She's no stranger to these pages, and she hasn't touched the tarmac even once since she set flight as a content creator, leaving us enchanted time and again with her steampunk imaginingsand sculptural story-telling. Now Bryn Oh has begun her own blog, and in one of her inaugural posts she lists some of her favorite characters in Second Life®.
Oh boy... *rubs palms together and grins.* Bryn, to your great list I would add these names, which I jotted down in under two minutes. In no particular order...
Gazira Babeli Tooter Claxton Truthseeker Young Orhalla Zander Arcadia Asylum Molotov Alva Blaccard Burks Hamlet Au Andrek Lowell Ordinal Malaprop Komuso Tokugawa Tuna Oddfellow Flea Bussy Chance Abattoir Naxos Loon Spiral Walcher Adam Ramona Sabine Stonebender thomtrance Otoole (of course, this list is quite, quite incomplete)
What do all these people have in common? One look at them makes me smile. Their avatar is instantly recognizable. They rarely change much (though Flea is certainly an exception to this rule and Tooter's not far behind). Tooter, we miss you! Hurry home! And yes, they are all certifiable characters in Second Life.
And Bryn, welcome to the madcap world of blogging! Here are some interesting stats about blogging in the U.S...
- Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog. - More than 147 million Americans use the Internet. - Over 57 million Americans read blogs. - 1.7 million American adults list "making money" as one of the reasons they blog. - 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years. - 9% of Internet users say they have created blogs. - 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog. - Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs. - Over 120 thousand blogs are created every day. - There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day. - 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs. - 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006. - 51% of blog readers shop online. - Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.
Now, get thee over to Bryn's blog and let her know who you think the greatest characters are in your Second Life!
"Her shoes have wings," is an expression often used to describe a great dancer.
Previously only available to people with too much money and not enough sense, fantastic haute couture shoes are priced like works of art, especially if they are designed to be worn just one day of the year. In Second Life®, high style is blessedly more affordable, and never more so than today.
Via Impossible IRLer Juko Tempel, we've learned that Nix Sands and his Xcentricity shop are giving away these Candy Corn FairyFae Pumps - perfect for Halloween - as freebies. My favorite price! If you fancy this style, the D'Fly pump collection is available for sale in eleven different colors, so that you can wear them the rest of the year.
Adorned with black dragonflies and an optional pixie dust effect
Hermes - a Greek god himself and messenger of the gods as well - was presumably the first to sport winged shoes. It was his responsibility to guide the souls of the dead down to the underworld. How fitting then, that these lovely slippers be worn on Halloween, when the dead are in transit.
Head on over to Xcentricity by teleporting directly from here, and pick up your own pair. All of his shoes are giftable/trans okay, too.
"A brand you can trust!" says my avatar brother wolfie (and it should be known here that only I have the cheek to call the awe inspiring director of Search and Rescue of Second Life®, wolfgeng Hienrichs "wolfie" by the way ;-). Not to put too fine a point on it, when it comes to vehicles I trust wolfie with my life!
Tegen Barzane's air, sea and land craft go the distance where most others fail, indeed metamorphosing from one state of being into the other quite seamlessly along the way. A boat will continue its journey on land, the aircraft will swim underwater and cars and trucks will take to the skies like swallows. And what is more, a Tegatti will fly/swim/go over sim borders as smoothly as silk, reminiscent of the legendary vehicles of Cubey Terra. A minimalistic approach to the design of the vehicle itself as well as superb scripting see to it that these sturdy vehicles accomplish most of the tasks that an environment possessed of inherent difficulties for riders will present:
"There are many obstacles that discourage vehicle use in Second Life" says Ms. Barzane, "such as ban lines, security devices, failed sim crossings and badly designed continents where roads and waterways often don't even join up. This is a huge shame because exploring Second life in a boat or car can be a wonderful experience. You can discover many unexpected things, meet people you wouldn't otherwise meet and really experience the amazing diversity that SL has to offer. To many people there seems no practical point to using vehicles when you can fly or teleport, but to me it is all about imagination, about making SL a world and not just a virtual chat room. Originally my intention was to focus on boats. But I also became interested in other vehicles and when I couldn't find the vehicles that performed the way I wanted, I made my own. And now I make all kinds of vehicles.
I try to make my vehicles as usable as I possibly can. I put a lot of work into ensuring that they are easy to drive and to control. I also try to deal with the technical problems SL creates. For instance, due to a bug most vehicles currently crash when they enter full lots, with the driver often forced to re-log. I have developed a way to avoid this so most Tegatti vehicles can travel over full lots with no problems. Ban lines are a big problem, so I have designed a HUD that can show the user where the ban lines are".
Tegen Barzane originally trained as a land surveyor in Real Life and then continued on to obtain a degree in art and design history. Thus the sturdy, minimalistic appearance of the Tegatti craft has sound design principles founded in a solid knowledge of design principles, particularly those regarding form and function.
"To me Second Life should not try to emulate real life too closely, it can (and should) be better than real life in so many ways. So I don't try to make my vehicles as exact copies of real vehicles, but more a SL interpretation of them".
Ms. Barzane is a designer that would do the Bauhaus School proud:
It's my art history background at work here too - the Modernist injunction "truth to materials". I see a need for design honesty in the sense that as a car is made from prims we shouldn't try to hide that with panels pasted with photos of real life vehicles. We should be proud of the prims and show them, they are the essence of SL construction. I also feel that too much realism is counter productive in a virtual world, it is important to leave gaps for the imagination to fill in as this can make a much more immersive and satisfying experience than photographic ultra-realism".
And as for the amphibian/airborne multi-functionalism of the Tegatti craft? Tegen Barzane says:
"Flying cars are pretty standard in Second Life, mainly for practical reasons. But the image of the flying roadster does illustrate a point. You will see that in flying mode Tegatti vehicles have jet flames coming from their wheels.
This I do because there is a kind of credibility limit, not just with vehicles but with all SL products, where while you can make things that are not possible in Real Life you can only go so far. The user needs to see some reason why the thing works: a heavy truck that just magically flies would look weird and unconvincing, but one can imagine a truck that flies using jet flames, lasers, plasma clouds or whatever. It always needs to be believable at some basic intuitive level or the virtual illusion is lost."
So, what does the future hold for Tegatti and indeed for Tegen Barzane herself? "In the last year or more I have become pretty experienced at making different types of vehicles and now I have reached the point where I feel able to combine that knowledge to make new things. So I am now experimenting with novel types of vehicle, but there will always be some kind of visual explanation as to why they are able to work. Mainly I'm planning vehicles that are able to transform their appearance to some extent for different purposes. Second Life gives up a lot of tools to accomplish this, the biggest problem is in being able to think up a new but believable idea.
Second Life Coastguard Plane, taking some serious nosedives... Photos courtesy of Hardwarehacker Hoch
I have a great belief that Second Life will grow and grow, and that as it does the technical problems will be overcome. So I am very pleased and excited to be a part of that. I will be continuing to improve my scripts and builds and make the best vehicles that I can. At some point I plan to build some sail boats as well as some SL specific vehicles that don't exist at all in real life. That is what I love most about SL - the creative potential is endless, the only limit being what you are able to imagine".
You can teleport to Tegatti Industries at Talakin directly from here (airport) and here (boatyard).
Mrs. Bones has a counterpart: Mr. Bones (in SL: Ole Etzel- rez: 3/17/2007), and he is a pirate. He came to my attention when I viewed a number of rather unusual machinima, in which he is the protagonist. Here is the second Episode of "Mr. Bones: Dangers of Navigation."
I finally decided to get to the bottom of this bony situation and contacted my Flickr friend, Mrs. Bones.
How did you come to be Mr. Bones, or Mrs. Bones?
"After usin some human AVs first me already found mr. bones-AV as a new-bee. never changed again! :) in between it just ME! just added some stuff like beard and so on. perhaps me sailin-carib-holidays also played a role in decision to stay bony for evah! v_0
Mrs. Bones is rresult of some scary experiments done in a dark night at Tableau-Sim. She z combinin some bones, canimal-clothing and a bit of mushroom-AV + chainsaw of courrse, yarrRRrr! But as seen often in film-biz she has recorded some early b-movies..."
"Her first appearance as actress (from minute 2 on it not what you want show kids! it just like hollywood-way to become big in biz! but therefor 100%-NPIRL, haha! ;):
In both cases it wasnt the plan to promote the whole thing. Is just me that likes to look like that in mah beloved SL - accidentially recorded for youtube. #)"
Do you have an aversion to flesh? :P
"After me first crazy month in SL i couldnt see all these muscles and flesh anymore. Fleshy tanned brad-pitts whereevah you go! Me feels much safer inside me invisible-prims!"
What are your plans for Halloween?
Mrs. Bones: Me will hide inside the dog-rose in front o' me door and throw candies at likkle children heads! Grrr! Mr. Bones: Halloween at sea is always hard, thinkin about close family-members you left behind. Me hope is to find a drifting pumpkin perhaps.
Regarding Machinima... Mr. Bones/Mrs. Bones had this to say:
"i started to record machinima because an other user motivated me to do it while me was young in SL. also a little banjo-melody me wrote needed a video and SL seemed to be best place to record widout lotta money. the plan was to improve from movie to movie and also show it to me rl-friends that have no idea what big possibilities you have in SL besides dancin at clubs and have digital-... wid each otha.
Mrs. Bones closed with these fine words:
"what has to be said: npirl is wunderbar - that means wonderful, awesome, great or simple say: me lovez it! yarRRrr! me often meets ppl who wantz that everythin in sl looks like in rl. that often freaks me out a bit cuz me loves idea of not-possible-in-rl-stuff!
ahoy so far - yours, Mr(s). Bones
fineprint: did i mention i LOVE SECOND LIFE!"
And we love you, Mr(s). Bones! I'm certainly looking forward to watching the future adventures of the Bones family and ahoy to you all!
We all miss someone who has died. When I've lost someone who is dear to me, I create an altar for them at my home in Real Life. On the altar, I place many things that I know that they loved, such as their favorite foods, candies, and wine or beer and even cigarettes, books that they enjoyed, a piece of jewelry that they wore, and so on. I add photographs, seasonal flowers - though marigolds are the most appropriate because it is said that they make it easier for the soul to find its way to the altar because of their scent - and candles.
I erect the altar somewhere I spend a lot of time, and over the course of a few days, I get to feeling like I've had a good visit with my lost loved one. For me, it is a healing experience.
Skeletons and skulls abound in Second Life, and I'll be blogging about two very notable skeletons soon, but I often wonder why I have never seen an NPIRL altar of any kind. This would certainly be a good time of year for it.
Late October is when Mexicans are busy preparing altars in their homes, businesses, schools and even their government offices to commemorate the Day of the Dead, a celebration of sorts that actually takes place over the course of two days: November 1 and 2. Many Mexicans believe that it is possible during these 48 hours to commune with the souls of their dead, and they approach the opportunity with a festive air, and even wish each other a Happy Day of the Dead.
Bakeries and candy makers produce industrial quantities of candied skulls made out of sugar, and candle makers sell out on long-burning glass-encased votives.
Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) would have likely had a field day in Second Life®, for he was the Mexican political cartoonist, engraver and illustrator who popularized images of skulls and skeletons having a frolicking good time.
On November 1 and 2, Mexicans gather at the cemeteries with flowers, candles and food and actually celebrate their dead. In some communities, such as many of the small villages in Oaxaca and Morelos, there is a procession and a great deal of singing and even dancing. The smell of burning incense envelopes the gravesites and you can hear the people speaking with their dead and catching them up on everything that has happened over the course of the year.
In Real Life, the altars can be large or small, simple or incredibly elaborate, taking many hours to assemble.
I would welcome the opportunity to visit any and all kinds of altars in Second Life, but would of course be especially interested in altars that would Not be Possible in Real Life. If you know of one, please do give us a heads up, would you?
I have to own up to this with considerable shame, but it took me an awfully long time to discover the charms of Second Life® eyes. In my newbie days I put on a plain dark brown pair and gave the matter no further thought whatsoever until way beyond my first rezday anniversary. They were simply too small of a visual component to make much of a difference to the overall Gestalt of the avatar; you could not even really see them unless you fully zoomed into a face... And who zooms into people's faces like that to begin with, would have been my justifications, I suppose.
I am not sure at what point it began to dawn on me that I was seriously missing out on something here. I think it must have been when I saw my first pair of neko cat's eyes. Quite a few neko designers have these, I want to show my very favorite ones in the image below. What differentiates them from human eyes is the shape of the pupil, which, cat-like, is elongated.
Shaoshan Llanfair's Star Eyes (top and second row) come in many colors. In addition to the sine qua non elongated pupil the sclera is dark, setting off a delicate starburst surronding the pupil and the iris. BastChild Lotus' Evocative Neko Eyes (bottom) are set against an almost black sclera and come in many hues, my preferred one being the orange since it comes very close to the cat's eye gaze. Second row from the bottom is my favorite: These eyes created by Philo Sion react to Second Life light. Sadly, your personal time of day settings will not affect them, however if you use the default Second Life day cycle you will see that these eyes expand as the environment dims, becoming fully dilated at night and then contract when daylight returns, precisely the way feline eyes do as well. This is achieved through tiny prims which become attached to your eyeballs and are somewhat tricky to adjust - but well worth the final effort I find. ...
Another collection by Philo Scion is the one of the haunting Mythic Eyes (top), huge irises which make for a vulnerable avatar face if ever I saw one. A wonderful huge iris eye called Merged has also been created by AlterEgoTrip Svenska (bottom). ...
eko Merlin is a man on whom I shall be writing quite a bit more before too long. For now, I would like to just whet your appetitie by showing you two of his highly NPIRL eyes: Bio-X above and Black Magician below. ...
Aoimizuno Meili's intricate avatar objects were featured on this blog only a few days ago and now I want to add her Doll's Eyes to the material that I talked about then. These are indeed so lovely that Bett has already blogged them here previously. Two of these eyes remind me of a world atlas globe, superimposed with a radar scanner (maybe?) while the third one is more of a huge iris eye, textured with a lovely blue blur. ...
And of course a mini post of NPIRL eyes in Second Life would certainly not be complete without showing four Yip's eye collection, two of which are inspired by Magritte's paintings and the third a gorgeous floral fantasy. ...
You can find Shaoshan Llanfair's Star Eyes at Night Sky (teleport directly from here and BastChild Lotus' Evocative Neko Eyes can be seen at Lapointe and BastChild (teleport directly from here. Philo Sion's Light Responsive Neko Eyes as well as her Mythic Eyes can be found at her store Hybird (teleport directly from here. I have not been able to locate an in-world vendor for AlterEgoTrip Svenska, however her eyes can be obtained on her page at shop.onrez. eko Merlin's store Blitzed can be reached by teleporting directly from here. four Yip's eyes can be obtained from her little store reachable directly from here.
You can view large sizes of all the eye photos on my Flickr feed here.
Our own Max Newbold (aka Dr. Beth Harris), together with Sez Zabelin (aka Dr. Steven Zucker), both from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) out of New York, have just become the recipients of a prestigious award for their website smARThistory.org, which has recently begun to feature information and machinima about art and education in Second Life®.
AVICOM, the committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), responsible for audiovisual, image, sound and new technologies, honored Smarthistory with their highest award (gold) in the web category of their annual competition.
smARThistory.org is a free multi-media web-book that began in 2005, designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook. A redesign, launched on October 15, was funded by a generous grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. It allows users to browse more than one hundred audio and video conversations about works of art by time period, style, or artist, or by scrolling through an image browser created to look like an art history textbook.
Notably, both Harris and Zucker are regular Second Life users and have recently begun coverage on art and education topics in virtual worlds, including their own videos on the virtual Sistine Chapel. They believe that smARThistory is broadly applicable to the discipline of art history and is a first step toward understanding how art history can fit into the new collaborative culture created by web 2.0 technologies. They are looking for interested colleagues to expand the site's content and re-conceptualize the teaching of art history.
smARThistory users can contribute photographs to the site via a smarthistory Flickr group, and interested artists, art historians and critics should contact Harris and Zucker about contributing conversations.
"OOOoooOOoOOooo!! Very spooky!" says Pandora Wrigglesworth, a woman dear to my heart, since she is the very one who invented that most indispensable of all contraptions - the clockwork brain! Personally, I wouldn't even know what to do without mine... And beyond my undying gratitude, the gentle reader should also be reminded that Ms. Wrigglesworth has been frequently featured on the NPIRL blog to date and previous posts on her output can be read here.
However, without further ado, onto the matter at hand... It seems that all our weight gain worries are to be resolved once and for all: Pandora Wrigglesworth has once again outdone herself by launching this wondrous avatar upon the world:
"With our eerily effective weight loss system, there is no need to exorcise. Watch the pounds melt away in an instant and slim down to a petite 21 grams as you manifest your inner beauty with the frighteningly fashionable Ghostly Woman Avatar. Three skirts and two hairstyles billow in the cold winds of the spirit world. Your friends will gasp in amazement when they can see right through your entire body! Plenty of sculpting, glow, flex, and invisibility make this one of the most unique avatars you will ever see.... ....and possibly the last."
The Ghostly Woman avatar makes extensive use of invisiprims, transparency, and glow to create a very unique look and can be examined at Curio Obscura by teleporting directly from here.
I get endless flack from the male members of my avatar family about my excessive shopping habits. But whenever I do, I firmly stand my ground and immediately point out their little extravaganzas in this department as a return salvo. I mean, when I go shopping I tend to return with a modest little hair piece or a new belt or some nice new boots. (The fact that what I have accumulated is probably adding up into the terabytes I find completely irrelevant by the way. I am sure that when the server finally bursts at the seams, I will get a nice and friendly little note from the Lindens asking me to correct the error of my ways. And until that day I will serve metanomics as best as my strength will allow...). Anyway, where was I? Yes! When the boyz go shopping they do not return with just a pair of boots - oh no sirrreee! With them it is vehicles! And not that I am complaining, mind you: Thanks to their prowess I have ended up being more knowledgeable about Second Life® planes and cars than I would ever have been had I been left to my own devices. Admittedly, when it comes to the handling of the darned things I am not exactly the brightest bulb on the chandelier but other than that, at this point, I do tend to know a good vehicle when I see one.
So, I owe MosMax Hax this discovery (I actually call him Mossy but since the NPIRL blog is a domain of high visibility I will call him by his full name here, he will like that much better ;-). And what a discovery it is too: When MosMax called me over to show off his latest acquisition I was quite simply speech struck upon walking in. This beauty is nothing short of a floating palace...
The Nereide...
Carrah Rossini is the creator of a number of airship. Besides the Victorian beauty Nereide there is the Oriental inspired Selene, the Steampunk Dreamliner and then Phoebe, the small floater which seats 5 comfortably. All unbelievably detailed in prims and texture, one more appealing than the other, each displaying a good knowledge of art history, while at the same time giving vent to the amazing imagination and inner world of Ms. Rossini.
Carrah Rossini is the kind of Second Life content creator that I wholeheartedly applaud: "A lot of my builds started out as things I made for personal use or to be used by my friends" she says, and this is a mindset which I can truly identify with since Syncretia too has been built precisely upon the same premise. Play! Pure and simple... This to me is the utter magic of Second Life and the creativity that it generates. Needless to say not all rezzing activity that evolves around play and games will have the level of quality that Carrah Rossini manifests in her aircraft. But conversely I would also dare to say that for me artistic output that has been generated solely for exhibitional purposes lacks the essence of what makes Second Life creativity meaningful, unique, compelling and vital; falling far short of the complexity of narrative that these stunning vehicles convey.
Ms. Rossini describes her background by saying "I can't draw a straight line with a pencil, I can't paint. I don't have any formal art degree or training. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was young, then got scared by the mitochondria, and ended up getting a degree in math and computer science instead...
However, most of my family members are artistic in one way or another. My father is an engineer, my uncle an architect, my mother was an art teacher in a high school. Then there was the extended family; they painted, sculpted and drew. One even designed fonts. I grew up with a lot of architectural drawings and a drafting board in the living room. I still have a drafting lamp on my desk by the computer. My dad and uncle built a lot of models out of foam core and cardboard. So I'd try to help them build, and eventually would, running around with scissors and inhaling lots of glue ;) In the process I got to understand how to convert 2d drawings into 3d models. Finally, I used Photoshop for my photography hobby.
Second Life, almost magically, allowed me to combine all those skills together; to make things that aren't just static, but could also be interacted with in a 3d environment. And perhaps most importantly, experienced by others."
Selene Cloudhugger...
One of the things that I was really very curious about was Carrah Rossini's sharp eye for historical periods of design styles as well as the spell binding translation of these, particularly into the interiors of her air craft:
"There was a time when I was fascinated with Anime in general (I still am, just don’t have time anymore). My favorite themes were stories about solo or small teams of heroes, aided by a magical (robot, vehicle, being) fighting the forces of evil. Then, of course there are the movie classics. I do take stylistic queues, after all, a castle has a certain look. But I quickly found out that its easier to make something in style, than try to replicate an object that exists in real life (independent of if the object is real or imaginary). This applies to both textures and prims. It also avoids lots of possible copyright issues.
I'd like to believe I don't have a set style but people tell me otherwise. For almost all of my builds, the style did follow the function or a general idea. There was a time when I tried to make things appeal to certain groups; I've even included "Steampunk" in the name of the Dreamliner. That was around the same time when Linden introduced the new search. Looking back it was a bit presumptuous of me, but I've kept Steampunk in the name. The Nightshade was supposed to be a sci fi ship but it never really became purely that. The Nereide is probably the closest that I can think of making something in the Victorian style.
Selene was a gamble, giant prims, the wings around the outer hatch window initially were a transparent grid like antennae, and the hull was going to become a mix of brass and wood. It became a fantasy ship, one that's probably not for the purists out there. In the end, I feel the gamble paid off and made me consider experimenting more. And I probably will…"
And I so know that she will!
You can teleport to Dreamfall, to gaze and wonder at Carrah Rossini's airship directly from here, as well as view further, huge sized images of her air ship here.
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 :)
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.
The RINGS is a work created in Second Life® by a multinational team within the Cybernetic Art Research Project (C.A.R.P). Josina Burgess, one of the minds behind the production tells that this has been developed through months of collaboration by a creative team drawn from Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Italy, France and the UK. Taking its principles from hyperfunctionalism as well as H.J.Krysmanski's Power Structure Research.
This team has put together an impeccable musical production which utilizes cutting edge technologies such as collaborative worldwide song composition/ recording/ mixing techniques, automatic audiovisual timeline controlling systems, flying seat systems as well as a 4d live-cut camera system and puppet animation record/play system.
Says Josina Burgess:
"Every scene has a real concrete RL Inspiration, not a formal one but more the content of it. The title RINGS comes from the Power Structure Research. We used as a content base the description of H.J Krysmanski. In the themes we added a 5th ring. In this ring are the victims of the system. The form we used always has to do with the themes from then. But it was never the goal or the intention to use styles from what ever direction. Better to use fitting formats that helped to understand the content of the message. We call that Hyperfunctionalism...
... All together this 4 ring system shows and describes the worldwide experimentation to re-organize the ruling class; that without a strong state and under the conditions of regulation of economic, collective forms have to survive. The absolutely designated personnel of this "Ring castle". In fact a few thousand in the outside ring, operates more and more in a environment of absolute corruption: "The relation of corruption in the Antiques and in Modern times towards world-relations were named as falsifications. Corruptions (as a statement) cant play any role in the governance forms of today, because they themselves are the substance and the totality of the Empire. Corruption is the true performing of commands, without any relation or adequate subscription to the Demimonde (Hardt u. Negri 2002, 398)."
The Rings is an impeccable production, which would do any Real Life theatrical venture proud; taking the fundamental concepts of Real Life scenography and stage production into a virtual dimension particularly through the usage of the controlled camera system. Indeed for me there were immediate Real Life associations, one being the Laterna Magika from Prague. Thus I could not help but wonder how it's creators Alfréd Radok and Josef Svoboda would have used the technology in relation to the multilingual social milieu of the metaverse.
The underlying premise of Laterna Magika was the seeking of a universal non-verbal theatrical language, which Radok and Svoboda considered to be of essence in view of the emergence of a global culture - and this as early as in the 1950's. Thus the entire lavishness of the stage constructions as well as the extensive usage of media elements were used to this end, i.e., they carried an inherent mission which went far beyond the pursuit of a merely spectacular visual display. Radok and Svoboda were in pursuit of developing a visual language of narrative, capable of expressing far more than the obvious: One of a level of sophistication and complexity that would render the spoken word obsolete in its ability to convey layers of meaning and narrative. So, I cannot help but wonder whether the theater producers of the metaverse might not give this consideration also: Today, in the metaverse we are indeed faced with a multi-lingual culture. The delightful neko designers whose devoted customer I am and whom I often try to engage in conversation are usually Japanese and not in good command of English. Another good example to this conundrum would be the colony of French Chris Marker aficionados that seems to have grown in my neighbor sim Ouvroir, which houses the Chris Marker exhibit of the Gestaltungsmuseum, Zurich. Again, I find that, more often than not, communication in English with these new neighbors proves to be a problematic proposition.
The visuals of the Ring are indeed beyond any reproach. The stage sets, the special effects, the usage of shape, texture and color satisfied even a stickler for perfection like myself. The animations that bring together the choreography are impressive and then most importantly the quality of the music is of such a level that I felt compelled to ask Josina Burgess additional questions with regard to its creation.
Having voiced my admiration for the production of the Rings - and again, I am truly impressed with the high level of professionalism and perfection here, I nonetheless have questions: The all important one is the reliance upon the spoken word to the extent that the performance does. And yet another one is the usage of an enclosed auditorium: Since we are in an environment where as far as creativity is concerned the sky seems to be the limit, why not take this into the very skies of Second Life? Or under the water? Or indeed both? Wouldn't this also not go towards some truly unexpected, if not downright magical usages of the controlled camera system which contributes so hugely to the viewing experience of the Rings?
This is a truly talented team of people that have put together a performance that is definitely a must see in Second Life. And in the end, I would love to see them move further into the development of a purely visually narrative language as well as into the realization of content material that is more in the nature of a free fall rather than one which materializes as the conveyance of a somewhat direct message. In short one that leaves more room for the associative, the ephemeral, the complex, the alluded. I have no doubt whatsoever that their combined creativity is more than amply equipped to accomplish even far more substantial feats than the mere realization of my hopes in this regard.
Here is a video by Gary Hazlitt and his Just Virtual Film of C.A.R.P.'s first musical production: The Wall, V-2
The all original score is the work of Junivers Stockholm (S) and Josina Burgess (NL), while the lyrics on which this is based too originate from Josina Burgess, together with Medora Chevalier (UK) and again Junivers Stockholm. Indeed looking at the credits list much of the creative momentum behind this work can be ascribed to Josina Burgess who has also been instrumental in the design of the sets and costumes and Junivers Stockholm who has also been effective in scripting and special effects, the script writing and direction to KoTW and camera directing. Velasquez Bonetto is the creative director/producer as well as the builder and scripter of the Rings. The songs are sung by Josina and Junivers working together from a distance by sending files over to each other from Holland to Sweden and vice versa. Other names involved in the creative effort are Debbie Trilling and Elfod Nemeth (both from the UK) for special effects, Caravaggio Bonetto (A) for scenario, building and graphics, Medora Chevalier (UK) for the concept of the King of the World song which she co-authored with Junivers Stcokholm, beyond which Medora was also the narrator, script and supervising editor to KoTW. Panorama photography has been undertaken by Jan van der Woning (NL), the animations by Sca Shilova (NL). The actors and dancers of the Ring are: Blanche Argus (S), Josina Burgess (NL), Medora Chevalier (UK), Klute Coppola (F), Efrantirise Morane (I), MillaMilla Noel (I), Junivers Stockholm (S), Sca Shilova (NL) and the sax was played by Jazzoru Otoole (S).
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A central goal for us is to collect and distill what's really happening out there and pare down your options to the essence of what's cool, trendsetting and even groundbreaking, always within the context of Not Possible IRL. This is not intended as a calendar of events and our selections are, by necessity, subjective and opinionated. To learn more about the criteria for what is NPIRL, click here. If you'd like to share a landmark, notecard or hot tip of any nature with us, kindly share it with us in-world. We try to always credit the finder, too.
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A Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations Commonly Used in this Blog
Cam - The act of zooming and panning one's viewer (camera)
FLART - Flat art in a 3D world (more often than not, imported Real Life paintings and still photography)
HUD (Heads-Up Display) - A visual display of preset options as part of the user interface (UI)
In-world - Being inside or "online" in a virtual world
IRL - In real life
Landmark (LM) - An "address" and shortcut that enables a Second Life® resident to teleport to another place
Linden - An employee of Linden Lab™, the company that owns Second Life®
Linden Lab (LL) - The company that owns Second Life®
Linden or $L - Currency in Second Life®
Mega prim - A very large and useful prim that is not endorsed by Linden Lab, and not scaleable
NPIRL - Not possible in real life
NPISL - Not possible in Second Life®
PIRL - Possible in real life
Prim or Primitive - A 3D object that is manipulated and used as a basic building and creation material
Rez - The action of creation in a virtual world; also the birthdate of an avatar/account
Sim - A simulator and virtual region hosted by a single server CPU
SLT (Second Life® Time) - Local time within Second Life®, which also happens to be Pacific Standard Time because Linden Lab is located in San Francisco, CA
TP or Teleport - Moving from one location to another in a virtual world
Windlight - Sky, water and atmospheric lighting effects in Second Life®
