Category: Reviews

Cerebral Frame in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
DiXmiX Gallery: Cerebral Fame
DiXmiX Gallery: Cerebral Frame

Currently on display at DiXmiX Gallery, is a selection of thirteen images by Isa Messioptra brought together under the title Cerebral Frame. Taken over the last year or so, the collection comprises both colour and monochrome images spread across the main and mezzanine floors of the gallery, mixing nude studies, examinations of human emotion and moments caught in time.

These are striking pieces – all of which are offered for sale by the artist – each one coming across as a scene from a much larger canvas or story. However, it is left to our imaginations to paint that larger canvas with a narrative sparked by each of the scenes we are witnessing, and so frame them.

DiXmiX Gallery: Cerebral Fame
DiXmiX Gallery: Cerebral Frame

Nor is the narrative necessarily individual to each of the pieces display. For example, displayed on the mezzanine level are four monochrome images – In The Eve, Fragrance and Thank You For The Funky Time at the top of the stairs, and Heirloom, slightly separated from them – which together suggest a common narrative might flow between them, as if each is a paragraph or chapter of an unfolding story.

From a personal standpoint, I found two pictures in particular evocatively striking:  Out Of One Comes Many (seen above) speaks volumes on the subject of composition and of self. It embodies the idea that we are never one person, but the result of multiple selves, which are capable for surfacing  at any moment, sometimes breaking through the painted exterior we are presenting to the world, offering a complete different self narrative to that we may want to project.

DiXmiX Gallery: Cerebral Fame
DiXmiX Gallery: Cerebral Frame

Above Us Only Sky (directly above) is a piece I’ve seen before, and am still struck by its richness and depth on seeing it again. Produced in colour, the opportunity for narrative it presents is  stunning. so much so that is is very easy to become lost within it as one tries to fathom what is being seen and how the mind seeing it is reacting.

This is another superb exhibition by Isa, and one not to be missed.

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The Drax Files 42: creativity and remembrance in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Jaimy Hancroft and two of her father's creation: a warnamandal, and on the wall behind her, a mirror painted by Mario
Jaimy Hancroft and two of her father’s creation: a swarmandal, and on the wall behind her, a mirror painted by Mario

Dangarnon, The Spires of Andolys, Hope’s Horizon – for anyone who loves Relay for Life of Second Life, these are the names of places which brought to life the three ems, each of them being mythical, mystical and magical. They are also places designed by sisters Jaimy Hancroft and Eowyn Swords, who together form Death Row Designs (DRD), featured in The Drax Files World Makers #42, released on Friday, December 16th.

For those who don’t attend Fantasy Faire, Jaimy, Eowyn and DRD are perhaps better know through their participation in gacha (or gatcha if you prefer) events, such as The Arcade. Through these, their items have also gained popularity in public and role-play regions. Their broken Ferris wheel, for example, can frequently be found as one travels across the grid looking for places to explore.

The DRD Arctic Express
The DRD Arctic Express

Gacha events are loved by some and a total mystery to others. Entire events are devoted to them – The Arcade, mentioned above, being perhaps the most popular / prominent.  However, for those unfamiliar with the The Drax Files World Makers #42 provides a solid introduction during its first half. But this isn’t the heart of the DRD story; that belongs firmly to the second half of the segment, in which Jaimy shares the origins of her creativity with us, which is deeply rooted in the memory of her father, Mario, and his creative influence over her.

“He could fix anything,” Jaimy says of him. “He did woodwork, he built [musical] instruments, he painted landscapes. And he also recreated famous paintings, but in miniature just with only one hair of a brush and a magnifying glass. He was the first one of us, I think, to be in Second Life.”

The Disney-like Spires of Andolys, Fantasy Faire 2015
The Disney-like Spires of Andolys, Fantasy Faire 2015

Jaimy’s own artistic talent revealed itself from an early age through art, but under her mother’s encouragement, directed her talent into cuisine, attending culinary school. As she notes, as a means of artistic expression, it is somewhat akin to other creative endeavours, taking as it does,raw ingredients to create something unique.

But it is Mario’s influence that has had the greatest impact on Jaimy’s and Eowyn’s work in Second Life, and is honoured in many ways through the goods they produce. It is also the reason they have been so deeply involved in Fantasy Faire and RFL of SL – perhaps most memorably in 2014, when Jaimy built Hope’s Horizon, inspired by Tolkien’s great city of Minas Tirith, for that year’s Fantasy Faire.

“He was a major Lord of the Rings fan,” Jaimy noted at the time, “and this was my chance to do something great to make him proud.” Anyone who visited Hope’s Horizon will acknowledge that it was inspirational in its scope, and a fabulous tribute to her father.

The citadel at the top of Hope's Horizon, built by Jaimy for the 2014 Fantasy Faire, and in memory of her late father
The citadel at the top of Hope’s Horizon, built by Jaimy for the 2014 Fantasy Faire, and in memory of her late father

It would perhaps have been nice to catch more of a glimpse of the path  Jaimy took to move from cuisine to Second Life and digital creativity, but this is really a very minor niggle. What we have here is a poignant story, told honestly and from the heart, without any overlay of pathos, told honestly and openly.

Presented in this way, the segment stands as a further tribute to Mario, as well as giving us a glimpse into Jaimy’s own warm nature and the creativity she shares with her sister. As such, it really doesn’t need a lengthy written exposition; it speaks clearly and eloquently for itself and is a fitting piece for the time of year, and with which to see out 2016.

The all new (new) portal parks open in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
New Portal Parks
New Portal Parks

Back in October 2016, Linden Lab blogged about various updates to Second Life (see here). One of the updates mentioned concerned the new two-region Portal Parks, which I wenet on to write about in a little more depth (see here).

Well – guess what? It’s all changed again!

“We made everything fit into one region again,” Naughty Mole told me as I dropped into one of the new Portal Park regions on the suggestion of Dee Linden. “These will be replacing the 2-region ones, which will be gone in a few hours.”

There is something distinctly Tolkienesque about the new parks, which offer a very compact design. At the centre is a huge tree, rooted in a massive crystal, which itself hovers gently in the air, light rising in twists and spirals around it from the glimmering water below.

New Portal Parks
New Portal Parks

Around this is a circular pathway, sitting between the rim of the pool and the great walls of an all-encompassing dome, ageist which great statues and pillars stand, feet garlanded in flowers and plants, the walls behind them set with growing ivy while crystals light the scene. Within these walls are set great doors. Some are closed, their lintels guarded by ancient runes – representing destinations still to come. Others are open, offering walkways to waiting portals, the destination displayed in glowing letters above the runes which might otherwise guard them.

All of the current Lab-provided destinations are represented: Gaming Island, Halloween Haunted, Horizons, Isle of View, Linden Realms, PaleoQuest, The Cornfield and Winter Wonderland. However, if any are not currently open to the public, their teleport portals are sealed and inactive.

New Portal Parks
New Portal Parks

Of the various portal parks designs, this is both the most compact – and potentially the best looking. A landing point built out over the central well present people with a place to sit and a map of the available portals on the surrounding walkway. Admittedly, this started to get a little crowded as people were diverted from the “old” parks – but things will hopefully settle down as both of the portal parks come into use.

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OpeRaAnxiEty: metaphor in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

MetaLES: Op[eRaAxiEty
MetaLES: OpeRaAxiEty
Now open at MetaLES, curated by Ux Hax and Romy Nayar, is OpeRaAxiEty,  by JadeYu Fang. Reached via teleport from the landing point, it presents a haunting mix of ideas and images  intended to play on our anxieties – albeit at times in the most subtle of ways (make sure you have local sounds enabled when visiting).

A misty landscape awaits visitors, across which web-like lines faintly ebb and flow and the air throbs with a steady beat, warping at times into the high-pitched beep of an electrocardiogram. These combine to offer the first play on feelings of discomfort.

In the distance, a huge structure glimmers its way into the sky, figures limned against its glow while darker shapes sit on the horizon. Closer to hand, a hill rises from the surroundings, crowned by twin human torsos atop stilt-like legs, each holding a sphere in which two more figures, back-to-back, stand surrounded by eggs as large, blood-red spiders sit on their abdomens as if about to suckle. Apparently genuflecting before this scene on the slope of the hill, is a crystal Arachne (as perhaps popularised more by fantasy than mythology).

MetaLES: Op[eRaAxiEty
MetaLES: OpeRaAxiEty
A web forms a bridge from these figures to the floating crystalline structure, its arches and general form suggesting a temple. Here, green female figures fade and form as one cams around them, bright trails of light curling and twisting around their bodies, kneel in a circle as a black arachnid female offers up eggs to a female human. Above all of this, watching, sits another crystal Arachne.

Elsewhere, human figures lie wrapped in webs, tended by more arachnids, while before the glimmering, cathedral-like structure stand three android torsos raised on great plinths. Within the arches (vaults?) of the “cathedral” white human forms float over their barbed wire doppelgängers. Flanking this, on either side, are two groups of plinth-mounted female forms, heads encased in televisions sets / computer CRTs.

MetaLES: Op[eRaAxiEty
MetaLES: OpeRaAxiEty
With the ebb and flow of the webs on the ground at this point giving way to flickering data displays (which also form the walls of the cathedral), and data wrapping itself through the misty air, OpeRaAnxiEty offers an ethereal, fascinating environment. But what might it all mean? The artist offers few clues; it is for us to create our own narrative.

To me, the arachnids are a metaphor – albeit perhaps a multi-faceted one. There is the obvious spider-as-phobia element. Many of us are put on edge on seeing spiders, and it would seem that is the intent here. But it is also true that we are by nature complex creatures;  we weave and create so much that often it can ensnare us or confuse us – hence the webs. This idea is also perhaps manifested in the armless figures with their heads encased by screens: they are helpless to prevent their total immersion in a media-driven overload of information which creates is own reality around them.

MetaLES: Op[eRaAxiEty
MetaLES: Op[eRaAxiEty
Thus, OpeRaAnxiety might offer a warning: that the unequal blending of humanity and technology may give rise to something potentially unpleasant. Hence (again) the use of arachnids and their link to images of gestation and hatching / birth (might even the heartbeat throb in the air and the ECG be indicative for new life?).

But perhaps there is also hope here as well. Might the figures floating over their barbed wire doppelgängers within the data-walled vaults of the great “cathedral” be a metaphor representing the potential for technology to yet free us from the mortal constraints  imposed by our own bodies?

OpeRaAnxiety will remain at MetaLES  into the New Year.

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A trip to Alki’s North Pole in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

North Pole at Alki, Alki; Inara Pey, December 2016, on FlickrNorth Pole at Alki, Alki – click any image for full size

“Just for fun, Zoidyn and I have built a light-hearted north pole area over Alki,” Alana Onyett informed me whilst chatting recently. “We had a little dance there, so the elves are a little busy cleaning up, poor things! But we hope you and Caitlyn can come over in your leisure time and relax. We’ll have the build up until the end of December.”

Alki is Alana and Zoidyn’s Full region which offers a lot for people to see and do. Focused on music in Second Life, it presents visitors with a rich mix of music venues, activities, a photogenic public park to wander through, rides, amusements, and much, much more (see here for notes on my last visit). It’s a place always well worth a visit, and the idea that Alana and Zoidyn were having a little seasonal fun as well have Caitlyn and I donning our woolies and jumping over to see.

North Pole at Alki, Alki; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr “Hand over your coal and carrots, and no funny moves. This hair dryer is plugged in, and I know how to use it!” North Pole at Alki, Alki

Sitting at 1500 metres above the region, the north pole area can either be reached via a teleport portal just a few metres away from the main landing point (link above) and here is also another up on the Z&A Plateau, outside the Coffee House; or visitors can use a direct landmark. Whichever route you take, you’ll be delivered to Santa’s North Pole Headquarters, a delightful mix of the quaint and the high-tech (it would seem Santa has moved into the 21st century!).

Of course there is Santa’s toy factory – housed, as one might expect, in a snow-capped cottage, complete with bay windows, sagging roof, stone walls and all. But don’t be fooled; inside things are pretty well automated, production monitored via computer. This means that most of Santa’s Little Helpers (or subordinate clauses, as I call them) can get on with more enjoyable tasks, such as putting up the decorations, baking, and, “product testing” (spelt p-l-a-y-i-n-g).

North Pole at Alki, Alki; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr North Pole at Alki, Alki

Along a cobbled footpath carefully cleared of snow, elf and safety first, after all (OK, I promise that’s the last of the elf puns), sits the rest of Santa’s operation: a sturdy 2-storey stone-and wood-building offering stables for the reindeer (and a sleigh prepping area), with the staff lounge and kitchen above. Further evidence of the high-tech nature of this operation can be seen in the form of the radar dishes on the roof, and the precisely laid-out sleigh runway on the far side of the building. There’s even a weather and communications station up in the hills!

Follow the footpath away from Santa’s operations and through the trees, and you’ll find the elves have been having fun within the circle of a little railway and penguins – presumably up on vacation from Antarctic – are also enjoying themselves.

North Pole at Alki, Alki; Inara Pey, December 2016, on Flickr “Wait. Only five reindeer? With an overloaded sleigh and an overweight, jolly pilot? Are you sure that runway is long enough?” North Pole at Alki, Alki

Fun really is the theme of this build, and Zoidyn and Alana have included a lot of little details which make exploring it carefully well worth the time (not all of them are immediately obvious). Fun can also be had by visitors, be it sledding (with an elf or alone), snowboarding, ice skating or dancing. If quieter pursuits are more your thing, there are plenty of places to sit, snuggle, relax and chat.

And when you feel you’ve seen enough of Santa’s corner of Alki, why not take the portal down to ground level? As noted towards the top of this piece, there’s a lot to be discovered – and a few things added overhead as well since our last visit – just look for the teleporters! When you visit, do please consider a donation towards the region’s upkeep.

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LeMelon and Desy at Ayuda Virtual in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
LeMelonRouge - Ayuda Virtual
LeMelonRouge – Ayuda Virtual Galleries

“We’re trying to show new people much of what is possible in Second Life,” Damian Zhaoying informed me. “As part of that, we want to promote art and music. We’ve already held recitals by Latin singers – Merkabah Oh, for example.”

“Art must be present in the new user experience,” Mona (MonaByte) added, “It’s an important strand of Second Life.”

Desy Magic - Ayuda Virtual
Desy Magic – Ayuda Virtual Galleries

We were standing in the foyer of one of two galleries spaces hosted by the Ayuda Virtual Community Gateway, which has been designed specifically for Spanish-speaking people around the world, and which is part of the Lab’s Community Gateway programme.  Both Damian and Mona are prime movers behind the project, and our conversation came about after I dropped into the region to see the art space – which is curated by Mona – after artist Storie’s Helendale (GitterprincessDestiny) pointed me towards it.

Two artists are currently on display within the galleries: LeMelonRouge (LeMelonRouge Onyett) – aka Francesc Palomas – and Desy Magic. They present very contrasting exhibitions which illustrate the breadth of 2D art potential in Second Life, whilst also touching on 3D art in-world as well.

LeMelonRouge - Ayuda Virtual
LeMelonRouge – Ayuda Virtual Galleries

In one, LeMelon displays BCN, LON, NYC, a selection of his physical world paintings of the cities of Barcelona, London and New York.  Presented in bold, striking colours, the paintings show street scenes, parks, public walkways and café views, their rich colouring perfectly capturing the vibrant nature of all three cities. For me, and having spent more time in them than I have Barcelona (which I’ve only visited the once 😦 ), both London and New York are instantly recognisable, and not just because of their respective taxi cabs! I’ve wandered through Camden Market often enough to instantly identify it, even without the sign, while Piccadilly Circus and Brewer Street are unmistakable, as is New York’s Times Square.

The second gallery space is exhibiting Desy’s art, which features both 2D and 3D pieces. The former are primarily avatar studies presented in a range of styles and finishes, from “straightforward” portrait style studies through nudes to abstract works. Again the use of colour is vivid and striking, with the images amply demonstrating what can be achieved when using SL as a medium for artistic creativity. Also on display are a number of 3D works, at least two of which are prim-based, with all of them further demonstrating the versatility of the platform for creating / displaying sculpture-based art.

Desy Magic - Ayuda Virtual
Desy Magic – Ayuda Virtual Galleries

Including art within a Community Gateway is a welcome idea, and I was pleased to hear from Damian and Mona that Ayuda Virtual consider art – visual and performance – as an important aspect of Second life which should be showcased to new users. Which should not be taken to mean the Ayuda gallery spaces and these two exhibitions are intended just for new users coming into SL through the gateway. Both are richly expressive, are open to visit by anyone – and are worth taking the time to see.

I’ll be covering more on Ayuda Virtual at a future date, as there is a lot to see within the region.

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Ayuda Virtual Galleries (Ayuda Virtual, rated: General)