Second Life is an amazing environment for fostering creativity, be it for business, fashion or simply pleasure. A goodly while ago now, I started a little series looking at talent in SL, but never really followed up on it.
Well, today I’m changing that, I want to follow up on both Rena and Latexia by talking about the work of another outstanding artist it has been my great good fortune to meet: Himitu Twine.
Himitu is remarkable for a number of reasons. For a start, she is one of the warmest, caring people I’ve met in SL so far. From our first meeting she was friendly, approachable, warm – someone who can instantly establish a rapport with you.
Secondly, she has one of the most stunning avatars I have seen in SL. Her look is simply amazing – as the self-portrait to the left more than demonstrates. The look – from skin (and tone) through make-up, hair and oufit is always nothing short of exquisite.
Thirdly, she is one amazing photographer – or more correct photo-artist, seamlessly blending avatar shots with both rl and rendered backdrops, weaving both together to create evocative and sensual works of art that each tell a story, with the story itself neatly summarised in a flowing caption. Encapsulating everything from period costume through fetish to high-concept science-fiction, Himitu’s works are simply breathtaking.
It wouldn’t be fair to reproduce more than a couple of her works here – they really should be seen over on her Flickr stream, where they flow together as a collage of artistic expression I personally find inspiring – and I invite you all to go and browse her work for yourselves.
However, there is one last image I must reproduce here; just a few days after meeting Himitu for the first time – a meeting of pure chance (or possibly serendipity) while browsing a shopping mall – she asked me if I would consider posing for her; a request that was in and of itself utterly flattering. Of course, ego demanded that I did just that; I had no idea what to expect, but to be honest, anything I had imagined would have faded into nothing when compared to the picture she unveiled to me earlier today – a picture that honestly moves me in ways that I cannot express. It is called Serenity and within it, Himitu has captured not only my avatar, but also my very genuine love of the Orient. That she has done so, and so perfectly, is testament not only to her skill as an artist – but also to her insight as a person. All I can do is thank her, deeply and sincerely and encourage all of you, again, to go and look at her work – and leave comments!
All images reproduced here are Copyright Himitu Twine and used here with her permission. They may not be reproduced through any medium or in any form, digital, mechanical or photographic, without the express permission of Himitu Twine.
Images in order:
Chinese Study: Just a little study in composition
Tarantula on the Roof: She was a hunter in a world where life is cheap
Serenity: Don’t say anything, just feel the serenity in this place…
My grateful thanks to Himitu for her time and for allowing me to reproduce these images here.
The public beta of the Second Life Marketplace appears to be up and running. I had some concerns when the beta was confusingly announced. Are they valid? Here’s a brief tour and initial reactions. More will likely come when I’ve had a chance to digest more, unless others get there first.
It is SL website bland, with the theme introduced with the “new look” website out in force. It’s not actually bad – just bland
Pretty straightforward for the shopper:
The search bar is at the top of the page (once you have logged in), and is hard to miss (there is an “include mature content” check box beneath it, which I assume will need to be enabled on a log-in by log-in basis)
Shoppers can also take pot luck and click on the large “category” picture that updates periodically (so you can get a direct listing of clothing, furnishings, etc., according to the image displayed) – which I assume links to paid item listings, although I’ve not investigated this
Or there is the Featured Items listing that scrolls along beneath the larger “category” picture
A My Marketplace option at the top of the page provides access to an individuals account and – most importantly for creators, access to one’s “store” (what were “listings” in XSL).
As I sell through XSL, this store option was of primary interest for me. Clicking on it took me to a rather long-winded ToS page I that must be accepted before one can access one’s store the first time. Some terms here may well cause ripples among those taking the time to read them, such as clause 5.4, vis: License. When you submit Content, you remain the original copyright holder. However in doing so you also grant
Linden Lab a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, sublicensable right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights you have in the Content. These rights allow us to promote, sell, and distribute your Content. While this is intended to indicate that merchants are giving permission to linden Lab to actually host their goods in order to be sold, the License does imply a lot more than that, particularly given the inclusion of the words worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable right to…., which given the angst around things like the TPVP and new SL general ToS may well cause gnashing of teeth as people take it to mean LL are claiming the right to sell what they like where they like (when in fact I would humbly suggest that the wording is intended to cover them should they opt to hive-off the Marketplace to one or more third parties to run on their behalf at some point).
There are other niggles within the ToS, which is the usual one-sided affair one tends to otherwise expect. However, I’m not going to get bogged down in minutiae here.
Once past the ToS page, one is confronted by something of a blank page, with a menu bar towards the top (beneath the banner) and a series of additional links down the left side of the page that mimic the top menu bar headings and include sublinks to the categories within each menu heading. Between them, these comprise:
Inventory: add new items to your store; manage the items in your store, perform bulk uploads, manage something called “coupons” (coming soon!) and generate reports
Orders: cancel a sale, redeliver an item and view transaction history – all of which intermittently and inconsistently kept flashing a “Coming soon!” pop-up at me when the Mouse hovered over them
Reports: also appears to be “Coming soon!”
Store Set-up: with Manage Assistants (“Coming soon!” ), Edit Store Information, Vacation Mode (Coming…you guessed it…), and View My Store
Help Resources: with links to the Merchant’s wiki, etc.
Looking a little more closely at some of these:
Edit Store Informationallows you to enter limited info about yourself and your store. The boxes are free text, so it’s up to you what you use them for (within ToS guidelines). There are also boxes for you to include a link to a website and to an in-world store SURL.
View My Storedisplays your listed goods in an XSL-style format (images, name, price), with some degree of configuration in terms of the number of items displayed on a page. & limited sort options. Bland to look at, but actually smarter than XSL’s View My Listings format. As with XSL, clicking on an item takes you to its sale page, which includes an OnRez-style Revise Your Item button at the top right.
Item for Sale page - Merchant's View
Manage Inventorytakes you to a clean (i.e. no images), paginated list of your goods, giving the name, number available, price, and options to Preview, Unlist and Edit. From here, Preview takes you to a Preview of a listing, similar to the image above, while Edit, rather unsurprisingly takes you to an editing screen where you can amend items….
The Edit page itself is vastly cleaned-up and easier to use than the old XSL – but is not without niggles. It would be nice, for example, that if a store SURL is entered in the Store Information page, it is by default carried over to all listings associated with the merchant. After all, the majority of people, I would guess, will have a URL to their flagship store – and having to re-enter the SURL over and over again seems to make a mockery of including it in the Info page (which is likely to be little-read. Of course, there will be some who’d like to send people to their different stores in-world – but by including a default, LL would save the majority additional copy/paste work.
I’d also like to see any website URL from the Store Info page carried over to individual listings, particularly as we’re limited to 2,000 character descriptions, so it would be nice to point to a web page where more info can be given.
A nice touch with the edit screen and the item display page is the inclusion of a FEATURES list, which appears on the finished listing as a tabbed item. This allows you to list specific features of the product for easy reference. Just a shame it is limited to 5 features, which really isn’t enough in this time of feature-rich products.
There are niggles, however: permissions set in XSL don’t appear to be carried over – all my listings came out as being set NO COPY, NO MOD, NO TRANSFER – so I had no option but to edit every single item and reset the permissions. Also, the price of feature listings are now recorded on a page of their own, rather than in the listing options themselves. This means one is has to inconveniently open up a separate page and check the prices rather than simply reviewing and selecting when creating a new listing.
I’m sure others will find more and have deeper views on the merchant side of things, but this is enough for now.
On the customer side of things, Search still seems as hit-and-miss as ever….but again, if my listings are anything to go by, people will have a lot of tweaking still to do, so sharper keyword usage may help.
The new shopping cart is liable to cause some angst. No more quick visits to XSL, find your item and click to purchase. Now you have to follow the “web standard” of dropping things into your cart and then going to the checkout…
The shopping cart
This arrangement does have its advantages – especially when buying multiple items – but how many of us do? Be prepared for grumbles. Certainly, having more flexible payment options is a good step forward – but those paying in “real” currency, beware the hidden charges!
Overall, it’s not a bed attempt. Again, I really cannot see why they couldn’t allow so text formatting in the shape of BB code or even HTML formatting – or why animate gifs have been banned. Neither would do a lot to damage the new layout; indeed, one could argue they’d actually brighten what is otherwise a terribly flat, bland affair when browsing.
There is a lot still to be done, given this is only “Beta” – and I hope LL have learned their lesson with Viewer 2 and won’t suddenly start ramming SLM at all and sundry. Certain things do need fixing & explaining, such as the “find your fav stores inworld” link….which currently takes you to the SL sign-up page *Ahem*. There are also rather a lot of “coming soon” items – some of which I would have thought would be “here already”, given they are needed by merchants (transaction histories, as an example); but providing they come along before SLM is declared “fit for action”, they shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
ADDENDUM
Since starting this piece, I got sidetracked into fixing my own listings….as such I missed the emerging thread on the Beta, wherein several major issues I’d overlooked have been raised.
Well, while there may be more to LL’s acquisition of Enemy Unknown and the Avatars United website than meets the eye, I’ve opted to take the plunge and sign-up.
The major reason I did this is because as it stands, anyone can lay claim to an Avatar’s name; and while I’m not *quite* paranoid enough to believe anyone would set out to impersonate me, Inara Pey has become something of a part of me over the years, that I hated even the idea of the name going elsewhere.
Registration was straightforward enough – and not reliant on real life information. Once registered, AU presents an environment not too dissimilar in approach to Yahoo Connections: you get a profile page on which you can add personal details, a picture of yourself; you can set up your own photo albums, upload applets, etc. It also tracks your friendship connections with other avatars and also lists your most recent activities. This latter point is something I could actually do without, particularly as activities also get reported to the “Activity Feed” on the main page of the virtual world associated with your AU avatar name. This means that every photo you post, every group you join, is subject to immediate (if short-lived, given the frequency of actions) review by anyone viewing the AU Home Page for the virtual world linked to your avatar. Cyber-stalking lives on AU…
That the system includes blog and forum features is interesting – particularly as you can set-up your own. In the case of the latter, it raises interesting questions over moderation and freedom of speech. We’re all depressingly aware of LL’s heavy-handed approach to the former and curtailing of the latter, particularly where critiques of the company is concerned. One wonders how well critical, avatar-created forums within AU will fair, and whether there is any means for LL to eavesdrop forums.
While I’m not big on applets, there IS a useful tool for Second Life users. It comes in the form of a thing called BLIP. While primarily a means of enabling communications between your avatar in-world and your AU contacts / pages, BLIP also allows you to link your avatar in AU to your avatar in SL – thus verifying you are really you, rather than having someone else use your name.
Given the vast number of “Linden” names sprouting across AU, the use of BLIP to link AU avatars to in-world avatars should be mandatory for all LL staff joining AU to ensure imposters are kept to a minimum, especially when there are over 200 avatars registered with the “Linden” last name…
Leaving aside the fakers, AU certainly does seem to be popular among the Lindens. A lot of LL staff have signed up, from Mark Kingdon on down (could there have been a corporate directive ordering them to do so?). Does this mean AU will become one of the few remaining means we have of engaging with LL staff? Hard to tell. Those who have joined seem to fall into two camps: those only willing to Friend with other Lab employees (why? can’t they simply chat over lunch or around the water fountain…or is using AU all part of LL’s drive to reduce their carbon footprint *cough*); or those willing to Friend with others but only trade banalities.
That said, there is something about AU that is compulsive: I genuinely only signed to “protect” my avatar name, but….
….there are opportunities within AU, particularly for those of us running SL businesses, which I do find rather attractive:
It is possible to set-up an AU group for your business, and encourage people to join it. While linking of in-world and AU Groups isn’t possible, this might still be a awy for people to overcome group limitations *if* AU really proves popular with SL users. Add to that the slightly viral nature of AU within itself, as there is a chance you AU group might generate further interest in your business
Similarly, the forum offers the opportunity to post about your products and reach a potential “new” audience of users
The photo album means you can share your Second Life moments away from Flickr and other third party sites – a useful factor if more go down the Facebook road…
The aforementioned blog could be attractive to those wishing to keep a similar diary-style blog of their thoughts and activities.
I’ve already started linking my AU bits more solidly with i-Squared Designs than I have with my “in-world” self, per se, and will likely continue down this road for a while.
Of course, as with everything else, AU does present some things that need changing (and in saying this, I’m pointedly ignoring the over-arching question of WHY LL should choose to pull this thing into their fold *now* – that’s a topic done to death elsewhere):
Coins: no. No, no no, no. They are intrusive and unnecessary. Get rid of them. That you have to PAY to do any decent customisation to your profile page is bad enough, but monetising the site (and, I assume, encouraging others to create bits for it) is the wrong way to go.
Navigation: could be a lot smoother in places. I’m tired of finding myself hitting HOME and winding up on someone else’s profile page or in some other territory I don’t recognise.
Shouting: can someone at least change this into something a little more friendly? I don’t shout at friends (unless I’m really, really upset) – I converse with them; I chat with them; I engage with them. I don’t wish to be seen shouting at all and sundry. Yes, I appreciate there is a private message function, but the concept of “shouting” comes across as very anti-social.
Right now, AU is quirky, potentially useful and not the cloaked monster some have portrayed it to be elsewhere. I have to admit, I’m curious as to the direction it will now take.
ADDENDUM
One thing I meant to say above. AU can be intrusive. Applications, whether installed or not, can spam you with unwanted e-mails. Further, installed applications can access information not otherwise seen in your profile (date of birth, gender, timezone, etc.). To avoid both, you must actively opt out of the associated settings (something that is a black mark against the site – giving out this info should be opt-in). To do so:
Go to APPLICATIONS at the top of your profile.
Click on MANAGE APPLICATIONS to display the Manage Applications page.
Click on GENERAL SETTINGS to expand this section.
UNCHECK those options you don’t want intruding into your life beyond AU.
A while back I wrote about Darien Caldwell of Dari’s Haus fame, and touched on the amazing talents that lie within SL.
Well, it’s about time I mentioned two other amazing individuals I’ve been very, very lucky to meet and get to know in SL – one of them very well: Rena Sakai and LatexiaKavka.
Rena Sakai
I first met Rena – well, almost 18 months ago! At the time we were both working as models – Rena a damned sight more successfully than me, and for very good reasons! She has an amazing personality and divine avatar. We became friends, started moving in some of the same circles, etc.
Over time, Rena moved from in front of the camera as a fashion model to behind the camera – and also modelling for herself. She dove into PhotoShop and emerged….quite possibly one of the most artistic photo-illustrators in all of SL.
Rena’s work has to be seen to be appreciated – no words on Earth can do her justice, and it is little wonder that she has already been featured in several exhibitions across the grid – and even had her own solo exhibition.
I’ve been very privileged in that Rena has often bounced ideas off of me, so I’ve seen her creative genius grow and shine ever brighter with my own eyes. With her permission, I’m posting a couple of prints of her work:
Both of these are personal favourites of mine. The first is a wonderful composition that communicates so much. The second is just simply breathtaking – and a marvellous homage to the work of Ma Yuan.
I’ll put up dates and locations for Rena’s future exhibitions – you really should get along to see her work.
LatexiaKavka
I met – or rather saw – Latexia by chance while shopping. IM’s were exchanged, and we’ve stayed in contact ever since. At the time, I had no idea she was a brilliant portrait artist until she very kindly invited me for a shoot. The result of that is the masthead picture on this blog and on my SL Profile.
When I saw it, it just totally blew me away – and I’ve been in awe of her work ever since.
Like Rena, Latexia’s work is truly unique and inspirational. Her images breathe life into any avatar she captures on film.
And if you say I’m biased….you’d be right – on two counts – I love Latexia’s work and I love the fact we share a natural passion for a certain material….!
But – neither of these facts change what I’m saying about her work one iota. But again, don’t just take my word for it. Latexia has a number of places her work can be accessed, notably her own flickr group and also her SLLatexFlickr group. Most recently she has started her own blog (yay!), which I’ve added to my links on the right.
I’ve been very, very fortunate to meet both of these hugely gifted ladies in my Second Life – and the fact that I can call them both my friends is a double honour. They’ve enriched my time in SL with their conversation, support, time – and talents.
Himitu is remarkable for a number of reasons. For a start, she is one of the warmest, caring people I’ve met in SL so far. From our first meeting she was friendly, approachable, warm – someone who can instantly establish a rapport with you.
Thirdly, she is one amazing photographer – or more correct photo-artist, seamlessly blending avatar shots with both rl and rendered backdrops, weaving both together to create evocative and sensual works of art that each tell a story, with the story itself neatly summarised in a flowing caption. Encapsulating everything from period costume through fetish to high-concept science-fiction, Himitu’s works are simply breathtaking.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 