Category: SLB

The main festivities for the SL15B anniversary celebration are now over; the parties have all happened, the DJ and live performers have left the stages – but the regions remain open to visitors through until July 1st, 2018.

This being the case, and with the numbers packing some of the regions likely to decrease, now is an excellent opportunity to visit some of the resident built exhibits within the anniversary regions, so I thought I’d offer a short series of looks over the next few days at some of the ones that caught my eye.

Celebrating SL’s 15th and Bay City’s 10th

2018 is not only the year in which to celebrate Second Life’s 15th anniversary but also the 10th anniversary of one of the Mainland’s most established and vibrant communities: Bay City.

Developed by Linden Lab and opened for residents in early 2008, Bay City offers an urban-style environment on the continent of Sansara. It is intended to reflect “the American urban experience, between 1940 and 1965, perhaps best typified by Chicago circa 1950 and marked by a distinct deco influence.” Today it is home to the The Bay City Alliance, a resident community founded by those moving into Bay City in 2008, and who promote the Bay City regions, and hold regular events there as well as helping newcomers (to both Second Life and to Bay City) who come to the regions.

Over the years, Bay City has become home to a number of famous landmarks – the Hotel Falmouth, the Channel Island Mental Hospital, Hairy Hippo Fun Land, Bay City Municipal Airport and the Bay City Fairgrounds,to name but a handful within the 40 or so regions of Bay City.

Visitors to the Bay City exhibition at SL15B can discover more about some of these landmarks in Bay City, as well as something of its history. Designed with an eye to detail and presented in the style of a tourist information centre, the exhibit is another fine example of the architecture to be found within Bay City as well as being (for me) exemplifying what makes an engaging SL15B build: it is not pretentious or overstated, it avoids the temptation to try to dwarf surrounding spaces, it avoids lots of glow and / or unsightly textures plastered all around it and it is informative, rather than looking like an advertising hoarding. You might argue that such a build risks being overlooked – I’d disagree, being personally drawn to the more understated and interesting designs.

Corn and Bears

The Cornfield is a place of myth and legend; a place where misbehaving avatars were once sent, back in the early days of Second Life. Sitting under a starry sky, it was inspired by the 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone entitled It’s A  Good Life. Avatars deposited in the cornfield were cut off from communication with the rest of the grid, and had only one another and several televisions and tractors for company.

The original Cornfield still exists – to the north and west of Shermerville, but access is restricted. However, there are various duplicates which can appear in-world and are open to the public.

One such duplicate has been used in an experience led game. Another  Another is located at the southern end of the SL15B regions. the latter Cornfield offers people a chance to experience (albeit with modern conveniences such as windlight and media on a prim) the life of a citizen confined to the sin bin. It’s also a region where the Lab’s more recent experience-based game, Tyrah and the Curse of the Magical Glytches can be played, for those who have a game HUD.

Alongside the Cornfield, and making a popular return to Second Life, is Bear Island.

It was Nicole Linden who started the Linden Bear tradition – having Lab staffers make an in-world bear which residents can request (or sometimes obtain by completing a challenge or receive as a gift). It’s a tradition that continues through to today. The Lab still runs courses for staff on bear making, and many of the available bears are based on Nicole’s original – although some Lindens don’t necessarily make a bear, preferring to have other animals such as a frog or something. Not all of the Linden Bears represent individual Linden staffers – there have been bears to celebrate Easter, Valentine’s Day, Halloween Bear, and so on – some of which may still pop-up in-world at the appropriate time.

Bear Island is a celebration of this tradition, offering visitors to see many of the bears made by Lindens past and present – and also recapture snippets of SL history (such as the arrival of Viewer 2.0). I confess that I’m not that much of a bear collector, but Bear Island is an interesting place to visit to experience one of the more eclectic aspects of Second Life culture and history.

The Parker Solar Probe

While we’ve not formally met, Diamond Merchant and I share an interest in space exploration and space science. She has in the past presented SLB events with models of famous space probes (such as Cassini, the probe from the mission of the same name which spent 13 of its nineteen-year mission exploring Saturn and its moons).

For SL15B, and on behalf of the Leeward Cruising Club, she presents the Parker Solar Probe mission, and overview of the upcoming NASA mission to the Sun scheduled for launch at the end of July / start of August 2018. Named for physicist Eugene Parker, the mission is billed as the first to “touch” the Sun, as it will come to within 8.86 solar radii (6.2 million km or 3.85 million mi) of the Sun’s photosphere (or “surface”).

I’ll be covering the mission in a Space Sunday report in July and ahead of the launch. For SL15B, Diamond presents another of her beautifully detailed prim models, positioned over the disc of the Sun, with boards around the outside of the exhibition space providing details on the mission, etc. Those wishing to experience the view from the probe and sit n one of several blue spheres placed at ground level around the exhibit. Make sure you have the audio stream on as well to help you drift away in space.

XeoRealms

There are numerous role-play, role-play related and fantasy exhibits across SL15B, but I was drawn to Xelm Snowpaw’s ** The XeoRealms ** 15 Years of Second Life For Everyone because of its charm and narrative.

It’s another build that eschews fancy glow, towers and other assorted brashness and instead presents a path winding through a corner of story land, which visitors are invited to follow. Along the way are information boards containing assorted information – including one or two surprising tidbits of information (how about SL being the home of over 300,000 hours of music and entertainment?).

Beautifully executed and with a fair amount to see and enjoy, The XeoRealms makes for a worthwhile stopping point in your explorations at SL15B.

SLurl Details

(All destinations rated General)

• Bay City Exhibition
• The Cornfield
• Bear Island
• Parker Solar Probe
• The XeoRealms

 

The main festivities for the SL15B anniversary celebration are now over; the parties have all happened, the DJ and live performers have left the stages – but the regions remain open to visitors through until July 1st, 2018.

This being the case, and with the numbers packing some of the regions likely to decrease, now is an excellent opportunity to visit some of the resident built exhibits within the anniversary regions, so I thought I’d offer a short series of looks over the next few days at some of the ones that caught my eye, starting with some of the art exhibits.

Ciottolina Xue – Little Paradise in Second Life

Self-taught in 3D art, Ciottolina Xue is – in the interests of full disclosure – someone whose art I admire and who is a personal friend with Second Life. However, this isn’t why I’m including her in this article – I’m doing so because Little Paradise in Second Life is engaging and beautifully conceived.

Offering a sculpted garden environment, accessed through wrought iron gates, Little Paradise presents paths – some under open sky, others passing under the boughs of trees – that lead visitors around a series of rose-centric sculptures in which scenes of babies (and the occasional adult) are set.

It is, first and foremost, a very personal setting – many of the child sculptures represent Ciottolina’s Second Life persona, with some of them, together with the adult sculptures representing those with whom she has friends, and who have supported her throughout her time in Second Life.

Roses are my sensations; sensations that have taken over with time, passing by and emotions perceived by meeting new people who I esteem today. People who have become fond of me and without Second Life I never would have met. Some of them have become acquired mothers, aunts, uncles and other are precious friends. They support and encourage me in every step I take. People who are very capable in what they do.

– Ciottolina Xue

But just as these little scenes are personal to Ciottolina, so too can they represent all of us: the roses offer us a chance to recapture memories of our times in Second Life and the scenes within them reflect our own friendships and relationships over the past however many years we’ve been active in SL. Similarly, the paths through and around the garden represent our own journey through Second Life.

Little Paradise is designed to be seen in a night setting (accept the parcel windlight on entering if you are using Firestorm or a viewer supporting parcel level windlight, otherwise try setting your viewer’s time of day to midnight); however, it also works under daylight settings as well – as I hope the images here demonstrate.

The Art of Viviena

Located alongside Little Paradise in Second Life is an enclosed art display by Viviena, marking her return to SL15B after illness prevented her being a part of SL14B – she was previously an official photographer at SL11B through SL13B.

Presented under a night-time sky, Vivena offers another garden environment, this one home to her Second Life photography, with individual easels set out along the winding path, each home to one of her images. These are all landscapes, taken from right across the main grid – just click on and image and use Edit to obtain the name of the region if it is not immediately familiar to you.

What is delightful about Viviena’s work is it shows no real sign of post-processing, but instead offers images of Second Life as we can expect to see it in-world. Each picture is perfectly composed, cropped and presented for our appreciation. This makes her work a must-see, whether exhibited in-world, or displayed on website such as the SL15B site, or through her Flickr stream.

As well a presenting their art, the gardens offered by Viviena and Ciottolina allow a perfect escape should exploring the rest of SL15B start having you feeling a little tired.

Thoth Jantzen – Moments of Immertia

Djehuti-Anpu (Thoth Jantzen) is an artist whose work never fails to captivate me. Specialising in mixed media, Thoth’s work is always immersive, interactive and captivating. For SL15B, he presents Moments of Immertia, a multi-layered piece which includes some past work as well a new pieces.

A visit to Moments of Immertia does come with some prerequisites, and the instruction boards in the exhibit explain. In short:

• Make sure you have Advanced Light Model (ALM) enabled via Preferences > Graphics – this is essential, but you do not need to have shadow rendering enabled as well.
• If you can, raise you viewer’s rendering to High or Ultra (you can reduce draw distance down to about 100 metres to help compensate for the rendering load, if required).
• Make sure your viewer is set to auto-play media, and disable your media filter (if your viewer has it and you use it) – you can reset both to your preference on leaving the exhibit.
• Allow the parcel windlight settings, if your viewer supports them. If not, set your time to midnight.

To this I would add a small warning. if you are prone to motion sickness or are sensitive to flashing lights, note that parts of Moments of Immertia involve moving and rotating colours and moving optical surfaces which can fill the screen.

Finally, also note that due to the quirks of SL, parcel media textures may not always activate as expected. If you find yourself in what is clearly intended to be an immersive media space and media is not playing, simply toggle the parcel media (movie) button off and back on again.

Virtual environments are should be immersive, providing experiences difficult or impossible to replicate in reality. That’s the point of this exhibit – to provide a few moments of immersion in strange virtual environments – just to give you a “wtf?” moment or two. Some of the displays may even give you pause to reflect.

– Djehuti-Anpu (Thoth Jantzen)

On the ground level of this exhibit sits COVFEFE: The New World Disorder, a (rightfully, in my personal view) irreverent consideration of the mind of the 45th President of the United States, whose head resides within the wreckage of a chess board – symbolic, perhaps of the impact this POTUS has had on the world as a whole. Chess pieces are tumbling through the air, and visitors can become part of the chaos by sitting on any of them, while touching the head poking up through the woodwork will offer some pearls of, um, wisdom from Duh-Donald, which are either direct quotes or concatenations of quotes from the man himself.

I’m so smart, I’m highly educated! I know words … I know the BEST words! COVFEFE!

– Duh-Donald, COVFEFE: The New World Disorder

COVFEFE: The New World Disorder shares the ground space with two more elements: TJ’s Tetrapylon, where visitors might ask the oracle and where touching is again encouraged. Alongside of this is In Surreal Time: Evolutions of a Theme, TJ’s contribution to the First Biennale Digitale part of the Santorini International Biennale exhibition of art and architecture (which is now in its fourth edition).

Directly in front of the latter is the teleport to the remaining elements in the exhibit:

• Vertigogo – a mirrored room and observation deck based on materials and projection.
• OMFG! and WTF? – massively immersive multimedia environments.
• K-Scope 1.0 – TJ’s first immersive media environment and introduced to the public in 2008.

These all require your viewer’s ALM and media options to be set per the notes above.

No amount of worlds can do this exhibit justice, it genuinely has to be experienced – and really shouldn’t be missed (again, remembering the above cautionary note on motion and light sensitivity).

Ginger Lorakeet – Inside Art

There can be few who are unfamiliar with Ginger Lorakeet’s images which allow avatars to become a part of an overall picture. She has presented her work at a number of past SLB events, and is once more present at SL15B with her Inside Art – and this time with a set of images that follow something of a fantasy theme.

Ginger’s images are always well presented, but the ones offered at SL15B are special. Using muted colours and tones well suited to the overall theme, they each offer an entire narrative, and these individual narratives can in places perhaps be woven into a complete story.

Whether or not you’ve seen Ginger’s work at part SLB events or elsewhere, these pieces are very definitely worth the time to visit and try.

SLurl Details

• Ciottolina Xue – Little Paradise
• Viviena
• Thoth Jantzen – Moments of Immertia
• Ginger Lorakeet – Inside Art

On Tuesday, June 19th, the Lab continued their blog posts about SL15B with the publication of a short video interview / message from Linden Lab CEO, Ebbe Altberg, talking about Second Life, its longevity and more (embedded below).

Ebbe has been discussing Second Life  – and Sansar – a lot over the last few weeks with various media sources, and the blog post on the video also includes a link to a chat he recently had with Games Wisdom (June 15th).

In May, Ebbe sat down with Saffia Widdershins of Designing Worlds for a lengthy chat on all things Second Life and Sansar, and he’ll be doing so again on Wednesday, June 20th, as a part of the Meet The Lindens Series of events. You can catch him at the SL15B auditorium at 14:00 SLT.

In the meantime, if you want to catch-up with Ebbe’s Designing World chat, you can do so via the video, or if you prefer, via my transcript of the conversation, which provides a linked breakdown of topics discussed, as will as Ebbe’s comments and thoughts.

I’ll have coverage of the SL15B Meet The Lindens events available in this pages in due course.

Following the opening of the SL15B Community Celebration on Sunday, June 17th See my preview for notes and SLurls), Linden Lab has announced further festivities and events as part of the overall celebrations. Some of these can be found on the SL15B regions, others are located elsewhere across the grid.

The SL15B Music Fest

• When: Friday, June 22nd through Sunday June 24th
• Where: The Serpent Stage (Stage Left) at SL15B
• Schedule of Performers – all times are SLT and the schedule may be subject to last-minute changes.

At the time of writing, the performers line-up was as follows. All times are SLT, and not this schedule is subject to last-minute changes.

The SL15B Shopping Event

Occupying a total of four regions, the SL15B brings back the familiar shopping mall of recently Linden shopping events, now decorated with a crystal motif in keeping with the SL15B theme.

The 4-region mall brings together 80 of Second Life’s creators, each of whom is offering a free gift to celebrate SL15B as well as deals on some of their most popular items. In addition, many are also participating in a special sale on the Marketplace.

Check the list of participating merchants for names and use the SLurls below to jump to the event.

• Golden Region
• Gilded Region
• Halcyon Region
• Aurelian Region

The Weekly Gift Grab

To mark the fifteen years Second Life has been open to the public, the Lab is running a weekly Gift Grab for the next 15 weeks.

Each week, one crystal-themed gift will be made available in-world, and a clue relating to its location will be published on the Second Life blog, and via their social media feeds. All you have to do is find and collect each gift – which will remain available for one week only, before the next gift is made available somewhere else on the grid. People can collect as many of the gifts as they want – however, the final Birthday Gift will only be available to those who have collected all 14 of the previous gifts.

You can join the hunt by:

• Visit the Swaginator HUD kiosk to grab your Swaginator HUD and attach it.
• Check the Second Life blog / social media channels for the week’s clue (the first is already available).
• Find the Region and start searching.

Tapestry of Time

Don’t forget you can visit the Tapestry of Time at SL15B, a special exhibition by Linden Lab and the Moles recalling some of the history of Second Life year-by-year, of 2003 to the present day.

The first part of the celebrations for Second Life’s 15th anniversary opened on Sunday, June 17th, when the SL15B Community Celebration regions opened to the public.

Events within the 24 regions will run from Sunday, June 17th through until Sunday, June 24th, with the Big Day, marking the original opening of Second Life to the public at large, far back in June 2003, taking place on Saturday, June 23rd. After the main celebrations, the regions will remain open for visitors from Monday, June 25th through Sunday, July 1st, although there will be no formal events during this period.

As befitting a 15th anniversary, the theme for this year’s community celebration is crystal, so expect to see a good few builds within the regions reflecting this – and possible watches and timepieces as well, given these are often gifts associated with 15th anniversaries.

Throughout the week of festivities, there will be much going on: music, dancing and performances at the various stages found within the regions; talks and presentations within the auditorium – including the now-familiar Meet the Lindens events, of which more anon, and some of the exhibits built be SL residents and found within the regions may also play host to events of their own.

The festivities bring together the use mix of resident-build exhibitions and SLB infrastructure builds – with the latter this year being provided by Mikati Slade – Cake Stage; Walton F. Wainwright (Faust Steamer) -Serpent Stage; Anthony (ADudeNamed Anthony) – Auditorium; Ancient Mole – Crystal Rotunda Stage and Welcome Area: and City Builder (Lim Pikajuna) – Stage North.

As well as these, there are special features, such as the Tapestry of Time, tracing Second Life’s History from 2003 to the present; people can also pay a visit to the original Cornfield – the Sin Bin of early Second Life, and tour Bear Island, which makes a return to SLB celebrations for all lovers of Linden Bears. Plus the ever-popular SLB Big Hunt and the pod tours and very much a part of the festivities.

Meet The Lindens

This year, Meet the Lindens will talk place between Monday and Friday, at 14:00 SLT at the SL15B Auditorium. The participating Lindens this year include:

• Xiola Linden – Monday, June 18th.
• Patch Linden and Kiera Linden – Tuesday, June 19th.
• Ebbe Linden – Wednesday, June 20th.
• Grumpity Linden and Oz Linden – Thursday, June 21st.
• Brett Linden  – Friday June 21st.

Where To Find Information

The best place to find information on all that is going on at SL15B is the SL15B Community Celebration website. Daily schedules will be posted there, together with news and updates. IN addition, you can view the daily schedules for the major stages and the auditorium via the following links:

• The Crystal Rotunda (Main Stage)
• The Cake Stage (Stage South)
• The Serpent (Stage Left)
• DJ Stage (Stage North)
• Auditorium

Getting There – SLurls

• Welcome Area 1 and Welcome Area 2 (if you’ve never been to an SLB event before, you can generally find help and guidance at the welcome areas)
• Crystal Rotunda (Main Stage)
• The Cake (DJ Stage South)
• The Serpent (Stage Left)
• DJ Stage (Stage North)
• Auditorium

On Monday, April 23rd, 2018, Linden Lab issued an invitation to live music performers to apply to be a part of the Second Life 15th Birthday celebration’s Music Festival.

2018 marks the fourth such festival the Lab has organised. It will be held as a part of the official Second Life Birthday celebration, taking place in mid-June 2018. For the successful applicant, it will be a paid event.

Xiola Linden explains things further in the official blog post:

Since we started Music Fest in Second Life, we’ve held an audition showcase to highlight some of the musical talent in the Second Life community. Many of you have been performing for years in virtual venues all over the grid, and we’d love to have you come showcase your talent at the try-outs for this summer Music Fest. All genres are welcome! From bands to solo acts, rock and roll to electronica – we encourage anyone to sign up for consideration. The Second Life Music Fest is an opportunity to perform at one of the biggest celebrations in Second Life, and it’s a paid gig!

She continues:

While we encourage everyone to sign up, it is not a commitment on your part and does not guarantee a spot at the auditions. We will review all submissions and extend audition invitations via email to the designated contact. Each invited act will have a short audition time (5 minutes max) to play and leave an impression on a panel of judges made up of Lindens and Residents. This panel will select acts to be invited to perform at the Second Life Music Fest. Upon completion of a half hour slot at the festival, the designated contact for each act will be eligible for payment (subject to Linden’s terms and conditions).

Those interested in taking part are invited to complete the audition application form – and to do so no later than Friday, May 18th. The blog post notes that completion of the application does not signify a commitment on the part of the artist to take part, nor a guarantee they’ll be called upon to audition before a panel of judges comprising Lab personnel and residents.

Musicians who are selected to audition will receive word directly from the Lab via e-mail. Those successful in their 5-minute audition, as judged by a panel of Lab staff and residents, will be invited to perform a 30-minute set at the Second Life Music Fest, and (subject to the Lab’s terms and conditions) receive payment for doing so.

The auditions will take place on (times are SLT):

• 12:00 noon to 14:00 Friday, June 1, 2018.
• 18:00 – 20:00 Saturday. June 2, 2018.

The venue for the auditions will be announced in due course and all residents are invited by the Lab to attend the auditions as a part of the audience.