Reviews – Page 288 – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

Cica’s Knitland in Second Life

Posted on April 15, 2019October 15, 2024 by Inara Pey

Sometimes I get sad… but then I think about yarn and everything is fine.

With these words, Cica Ghost introduces her latest installation Knitland – and it is one of the most imaginative and whimsical pieces she has yet produced. A wonderful landscape that could only be born of a rich imagine and taste for the fantastic, wrapped in a warm sense of fun and humour.

As the name suggests, this is a world that has been knitted together – quite literally. The ground is a quit of green and teal squares, some dotted with little flowers, undulating gently as if loosely thrown across a bed. From the landing point, a green knitted “road” – for all the world looking like a scarf tossed carelessly atop the quilt – offers an path of exploration through the setting.

But it is the inhabitants that occupy thee land that captivate: birds, cats, snails, mules, chickens – even a gloriously knitted elephant. These all look out across the land, the spaces between them dotted by knitted trees, flowers and berries. Here and there, balls of yarn bounce up and down as they watch passers-by (and visitors can, if they like, pick up balls of yarn avatars from the giver near the landing point, and wear them during their visit). Here and there among the trees, flowers and animals sit quaint little knitted houses, sometimes with one or two handles attached, giving them the appearance of crocheted handbags.

Follow the scarf-road far enough, passing over balls of yarn and the back of a cat and between trees and houses, and it will eventually bring you to the girl who is perhaps responsible for the wonders herein, as she sits and continues to knit the scarf, a whimsical smile on her face.

As one might expect, scattered through the installation are numerous places to sit and / or dance, while strands of wool twist and turn through the air to form trails as if left by the passage of happy-go-lucky bees through the air. Climb the curving ladder that climbs the side of a large green pot, and you’re likely to have another surprise.

But writing about an installation like this really doesn’t do it justice; this is yet another piece by Cica that should be seen first-hand to be properly appreciated and enjoyed. And if you are feeling a little low, then perhaps it will – as Cica’s words suggest – lift you mood and raise the corners of your mouth into a smile.

SLurl Details

Knitland (Dragonash, rated: Moderate)

Showing a little Flourish in Second Life

Posted on April 13, 2019June 15, 2021 by Inara Pey

Flourish – click any image for full size

We recently received an invitation from Julz (Juliette Rainfall) to visit the latest region design she and her SL partner, Leaf (Peyton Darmoset) have put together. As the people responsible for creating the outstanding region designs of Cold Ash (read more here), Erebos Harbor (read more here) and Cloudbreak (read here), among others, we were keen to see their latest work.

Unlike most of their previous designs, Flourish is a commercial region, designed to be the home of the Flourish Studio and Salon S2 brands. However, this Full region is also very photogenic, as one would expect from one of Leaf’s designs.

Flourish

Surrounded by dusty hills and mountains, the region is presented as a rugged desert setting, centred on a deep-sided lake, its shores largely cliff-like walls. Roads appear to cut through the landscape, passing across region and sim surround alike. One of theses point “into” the region and to the grounds of Flourish Studio, the other winds its way up the southern foothills to the Salon S2 store (which at the time of our visit had yet to be outfitted).

Desert it might be, but there is a lot going on here. The stepped foothills on the southern side of the region offer space to climb and explore alongside the Salon S2 building, the landscape here a mix of bare rock, scrub grass, cacti, creosote bushes and wild shrubs. Within it sit a water run-off and evidence of some old workings of some description. Wooden steps offer a route up and down the tiered rocks of the hills, with a hole in the fence around Flourish Studio – designed to resemble an outdoor market – inviting explorers into the store at it sits in the north-east corner of the region.

Flourish

Follow the road west from here and it will lead you past a somewhat run-down motel, faced by a bus stop / fuelling point across the road, while away to the north the shadowy forms of high-rise buildings break the horizon, indicating the presence of a distant city. Might this be Reno or Las Vegas or somewhere else? That’s up to you to decide.

Alongside the bus stop is something of an artistic statement: an old outside broadcast van, its satellite dish pointing vacantly to the hills as it forms a backdrop to an array of old televisions, the screens of which have been painted with a variety of slogans, some of them with a lean perhaps towards political comments.

Flourish

Close to this statement, a sandy path leads away from the road and between the rocks and boulders to point the way yo the top of the cliffs of the lake. Here’s under a large canvas awning, sits an events stage, the flat rock between it and the waters below offering room to dance, and a wooden platform built out from the cliff edge a place to sit. The the lake is fed by a tumbling waterfall, while narrow ribbons or sun-baked sand seem t0 offer narrow waterside beaches north and south, each reached by a path of hard-packed and parched sand.

More art can be found off to the west, along the road winding up to the Salon S2 store. Here, next to neat lines of solar arrays as they capture the Sun’s like, stand three large female torsos, giant mannequins, on which have been painted the truism Life goes on.

Flourish

All of this presents a striking region with plenty of opportunities for exploration and photography, nicely rounded-off by an ambient soundscape.

SLurl Details

Flourish (Copper River, rated: Moderate)

Water and a Matrix: reflections on life by Akim Alonzo

Posted on April 13, 2019January 1, 2022 by Inara Pey

It may seem a little unfair presenting two reviews of exhibitions at the same gallery space in such short order, but the fact is the Itakos Project, curated by Akim Alonzo, is currently hosting exhibitions by Awesome Fallen and Akim himself which I personally feel should not be missed. Having covered Awesome’s Simply Dreaming just a day ago (see Awesome Fallen at the Itakos Project in Second Life), with this piece, I’m diving into the what might be referred to as “an exhibition of two halves”, both of which feature collections of Akim’s own work.

You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.

– Ansel Adams, The Camera, 1980

Ansel Adam’s words have been the foundation of Akim’s approach to photography, and of the Itakos Project as a whole – and this is clearly demonstrated in both of the displays of art he has on display within the gallery at the time of our visits.

Split between the gallery’s entrance level and the floor above, and occupying the Black Pavilion area, Water is a collection of 12 images focused on the titular subject. However, these are not simply studies of seascapes, coasts or similar. Rather, they are examinations of our complex relationship with water. We are conceived into water, life came from water, we are water; it both defines us and stands as something of a metaphorical image of human life and relationships, all of which Akim sums up in his liner notes on the exhibition.

We are Water and we can not live without it. Sometimes we are like islands lost in the sea, or we float in lush archipelagos full of life. Water brings with it the meaning of survival, it is the immaterial substance of the flowing time, it is the depth of the human soul, of the vital emotions, of joy and fear, fury and tranquillity, of solitude and of love. Water moves me, I am Water.

Thus, through this mix of monochrome and soft colour images we are offered the most stunning of image poems, each of which tells something of that complex relationship. These are pieces of such depth and narrative, they cannot be taken at a single glance; time is required to fully absorb their beauty and hear their myriad whispers. But that said, even looked a briefly, each speaks volumes about Akim’s eye and mind as a photographer; there is little doubting each piece has been influenced by the full breadth and depth of his artistry and all that has influenced it.

The Matrix, the second “half” of Akim’s overall exhibition on display, is located on the floor above the entrance level, within the Orange Pavilion. Its found influence is perhaps more obvious – that of the Matrix movie franchise; however, like Water, it is actually quite complex in foundation and presentation, as Akim again indicates in his liner notes:

These photos are loosely based on the cult movie The Matrix, which I loved a lot. A metaphor for a world of people trapped in a simulated, virtual reality that has many aspects in common with the Second Life world. So I imagined, listening to the Matrix soundtrack, avatars and life scenes in second life revealed in their intrinsic background network … of which we avatars do not realise.

So it is that we are presented with nine images, again rich in metaphor and narrative. Framed by the ideas of the movies, as given form by the soundtracks, they also encompass an observer’s view of Second life coupled with a user’s innate understanding of the platform, with broader influences such as dream echoes and, stirred into the mix.

As with Water, these are pieces rich in story and interpretation. Within them lie questions of reality and identity, and the riddle of worlds within worlds – the Chinese Boxes to which Akim refers – which not only extend inwards through the images, but also outwards to encompass each of us as we view them.

In this, the reference to the Matrix is taken a stage further: not only are these images an interpretation of the films as layered within the virtual realm of Second Life – they actually reflect the central idea of the film: that were are all in fact unwittingly operating within a virtual realm. We are thus as much a part of each of these images, a further layer, if you will, that is observed from somewhere beyond us, as much as we are observers of each image.

However, there is something else here as well; a more innate statement on our relationship with Second Life itself. Within these pictures is a subtle reminder that, no matter how hard we might try to distance self from character within SL, no matter what the roles we play in-world, the backstories we build; the fact remains that facets of our own natures, our own identities, will be impinged on those characters. They are inevitably a projection of self into the virtual. What’s more, their daily encounters and experiences within the virtual realm equally reflect and inform upon our physical selves. Thus, we have a genuinely visceral intertwining between the “real” and the “virtual”.

Together or individually, Water and The Matrix are two absorbing, evocative and engaging selections of art by a master photographer, artist and storyteller.

SLurl Details

Itakos Project (ATL, rated: Moderate)

The magic of Season’s Cove in Second Life

Posted on April 12, 2019June 15, 2021 by Inara Pey

Season’s Cove – click any image for full size

Update: Season’s Cove appears to have closed.

One type of region we’ve always enjoyed visiting is the type that feels TARDIS-like; that is, when exploring it, it feels much larger than its individual map tile / 256m-on-a-side would suggest. There are many such regions scattered across Second Life, but one of the most imaginative we’ve recently visited is that of Season’s Cove.

Designed by Muira Mingann (Angelique Vanness) with assistance from Takoda Mingann (Mingann), this full region design ticks a lot of boxes for the avid Second Life photographer. The design is rural / coastal with a strong twist of fantasy, hints of magic; a place where wizardly towers overlook tumbledown dance halls, beaches sit above undersea gardens and tunnels with multiple rooms vie with surprise portals to carry you to places in the sky that further extend the feeling of being in a place that’s much bigger that its physical constraints should allow.

Season’s Cove – click any image for full size

A visit begins innocently enough: a large terrace towards the centre of the region, cliffs to its back, water below its stone walls. It is home to a little café, a carousel and the first hint of the more mystic elements: a fortune teller’s tent. Two wharves sit below the terrace, each offering a way down the water’s edge – and one allowing visitors to travel much further.

Multiple paths lead away from this terrace. Some go around the plateau that sits above it, running south then west. Others point north and then east, promising to perhaps circle the land and meet with their brethren further around the region. Some climb the shoulders of rock to reach the plateau above, others dip down to the water’s edge and promise another means to circumnavigate the island, or to pass by bridge and track to its eastern lowlands, where beaches face the sea, water cuts a winding channel from the large inlet below the landing point terrace to a small pond, all watched over by the ruins of another tower.

Season’s Cove

A further path leads inwards, under the high table of rock, to where a labyrinth of tunnels connect rooms one to another as water drips from arched stone ceilings and stone cisterns sit with backs to the walls, offering the weary a chance to drink the water purified by its travel though the sandstone. The rooms within these tunnels offer a mix of interior settings, from small bathing pool to rooms clearly intended for more adult pursuits.

The terrace facing entrance is not the only route into or out of these tunnels: wander far enough around the island or within them, and you will find others. One of these is a wooden walkway that spirals up an open hole on the region’s north-west side. At its top lay numerous further paths waiting to be followed, including one running up to the remains of the old dance hall / theatre which, despite its decrepitude, still offers a place for music to be enjoyed within, complete with tables set for romantic dinners for two.

Season’s Cove

This is another aspect of the delight found within this region: around every corner, at the end of every path is something new and perhaps unexpected to find. Take, for example, the ruins of a Catholic / Orthodox church, complete with confessional, sitting within the low woodlands, or the quaint traveller’s caravan tucked into the lee of the main plateau and looking west to where a tall, rugged island is home to another ancient tower, more ruins lying below it.

Nor is exploration limited to using your feet. It you have a wearable Bento or Animesh horse, you can wear that and take to the paths and trails whilst exploring – most of the routes through the region avoid stairs and steps (although there are some steps and stairs scattered around, to be sure).

And when it comes to horses – keep your eyes open for pointers to the riding trail. They show the way to what initially appear to be paths passing through rocky arches. They are in fact teleport portals leading to points in the sky – in this case, either the “Season’s Cove Stables” or a riding trail in the sky (just be aware the latter including a giant tree house that is a private residence). Several such portals exist within the region; we found two more (one to a lover’s tryst, another to a “BDSM Dungeon), but there could be others that we might have missed!

Season’s Cove

Using the portals to connect with these skyboxes will require accepting the region’s experience on the first attempt – but thereafter they should be automatic unless or until you revoke the experience. Be warned, as well, that finding your way back to ground level might take a little work, as some return portals are intentionally hidden. Also, some of the return portals may rotate your direction, with the result yo might step back into the ground-level portal as you try to move clear on landing.

Another element of Season’s Cove that makes a visit a pleasure, is the care with which the design is curated. There is a lot going on the ground, in the air and underwater (look for the steps near the landing point terrace for a way down to the underwater gardens and their delights), neither Caitlyn nor I found our computers under any strain from the load. Yes, fps for me with shadows enabled did drop to the low 20s / high teens, but this can happen elsewhere, and certainly didn’t spoil the visit.

With places to sit and / or dance throughout, dozens of opportunities for photography and the chance to really explore a quite unique and details setting, Season’s Cove present a genuinely worthwhile and engrossing visit. Should you enjoy your visit as much as well did, do please consider a donation towards the region’s continued presence as a public space.

Season’s Cove – click any image for full size

Awesome Fallen at the Itakos Project in Second Life

Posted on April 12, 2019January 1, 2022 by Inara Pey

In 2017, Akim Alonzo launched the Itakos Project as a Linden Endowment for the Arts installation with the aim of presenting the work of SL photographers who, through their images, engage upon story-telling or presenting the ideas of stories, or who seek to present beauty and emotion through their study of the avatar and the worlds around it (see The Itakos Project in Second Life). However, I confess I lost track of the gallery after its 6-month LEA run came to an end. So an invitation to view a new exhibition at the gallery – now in its own location – offered the perfect reason to resume my acquaintance with it.

Simply Dreaming is a remarkable selection of pieces by Awesome Fallen, an SL artist whose work I’ve always been drawn to for her richness of narrative and opening of the imagination. With this exhibit, she presents twelve images on the subject of dreams and dreaming, located in the gallery’s entrance level Grey Pavilion. Surreal, marked by the use of heavy and dark colours and tones, these are perhaps images of the darker side of dreams and dreaming.

Each is – and I use this term deliberately, despite the dark tones and subject presented – a beautiful representation of an instance of a dream; the moment of recollection we can all have when awakening from a period of REM sleep, a single frame of our dreaming thought processes captured in the lens or the mind, or which is retained and held subconsciously and returns to us at the first moment of waking in the morning.

In this, the surrealist nature of the images is entirely fitting on at least two levels. The first is that dreams are always linear or logical; as the brain processes its way through our sleep, cataloguing, filing, recalling – or doing whatever really is going on in our dream state – we can become observers to those processes without really being aware of what if going on or why. Thus the mental images that we regard as dreams can be both vivid and ethereal; images lying one over the other, some clear and fresh or vibrant in their emotion (if not necessarily in their colour), others faded and faint. Within their mixing we oft encounter surreal views and disjointed images or flashes of thought that are sharded and broken or at least confused.

So it is with this images that were are presented with contrasts and juxtapositions: faces split; images that offer a clear view of a subject and a shadowed reflection in the darkness; figures of menace; faces lost; scenes that might be from the day’s activities but turned by the churn of mental processes into scenes that aren’t quite right; negative thoughts and feeling that have become personified. A tumult of emotions and thoughts given form to become surreal stories without clear narrative except the emotional response they create.

The surrealism approach is also fitting when one considers the origins of this form of art – that of developing painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself. The surrealist movement embraced Freud’s work with free association, dream analysis, and the unconscious. Thus, by presenting these images in a surrealist form, Awesome not only maintains the movement’s idealism, she actually offers a visual treatise on the nature of the movement itself, literally taking the art back to its roots through the presentation of dreams as scenes.

There is more layering to be found within these images. Take for example the stanza-like line repeated in each of them: On the canvas of your soul, with the tips of my fingers, drawing smiles with the colour of my feelings… Not only does this provide a thread that draws all twelve images into a tapestry; it also suggests that through these images Awesome is offering us windows into her dreams – and into our own. In this latter regard, it is perhaps tempting to see these images as perhaps autobiographical, the capturing of personal dreams; this may be the intent, but equally all twelve pieces speak to our own psyches, offering a means for our subconscious to respond. Hence why, perhaps, on seeing these works we might all feel an odd sense of familiarity and recognition as we look upon them.

A fascinating and absorbing collection.

SLurl Details

Simply Dreaming, Itakos Project (ATL, rated: Moderate)

NOLA in Fairhaven and beyond in Second Life

Posted on April 10, 2019June 15, 2021 by Inara Pey

NOLA @ Fairhaven – click any image for full size

Update: NOLA @ Fairhaven appears to have closed. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

We recently received an invitation to visit NOLA @ Fairhaven. Described as “an homage to New Orleans, Louisiana”, the estate comprises three regions – two Full and one Homestead, with one of the Full regions providing the homage to New Orleans, and the other a pair of settings I’ll discuss a little later.

Designed by Tatianna (TatiannaDiamond) and Jus Strat (jus4strat), all three regions are an impression combination – but given the amount packed into all three mesh, sculpt and texture-wise, can also be a little heavy going if your viewer is running with any significant bells and whistles (such as shadows) enabled.

NOLA @ Fairhaven

There is no enforced landing point within the regions, and the SLurl supplied by Jus dropped us neatly in the north-east corner of the Full region representing New Orleans (and which is the one I’ve used in this article), with the bridge to the other regions leading away eastwards, the town itself lad out to the west and south of us.

The latter is something of an image of New Orleans perhaps familiar to many from film and television: cobbled roads, balconied establishments whose interiors offer relief from the heat of the day. Cafés rub shoulders with jazz clubs, barbers shops, boutique stores and hotels. Grand houses can be found by wandering through the streets, while squares and formal gardens offer breaks from the urban tightness. To the north-west, the town gives way to a more bayou like setting, with mangroves and swampy-looking grass, while the graveyard betwixt town and bayou offers another “traditional” reflection of New Orleans and its oft-presented ties to voodoo and mysticism.

NOLA @ Fairhaven

The attention to detail within the town is impressive: many of the buildings have interior décor and furnishings, making them attractive points for exploration; several of the roads are lined with ornate, horse-headed bollards, reminding one of the city’s long history, while another reminder lines in the “river” separating the town from the eastern regions of the estate: a stern-wheeled paddle boat (the fabulous Dixie Belle by Analyse Dean), a rickety brow connecting her to an aged wharf where an old mill sits.

Across the water from the town, in the remaining two regions, things take a turn toward a more equatorial tropical feel, with the ground level of both regions styled into the undulating form of a surfer’s paradise. A rocky plateau, reached via the bridge mentioned above, provides a good vantage point as it looks eastwards over the sand and dunes, which in turn gradually narrow into a crooked finger curled around a bay into which white-capped waves roll.

NOLA @ Fairhaven

The uplands here are home to a lush area of trees, grass and plants, where an ancient ruins stands and a winding paths disappears through the trees. Touches of fantasy reside here, perhaps most notably in the form of the gondola held aloft by balloons, perhaps as much at home in the air as it might be on a river or canal. Further to the east, the beaches are naturally divided by trees and by raised board walks, with beach houses, shaded spots, lookout points and more scattered throughout.

Nor is this all; find the teleport boards (hard to miss out on the sands!) and you can be carried aloft to where the City of Fairhaven resides in the sky, another venue for music, exploration and photography. Here can be found an amusement park surrounded by trees, and what – for me at least – is the biggest drive-in cinema screen I’ve come across in Second Life.

NOLA @ Fairhaven

As noted above, there is a lot going on across all three of these regions in terms of mesh, sculpties and textures, which can take its toll on a viewer’s performance (I had to disable shadows to walk comfortably, and even then, in places my viewer still had some issues). However, if you show patience and give things a chance, there is a lot worth seeing here.

Our thanks to Jus for the invitation to visit and explore.

NOLA @ Fairhaven

SLurl Details

NOLA and Fairhaven (Stratography, Stratography West and Stratography East, all rated Adult)

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