In April 2019, I was approached by Trouble Dethly, the owner / publisher of Eclipse magazine with a request that caught me off-guard: would I like to be the cover feature in the May 2019 issue of the magazine.
I say “taken aback” because the request came out of the blue and also because the cover features in Eclipse are intended to “showcase … a group or resident that has taken the Second Life concept of “‘your world, your imagination’ to such extraordinary heights that it has greatly impacted the culture and lifestyle of this virtual community.” Leaving both false modesty and ego firmly locked in a biscuit tin hidden under the floorboards of my mind, I really don’t see myself fitting this description.
However, after discussing things with Trouble a little more, I opted to go ahead, and the May issue came out (for me, being in the UK) in the “wee small hours of the morning” (so to speak) of Thursday, May 23rd, 2019.
Within it is a celebratory article on the team behind FaMESHed, as they mark their seventh anniversary – a piece that makes superb reading; a tour of featured Linden Homes in Bellisseria; a perspective on Moki Yuitza’s Into The Net (which I also examined at the start of the month) and a host of regular columns covering home and garden décor, photography, fiction, places in SL to visit and readers’ own stories. All of which adds up to a cornucopia of interest quite outside of yours truly.
In closing, I’d like to offer my thanks to Trouble for both the invitation to be featured in the magazine and for encouraging me to do so, to Cajsa Lilliehook for the interview and turning a veritable wall of textual ramblings from me into something coherent, and especially to Lessthen Zero for the time she took in photographing me – I genuinely loathe having my photo (real or virtual) being taken, and Lez did so much to put me at ease and produced some truly amazing (and flattering!) shots, and the unnamed photographer who toured some of my favourite SL locations to take additional photos for inclusion in the piece.
Shuǐmò, or shuǐmòhuà (suiboku-ga in Japanese), is a type of East Asian ink wash painting that uses different concentrations of black ink to create an image. It first emerged in Tang dynasty China (618–907), before spreading to Japan (14th century), Korea and to India. Beside the use of black ink in place of colours, it is also marked by the emphasis of the brushwork being on the perceived spirit or essence of the subject, rather than directly imitating its appearance.
It is also a form of art that has been quite marvellously brought to life by Second Life and physical world artist FionaFei as the basis of her latest art exhibition. This features a core element called Wo Men Dakai, which Fiona describes thus:
Wo Men Dakai (Chinese for “My Door Opens”) is an art installation I’ve created in the style of Chinese ink brush painting. The purpose of the space is for a role-play Firefly-based RP where my RP character YiLi graduates into a Registered Companion. However, the inspiration for the creation is from my own personal artistic journey in real life and in second life, and most of it really stems from who I am as an artist in both realities.
While not everyone might be familiar with Joss Whedon’s (too) short-lived science fiction TV series Firefly (from which I freely admit taking my first name in Second Life!), having such knowledge is not s prerequisite for any visit to, or appreciation of, this installation.
From the landing point, visitors are invited to walk along unrolled scrolls of xuan paper, the traditional material for Shuǐmò painting. On these are painted the Chinese symbols for Wo Men Dakai as they point the way to a pair of great red doors. When touched, these will slowly open (just give them time) to reveal the gallery space proper.
This is a spherical space that is the embodiment of shuǐmò; a Chinese water garden wherein all the major features are produced as ink wash images / pieces: the bridge, the lilies floating on the water, the rocks on which the art is displayed, the overhead rocks from which water falls in black-and-white lines to fill the pool of the water lily garden.
Shuǐmò might be described as an ancient Oriental form of what we in the west call impressionism; a form of art where – as noted above – the aim is to capture the essence, not imitate the physical.
So, for example, when painting an animal, the ink wash painter seeks to present the animal’s temperament, not is muscles, sinews and bone structure. And so it is with the gallery structures here: the form and essential essence of the bridge, the lilies and surrounding plants are provided, while the intrinsic details: complete railings on the bridge, the details veins on leaves and petals is not so relevant.
Within the space are two marvellous and contrasting selections of art.
The first is a trio of 3D pieces, again in a traditional Chinese style bordering on shuǐmò, but which use add splashes of colour – red and green – that, together with the animations – bring a sense of life and vitalities to the pieces in an completely enticing manner.
The second is a beautiful set of charcoal on newsprint studies of the human body. These fourteen drawing offer the strongest contrast to the shuǐmò theme, presenting as they do a very western approach to anatomically detailed art featuring the human body, male or female – but which, through the use of charcoal in varying concentrations, nevertheless contain within them an echo of shuǐmò.
“I see life and my journey as a painting. It can be forever an evolving piece,” Fiona notes of her art. “At any given time, you think you’ve reached the end of it, but you can always add to it, layer it, and change it. In a sense, each brush stroke is like a footprint.”
In recognition of this, and as a part of the interactive nature of the exhibit, visitors are invited to take a selection of footprints (shoes, bare feet and paws), wear them, and leave their own marks (albeit temporary) as they “follow their own path” through the installation. There are also some koi carp gifts available at the landing point as well.
A truly marvellous exhibition by a wonderfully talented artist – but don’t just take my word for it. Go and see for yourself. My thanks to Pieni for the pointer!
Update, May 23rd: following an e-mail exchange on May 23rd, Second Life user Rikutojam from Japan, who managed to contact Juliet Herberle, one half of ChouChou, Rikutojam was able to confirm that it is the couple’s wish that the Chouchou region close in late June.
Reports that the ChouChou regions look set to close “soon” have been doing the rounds over the last 24 hours, together with hopes that Linden Lab might be able to step in and preserve the regions as a part of Second Life’s cultural heritage.
Designed by Japanese pianist Arabesque Choche and vocalist Juliet Heberle, who together form the successful musical duet of Chouchou, the regions are among some of the longest running, unchanged private island environments to be found in Second Life, and are an absolute delight for all who encounter them. I made my first visit in 2012 (see Chouchou: blending music and art in SL), and have been back many times since, being particularly drawn to the sky build of Memento Mori (located on ChouChou V), a quite remarkable cathedral.
A Collaborative build by Juliet in collaboration with Miya Grut, and with the support of Yuki Aabye, this is a build pre-dating mesh and is utterly stunning in the intricate beauty of its construction. It’s a place to go when one wants to contemplate thoughts and gain a measure of piece – and which marks ChouChou is a place worthy of preservation entirely on its own.
But it stands far from alone; from the timeless minimalist beauty of the waterlogged ground level, through to Memento Mori and passing by way of Islamey, another sky build, ChouChou is truly an artistic delight.
With its tea house built over water, and walks under cherry blossoms, Islamey was once the venue for concerts, and remains another place for quiet contemplation; somewhere you can come when you want to give free passage to thoughts and ideas, or when you simply want to let Chouchou’s music gently soothe you.
As I noted in my last article on ChouChou prior to this one (see Return to Chouchou and a musical crossing of the divide, from 2018), the regions are quite transcendental in presentation and emotional response. Therefore, and if you have not visited it before or if you wish to renew your memories of these stunning regions lest they do vanish from Second Life, I would strongly suggest you visit them in the next few days.
In the meantime, and if I may, I’ll leave you with my own 2018 video of Memento Mori.
Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
In Brief
Teleport Fail Issues: following the last Server User Group meeting on Tuesday May 14th, there was a test of a teleport fix Simon Linden had been working on, and a further test was carried out following this week’s meeting, with Simon Linden commenting:
Last week’s test was really helpful – it showed that one problem seemed to be fixed, but exposed another one that I hope is fixed this week. If it goes well, that new teleport code may go out onto RC channels next week.
Teleport Attachment Issues: this is a separate issue to that being investigated by Simon Linden, and which is more related to . there’s no current update on the work being put into fixing this, but as Simon observed in the meeting:
As far as I know, the problems with attachments tend to be with crossings and not teleports … while much of the code is the same, there’s usually a fundamental difference in crossings because you’re already connected to that region before you go there, whereas with teleports you are not … which was part of the big disconnect issue we had before.
Script Processing Issues: as reported in my week #18 SUG summary, there have been numerous reports of script run time issues, with some reporting that problems only started occurring following the roll-back on April 18th, 2019. BUG-226851 outlines some of the problems. The Lab are looking into this, but at present there are no updates on the problem.
Since it opened, Bellisseria, the new Linden Homes continent, has started to develop into a thriving community of those not only interested in having a home there, but also in developing a community spirit. To assist with this, the Lab incorporated a number of social areas throughout the continent, such as the pool area in Gaim, which serves both the coastal houses and house boats in the area, and – most recently, it terms of this article – the Squishy Pickle bar in the houseboat regions added in May 2019.
However, residents have also added their own, creating the first public rez zones in the continent on their own properties and their own social spaces, such a pubs. where people can gather. As such, I thought I’d take a little road trip around the continent, using some of these locations as way points.
The beach-side pool at Gaim, the starting-point for my little drive
My starting point was the pool area at Gaim, selected simply because it is the closest public social area to my houseboat. From here, I took the coastal road north, heading up to Normandale, a region with several public spaces within walking distance of the local houses, including a picnic area looking out towards the Coral Waters airstrip off the coast. From here, and before reaching New Bigby, with its extensive west-facing beach, I turned inland.
The route led me past one of numerous show homes scattered across the continent. Like many such house, this one, by Apple Fall is open for people to come in and get ideas for interior décor for their homes. Sadly I couldn’t stop as I’d risk seeing my car go poof, so I continued east, passing through Greenbow, then taking a short run through the still-to-be-named SSPE228 with a brief turn north into Rockham and then east once more to Fourze.
This took me past a riverside seating area before turning north along the coast, past one of the many little boathouses that are open to the public (as which I thought might be earmarks to become rezzing zones at some point); this one, pictured in the banner of this articles, looks out over one of the lighthouses that do have rezzing areas. Continuing north took me through Kiva and on to Maple Cross, with its hilltop garden area (which perhaps could use a little smoothing in some of the terraforming).
One of my primary destinations for this trip was Buitenwijk, and the Red Lion pub. Now, I’ll be honest, whenever I hear or read the words traditional English pub, I tend to shiver, as so often the words don’t tend to measure up to what we in the UK might regard as a “pub”. However, the Red Lion’s owner, Matty (Matty Luminos), is also from the UK, and the Red Lion does indeed offer the look and feel of a modern boutique-style pub, where a selection of beers, ales, wines and more might be pleasantly imbibed either indoors or out in the garden. With its riverside location.
While the Red Lion offers open rezzing, calling-up a car in the garden would be rude, so instead, I resumed my travels via my trusty Roadrunner scooter, by Ape Piaggio (see A Second Life Roadrunner for more). Riding this, I again headed north, passing the impressive arc of the Capitol Springs Bridge, before continuing on through the houses to the rez point at what is currently called SPPE133. At this point, I cheekily swapped my scooter for my MD900 helo (which I quickly shoved onto the grass alongside the road after sitting in it!), and took to the skies for a quick flight back to my houseboat.
I’ve seen Bellisseria being referred to by some bloggers as a “ghetto”. I’m not sure where that perception comes from – outside of perhaps not having visited. Yes, the styles of homes are (for the present) somewhat limited (four variations of house and four variations of houseboat). But as any trip along the roads or waterways of Bellisseria or flights across the continent demonstrate, there is already sufficient variety of house style, coupled with people’s approaches to decorating their homes and gardens – including the various “extension” and “party packs” for interior / exterior supplements – to make Bellisseria a diverse and pleasant environment, entirely undeserving of the epithet.
For my part, I’m becoming increasingly persuaded by the attractions of Bellisseria and the growing community spirit within it – hence why I’ll be writing for The Bellisserian, the continent’s new resident-run newspaper. I plan to spend more time travelling through Bellisseria and, from time-to-time writing about places of interest within the continent like the Red Lion and the various Linden / Mole defined public spaces. In this, I would perhaps like the Lab to make the land-based rez points more obvious – it’s great having Yasmin’s HUD (see Finding rez zones in Bellisseria – Yasmin’s free HUD for more) – but having the rez points marked by a sign like those found on other mainland continents with road routes, would be handy – and could be done at the humble cost of 1 LI apiece.
In the meantime, my thanks to Gingir Ghoststar for her note card of points of interest and to the folks of the Bellisseria Citizen’s Group for pointing out additional public places they’ve discovered.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, May 19th
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Lumiya is currently unavailable through Google Play – see my article and update here. However, it remains available to new users (or can be re-purchased if urgent) via SlideMe.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 