Category: Reviews

Abstracts & Artifacts – challenging perceptions in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Virtual Peale, Second Life

It’s been a goodly while since I’ve written about the The Peale Museum in Second Life; however, an invite from Eme Capalini offered an intriguing invitation to hop along and take a look at their latest exhibition, featuring a very unique artist by the name of Lee Boot.

ICYMI, September 2020 saw the opening of a new public experience in Second Life entitled Virtual Peale, a collaborative effort between Virtual Ability Inc., Linden Lab and – most importantly, The Peale Centre for Baltimore History and Architecture, located in the first purpose-built museum building in the United States (and today a US National Historic Landmark) the Peale Centre. This has, since 1814, been a centre for art, history, community and learning, and within Second Life, the Virtual Peale has continued this long tradition, offering exhibitions of art and learning, centred on an in-world reproduction of the physical World Peale Centre in Baltimore, USA. However, rather than wibble on about it here, please feel free to read more about the project within Baltimore’s Peale Centre in Second Life, a piece written to mark the opening of the centre in SL, and which I was graciously allowed to preview ahead of time.

The new exhibition – Abstracts & Artifacts – is fascinating on a number of levels. Encompassing both the physical world Peale Centre and virtual Peale, it marks the first major gallery-oriented exhibition of Lee Boot’s work for about two decades. It is deeply rooted in Boot’s background as an artist and a researcher – he is the Director of the Imaging Research Centre (IRC) within the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) – and is also innately (if tangentially) linked to The Peale’s unique history as a place of learning and education, something he touches upon in an introductory video to the exhibition and which I’ve taken the liberty of embedding here†.

Within Virtual Peale – and as is usual for the Centre – Abstracts and Artifacts is located in the “upper floor” gallery space. To reach it, either use the TP board close to the landing point or enter the Peale Building and take the stairs up to the upper floor and walk through the “doorway” to the exhibition area – you’ll be automatically teleported up to the exhibition space (where a door on the wall behind you on arrival will take you back down to the main building).

On arrival you will have the opportunity to view the introductory video, whilst a sign under it notes that there is a sequence to the exhibit visitors are asked as to follow, using the arrows on the floor. The first of these directs visitors back to an opening statement, framed as a question:

What if it were normal for artists to have careers working side-by-side, on equal footing, with other researchers and policymakers who determine how we improve education, or public health, or how we catalyse economic development in our communities?

– Abstracts & Artifacts, Virtual Peale, October 2023

This is a question of immediate intrigue in its scope and context – and one which might well have some throwing up their hands in horror at the idea of the “trendies” and “lefties” (or whatever) stirring the mix and exerting influence on matters of health and education. However, as the introduction goes on to note, there is a strong justification for considering the idea it represents:

It’s hard not to talk about culture and think about the arts. and artists make media which now, more than ever, are the central systems and currencies of our lives.

– Abstracts & Artifacts, Virtual Peale, October 2023

Virtual Peale, October 2023: Lee Boot – Abstracts and Artifacts

There are truths within the above statement that may have about them a certain dichotomy. All too often, we are used to considering the cultural and societal of art in a historical context: what it says about the generations who came before us, their outlook on life, the nature of their culture; how it might aid us in similarly understanding the nature and structure of civilisations which came well before our own, and to whom their surviving art is the one expression we can physically grasp in terms of offering a window into their times.

However, in looking back in time, it is important to note that throughout much of humanity’s history, both art and science were closely intertwined; it is only relatively recently that they have branched away from one another – and then largely as a result of artificial constructs modern society has opted – possibly to our detriment – to enforce (e.g. those  in education being required to choice between the study paths of “the arts” and “the sciences”, with often limited opportunities to combine the two beyond a certain point). Further, art is ever-evolving, harnessing new means to present itself – to utilise the very capabilities wrought through “the sciences” to communicate, to enhance and enrich, to inform.

Virtual Peale, October 2023: Lee Boot – Abstracts and Artifacts

This is the trust of Lee Boot’s work;  he has combined his Master of Fine Arts (painting) with the disciplined approach of research, evaluation and data interpretation / analysis, to develop and direct science-driven research enterprises. This has allowed him and his fellow researchers and students at URC to prototype and develop novel media and visualisation technologies specifically aimed at promoting awareness / understanding of a broad range of social issues: the aforementioned health/wellbeing, education and economics development through to the likes of social justice, democracy and climate change.

Twenty-five years ago, media artist Lee Boot stepped away from a promising artworld career to join scientists and others doing research to find ways to meet some of our most significant public challenges. For more than twenty-five years he has brought artist’s thinking into rooms where it is seldom seen. Literally and figuratively, he has coloured outside the lines, spilled paint on his colleagues, flipped the script and reframed conventional thinking to reimagine how we meet the challenges of our time and better ground our efforts in the cultures, experiences, and lives of the people they are intended to serve.

– Lee Boot biography

Within Abstracts & Artifacts the artist offers (in keeping with the title of the exhibition) pieces of abstract art, together with text elements which frame ideas as questions. The individual pieces of art partnered with the text elements might at first appear to be entirely random but each has a form and substance within it when studied, serving to illustrate and amplify the ideas posed within the written interrogative.

That the clarity of meaning may not spring forth at once should not be taken as a negative; the art is as much about altering perception as it is about illustrating an idea; ergo, it should engage the grey matter sitting between the ears, and may do so is so subtle a manner that repeated study of individual piece might well be required. In this, and as Boot notes in his video introduction, each section of the exhibition should not be considered as text + images, but as a visual interpretation of ideas drawn from a sketchbook used to formulate concepts and thinking.

Virtual Peale, October 2023: Lee Boot – Abstracts and Artifacts

Within the centre of the exhibition space is an area devoted to previous projects formulated by Lee and the URC, and it is worth taking the time to view these. Those elements taking the form of video screens (like the TVs within the main exhibition) can be touched to receive an introductory note card on each exhibition and a link to watch the video through a browser on Vimeo†.

All told, a genuinely engaging exhibition revealing the rarely-seen work of an artist-researcher at the forefront of disassembling the artificial barriers between art and science / research – my thanks to Eme for the invitation, and apologies for not making the opening. While visiting, do be sure to take in the ground level Peale Centre’s displays, both indoor and in the grounds.

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† Please note the videos presented in the exhibition may require you to log-in to Vimeo.

Autumn’s Where Our Journey Begins in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Where Our Journey Begins, October 2023 – click any image for full size 

It’s been almost a year since my last visit to Vivian Ewing’s Where Our Journey Begins. At the time of that visit, the region was dressed for winter 2022, and I wanted to catch it before the autumnal setting vanished in favour of something more in keeping with the turn of the year – and in the process adding autumn to my previous posts on the region, I will have now covered all four seasons at the region.

For autumn, Vivian has turned to a palette of hues and colours common to the time of year – yellows, browns, splashes of greens, reds and so on, which extend into the environment settings for the region as well, the sky cast in bronze on the horizons, darkening as it moves overhead before brightening once more, the clouds a patina of orange and yellow, dark underbellies hinting at the prospect of rain.

Where Our Journey Begins, October 2023
And the sun took a step back, the leaves lulled themselves to sleep, and autumn was awakened. Immerse yourself in a world full of autumnal colours and peace.

– Where Our Journey Begins, autumn 2023

To the north the lands are raised, curtain walls of cliffs helping to both separate them and bind them with the off-region surround to east and west. A tramway bursts forth from the western cliffs, exiting a tunnel mouth to pass between the tall arms of a grand wrought-iron bridge raised on tall stone-faced plinths as they across the river splitting the land in two from north to south, in the process spanning a shallow valley as it cups the waters in its arms.

Where Our Journey Begins, October 2023

Across this bridge – which is joined in spanning the river valley by an equally wide boardwalk on its own row of footings as it forms a pleasant place on which to stroll and watch the activities on the water below – sits a small borough fashioned around a central square. The modern 2- and 3-storey buildings arranged around three sides of the square suggest that this is part of a larger township even whilst it stands alone. The square itself is given over to a very pleasant café with seating indoors our under its broad awning. With the local clock tower standing guard alongside the café and the screen of surrounding trees illuminated by strings of lights winding through their boughs with leave turned to rust, it the square has a certain sense of romance about it.

Facing the café is a brick-built rich providing access to a shoulder of hill sitting above the river. The arch provides access to a path as it meanders around the hilltop, providing a suitable walk for lovers complete with a romantic folly presiding over things at the top of a raised thumb of rock. Those taking the path with find it circles half-way around the folly on its proud seat, then descends down towards the river.

Where Our Journey Begins, October 2023

Here the waters appear to have narrowed rapidly after passing beneath the bridge to the north, the ground lush with grass, the water a narrow ribbon running between banks. However, looks can be deceptive – as the slender boardwalk running out from behind a riverside  deck and hot tub quickly reveals. Rather than growing along the eastern bank of the river, the grass in fact marks the presence of a lush, shallow wetland extending out into the main channel of the river, a wetland which continues south, trees rising from its waters and its actual edge marked by a drystone wall as it borders the track running south from the foot of the folly’s hill.

A second narrow boardwalk spans the river towards its southern end, where the lowlands spread outwards to east and west, looking like golden pastures while again actually being a mix of solid ground and wetland under the carpeting of grass. To the west, the lowlands flow past another raised shoulder of land bordered on two of its remaining side by the aforementioned stream (itself crossed by a very sturdy wooden bridge which has seen much use / repair over the years). This triangle of land is home to a small ranch / farm, complete with a horse rezzer for those wishing to take a ride.

Where Our Journey Begins, October 2023

Those who do might try their hand at herding the cattle wandering along the local track – or perhaps head south and east to see if they can persuade the cows grazing out on the grass of the lowlands that it is perhaps time to come home! If such an exercise does not appeal, then a walk / ride along the dirt road running east will bring visitors to a low-slung bridge spanning the narrow neck of an inlet cutting into the land. With an old wooden gazebo and a hut-like tent offering places of retreat, this is again perhaps a location for those with a romantic heart.

With a modest farmer’s market (with a touch of quirkiness in it – those staffing the stalls appear to be some of the local deer and squirrel populace!) also sitting along the track leading to the inlet, these is much more to be found along the southern side of the region than might initially appear to be the case. As always, Vivian has certainly created a rich, photogenic setting ripe for exploration and spending time within – so enjoy it before winter steps in!

Where Our Journey Begins, October 2023

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An All Hallows Moochie in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Moochie All Hallows, October 2023 – click any image for full size

If you are looking for a low-key, engaging setting for Halloween, a place where you can share spooky stories, explore, take photos, have a dance with someone close to you or just sit before a blazing log fire and relax without being overloaded by spooks, goblins, ghost, monsters and scary noises and the other accoutrements often poured into Halloween-themed settings, then you could do no better than to visit Maia Macabre’s Moochie All Hallows 2023.

Through the witching season, visit All Hallows for haunted meanderings, autumnal hoodoo, darkly roaming, and Halloween encapsulated. Be strange, but don’t be a stranger…

– From the Moochie All Hallows introduction

Moochie All Hallows, October 2023

Now in its eighth year, Moochie All Hallows retains the familiar central clearing and focal point for Maia’s seasonal designs, ready for dancing and  surrounded by various little vignettes (one of which appears to be an invitation to dance at the end of a rope after a spot of bobbing for apples, just to keep up with the more macabre feel of the season!). It sits under a dark night’s sky (be sure to Use Shared Environment (World → Environment) which is also suitably atmospheric, while the ring of paths and trails winding outwards from the clearing. Some of these paths might only lead a short distance while others might wind onwards under the trees, occasionally branching to offer various routes of exploration, all of them beckon explorers to follow them.

One of these paths actually descends into the clearing, sloping gently down as it does from the Landing Point. The latter is located alongside familiar railcars, where might also be found notes on how best to appreciate the setting, a couple’s HUD rezzer for those wishing to walk together whilst exploring, and a HUD book outlining some of the history of some of the traditions associated with Halloween. Whilst predominantly focused on those traditions for the season hailing from Ireland (I’d have liked to have seen some inclusion the Scottish form of guising, given it has something of a direct line to modern trick-or-treating), the book makes for a good read and offers a solid introduction to the Gaelic festival of Samhain, which very much encompasses activities (mumming, guising, the use of bonfires, etc.), carried down into modern populist forms of celebrating Halloween and the season it represents.

Moochie All Hallows, October 2023

Walking the various paths spreading outwards will bring visitors to the likes of storytelling circles deep in the woods, seating arranged around a warm fire just awaiting a storyteller or two and an audience, or to ruins and a chapel, the inevitable pumpkin patch (this one nicely laid out as a means of bordering a meandering path, rather than the perhaps more familiar fenced-in square or rectangular patch), a romantic wishing well (the smoochie Moochie well? 🙂 ), and more.

Follow some of the paths far enough and you’ll come to boardwalks running alongside the waters surrounding the region, or reaching out to decks sitting over the the dark waters. These offer a mix of places to sit, treats to enjoy and even a game or two to play. Tents, either on the boardwalks or under the eves of the trees, offer further snuggle-points for couples and / or places to sit and tell stories or simply think and pass the time.

Moochie All Hallows, October 2023

A nice touch throughout is that just about everything has been set to Phantom (outside of things like the boardwalks). This means that when trying to navigate paths marked by pumpkins, torches, chairs, and so on, you are not constantly bombarded with the annoying thunk-thunk-thunk of object collisions; thus, the local ambient sounds can be appreciated without distraction. Add to this the use of burning torches, pumpkin lanterns and strings of lights hanging from tree boughs, and the setting is provided with enough suitable illumination so that navigation is easy without the lighting spoiling the sense of night-time mystery.

Maia is rightly well-know for her seasonal settings at Moochie and I’ve frequently enjoy visiting the region in its winter guises. However, this my first time there with Moochie dressed for Halloween, and as someone not particularly into all the modern (i.e. 20th century onwards) aspects of the season, I really appreciated exploring the very relaxed manner in which it captures the ideas and fun of Halloween without being in-you-face with heavy-handed references or getting bogged down in belabouring spookiness.

Moochie All Hallows, October 2023

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Phantoms of moods in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
IMAGOLand Art Galleries: Carelyna – Phantasmagoria

Having opened at the start of October and occupying a skybox gallery at Mareea Farrasco’s IMAGOLand galleries, Phantasmagoria is the latest exhibition by Carelyna.

Whilst the title might well evoke thoughts of ghosts and spectres, this is a collection which takes the term in a different direction to ideas of ghosts and demons, being far more subtle in intent – as I’ll get to in a moment.

The term phantasmagoria is said to have originated in the last decade of the 18th Century as a French concatenation of the Ancient Greek phántasma (“ghost”) with either agorá, (“assembly” or “gathering”) or (agoreúō, “to speak publicly”).  Exactly who coined it is subject to debate, but Paul Philidor, a magician and showman, is perhaps most widely recognised as having popularised it in the late 1790s and early 1800s, using the terms to promote his shows featuring ghostly apparitions and the shades of departed famous people – although such shows, utilising everything from concave mirrors to magic lanterns and camera obscura to create / project such ghostly phantoms, reach back into at least the 17th century. Others who started using the term around the same time as Philidor include French dramatist and proto-science fiction writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier, and Belgian showman Étienne-Gaspard Robert – who is also credited with coining the term fantascope to describe the equipment he, Philidor and others used to create their spectres.

IMAGOLand Art Galleries: Carelyna – Phantasmagoria

For her show, Carelyna has created a collection of sepia-rich, ghost-like images of individuals. It overall tone, they are suggestive of the flickering images witnessed by those sitting through one of Philidor’s shows. Some are clearer than others, presenting an well-defined study; others are caught in a halo of light and brightness which both adds to the suggestion they have perhaps caught the spirit of a person who may not have been there – or that the image was taken a long time ago, and time and light have not been kind to it.

However, while they have that faded, ghostly sense about them, as noted above, these images are not intended to portray the spirits of the departed or suggest we’re within a magic lantern show; rather they and intended to evoke ideas of mood and emotion. From celebrations of life and expressions of love, to studies of strength and introspection and of potential loss or aloneness, the emotional depth found within these 12 pieces is both intense and also entirely open to interpretation: while Carelyna offers a suggestion or theme within the title of each. it is very much down to how we individually respond to each of them in its own right.

IMAGOLand Art Galleries: Carelyna – Phantasmagoria

An engaging and expressive exhibition.

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A journey through Shadowfell in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Calas Galadhon Shadowfell II, October 2023 – click any image for full size

Every year, Tymus Tenk, Truck Meredith and the Calas team bring us worlds of wonder to explore in the form of their Halloween and Christmas wonderland builds as an adjunct to Calas Galadahon Park, and each year we are gifted with regions of mystical / seasonal delight. Mixing an atmospheric setting rich in places to explore, scenes to uncover, rides to enjoy and events to attend, all knitted together by the weave of environment settings, soundscape and supporting music, these builds are always and genuinely a highlight of Second Life.

For October / Halloween 2023, the Calas team once again present Shadowfell II, a journey to a realms which although probably not modelled specifically after any element of Tolkien’s mythology, carries with it something of a sense of Middle Earth during the Second and Third Ages, mixed with hints of other franchises to offer an engaging potpourri of elements deserving of careful exploration. First presented in 2022 as The Gardens of Shadowfell, things have this year been expanded into a third region for visitors explore.

Calas Galadhon Shadowfell II, October 2023

As with all of the Calas themed builds, this is one in which it is very important visitors note at least some of the guidelines regarding a visit, all of which can be found at the landing point – with the most important perhaps being:

  • Make sure you Used Shared Environment (via World → Environment).
  • Make sure Advanced Lighting Model is active via Preferences → Graphics).
  • Enable local sounds.
  • Make sure you have particles visible.
Calas Galadhon Shadowfell II, October 2023

It also is suggested that those who can, should also enable Shadows via Preferences → Graphics. This is worthwhile if you can – and with the roll-out of the performance improvements within the viewer, this should be easier than it might have once been for a fair number of Second Life users – and I’d at least recommend it for photography.

Those familiar with the Calas Halloween builds will know that there are two primary means of exploration – on foot, following the paths winding through the regions; and via tour boat (available a short walk from the landing point). I strongly recommend you take the time to use both; the paths and trails offer the most comprehensive way through Shadowfell – including to the teleport portals which are a vital part of the complete experience, but which are beyond the reach of the boats (for obvious reasons); just be sure to allow around 50 minutes for the boat ride.

Calas Galadhon Shadowfell II, October 2023

I would also suggest, perhaps, that when exploring on foot, the accompanying music track is turned off during a first visit so that the ambient sounds can be fully appreciated. Instead, turn the music on for the boat tour (and for subsequent visits). Finally, and as per the guidelines at the landing point, keep an eye out for the eye-in-hand tapestries along the routes – they offer teleport opportunities to additional sit points and locations that you might otherwise miss.

Shadowfell really isn’t so much a single place, but more a realm of multiples environments, all interlinked by the paths and trails as they wend their way through it. There is the forest, with its twists of Tolkien’s Mirkwood, and the caverns dark and old (and on the ground and in the air); places where spiders wait to trap the unwary and even more unearthly creatures have come to call “home” (and where I again found myself wishing that music streams could be defined by altitude as Jerry Goldsmith’s theme for a 1979 Ridley Scott film remains highly suitable for the caverns in the sky!

Calas Galadhon Shadowfell II, October 2023

Then there are the ruins where the cold eyes of battle-ready orcs keep watch, or which mark the place where a kingdom of men (or elves) has fallen. There’s also the caves cut by the aeons-long passages of water, lit by the glimmerings of crystals and otherworldly plants as the water leads inexorably to swamps as beautiful as they are mysterious.

Throughout it all creatures of many places and world watch or roam. Some are clearly hostile; others perhaps content more with the watching. Some might even look friendly and welcoming (although with one, I’m always reminded of a comment by the legendary Robin Williams: “Mickey Mouse to a three-year-old is a six foot RAT!” – so perhaps some of the funnier-looking characters here aren’t as innocent as they might appear!).

Calas Galadhon Shadowfell II, October 2023

Given this is an expansion of 2022’s Shadowfell, there is much which is likely to look and feel too familiar to those who visited in 202. However, looks really can be deceptive, and there are many new and subtle touches which bring a fresh sense of discovery and exploration. This is obviously very much true of the additional region, a place which extends the swamplands into something darker and more chilling and in which ruins mindful of both adventures in the depths of the forests of the Far East and also of places like Moria, hewn from living rock and long deserted by those who created it.

Here fires burn from high stone ledges, perhaps awaiting visitors such as yourself – or perhaps indicating those who lit them heard your approach and even now lie in wait should you stray from the path. Then there are the statues and figures: a hint of Sauron (or perhaps the Witch-King of Angmar) here, a hint of Herne the Hunter there; whilst all across the regions are hints of and suggestions of all walks of fantasy and horror.

The Shadowfell II calendar of events

As always with Shadowfell and Calas special events, entertainment is also provided throughout the time the realm is available to visit; check out the schedule below for dates and times of performances at The Pavilion.  But above all else – do visit and enjoy; Calas events like this are not to be missed.

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Louvre’s Power of Water in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
NovaOwl Sky Gallery, October 2023: Louvre – Agua

Open through October at the NovaOwl Sky Gallery is an exhibition of art by Louvre (Iamlouvre), a physical world artist who is now making her mark in Second Life, having joined (I believe) in 2021. This is the first time I have witnessed at exhibition of her work, and found it to be richly expressive.

Entitled Agua (the Spanish for “water”), this is an exhibition which fully embraces the space in which it displayed, Louvre demonstrating that as well as being a skilled artist, she has an innate sense of space and design, offering an environment that neatly folds itself around the exhibition’s theme, with the art split between the two levels of the gallery.

Water symbolises much more than an infinite space where we lose ourselves
when we look to sea. Water symbolises transformation, Life. All of us are water.  

– Louvre (Iamlouvre)

NovaOwl Sky Gallery, October 2023: Louvre – Agua

On the upper level, prints of her work are mounted on easels and walls, some of the latter backed by curtains of water tumbling to the floor below. On the lower level, this water spreads across a floor decorated with squares, some just below the surface other rising above it. All offer a sense of being stepping stones, encouraging visitors to make their way across them. These squares and mirrored by cubes and blocks climbing up the walls, the shimmering curtains of water visible in the gaps between them.

Close to the gallery entrance, sixteen cubes present sixteen paintings by Louvre, each painting repeated on all six faces of the cubes. Further back sit two larger cubes, each with an image of one of her paintings projected within it whilst further pieces are mounted on easels in an intentionally understated display, the entire level dominated by a single piece entitled Submarine.

Almost all of the paintings might be seen as portraits of a most unique kind. Few present a complete individual; rather they present images wherein the subjects are blurred or obscured, as if seen through a sheen of water, or with their subjects incomplete of cracked and fractured. In amongst them are paintings of a more abstract nature, but even these contain a sense of water-like fluidity and motion.

NovaOwl Sky Gallery, October 2023: Louvre – Agua

All of this is heavily suggestive of the opening lines of Louvre’s description for Agua, of water giving, being and transforming life. But there is more here as well, as Louvre goes on to note:

Water is also the tears produced by pain and sorrow. It is the force of the DANA flood that just hit my city. Washing away the homes of many neighbours and friends, taking within it their daily objects and their homes. Never in all my life have I been able to contemplate a greater disaster so closely. 
Water is the effort of my hands helping them, to the point of exhaustion, with water and more water.

– Louvre (Iamlouvre)

Storm Dana lashed Spain with torrential rain in early September, causing widespread flooding, particularly in the region of Castilla La-Mancha, home to the cities of Madrid and Toledo, with water levels rising such that streets, major transport arteries  – and most particularly, homes were overwhelmed. Such was the force of the water in places that cars were overturned or smashed together and evacuations were ordered. At least two deaths occurred, and several more people were reported missing.

NovaOwl Sky Gallery, October 2023: Louvre – Agua

It is this devastation, this sense of loss Louvre conveys through her paintings through their blurred / missing / incomplete elements. This reflection of Dana’s destruction is – as Louvre notes – very personal. She has witnessed the loss and hurt it has caused, and sought to help alleviate it through practical support for those around her hit by the storm’s ferocity. That this has also triggered her creativity through her art additionally completes the circle represented by Agua: that as a force of nature, water has the power to both positively and negatively bring about transformative experiences in life.

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