One Tree Hill

Tags

3D virtual art, Karma Avedon, LEA, One Tree Hill, Second Life, secondlife, The Joshua Tree, virtual worlds

Open through August 31st, One Tree Hill is on the core sim of LEA 7. I first visited months ago and now is the time for a bit of scrambling to share some places closing the end of August.

“Welcome to “One Tree Hill”, a virtual Celebration of the U2 Album “The Joshua Tree” on its 30th anniversary. Take a walk in the desert and discover how the words and music from this album are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago.”

“Why that album? When it was released, there was a republican in his 70’s in The White House and a conservative woman leading Britain. Both countries were engaged in conflicts across the globe, and both were struggling with economics at home. Coal and the men that made their living mining it had become a substantial issue. As the album turns 30, does any of this sound familiar today?”

Karma Avedon, the creator, states in the info notecard that the sim is not meant to be political but the…”goal with this project was to try and take you on a virtual tour inside an album of songs. What does a song look like if you could step inside it and walk around? That was the question that inspired this project, and I felt the amazing songs from this particular album where as good a place to start as any because the words and the sounds still seem so relevant some 30 years later.”

It’s recommended to use the default windlight and keep sounds and music on. I lightened the exposure on these photos. My initial visit was an immersion into the music. There’s a gallery on the sim that still has an Under Construction barrier up. There are photos and seating inside now and it looks complete to me. Perhaps it’s intended for a closing party, something I’m not likely to be able to attend.  

“One Tree Hill is a fictional place. It is a search for a mythical “American Dream” using the songs in your heart as the map. Wooden signs will help you find various points of interest, but the path is yours to choose. I hope you walk “where the streets have no name” and enjoy the journey!”

The photo above shows one of my favorite scenes at One Tree Hill.

In the welcoming notecard, Karma Avedon also thanks others:  “Thanks to Soda Sullivan, Nodnol Jameson, Zoe Jimenez, Noah Heart and a special thanks to the artist Abbi Quartz. Also thank you to everyone at LEA for guidance and all the artist and musicians who helped bring it all to life.”

 

 

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Monochrome by Giovanna Cerise

Tags

Giovanna Cerise, LEA, Linden Enowment for the Arts, Second Life, virtual art

Now open at LEA 21, Monochrome by Giovanna Cerise will remain on display until the end of December.  I’ve enjoyed seeing the variety of photographs taken at this exhibit, many views I hadn’t seen with my own eyes when exploring.   

Upon arrival, a notecard is offered with info about Monochrome and links to posts about previous developments in the artist’s research and online activities.

“The installation develops onto three levels, each dedicated to a single color: black, white and red. It is best to explore the installation simply walking through, but you get a good effect also flying between locations and by inserting the mouse look.
You should try different settings of the environment setting.” 

What appears to be the ground level is where the landing, teleport door and black level are.  There are details to be seen, not shown in these simplistic photos.

“Monochrome is part of a series of works focused on the exploration of color in all its components and inferences. The installation can be considered an arrival point of an itinerary that began with Synestesia.”The red level is vibrant in color and movement. Sometimes there appears to be nothing underfoot as one is walking and in at least one instance I fell a short way.

My favorite level is the white; I became drawn in while walking through and watching the shifting colors and forms.

“The choice of black, white and red was dictated by my passion for these colors that evoke a multitude of contrasting references, in agreement or in continuation with each other. Since the purpose of the work was to focus the attention emotional – mental on color I chose to use like almost exclusive form the cube-modulated transparency and shadows, entering at the same time the elements that we can define noise, clarifiers, complementary, subordinate depending on your point of view that they can assume for each.”

“The invitation, then, is to experience the different possibilities of light and ambiance offering the virtual world. Single color it takes on different aspects and nuances almost endless and the effects increase and multiply, creating a restless disorientation.” ~ quotes from notecard from Giovanna Cerise I’m intending to make time to return and be more adventurous in my photo snapping.

 

 

Bauhaus Museum; LEA 2; March -April

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Bauhaus Museum, Effy Fenwitch, Gustav von Rosenheim, Kandinsky, Klee, LEA, Steadman Kondor

The grant for LEA 2 Artist in Residence is for the Lighthouse Board founded by R J Kikuchiyo, for an open studio retrospective of works from 2006–2016. This post is about the Bauhaus Museum which is on site at LEA 2 from March through April 2016.The museum showcases 2D and 3D works from the historical Bauhaus school. There’s a wonderful museum feel to the place. Avatars are allowed to sit on the furniture. 1920’s Berlin residents Steadman Kondor, Gustav von Rosenheim and Effy Fenwitch created the museum. There’s more to come here; I recommend visiting now because there’s much to see, then returning later to see the additions.The building is based on the Bauhaus archives, “Bauhaus Arkiv”, in Berlin. The building is 1960’s architecture which makes it out of era for virtual 1920’s Berlin. It deserves a permanent home somewhere in Second Life.This blog post is richer and my visit way more fun for having gone with a knowledgeable tour group on my first visit. My interest in the work of Kandinsky and Klee was rekindled; I enjoyed the paintings inworld and looking at more online.Photography was new during this era. The school experimented with it as an art form. In an alcove to the right, just before the photography area in the museum, are 3D interpretations by the museum creators of some of the paintings.Visitors can enjoy the paintings and decor or, if they wish, delve deeper into information about the Bauhaus movement.A friend and I both remarked on how well suited the designs and crafts are to virtual reality. Much of it seems very Second Life.

I was inspired to play with my own interpretations of the feel of the era which has been an enjoyable experience.   

 

 

 

 

Cyberpocalyptic Hive City, LEA 11

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Cyberpocalyptic Hive City, LEA

Cyberpocalyptic Hive City, LEA 11 wasn’t quite finished when I visited last week. It’s well worth spending time in and it would be great if there’d be a place for it after this LEA round 9. Since I’ve talked about it this past week others have told me they really liked it too.There’s a central sector of shipping and industrial buildings.Exploring inside the buildings, I found many to be empty. This place would make a great roleplay sim. I found references that this theme has been established elsewhere maybe but I haven’t known about it; this place just looks cool.I like the use of light, water, statuary and greenery mixed with the Asia and futuristic look.There’s a club.  My viewer didn’t show this as intended  according to the suggestions giving in the land description but you can get some impression of the beauty.

“–// Perpetually Under Construction!\\–
I suggest running your graphical settings at Max if you are capable so you may see it as I have in it’s creation thus far. Thank you for visiting & hopefully see you again soon. :)”There are way too many details for me to show in photos here. At an upper level there’s a 2D art display. I hope this isn’t the end of this build.

 

 

Artifacs LEA 12

Tags

3D digital replicas, Artifacs, Integrated Visual Studies, Iowa State University, LEA, PTSD memories, Seafore Perl

LEA round 9 is very nearly over and there are land grant installations gradually being dismantled as I type this. I thought I was done with my 2015 blogging when I took a quick look around the LEA sims I hadn’t visited due to a really busy first life and Second Life.  Two of them really called out to me to photograph and write about.

The first is Artifacs by Seafore Perl at LEA 12. From the land description:

“Art under the influence of PTSD. Talismans, mementos of one’s life journey. Hopefully more questions than answers. (created by a former Green Medic who became an amputee when wounded in Vietnam).”It isn’t the sort of thing I’m usually drawn to and I hadn’t been curious enough to check it out when I saw the helicopter flying around as it was being built. (I was spending a lot of time enjoying a neighboring sim.)Inside the building at the welcome area are some small “talismans and mementos”. On the wall are digital and traditional assemblages of the same scenes.I didn’t recognize any creator brands and found myself clicking on things to see who had made them. The groups used to rez the items are Builder’s Brewery and LEA Sandbox. Everything appeared to be created for this installation. While most of it isn’t pretty, I began to feel some understanding.

So I checked the profile of Seafore Perl.

“Artist creating 3D digital replicas of personal object collection to arrange into virtual still life assemblages. Also creating virtual environments exploring artwork and PTSD memories. Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Visual Studies summer 2015 Iowa State University.”This creature’s tongue has spiders on it. You can walk up it and then down into its mouth to see four stylized images of faces. Elsewhere there’s the entrance of a cave you can walk into to find yourself in a domed environment.

There’s evidence of the recent aftermath of war which has a way different mood in the context of a beautiful landscape than when I see these same sorts of items on a Halloween sim.I found myself exploring the rice paddies in misty fog. As I moved around I couldn’t tell just what was triggering the sudden orange fireballs. You can see my silhouette in the center of the photo above.I’ll end with this photo of the same view as the one above it.   

I really appreciate that LEA exists and offers these opportunities for artists to display and avatars to visit.

Grunge Anthology Party at Metamorfaces, LEA 10 on Thursday

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Art Oluja, Grunge Anthology Party, LEA, Livio Korobase, Metamorfaces

Courtesy of Art Oluja

Art Oluja and Livio Korobase are inviting friends (old and new) to a third and final party at LEA 10.

When: Thursday, December 17th, 12:00 — 2:00 p.m. SLT

Where: Metamorfaces Grunge Anthology Party

From Art Oluja’s invitation:

“With LEA round 9 coming to an end, and 2016 just around the corner, it’s time to celebrate what we’re leaving behind and what’s yet to come! So get your head-banging hair on, we’re going to rock your brains out to the best of Grunge, where distorted grit gets awesomely nostalgic.

Also, as a thank you to all your positive energy and love towards ::Metamorfaces:: I’ll be giving away free copies of most of my work from the Sim during the party!”

I really enjoyed the previous two parties at Metamorfaces and am looking forward to this one.

Also, congratulations to the recipients of the LEA round 10 grants!

Hot Tubes & Psychedelic Grooves at .:Metamorfaces:. Thursday

Tags

Art Oluja, LEA, Livio Korobase, Metamorfaces

Time: Thursday, November 12, 1–3 pm SLT. Place: Metamorfaces; LEA 10. From the invitation:

“Hey friends! Art Oluja and Livio Korobase team up again to bring you Hot Tubes & Psychedelic Grooves!

This time we’re tapping into our Hippie vibes and taking the music under the trees at ::Metamorfaces:: with Livio Korobase at the DJ table burning up the tubes with awesome psychedelic grooviness that’ll get your flower power on in no time. So throw on some colour and get into those bell bottoms we’re ready to party!”

The colorful invitation and LM giver is like the roof of the dance floor. They are available at the Metamorfaces landing.

Pop Up Galleries Fall Session 1 Ending

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Art Farm Co-op, LEA

antsue

Fall Session 1 at Art Farm Co op, LEA 28 is ending on Sunday, November 8th. Everyone is welcome to visit the new gallery spaces and installations that will remain up through then. The other three quadrants, Youth Hostel (camping) Cafe Society (machinima and performance) and Jolly Pirate Books ‘N Grog will be closing as well. There are details at the bottom of this post if you would like to participate in the opportunities at LEA 28 this round.

The photo above was taken through the front window of antsue’s space. This artist also has a couple of free 3D pieces in the “large exhibit” area, which are actually reasonably sized.

Alegra

A new artist to this project is Alegra, with photographs in the theme of Sweet Melancholy.

Veyot

Veyot has returned to put some colorful things in this space. There’s a free 3 prim art sandwich with instructions that I’m looking forward to learning how to use.

Dulcis Taurog

I snapped this standing in the middle of the space Dulcis Taurog filled with both 2D and 3D art.

The pavilion in the background has several types of art media by AlexandreLois1 with new recent additions that are well worth checking out.

Pearl Grey (moi)

I put up another structure, the Kowloon Memory by L2 Studio. Both upstairs and downstairs display photographs with vintage look effects, the photos I also have shown on this blog about the flood in New Toulouse as well as in the post about the destination and rp sim IIe Sainte Marie-les-Bains. There’s a glitch slideshow I put together and also a drawing done by Elle Thorkveld.

Next to my gallery, in the right of the photo is Van Caerndow’s space displaying some of his work and where he holds his Drinking and Drawing classes on Monday evenings.

Elle Thorkveld

Elle has displayed some generative art and photos as well as making some new 3D sculptures in her gallery as well as the large exhibit area. There are tutorials available in prims here. She has done a wonderful job facilitating the Self Serve Pop Up Galleries.

Tiffany Mosienko

Tiffany Mosienko has displayed a project with old postage stamps, documents and other pieces of Illinois history. They’re interesting and well organized.

Neeva Torok; Cake (Aemeth Lysette)

Neeva Torok has continued her creating with mesh experiments, the white piece in the left of the photo. During a discussion I learned from a photo she gave me that I was unable to pick up the delicate detail around the edges of the piece, a reminder that we’re all seeing things differently. The build on the right is by Cake, a winter scene that can be used for filming and photography. This is an idea I’d like to see a proposal on for Fall Session 2

Serra Quendra

Serra Quendra has an inviting gallery with quirky autumn decorations in the yard. The wooden framed art photos are free gifts. She’s also contributed a lot to the Youth Hostel area next door.

Kimika Ying

The autumn maze by Kimika Ying completes my photos for this post. Kimika has contributed greatly to the success of Self-Serve Pop Up Galleries.

The open structure in the center background holds the sculpture garden.

There will be a two week break at Art Farm Co op, then Fall Session 2 will be six weeks, from November 21 — December 31. We are having a sort of meeting/party/display of creativity and works in progress on Sunday the 8th of November at 9:00 a.m SLT.

Visitors are welcome to attend and meet some of the active participants, learning more about what might be happening during Fall Session 2.

At the ending celebration of the summer session, proposals were called for and four were chosen for Fall Session 1. It’s more open ended this time; communication and information haven’t been forthcoming. We’ll come up with some sort of play, creativity and community though. This is a wonderful opportunity to become more comfortable with the LEA grant process and to meet supportive avatars.

I’ve blogged about Art Farm Co op here and also wrote about the Summer Session and gave links to resources in this post.

 

 

 

Including Machinima Permissions in Land Descriptions

Tags

LEA, machinima, Second Life ToS

I’m a courteous and responsible avatar who enjoys making machinima. When I am filming it looks like I’m standing around, either alone or with my subject. It isn’t like I’m driving a van through someone’s flower beds or tracking mud on the carpets or scaring their sheep into a stampede.

I still have a huge amount to learn and the electronics I use aren’t so great. One thing I’ve learned is that unlike virtual photography, unless land description specifies that machinima is welcomed, we’re expected to ask permission. We can film on the LEA sims but we can’t rez. (Having no rez rights isn’t a problem for me; I rarely use poses for photography or deal with details that many others work with.)

When I see that others have used a location, I can guess that it’s acceptable to film but I’m not sure. Many showcase sim owners create flickr groups and invite avatars to submit their photos. It would be great if they would include information about machinima as well. Of course the location is to be credited; I don’t recall seeing when it hasn’t been.

The thing is, when I’ve sent IMs and notecards asking permission I haven’t been getting responses at all. I’m not sure how other avatars deal with this. None of the well known machinimists know me and we don’t hang out and chat so I am pretty much on my own. (My creative efforts have inspired several avatars to go and make wonderful machinima because I have such a blast doing it.)

It takes hours and hours to even end up with a three minute film so we have to kind of love it to bother. I think I recall seeing a list somewhere of places where filming is welcome but so often those things are not up-to-date.

I am hoping that some of the showcase sim owners who aren’t able or available to respond to IMs and notecards will indicate about permissions in their land descriptions for us everyday avatars who quietly go about doing video capture and editing it for our own enjoyment as well as the amusement of a few friends.  I’m mostly thinking of these unique sims that are around for three or six months.

If this doesn’t make it more easier, I’m prepared to make more use of the LEA build locations. And at Art Farm Co-op, there will be a Fall Session 2 for six weeks where participating avatars can have rez rights as well as film which is something I very much appreciate.

Anyway, here is my last machinima. I don’t have words to describe how much fun it was making it.

Pop Up Galleries at Art Farm Changing Soon ~ LEA 28

Tags

art, Art Farm Co-op, LEA

 

Classic and Surreal Collective

Just a few more days to see the current pop up galleries at Art Farm Co-op, LEA 28 for Fall Session 1. Around the end of the week, new galleries will be taking their place. There are a surprising number of more substantial looking builds for “pop ups”. I enjoyed setting up the Classic and Surreal Collective, a museum established by my great-grandmother Pearl Grey in 1915, shown above.

Pilgrimage 1 by RMarie Beedit

Upstairs at the collective is an installation by RMarie Beedit, where you can pick up a complimentary hat and ponder your virtual pilgrimage.

Mini-Metamorfaces by Art Oluja

Art Oluja added some classic looking pieces downstairs, echoing her Metamorfaces installation at LEA 10. After the place was set up, I’ve spent a fair amount of time on the back porch.

Photography by Veyot

Veyot has set up a simple and attractive space showcasing some of the photography from her travels.

Kimika Ying’s space with complimentary samples of creative items.

Kimika Ying has examples of different types of creative things one can make which I’ve collected as I slowly expand beyond 2D art. You can get a color changing Kraken hat, shown in orange in the left of the photo and an invisible flying cube which is a great machinima tool. Kimika has also made a Vimeo which features the galleries as they were last week as well as showing parts of the other three quadrants set up for machinima, performance, writing and socializing.

Space by Neeva Torok

This is a birds eye view looking down at the changing space created by Neeva Torok.

by Serra Quendra

Serra Quendra’s space keeps evolving as well. She has also focused a lot of creativity on the nearby Youth Hostel quadrant which now has gardens, tents, chickens, and couches among other things. There are celluloid studio apartments where you can move in rent free and you are welcome to hang out with all the Youth-At-Heart.

by Cake (Aemeth Lysette)

Cake has a themed space showing her first life art work.

Glitch and Animation Gallery by Elle Thorkveld

This photo shows the upstairs level of the Glitch and Animation Gallery by Elle Thorkveld. You can see some views of the animated art on the outside of the building in Kimika’s Vimeo. This room has work by RMarie Beedit, myself, Daewonsong Sorrowsong and Art Oluja.

Elle’s art can also be seen in the large exhibit area and she is the facilitator of the Self-Serve Pop Up Galleries quadrant for Fall Session 1.

by Dulcis Taurog

One of the newest artists to join us is Dulcis Taurog, showing again that one need not set up a substantial looking piece of architecture to showcase beautiful art.

Van Caerndow ~ Art; Drinking and Drawing Classes

Van Caerndow holds a drawing class on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. SLT and everyone is welcome to attend. No formal registration required. Free drinks available.

There’s also a sculpture garden and some free tutorials in the back of the quadrant, behind Cake’s space.

There are also three available spaces at this time. You can check out the fun we’ve had this week and return next week to see what changes are happening.

Thanks to LL and the LEA committee for this opportunity for creative learning and community.