I was recently indirectly pointed towards Eden Gallery by photographer Pacific Fanshaw, who features the location in her Profile Picks. Operated and curated by Adelina (AdelinaLawrence), Eden Gallery sits within the Garden of Eden, a region given over to flights of the imagination, offering a mixture of fantastical public spaces and private residences.
In this, the gallery literally stands over the cavern of Enchanted Eden, a music / dance venue, and takes the form of a grand windmill-fronted cottage built within the boughs of a great tree. The tree is reached from the lowlands of the region via stairs and steps running up to and around the cavern or by means of winding path; steps and path both ascending to the plateau over the cavern, and visitors must ascend the tree by way vertical ladders and a wooden walkway that eventually lead to the gallery’s front door (used here as a landing point SLurl).
Eden Gallery, April 2022: Scylla Rhiadra
The treetop cottage offers three floors of space, although at the time of my visit, only the mid and upper levels of the house were in use. The front door accesses the middle floor, and an exhibition of art by Scylla Rhiadra, known for her explorations aspects of life and the human condition (such as with Virtual Toxic, which I reviewed here and Intimacy, which I review here).
So far as I could see, this exhibition has no title, but it very much continues in the vein of exploring aspects of life. Each piece, as artificially composed and posed as it might be, captures a single moment in life that is marvellously expressive and exquisitely rich in narrative, making the fact it has been constructed fade entirely into irrelevance, leaving us caught in the richness – and in places, the mystery – of the images as we encounter them. Just take Connect, the first image encountered in entering the house, for example: the message of love and intimacy is so powerfully conveyed through expression, skilled use of line-of-sight from one character to the other, lens flare, reflection, and the balance of light shadow.
Eden Gallery, April 2022: Scylla Rhiadra
Then within In Transit in the next-door room, there is an unmistakable sense of personal happiness in an exchange with someone – or something (Scylla might be responding to reading a departure or directions board) – is richly palpable. Meanwhile Little Universes tells a layered story containing just a hint of sci-fi mystery (catch the telescope and the white light spilling through the (slowly opening?) door) wrapped in what might otherwise be a more every day event – noticing the lens cap has been left off the telescope.
Each and every image is thusly evocative, but I found myself repeatedly drawn to Transition (above right) for is narrative mystery: is the man seen in the mirror actually there, or is he the personification of a memory on the part of the woman? Is the shadow on the wall behind her a clue that he is there, standing behind her – or is the shadow actually hers and merely fooling us?
Eden Gallery, April 2022: Adelina
Take the gentle curve of the staircase to the upper floor of the house, and you’ll find a display of art by Adelina, some of which in the main room at the top of the stairs might be considered by some as not suitable for work (NSFW).
These are more personal in nature, nude and semi-erotic images someone might take with their lover and intended for personal viewing rather than display. This gives them a depth of perspective that casts those viewing them into the role of voyeur whilst simultaneously presenting encouraging a sense of privilege in sharing in these personal, guarded moments.
Mixed with these are images that touch upon the realm of fantasy story-telling, fashion and contemplating reflection. All are marvellously composed, focused, framed and processed to present a collection that is beautifully and richly emotive throughout.
Black Bayou Lake, April 2022 – click any image for full size
I’ve long established that I really appreciate the work of Serene Footman as he brings us places from around the globe we’d otherwise likely never get to visit outside of photos and television images. With his own eye for interpretation, Serene brings these places to life within Second Life to allow us to appreciate them directly. In all the years I’ve had the pleasure of following Serene’s work and writing about his region builds, I’ve never failed to be impressed with his skill and execution in bringing these places to life.
However, there has tended to be one of his builds that has always held a special place in my recollections of his work. In October 2018, Serene brought us his vision of Black Bayou Lake, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. So you can imagine my delight when Shawn Shakespeare nudged me about Serene having re-opened Black Bayou on April 22nd, 2022. What’s more, and as with the original design, this is once again collaboration with Jade Koltai, with whom he worked on a fair number of regions designs.
Black Bayou Lake, April 2022
Established in 1997, Black Bayou Lake is a US national Reserve covering 2,000 acres of lake and a further 2,000+ acres of shoreline and watershed. The primary am of the park is to provide a place for people to connect with the natural world, and it forms one of four refuges managed in the North Louisiana Refuges Complex.
The lake and its surroundings is a haven for wildlife and waterfowl, and its most ionic landmark for the park is a wooden walkway that extends out over the waters of the lakes and its wetlands. This was a central feature with the original 2018 build and makes a return with this new iteration, complete with its angled raised section intended for the passage of small boats. Also to be found are some of the dry lowlands with their long grass and sprawling trees and much of the wildlife that can be found throughout the actual Black Bayou and also brought Serene’s original build.
Black Bayou Lake, April 2022
However, this iteration of the region design adds some new aspects, as Serene notes in his own bog post on the 2022 iteration of his region.
In reality this bridge is located around 100 miles from Black Bayou Lake. It straddles the Twelve Mile Bayou (spelled ‘Twelvemile Bayou’ by locals), which is part of the Cross Bayou, a tributary of the Red River of the South. The bridge was built in 1926 and abandoned during the 1980s.
– Serene Footman, Return to Bayou
To accommodate the bridge, a river has been added to the region, seemingly carrying water down to the bridge on the west side of the region, from the wetlands to the east.
Black Bayou Lake, April 2022
Elsewhere, other little touches in keeping with legends of the bayou have been included – such as the rickety cabin that appears to be home to voodoo / black magic rituals.
Rich in scenery and wildlife and caught under s setting Sun (I’ve used my own EEP settings here), this iteration of Black Bayou Lake retains the spirit and sense of the original for those who remember it, whilst offering enough that is new to engage and entreat those who do to explore onwards and discover what is new. For those who never got to visit the original, the return of Black Bayou Lake presents the opportunity to enjoy a build celebrating one of the southern United States great areas of natural beauty. As such, I’ll say no more here other than – go visit and see for yourself!
Fantasy Faire 2022: Sunken Honey by Lilia Artis and Haveit Neox
If you are just after links and Surls, click here to jump to them!
The largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life, Fantasy Faire 2022, opened its gates to Fairelanders at 12:00 SLT on Thursday, April 21st, 2022 and will remain open through until Sunday May 8th, 2022 inclusive, once again raising money for Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) efforts to bring about a World Without Cancer.
For the past five years, the Faire has dedicated those fundraising efforts to the ACS’s global service and support programmes, including the recently launched project BEACON (Building Expertise, Advocacy, and Capacity for Oncology Navigation) – of which. more at the end of this article. In this, the ability of the Faire to support the work of ACS globally cannot be over-estimated; in 2021, for example, Fantasy Faire ranked 19th out of 5,000 RFL teams around the world for fund-raising, and since its inception, the event has raised L$133,250,000 – more than half a million US dollars! And this year will further add to that total.
As with previous years, 2022 will see a wide range of activities and events taking place at the Faire through until Sunday, May 1st including the LitFest, DJ and live performances, auctions, role-play opportunities, and more. After this, the regions will remain open for people to visit and enjoy sans on-going activities, allowing them to shop at their leisure and explore the regions in relative peace – although some activities such as the Fairelands Quest will also continue through the final week as well.
The notes below are intended to get Fairelandaders old and new up-to-speed with a one-page look at the event as it opens.
Fantasy Faire 2022: Mythspire Ridge by Elicio Ember. Home of the LitFest
If You Are New to the Faire and Other Notes
If you are new to Fantasy Faire, the 20 regions it encompasses can be overwhelming – just take your time with your visits, and spread them over the full time the Fairelands are open. Shopping and sightseeing can be much easier once all the initial rush is over!
For newcomers, a good place to start is Fairelands Junction. From here you can reach all of the regions via the teleport portals, so it makes a good hub for exploring. You can also grab a Fantasy Faire teleport HUD from here (or at the region landing points).
If you use SLurls, then the ones in this page are to the official landing point for each region, so you’ll always have information available to you on arrival!
For the best visual experience:
Make sure you have Advanced Light Model (ALM) enabled in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics) – this shouldn’t hit performance too heavily on most reasonable systems (you do not have to enable Shadows).
Make sure your viewer is set to Use Shared Environment (World → Environment) as the regions all have their own environment settings, and several have dedicated day / night cycles.
Regions can be busy! So if you teleport into one, be sure to move a little way from the landing point as soon as you can to avoid becoming part of an avatar tower!
Shopping
Fantasy Faire is very much about shopping. Merchants from across SL can be found in the shopping regions, all of whom offer some of their items through official RFL of SL vendors, so that proceeds of sales go to RFL / ACS.
The best way to find out about participating merchants and shopping is via the Fantasy Faire Shopping Catalogue.
The Fantasy Faire website also offers updates and news on merchants and region sponsors, so be sure to keep an eye on that!
Fantasy Faire 2022: Tenpyo by Takuya Jinn
Events and Activities Highlights
Parties and Performances
The deck of the Fairechylde will once again be hosting DJ and live performance parties throughout the full span of the Faire as it lays docked at Effervescent Clefs. There will also be live performance, dance events at Sunken Honey (where fantasy themed art can also be appreciated), and more to keep Fairelanders entertained. Much of the entertainment information and schedules can be found via these links:
Fancy a more formal soiree where tuxedoes and gowns are encouraged and an air of mystery is added with eyes behind masks? Then head for the Fantasy Faire Masked Ball, with two dates to suit time zones:
Sunday, April 24th – Noon through 14:00 SLT.
Saturday, April 30th – 18:00 through 20:00 SLT.
Check the Fantasy Faire website for URLs.
Fantasy Faire 2022: Effervescent Clefs by Allie Munro and the 2022 Fairechylde
LitFest 2022
The LitFest will this year be based at Mythspire Ridge, and will again offer a range of activities including tours of the Faireland regions and opportunities to write about them, poetry readings, open microphone readings, a celebration of the Arthurian Tradition with the LitFest theme day (Wednesday, May 4th), and more.
Details of LitFest activities can be found via these links:
Region tours schedule – region tours are held on most days of the Faire at 13:00 and / or 17:00 SLT, offering the chance to explore the Fairelands and seeking the stories they have to tell as well as their special secret places and details.
The Children of Stories will once again be offering a rolling role-play event during the Faire. This year the focus is on the Union of the Sniffer Moles. Based within The Hunros Mine, as they play out and explore a special storyline tied to the Fairelands.
In addition:
Meet’n’Greet with the NeoVictoria Project. These are out-of-character events where players from the NeoVictoria community and learn about role-play in Second Life.
Table-top games also make a further return to the Fairelands.
Fantasy Faire 2002: The Chrysalis Gardens by Marcus Inkpen
Fantasy Faire Quest: The Dreaming Cat
This year’s chapter of the Fantasy Faire adventure quest series is The Dreaming Cat. Once again the Bard Queen will call upon adventurers bold of heart to purchaser a Quest HUD (also proceeds to RFL / ACS) and follow the clues in a quest of two parts. The first opens on Monday, April 25th, and will take adventurers across the Faireland regions in search of answers. In part 2, opening on Thursday, April 28th, adventurers will be able to enter the Quest region and resolve the mystery – and receive their bounty from the Bard Queen!
You don’t have to join the Quest right from the start; prizes are for everyone who completes the adventure, and the Quest will be open right through until May 8th.
Don’t forget, all the staples of Fantasy Faire will again be available, including the live auction, the silent auction and, jail and bail – see the Fantasy Faire website for details on these.
So, why not dress for the occasion (or buy a Quest Deluxe HUD and dress in the outfit supplied with it!) and head on over to the Fairelands to discover what adventures and parties await?!
Fantasy Faire 2022: Irridescent Keys by Allie Munro
About Project Beacon
A partnership with nine health institutions and organisations in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, BEACON builds on the success of similar ACS programmes in the US and elsewhere. The project answers the call from healthcare professionals and cancer patients in those areas for life-saving information that can dramatically increase survival rates.
Fantasy Faire is one of the cornerstones of our vital work. It’s an inspiring example of a global community working together to address a global challenge.
– Kristie McComb, ACS Managing Director of Global Capacity Development and Patient Support
Open through until May 1st at Monocle Man’s Café Gallery (and beyond!) is a selection of art by Danish photographer-artist Prins (Skylog) entitled Celebrations of Life.
I say “and beyond”, because as well as presenting Prins’s work within the two levels of the gallery building, the exhibition offers a number of larger format pieces to be appreciated through the rest of the Monocle Man parcel, allowing visitors to explore what is and engaging setting that might otherwise pass unnoticed when focused on the main gallery spaces.
Monocle Man Gallery: Prins – Celebrations of Life
This outdoor display commences in the courtyard before the gallery building and continues down the steps under the Welcome sign to where a slightly industrial-looking waterfront area sits with solid buildings facing a high wall across a further cobbled square in which sits an outdoor seating area and a vendor selling drinks and ice creams. One of the buildings is home to Lynx Luga’s gallery space – Lynx runs Monocle Man along with Kit Boyd – whilst through the the arch of a red-bricked gatehouse on the far side of the square, a final piece by Prins points the way to a cosy garden, home to a little summer house.
Celebrations of Life is a vibrant, bright selection of pieces primarily focused on landscapes and buildings. They are pictures in which colour is used to bring a sense of vitality to the fore, drawing the observer into each, with the use of angle and focus emphasising points of contact – delicate red flowers caught in a sea of sun-dried grass here, a stone figure apparently directly addressing the observer there; the graffiti painted across the hulk of a rusting car that makes it as much a part of the landscape as the blooms bursting forth before it or the over-saturation of light that speaks to bright summer days – or colder winter evenings -, and more.
Monocle Man Gallery: Prins – Celebrations of Life
Some of the pieces offer a departure from the rest. Business as Usual, for example, offers a poke at so-called Victorian values; Universal Whales touches on the surreal as a garden-laden whale swims through a pink sky dominated by a full Jupiter.
And then there is the dark beauty of Candles In A Deep Blue World, an utterly captivating piece seen at the top of this article. It stands in sharp contrast to the rest of Prins’s work shown here not just because it presents a – literally – much dark use of colour and tone, but because of the entire combination of colour, composition, angle and narrative make it an utterly magisterial piece in the manner it demands attention. For me, as much as I enjoyed the rest of Prins’s art, stands as the piece that made me particularly want to see more of his work and add his gallery space to my list of places to visit.
Monocle Man Gallery: Prins – Celebrations of Life
As noted, Celebrations of Life will remain in place through until Sunday May 1st, and offers visitors a rich selection of art and an opportunity to explore Monocle Man. Those wishing to extend their visit might also try the teleport station to reach places such as the sky galleries over head, and the exhibitions they may be hosting.
Winterfell, April 2022 – click any image for full size
Whilst I was making my recent visits to Goatswood (see: Hera’s Goatswood returns to Second Life) and Whitby (see: Revisiting Hera’s Whitby in Second Life) on Hera’s home region, she informed me that she was working on another design, this one to occupy the Homestead of Island of Jahesa, which holder Kara Pendleton had once again kindly offers to Hera for her use. At the time, I was not expecting to hear more of the build – about which I promised not to say a word at the time – for another few weeks.
However, Hera contacted me on April 18th to let me know the build was finished – so I can now finally say that for her latest design, she brings use a place from George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire: the home of the Starks and former seat of The King In The North: Winterfell.
Winterfell, April 2022
Sitting within a cold, sub-arctic climate with snowy winters and cool summers, its interior heat coming courtesy of the hot springs that run under its halls and buildings, Wintefell has been most famously visualised in the HBO series Game of Thrones. For that series, the castle was represented by a mix of visuals and places such as 16th century clock tower and ancient courtyard of Castle Ward and Saintfield Estates in Northern Ireland, Doune Castle, Scotland and studio-built interior sets – a broad mix of influences intended to represent the great castle fortress.
Hera takes all of this richness and transforms it in-world to a living embodiment of HBO’s vision for Winterfell. From its main gate through the high wooden turrets built atop stone towers to the walled godswood and its sacred red-leaved heart tree, passing by way of the warren-like alleys and courtyards clearly intended to confuse any enemy who breached the outer walls to leave them at the mercy of Winterfell’s defenders as they used the towers and raised walkways for defence.
Winterfell, April 2022
Given this is a build located within a Homestead region, some of the castle has had to be condensed and the interiors are limited. Even so, Hera has created a build that captures the heart of Winterfell as seen in the TV series and gives a fair amount for visitors to explore.
From the landing point, the walls and towers of the castle can be seen rising above trees denuded of leaves as winter descends. Lights shine from the windows of the watchtowers either side of the main gates and great torches fixed to the wall illuminate the road as it reached the fortress, allowing those inside to see who approaches.
Winterfell, April 2022Inside the gates, visitors can step into the tavern where wall and gate guards warm and fortify themselves after a stint out in the cold before. Then, walking the outer alleyways and passages between the central keep within its connected towers and inner yards, it is possible to find the way to the courtyard and smithy where Rob Stark and Jon Snow practiced their skills with the sword, watched from above by their proud father. Outside of the main keep sits the tower of the castle’s warden within passing within it arched gate bring own to the great hall and the rooms of the Stark family and the library of the Maester and the tower where he kept his carrier crows.
Off to the north of the castle, across the sword training courtyard mentioned above, a square tower rises, guarding the route to the godswood, a path leading from the tower to where the heart tree rises. Lacking the carved face of a Weirwood tree, it is nevertheless impressive and fully captures the nature of Winterfell’s godswood as seen in the series.. Back within the castle proper it is possible to find another place of reverence: the catacombs below the castle, where Starks of the past are remembered.
Winterfell, April 2022
At the time the HBO series first appeared, purists of the Game of Thrones book were critical as to how Winterfell was being represented compared to its descriptions in the books. Be that as it may, the exterior shots of the castle used in the show gave it a unique and striking appearance – and Hera has captured this perfectly in her work here.
More than that, she has superbly brought together what is a completely disparate group of locations in Northern Ireland and Scotland plus stage sets never intended to be seen as a whole in such a way as to present a genuine sense of wholeness and purpose for Winterfell as both a home to a proud warrior-family and as a fortress.
Winterfell, April 2022
Designed to be seen under the region’s EEP settings created by Hera – I’ve intentionally used my own EEP settings in the photos here so as not to spoil the impact – this is another engaging and evocative build that should not be missed by anyone who appreciates Hera’s builds, fantasy or the HBO series Game of Thrones.
The following summary notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 19th, 2022 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. It forms a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.
Tuesday, April 19th saw the SLS Main channel updated with server release 570305, comprising:
Fixes issues with llRequestAgentData and llRequestSimulatorData sometimes failing after they’ve been called repeatedly.
A couple of crash fixes.
Additional logging around simulator start-up.
This was intentionally a slower-than-usual deployment so the Lab could monitor progress after some recent rough rides.
Wednesday, 20th April should see a small subsection of the Release Candidate channels updated with server release 570936 comprising updates that leverage more recent technologies from the viewer which the simulator can utilise as a result of the recent tools updates.
It is hoped that the upcoming week will see Rider Linden’s work with llGOD, llGetEnv and llGetVisualParams will make it to an RC deployment.
Available Official Viewers
All official viewer pipelines are as follows:
Release viewer: version version 6.5.4.570575 – formerly the Lao-Lao Maintenance RC viewer, promoted Monday, April 18 – NEW.
Performance Improvements RC viewer version 6.6.0.570163, dated April 4, issued April 14(?).
MFA RC viewer, update to version 6.5.4.569725, on March 24.
Project viewers:
Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.5.4.569531, March 18.
Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.5.2.566858, dated January 5, issued after January 10.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
In Brief
As noted in these pages at the time, the channel name a region / simulator is running on was removed from the viewer a number of years ago.
The reason was simple: too many region holders tended to blame any performance woes they felt they were experiencing on the channel their region was a part of, and so would insist on a channel move – even if the alternate channel was running on the same simulator code.
However, and subject to a formal feature request Jira, the server team are open to considering re-surfacing the channel name within the region details found in the viewer’s Help floater.
It was asked if things will ever reach a point where there is no need for RC channels to run separate simulator on the main grid. The response was that this is unlikely, simply because even with extensive testing even with internal test grids and Aditi, all the available testing environments are too controlled to catch all possible use cases that might cause problems.
EEP: the ability to able to override a setting in the shared environment via script is promised for a possible simulator update that may surface in the next month or so.
There were further requests for a function that warns of possible issues if an avatar / object / vehicle attempts to enter a parcel with access restrictions – forgetting that BUG-231802 “Prevent vehicles from entering parcels their riders cannot access” has already been accepted, but no ETA on implementation.
Much of the latter part of the meeting focused on upcoming or potential script updates – see the video for details.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 