The Tower and the Quest

Forgive me, dear readers, if I congratulate myself again and again for luring Alpha Auer (aka Elif Ayiter) into becoming my co-blogger here. Sometimes she writes and I don't. Sometimes I write alone for weeks. Somehow, this blog doesn't get overly lonely. And oh, the things she creates! She amuses me; she fills me with awe.

On this occasion, and for Burning Life 2009, the Tower and the Quest was built by Alpha Auer, the story and animations were created by Frigg Ragu, and these sumptuous avatars by Grapho Fullstop. And guess who Grapho is?


Me, as the Fool

The five sets of avatars are based on the Tarot of Marseilles. They are free and available in both female and male versions. They come with their own animation overriders by Frigg! Wear them and pose, using the delightful poses sprinkled throughout the Tower. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the build and each other, creating their own interpretations and mythologies.

The rest of these images were taken by Alpha herself.


The Hermit


Temperance


The Chariot

The notecard at the installation reads:

Upon arriving you will receive a full avatar for each of the following characters which you can obtain from 5 spheres placed around a circle at the entry location: These are "The Fool", "The Hermit", "The Chariot", "Temperance" and "The Moon" with skin, clothes and attached poses/animations. These characters are based on the “Tarot of Marseilles”. Each character has their own stage/sphere which progress vertically as the platforms of the tower – but you are free to use the entire installation as you want, of course. In addition to the poses and animations attached to the avatars, you will find poses and animation placed around and inside the installation. Walk/fly around, try the poses and animations to create your own photostory. Use all of your senses, because there are details in the spheres and sounds to enrich your imagination.

A story usually contains the following elements: A character (protagonist), a place (which you now have), a problem and an antagonist. The spheres are detailed, the poses and animations have titles – all this is provided to inspire you to create a story.

Tarot are packs of cards found all the way back to the fifteenth century. Historically Tarot has been played for divination purposes. The “Tarot of Marseilles” is one standard pattern design of the card. Within our context it is not so much the divination usage that is interesting, but rather the design and folkloristic associations the cards give. The 5 specific characters chosen for this project form a narration. The fool is regarded as the storyteller/the creator, while the hermit is the protagonist, whose actions are represented by the Chariot, while Temperance is needed in “getting the story into balance after the action” and the Moon is the end of the story.

Take photographs of your stories and creations and show us the results! If you post your pictures at FLICKR, we would appreciate it if you tag the pictures with: “The tower and the quest”, “alpha.tribe” and “Poses for prose and poetry” - in this way we will be able to find your pictures and admire and be inspired by your creations, and thus get ideas for new narrative installations.

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Alpha Auer, aka. Elif Ayiter is a totally irreverent, mischievous, politically incorrect, frivolous, fashion victim avatar in Second Life@. She is the CEO of the virtual fashion enterprise alpha.tribe as well as the builder and owner of Syncretia and Syncretia Annex. During less frivolous moments she has also been known to blog for the NPIRL blog of Second Life@.
http://www.alphaauer.com/
http://syncretia.wordpress.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alpha_auer/
http://alphatribe.tumblr.com/

Elif Ayiter, aka. Alpha Auer is a designer and researcher specializing in the development and implementation of hybrid educational methodologies between art&design and computer science teaching full time at Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include data visualization and the development of Kinesthetic/Somatic/Biological interfaces for the metaverse; both in collaboration with teams of computer scientists. She has presented creative as well as research output at conferences including Siggraph, Consciousness Reframed, Creativity and Cognition, ISEA, ICALT, Computational Aesthetics (Eurographics) and Cyberworlds. Elif is also the chief editor of the forthcoming journal Metaverse Creativity with Intellect Journals, UK and is currently studying for a doctoral degree at the Planetary Collegium, CAiiA hub, at the University of Plymouth with Roy Ascott.
http://www.citrinitas.com/

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Frigg Ragu aka. Heidi Dahlsveen (Norway) is a storyteller, author and assistant professor at the University College of Oslo. Her main field and interest is to perform stories for all kind of people and she has lived as a storyteller since 1996. She has been performing, telling and teaching internationally in countries like Bulgary, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, USA and Wales. At the University College of Oslo she is responsible for three kinds of storytelling studies. In Second life her main interest has been how to create poses as a narrative element. She has received support from Norwegian Arts Council to research performing arts and create performance in Second life.

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Credits:
Miskat Qinan: Many special thanks for all the input during the early phases of concept development!

Marcthur Goosson: Drapes (The Hermit and Temperance avatars)
Nomasha Syaka: Sculpty horse (The Chariot avatar)
Tetrahedron Fayray: Greek amphora (Temperance avatar)
Philips Replacement: Blonde Beauty female hair (Temperance avatar)
Flame Trudeau: Male hair (Temperance avatar)
Kithylin Perth: Wolf heads (The Moon avatar)
Cognitive Gears: Facelight (The Moon avatar)

Teleport directly from here.

Juana Manuel observes the Day of the Dead by celebrating the living

I asked Juana Manuel why she celebrates the living in her virtual life on her Day of the Dead altar, and she explained it this way:

"On my Real Life altar, I only have dead people. My reasoning for putting living people on the Second Life® altar is sort of convoluted. Two of the people on the altar had life threatening medical issues and almost died this past year. The rest are people with significance for me. One is an image of a place that "died" and is no longer the same build: Nexus Prime. I think that our avatars are manifestations of our souls and that in Second Life, we are disembodied souls... ghosts, actually."


Photo courtesy of al-zahra

Juana used Nebulosus Severine's sugar skulls to adorn the altar. The skulls are scripted so that you can name them via hover text.

"The other is that am into the Tarot, and in the symbolism of Tarot, death is more like change, or a passage, or a transformation. I feel like I have been changed profoundly and transformed by Second Life and the people I have met here. Some of the people represented (on the altar) are going through major transformations -- like the death of relationships, etc."

Teleport directly from here.

See also: Real Life inspires: Commune with the people you miss

Divine Madcow Cosmos' divinations

Madcow Cosmos is industrious, yes. He uses prims with wild abandon, yes. Since he upgraded his computer a few weeks ago, this Canadian chef-by-day - creator-by-night's work has soared. His texture work! His elegant touches using glow!

Madcow likes to work against a theme. This time: the entire Tarot deck... major arcana, minor arcana, the works. While he is loosely basing himself on the Rider-Waite deck, he has realized his own metaphorical interpretations and, while he is just about halfway through (there are 78 cards), multi-sim gallery owner Alexander Vargas couldn't wait. He has generously provided Madcow with two sims to exhibit the 40-some completed pieces, and to complement them, he has added a notecard to each one explaining the significance of that card.

Even more exciting... Alexander is awaiting delivery of yet another sim, by which time Madcow will have more cards completed... and... when the full deck is ready, Madcow is looking for ways to do scripted Tarot spreads and readings.

Molly Montale - who believes that this is "the most impressive prim work in Second Life®" - has just finished photographing a number of these pieces, and I liked her work so much that I prefer her captures to my own. Thank you, Molly!


The High Priestess


The Three of Swords


The Ten of Swords


The Knight of Pentacles


The Fool

Teleport directly from here.

See also:
* Madcow's Cosmos' "Heterotroph" at the Garden
* It's a Madcow (Cosmos) Madhouse!
* Catastrophe! Spacejunk falls from the sky!
* Dear Colgate-Palmolive
* Madcow Cosmos gets orbital
* No red noses here
* Madcow Cosmos silly-wonderful Prey Unit - a photographic challenge