Own the universe - and a piece of Second Life - in Real Life

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

This mathematical structure - known as the E8 Polytope created by Wizard Gynoid in Second Life® with the guidance of renown physicist Garrett Lisi (and sometimes avatar, Garrett Netizen)... is now available for purchase in Real Life.

The virtual version consists of 6,672 prims that were generated via script by Wizard with the assistance of Desdemona Enfield and Nand Nerd. Given its complexity, it seemed unlikely that its recreation in Real Life would be possible, barring enormous expense.

Now art, math and 3D printing artist Bathsheba Grossman has done it.


The 80mm glass cube will cost $72 USD and will be available as of July 10, 2009

Batsheba used Wizard's mathematical data for the crystal visualization and explains: "This 3D projection is notable for showing all 240 vertices, arranged in the concentric circles that appear in the common 2D "spirograph" rendering of this polytope." She adds that if Garrett Lisi's unified field theory is true, it "would mean that it explains most aspects of the observable universe. Here's a handy model for pondering the possibility."

In Lisi's seminal work from which these mathematical virtual creations stem, "Theory of Everything," the E8 Polytope may at last reveal the link between gravity and the other fundamental forces of nature.

"It has all 240 vertices and if you look straight down from the top, the zenith downwards, you will see a hole through the middle. If it were flattened, it would form the perfect spirograph," Wizard explained.

Here is a TED talk recorded in February, 2008, in which Lisi unenviably attempts to get us up to speed on his unified field theory in just 18 minutes.



See also:
Universe in the Metaverse by Hamlet Au, New World Notes

StormEye...

Posted by Alpha Auer

You wander along the long bowels of a caterpillar like structure to gain access to the head, a spherical chamber, to witness the cycle of a hurricane!



Yes, I would most definitely urge the visitor to zoom out and look at this huge creature, with (at least to me) very obvious biological references, arduously crawling along a bumpy terrain, to become aware of this extraordinary convergence of the micro cosmos and the macro cosmos in the piece which Douglas Story and Desdemona Enfield have currently on show at NMC Campus West. A caterpillar of clouds, of weather - a storm caterpillar... Inside, the progression of a hurricane displayed as sound and video/image sequences, revolving in a time cycle; and outside, a sad old "cloud creepy crawly"... For me this utterly bizarre juxtaposition is what sets this piece in a class apart, lifts it from the mere recording of a natural phenomenon to a state of creative endeavor. I need to have these quirky associations, this element of the unexpected - the surreal (for lack of a better word here) - present in creative output, for things to really start working for me, for them to stick in my imagination.



So, yes, I did like StormEye very much indeed. But even with the wonderful combination of the concepts above, were the piece not well worked out in it's details, it would have suffered a loss of effectiveness, which it obviously hasn't. That said, there are still a few things which I would like to mention however, when it comes to the nitty gritty of realization:

One of them is the time cycle: The most effective parts of this are during the height of the storm, the downpour. Studies show that around 85% of the effort of ensuring that a state of psychological immersion in virtual environments is achieved, is spent in implementing convincing sound systems rather than those of visuality. Apparently it is our ears that immerse us and not our eyes. And indeed, at StormEye too, the effect of immersion into the climate, the storm reaches its apogee during the downpour, during which, of course, sound levels become vastly pronounced. I wish these parts of the cycle lasted much longer than they currently do. It seems that at the moment the time cycle is distributed fairly equally, I would have much prefered it to have been strongly biased towards the storm rather than the lovely blue skies...



Yet another thing I noticed goes to texturing: Now, I am talking entirely through my hat here, since I am not at all familiar with the usage of video sequences in Second Life® and what the appended limitations might be in this regard. For all I know, there is no way of way of using alpha transparency in video textures. I do know that alpha enabled videos can be created by rendering quicktime video as a PNG sequence. Whether these can be imported into SL, I have absolutely no idea. But, if this is at all possible, it would seem to me that the weather videos could use some seamless blending and also variance, which I think could be achieved by layering prims on which the textures take advantage of alpha transparency, on top of each other rather than just only side by side. A mere detail this, really - but one which may make a deal of difference nonetheless...



And finally, one more tiny gripe - but possibly the most relevant one: Animations! Now, this is also partially due to how I, Alpha, tend to simper around with the current animation overrider that I have. I have been meaning to rework this for the longest time now; but when I was in there, clutching Bryn Oh's gorgeous umbrella as if it were a mere parasol - pretty much as if I was a nice little Edwardian lady out for a sunny Sunday afternoon's stroll - while all hell, in terms of weather inclemency, was breaking loose around me, the whole issue of tailor made animations befitting a particular milieu/occasion in immersive environments became most painfully apparent. I would thus urge Douglas Story and Desdemona Enfield to place an animation overrider with appropriate animations into the umbrella and require visitors to wear it while they are there.



There seem to have been a great many people involved in the realization of StormEye and I will simply refer you to the notecard given inworld at the location of the piece for a listing of these:

"Thanks go out to Alexandar Vargas for supplying the workspace in which we created the piece, AM Radio for helping to secure that workspace and for loaning us the big window, and Tayzia Abattoir & Larry Pixel of the New Media Consortium for providing the venue for the public showing of the work. Also, Vlad Bjornson helped me plumb the mysterious depths of sculpty creation in zBrush and Lynne Heller/Nar Duell's observations were most valuable. Thanks also go to Bryn Oh for making the steampunk umbrella at the last minute, and Dizzy Banjo who suggested a better method of media playback.

The storm sound effects samples served by The Freesound Project, and were produced by www.digifishmusic.com. When you are done getting wet here, visit the Aho Museum below us by using the transporter near the archway. This installation is covered by a Creative Commons license. Details may be found on the website listed above.

More information may be had at http://slstormeye.blogspot.com/

Please post your photos to the StormEye Flickr group".
...

You can teleport to StormEye directly from here.

the sad intangible who grieve and yearn... Urban Spectre

Posted by Alpha Auer

I have searched for an artist's statement both inside the construct as well as online, particularly on the artist's own website, but have not been able to find one, from which I infer that DB Bailey is leaving the viewer open to come to his/her own conclusions...



So, why is it that when I enter this remarkable structure of DB Bailey's, currently rezed at the Cetus Institute, I am immediately transported into a certain kind of architectural space that I cannot help but love? The opulent lobbies of the commercial enterprises of the 1930's, epitomized of course, inside the Chrysler Building, but countless other breathtakingly beautiful samples of the genre abound throughout Northern America and to a lesser extent in other parts of the world as well. This connection is perpetuated by groupings of masterfully integrated photographs, which too hearken back to that period. And then, the very title "Urban Spectre" as well as the line "the sad intangible who grieve and yearn", placed prominently on the entry level seem to somehow further the association.



It is an era long gone and the remnants of it may well have turned into urban specters since it seems to me that that not only is the era gone but also the entire mindset that surrounded it: These magnificent shrines to mammon were created during the Great Depression. And yet, to judge by the output of its popular culture (such as the Hollywood movie), the period between the two great wars was still one of staunch, unquestioning belief in capitalism, in enterprise, in human endeavor. Do we still believe in these things today with the same optimism and naivete in the way in which our grandparents did back then? Has the whole gilding not been quite severely tarnished in the interim? Do we still believe in a golden future where healthy maidens will dance in a frieze and yet others soar into a golden sky of everlasting affluence?



And sure enough, once we reach the upper levels of the structure, the dancing maidens are replaced by plaintive, sad hands reaching out into the sky... Not to mention that on the level just below them we have the sudden appearance of a quizzical "contemporary" full on portrait, one which to me is quite clearly no longer the glorified face of eternal trust and optimism.

Urban Spectre asks a question. An uneasy question to which the artist does not provide an answer. And in the end, for me, this is what the true artistic process should do: Ask uneasy questions to which there are no easy answers, indeed maybe no answers at all.

You can view Urban Spectre, which has also benefited from the input of Desdemona Enfield, Douglas Story and Dizzy Banjo, at the Cetus Institute by teleporting directly from here.

Note: Although, from what I could gather from comments online, there seems to have been a sound installation with this work, sadly, I missed it: I was there for a very long time but heard nothing.

And finally, there is one small criticism that I feel compelled to make, especially given how very deeply I was impressed by the work. The red typography with which the creators of the piece were credited: Not to put too fine a point on it, this is clumsy. I was so taken by Urban Spectre that in this particular case this typographic mishap has not stopped me from thoroughly becoming immersed in the work. Thankfully it stands somewhat out of harms way, at the very top of the building - but it is very much there nonetheless. I am not sure if a considerable number of artists in Second Life® realize how gravely distracting, indeed obstructive, these big and often completely incongruous typographic additions, usually rendered in strong primary colors for enhanced visibility, are to their work? Wouldn't it be much better to put a notecard with the title and credits of the piece in a small, well designed notecard dispenser, placed at the entrance of the installation?
;-)

It's a Pillflower World, after all

Douglas Story likes flowers. A lot. He photographs real flowers and then manipulates those images in striking ways to come up with memorable art installations such as the acclaimed FlowerBall and DynaFleur. In fact, I've learned that when he gets a bee in his bonnet about flowers, we are - inevitably - going to get the full story. That said, I was not in the least bit surprised when he alerted me to an upcoming show he was especially fascinated with. "What is it called, Douglas?," I asked. "Pillflower World," came the answer. Yep.

Douglas is a regular contributor to this blog.



by Douglas Story

Back in December of 2007, I saw a group notice for a gallery show in Second Life® that had the Real Life component of the image from SL being projected onto a screen in the gallery. Me being the show-off that I am, I donned a bizarre avatar and went by the gallery, and made the acquaintance of the artist, Nar Duell.

It turns out that Nar’s Real Life operator is an artist working out of Toronto named Lynne Heller. She sent me to her website and I was Pretty Effing Impressed. Among other things, I loved the sensuality of the scans of the dying blossoms, not to mention the wit and of her colorful pillflowers.

A couple weeks later, Nar was talking to me about bringing the Pillflower concept in-world, and how she could do that. I gave her a few comments, but mostly....I pointed Nar to my friend and partner-in-crime, Desdemona Enfield for her scripting expertise.

Together they have created something remarkable: a world of seemingly happy, jolly flowers and snow play, all encased in a sim-spanning, dynamic, swirling snow globe. I very much like the fun, whimsical sense of it all - especially so because there's a dark undercurrent in that the pretty flowers are made of pills - and that imagery conjures up so many associations with unhappiness and illness. Nar says it better than I do in her artist’s statement. On the pillflowers themselves:

“Soothing pastel shades of the medicinals belie their power and effect on the human body and our drug dependant culture. Alluring and candy-like, the pillflowers visually signify that ‘all is right’ with the world, or at the very least, can be made so instantaneously.”

On the subject of snow globes, she says:

“Snow globes, universal signifiers of all things kitsch, are trusty souvenirs of travel and exotica. In Pillflower World the snow globe becomes a metaphor for the conflation of locale, space, culture and even time. Snow globes are ubiquitous and generic. Tropical scenes share cold weather precipitation right along with the North Pole.”



Lynne had been asked to show her work in a Real Life gallery in Australia (details below.) She approached them about including a Second Life element, and they got very excited --- so Nar put together this installation in-world. There’s a great deal for the curious and/or playful avatar to do once there: you can take a 'toboggan' tour of the world, observe the breathing flowers that creepily turn to track you as you pass, experience psychedelic effects on your avatar and view when touching the flowers, take a bath, play a pillflower guessing game, watch dandelions grow, jump on a trampoline, roll around in the snow, sled down a hill, and fly up through the snowflakes. The snowflakes are scanned from actual images of snow crystals, and are scripted to swirl in a wide vortex.



I was especially tickled that the intro to the piece is a toboggan ride.


Here, Desdemona gives me the tour

The toboggan ride is fast, and is scripted with changes in speed and acceleration, complete with swooshing sound effects. What a good idea! (Okay okay, if you must know, I suggested the sound effects.)

For those of you down under who might like to attend in meatspace, the piece will be shown at the Australian National University, Canberra, September 22 – October 3, 2008, where the images from Second Life will be projected on a big screen in the gallery.

For those wishing to attend the show with real snow outside, it will be in a more frigid venue at the Red Head Gallery, Toronto, Canada, December 3 - 20, 2008.

To add to the gallery displays, Lynne has made a mural of Nar’s adventures in comic book form, which she has had printed very big: 4 feet by 40 feet. A few excerpts follow:




I never did talk her into getting an AO, as you can see.



You’ll note in the dialog in the above image that Des gets a teeny bit obtuse. Desdemona is a literate, articulate, and witty conversationalist normally, but when she gets on a technical tear, as above, well… hang on to your synapses. I asked her to briefly describe her contributions to this project, and she replied as follows:

[16:15] Desdemona Enfield: Scripting features include script behavior controlled by the end user using extensive configuration parameters, centralized administration of replicated objects, dynamically scheduled timer event processing to reduce region loads, runtime administrative control using nested dialog interaction, use of particle effects for snow vortex and pillflower meadows, detailed, extensible inter-prim chat protocols for use in administering objects and journaling visitor presence, coordination of multiple avatar sensors by a centralized controller, precision prim rotations based on ....
[16:15] Douglas Story: (laughing) well, I asked!

[16:16] Desdemona Enfield: ... exact solutions to rotational algebra problems, coordinated flexi control with orientation independent cyclic forces.

Did you get all that? Any questions? Well… ask Des! I’m just the reporter.

The opening reception will be held Saturday, September 13th from 10am to 2pm SLT. Teleport directly from here.


The artist would like to express special thanks to Larry Pixel of the New Media Consortium for the generous loan of the sim on which the art is displayed.

Oh, go be a kite!

Let's just say you want to create an art installation in Second Life® that has lots of wriggly things that move like waves and open and shut depending on what side you are on, or emit a different sound for each phantom prim you traverse. If you are not a coder, then you'd do well to turn to Desdemona Enfield, who once scripted the acclaimed FlowerBall: An Interactive Thingy and DynaFleur. Desde has been busy, as usual, "developing projective geometry tools to, I hope, automate (or semi-automate) the reproduction of Firstlife structures (buildings, statues, landscapes) within a VR environment," she tells me. That's pretty much the kind of answer you can expect from Desde any time you ask, "What have you been up to?" So when Desde expressed interested in Blue Tsuki's art gallery, I hastened to invite her to prepare a guest blog post, and fortunately for all of us, she agreed.

Meanwhile, photographer Stephen Venkman, who's work often graces these pages, and whose limited editions sell out overnight, spent a happy evening yesterday with his wife, Kimberly Mirabeau, playing with Blue's works and recording the moment. It gives me pleasure to share with you their combined impressions on the work of a new-to-us and highly imaginative artist, and Impossible IRL'er, too.


By Desdemona Enfield
all photography by Stephen Venkman

With an exhibition at his Fine Art Gallery (teleport directly from here), Blue Tsuki (rez: 9/3/2006) presents three of his works: Kite, DNA, and Shadowbox.

KITES is an array of kite strings extending from the ground into the sky, each having a stylized avatar shape at the upper end, its proto-arms extended as if flying in the breeze. A visitor may either sit on the ground, where she grasps the string and leans back to brace against the force of the kite, or sit on the string, in which case she becomes the flying kite.



As a one person experience, the scene leads me to contemplate the author-avatar relationship, the author being that mysterious entity that sits at a computer and breathes life into an avatar. The avatar soars in the breeze of a virtual existence, light as a feather, totally free, except for the constraint that connects it to the author... a connection which, if severed by a logout, renders the avatar lifeless, fluttering to the ground of non-existence.



Seen as a two person experience, I became mindful of the oscillating dynamic between two autonomous individuals. When one person chooses to be the anchor of the relationship, then the other is free to swoop and dive through life, zooming about, floating, exploring. Yet, as with a kite, the apparent freedom of the airborne person is conditioned upon the tension applied by the ground person. Should the ground person let loose the line, the flyer will fall to the earth. It is only in the tension between them that the exhilarating living experience becomes possible.



After playing with this exhibit, I ran back to the reception and started asking total strangers, "Please, come fly me!!" As you might imagine, reactions were mixed.

AVATARHELIX consists of two helical strands spiraling upward. Between the strands, are pose prims which cause an avatar to stretch out and begin an animated rotisserie rotation, thereby representing one of the DNA links. The animation is subtle in that it moves the avatar in a manner that is consistent with arms and legs having weight.



When I experience this sight, my mind tells me that we are our DNA, and that the information contained in the pattern of those interspiral links creates us... that we are an expression of the DNA, we are the links within the DNA.



I asked Blue if he had hired a model and tied her to a large rotisserie grill in order to get the weight effect of that animation. He laughed and said that he himself had been the model.I congratulated him on a job done well, and expressed my concern that he had not been "well done."

SHADOWBOX is a collection of screens and pose prims. When a pose is selected, the avatar disappears behind the screen and begins a slow animation. The shadow of the avatar appears on the screen. The screens are not passive objects. Each screen has a distinctive moving pattern that keeps you aware that both a screen and an avatar are present. There is a relationship between the screen and the avatar that creates the view that you see.

There are numerous interpretations of projection which I will not bother to explicate. What fascinated me about the shadow box image was how distinctly recognizable they are. That was definitely my shadow on the screen. This illustrates that my outline is a significant aspect of my identity. It left me wondering if my mental focus on clothes and makeup is, perhaps, an aggrandizement of what are secondary details of my personal presentation.


This photograph by Desdemona Enfield

Also at his gallery is a display of his earlier works. If you sit and contemplate "SleepWalker," you will see an exposition of our relationships to our avatars and our dreams. If you take a friend and you both pose within "tunnel vision1.6," you will each have the sensation of that marvelous sense of energy flow between people that draws them into each other as if they were magnets. There is more, and I suggest that you explore.

DynaFleur - the dynamics of group collaboration that flies

Once in a very rare while, about as often as a blue moon occurs, a group of people who are all completely different from each other, but unexplainably compatible, come together to work on a project that becomes much, much greater than the sum of its parts. Sparks fly. One thing builds on another and then another... and you just know that whatever they do is gonna be sweet.

From left to right: Douglas Story, Persis Trilling, Desdemona Enfield, Poid Mahovlich, Dizzy Banjo

That appears to be what happened when Douglas Story assembled his crew of unruly, hilarious, hard-working and ultimately gifted collaborators to create something quite odd, quite beautiful and quite Not Possible IRL: the DynaFleur.

Douglas Story and Desdemona Enflield, who once gave us the FlowerBall, have teamed up with Poid Mahovlich (terraforming) and Dizzy Banjo (music and sound) to create DynaFleur, a kaleidoscopic, sim-wide, kinetic installation that plays on Douglas' photographic take on flowers. Teleport directly from here.


Dyna Fleur from Kitty Lalonde on Vimeo.

I took on this lot of delightful Residents of Second Life to learn more.



Bettina Tizzy: Douglas: What's the chemistry of the team you've assembled here and how is it different from previous efforts you've undertaken?
Douglas Story: This was a larger group - and a more expansive project (than the FlowerBall). Everyone here is so skilled at what they do, and they all (you'll forgive the phrase) 'get it,' right from the get-go. I just get out of the way and let them do.
Bettina Tizzy: But why did you pick each of them?
Douglas Story: Good looks. Purely. I mean....just look at 'em! Dizzy's a little bit homely, but still.


Douglas Story

Bettina Tizzy: Were you always this fond of Real Life flowers?
Douglas Story: It started when I acquired a digital camera a few years back after many years away from photography. Reading the instructions, I noted that it would focus as close as 3/4". I took it out, and stuck the lens into one of my neighbor's roses.
Desdemona Enfield giggles.
Douglas Story: Voila! Amazing beauty... and I was off. The Xmas gift I sent to my friends, was a stargazer blossom given to me by a friend whose niece is a ballerina.

Bettina Tizzy: Desde: How did this experience vary from the FlowerBall project and what is new and different to Second Life with this work?
Desdemona Enfield: This involves motions, the use of Keystone's (Bouchard) idea.
Douglas Story: Yes, we were riffing off that.


Desdemona Enfield, photographed by Poid Mahovlich

Desdemona Enfield: This also involves hundreds of interacting scripts instead of tens. One of the main issues has been administrative.
Bettina Tizzy: How so?
Douglas Story: Testify, Sister Des
Desdemona Enfield: Central control, update procedures, version control... the dull stuff. What if we get it all installed and then someone reminds me "duh. sound!"? Ok, I need to upgrade 400+ scripts. There are simple ways to do this.. but the catch is to make it simple to do. Technically it is like any updater.
Douglas Story: I originally envisioned a veritable field of cilia... the entire back half of the sphere, (what Dizzy named 'The Void'), covered in the pink cilia. But we found that with too many cilia, the motion was not as wiggly and nice as it was, in Des' lab.


The cilia! They make a fluttering, then sucking noise as you pass through them. Photograph by Poid Mahovlich

Bettina Tizzy: Poid: I had no idea that you were also a terraformer! What are the main challenges and do you have a tip or two you'd like to share with us on how to approach terraforming?
Poid Mahovlich: I like to terra by hand and use no 3D tools, so all is created in-game. Douglas gave clear conceptual guidelines via maps and a 3D mock up. I filled in the blanks and we worked together on what he envisaged. As for tips, don't eats hot dogs at the same time as terraforming :)


Self portrait by Poid Mahovlich



Douglas Story: I showed Persis my draftsmanship, and was advised not to quit my day job.
Persis Trilling: That drawing was nowhere near as nice as the mock-up.



Poid Mahovlich: The main challenge was to get the scale in place.
Douglas Story: Poid's landscape contributed so much. Her ideas were crucial.
Dizzy Banjo: Yeh, we did little models of the sound design, too.
Bettina Tizzy: Poid... you've also taken an active role in marketing this, and evidently to much success. How do you think that is going?
Poid Mahovlich: Extremely well - and better than I had anticipated - I am a bit taken aback by the fast momentum of it all! The collective response has been comprehensive and the feedback outstanding.*

Bettina Tizzy: Dizzy, what was the first thought that entered your mind - from a music/sound standpoint, when you first saw the DynaFleur? Did you take one look and think... dang... that brings such and such a song to mind... or?
Dizzy Banjo: Initially I thought it would be more musical (the actual sounds made by the objects), but as I was writing, making the sounds... they became more and and more sound design oriented, and about portraying a certain type of characteristic. For this end, it felt right to make a mechanical technological sounding "cloud of sound."
Desdemona Enfield: Molecular bonds and thermal vibrations.


Dizzy Banjo, photographed by Poid Mahovlich

Dizzy Banjo: The other end of the installation is organic.. and that was all about creating a sensation of the sensual, but the music is really trying to communicate the strange and intoxicating beauty of the exhibit and also Doug's photography.. these giant bizarre flowers.. with a great beauty but an almost menacing or "unknown" presence at this scale.
Douglas Story: I was thrilled with what he came up with - all his observations were dead on.
Dizzy Banjo: Musically something else has happened, which I'm not sure I understand entirely yet myself.
Douglas Story: Des and Dizzy (sounds like a comedy act) got together and bounced ideas off each other.
Desdemona Enfield: I tell jokes, Dizzy laughs.
Douglas Story: As usual, Des is the catalyst that spurs new thoughts - and adding her own.
Desdemona Enfield: Dizzy wanted sounds in the void that were random yet not random: they should seem random... but actually be deterministic so that they do not overlap. I used standard prime number and modular arithmetic to create the sequences, in the same way that encryptyed messages seem random, but are not.
Dizzy Banjo: This system.. is actually really fascinating, but plays such a passive subtle role. I think it has great potential in future projects.
Bettina Tizzy: What is your background in scripting, Desde?
Desdemona Enfield: Other than a life of melodrama? I have done programming from time to time. C Java, graphics, communication... but I only admit this when I am brunette.
Bettina Tizzy: And when you are a redhead, Desde?
Desdemona Enfield: Does not waste time scripting, (smiles).
Douglas Story: I've forbidden red hair on this crew.
Desdemona Enfield pouts.
Douglas Story: I have a weakness for redheads, and can't afford the distraction.


Photograph by Dizzy Banjo

Bettina Tizzy: Persis... have you lost your mind? Or better yet, how do you keep sane working with this crew?
Persis Trilling: I've stayed out of it for the most part, as what was going on here was so exciting. Look at our visitor logs.
Douglas Story: (smile)
Persis Trilling: Traffic lately has been healthy, and momentum is building. I'm pleased with the tight integration, particularly between the landscape and the built elements. My ideas about architecture have been evolving since I first started. I started with the idea of a real landscaper, relatively flat. A project like this has the complexity of a place like Falling Water, and Falling Water does not have a great soundtrack.
Douglas Story swoons at the comparison
Desdemona Enfield: (Thinks falling water makes a big splash)
Dizzy Banjo wouldn't mind soundtracking some Frank Lloyd Wright...
Persis Trilling: On the main campus, it was important to establish an institutional identity. On the Alexander Beach sim, I learned how wonderful it could be to have an integrated composition. This is the next step in that thought process.

Bettina Tizzy: What are the most fun comments you've all received about the DynaFleur?
Douglas Story: A favorite from Fleep Tuque: "I don't know if I'm awed or creeped out." That after passing through the cilia... The disgusting comments I get about the images here.....I just don't understand. All manner of comparisons to other things.


DynaFleur by Poid Mahovlich

Bettina Tizzy: The hawaiian upholstered furniture...? (Said furniture was later replaced with black leather couches and chairs, after a bit of inside jousting).
Poid Mahovlich: I don't want my face or image anywhere near this couch, thanx ever so.
Douglas Story: I took a photo of a shirt I have...
Dizzy Banjo: Now that should have stayed.
Poid Mahovlich: We burnt it
Dizzy Banjo: In fact, I want it.
Desdemona Enfield: Ah, the furniture management crisis.
Douglas Story: Some people of vision and good taste liked this furniture.
Persis Trilling: Others said it was . . . well
Poid Mahovlich: *blinks



Bettina Tizzy: The name...?
Douglas Story: I was expressly forbidden by the management to use the word "Thingy" in the title of this. There's a strong anti-"thingy" lobby, allied with the anti-Hawaiian shirt lobby.
Douglas called his last art installation, the FlowerBall, an "interactive art thingy"
Persis Trilling sniffs
Desdemona Enfield: Oh, I was not referring to the DF, Doug, (smiles).
Douglas Story: "DynaFleur" was concocted by Miss Enfield here
Poid Mahovlich: I liked the carwash name :)
Douglas Story: haha... Cosmic Carwash

The opening reception with the artists took place today, followed by ballroom dancing with music and DJing provided by the proprietor of the Blue Note Jazz Club, Naydee McGettigan.

Artist Information

Douglas Story creates his extreme macro photography with a 5 megapixel digital camera in and around Los Angeles. Douglas has displayed his work in group shows in Los Angeles, and in Second Life at the Aho Museum, the Angel Dorei Gallery and the Artisan Gallery. To earn money to buy new shoes in Second Life, Douglas produces and edits promos for network television.

A Second Life resident since 2005, Desdemona Enfield, in her more serious moments, studies the Zen of Scripting and occasionally dabbles in building. She's highly verbal and will scroll everyone off the screen when given an opportunity. In real life, the daydream that comes closest to her vocation would include a checkered history in computer graphics, medical imaging, data protocols, and embedded systems, plus a tad of physics and mathematics.

Dizzy Banjo is a composer exploring new methods of soundtracking virtual environments. He is experienced in providing music for more traditional media outlets, such as radio, trailers, advertising and video games ( for clients such as Czech National Radio, Boosey & Hawkes, Revlon, and Sony Playstation.) However more recently he is concentrating on developing the possibilities of non linear composition and multiple user interactive music. He is currently working on a number of projects in this field including soundtracks for the in-world presence of the country of Mexico, a book on Second Life published by Intersection Unlimited and a major virtual business event.

Poid Mahovlich says, "I build creatively using smoke and mirrors. I am a geek dreamer; driven by ethereal fuel some days, nerdtech and biscuits on others. I am a Real Life professional conceptual Artist: a self-proclaimed Wizard who has a severe allergy to Hawaiian shirts."
.