Category: Art in Second Life

2014 Project Sci-fi launches with $5,500 Aus available in prizes

Posted on by Inara Pey

project-scifi-2014

Sponsored by the Parramatta City Council, and a part of the Parramatta Sci-Fi Film Festival activities, the 2014 Project Sci-fi competition, in partnership with Screen My Shorts, challenges filmmakers from around the globe to write, film, edit, produce and upload to YouTube a 3-10 minute long film with a science-fiction theme. On offer are prizes totalling $5,500 Australian dollars.

The competition is open to both live action and machinima entries, and filmmakers are responsible for putting together a team, cast and crew (producers, directors, cinematographers, writers, etc..), as well as securing equipment, locations, and costumes. Each team needs to be represented by a Producer. The challenge sets no limits on age or budget and welcomes all filmmakers.

Films can be submitted by individuals and groups but those wishing to participate must register with the competition by October 3rd, 2014.

When submitting their entires, participants are asked to nominate two of the following themes for their film:

  • Sci-romance – love between aliens, robots and more! (Can be happy, sad, tragic)
  • Sci-comedy – sci-fi that is humorous in nature. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a good example of sci-fi comedy
  • Save the Environment: a theme focuses on saving the dying planet and/or ecosystem
  • Zombie / disease: a theme focuses on the effect of a disease in the future
  • Apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic sci-fi: stories about the extinction or near extinction of humankind either by forces of nature or by our own means. Post- focuses on telling the tale of the survivors of an apocalypse
  • Spy-fy: Science fiction about futuristic spies and espionage, and the effects of technological advancement on their professions
  • Super hero: stories related to super heroes who get their powers from technology or because they are from another world. Often focuses on futuristic superheroes
  • Robots / AI – fiction in which the science of Artificial Intelligence and robotics is a central theme, typically relating to Robot stories
  • First contact / alien: the various scenarios in which humanity makes contact with other civilizations
  • Social sci-fi: – fiction in which future societies are extrapolated, explained and often criticised, usually for the purpose of social satire. The social sciences are the over-riding theme in this type of fiction; however, science and technology will usually play a central role in the structure of the extrapolated society.

Prior to Kick Off of the competition on Friday, 3rd October 2014 at 7 pm (19:00) local time in each participating city and town
, the organisers will then e-mail each entrant with one (1) of their nominated  subjects/topics. The entrants then have 30 days in which to make and edit their film. All films must be uploaded to YouTube (and set to Private) no later than midnight local time in each participating city and town
 on Sunday November 2nd November 2014. An e-mail with the YouTube link should be sent to info@scifilmfestival.com as notification of the film’s completion.

Above: Tutsy Navarathna’s “The Residents“, overall winner in the machinima category of the 2013 Project Sci-Fi challenge

The total prize list for the competition comprises (all in Australian dollars):

  • SciFi Best Film $2000
  • Project SciFi Runner Up Film $1000
  • Project SciFi Best Performance – $500
  • Project SciFi Best Cinematographers – $500
  • Project SciFi Best Special Effects – $500
  • Project SciFi Best Production Design/Art Direction – $500
  • Project SciFi Best Machinima Film – $300
  • Runner up Machinima Category – $200

In addition, the UWA has determined that machinima makers wishing to enter the same film to both this challenge and the UWA’s Transcending Borders Machinima Challenge may do so, providing the theme requires of both challenges are met in the same film.

Judging will be by a panel of selected jurors, and a special awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, November 16th 2014 at the RiversIde Theatres, Parramatta, commencing at 18:30 local time, as a part of the Parramatta Sci-fi Film Festival.

For further information, please refer to the links below.

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Here is the news, with AvaJean Westland

Posted on by Inara Pey

Virtually News

At 14:00 SLT on Saturday September 13th, the premiere for the first episode of Virtually News with AvaJean Westland, will take place at the LEA theatre and on YouTube, SLArtist and Vimeo.

The machinima, created by actress/writer Gameela Wright (AvaJean Westland in Second Life), is a mock/spoof news piece in the vein of SNL’s “Weekend Update” and “The Onion News Network. In it, Gameela takes an irreverent take on current events and pop culture and pushes the boundaries while using animation as the filter.

Gameela Wright

Based in New York, Ms. Wright has over 15 years experience in theatre, television, voice overs, film and commercials. She has appeared in such top-rated US shows such as Blue Bloods, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Orange is the New Black.

As in AvaJean Westland in Second Life, Ms. Wright has worked with the Avatar Repertory Company, and also developed projects as Virtual Girl Productions in Association with Running Lady Studios,collaborating with Suzy Yue of Running Lady on machinima projects such as The Twilight Sim and Name That Schmuck!

In 2013, she took over hosting duties for the Second Life leg of the 2013 Relay for Life. She has also appeared in the popular film noir series, The Blackened Mirror, in which she both portrayed the character of Martha Pearse, she played an invaluable role in the show’s production, puppeteering a number of the characters on behalf of those actors unable to be in Second Life for the actual filming, creating a physicality to the characters to match the voice performances.

Avajean Westland
AvaJean Westland

In addition, she created machinima for the Project Homeless campaign (The Quiet Dark Wind) and the Sci-Fi Film Festival, both organised by Screen My Shorts and The University of Western Australia (UWA). Her entry for the Sci-Fi film Festival, Centuries Past, took home two awards.

It is her hope to use machinima as a way to bridge real and second life and to help cement machinima as a form of animation that appeals to all.

Virtually News with AvaJean Westland will premiere at 14:00 SLT on Saturday September 13th.
Requested dress for the event is upscale casual to formal – whichever you choose. Please keep scripts and prim counts low. It is hoped that actors and crew from the film will be on hand to talk about the making of the piece and to answer questions.

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That’s Italy for you

Posted on by Inara Pey
That's Italy
That’s Italy

Now open at MIC Imagin@rium is Mexi Lane’s installation, That’s Italy, a curious piece combining elements from a previous work, with the hulk of a ship, containers and … hovercraft.

You arrive on the familiar sandy shoreline of the MIC Imagin@rium art region, co-curated by Mexi, standing alongside a wooden jetty. Out to sea sits the ship, the titular Italy, listing to port as if she’s run aground, objects in the waters around her surrounded by a mass of objects which at first might suggest the tops of the rocks upon which she has come to grief. A closer examination, however, reveals the objects in the water to be the flotsam of her cargo, either driven from her deck as a result of whatever accident befell her, or perhaps subsequently pushed overboard as jetsam as her crew fought to refloat her…

Draw closer still, and the cargo reveals itself to be somewhat unusual; while the metal hulks of containers sit in the water, the majority of the seaborne cargo is tiny houses, more of which are jumbled on the freighter’s tired deck and scattered in her rusting hold – the Italy is clearly a vessel that has seen better days.

That's Italy
That’s Italy

Buoys mark the ship’s location, red lights winking as if in a baleful warning, “keep away! Keep away!” Seagulls wheel over the ship while, when seen from certain angles, the MIC Imagin@rium island forms a backdrop, it’s Roman style adding further depth to the piece to the enquiring mind, conjuring images of seafaring accidents which have scarred otherwise picturesque coastlines.

So, is there a message here? Perhaps there is – although what it might be is up to you to decide, as Mexi says of the piece herself, “[It is] a vision that I wanted to communicate. A state of mind? A metaphor? I do not know, you decide.”

Metaphor is certainly here, and richly layered as well, both with the piece as it is seen and in how it has been put together. Is it, for example, perhaps a commentary on how our consumer-driven need, represented by the little houses, is impacting the world through pollution (the oil drums floating amidst the flotsam) and man-made disasters (the wreck of the Italy itself?). Or is the fact that a portion of the piece  – the houses – are re-used from an earlier work, now all carefully re-textured, a commentary on the need to recycle, to re-use and so reduce to potential burden we place on this world in dealing with our waste and rubbish?

That's Italy
That’s Italy

The best way to drawn any conclusions is to visit That’s Italy for yourself. Oh, and the hovercraft, mentioned at the top? They’ your transport out to the wreck, if you wish; just keep in mind that the warning buoys I referred to are there not only to warn passing ships away from the wreck, but also to alert you to the presence of the region boundary.

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Transcending Borders: Cherry, Kicca and Nino

Posted on by Inara Pey

Further art entires have been received in the UWA’s Transcending Borders combined Art and Machinima Challenge, on which I’m privileged to sit as a member of the judging panel. The challenge is open to entries through until midnight, SLT on October 31st, 2014, and offers a combined prize pool of some L$1,030,000 for entrants, plus L$240,000 in audience participation prizes.

Entrants are invited to interpret the challenge theme, Transcending Borders, in any way they please. It might refer to transcending borders between space and time, or the past and present or the present and future, the divisions between dimensions, the borders separating nations or cultures or languages, or any one of the many borders we encounter as we navigate our physical and virtual lives.

Cherry Manga: Imagination Transcends Borders
Cherry Manga: Imagination Transcends Borders – click any image for full size

Submissions may be either a piece of art (one item per entrant) or a short film preferably no longer than 4 minutes and 30 seconds (as many films as entrants wish to submit, as long as they have been filmed specifically for the challenge). All submissions should allow casual viewers to interpret how the theme is represented, or provide a means by which the piece can be understood in the context of the challenge theme.

Cherry Manga, Kicca Igaly and Nino Vichon are the latest entrants to the challenge, and they each off three unique 3D art pieces.

Cherry’s piece Imagination Transcends Borders is an evocative and powerful piece speaking to the transformative power of the imagination when we allow it flight, and how it in turn can feed back to, and affect us.

Kicca Igaly: Transcending Borders
Kicca Igaly: Transcending Borders

Kicca’s piece is similarly evocative, edged with a touch of the surreal. It presents an office environment where a laptop is being used to create a prim figure. Through the window one can see the cartoon world in which the office is located. Beyond that lies SL itself, where sits the partially complete prim figure. Through these three environments – the physical office, the cartoon world and the digital domain, Kicca raises the question, is there really any boundary between real space and virtual space?

In Bob and the Box, Nino explores the relationship between language and humour – both spoken and visual, though a series of plays of the word “box” as seen in through various depictions of the innocent Bob and his slightly sarcastic companion, the Box. The images are grouped by various common themes, and serve to illustrate how humour can transcend the barriers of language and culture.

Nino Vichon: Bob and the Box
Nino Vichon: Bob and the Box

Art entries for the challenge are on display in the Transcending Borders gallery area above the UWA’s home regions. Machinima entires will be listed on the SLArtist website as they are received.

Full details on the challenge, including all rules and details on how to submit entries can be found on the UWA blog.

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UWA announces Freedom Project books available

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Freedom Project FINAL 26 Aug, 2013

Launched on Sunday September 1st, 2013, the Freedom Project was a joint undertaking by the University of Western Australia,  Virtual Ability Inc., and the Centre for ME/CFS and Other Invisible Illnesses.

A 2D and 3D art and film event, the project extended an open invitation to artists suffering from a disability or chronic illness, or associated with those suffering from either, to demonstrate how virtual life has enabled them to engage in activities and interact with others in ways which may not be possible in the real world.

I covered the launch of the project at the time, and subsequently reported on the opening of the Freedom Project art exhibition in the UWA’s gallery spaces in March of 2014 (the exhibition is still open for viewing at the time of writing for those who would like to visit, although the exhibition will be taken down in the next two or three weeks to provide the UWA’s Transcending Borders project additional display space.

At the time the challenge was announced, it was indicated that art pieces submitted to the Freedom Project would feature in a commemorative book – both digital and orinted – in the hope that both the book and the exhibited pieces and films will inspire others, and will demonstrate how virtual worlds can be used to help some people who may have had difficulties finding other means of expression to believe in themselves more, or to connect with others.

The Freddom Project book is now available in in or electronically as a part of the UWA's Studies in Virtual Arts (SiVA) series of e-journals
The Freedom Project book is now available in print or electronically as a part of the UWA’s Studies in Virtual Arts (SiVA) series of e-journals

On Friday September 5th, FreeWee Ling, curator of the UWA’s gallery spaces and co-ordinator of the UWA’s virtual world art projects, announced that the Freedom Project book is now available.

Lavishly produced and illustrated, the book tells of the origins of the project and provides an overview of the global nature of the project and the events which took place within Second Life where it was represented; information on the project’s partner and sponsor organisations is also provided.

Central to the book is the art itself and the artists. The illustrations throughout are beautiful, with many of the pieces being given wonderful two-page spreads. The artists’ stories, told in their own words, are equally as moving, making this a powerful piece of reading.

The Freedom Project book is lavishly compiled and presents both the artists and their work beautifully
The Freedom Project book is lavishly compiled and presents both the artists and their work beautifully

The electronic version is available on-line as a part of the UWA Studies in Virtual Arts e-journals series. The printed version can be obtained for L$5000 (around $20.00 US), shipped anywhere in the world. Those wishing to purchase a copy should contact JayJay Zifanwee of the UWA for ordering information.

Artists and groups who participated in the challenge can also claim a free copy of the printed book – again, please contact JayJay Zifanwee for ordering details.

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Ferrisquito: the early works of Bryn Oh

Posted on by Inara Pey
Ferrisquito (l) displays one of the pieces of Bryn's art
Ferrisquito (l) displays one of the pieces of Bryn’s art

Opening in Second Life at the Rift Horizon Gallery on Wednesday September 3rd at 08:00 SLT is an exhibit by Chance Acoustic entitled A Room for Ferrisquito, featuring elements of  Bryn Oh’s work from the period 2008 through 2011, and which will be marked by a special presentation by Art Blue.

The room is situated over the gallery, so if you arrive at ground level, use the teleport sign to reach it. The oval room offers an intimate display space, with images of Bryn’s work, as photographed by Chance, framed around the curved walls, and The Consumerist Sherpa sitting on one side of the floor. Overhead, the Beetlebot presides from a high perch, watching everything.

Ferrisquito: image by Chance Acustic
A Room for Ferrisquito

However, the focal-point for the exhibit is Ferrisquito, an angelic-appearing character, who can be summoned via a wall panel close to the “door” into the room. When summoned, he’ll acknowledge in chat, then duly arrive and stand on a pose ball. Once there, he’ll rez elements of Bryn’s work, displaying them on the floor space around him and sometimes overhead in the upper gallery area which can be reached via the staircase, allowing them to be viewed and examined by visitors.

In all, there are 25 3D pieces of Bryn’s work to be seen, comprising: Under the Poumbrella [poembrella], Mayfly machinima, Downloading …, The Violinist, Run like a fawn, Run Rabbit Run, Mother, Feed me, Steamdragon, Wee little Steamclock, Standby, Carriage, Consume, Poumbrella, Pouncing Fox, Confused eyes, Bryn Oh´s bicycle, The Rabbicorn, 26 Tines, Cerulean, Willow, Angler Girl, The Violinist and Nightmare. Ferrisquito himself is a reference to the icon representing the robot theme park featured in Immersiva, while the room in which the pieces are displayed is seen by the Art Blue and Chance as a time capsule, designed to keep the pieces forever safe and available for display for as along as Second Life exists.

Ferrisquito
A Room for Ferrisquito

In keeping with this idea of time, the exhibit’s opening will feature a short play by Art Blue entitled Knowing. Lasting 20 minutes, it involves a story of time travel, an attempt to uncover the secrets of life, and the discovery of Bryn’s work; all of which is narrated by an owl, Nervual.  Following this, visitors will be invited to enjoy Chance’s images of Bryn’s work, and witness the arrival of Ferrisquito, ready to reveal the 3D pieces he carries with him. Visitors will also be invited to collect a special book of images and text from the exhibition as a keepsake of their visit.

Following the opening of Ferrisquito in Second Life, Art Blue will also be hosting an exhibition on Metropolis grid featuring the room, together with two of Bryn’s 3D pieces – the Beetlebot and the The Consumerist Sherpa, – for which he has had special permission to transfer to Metropolis grid. The exhibit will form part of his Vulcanicus OpenSim art time capsule.

This opening on Metropolis grid will be marked by a special event in which Art Blue will call the room and its surroundings into existence before his audience, the artist giving form to a new “world”. Those wishing to attend the event should contact Thirza Ember via the HG Safari Facebook group, as sitting is limited for the performance.

Ferrisquito
A Room for Ferrisquito

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