Exhibiting Art in Virtual Spaces

Posted by Alpha Auer, with a very big thank you to the curator of Avatrait, Stephen Venkman who alerted us to the opening of Avatrait Island.

The new island of Avatrait was launched back at the end of November, so I am somewhat late in posting this piece. However, I wanted to give the matter some thought prior to doing so. I also co-authored a paper for an academic conference on virtual architecture in the interim, and that too has made me hold off and gather all of my thoughts on the subject. I also have to add a disclaimer here and state that I am not an architect but an artist/designer/Second Life® builder, so all of what I write on the subject is based upon mere gut instinct and a general knowledge of architectural concerns as far as they touch upon the basic design considerations common to all visual art and design practices.





What I saw at Avatrait is extremely well conceived, well designed, meticulously modeled and textured; tasteful, functional, user friendly Real Life architecture, which in many ways reminded me of the work of Eero Saarinen (particularly the convex white pavilion shown above), who is possibly my favorite architect of the 20th century. Thus, likening architectural output to Saarinen's is not a compliment I pay lightly and here I do so. Indeed I cannot find fault with the work and were these buildings to be found anywhere in Real Life they would doubtless be the pride of whichever municipality it was that they were constructed in. In fact so pristine are they, that they gave me a strong sense of being in a walkthrough presentation modeled in AutoCad, which a high caliber architectural firm had prepared for a high budget, high maintenance client. So the architects Corbett Howard and Prad Prathivi have done the project proud in many ways.



Then, why am I not completely won over? I believe the answer is already concealed in the word "Real Life" stated twice in the paragraph above. The fact that the structures are rezzed upon huge flipped sculpty rock cones may be an attempt at taking into account the affordances of the virtual, but it is not enough: I am of the tendency to believe that what constitutes the manifestation of the "virtual" in architecture has more to do with imagination than material. Thus, the sculpty rocks may not be possible in Real Life as such, however I suspect that the intention behind them is. While the peripheral pavilions have been rezed by Corbett Howard, the spheroid main exhibition hall is a build by Prad Prathivi - and it is particularly this central edifice that for me is problematic in terms of its virtual attributes. But all in all, none of these buildings seem to leave much to the imagination, do not carry concealed surprises, nothing about them is unexpected. They are very much what they are: Beautiful and functional constructs; built out of brick, mortar and marble, rezzed upon a mini archipelago of islets. The fact that the islands themselves are floating rocks is then neither here nor there.
...

Ouvroir, the Second Life annex of the Gestaltungsmuseum Zurich, dedicated to the work of Chris Marker, was built by MosMax Hax in the spring of 2008. Avatrait island has propelled me towards a comparative examination between Ouvroir and Avatrait: It is not only the fact that both sims are dedicated to the display of (predominantly 2 dimensional) art work or that at both places the central constructs are spherical, which are leading me to this comparison. Indeed it is not the similarities but the differences that seem to me to be decisive here: While Ouvroir is every bit as well conceived, well designed and well built as Avatrait Island (much to his credit Mr. Hax has refrained from using Real Life building textures, thereby greatly heightening the virtual "feel" of the construct); the huge addition that the artist/architect has managed to bring into his work at Ouvroir is the usage of the imaginative element as a design component, particularly in the navigation system of the building.



While at Avatrait you walk up and down highly predictable staircases complete with banisters around the stairwell, at Ouvroir your only way of seeing the exhibit, which is spread out over a number of floors is by "falling down" to the next level through the designated phantom segments marked out in a semi transparent red. And to come back to the banisters at Avatrait: Why? Are the directors of Avatrait concerned about falling avatars creating liability issues? Health and safety regulations? Really, why?



While at Avatrait all that is there to see is plainly visible almost at first sight, Ouvroir is concealed, revealing itself bit by bit to its visitors. While Avatrait is complete as it is (I cannot for the life of me imagine how a single prim could be rezzed next to what is already there without becoming a major disruption of the whole system); Ouvroir allows for emergence and indeed seems to steadily be growing through the interventions of the members of its group who are continuously rezzing additions to the sim. And such is the mastery of the core red sphere which houses the actual Chris Marker collection at Ouvroir, that every addition seems to fit in, seems to be able to weave its way into the overall design tapestry. In short, while Avatrait is an endeavor to be admired respectfully and from a distance, Ouvroir invites you to be imaginative, to become involved and to play. Both are 3D, you can walk into both of them to an equal degree, but in a very bizarre kind of way Ouvroir is immersive while Avatrait remains aloof.



Keystone Bouchard needs to be taken very much to heart when he states that "architectural fabric created is still largely driven by very literal parallels to the physical world. This happens for good reason, as we have learned to visually organize the world around us, real or virtual, based on familiar cues and patterns. A roof may not need to protect us from the elements in virtual space, but it organizes a space. Even though you can fly, a ramp is still a strong way finding mechanism. While we import these visual cues from physical reality with good cause, I think we also need to consider the native, inherent characteristics of this environment and build a new language of virtual architecture based on those characteristics". Bouchard, is of course, referring to the dynamic element in virtual architecture in this text, to what he continues in the next line to describe as "virtual architecture has the capacity to become far more dynamic; behaving more like a liquid than a static and passive artifact".

I am going to do something quite improper here and use this quote out of the original context in which Bouchard has intended it. In other words, I will make it suit my own needs. Does a building need to be coded and dynamic to become virtual? Or is it more the underlying intention of usage, the very spirit in which it has been conceived of that really makes the difference between what is possible and not possible in Real Life?


Emergent interventions at Ouvroir: This infovis-like structure featuring a selection of photographs by Chris Marker was rezed in close proximity to the red sphere by Ouvroir group member Lucien Bookmite. Photograph courtesy of Barbara Binder.

Both buildings make usage of Real Life architectural metaphor, such as floors and ceilings and ramps, for the purposes of way finding. And as a construct Ouvroir is as static as Avatrait is. And yet as far as I can see, there is a huge difference and to me that difference lies in the ultimate approach of the architect, the spirit in which the whole enterprise has been undertaken: The one that emphasizes imagination and play over realism. Involvement over spectatorship. Intervention over consumption. Making a noteworthy immersive virtual experience out of Ouvroir and a beautiful receptacle for art work out of Avatrait Island. Thus, to each his due...

You can teleport to Avatrait Island from here, and to Ouvroir from here. You can see a collection of larger sized photographs of Ouvroir here and Avatrait Island here.

Eshi Otawara reinvents romance

Photography by Stephen Venkman

Eshi Otawara took a photograph/texture of a Real Life flower by Douglas Story, and used it in an entirely new way to produce a gown that is as dazzling and NPIRL as couture can get. The Hibiscus Dream Gown is theatrical, very pink, and all woman. Teleport directly from here.

Rouge! CodeBastard Redgrave becomes even larger-than-life (if that's possible) in the hands of Eshi Otawara

Back in March, I spoke of CodeBastard Redgrave splashing the grid red... Little did I know that she really, really would.



On Wednesday, my avatar undulated acrobatically on a stripper pole not far from Eshi Otawara's similarly engaged avatar. Likewise, the brightly tattooed and uniquely Rubenesque, yet no less limber CodeBastard Redgrave, or Cody, as she is affectionately called. Cody was afk (away from keyboard) getting some dinner, while Eshi and I chatted about her latest commission: the very bright, the very red, and the very daring Rouge sim, created for the very bright, the always red, and the very daring (and darling) Cody.



Allow me to let you in on the surprise a bit early on, so that you can share my amazement. Let's pull back a bit from the dance floor...


This photo by Stephen Venkman who, in Cody's words, is "a lifetime Code Red member. He met Kimmy at CodeRed.”

... and a little further back...


Yes, the club is nestled in the airy space just beneath the girl's locks of red hair!

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the new sim: Rouge...


This photograph by Stephen Venkman

What was the seed of the idea here?
Eshi Otawara: Code has this thing for red and for hot girls, and when she told me she got a sim, I thought I'd make something totally unexpected. As usual, I had no idea whether it was going to work out, but something drove me to try to terraform a hot chick. I wanted to have the sim itself to be more than a sim with stuff on it... for it to be one big art piece with functional parts, like the club hidden under waves of hair.

I terraformed it overnight and miss Code freaked out (positively) when she saw it, which encouraged me to continue. I let myself be inspired by people.

She's fun to work for, is she?
Eshi Otawara: Yes, she's great fun to work for, especially because I got free hands to do what I want. I like that. I think Code felt that 'wavelength' with me... She trusted me with it and that usually produces the best results: when two people allow each other to inspire.

There are still a gazillion prims left here. What now? Her photography?
Eshi Otawara: Her art... along the red walk.


Eshi was referring, of course, to Code's "Boudoir Rouge," her much celebrated Vargas-inspired pinup photography of many of the best known and best loved women on the grid

How many "areas" are there?
Eshi Otawara: There is a shop area (the large stripping pole), art gallery area (the boa)...


This photograph by Stephen Venkman

Eshi Otawara:...and the club. Code's photo studio will be in a skybox above, and perhaps a few living spaces; we have not decided yet really. It is relatively low prim, so far.


This photograph by Stephen Venkman

Eshi Otawara: This is way out of my general aesthetic direction. I like to mix styles, and I am very impressed with Japanese art, but as a clothing designer, I adore Vivienne Westwood and the good oldies, like Lagerfeld... which are more western in their art. This is actually done after a pinup model

What about their designs appeals?
Eshi Otawara: I like the ornate style of Westwood, so I always incorporate some detail work in what I do... and like the slight BDSM undertones to my work, Japanese are not far from it. I like their contrast of gentle and bold color. There is something about the juxtaposition of the two.

Contemporary Japanese then?
Eshi Otawara: I am not talking about any particular era of Japanese art. I pick and choose by art piece what I allow to influence me. I am a great fan of Yoshitaka Amano, but you can take that, and then look at this sim and not find connection at all, or can you?

CodeBastard Redgrave: Personally, I think my ass inspired her. (She was back from dinner!)

Eshi Otawara: Lol, no way, not your ass, but... your love of ass.

CodeBastard Redgrave: Hahahahaha XD. Ok, fair enough.

Starting tomorrow, you can visit Rouge yourself. Get that slurl directly from Cody's excellent blog.

~*~

No blog piece about Eshi Otawara would be complete these days without making reference to her hideously unfair situation, wherein she has become a victim of a 37 year-old practice by the U.S. government known as the "widow's penalty." It's especially appropriate to speak of it today, on July 4th. I hope our congressmen will make us proud to be Americans and tackle her situation and that of other foreign women who became widowed before their legal status as spouses to American men was established, and then found themselves deported from the country, as it seems Eshi might soon be.

But Eshi, with such aplomb and grace that it both moves and inspires me, has continued to make beautiful things, despite the weight of her circumstances.

Consider this, one of my favorite creations on the grid - ever - which she named, "Everything is a Tribute to Mozart" (teleport directly from here and be sure to turn your sound on).


Music by Dizzy Banjo

Eshi has also just tripled the size of her clothing shop, Chambre du Chocolat (teleport directly from here). I believe I own everything Eshi has ever made, in every color. It's hot, and generally gauzy, and nearly always Not Possible in Real Life.

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.

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.

Aley's Privateer Island - Part II

I welcome this two part story by guest author Lauren Weyland because it sheds new light on both the work and its creator, Aley Arai. In Part I, (see the previous blogpost) Lauren has not yet met Aley, and provides an interesting rationale for all that she sees and learns... Now, in Part II, Lauren has spoken extensively with Aley, which both confirms and dramatically alters her initial speculations. Since this was an entirely different take on Privateer, I thought the photography should be, too, so I appealed to Flickr-fave Stephen Venkman who produced these exceptional captures of the sim. Altogether, I think we have one helluva story. - Bettina

By Lauren Weyland
all photography by Stephen Venkman

"i developed this sim like a sci-fi disneyland. Everything must serve a usable purpose to visitors. Every prim has to earn the right to be here.”

Soon after drafting Aley's Privateer Island - Part I, I spent nearly three and a half hours talking with Aley Arai. The first of the two conversations started out of the blue with Aley stating, “Planet Bob is developing nicely.”

Although she had accomplished so much with the build - a work of art in progress - she was still dreaming of the challenges that lay ahead with completing this sim. She had determined that Privateer would be leveled “if i discover a new way to create a deep vast space; the whole sim will be ripped out and redeveloped from scratch.” (sic) Aley used the term ‘procrastinate’ in regards to her building out some of the unfinished parts of the sim, as well as her lack of knowledge in how to make a future industrialized city based on New Detroit.


“I live for sillies,” said Aley, referring to her idea of making the truck stop floor phantom (at 600m altitude)

I showed her my draft for the first blogpost and she laughed saying she has dozens of close friends at NCI. She felt that her leaving the sim open to the public during all stages of development indicated that she was hardly reclusive. However, “I'm old, slow and cautious with people… with building I'm faster than a whole army.” “Should I change the blogpiece?” I asked. She replied in the negative, because, “stories must evolve!’

“So what is Privateer about?” I asked. The sim gets its name from “Wing Commander: Privateer.” She enlightened me on some old game genre called, ‘Space Traders,’ which apparently started with Elite and moved on to BBS’s, Tradewars 2000, and finally became Privateer. Privateer got a big boost with freelancers leading to the “behemoth of Eve Online.”



“The sim exists as a kind of a honorarium to the old space trader games,” which she plans to fully script in time. “This sim is to *moon* other SL developers who just make crap to get payed and don’t care about the art” (sic), something she compared to static content on the Internet being death.



I think many of us in Second Life realize that SL is probably the browser of the future, which will both do away with static content and also produce some of the horrid builds. We talked about the corporate sims which Aley finds have done something right in hiring experienced in-world developers. But, “unfortunately those developers got greedy and gave them mostly crap product knowing they wouldn't know crap from good.”

Many times during our conversations I found myself laughing at her Aley-isms, such as ‘bling=stupid,” and, “i have a psychiatrist, but really go to my house-cat for meaningful life advice.” She dislikes the default plywood even more the bling.



I wish I could paraphrase what comes next so I will just recant what Aley said:

"What happens when you set the material definitions is the prim, or root prim in a connected object, takes on some properties of it, like sound on collision, and minor ways it behaves in physics. If you bump into any object and it's textured to NOT be wood, if it sounds like wood it means the builder is a lazy poohead :).

Yes I'm mean, but only about professional builders. When you create in a virtual world you control every aspect, every last atom, to a degree that will show you why God is now on a long vacation. You control the sounds and physics of all objects, you control the ambiance and energies that fill the virtual air. Lights and shadows, colors and motion, if you ignore any one of the details you have a kind of half finished feel. When you find a sim where all the details have carefully been catered too, you will have a strange instinctual reaction. The *something is missing* feeling will vanish."

She is also dismayed with the Lindens, saying they have now gone against all they once stood for. She said, “I openly challenged them several times over the fact that the whole entire reason for creating mainland sims was public access and transport, yet they don’t even make the gesture now of setting aside areas for roadways when earlier they actually did public works.” (sic)



According to Aley, a town is ‘official’ with a population of about 10,000 people (see my blog on civilization and society), and you need one civil employee for every 50 people, but SL has only 9 Lindens for 50,000 people on line. She feels the system itself can only really handle 30,000 regular users and that all the original developers of SL are now gone.

Aley further believes that “evolution only works when the animal needs to fit its environment. Mankind changes its environment to fit its need. This is a big reason why animals are inherently saner then any human.” It seems her cat is always happy, always cheerful and that anyone seeking true happiness must learn from her cat. I concur. In my opinion, humanity could gain a lot from napping-a-lot therapy, and chasing plastic bags around really can give you an adrenaline high.





Getting back to Privateer, I mentioned that the cave tunnels remind me of Myst and Star Wars and Doom... all games Aley has played. She cited Pot Healers Adventures as another source of inspiration. Mars on Privateer is Aley’s rendition of Robinson Crusoe, and she challenged me to look around and explain to her where the food, water, oxygen came from on such a planet as Mars.



Although I didn’t get the soap - Borax can be found on Mars - she did posit for me my idea that the earth had been destroyed and the spaceship was first marooned in space and then had crashed below. The oxygen came from the rusted iron ore… Mars being red because of the vast amounts of iron ore, and looking pink from earth because of the CO2 in the upper atmosphere which reflects back the ground colors. So, to get oxygen you select the most rust and heat it in the electric oven (see windmill generating electricity). This releases 02 and you bottle it. There’s plenty of wind on Mars to turn the windmill, and the water is in the air but you need to condense it out. “Mars is about survival and what happens if a civilization can’t make it,” said Aley.

Apparently Aley watched a half season of ‘Survivors’ and threw her TV out saying, “those guys are total morons.” We talked about global warming and the environment and she echoed the same beliefs I have on the subject saying, “global warming is big time scape goat. And forest fires and/or a single active volcano puts out many many many more times the Co2 then human industry does. It’s just more of the human need to sound like there bigger then the earth,” Aley quipped. Aley also stated that she has given up on the real world and makes her world in Second Life. Speaking for myself, I’ve often said that if Descartes were alive today, he would say, “I think, therefore I digitize.”

You may have noticed the green outlined box in several locations. One of these is in the racetrack area. This box is three dimensional showing where each person in the sim is. Aley watches the movement of the visitors and notes that so many never descend but instead congregate on about 10% of the overall sim, high up at the truck stop. Many leave never knowing, “there is a whole universe here.”


Another Aley-ism: “If you live and breathe only for the art, you’re happy and nothing else matters.”

If you have visited Privateer, in-depth, you know the upper part (the landing zone) is a “Truck Stop.” Below is the ‘Hotel California’ playing the Eagles song. There are Spaceships. There are the planets (Planet Bob, New Detroit, DaMoooon). The Borg station. An empty city, a satire on SL. Mars, the tunnels, the command center where the Jellyfish lives and so much more.



Aley reduces lag in the sim by using ‘distance and occlusion.’ Auto return has been set to 256 seconds since she ‘likes binary numbers.’ I mention this because in my prior piece I said I believed Aley doesn’t do or build without a purpose. This one act I can hang my hat on.



Some may have discovered another feature of Privateer, the SL Kessel Run. (See Millennium Falcon and Hans Solo). Aley has made the SL Kessel about 50 times in a ship she has built. Her fastest time was nineteen minutes. It’s the longest straight away (before the two new mainlands were connected) that you can possibly fly in a physics vehicle.

Per Aley, “It's fraught with terrible dangers and if your a stubborn pilot it's the biggest challenge you can get in SL. This sort of challenge is like walking along a fence post over a sewer, you will fall in and have to restart dozens of times. It's boring and frustrating. The challenge is in your self belief and self reliance that it has been done before and you can do now. People complain that there are no challenges in SL to make it give the fun interests of a game. But thats because they’re to lazy to try and make the games themselves in SL. And SL is what the users make of it. Sadly that means miles and miles of garbage and mediocrity.” (sic)

Photography in virtual worlds: More production elements than Real Life shoots

The work of photographers Arahan Claveau and Luna Zolnir - two gifted Not Possible IRL Flickrites - has been featured recently in Hamlet Au's New World Notes, the online zine that serves as a main artery and chronicle of just about every aspect of Second Life.

This has caused me to reflect on the additional complexities behind the creation of great photography in virtual worlds. While the best pics in real life also involve studio work or location scouting, model and prop selection, art direction, styling, and post production, other factors come into play when that shot is taken in a virtual environment.

Luna Zolnir is making her own animations, for instance. Another NPIRL Flickrite, ColeMarie Soleil, often uses particles, thereby introducing the special effects within the environment that is being photographed. Arahan Claveau is a pioneer in creating narrative photography in the metaverse, that doesn't depend on text or other aids to relate a story. He also brings several special effects inworld. All are now working within the Windlight First Look viewer whenever possible and appropriate, which enables them to specify the time of day, as well as some weather visuals.

In fact, since creating the Not Possible in Real Life Flickr groups: Not Possible in Real Life - Content Creation, Avatars - Not Possible in Real Life, and Situations Not Possible in Real Life, I've had the good fortune to discover several really exceptional photographers. One such artist is Stephen Venkman. His work has already graced the pages of this blog, and I have taken to actively tracking his creations. Yesterday, I happened upon this photograph and have been going back to look at it again and again. I believe Magritte himself would have enjoyed it.


"Floating with nothing but..." by S-Venkman © All rights reserved

I asked Stephen what was involved in producing this work.

Stephen Venkman: I had taken a bunch of shots while in a suspended animation of sorts (within a build called) "The Afterlife" (by NPIRLer Toran Cult)...and the first part of the experience was floating around in darkness while everyone joined you. All was black for me 'cept some sparkles of light... so when I pulled it into Photoshop, I removed the black backgrounds first. As soon as I had seen the series of shots, I knew I wanted them somehow all on one piece. I created a new file and dragged each one in scaling and sizing...added a cloud layer with some brushed and there you go... Oh, some lens flares, too.