Sky and desert

AM Radio’s installation of satellite dishes has closed. Thanks to the NPIRL group notice from Bettina Tizzy I knew the exhibit was about to vanish away so I flew over to the location to grab a few final hour photos.

Satellite dishes and jeep by AM Radio

Dusk in the desert

Listening to the stars

More
Film of satellite dishes moving through listening cycles titled  ‘Waiting For You’ by AM Radio available on Flickr.

Check out the AM Radio Group pool on flickr as well.

I managed to get another trip into Burning Life before it fizzled into a sprig of charcoal. I spent my time riding the Carousel of Progress reproduced in Second life by Jandai Writer. The juxtaposition of entertainment mediums was thought provoking to say the least. There was my avatar within the virtual world of Second Life watching the Disney animatronic avatar discussing (in folksy Disney fashion) technological progress in the Twentieth Century. Jandai Writer provided two ways to experience the Carousel. You could perch your avatar upon her virtual carousel and watch sets depicting kitchens through the century pass you by. Alternatively, you could sit in a tent and watch the movie that shows the original carousel experience as seen by a theater audience. (How is that for layers of ‘mediums’ piled upon each other?)

Cyberloom rides the Carousel of Progress

Disney meets Second Life courtesy of Jandai Writer (First kitchen tableau)

'Modern kitchen' tableau 2

Watching the 'Carousel of Progress' in Jandai Writer's movie tent

As Burning Life ends today you will have to watch the ‘Carousel of Progress’ via YouTube instead (see below).

Visit Jandai Writer’s blog at Coffee Break

I have been traveling and found myself away from good Internet connections. I knew Burning Life was alight and could not visit! All that art and no access! Anyway… finally back to my familiar computer and stable cable connections. After wandering around for a while I found this very fine tower created by Francis Bagration location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life-Hardin/193/111/24/

Tower by Francis Bagration

Two beautiful spiral staircases begin at the base of the tower

Another view of the tower's base plus great balls of fire!

Cyberloom at top of tower checking out the floating mushroom...

Getting high - floating above Francis Bagration's Tower with mushroom assist

And finally, a visit to the peculiar outhouse with its homage to Elvis

Steam wyrmling and Bryn Oh's mayfly sculpture

Bryn Oh’s Robo Insects are on display in virtual Vienna’s Natural History Museum in Second Life. Cyberloom went to pay homage with avatar dressed as a steampunk dragon and soon began to feel ‘at one’ with the virtual sculptures. Then, after communing with the ‘Mayfly’ exhibit (above) started to think the Robo-Insects needed to be set free… liberated into the thin virtual air of Second Life. However, dear reader, reason prevailed and Cyberloom switched avatars to view the rest of the exhibition as a more ordinary avatar (wearing steampunk clothing) and somewhat less prone to the emotional over reactions of steam dragons and steampunk robots.

Close-up of rhinobot sculpture

Cyberloom inspects Bryn Oh's jellytronics

Closeup: Bryn Oh's steamclock

Inspecting the Retelevise

Beautiful steam wyrmling (or dragon) created by Daryth Kennedy and available from the Isle of Wyrms in Second Life.

Q:  Second Life – Why would you go there?

A: “I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”
- Kurt Vonnegut (Quote taken slightly out of context.)

Cyberloom is returning to Locus in this post, at least that is where I begin. The truth is DB Bailey showed me a glimpse of the underworld… There is a special place to stand high up in the mountain tops of Locus, and once you have located this perch you can use your camera to zoom down through the pixel thin rock crust to  see a great cavern reveal itself below. DB explained to me that this is a place that can be glimpsed but never visited. My first attempts to use the camera disoriented me and I fell off the cliff face into the cold sea far below. On my second attempt my avatar eyes were able to penetrate the rock wall.

The edge of Locus #1

The underworld looked a friendly enough place, there were swirling gas clouds and strange abstract shapes moving through the steam and/or smoke. DB said this location was his favorite place in Locus, he said he liked the  ‘painterly effects’ conjured by the gaseous haze. After DB left (to move furniture around the tepidarium and check the large naked giant was sleeping peacefully) I took the opportunity to pan my camera around the underworld of Locus. I discovered I was able to swing the camera around and peer out from the underworld into Locus.

The edge of Locus #2

You must go to Locus and seek out the underworld for yourself and I know that it will look quite different for you. I imagine that is part of the mystery that constitutes the underworld? That is, it is some form of mirage metamorphosing into different hallucinations for each of us? The most intriguing aspect of this strange journey is that DB Bailey invited me to examine the furthest extremes of his avatar-made island. He designed the space in 3 dimensions, it is a space we can venture into and explore yet it is all an illusion. The virtual world of Second Life invites us to indulge ourselves within the  illusory space, it coaxes us into its very center and we oblige by operating our avatars so that they accord with the illusion. Now, the intriguing invitation handed out by DB Bailey is for us to travel with our virtual cameras to the extreme edges, or limits, of the illusion to see what happens next. At the very least we see the illusion begin to fracture…

The edge of Locus #3

Speaking for myself, I keep returning to wander this illusionary world of Second Life because it shows me ideas in visual forms, and juxtaposes those images with their accompanying thoughts,  in random fashion. This process (a visual version of the die game in The Dice Man) reflects each individual player’s own mind and preoccupations. It can also generate new insight and understanding into ourselves and others in both our First and Second lives. In other words ‘playing’ Second Life can be a thought provoking process for some of us because we hover around its seams chasing some philosophical insight or other. Mind you, I end up with more questions than answers and feel very much an amateur trying to play the game of another book. I am referring to Herman Hesse’s Glass Bead Game “a game which is an abstract synthesis of all arts and scholarship. It proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics.” (Wikipedia)

The edge of Locus #4

On the other hand, perhaps a simpler way to say all this is to describe this shared virtual space as a consciously shared dream? But then, what is a dream? It could be described as the ‘join’ between our conscious and unconscious worlds. But the dream analogy feels too easy and dismissive because  the surreal vagueness of dreams can be like a drunk having a profound turn of thought. (Difficult to credit dreams and drunks with too much attention because they so easily slip away later with a ‘did not mean it’ or ‘forgotten it all’ message). I am joining DB Bailey now and encouraging you to intentionally stand at the very brink of the virtual world with (relatively speaking of course) a fully functioning conscious mind, and see how far you can go with your camera before the scene before you begins to disintegrate.

The edge of Locus #5

There is a group on flickr called ‘Bug Hunters of Second Life’ that helps people figure out what has gone wrong with their display when the Second Life illusion breaks unexpectedly. I once found another flickr group that invited people to submit their photos of random SL aberrations but I cannot find it now (there are 3,682 flickr groups with the Second Life tag after all!) This invitation from DB Bailey to balance on the edge of what is visually possible in the virtual world, then deliberately pan out of world with your camera is like being given the Subtle Knife. The subtle knife can cut portals through the boundary fabric of different worlds thus enabling the characters (of Philip Pullman’s ‘Dark Materials’ trilogy) to walk through to alternate realities.

There is something poetic about seeing my virtual camera as a subtle knife… I am off to cut another portal… see you later aligator…in another reality crocodile.

Today was the first year birthday of the Pop Art Labs. Sadly, I got there rather late for the celebrations – the birthday party had already been running for a good 6 hours by the time I popped in! Still, the Labs looked festive with fabulous flowers everywhere, a band called Engrama was playing and people were dancing, or mellowing out as the sun rose in the early morning sky. Here are some photos recording my very late visit to the birthday bash.

A big congratulations and Happy Birthday wishes to Pop Art Labs and the charming master mind behind the whole fabulous operation Claus Uriza!

Happy Birthday to PAL- Pop Art Labs!

Engrama playing the final set at PAL's birthday party

Claus Uriza dancing (Claus is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet in Second Life! If you see him say hi!)

PAL Flower Power!

Check out the Pop Art Lab’s blog for upcoming events at the Labs visit:  http://popartlab.blogspot.com/

See earlier cyberloom posts about PAL here: ‘plug it in, change the world’ and 3D Pop Art Lab Experiment

Location of PAL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pop%20Art%20Lab%20/86/128/131/

Happy Birthday Claus and everyone at PAL!

I returned to DB Bailey's Locus to explore the island further. Visits to Second Life can take on a dreamlike quality and the fun is we can photograph our dreams with our virtual cameras. My first stop was to visit Bryn Oh's Wings displayed in a winter landscape.

Then I found myself in the tepidarium, a mysterious room, full of light beams and water fountains. DB Bailey has placed a couple of paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema in the room, they stand alongside elegant French furnishings.

The tepidarium was in the midst of being furnished when I visited and there was a giant naked lady slumbering on the floor! When I say giant... I mean gigantic! My sensation of dreaming was complete but I was in someone else's dream!

Links to visit:

DB Bailey’s Locus (See this amazing island for yourself but don’t wake the sleeping lady…)

Read more about tepidariums and Lawrence Alma-Tadema on Wikipedia

Read more about the giant naked lady in Bettina Tizzy’s Not Possible IRL blog post The Grand Odalisque – a sculpture by an unknown artist

This post is a follow on from my earlier post titled ‘Second Life-Why would you go there?’#6 To enjoy the nocturnal art of architecture

Buildings by DB Bailey and Patch Thibaud

Q:  Second Life – Why would you go there?

A:  To enjoy the nocturnal art of architecture

This answer is lifted from G.K. Chesterton who said:

” All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.”

This seems an apt quote to use with Second Life where the virtual sun rises and sets several times in 24 hours. And, should we be so inclined, where we can go and adjust the environmental settings for a whole day of endless end to end sunsets!  Judging by the proliferation of romantic saccharin avatar photos to be found on flickr, Second Life’s sunset is one of the most favored ‘hours’ of the virtual day. But Chesterton observes how splendid architecture can be after sunset, an observation we can apply to architecture in both our physical and virtual worlds.  Another reason for selecting the above quote is because so many Second Life builders are working into the small hours adjusting prims, and adding textures, to their fabulous creations. It seems fair to deduce that virtual building is itself largely a nocturnal art, conducted by creative individuals opting to build something (rather than watch yet another cop show with assorted murders on TV).

Pagoda by Patch Thibaud and DB Bailey's temple.com building (layered building on the left).

Well, some virtual creations do become ‘like the art of fireworks.’ Seems to me that my own (nocturnal) virtual wanderings have led me to some fabulous displays of nocturnal art recently.  First Kolor Fall and now D.B. Bailey…

I found D.B. Bailey at Locus quite by accident. I was checking landmarks for my next Second Life class, as places tend to come and go in Second Life, it is always a good idea to ensure they still exist for when you need them. Second Life has its own seasons that mark its ebb and flow of decline and productivity. Builds pop up then vanish, simply melting away to leave large dents on mown lawns, or lost aspidistras marooned beneath the sea.

Inside the the temple.com building

I had a landmark to the Cetus District, an area of Second Life that replicated a traditional art gallery district of London or New York. I landed on a mountain peak instead of a cobbled street and could see from the buildings below me that there had been some dramatic changes to the location. I went to explore and began to marvel at the imagination of the builders. When I clicked on these buildings I kept seeing D.B. Bailey’s name and discovered from his profile that he is a first life architect called David Denton (see David Denton Architect ). I was then lucky enough to meet David Denton in avatar form and he treated me to a tour of Locus. It turns out he is experimenting with Second Life to build a real world shopping mall in Cairo. See his write up about this experiment in Dispatch from Cairo: a Message from DB Bailey in The Arch blog.

Urban Spectre build by DB Bailey with assistance from Desdemona Enfield, Douglas Story and Dizzy Banjo

I have often thought that Second Life is like a 3D sketch book, and find it intriguing to see someone brave enough to use the virtual world as a tool of exploration, and communication, with a first life project.  This surely is a glimpse into the future? Locus is a gorgeous place to visit and appears to be enticing some of the bright stars of the virtual art firmament to display their wares there. The architecture on display will surely influence other Second Life builders? I found myself marveling at the mind and imagination of DB Bailey and his skill for drawing in what looks like complex 3D layers. Friedrich Joseph Schelling described architecture as being like *’frozen music’ and here you can see that thought realized! And one final observation, due to DB Bailey’s use of autumn oranges set against electric blues the architecture at Locus will indeed remind you of G.K. Chesterton’s fireworks and sunsets!

Blue Trees by DB Bailey

Location of DB Bailey’s island: Locus: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Locus/8/129/31/

*”Architecture in general is frozen music.” Friedrich von Schelling

More pictures to follow! (Images above barely skim the surface of Locus).

Kolor Fall exploring stories

I immersed myself in Kolor Fall’s Studio this week. I discovered his work space is bursting with force and energy unlike so many other static and clinical Second Life art sims. Kolor’s Studio operates with the controlled power of a finely tuned engine that hints at untouched reserves of turbo charged boost! Much of this impression comes from the fact that the sim is moving, cubes spin in space and dive below the sea before emerging dripping wet and arcing back up into the skies. Mountain peaks of curved steel rotate like whales breaking through the ocean’s waves. Giant sculptures reach into the clouds above, one looks like a teetering cubist beanstalk, the other like spilt paint pouring down from the sky. It did not take me long to realize that the Kolor lab is the work of an experienced and skillful artist.

Viewing Kolor Fall's moving metal mountains

I ventured online to learn more about Patrick Faith (Kolor’s first world self) and soon found myself  intrigued by his description of painting.  See Patrick Faith Fine Art and read about how he works  (I normally cringe when I read about an artist’s creative process but this description provides insight by being calmly informative).  I then followed his link over to Patrick Faith Art on YouTube where I found a range of videos showing him painting with his hands. Take a look at Drips in Black: Large Water Color and then watch his Tutorial for Simulated Art in Second Life. These links will help anchor your mind as you explore Kolor’s work.

Spinning boulders at Kolor Fall labs

Not that I went this route to understanding Kolor’s creations. I am very undisciplined in my approach to art in Second Life. I don’t follow the teleporter guides to large art pieces, I prefer to fly around and explore first. Then, if the work has hooked me, I go and find out more. Admittedly, I frequently get stuck in virtual nooks and crannies and miss a lot to begin with! But then, I think good art transcends the artist who created it. By that I mean art that is meaningful tends to carry elements that remind us of something else. These ‘reminders’ are our fleeting visual and emotional memories, they are intensely personal and unique. A good art piece triggers these flashes in each viewer who then, in turn, brings something and adds that to what they see.  The fascination (for me at least) of Kolor’s work is that it seems to explore this layering of meaning. While his physical paintings show layers of paint and explore the ’stories’ he finds in those layers, his virtual art allows us to travel right into the midst of these stories and explore the layers in 3 dimensions.

Kolor Fall sculptures in the sky

Another discovery I made about Kolor is that he is a very approachable and unpretentious artist. I tend to avoid Second Life creators as I have visions of them wreathed in creative contemplations dreading all interruptions. (Of course, they can use alts and not speak to anyone but I forget about that!) Anyway, I was lucky enough to be given a guided tour by Kolor. (Perhaps a richer experience for me as it followed on from my own un-guided forays.) Kolor clearly sees his YouTube videos serving as keys to his virtual work but he also talked a little about his ideas as we traveled around the space. He explained his work is largely about tension, the relationship of objects to each other in space. When I asked how this applied to the virtual space of  Second Life he talked about  manipulating perceptions conjured within our ‘neural nets’. At least, that is my subjective interpretation and summary of what he was saying!

Kolor Fall entering reflection

Sound adds another layer to the labs and you may not be surprised to learn that Kolor composes, and plays, the music himself. A friend once observed music is enhanced when you listen to it traveling in a car watching the world roll by your window. Three dimensions, plus movement coupled with music help us to freely generate associations within the wordless zones of our brains.  Second Life, and Second Life art in particular, exploit this relationship between moving visuals and music. Kolor explores his continuum of  stories layered upon each other by creating ‘moving art’ enhanced by his ’sound art’. Kolor and I even talked a little bit about his use of mathematics and the creative place where mathematics touches philosophy and quantum physics!  ( I wrote once about this end of mathematics in Doppelgängers, multiverses and dodgy arithmetic, I am atrocious at maths but love its theories). There is a strange place where art and mathematics converge, it is a place full of surprises and treasures such as Bach’s music, architecture and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. I would like to quietly add Kolor Fall’s theory of tension and stories to this magical mathematical treasury.

Notes and tips: There are many places to visit… start at Kolor Studio Main, Kolor (113, 127, 72) and make sure you visit the following locations: Kolor Chamber Music, Sky Ocean, Kolor Lab, Kolor Gallery, Lounge, Black and White gallery, Ocean Floor and Cloud Stage.

This post has only touched the surface of what you will find at the Kolor Studio. Look out for the ear ring hunt and if you are lucky you will find your avatar wearing miniature Kolor Fall sculptures. Another amazing feature of these installations is that Kolor has made them interactive i.e. you can move things such as fountains and giant cubes thereby shifting the virtual world around you. AndOh and one other thing… don’t forget to dance on the rotating cubes!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Poorlatrice%20/135/127/107/The Quadrapop Tree Gallery has been a little nomadic recently, shifting restlessly from one location to another. However, in a recent announcement from quadrapop Lane we are told that the gallery has finally found a permanent home. It now stands built into a vast hillside balancing on what looks like an elegant Giorgio de Chiroco viaduct. When I visited it was early morning, the gallery was shrouded in fog and a strange micro shower hovered above the Quadrapop Pond and its black swan. As I drew closer I saw the Chihuly-type raindrops were in fact the creation of none other than Second Life’s  Glyph Graves. Tall white pillars topped with tidy clumps of ivy spanned the gallery floor adding to the sense of wandering inside a surrealist painting.

Glyph's dripping sculpture appeared to be tumbling from the sky, sparkling and morphing as the giant drops fell to the ground below.

I teleported up to the gallery’s sky platforms featuring quadrapop’s own works called ‘quad’s view of the future of VR Worlds as seen in the past’. A document was delivered to my avatar titled ‘Secondlife by quadrapop Lane’. It is a summary of Second Life written from quad’s own point of view. It is difficult to summarize Second Life (I have attempted the feat on many occasions) I was impressed by how many aspects of Second Life quad touched upon in this short document. Each sculpture also has a web link connected to it,  by clicking on the sculpture you are whisked off to a web page tying Second Life to First Life.

quadrapop sculpture

I wandered the sky platforms, looking in every direction with my camera for shots. Now, I mention my virtual camera here for a very good reason. Many, many Second Life moons ago, while visiting one of quadrapop’s earlier galleries, my avatar fell right off the sky platform (I was looking for a fancy angle with my camera at the time). I came crashing down to land at quad’s feet in the gallery below. She kindly told me how to take the camera restraints off my virtual camera, thus allowing me to move my camera far away from my avatar to get my shots. (A useful tip that has helped me to avoid getting dangerously close to platform edges ever since.)

Starfish in the sky by quadrapop Lane

quad’s generosity does not stop at camera tips either. Golden eggs containing treasures are scattered across the Quadrapop Gallery floor. These are similar to the lucky chairs found in stores which take forever to give you something that no self respecting avatar will be seen wearing (even when ‘away from keyboard). Not the case here! These eggs give out fine surprises if you are observant and move quickly to click on them when you see the first letter of your avatar name. I won a beautiful flying manta ray fish and quad told me you can win pieces of art as well as flying fish.

quadrapop orb

Detail of another quadrapop sculpture

quadrapop in avatar-person

quadrapop has made her gallery a space where you can hang out with friends. There is music via a  shoutcast board that is open to all to change the stream via the radio. She will also be running building classes at some point in the not too distant future.

Quadrapop Tree Gallery, Poorlatrice (135, 127, 107) Gosh! As Quadropop says in comments the gallery has been re-designed! Visit and have fun!