Category: Reviews

A Petrovsky Flux to continue

Posted on by Inara Pey

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014 by Inara PeyA Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

Back at the start of April 2014, and following Ziki’s lead, I wrote about A Petrovsky Flux, the amazing living installation created by Cutea Benelli and blotto Epsilon and curated by the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.

At the time I originally covered the piece, there was some confusion over whether or not the Flux would be able to continue at the Spencer Art Museum. This being the case, I opted to write to Stephen Goddard, the Spencer’s Associate Director/Senior Curator of Prints & Drawings on the matter, in order to better understand where the problems lie, and what, if anything could be done to help in ensuring the Flux could remain open.

As a result of that contact, and as I indicated in my original post, it appeared that any decisions on the future of the Flux appeared to reside largely with Cutea and blotto (both of whom indicated through other channels that they’d like to see the piece continue), and the Spencer Art Museum.

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014 by Inara PeyA Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

It’s taken a little bit of time for the rest of the pieces to fall into place, but Stephen has e-mailed both Ziki and myself with the following update:

We will be able to keep Petrovsky going, thanks to good communication and clarity with Linden Lab and to the generosity of those who have been contributing to the tip jar near the landing point  … I’ve decided to just have the one tip jar near the rest of our propaganda so as not to muck up the experience any more than that. I’ll send along any updates about changes to the sim. Again, many thanks for your support. Let me know if you have ideas for events on the sim.

So it looks like A Petrovsky Flux is now set to continue in its accustomed home, complete with an updated tip jar (the total can now be reset each month). I’m personally glad that this did get sorted out OK, as the piece really is a staple of Second Life and quite amazing to witness.

If you’ve not visited it before, now’s the time to do so, and by tipping the jar, you’ll be helping to ensure this piece continues to be enjoyed by Second Life residents in future months and years.

My thanks to Stephen for the update.

A Petrovsky Flux, April 2014 by Inara PeyA Petrovsky Flux, April 2014

Related Links

 

A Starfall at Twilight

Posted on by Inara Pey

Starfall's Twilight's Edge, April 2014 by Inara PeyStarfall’s Twilight’s Edge, April 2014

I came across Starfall’s Twilight’s Edge after poking my nose into Caminante De Suenos, which I’m prone to do from time-to-time. The region caught my eye due to its use of water – regular readers of this blog know I’m always fascinated by such regions, so having a relatively quiet couple of hours on an Easter Monday afternoon ahead of an Open-source Developer Meeting, I jumped over to take a look.

A homestead region, Starfall’s Twilight’s Edge is maintained by the Starfall Creative Group, who describe themselves as, “a  group of avatars dedicated promoting the artistic growth of virtual world art and communing on a full-sim co-op dedicated to virtual world art in all its forms.” Their description of the region goes on:

We have voice performance nights with poetry/ live music/ readings/ particle shows weekly – individual particle artists and group events scheduled. All we ask in return is that you help others grow in their art.  We promote artistic endeavors and do not criticize individual efforts. Thank you &  Welcome!  

Starfall's Twilight's Edge, April 2014 by Inara PeyStarfall’s Twilight’s Edge, April 2014

This is very much a region of two parts and hidden secrets. One arrives in the watery environment designed by group members Nezzy (inez pennell) and imp (cinderr resident). Overhead is a burnished sky. Rocks and denuded trees form the major elements of the landscape, forming several distinct areas. Alongside some of these sit tall wooden enclosures or low wooden platforms with space to sit and relax. Here and there, hardy grass pokes its head above the water, and around the outer reaches of the region stand a number of trees looking somewhat healthier than those sharing space with the rocks. Off in the north-west corner sits a tall, flat-topped rocky outcrop, where sits a mud house and an open-air live performance area.

Starfall's Twilight's Edge, April 2014 by Inara PeyStarfall’s Twilight’s Edge, April 2014

If all this sounds desolate, don’t be fooled. The minimalist approach is highly effective and gives the region a pleasing look and feel, while the various little groups of rocks and trees offers one or more art pieces by the likes of Weno Xeno, Garvie Garzo and Andred Qinan, waiting to be discovered as one explores.

At the centre of the region sit two oversize Koi carp, marking the entrance to the second half of the region – the underwater gardens. Here can be found some of Elicio Ember’s remarkable creations, as well as other flora by Imp and others, together with ancient, flooded ruins and more, inviting exploration.

Starfall's Twilight's Edge, April 2014 by Inara PeyStarfall’s Twilight’s Edge, April 2014

Keep an eye out for the notice board at ground level as well; not only does it include a greeting for visitors to the region, it also provides the means to reach a couple of the hidden secrets up in the sky.

Those wishing to keep abreast of events run by the Starlight Creative Group or who wish to have rezzing rights in the region, are invited to join the group. The latter are asked to kindly make sure they collect their prims after use.

Starfall's Twilight's Edge, April 2014 by Inara PeyStarfall’s Twilight’s Edge, April 2014

With one of the best music streams I’ve come across in a long time (inasmuch as throughout my stay, much of the music I tend to have on in the background at home was played), Starfall Twilight’s Edge is a gem that has gone onto my list of regions to keep an eye on!

Related Links

Raglan Shire 2014 Artwalk: call for artists

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Raglan Shire Artwalk is  one of the staples of the SL art calendar. With 2014 marking the Walk’s ninth year, it will take place between Sunday May 4th and Sunday May 25, 2014  (inclusive).

Every year over 100 artists and residents in Second Life display 2D and 3D art across a number of exhibition spaces across all the regions of the Raglan Shire cluster. 2D art is displayed on hedgerows in and around the regions, offering visitors the chance to view pieces as they explore the Shire, while sculptures and 3D art is displayed in a number of designated areas across the regions.

Those wishing to exhibit their work at the 2014 Artwalk are invited to complete the  Artist Registration Form, which should be submitted for inclusion no later than 21:00 SLT on Sunday April 27th.

A part of the Raglan Shire Art Walk 2013
A part of the Raglan Shire Art Walk 2013

There is a full set of guidelines and requirements for participation in the event, but in brief:

  • The event is a non-juried show
  • Artists can display more than one piece if they wish
      • 2D (“flat” art pieces will be awarded a maximum of 15 prims, and individual pictures should be 1 prim, including the frame (a kit for 1-prim framing can be obtained at the Raglan Shire Welcome Centre)
      • 3D art (sculptures, etc.), will be awarded a maximum of 500 prims for up to three pieces of work. Artists are requested to state the number of prims per piece in their application
      • Sales of works are allowed
  • All the above art forms are welcome, but should be rated PG / G – so no nudity, please!
  • Group membership will be required in order to display work
  • Questions and enquiries should be forwarded via note card to Artwalk Director Karmagirl Avro, or Artwalk Assistants Dagmar Klaar & Liandras Jameson.
The arrival point for Art Walk 2012
The arrival point for Art Walk 2012

Key Dates

  • Sunday April 27th: Applications close at 21:00 SLT
  • Thursday, May 1st: Notification of exhibit space location issued to artists
  • Friday, May 2nd / Saturday May 3rd: Artist set-up days
  • Sunday, May 4th: ARTWALK OPENS
  • Sunday, May 25th: Artwalk closes
  • Sunday, May 25th (after 18:00 SLT) / Monday, May 26th: Takedown of works.

Related Links

Take a walk in The Wild Side

Posted on by Inara Pey

Heartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014 by Inara PeyHeartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014

One of the things I love about creating in this medium is that you can express the energy so easily.

– Jedda Zenovka

Heartseed: The Wild Side is a Full Sim Art series immersive environment which opened on LEA6 on April 12th and will remain open through until the end of the month.

Precisely how to describe the region is a little hard – other than to say it is a most fantastical landscape, one which extends both above and below the water. So I’ll let Jedda Zenovka, its creator, carry the load, description-wise:

Animism is the spiritual belief that everything is alive. I try  to recreate this within the digital domain. Cybertech designs that fuse naturally with organic forms; water, sounds, plant-creatures, inter-dimensional entities that blend into the ocean forest ecology of my environments so that it is impossible to tell where one ends and another starts.

Take a wander  through a textured cyboriginal landscape which evokes healing emotions and crystallises into moving, living sculptures; descriptions of ideas and experiences inspired by both human life of aspirations and necessities and with the practicality of hands-on permaculture in the rain forest.

Heartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014 by Inara PeyHeartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014

From the landing point, one steps out in to what might at first appear to be a fountain and water feature of a formal garden; it is not until one is fully outside of building that one fully appreciates the sheer alienness of what is presented here: a rocky landscape upon which the strangest plant life grows, some of it seemingly part plant, rock, some of it sculpted into anthropomorphic shapes, much of it appearing as if it has perhaps evolved from underwater life, and has found a new home on land.

Look up, and you’ll see more strange  – if not bizarre – forms sitting still in the air or moving through assigned orbits; inanimate objects which are both animated and filled with a life of their own. Here and there electrical discharges flicker across this strange landscape like cybernetic will o’ the wisps while other plant-like forms flicker in and out of existence.

Heartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014 by Inara PeyHeartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014

The cumulative effect of all this is to create a dream-like environment which can be degrees be soothing, filling with the gentle chiming of prayer bells but which can in places offer s hint of something darker, such as the rows of odd television-like formations, each with what appears to be a disembodied head within it.

The dreamlike feel of the installation isn’t accidental, as Jedda’s description explains:

While our minds and imagination evolves into the digital domain, our hands and naked feet remember the earth and other elements from which we are made. Dreamtime in this sense is the crossing over of two worlds; vision becomes solid and solid becomes visionary. It is instinct and the heart which guide us into and through this journey. The freshness of water, the spirit of a particular plant or mineral, is crafted into new form; the artist becomes the living conduit through which such essences express themselves.

Heartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014 by Inara PeyHeartseed: The Wild Side, April 2014

Exploring here take takes time – several items are interactive (including the trained attack fish, which can be set to chase others!), and there are number places where one can simply sit and enjoy the immersion – a music stream offers a suitably cyber-istic background for those who like to have more than just the ambient sounds around them while exploring. A particularly interesting interactive piece can be found at the end of one of the pier-like walkways, where visitors can sit and have their camera slaved to a script which will either move their camera through a series of “live” views of the installation, presenting a tour of many of the different elements in the build, or which allows the visitor to select specific views of the installation, moving their camera directly to the selected point.

And speaking of the piers – don’t forget this piece extends underwater as well.

This is  quite fascinating build, and if you like your art with a twist of the unusual and a hint of organic cybertech, taking a walk in The Wild Side may be just for you!

Related Links

The art of surfing

Posted on by Inara Pey

Spanish Wells, April 2014 by Inara PeySpanish Wells, April 2014

Surfing is one of many sports related past times available to all of us in SLn and it is  something I’ve tried and enjoyed from time-to-time while bouncing around the grid. So when I read Ziki’s post about Spanish Wells, a surfing sim that has been landscaped by none other than Cica Ghost, I took the time to hop over to take a look; and I can honestly say that anyone who appreciates Cica’s work or who likes surfing is going to enjoy this whimsical creation.

Spanish Wells belongs to Shannon Cardalines, and she’s worked with Cica to create an environment that offers considerable space for surfers, complete with a crescent island where Cica’s creations sit.

Spanish Wells, April 2014 by Inara PeySpanish Wells, April 2014

The latter comprise a series of sand sculptures, including a slightly wobbly looking castle that  – aside from its size – would not look entirely out-of-place were it to be found at Cica’s Little Village. The scale of this castle and the other sand sculptures on the island suggest it has been the playground of a giant with a bucket, although I rather suspect the sand man standing almost in the centre of the island, spade in hand and bucket of sand near by, may actually be responsible!

Around and between the sand creations grows wild grass, beds of white flowers and tall, dark trees. The local wildlife comprises a number of  quirky birds which are instantly recognisable as Cica’s delightful handiwork, together with an oversized lizard that looks to be in more of a playful mood than being out after mischief.

Amidst all of this are places to sit and / or cuddle, either on your own or with a friend or close companion. For those wishing to enjoy a little music during their visit, Ziki informs us that Ingwë Weames has proved a dedicated music stream – and some of it is certainly apt for surfing!

Spanish Wells, April 2014 by Inara PeySpanish Wells, April 2014

With regards to the latter, should you wish to have a go riding the waves, wander down to the  edge of the beach towards the middle of the crescent and touch the flowerpot there. You’ll be offered a choice of boards. Select one, sit on it, then paddle out to the waves. When you catch one, you’ll start surfing and then it’s a case of riding it back into the shallows.

For those who enjoy seeing things from above, there’s a hang glider rezzer up in the sand castle, offering visitors a chance to fly around the island and out over the water. While up in the castle, don’t forget to admire Shannon’s own surfing awards and cups, gathered from competitions around the grid.

Spanish Wells, April 2014 by Inara PeySpanish Wells, April 2014

All told, this is a great little find, and for those looking for something to do as well as having somewhere new to explore might want to add Spanish Wells to their list of places to visit.

Related links

The Drax Files Radio Hour 15: of Ebbe and education

Posted on by Inara Pey

radio-hourThe fifteenth installment of The Drax Files Radio Hour takes a look at Ebbe Altberg’s comments and Q&A session at this years Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education conference which took place in both Second Life and OS Grid between April 9th and 12th.

The VWBPE session, which lasted a little under 90 minutes, featured some initial comments from Ebbe, followed by a wide-ranging Q&A session which many found both positive and perhaps a little revelatory (particularly given concerns ahead of his arrival at LL about him coming from “outside” LL / virtual worlds). Mal Burns videoed the session on behalf of VWBPE, and I have a full transcript for those who prefer to read rather than listen.

For those wishing to cut to the chase and jump to the clips from Ebbe’s presentation in the podcast and the discussion which follows, it starts around a quarter of the way into the show (14:19).

Ebbe Linden (LL CEO Ebbe Altberg) addresses the VWBPE conference on Friday April 11th, 2014
Ebbe Linden (LL CEO Ebbe Altberg) addresses the VWBPE conference on Friday April 11th, 2014

Some 15 minutes of Ebbe’s opening comments and the Q&A session are presented. These include his remarks on revisiting the Linden Lab Terms of Service (“we’re working on some simple tweaks to the language to make that more explicit”); his views on LL / SL and its position in the metaverse as a whole (“I think for starters, I’m mostly focused to get the ‘verse’ part right, and then we can think about ‘meta’ later on”); Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus Rift and more.

The excerpts are followed by a joint interview with Liz Falconer, Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of the West of England (UWE), and Stylianos Mystakidis, E-learning Manager for the Library and Information Centre at the University of Patras, Greece.

Intended to be a discussion of Ebbe’s VWBPE session, this actually covers much broader ground, from why issues such at the Lab’s bikini banner ads, can reinforce negative views of Second Life within the education sector, even though real life can be a lot more risky (and risqué) for students, through to the advantages of experiential learning and the potential of virtual worlds where such narrative styles of teaching are concerned.

Liz Falconer (t) and
Liz Falconer (t) and Stylianos Mystakidis

At close to 24 minutes in length, the interview has to be listened to in order to be fully appreciated; Stylianos and Liz offer a considerable amount of food for thought – so much, in fact, that it is hard distill everything down into an article like this without either failing to do the various elements of the discussion justice or presenting you with a wall of text to read. This being the case, I’m going to focus on those aspects of the discussion which particularly struck one or more chords in me, while urging you to listen to the interview in full, if you haven’t already done so,

The first thing that particularly caught my attention came when Stylianos asked what is the one question that seems to be most easily avoided or ignored when people talk about virtual worlds achieving mass adoption – and that’s the question of why should people turn to  VWs rather than continuing to use all of the familiar tools and options they have at their disposal and which offer convenience and ease-of-use: Minecraft, Facebook, Skype and so on?

While it is true that access to a complex virtual world like SL does need to be addressed and simplified in order to make it easier for people to access such environments, and it is equally true that things like VR headsets will offer additional means of appreciating and enjoying VWs for those using them, I am far from convinced that technology and technical solutions alone hold the key to VWs achieving mass adoption. This is something I touched upon in reference to Philip Rosedale’s  keynote at the VWBPE; as Botgirl Questi eloquently and succinctly put it following that particular keynote:

Mainstream use of virtual worlds requires compelling mainstream use cases that clearly trump other options. Better technology doesn’t matter to people who don’t know why they’d want to use a virtual world at all. That’s the challenge that no one has successfully addressed.

Continue reading “The Drax Files Radio Hour 15: of Ebbe and education” →