Tag: Grauland

It was back to JimGarand’s Homestead region of Grauland for me to mark the start of the year. As regulars to this blog know, I’ve tended to drop into the region two or three times a year to witness Jim’s designs and work. In fact, my last came in October 2021, a couple of months after Jim had decided to move things away from Mobile – leaving it as the home of his SL business – and give his region designs a little more room in terms of land capacity.

That design for Grauland was something of a departure from the designs we have tended to associate with Grauland, offering as it did an examination of lighting in Second Life using an urban setting. However, with this current iteration, Jim returns to his more familiar island themes in which he folds art and landscape into a unified whole.

The landing point sits to the north-west of the island, tucked into the cover of a large concrete-and-wood structure of the kind that can so often be a feature of of the region. This faces a line of jet skis sitting on the water across the beach that are available for riding around the island’s shallows. But if you opt to do so, take note that these waters form a narrow ribbon along the north and west sides of the island, so careful navigation is required to avoid bouncing off the region boundary (there’s more room to the south and east).

Those who prefer can walk around the beach to the west side of the island, passing by one of Jim’s little touches that always make visits interesting: a telephone kiosk that sits on the sands under the single light of a street lamp.

The southern end of the beach provides access to the island’s most prominent natural feature: a sandstone headland. This is a place where time has allowed the sea to sculpt it into a series of large caverns, the eroded rocks in turn ground down to form a broad expanse of sand below that that now helps prevent the sea from washing way the narrow towers and walls of rock that support the high ceilings of most of the cavern spaces – although a part of these have actually collapsed to form an open ring of stone.

Follow the sand through the caverns and it is clear the sea is still shaping them on their east side, where a table of rock extends out into a large bay, leaving their top supported by broad legs of rock, although a blow-hole has been blasted through a part of the table, forming another ring of stone.

The easiest way to see this high ground is to climb the steps at the back of the landing point structure or take the stone steps rising from the beach close by to reach a cutting and path through the rock. Both of these routes offer their own attractions, with the staircase in the building allowing visitors to climb to the roof and thence to a path the heads south over the top of the west cliffs to where a zen garden awaits – something that helps link this design with past iterations of Grauland.

Alternatively, prior to climbing all the way to the roof of the landing point, visitors can opt to walk along a roofless corridor  that offers an echo of the previous version of Grauland, lit as it is by a series of coloured lighting strips. Beyond this sits a an artificial depression that forms part of an artistic statement, the second part of which is to be found beyond the zen garden, itself connected to the depression by a set of steps.  Beyond the zen garden a further path winds to where concrete columns rise from the grass and rock over the top of the southern caverns.

To the east of the island, paths run between its uneven surface, one from the stone steps and path running up from the beach, the other from the concrete depression. Both point the way to the island’s main house as it overlooks the sweep of the island’s southern bay and eastern and southern beaches – the later of which forms a broad finger of sand.  With its deck and pool and split-level nature, the house is open to the public and offers a cosy retreat. To the north of it, along a loosely paved footpath sits a further little hideaway for those seeking a little privacy

As a personal note, I’ll admit that I did find the sound scape – designed to represent the echoing sound of the sea within the caverns – a little overwhelming whilst wandering. Nevertheless, with places to sit throughout, including out on the water to the south (brave souls, given what lies beneath!) – so jet ski users be aware that others might be relaxing on the water – Grauland again offers an engaging and rich environment in which to spend time, together with (need it be said?) plenty of opportunities for photography.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

JimGarand has established a reputation for making his Grauland region designs as places well worth visiting. Each iteration offers something just that little different around the central idea a setting for exploration and photography mixed with the idea of each also being an environment intended for artistic expression.

As my last visit was in June, I decided to jump across and see what the current iteration holds – and was surprised to note that (in August, I believe), Jim had relocated the Grauland builds away from their long-term home of Mobile to a new Homestead region – prompting me to update the SLurl featured in past articles in this blog. On bumping into Jim on the region, he explained he decided to take a break for a couple of months to recharge, and so needed to obtain a new Homestead on his return.

The new setting is once again an interesting mix, a scene suggestive of an older part of a city, one overlooked by more modern skyscrapers alive with their walls of lights and neon, but separated from them to indicate that while they may be part of the same conurbation, they are not the same neighbourhood.

While there are high-rises within the main portion of the region, they are clearly older and smaller, speaking to a part of the town much older than the gleaming towers of glittering light. And while there is light and neon to be found here, it advertises establishments that might be considered unsuited to upmarket downtown spaces.

Caught under a twilight sky, the region is bracketed to the east and wet by a beach with pier and the tall city blocks with mountains beyond respectively. Between, it offers road that cut the buildings into tidy blocks – the majority façades, admittedly, but which offer numerous opportunities for photography.

However, that’s not the primary purpose with the build: whilst it blends that familiar sense of space with physical art elements – which I’ll come to in a moment -, the primary focus of the build is that of lighting. In this respect, I cannot stress strongly enough that the resign is viewed under its default EEP setting and with Advanced Lighting Model (Preferences → Graphics enabled (no need to also enable Shadows, etc).

This theme is represented in multiple ways, from the aforementioned skyscrapers with their shimmering rows of lights to represent towering floors, through the presence of the neon business signs, the lights that illuminates advertising hoardings or the streets themselves. Some of this is subtle in nature and form – such as at the Japanese noodle bar (inside and out), and elsewhere a little more obvious but still artfully presented – such as the red used at the strip club façade, compete with reflections in the puddles from a recent bout of rain.

The most striking elements of light and art however, can be found within the setting’s largest structure and around the south and west coastlines of the region. In and along these are pieces of modern art – blocks, triangles and squares, all of which have holes running through them, which offer projected lights to illuminate the inner circumference of the holes in the most engaging of effects. Further lighting can be found a long the sides of the main road, whilst further examples of lighting effects sit hidden around corners and within alleys, encouraging exploration and – again – photography.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

I first visited Grauland, the Homestead region held by by JimGarand and home (in the sky) to his M-1 Art Pose business in March 2019. At the time, I was immediately struck by its genuine uniqueness, offering an environment that expresses art as a landscape.

Since that time, Jim has continually revised the region on a regular cycle of iterations, some of which have continued that idea of art-as-landscape, others of which might be regarded as more “natural” settings – tropical beaches, oriental gardens, deserts – all of which have been highly engaging and kept me returning to the region to write about many of them.

For the iteration I visited in June, Jim has returned the region to what, for me at least, is its roots – a setting in which art plays an important role in expressing the overall landscape.

Rapidly dropping from eastern highlands marked by a high peak and a curtain of cliffs backed by high mountains, the region is immediately visually engaging; the peak giving birth to falls that in turn feed the streams that break up the lowlands as they flow out to the surrounding waters.

Rugged and attractive, with western and northern bays watched over by a ranger’s watchtower to the north-west, two tidy woodland areas and a scattering of buildings, the landscape is highly photogenic. However, it is what is to be found within it that captures the eye.

From obelisks through the familiar concrete blocks to statues, tiered gardens and totems, the art to be found throughout the region fits neatly and elegantly into the setting, bringing it naturally to life.

As an art park, the setting is laid out as a place one travel to in order to visit: the landing point is presented as a cark park, the road running from it vanishing into a tunnel that appears to pass under the mountains to connect the part with the rest of the world. It sits bounded on two sides by the remnants of what might have once been a complete costal fortification built during the last world war, but which now stand with gaping windows and walls that have in part started to lean somewhat as their foundations have settled.

Forming the entrance to the park, the great blanks walls of this ruin also naturally lend themselves as a part of the park’s artistic statement, providing access to the tiered gardens that form the starting point for explorations.

From the gardens with their cobbled paths, visitors can roam where they please – as indicated by the static characters already in the region that add a further sense of it being a a popular place to visit. A  single path does offer a route from the landing point, one that passes over the region’s three bridges – which also very much form part of the art statement. These bridges lead the way to the largest complete building on the region, a boxy unit offered as something of a meeting / relaxing space.

Jim’s designs are always engaging and a pleasure to visit, but I admit to finding this iteration particularly engaging. There’s that sense of returning to the focus of early iterations of the region whilst retaining a completely unique look and feel.

With photographic opportunities can be found throughout, and the 3D art elements bringing a richness to the environment that encourages the visitor to remain, explore and appreciate, Grauland Falls Art Park is not to be missed.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

To take a break from scenes of snow and winter, we decided to head over to Grauland and see what region holder JimGarand had put together for December – and as always, we weren’t disappointed with what we found.

Over the years, Jim has never ceased to attract us – and many other visitors – with a series of unique region designs that never fail to offer something new and different, whilst also offering touches that persist between designs to present a sense of continuation from one design to the next.

With this iteration of the region, that continuance can be found through the maze of rooms and half-rooms last seen in the region’s summer looks, and the ranks of concrete blocks that have appeared in a number of the region’s designs.

The maze of rooms is the first element of the design to be encountered from the landing point, which sits on a pier head that thrusts out into the waters on the west side of the region, a crossed archway forming the walk from the pier head and the maze.

Beyond the rooms a series of broken walls form a zig-zag walk for those who fancy it – or visitors can go around this to the north, where they’ll encounter a pattern of “portal blocks” – hollow concrete blocks with circular holes in their six sides, inviting people to walk through them, or head southwards where, a little further inland, stands the rows of concrete blocks, standing close to where steps have been cut into the bare rock of an upland table of rock.

These steps lead up to a most unusual tower that rises from a rough table of rock. apparently made of concrete it raises a single square finger into the air which splits at its top into four arms, each forming an individual room leading off of the central stairwell. As a home, it offers a most unique residence – allowing for its outwardly industrial  look. However, here the structure is used as something of an artistic statement – art also being a common theme running through Grauland designs. Each room presents an individual décor from rings of multiple televisions through if not Santa’s grotto, then certain his hi-rise retreat, to a balloon-lovers paradise and a lounge where talking about the elephant in the room is unavoidable.

The tower is not the only structure on the island. Diagonally opposite it to the north-east and also sitting atop a large plateau, is another concrete building. Octagonal in shape, it appears to have a steeply-sloping, sectionalised roof. It is only on reaching it and taking the tunnel and stairs up into it, can it be seen that the building is actually open to the sky above – although what purpose it might be put to – gallery, event centre or even landing pad for some form of space vehicle – is entirely up to the imagination.

Directly south of of this, and also facing the tower is a large studio house with sunken gardens and swimming pool. The  courtyard around the pool offers both places to sit and sculptures to be appreciated. A small club house is to one side of the courtyard,  a hot tub alongside it, while a A single passage runs directly east to the water’s edge, flanked by further sci-fi elements in the form of strange pods  that offer little studio rooms where visitors can relax.

Finished in concrete and stone blocks. and with its outside metal stairways, the studio house continues the industrial theme of the setting, but offers comfortable furnishings within, its southern aspect overlooking a small wild flower garden sitting of a shelf of rock between house and sea.

With boats at the landing point, a little an aged and damaged garden shed sitting to the north-west offering a further unusual hideaway, and seating offered throughout, Grauland invites explorers to wander inland and around its rough coastline (rocky outcrops and cliffs allowing, while its low-laying inland mix of blocks, walls (straight and sinuous) offers an artistic statement in its own right.

Thus, this iteration of Grauland continues the region’s reputation for being an engaging, curious and photogenic visit for all who appreciate exploring Second Life.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

I’ll start this piece by saying I might be getting to this a little late in the day, and I’m not sure how long the region has been in its current iteration. However, if you’ve not already seen Jim Garand’s Grauland recently, I’d recommend a visit sooner rather than later, just in case it is going to change the the turn of the month (as pretty much happened the last time I wrote about it – see Grauland’s rugged summer looks in Second Life).

Over the time it has been offered to the public, Grauland has been the location for some enticing region builds that oft mix setting with art, always with one or two features that carry each iteration forward whilst connecting it to past designs – such as the use of Cube Republic’s excellent Causeway Builder’s Kit that can give you your own version of Giant’s Causeway.

However, with this iteration, we’re presented with  – as the Monty Python crew were fond of saying – something completely different. So different, in fact, I’m not entirely sure show to classify it. Gone is the causeway – and any sign of water, another past constant with Jim’s designs. Nor is there any sign of vegetation.

Instead, visitors arrive to find themselves in a desert surrounded by hills that have slopes against which dunes wash. What might have inspired it – the Gobi, Death Valley, the Sahara, the Atacama, the Namib – is but a passing question; the fact of the matter is that we’re in a desert, one that offers a series of enigmatic offerings that challenge how we might think of it.

On arrival, the eyes are naturally drawn to the to the ruins that sit on the east dunes and fall towards the middle of the region. Who might they have been built by? Are they part of the the same period? The grander set comprise hewn blocks of stone, large in size and put together without the benefit of mortar, the pressure of their own weight binding them against the ravages of wind and time – although clearly, both the latter have had aeons to eventually have their way – presumably after the hands that built the ruins and lived within them had passed on.

The second group of ruins sit on a lower slope of sand and are built from smaller blocks bound together with mortar. Thus they appear to have been built some time after those they sit below, begging the question who were responsible for them, and whether the fact they literally sit in the shadow of the older ruins suggests some form of  homage to those who came before?

The ruins are just one of the region’s many enigmatic vignettes. Again, whether or not they are intended to be linked together or seen as individual stories, separate and apart from the rest, is entirely open to question. To the north-east is a small encampment, suggesting an archaeology base camp, one that perhaps, when coupled with the nearby ruins, brings to mind Lara Croft on a hunt for some rare artefact.

To the south, and on the same side of the region, sits what could be something out of the pages of a sci-fi or military story: prefabricated units set-up for a long-term stay, complete with recreational facility and a helipad occupied by a black Hawk helo. Westward to the south, the dunes have overwhelmed an American locomotive, giving us a hint of some kind of post apocalyptic setting – something furthered by the graveyard of cars sitting between train and landing point, and also by the carcasses of ships wallowing in the sands; although on seeing these, I half expected a brace of white 4x4s leap over a dune, United Nations flags fluttering with more helicopters overhead as they race to the wrecks, a-la Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

And what are we to make of the giant skulls, again half-buried within the sand? What might they tell us? I’ll leave that to you to decide.

Grauland presents us with a range of enigmatic offerings that individually or collectively offer a richness of place and opportunities for photography – as is always the way with the Grauland builds. Scattered throughout the various settings are places to sit, allowing those who wish to further appreciate the setting. In all, perhaps the most intriguing of designs yet seen within the region – – be sure to catch it before things change!

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

JimGarand has re-opened his Homestead region of Grauland with a further iteration of its looks; one that brings a new face to the region whilst also offering echoes of past designs.

For this iteration, the region has been split into two islands, each with its own particular look, although both make excellent use of Alex Bader’s modular cliff sets to give them form. The smaller of the two sits roughly rectangular in shape, and is home to the Stonehenge seen in the last iteration of the region (see: Art and a fort in Second Life), with the region’s signature “Giant’s Causeway” (via Cube Republic’s Basalt columns set) on its west side.

Broad and flat and the home of wild flowers, this island is connected to its larger, L-shaped cousin via a truss bridge of an exceptionally sturdy build. This spans the intervening channel to arrive at the region’s landing point with its customary teleport to Jim’s sky-borne store.

Topped by woods and trees, this larger island descends in tiers from the north plateau to the south-west beach. Three  furnished houses occupy these major elevations, two of them – to the north end of the island an in the mid-elevation comprising somewhat blocky designs that help them feel a part of the block-like nature of the plateaus on which they sit. However, in terms of position, the mid-level and beach-level houses are perhaps the most striking, as they bracket the island’s most interesting aspect: what might be called a “concrete garden”.

Built partially over water, this is a curious and engaging feature, comprising a rich mix of elements: a maze of cube-shaped rooms, a glass-domed pavilion with sculpture within it, seating areas marked by oak and ash trees in planters, water features and stepping stones and the regimented lines of cement blocks that formed a part of the Grauland landscape when we first visited it in March 2019 (see: Art as a landscape in Second Life). There’s more here waiting to be seen, but that will suffice for a brief introduction.

This garden area both forms an artistic statement in its design and contains art. The maze of cube rooms, for example stands more as an artistic statement than a puzzle as the ways through are easy enough, but in winding one’s way through the rooms will reveal paintings and graffiti on the walls and carefully placed items of furniture. There’s also the sculpture within the pavilion, more sculpture in the open; even the position of a large angular rock (courtesy of Alex’s Bader’s Zen garden kit) is offered as a part of the art in the setting.

Further statues and sculptures lie at various points around the landscape – overlooking the waters, sitting with the trees, etc., that further add depth to the region. Even the rounded stones and rocks on the west beach, mixed with curved cement walls and a line of marching turtles, make a unique, artistic statement.

As well as extending out to the west, the beach also forms a separator between the higher elevations of the large island, splitting them in two with a narrow ribbon of sand spanned above by an arched bridge. This path leads to a further ribbon of beach running south-to-north along the region’s eastern side and around the island’s south side.

Each of the Grauland designs has always had a certain attraction about it – not just photogenically, but in the overall approach and layout. This is certainly the case here as well, whilst a sense of romance is added through the inclusion of dance systems around the landscape.

I’ve always enjoyed Grauland’s various looks, but there is is something about this design that I find particularly engaging. It has a pot-pourri of elements – Stonehenge, rugged islands concrete constructs, water features – that stand individually as focal points to be appreciated by those visiting, whilst also flowing together as a very natural whole. There is also the considered mix of the “new” and the “old” (in terms of previous designs) that is sure to appeal to those who are familiar with the region’s past iterations.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)