I made a return trip to Alpha Auer’s Alphatribe Island recently, after tripping over its latest entry in the Destination Guide. The last time a visited – just over a year ago, the region was hosting Alpha’s Mythologies, “a curation of cultural artefacts that were found on a vast 3D resource called Sketchfab”, which you can read about here.
Quiet – the name of the installation which drew me back to Alphatribe – sees a return of Alpha’s own expressiveness as a visual artist and content creator. In all, it spans a total of four levels, including the ground-level area, with three platforms sitting overhead (along with Alpha’s store), all connected to the ground by a tall scaffold tower. Fortunately, climbing the tower isn’t necessary to reach these upper levels, as a teleport system connects all of them together, and be found at the base of the tower.
As is common with Alpha’s style, the setting and levels are both enigmatic in interpretation and captivating to view. No explanation is offered – although local instructions are – and so interpretation is left entirely up to the individual, although some clues might be had from the names of the sky platforms as listed on the teleport menu.
In terms of the region viewing instructions, these are essentially to have shadows enabled – as this is a sunset style of environment, where the shadows are part and parcel of the whole thing (purely for illustrative reasons here, I did jockey with the position of the Sun when taking photos, to help illuminate details), and to enable the region’s media stream (the movie camera icon, top right of the viewer window).
The ground level area comprises a series of vignettes, all easily reached on foot from the landing point and existing on a sandy island with high dunes. The architecture throughout is in Alpha’s familiar use of geometric forms and structures – with some Oriental influence as well. A question might be asked as to whether we are on Earth or not; the locals appear humanoid, but also faintly alien in the manner in which they dress and decorate their bodies.
This is a place where technology appears to be common, if a little aged or at least mixed. There are both Steampunk and Dieselpunk vibes to be found throughout, whilst machines and tools (such as a very human hand drill) stand as sculptures supports on spindly scaffolds. to one side a huge generator appears to be providing power to an equally huge projector, whilst further afield, another machine appears to have been raised over a rotunda and wedding couple.
The sky platforms, meanwhile, offer more individual vignettes we might attempt to form into stories of their own. To take them in the order presented by the ground-level teleport, the first is called the Bestiary, and is – unsurprisingly, given the name – home to a celebration of the most exotic animals, the majority offered in 2D illustrations beautifully rendered as if forming the illuminations of an ancient and revered manuscript.
Below this, and within a garden, some of the body-painted locals are engaged in a game of chess. But are they actually living people or are they automatons? I have no idea – but their style of body and facial painting makes for an interesting cogitation of the question.
The last and highest platform is Hands, a series of sculptures of the human hand, once again – and as well Bestiary – placed within an environment formed of and divided by, geometric shapes. However, this installation stands slightly apart from the rest, as Alpha explains at the teleport landing point on the platform:
Hands was made for the artist Lampithaler, who resides on the OpenSim on the Pangea Grid. Although I am the artist who made it, it is her property, and she very graciously gave me permission to rez it here in SL.
The plaque on which this information is provided includes details on how to reach the original version as seen on Pangea (for those who have or wish to create a suitable OpenSim account.
All told, another fascinating installation from Alpha, one worth taking the time to see and appreciate – and for lovers of exotic avatars or those who wish to obtain a copy of a scene and / or any characters displayed within Quiet or from some of Alpha’s past installations, do be sure to drop by the store.
SLurl Details
- Quiet (Alphatribe Island, rated Moderate)