Art Box - A new way to become the art in Second Life®

Now you, too, can be a part of Banksy's "Pulp Fiction," complete with a banana gun


Posted by Bettina Tizzy

This is the second piece in a new ongoing series on how and where to regain our "fun," in Second Life®, when so many of us are hard at work and living two full lives.

A summer rite of passage for many Southern California residents is to attend the Pageant of the Masters at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach. The show is the presentation of a series of recreations of works of art brought to life as living pictures or "tableaux vivants" using heavily made-up and costumed people to portray anything from human figures to a piece of Wedgewood china.

Tickets cost anywhere between $20 to $50 and then you must drive there (traffic is a nightmare), park (another nightmare) and devote at least 45 minutes to walking to the venue and finding seating. I'd recommend doing this once in your lifetime, but even though it's impeccably realized, I must admit that it actually gets a tad boring after 20 minutes, let alone an hour. Once I got over the shock of how perfectly they had recreated an image, my mind began to stray towards thoughts of dinner and the guaranteed traffic jam home.

Much more fun is to be had simply by logging in to Second Life and spending an hour or two with friends hopping from one virtual destination to another, turning our avatars into art.

This notion of becoming part of the art piece is not new in Second Life, as we have seen with AM Radio's Death of Marat, and Robbie Dingo's staggeringly beautiful Starry Night video (do NOT miss this if you haven't seen it already). Then there was yet another virtual Starry Night created by Tr3ssis, and of course, the delightful and surreal freebies that four Yip was giving away when we first discovered her.

Thanks to a fellow by the name of Frankie Rockett and his Art Box, there is a new way to become a living part of classic or contemporary paintings. Art Box employs Holodeck technology to rez a series of famous illustrated, painted or photographed backdrops on demand, and then makes a number of props available to you, including clothes, a sandwich, a banana gun and what not, to complete your "picture."


"Son of SL Man" by Frankie Rockett

You may have seen this machinima of Frankie's that takes place in his 3D recreation of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"...



That Nighthawks set is now available to you and your friends, free of charge and with lots of cool props, as well as backdrops from Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World...



As well as the amazing photograph of workers taking lunch a top a skyscraper construction site by Charles C. Ebbets...



Or become part of the ad "blown away..."



Or scream...

Edvard Munch's The Scream

There are over a dozen choices of sets to rez and Frankie tells me that more are on the way. Fun! You can visit Art Box by teleporting directly from here.

Obsessed with Kubrick - In virtual worlds, your passions can materialize

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

UPDATE! The Kubrick Rooms have a new home. Teleport directly from here.

With a name like Rumpledink Robiani and a somewhat scruffy but nevertheless Hellenistic avatar to match (high forehead, tousled hair and piercing eyes), I already expected more than the regular fare from the character whose Second Life® installation I had just visited thanks to a tip from Impossible IRL'er Esther Shim. What I did know is that the person behind Rumpledink is obsessed with film, and in particular, the cinema of one director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor: Stanley Kubrick.


Rumpledink’s avatar, immortalized and illustrated by in and off-world artist four Yip

Now, I know a thing or two about film having been nearly as preoccupied with it as I am now with virtual worlds, but Rumpledink’s ardor easily exceeds mine. This born and bred Brit really knows his stuff and he’s made it possible for you to learn more about his idol with his meticulous creation and tribute to Kubrick’s films, the Kubrick Rooms (teleport directly from here).



I'm sure I didn't catch all the tributes and hints of your Kubrick Rooms. The orange bathroom… it is at the hotel (The Shining)? I'm not real good with horror.

Rumpledink: Yes, I'm the same. I'm not a big horror fan, but love Kubrick. Great scene. It is when he goes back in time and meets the caretaker, Delbert Grady. Grady spills a drink on Nicholson and takes him into the bathroom to clean up. He tells him "No, you are the caretaker here. You always have been."



Have you seen "The Killing" - an early black and white Kubrick flic? (I thought surely I’d stumped him)

Rumpledink: Yes, and will be showing it at my little Redrum cinema soon :) I’ve got a load of his early shorts, too.
...

Indeed! It also seems that Rumpledink is not the only Kubrick fan on the grid. He and Violet Morellet were chatting one day and discovered that both of them were constructing a tribute to "A Clockwork Orange’s" more than zany Korova Milk Bar, where the milk served there is laced with drugs.


Violet and Rumpledink have thoughtfully provided animations on site so that you may become a coffee table. While researching for this post, I learned that there is a real Korova Milk Bar in White Plains, NY – This shot by Rumpledink

Rumpledink: She was going to stop making hers. I said, “No, finish and add with all my other rooms.”

What were the odds that you would both be doing it… and meet?

Rumpledink: I know… right! And the freaky thing was they (the rooms) were the same… the way we were building it.


Say hi to HAL and the Eva pod in the 2001 A Space Odyssey room

The centerpiece of the installation is the War Room from Kubrick’s 1964 insanely strange comedy "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," featuring Peter Sellers in three distinctly different roles.





I learned a few days ago that Rumpledink is going to lose the land the Kubrick Rooms sit on, so if you have 1,000 prims to spare and love Kubrick, here’s your chance to rescue one of the better virtual tributes we’ve come across.

Keiko Morigi's Second Life + Photoshop combo = Art to spectacular effect

Second Life has been used before as a platform to create Real Life art anew, as can be seen in AM Radio's magnificent Death of Marat, portrayed here on Hamlet Au's New World Notes, and of course, in Robbie Dingo's absolutely unforgettable recreation and video of van Gogh's The Starry Night, among others.

What interests me especially about Swede Keiko Morigi's (she goes by the name [enter name here] on Flickr) (rez: 3/1/2007) recent work is that she sets up and photographs the recreation within Second Life, which, in her words "did look pretty crappy inworld... LOL... but ta-da... gotta love PS!" She is referring to Photoshop, of course... and her approach, which obviously met with much success here, is yet another way that Second Life can serve as a foundation for creating art.


Keiko Morigi's "Baglione," made possible with the participation of friends and models (and significant photographers themselves) Khamudy Mannonen and Raul Crimson.

In 1602, early baroque painter, author and Roman Giovanni Baglione created Heavenly love conquering earthly love, a favorite example of art historians to demonstrate the Chiaroscuro technique that was very much in vogue at the time, which focused on contrasting light and shadows softly to highlight and add volume to three-dimensional images.

A run in with a rocket scooter.

This is part one of a two part article based upon the creations of Lumiere Noir and his contributions to Second Life. Corporate Jay has gone undercover [shh!] to uncover Lumiere Noir's newest creations.


Ever since the dawn of the virtual world and Second Life, we have looked for methods to immerse ourselves in fantastical and creative ways. When Second Life first emerged from the dark underworld of the Internet, it was found that as the grid grew, it slowly became tougher for residents to get to the places of their choosing: the teleportation system that we have become so used to today had not yet been implemented and residents had to teleport to telehubs, and move to their respective destinations. As sometimes the destinations were a couple of sims away, vehicles were used to cover the remaining distances. At first, the few vehicles that existed were created by the Lindens. However, they soon began to be created by other, independent, users. As was expected, they quickly gained immense popularity. However, when complete teleportation was introduced, vehicles dropped in popularity as no one needed them anymore. They were seen more as recreational objects as they began to be outfitted with many features.

A few days ago, I met with Lumiere Noir, creator of the Ivory Tower. I had been told that he was making big breakthroughs in vehicles. Sure enough, he was nice enough to send me a copy of the Rocket Scooter 3000. Following a quick read of the instructions, I sat upon it to try out what would be one of the biggest thrill rides of my second life.

The scooter itself is outfitted with crazy tricks and is built for speed. With up to 7 different speed levels and just about the same in tricks and built in features, the rocket scooter is perfect for the speed enthusiast in anyone. If you've tried Abranimations' free roller skates, then you'd know the thrill of watching yourself attempt to skate on Second Life. This is comparable, except you're flying a fantastical scooter and have a need for speed.

If you've ever watched a cheesy movie about Aliens and abductions, then you'd know what most UFOs look like and move like. I watched as Lumiere rezzed one in front of us and proceeded to sit in it.

As it goes, most UFOs I've seen are freebies - badly designed freebies at that. Lumiere instructed me to sit on the UFO and he flew. This single project of his has been the longest in production and the particular version that he showed off was in beta v.99.

From what I experienced, it was the most realistic UFO to date, in both the building and the movement. Even the little details, such as the swaying and hovering motions were spot on.

Lumiere took us up into the clouds and showed off many of the little features of the UFO, including the fantastic particle effects. He then took us down, into the water and told us of his plans to include a bubbling particle effect and when it emerged, a water dripping particle effect. I urge everyone to drop their silly little freebie UFOs, and invest interest in this one, for it is perhaps one of the most interesting vehicular concepts that I have seen!

After a wild ride on the rocket scooter, in which I was shown just about all the capabilities of the scooter including a feature which drops giant bouncing balls for you to avoid (or crash into, depending on your mood), and the humdinger drive, which propelled us to insane speeds that only Ricky Bobby could dream of achieving, Lumiere set us back down on the ground.

He showed me two of his other creations, a dive ship, and a vertical take off and landing ship. The dive ship that he showed off was capable of taking us up to 4000 meters and releasing us to fall to the ground.

The other ship could take off vertically, much like those in 50's movies. Although we couldn't test this, we were able to try out the drop ship. Lumiere took off and dropped us into the ocean, whereupon he rezzed a submarine.

Not just any submarine though. It was very Pink. Lumiere told me that it was for a customer who had specifically requested a pink submarine. He got in, and I sat down on the railing as he took us both deep underneath the water.

We sailed around and he showed off some of the many features of the submarine. He took us up to the surface and shot a rocket, which was purely for aesthetics. All the “weapons” and features implemented within the submarine were based upon a 'girly' theme. Lumiere proceeded to show off many of the features of the submarine by launching a torpedo at the shore.

The torpedo exploded into a shower of kisses. He then showed off another feature of the submarine, that being crabs being launched everywhere. I found the submarine extremely enjoyable, and definitely something to look forward to within the world of recreational vehicles.

Throughout my stay at Lumiere's sim, I enjoyed all his works, especially the rocket scooter (definitely look forward to it when it comes out) and the UFO (I wish I were rich...). Lumiere Noir has certainly crafted his own little niche in the world of recreational vehicles. A niche that encompasses vehicles in their entirety to such an extent that most anyone can find enjoyment within these objects. As I write this, I have an intent to search through my inventory, pull out my little Linden go kart and play around in the racing sims.