Category: Reviews

Transcending Borders: final weeks

Posted on by Inara Pey

Transcending Borders, the UWA’s combined Art and Machinima Challenge which offers a combined prize pool of over L$1,000,000 to entrants, plus L$240,000 in audience participation prizes, is reaching the final couple of weeks before the deadline for submissions is reached on October 31st.

The challenge presented by Transcending Borders is for entrants to interpret the title of the competition in any fashion they deem applicable, and produce an artwork or film based on their interpretation. For example, it might refer to transcending borders between space and time, or the past and present or the present and future; or it might refer to the divisions between dimensions, real and virtual; or it might be used to explore the borders separating nations or cultures or languages; or it might involve any or all of these ideas, and more – such as the many borders we encounter as we navigate our physical and virtual lives.

Jipe Loon's Baculum Murder, a piece the artist suggests has many interpretations: physcial transcendence; spiritual transcendence; genetic transcendence, and more - you determine what it may mean to you
Jipe Loon’s Baculum Murder, a piece the artist suggests has many interpretations: physcial transcendence; spiritual transcendence; genetic transcendence, and more – you determine what it may mean to you (click for full size)

Art pieces submitted to the competition should not exceed 150 Land Impact, and should preferably by submitted with COPY permissions, and art entries are limited to one per entrant, while machinima entries should preferably be no more than 4 minutes and 30 seconds in length, although this is not a “hard” rule, and there is no limit to the number of items an entrant can submit.

The first prize in each category is L$100,000, with a number of runner-up and prize category prizes as well, as detailed in the original UWA blog post on the challenge. Winners will be determined by an invited jury of academics, SL business people, journalists, bloggers, artists and writers.

Tutsy Navarathna’s “MetaPhore – Transcending Borders” – one of the machinima entries in this year’s Transcending Borders UWA Art and Machinima challenge

And if that is not enough, there are also audience participation prizes available as a well (a total of L$135,000 for participating in the art section and a total of L$105,000 in the machinima section).  All you have to do is list your personal Top Ten entries in either the art or the machinima sections of the challenge (or both!). Prizes will be awarded to audience members whose top 10 lists most closely align to the final juried top 10. Keep your eyes on the UWA blog for details on how to enter.

Ama Avro's "Utopia" focuses on communications
Ama Avro’s “Utopia” focuses on communications (click for full size)

Art entries can be viewed now at the UWA’s gallery space, while machinima entries can be viewed on the Transcending Borders page at SL Artist.com. Please remember that submissions will continue to be added to both locations through until the closing date for entries on October 31st, 2014.

(Spiral Silverstar’s “Transcending (Surreal) Borders” – one of the machinima entries in this year’s Transcending Borders UWA Art and Machinima challenge

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Note: the images and machinima included in this item should not be taken as any indication of my personal preferences as a member of the  Transcending Borders jury. They are included purely for the purposes of illustrating this article.

The Haunted Halloween Tour

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Haunted Halloween Tour, launched with the October Premium Membership offer
The Haunted Halloween Tour, launched with the October Premium Membership offer (click images for full size)

Launched alongside the October 2014 Premium Membership offer, but available to all SL users, is the Haunted Halloween Tour, the latest offering from the Lab to feature Experience Keys, and one that appears to be specifically geared towards the Oculus Rift.

The tour can be accessed via the Lab’s Portal Park – simply go through the gate marked “Halloween” following your arrival. The path will lead you to the access point, with gateways available for those with and those without an Oculus headset (the latter obviously requiring the Oculus Rift project viewer).

Whichever one you take (the actual tours are more-or-less the same), the first time you do so, you’ll be required to grant the experience the right to carry out certain actions on your avatar (perhaps most noticeably in this case, control your camera). Once you have done so, you’ll be transported to the experience area, where you’ll be invited to take a tour of a veritable house of horror.

Shaman Linden was one of those I found hanging around when taking the tour...
Shaman Linden was one of those I found hanging around when taking the tour…

This is achieved by seating yourself in your very own coffin, which will take control of your camera and shift your view to something of a “first person” perspective. After a brief pause, you’ll then ascend a hillside stairway through thunder and rain to the house itself before (literally) plunging inside.

I shan’t reveal much of what lies inside the house, other than given the theme, expect the usual mix of screams, bumps, ghouls, body parts and so on – and if you’re very lucky the odd Linden and / or Mole or two, some of whom might be there to menace, while others might be simply …. hanging around.

This is very much an Experience geared towards the Oculus Rift, with the coffin allowing the awkwardness of trying to navigate oneself through the house while wearing one eliminated (and which also ensures you keep to the designated path). As such, the ride does feature a lot of things rushing at you (heads, knife-welding asylum patients and so on), and well as sudden panning, zooming and tipping to add to the experience.

For those with an Oculus, I expect this does work rather well; I’m just not sure the approach works when taking the “non-Oculus” version of the ride. This isn’t to critique the Lab for providing an Oculus focused experience; they’ve put time and effort into getting the viewer to work with the headset and so a demonstrator is only right and proper. It’s just that it leaves the tour somewhat dry if you don’t have a headset. Or at least it did for me – I confess found myself admiring the use of materials and projectors far more than anything else as I was carried around the place!

Inside the happy house ...
Inside the happy house …

Oh, and a word of warning to those on the non-Oculus ride: it might be an idea not to try to cam around too much in order to take snaps – on two occasions when I did, I found myself chucked out of my coffin and returned to the arrival / start point below the house …

Overall, the ride lasts for around 8 minutes, and at the end of it, on stepping out of your coffin, you’ll be returned to the Portal Park (as you will be if you stand up at any point during the ride).

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More than Just Another Tequila Sunrise

Posted on by Inara Pey

Just Another Tequilla Sunrise, Isle of Love; Inara Pey, October 2014, on FlickrJust Another Tequila Sunrise, Isle of Love (Flickr)

I was led to Just Another Tequilla Sunrise by Kate Bergdorf, who mentioned it in her blog recently. A homestead region, it is currently painted in rich autumnal colours which make it an absolute delight to visit on these (for those of us in the UK at least), damp and dreary days.

The work of SL photographer Arol Lightfoot, the region’s name is a perfect reflection of its look and feel under the default windlight (although I admittedly used others when taking my own snaps).  Photographers are warmly invited to explore and take pictures, and Arol has created a Flickr group where images can be shared, if people wish.

Just Another Tequilla Sunrise, Isle of Love; Inara Pey, October 2014, on FlickrJust Another Tequila Sunrise, Isle of Love (Flickr)

For those who explore SL a lot, there are a number of familiar motifs here – the offshore lighthouse, the craggy upthrust of a rocky plateau, the low-laying lands broken by bodies of water, the sweeping white curve of a beach… Which is not to say that Just Another Tequila Sunrise is in any way derivative; quite the reverse in fact. In a world where people are limited in how they can take an island 256 metres on a side and blend it into the surrounding sea, it is inevitable that regions come to share familiar elements while still retaining their own individuality from one another.

More than this, however, is the fact that such familiar elements within individual region designs help to give a feeling of continuity as one travels through SL. When encountered, they can help make individual islands feel as if they are different elements of the same country or coastline, rather than being individual places, more-or-less standing on their own.

Just Another Tequilla Sunrise, Isle of Love; Inara Pey, October 2014, on FlickrJust Another Tequila Sunrise, Isle of Love (Flickr)

Two areas of habitation mark the island. On the west sits a small farm, the ribbon of a lake reaching almost to the front door of the house. To the east, and built out over one of the two beaches, sits a wooden pier topped by a sun-bleached house. Between them the low-lying grasslands offer plenty of space to wander, with places for individuals, couples and groups to sit and enjoy the surroundings. Bridges, both stone and wooden, allow easy passage over the water, and a path cut into the rock guides those so minded to the top of the southern plateau.

With the sounds of nature throughout and birds wheeling overhead, Just Another Tequila Sunrise is, as noted above, an absolute delight to visit, and guaranteed to brighten the dreariest of days. Highly recommended.

Just Another Tequilla Sunrise, Isle of Love; Inara Pey, October 2014, on FlickrJust Another Tequila Sunrise, Isle of Love (Flickr)

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Art in a box

Posted on by Inara Pey
Art in a Box: Playful Dweller
Art in a Box: Playful Dweller

Holtwaye ArtSpace is fast becoming a regular destination for me. Since its launch in June by WayneNZ and Holter Rez, it has been the home of a series of eye-catching exhibits both in the main gallery space – beautifully designed by Waynenz – at ground level, and more recently in the air over it.

Joining How’s the Water? by Eupalinos Ugajin, which appeared above the gallery in September, is a new skyborne installation by Waynenz. Entitled Art in a Box. It’s a couple of wonderfully whimsical pieces which reflect the artist’s playful side; both are, as the name implies, pieces of art created in two giant cardboard boxes.

Art in a Box: Boxed Clouds
Art in a Box: Boxed Clouds

The first features a woodland scene, called Playful Dweller. This comprises woodland images covering the inside surfaces of a box, together with a 3D element of shrubs and ferns, with rabbits playing around a fallen branch. Two trees grow from boxes placed on either side of the main scene, while the picture at the back of the box features Waynez himself, blowing bubbles, which form a further 3D element in the scene as they float overhead. Touch some of these, and you’ll find yourself posed within them, becoming part of the piece. Or if you prefer, you can sit at the little tea-table, bedecked with flowers  and ferns, and around which butterflies circle and fireflies drift.

The second piece is Boxed Clouds and features a painted sky scene through which flies a Godlike Waynenz. Floating within the confines of the box are a number of cubic clouds, rotating slowly and blending perfectly with the 2D cube clouds floating beneath the image of Waynenz to create a feeling of depth to the piece.  This item is also interactive – touch the cubes and you’ll find yourself floating among them.

Art in a Box: Wild Things
Art in a Box: Wild Things

Art in a Box opened on October 4th with tea party, the remnants of which form a third display as Wild Things playing cards fall from another giant box, each one featuring an image of an avatar (friends of Waynenz and Holter, I presume), with a house of cards standing before it, the checkerboard floor under them forming the perfect transitional element between Boxed Clouds and Playful Dweller.

All told, a delightful installation.

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ART for you: bid for an actor to give you a command performance

Posted on by Inara Pey

ART-logoFrom now through until Friday, November 7th, the Avatar Repertory Theatre is holding a very special auction, the proceeds of which will go towards meeting the company’s running costs.

As one of the oldest theatre companies within Second Life, the Avatar Repertory Theatre (ART) operates from their theatre in Cookie, and has been at the forefront of bringing  diverse, live theatre to a widening audience through virtual performances.

Productions have included first-time realisations of works by living playwrights, through to major immersive productions such as their own adaptations of the classic Greek Drama Oedipus Rex and the works of Lewis Carroll via Alice in WonderSLand and Through the Looking Glass. In addition, the company’s theatre has played host to many and varied events and performances, including Seanchai Library’s The War of the Worlds, which I reviewed during its initial run in 2011).

However, while operating a theatre company in a virtual world is a lot more cost-effective than doing so in the physical world, it is by no means free. Tier and other costs need to be continuously met. The Shakespeare By Request Auction offers Second Life residents the opportunity to bid for a member of the Avatar Repertory Theatre company to perform a selection from the works of William Shakespeare, with all money raised through the winning bids going directly into meeting ART’s ongoing costs. Bidders can be specific or as general as they like in their choice of the piece to be performed, by:

  • Simply indicating the play they want, and let the actor find something from it, or
  • Choosing a specific scene from a specific play, or
  • Requesting a favourite monologue that they’ve always wanted to hear their chosen actor perform.
The Avatar Repertory Theatre Company's reproduction of the Globe Theatre in Second Life
The Avatar Repertory Theatre Company’s reproduction of the Globe Theatre in Second Life

Winning bidders will have a week to finalise their choice following the ending of the bidding period on Friday, November 7th, 2014, and will be invited to attend the performances at the Company’s popular Plays Around event scheduled for Friday, November 21st at 17:00 SLT, at the company’s theatre.

To place a bid, visit the patio area outside of the theatre building, where you’ll find bidding panels for the actors participating in Shakespeare By Request. Simply touch the board for the actor of your choice and make your bid. If you’d like to sample the company’s work before you place a bid, you can do so by attending one of the company’s Plays Around performances scheduled for Friday, October 21st and Friday, November 7th, both at 17:00 SLT.

place your bids for Shakespeare By Request
place your bids for Shakespeare By Request

ART is a programme run by New Media Arts, Inc, a registered 501 (c) (3) tax exempt non-profit organization in the United States, which has recently released its first Go Fund Me Video in support of their mission to develop graphical, theatrical, literary, educational, library and other fine and practical arts on the internet, in 3D graphical user interfaces, multimedia, new generation computing devices, and other electronic and digital communication media.

further information on ART can be found at the Avatar Repertory Theatre company’s website and via  Facebook and Google+.

In the palace garden

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sansouci Park
Sansouci Park

Sanssouci Park is an airborne recreation of Frederick the Great’s 18th century villa-like summer palace, Sanssouci (from the French sans souci, “without worry”).

Located in Potsdam, Germany, the palace was the Prussian king’s summer retreat, and formed the centrepiece of a major series buildings, gardens, water features (not all of the latter successful) and parklands making up Sanssouci Park which Frederick the Great established and Frederick William IV later expanded. The palace, based on drawings by the king himself, was initially realised by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, and is regarded as one of the most important work of Northern German rococo architecture, also referred to as “Frederician Rococo”, as developed by von Knobelsdorff.

Sansouci Park
Sansouci Park

The version in Second Life is the work of Claire-Sophie de Rocoulle (tjay007 Resident), who has sought to recreate the vineyard terraces, the facade of the summer palace (with a small interior set), together with some of the formal gardens. A small commercial area, screened from the gardens and terraces by trees and hedgerows offers a range of stores selling period items to suit the setting of the location, and under these is an exhibition hall providing more background information on the original palace and grounds, and the times in which it was built. Also on display here are photo comparisons between Claire-Sophie’s build and the original – which serve to show the care taken in trying to offer an accurate reproduction.

The garden is home of various role-play events suitable for the period of the park’s heyday (and which include balls, picnics, etc.). Information on specific events is available through the Sanssouci Gardens RP Group, while a note card giver located in the foyer area outside the exhibition hall outlines requirements for play – most of which appears to be casual. Those wishing to hold their own (presumably period) events on the park are invited to contact either Claire-Sophie or Sofia von Essen (HHdoctorRaven Resident).

Sansouci Park
Sansouci Park

For those who wish to explore the park in costume, free clothing and wigs are also available in the foyer area outside the exhibition hall, as is a teleporter to the Charlottenburg Palace ballroom, the venue for role-play balls.

If hunts are of interest to you, the park offers one of its own. Simply locate 15 of the jewels scattered around the garden and terraces to claim the prize. Those who enjoy a little fencing can also enjoy themselves in one of the shaded alcoves to one side of the gardens.

If you’re looking for an 18th century period setting for a photo shoot, or simply enjoy exploring historical recreations in SL, then a visit to Sanssouci Park might be worth your while.

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