Category: Art in Second Life

Avatars and humans, together in the same space

Posted on by Inara Pey

Rowan Derryth, writing on the LEA blog, brings word of a fascinating SL / RL exhibit which is taking place through until November 25th in both Second Life and real life, and which allows avatars from the one interact with humans from the other, and vice versa.

EXTRACT / INSERT is a collaborative effort involving Second Life and the The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, England. Rowan describes the collaboration thus:

We avatars often struggle to explain our existence to those that dwell only in the physical world. But now, a new exhibit at LEA 24 helps us do what we aliens do best: INVADE!

EXTRACT / INSERT

EXTRACT/INSERT is a unique installation in both Second Life and at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry, UK. It is a collaborative effort between internationally renowned performance artist Stelarc, lecturer and actor Joff Chafer and artist and technologist Ian Upton. With support in SL from the LEA, and in RL from the Arts Council of England, they have been able to create an environment where avatars can co-mingle with real people visiting the Herbert!

The Exhibit has already involved volunteers from across Second Life spending time at a special installation at LEA 24 where they have been able to meet and talk to visitors entering the exhibit’s “other half” at the Herbert Art Gallery in the UK. Avatars are represented in 3D in the real world exhibition space, and appear to be floating among the visitors there.

EXTRACT / INSERT

The organisers are currently looking for volunteers to participate in the exhibit this coming week. The work involves being on-hand at the LEA 24 installation, where you can meet and interact with visitors to the Herbert Art Gallery’s installation in Coventry UK – so it does mean working to UK times as the gallery is open between 02:00 and 08:00 SLT (10:00 and 16:00 UK) Monday through Saturday and 04:00 to 08:00 SLT (12:00 midday to 16:00 UK) Sundays.

If you would like to volunteer and chat with Herbert visitors, you need to:

  • Be using an SL viewer capable of displaying shared media
  • Use Voice to interact with visitors at the Herbert Art Gallery – text chat and avatars names are not visible to visitors there
  • Have a suitable avatar appearance to meet the requirements of a “General”-rated audience which includes children

Creativity is welcome with avatars – there is no need to restrict yourself to a conventional human form, so long as your avatar isn’t too large (as it will be appearing life-sized at the art gallery) and dress and behaviour are in keeping with the General rating.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Ian Pahute or Joff Fassnacht in-world in order for you to be added to the exhibit’s access list.

If you are in the UK, and wish to visit the real life half of the exhibit, you can find details on how to get to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum on their website – booking for the exhibit is not required, and visitors are invited to “drop in” for a tour with the Gallery’s guides.

The Herbert Art Gallery’s side of the exhibit will remain open until November 25th, 2012.

UK-based performance artist Stelarc was present at the Herbert his last week, where he logged into SL from the gallery and gave a performance entitled “Involuntary and Improvised Arm”.

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 Images courtesy Rowan Derryth / Linden Endowment for the Arts

Calavera! Celebrating the Day of the Dead

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update 29th October: Elicio has contacted me with a slight change in plans; due to a need for a sim redesign, Calavera! will now be closing on the 16th November, and the raffle draw will be held then.

I’m an unashamed fan of Elicio Ember. Cerridwen’s Cauldron never ceases to amaze, and his wonderful builds of Nu Orne and Siren’s Secret at the 2012 Fantasy Faire completely enthralled me. So when he sends me a personal invitation to explore his latest installation, you can bet I’m not only ready to accept – I’m there!

Calvera! is located high over Cerridwen’s Cauldron, and brings the famous celebration marked throughout Mexico and in other cultures around the world to life in Second Life for its third year under Elicio’s skilled hands. It’s a small installation, but one which, as with all of Elicio’s work, has been finely crafted by a master of the visual feast.

Day of the Dead arrival point

You arrive on a small gazabo-like platform just outside of a churchyard, beyond which lies a small village. Here you’ll find background on the exhibit and the Day of the Dead celebrations, as well as information about José Guadalupe Posada, whose work features in the exhibit, and about the Calavera Hunt. It is also here that you should set your viewer to Midnight in order to fully enjoy the installation as intended. I opted to use the windlight “A-12 AM” preset, as I love the vibrancy it gives to colours – and Day of the Dead is a colourful festival.

There are two of Elicio’s beautiful teleports here as well, one to his store and one to other highlights in the region. If you’ve not visited Cerridwen’s Cauldron below, I cannot emphasise enough how much it is worth to make use of both once you’ve seen Calavera! and see the rest of Elicio’s work first-hand.

Calavera! at Cerridwen’s Cauldron

From the arrival point, you cross the bridge into the graveyard itself. Here are tombs, headstones and graves, many with candles burning in memory of the departed and gifts of flowers and el pan de muerto on them. You are free to wander either left or right from the bridge, although I’d tend to favour going to the right first and working your way around the installation counter-clockwise.

Calavera! at Cerridwen’s Cauldron

There is a lot to see here as you walk – and be aware that you will, for at least part of the way, be under observation yourself from the leafy shadows! Elicio has made fabulous use of light and darkness to achieve a beautiful effect for what to some western eyes at least might seem a faintly macabre celebration, complete with painted skulls, or calaveras (albeit made of papier-mâché or candy) from which the installation takes its name.

Calavera! at Cerridwen’s Cauldron

On the far side of the graveyard from the entrance point is a tall church, again bearing all the hallmarks of Elicio’s eye and skill, lit from within with a welcoming warmth, with candles flickering around the altar. Form here it is a short walk to the village square and a recommended visit to the Calavera Cantina, which offers a tribute to the work of José Guadalupe Posada.

A cartoonist illustrator and artist, Posada used calveras in his work as a means of satirical and religious commentary. Largely unnoticed following his death in 1913, Pasada’s engravings were “discovered” by the French artist Jean Charlot in the 1920s, who brought them to a wider audience, where they have since become associated with The Day of the Dead.

Calavera! at Cerridwen’s Cauldron

This is the third Calavera! exhibit Elicio has put together, and represents over 100 hours of work. To help support this effort, Elicio is running a hunt throughout the installation’s open period. On offer are a range of limited edition gifts, which will not be available anywhere else, and those completing the hunt will be entered into a raffle to be drawn on the last day of the exhibition, November 30th 16th, with a chance to win one of five special prizes. The hunt involves following clues, doing a little research and having some fun. There is a L$100 entry fee payable in order to received further information, which is how the hunt is being used to offset the costs of the exhibit.

Calavera! at Cerridwen’s Cauldron

Calavera opened on October 21st, and runs through until November 30th 16th. It is well worth a visit and an exploration; and if you’ve never visited Cerridwen’s Cauldron before, then do please leave yourself time to do so – you really won’t be disappointed.

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A Rusted Development; an overdue visit

Posted on by Inara Pey

A Rusted Development is a collaborative art installation on LEA1 at the Linden Endowment for the Arts. It isn’t a new feature – anyone with an eye for art in SL will know it opened in May and is enjoying an extended run as part of the LEA’s Guest Curator initiative. I’ve taken my time getting to it as I wanted to leave others far more qualified than I to give thought and feedback on the installation – and then (to my shame) I forgot about it, only to be reminded when attending the opening of Solkide Auer’s new installation earlier in the week, and which sits adjacent to A Rusted Development.

A Rusted Development

The installation is curated by Rowan Derryth and the theme was inspired by her own works, although the overall structure and story for the piece came from Haveit Neox, whom Rowan credits as “The Conjuror”.

What firsts appears to be a bizarre conglomeration of industrial wasteland, water, bones, and scattered exhibits actually has a strong backstory, written by Havit Neox, which forms the basis for the installation itself, and provides a canvas for those collaborating in its final form in which to paint their own elements of a story.

The fabled merchant city that rode atop the back of a gigantic whale met with a calamity that ended its existence abruptly. In the middle of the ocean, a horrific storm caused two huge ships carrying toxic chemicals to collide into the swimming whale city. The whale and all the populace died in the flood of chemicals that saturated the waves.

The whale turned to bones, and the city to rust, it was nearly half a century before this city adrift was discovered. An expedition of artists, searching for land to build an art colony, came upon the decomposing city. With the intent to regenerate the place, they set to work by first towing to safe harbor the floating mass. Each artist then undertook their vision. The empty shell of the city suddenly filled in and expanded as each artist found their niche in the Rusted Development. No longer at the mercy of invisibility, the city humbles its rusted façade to the highlights of the art within.

Within Haveit Neox’s build, A Rusted Development features pieces from some of SL’s most highly regarded artists – Rose Borchovski, Artistide Despres, Claudia222 Jewell , Bryn Oh, Scottius Polke, Ziki Questi, PJ Trenton, Blue Tsuki, Stephen Venkman, Eliza Wierwight, and Trill Zapatero. Each is both an individual piece and also part of the larger whole, providing a further facet of the story, both in terms of the destroyed city itself and the lives of the artists who discovered it.

It would seem the community of artists who came across the ruins of the merchant city had been bound within a society where rules outweighed individuality and expression. Their reactions to the constraints under which they’ve lived, and what it has done to society as a whole appears to be a ventral running theme through many of the individual elements of the installation. Several pieces have a dark edge to them, perhaps reflective of the fate of those who once lived within the city as it was carried across the oceans.

There are works here which scale the range from the very large to the incredibly small and delicate. Each has its own tale – some dark, some perhaps edged with the macabre and others filled with a delicate pathos. Each offers a unique interpretation and a further expansion of the backstory. All of them present a genuinely immersive piece which requires more than one visit if one is to witness everything on offer, both above and below the waves.

If you’ve not already visited, you should.

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“Lights, cameras, action!”

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update, April 12th: The Machinima Open Studio Project has moved to a new, permanent location at LEA7 and has been extensively updated, which I’ve also reviewed.

If you ever dreamed of being a movie mogul, the time is now. The Machinima Open Studio Project (MOSP) at LEA20 offers a wide variety of locales and sets built with filming in mind.  Nine structures dot the countryside with more to come. Peaceful Valley sits in the shadow of tall mountains, should you keep the region Windlight setting, while the cottages and outdoor locations along Beach Walk are definitely a sun lover’s paradise.

So reads the promotional material for the Machinima Open Studio Project (MOSP), which formally opened on October 1st. A part of the Full Sim Art series operated by the Linden Endowment for the Arts, MOSP is curated by Artist-in-Residence Chic Aeon, and is located on and above LEA 20, where it provides a wide range of facilities and options for machinima makers and photographers alike. The facility will be open through until the end of February 2013.

Part of the MOSP Welcome Area

Visitors to the facility are advised to start at the Welcome Area. This is a simple, open-air platform with a series of information boards which provide quick and clean access to essential information about MOSP and its facilities. One of these also supplies you with a teleport HUD, and I strongly recommend you grab a copy and use it in order to see everything on offer – there is a lot to see.

Around the Welcome Area are a number of the pre-built sets. There are simple, open affairs which offer scope for the machinima maker and photographer alike, either using the established windlight presets or custom set-ups. All of the ground-level sets use the same landscaping and design, allowing several or all of them to be used in productions / photo shoots.

One of the ground-level outdoor sets

Above ground is a further range of individual themed sets – subway, New Orleans, ruins, gypsy camp, park and Shadowlands – each with its own possibilities for filming and photo-shoots, either on its own or, again, in unison with some of the other sets.

“I knew the only reason Calhogie picked the time and place was not only because he didn’t want to have anyone see him taking possession of the case, but because he wanted somewhere quiet to tie-up loose ends. So I let Mr. Redemption hitch a ride on my thigh as insurance…” – on one of the MOSP sets

There are also four sound stages available for interior shooting. The layouts are very studio like, with each containing a number of related sets, allowing scenes to be quickly and easily filmed, ready for assembly into a completed show or film.

One of the soundstages with pre-built sets

Finally, there is the Corporate Office, space that lends itself to a huge range of uses – chat show studio, teaching environment, news studio, meeting place, all presented in a professional and well laid-out environment in the heart of a “city” sky scene.

The Corporate Office space

Everything at MOSP has been put together with care and attention; the soundstages and specialised sets, together with the Corporate Office are well above ground level to get the maximum advantage from increased frame rates. One the ground, the sets are spread well apart, allowing for plenty of camera movement. Further, Chic has brought together some excellent supporting material,  including notes on getting started in machinima making, a dedicated website for the project, a Flickr group for those using MOSP for photography and promotional boards for films made in whole or in part in the region.

Standing in the sun-dried grass and looking at the stones, only one thing ran through my mind was, “We’re not in Kansas any more…” – on the “ruins” set at MOSP.

The soundstages and themed sets, together with the Corporate Office are well above ground level to get the maximum advantage from increased frame rates. One the ground, the sets are well space to allow for plenty of camera movement. Given the close proximity of the LEA regions, it is advisable to keep draw distance down. This not only (again) helps improve frame rates when filming – to also means there is less risk of accidentally capturing a pice of the neighbouring region when filming / shooting. There a lots of clear extras on the ground sets as well, which can be used to great effect with the right ambient windlight / lighting – I particularly love the train track, which can be made to look as if it is disappearing into the distance.

If you’re into machinima, want to make a start or need a number of pre-made locations for a photo shoot, MOSP is definitely worth a good look. And if you’re curious, there’s also the Explorer Hunt, with up to 50 gifts for the keen-eyed!

“Calhogie was gone and I knew the Feds would be coming after me. Rikhard’s had done a bang-up job ensuring that. But I had the case, and I figured what was inside could keep me pretty comfortable even on the run. For now, it was just a long walk back done the track, but I still had Mr. Redemption on my thigh, ready to keep me company on the way….” – making use of the rail track section at MOSP

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Video courtesy of Chic Aeon

Spirit: a final chance to say goodbye

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Sunday September 9th, Claudia222 Jewell’s magnificent Spirit installation at Art Screamer comes to an end.

Spirit

Opened seven months ago, Spirit has enjoyed a high-profile run at Art Screamer with almost 20,000 unique visits in that time, with many people returning again and again to take in the visual splendour of Claudia222’s work.

To mark the end of the run for this remarkable artistry, Art Screamer curators Zachh Cale, Amase Levasseur and Chestnut Rau will be hosting a farewell party from 10:30 through to 14:30 on Sunday September 9th, 2012, with music provided by TwinGhost Ronas and Jordan Reyne, with additional artists anticipated. Music entertainment will commence at 11:30, and has been kindly sponsored by Kermit Rutkowski. A special video feature will be run during the event, comprising machinimas of Spirit made at Art Screamer.

Spirit

If you have not already done so, please make sure you visit Spirit before it closes!

 

LEA reveals successful applicants for the 3rd land grant

Posted on by Inara Pey

On the 29th August, the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) announced the successful applicants for the 3rd LEA Land Grant, who will receive a full region for six months on which to create and display their proposed projects.

The successful applicants are: Arrehn Oberlander, Artistide Despres, Chic Aeon, Cica Ghost, Daco Monday, Emily Darrow, Eupalinos Ugajin, Fae Varriale, Giovanna Cerise, Gracie Kendal, Ian Pahute, jjccc coronet, Lorin Tone, Nessuno Myoo and Kicca Igaly, Nino Vichan, Noke Yuitza, pixels sideways, Rose Borchovski, Seraph Kegel, and Tony Resident.

The applicants have all been informed, and are due to be given access to their assigned region on Saturday September 1st, after which they will have up to four months in which to develop their proposals prior to opening them to the public.

Over 50 applications were received by the LEA, and a number of those selected will be returning for a second time, although it is emphasised in the LEA blog that the majority of those selected will be exhibiting at the LEA for the first time. The selected projects range from full-sim immersions through augmented reality installations to innovative builds geared specifically for multimedia works such as sound and machinima projects.

The twenty regions used in the Land Grant have been donated by Linden Lab and are curated by the LEA. The four-month preparatory / build-out period is arbitrary, and exhibitors are not obligated to wait the four months prior to opening their installations – just so long as the public are able to visit for a minimum of two months. It is not clear from the announcement if the successful projects will be single events, or whether the artists will be using their region to host more than one exhibit during the six months of the grant period.

Further updates will follow as news on the various projects in forthcoming.