NPIRL Fashion: Cutea Benelli's Okeanos maritime gown

Swim with the fishes...





Get yours by teleporting to Grim Bros. directly from here.

See also:

• Get your steampunk on
• Second Life content creators save lives
• (Virtual) Prostheses!
• W Magazine's Second Life
• Awesome vid of Bogon Flux
• Wonky wacky steampunk wonderfulness
• Cutea's Flickr stream

Get your steampunk on

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Nix Sands describes himself as a neo-Victorian, a humble tailor, tinkerer and occasional adventurer, but that representation seems quite muted when one comes across this outrageously good freebie at his shop, Xcentricity: Victorian Steampunk Clothing for Rakish Gents & Reckless Ladies.




Photos courtesy of Nix Sands

You can pick up your own gloriously free copy of the Monstro hat by teleporting to Xcentricity directly from here.

Then Cutea Benelli, co-creator of Bogon Flux, one of the most imaginative builds in Second Life®, as well as Epsilon's Fabulous Eyestem Thingy, and hundreds of the most delightful cyberpunk fashions and avatars, has insured that future steampunk fashionistas needn't compromise personal sophistication and elegance when it comes to adorning their avatar's feet.



The Vapour Vanity luxury steampunk heels are available in a zillion colors and metals but all feature a "mini-chimney" emitting tiny clouds of steam.

Teleport directly to Cutea's main store, Grim Bros. from here.

My happy place in Second Life - And a fab new Windlight preset by Mescaline

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Created by Blotto Epsilon and Cutea Benelli, the Bogon Flux (and the new couch for big asses!) - currently at East of Odyssey - is where I go when I want to be happy. I whiled away a very pleasant hour yesterday in Blotto's company and came away with a grin on my face. It's like a vacation in Second Life®.



This gone-bonkers Steampunk structure builds upon itself and then sheds parts or all but its base to begin anew. Pipes and doorways (many of them open with a touch) make it possible to navigate from one section to another until, that is, it decides to cut you loose.


There are lots of new modules on the Flux

Teleport directly from here, and by all means turn on your music stream.


Oh, how happy I would be to have such a couch in Real Life!

These photographs were taken using Mescaline Tammas' appropriately named Sunday Windlight preset.

Mescaline has a new preset, too! The Bristol...



Says Mescaline: (I shot this) "Short film to demonstrate a new Windlight Setting 'Bristol.' Edelwiess reminds me of Bristol which reminds me of Banksy and Massive Attack. This preset is made having 'lived' in shadows for a while, more ambient light than previous settings. Film has no post processing, just cut. Shot in Kirstenlee Cinquetti's S17."

See also:

• Wonky wacky steampunk wonderfulness
• Awesome vid of Bogon Flux (by Mescaline)
• Second Life content creators save lives, one net (and one eyeball) at a time
• Virtual fashions: Recycle and reuse

Second Life content creators save lives, one net (and one eyeball) at a time

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Cutea Benelli and Blotto Epsilon, co-creators of the ultra fabulous Bogon Flux (which is no longer rezzed, but just you wait! More news on that front), together with avatar creator Barney Boomslang, have released the strange eyestem thingie for sale, and it is to benefit nothingbutnets.net, the organization that saves lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa.



Even if you aren't buying, why not drop a few Lindens on their vendor?

Here's your Executive Summary, busy people: Ten dollars from every purchase will send a net and save a life of a child in Africa.

Teleport NOW directly from here or donate directly to their effort here!

(Virtual) Prostheses!!!

Posted by Alpha Auer ;-)...

Despair not, all ye elderly avatars! At the point where virtual muscle gives over to flab the resourceful amongst us turn to prostheses! And what a selection there is to be found in our oh so eternally youthful virtual world! I maintain that even the most fastidious of cyborgs will have very little to moan about in this department...
...



Primtronics, the joint venture of Skalli McMillan and CJoke Oh is an emporium on which I have previously posted voraciously, so brilliant do I find their output. And when it comes to spare body parts Primtronics is an establishment not too easily outdone, as these chrome arm and leg attachments with built in machinery will easily attest to.
...



I am told that incubating mothers need to be particularly vigilant against griefers. The Grim Bros incubator can be combined with watchful eye attachments by Primtronics for a maternal while yet stylish look!
...



And when one's own skinny arms are no longer up to the task of hefting heavy objects one simply puts on these power limbs: These robotic (animated) cyberarms, again by Primtronics, come in both an industrial as well as a chrome finish for a variety of occasions from casual to dressy.
...



Lucia Cyr's arm and leg prostheses can be found at her store Losthaven and these are certainly amongst some of the finest in Second Life®. However... And yes, I have already mentioned this little drawback on my Flickr ages ago, but one can never really overdo it with precautionary advice whilst dishing out shopping tips: Do not even think that these will get you out of exercising; if anything you will need to spend more time on that odious contraption known as the treadmill: Prolonged periods of inactivity tend to bring on a most unsightly accumulation of rust!!!
...



Always a favorite, the Prosthetic Spine, for that extra little bit of support for severe cases of virtual sciatica and lumbago - this one comes from cutea Benelli at Grim Bros., combined with yet another most useful head appendage from the same establishment. Could be my imagination entirely I suppose, but the external neural transmitters really do seem to convey the brain juices most efficiently - far better than my built in ones anyway...
...



Finally! A garment which does my clockwork brain justice, designed by none other than cutea Benelli comes from Grim Bros.: The automatic peacock dress. Quite needless to add, the brain is the "brainchild" of Pandora Wrigglesworth.
...



And speaking of brains, The Cortech Brain Jar by Total Chastity is the essential accessory of all avatars that like to air out the gray matter from time to time. Works even better than Gingko Biloba, I find: Simply wear for an hour a week, preferably outdoors... Sudoku is all very well and good in its way, but not a patch on a nice northerly breeze blowing through all of those dust ridden crevices!
...



Failing eyesight... It does come to us all in the end, doesn't it? And while in Real Life there are of course the wonders of Laser interventions, virtual ophthalmology offers a far more elegant solution: Goggles!

Top left, Thomus Keen (Steampowered Nuts); top right, Disembodied Hand (Defectiva); bottom left, my favorite ones by Torus Heliosense, these are scripted to set your hair on fire should you desire to do so! (Unfortunately no location seems to be available for Torus Heliosense at this time). And finally bottom right, Primtronics strikes yet again!
...



And in the end, when hearing loss finally creeps up, one can always find solace in cutea Benelli's hearing aid, available at Grim Bros., enhanced with bells, trumpets, car horns, gauges and whistles. And if that doesn't work - trust me, nothing ever will!
;-)
...

Credit also goes to Laynie Link, whose helicopter and tower hair I have worn for some of these shots. These were pieces which Ms. Link was distributing as freebies during the hair fair. Her store at Hairspray however, carries a far more conservative, Real Life-like line these days. Maybe we can entreat her to design some more towers and helicopters?
...

May you all have many healthy days ahead of you in your long virtual lives! The amazing cyborg paraphernalia to be found in Second Life, of which I have shown only a very very small personal selection can of course be enjoyed by all avatars of all sizes, shapes, descriptions and age groups. So, enjoy my friends, enjoy...

W magazine's Second Life : NPIRL and the Fashion Institute of Technology get a Second Chance

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

I was beyond excitement when my copy of the April 2009 issue of W magazine arrived this week. The cover reads, "Second Life: Designers Revive Their Greatest Hits." Alas, the article is not about fashion in our Second Life®, but reissues of old classics - marvelous though they may be - in Real Life. Sigh. Mark my words... the day will come.

Not long ago, I was scheming with NPIRLer Max Newbold (aka Beth Harris in RL) on a mixed realities project in New York/Second Life that was to feature fashions that are Not Possible in Real Life. At the time, she was working at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, but the blueprint for our happy plan got tossed in the dust bin when Beth was snatched up as director of digital learning at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Talk about mixed blessings...

The good news is that a scholarly hero has stepped in to rescue the FIT/NPIRL project. Dr. Steven Zucker, dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, has rallied the troops and has informed me that it is still a "go!" Meanwhile, the real world fashion industry will just have to wait to learn about the hottest names in virtual fashion, and in particular about NPIRL fashion.

Eshi Otawara, creator of the most expensive dress in virtual worlds, just unveiled this new POPI outfit with a skirt that reminds me of rich, creamy icing and comes with a bonus: a finger jewel of a bee that is sticking its tongue out at you :P. The hat! Eshi Otawara couture is available here.






I haven't retouched these, other than to crop

Cutea Benelli and her shop Grim Bros, continue to issue surreal and/or humorous outfits for men and women and every possible mood (teleport directly from here).


Artemis


Lalala


Virulent

Alpha Auer has already blogged about Pandora Wrigglesworth's colossal "Rococo" hairstyle, but I still can't get over it. Literally. This all brings to mind that Texan expression... "the bigger the hair, the closer to God." Available at Pandora's fantastical Curio Obscura shop (teleport directly from here).


Rococo Fantastico

This just in... awesome vid of Bogon Flux

UPDATE! Bogon Flux is in flux, but will soon have a new home. It is no longer rezzed at Hambone or China. We'll keep you posted.

Mescaline Tammas just slipped me the link to this machinima where Mescaline documents one of the most imaginative builds I've seen in Second Life® to date. I blogged about the wacky steampunk thingy previously here, but it sure does help to see it in action.



If you didn't have an opportunity to visit Bogon Flux at Hambone, here is your chance to see what it is like. Its creators, blotto Epsilon (rez 9/17/2005) and Cutea Benelli (rez 3/10/2007) have instantly become two of my fave virtual artists.

Wonky wacky Steampunk wonderfulness

UPDATE! Bogon Flux is in flux, but will soon have a new home. It is no longer rezzed at Hambone or China. We'll keep you posted.

One of the more impressive installations in recent memory is a gone-bonkers Steampunk structure that builds upon itself and then sheds parts or all but its base to begin anew. Pipes and doorways (many of them open with a touch) make it possible to navigate from one section to another until, that is, it decides to cut you loose.

The towering structure was shown at the recent BL, but the lag was so fierce that despite three trips expressly to see it, my only view was one of grey goo.

I was tickled then when its creators, blotto Epsilon (rez 9/17/2005) and Cutea Benelli (rez 3/10/2007), who's scrap metal fashions we reviewed here just ten days ago, alerted me to the fact that now and for two weeks, Bogon Flux is fluxing and mutating and growing like a happy bush in the Wastelands, and may I say... the experience is pure high-energy pleasure.


A fully "grown" Bogon Flux - but mind you, it is never the same way twice. Says blotto: "The organic architecture idea had been rattling around in my head for a while, like buckshot in a rusted tuna can"


... in the act of shedding its parts

Have you worked on projects together before?

Blotto Epsilon: This is our first. Before that, we got to know each other exchanging disgusting meat objects.


blotto Epsilon

Is this what the name Bogon Flux is about? If so, I'm impressed! I'm clueless here... have no idea what it all means.

blotto Epsilon: That's a workable definition. We are all about bogosity. I have a different one for myself: the Bogon Flux is an aura that surrounds me which causes computers to crash. But in fact, in this case, it was a placeholder name that we never replaced :) Another possible explanation is that it was a from a long forgotten headbonk induced vision, which I just recently rediscovered in a jar in my refrigerator.


Wherever you go, you are likely to run into the eyeball

What books do you two read? Are there any particular authors or books or movies, that influence your designs?

blotto Epsilon: I admire the work of writers and directors like William Gibson, Hayao Miyazaki, Terry Gilliam, Caro + Jeunet, but I would probably dispute that my part of this came about as a result of design :)

Cutea Benelli: Strangely enough, I seem to have missed out on all the books and films that people are reminded of by Bogon Flux. I like the work of Charlie Kaufman, Kim Ki-Duk, Kubrick, to mention a few that start with a K. As for books, I'm a glutton, as long as it's quality, so I wouldn't want to blame anybody in particular but assume instead it's everybody else's fault but ours.

blotto Epsilon: I left out Tim Burton.



Would you say that bogon flux is steampunk? If not, what genre would you say it is?

blotto Epsilon: Probably that, or plumbingpunk.

Cutea Benelli: Dizzy Banjo called it steamboink. That felt pretty accurate.



What is your favorite item in the build?

blotto Epsilon: One of Cutea's modules was a Parisian cafe. We rejoiced when those were rezzed close to the root (lower probability of decay there). Nice place to hang out and share a glass of wine (until your ass is dumped on the ground :)


blotto and Cutea at the Parisian cafe

Cutea Benelli: I'm a nerd. I like the pipes.



I am particularly fond of the windows. What a delight it is to look out onto the post-apocalyptic Wastelands.


The sharp contrast of the ornate filigree against the grungy, dusty rooms and tubes is both daring and refreshing

What has surprised people the most in the build?

Cutea Benelli: Hard to say, but it seems to be either the fact that it actually builds itself or that it explodes under their buttocks.



If you were to customize my visit, what are the top three things you'd have me do/see/experience at Bogon Flux?

blotto and Cutea:
1. Let you knock it down. The boom button is fun.
2. Incorporate a module of your own design into the organism.
3. Make sure that the Parisian cafe module rezzes.


Cutea and blotto didn't hesitate to stack burly pipes with delicate and very surprising items

What do you like best about it?

blotto Epsilon: The unpredictability... not knowing what it will build. Cutea made dozens of lovely custom modules to keep the structure diverse and surprising.

Cutea Benelli: I like all the things people read into it. And the boom button, of course.

What were the biggest challenges?

blotto Epsilon: SL® permissions. They are essential and powerful, but they nearly made us hate each other (well, not really, but sense of humor was essential). Also, having to clean up after broken scripts and scattered debris throughout my neighbors' 13 Wastelands sims.

Does Bogon Flux need a home? If so, how many prims do you need?

blotto Epsilon: Due to the generousity of friend and neighbor Makaio Stygian, it's running in Hambone Slash in the Wastes for the next couple of weeks. It can run reasonably with a few hundred prims, but it's more fun with a few thousand :)


This photograph of Cutea by Cutea herself

How would you describe the steampunk palette? From the (fab) looks of both of you, it's your groove.

blotto Epsilon: I quite like steampunk, but I'm also biased towards the wasted/recycled appearance of stuff in the wastelands. Living here has shaped my appreciation for the construction value of decrepit burned-out salvage.

Cutea Benelli: Agreed. Love steampunk, love post-apoc, but also oscillate between a lot of other styles. Life's too short for purism anyway.

To get to Bogon Flux, teleport here and then look for these coordinates (or the building itself!): 218/203/75.

Virtual fashions: recycle and reuse that scrap metal in times of economic and environmental woes

With the global economy (and my own) getting slammed every which way, most of my near-future fashion pleasures will likely be derived from the works of virtual designers because, among other things, I'll be spending more time in-world and not going out in Real Life as much, pixelated clothes don't suffer from wear and tear, and I can generally mod them if I grow weary of them. But the #1 reason, for me, is that I love, love, love the new directions that several designers are taking in Second Life®.

One such designer is German cutea Benelli (rez 3/10/2007) who's Grim Bros shop delighted surreal artist and humorist four Yip so much that she thought to share her find.

cutea's brainy collection - she calls it "cyberpunk thingies" - couldn't come at a better time. We must recycle and reuse every scrap...



cyberscrap

These days we aren't just recipients of information anymore. We are the information, and we must be plugged in.




synapses enhancer


information overload - cyan

Be sure to check out her many backpacks and accoutrements for the avatar who's in a special mood...


neuromechanical activator

Notably, cutea was also blotto epsilon's co-creator for the recent zany bogon flux build - a wonky, wonderful building that rezzes and destroys itself...



...and is also the co-creator - together with Giuseppe Spicoli - of the fun 15 Second Poetry Generator (teleport directly from here). When you play it, keep in mind that there are values assigned to the phrases and you lose points for collecting the clichés.

Teleport to Grim Bros. directly from here.

Max Newbold (aka Beth Harris) of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and I are still looking for more designers of quality NPIRL fashions.