Comet Morigi's Mt. XXYYZZ

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

UPDATE: I'm delighted that Comet Morigi has translated this blogpost to Japanese, which you can read on her own blog here.

It is not unheard of. People often anchor prims onto sims in a way that they extend well beyond the sim's "borders." But I gasped this morning when I caught sight of Japanese land artist Comet Morigi's super-colossal latest at Brooklyn is Watching (BiW): Mt. XXYYZZ.



Using a total of 4 prims, Comet surrounded the sim that BiW sits on - Popcha - with mountainous terrain on all sides. In fact, this installation is so large in scope that I was unable to photograph it in its entirety to my satisfaction.



She used a terrain scanner-to-sculpty to create a 1024m x 1024m x 256m mega prim and added a 1024m x 1024m water-coloring panel. "Only two mega prims, and their anchor prims for a total of 4 prims," she explained to me.

While Comet's art work is nearly always gigantic in size, Mt. XXYYZZ seems to impress visitors to BiW more than most. Still, Comet seems to be taking all the fuss in stride. "Technically, it's not so rare in-world." Perhaps not technically, though her execution is superb, but visually, this piece of extraordinary size and power is a feat.

Teleport directly from here.

See also: Land Art in Second Life: A historical perspective and an introduction to virtual artist Comet Morigi

Chakryn Forest - Virtual nature by Andrek Lowell, or the real reason I still have a Second Life

Chakryn Wolves, as photographed by Lano Ling at Chakryn Forest. Lano is posing here with Beolas Whitfield who calls his friend a "photopainter"

Life's not just for Paradise,
or places out of time,
for there's something even stranger yet,
that wont fit in a rhyme.
Just when I thought I'd seen it all,
and whilst sitting on a hill,
I saw, quite all around me,
the final Cosmic thrill
Paradise on Earth (The Consummatum Incarnate), by Dick Richardson


Music: Narayanam, performed by Suchita Parte
Video: Bettina Tizzy

"Get a first life," the cynics say. We know, of course, that The Cynics haven't tried Second Life®, or maybe they just dipped their Ruthy toes in our virtual world for a fleeting moment and bolted at the first lag.

I was almost A Cynic. Even with the initial unpleasantness behind me, the spectre of living two lives inside the same 24 hours terrorized me, and that is precisely what was on my mind as I stood in an elven sandbox, toying with a few helpless prims like brussel sprouts on my childhood dinner plate. It hadn't taken me long to understand that, in Second Life, the builder is King, and looking at my feeble work made me feel doomed and without purpose. I am not a builder, you see. Today, I can cobble a few things together, and I know the steps, but the magic is not in my fingers or my brain, hence the reverence I feel for those who have it.

The comely Elvenmoor sandbox of those days was already a favorite place of mine, and noobs like me were still allowed to mingle and rez alongside the prim sorcerers. I recall that a friend urged me to come and see something on the far end, and that is when I saw it...


The very first Chakryn Forest, as discovered in a sandbox on February 22, 2007

It was the lushest, greenest virtual forest that I had ever laid eyes on and it simply beckoned further exploration. Such a pretty thing! We soon discovered that once in the forest, we were transported to a secret place with no end. I later understood that its creator, a hobbit who would become one of my dearest friends, Andrek Lowell, had made the outside walls transparent. You could see into the forest but not out of it.

Finding a place to permanently rez that forest and build a community around it became the instant purpose of my Second Life. There are so many stories...

Today, four locations and five iterations later (including the introduction of sculpties and Andrek's ingenious idea of adding sun rays), Chakryn Forest is still my home and now sits on its own void sim thanks to the hospitality of my good friend and OpenSim guru, thomtrance Otoole.


The second Chakryn Forest no longer exists. Here is the third, now known as Silvanus and belonging to Kirk Nabob, as photographed by Wellington Bahram


The third Chakryn Forest (now known as Silvanus Forest), as photographed by Moon Over Belgium

Here is a lovely video of Silvanus (then Chakryn) by Chriz Palen, also featuring one of those glimmering, sunny "swirly" prim abuse sculptures by Gore Suntzu that I had rezzed there.



He made it with 1,400 prims
I think it especially notable that Andrek created the new sim-wide Chakryn Forest, open to the public since July 15th, with just 1,400 prims, complete with caves, an underwater forest feature, tunnels and many hidden secrets that no one - to my knowledge - has discovered yet.


This dreamy photo of Chakryn Forest today, by Maxiums1id

I asked Andrek how many more prims he would have needed to create Chakryn, were it not for huge prims. Between the trees, foliage, "mountain bits," waterfall, sun rays and grass, he felt he'd need ...

Andrek Lowell: Each tree would of probably cost 10 prims, and in the end, not even come close to matching the detail. The foliage... well over 1,000. The waterfall... around the 100 - 300 range, and of course, not nearly the detail. Grass... another 90 prims, light rays... another 20, and it would also be a pain. And then there are the 256m mega prims that make up the mountain top, river cliff, and waterfall wall...


I've looked at forests in other virtual worlds such as The Endless Forest, where all is flat and no nightime falls and water is still and lifeless...

It is true that I understand my own Second Life to be a mind-altering privilege, so rich with startling and radical opportunities around nearly every corner that I am in a perpetual state of excitement. But in the end, it is Chakryn Forest that I must come home to. It is my lifeline and my greatest source of serenity.

Teleport to Chakryn Forest from here.
Teleport to Silvanus Forest from here.


See also:

The Chakryn Forest and Silvanus Forest Flickr group

Other forests by Andrek Lowell, as photographed by Moon Over Belgium:
* Ile des Amis
* Greenbrier Wood

Other videos that feature Silvanus Forest:
* Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey - A ten-part HBO film
* "Chameleon" by Brigitte Kungler
* "Chakryn Forest," by Morris Vig
* Fenix et Gala by Eiko Ivory

Without Megaprims...

this post by Douglas Story

Without megaprims...Light Waves' Man Angel would have disappeared.
photo by Finny Yates. slurl

Ah, the power of them three little dots! I refer to the ellipse... Useful in this case because we were all ready to write a scorching propaganda piece with the theme, "Without Megaprims... All This Great Shit Will Go Away!" But now with things looking up on that front (latest word is that the all-powerful Lindens are leaning toward keeping megaprims) I only have to change the part after the ellipse to "...All This Great Shit WOULD Have Gone Away! And What A Damned Shame That Would Have Been!!!" Hmmmm...the first title was snappier though, you have to admit.

Without megaprims...DanCoyote Antonelli's Hyperformalism would have disappeared.
slurl


Without megaprims...Rezzable's Greenies' Home would have disappeared.
slurl

Without megaprims...the irritatingly prolific Juria Yoshikawa's Liquid Light would have disappeared.

I make something new about every seven months. With Juria, it's about every two minutes. I find this annoying. slurl

Without megaprims... Sabine Stonebender's Zero Point would have disappeared. slurl

You'll find a lot of shots here that include Bettina's booty in them. The author wishes to point out that most of the pictures here were taken by Bettina herself. Any booty issues should be taken up with the management.

Without megaprims... The International Spaceflight Museum would have disappeared.
slurl

The thing is...the artists and builders who use megaprims tend to be the most creative, charming, and well-dressed avatars who bring us joy in SL. How lucky we are to have them!

Without megaprims... Douglas Story, Aldomanutio Abruzzo & Desdemona Enfield's FlowerBall would have disappeared.
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Without megaprims...Artoo Magneto's anyMOTION would have disappeared.
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Without megaprims...Gazira Babeli's 'Gaz of the Desert' would not have been possible.

I don't like most of the machinima I've seen. This is 23 minutes of spell-binding, slow-cut magic. See it. slurl

Without megaprims... Cube Inada's Alien Flying Circus would have disappeared.
slurl

Without megaprims...Earth Primbee's Inspire Space Park would have disappeared.
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Yes, it's true that I took this shot myself. But you'll notice - there's no booty. My pictures are entirely booty-free.

(photo by Wellington Bahram) slurl
Without megaprims we would not have Bettina's forest home - Chakryn - by Andrek Lowell,

nor this,








nor this (spanning three effing sims!)
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nor this.
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I'm sure we've missed many wonderful items (I'm sure you'll point them out, gentle readers) but I think we made our point here. The loss of megaprims would be a cheapening, deadening blow to the fields of imagination and creativity that Second Life opens up to people. We hope that this wonderful creative tool remains open to us, for both our creative impulses and for those who appreciate same.

Yoo hoo! Linden Labs? Paging Mr. Michael Linden... Please give the waiting (second) world a favorable answer, and soon!