Now open at CKB Art Gallery curated by Ceakay (CK) Ballyhoo is The Haze. It is the latest installation in a series of living stories featuring art and focused on the adventures of a principal character, whose journey we are invited to follow in words, images and settings. For The Haze, CK returns to her own character of Ellie, who featured in A Watercolour Wander (read here for more) and The Forest Beyond (read here for more) in a collaborative story developed with 2D and 3D artist Silas Merlin.
“It was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” CK says of the installation. “An offer from Silas to use his new builds and sketches to form a story. Using Silas’s new digital sketches and the ruins and creatures he has created, a world started to form, darker than anything we’ve either done before, the story turned into a nightmare: Ellie’s nightmare.”
The result is a full region installation far removed from the green and pleasant lands of the first two instalments of Ellie’s dreamworld adventures. Instead, visitors find themselves in a desert-like, ghostly landscape, heavy with a dusty haze (I recommend exploring using the default windlight). Instructions on following the story can be found at the landing point – and should be read. In short, look for the little illuminated STORY stones set on the ground along the way, each one presents a chapter in the unfolding nightmare.
Another difference between this and Ellie’s previous adventures is that not only are the chapters presented in note card form when the stones are clicked, but approach a stone will trigger it being read to you – just have local sounds enabled (*not* the audio stream) to hear the readings. These readings can actually overlap one another, depending on how many are playing when you visit, and where you are in relation to the different stones. This might annoy some; for me, they actually added extra ambience: whispering ghostly voices, overlapping but each telling a story – if you listen carefully and focus on just one of the voices.
The setting, with its deserting buildings, twisted trees, creatures and ruins, presents an eerie landscape, barren despite the trees – which appear a sickly yellow-green, rather than the usual robust green of fir-trees. It’s a haunting place in which scenes loom up at you. They can seem disjointed, sudden – and very nightmare-like for doing so. Amidst all the rocks and fir-trees, seemingly dead trees also sit, their branches denuded of leaves, left to form easels on which groups of Silas’ drawings sit. These also have little STORY stones alongside of them which, when touched, will deliver background notes on a scene to you in note card form, adding further depth the the story.
Silas’ art is as captivating as ever – and there is a lot to see from buildings to gnomes to creatures to rocks (someone them resembling creatures) to people awaiting discovery. The 2D art forming the background stories is cleverly presented and offers an illustrative style reminiscent of a storybook – so thoroughly in keeping with the setting. He and CK have created an immersive tale, one which invites exploration – and be sure to keep an eye out for the Boogeyman and also the dragon rezzer – the latter will allow you to fly up to the higher reaches of the setting, unreachable by foot, and essential to the story.
Also when visiting, don’t miss the UP teleport at the landing point – it will take you to a sky gallery where you can find CK’s own art, more from Silas as well as from other artists, all taken from CK’s personal collection.
Update:Holiday trace is now closed, and Secret Charm is under now ownership.
Over the years, a visit to The Trace family of regions – The Trace, The Trace Too, Summer Trace, Fall Trace, Winter Trace – has always been a pleasure. I’ve written about these regions, which were started by Kylie (Kylie Jaxxon), then became a partnership between her and Elvira Kytori, on numerous occasions in this blog. So, it was with delight that I received news from Shakespeare that there is another in the series – Holiday Trace – now open for visits, and made a point to hop over and explore with Caitlyn as soon as we could.
Given the time of year in the northern hemisphere, Holiday Trace is a wintry setting. Snow lies heavy on the ground and falls gently from a windless sky. Exposed water here is heavy with ice thick enough to skate on, and the sounds of the countryside are subdued.
In the south-east corner of the region sits a little country train station, sitting quietly with a tavern, each waiting passengers or customers. The great black bulk of a DRD Arctic Express steam train stands at rest before the station, having emerged from a dark tunnel, the great lamp on the front of its huge boiler still lit.
Across the region to the west and over the snow blanketing the land, sit the house and barns of Christmas Tree Farm, which may beckon visitors to set out across country to visit them. Northwards from the station however, along a brickwork footpath one might find the way to the local chapel. The path may have been salted at some point, as the snow is having a hard time settling on it. Also, it doesn’t offer a direct route to the chapel.
Instead, the path splits a short walk from the station and tavern, branching east and west to encircle a frozen pond where children skate. Nor does the path resume on the far side of the pond; visitors must walk through the snow and over an icy path (or is it another frozen body of water on which the snow has settled?
This route runs alongside a walled and fenced garden in which a fountain – drained, one might guess, for winter – before visitors arrive at the little chapel. Tall beech trees, barks frosted, branches bare, stand around the chapel as if protecting it. Between their stout trunks a rutted track winds westwards to where a covered bridge spans a narrow stream which feeds into a larger finger of water cutting into the land. A rowing boat is trapped in the frozen stream and a horse and sleigh might shortly vie for use of the track with a red pick-up truck that is coming up behind them.
Laden with a fir-tree, the truck might be making its way to the chapel from Christmas Tree Farm, sitting a short distance from the western end of the track, where a Surrey-style carriage sits in the snow, also bearing a fir-tree and watched over by a fox and reindeer as Canada geese fly risk an low pass through a gab in the trees overhead.
With trees a-plenty, rocky cairns and step-like slabs covered in snow, whilst offering a home to foxes, deer, reindeer, dogs, and birds, Holiday Trace is a delightful winter setting. It’s a place where wanderers can wander, couples can cuddle (try the sleighs and the old cable car!), individuals can sit and ponder, and photographers capture the scenery and memories.
DiXmiX Gallery – Cecilia Nansen Mode: Within the Voice of Björk
Currently on display within the Black Gallery hall at DixMix Gallery, curated by Dixmix Source, is a selection of images by Cecilia Nansen Mode – whom I confess is one of my favourite exponents of the art of avatar studies. Entitled Within the Voice of Björk, the selection features some fifteen images inspired by the lyrics of thirteen songs by Icelandic singer Björk.
“Within the voice of Björk, I hear the roars of a beast of the North … the beast of a woman,” Cecilia says in introducing the exhibit. “Within the voice of Björk, I hear the voice of the little girl … Within the voice of Björk, I hear the finest and most delicate tones … Within the voice of Björk, I hear passion, anger love, hope and fear. The deepest frustration and the highest happiness. The acceptance of depression, the orgasmic explosions of joy.
“I hear a woman; I hear all women; I hear myself.”
DiXmiX Gallery – Cecilia Nansen Mode: Within the Voice of Björk
It’s a powerful set of statements, encompassing so much, including reflections on the rugged, unpredictable nature of Iceland itself – a country I know well myself. Its seemingly solid, stoic outward appearance: firm and unyielding in the face of the harshness of the North Atlantic hides a turbulent core, hot and unpredictable, prone to busting through that stoic shell – the very metaphor of the moods and passions to which Cecilia alludes.
The images for Within the Voice of Björk are equally as powerful. Set against plain white or black backdrops, using monochrome, soft tints or the minimum of colour, each image has a simple, elegant – dare I say calm framing, within which is set the most evocative, captivating interpretations of mood and feeling, beautifully expressed through the female form.
DiXmiX Gallery – Cecilia Nansen Mode: Within the Voice of Björk
Beneath each image is a button which, when touched, will display the title of the song which inspired the picture, together with a selected portion of the lyrics. These provide depth and context to each image, allowing us to delve deeper into each in turn – although in all honesty, each image is so exquisitely executed and presented, it speaks loudly and clearly even before one turns to the lyrics.
These are also marvellous examples of the technical art of photography: the considered use of lighting, backdrop, soft focus, depth of field, angle, use of colour, framing. All are used to perfection, the various combinations within each piece doing much to capture and hold one’s attention, drawing one into the moods and feeling expressed within each – the wildness, the passion, love, hope, frustration and joy to which Cecilia refers in her introduction to the exhibition.
DiXmiX Gallery – Cecilia Nansen Mode: Within the Voice of Björk
Most of the images correspond to a single song; however there are two images devoted to Big Time Sensuality and a triplet of images inspired by All is Full of Love, and I have to confess, this triplet is for me the centre piece for Within the Voice of Björk. While every piece in the exhibit is worthy of appreciation and praise, I found the emotive phrasing of these three images, and the inspired use of android figures to convey those emotions utterly stunning.
This is a truly magnificent collection, and one to be savoured.
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 this week’s events are held at The Dickens Project.
Sunday, December 10th
13:00: Tea-Time with Dickens
Join Seanchai Library at Redemption Square. for more from Oliver Twist to share, and a pivotal chapter from Great Expectations.
14:00: Dancing with Elrik Merlin
Elrik Merlin has been a Second Life resident for almost 11 years, and a presenter on Radio Riel for over ten. He programmes the station’s Main Stream two days a week, and handles technical aspects of the station along with international music licensing. He also co-hosts Designing Worlds, the popular TV series on design and designers in virtual worlds. He occasionally DJs for friends and good causes.
Join the Library staff, Elrik Merlin and friends at Redemption Square.
Tuesday, December 12th, 14:00 and 19:00: Stave Two: The First of Three Ghosts.
Wednesday, December 13th, 14:00 and 19:00: Stave Three: The Second of Three Ghosts.
Thursday, December 14th:
14:00 and 19:00: Stave Four: The Last of the Spirits.
18:45: The Raglan Shire Tiny Carollers! Wootmas!
21:00: A special Seanchai Late Night with Caledonia Skytower.
Friday, December 15th:
14:45: The Raglan Shire Tiny Carollers! Wootmas!
15:00: 90 Minute A Christmas Carol
19:00: Misfit Dance & Performance Art*
Saturday, December 16th:
12:00 Noon: Misfit Dance & Performance Art*
14:00-16:00: Fezziwig’s Ball in “Christmas Past” With DJ Dano Bookmite.
Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.
The featured charity for August and September is Little Kids Rock, transforming lives by restoring, expanding, and innovating music education in schools.
Grumpity and Alexa Linden host the Web User Group meetings on alternate Fridays at Alexa’s barn
The majority of these notes are taken from the Web User Group meeting held on Friday, December 8th, 2017. These meetings are generally held on alternate Fridays, and chaired by Alexa and Grumpity Linden at Alexa’s barn. The focus is the Lab’s web properties, which include the Second Life website (including the blogs, Destination Guide, Maps, Search, the Knowledge base, etc.), Place Pages, Landing Pages (and join flow for sign-ups), the Marketplace, and so on and the Lab’s own website at lindenlab.com.
Not all of these topics will be discussed at every meeting, however, the intention within the group is to gain feedback on the web properties, pain points, etc., and as such is very much led by comments and input from those attending. Along with this are three points of note:
Specific bugs within any web property – be it Marketplace, forums, Place Pages or anything else), or any specific feature request for a web property should be made via the Second Life JIRA.
Alex Linden provides routine updates on the Lab’s SL-facing web properties as and when appropriate, which can be found in the Second Life Web thread.
Note that the SL forums are not covered by the Web User Group, as the management of functionality of the forums falls under the remit of the Support Team.
General
Work continues on improving Place Pages. One forthcoming update is support for 360 snapshots captured with the 360 viewer (still at project status at the time of writing), including support for 360 images as the hero (top) image on Place Pages, and gallery views support.
The 360 snapshot viewer is in the process of being updated to support higher resolution images, fix issues with level of detail loading for objects behind you, etc. It will include support for direct upload to Flickr as well as to Facebook. This update should be appearing “in the next couple of weeks”.
Web properties as a whole are also being examined as a part of the overall project to move Second Life to the cloud for delivery. Some services are already managed via the cloud (at least in part), but there is still considerable work to be done and significant infrastructure changes to be made to SL’s web properties, so this is going to be some long-term work.
Some are reporting that some Mainland Welcome Area now have Voice chat disabled – some of which might be intentional, due to people abuse Voice within these areas. However, if it is believed Voice has been disabled in error, the advice is to raise a bug report, using the LPDW (Linden Department of Public Works) reporting category, and indicate the affected region and the lack of Voice capabilities.
No Copy Exploits / Illegal Sales of No Copy Items
As I’ve previously reported, one area of concern / upset for content creators has been the use of server exploits to generate copies of No-Copy items, which are then placed for sale, generally through the Marketplace. A long-standing problem, this is now hitting some gacha creators. While the Lab is working to technically address such exploits, some of those experiencing frustration for what they perceive as a lack of action on the Lab’s part procedurally to remove content from the Marketplace / responding to reports of the illicit sale of goods.
These frustrations have most visibly been brought forward at in-world technical meetings – such as recent Simulator User Group meetings and the Web User Group meetings. While the Lindens chairing these meeting are prepared to discuss some options for dealing with such issues on a technical level (with obvious caveats around discussing the specifics of exploits, fixes, etc.), they cannot speak to issue of Governance, or on matters which may cross into legal areas. This means they cannot respond to questions about specific abuse reports, associated actions / investigations relating to them, or even how governance issues are managed.
While it does not provide an easement for the frustrations that are being felt, it does mean that such forums as the Simulator User Group, Server Beta User Group, Open-Source Dev Group, and the Web Group are not suitable venues in which to seek feedback on governance matters.
DMCA Update
Somewhat related to the above is the informal announcement that the Lab will be changing how people can file infringement notices (DMCA take-down notices) in the near future.
Currently, the Lab’s Infringement Notification Policy requires that such notices are filed with Linden Lab via mail or fax. Once this update has been implemented – possibly around January / February 2018, it will be possible to file notification with the Lab via an on-line form. I’ll hopefully have a full report on this when the forum has been deployed for general use.
Marketplace
It is believed that the underlying cause of items being de-listed from the Marketplace has been fixed, and there have been no further reports of new cases where de-listing has occurred. The Lab is continuing to work with those creators who have been affected to ensure all of their affected listing are recovered.
Blocking purchasers: some creators would like a means to block people they see as troublesome from purchasing their creations via the Marketplace (just as they can block people from their in-world stores). This is something the Lab is looking at – but again, it is difficult to implement / enforce because of the ease with which alt accounts can be created and used.
Marketplace facts: a couple of Marketplace-related facts:
There are around 40,000 unique monthly sellers using the Marketplace per month.
There are around 150,000 unique buyers using the Marketplace per month.
Seller Verification
: the idea of “verifying” or of at least having some means to control listings on the Marketplace (particularly scam listings / those trying to sell illicit items) was initiated at the inaugural WUG meeting as part of a wider discussion on Marketplace management.
The Lab is looking at various options which might be implemented to help with this, although nothing has been decided as yet. One idea put forward – and again, has not been adopted as something that will happen – is that of applying a listing fee, potentially tied to a benefit for Premium members (e.g. no fees, or X number of free listings). Given changes to fees for cashing-out will be made in January 2018, and LindeX fees were recently changed, this did not go over well with some at that meeting, although others seemed in favour, although it does potentially represent a higher barrier to entry into selling content.
A resident-voiced proposal is for those using the Marketplace to supply some aspect of their physical world information as a means of verifying who they are (already required for those cashing-out L$ balances to fiat money) – something which may discourage content copiers and MP spammers, but which might again discourage other who sell on the MP, but who don’t necessarily cash-out (they use the L$ income to support their in-world activities) from continuing to participate in the MP.
This approach might also allow those merchants who have verified their accounts with the Lab to have some form of “verified” / “trusted” icon displayed within their listings, although the legal ramifications for the Lab in doing this would likely have to be investigated (for example, how vulnerable might the Lab be to legal action should a so-called merchant “verified” as “safe” by them start selling illicit goods at another’s expense?).
In terms of stolen / copybotted goods on the Marketplace and scam accounts, Grumpity Linden stated the Lab’s broader aims:
Meeting Contents
It has been noted that Marketplace-related items are dominating the two WUG meetings held thus far, leads to some concerns that other web-related topics may get pushed out of meetings. Of all the Lab’s main user-facing web properties, the Marketplace is probably the most visible, and carries the largest potential impact with people, therefore a focus on it is to be expected (particularly given the Commernce Team abdicated their own in-world meetings around 5-6 years ago and have shown no willingness since to re-engage in them). However, Grumpity and Alexa acknowledged the wider purview of the WUG meetings, and suggested that a portion of future meetings might be set aside to discuss non-Marketplace web topics.
Monique Beebe makes a welcome return to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, presenting the final exhibition for the gallery’s 2017 season, with Sensuality.
I was deeply taken by Monique’s photography when she first appeared at Nitroglobus towards the beginning of 2017, in what was the first public exhibition of her work, called Hidden Faces (see here for more). Now she returns with twelve more images for Sensuality, which are every bit as evocative and tantalising as her first exhibition, and which once again feature herself as the primary model in each of them.
These are all pieces with a depth of style and beauty which is as evocative as the images she presented in Hidden Faces, and which, in some cases, are NSFW. However, these are far more open in their approach and, to my mind at least, more powerful both in terms of their presentation and their content. As the title of the exhibition suggests, sensuality is the focus of the images – but what makes this exhibition fascinating is the breadth of sensuality displayed within the pictures.
There is, for example, the sensuality of the female form – dressed or semi-nude; the sensuality expressed through a look or pose; there’s the sensuality of power conveyed through expression and dress; the sensuality of intimacy between consenting adults, (one also laced with a little D/s), and more. Take Strong for example: there is both beauty and power evident within this striking study of a single woman in which the power expressed in her look is sensuously softened through the red Brocade Cheongsam Brocade Cheongsam brocade cheongsam style dress she is wearing.
Then there is Spanking, and while the context of the image is clear from the title, the image itself is fair more subtle in nature. Spanking – even in adult games – can have a hard edge to it; yet here, the unzipped dress, the positioning of the man’s hand, gives the entire picture a more sensual aspect: is he about to spank her – or run his hand gently up her exposed back?
And so it is that each of the pictures on display offers not just an expression of sensuality, but also an underlying story waiting for us to discover as we approach the pictures in turn. Again, the off-camera look in Strong raises the question: what is she looking at to cause such a stern expression? Is it something truly displeasing, or is it that she is playing a role – or is it merely the casting of the lighting within the image?
All of the pieces have their own attraction, but for me Steampunk, also chosen to promote the exhibition, is the most powerful and sensuous. It’s a beautiful study, with layered sensuality – the cat-like litheness of the pose, with enclosing flow of the metal-ribbed leotard, her expression; all combine to present a marvellous piece of art.
This is another stunning exhibition from an artist with considerable talent and the ability to project and evoke mood and feelings through her work. Not to be missed.
