Glass Jars by Art Oluja

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Art Oluja, dreaming, Glass Jars, Klaus Bereznyak, Linden Endowment for the Arts, memories, Second Life, space, The House of Small Cubes, The Poetics of Space, time, Time and The Art of Living, virtual art, virtual worlds

Glass Jars photo by Art Oluja

Glass Jars, an installation by Art Oluja opens Thursday April 6th, 9AM SLT.  The location is LEA 11.

Glass Jars is an experimental narrative, where space contains emotions and memories in a fluid mindscape. Where fragments of nostalgia nest into vessels, drifting between glimpses of clarity and obscure dreams.

Much of the inspiration for Glass Jars comes from G. Bachelard’s “The Poetics of Space,” R. Grudin’s Time and The Art of Living,” and a short animation film called “The House of Small Cubes.”

I have enjoyed watching the animation film several times and highly recommend it. A copy of “The Poetics of Space” sits on my bookshelf waiting to be enjoyed.

The installation incorporates some interactive elements that react as you explore and click things. Region windlight is also recommended.

Sound is an important aspect of Glass Jars, so please turn viewer “sounds” on (and up). All of the narration, soundscaping and music you hear around the region are designed from scratch, specifically for this project, and are the result of a collaborative experiment with intuitively talented Klaus Bereznyak, who uses percussion and woodwind to creatively reflect the vision and concept of Glass Jars.

More details about Glass Jars, the soundscaping collaboration, and Klaus’s own perspective are in the welcome poster.

“We comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, while leaving them their original value as images. Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.”
― Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Glass Jars is a wonderful installation and I’m looking forward to adding additional background info and insights from Art in future posts before this LEA round is over the end of June.

With the Living

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exhibit, graphic narrative, Klaus Bereznyak, Pearl Grey, Second Life, With the Living, Writing

The graphic narrative exhibit, With the Living, will continue on past the original closing date.

Written by Klaus Bereznyak and illustrated by myself, (SL photos edited in software), the story is based loosely on a soldier returning from the Crimea.

There was an opening event and we were very pleased that the work viewed with interest and discussed with intelligent questions asked.

Most of the photos were taken at Binemust, which has a wonderful variety of scenes that worked for this narrative.

It was an enjoyable collaboration and learning experience. Klaus made a book out of it and I filmed a slideshow. There are gifts available at the exhibit.

With the Living might best be viewed on night setting.

Unwriting 1: The Twig Oracle

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Klaus Bereznyak, Quentin, Sansara, Second Life, The Twig Oracle, Wanderlust Cafe

The Twig Oracle, by Klaus Bereznyak, is currently on exhibition at Wanderlust Cafe in Quentin.  From the notecard obtained by clicking on the white info piece:

The series currently holds 8 naturally-occurring glyphs, taken from the forest floor and scanned on a flatbed scanner to create the image.

1. Divided Way
2. The Bow
3. The Sickle
4. The Third Way
5. Tau
6. Fe
7. Waw
8. Dancing Figure

Clicking on each photo delivers a notecarded oracle. My personal favorite is The Sickle. One approach could be to first select the image most compelling and then to read the others for their added wisdom.

The images are available for a modest price that makes collecting the set very affordable.“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not teach learning and precepts, they teach, undeterred by precepts, the ancient laws of life.” ~ Herman Hesse