Whereupon Blackthorn Hare creates "Yes" and becomes the first person on the planet to get his Masters degree in Second Life sculpture

If you have an interest in seeing this build in person, go soon. The sim will be wiped clean on March 11th (teleport directly from here).

photography by Stephen Venkman

It's a terrible scene. In a nanosecond, a plane will smash into a million bits after nosediving into the middle of a busy four-way intersection in smalltown Anywhere, USA. This being Second Life, however, we are able to do something that would not be possible in any other medium: walk around a frozen moment and observe and speculate on all that transpired to induce it.



While freezing an action scene and then showing various images of the subject from different points of view has been done many times cinematically, it is the opportunity to experience it in first person and choose what to look at that distinguishes the Second Life "set."



That "set," sits on a sim called "Yes," and was created by Blackthorn Hare (aka Doug Anderson) (rez: 7/7/2004), who has just kicked off what will most assuredly be more than his allotted 15 minutes of fame. It seems that Blackthorn will be the first person to ever receive a Masters degree in Second Life sculpture.



Blackthorn Hare: I've been in a Masters program at Massachusetts College of Art for a few years, and in January '07 I met with my advisor about doing my thesis in Second Life. "Thesis," in this program, isn't a written thesis... it is a coherent body of artwork. My advisor had just barely heard of Second Life but was very supportive. We had lots of talks about SL from a fine arts perspective -- aesthetics, media theory, and so on.

I had no shortage of ideas for pieces for the thesis, but the challenge was securing sims to build them on, and to figure out how to communicate my work to a Real Life audience who didn't know Second Life. A gallery show, traditionally, is not ideal for this sort of work, but I found a few work-arounds.

Bettina Tizzy: Why was that important?

Blackthorn Hare: I'm a member of the Second Life community, but also of the Real Life art community.

Bettina Tizzy: So, what workarounds did you come up with?

Blackthorn Hare: I developed a method of making stereo images of my work and ordered a box of cheap plastic glasses that let visitors to the gallery see eye-popping 3D snapshots of my work. The principle is really old, like those 3-D Viewmaster goggles, and they were really a hit at the show.

Bettina Tizzy: What inspired this disaster scenario?

Blackthorn Hare: This came out of a period last year when I was fairly down about something in Real Life, but I see the piece as actually quite positive. The key to this installation is two poseballs under the plane which allow two avatars to embrace. By doing this, we're defying some very uncomfortable truths about the world. I feel that love is an act of defiance, of rebellion. It makes no sense, given how disposed the world is towards collapse and suffering, and yet, here we are. This sim gives everyone a chance to find a friend and make a stand against what we most fear.



Bettina Tizzy: What are you going to do now that you have your degree?

Blackthorn Hare: I get the piece of paper in May, but the work for the degree is now done. I had my formal review on Tuesday that entailed a one-hour defense of the work with three professors.

Bettina Tizzy: How does it feel?

Blackthorn Hare: It feels odd not to be under the gun. That's been my life for the past four years, while teaching full time and raising a small child. I feel I'm down to only two incompatible activities now: teaching and parenting. LOL I teach art in a public high school. It's an urban school. The kids are amazing, and I have great support from the administration.

Bettina Tizzy: What do your students think about your Second Life?

Blackthorn Hare: I got them a pilot program in Teen Second Life (TSL) last year. They loved it, and I'm still figuring out how to budget for a permanent TSL presence for my school.



The sim "Yes" was made possible thanks to the generous support of Garth and Pituca Fairchang, Tayzia Abattoir, and Larry Pixel.

Jaymin Carthage gets the boot from Linden Lab for his "branch"

11:25am update: Per Jaymin Carthage himself (see third comment to this post), he just got his account back.

Via Tezcatlipoca Bisiani, I've just learned that Jaymin Carthage's Second Life account has been suspended for two weeks because of his "branch."



You may recall this story I ran on February 17, 2008: Jaymin Carthage's fast-propagating "Branch" - Scripting in the service of bodacious virtual nature, where I demonstrated Jaymin's "branch" that, once rezzed, self-replicates into a fractal - or tree - via some handy scripting.

Per Jaymin to Tezcatlipoca in an email, "Second Life upgraded their server code last night and it decided, in it's infinite wisdom, that something I was doing constituted a "Global Attack" and my account has been suspended for two weeks."

Tezcatlipoca commented, "Besides making interesting things, Jaymin used to run twice weekly script workshop classes. He's the complete opposite of someone you would want to ban. It makes me cranky they would do this. There are other people who are working on getting him reinstated, but in general it's a big question: I think we're all in Second Life to push the boundaries of the medium. If we can't do this without getting killed, it's not a lot of fun anymore... also, unless I'm wrong, the trees he built never existed on the mainland or in public areas, just the private sandboxes, so in short, it's possible to write code using the LL supplied tools, run it on your own land and get banned for it? I would dearly love to hear the official explanation."

Me, too.

html on a prim - What can it mean for the future?

It's just a beginning... but Linden Lab's new Second Life Release Candidate 1.19.1 became available a few hours ago with a feature that has a few of us in a tizzy.

What it boils down to is this: you can display a web page on a prim on your parcel of land. It's not dynamic, interactive, clickable, scrollable, and it won't refresh... yet.

As it happens, I learned the above news while I was checking out a new build and dreaming of the future with Impossible IRL'er Daemon Nikitin. She had just TP'ed me to Phil's Supermarket (teleport directly from here).



As it stands today, Phil's Supermarket - which bills itself as "the first supermarket in the rapidly-growing online world of Second Life," - is intended as a location where Residents will be able to "pre-shop for the Real World – comparing product information, nutritional information, getting recipes from our fully interactive store “shelves” and, with just a touch, sending the information directly to your Real Life email or cell phone."



The person behind the FOOD sim is Phil Lempert (aka Phil Lempert), better known to Americans as the Supermarket Guru and food editor for NBC’s TODAY Show. This is no small fry. Phil's established audience and arsenal of connections just might pull this off.

But getting back to html on a prim. Where I live in Real Life, there is a supermarket chain called Yummy.com from which I can order online and have everything delivered within 30 minutes. Now imagine walking through Phil's Supermarket one day... virtual shopping aisles, and ordering the makings for tonite's dinner.

LL's blog today said, "Interactivity is not currently enabled inworld. We’re planning on implementing interactivity and shared browsing in a later version."



Hmmm. I sure hope Phil's Supermarket will carry my brand of ice cream.

He's the King of Glow, that Spiral Walcher. Now there is Kings Rezzable, too: The Tunnel of Light

A month after Windlight First Look was re-introduced (November 14, 2007), I stopped by AM Radio's The Far Away for a visit, and low and behold, there was this fellow doing some unusual stuff with the glow rendering feature. His name was Spiral Walcher.



At that time, I was way more interested in the whimsical hat that was perched a top his white bald head, but I would soon swoon over his new neon creations. It turns out that he was using only one texture - a dot - on his prims, and then infusing it with glow rendering and rotating the heck out of it. Less than a month later, Spiral had created The Electric Forest (teleport directly from here).



Last night, press and bloggers in Second Life previewed Spiral Walcher's new sim - Kings Rezzable: Tunnel of Light - courtesy of RightasRain Rimbaud's Rezzable Productions (Teleport directly from here). I met up with Spiral to get the skinny... erm... the shiny.



Spiral Walcher: This is basically an expansion of the Electric Forest. There are elements in each area that refer to it, stemming from my desire to create something organic, rather than architectural, which is where I had concentrated my efforts in the past.



Bettina Tizzy: Why do you suppose you are so captivated with glow?

Spiral Walcher: It adds a whole new twist on things. It can really make the things pop. It also adds new depth and layers.


Spiral's latest hat now features the planets you'll find at Kings Rezzable

Bettina Tizzy: You went from teeny prims to big BIG prims... from your hats to this. What about size? Does size matter?

Spiral Walcher: I started making furniture. mostly because it was easy and good to learn with. I went on to very large scale builds... things like castles, and eventually I began to learn tiny prims for various reason... mostly because it really teaches you prim manipulation on a very detailed level. The hats spawned from that, but overall, size doesn't matter. I've made things in tiny spaces and things with a whole sim.



Bettina Tizzy: Does anything glow in your Real Life?

Spiral Walcher: Just my computer monitor at night... working on my tan as usual. I wish I could work with neon and lights in Real Life, but I don't have the equipment or the know-how.



Spiral Walcher: After I stumbled upon my type of Windlight building, I began to wonder what the world would look like with this type of glow. I saw it in my head and thanks to Rezzable, was able to make it happen.


Additional credits:
Scripting: Ordinal Malaprop
Exploding sun particle effects: Jopsy Pendragon
Planet textures: Ponk Bing

A few tips...
+ Start your visit off by touching the paper boat.
+ Be sure to touch the trees, the dragonflies, the frogs... for some fun surprises
+ After you've finished the initial ride, you can revisit the areas you most enjoyed by utilizing the local teleporters.

I love Pocky

I do! I really really love Pocky.



Pocky are long thin Japanese biscuits that are coated with chocolate or some yummy flavor. They are today's "amuse bouche" for people on-the-go. They aren't high in calories, they aren't expensive, and they keep you busy... and entertained.



I especially love Pocky in Second Life. Here's a corporation that gets it.



They set out a sim to celebrate Valentine's Day, promoting different flavors, and with some lovely interactive features, and then added some events, too.



I have no idea how much longer this sim is going to be there, but be warned. If you love Pocky, like I love Pocky, you will want to run out and get some immediately after visiting this sim (teleport directly from here).

The Avatar Blanks Factory

In Real Life, Vladimir Rakosi (rez: 8/18/2006) is an American inventor. Back in 2001, he created communication robots that were kiosks used in stores and banks. The robots talked about products, provided directions and pre-programmed messages. They moved their heads, mouths and arms, but were stationary.

In Second Life, Vladimir and his wife Vrinda Rakosi (rez: 8/20/2006) have created the Avatar Blanks Factory (teleport directly from here), where... for nothing more than a few minutes of your time, you can be automatically turned into a blank robot. On paper that doesn't sound all that appealing, does it? I didn't think so either until I tried the experience, and I'm here to report that it's quite amusing.



The Xntra sim is not yet complete, but it already features the Balloon Factory (high above), in addition to the Avatar Blanks Factory. Approach the turnstile...



Follow the instructions before you go in any further...



Hop on the conveyer belt, and off you go!



The machines in the back room are whirring...



... and soon enough, you can say goodbye to your old self.



I won't spoil your fun by telling you what happens next, but in seconds, you are... decidedly different.



It doesn't end there. You still have to get colorized and networked. Said Vrinda Rokosi, "Once completed, and with a touch to your head (I'll keep the puns here to myself), you can change your Blank Avatar's color, expression, sounds, animations."

Bettina Tizzy: You can ask for tips!

Vrinda Rakosi: Yes, it has a programmed tip hand, so if Blanks are helping people they can show their tip hand.



Bettina Tizzy: And blanks can find other blanks?

Vrinda Rakosi: Oh yeah. We also have Security Blanks. There is a security button to call for help, and Security Blanks come with a HUD, a hover craft vehicle with sounds, flight, and back up rider to come to the rescue of Blanks needing help. Blanks can also chat on a private channel with other blanks.



You can customize your blank with a number of items for sale - or free - in the Upgrade Area, too, and Vladimir encourages you to create new items for your fellow blanks.



Many thanks to Impossible IRL'er Daemon Nikitin for the hot tip!

Domenico Quaranta on Art in Second Life

Curator and NPIRLer Domenico Quaranta is a man of proven scholarship and also a searchingly thoughtful art critic whose writings I much admire. His blog, Spawn of the Surreal, is a compendium of analyses and reviews on New Media and a geniune source for astute observations on the topic of art in virtual worlds.

Last night, DanCoyote Antonelli - don't miss his exhiliratingly beautiful Second Spring: ZeroG SkyDancers which closes at the end of March - made me aware of this cogent paper by Domenico, which was published in Hz, an online journal run by the Swedish non-profit art group Fylkingen.

You will find many familiar names in this essay, entitled REMEDIATIONS: Art in Second Life, including Stella Costello, Fau Ferdinand, Adam Ramona, AngryBeth Shorthbread, Sugar Seville and her Odyssey Project, Juria Yoshikawa, AldoManutio Abruzzo, and of course, DanCoyote Antonelli. Domenico also pays particular attention to Cao Fei (aka China Tracy in Second Life) and Gazira Babeli, without whose early support the Not Possible IRL group would probably be but a twinkle in my avatar's eye.

Speaking of Gaz, most assuredly my favorite persona in Second Life, I'm eager to learn more about her upcoming show at the fabioparis art gallery in Brescia, Italy


Cover art for the show's 88 page catalogue, "Gazira Babeli," which was curated by none other than Domenico Quaranta

Gaz tells me she will be in-world for the opening of the show on March 15th at 9am SLT. I'm so there.

Brooklyn is watching (us)

Pavig Lok, lead creator of the inimitable Greenies Home Rezzable, put a bug in my ear about a new mixed realities project that is just getting underway in Second Life. It sounded promising, so I set out to learn more.

Since March 1 and for a year, artist Jay Newt (aka: Jay Van Buren) of the Real Life art gallery Jack the Pelican Presents is going to navigate the virtual world of Second Life and hobnob with les pixelated artistes as part of his conceptual art project Brooklyn is Watching.



"BROOKLYN IS WATCHING" FAST FACTS

* "Brooklyn is Watching" is a project sponsored by Popcha, a New York based media technology company, and taking place simultaneously at the art gallery Jack the Pelican Presents in Brooklyn, New York and in Second Life. A performance space and presentation/sandbox in Second Life have been set up for this. (Teleport directly from here) An avatar, in the shape of an eyeball and under the name Monet Destiny will view and project the goings-on there at all times onto a large screen monitor at the Real Life gallery.



* A computer at the gallery will run the Second Life application at all times when the gallery is open (every day from 9am to 3pm SLT, except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays) – via the eyeball avatar Monet Destiny - and when visitors to the gallery so choose, they may drive the avatar and take it wherever they want. The BiW avatar is scripted to follow anyone who approaches the stage, if its not receiving any commands from a person at the gallery. The stage itself, is rigged with a giant spring that raises the stage suddenly and violently when someone in the tower presses a special button, catapulting anyone on it, off it immediately. This creates a ‘gong-show‘ effect where people in the gallery can express their displeasure or boredom with the activities on the stage.

* Avatars will be able to send a jpg snapshot to the gallery and anyone inside the gallery will be able to email snapshots back to the BiW avatar. A dedicated blog will document the exchange and other activities.

* A weekly podcast called “Brooklyn is Watching” will be recorded at the gallery featuring 'guest stars’ from both the Real Life art world and Second Life. The format will be unabashedly patterned after Diggnation, a popular podcast about tech-news.

Jay Newt: Brooklyn is Watching is about “cultural colonialism,” marketing, the attention economy, critique, dialog, power-relationships, and the difference between potential and actual with four parts spanning the virtual, 3d space of Second Life, the two dimensional “traditional” Internet and the ultimate hipster mothership, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is an artwork, an entertainment product, a venue for critical dialog and a marketing vehicle. It also will be a hell of a lot of fun.

Bettina Tizzy: Who is Jay Newt in Real Life and what are you all about?

Jay Newt: I am a painter mostly. Born in Kansas... moved to NYC in 1997 to get my MFA in painting at Parsons. I first found out about Second Life from Rubaiyat Shatner - who I met at a College Art Association conference. He told me about it and I got in world - this was about 2 years ago - and I immediately had this feeling on the back of my neck like "oh my god this going to be huge." It was like the Internet was in 1994... just about to break out.

I got involved in Ars Virtua - one of the early "serious" virtual art galleries - helping curate some things and sitting on the board that selected artists in residence, and then that gallery gave me a virtual show, which was really when I got more emotionally involved.



Jay Newt: Jack the Pelican Presents has been around for about five years. It's a gallery run by Don Carrol who has been an artist and an art critic for years. JTPP has an international reputation. When I had an artist residency in Holland, I was amazed that people had heard of this Brooklyn gallery that is a few blocks from my studio, and the same thing happened when I visited London. It's got a better rep in Europe than it does across the East River in Manhattan.



Bettina Tizzy: ... and your own art? What is it all about?

Jay Newt: I make paintings, and do events. The paintings are of stuffed animals, spaceships and fursuiters. The events have, up to now, been artworld-furry world combined happenings, like the "fursuit portrait paintoff' which I've done in Rotterdam, Brooklyn and Kansas City.

Bettina Tizzy: Are you a furry?

Jay Newt: I'm not. I call myself a "fan of the fandom." One of my furry friends calls me a "meta furry." I am fascinated and delighted by furries, partly cause I just don't quite get it and never will.

Bettina Tizzy: How close to your original idea is "Brooklyn is Watching?"

Jay Newt: It really is very close. Boris Kizelshteyn built everything just like I drew it.



Jay Newt: I'm convinced that Second Life is the future. So what is "fun" to me is to create a venue where people can show their stuff and have an audience that will take them seriously and help "break" Second Life to the wider world, especially the NY art scene. It's like a portal into another country or something.

Amy Freelunch (aka Amy Wilson) is a good friend of mine and for years we've shared a blog. She's a painter, and has been shown in lots of prestigious places. She went through a whole "SL sucks" and then "wait, no it doesn't" process. Had to do with meeting the right people.

In May 2007, she published a book called Postcards from Second Life.


That's me, in an avatar by Yoa Ogee, interviewing Jay Newt

Jay Newt: We will have a weekly podcast starting next week. It will use the blog as its agenda to record everything that happens... well, everything of interest. We're just a bunch of people in Brooklyn with our own slant on things and no apologies for being biased.

Bettina Tizzy: What is Williamsburg, Brooklyn like?

Jay Newt: It's New York's young artist neighborhood, but it's also full of 23 year old trust fund kids with art degrees, and lots of people who work in media, advertising, etc. It's really cool and really annoying sometimes. Have you ever seen "Hipster Olympics?" That was filmed in Williamsburg, like a block from this gallery.



According to artist and scripter Sasun Steinbeck, there are 404 art venues in Second Life. Sasun knows this because, for the past two years, she has managed a gallery information kiosk system she created - and updates every week - that has dispensed 115,375 gallery lists, so far.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of the city of New York, and also the most populous borough, with more than 2.5 million residents. It is said that if Brooklyn were an independent city, it would be the fourth largest in the United States. Brooklyn has its own Sasun Steinbeck, better known as the Brooklyn Arts Council.

Brooklyn has many neighborhoods, but the two most recognized for their art and gallery scenes are the DUMBO district (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), and Williamsburg, which in 1992 was declared "The New Bohemia" on the cover of New York magazine. For years thereafter, Williamsburg - blessed with low rents, and a belly-to-belly proximity to the seat of power in the Americas: Manhattan - began its ascent up the hipster hill as buzz about it being a haven for the artist community got louder and louder. This had the reverse desired effect however, and rents have nearly doubled in the area in a very short while.

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.

Sending our love to Patty1 Rosca

This photo by Zimmy Zuhal

March 16 update: She's home, and among us! Welcome home <3

March 15 update: Patty1 has phoned home to the Hobos! She was just about to catch a flight home from Iraq. In fact, she is on her way to the U.S. and home at this very minute. Welcome back, Patty1 <3

March 7 update: Patty1 has emailed Orhalla Zander to say that she will be coming home soon. She is looking forward to seeing all her SL friends.

March 4 update: Per Aitolda Coojoke, Patty1 Rosca has been taken off the respirator long enough to make a couple of calls to friends, asking that everyone be reminded what a hard-headed hobo she is. :D When she recovers, she intends to return to her duties in Iraq.

March 2 update: Patty1 has been hospitalized in Bagram, Afghanistan. She has burns to the face and neck, broken ribs and a punctured lung. She's had surgery and it is as yet unknown if she will be moved to Germany.

~.~

We just learned today that fellow SLer Patty1 Rosca - one of Second Life's Hobos - who left to serve in Iraq on February 18, 2008 with the US Armed Forces, was injured by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) while on duty.


Patty1's Platoon - Thank you, Dru Bracken for providing this photograph.

The extent of her injuries is not known at this time.

"Patty1 left for Iraq to serve as a medic because she wanted to preserve life. She wanted to continue life, not take it away. That's what her job is," said Orhalla Zander, who is known in Second Life as the King of the Hobos. "I say IS because she's strong and will keep going. We won't lose our Patty1," he added.

Please join us in sending our collective wishes that she will be home and back among us soon.


This photo by Wellington Bahram

Patty1, if you have a chance to see this, you are in our thoughts and prayers!

Strawberry Holiday's "Throes of Rapture" - A sneak peek

Working only with 550 prims and textures by dozzydolly Biziou, Strawberry Holiday has mounted a show that is both electrifying and painterly.

She began the enterprise by asking herself "what does heaven look like?"


Strawberry puts the finishing touches on 'heaven'

"Throes of Rapture" opens today at 1pm SLT at AngelGate, as part of a collective show (teleport directly from here).



Production credits are as follows:
Strawberry Holiday - Prim Design and scripting
Dozzydolly Biziou - Textures
Moongold Munro - Sound
Carbon Chaffe - Scripting
Egidius Eel - Production Photographer
WendyofNeverland Fussbudget - Project Administrator