Ballet of the Little Liars in Second Life

Now open at the Black label Exhibition Corner is Ballet of the Little Liars by Storie’s Helendale (GlitterPrincess Destiny), with the support of Terrygold, who designed and built the installation. This is an interactive art exhibition with a story attached to it – and something of a mystery to solve.

Core information on the installation – including viewer settings – are provided at the landing point. In short, once in the main exhibition spaces, left-click / Touch the images and images your find on the walls and around you. Some will provide feedback in local chat. Environment-wise, the most important setting at to have the local windlight active – or set your viewer to midnight – and to have Advanced Lighting Model enabled (Preferences > Graphics) in order to benefit from the projected lights of the installation.

On reaching the main installation via the teleport sphere, look for the newspaper close by, which references a report of a kidnapped ballerina. Your task – in part – is to follow the clues (again by touching images and objects) and find your way to a letter, which reveals the story of what has happened as seen by the artist. You can then offer your own story or feedback to Stories via note card.

The chat extracts providing by touching objects and images  – remember that not all respond, so you’ll need to take your time – don’t necessarily offer the story in a linear fashion (or at least, didn’t seem to for Caitlyn and I), so again, this may encourage you to build a different narrative around events. I also found the lighting to be a little problematic: the default environment setting was far too dark to navigate by, so I switched over to using midnight – and Caitlyn confirmed doing the same.

What is beyond a doubt is the art from Stories which is, as usual quite extraordinary. The text / poems accompanying those pieces set to be interactive add to their depth even further and quite independently of the wider story.  Once you have completed the first level (the route indicated by a combination of arrows and knives on the floor), take the stairs up to “ground level” to complete your tour through woodland scattered with bunkers containing more images, and a trip up inside a lighthouse. Again, keep touching things as you go, and be aware that there are some red herrings along the way (there’s more than one letter and more than one trunk to be found, for example).

An immersive installation, Ballet of the Little Liars is an interesting exhibit which piques the curiosity as one visits and explores, although patience is recommended. As noted, piecing things together can take time, as can finding your way around; as well as the lower level perhaps being too dark on the recommended settings, a clearer set of in-world directions on proceeding around the woodland / lighthouse might help some visitors. Those wishing to level a story or feedback can do so via the post box to be found to one side of the woods.

SLurl Details

• Ballet of the Little Liars (Eternal Possession, rated: Moderate)