Revolution in Second Life

It was just a question of time that this had to happen. Moya is a great artist but so egocentric.

For us as admirers it is easy to smile about it, but not the poor inhabitants. Their timid protests has been generously overseen by the dictator of Moyaland: Moya Janus (Patrick Moya).

The owners of Lost Town had a heart for the surpressed colony and gave them exile. Dramatic scenes are happen in on the streets.

Come help them and join the protests and become member of the Anti-Moya-Party!

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Land%20of%20Glory/51/194/27

 

Strange World

Last Monday opened an installation at Pirats by Cherry Manga: "La Collection". After I set my WL on Papersnow as requested I entered a beautiful, disturbing world which was intruiging, but left me a bit clueless. What does the sentence "Even the rose can get the blues" say to the visitor?
 

Here a comment in the artist info: "La Collection is an introspective work, illustrating the duality of mind.You'll experience a walk throught primal fear and strenght."

Get your 2 free avatars behind the entrance. The beautiful avatars are part of the installation too.

NicoleX Moonwall created a machinima in the installation.

The highlight for me was that evening our dear friend Apmel in one of the avatars. He looked like an impoverished, aging transvestite. Read his hilarious blog post here.

Apmel and Cherry Manga art work

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA28/203/201/23

Santa Fe New Media Festival: Huxley, Orwell & Artée's Ivory Towers

currents 2012, the Santa Fe International New Media Festival will be held from June 22. to July 8. under the participation of 4 Second Life artists: Bryn Oh, Haveit Neox, Tyrehl Byk and Artistide Després. Artée has her contribution already finished:

 

Artée (Artistide Després) has primarily worked for the last 2 years on the creation of musical instruments with brilliant optical and acoustic effects, which have been frequently awarded. Parallel to the furthering of perfection of instruments, many important incidents occurred across the globe which are still changing the world: The bank crashes with the result of the worldwide Street Occupy Movement and the atomic accident at Fukushima. Both themes are already heavily influenced the previous works of Artée, but that did not prevent her from believing more and more in the ivory tower of the protected environment of her artistic world. The result is the current work "Huxley, Orwell & Ivory Towers ".  We see around the centered instruments in the ivory tower several fields of worldwide misevaluation: Urbanisation, Totalitarianism, war and violence, misuse of financial power and pollution. Artée shows that our society loses freedom via new media and switches from Huxley’s social vision in “Brave new World” of dictatorship via entertainment to Orwell’s vision in “1984” of a society under total control. 

Here an Interview with Artée about the current work:

QL: Let’s first talk about Huxley and Orwell. When I saw their names together here I realised that both have written with a vision of totalitarianism for the future:  In fact it is easier. It is just the money that creates the power. Is it that what you wanted to show?

Artée: Yes, visions are quite different... if I may simplify a lot: Orwell  (Big Brother) uses a dictatorship of the control. Huxley in ‘Brave New World’ aim to the same result but through entertainment.

Q L: Yes, but still totalitarianism.  “Panem et Circenses”; already the old Romans knew that principle. But we live in apparently democracy.

Artée : Well, what I want to show here, or rather what I would like the people to become aware of is: Aren't we living in the beginning of a dictatorship that slides slowly from a Huxleyan model to an Orwellian one. TV as control form in the 60's to 90's.  Drone, Facebook, Identity chip in the 2010 2020

Q L: Yes, and less and less money for the average people, that is less freedom too.

Artée : Yes. So what I eventually show here is a metaphor: My bubble in the middle, my protected little world, being 'attacked' by these 2 models of world. And...all of that is only a pretext to make a scenery for my music instruments :)

QL: sure, but good that I caught you. I saw the whole picture slightly different.

Artée : yes, tell me. I am very interested:

Quan Lavender: It made me think that as this time in the 30ties (when the books has been written) they fear has been totalitarianism. But nowadays we know that money creates loss of freedom much more effective. Democratic elected people give our money to the rich and our price is loss of freedom.

Artée : Yes, and we know only very little of the dirty tricks they are playing. You know, the complexity is enormous, even the leaders don't know all the 'cards of the play'.
 

QL: And is the echo canyon connected to that story?

Artée:  Well, i made it for the contrast, an area of peace, like some monastery or retreat.

QL: My last question: Who is the guy behind me?

Artée: This guy doesn't exist. He is made of a composite of different faces, like the archetype of a cold blooded brute.

Q L: Thank you for your time

Artée : You are welcome Quan

For the best visit experience take the free HUD at the landing point which leads you to all parts of the installation.

All photos in the blog post are taken by Firlefanz Roxley.

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA22/187/116/21

Yooma's Dreaming Machine

Yooma Mayo's last work "Under the Sky" was already impressive.Technical looking elements turn from a distance view to beautiful creatures in a surrealistic world.

"Dreaming Machine" ist even more intruiging, more detailed, more fascinating. Excellent work, Yooma!

Yooma Mayo by WuWai Chun

Not easy to take photos here. I got the help by 2 photographers.

by JamesAnderson

by WuWai Chun

The best is of course to visit the place: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA15/168/147/21


  

Ultra in Betty Colors - Sneak Preview

At Split Screen will open 2 new installations at June 2. with works of the artists Trill Zapatero and Betty Tureaud.Here is Sneak Preview Betty's work 'Liquid Crystals':
 

The music in Betty's work was especially composed for that purpose by Ultraviolet Alter, a French composer and artist.

Betty Tureaud about her installation:

"I've always been fascinated by crystals and the way they appear and how we now use them technologically -- beautiful colors occur in polarized light and in the microscope we see fantastic shapes. They can receive radio signals and form images on a computer screen.

My first show in SL in 2007 showed crystals of human internal fluids. I made this installation just following my fantasy color world."

Liquid crystals have a chemical structure which exhibits a substance-phase with the characteristics of the conventional liquid form (liquid) and the solid form (in this case the crystal). For example, the liquid crystal surface as a liquid, but have many molecules arranged and oriented in the crystal-like state. There are many different types of liquid crystal phases which are distinguishable by their optical properties.

Liquid crystals can be classified into thermotropic and lyotropic. Thermotropic liquid crystal display phase transitions as a function of temperature, whereas the lyotropic liquid crystals exhibit phase transitions as a function of the concentration of the mesogenic.

Liquid crystals are widely used in LCD-based watches, cell phones, PDAs, TVs and monitors. The advantage of the liquid crystal optical properties of certain liquid substances crystallize in the presence or absence of an alternating electric field. In a typical LCD there is a liquid crystal layer (typically 10 micron thick) between two polarization filters which are angled (oriented 90° relative to each other).

It should be noted that many standard liquids in fact are liquid crystals. Soap is, in fact, liquid crystal, and liquid crystal displays several variant forms depending on their concentration in water."

Opening on June.2!

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beleza/59/8/2000


  

Home is Where Your Heart is

It is spring and in RL this often a time where we not only clean, but even refurbish our home. In SL we can be more radical. What about new furniture or even a new house?

The 5th Annual Second Life Home & Garden Expo is the latest charity event for Relay for Life. See the latest trends of housing and furniture on 14 beautiful designed sims.

At least the show is a good location for a nice Spring walk with window shopping.
The Home Expo closes May 28. at 10 PM SLT.

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dreamseeker%20Home%20Expo1/63/110/23


 

Feeling Lonely?

I do my best to keep updated with all interesting shows in Second Life but it is almost impossible. This show by Ub Yifu last only one week more, but is is worth to see:

You are alone or visitors are missing? Here the solution! Avatar sculptures. They look almost "natural" and can even move. Sculpts still can be great.

The bald-headed gentleman is a "real avatar" Tyrehl Byk, he jumped right on time in my photo

Open until Mai 28.
Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mango/32/57/21

Further along the Path

I stuck to it: „The Path“ was the best sim last year. A huge challenge for Bryn Oh as curator to have the same quality for the 2^nd Volume “Further along the Path”, which opens today. First of all Bryn deserves a huge compliment. Everyone tends to measure others by the own values and qualities. Bryn Oh builds beautiful, narrative sceneries with lots of details and a bit playful. Everyone falls in love with it. But that does not prevent her from inviting artists with complete different strengths and artistic concepts. An exactly that makes the quality of “The Path”. And this time the differences are even larger as with the previous installation.

Bryn Oh, artist and curator

 Again you follow a story which was written as a collaborative work with the principle of “Cadavre Exquis” as explained here. At every station you find a board with the chapter of the story. I will not tell here and just point out the elements you should know to have the full experience by walking through. Again the Path starts in a dark room and this time a vintage telephone leads you from chapter to chapter. And here is the first highlight. The telephones are much more modern as they look. They are a communication system between all chapters as long as you stand near by the phone. Try it!

Glyph Graves

 At the first chapter we find an artist who amazes by smart script works. Once the dust settled (I felt like a Jinn) you hear nice sounds coming from a swarm of butterflies. Walk around and hear how the sounds are influenced by your moving. The patterns on the ground change their colour bay the language used in your viewer.  

Follow then the path to the centre of the pond and read the book page by page by clicking on it. See what happens. The plants and the worms gather to form an avatar which walks to the telephone and falls apart again. A bit spooky and fascinating at the same time!

Paramparamm Papp

Param leads us to a castle of light, which gives a strong fairytale feeling.  The WL settings are an important part of the scenery. If your viewer does not allow them automatically, make sure to set them right. Once you step into the centre, you fall into another world. Beautiful and poetic!

Alpha Auer

Here is foreign country with an unknown language. The inhabitants seem to be frozen. Fascinating scenery. I admire Alpha already a long time not only for her art, but for her excellent avatars. Get your beautiful avatar from the board and become citizen of the unknown country. See me here side by side with Alpha, who is wearing one of her latest creations.

Oberon Onmura

This is the second chapter of an artist who is one of the best scripter’s in Second Life and again we see his enormous qualities. Click the telephone in the scenery and watch 3 stairs growing. Which one is the right choice? Before you try you better should take a landmark. Who knows? Maybe you find yourself back home.

Eupalinos Ugajin

Hilarious: Glyph's plants gets Chinese water; in the picture flies Bryn's swallow

I must admit that I am a bit addicted to Eupalinos’ works, although it is not really correct to call him builder. Bryn Oh used the word assembler. That fits very good, because he collects works of other builders and assembles them in a way, that these works are getting a new meaning. These collages are a respectful, but hilarious tribute to the works of others and at the same time surrealistic art at its best. 

Again here is so much that I recommend to click and try all parts. Let me point out the highlights. At the back of the work, you rez by click a “bicycle”. Jump on the box and you are able to walk on the walls and the ceiling. If you miss the telephone, consider having a drink. And the Freebie collection in the bar shelf with the craziest freebies of S list must. Don’t forget to take your copy!

Ux Hax + Romy Nayar

The detailed builds of Romy and Ux are always a joy to see. After walking around click at the chair on the small island and take your copy to wear. It is just the right vehicle to explore the underwater world. So poetic! 

Ub Yifu

Yesterday Ub Yifu told me, that he paints rl. Never I had with this great sculpter such a strong feeling of a constantly changing painting. Once you land follow the big fish the spiral up.  Don’t miss to read the chapter of the story here, because It makes you the whole story understanding. 

The TP leads you in another dark room with hanging telephones and a swallow.

Bryn Oh

The swallow is the TP to the work of Bryn Oh, which is alone because of the 2 WL settings worth seeing. You enter a broken hut which builds up under your feet. But it breaks again when you walk ahead, so you have all bad things at the same time: all is unsafe, you never know if the next step makes you fall and when you make it to move forward, then a wall stops you. Sorry Bryn, that is too much RL! ;) 

And if you have hassles to find the telephone here, just a hint: If you are fallen into the water, you are totally WRONG.

Again here is an outstanding collaboration of artist, which you should not miss on any case! And please Bryn, I really hope that this will be continued. There are so much more brilliant artists in Second Life.

Opening today at 1 PM SLT!
Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA2/178/181/23