Category: Reviews

Metamorphosis: looking through the eyes of Escher

Posted on by Inara Pey
Metamorphosis - Beq Janus
Metamorphosis – Beq Janus

Beq Janus is an artist clearly inspired by the work of Maurits Cornelis (M. C.) Escher. For RFL of SL 2013, she produced models of  Waterfall and Tower of Babel. In 2014, she offered Metamorphosis, inspired by Escher’s pieces of the same name, and which included additional influences and themes drawn from Escher’s life, as a symbol of the promise as we journey towards a cure for cancer.

Now Metamorphosis is now back, located over the Quarry Hill region of New Babbage, and it is a veritable masterpiece of art, rich in symbolism as well as capturing so many elements and nuances of Escher’s work – and also, if one looks around, Beq’s previous Ecsher-inspired builds.

Metamorphosis - Beq Janus
Metamorphosis – Beq Janus

The most prominent influence from Escher in the piece, as Beq notes, is that of the artist’s 1939 wood print Metamorphosis II. However, elements of both Metamorphosis I and Metamorphosis II can also be found. Also evident, again reflecting Escher’s work and the influences in his life, are elements of the little Italian town of Atrani – most notably the church and surrounding houses.

“Recreating a two dimensional work in three dimensions has its challenges, and more so when the work is deliberately faking the third dimension,” Beq notes of the challenges in bringing Escher’s work into the digital realm. But there are also opportunities, as she also notes, “it also gives you freedom to play with the unseen areas. I have tried to make the sim explorable, with tunnels and caves that lead you through the rocks, past stalactites and back round into the central square. I am sure that there are places I have not intended to make still waiting to be found.”

Metamorphosis - Beq Janus
Metamorphosis – Beq Janus

As such, this is a fascinating build to explore, one filled with many paths one might follow through it, originally intended as a reflection of the RFL of SL 2014 theme of journeys; both the global journey towards finding the ways and means to eradicate cancer from our lives, and the individual journey those of us afflicted by cancer, or who support those struck by cancer, take in dealing with the disease. In fact, one might also say the installation resonates with this year’s RFL theme as well; offering us a walk through art inspired by the past as we look to the future and a world without cancer.

This is also a build which makes fascinating use of light and shadow, encouraging the visitor to experiment with windlights, sun position and the camera.

Metamorphosis - Beq Janus
Metamorphosis – Beq Janus

If you didn’t get to see Metamorphosis last year (which I sadly didn’t), I cannot recommend a visit to Quarry Hill highly enough.

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Caladan: tranquility in an Indian garden

Posted on by Inara Pey

Caladan, Forever Dreams; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr Caladan (Flickr) – click any image for full size

Morgana Carter alerted me to Caladan, a stunning garden build by Antinéa (Antinea Torok), after she spotted Goizane Latzo’s photos of the garden over on the Bitacora blog. Although intended to showcase Antinéa’s parcel and sim design skills, the garden is open to visitors as a place to visit, presenting a beautiful and tranquil setting to be explored and enjoyed at leisure.

The arrival point, to one side the the parcel and sitting atop a small plateau area, offers seating and refreshments for visitors, with a small ice cream kiosk and accompanying trolley, making it a delightful little meeting place it is own right. However, a paved footpath leads the way down from it, inviting visitor to descend and explore, offering a view across open water to a off-sim extension as they do so, its position giving the impression that one is looking out over a broad, slow-flowing river, bordered on the far bank by high cliffs and foothills, tall waterfalls dropping down their flanks.

Caladan, Forever Dreams; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr Caladan (Flickr)

Continue onwards along the path and it gives way to a grassy steps, leading down to a waterside walk which gracefully arcs between the river and a wooded copse filled with the colour of summer flowers, a tall grey stone wall just beyond it, hinting at something yet to be discovered.

Follow the path as it curls around the copse, and it will bring you to the wall – or more correctly, to a heavy wooden door set into the wall. Beyond this lies a beautifully designed garden, a place which could have been lifted from India or perhaps Sri Lanka, such is its design. As you enter, to one sits a tall blue-walled house, and to the other, facing the house, a cool summer pavilion. Long pools of water with tall fountains lie between the two. Footpaths, gently lit by tiny lights set into their bounding kerbs, offer the way around and between the pools and link house to pavilion.

Caladan, Forever Dreams; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr Caladan (Flickr)

The detail here makes Caladan a delight to the eye; flowers bloom, peacocks strut, butterflies circle over flowers and sunlight slants its way through the shade of trees to one side of the garden, opposite the wall, where the ground rises sharply beyond, providing a natural barrier to the rest of the world.

This is a place not only to be seen, but savoured. Birds sing, the splash and hiss of fountains their accompaniment, while the summertime look and feel becomes a balm which encourages relaxation, be it within the pavilion or inside the coolness of the house (which is open to the public).

Caladan, Forever Dreams; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr Caladan (Flickr)

Featuring content and designs from a number of designers and merchants, and with plenty of opportunities for simply sitting and relaxing (or cuddling) as well as for photography, Caladan offers a tranquil respite from the hustle and bustle of Second Life; you can even partake of a little yoga to help cleanse mind and spirit while visiting!

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Caladan (Rated: Moderate)

A City, inside and out

Posted on by Inara Pey
City Inside Out, LEA 20
City Inside Out, LEA 20

Officially opening at 13:00 SLT  on Thursday, March 26th at the LEA, is Haveit Neox’s newest full region installation, City Inside Out.  It’s a breath-taking and, at first look, bewildering build, huge in size, confusing in complexity and powerful in narrative.

The simplest way to describe the theme of the installation is to take the description from About Land:

Walking into any interior reveals only exteriors. The sense of personal space is absent. How is a city experienced when there are no comforts for the soul, no home?

City Inside Out, LEA 20
City Inside Out, LEA 20

The description of the build, found close to the landing point adds a little more detail:

To someone without a home living on the streets, the bustling city becomes one united exterior. “City Inside Out”, explores a world that lacks interiors. Some pedestrians throw coins into the beggars’ hats, others bark insults to their faces. Joggers, dog walkers, groups of boisterous friends, clean people in new clothes, romantic couples, cell phone conversations, shiny traffic, wash their daily tides of health and prosperity past the homeless.

And thus the world around us starts to take shape: this is a city we’re asked to see through the eyes of the homeless, the dispossessed; those who have nowhere to be, nowhere to go. For these people, the city is a very different place to the one we know. It’s a place where everything is strange, alien, and threatening. A place bad enough in daylight, but as Haveit further explains, becomes much, much worse at night…

City Inside Out, LEA 20
City Inside Out, LEA 20

Late each night, the people living on the streets are confronted by another kind of crowd, dangerous as the sharp knife and gun. They are defenceless, even within their own bodies. Sensations abound, prickly as lice and poisonous insect infested clothing, blurry as sight without glasses, with ringing ears of imaginary voices, and resignation to untreated illness. The survival test is administered without consideration for those who will see the next day.

Armed with this narrative, it is possible to make your way down and through the installation, crossing bridges, descending ladders and – in places – flying – and see various elements and aspects as they are meant to be seen: as a frightened, forgotten nameless … lurker … in a city were “ordinary” life passes one either side of you and renders you invisible. A place where, when you are noticed, it can feel terrifying or threatening.

City Inside Out, LEA 20
City Inside Out, LEA 20

Witness, for example,  the portrayal of the man taking his dog(s) for a walk; is it really a pack of hounds he’s struggling to control, is is that home the mind of the lost, homeless individual conceives it, when in fact to the rest of us, it is simply one man and his dog? And, nearby, look how the figure dropping small change down towards you literally towers over you, massive hand outstretched, face a mask…

Then there are the horrors of the night and of living and sleeping rough, portrayed in nightmare images of bottles and guns and more with insectoid legs climbing towards you, or seemingly skittering around or even looming over you; parasitical, ready to suck the life from you.

City Inside Out, LEA 20
City Inside Out, LEA 20

If all this sounds dark, it’s not; there is a magnificence about this build that is enthralling – and such is its size, I doubt a single visit will suffice to appreciate it all. Time is needed to explore the various levels, the heights and depths and to appreciate all the imagery and metaphor that is layered throughout this amazing city. And do be prepared to play with your camera position and rotation; this is a city where gravity knows no constant in places.

From high in the air to below the water, City Inside Out is an incredible build from an incredible architect of cities of the mind. Not to be missed.

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Returning to a Second Life watercolour

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Trace Too; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr) – click any image for full size

Almost a year ago, I finally got around to blogging about Kylie Jaxxon’s delightful homestead region, The Trace, having featured it a number of times in snapshots without actually writing about it. At the time, the region was presented as one of the most extraordinarily natural reaches of coastline I’ve seen in Second Life; so much so that while blogging, I referred to it as a watercolour, such was the beauty of the design and presentation.

Unfortunately, health matters intervened, forcing Kylie to abandon The Trace at the end of 2014 for health reasons; but there is no unhappy ending here, rather the reverse. Kylie is once again focused on Second Life, and she has once again been putting her eye and talent to work on designing a new region. This is called, appropriately enough, The Trace Too, and also fittingly, it once again presents a stunning coastal landscape, echoing the spring glory once seen at The Trace. Which is not to say it is in any way “just” a reproduction of the original’s appearance from a year ago; far from it!

The Trace Too; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr) – click any image for full size

The Trace Too offers visitors a splendid beach area, the tide apparently in a state of retreat  leaving the wet sand exposed under a spring afternoon’s sun, and in places still waterlogged. A lone wooden pier rises from the edge of the receding water, reached by a series of heavy wood logs to which planks have been nailed to form crude bridges over the more permanent pools of water left in the sand.

Behind these sandy flats, the island proper rises, slopes protected from any ravages from  the sea by huge boulders and rocks. Flat-topped, the island is home to a row of beach houses and a small lighthouse, the sand around them sprinkled with tough grass and a gentle tide of bluebells that surge and sway in the breeze. A path cuts through the flowers, running down to another beach which stretches away toward distant waters, the sand here dry and fine, a small caravan park testament to the fact the sea doesn’t encroach here.

The Trace Too; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr) – click any image for full size

With the surrounding offshore islands, it’s not hard to imagine this to be somewhere on the New England coast; indeed, with a little more grass to cover the ground, I could well imagine it being somewhere on the Scottish coast, looking out over the waters of the Atlantic at some of the inner islands. As it is, while walking the beach, I was put in mind of the long summer time walks I’ve enjoyed along the sands below Bambrough Castle in Northumberland, even if large offshore islands are not common in the waters of the North Sea there…

There are plenty of places to sit to be found throughout the region, all of them offering calming views of the sea, and many to be enjoyed as a group as well as individually or as a couple, making The Trace Too an ideal rendezvous when meeting friends. Rezzing is open for those wishing to pull a few props out of their inventory for photography, but do please remember to pick things up after yourself! Should you enjoy your visit, please do consider showing your appreciation for Kylie’s work through one of the tip cans which can be found at various points across the island.

The Trace Too; Inara Pey, March 2015, on Flickr The Trace Too (Flickr) – click any image for full size

As you may gather, The Trace Too is wonderfully evocative and atmospheric, and definitely somewhere you’ll want to visit if you haven’t done so already. And when you do, please make sure to have local sounds enabled to catch the hiss of the tide and the plaintive cries of gulls, many of which can be found circling and gathering in the north-east corner of the region, and all of which adds further depth to the experience.

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Sparkys: colour my world

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sparkys - Romy Nayar
Sparkys – Romy Nayar

Now open at MetaLES is Romy Nayar’s brilliant Sparkys, quite possibly the most engaging art installations to be seen in Second Life so far this year – and one quite possibly set to remain so in people’s minds. It’s an immersive, interactive piece which offers charm and fun to visitors – although it’s worthwhile taking your time to explore, or you might miss out on the major interactive element.

Visitors arrive in a land formed of greyscales. Colour seems to by almost entirely absent; tall slits, hinting at something overhead, rise from the surrounding grey/white water lapping at one’s ankles; a single set of step leading upwards to… nowhere, it would seem. However, climb the steps and an elevator will descend, offering you passage upwards to a multi-level town, precariously balanced atop the high stilts.

Sparkys - Romy Nayar
Sparkys – Romy Nayar

Houses, shops, stations, restaurants, parks: all sit at differing heights, all connected by various means: railway train, balloons, rickety-looking walkways, fragile seeming bridges, elevators – all of which make the act of exploring the town a joy in itself. For the daring, there’s even the opportunity to grab hold of the legs of a young man who has invented his own little gyrocopter, and ride with him as he flits back and forth between one house and another, the latter (I’m guessing) that of his log suffering mother, who keeps her attention square on sweeping the front path, rather than offering him encouragement in his madcap adventures.

As you wander this grey world, you’ll likely start to notice that some of the local residents are experimenting with paintbrushes, attempting to add a little colour here and there. This is because one enterprising young man has discovered the titular Sparky’s, bee-like creature that produce paint, which he is collecting, and (again, I’m guessing), his mother is making available to the townsfolk. The problem is, of course, that colour is a new concept here, so the locals aren’t entirely sure what should go where…

Sparkys - Romy Nayar
Sparkys – Romy Nayar

This is where visitors can help. Find your way to the little old lady operating a small market stall, and you can obtain a paint HUD. Join the group listed in the note card accompanying the HUD (just copy / paste the group link into local chat and click on it) and you’ll be able to help paint the world yourself, simply by selecting options in the HUD menu and then going to mouselook and   left-clicking / dragging the cursor.

Get your position and draw distance right, and a lot of fun can be had. don’t worry about spoiling the environment – all the paint is prim-based and will “dissolve” after a while, although if a lot of people are slapping paint around, you might find prim limits are hit and have to wait a while for things to clear.

Sparkys - Romy Nayar
Sparkys – Romy Nayar

All told, Sparkys, as mentioned, is one of the most delightful, engaging and fun installations currently in Second Life, and will be open to explore through March and April. Do take your time when exploring, and be sure to cam around a lot – every platform has a little story to tell (complete with local sounds), which further adds to the delight and fun.

Sparkys - Romy Nayar
Sparkys – Romy Nayar

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Moving islands: the movie

Posted on by Inara Pey

Moving Islands [Rafts], a round 5 AIR entrant, 2013/14, curated by Eupalinos Ugajin
Moving Islands [Rafts], a round 5 AIR entrant,conceived and curated by Eupalinos Ugajin, 2013/14
From late 2013 through early 2014, LEA 20 played host to Moving Islands [Rafts], a collaborative art installation, conceived and organised by Eupalinos Ugajin, and which involved more than than 24 artists from across SL.

The task set for each participating artist was to create a piece that freely interprets the central theme of moving islands or rafts.  Derek Michelson provided assistance with scripting and Takio Ra with sounds. The result was a collection of remarkable pieces which were eclectic, quirky, fun, different, provocative, interactive, and more, and which grew and changed through the run of the installation, as Eupa invited different artists to add works, swapped things around, and so on.

Moving Islands [Rafts], a round 5 AIR entrant in 2013/14, curated by Eupalinos Ugajin; seen here: Maya Paris' contribution
Moving Islands [Rafts], a round 5 AIR entrant, conceived and curated by Eupalinos Ugajin, 2013/14
Indeed such was the depth of the installation,  which also enfolded a further collaboration between Eupa and Ole Etzel entitled In The Belly of The Whale, I don’t think my coverage of Moving Islands [Rafts] really did justice to it.

This being the case, I was delighted when Eupa tapped me in-world to let me know there’s now an official video of the project available. I’ve taken the liberty of embedding it here – but do be sure to watch it in all it glory of Eupa’s channel as well. At just under 22.5 minutes in length, it is not short, but like the installation itself, it is an absolute delight to watch, complete with quirky sound track and sound effects which perfectly match to tone and feel of the actual installation.