Mechanoid Biology and Almacan

Posted by Alpha Auer

Japanese artist Kazuhiko Nakamura, aka. Almacan, displays his extraordinary paintings created with Photoshop and the 3D software "Shade" at the Mechanical Mirage Art Gallery. It may be that what Almacan presents us with strangely coincides with my current obsession with the biological in artwork, but I am utterly bowled over with Almacan...


Monorogue

Writing on his painting "Metamorphosis", Almacan says that he became engrossed in the 3D rendering of the worlds depicted in 16th century’s painter Archimboldo’s pictures. "His pictures were expressed with illusionism, a technique in which human faces are drawn by the combination of various objects. I began to want to create on a new illusionism by adopting a motif he had not used, by seeking an original image. I envisaged the scenes from the novel “The Metamorphosis“ by Kafka, which I’d read when I was 16 years old. Even now I have a distinct memory of its absurd story in which a human creature is transformed into an insect.I thought that this story’s theme would match Archimboldo’s painting style. This work is a fusion of the two worlds produced by Archimboldo and Kafka, and homage to them.

First I looked for insects in photo books and the Internet, with the intention of forming a human face from them. I became confused by the astonishing configurations of insects and the diverseness of their textures, and was not able to summarize my image successfully. However, the theme of this work is not realism, but illusionism. I changed my way of thinking and consequently chose to design an original insect based on human face parts. Next, I mixed this imaginary insect with a real one, with the purpose of adding vagueness to the border between reality and fantasy."

Almacan seems to confine his interest in biology/entomology to this one painting, "Metamorphosis" alone; saying that his primary interests are surrealism, cyberpunk, 19th century machine designs and armor. However, I see his obsession related to biology in almost all of the work presented on his website. A minute examination of biological form is translated into a hybrid visual language utilized in the creation of some truly bizarre mechanoid/biological systems which transform themselves into a human representation, a portrait.


Shell in the Darkness


Glasshead

In his 1996 book Abstracting Craft, Malcolm McCullough discusses the emergence of a new kind of craft centered within the computer environment, thanks to which "after two centuries of separation the conception and execution of (everyday) objects are once again in the same hands". I am an artist/designer working solely in the digital realm but who received her formal training during the pre-computer era. So, I have inevitably given much thought to digital craft and how it differentiates itself from its analog counterpart. Computer generated imagery, the computer image work for me has many correlations with subconscious processes, with collage and assemblage in the sense that the early surrealists used them. In fact, now that I am thinking about it I even wrote a paper which I subsequently turned into an illustrated flip book: While many who regard the computer as yet another "tool", will definitely not agree with me on this, I assert that the computer as an environment has fundamentally affected how we conceptualize as well as implement creative output. It is the utter freedom of the unlimited choices and sub-choices, the unlimited undo's, the unlimited combinations and iterations from the initial piece, all achieved within hours, if not indeed minutes, which for me bring about a profusion of ideas and combinations of ideas which is simply do not recall having had in the bad old days of pen and paper.

And Almacan's amazing paintings are making me consider this all over again...

Yes, of course the likes of Archimboldo created bewilderingly complex portraits, and Vanitas paintings. But, is there not something else going on here regardless of these precedents? A freedom of combination not to so easily to be found in the analog realm? A freedom from the very fear of error? Culminating in the visualization of the strangest fantasies? And yes, I also know that when in the wrong hands, computer generated painting can bring about the most horrifyingly trite and facile results. But, in the hands of Almacan, this for me is the pure magic of the subconscious mind set free through pixels.
...

Fade Dana's crazy cool helmets, as photographed by Del May

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling fans like to embrace the allure of cyberpunk glam, and admirers of Queen Amidala’s post-Mongolian wigs and headdresses take that up a notch or two higher, but in Second Life® we have the bejeweled and horned helmets designed by Fade Dana to go gaga over.





While helmets with horns were worn as far back as the Iron Age - and not by the Vikings as often presumed - photographer Del May has done a brilliant job of showcasing Fade's virtual imaginings, which can be acquired at her Hat Mechanic shops by teleporting here or here.

tis the season to be steampunk....

... fa lala lala la la

Posted by Alpha Auer... ;-)

Although a sizable proportion of virtual worlds Residents (including myself) do not celebrate Christmas in the religious sense of the word, this time of year has nevertheless come to be associated with festivity, merriment and the exchange of presents in a big chunk of the globe. Point in case: In my beloved Istanbul supermarkets and shopping malls are brimming over with "New Year" trees and decorations even as we speak. And what's more we seem to have managed to adapt the tradition to suit our own secular/muslim culture: The biggest seller in tree ornaments for the past few years has been a truly gaudy plastic adaptation of the tip of a minaret that you stick on top of your tree in place of where the angel would normally be put in a Christian household...

So, I have been wracking my brains in the pursuit of suitable seasonal gifts that we can inflict upon our loved ones in the metaverse and this establishment seems to me to fit the bill to perfection: Primtronics, a co-venture by CJoke Oh and Skalli McMillan is a delight of a store specialized in avatar attachments, with a steampunk neko twist but added extras!

OK, let us face it: Is it just me or is everybody beginning to notice the proliferation of truly well designed, meticulously detailed and textured steampunk and neko objects throughout the metaverse? Now, on the one hand this is of course wonderful news. We are obviously entering an era of high sophistication in virtual object design. However, on the flip side, a lot of what I am seeing out there begins to be repetitive in concept. Or I am simply beginning to become an extremely spoilt little neko person who turns up her snooty little whiskers at most of what she stumbles upon? In short, nowadays I am definitely looking for something more - and that something more for me usually ends up being something funny. And these two people are indeed funny! So, let me show you exactly what I mean:


For that incorrigible introvert who inevitably prefers a party of one, why not get them the fully animated Shoulder DJ? Comes with its own charmingly pulsating disco lights border and glow spotlight...


For that special man who likes to cook, the leg holster mixer? Very handy around the virtual kitchen, I am sure...


His 'n Hers Crazy Antigravitation-Experiment V1.1 Backpacks... Perfection itself for that personalized little touch!


And here is another one and oh my goodness! It even has its own little wind turbine: The industrial landscape backpack "MinniKraftwerk" will (hopefully) manage to put a smile on the faces of all of those moaners that you have to get gifts for, the ones who claim to be carrying all the weight of the world upon their shoulders?


A very naughty follow me pet is the Kuhschraubaer (German for cow-bear-heli). Although I did have the little devil firmly leashed it took me forever to get her to fly to heel. Not to put too fine a point on it - she just simply would not oblige! So, this gift would most definitely not be for those authoritarian, "do-as-I-tell you" souls amongst your acquaintance...


Quite a different proposition from the naughty flying cow is the Pilot-Teddy, a lovely great little cuddly guy - obviously the perfect gift for that romantic dreamer...


For that eccentric individual, the mountaineering neko, a rope tail comes complete with its own handy knife...


And finally, for that naughty naughty boy, ear and shoulder laser guns! Zapppppp!!!
...

And now onto a wee bit of complication: While I have done all that is in my power to furnish you with tips as to how best to annoy your loved ones with your gifts, the items at Primtronics are copy but no transfer. However, the good news is that they do have gift certificates available at their shop, to where you can teleport directly from here. So, all that remains for you to do, is to present the objects of your bounty with a gift certificate and precise instructions as to what it is that you expect them to get once they land at Primtronics. And then - well, just hope for the best I suppose... I mean, once you let them loose in there with all that cash there is really no saying as to what they will actually be walking out with from that oh so wonderfully imaginative location.

Doomed in the Skies: INSILICO

Posted by Alpha Auer ;-)

The creator of INSILICO, Skills Hak tells us that: "... this is a dark, futuristic metropolis; slowly floating several thousand meters high above the clouds. One of many cities, serving as the last of airborne asylums for the small extant human population since the earth has been flooded. Each of them is connected to its own reactor farm on the bottom of the sea. Water gets split into oxygen and hydrogen using solar energy and is then converted back into energy and water up in the city. Furthermore, there are giant solar panels in the earth's orbit, blocking the sunlight. (And I do hope this all makes sense.. I'm still working on it... :)



Surrounded by huge megaprim skyscrapers the citizens fight against the smog, new kinds of viruses and high tech-tech-packed gang members. Crime rate is high and several security groups and affiliated concerns in the weapon industry went corrupt. There are many kinds of new cyber crimes and terror..."

The city, rezzed 3600 meters in the skies of Second Life®, is startling. Not that I have not seen my share of cyberpunk sims before. Indeed I have. My favorite used to be Nexus Prime, by Ready Jack from the Tyrell Corporation, in its heyday. The thing that made Nexus Prime special was, of course, the usage of vertical space as spatial metaphor, where due to the many phantom sidewalks you could not help falling down to your doom through progressive levels of urban poverty and decay until you ended up in the very bowels, the sewers of the city. Skills Hak, achieves narrative not through a single spatial metaphor as was the case with Nexus Prime but rather through a carefully orchestrated range of visual and audio elements, that converge to create an extraordinary feeling of the very concept of "city" - of urban density, of doom, of pollution, of claustrophobia - and yet you want to stay and become involved - so powerful is the pull of INSILICO.




Mermaids as Service Bots, in the underwater themed luxurious 7 Seas Restaurant (above, photograph courtesy of Skills Hak), a view of the city skyline foregrounded by the neon sign of the 7 Seas Restaurant (below).

And indeed the city is teeming with life: Shops doing brisk business fill the central mall, green dots on the map abound. Not to mention the Blue Ant Bar which, Skills told me, is the place to meet the glitterati of Second Life today.

"The sim started as a little store for my own products, an abstract futuristic build in a huge, bright white, seemingly endless room, insipired by movies such as "Nothing" or "Matrix". Pieces of that still exist today and are part of the city - concealed inside the cureent textured and dark design system.


The Early days of Insilico. Photograph courtesy of Skills Hak.

Soon I started building and renting out some more shops for friends and made places to socialize such as the blue ant bar, which started as just a sofa on a platform. I just kept adding prims here and there and soon it began to feel like a naturally grown city. Although I started out with the minimalistic approach in time I decided to make the content as realistic as possible. Thus, a dense atmosphere was created by adding air traffic, a rich sound scenery, huge video screens and maintenance bots working on buildings.

I built INSILICO the way I see a city of the future. I would have made it in far more realistic proportions if I could have done so, bigger and also much higher... So high, in fact, that you would not be able to see the end, but that sadly doesn't work with Second Life's prim counts and drawing distance limits."

The two sims are inside huge megaprims, blocking the sunlight and creating a horizon out of giant buildings in a ring around the actual city so that the overall effect is a footprint of 16 sims. I was quite surprised when Skills wrote that the city had evolved in an emergent manner, with no prior planning as such. Indeed I felt that I had to double check on this, so I asked her again during a conversation in-world: The city seems to have evolved quite symmetrically despite its emergence, clustering around the long and narrow, multilevel commercial center, bringing in mind yet another symmetrically emergent construct, the Topkapi Palace in my home town; on which I actually conducted some research a while ago.




The Fight Club: A converted Buddhist Temple...


"Breathe"... A subtle Red Cross signifies the importance of this pagoda filled with sickly strange greenery...

Skills Hak is a mistress of the narrative: The usage of metaphor in the Buddhist Temple converted into a Fight Club, as well as in the "Breathe" facility, filled to choking with green but nonetheless somehow sickly looking foliage manages to convey a level of desperation and clamoring for survival that simply had me breathless with anxiety. Small wonder this, since Ms. Hak is in fact a successful Graphic Designer in Real Life who describes her design practice as follows:

"My Real Life design practice does affect my in-world design, since I have the same feelings about quality, efficiency and functionality and a love for detail in both places. But only in Second Life I can combine all of my strong points, which is basically my experience in diverse fields such as audio production, graphic design, programming and so on.




Ms. Hak's expertise as a Graphic Designer makes itself felt in details such as these video screens throughout the sim.

It is hard finding interesting projects in Real Life where I can play all of those cards and if I can't, I tend to get bored very quickly and it all ends up being just work - and not fun any more. I enjoy working on high end flash websites with all of their aspects of multimedia, but also on hardcore Graphic Design projects, such as logo design and corporate identities for interesting brands."

Insilico, which was rezzed in May of 2008 and built within a matter of weeks, can be visited by teleporting directly from here. More information on the doomed city can be obtained from the dedicated blog, http://insilico.ning.com/ and more images of Insilico can be seen on the Insilico Flickr Group page, to which I shall be adding my own meagre bunch in due course as well.

The Innsmouth Island Airship Tower on the Vernian Sea

Impossible IRLer Tabylin Tenk dropped me a landmark this morning and I set off to explore. On the other side of the teleport was a cyber/steampunk fantasy on a cinematic scale which I now present to you dark roasted, having made use of AM Radio's delightful Nostalgia Windlight preset to record my impressions.



The Innsmouth Island Airship Tower on the Vernian Sea was built primarily by Penny Patton (rez: 11/30/2005), whose profile states "I don't generally do the typical Victorian era, Jules Vern style steampunk prevalent in Second Life. Most of my designs are more 1920's pulp adventure style." Additional elements were built by Marcos Fonzarelli.


A submarine awaits

Described as a steampunk pirate island off the coast of New Babbage, the Vernian Sea Island is the centre of that city's criminal element.



There is a vast underwater network of tunnels.



I took a look "under the hood," as it were, to see how this had been accomplished.



The majority of the build elements were created in October of 2007.


Best seen large (click)

You can reach the Vernian Sea and all its offerings by teleporting directly from here.