It was back to Psygallery, operated and curated by Twister Grut in mid-June for me, this time to view another pairing of exhibitions within the gallery spaces by two very different artists. While each is entirely independent of the other, they nevertheless might be seen as being linked by a thread of – well, life (or at least, within the context of celebrating life).
Within the two-level main hall of PsyGallery sits Embryos by TerraMerhyem. No liner notes are provided for this selection of work, spanning as it does both static and animated pieces. However, given it is by Terra, you can expect it to be nothing short of expressive, and each of the pieces visually engaging. The one set of notes that are provided come in the form of reminders on the floor of each level within the gallery that Advanced Lighting Model should be enabled (Preferences → Graphics → make sure the option is checked) in order to see the works at their best.
PsyGallery, June 2023: TerraMerhyem – Embryos
For most of us, the term embryo most likely brings to mind the stage of human life following fertilisation through until the ninth week after conception, with mental images of of the growing embryo lying within the womb as it commences its journey towards / into life. Some of this is perhaps evident in the static pieces presented here by Terra, showing as they do male and female human forms contained within protective spheres, like embryos within the womb. However, give that the figures in their spheres are fully-formed adults means this is not an artistic treatise on life per se; rather it is perhaps more of a comment on the fact that from beginning to end, life is a continuous process of growth, maturation, change and – for all of its gregarious opportunities – ultimately isolated and individual.
That no influence is exerted by the artist on how we opt to interpret these pieces, thus leaving us free to interpret them as some form of commentary – per the above – or purely as purely visually engaging, highly creative and imaginative pieces of art similarly enhances the appeal of the 2D pieces; allowing each to be taken as a whole unto itself, or – in the case of four of the pieces – artistic pairings.
Similarly, how we interpret the animated pieces, which mix 2D and 3D creations, is left to out own processes of thought and reaction to art and design. Utilising geometry, images and colour to rich effect, these are pieces literally pulsating – one might say beating with the rhythm of a healthy heart – in a manner which is strikingly beautiful whilst still carrying that suggestion of life and change we might opt to see as a possible message within the static pieces, through both the regularity of their pulsations and their gently repeating motions.
PsyGallery, June 2023: Canaris Restless – Summer Solstice
On the uppermost level of the gallery, and reached via the teleport board is Summer Solstice, a series of images by Canaris Restless offered as a visual essay on the subject of the titular event and how it is viewed by different cultures, past and present.
As Canaris notes, the Summer Solstice has been, and remains for many, a time of new beginnings, and / or renewal of life and growth; a time when all that is good about life is celebrated as the cycle of life moves ever forward; and within this might be ween the thread linking both of these exhibitions into something of a themed whole, if one chooses to do so.
The smaller of the two installations, Summer Solstice is marked by Canaris’ elegant photography captured within Second Life and by free-standing displays of (literally) heliocentric art reminding us of the reality that the Sun – whilst perhaps not worshipped as once it was – truly remains the most prominent giver of life for our world.
PsyGallery, June 2023: Canaris Restless – Summer Solstice
Two very visually engaging exhibitions by two very different artists they many, but Embryos and Summer Solstice do compliment one another in terms of potential themes and ideas, so do be sure to see both when visiting.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, June 25th, 2023
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Release viewer: Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.12.579987, dated May 11, promoted May 16.
Reality Escape – Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! – June 2023; click any image for full size
Coffee in large mugs and books I like reading Bright covers calling and fresh beans for grinding Stories that soar just like birds on the wing, These are a few of my favourite things.
with apologies to the estate of Oscar Hammerstein II
Well, the above isn’t something you’ll find in the actual lyrics of any song coming out of the most unusual adaptation of The Sound of Music, let alone Favourite Things, but they are more-or-less what trundled through my odd little caffeine-fuelled mind on visiting the latest region design at Tripty’s (triptychlysl) Full region, Reality Escape.
Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! is exactly that – a celebration of three of Tripty’s (and dare I say, my own) favourite things in life; I personally love curling up with a book and a but mug of freshly-brewed coffee (straight from my own grinder by way of the coffeemaker and milk frother). More than this, however, is the fact that it is a genuinely engaging region worthy of a visit.
Trippy is not new to SL, although her Profile might suggest otherwise at first look. Who she might have been previously is not important; as she notes herself, sometimes in life, all one can do is walk away from something for a time. However, I’m glad that she has decided to return, because whilst I’ve never (knowingly, at least) met her, she has a core of creativity and imagination which results in the richness and beauty of her region builds.
This is a simple, quiet and elegant region design that is easy on the eye and which can be easily enjoyed with a pleasant stroll; it is also a place with its own little quirks that add to the setting. The latter is evident directly at the landing point, sitting at the southern extent of the island. Here three little humps of grassy rock rise from the water, like mossy shells of turtles swimming along. The watery gaps between these three and the rest of the setting are spanned by bridges in the form of oars supported by books.
In addition, just across the water, at the point where the local stream reaches the surrounding waters, is an arch of chairs held aloft by statues. Shortly before reaching the sea, the stream passes over another channel of water by means of a culvert formed by the heavy forms of giant books. This not only marks the landing point as being separated completely from the main body of land, it further adds another element of quirky charm to the setting. The water channel is also crossed by a footbridge linking the fullness of the region with the landing point, beyond which a series of paths cross the grassy lands, offering multiple points of exploration.
The land itself is home to a single building, located on one bank of the stream. A former wooden-framed greenhouse, it now formers a cosy, inviting café; a place where books and a beverage can be enjoyed indoors and out, according to one’s preference. It is a place packed with details and bric-a-brac which deserves not only a visit, but time taken to appreciate how much has been put into it.
For the rest of the setting the paths offer the best means of exploration as they meander gently northwards and into the hills towards that end of the setting. Exactly which of the two main paths you take from the café matters not. Both depart the riverside decking at the café (or if you prefer, you can saunter up the loosely laid stones of the café’s garden path to re-join the path leading away from the landing point). Whichever path visitors take, they will be guaranteed a reunion with the other main path around the mid-point of the island before they separate once more.
The shorter of the two paths then continues on to a little east-facing bay and a campsite – one of many places visitors can sit and enjoy time or a quiet read. Further to the north, reached by the other path, the landscape climbs gently upwards to where a thumb of rock is raised over the rest of the setting, water tumbling from one side to feed the region’s stream. Crossed and re-crossed by the trail, the stream helps the many fields and meadows around the setting to bloom and the local trees to grow, offer fingers of shade to travellers and splashes of colour.
Throughout all of this are multiple places to sit and pass the time. Some are what might be called “conventional” – a rocking chair here, a tepee there and deck or two over the water, and so on. Others are more unusual -, or quirkily unexpected – a rack of bus-stop seats arranged as waterside seating; garden chairs converted to swings , benches forming steps and more oversized books helping to form the landscape, stepping up a slope like a garden fence.
However, the truth is that this is a setting for which words are not enough; there is a beauty to Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! that is captivating (not to mention photogenic). Add to this the attention to detail and decorative touches by Trippy, and this is the kind of place which should be seen first-hand. That said, I wouldn’t leave doing so for too long; Trippy tends to rework the region periodically, so Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! might soon disappear; which in some respects will be a shame – although I’m also curious to see what new magic Trippy cooks up for people to enjoy.
So, around 30 minutes after I publish my unofficial guide to SL20B, an e-mail arrives announcing the SL20B Sweepstakes – something which I admit I’d missed when visiting the event’s Welcome Area.
Why is this newsworthy? Because the prizes – particularly for those in the United States – are pretty impressive, including as they do:
A physical world Chevrolet Bolt EV car (US residents only).
A physical world Asus high-end gaming laptop (US Residents only).
A Second Life Lifetime Premium membership.
A 1 Year Premium Plus membership.
DAILY 1 Year Premium membership.
No purchases are necessary to enter the sweepstakes, just a visit to the SL20B Welcome Area during the festivities, and click on one (or both, in the case of US residents) Sweepstakes kiosks.
The National (US residents only) and Global (US residents + rest of the world) Sweepstakes kiosks at the SL20B Welcome Area
There are also a couple of official web pages providing more information and rules, and which run a clock giving the time remaining to enter:
A screen cap of part of the official Global Sweepstakes website for SL20B
So why not give it a go – the Daily Premium prizes are worth a visit on their own, to say nothing of the rest. Just expect the Welcome Area to be busy!
Update: SL20B includes National and Global Sweepstakes with some impressive physical world and Second Life prizes – read more here!
Second Life marks its 20th anniversary in 2022 with 11 days of celebrations and exhibitions across multiple Birthday regions in Second Life. As with previous years, the event folds into in, live music, DJ sets, art, shopping (via the dedicated Shop and Hop event), exhibits by Linden Lab and – particularly exhibit by Second Life residents and communities.
The following is intended to provide a general overview of the celebrations and highlight some of the key aspects, although as there was (again) no preview opportunity (or even any announcement through the SLB Press Corps group, which makes me wonder what we’ve collectively done to be shunned by the Lab), this has in part been put together in a bit of a rush in order to still be relevant around the time of the opening ceremony.
SL20B: The Arboretum
Dates and Theme
This year the SLB festivities will open on Thursday, June 22nd, through until Sunday, July 2nd. Thing will launch on June 22nd with the start of the 3-day Music Fest, with the rest of the festivities and events running from June 25th.
We are pleased to announce our Birthday theme for this year: Our Fantastic Future. The cornerstone of this idea is what we would define as eco-futurism including sustainability, a focus on our environment, and the next generation of our world. Some might call this science fiction, but what is science fiction except a dream for a possible future? In Second Life we build worlds. Our worlds, our way. For SL20B, we invite you to show us your worlds of the future!
The best way the stay abreast of all that’s going on is via the official calendar of events, which I’ve embedded below.
Use the Week / Month options, top right to change the calendar view.
Click on any given line item on any given day of festivities to view more information, including teleport SLurls.
SL20B Guide Magazine
Published to coincide with the celebrations is the SL20B Official Guide Magazine. This not only provides a guide to all of the SL20B regions, it includes interviews with members of the Lab’s board and management team, it charts the history of Second Life, with input on the subject from both Lindens and a cross-section of residents (apparently including someone called “Pey”, for some reason who wibbles at some point within it).
The magazine is again a new venture for the Lab where SL Birthday events are concerned, and allows residents and also ISSSU users to find out more about the platform and its attractiveness, with articles tracking some of the popular activities within SL: fashion, content creation, and home décor. There is also a potted history of Second Life from 2003 through to 2023, which appears to be modelled on the (now) staple of SLB event: The Tapestry of Time exhibit, which appears within the SL20 Birthday regions.
For those interested in finding out what is where within the Exhibit regions, Pages 84 through 105 provide an alphabetical breakdown of the exhibitor regions and the exhibits to be found within them.
Key Events
Grand Opening
Patch Linden will be formally opening SL18B at 12:00 SLT at the Mandala Stage, which will also be streamed as a You Tube Lab Gab special, in which Strawberry Linden will afterwards host a tour of the SL19B regions.
Music Fest and Shop and Hop
As has become the tradition, the Birthday will kick-off with a 3-day Music Fest taking place at the Mandala Stage and featuring many of Second Life’s top vocalists and musicians. The full schedule (at the time of publication can be found in my SL20B: Music Fest, Lab Gab, Shop and Hop post, and in this official post post.
SL20B: The community Walkway Gallery with the Welcome Area beyond
Lab Gab Linden Talk Shows
As per usual, SL20B will feature a series of Talk shows featuring various members of the Lab’s Board, management team and advisors. These will be a mix of live and pre-recorded sessions, and whilst also already covered in the Music Fest, etc., blog post mentioned above, I’m including the schedule here for completeness, and further information can be found in this official blog post.
Patch Linden, Vice President of Product Operations (Live)
Tuesday 27th June, 13:30
Grumpity Linden, Vice President of Second Life Product and Mojo Linden, Vice President of Engineering (Pre-recorded)
Wednesday 28th, June, 13:30
Linden Lab Executive Chair Brad Oberwager and Founder Philip Rosedale (Live)
Thursday 29th June, 13:30
Chief Marketing Officer StyFy Linden and VP of Marketing Brett Linden (Pre-recorded)
Friday 30th June, 13:30
Meet the Moles. The Moles are builders, scripters, and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works (Live)
The Welcome Area
Never been to an SLB event before – try starting at the Welcome Area where you’ll find lost of help, things like the SL20B Hunt HUD, and more!
The Tapestry of Time and Gift Area.
First presented in 2018, the region-wide Tapestry of Time presents visitor with a walk-through of Second Life’s history from 2003 through to the present day using images, text and videos. True, not everything has been recorded, but there’s enough within the region to be of interest to the historically minded.
within the Tapestry of Time can be found the SL20B Gift Area, offering gifts from the Birthday exhibitors and from merchants participating in the Shop & Hop event.
The Community Gallery Walkway
For 20 years, Second Life has offered us a virtual space to create, define and explore, bringing people from around the world together to create, share, discover new interests and make new friends, participate in games and adventures, to learn and discuss, and simply have fun.
For SL20B, the Community Gallery walkway, extending to / from the Welcome Area, has been created to offer a place where visitors can share their memories of their times and adventures, memories that turned a virtual world into a community of Residents.
SL20B The Tapestry of Time and Gift Area
Exhibitor Regions
As is common for SLB events, the mix of content is varied, and the representation of interests broad. Role-play groups, arts, communities, are represented across the nine regions open to exhibitors; some are static, others are interactive in nature.
Direct links to the exhibitor regions can be found in the SLurls lists at the end of this piece.
Note that teleport boards are available at the centre of all Exhibitor regions for easy of moving between them.
Adult Exhibitor Regions
for the first time at SLB, Adult content and groups are permitted to exhibit at the event, with four dedicated regions – separate to the main exhibitor regions – open to visit. These have a dedicated Teleport Hub sitting kitty-corner admits the four regions, and I’ve also included individual region SLurls at the end of this article.
Advice on a Better Experience
The SL19B regions – celebratory and Shop & Hop can get exceptionally busy. To help ease the pain for you:
If you have a high draw distance, reduce it to as low as is comfortable for your enjoyment.
Turn off shadows in your viewer if you usually have them enabled.
Go to Preferences → Graphics and reduce the slider Max # Non-Imposter Avatars to a minimum and dial-down your Complexity slider.
Remove texture-heavy HUDs to free-up more texture memory.
To assist the simulator, remove unnecessary scripted attachments.
Dress lightly, avoid accessories of high complexity.
SLurls and Destination Guide Links
Core Event Region SLurls
The Welcome Area – teleports to the stages, Tapestry of Time, Pod Tours, Gift Area, Community Gallery and Shop and Hop, etc.
The Arboretum – home to the Opening Ceremony, Lab Gab specials and more (rated General):
The Second Life 20th Birthday celebrations are almost upon us, with the regions opening on Thursday, June 22nd, and will remain open through until until Sunday, July 2nd.
The following is a summary of the Music Fest and the Lab Gab sessions with will take place throughout the event. Please note that where SLurls are given, they will not be available for public use prior to the event opening.
Music Fest
As with more recent(ish!) years, festivities will kick-off immediately following the opening on Thursday, June 22nd with the Music Fest, a 3-day celebration of live music in Second Life, and on Monday, June 19th, Linden Lab published the line-up for the event. This year, the festival will be taking place at a dedicated 4-region venue (which presumably will be used for other entertainment as well), comprising the four SLB regions of Amaze, Astound (primary landing point), Astonish (alternate landing point) and Imagination (alternate landing point).
At the time of writing, the scheduled line-up comprised:
Time (SLT)
June 22nd
June 23rd
June 24th
10:00
Gates Open
—
AnLaik
11:00
—
—
Fly Kugin
Noon
Opening Ceremony¹
Made in SL: the Movie¹
Mimi Carpenter
13:00
SEMINA
Tia Rungray
TEMPIO Breil
14:00
Marqs DeSade
DorianKash
Tally Mercury
15:00
Justin Elias Anatra
Randy De Lucia
Jordan Lively
16:00
Holly Giles
Joaquin Gustav
Slade S. Simunyé
17:00
Ruvi Gatchie
ryeshure
spiritLed
18;00
Frogg Marlowe & Jaycatt Nico (Effinjay)
Oblee
Cosmic Cat
19:00
Grace Loudon
FrankLee
Ras Solaris | Waverino
20:00
Angelikus Deo
Maximillion Kleene
Gabriel da Silva
21:00
—
John Rocky
—
At the time of writing, the Second Life Birthday calendar gave the SLurls for the Opening Ceremony and the film festival as those of the Music Fest. However, it appears that:
According to the official Talk Show blog post, the Opening Ceremony will in fact take place at the Mandala Stage (no SLurl available at the time of writing).
SL20B will feature a series of Linden Specials, featuring a mix of pre-recorded and live interviews with members of the the Lab’s board and management team. These can be attended in-world and will also be streamed via the Second Life You Tube channel. For those wishing to view the events in-world, the SLurl are as follows:
Patch Linden, Vice President of Product Operations (Live)
Tuesday 27th June, 13:30
Grumpity Linden, Vice President of Second Life Product and Mojo Linden, Vice President of Engineering (Pre-recorded)
Wednesday 28th, June, 13:30
Linden Lab Executive Chair Brad Oberwager and Founder Philip Rosedale (Live)
Thursday 29th June, 13:30
Chief Marketing Officer StyFy Linden and VP of Marketing Brett Linden (Pre-recorded)
Friday 30th June, 13:30
Meet the Moles. The Moles are builders, scripters, and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works (Live)
Shop and Hop
Coinciding with the Birthday celebrations is another Shop and Hop event, this one on a vast scale: 20 regions and 480 merchants! Find out more via the SL20B Shop and Hop Destination Guide category, or check out the list of participating merchants (with SLurls).
Second Life Birthday Calendar
The provides a full breakdown of events -note again that all times are SLT. Click here to open it in a separate browser tab.
Destination Guide links
Note: some of these may not be available until Thursday, June 22nd:
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 