The Missing

What makes Hopper an enduring and endearing figure in 20th century art has been hacked to death by writers, almost from his first encounter with fame, age 40, when his soon-to-be-wife, Jo Nivison, convinced him to show some watercolours at the Brooklyn Museum.

What makes Hop On Hop Oh, the installation at Solace Island, so interesting is that the builder, Saveme Oh, is in every way the opposite of what we have been taught to think of, when we think of Edward Hopper: flamboyant, to Hopper's repression; anti-establishment, to Hopper's conservatism; manically social, to Hopper's sense of solitude.

Hopper's early life resonates with the typical Second Life; it is one of lopsided aspirations, fragmented advantage, finally glued together by glorious good luck. His talent was obvious from a young age, and was encouraged by his parents who set him up with trips abroad, and the kind of solid education in the field that most aspiring artists would be delighted to receive.
But all that promise seemed to boil down to a ho-hum career in commercial art, the safe-ish option. Nothing that was going to bring in the big money or fame, but nothing that might shock or embarrass his straitlaced family. A creative life going nowhere. Yet, finally, he did stick his neck out, and become somebody; and while his pictures were not always understood nor appreciated, his perseverance won the day. Perseverance, in the sense that his particular version of realism never wavered. Critics and opinion makers might dress up his psyche in any number of avatars - 'dour', 'tense', or 'alienated', but he was, like any of us, merely and always himself, no matter what others chose to perceive. 

And so it is through the lens of Hopper's 'appearances' that one must read the installation Hop On Hop Oh. With two exceptions, 'Gas' at the bottom and 'Nighthawks' at the top, all the paintings reproduced here are interiors, those quiet interiors made even more lonely and tense in this incarnation, by the absence of the figures present in the original. 

It's impossible not to think of Saveme Oh's protests on other sims about 'freedom' - whatever that means - in making and viewing art, while visiting this build, which feels like a progression through theatrical flats. They are made to be viewed through the fourth wall, what we might term 'Hopper's proscenium', the strict and static angle of the original painting. If you approach the installs from any other direction, using the kind of free camming we all have come to accept as a right, you're brought up sharply against unfinished-looking prims protruding through walls, or sketched elements only meant to be glimpsed through windows.

Saveme, like Hopper, is concerned with form, not texture; and light, above all, light. On the other hand, Oh has added paintings to the interiors; paintings which in turn have the artist's face, or whole avatar, intruding into group scenes. In becoming part of the decor, it's an assertion of self in a manner less ethereal than the pose balls, which allow the visitor to participate in the pictures. 

Participation is possible, it's true, yet the inherent lacking remains. It's as if Hopper resists this further attempt to rewrite him. We cannot immerse ourselves in his work here. The silence remains. It's a pretty paradox to observe on the part of one of the most noisy - and often noisome - members of the Second Life art scene.

What takes this paradox even further are the references to two of SaveMe's more notable nemeses. Oh is almost synonymous for griefing, or (depending on your point of view) 'enlivening' events at galleries and installations by acts of spontaneous rezzing; acts often accompanied by blog entries that chart the aggravation or absurdity that these interventions leave in their wake.  It is a deeply social and performative act, which has here become embalmed, absorbed, re-written in a way that suggests an attachment much deeper than an act of witty deflating spite.  

Yet, their very presence here, in this place of absence, of solitude, suggests an anxiety, an awareness that no amount of nervous energy can trap our pixellated playthings in amber, and the consistency of an in-joke is no thicker than a layer in Gimp. The virtual grasp is as tenuous as the beam of light that delineates a wall; a temporary permanence, at (its) best.

Hop on Hop Oh will be there for a while. Take a look.

Pictures of Tani

The autumn has arrived here, and as the evenings draw in, so returns the desire to be somewhere warm, in every sense. What could be better then, than an attractive photo show, surrounded by kind and witty people, on a beautiful romantic parcel, Sorrento on sim Chefchaouen.

Tani Thor's photos are a great mixture of gentle landscapes and lively abstracts, I particularly loved this one, Altalena, and 'Tempio', taken on Japan Kansai.

Tani mixes it up with different techniques; photography has always been a passion, and perhaps even more than that, reworking her pictures to bring an even stronger element of real life to Second Life places.

Showing art is just part of her commitment to the cultural side of SL, she's also an accomplished gallerista and builder, something she's had plenty of practice at recently, since her venue, Tanalois,and the Torno Kohime Foundation recently changed sims. The new place - a mixture of orthodox Mediterranean style squares, and sky galleries - is stunning you should visit.

 Here, though, we are min a slice of Sorrento, the home of RASK Alter and Molli Roi. They've captured something of the Southern Italian town, in the Saracen Tower and the generally romantic feel to the place. Check out Tani's art, up for the next week or so, and don't miss the quaint corners of the build, especially if you're with someone special.

Double Tour

Tournicoton, the French art Gallery on sim Metaversel, is closing this week, closing its doors for good. It's just too expensive, says Mariaka Nishi, who cofounded the artistic venue back in 2007 alongside her RL partner, Naastik Rau. To mark the end of an era, and to let people know that she's still fervently involved in VW art, she has organized one last show, Welcoming Woman, set for this Tuesday evening, French time (that's 12.30 SLT on September 25th). It's going to be a double event, held in Voice, held on both SL and Francogrid - the sims have the same name, Metaversel. Here's Mariaka, FG version, busy preparing the Francogrid side of the double show.

Why this departure from Second Life? It's just too expensive, in that it's about 290 euros a month to run a sim, so that even with a bit of help from others, it's just not worth it, especially as now they get less and less use out of it, as they spend more and more time on the beautiful, stable, and vibrant Francogrid. She has also allowed her son Louka free range, on an adjoining sim, Metaversel Junior. Imagine being able to afford to give your kid a whole sim to play with.

If you've never been to FG, you have to try it, the people there are classy, intelligent and unfailingly helpful. Oo la la. (Already got an opensim avie, but don't know how to get to Francogrid? Check out this page.)
Mariaka's SL experience has been one of collaboration, and she's clearly a very community-minded person. Their first show was  a multi-handed show called Annelies in Wonderland/ Real Virtuality; the second, Quantum Man, crystallized the general concept of truth through fusion that has been at the heart of Tournicoton. It's been a haven for many, a launching pad for a few, and its loss will be felt.
The acronym LEA is always wheeled out when there's talk of artists leaving SL, like it's the cure for all uncomfortable sim-ptoms.
Mariaka Nishi: I expect there are artists who have benefited. but not me. I am aware it exists, but nothing more, I do not know if the LEA really helps artists. I feel that LL lets many content creators leave regions by their lack of power to continue funding. In any case, I've never felt helped by LL.
Capitalists have a word for that: laissez-faire, I believe. It's been a blast, a source of intense pleasure and intense work, to run the gallery, to put on shows, and generally being involved in the Second Life art scene.
Mariaka Nishi: Exhibiting in virtual worlds is, above all, a personal freedom. For the first time, I longer needed to pay attention to what contemporary art stated, I could freely choose how I was going to develop an exhibition and its content, etc. It was a huge release, and I quickly realized that it led to real communication and feedback with the public. I spent a lot of time looking at shows but especially talking, and exchanging views. A virtual gallery allows both physical and financial freedom of design and construction impossible in RL, and you get worldwide exposure It's a unique and unforgettable experience.

Mariaka Nishi: I joined Francogrid at the end of last year, at the request of Lorenzo Soccavo, an SL contact, via the Francophone Library, who had seen my work.  I got involved with his MetaLectures exhibition / conference in February 2012.  I liked the fact that it's a smaller, Francophone grid . I would not have done before, but when it was done, I was ready to give up the grandiosity of SL for more understated performances working with a different team of project leaders, rather than artists. FG is an evolving grid and it is managed by a French group, not an American company. I feel a sense of true partnership with the grid owners, which is absolutely not the case with SL and LL. I do not mean to be an artist or writer FG, any more than I have wanted to be with SL. My virtual projects have to find resonance in the real world, and I find myself increasingly wanting to develop ideas in RL - in fact, we're working on publishing a book based on my latest (and last SL show at Tournicoton). It's called Welcoming Woman, and is about welcoming children into the world. We hope it will come out in October.

It's a very personal exhibition; some might say a little too near the knuckle in the whole "I don't want potentially freaky strangers ogling my child at any cost" front. If SL is synonymous for self-indulgence disguised as self expression, it partly comes under that heading too, perhaps; the skybox with its slightly irridescent walls has the wicked look of one of those flip-open photo wallets that coworkers, lurking by the watercooler, are liable to pull out, should the phrase 'how are the kids?' careless cross your lips.

Tournicoton may be done for, but that doesn't mean Mariaka will never be back in SL. She still has dozens of friends and colleagues here; a good friend, Yann Minh, still runs a sim here, on which possible future collaborations may take place. Her list of 'favourite artists and influences' is long and varied, all the way from the obligatory nod to Bryn Oh, through such names of note as the wonderful Moya, Artistide Despres, Frao Ra, and Sabine Stonebender, and Vroum Short, whose fantastic Planet Vegetal is dreamily captured here in her mini gallery on Metaversel.

There is also much praise for Typote Beck, whose metaversel gallery is shown below.
Mariaka Nishi: I love his work and his being. We don't have a lot of visible stuff to show from our collaboration, but we had a lot of really good conversations.

 She recalls the now departed  Mitou Waco, not strictly a virtual creator, but a lot of fun to be with, and the ever-present Anathaniel Gausman, who was not an 'artist' when they met, but thanks to the fellowship of Second Life, got involved and has become an established artist. Good photographic eye, that's for sure.

She is also full of praise for the folks at the Bibliotheque Francophone du Metavers, for their professionalism and friendship. Like all of us, she's experienced that quicksilver phenomenon of virtual lives touching - some have become firm friends from a distance, some have become real world contacts, while others have disappeared just as they came. Of these last, perhaps her biggest regret from an artistic point of view is Nessy Lupino, who had Fond du Lac in SL, and never quite recovered from its loss when the sim went dark. She was present for a short time in Francogrid, but has since disappeared even from there.

It's quite clear that whatever the future brings, Mariaka, her art and her expression, will not be disappearing any time soon. Make a point of visiting her in Francogrid, and you will certainly not be disappointed.

Fair Play

In an hour or so, there's fun and dancing at the State Fair - wait, no, no pigs or pies competing, not this time, it's the Virtual State Fair Art Gallery run by Thynka Little and, in a lesser, none-of-my-business kind of a way, DFox Spitteler. Going by the IMs. Voting ends at 8 pm SLT  tonight.

The competition is interesting, not so much by the standard of  the art on show, which is nice - the theme is weather in SL, most people have gone with rain, or tornadoes - wow - but even more so for the fact that the organizers actively encourage, in the Notecard, the use of the dreaded Friend's Vote (though they draw the line at bots and groups).
It may seem a bit naughty, getting your friends over, but it's a nice way of meeting new people, and being hit on in brand new ways. OK, I may have exaggerated the newness of the pickup lines. But it is a ncie way to get people to come look at art.

Asmita Duranjaya put in an entry, it's the blue one on the right in this photo. There were plenty of people around, long before party time officially commenced, which is always nice to see. Asmita's plan is to spend any prize money ($L3000 for the first prize, $L2000 and 1000 the runners up) on the upkeep of her Space4Art sim. But there was more to it than that.
Asmita Duranjaya:  This competition is so exciting! It is good to experience it from the perspective of a participant from time to time, then I know what the people feel during the voting time of contests!
While I was in the gallery, cunningly built by DFox, the lovely Sia Oh was welcoming a bunch of pals, and fairly new pals. She was enthusiastic about the event, and not surprisingly, was also well ahead with the votes.

 Sia Oh: I've left SL for 1 year, and I've just came back. I made my photo to participate in this conquest.  I discovered this one at the last hour before it was closed. I love to take picture of "paysages" in SL, playing with effects on the weather because we've got a lot of possibilities wth theme of the the sky or  of the water the sea I'm searching the term of settings in SL, for the sky. My goal is to rent a place to have my own studio.
Silene Christen has a haunting image I also loved, and judging by the folks stopped in front of it, I was not alone in my admiration. What inspired her?

Silene Christen: When I read the rules for the contest I thought of rain. Rain in SL is special. The place where I took the photo is a place that first time I went, it was raining. It is a place that its atmosphere is for raining and sad days. I had to work the position, the umbrella position and search for a nice place and the best point of view for the pick. I think a photo has to be of quality, and it means to follow the rules of composition, different spaces, and so on - so for one pick, I made at least 30. With Photoshop, I arranged the rain in a first stage a little and made a little soft the hair textures.

Another delight is by Betty Tureaud, who popped by with girlfriend McKenzie. Why would Betty, best known for her giant installs both in SL and Inworldz, take time to be a part of this competition?
Betty Tureaud: Oh a good friend of me invited me, she knows I love to take photos It's not for the money, really, I just want to participate :) and I think the subject was well chosen.
Rain is a great subject, it's such an exotic element of SL, like Betty who is part Japanese. Which explains the setting of her photo.
Betty Tureaud: This is a pic of my own place on my island. I make this littel teahoues to drink tea with my friends. Japan is a part of me, my mother is from Japan, so I am a mix person - and I am good to make rain!

Fawn Rexen chose the subtheme 'Ray of Hope'.

Fawn Rexen: As I took this pic, I thought of the many people that do have difficulty in RL and SL at times, SL is a safe haven for so many to find calm and peace away from their troubles. There are storms, but always a ray of hope.
Speaking of hope, there's that upcoming prize-giving ceremony...
Fawn Rexen: If I win, I'd spend the money on more photography props etc. I have a studio and photography business in SL. And I'd buy Don a present ! He is my business partner also, he's very supportive he's the person that encourages me every day.

Don't miss the show, and the party - which, look at the time! is about to start! I'm off to bed. lemme know how it all turns out.

Bananas by Moonlight

Earlier this summer,with her install 'Destruction', Asmita Duranaya challenged artists and builders to come up with a modern fable.

The result, or at least the top of the iceberg, from a creative point of view, was unveiled last night at Space4Art in the form of the winning entry, 'Fleeting Captivities' by Lilia Artis and Haveit Neox.

 This lovely construct is a 3D interpretation of their charming morality tale which exudes all the best values of Second Life, impossible climactic conditions, bridges over infinity, and unexpected friendships in the face of adversity. It's a must read, and if you do nothing else, TP over to and pick up a copy. But no, hang around a little longer on the sim, and try out Asmita's Destruction word-game-with-a-message. Looks like sinister fun.
 Center stage is the build by Haveit and Lilia, who took their tale and fitted it into quite literally a 'space for art'. last night was the dance-filled vernissage, and Lilia read the story out in both German and English. She has a clear, bright delightful reading voice. It was like a sort of bizarro crap mariner event, put it that way.

Lilia Artis: Second Life offers the opportunity to illustrate a story in 3D, and as in good books, we tried to let each of the media stand for itself so that the 'illustration' would sort of become independent of the story, and begin a life of its own, telling yet more levels of the fable. It was a challenge to come up with a fable in a modern, urban setting, and like all collaborative processes, the presentation of the story grew and changed as they went along.I am a writer in RL and art is sort of more in the background now concerning earning a living. I use SL to fill up my creative wells, and indulge more in art again. Haveit is an artist in both worlds, but he also is a talented writer, as we found out working together.
'Fleeting Captivities', subtitled 'Monkeys and Octopuses' has a simple, yet fresh feel to it. The build is especially strong in its jewel like textures, which achieve the impossible task of implying the ocean, infinity and a circus tent all in one glassy go.

Haveit Neox: The hardest part was assembling parts in an enclosed area with so many alpha layers. It was real easy to continually select the wrong prims ! I really only have 2 or 3 scripts, so I'd have to say my favorite aspects of building are the prims and the textures. I guess they kind of feel like body and mind, the two go together. Photoshop is my very good friend, we go everywhere together :).
A surreal fable that makes sense in an urban environment, with 'bananas by moonlight' thrown in for good poetic measure, is not an easy trick to pull, off. Looking around at all the builds now in SL which take popular or classic novels as their starting point, I wondered if they thought it is it 'better' or 'worse' to try to recreate an original story in SL?
Lilia Artis: Well, in a way everything has been told. You can only try to tell your version of life, your point of view, deliver your personal interpretation of things going on in our world. However the reader might find even another angle to interpret your story.

 Lilia Artis: I met Haveit rather early in my SL existence. I first noticed him in the chat of the Builders Brewery. He told with such a touching enthusiasm about an exhibit he just had explored that I suggested to exchange LMs to interesting places, which we did and over the time a friendship developed and we noticed that we were able to work smoothly together, without any effort. It was on the contrary inspiring and encouraging mutually. I always dreamed of that kind of teamwork in RL, but it never worked out. I had to come to SL to find it :)

Haveit Neox: Working with Lilia is inspiring. We pass ideas between ourselves, and the installations we do together just grow naturally that way. This exhibit had an extra enjoyable challenge because Asmita built the two domes in which we installed our exhibits. For each, she made the exterior walls, so I wanted to make my installation in a style that would complement what she has here. Adapting to an environment is something I really enjoy. In RL, I've done installations in galleries, but SL is a very different kind of installation. It's something I could not have imagined before SL. SL is grand. I've made several films here, which you can see on my YouTube page, Virtual Cement. The ability to create almost any size presentation is something I'd always wished to try. My imagination has always taken me to places where I could build a village, a landscape, etc, but until SL, I could only do this in miniature. I hope SL stays intact for decades to come!

Can't speak for SL's longterm future, of course, but 'Fleeting Captivities' will be open at Space4Art for the next few weeks. Do not miss it!

Wor(l)ds together: Noke Yuiza

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. 

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. 

I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. 

All those... moments will be lost... in time, like tears... in rain. 

Time to die."

'Roy Batty', Blade Runner

Noke Yuiza has been busy in SL. You may have seen her latest build, showcased at the Brera sim, and you won't be blamed if you think that she's all about the stage. It comes as no surprise to find that in her real life she has been both dancer and choreographer, and, perhaps most significantly, as a set painter in the theater. You probably saw her interesting take on Hoffmann's The Sandman, hosted at Arte Libera a while back.

Noke's build takes to new heights the extreme conflation of real and virtual realities that's been the hallmark of Imparafacile Runo's work in SL / RL. Impa, as you know, has been running learning and cultural schemes in SL for ages. His group Libriamo Tutti is pure reality overlap. His able and talented team organize meetings where a RL audience, meeting in libraries in towns across Lombardy, can listen, see and participate alongside SL residents in literary evenings where books are discussed, read aloud, explained, and generally celebrated. Impa's longstanding friendship with Professor Giampiero Moioli of Milan's Brera Academy of Art, and a close collaboration with Simba Schumann, led to a recent RL seminar in which students were able to make a virtual field trip to three installations on the Brera sim. Each build is based on a literary work close to the artist's heart.
The students got the opportunity to hear the wonderful nessuno Myoo explain his Edgar Allen Poe 'Pit and the Pendulum' build - this was nessuno's first foray into Voice! Another section, a rather overblown take on Herman Hesse, is of little interest, but Noke's install, based on Spanish writer Rosa Montero's latest book, Lacrime nella Pioggia, has a wonderful twist to it. Not only is theatrically fresh and interesting (Noke, shown here in white with blue hair, has an on-Stage and behind-the-scenes background, as both a dancer and set designer), she chose an author who has a presence in SL.

Rosa was kind enough to come into SL especially for the Brera show, and fixed up her avatar so it would look like the main character from her book, a replicant with existential issues.
Rosa Montero: I entered in Second Life six or seven years ago. I frequented that world a lot for, say, half a year. My name in SL was Bruna Husky (after my beloved dog). When I had the idea of writing a novel about a replicant woman in Madrid 2109, I thought of giving her my name of Second Life. I loved the SL experience, most of the time I was a Dragon! It was truly interesting, but at the end of those six months I got fed up of it. I have already written a novel in which Second Life has a lot of importance and there are some scenes that happen in Second Life. It is the novel before this last one, the novel before Lacrime nella pioggia. It is already published by Salani in Italy and titled Notturno di Sole (in Spanish it was called Instrucciones para salvar el mundo). In the last six years I barely entered, may be three or four times only, just for events like the launching of Lácrime nella pioggia in SL.

Through a short story competition, Rosa and Noke met in real life, and formed a friendship which ultimately led to the author kindly agreeing to make recordings of some key passages of the book, which you can find and listen to, as you wander round the bright, busy install. It's pretty rare to have that kind of direct access to a writer, but Rosa is equally impressed at being part of Noke's art.

Rosa Montero: The installation is very surprising and brilliant. It is not exactly my book, but what that book originated in a mind as wonderfully creative as Noke´s, and that is perfect. I have specially liked the last floor, the one with the rep head emerging from the water, from a sea of tears, maybe. So, so, powerful and beautiful. I loved it. It's moving, thrilling art. That kind of "alive" art a virtual surrounding can help to create.

The respect goes both ways.
Noke Yuiza: Writers are "creators of worlds". They have that amazing capacity of the "God". I love that capacity of the "inventors of stories" to increase and stimulate our collective imaginarium. So, it's impossible to don't being "contaminated" by them being present in certain way in artworks, films, theater, music, dance and include videogames, but to try to cach the essence of a story it's probably the most difficult thing because it depends on the resources one has and the ability to recreate it with originality. For Lacrime nella Pioggia installation my objective was to represent the essence of Bruna Husky, its main character. She starts in a dark point of her live cause she has lost her love and she is going to die in a few years because she is a replicant and they all have an expiration date, so she is addicted to white wine and she is in a certain way angry with the world. But if we follow her into Lacrime nella Pioggia, we can see her evolution. For me, the most interesting and difficult moment to recreate was that moment of inner awakening and auto-reconcilliation with herself (in the middle floor: Bruna "starts to wake up" in the city, her environment, from a sea of white wine).
While Rosa thinks that Skype conferences are probably the most efficient way to run virtual book events, rather than the book club evenings she's attended in SL,  here at the Brera, she found the quality of work impressive. Science fiction readers are, for her the same in all worlds, a thoughtful and rewarding audience. Noke loves the concept of celebrating literature through art too, for both aesthetic and practical reasons.
Noke Yuiza: Metaverse platforms as SL can help writers to advertise their books, get a better feedback with readers, do crossover transmedia projects with other disciplines as art, build the collective imaginarium of these VWs. It is a way to approach their stories to the audience, to reaffirm readers and to get some brand new ones. And for their readers, an amazing opportunity to get author's feedback and, in cases as immersive story-telling or artistic projects as this installation, to "live" a bit the book.
The Brera show will be on until at least the end of the summer, and here's the video of the virtual field trip for all you italophones and dittophiles.

Machinimaxed out

Sounds like you poor bastards stuck in SL have been having a bad week. Sorry to hear it. You really should try Open Sim. It's like Cloud Party only without the lameness and the capitalist imperative.

woo. Cloud Party. I may have to sit down.

Judging time for Machinima UWA!! 
Funky, impossible, varied, sumptuous, distubing, crafty, vivacious, studied, memorable. Those are the ingredients one yearns for. And there's plenty of it this year - yum!!!
Having just watched all 51 entries, how to choose a top 10?
Everyone starts out with full marks. You lose points for the following no-no's:
What does this film convey to someone who's unfamiliar with SL? We may be used to the sight of cheesy avatars, cheapo clothes and clunky poses but it really doesn't fit the theme here: the excellence that places like UWA foster. Nor does a low frame rate, and crackly or corny audio content. Luckily, the quality is really high, this year. No points for ma-cringe-ma.
The ideal machinima makes its point in 3 minutes or less. The ones that are 10, 15 or even 30 minutes long are acts of clueless arrogance. Brevity is the soul of wisdom. Because, whatever you write in the comments, people are just going to skip ahead through your exaggeratedly soulful headshots.
Voice overs are bad, unless you're a poet with a lovely voice. Hypatia and Karima both come out brilliantly, while most of the others sound like middle aged school teachers. Unwise. Those penguins are plain annoying for content and quality. Kill them.
If you've not arrested our attention in the first 5 seconds, you didn't do it right. Don't ask your friends, you know they're going to lie to you. This batch of beauties include many that have you riveted from the start, not always an easy task with such an ethereal subject matter.
Big fancy logos followed by low production values are self defeating. You're not Lion's Gate or Pixar, and your ludicrous logo invites us to draw an unflattering comparison.
Quotable quotes that stay on the screen forever lose their thrust. (OK, most of them are ghastly truisms that lost their thrust before appearing on the screen.) The average person can read 5-6 words a second. In the aeons it takes for your quote to fade off the screen, the audience thinking: 'Should'a spent less time coming up with that fancy logo at the beginning, and more time in the editing suite.'
Machinima that are just about you, and not about the theme, get a zero, also, I'm creeped out by child avatars in any context, and Papyrus font.
There are dozens of judges in this competition, and as happened last year, my top 10 won't make a dent in the actual final result. So this is a suggestion of what you should see, if you don't have the 7 hours necessary to watch them all through to the bitter end.
Bear in mind, THERE'S A CASH PRIZE FOR THE MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC whose top 10 is closest to the Judge's overall list. So this should at least get you started!!
Don't forget to turn up at the UWA on August 6th at 6am SLT to see which, if any, get the big prize. I hope it's you.
Tutsy Navarathna 's The Last Syllable of Recorded Time
Tikaf Viper's Run Ram
Arrow Inglewood's  ?
Lala Larix's  The 3rd Eye
and not really 'on theme' in a spiritual way, but the best businesslike,lively tour through the whole thing, capturing the spirit of the event in every way, is this little number by jjccc:

Back to the beach for me.

Mammary Game

Make eyeballs roll with wonted sight

A Midsummer Night's dream

You like boobs, so you're going to love Maya Paris' new build, Celebrity Blow Your Tits Off opening tonight on LEA10. It's animated in every sense of the word. Maya invites you to reflect on sex, stardom, and the masses. What does it mean to sell your sexuality? What shape is fame and fortune? Part game show, part Videocracy, part fun fair, the watchword at CelebTits is - look for the holes. Remember that. They are your ticket in, through, and (eventually) out of here.

It's morally wrong, for those of us with even a little health, wealth, and mobility, to be in SL for any length of time during the summer months. Your heart and soul won't thank you. But if you're ready for a dip into something worthwhile, this is definitely the build to see.
Maya's career goes from strength to strength as she faultlessly forges a way between thoughtfulness and carefree fun. None of her builds are preachy, yet neither are they the facile fables or horror-in-aspic that you get from so many of her peers.

All Paris builds involve some interaction, and you're invited to take off A/O and be willing to wear mystery objects. If you hate that, take a chance on Maya this time; she won't mess with your hair or shape. I forgot to turn off mine, and found the anims worked just fine anyway.

The five levels begin with a buzz in a giant pinball machine. Once you've figured it out, the reward is a lot of nice cleavage - you'll never look at creme caramel quite the same, after this. Lots of comical poses to enjoy, and quirky, upbeat sound effects everywhere, so do be sure you have sound on.
And, um, particles.

Make sure you collect all the Freebies! They include this little car which, photographed from the right position, makes it look like you're getting your gyno checkup. It's titillating.

Pretty soon, between posing, and trying on the gifts, and running about looking for holes, you're going to feel the need of a good sit down. The movie theater, with chairs reminiscent of Turin's Museum of Cinema is showing a series of 'art films' - all themed around the Cerne Giant.

Be sure to get your gender-specific popcorn. *picture withheld on the grounds that you gotta see this for yourself*.
If full frontal kernels disturb the balance of your mind, don't fret, Maya offers rehab, before tossing you into perhaps the most perfect install she has made to date: a room of - how to say it?

Maya's creature is the mother of all mongrels, a serpentine, hosey, horsey, giraffe-cow. It's a pipe dream, a star-struck milk-carnival, and you're in the middle of it.
But wait, is that motor oil?

There is way more than you see here, and cogent explanations are available from the artist. By tomorrow morning, Celebrity Blow Your Tits Off is going to be all over the airwaves, courtesy of FB, Koinup, Flickr and the rest. Get over there tonight for the opening. Give me a wave, if you do.