Get wet!

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Oh, I know... I've been away for a while, but it's time to get rockin' again. Thought I'd get you wet behind the ears while I conduct some research for my next blogposts, so here's a ZeroG shower, courtesy of Oni Horan.



Don't worry! The water at Space Colony Necronom is recycled and purified for your crystal-clean and sensual enjoyment, but do keep in mind - before you hop over there - that Necronom is a dark role-playing environment.

Climbing walls, sky dancing (in HD!), and weightless sex/showers - Part IV in our Gravity in Virtual Worlds series

By Bettina Tizzy

In previous blogposts for this series, I promised to share new and interesting products and concepts with you in the ZeroG space, so to the point...


There ain't no place I can't go...

In Real Life, Niklas Galler has developed the biometric based C-Bot (still not commercially available), that can make its way up vertical walls or spherical surfaces and is operated via GPS or a 3D-map.

Now your avatar can do the same in Second Life®. I was contacted last week by scripter and builder Nexii Malthus, who not so long ago was a Resident of SL's Teen grid, about a product he's developing at Rostok, a private region designed for inter-alliance combat. "Something really impossible in Real Life... walking on walls, but having gravity shaped dynamically as you move: any angle, any surface. I always wanted to do that in Real Life."

Nexii, who hails from the UK, sees this as a useful tool for battlemechs and combat "stuff." "It is, in the simplest sense, a vehicle. You rez (it), sit on it, go into mouselook and move around. It's not for sale and commercial applications still seem far off, unless enough people bug me."



"It's still a behind-the-scenes thing as its in development and highly experimental, but I would love it if I could get a publically accessible place and put a version of the system down for the public to try it."

Meanwhile and over at the gorgeously remodeled Grendel's Children (teleport directly from here) , Flea Bussy's technicolor Avaios Shadowcrawler comes in a power package costing a pidly $250L that includes 9 colors, two genders and an impressive AO that offers dozens of animations and sounds, but the breakthrough here is that it crawls up and down and sideways on walls... effortlessly.


The tricky part for me is getting on the walls. You must leap onto them while holding down your shift key, but once there, the rest is easy-peasy


You're such a light-weight

Then... here is something I haven't seen in any film yet (remember the fab hair-drying sequence in Blade Runner?) but I think its time has come. In Real Life, astronauts take sponge baths, but Oni Horan over at his highly imaginative RPG sim Space Colony Necronom has figured out how to keep the water contained and recycled for a practical and sensual bathing experience.


I know, I know, my avatar has all her clothes (by Eshi Otawara, btw) on! Take your own shower in whatever state of dress you prefer by teleporting to Necronom here

Oni has also created a weightless sex module, for couples who prefer to keep it lite (also available at Space Colony Necronom).




Dance me to the moon

Finally, no story about gravity in Virtual Worlds would be complete without including choreographed sky dancing. The visionary and sovereign in this category is, of course, DanCoyote Antonelli (aka DC Spensley), together with his ZeroG SkyDancers.

For the uninitiated, ZeroG SkyDancers is a form of ensemble performance that uses the airspace of Second Life to effect something between a water ballet and aerial acrobatics. Wearing colossal flowing costumes called 'cascades' - that are many times larger than their avatars - the SkyDancers move through space, and become part of the stage themselves. Altering and evolving, their flight triggers audio samples, which provide a unique layer to the original musical score.

The fourth production, Let Love Live, conceived and directed as always by DC Antonelli and hosted by Larry Pixel (aka Larry Johnson) and the New Media Consortium (NMC), has introduced an unprecedented 3000 meter (3km) reactive-interactive stage set that is repeatedly and dramatically transformed over the hour long performance as seating flies through gravity-defying monoliths of breathtaking beauty, created in collaboration with DC Antonelli by artists Glyph Graves, Strawberry Holiday, Selavy Oh and Sabine Stonebender.

This full redesign of the SkyDancer show since the troupe's founding in May of 2006, also features an all-new musical score by ZeroOne Paz, all-new choreography performed by the SkyDancers: Anhinga Chaika, Tatiana Kurri, Angelique Menoptra, Lina Lageos, Buffy Beale, Pielady Smalls, Talula Bancroft and Wytchwhisper Sadofsky, as well as all-new cascade costumes by DC Spensley and Josina Burgess.

The ZeroG SkyDancers are real people who log into Second Life from all over the world to perform for audiences in real time. Hot Tip: In deference to the economic strain some Second Lifers may be feeling, ZeroG SkyDancers has reduced the price of the tickets to their stupendous fourth season to a mere $1,000L. And yet another Hot Tip: Following the performance of Let Love Live, audience members are provided with their own spectacular cascade costumes and invited to play tag with the dancers. Seating is limited, but the show runs twice a week during the first 90 days of 2009. For ticket information, contact Lina Lageos in Second Life or DC Spensley at dc@spensley.com.

The best video to date of any ZeroG SkyDancer performance, in my view, was filmed and edited by Gary Hazlitt. A couple of days ago, I wondered out loud if he might remaster that footage into a HD version, and I am very pleased to share the results with you at this time. Herewith, the ZeroG SkyDancers Spring 2007 Production at Ars Simulacra, NMC Art Showcase in honor of the Second Life Fourth Birthday Celebration and the ZeroG SkyDancers 1st year anniversary... in High Definition.


See Gary Hazlitt's remastered HD - Widescreen version for YouTube here.

For this performance, the SkyDancers were:
Assistant Director Anhinga Chaika
Assistant Producer Callypian Christianson Deborah Stranglove
Prima - Tatiana Kurri, Angelique Menoptra, Lina Lageos, Kensai Uriza
House Manager Onyx Bijoux
Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser
Costume Designer Sabine Stonebender


See also:
+ Overcoming gravity (and reality) - Part I in our Gravity series
+ I can fly, but meh - Part II in our Graivty in Virtual Worlds series
+ Oh, those intrepid gravity challengers - Part III in our Gravity in Virtual Worlds series
+ Flea Bussy's Empire: Grendel's Children... one wacky avatar at a time

Space Colony Necronom - A dark role-playing extravaganza

I do not condone rape or violence, especially of the non-consentual variety. Ultimately, I do not care as long as the participants are willing. My interest in Space Colony Necronom is in its content as a fantasy build, but the creator's motivation and goals are intriguing, nevertheless.

Oni Horan (rez: 8/7/2007) got busy in September of 2007, whipping together a sci-fi fantasy build that - until that time - existed only in his dreams. Sorely limited by a parcel allocation of 3,000 prims, he toiled away until October, when he flung open the doors of Space Colony Necronom VI (teleport directly from here), an "interactive adult roleplaying environment."

Apparently believing that oft-quoted cinematic line "If you build it, they will come," he did little to promote it... but it worked. Yesterday's traffic numbers were 22,826, which I contributed to, I might add. (Mom, if you are reading this, I only went to check out the build!)



Oni says that the Space Colony was "formerly known as Colony Necronom VI, but today this place is abandoned, overtaken by alien lifeforms that have used the colonists for breeding. The only thing that can be found there today is madness and death."

Interestingly, Oni has not created any role-playing rules or grounds for banishment, other than that he does not allow "full functionality of weapons."



Bettina Tizzy: Tell me a little about your decision to make it hardcore. Did that decision come first or later? (Space Colony Necronom describes itself as a place for rape, monsters, BDSM, and then some).

Oni Horan: You mean sexual? It is said that two things are needed to sell a medium: violence and sex. Now if you look at the gaming industry of today, it is clear which path has been chosen to follow. While I certainly won't argue about the aesthetic value that violence can have, I find it deeply regrettable that this new medium has chosen such a destructive path almost exclusively.


Careful what you touch here!

Oni Horan: Themes of love and sexuality have no place in this industry and in the few rare instances where that is different, it always leads to a scandal of gigantic proportions, that warns everyone in the US not to pursue that path any further. Everyone knows the relation that Americans have towards sexuality, so as a European I say let them take care of violence and hatred, while we explore the other path, just like it has always been in every medium.


Touch at your own risk

Bettina Tizzy: Are you a 3D artist in Real Life?

Oni Horan: No, but I'm experienced with the medium. I study something like game design. Usually, I make music or draw comics, but in Second Life I can move within all mediums that I know: audio, video, graphics... it all comes together.


Self portrait by Oni Haran

Oni Horan: Second Life is ultimately the most complex virtual enviroment for open thoughts and ideas. Be it politically, socially, or even sexually, people have a chance to express themselves in a very sophisticated way. For that, however, the proper enviroments need to be in place.


Hibernation pods at Space Colony Necronom

Oni Horan: For example, there is a very rich variety of fantasy locations throughout Second Life, which in turn has brought forth a multitude of things to do, thousands of outfits, philosophies and people to explore.



Oni Horan: Basically, any idea can be expressed within a fantasy context, while science fiction, a genre that from the very first day has always primarly served to express novel thoughts and ideas, seems to be quite lacking.



Oni Horan: There are a good number of incredible sci-fi enviroments in Second Life. However, there just is not enough space for many individuals to exist within, so I do hope to add a part to that.



Oni Horan: Every time someone shows me an avatar he himself created just to exist within the context of the station... every time someone wrote themselves their own background... I feel that my goal has been accomplished. I hope that in this way, I have added my own two bits of variety to a world that is still so new and unexplored."


... and indeed, a number of Space Colony Necronom residents have adapted their look to their storyline. "You never know what to expect," said Oni


Avatars are disproportionately bizarre and unusual here, as compared to other regions in Second Life

Oni Horan: There are a million ideas left to be built. I do all this to show that Second Life has got a lot more creative potential than is usually seen. I support many creators that otherwise wouldn't have a chance for exposure. They create things for the station and they can sell their products within the brand I have created. It's still a pretty early phase.