildings either side showing similar distress.
Within the park, the carousel and big wheel stand broken and dejected, while the bumper cars look to have been the victims of a fire, while rides sit overgrown and forgotten in the grounds. Only the circus tent appears to be in reasonable condition, but even this fails to hold the attention for long, thanks to the animals standing and roaming the park – or as I put it to Krys, “tigers and zebras and giraffes, oh my!”
“Ha ha!” Krys replied, “the craziest thing is in the other corner 😉 Our little addiction found itself a home!”
To the south and east, around and across the bay cutting into the island, the land is sandier and offers a couple of homes between which horses contentedly wander, grazing on the stubble of grass poking above the gently undulating dunes and hills of sand. Those which are roaming freely and saddled can be ridden by visitors.
And it was southwards and eastward that I was drawn, wondering what the addiction Krys mentioned might be. It can actually be found on a little island just off the coast. I’m saying nothing else on this, as to write about it would spoil a visit for others 🙂 . All I will do is repeat Krys’ explanation for things: “D-Lab… the gacha got us! 😉 ”
With places to sit and to snuggle scattered around, particularly along the coastline, Rosemoor has a wonderfully coastal feel to it; somewhere perhaps not too far from civilisation, but far enough to offer a sense of isolation and being off the beaten track (hence why the Everlag Park may not have succeeded, despite the picturesque surroundings).
The default windlight suggests an early morning, but the region is ideal for photography under many different environment settings, as I hope the images here demonstrate. Very thoroughly recommended as a place to visit!
It’s time to kick-off a week of story-telling in voice, brought to our virtual lives by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.
Sunday, May 8th
11:00 at Seanchai Kitely: Dear Writer, Dear Actress
Caledonia reads from the love letters of Anton Chekhov in the Dacha at EXPLORE: Anton Chekhov and the Absurd.
Crazy Eights sees Caledonia, Corwyn and Kayden reading from The Return of Sherlock Holmes on Sundays from the living room of 221B Baker Street. This week: The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.
Holmes (l) examines a bureau in Professor Coram’s study, directing his questions to the maid (Sidney Paget, 1904, Strand Magazine)
Willoughby Smith, secretary to the invalid Professor Coram, has been murdered.
There is no apparent motive for the crime, committed using a sealing-wax knife belonging to the professor, and the local police are stumped, leading Inspector Stanley Hopkins to pay Holmes and Watson a visit one dark November night to seek assistance. He brings with him the only clues to the matter: a pair of golden Pince-nez glasses found clutched in Smith’s hand, and his dying words, uttered to the maid who found him.
“The professor; it was she.”
Holmes examines the glasses and stuns Hopkins with a series of pronouncements, defining their owner, and some of her recent activities. He even goes so far as to describe some of her physical characteristics. With Hopkins suitably impressed, Holmes agrees that he and Watson will visit the scene of the crime the following day, and seek to resolve the case.
Tuesday May 10th, 19:00: When Sisterhood was in Flower
The writings of Florence King return to Seanchai Library as Trolley Trollop opens the pages of When Sisterhood was in Flower (1982),
Isabel, a conservative southern writer living in Boston, finds her life taking a number of strange turns. After an explosion brings down the wall of her apartment she is forced to share her living space with her neighbour, an ardent, humourless feminist called Polly Bradshaw. Then, between them, they take in nutty Gloria, who is fixated with all things medieval, including the lute, which she constantly plays, and the death of Edward II.
Things start unravelling further when Polly inherits a house in California, and unilaterally decides they’ll form a self-sufficient feminist commune there. Along the way, they collect Agnes, who is trying to escape her survivalist husband, and Martha, a widow whose estranged husband died after an unfortunate incident with an inflatable rubber doll.
Then Isabel has the opportunity to earn a living as a writer … of pornography …
Wednesday May 11th 19:00: Crazy Eights: The War that Saved My Life
It is the Second World War, and when nine-year-old Ada’s little brother is evacuated from London to escape the blitz, she is determined not to be left behind because her mother is too ashamed to allow her to be seen in public with her twisted foot.
So it is that Ada, experiencing her first time in the world beyond the house in which she has always lived, finds herself on an adventure, adapting to life with Susan Smith, the woman charged with caring for Ada’s little brother, and who unexpectedly finds herself with a second ward in her care.
As time passes, Ada learns to ride a pony, watches for German spies, and finds a bond forming between her and Susan smith, a bond shared with her brother, but over which hangs the shadow of what will happen when they have to return to London and the cruelty of Ada’s mother.
Thursday, May 12th, 19:00: King Kong – Eighth Wonder of the World
With Shandon Loring
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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 March / April is Project Children, building peace in Ireland one child at a time.
The May ensemble exhibition in the Holly Kai Art at the Park series commences on Saturday, May 7th, 2016, and runs through until Saturday, June 11th.
For this exhibition, we are both pleased and privileged to be featuring the work of Ceakay Ballyhoo, Eleseren Brianna, JudiLynn India, Lantana Silverweb, Slatan Dryke and SisterButta.
The exhibition will open with a special gala event at the Holly Kai Pavilion, which will also mark the end of Silas Merlin’s marvellous Mirrored Garden exhibition at Holly Kai Garden – see below for more details.
About the Artists
CK (Ceakay Ballyhoo)
CK Ballyhoo has been roaming SL in search of wonderful landscapes and interesting buildings to capture and use to make her art. She has also discovered the joy of background studios and is still learning new things every day, often through inspiration by other artists.
Her style can be best described as capturing moods. Feel yourself drawn into the landscapes of her pictures. See the emotion and character traits expressed in the people she portrays. It’s a dreamy world most of the time. Unclear lines, blurry, warm colours. Sometimes darker and gloomier.
There are often series. Sometimes around a theme, sometimes different takes of one scene, because she can’t decide which one she likes best and likes to give them time to grow on her.
Eleseren Brianna
Trained as an illustrator in the physical world, Eleseren Brianna is perhaps best known as a fashion and couture model in Second Life, so her photographic work is understandably focused in that direction, but certainly not limited to fashion shots. Holly Kai will be her sixth major exhibition in Second Life, where she has only recently entered the art world, although , she has previously exhibited her work at Dreanz and Visionz in Inworldz.
The pieces she offers at the Park are placed under the title of “Myths”, which she describes thus:
I wanted to create mysterious and dreamlike images, that call upon the universal archetypes that Jung said lie tangled within the roots of our Collective Unconscious. These images do not try to explain, or define what is going on in them..they are left mysterious, open-ended, ready for the viewer to spin their own story onto.
JudiLynn India
JudiLynn is an established artist in the physical world who states she has been drawing since she could first hold a crayon. Since then she has pursued art both academically and physically, and since the turn of the millennium has focused on acrylic and digital painting.
JudiLynn says of her work:
My work embodies my spirit and personality. My goal is to allow you to experience the image with your own mind’s eye. My work is entirely intuitive. I get lost in the layering of texture and colour. Occasionally, I will include figurative work if my spirit is so presented with the composition. Just as there is order in the chaos of the universe, the energy within me is brought into focus one canvas at a time.
Lantana Silverweb
Lantana Is another person who is new to the world of art in Second Life, but who is deservedly gaining a reputation for the outstanding images she produces. Describing herself as inspired by the work of other SL artists, Lantana has developed her skill and eye very much through a “learn by doing” process, which has led her into experimentation and a natural approach to her avatar studies. ” I don’t use photo poses but rather have the model use their AO and take the photos as they move around,” she says.
Her entry into SL art came – appropriately enough – as a result of a visit to Nitroglobus Gallery. “I sent some of the better ones to the owner who invited me to put them on their Flickr page. I didn’t know much about Flickr, but when I saw it realised I had somewhere to post my photos so that others could see them.” And from there things grew.
For her work, Lantana focus on the feeling each image evokes in her. “I work on them until I touch the darkness,” she says, before going on to express her preference for avatar studies. “I prefer to make images of people rather than landscapes and do my shoots on location although there have been a few occasions where I have built sets.”
As she gains experience, so she is looking to experiment further, noting she’s working with every more elaborate pieces in an attempt to move away from purely 2D art and more into 3D work, and taking advantage of the physics SL offers.
Slatan Dryke
Slatan Dryke loves art in all its forms, and while he may well be a photographer in the physical world, he regards painting and sculpture as being closest to his heart, and he works in both mediums here in Second Life, as the pieces he has opted to show at Holly Kai Park demonstrate.
A wanderer by nature, he enjoys nothing more than exploring the grid, finding new pockets of beauty for his pictures, thanks to the creativity and imagination of fellow residents, where his physical world knowledge of photography greatly informs his framing, windlight selection, image ratio, etc., such that he rarely post-processes his work.
As a sculptor, Slatan surprisingly claims to have limited skills with in-world building. However, his works – which focus on the abstract – demonstrate a talent for colour, motion, and composition, and show a skilled level of prim manipulation.
For Holly Kai, Slatan is present his 2D art on one of the art decks in the hill-top gallery area, was well as a number of his sculptures scattered through the art exhibition area.
SisterButta
A professional writer, SisterButta, also known as Trolley Trollop, sees Second Life as a means to explore narrative techniques and means to create new “story-making” possibilities to create interactive and immersive environments to convey information in non-traditional ways.
A life-long denizen of on-line communities dating back to early 1980s, SisterButta is a noted performer and voice artist is Second Life, and has been active in the promotion of arts through the likes of Seanchai Library and the Decades festival, which focuses on historical role-play in Second Life. She has also, with building partner Robijn Resident, created an installation covering the first 200 years of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), which was displayed at Rocca Sorrentina.
More recently, SisterButta and Robijn created Wound Angels, an interactive exhibit honouring breast cancer sufferers through the ages, as seen through the eyes of some of history’s greatest artists, and which was first shown at the RFL 2016 Home and Garden exhibition. We are very honoured to have it reproduced at Holly Kai Park.
Opening Event
The new Art at the Park exhibition will officially open at 4:00pm SLT on Saturday, May 7th, with several of our artists on hand. The event will also mark the closing of the excellent Mirrored Garden exhibition by Silas Merlin at Holly Kai Garden, which you can read about here.
As always, the opening event will take place at the Holly Kai Pavilion, which can be reached via the bridge from the main Holly Kai Landing point, and which also connects with Holly Kai Garden, allowing attending to also visit Mirrored Garden.
Our friend Joaquin Gustav will be providing the music for the opening, and we very much hope you will join us, and either tour the park and garden ahead of the opening, or spend time exploring following Joaquin’s set. Formal attire is requested.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 