Category: Art in Second Life

LEA announces Full Sim Art Series participants

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Thusday September 15, the LEA announced the line-up for the Full Sim Art Series, which commences on October 1st.

The complete list of participants is:

  • October:  Inferno by Rebeca Bashly, inspired by the first part of Dante’s famous Divine Comedy
  • November: a joint entry comprising ~(Not-A-Knot) by Tyrehl Byk and Forgiving, by The Pink Tutu Ballet Group (Marmaduke Arado, Kikas Babenco, Sca Shilova, Cat Shilova, Saveme Oh, Eupalinos Ugajin, Luce Laval & Rose Borchovski) – a piece inspired by Desmond Tutu
  • December: Binary Green by Neox’s – in which bots take over the earth
  • January 2012: Research on Musical Instruments by Artistide Despres
  • February 2012: An Interactive History of Life by Romy Nayar & Ux Hax
  • March 2012: The Labyrinth by Kicca Igaly and Nessuno Myoo’s ‘The Labyrinth of Absurdity’

LEA report that the range and number of applications for the Series was such that the University of Western Australia (UWA) has converted one of its two sandboxes to provide additional display space for some of the other proposals received by the LEA.

The UWA’s Sky Sim Series will run concurrent to the LEA’s Full Sim Art Series, the major differences being artists are limited to the use of 5,000 prim rather than the full 15,000, with the exhibits being displayed on a sky platform.

The participants in the UWA Sky Sim Art Series are:

  • October: Organic Peace Sculpture by jjccc Coronet
  • November 2011: Mountain  by Katy Isodoo, in support  of mental health and wellbeing
  • December 2011: Interactive Zoo of Endangered Species by Luna Metamorphia
  • January 2012:  Between Orient and Occident by Asmita Duranjaya, Chapter ChapTer Kronfeld & Louly Loon
  • February 2012: Cyborg -Nature by Giovanna Cerise – where Nature rebels against the thoughtlessness of man
  • March 2012: Fiona Blaylock’s tribute to the poetry of Samuel Coleridge (Kubla Khan, etc.).

Related Links

MoM: September

Posted on by Inara Pey

September 7th saw the debut of this month’s Month of Machinima selecton by the LEA and showing at the LEA Theatre (SLurl). With the theme of “Seasons”, which can refer to the four seasons of the year, the seasons of your life, and so on, this month sees a range of imaginative and emotive films on offer.

This month’s entries comprise:

  • Unknowable Alien Isles:Chaffro Schoonmaker – a farewell to, and lament for, the Alien Isles installation at Unknowable
  • Duran Duran All You Need is Now by Ian Pahute an homage to the 80s, Duran, Duran and, particularly, their fans – and the passing years!
  • Curves by Hunk Huasner described as “Second Life machinima remixed with Akon’s Nosy Neighbour and other video clips”, a slightly risque mix of in-world machinima and live action film which is voyeuristically humourous.
  • A Pesto for all Seasons by Bleu Oleander, a lighthearted look at the making of the perfect pesto, complete with dancing basil…
  • Nature of Elements by Chic Aeon, which is described as “a video ‘coffee table book’ – there is a message of course, but mostly it is about the pretty pictures”. The message is clear – and one we should all consider
  • Why Now?  by Pooky Amsterdam – a moving question and answer session with Holocaust Survivor Fanny Starr demonstrating the power of Second Life and a world-wide educational and historical forum
  • Love Me Tender Rafale Kamachi, a whimsical tale of attempted murder, longing, magic and transformation in a steampunk setting
  • Visualizing Theorem at UTSA by lono Allen: “The creative forces of art, music and science collide in this new sim wide art exhibit at University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).” Combining imagery from Second Life and music collaboratively produced in a social media album called “Theorem” by ten musicians , the film celebrates sixteen installations in SL curated by UTSA, which are based on the science and math theories explored in the album.

LEA Announce “Full Sim Art Series”

Posted on by Inara Pey

The folks at the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) have announced the launch of their Full Sim Art series. Here are the key points:

  • The series will run for six months from October 1st, 2011
  • All artists in SL will be able to apply to have a full sim on which to host an art show of their own for a period of 1 month through the series
    • Each artist will receive access to a sim on the 1st of the month
    • They will have full use of the sim in order to mount their
    • When their show actually launches, and how long it runs for within the month is up to the artist
    • The sim will be cleared on the last day of the month and passed to the next applicant on the 1st of the following month
    • Each artist will receive a blog write-up in the LEA Blog, UWA Blog and the Virtual Outworlding Blog (and others, if coverage confirmed)
  • The closing dates for applications is Saturday 10th September 2011

Artists wishing to participate should send a NC to both Jayjay Zifanwe and Bryn Oh describing what the sim artwork will be in no more than 100 words, and:

  • Provide the names of anyone who might be working with you in creating the sim / show
  • Give your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preference for the month in which you’d like to present your show (October 2011 through March 2012).

(With thanks to Grid Jumper)

MOM: August

Posted on by Inara Pey

The August Month of Machinima kicked-off on Wednesday 3rd August, but way too late for me to get to the LEA theatre – 7:00pm SLT, so here’s a belated look.

Eleven entries are on offer this month, with the theme being: “Design and Architecture”.

The entrants cover a broad range of topics within the over theme, encompassing an examination of an international project encompassing students in the USA and Egypt, The Kansas to Ciaro Project #2; through homages to some of SL’s most innovative, quirky and/or thought-provoking builders and artists, AM Radio, Alambra, Off the Wall, Two Ways of Looking at You, What isn’t Underneath, presented in various forms from musical tours, to history-within-a-tale to storytelling; through to questions on the nature of perception, The House that Self Built. Along the way we pass the more esoteric with Relevant Search and Democracia Virtual Ya, and encounter the story of a wandering robot, Copy Design.

After my slight disappointment last month, the August collection makes for interesting viewing, although I admit to being somewhat lost with Demoncracia is concerned; I’m probably a little too literal.

As per usual, the films are all available for viewing at the LEA Theatre (Surl), or can be seen on the Month of Machinima YouTube channel. I’m also including my personal favourites for the month below, each of which demonstrate, in different ways, the power of Second Life.

July MoM – whither the theme?

Posted on by Inara Pey

The theme for July’s Month of Machinima is “Games in SL”.

Or at least, that’s the theory; and tbh I’d been looking forward to seeing a set of films showcasing the magic of games and role play in Second Life, and perhaps even learning about elements of rp or other games in SL I’ve not previously encountered. As the very least, I was anticipating seeing glimpses of stories involving fantasy, science-fiction and the rest. Sadly, this was not to be.

Don’t get me wrong, the entries on show this month at the LEA Theatre are visually impressive, and demonstrate skill and artistry I probably couldn’t hope to master; it just that – well, almost none of the have anything to do with Games in SL.

In The Red Shoes we have a superb demonstration of Second Life as an outstanding medium for storytelling, as we do with Someone Called – but to my mind, storytelling isn’t really related to games in SL. Similarly, Travelling presents an excellent travelogue to Second Life – but travelling through SL, seeing the sights and the means of transport isn’t directly related to games in SL. I’m honestly not at all sure what to make of bRaiNwasHer, but it’s hard to frame it in the conext of games. The Wavey Sea is a great music video, but  – well, you can guess where I’m going.

Dedication gets somewhat nearer the mark, insamuch as it tells a story that might be said to be framed in a role-play environment, and again, it is a fabulous piece of work in itself, but I still cannot help but feel something is missing…

To me, games in SL offers up an opportunity to highlight the deep, immersive richness of game playing within SL: role-play, steampunk, combat – dare I say, even Gorean. There are many other forms of games in SL – Tiny Empires and the like – which could, with a little imagination, form the foundations for revealing and entertaining films. Arcade Boy and When Warriors Gather go some way towards this, but there still seems to be something missing.

Again, I’m not blaming the film-makers for this lack of game-related depth: as I’ve stated, every film in this month’s entrants is skillfully executed and worth watching. I’m also not necessarily pointing the finger at the LEA judges; MoM is an excellent idea and worth pursuing; and truth be told, it’s hard to guarantee that what will work theme-wise. Even so, it’s a little disappointing that more did not rise to the challenge and present films more directly related to this month’s theme – I’ve certainly seen a fair few films on subjects such as combat games and RP in SL elsewhere, so it’s not for lack of potential content.

In the meantime, here’s Dedication, by CadenceDVE, which I really like as a story and which comes close to the ideal of the theme in a visually impressive manner. You can see all the entries above on the MOM YouTube channel.

June MoM Review

Posted on by Inara Pey

Thanks to real life getting in the way, I didn’t make the June premiere of Month of Machinima, and have only just this weekend managed to sit down at the LEA with a small bunch of people and watch this month’s offerings on the theme of “Mixed Realities”.

Before getting to the films themselves, LL have added a further means to view movies; as well as the LEA theatre itself and the YouTube channel, you can now pick up an AviewTV pack scripted to play back the entries. For optimum viewing, however, I still recommend YouTube.

Now I have to say that “mixed realities” to me suggests films that combine mediums and ideas: machinima and real life; the “reality” and “fantasy” to create a visually compelling short film.  A pity then, that of the month’s entries, there are two that come across as promotional videos – one for the sim in which it was filmed, the other for an in-world group of musicians. While undoubtedly skilfully executed, they seemed to fall wide of the mark when it comes to the month’s theme; as do a couple of other music videos which also seemed to fall wide of the mark, theme-wise.

In fairness, I have no idea how much support the event is getting – it could be that there were insufficient entrants that met this month’s criteria and the judges fell back on entries from May; however, with due respect to all concerned, I sat down to watch this month’s selection with a high degree of anticipation and came away somewhat disappointed.

RockseaTV offers a short film that is a lot – to me – closer to the mark, presenting and avatar’s daydream of falling into the real world. BaySweetwatertakes things a step further in Domo Arigato, Roboto-san, where we see footage of the Fukushima disaster, where robots were used in the aftermath, together with footage of a robot scooting around in Second Life – a celebration of both the use of automated machinery in the role of life-saving and the potential for Second Life to act as an immersive training environment for such tools and equipment.

My personal favourite for the month, however, is Magical Glorious Morn – a tale of an old man living in the bayou, who just might be plagued by unseen – and malicious – laughter. Is someone playing a prank? Are there in fact leprechauns tormenting him? Or is he simply going mad in his isolation?

Above: Domo Arigato, Roboto-san; below: Magical Glorious Morn

Next month: Games!