Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, August 5th
This summary is generally published on 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 test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version 5.1.7.517973, dated July 30th, promoted August 3rd. Formerly the Quinquina Maintenance RC viewer.
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 at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.
Join Seanchai Library and friends aboard one of the most luxurious means of rail travel, the Orient Express, as they continue their investigations into the most disagreeable events that have occurred en route to Paris.
Having been required to return to London from Istanbul post-haste, Hercule Poirot sought passage aboard the most famous train, gaining seat initially in second class, only to be “upgraded” to first class by his friend – and member of the board of directors for Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the operators of the service – M Bouc. Prior to his “upgrade”, Poirot is accosted by one Samuel Ratchett, an American also travelling on the train, who demands the detective’s aide as he believes his life is in danger. However, Poirot refuses, on account of finding the American a distasteful individual.
Then, on the night after his upgrade to the sleeping berth next to Ratchett’s, he is woken by two events: the first is that the train has become stranded in snow not far from the city of Vinkovci in Yugoslavia. The second is the discovery that Ratchett’s fears about his safety were correct: his has been murdered in his cabin. But who is responsible?
With nowhere to go until assistance for the stricken locomotive arrives, Poirot sets out to discover – did someone board the train in secret to put an end to Ratchett, or was one of his fellow passengers in fact the murderer? And what of Ratchett himself? Was he really all he seemed?
Offered in a special setting, Murder on the Orient Express, one of Agatha Christie’s most popular stories, continues into its second weekend reading!
Monday, August 6th 19:00: The Drowning World
They call it the Drowning World; Fluva, a planet on the fringes of the Commonwealth where the rain is – but for one month in the year – maddeningly torrential. For Chief Administrator Lauren Matthias, it is a new posting; one which comes with a major requirement: keeping the indigenous and warlike Sakuntala and immigrant and hard-working Deyzara, from annihilating one another.
But when the vessel used by bio-prospector Shadrach Hasselemoga crashes in Viisiiviisii, an immense, mostly unexplored jungle, and the wettest place on the planet, Matthias must dispatch a team made up of one Sakuntala and one Deyzara on a rescue mission. Can the two form an alliance long enough to both rescue Hasselemoga and survive the deadly jungle?
But as the mission unfolds, Matthias realises something much bigger and darker is occurring on Fluva. A mysterious presence is at work, manipulating events, one which not only puts the lives of the rescue mission at risk, but also her own – and which could ultimately threaten the Commonwealth itself!
Join Gyro Muggins as he reads story #21 in Alan Dean Foster’s Humanx Commonwealth series.
Tuesday, August 7th 1900: Brief Cases
Corwyn Allen dives into Jim Butcher’s 2018 collection of several of his excellent short stories and novellas from the universe of Harry Dresden.
The tales presented here not only offer excellent short narratives that dabble between the scenes of the other novels in the Dresden Universe series, they even encompass what might be Dresden’s greatest challenge…
….Becoming a father.
Wednesday, August 8th 19:00: Mythos
The Greek myths are the greatest stories ever told, passed down through millennia and inspiring writers and artists as varied as Shakespeare, Michelangelo, James Joyce and Walt Disney.
They are embedded deeply in the traditions, tales and cultural DNA of the West. In Stephen Fry’s hands the stories of the titans and gods become a brilliantly entertaining account of ribaldry and revelry, warfare and worship, debauchery, love affairs and life lessons, slayings and suicides, triumphs and tragedies.
Through them, you’ll once again fall in love with Zeus, marvel at the birth of Athena, wince at Cronus and Gaia’s revenge on Ouranos, weep with King Midas and hunt with the beautiful and ferocious Artemis.
Thursday, August 9th
14:00: Fireside Tales: The Following Shoes are a Gift from the Pope
With Caledonia Skytower.
19:00: The Ghost of the Bridge
Caledonia shares a draft of her latest short story, inspired by Pfaffenthal 1867 in SL, and a legendary ghost from Luxembourg.
Mandalas, whether presented as art or an expression of spirituality or as a symbol of the universe or as a result of geometric teasings of fractals, have long fascinated me. The name literally means “circle” in Sanskrit, and within Buddhism and Hinduism the mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol representative of the cosmos around us.
Within Second Life, an artist who captures everything of the rich context, ritual form, balance and harmony of the mandala in her art is Sheba Blitz, and she is currently the Artist in Residence for August at InterstellART, where she is presenting Simply Spiritual, featuring several of her mandalas, and more besides.
Sheba draws on numerous sources as inspiration for her mandalas. Some of these may be close to the spiritual origins of the form – Buddhism and Hinduism -, others might be as diverse as western astrology or tarot cards. Whatever the source, she produces these marvellous pieces using gouache, acrylics or metallic paints on either canvas or paper, and the uploaded images offered for display within Second Life lose nothing of the intricate beauty of their production.
One of the most fascinating forms of the mandala is created by Tibetan Buddhists. Called dul-tson-kyil-khor (mandala of coloured powders”), or sandpainting, it is a most intricate ritual that sees the production of the most stunning mandala art that has to be seen to be truly appreciated. None of the pieces produced – generally over the course of several days – survives long after its completion; instead, it is destroyed and the sands used taken to a body of water where they are given up as an offering. The entire process serves as both a metaphor for the “impermanence” of the physical world, and also as a means to reconsecrate the earth and its inhabitants.
In many respects, through their survival beyond the creative process, Sheba’s mandalas also offer a metaphor. However, rather than being representative of the impermanent nature of the physical world, their continuance serves as a reminder of the enduring beauty of the universe in which we reside.
Sheba notes that she didn’t originally come to Second Life to display her work. However, after joining, she found herself drawn to the world of art in Second Life, attending exhibitions, seeking other artists, buying pieces by others, and immersing herself in the means to experience art in a new way. Fortunately, she was asked to start exhibiting her own work, and Second Life has been the richer for it.
More recently, the rich diversity of artistic opportunities she’s experienced in SL has led Sheba into new avenues of expression, notably in-world photography and 3D art and sculpture. Simply Spiritual also presents some of the fruits of these broader endeavours, with a number of Sheba’s paintings, photographs and 3D art also on display within the gallery space.
In writing about the closure of Namaste and Kamigama recently (see here for more), I made mention of the fact that with all the “new” regions and ever-changing region designs in Second Life, it is sometimes easy to forget the more long-lived locations in-world that are open to public visit.
Those comments put me in mind of a region I first visited nigh-on six years ago, and to which I haven’t written about in the last four. So, I decided to heed my own suggestion and hop over to it and spend a little time there.
Black Kite is the home of Cloudy (Theblackcloud Oh), and it has been open to the public for as long as I can remember it being in Second Life. Over the years it has undergone changes here and there, but by-and-large it has always remained a tranquil, water-focused setting, and this remains true today.
This is a place where azure waters gently flow under a matching sky broken by lazily drifting clouds of white. The ankle-deep water is dotted with wooden decks and board walks, some connected one to another, others sitting as isolated islands to be reached by gentle wading, short steps offering a way up onto them.
The decks are home to assorted points of interest – a couple are the location of the 8f8 store, another offers the chance to rest alongside the Moon, a third features a little open-air café (one of the elements of Black Kite that tends to remain as other elements come and go), while others offer places to simply sit and while away the time.
Watching over this is the region’s signature kite, caught on a mystical wind and aided in its oversight by the strange bobble-topped trees that rise from the waters alongside platforms and around the landing point. Throughout all of this are invitations to throw aside worries and care and just be: “Do what you want”, Celebrate”, “Nothing really matters”, “Dream” … Even “Go fly a kite”, painted on the water beneath the floating kite, reads more as an invitation than it’s more usual sentiment.
For those who have previously visited, the 8f8 store, the kite, the trees, the café and the water tower will all be reminders of Black Kite’s endurance in Second Life. So to are the bottles and jars scattered around, offering those who want to meditate in peace and quiet – and behind glass – the ability to do so. But so too are the subtle changes to be found on repeat visits spaced a little time apart from one another.
In my case, and on this trip, these changes took the form of a tower of shipping containers I can’t recall having seen before, and the arrival of assorted “cuteness” around the region – the “ice cream bunnies” at the café, for example, or the plushie birds. Small changes, perhaps, but enough to keep the camera and eyes roving, and the feet wandering through the region to discover what else might be.
Cloudy does still keep a private residence in the north-east corner of the region, and this is barred to public entry – but the rest of the region remains as open and as free to wander as ever. In fact, one of the joys of Black Kite always has been the fact it is uncluttered. Board walk, decks, platforms – all are scattered across the region with sufficient water between them as to engender among those using them a sense of being apart from others, free to relax in your own little space on one of the decks even when others may be a-visiting or enjoying a break for themselves.
Given that so many places occupying private islands come and go with (sometimes alarming) frequency, that Black Kite remains in-world, open to the public and asking so little in return, for more than six years now, having originally been claimed in March 2012, and remains under its original “ownership” is pretty remarkable. As such, I’m glad I’ve made the time to not only revisit for the first time in several years, but also to write about it once more. And as with my two previous posts, I’ll again suggest that if you’ve never visited Black Kite before, and wish to see somewhere just that little bit different, you jump over and take a look for yourselves.
“There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in” are the words printed on the invitation to see an exhibition of photographic art by Carolyn Phoenix that recently opened at the Club LA and Gallery, curated by Fuyuko ‘冬子’ Amano (Wintergeist). Whether this is the title of the exhibition or a byline for it, I’m unsure. But I can say that the pieces on offer are hauntingly beautiful in their composition and presentation.
The mezzanine level of the gallery, where the exhibition is being hosted, has been converted into a dark, enclosed space in keeping with the title / byline. On display within it are 20 images by Carolyn, sharing the space with torso mannequins equipped with angel wings that add to the dream-like feel of the environment.
The images themselves are mostly dark in tone and subject – so much so that specific details can be hard to make out beyond the shard or pools of washes of light each image contains. These bursts and flickers and beams of light reflect the title / byline: they have seemingly entered the worlds of these pictures through cracks or holes or as a result of sunlight breaking through clouds or a lone bulb hanging from a ceiling or a reflection from somewhere, to revel things that might otherwise remain unseen.
What these casts of light reveal various from image to image. Some are mindful of dreams or secret thoughts, often dark in tone – the kind of imaginings we’d rather not shed public light upon, but that nevertheless draw us to them. Others are lighter in nature, simply exulting in the play of light and shadow or the beauty of an artist’s expression of their work; there’s even a hint of playfulness about one.
Some of the images seem to call into focus ideas of identity and of judgement. Teller (seen on the left of the banner image for this review) for example, with its reclined figure looking at a list of eyes from eyeless sockets, tends to suggest the idea of how we present ourselves to the world. The eyes, after all, are the windows of the soul; so how better to project who we might want to appear to be than by selecting our eyes, and only revealing what we want to be seen of ourselves? At the same time there is another potential interpretation: if the eyes are the windows into the soul and thus to who we really are, then how better to remove the potential for the light of understanding to penetrate our inner self than by expunging our eyes altogether, lest we be judged for what lies within.
Judgement is a theme brought into focus by a piece called Verdict (on the left of the image directly above these two paragraphs). But Again the meaning seems to be twofold. On the one hand, the tall figures surrounding the smaller one suggest a fear of judgement; of being looked down upon by others. But closer examination of the smaller subject, catsuited and hooded, perhaps suggests something else: a desire to be judged, to be found wanting and perhaps “punished”. Thus the light haloing the scene perhaps reveals kink-edged secret she at the centre of the image would rather remain hidden to all but a few – or even takes a guilty pleasure in having it so revealed…
Nuanced throughout, a captivating display of photographic art well worth visiting. And while doingso, why not avail yourself of the exhibitions by tralala Loordes and Sighvatr (worthaboutapig), both of which can be seen or accessed on the ground floor of the gallery.
The G.B.T.H. (Grab By The Horns) Project, curated by Megan Prumier and Marina Münter, and described as being “focused on the extension of creative processes, 3D environments and art related subjects”, opened its August 2018 exhibition at the start of the month.
Concrete Diorama features the work of sculptor Mistero Hifeng, presented in a strange, semi-dark environment where the contrasts of dark – black and grey – spaces with the bursts of brilliant white within some chambers is as much a part of the exhibition as Mistero’s pieces.
From the landing point, visitors travel along a semi-dark hallway, lined by port holes lit by spotlights. Each portal looks out over individual scenes of couples caught in acts of tenderness, suggesting a theme of love (and perhaps loss or regret). A second darkened hallway follows, windows on either side looking out onto scenes of figures floating in bubbles. Further along, two large proportioned figures stand beside cracked models of the moon, ramps to either side of them leading up to the first of the white chambers. Here, figures lie in a circle, prostrated under fine mess nettings, all facing a central lone tree.
In further chambers dancers perform ballet as couples lie in shallow troughs in the floor, whilst a grand diorama focused on a piece called Bruciando Ricordi (Burning Memories) awaits in the uppermost chamber of the exhibition space.
It’s a haunting, evocative setting, rich in mood and emotion. The expressions of love and loss, coupled with pleading, desire, and regret are all present throughout – most clearly through the crowning piece that features Bruciando Ricordi, which joined by the likes of La Magia di Quell’incanto (The Magic of That Enchantment) and Su Questo Silenzio…Balla (On This Silence … Dance). But the nuances and measure are broader than may first appear.
The couples in their troughs beneath a transparent floor, for example, perhaps carry with them the idea of loss through death, and a desire never to be parted. Meanwhile, the figures prostrated around the tree under their fine netting, appear to be in a different kind of mourning. Are they perhaps a reference to the way we humans can be indifferent to the plight of nature at our hands – at least until it is too late, as signified by the denuded and barren tree sitting at the centre of their circle and the apparent focus of their grief? And what of the large women beside their broken moons? Are they attempting to hide their heads in shame, the result of seeing the slender figures before them, and the knowledge that society encourages us to embrace the slim as figures of beauty and reject the over-sized?
I’ve long appreciated and enjoyed Mistero’s sculptures, but this is perhaps the first time I’ve seen them brought together in a way that suggests a layered, nuanced narrative; one that resides not only in the individual pieces or in the way some have been brought together to form a diorama, but also right throughout the different levels and chambers within the installation as a whole. It’s an approach that, despite some of the darker tones (literal and metaphorical) apparent in the exhibit, is both effective and captivating.
