Virtual Faith

Clouds of myst'ry pourin'

Confusion on the ground,

Good men through the ages

Tried to find the sun...

Creedence Clearwater Revival,  Who'll Stop The Rain

This week on the piece of grass next to the Omega snowglobe at PiRats you can see Totem, the new installation by Kolor Fall. The heart of this piece is a painting Kolor did last Saturday, look here to see it coming together.

 Kolor's experimenting with oils rather than his usual acrylics here, mixing his own colours and, in this case, has tried stand oil, perfect for keeping those whites white as well as reducing drying time. There's a figure towards the centre of the painting, and below two more, locked, it seems, in an endless embrace. Inworld, Kolor's imported the picture and then set it up on two prims in such a way as to create depth of field, the particles standing out in the foreground just as they do on the RL painting. More than that, he has expanded the concept into the familiar surroundings of his virtual playground, placing sections of the texture on columns and blocks and bubbles, filling the space with his own cello composition, over-arched by a strange dark forceful shape, reflected in the PiRats sea.

Is this our world, in the painting? Is that us, lost in the embrace of equals, surveyed from some hazy and unelaborated higher ground? Is that a tunnel, or perhaps a throat, an ascent among the chords, or a descent into the language of myth, the lowest form of truth? Trapped in the lag of PiRats, it's easy to see ourselves as primitive beings, victims of the mysterious whims of virtual weather - lag, and missing attachments, region restarts and distorted textures - and the power of the pantheon of Lindens who may or may not be directing our lives. Are they our totem? Not in the wooden pole sense, but in the anthropological sense, a non-human entity watching over the global clan. Should we believe in them? There are better blogs on the subject, no doubt, so I'll just take a page out of  Lévi Strauss' book and give you a field example: A woman told me the other day she felt she was living a charmed life in SL: several land deals had worked out in her favour,  she'd received some L$ from an unexpected source, and then a long-time griefer had suddenly disappeared from circulation. "I'm beginning to believe I have a Guardian Linden," she said, quite seriously.

Absurd, of course... or is it? The name itself is dense with signifying function. For unclubbable me, they never cross my mind; but two camps make their voices heard - those who see in Linden an almost malefic force, to be endured rather than appreciated, and those who read 'knowing a Linden' as a badge of pride. For the latter, does Kolor's opportunity to write an original piece of music for the opening of M Linden's art show place him high on that vague staircase between the watcher and the couple below? And vice versa? Does the totem choose and exclude? Are not all avatars equal, or are they only equal to their potential?
Is that going too far? In the language of California's Wintu tribe, there are five 'kinds' of knowledge: knowledge obtained through the eyes, or through other physical experience, knowledge reached through inference, or through deduction, and knowledge gained by hearsay. In a world made up of light and shadow, and the whispering grapevines of blogs and forums, the totem hangs in the hearsay, cord in hand, capable of pulling the plug on us all at any minute. Or is the Grid the totem, at turns dispassionate and spiteful, spectacularly open and then painfully narrow, freezing and freeing according to the rules of magic, not science? Among these forces, there are men and women, tinkerers and engineers, who have know how. Is the totem the knowhow itself?

I put it to Kolor that he is a shaman, manipulating the totem but not in control of it.
Kolor Fall: I'm not sure what to make of it myself. I for sure don't control it, I guess I "guide" it. This is running on a equation that I just slightly modified. I didn't place any of the prims ... aside from the invisible ones that are in the center of it. It moved the prims itself -  keeps on moving them actually ... a bit too much I think.
Certainly the version of Totem on sim Kolor is easier on the eye. It has a desolate quality that suggests it is far less visited than the PiRats sim; the construction has the advantage of being in its own element, not sandwiched between the other  exhibits, and here Kolor has added an extra feature.

Kolor Fall: Pirats is the same number of prims I think ... but there is no animal in the Pirats one; actually I think this would be cooler with less prims. Oh .. that's the totem animal, I guess... who knows? It's fun,  not so scary.
A personal totem, perhaps? Is the totem the viewer itself, the idiosyncratic gaze? At Pirats, a full sim is a captive audience, seeing and being seen, sharing lag and laughter, a source of satisfaction and performance anxiety for the artists and organizers; but when it comes to Totem, this audience in this setting is unlikely to observe the big picture. Yet they come and look. The instinct for huddling together, even in a world of effortless communication, remains one of the strongest forces at work. Can you see it? A constellation of far-flung illuminated screens, bright eyes and minds drawn to the warmth of shared praise, inventing and swapping accolades to glue themselves above and among each other, straying from the prosaic into the magical to find a frame of reference,  tumbling down the steps of emotion and intellect, drama and invention, concrete acts and rites, staging an epic tale on a platform as wide as the world. Do you believe that anybody is watching?

Frets and Family

Questa volta ho scritto anche in italiano - o almeno una specie d'italiano spero più o meno comprensibile sei pregato di scorrere in giù...

In 1933, when he was 9, Chet Atkins traded an old pistol and some chores for a guitar, and never looked back. A country boy born in Union County, Tennessee, Chet suffered from severe asthma; for all the restrictions that put on his life, it did not prevent him from becoming obsessed with music, listening and above all playing everywhere, including the restroom at his high school - for the 'good acoustics'! He went on to create the 'Nashville Sound', cutting over a hundred albums, winning 14 Grammys, and surrounding himself with talent and music all his life. He produced records for stars like Elvis Presley, Perry Como and Connie Smith, and influenced guitar players from Les Paul and Clint Black to Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton; Duane Eddy once said Atkins 'influenced anybody who picked up a guitar' - listen to Malaguena from 1955 to understand why.

A Chet Atkins 'arts park' would be Frets Nirvana's choice, when I asked him who he'd most like to see imported into Second Life. He had another interesting suggestion too.
Frets Nirvana: What is really really needed is something to educate people in SL on the difference between music actually being played live with no backing tracks whatsoever and people who play with backing tracks. It is very easy to fool ppl in SL by pre-recording what you do and just punching a button. So how about a site that specializes in featuring artists in SL that everything is live and not memorex!

Frets has been in SL for about a year now, and he has spent that time building an impressive following among music lovers. The first place he played was over at lynsey Fleury's lovely sim Woodstock, and he still holds regular gigs there, as well as at well-known venues like Molaskey's Pub and The Cove. He's amazed by the range of creativity in the metaverse, but quickly came to realize that, with the ease of communication, both by TP and in IM, and what with the twenty four hour global audience, it would be very easy to wear one's self out by doing too much. He has learnt to pace himself and focus on the thing he does best and enjoys most, that is, performing, planning and networking in Second Life. He loves the opportunities for 'virtual touring' that Second Life affords - he can get out and about to dozens of venues, and still be available at home for all those honey-dos in his own corner of RL paradise.  Frets plays a lot of well-known hits that show off his fingerpicking style, like The House of the Rising Sun, Susie Q, and, just for fun, Bob Dylan's Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat, but he throws some of his own songs in the mix, too, which you can hear on his site - I asked him to pick two favourites.
Frets Nirvana: I'd have to say Holler Stomp - I love it because I wrote it one night when our pet rabbits were hopping all over the place while I was playing.  They are my audience when I am not playing in SL, and they love music! The other one is Ordinary Bourgeois Egalitarian Blues - Love it because it speaks out on several topics that are on my mind nowadays and it has the Frets "groove" ... which is very important to me!

Frets Nirvana: I tried a little building just to see what it was about when I first came into SL, but I am here primarily to make music and to work on original material, so I try not to get too sidetracked into other things. One thing I worked on - with a lot of help from some good people - was to get Fret's avatar to look kind of  like I do in RL. (look in the Italian bit to see if he did a good job. ) I am myself here, and I love meeting new people - I always love it when fans friend me, and I'm lucky enough to have some good close friends who are like family, BobbiJo Johnson and Votslav Hax of Symbotic, not to mention fellow musician, Von Johin. It means a lot to have people like that in my corner, and to meet new friends from around the world.

This week Frets Nirvana, theUS Military Veterans Group and Symbiotic Productions will be holding their third Benefit concert for the Wounded Warriors project. Cumulatively the last two benefits have raised over 112,000 Lindens for the Wounded Warriors project.  Maximillian Kleene, Craig Lyons and PonDman Haalan will be joining Frets onstage on Patriot Island from 5 -9PM SLT on Saturday 25 April.
Frets Nirvana: I've been supporting this great cause a couple of years.  I am not a veteran but I am a concerned patriot!   My father was a WWII vet and the greatest man I have ever known.  I recognize that  the world is a dangerous place and they continue to make sacrifices that we cannot even imagine to allow us the freedoms we have. Many soldiers suffer traumatic brain injuries, amputations, and severe burns.  Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) provides services and programs to help them back to civilian life.

All'età di nove anni, Chet Atkins un ragazzo dal Tennessee ha scambiato una vecchia pistola e la promessa di fare alcuni lavori in casa per una chitarra. Da quel giorno nel lontano 1933, è cominciato un viaggio musicale straordinario durato più di sessant'anni attraverso un centinaio di album, 14 premi Grammy e innumerevoli collaborazioni con i grandi della chitarra, da Les Paul a Elvis Presley a George Harrison a Eric Clapton. Il nome di Chet Atkins è stato il primo a venire in mente a Frets Nirvana  quando gli ho chiesto quale dei suoi eroi vorrebbe vedere importato in SL. Atkins ha inventato il 'Nashville style', un modo molto particolare di suonare la chitarra ed è l'eroe musicale di un 'grande' di SL, chitarrista del Tennessee anche lui, Frets Nirvana. In SL da poco meno di un'anno, Frets è seguito da un pubblico entusiasta, e suona cover di Bob Dylan, insieme a canzoni come The House of the Rising Sun e Susie Q. Si esibisce in tutto il metaverso in locali come lo splendido Woodstock, di lynsey Fleury, ma anche a Molaskey's Pub e The Cove. Ha scelto di creare un avatar che gli assomiglia, come si vede in questa foto.

Frets Nirvana: Mi hanno colpito due cose qui nel metaverso: primo - ci sono talmente tante cose da fare qui! Tutto è istantaneo, dai IM al teletrasporto, e questo mondo è in orario continuato - è facile esaggerare e perdere la testa correndo dietro troppe cose. Io sono qui per fare musica, voglio suonare e anche scrivere canzoni originali. Per fare bene queste cose, bisogna avere le idee chiare. All'inizio ho fatto un po' di building e ho viaggiato un po alle land più famose, giusto per capire di che si trattava, ma poi mi sono concentro sulla mia musica, e i fans. Mi piace moltisismo parlare con loro, ho già una lista di contatti formidabile! Ma ho anche degli amici real qui in Second Life e credo anche questo sia un bene: BobbiJo Johnson e Votslav Hax, del gruppo Symbiotic, insieme a il mio grande amico il musicista Von Johin. Le amicizie sono molto importanti per me, il senso di comunità, poter condividere le esperienze, la musica, le serate insieme - per me è questo che conta, siamo una grande famiglia. Penso sia anche importante che il pubblico capisca cosa significa suonare 'live' - molti musicisti utilizzano delle registrazioni per migliorare la performance... e fingono di fare tutto in diretta. Amo esibirmi in locali creati con cura, non troppo grandi, è brutto quando il pubblico si perda in un ambiente troppo vasto, ma se è troppo piccolo anche questo ha i suoi svantaggi.
Questo sabato alle ore 5 -9PM SLT a Patriot Island Frets e i suoi amici Maximillian Kleene, Craig Lyons e PonDman Haalan prenderanno parte in un concerto a favore del progetto Wounded Warriors, ossia guerrieri feriti, un'opera di beneficenza che aiuta i soldati feriti in guerra a ritrrovare una vita normale e tranquilla a casa. Il concerto si tiene ogni mese e finora hanno raccolto oltre 112.000 linden.
Frets Nirvana:  Io non ho fatto il soldato ma mio padre ha preso parte nella seconda guerra mondiale ed era l'uomo più nobile che io abbia mia conosciuto. La guerra è una cosa terribile, e il mondo è diventato un posto molto pericoloso, e ogni giorno i soldati mettono in gioco le loro proprie vite per proteggere le libertà che noi prendiamo per scontato.  Tantissimi soldati rimagono feriti - lesioni cerebrali, ustioni e amputazioni - e questi giovani hanno bisogno del nostro aiuto per poter ritornare alla vita normale. Sono fiero di potere fare qualcosa per assistere questi individui corraggiosi, e spero che volete anche voi partecipare.

What a lot of fun

Last night the Place to Be was Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe over at the Treet TV studios!! It's recorded  every Sunday night at 6 SLT, Paisley has a really nice Australian voice which, when the audio stream goes funny, turns into a very genteel gargle on all the high notes, the leitmotif of an exceptional show. Lotsnlots of lag, and I turned everything way down low, straying unintentionally into wireframe for a full 5 minutes and crashing like Button several times, but it was way worth it to be in the audience for the show that featured three SLelebrities (is that a word?) including SCOTTIUS POLKE!!!

I showed up in my Lunamaruna tee, and sat behind Zachh Cale, of project Z. I tried to kick Zachh's chair, but couldn't reach. Dex Colclough sat beside him, sporting a fab furry avatar, and we talked bubble pipes for a while, and the lovely Lyric Wilburg and Scottius' collaborating angel Kimba Sideways were there.

Paisley's show is like real TV - actually, they're more organized and professional than the recordings of  real life TV shows I've attended, it's impressive stuff. First up was some lady from a place called Chillbo, talking about living in a nice place. "It's nice to live in a nice place," she confided.  I didn't really follow the whole thing, because there was a talking fridge in the aisle. I thought it was a safe, but then he IM'd me 'Touch my door', and when I did, the door opened and there was a carton of orange juice, eggs milk and some fruit inside. So I am pretty sure it was a girl fridge, despite being called Eli. 

The next guest was Avatar Quinzet talking dulcimers. He played some as well, but I was in full crash /pleeeeze stop animating my avatar mode by then, and only heard enough of the music to get that he's good. The crashing was embarrassing especially because the fridge said the guy sitting next to me was some kind of Big Deal builder who makes the weather, and who was probably wishing the whole time he could turn me into a pillar of salt, just so I'd freaking stay still a moment. Avatar made a leaden comment about playing the song Avatar using his avie called Avatar. Someone in the audience shouted 'Bullshit' which seemed harsh but fair, and then suddenly it was OTTER TIME!!!!!

He looked sooo cute on the couch! Paisley showed some of his RL assemblage art, and he talked intelligently about his unconscious Steampunk influences, sculpty making, the collaborative process, the Avalon Art district and his project Z installations, the mushROOM and SL's greatest ever floating village with fish, LUNAMARUNA!

N-otter place to be missed! Tp to project Z today!

Night Fall

The Outdoors is by definition great, as is running about and the sound of childish shouting on the grass, and  misty hills in the distance, strawberries and birdsong; it's all great, and spring is entirely here, and there is so much to do, but at the end of the day nothing beats a bit of adult entertainment, full of smooth and unhurried wonder, allowing the mind to unwind into the night. The opportunity to do so at Kolor comes only occasionally, and last night was one of those magical hours, drawn together by a performance by Kolor Fall, cypress Rosewood and Skye Galaxy.
They are genuine fans of each other, and it shows - not only in their enthusiasm for working together, but in their refreshing lack of pretentiousness. Several years ago Kolor Fall, who's a RL painter and cellist, came across a live performance by cypress Rosewood. At the time Kolor was a newbie who 'didn't even understand streaming' but he knew he'd found something good. A simple IM to cypress (Tony Gerber in RL) at the end of the concert was the beginning of a firm friendship enriched by creative collaboration which, since January, has found definition in once-monthly concerts on sim Kolor. To those who know these men's otherworldly approach to their art it will come as no surprise that the overarching theme of these performances has been The Planets, with names like  Red Lashes of Mars and the Clouds of Jupiter and Europa under ice, seen here in Stretch Mayo's wonderful machinima.

In late 2009,cypress heard Skye Galaxy and  instantly became a fan. He tries never to miss one of Skye's concerts, and they play together whenever they get the opportunity. Skye and cypress are separated by a generation and thousands of miles, but there is a synchronicity in sound, and a profound mutual admiration and respect that draws them to each other and a growing audience to both. A dual stream with a life of its own, their performances have become some of the most well attended and critically acclaimed in SL.

Imagine a quantum state, by which we mean the mathematical description of an aspect of the known behaviour between matter and energy. When the relationship between two or more such matter-energy systems - existing perhaps thousands of miles apart, or perhaps on completely different planes - is so deeply intertwined that one cannot be described without fully describing the others, you have a quantum entanglement, the property that lies at the centre of the famous thought experiment developed by Einstein, Rosen and Podolsky at Princeton just before the war.

cypress Rosewood: When Kolor mentioned to me he'd been working on an installation based on the idea of quantum entanglement, I thought the concept was perfect for this month's concert, because it captures what I feel about my and Skye's performances.
The physical distances between the three artists melt away long before the concert, as Kolor hones his new sound theory and the visual elements of the tone poem, in the myriad forms possible through scripts and effects, all working not from a preconceived formula but responding directly to his voice and movement as he speaks and draws the word of the moment. Spontaneous but far from unprepared, the creative process for the concert at Kolor is best described as 'open'; collaborators and cronies hang and chat in voice, no-one is made to feel like an outsider, as Kolor tries out his drawing scripts and tinkers with transparency levels and hues, all the time asking how they seem to everyone else. The pre-show music was Kolor playing the cello, but you wouldn't hear him crowing about it. His easygoing manner and disarming modesty are matched by  cypress' warm voice and that articulate enthusiasm which only years of rich experience can produce.

Kolor Fall: There's a lot of long stories with no point to them told here, and people just hanging out... that was the last setup ... and those two messing around while i was trying to do the build. A lot goes into the building, but the scripts and the artwork always gets recycled into other projects, although in this case, at tonight's concert we'll be using the work I've been preparing for a 2-3000 prim install which is going up at PiRats in the near future.

The concert proper, which started just after 8 pm SLT, was at Kolor Studio with midnight set for optimum awesomeness. If you plan to attend next month  be sure to show up early, with as few running scripts as possible - take stuff off before you arrive, because once the lag sets in you may find it difficult. Don't wait for an invite - these are not precious people handing out exclusive invitations to their coterie - the simplest way to be sure not to miss it is to join cypress' group inworld, and wait for the LM or put www. cypressrosewood.com in your favourites!

I got so engrossed I didn't take any good photos, this is one by Laurenza Republic, (here's her Flickr photostream!!) and check cyp's website for the machinima when it comes out, as well as checking all the usual suspects' sources.
 Plumes of light responded to the moving music, an effect something like the fountains of the Bellagio, Kolor said he was going for - along with dancing bubbles, like the dancing cubes at his famous waterfall, made for an enchanting effect. Kolor turns off scripts on the sim and runs everything from its twin, but crashes and slowness are likely to dent the experience for anyone who doesn't have a gaming graphics card - but don't let that stop you, even if your visual experience isn't state of the art, the music and the atmosphere these three men create will transport you.
What will they do next? More magic, I have no doubt.

Monday's Mountains

Thunder on the mountain, and there's fires on the moon

A ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon

Bob Dylan

The Dolomites are not like other mountains. Even in a photograph they are unmistakable, their skyline as unique as Manhattan's. That unforced sense of identity is mirrored in the work of Daco Monday, mountain man, artist, poet, thinker. He is a curious soul and prefers to ask the questions rather than answer, but it is not exaggerated secrecy on his part so much as fascination for that which makes others tick. His five words to describe the famous peaks where he was born and still makes his home sum up their majesty and his own spirit, too: beautiful, closed, hard, on fire, and free.

It was Lukia Halderman who suggested he come inworld, about a year ago. Lukia's now defunct group, il museo dei matti amici di lukia was his starting off point, but Daco - Daniele Costantin (Daco is a nickname he has had since childhood) - has painted all his life. A life that has been two lives, in a way, split between six months of summer in Germany, where his parents owned a gelateria, and the six months of winter in his native mountains. Two lives coming together to create a person highly aware of the contrast between states, between ideologies, contributing to strong political views,  expressed in his poems from the 80's, a decade he defines as 'very stupid and empty... and then things got worse'. He has a complementary book of his poems available, which was presented a week or so ago at an evening at the Tanalois gallery organized by Kaji Jewell, with a reading by Helenita Arriago, and the music of Liuto Karu. By the time I got there, they were talking about how Italy is going to hell in a handbasket. It was tempting to point out that it isn't otherwise elsewhere, but since much of Western Literature rests its roots on that particular concept, I knew I'd be on a hiding to nothing, and I danced instead. This is the book, the poems are striking, sensual and, unlike a lot of the claptrap dished out in SL under the 'personal protest' banner, they are beautifully and unselfconsciously crafted.

At Blue Dreams Island he has a small shop, with his poems cast on the ground, tucked away among the vespas and the marble ruins of the  Mediterranean village.  He comes inworld to create rather than explore, and is drawn to lands that resemble Italy in one form or another; his artistic home is Vulcano, where with just about 125 prims he makes most of his art, surrounded by other Italian artists. "The prim limit is strict, there's always a battle over who is using what here, but I like it. I find it keeps me focussed." As we talked, he made two new pieces you can see below. Not a forward planner when it comes to SL art, his main concern is to follow his instincts and be light on prims.

I love Il vaso di Pandora, part of his exhibition at Tanalois, which runs for a few more days. Not pessimistic about the future, despite his many comments regarding the corruption and misdeeds of the powers that be on the peninsular, he looks forward, he says, to change; he quoted Bob Dylan to me.  So much of his inworld art is in movement, I strung together e few pieces so you could see it,  being just a beginner that the machinima malarkey, it doesn't do it justice, so don't watch if you're easily shocked.

Daco Monday: Second Life reminds me very much of the paintings of Miro' : I'd define it as open collective unconscious, and I love that, but I couldn't recreate his work here, I would have to make something of my own, my own reality observing the collective subconscious. If I were to import a writer into SL, it would be Kafka. A Kafka sim would probably look a little like Rose Borchovski's installations.

Ha sempre dipinto. La vita dalla nascita divisa in due stagioni, in Germania, dove i suoi avevano una gelateria, e poi sei mesi in Italia. Due esistenze contrastanti, una forte curiosità, un desiderio di vedere un mondo meno ingiusto, diverso, una voce che vuole esprimere le sue idee ma ha anche voglia di fare tante domande, per arrivare a un interscambio di pareri e esperienze raccontate.Vive in montagna, nel suo paese natale, montagne che definisce belle, chiuse, dure, infuocate, e libere, un patrimonio dell'umanità ma è un casino viverci. Amore e odio. Mentre parlavamo, ha creato le due opere che vedi in questa foto.  Gli piace SL perché è un modo rivoluzionario di condividere e diffondere la cultura globale. Un modo per rafforzarla.

Daco Monday: lukia Halderman  mi ha fatto conoscere Second Life, sono qui da circa un'anno, facevo parte del suo gruppo museo dei matti artisti amici di lukia.. All'inizio giravo un po' per le land, ma mi interessa solo l'arte, e sono quasi sempre a Vulcano a costruire, o alle mostre. Per me, SL è un esperimento di comunicazione della cultura globale.

A  Blue Dreams Island ha una vetrina con alcune sue opere, e le sue poesie per terra davanti al manichino poeta, poesie scritte durante gli anni 80, anni che definisce, con un sorriso, 'molto stupidi e vuoti...e poi siamo andati in peggio'. Le poesie sono vivaci frammenti di ricordo e sentimento, ora raccolte in un libro  presentato di recente a Tanalois, con la partecipazione di Liuto Karu e Helenita Arriago, una serata organizzata da Kaji Jewell. Il libro lo vedi in una delle foto nella parte inglese. Sopra troverai anche un piccolissimo mio machinima, fatto per mostrarti come sono belli i suoi quadri sempre in movimento. Fanno sognare. 

Daco Monday: Le mie opere pittoriche sono un viaggio interiore alla ricerca dell'essere umano - in senso antropologico forse? Cosa vuol dire la vita, nascere, vivere... si vive per giocare? Oggi la politica non esiste più, è diventata schiava dell'economia, ma io non sono pessimista, mi considero ottimista - dopo la tempesta torna sempre il sole. Poi cantava anche Bob Dylan 40 anni fa, e dura pioggia cadrà... SL mi fa pensare ai quadri di  Miro', una land Miro' dovrebbe essere come i suoi quadri, un conscio collettivo aperto, fatta di sculture; ma dovrebbe farlo lui, io non posso, farei la mia visione, la mia realtà che guarda all'inconscio collettivo. Se dovessi scegliere uno scrittore, sarebbe Kafka, un luogo pieno di incubi, di dilemmi, un po' come la land di Rose Borchovski.

Come lavora in SL?
Daco Monday: Non faccio disegni sulla carta prima di incominciare un'opera in SL: Non ho idea dei prim, ma cerco di usarne il meno possibile anche perché a Vulcano posso usare un massimo di 125, per lasciare spazio a tutti - mi piace, mi aiuta a tenere il mio chiodo fisso. Ho un'idea e vado incontro, diciamo, qui in SL: Non sono un 'digitale',  sono e resto un espressionista, vado d'istinto, d'intuito. Qui è molto cerebrale la tecnica: inversa della mia, ma mi piace mettermi in discussione sempre. Come posso dirtelo? Ricominciare tutto da capo, mettendomi a nudo senza nessuna certezza, riaprire tutte le mie certezze, rimettermi in discussione...

A me piace moltissimo.

So are we all

They whisper, shout and speak about love, poetry, politics, and location, about real life and about their experience of Second Life, and the fear of mayonnaise. In the shallows below Caerleon, among the pillars by Oberon Onmura, beautiful music weaves wavelets of individual thought into an ocean of shared experience. Until you go, this will probably make no sense.

Today there was the preview on Caerleon Isle of Your Voice as Art, Field of Voices, by Sowa Mai - Banrion Constantine and it officially opens on Wednesday April 7th which is why I am not giving you the SLURL. The note explains all the fancy stuff, who did what, grateful thanks etc., I'm certainly not going to cut n paste it here, but will point out that this is part of a Through the Virtual Looking Glass, involving galleries both in Second Life and in RL locations across Europe and the US. TP to the platform, and allow more than a few moments to rez, otherwise you might not get the full effect.

There was this tee shirt on offer, when the call for voices went out, and it rocks. A simple request, say something to Sowa Mai, I wonder if any of us imagined such a dreamworld would be patchworked together from all our mere five seconds ... mine is the lamest of all, but don't let it stop you wandering through the columns, enjoying the sunlight there are so many thoughtful and charming fragments here, from the exotically obscure, to the famous tones of Torley. Make sure you visit soon. It will make your spirit smile.

Come forse avrai sentito, sta per incominciare una grande iniziativa RL-SL : Attraverso lo specchio virtuale, un'esposizione mondiale in gallerie europee, statunitensi, australiane e metaversali. Partecipano PiRats, CARP, l'UWA, il museo del Metaverso e altri istituti prestigiosi e ci saranno machinima, esposizioni di sculture virtuali e reali, fotografie, discorsi, premi e serate splendide... arriva il sole anche in Second Life.

Ho ricevuto oggi all'ora di pranzo l'invito all'anteprima della luminosa incantevole istallazione di Sowa Mai  e Banrion Constantine. Il nome di Sowa Mai è un gioco di parole, vuol dire 'lo sono anch'io' ed è un nome significativo: quest'opera d'arte è fatta di voci reali, con l'intento di ricordarci che siamo ognuno di noi dietro l'avatar, persone vere, simili e diversissime. Le voci raccontano paure, idee politiche, poesie, saluti, parolacce, risate, speranze. Hanno preso le nostre frasi e hanno cucito un mare di esperienza comune, una foresta viva che fa cantare il cuore. 

Troverai le voci su Caerleon Isle, non vi do oggi il SLURL della mostra, ma da mercoledi in poi sarà aperto al pubblico. Spero che anche tu farai una passeggiata tra le nostre voci, che sono anche la tua...