Day: July 24, 2019

The Man Who Lived in the Future, in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Edge Art Gallery, July / August 2019: The Man Who Lived in the Future

Currently open at The Edge Art Gallery operated and curated by Ladmilla, is an exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The exhibition, entitled The Man Who Lived in the Future, features a new look for The Edge Art Gallery and displays are by sadi8 and JurisJo, jessamine2108, Larisalyn, PatrickofIreland, Kapaan and Ladmilla herself.

The new look for the gallery space is very much Tuscan in nature – as befitting da Vinci, a son of Florence (Vinci being a città of Florence). Exhibition spaces take the form of individual Tuscan-style houses all space around three sides of open lawns and a garden area, with the main reception area and a further gallery space rounding-out the building on the three sides of the lawns.

The Edge Art Gallery, July / August 2019: The Man Who Lived in the Future – Larisayln

Within this garden is a model of da Vinci’s aerial screw by Sergio Delacruz, together with an airship and Bach’s Spine (the latter by Eupalinos Ugajin) to give reminders of both de Vinci’s own vision and the ideas of motion and flight, which both fascinated him. However, this is very much an exhibition of 2D art, and the manner in which the artist have chosen to interpret the life and times of da Vinci is what makes it attractive.

For example, Larisalyn takes as her muse, Cecilia Gallerani. A mistress of Ludovico Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, she was da Vinci’s subject for his 1489 painting The Lady with an Ermine. She was also responsible for inviting da Vinci to her chamber discussions on philosophy and other subjects with members of the local intellectual set over which she presided. With the images presented here, Larisalyn notes she has tried to represent da Vinci’s style of painting.

The Edge Art Gallery, July / August 2019: The Man Who Lived in the Future – Kapaan

Kapaan, meanwhile focuses on both da Vinci’s inventiveness and his art. His gallery space includes representations of da Vinci’s parachute,  together with monochrome images of the parachute in use. These are displayed with imaginative takes on a couple of da Vinci’s most famous works, The Vitruvian Man and Mona Lisa.

Styles reminiscent of da Vinci’s studies of people and nature, as well as representations of his flying machine can also be found within the displays by PatrickofIreland, sadi8 and JurisJo, and Ladmilla – and I admit to finding PatrickofIreland’s The Study, featuring da Vinci himself, to be particularly evocative, as is the small model of da Vinci’s flying machine.

The Edge Art Gallery, July / August 2019: The Man Who lived in the Future – PatrickofIreland

I confess to being a little confused by jessamine2108’s images, which appear to be closer to more “traditional” avatar and SL nature studies, rather than being intrinsic to a celebration of da Vinci. Which is not to say they are not in themselves attractive.

Those who venture into the gallery space enclosing two sides of the landing point terrace will find a further selection of Ladmilla’s own art, including a series of images partnered with words by Eli Medier, which make for an evocative display in their own right.

The Edge Art Gallery, July / August 2019: The Man Who Lived in the Future – Ladmilla

Two musical events are planned alongside The Man Who Lived in the Future. On Saturday, July 27th, DJ Avalon Boa will be spinning music from 12:00 noon SLT through 14:00, with DJ le Ouf doing the same at the same time, on Saturday, August 3rd.

SLurl Details

2019 SL User Groups 30/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

Lotus Bay; Inara Pey, June 2019, on FlickrLotus Bay, June 2019 – blog post

Server Deployments

There are no planed deployments for this week, leaving the major simulator channels on server maintenance package 19#19.06.14.528215, comprising internal changes.

  • Note that a deployment to the Magnum RC on Wednesday, July 17th (simulator package 19#19.07.10.529179), was subsequently rolled back as a result of a bug being discovered during deployment.
  • Region restarts may occur in accordance with the Lab’s 14-day restart policy.

Also, there will be no simulator deployments in week #31, due to the Lab’s internal Second Life Feature Summit.

SL Viewer

There have been no LL viewer updates as of the time of writing this update, leaving the pipelines as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.2.3.527758, formerly the Rainbow RC viewer dated June 5th, promoted June 18th – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.2.3.527749, June 5th. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, promoted to release status 29th November 2017 – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

In Brief

  • Aditi log-ins remained problematic during week #29 / the start of week #30, but the Lab believes the issues to now be resolved – see BUG-227357.

Android / Lumiya  / Mobile

Since the last of the UDP asset messaging deprecation, users on the Lumiya Android app have been unable to use certain functions – notably in relation to the in-world view the app has, changing their outfits, using animations / AOs, etc.

The problem here is that Lumiya needs to be updated to HTTP for asset data fetching across the board; unfortunately, with the developer out-of-contact, this (like the issue of the app remaining unavailable on the Google store) is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.

Currently LL is developing an iOS “companion app” – and there have been calls for the Lab to re-direct this work towards Android. However, these requests overlook two key points:

  • The initial versions will be for chatting and messaging only – which can still be done with the Lumiya app.
  • While the capabilities of the iOS app will be extended over time, the Lab has not committed to what additional capabilities will be provided or a time frame of when they will be provided. so whether or not a 3D world renderer of the type seen in Lumiya will be a part of any future expansion of the app is open to debate – as is any time frame in which it might appear.

Therefore, even if work were move from iOS to Android – it actually wouldn’t resolve the specific pain point Lumiya users are currently feeling (unable to change their appearance, use animations, etc), in the short or medium term.

It has also been suggested that LL should provide a streaming solution. However, the issue here is cost (the one operating streaming service for SL – Bright Canopy  – costs US $1.70 per hour, for example). LL currently (and most likely correctly) believe streaming costs for SL are above levels user would be willing to play. They would rather wait until said costs have (hopefully) come down in the future.

Next SUG Meeting

Due to the Lab’s internal Second Life Feature Summit taking place in week #31, there will be no SUG meeting on Tuesday, July 30th. The next meeting will therefore be Tuesday, August 6th, 2019.