Category: Art in Second Life

After my almost back-to-back forays of late into art exhibitions that either focus on, or lean towards, hybrid art and the use of AI tools (notably MidJourney), I thought I would do a little course adjustment and offer a look at some Second Life based photographic art. To that end, I trundled off to NovaOwl Gallery, curated and operated by ULi Jansma, Ceakay Ballyhoo & Owl Dragonash.

It this there, within the ground-level gallery space, that people can find – through until the end of 2022 – an exhibition of art by Alex Riverstone, an artist whose work I have appreciated for some to and always enjoy witnessing.  This is a modest exhibition, featuring a baker’s dozen of pictures by Alex; however, it stands as proof that quantity isn’t necessarily everything: quality accounts for more.

Second Life has allowed me to enjoy it in a different way: allowing the exploration of scenes, poses and angles which wouldn’t be practical in the real world.

– Alex Riverstone

On first viewing the exhibition, I was struck by the apparent disconnect between its title – Melancholia – and the subject matter of the images presented.

In purely medical terms, melancholia is a subtype of depression, characterised by a number of symptoms such as severely depressed mood, pervasive anhedonia, and lack of emotional responsiveness. As a concept, it has a history dating back to ancient medicine in Europe, and was long regarded as one of the the four temperaments matching the four humours. However, whilst the pieces Alex presents within the exhibition can be called many things – artistic, picturesque, engaging, and so on – none immediately strike one as being of a depressed or melancholic nature when looked upon.

However, in their visual richness they do encompass another interpretation of “melancholia”, one popular in the Renaissance when it was taken as a sign of artistic genius; and there is plenty of artistic expression to be found in each of these pieces from their initial composition, through their processing and presentation and finishing with their titles, such that each one stands as a unique image capable of carrying our imaginations into a world of self-made narrative.

And it is within that narrative that we chose – as this is purely subjective – to see some of the images as how aspects of melancholia might be visualised in a picture or painting. For example, take the Duality images (7, 8 and 9). within them are hints of melancholic traits we might chose to see: the absence of anyone to enjoy the flying kites and the puppies on the bridge perhaps echoing feelings of anhedonia; the empty chairs speaking to the loneliness of depression / melancholy; the tree with its suggestion of a figure hanging by their wrists from it suggesting despondency. Others, through their titles perhaps whisper more keenly on the subject – as with the Wall and Lonesome Cottage.  Even the loungers of Summer Holiday, fading into the white-out of the picture as they  do, might be taken as a metaphor for the emptiness of melancholia.

But these interpretations are, as note, entirely subjective. Whether you opt to see then or prefer to take  the presented pieces purely as an expression of Second Life’s multifaceted beauty really doesn’t matter; this is Second Life photography rendered as art in a manner that is genuinely captivating and worth visiting.

SLurl Details

• Alex Riverstone at NovaOwl (Novatron, rated General)

Chuck Clip has perhaps been most widely known as a tireless promoter and curator of art in Second Life through his Sinful Retreat regions, which have housed a stunning mix of personal art as well as exhibitions and a home for both 2D and 3D artists from across the platform and the world at large. However – and as I’ve noted in the past in these pages – he is himself an accomplished artist in the physical world and in Second Life (where he has also exhibited widely, if often quietly), working in a range of digital mediums, including prims, which he still sculpts today in preference to using mesh and external-to-SL tools like Blender.

I’ve long been attracted to Chuck’s work, particularly his 2D art, because of its powerful expressiveness, and his ability to take and mix a range of digital techniques to create pieces of art that are visually captivating and impactful whilst carrying messages of social conscience either directly or through more esoteric means using the surreal, the fantastic and the dark – elements which may be born in part out of his own life path – to offer insights into the human psyche, love, life, death, religion, and the (my term here) ambivalent nature of the human condition.

I went to Rochester Institute of Technology initially for medical illustration. After set backs with mental illness, I returned to school, graduating from duCret School of Art for graphic design. Aside from a few small shows in local galleries, mostly I freelanced to make ends meet … My 2D work is created mostly digital using a variety of methods, from photography, to digital painting, to compositing, and more recently, using artificial intelligence to enhance and evolve these pieces into something entirely new. 

– Chuck Clip

Many of these aspects of Chuck’s work can be seen and appreciated at Elven Falls Art Collective, owned and operated by operated by Ant (AntoineMambazo) and Aires Hax, where the main gallery is currently given over to an extensive exhibition of chuck’s art across its two floors and which opened on November 18th, 2022.

Starting with the two pieces facing visitors as they enter the gallery’s foyer and progressing right throughout the seven halls (three on the lower floor, four on the upper, reached via the foyer elevator) this is a veritable tour de force of artistry at its finest.  Each and every piece is layered both in terms of its physical composition and its meaning / interpretation. Some aspects of the pieces offer might disturb the sensitive; other might upset the deeply religious – but all will challenge and give pause for thought as to the statements each carries.

The narratives found within the offered works may be as direct as highlghting the role of formalised religion has often played fomenting war, death, and destruction (the entire upper rear hall of the gallery); or more subtle reflections on human nature  – such as the mindset setting behind the avatars we encounter in Second Life (Behind the Avatar, within the lower floor, right-side hall) or the fact that as evolved as humanity might appear, we are as a race still prone to the drive of the primeval within us (Modern Man, within the lower floor right-hand hall).

Each of the seven halls in the gallery also offers a 3D sculpture by Chuck. Each offers something of a reflection of the core themes to be found within the 2D art presented within it (perhaps most powerfully through Holy War, again to be found in the gallery’s upper rear hall); however, they also stand as a statement to artistic expression in Second Life, as Chuck also notes in his biography:

As a prim sculptor I’m largely self taught. I learned by trial and error and by going to places where the works of the old prim sculptors are still shown, examining them for hours on end just trying to figure out what they did to achieve certain effects. I am forever indebted to the old prim sculptors, for they paved the way for people like me. It is their legacy that I try to perpetuate as prim sculpture slowly but surely becomes a lost art in SL. Second Life has provided us with this wonderful medium, and it is my hope that one day it becomes recognized again for the greatness it can achieve.

Chuck Clip

Bold, emotionally-charged, rich in narrative and marvellously enfolding digital and virtual artistry, Chuck Clip is a genuine maestro of digital art, and his exhibition at Elven Falls Art Collective stands as a powerful underscoring of this fact.

SLurl Details

• Elven Falls Art Collective Landing Point (Elven Falls, rated Adult)

The Carmel Art Community is home to many SL artists, offering both boutique studio spaces in which they can display / sell their work, and regular art-related events through the year. It’s a community I’ve covered in terms of facilities and exhibitions in the past in these pages – and will continue to do so. However, for this piece I want to focus on just one newly-opened exhibit, as it is focused on an tool that is fast becoming very popular with artists the world over, and one I’ve mentioned rather a lot of late: Midjourney AI art generator.

The exhibition in question is The Face of Beauty, by Hermes Kondor. Comprising a total of 14 pieces, it has attracted me due to the manner in which Hermes has used Midjourney;  one that is somewhat different to the exhibitions featuring its use I’ve so far mentioned in these pages.

As  I’ve mentioned previously, Midjourney utilises descriptive text and text terms to curate together / generate images. The results can be far ranging, from almost perfectly capturing the artist’s intent in the most realistic of fashion, to entirely abstract or impressionistic results, depending on what is defined. For example, “/imagine a city in Japan at night” will result in something close to the description, whereas, “/imagine a knight in battle, cinematic, epic, detailed, octane render, intricate” may result in something more abstract – or at at least, unexpected.

For the images presented in The Face of Beauty, Hermes has used his own descriptions – or as he terms it, “personal concept and prompts”, then taking the results and further processing them using PhotoShop. The result is the most remarkable collection of head-and-shoulder portraits of women from around the world, dressed in period / floral / regional dress. Such is the craft involved – and allowing from the human touch in post-processing, it is difficult to comprehend these were images defined by the use of algorithms rather than captured on film or committed to canvas in oil.

To describe these pieces further is to defeat the objective of having them displayed by the artist; therefore I’ll leave you with the images here as a taste and suggest you pay a visit and witness The Face of Beauty first-hand.

SLurl Details

• The Face of Beauty, Carmel Art Community (McFarren, rated Adut)

Currently open at Selen’s Gallery operated by Selen Love (Selen Minotaur) is an immersive multimedia installation by 9Volt Borkotron (with additional lighting support by Adwehe) entitled Sphereeletrik. It is actually one of three installations within the gallery’s spaces which between them feature the work of four artists (the other artists being Moya Patrick (Moya Janus), Livio Korobase and Bohemio Love (Bohemi0) – the latter two sharing the same exhibition space), and all of which opened on November 3rd, 2022. All of these exhibitions are worth of a visit, and can be reached via the main intra-exhibit teleport at the gallery’s main landing point, but here I want to focus solely on Sphereeletrik.

However, before I get down to discussing it in detail, there are a trio of points that need to be noted by those intending to drop into it if it is to be fully experienced:

• Advanced Lighting Model should be enabled (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced lighting Model is checked).
• You should set your local environment to Midnight (to avoid media appearing washed-out).
• You must enable MEDIA playback in the viewer (chick the movie camera icon in the top right of your viewer (v6) or in the media settings (v1.x) and accept the media stream. Failing to do so means you will not see the greater part of the installation.

The short form description of this installation is that it offers an enclosed space in which a variety of objects sit, hang or float. These range of sculptures to floating cubes and spheres to seating areas to exotic-looking plants. Some of these objects are static others are animated and may, like the walls, feature animated textures (in lieu of the media playback). Ramps slope and spiral into the upper reaches where – if you do not enable media – white prim faces appear to hang.

With media enabled, however, these faces, together with the walls and several other elements within the installation are transformed, becoming media surfaces on which patterns, images and colours are displayed and flow and dance – and not just randomly, as 9Volt explained to me:

It’s music I am streaming that generates the visuals. I created a server which uses a Fourier transform and other mathematical algorithms to measure the stream at 256 frequencies. The results are then displayed in real-time with the music in various ways, with the music offset just enough so it’s displaying exactly as the visuals appear for people in world. The data rate is about 320kbps – about the same as streaming an MP3 into SL, so it shouldn’t cause delay in viewer playback.

– 9Volt Borkotron

In addition to the external server handling the transforms and other calculations, the installation features an in-world script utilising sine wave controllers to count the prims and change some of their traits in iterative stages. This results in media played across some elements being staggered; for example, a pattern plating on one prim reaches a certain point in media playback, so it starts on the next, and on that playback reaching the same point, so the next starts, like a singing canon-in-the-round.

When taken as a whole, the results are – as noted – entrancing, and while walking around the installation is possible, I suggest sitting in one of the cushions and trying the installation in Mouselook and simply looking around at the different elements to see the play for media and patterns, images and colour and the way they chance over time in response to the music.

It’s likely that some of the latter may not be to everyone’s liking, as varied as it is (I’m admittedly not a great fan of EDM, which showed up on a couple of the tracks while I was visiting). However, there is a purpose to the mix of music within the installation (which incorporates instrumentals, pop songs, etc., as well), as 9Volt again noted to me during my visit:

My Gran, who was a music lover her whole life, was going deaf, so I thought that using images and light would allow her to appreciate her music using tunes she knows well, and letting her “see” the notes she could not hear, playing them back through SL and onto her TV screen. My hope is that this installation will give those in SL with hearing impairments a visual expression of music when otherwise they might only hear the bass parts of the music.

– 9Volt Borkotron

As a part of this, 9Volt is interested in gaining feedback from SL users with hearing impairments about this aspect of the installation, and in possibly working with them to further refine the technique to help those with hearing difficulties further enjoy music in alternate ways.

Intriguing as a concept, engaging as a visually immersive installation, and richly varied as a multimedia arts piece,  Sphereeletrik makes for an engaging visit.

SLurl Details

Royale is rated Moderate

• Sphereeletrik direct TP
• Selen’s Gallery main landing point (take the teleport to 9Volt’s installation if redirected to the LP)

Now open at Vibes Gallery, curated by Eviana Robbiani, is a further ensemble exhibition featuring the work of a dozen artists from across Second Life entitled Like Blood, Like Fire, Like Passions. It is an exhibition focused on the colour red, as the introductory notes for the exhibition explain:

Red is the colour of extremes. It’s the colour of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the colour of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces – and most of red’s symbolism today arises from its powerful associations in the past.

A deep immersion in the magical sensuality of the colour red , which brushes vibrant images.

– from the introduction to Like Blood, like fire, like passions

The participating artists comprise: Dae Fangs, Difficult Conundrum, Joanna Kitten and Peuxswau (Theatre 7); Dragonangelus, Exzoo McDonnel and Tutsy Navarathna (Theatre 8); and Amberly, Apple Roses, Jo Molinaro, Milhailsk Syros and The Base of Bad Ideas (Theatre 9).

Together, these are very different artists, some of whom I am familiar with, whilst the exhibition formed my first acquaintance with others, and whilst the number of pieces presented by each artist is variable, it cannot be denied that all of the pieces offered are striking in tone and content.

Given the description of the exhibition, it should come as no surprise that the primary focus of most of the images is that of avatars; but the sheer richness and variance in the art – and the use of red within them is striking. As such, picking individual pieces or artists seems narrow-minded; but the fact is I have to admit I found myself heavily drawn to the work of Difficult Conundrum – one the artists whose work I had not encountered prior to this exhibition.

Offered as two sets of images – Tension, Back to You and Seeing Red, together with -08358 and Voyage – these piece are striking for their very different styles, with the formal presented as a trio of painting-like pieces which reflect a modern approach to physical world artistic statement.

How well individual pieces reflect the central themes (passion, love, danger, anger, the representation of fire and blood) is a matter of personal responsiveness to the individual pieces, but again, I found myself drawn to those pieces with a more subtle suggestiveness / narrative within them – such as the images by Apple Roses and Amberly. But again, picking out individual pieces / artist within this exhibition would be unfair – all of the works offered are extraordinary in their sheer vibrancy and depth.

SLurl Details

• Vibes Gallery (Isola Del Giglio, rated: Moderate)