Currently open at Gallery 3 of Mareea Farrasco’s MAGOLand is Mindstorm, an exhibition of art by Bamboo Barnes which opened on October 6th, 2021.
Hailing from Japan, Bamboo is, as I’ve frequently noted, one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists displaying her work in Second Life. She is also an artist unafraid of plumbing the depth of emotion and introspection – and this is again true with Mindstorm, which presents a series of images she has been working on for “a few years”.
The best way to describe this exhibition is to perhaps use Bamboo’s own words:
When you are feeling low, isolated, misunderstood. Look at your disturbed soul pretending it never hurts, The ocean of the pain roar to sweep all the goodness from you so you can feel the bottom. Like the wind and the tide, there are no keys to open the sea, keep you face over the surface to keep the breath. When the sun is up your skin is dry, start feel it’s in the past, then life goes on, there’s another day.
Don’t know what will come tomorrow, beneath the surface there is mindstorm.
Bamboo Barnes, describing Mindstorm
IMAGOLand Gallery 3: Bamboo Barnes
Presented in Bamboo’s familiar bold colours, the 16 images within the exhibit are joined by a number of 3rd part 3D pieces she has also textured, which together offer very visual statements on state-of-mind / relationships, which through presentation and colour emphasis speak loudly to mood and feelings.
As introspective pieces, these might be seen – not incorrectly – as reflections of Bamboo’s moods. Again, and as I’ve note before, her work is strongly bound with her mood, whether drawn directly from the emotions of life or as a result of the music to which she is listening while creating a piece. However, and as her own notes for the exhibition state, these are pieces to which anyone who has weathered feelings of isolation – not so much as a result of the on-going pandemic, but due to circumstances of life such as the ending of a relationship or an (obtuse?) misunderstanding directed towards you or the hurt inflected by the actions or words of another, and so on – can identify.
IMAGOLand Gallery 3: Bamboo Barnes
I’m not sure how long Mindstorm is set to run, but I do recommend it as an exhibition worthy of seeing.
SLurl Details
Please use the teleport disk from the landing point below to reach the gallery.
An artist’s impression of the Lucy spacecraft flying past the Trojan asteroid (617) Patroclus and its binary companion Menoetius in 2033. Credit: NASA
Update:The report on William Shatner flying on NS-17 has been revised to reflect the fact the launch has been pushed back 24 hours from Tuesday, October 16th, 2021 to Wednesday, October 17th, due to weather concerns.
One of the most ambitious robotic missions NASA has ever undertaken – in a long history of such missions – is due to be launched on Saturday, October 16th, 2021.
After lifting-off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V-401 vehicle, the Lucy space vehicle – centrepiece of a US $981 million mission of the same name – will commence a 12-year mission that will carry it, by means of three Earth gravity assists, to explore some of the earliest remnants of the solar system.
Computer model showing the Jovian Trojan asteroid clouds at the Jupiter-Sun L4 and L5 positions. Credit: Astronomical Institute of CAS/Petr Scheirich
These are the Jovian Trojan asteroids, the “leftovers” from the creation of the solar system. They orbit the Sun in two large clouds, one group, called the Greek Camp, leading Jupiter in its path around the Sun and that Jupiter-Sun L4 position, the other – the Trojan Camp – trailing behind the planet at the Jupiter-Sun L5 position.
The mission takes its name from the fossilised human ancestor (called “Lucy” by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity’s evolution. Likewise, it is hoped the Lucy mission will revolutionise our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system.
The core element of the mission will be fly-bys of a total of asteroids, providing us with our first close-up view of all three major types of asteroids in the solar system. These are the D- and P-types that resemble those found in the Kuiper Belt of icy bodies that extends beyond the orbit of Neptune, and the D-type, which are found mostly within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. All three types are thought to be abundant in dark carbon compounds, and that below an insulating blanket of dust, they might be rich in water and other volatile substances.
No other space mission in history has been launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around our sun. Lucy will show us, for the first time, the diversity of the primordial bodies that built the planets. In order to do this, the mission will fly a complicated course: after launch, the craft will fly a circular orbit around the Sun close to Earth’s that will allow it use our gravity in 2022 to push it into a more elongated orbit, returning it to Earth once more in 2024, when it will again use our gravity to push it on toward the Greek Camp of Trojans.
Whilst on route, Lucy it will pass by the main asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, named for the discoverer of the Lucy hominin fossil. On reaching the Greek Camp in 2027, it pass through them, performing fly-bys of 3548 Eurybates and its companion Queta,15094 Polymele, 11351 Leucus, and 21900 Orus. Its orbit around the Sun will then bring it back to Earth in 2031, where it will once again use our gravity to swing it out into an orbit that will allow it to pass through the Trojan Camp of asteroids trailing behind Jupiter, which it will it 2033 and visit the binary asteroids 617 Patroclus and its satellite Menoetius. After this, the satellite will be in a stable 6-year orbit between the L4 and L5 clouds, and a mission extension will be possible.
The science payload for the mission comprises:
L’Ralph – a panchromatic and colour visible imager (0.4-0.85 μm) and infrared spectroscopic mapper (1-3.6 μm). It will be used to measure silicates, ices, and organics at the surface.
L’LORRI – a high-resolution visible imager that will provide the most detailed images of the surface of the Trojans.
L’TES – a thermal infrared spectrometer (6-75 μm) that should reveal the thermal characteristics of the observed Trojans and so inform scientists of the composition and structure of the material on the surface of the asteroids.
In addition, a radio science investigation will determine the mass of the Trojan asteroids by using the spacecraft radio telecommunications hardware and high-gain antenna to measure Doppler shifts.
The Jupiter-Sun L4 and L6 Trojan asteroid clouds and the course the Lucy mission will fly (in green) from Earth to the L4 group, then to the L5 group, passing via Earth. Credit: NASA
In keeping with the Voyager and Pioneer missions, the spacecraft is also adorned with a golden plaque containing its launch date, the positions of the planets at the launch date, the continents of Earth at the time of launch, its nominal trajectory, and twenty speeches, poems, and song lyrics from people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Carl Sagan, The Beatles, and more.
It’s Space, Jim, But Not as You’ve Known it!
William Shatner: heading (briefly) towards the final frontier
Whilst the Federation Aviation Administration may be looking into the recent allegations about the safety culture at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, the company has confirmed rumours that the next flight of its New Shepard sub-orbital system will include none other than William Shatner – most famous for his TV and film roles as Captain James Tiberius Kirk, commanding officer aboard the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 – among the crew.
As one of four passengers on NS-18, Shatner will lift-off on Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 (the launch being pushed back 24 hours due to anticipated weather over the launch / landing sites). He’ll fly alongside Blue Origin’s Vice President of Mission and Flight Operations Audrey Powers and Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of the Earth-observation company Planet, and Glen de Vries, co-founder of the medical software company Medidata Solutions.
Rumours started circulating about Shatner’s participation more than a week ago, and was confirmed just after the controversy about Blue Origin’s alleged faulty safety culture hit the media. After initially tweeting his participation in the flight in terms of becoming a “rocket man” – a reference to his 1978 cover of Elton John’s famous hit, Shatner appeared in a special panel at New York’s Comic Con and admitted he has some trepidations ahead of the flight.
I’m terrified! I know! I’m Captain bloody Kirk – and I’m terrified!
– William Shatner joking about his nervousness at the New York Comic Con 2021
His participation in the flight at the age of 90 will mean Shatner is set to become the oldest human to date to fly into space, just a few months after the record was set by Mary “Wally” Funk, who participated in the first crewed flight of the New Shepherd vehicle at the age of 82.
Commenting on his presence on the flight, Powers noted that she feels like she will be flying with three of her heroes – Shatner and alter-egos of Kirk and Denny Crane, the role that again made him a household name as a Boston-based lawyer.
As with previous New Shepard flights, NS-17 will last around 10-11 minutes in total, with around 2-3 minutes spent in micro-gravity conditions.
It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.
Sunday, October 10th, 13:30: A Night in the Lonesome October
It is the start of the Haunted Month, and Seanchai Library (SL) are marking the arrival and passage of October with a reading of Roger Zelazy’s A Night in the Lonesome October, the last of Zelazy’s published works.
A Night In The Lonesome October
Every few decades, when the Moon is is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and the door between worlds becomes unlatched. At this time, those with certain Occult knowledge gather to engage in The Game.
Those who play take opposing sides; on one: those who seek to win The Game and throw open the door by the light of the full Moon to usher in the Great Old Ones from the other side so that they might remake Earth in their own images and enslave or slaughter the human race in the process. Opposing the Openers are those are those who would, by winning, re-latch the door and deny the Great Old Ones their prize – at least until The Game once more resumes.
Thus, through the month of October, the Players in the game – all archetypal characters from Victorian Era gothic fiction – form alliances, make deals, oppose one another, and even kill off opposing Players, until the night of October 31st, when the ritual of the door takes place, and the fate of the world is decided.
Each Player has his or her familiar, an animal companion with near-human intelligence, to help them complete the numerous preparations they must make and so be ready for the ritual on the final night. One of these is Snuff the dog, the familiar of Jack the Ripper, and who not only attends the play of The Game with his master, but also acts as the narrator of the month’s proceedings.
Alone in the desert, Daiya is faced with dilemma that will determine her fate. If she can successfully resolve it she will join the Net of her village, but if she fails, her life will be spent with the feared Merged Ones. Confused and torn between worlds near and far, Daiya harbours a secret of her people, and must find a way to move beyond her discoveries to a safe place where she can survive.
Join Gyro Muggins as he reads from Nebula-winning author Pamela Sargent’s Watchstar series.
On All Hallows Eve, young Pipkin is due to meet his eight friends outside a haunted house on the edge of town. But as he runs through the gathering gloom, Something sweep him away.
Arriving at the house in expectation of meeting Pipkin, his eight friends instead encounter the mystical Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, who informs them that Pipkin has been taken on a journey that could determine if he lives or dies.
Aided by Moundshroud and using the tail of a kite, the eight friends pursue Pipkin through time and space, passing through the past civilisations – Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Celts – witnessing all that has given rise to the day they know as “Halloween”, and the role things like ghosts and the dead play in it.
Then, at length they come to the Halloween Tree itself, laden with jack-o’-lanterns, its branches representing the confluence of all these traditions, legends and tales, drawing them together into itself.
Wednesday, October 13th, 19:00 More from Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters
With Caledonia Skytower.
Thursday, October 14th,
19:00: The Last Photograph of John Buckley
When a photographic retoucher is commissioned to fix the abnormalities on a Great War portrait, he finds his own past and that of the subject beginning to connect. Are his personal nightmares returning, or is it something more?
A short ghost story in the M.R. James tradition, “The Last Photograph of John Buckley” is a dark tale of past crimes and unfinished business.
21:00: Seanchai Late Night Horror: It Came from the Multiplex
Welcome to tonight’s feature presentation, brought to you by an unholy alliance of the spellcasters at Hex Publishers and movie-mages at the Colorado Festival of Horror. Please be advised that all emergency exits have been locked for this special nostalgia-curdled premiere of death. From crinkling celluloid to ferocious flesh from the silver screen to your hammering heart.
Behold as a swarm of werewolves, serial killers, Satanists, Elder Gods, aliens, ghosts, and unclassifiable monsters are loosed upon your auditorium. Relax, and allow our ushers to help with your buckets of popcorn (and blood); your ticket stubs (and severed limbs) your candy (and body) bags… and kick back and scream as you settle into a fate worse than Hell. Tonight’s director’s cut is guaranteed to slash you apart.
Both sessions with Shandon Loring at the Haunted Hollow.
Friday, October 15th, 19:00: Ghostbusters
If there’s something weird And it don’t look good Who you gonna call? Cale & Shand!
With Caledonia Skytower and Shandon Loring in Ceiluradh Glen.
The 2021 Second Life Sci-Fi Expo launched on Friday, October 8th, 2021, and will remain in orbit through until Sunday, October 17th, 2021 in aid of The American Cancer Society and the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC) campaign.
Active across multiple regions located alongside the American Cancer Society Island, this year’s even carries the theme of visiting New Eden, a major hub for galactic commerce and exchange located on an ancient forested world and protected by an all-encompassing sky dome.
As with previous years, the expo presents a broad range of science-fiction related role-play, entertainment, and activities and the best place to find out about all that the Expo has to offer is via the official website, where you can find information on:
And details of all of the available events and activities (ignore the calendar referring to 2017!), including opportunities for role-play with some of the groups participating in the Expo.
Sci-Fi Expo 2021
This year’s setting a especially well considered; the regions offer plenty of open territory that gives room for event spaces set out among the canyons and woodlands that give a lot of opportunity for simple wandering and exploration. The majority of the shopping, meanwhile, is found within the New Eden city, presenting the opportunity for visitors to ramp down draw distance and shop without too burdensome a load on their viewer.
As befitting an untamed planet, New Eden is a rugged place, so be sure to follow the trails and stairs up into the hills to discover all of its secrets; and if you get lost, keep an eye out for the teleport portals – walking in to one will return yo to the main landing point (you may need to accept the event experience for these to work). So, as I’m prone to say when previewing this event: whatever your interest in science fiction, be sure to set your phaser on fun and head back to the future with a visit to the SL Sci-Fi Expo!
Sci-Fi Expo 2021
Out Shop Cancer
Also underway throughout October is the 4th annual Out Shop Cancer, a grid-wide shopping event that this year sees more that 70 creators and merchants participating. Offering a broader range of shopping opportunities than the sci-fi theme offered at the Sci-Fi Expo, Out Shop Cancer presents items for adult and child avatars, home and garden and DFS goods, and more. New for this year is a grid-wide hunt. Just find the black Out Shop Cancer shopping bags tucked away inside participating stores, pay them L$25 (all proceeds to RFL of SL / Making Strides), and claim a bag full of goodies.
For full details on the event, please refer to the Out Shop Cancer website, where you can find the complete shopping directory and full details on the hunt, together with the latest news updates.
Currently open at Feint and Bone, the immersive arts environment operated by Flower Rainforest and Tarhai Breen and curated by Bryn Oh, is Lifted, an environment by Kirumi Yoshikawa and Berkeley Burnstein that offers a lot to see – and to interpret; a place where apocalypse meets the realm of digital uploads.
The city of Korrosion was always pulsating with one Bass or another. One day while traversing the Galactic Meta, Rumi might have acquired more than anticipated with a new pet. She didn’t get the full instructions and the biggest no-no was NO BASS. Guess what ? We had BASS and it let the little pet she found grow to an unmanageable size. Bass was outgrowing the hunger so the city fell little by little, slipped into the sea. Uploading was the city’s last resort for preservation and this is where we are today; mid-upload while Rumi’s little pet devours the remains of the city.
– Kirumi and Berkeley describing Lifted
Feint and Bone: Lifted
Thus visitors are placed in a midnight setting that exists partially on land, partially under water and partially in the sky; individual island and vignettes interconnected by teleporters that take the form of closet mirrors – at least two at each location throughout the installation – that offer their own path through the story; although, as the artists note, those who prefer can walk through the region on their own voyage of discovery.
The landing point provides four of these teleporters, offering the most direct way to get around – but note that they may not deliver you fully into the next scene. Where this is the case arrows flicker along the ground may point you in the desired direction, indicators that are also useful for those exploring on foot.
The individual vignettes vary widely: one offers the remnants of the city mentioned in the description, buildings canted or sinking into the waters, kraken-like tentacles rising up through streets and structures; are these part of the oversized “pet” that brought doom onto the city, or do they belong to something else? The other vignettes offer gardens that lie under the waves, protected by domes, or which float in the sky, pulsating with light, whilst some bridge the space between in the air and under the water.
Feint and Bone: Lifted
What we make of these environments is a matter for individual interpretation. Some may well be parts of the failing city; others recreations sitting within the digital domain. Still others, gardens and buildings both, appear to be caught in the upload process – solid in form, but blue lines of light pulsating up into the sky like binary notations of their form moving from the physical to the virtual.
This idea of transformation sits further in the mirror teleporters. As well as offering a means to move through the installation’s vignettes, they present – as the artists note – a means of reflection. We stand before them in a “physical” form, and see within them an image of ourselves; thus they mirror, as it were, the idea of transformation as embodied within the installation’s story.
Feint and Bone: Lifted
Overlaid with a subtle rumble of bass that is again in keeping with the central theme of the installation and rich in colour and
Flower of Scotland, October 2021 – click any image for full size
I’m not entirely sure why, but on my arrival at Flower of Scotland I immediately found myself mentally quoting the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Scottish play:
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning or in rain?
I’ve honestly no idea why; while the region is intended to offer a taste of Scotland and there is rain over a part of it, the setting is very far removed from any notion of Scotland of old, and the theme is hardly one of vaunting ambition or anything one might associate with royal murder – although there is a touch suggestive of witchcraft awaiting discovery as one explores. Perhaps it was the mist swirling about me at the landing point, but whatever the reason, the misty landing point made for an atmospheric start to my visit.
Flower of Scotland, October 2021
Occupying a Full region, Flower of Scotland is a veritable tour of the highlands and more remote parts of the Scottish coast created for our enjoyment by Eloo Lionheart (Neutron Nebula). Within it, we can wander from a small coastal hamlet where fishing plays a major role, through to the uplands where an old fortification sits, the lands between home to farms, bubbling streams, lavender fields, ruins and even a beachy cove.
The landing point sits on the region north-east coast, a slightly rickety-looking bridge connecting the local farm with the aforementioned fishing hamlet, the mist rising from the waters that cut into the land to form a shallow inlet. While the village may only have a single waterfront street and small row of four houses, the wharves and warehouses standing at the far end of the street from the bridge suggest this is a busy place for fish processing / packing, as do the number of fishing boats either alongside or in the bay, while the concrete ramp up to wharves suggest this work is a modern addition to the simpler days of fishing that may once have been the village’s source of income, but that’s purely conjecture on my part.
Flower of Scotland, October 2021
On their arrival, the landing point uses local chat to inform visitors that the castle offers further information on the region, referring to the fortification located up on the rocky hills to the south-west.
The best route to reach the latter is to cross the bridge into the farm, and then follow the winding the road that makes its way through the setting, taking a left turn at the old telephone kiosk and then follow the footpath, trail up past a crofter’s cottage and outward up and around the shoulder of the hills to reach the castle. Following track and path will take visitors past several of the inland points of interest in the region: the ruins of an old chapel that is set – very appropriately – within a field of poppies, its more recent replacement lying just across the track, plus views over the fields and a second path that can be used to reach the southern beachy cove that backs onto the fishing warehouses and wharves.
Flower of Scotland, October 2021
Eastwards from the telephone box, the track leads to a rather fanciful cottage that is distinctly “unScottish” in its styling, but looks like the kind of place that one should be able to find when exploring the wilder parts of Scotland. Boards outside proclaim it to be an apothecary and place where psychic readings are offered. Inside, it is curious mix of potion-making, magic (offering that suggestion of witchcraft that offers a tenuous link back to Macbeth), soft toys and bric-a-brac that is both oddly cosy and also eclectic, suggestive of the occupant’s nature without actually revealing them in person.
Beyond the cottage sits an old ruined tower on the hump of a low coastal hill. by far the tallest structure in the setting, it seems long deserted, although for the daring, an aging wooden stairway winds its way up to its uppermost chamber. Here, views back across the region can be enjoyed; in particular, this gives a good view of the northern coast, where the rain is moving in, and the local sheep show they are familiar with the turn of weather by making their way eastwards, out of the rain and over another bridge – this one covered – that provides a route back to the the farm.
Flower of Scotland, October 2021
All of the above barely begins to scratch at the wealth of detail within the region or the opportunities for photography it offers. Presented under an evening sky, the region lends itself to a wide range of EEP settings – I opted for more of a daytime look for the photos here – and comes with a rich sound scape to add to the sense of immersion. I would note that with many of the buildings in the setting being either fully or partially furnished, as well as the general landscaping, animals, etc., this is a texture / mesh heavy region, so those on mid- or low-end systems may need to adjust settings (I found it easier to turn off shadows when moving / camming around). However, this doesn’t detract from Flower of Scotland being well worth a visit.
On All Hallows Eve, young Pipkin is due to meet his eight friends outside a haunted house on the edge of town. But as he runs through the gathering gloom, Something sweep him away.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 