Sneak Preview: Shellina's Apocalypse 2012

2012 is again one of the years with a predicted end of the world. I already have survived some previous "apocalypses" and think this time it will not be different. But there are also every time people who firmly believe it. And we have all fear of lost and destruction.

With this topic deals shellina Winkler’s work "Apocalypse 2012 - Who's Afraid of the End of the World" A first trend for 2012 is already obvious: colors are gone. Shellina works in black / white. The installation shows high-rise buildings under an explosion and people are falling and/or flying high. Everything is kind of blurred from near even more as from distance. I feel the confusion. The scene in monochrome colors reminds me of photos after the collapse of the Twin Towers. All the chaos and the gray from dust.

Is this the end? The quote by HG Wells in the installation shows that shellina has a different view: “It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of the beginning and that all that is and has been but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream of the awakening.”

There will always be optimists and pessimists. If shellina only brings one pessimist to think, her work has paid off!

Opening today, February 1.at 2 PM SLT

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beleza/31/241/22

The Dream Team recorded: Ultraviolet Alter + Tyrehl Byk

Yay, here is the recorded live stream of last week's show:

Watch live streaming video from madpeaproductions at livestream.com

The live show of the dream team yesterday again was a highlight, if not even better than the previous one. Here some photos:

I hope to see much more of them. It was again a joy for mind and soul. Thank you both!

Two Great Events at Two: ‘Show and Tell’ and Ultraviolet / Tyrehl – Live

"Show and Tell" will be held again today at 2 PM SLT on MadPea Base.
Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea%20Base/136/195/25

At the same time Ultraviolet Alter and Tyrehl Byk will present again their live show. Here are some screenshots of last weeks event:

So if you could not make it last week, make sure to be on time on MadPea sim. But there good reasons too, to revisit the event. Tyrehl said: “Ultra and I have some new things we are going to try…”

For a smooth event, PLEASE follow the following instructions and detach ALL lag causing items!

    1 - You must be seated in a chair to be able to properly view significant parts of the event.
    2 - Set: World > Environment Settings > Midnight
    3 - Set Draw distance = 128 m
    4 - Set Particles to maximum
    5 - Please Disable voice
    6 - Press ESC several times to release all camera controls.
    7 – Turn the music stream ON
    8 - PLEASE REMOVE ANY SCRIPTED DEVICES YOU HAVE ATTACHED TO YOUR AVATAR TO REDUCE LAG!!
  9.  OPTIONAL:  HIDING NAME TAGS   You can make your viewing experience much more attractive by turning off everyone's name tag in your preferences.

Today, Sunday at 2 PM SLT!

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea/147/123/3821


  

Nice New Game: Dranopia Quest

 Well-made games are not often to find in SL and as you know, I am always on the lookout. One has just opened. The rules are simple and clearly displayed on the boards.

Rez and wear a HUD and rez a flying dragon from the egg in the center of the landing spot. Jump on it and off you go.

Pass the gate and catch 4 minutes long the floating diamonds by flying through. The HUD counts the points.

Avoid the flying islands; some of them look pretty bad. It threatens loss of points.

 From the starting point you can always start again. The best gamers have the chance to win prizes.

Nicely done and a great fun!

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Services/130/150/205

Berlin Wall Project Opens Today!

by Rose Borchovski

I already presented the ‚Berlin Wall Project'. Many artists have contributed and today is Opening Party. The project collected quite a lot interesting works on the nice sim, which is really worth a visit.

Here is an overview of all contributed works: http://germanyin3d.com/2011/11/27/726/

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beethoven/208/157/22

Josephine Baker, Maya Paris, Cactus und Monmartre

Betty Tureaud: you are crazy
Betty Tureaud: lol
Maya Paris: hahaha
Mikati Slade: hehe
Maya Paris: thats; not the first time i've heard that
Maya Paris: i will take it as a compliment ;)
Betty Tureaud: love you
Maya Paris: thank you Betty!
Maya Paris: you need a banana on your head:)
Maya Paris: i am spreading the crazy
Betty Tureaud: :)
Mikati Slade: i want to know why the artwork features cactus a lot
Maya Paris: :))
Maya Paris: well..i was making this.....and a French friend sent me a song link
Maya Paris: Les Cactus...by Jacques Dutronc
Maya Paris: if you click the HUD you can hear it
Mikati Slade: oh i see, from a song
Maya Paris: yes, but i also love cacti RL
Maya Paris: i have alot
Mikati Slade: oh cool :DD
Maya Paris: i also love bananas:)

With this conversation yesterday at the opening almost all is said about the new installations by Maya Paris. All is just a huge, crazy fun! But let me start from the beginning. It is an installation about Josephine Baker, called the Black Venus. She was the first African American who had worldwide success in show business.  A really impressing person, which also was a good business women and her whole life long active against suppression and racism. Almost everyone still knows her Banana Dance. Maya’s work uses the Art Deco style of that time and the bananas are slightly more than decent erotic allusions.
At the landing point you get a Hud which leads to music and information about Josephine and in the discs you have a choice of 7 different and totally crazy avatars. Here you see 3 of them dancing:

Maya Paris, Mikati Slade and me dancing

In the large dip of banana cream you get dance animations. The bar offers drinks.

All parts of the installation are interactive, try them. Unbelievable, what happens. For maximum effects, set the viewer at least on medium and raise particles up.

 Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SBCC/158/194/2958


A smaller, more bar-like version of this installation you find in Virtual Monmartre, which also hosts a Josephine Baker Museum.

Cactus Bar by Maya Paris

Josephine Baker Museum

The sim is worth a visit. You find many small galleries, especially the places of Claudia222 Jewell with her newest mesh creations and Nish Mip caught my eyes.

Claudia222 Jewell mesh artwork

Nish Mip artwork

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Montmartre/81/195/30

The Charm of the 70ies

There are days where you come online, and no friend is around. What to do? MadPea offers also single-players fun and amusement. A great example is the Escape Room near the bingo game. Inconspicuous from the outside, it reveals inside its full beauty! * hehe *

Seventies design at its finest: Wallpaper with huge eyes, lava lamp, Kiss poster, record player ... everything there! But once if you're in, you will notice that you cannot get out there. Now the game starts! On top of the computer you get on click a HUD.

Wear it and start to collect objects. In the chat you'll get hints how use the objects once you pick them up. Click in the objects in the HUD to make use of them. With a little patience, it is not that difficult to get out. Escape Room offers a single player real fun. It took me about 40 minutes; experienced players will succeed faster.

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea%20Base/190/200/25


 

Beautiful Builds of 2 Italians

Just a short note about beautiful builds that recently opened.

"Childhood, the playroom" by Kicca Igaly is a dream of a perfect childhood:

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sakharov/105/35/83


"Tales in the Shadow" by Nessuno Myo consists of 4 builds, each one about a novel. This one is "Tribute to Stoker"

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MiC/154/242/22


  

The Eternal Magic of the Magic Flute

Visitors get costumes at the landing point

Some blog posts are written within minutes, some are circling in my head for days and days. This is one of those. The Magic Flute by Mozart is not only his most successful opera, but one of the most fequently played worldwide. It accompanied me since my childhood and I probably know too much about it. So much could be said, but what is important for you to give you an idea about Giovanna Cerise’s work?

It took Giovanna more than one year of preparatory work. Understandable; the plot is convoluted, complex, illogical and with many twists. What is it about? It's about couples in love and war, power plays and the way of personal growth. So, somehow about the whole life…

I think only we silly Germans distinguish between serious and popular music. Of course, Mozart is considered as to be one of the serious and therefore all works are expected to have a deep and serious meaning. But do they really have? Although he made big money, Mozart was at that time in financial problems and Schikaneder, the librettist, had to run a successful theater. This opera was written within a few months. Is that enough time to write a deep and thoughtful work? I think, the two just wanted to write a hit, took a mixture of themes of their personal interest where everyone could identify themselves somehow, corresponding to the Zeitgeist and fashion trend. A bit like Disney movies nowadays. A continuous and understandable story was obviously of minor significance. And they've done so extraordinary well that until today everyone, from old to young, watch this opera with great pleasure. Not to forget the wonderful music and the many "hits" that emerged from the opera. A real all time bestseller of entertainment!

The opera was interpreted quite differently, politically revolutionary, conservative politically, psychologically and in the spirit of the age of Enlightenment and Freemasonry. Giovanna Cerise has chosen the last ones, which is for me the most important and interesting. It is about the way of personal growth trough standing tests as in the rituals of Freemasonery. Mozart and Schikaneder both has been Freemasons. It was a brotherhood and as everything revolutionary in the Aera of Elightment was meant just to be for men.The lodges of freemasonery played an important role as meeting circles of intelectuals to share the new ideas. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) was the leitmotif of the French revolution which spread all over Europe. Do you know that Olympe de Gouges lost her life in the French revolution because she expected Fraternité (brotherhood) as to be meant as well for women? Mozart and Schikaneder didn't care and let Tamino together with his love Pamina enter the temple.

And just as Giovanna has focused to follow this one theme, she has focused her installation on almost sketches. It displays the stations of the opera and the tests of maturity, discretion and perseverance. But even if Giovanna focuses on the essential, it is a hard way; easy to lose orientation or to fall. But we are in SL and you are allowed to fly;) Finally you end up as the heroes in the temple of Isis and Osiris, incorporated to the circle of the wise. At each station you can click on musical notes and hear quotations from the opera. Please set your viewer for maximum enjoyment at least on medium or raise up particles.

I think It’s time for me to see the beautiful opera again. Thank you, Giovanna!
Wonderful work!

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Imparafacile/170/132/2482


  

Pol Talks to the Moon

Today opens a new installation by Pol Jarvinen: INNER SPACE

I had a short look and find this work really impressive. It gives a strong feeling of eternity.
Set the viewer on midnight, walk and fly around.

Opening today 25th at 1 PM SLT. Open until February 15th.

Taxi: sadly gone
Take the tp at the landing point!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Yesterday the Chinese celebrated New Year. To be prepared for the year is it tradition to consult astrology masters. Here is the prediction of famous HongKong Master Raymond Lo for the Year of the Dragon:

...hmmm, Europe will not do so well....ok.....but yesterday in SL it did!

At Musei di Roma opened a new installation by Merlino Mayo:

Merlino Mayo as the Dragon of 2012

In Rome there was an exhibition of contemporary Chinese artists. Merlino has selected 12 works of them and reconstructed for SL in 3d. Merlino built with great love and respect for the works and the result is fascinating. One can dive into the works and they feel very different as just seeing. It's absolutely worth visiting. It was a pleasure to walk through the entire installation. Bravissimo Merlino! That's how art in SL turns to an immersive experience!

2d

3d

Meng Luding 2d

Meng Luding by Merlino Mayo in 3d

This installation should be a must for all artists who believe that an upload of scans is the right way to present art in Second Life. Here they learn how to use the possibilities of Second Life and make art an unforgettable event!

Tan Ping 2d

Tan Ping by Merlino Mayo 3d

My photos are only 2d and therefore of course only a faint copy of the work. To give you an idea of how it turns the impression, here is a little movie about a famous work by Picasso's "Guernica" turned into 3d which I already love for a long while:

Please do not miss it. Merlino Mayo gave these works literally a new dimension.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!
(This is Mandarin and means wishing you to be prosperous in the coming year.)

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MiC/229/136/21