Crafty reminder

Tomorrow celebrations begin over on Craft for the first anniversary of OpenSim's most friendly grid. More about it over on the other blog, Pings from the afterlife.
I made a trampoline, but don't let that put you off, everyone else made wild and fancy stuff very much worth seeing!
This is the URI of the grid (the bit you add to the Grid Manager of your viewer) http://craft-world.orgL8002/

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Arbor virtualis: the trees of soror Nishi

A certuni gli alberi

non dicono nulla

Ma pochi possono sentire 

il canto della corteccia

Sentiero, Thomas di Blasi

From nut to ember, trees warm, shelter, and  feed body and imagination alike. Like us, they stand with their heads in the clouds, their feet trapped in this earth, shaped by storms but forever reaching out to the wider world; like us they know times of plenty and of loss.  In their ancient, productive silence can be read all the knowledge of the world, into their form, a bridge between worlds. 

If we could go to a Gloucestershire valley right now, I'd show you a coppice of Linden trees that is two thousand years old, where there is the scent of the sap, and the light dances through rich broad greenery.
But we can't.
Which leads one to think: what about trees in Second Life? At places like Straylight, the technique of tree making has become so advanced that the standard SL Pine looks pathetic, except perhaps in old forests like Kahruvel. Yet not even in the new, picture perfect Cap Estel can you smell the sawdust, or hear the busy rush of wind against leaves, or suddenly spot a squirrel on a tree trunk, suspended thirty feet in the air, grey against grey. But this is not that world. What is needed is another route to the vertical highway. Shouldn't the metaverse have its own true woodlands?

soror Nishi says yes. The daughter of a flower seller, she has during her life turned her hand to both farming and architecture, and loves to paint, but rather than using SL as commercial outlet for her RL pictures, she prefers to bring together all these interests in 3D compositions.

 Using large, high-quality scans of textures in crayon, watercolour and oil, and Gimp and Blender, her flora virtua exotica originates from a taoist approach to the subject.
soror Nishi: If you don't understand the patterns then you can't really build a tree. I've seen plenty of unconvincing trees here in SL. If you don't look, you dont see, and if you don't see, you can't learn the patterns.
Soror's trees are like her - bright, bold, whimsical, fun, and beautiful.

She has created two-prim beech trees, and woods that run to the many thousands. She made the Norse tree Yggdrasil at The Companion, Frigg Ragu's folklore sim, currently under reconstruction. In her version, the monumental tree of doom that connects the underworld to our realm and to the heavens above floats in serene glory, the roots caressing the weight of the world below.

Playwright and lover of all things Irish Maeve Eirin filled her Celtic storytelling mountain, Skellig Medb, with soror's trees, including a stand of the Tree Sisters, with their distinctive red canopies. 
Mythical woods grow best among poems as lovely as trees, when the quality is right. Before importing a texture, one should consider whether it is good enough to hang on the wall in RL. If not, then it will disappoint on the screen.
 In the garden she has created beneath the UWA gallery, we talked about the panoply of bricoleurs and engineers to be found in the creative community of Second Life.

Taoist practice is working with the ordinary acts of life without any fabrication, how does that work here? We spoke of Levi Strauss, and I asked: If you understand the bricoleur as a hobbyist, a tinkerer with existing material, and an engineer as a pioneer who strives to understand how things work and get beyond the limits, in whatever field that might be, do both groups have their place in the metaverse?  Have SL quality standards gone up over the past few years, have limits been significantly overcome? (You know, just general chit chat.)

soror Nishi: Well, when it comes to textures, lazy is easy. Quality it isn't always top of people's list. I would like 2048x2048 for large prims, but we have had no new tools for years. Technique is important, in fact technique may be responsible for style. But without emotion there's no reaching the audience or pleasing oneself, and the funny thing is that it has nothing to do with textures. Is it a question of heart or head? I think both have to be present, I think probably it's more about synthesis - good art, anyway. I feel strongly it should stand on its own, without pages of explanations and theory it used to be called 'post-creative intellectualisation" but, having said that, people do like to be told what to think...

Soror's latest build is, of course, the IBM-sponsored Tree of Trees. It rises from a serene pool of of swirling greenery, illuminated by emerald particles. 

(Gosh did I say Emerald? Sorry.)

A forest of stumpy, almost fossilized topiary forms the rootstock and trunk of a massive community of trees, its nebulous crown lost in the region's clouds.

 Up here, the delicate white and blue canopies of goddess trees fan out over little islands of greenery, where orchids grow, protected by Doris the Dragon and her companion. The triumph of the tree as a village, a home for the diverse; resting, growing, flowing upwards together. 

A family tree.

Between the light and me: Penumbra's Fly

I have no life but this

Emily Dickinson, Love, XX 

If she were alive today, 19th century American transcendentalist poet Emily Dickinson would be in Second Life. Oh, don't jump all over me for saying such a thing - unless you're handsome, single, and have nice accessories, in which case, let's talk - she so would, you know. Think about it. Comfortably well off, surrounded by opportunities and encouragement to take her poetry to a wider audience, Dickinson chose instead to write them in pencil and sew them together in little secret books she called fascicles. Far from 'shut up in prose', Emily was able to meet the likes of Emerson at her Harvard-educated brother's house. Another guest was Atlantic Monthly editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, with whom she struck up what today would be an online friendship. He tried to make her modify her verses, but she wouldn't;  eventually their fragile romance died. Kidney disease, eye problems, and disposition limited her mobility in wider social circles, but did not prevent her having a her rich inner life, and enhanced by the magic of books, nature, and imagination.

Obsessive, observant, somewhat slanted, she would own a sim called Amherst,  - or would she 'dwell in Possibility' ? - all overgrown with cunning moss, and daisies in the sun; in her cottage, an orderly parlour where she would have laid out a marble tea, she would remind guests that, 'Except the smaller size, no Life is round'. There would be a quote from Keats in her profile, and long silent days spent building or exploring, weighing the symptoms of affection and finding them equal in silence and speech.  She would not 'know a Linden'. You wouldn't find her elbowing her way onto the stage at a poetry event, all puffy and huffy with brittle ambition. But it wouldn't be that hard for the discerning heart to find her verse, safe in an alabaster chamber perhaps. She might give Steampunk a run for its money, for as long as her eyesight held out, or surprise everyone by going Neko. Maybe not, I think she was more of a dog person.

It's not a dog, but a fly that invades the transcendent moment of death, in I Heard a Fly Buzz, the Dickinson poem that inspired Penumbra Carter's latest build at Art'e. Small, random, fecund, unruly, the fly breaks into the still solemnity of the conventional rites of Death, the king, and makes quiver the poet's resignation to the stillness of the air. In the stillness of the air of Second Life, in a world where loneliness is the default setting, where windows frequently fail and self annihilation is always within grasp, often deeply desired, that inquisitive buzz is often all that stands between us and existential limbo. Or Blue Mars, which may amount to the same thing.

Carter's work seems often occupied by thoughts of rooms, from Dorothy's Kansas bedroom in her 2009 Wizard of Oz paintings, to her Premium Lindenites video. At Art'e you'll find boxes piled up like a makeshift doll's house, or wooden sets held together by a dreaming field of poppies. Lost living rooms animated by contraptions, muted with fragments of meditative still life, and worn textures, invite the viewer inside to weave a personal poem somewhere between death and our busy lives.

Winner's Circle

The declared winners of the Science/Art (shakes fist at Blogger, which has issues with the ampersand) have been announced by Marjorie Fargis...
This very wonderful piece is 'untitled string theory'  by Mila Tatham and Rodriguez Imako, (sorry I forgot to mention Rodriguez when I blogged this earlier).

All the top pieces are on display for one week from today between the menhirs of MarkWD Helendale's Pseudostonehengikon, on Frontier Land.

The final trophyholders are (drum roll)...
Merlino Mayo, for this

... and Abstract Baroque for this.

You may have seen some of Abstract's early work, together with Eden Toll,  over at Diabolus  a while back. I asked Abstract to do the Winner's Quote thing and this is what he said, just off the top of his head,
Abstract Baroque: "Just as Second Life is at the cutting edge of new art forms, so in science String theory is leading scientific thought. Bringing the 2 together conceptually has been a challenge and great fun, and I look forward to all artists in Second Life developing an art form of the future, and maybe sharing the journey for a while."

See, he's much more than just a snappy dresser. Check out this video too!

Anyway, if you like to read Italian, you can do no better than to visit Frontierlander Aliza Karu's version of events in her admirable blog. 

Cantastorie: Marjorie Fargis

And who can sever love from charity?

        Love’s Labour’s Lost. 

Fake sickdays are the best ones, also leading to the possibility of attending events that rl work (shakes fist) would not normally permit, like this afternoon, when I went to Jack Davies' place Astral Dreams and finally heard a concert and presentation by Alessio Santacroce and his band La Quarta Vita. The show was elegantly presented by giovanna Delphin of Immersiva who organize and stream on their .ning lots of live events including the hugely successful 'Scienza on the road' a series of lectures by physicists, doctors, psychologists and others designed to make science more accessible and fun. And don't say to me 'oh but it will all be in Italian, I won't be able to follow,' go see for yourself, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Events are advertised in the usual way. Meanwhile back at Astral Dreams, Alessio's presentation revealed a surprising and delightful twist. He's in it for the money, but in the best possible way... money from the CD and from his book (called I Giudici, a short novel about four very different people who get stuck in a life together) go to a charity called Anthropos that helps people in Southern Sudan: thanks to contributions, including Linden love, they have already built one school in the area, and are working on a second one. A very worthy cause; for more details, IM giovanna Delphin or go to Alessio's Facebook page and take it from there.
The show was a really well put together mixture of songs, readings, interview and sandy beach. I sat with Marjorie Fargis, whose delicious decollete delights all the boys (she paid me to say that). Later in the evening she gave couple of readings from the book. She has a warm, lively voice, and it was lovely to hear it. I asked Marjorie how she got into the live reading and presenting side of SL.

Marjorie Fargis: I started in SL in 2008, and at the beginning spent time in voice mostly chatting with friends, but over a period of time that turned into invitations to be reader and presenter at all kind of things, from fashion shows to art openings. I remember very well my first proper event: it was an open mic evening on the theme "The Uselessness of Art" It was supposed to get people thinking and talking and in fact a number of really interesting comments were made, but things didn't go exactly smoothly. After a while the discussion got onto the topic of religion, and the situation got pretty tense. I had to really bend over backwards to get back control of the evening, but in a way, that made it an even more pleasant experience, I felt like I'd really been able to handle the situation, and I'd had a lot of fun doing it too. I really love working with Talete Flanagan and giovanna Delphin of Immersiva, and one of my fondest memories is the evening we did a film quiz night. There were loads of people present, and giovanna and I improvized sketches for the audience to guess, it was hilarious. But I am also very committed to being part of Immersiva's remit to make science and culture accessible to all. Since most people consider this a platform for entertainment, it's really something of an achievement when we talk about subjects that are a bit more meaty, and manage to make them appetizing. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when people keep coming back for more. True, sometimes things go wrong, voice fails or there are other technical glitches, but I love to rise to the challenge, that's part of the pleasure of hosting: my attitude is 'The show must go on'!
I wondered what advice Marjorie would have for anyone considering a similar path in SL.
Marjorie Fargis: When you host an event, you have to have a global understanding of what is going on around you. Choose your venue wisely. Think in terms of occupancy, lag, security and traffic rather than just the look of the place on the screen. You need good people around you, the kind of people who are willing to give the best of themselves in the moment. Getting your event noticed is also key, advertising it on social networks like FB and getting a plug on various blogs helps a lot. Researching and rehearsing the event is essential too... at the end of the day, it's a lot of work, but it pays off! The only way to make it work it by being patient and willing to work hard... and the payoff will come.
Marjorie's not a builder, she sees herself as an observer, a raconteur rather than a creator, but she believes very strongly in the educational value of the metaverse, and tries to bring inworld many of the artists that thrill her in RL. I asked her who she'd pick if she were going to make an Arts Park.
Marjorie Fargis: That's a hard question. I see myself as a storyteller - in Italian we say cantastorie a story singer: I don't build, but I'd like to make a Burning Life style sim where artists could interpret their favourite RL works - art within art! If I had to pick a single person, it would be  actor and director Kenneth Branagh. I've always loved the way he reinterprets Shakespeare in his films with originality and imagination. I would have a sim-stage, where avatar actors could perform in plays in Branagh's style, and the production could really go wild with imaginative scenery that would transcend place and time. I am thinking of it as a global work of art, where musicians could provide and play original music, creating a truly immersive experience for the audience, who would be a part of the action, where voices in many languages would join together, acting, singing and improvising. It would be a sort of infernal circle for virtual souls where the parts of actors, creators and spectators become fused and bring into being new art...that unique and exclusive expression that only the metaverse makes possible.

Libera per una volta di entrare in SL in un orario inconsueto... e di sentire per la prima volta la musica di Alessio Santacroce. Alessio, livornese, è scrittore e cantautore, ha presentato a Astral Dreams la land di Jack Davies. Il nuovo CD di Alessio si chiama La quarta via, come il suo band, e l'ha presentato  insieme a un nuovo libro. S'intitola I giudici : quattro estranee si trovano bloccati in un ascensore - la brava Marjorie Fargis ha letto per noi un paio di brani di questo breve ma avvincente romanzo, davvero bello, acquistarlo significa non solo poter conoscere la finale imprevedibile del libro, ma anche contribuire a una buona causa, la costruzione di scuole nel Sudan, un'iniziativa di Anthropos. 
Sentendola leggere cosi bene i brani dal libro, ho voluto sapere cosa significa fare la presentatrice in SL, e ho chiesto a Marjorie di raccontarmi un po al sua storia. Si trova in SL dal 2008; inizialmente frequentava una piccola land dove più che eventi si tenevano delle chiacchierate di confronto tra amici, poi con il passaparola iniziarono a chiederla di presentare serate di ogni genere in diverse land. Ero curiosa di sapere se si ricordava la prima esperienza da presentatrice metaversale.
Marjorie Fargis: Oh sì che la ricordo! Decisi di organizzare una serata sull'arte, usai come tema un intervento che avevo scritto per la RL e che si intitolava "L'inutilità dell'Arte", volevo provocare una discussione. Intervennero persone diverse fu molto bello. Ma non andò tutto liscio. Ad un certo punto qualcuno cambiò nettamente il tema della discussione portandolo sulla religione e la situazione cominciò a farsi tesa. Feci davvero i salti mortali per riprendere la conduzione della serata. Poi però si concluse tutto per il meglio. Mi sentivo bene. Sono esperienze che vivo anche nella RL e che mi portano una grande carica. Poi quando finiscono c'è lo scarico della tensione e quella nube di stelline che ti girano intorno alla testa attribuendoti un'espressione molto buffa di soddisfazione. L'evento che ricordo mi ha divertita di più è stata una serata ad Immersiva. Presentammo un quiz sul cinema a cui parteciparono in molti. Sul palco eravamo giovanna Delphin ed io e trascorremmo tutta la serata a divertire il pubblico con degli sketch improvvisati.  Gli eventi a cui sono più affezionata sono quelli in collaborazione con giovanna Delphin e Talete Flanagan. Ci occupiamo di divulgazione culturale e scientifica. La bellezza sta proprio nella difficoltà di affrontare degli argomenti seri in una piattaforma originariamente dedicata al gioco. La soddisfazione si raggiunge quando il pubblico conferma il proprio apprezzamento ritornando più volte ad ascoltarti. Infatti personalmente quasi non credevo di riuscire a tenere sveglie tutte quelle persone parlando di scienza nella letteratura.
 E quando SL non vuole collaborare...?

Marjorie Fargis: A volte ci sono problemi con il voice, che per presentare è fondamentale e la maggior parte delle serate sono dominate dal lag che impedisce di svolgere le presentazioni con una certa armonia. Ma sono una donna fortunatamente dotata di spirito d'iniziativa e al minimo problema..cerco sempre di andare avanti con l'evento inventandomi qualcosa..."Show must go on!". Questo tipo di lavoro richiede una conoscenza a 360 gradi di tutti gli aspetti che compongono l'evento. La ricerca del luogo dove si svolgerà è vincolata non solo alla bellezza o meno della land, ma soprattutto alla sua capacità di ospitare avatar e alla sua frequentazione (problemi di sicurezza o di di poco traffico). La gestione dei collaboratori che devono poter dare il meglio nei momenti che dedicano a SL. La divulgazione dell'evento in SL e fuori con una campagna mirata che vada a toccare i maggiori social network e i blog che parlano di metaverso. La verifica e supervisione dei contenuti...insomma è un lavoro...vero e proprio! Consiglio a chi vuole organizzare eventi in SL di armarsi di pazienza e buona volontà.
Marjorie si definisce osservatrice, cantastorie, non builder, ma crede fermamente nel potere educativo e divulgativo del Metaverso, e cerca di portare inworld gli artisti che conosce in RL: le ho chiesto che tipo di Arts Park creerebbe se avesse la possibilità.

Marjorie Fargis: Domanda impegnativa! Mi piacerebbe riunire degli artisti in una sim vuota tipo quella del Burning Life e dar loro la possibilità di creare opere all'interno di un ambiente da loro stessi ideato: arte che contiene arte! Se dovessi scegliere scelgo Kenneth Branagh, il regista/attore, che seguo da anni nelle sue assolutamente fantasiose rivisitazioni delle opere di Shakespeare. Pensando a lui immagino una land palcoscenico dove si possano rappresentare con gli avatar le opere di Shakespeare e dove la sua già fervida immaginazione si possa sbizzarrire a creare scenografie virtuali per commedie e tragedie traslate di tempo e luoghi. Penso ad opere d'arte virtuali realizzate per dar vita a queste rappresentazioni. A musicisti che realizzino accompagnamenti atti a rendere il tutto assolutamente immersivo per gli spettatori, che verrebbero a far parte loro stessi della rappresentazione.  A voci in tutte le lingue che si intreccino per recitare, cantare ed improvvisare. Insomma una specie di girone infernale per anime virtuali dove i ruoli di attori, creatori e spettatori si confondessero per dar vita ad arte nuova... quella espressione unica ed esclusiva che solo il metaverso concede.

Fruit of the Boom

Ever had something just show up unannounced in your inventory, and, in a moment of multitasking meltdown, found your finger hovering above discard? To dismiss or not to dismiss, what adventures might await...This is one of those stories, an unsolicited LM that opened a new horizon of art and friendship. The NitroglycerinE art gallery is the home of the fantastic Natsha Lemton, French artist and inspiration, and her band of friends including Loki Glas and Casta Oh.

It's a sandy, oceanside sort of a place, perfectly in tune with Natsha's personality, in RL she lives in Brittany, just metres from the sea shore. Her pictures are both beautiful and edgy, an explosion of colour and questions, under a glorious sky full of bright flying objects and meteors raining down. The first thing I noticed here was the Barbie theme, in my schoolgirl French (alas the only part of me still resembling a schoolgirl) I asked what that's all about.

Natsha Lemton: It's a bit complex. It all started one day here when a girl was treating us like Barbie and Ken, and I thought to myself, that's a concept that really works in SL- it's full of Barbies and Kens, when you stop and think about it. I realize I'm sort of like my avie, I dress her up and I do her hair, but behind her (and every other avatar) there's a real person bringing it to life. It's a theme I've been thinking about a great deal recently, so you'll see a lot of it here.

Natsha, whose been part of artistic initiatives like the Chaos project at Pirats has in turn given space to artists on her island paradise, including Bustabugsmetropolis Robonaught (known universally as Sam, thank goodness!) and Andromeda Klees who writes poetry - beautiful, melancholy French poetry which is displayed in the most original ticker-tape form at NitroglycerinE  in these interesting poles on the seashore. She's on show at PiRats and also has a furniture-and-more shop is called MandMM Exclusive Land. Camming around the land, I admired Loki's work, and got this gallantly Gallic reply.

Loki Glas: Merci, moi tout ce que je fais c'est pour ma Natsha... she is the one who encouraged me to make art. Natsha makes art in RL too, but before I met her I was mostly in SL involved in role-playing games. Now I know everyone can make art... tout le monde a un artiste caché en lui.

Natsha Lemton: I love that. I really believe everyone can create something artistic, and I am always glad to help and nurture that in others, like Loki, to find within themselves the creative force, and let it express itself. For me art is not just pictures, whether paintings or photography, it is all art, it is all possible here, poetry, and music are just as important to me as the figurative and abstract work I have made. We are art ourselves, our avatar is the first work of art we make in Second Life, and so from the very start, we make interactive art...

The nurturing has borne fruit. There's so much to choose from here, you just have to TP over to get the full effect. NitroglycerinE is more than an art gallery, it's Loki and Nat's home, and a hangout for their friends. They have two 'boites' or clubs, if you will, one like a greenhouse, where Casta Oh's fiery artwork shoots overhead, and another underwater lair 'un endroit pour les garçons' Loki says, which has a 'seventies warehouse-psychadelic look, and lots of erotic SL art on the walls, pictures taken, Natsha told me, 'in some of her favourite places in SL'. Soirees and contests are held down here, although they didn't tell me what kind of contests, hmmm... something very French I bet. Boom boom.

  Ti è mai successo, arriva all'improvviso e da fonte sconosciuto un LM, e non sai se accettare oppure cestinarlo... oggi racconto uno di quelle occasioni in cui ho detto sì quando il primo istinto era un 'no' secco... Mi sono tippata a NitroglycerinE la land di Loki Glas e Natsha Lemton e i loro amici tra i quali anche la bravissima fuocoartificiera (questa parola l'ho inventata io) Casta Oh. Natsha in Real è francese, della Bretagna, figlia del mare; in RL non si definisce artista, anche se ha studiato alle Belle Arti, qui in SL ha creato molte belle opere, esposto anche a Chaos di PiRats e altrove, la prima cosa che ho notato era una spiritosa polemica su Barbie... ma siamo o no delle bambole Barbie? ho voluto sapere di più.

Natsha Lemton: Nasce questa mia piccola ossessione con le bambole da un incontro con una ragazza che ci ha definito Ken e Barbie, ho pensato che è un concetto per SL - infatti ne è piena. Trovo che io assomiglio a una bambola, la vesto, la concio - ma dietro ogni pupazzo c'è una persona che lo fa vivere. Penso molto a questa idea di recente, e viene rispiecchiata nei pezzi che ho scelto di esporre in questo periodo.

Sulla land, una serie di isolotte tropicali immerse in un mare limpidissimo, troverai anche le opere di Casta Oh, Bustabugsmetropolis Robonaught (meglio conosciuto come Sam) e la brava Andromeda Klees Oltre al suo negozio di mobili e articoli da sogno, MandMM Exclusive Island, Andromeda si occupa di poesia, (anche a PiRats ) e troverai i suoi versi esposti in maniera molto originale a NitroglycerinE... direi quasi occultati in piena vista dentro i pali piantanti nella che si vedono nella figura sopra. La land di Natsha non è solo galleria, ci sono anche due locali da ballo, uno come una serra gigante, l'altro sottomarino, une 'boite' suggestiva dove fanno feste e tengono gare (di che tipo non ho chiesto!!), le pareti sono piene d'arte erotica, fotografie scattate nei posti più amati di Natsha.
Con il cam ho visto anche le opere di Loki-molto belle.

Loki Glas: Merci, moi tout ce que je fais c'est pour ma Natsha... è stata lei ad incoraggiarmi a creare. Lei è artista anche in Real, io invece creo soltanto per divertimento. Prima di conoscerla facevo parte di giochi di ruolo, ma ora vivo SL in maniera diversa... grazie a lei ho capito che come dire... tout le monde a un artiste caché en lui.
Natsha Lemton: Questo mi piace moltissimo. Ci credo davvero che c'è un artista in ognuno di noi, e sono molto felice quando riesco a spronare e coltivare il talento in altri. er me l'arte è esprimersi non sotanto sulla tela, amo molto la musica, la poesia, e circondarmi da tutte le forme d'arte come vedi qui a NitroglycerinE. Se ci pensi, ciascuno di noi quando siamo nati in SL abbiamo subito cominciato a fare arte, creando il look del proprio avatar... una forma d'arte interattiva, unica, stupenda....

Therefore I am

Eric Escritoire: Hi there Thirza, I'm sitting here saving my place for the Writers' Circle. It's at 2pm SLT every Wednesday. Writers come along and read out their work. It really is a lot of fun.

Thirza Ember: hello bot.
Eric Escritoire: You'd love it Thirza, really you would. I'd love you to come. We could sit together and hold hands.
Eric Escritoire: You'd like that, wouldn't you Thirza?
Thirza Ember: you're seriously creepy
Eric Escritoire: I'll see you on Wednesday then.
Eric Escritoire: To be honest, I'm getting a bit fed up with sitting here, it's that Jilly Kidd, she makes me do it. Anyway, it was lovely talking to you, Thirza.

Italian first today, just to mix it up. Scroll down a bit and you'll find it turns into English...

Fenomeno strano, girare con l'avatar di ricambio: a parte il silenzio, e lo spaesamento di fronte a un inventorio privo di biglietti da visita e i soliti LM, tornano anche gli istinti da newbie - tra i quali la gran voglia di fare spesa, e di farla male... capelli, skin, ao nuovi ma lei è sempre lei, goffa strana e ora decisamente meno ricca; segno che devo concentrarmi sulle cose importanti, sono qui per lavorare, e allora...
In uno spettacolo di fiamme, è terminata domenica Burning Life, la fine della festa del fuoco e della luce più bella dell'anno. L'Italia è stata molto ben rappresentata: le bellissime opere di Shellina Winkler, Gleman Jun, Kikka Igaly e nessuno Myoo tra altri. Le istallazioni forse non sono ancora tutte sparite, ma ormai è questione di pochi giorni e i sim di Burning Life torneranno in fondo al mare metaversale per altri 12 mesi. Complimentoni alla direttrice artistica White Lebed, Poid Mahlovich e tutti quelli del team. Alcune opere saranno esposte, due alla volta, durante l'anno, quindi se non l'avete viste, potete passare e gustare in prima persona. Attualmente le opere scelte sono Flaming Cat Choir di Maya Paris (quella di Loopy Love) e clear the cobwebs di Windyy Lane.

Ma non tutto in SL è così effimero... prendi per esempio Thinkerer Melville, in SL da owner di tre sim in SL, conosciuti generalmente come Cookie. Qui troverai gruppi di lingua inglese specializzati in poesia e prosa, gruppi come Inksters, ART, e Written Word. A Cookie ci sono anche molte freebies, e nelle piazze e nei giardini di questi sim troverai attori, drammaturghi, poeti, e... ogni tanto qualche bot strano, come quello del dialogo riportato qui sopra. Tutt'altro che strano, se molto indaffarato, con la maniera brusca di chi riceve 100 IM al minuto è l'avatar di Selby Evans, texano, appassionato del teatro, filantropo virtuale, consulente, professore di psicologia e d'informatica, ora in pensione. L'ho incontrato a downtown Cookie insieme a Geo Meek. La prima mia domanda era - visto che lui si trova in SL ormai da anni - decenni si direbbe, per come il tempo passa in maniera diversa nel metaverso rispetto al Real - come vive SL, e quali cambiamenti ha visto durante la sua lunga vita virtuale?
Thinkerer Melville: Semplice, sono qui per fare teatro. Rimango qui perché ho degli ottimi collaboratori che mi permettono a realizzare questo desiderio. Se sono cambiate le persone che entrano nel gioco? Non saprei dire, io veramente mi trovo circondato da molti amici che sono in SL da anni come me, persone su cui posso contare, creativi che amano il dramma senza lasciare che trasuda dal palcoscenico alla vita quotidiana dell'avatar. per questo Cookie sopravvive e funziona, sono lieto d'essere circondato da chi vuole creare, e mi piace non solo creare ma osservare gli altri creare. Ho comprato questi sim un paio di anni fa per prottegere l'ambiente in cui sono nati i gruppi Written Word e Inksters, iniziative validissime e tutt'ora molto seguite. Il gruppo Inksters propone ogni settimana un tema su cui scrivere, puoi visitare la loro sede al Rose Garden.

Cerco di offirie un aiuto a chi è in SL da poco ' ho preparato un a zona per rezzare gli oggetti, e qui come vedi ci sono molti cartelli esplicativi.

Era vero, intorno a noi molti cartelloni offrendo soprattutto consigli su Voice. Infatti Thinkerer preferisce usare sempre il voice, in parte perché non ama usare la tastiera, in parte perché è sempre alle prese di qualche iniziativa nuova.

Thinkerer Melville: Faccio l'intermediario tra attori, owners, costumisti, builder, scrittori, produttori, insomma offro il mio aiuto a chi vuole mettere in scena uno spettacolo. Se un produttore ha bisogno di costumi o articoli per una commedia, se hanno bisogno di una land o di fare pubblicità, si rivolgono a me. In più offro consigli e idee a chi vuole intraprendere una carriera metaversale come videografo, tramite i miei manuali e vari blog - per me Voice è il cambiamento più importante che ho visto durante il mio soggiorno in SL. All'inizio non esisteva, e rendeva difficile quasi impossibile fare readings di gruppo. Ci voleva la voce umana. Spesso si poteva risolvere il problema passando le poesie e racconti a una persona dotata di streaming, ma non era una soluzione molto soddisfacente. Io

Written Word riunisce il mercoledì e il venerdi per reading di opere originali e non, ci sono spesso gare e eventi come in questo periodo il Autumn Writers' Event, e sono benvenuti non solamente opere in inglese, quindi non lasciare che la lingua ti ostacoli, se hai una poesia un romanzo un racconto o una commedia, perché non presentarlo qui a Cookie? Questo è il loro teatrino in Muse Harbour.

Questa signora dall'aspetto ...drammatica è Ada Radius una dei bravissimi attori del gruppo ART il Avatar repertory Theater teatro in questo periodo fanno diversi spettacoli anche sperimentali come tredici oggetti di Howard Barker, sul sim dell'Università di Coventry. Sono vere e proprie produzioni a tutti gli effetti, e dopodomani infatti ci sarà un bellissimo spettacolo, una commedia scritta da mysty Mellison con la partecipazione di Intellikid Craven (la foto di loro nel Greek Archon Theater la puoi vedere nella parte inglese) Il Fuoco, la storia di Frankie, un moccioso del ventunesimo secolo che incontra un giorno una fantasma, Pete, che lo porta nella francia rivoluzionaria per insegnargli cosa significa la lotta, il fame e come identificare quella passione, quel fuoco, che arde (o dovrebbe ardere) in ognuno di noi. Lo spettacolo dure novanta minuti e sarà presentata sul sim Thinkerer's Quest.

This is downtown Cookie the Communications Arts, Cookie Writers and Performers Hub, where I met Thinkerer, in company with videoist and general quiet genius Geo Meek.

Thinkerer Melville:I got into SL because I saw it as a way to do theater and make videos. I stay because of all the friends that I am collaborating with on various projects. I set up Cookie to encourage writing, theater, and videography -- and collaboration among them. That is what goes on there. Running it is easy. I have a lot of creative people on Cookie, so mainly it is a matter of letting them do their thing. I find creativity very rewarding, even when other people are doing it.

As an enabler of talent, although I bet he would never put it that way, his generosity seems boundless, and enriched by the wealth of experiences and contacts he brings to the theatrical and literary community in SL I wondered what he thinks of the metaverse, as an influence on people's lives, in comparison with RL.
Thinkerer Melville: SL, like the real world, offers opportunities both good and bad, but on an amplified scale. For me its greatest advantage is that I am able to collaborate with people who share some of my interests, and help them too, by being a resource between people trying to put on plays, trying to learn about making videos and so forth, in my online manual and my various blogs. Does SL pose any dangers? I'd say, to most people, none. To people who tend to make poor choices in relationships, there are greatly increased opportunities to make poor choices. On an artistic level, it is a fertile environment for a number of reasons: Creation: Low cost, ease of collaboration, availability of audience. Consumption: Low cost, available to fit any taste and time, interactive production. Consumption becomes creation.
Mmmm, consumption of cookies. Thanks, now I'm hungry.

Cookie's Rose Garden is home to the competitive writing group Inksters, and 'tis the season, for the literary lads and lasses are all in the middle of AWE the Autumn Writer's Event, sponsored by Jilly Kidd and Hastings Bournemouth's group Written Word, who meet at on Wednesdays and Fridays over at the beautiful Muse Harbour, seen above. They also host the Meet an Author televised interviews on alternate Saturdays, and like Inksters run regular competitions for writers - and not only in English. Nice to know.
Thinkerer has also thoughtfully set aside hobo junction a free rez zone, and Art Quests, an area for explorable art. Wandering around I happened on the whole crew including famous SL Author Huckleberry Hax and Written Word's own Jilly Kidd participating in this cheese rolling contest on the impeccably Goucestershire green meadow at the area called New Hobo villa.

I kept walking, and ran into a handsome stranger. Scriptwriter, actor, video editor, builder and scripter, not to mention novelist, Intellikid's been in SL since 2004 - wow! I couldn't resist the temptation to bug him by asking about the 'upcoming live performance' mentioned in his profile.

Intelkid Craven: This is Cookie's Greek Archon Theater, just one of the performing spaces we use, and not all of the theater connected with ART goes on in one place, for example I saw 13 Objects, the Howard Barker play, over on the Coventry University sim - it was so good I watched it twice! We have a new production, and I am in it - playing Girondin Veteran. It's a ghostly kind of story, perfect for Halloween. The performance will be on Thinkerer Quests October 31st 2PM SLT. I'd like you to meet someone - This is Mysty. She wrote the play :) mysty Mellison: Hi! Thanks for asking about the play. It's called The Fire, and although ultimately it's a period piece about the French Revolution, it starts in 2009 with a bratty kid Frankey. He meets Pete, who is a ghost, but Frankey thinks he's is an actor in a museum, you know, like one of those civil war re-enactment people. Frankey goes with Pete to 1789 Paris, where he learns about the plight of starving peasants - the conflict is grain vs gold; but I see it as more than that. It's called The Fire because it's about the passions that burn within each of us, the things that get us out of bed in the morning. Not to be missed! Join the group so you can be sure of getting a notice before curtain up on Halloween.

Last but not least, this is ART's HC, where you can catch up with the company both in person and by reading the billboard... I ran into Ada Radius, trying to get some work done on the upcoming performance of a work by Gogol. You can see a photo of her up in the Italian bit. Ada Radius: Thinkerer has been very generous to us. He made this parcel available around April of last year, for AnonLiterary magazine, and whatever performing arts groups needed it. Avatar Rep have been the only group using it for some months. Since the beginning of the summer, when we put AnonLiterary on hiatus: before we had it, this parcel was used by Ludo Merit for her Storybook build.
Thirza Ember: so much going on on Cookie it'a a great place. I love that he combines the 'newbie' element with what one might think of as 'oldbie' activities like literature groups.
Ada Radius: it really is a wonderful place. We just finished a big show, a provocative play called 13 Objects by Howard Barker, with the support of the RL University of Coventry in the UK, which was great. Think gives huge amounts of help to the groups who live on Cookie and Art Quests and that helps us all thrive, as you can see if you take a look at our Avatar Rep Theater blog.
Well, that's all from me today, I'm off to get ready with my date with Erik. Creepy bot possibly, but let's be honest, it's the best offer I've had all year.

Toasting the Life

WHEN I FOUND MYSELF on my feet I looked about me,

and must confess I never beheld

a more entertaining prospect.

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

Come è consueto, i lettori italiani sono gentilmente pregati a rivolgersi alla parte sottostante di questo articolo dove troveranno il testo nella loro lingua (quasi:).

Cheers! Burning Life is on, as you'll no doubt be aware. Last year was my first visit and I didn't really get it: not the whole Burning Man/Burning Life connection, that's obvious enough, but just how vast, and vastly entertaining, it can be. This is where you come in, the big round tent which, for some people, is as far as they get in the event. Step outside, instead, and one finds a world of marvels...

Desert is de rigueur here, of course, it's the perfect canvas for funky and fresh artwork, all with a burning man tucked in there somewhere, spread over some 34 sims. White Lebed is the Art Director this year, and she and the whole team have made a fantastic job of it, with artists of all kinds putting on a bravura performance in scripts, shapes and audio enhancements. Plenty to see and hear, plenty to drink, and no-one has to drive you back on those desert roads to a civilization that looks somewhat dreary in the daylight. There's so much to see at Burning Life I won't insult you by implying I saw all or even most of it, just within a few meters of the welcome area these are the things you can feast your avatar eyes on. I might just mention that at the Art Department tent there are lots of freebies and useful landmarks, but I leave you to wander until you find that particular treasure trove....

Poid Mahlovich has created a fantastic totem, Cabaret of Flames, with music props and animations, me and my bff Libeth Fairey got busy on the worship front - this is Libeth's photo of self, I love it, and over at KOINUP they have already posted Michael Verdi 's machinima of Cabaret of Flames, check it out here!Poid provides environmentally sound chinese lanterns that float up and away without leaving a moop*, which is what I did when I got tp'd over to see Ub Yifu's Gulliver: you can see the Ub in person, there on the right - dressed in his signature avatar, Don Quixote. *he is a god* You can ride on the giraffe, slide over Gulliver's body and generally do all things Liliputian, it's cool. That's Merlino Mayo in the front of this picture, he kindly pointed me in the direction of another great artist here in SL, and RL too - Adam Ramona. This is Proud Flesh by Adam Ramona (in RL Australian artist and musician Adam Nash), it makes weird sounds when you walk inside it, which of course we did. It changes colour, I waited till it was all pink before taking my picture, 'cos I'm a girl. I'd come across Adam's work inworld at Zachh Cale's gallery, Project Z, mentioned in the post below, but of course here the scale is immense. A bit further on is the Berlin Stage, a giant scorpion on the sand by Kazuhiro Aridian, the party doen't appear to have stopped since BL started. Literary supergroup Written Word has a space on Burning Life-Granite between the houses of cards, you can pick up some Robert Louis Stevenson stuff, and catch performances and discussions there throughout the event. There are so many things to see, one loses track, and while the night setting adds to the illusion of being out in the desert comuning with firewalkers and left hemisphere folk, it's a bit disorienting. My pictures don't say much, despite my foray into windlight, but you can bet the usual sites will be full of the best artwork -layers on layers of art - by the end of the week. We came across these strange towers, by ArtCrash Exonar - she has a desk-top freebie, like a sailing ship altho I suspect not really, it's called Needle me, on offer. And she also was wearing rocking hair from Damselfly. Gorgeous! But not free. If you like a sense of wonderment in a wide world, you'll love it here, just keep walking and, depending on your draw distance, one manifestation after another will pop up on the horizon. Helps the likes of me, though, to turn on the sun for a bit just to see where I'm going. Lots of men here, the occasional large woman, some of them burning, some not, there's a giant sandcastle, many builds with feathers and flowers that look like a giant shaman dropped them, others look like they are rusting away on the Red Planet, as you might expect, just about every persuasion of creation is represented here. In the end I stumbled on something I had actually been looking for - the Rubiky looking build you see here. It's *ArtEvolutionCube* by Kikka Igaly and Nessuno Myoo and it contains not the solutions to the world's peskiest toy, but rather a number of their works, each one deserves a special cam-in. All this and a whole lot more, live, vibrant and amazing. Bottom Line - Burning Life is HOT! I only truly realize how hot when I look at these photos by Merlino Mayo... wow I am blown away once again... I hope they inspire you to get out there, and take some of your own. Go soon before you miss it all!

*matter out of place = term for garbage at Burning Man.

Forse già conosci il festival statunitense Burning Man e quello virtuale Burning Life. Se non sei ancora passato a vedere di che si tratta, ti consiglio di andarci subito! Troppo bello! trentaquattro sim terraformati in maniera molto semplice, creando un deserto virtuale non dissimile a quello del deserto della Roccia Nera, in Nevada, dove una volta l'anno regnano la libertà di espressione e fiducia in se stesso... qui in SL invece regna la creatività scatenata di chi una volta tanto non deve stare a contare i prim! Il tema è l'uomo in fiamme, ma qui troverai anche la donna in fiamme, penne, totemi, le costole arruginite di navi spaziali come qui sopra, la pista da ballo Tokyo di DonPatchy Dagostino o la carapace di uno scorpione, il Berlin Stage, oppure una mongolfiera, sculture eleganti, aghi fontane fiori, qui una torre impossibile, lì uno schermo gigante, e dapperttutto, fiamme, fiamme...

Libeth Fairey ed io abbiamo adorato all'altare, il Cabaret of Flames di Poid Mahlovich - nella foto in fondo si intravede la scultura di Adam Ramona, anch'essa interattiva, ma in maniera completamente differente a quest'opera di Poid. Adam crea strutture che emettono suoni e si spostano con il vento o con l'intervento di un avatar, cresce, evolve e balla, le braccia sinuose dirette verso il cielo ma pronte a spostarsi con ogni movimento d'aria... a tutto questo bene si arriva passando per una tenda tonda dove non manca mai la musica e la possibilità di incontrare altri pellegrini alla ricerca di un po' di cultura innovativa, fantasiosa, e soprattutto su scala immensa. A Burning Life, si balla, si chiacchiera, ma lasciandosi dietro le piste e i DJ, si cammina, si vola da una meraviglia ad un'altra. Ci sono anche tantissimi freebies, alla sede-tenda del dipartimento d'arte, ma la dovrai trovare da solo, la tenda, o rivolgerti a un'altro... Non posso certo farvi vedere tutto ciò che ti aspetta a Burning Life, mi limito ad alcune opere che ho potuto vedere in questi giorni, e di darti questo link alle stupende foto di Merlino Mayo Qui vedi la scultura sonora Proud Flesh dell'artista australiano Adam Ramona (in Real Adam Nash), sembrano le papille di una lingua sconosciuta, e parlano se ci cammini in mezzo. Un fortissimo contrasto con l'arena a forma di scorpione accanto, quella struttura grigia nella foto, il Berlin Stage di Kazuhiro Aridian dove la festa non termina mai.

*ArtEvolutionCube* opera di Nessuno Myoo e Kikka Igaly mi piace moltissimo qui vedi Nessuno passato a controllare qualche script. Nella struttura, fatta un po come un cubodi Rubik, troverai varie sculture bellissime, non trascurarle. Burning Life quest'anno è un trionfo autentico grazie non solo alla direzione ispirata di White Lebed, e l'impegno del suo team, ma ancor di più alla fantasiosa creatività e alla bravura tecnica e alla dedizioni degli artisti che ci regalano emozioni e panorame veramente indimenticabili. Burning Life termina questo weekend, con a manifestazione Afterburn, non indugiare, questa mostra è da vedere, prima che ...vada in fumo!