Author: Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

Moni and Traci at Midgard Gallery in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Midgard Gallery: Monique Beebe, February 2021

Midgard Gallery is – for me at least – a new arts venue I was delighted to be pointed towards by Traci Ultsch by way of a personal invitation to witness the new joint exhibition she has there.

Occupying an underground cavern within the Land of Thor – a place I’ll be discussing in greater detail in an upcoming article -, the Gallery is one of three within the region, and is currently featuring Crash Traci and Portraits and Other Things Monique Beebe. these are two very different in focus, but which share certain aspects and elements in the manner in which they challenge the viewer to look into them and consider what they are seeing, that mark them as complimentary to one another.

Midgard Gallery: Traci Ultsch, February 2021

Crash, located on the mezzanine floor of the gallery, takes as its inspiration English author J.G. Ballard’s 1973 novel Crash, later made into a 1996 film by the same title, written and directed by David Cronenberg. Both novel and film gained notoriety for their depictions of symphorophilia – the experience of intense sexual arousal as a result of stage-managing and watching a disaster – in their case, the focus being that of car crashes.

Given the nature of the subject matter, it might be tempting to dismiss Traci’s Crash as a further excuse for voyeuristic gratification; however, this would be a complete mistake. Whilst sexual undertones are apparent within the images (take, for example the placement of the lock to a car’s glove compartment in Bodies: framed within the outline of a female body, it clearly serve the purpose of a nipple), this is no mere excuse to revel, as it were, in the subject matter of the novel.

Midgard Gallery: Traci Ultsch, February 2021

Rather, these are pieces, each one carefully constructed and presented, that use the theme of the novel to explore the basic concepts of art: how we define it; whether something that is intrinsically repelling as symphorophilia or some other socially unacceptable outlook, contain within it a thread from which some form of more positive expression be drawn. At the same time, there is a personal dimension added to the piece, with Traci noting that in producing these pieces, she sought to address a situation from her own life.

Each image is presented as a layered, almost abstract collage, taking images captured from within Second Life, editing and transforming them in tone and look, then combining them one with another and / or with images of wrecked vehicles from the physical world. The result is a set of tableau pieces that can be looked upon purely as abstracted art and / or through the prism of the exhibitions theme, each one daring us to look again and again; their concept and content shifting, challenging our overall perception of each of them.

Midgard Gallery: Traci Ultsch, February 2021

On the ground floor of the gallery, Monique presents Portraits and Other Things, a baker’s dozen of utterly engaging avatar studies that in places mirror Traci’s work by offering us collage-like pieces to appreciate and perhaps decipher, whilst elsewhere presenting narrative and / or pieces linked by theme, such as the “rabbit” series along the back wall of the gallery.

Moni is an artist I’ve long admired for her ability to capture an entire story within a single frame, whilst often also challenging us to look beyond the surface of her art, be it erotic in nature or a seemingly straightforward facial portrait, or which at first glance appears to tell a simple story, and see what lies within. She has an innate ability to layer emotions and feelings with her work that I find utterly captivating.

Midgard Gallery: Monique Beebe, February 2021

A  good deal of this is to be found in the pieces within Portraits and Other Things. With Chaos for example, we start with a collage featuring a human face that draws us to it simply as a piece to be appreciate for its sue of image, line, and colour. But it also contains hints of commentary on the chaotic nature of thought and mood, both of which can swirl and shift within us, such that the face we show the world around us is ever-changing; also within it stand the ideas of the chaotic bustle and churn of life around us, with all of these elements perhaps calling into question just who we are – as signified by the eyes of the central faces, the sockets becoming emptier as we scan from left-to-right.

Across the hall, Sadness offer a subtle layering of expression and condition to evoke the desired mood: that the subject is unhappy might appear to be evident from the forward tilt of her head and downcast eyes – although equally, this could be the prelude to a flick of the eyelids to provide an altogether different image, such as a coy glance into the camera lens. What actually gives this piece its emotional frame are the water droplets scattered across the subject’s face and their trails along her cheeks; they are as effective – if not more so – at conveying mood than had she been shown to be crying.

Midgard Gallery: Monique Beebe, February 2021

With two evocative displays of art from two of Second life’s most engaging artists, Midgard Gallery is well worth a February visit – and as noted, I’ll have more on the region as whole in an upcoming article.

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Space Sunday: crashes, tests and an Inspiration

Posted on by Inara Pey
Two seconds from disaster: an inverted starship prototype SN9 about to impact the landing pad at Boca Chica, February 2nd,2021. Directly below the vehicle and on the horizon is the angled base of the Super Heavy launch platform (under construction). Centred on the ground is the Starhopper test vehicle with the SN7.2 test tank to the right. Image credit: Cosmic Perspective

On Tuesday, February 2nd, and after Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) related delays, SpaceX starship prototype SN9 took to the skies over southern Texas in the second high altitude flight test for the starship programme.

The flight itself, to some 10 km altitude, followed by a skydive descent to around the 2 km altitude mark, was remarkably successfully – as was the case with the first high-altitude flight (to 12 km on that occasion) seen with starship prototype SN8 in December 2020 (see: Space Sunday: the flight of SN8 and a round-up). However, and also like the SN8 flight, things went off-kilter during the final element of the flight, resulting in a complete loss of the vehicle.

Lift-off: SN9 rises from its launch platform with SN10 beyond it. he angle of this shot makes the two vehicles appear closer than they were in reality; SN10 was in fact well clear of its sister. Image credit: LabPadre

As I’ve previously noted, the route of staship prototype SN9 from fabrication high bay to launch stand had been remarkably fast compared to that of SN8, leading to speculation that the anticipated second flight test could occur in January. However, while the vehicle remained on the launch stand going through numerous pre-flight tests, including numerous Raptor engine re-start tests (which actually saw two of the motors swapped-out), things appeared stalled before that final step of an actual flight.

This now appears to be down to the fact that the FAA weren’t entirely happy with SpaceX over the flight of SN8, which effectively went ahead without proper approval. In short, SpaceX applied for a waiver against the licence the FAA had granted for starship flight testing which would have allowed the company to exceed “maximum public risk as allowed by federal  safety regulations”.

At the time, the waiver was denied – but the SN8 launch went ahead, violating the required safety limits, and whilst no-one was injured in the crash of SN8, the FAA correctly ordered a full investigation into the flight and also the safety culture and management oversight of SpaceX operations. Those investigations not only took time to complete, but also afterwards required FAA review and make modifications to the licence granted to SpaceX to carry out starship prototype flights.

Boca Chica from space: captured by a SkySat satellite approximately 568 km above the Earth, this image shows the SpaceX Boca Chica launch facility with the two Starship prototypes on their launch stands, the SN7.2 tank test unit, the Super Heavy booster launch stand under construction, and other elements such as the fuel farm, and Highway 4 running from the coast (r) back to the SpaceX construction and fabrication facilities (off to the left of the image). Image credit: Planet Labs
If a licensee violates the terms of their launch license, they did so knowing that an uninvolved member of the public could have been hurt or killed. That is not exaggeration. They took a calculated risk with your life and property … If the FAA does not enforce their launch licenses, it will damage the long-term viability of the launch industry and damage their credibility with Congress. It is possible that the industry could suffer significant regulatory burdens enforced by Congress to ensure safety.

– Former deputy chief of staff and senior FAA adviser Jared Zambrano-Stout,
commenting on SpaceX launching SN8 without the request licence waiver

The required licence modifications were not completed until February 1st, the day on which SpaceX initially attempted to launch SN9, and their lack of their availability may have been the reason that attempt was scrubbed, resulting in the February 2nd attempt.

Coverage of the test flight started very early on the morning (local time) on February 2nd, with SpaceX providing multiple camera points around the launch stand and on the vehicle, as well as via drones flying overhead In addition, spaceflight enthusiast such as NASASpaceflight.com also provided coverage from multiple points around the Boca Chica, Texas, site, including video recorded by Mary “BocaChicaGirl”, who provides a daily 24/7 feed of activity at the site.

The vehicle, with prototype SN10 occupying a second launch stand nearby, lifted-off at 20:25:15 UTC, following a 25 minutes delay due a range safety violation – one of the circumstances of concern to the FAA. However, the ascent itself was flawless, with the vehicle rapidly climbing to altitude over the next four minutes, two of the Raptors shutting down as it did so to reduce the dynamic stresses on the vehicle in light of it being only partially fuelled and to ensure it didn’t overshoot the planned apogee for the flight.

Flip over: at 10 km altitude, the one operational Raptor motor gimbals its thrust as the leeward midships RCS thruster fires, tipping SN9 over to start its 2-minute skydive back to the ground. Image credit: SpaceX

This came at 20:29:15 UTC, with the vehicle entering a brief hover using its one firing motor, as fuel supplies were switched from the main tanks to the smaller “header” tanks that would be used to power the engines during landing manoeuvres. At this point, the remaining motor shut down as the reaction control  system (RCS) thrusters fired, gently pushing the vehicle over from vertical and into its skydive position, where the fore and aft aerodynamic surfaces could be used to stabilise the vehicle during descent.

This phase of the descent lasted just over 2 minutes, with the order given to re-start two of the Raptor engines given at 20:31:35 UTC. These engines should have then gimballed and used their thrust, together with the forward RCS thrusters to return the vehicle to a vertical pose before one of the motors again shut down and the second slowed the vehicle into a propulsive, tail-first landing.

From below: a camera on the ground dramatically captures the moment one of the Raptor engines on SN9 re-starts as RCS systems fire to help maintain stability. Image credit: SpaceX

Both of these motors fire a split second apart, and footage of the rear of the vehicle suggests that the first may have suffered a mis-fire before starting correctly. However, the second motor appears to have suffered a catastrophic failure on re-start, possibly involving a turbopump failure: as it ignited, debris could clearly be seen being blown clear of the vehicle.

With only one operational main engine, SN9 was unable to stop its change in flight profile and remain upright. Instead, it continued to rotate and become inverted just before it struck the landing pad in what SpaceX refer to as “an energetic, rapid unscheduled disassembly” (that’s “exploded on impact” for the rest of us).

No official word on the failure has been given – obviously, SpaceX will need time for a thorough investigation, and will likely have the FAA watching closely. It is also not clear if the material coming away from the vehicle is actually parts of the engine, or sections of the engine skirt blown clear of the vehicle. As some are still to be drifting down to the ground fairly close to SN10 on its launch stand, it is possible they are from the vehicle’s skin.

A wider image of the inverted SN9 prototype just before impact, with the Super Heavy launch stand, SN7.2 tank and Starhopper prototype overlapping one another, and the SN10 prototype to the right. Note the debris (arrowed) drifting down behind the vehicle. Image credit: NasaSpaceflight.com

Continue reading “Space Sunday: crashes, tests and an Inspiration” →

A return to Where Our Journey Begins in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Where Our Journey Begins, February 2021

Update: Where Our Journey Begins has been relocated, and the SLurl in this piece updated as a result.

Where Our Journey Begins is a homestead region held and designed by Vivian Ewing. It’s a place we first visited fairly recently – in September 2020, in fact. However, after getting several nudges from people that the region has been redressed for the coming Spring, I suggested to Caitlyn that we hop over and take another look.

The changes made since that first visit of ours are extensive; yet at the same time, there is much about the setting that does offer a sense of continuation from that iteration to this: the curtain wall of cliffs with their waterfalls (now to the south-east of the region, rather than to the north), the use of granite-like tables of rock on which to site some of the region’s buildings, etc. This mix gives the region a pleasing sense of the familiar couple with discovery.

Where Our Journey Begins, February 2021

The land itself also offers a reminder of the former build: a large arc of land sweeping from the north-east and round to the south-west, those high falls dropping from its eastern face into a large pool of water. This in turn splits the lowlands by means of two streams that flow west and north respectively, trapping a wedge of land between them. And just off the shoreline of this wedge is a small circular island that serves as the landing point for visitors, connected as it is to the rest of the region by an ageing wooden bridge.

Across the bridge, and under the shade of ginkgo biloba and cherry blossom trees, and the turns of gulls circling above them, a track offers a choice of direction across the land, with the shorter arm directing visitors to where a path winds up the table of rock occupying the centre of this island, the longer offering a path around its base.

Where Our Journey Begins, February 2021

Which of these you take is entirely up to you. If you want to avoid getting your feet wet, then the path up to the top of the squat plateau is the best means of reaching the north-eastern “headland”, going by way of two high bridges. The first of these spans the gorge between the first plateau on the island and the second, home to a small summer house  and with a much longer rope-and-wood bridge extending across the broad valley of the stream below to reach the north-east uplands.

The latter are home to a flat-topped house with flat-topped / adobe walls and an external stairway leading to the upper floor. Hemmed by trees and shrubs, it looks west towards the sea, the region’s lighthouse just visible through the foliage of two aged and gnarled trees standing guard over a garden swing. Sitting at the foot of one of these trees, and marked by a large urn, is an overgrown path that leads down, somewhat precipitously, to a small sheltered beach.

Where Our Journey Begins, February 2021

This is actually one of two beaches within the setting, the other being off to the west, reached via the second arm of the track leading away from the landing point’s bridge. steps down from this arm of the track point the way to it by way of a farm small holding with water tower, shed, tractor and livestock. Bracketing the track on its other side from the steps is a old paved area the marks the entrance to the gorge between the two humps of the island’s plateaus. It  is home to a ice cream stall and outdoor seating – although those wishing for a little refreshment will have to wait in line behind the little girl who is passing on her order!

Beyond this, the track ends at a low flight of steps and a choice of routes: either across a little arched bridge crossing the second of the region’s streams, or continuing eastwards to under the broad shade of great oak trees.

Where Our Journey Begins, February 2021

A chapel and open, grassy space lie across the bridge, a pastor waiting within the chapel to conduct wedding services for L$300, the space outside being suitable for the after-service photographs. Off to the east and beyond the oak trees, there sits a caravan that looks to have been converted into a more permanent residence, complete with creature comforts such as satellite TV and a curtained deck overlooking the region’s pool and waterfalls. Like the house up on the uplands, it is unfurnished, so you’ll have to let your imagination fill in the details.

Throughout the setting are numerous touches of detail that make it ideal for photography, and a good number of places to sit and pass the time. Good use is made of EEP settings to produce a unique ambient environment,  complete with rainbow for those prepared to play with the Sun position via Personal Lighting. Admittedly, the colours of the rainbow will be inverted thanks to a rendering bug (unless you are using the latest Love Me Render viewer from the Lab}, but the LMR 5 viewer does mean a fix for this issue should be filtering through to all viewers in due cause.

Where Our Journey Begins, February 2021

Overall, Where our Journey Begins remains a pleasing visit with more than enough to engage the Second life tourist.

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Giovanna’s Traces at PAC in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
PAC Featured Artist: Giovanna Cerise

Giovanna Cerise is an artist whom I’ve admired for years. Her work, which spans both the virtual and the physical, is exceptional, whether seen as an individual piece, or as a complete installation.

As I recently reported, she has recently returned to artistic expression through Second Life after a hiatus of several years, opening a studio gallery at Campbell Coast – and I’m particularly honoured and delighted to announce that Giovanna is the first artist to appear at the Phoenix Artists Collaboration as a Featured Artist.

PAC Featured Artist: Giovanna Cerise

Officially opening on Saturday, February 6th, 2021 at PAC, is a special display of art Giovanna has put together, entitled Traces. It marks her first formal exhibition since her return to Second Life – although it will obviously not be her last. It  presents a mix of her work, past and present;  however, I’ll let Giovanna describe Traces in her own words:

The exhibition traces some of the stages of the artist’s production.
The proposed works were made with various techniques and testify to the evolution of his artistic career. On the ground floor there are some works made only with prim, dating back to 2010-2011 and three unpublished works: two sculptures and an installation created for this occasion.
On the upper floor, one side of the gallery is dedicated to some works made in second life, but which were then exhibited some physically others with videos in the real world. The exhibition itinerary is completed with the proposal of some more recent works which were included in installations and which cannot be reproduced here.

– Giovanna Cerise, February 2021

PAC Featured Artists Gallery: Giovanna Cerise

Spread across the two floors of the gallery, commencing with the captivating Senza Titolo (“Without Title”),  this is an exhibition that is not just to be seen, but experienced, the pieces positioned through the gallery’s spaces in such a manner as to present the feeling the visitor is moving through them as much as the gallery itself; text elements on the floor before some of them adding to this sensation.

On the upper floor of the gallery is the opportunity to witness how Giovanna’s work has been celebrated in the physical world, where she has worked alongside other Second life and Physical world arts alumni such as Patrick Moya (Moya Janus in SL).

As well as the text elements on the gallery floor spaces, pieces may also be accompanied by information givers so that visitors can learn more about them, whilst several of the individual pieces are available to purchase for those who wish to add them to their collection.

PAC Featured Artist: Giovanna Cerise

The official opening of Traces will be marked at 13:00 SLT on Saturday, February 6th, with music by our friend and colleague, Joaquin Gustav from 13:15 SLT, at the event space immediately in front of the main gallery.  please do be sure to join us.

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2021 TPVD meetings week #5: summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Grauland, December 2020 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, February 5th, 2021.

These meetings are generally held every other week.  They are recorded by Pantera Północy, and her video of the meeting is embedded at the end of this report – my thanks to her for allowing me to do so – and it is used with a transcript of the chat log from the meeting and my own audio recording to produce these notes.

SL Viewer News

[0:00-4:10]

The Project Jelly viewer updated to version 6.4.13.555567 on Friday, February 5th. This presumably brings it to parity with the current release viewer code base, and moves it closer to potentially being the next viewer to gain promotion to de facto release status, although no decision has been made on this as yet.

  • Current release viewer Dawa Maintenance RC Viewer, version 6.4.12.555248, dated January 25, 2021, promoted February 1st, 2021 – NEW.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Custom Key Mappings project viewer, version 6.4.12.553437, January 7, 2021.
  • Project viewers:
    • Love Me Render (LMR) 5 project viewer, version 6.4.12.553511, issued on January 7, 2021.
    • Simple Cache project viewer, version 6.4.11.551403, November 12.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16, 2019.

General Viewer Notes

  • With Dawa now at release status, the current RC viewers are being bought up to parity with its code base.
  • As noted in my most recent CCUG summary, the Love Me Render (LMR) 5 graphics RC viewer is close to being ready for promotion from project to RC status.
  • The simple cache viewer (VFS replacement viewer) is in “decent shape” for promotion to RC status once updated to the Dawa code base.
  • There may be further UI work for the Legacy Profile project viewer (returns avatar profiles,etc., back into the viewer, a-la Firestorm) which may delay this viewer from progressing.
  • For OS X users, a viewer is in the works that will “get Apple’s notarisations working”. This has been something of a long standing issue, and the viewer should be appearing in the near future.

Project Jelly Viewer

[9:06-11:32]

  • This viewer essentially improves the rendering of Jelly Doll avatars.
  • The idea behind Jelly Dolls (first introduced in 2015, with various improvements since)  was to give users the means to reduce the load of having to render extremely complex avatars on computers with low hardware specifications by:
    • Explicitly selecting a nearby avatar and set its display value to Do Not Render, reducing them to a simplified, “flat” grey avatar form.
    • And / or setting a “complexity value” within the viewer that, if exceeded by any avatar in the field of view, will render it as a Jelly Doll.
    • Both the grey and the Jelly Doll forms are simplified avatar outlines, with the latter rendered as one of a number of solid colours selected by the viewer from a colour map. The term was coined by user Whirly Fizzle after the British Jelly Babies brand of sugared jelly sweets.
  • There have always been a number of issues with the manner in which these avatars are rendered. For example:
    • On the visual side, many users have avoided the viewer’s complexity setting (to the detriment of their viewer’s performance) as they do no like seeing solid, brightly coloured avatar forms in their field of view.
    • On the technical side, the code currently attempts to render all of  avatar’s attachments. As these tend to be the most costly to render, this can defeat he object of the code.
    • Also, the baseline formula for jelly doll calculations doesn’t allow for consistent results.
  • As a result, the Project Jelly viewer:
    • Does not attempt to render attachments, but instead renders affected avatars as a simplified, easy-to-render humanoid shape.
    • Render all such avatars in grey, no longer using the previous colour map, in the hope this will encourage more people on lower-end systems to use the capability, as the grey avatar forms tend to be less intrusive within a scene.
  • [13:38 via chat] In relation to avatar rendering / Jelly Dolls, it was asked if better global controls for rendering could be provided. In reply, Grumpity indicated that in addressing performance as a whole, such global controls might be considered in the future.

Viewer Log-in Changes

[4:41-8:05]

  • Oz Linden is working on the viewer log-in process that are designed to prevent people logging-in to Second Life when their inventory is “broken” (and potentially making their situation worse).
  • The updates to the log-in process means there will be additional checking on the status of an avatar inventory data on the back-end as a user logs into Second Life.
    • If errors within the data are found, the log-in process suspended, in order to prevent the errors being propagated to the viewer, and then viewer then exacerbating the situation by trying to manipulate the inventory database further on the basis of the invalid data.
    • Should this happen, the user will receive a massage that explicitly states that log-in has failed as a result of inventory issues with the request the user contacts Support. This message will also provide some specific information the user can pass to Support when they contact them.
    • Support will then use the information supplied to initiate the required corrective action to resolve the issue.
  • While this may impede users with inventory problems from logging-in, the hope is that these changes will actually make the resolution of inventory-related issues easier to correct at source and thus have less of an overall impact on affected users.
  • This is seen as a priority change, and the Lab hopes to be in a position to have the back-end changes tested and the viewer-side updates available by the end of the month.

In  Brief

  • [4:17-4:32] The Lab is making some changes to how deployments are managed within the AWS environment. If done correctly, this work should result in no user-visible changes.
  • [11:38-14:11] Post-Uplift issues:
    • There remain some issues still to be fully resolved as a result of the transition to AWS, including (but not necessarily limited to):
      • The problem with Map tile not being generated. This is being addressed.
      • The fact that the chat servers currently need to be restarted more frequently than pre-Uplift. This is still being diagnosed.
      • Teleport failures resulting in an “wrong” or “invalid” region message. This is also being diagnosed.
    • However, the Lab caution against assuming any issue that is encountered is a result of the AWS transition. The general rule remains, if you’re seeing a specific (and preferably reproducible) issue, raise a bug report.
  • [14:31-15:33] in response to a question on the avatar skeleton (why 159 bones, but capped at 110 on upload?),  vir pointed out the 110 bone cap is per sub-mesh in a character, rather than on a complete character (which can have several sub-mesh components. The reason for the cap is down to older GPUs that can be used in SL being unable to handle the transform matrices.
  • [19:54-20:28] Premium Plus: internal discussions have resumed on the deployment of Premium Plus, but there is nothing to share in terms of time frame, etc., at the moment.
  • [21:49-24:15] The recent Marketplace issues are seen as a combination of both the continuing work to improve the Marketplace experience and the work to transition it to AWS.
    • As the MP involves multiple back-end services, there are a lot of interdependencies that can be impacted particularly as a result of the AWS transition work, and not all of these can be accurately QA’d, as the sheer volume of transaction, etc., the MP sees hourly cannot be easily or accurately replicated.
    • The current focus is on general MP stability (including its various dependencies) in order to hopefully make future maintenance and update easier / smoother.
    • The most preferable way to deal with the MP would perhaps be to take the service down entirely for a a period of time and overhaul it, and then re-release it. However, given the impact this would have, it is simply not a viable option.
  • [24:42-25:45] Generally speaking, LL believe SL to be a lot more stable / robust now than previously, simply because it is running on much more recent hardware and within an infrastructure where they no longer have to worry about things like hardware that is well beyond its operational life failing, whilst any underpinning hardware / infrastructure issues are more-or-less immediately addressed by AWS. This in itself allows LL’s engineering and ops teams to be more focused on running the software side of things.

Hilaire Beaumont at Monocle Man in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Monocle Man Gallery: Hilaire Beaumont

Currently available the Monocle Man Gallery, curated by Kit Boyd and Lynx Luga, is an outstanding exhibition by Hiliare Beaumont. Untitled, it presents a series of self-portrait avatar studies that are – despite the fact I often use this phrase with regards to art exhibitions in Second Life – genuinely rich in their depth of narrative and content.

These are piece that bring together a range of inspirations – literature, film, music, elements of fantasy, historical drama to present pieces that are evocative, layered and often highly emotive. Through their presentation, these are pieces that illustrate the fact that Hilaire was initially drawn to Second Life as a place of role-play, and has since grown towards photography as a means of expression and emotional release.

Monocle Man Gallery: Hilaire Beaumont

The role-play aspect can perhaps be seen in the likes of Le Fantome de l ‘Opera, Clown and Lullaby of Woe, together with Old Man, Diggin’ My Grave and The Wild Horde. These last three, intentionally or otherwise, sit together almost as three parts of an evolving story whilst also each standing in their own right; there is within each of them a wonderful sense of the classic western of the Ford or Leone eras.

Both Le Fantome and Clown have very defined origins, but bring with them a real sense of emotion about them that might not be quite in keeping with our usual thinking about the characters they represent: introspection in one, and a suggestion of unemotional, calculated logic with the other. However, of these particular images, Lullaby of Woe is the piece that most acutely caught my attention in the way the story it suggests seemed to flow between various characters, from Sherlock Holmes through to Dr. Jekyll and back, complete with hints of both James Moriarty and Mr. Hyde.

Monocle Man Gallery: Hilaire Beaumont

Other pieces may not directly draw thoughts toward fictional pieces or film, but their emotional content is just as incredibly captivating. Aux Sombres Heros de L’amer (taking its title from the song by French rock group Noir Désir?)  and Je ‘t en remets au vent, for example, are powerfully evocative of a broader story (as well as having a marvellous sense of the 19th century about them).

Alongside of these sit Sympathy and Mother, two pieces that are simply packed with expression and emotion, particularly for anyone who has recently lost a family member. Both are also a tour de force in framing, depth of field, image depth, and camera angle; each genuinely standing as a life study you do not so much view as step into.

Monocle Man Gallery: Hilaire Beaumont

The simple truth is that each and every one of these images has something to say, so much so that a book could easily be written about this exhibition. But equally, the fact that they do is more than adequate reason for going along to the gallery and view them for yourself; they demonstrate the truth of what can oft seem a tired adage: a picture is worth a thousand words. All of the pieces are offered for sale at an incredibly modest price, and I understand that all proceeds are going to support the gallery directly.

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