In the loop

Lepidopterous largeness in the form of Under The Sky opened to much fanfare yesterday night on LEA17 .
The opening was organized by Zachh Cale for Japanese artist, Yooma Mayo, and featured Skye Galaxy which was pleasing from a punning point of view, even if his music always conjures the sensation of an imminent arrival at Lobby Level.

People like ants and ants vastly bigger than the people doing the usual loop-the-loop of Being There At An Event. There was considerable lag, but not the fault of the public, as I discovered today, when the sim was empty.

Above the piano party, it was all paleness and detail-oriented prettiness.
 In SL, flowers and butterflies have been done and done and done, (often in exquisite nanoprims, which is way harder to accomplish than this outsize extravaganza) and whole sim builds are now commonplace, so while it's a charming build, I was soon feeling antsy, and ready for a return visit to Wizard Gynoid's Klein Bottle.

Wizard Gynoid has loved Escher since High School. His pictures have been recreated in SL many times; Wizzy herself made a version of his Waterfall, and Stars, which you can still see at Primtings next to Solkide Auer's version of Relativity. - and yes, Primtings is still there. Guess everything is relative, after all.

The build at the Education Center on  sim Clive  borrows from Escher's Mobius ring, but conflates it with Felix Klein's concept of a 'bottle' imagined as two Mobius strips sewn together. 
It's a much-revisited concept, but maybe the paradox that most speaks to our virtual lives. We see and often feel close to other avatars and their remote controllers, and yet everyone's on their own endless loop, essentially separated from all the other ants. Permanent parallelism influences our sympathies and reactions in ways that the head-on collision of the real world would never permit. And vice versa.

Wizard Gynoid: Soon you'll be able to ride the ants. This way each one will march around their own little Mobius strip. By definition, the Klein bottle has no "inside" or "outside", so, if we were to walk around it, we would end up on the other side of it, then back on this side again. About a month ago, Miso Susanowa made an awesome video of my build - I love it!

Wizard Gynoid: When I was in high school, I saw Eacher's black light posters. I heard you could take drugs and travel into the posters. I tried to but was never able to! Here I can make 3D copies of his paintings, and fly into them - a dream finally comes true. Escher had mathematician friends who influenced him a lot. Math and geometry inspired him, particularly the unexplained paradoxes the things that make your head hurt to think about! I'm very thankful to Escher, and sometimes I think I'm channeling him. He would have a ball in SL.
There's more to see at Clive. Compare Wizzy's studio on the ground with RL photos, and you'll see that it is a lot like Escher's office, with the same toys and concepts floating around.
Wizard Gynoid: My things are an interpretation using the tools I have available here. The artist is always defined (notice, not  "limited") by the tools they have. Lately we've been talking about moving some of our stuff onto 3D webpages using Unity3D, so people could view the works without having to log in to SL or Open Sim. I want to put the Klein bottle on a 3D web page for the world to see!

Coriolis

It's a turning world. It's one of the first lessons you learn in Second Life, playing that strange game of wavelength catchup with people on the other side of the planet who are breakfasting when you're ready for a night on the town. Not to mention the phases of virtual existence, from the newly hopeful to the jaded and fading. In the global community, to be able to connect with others it becomes necessary to aim your conversation with these things in mind, sort of the way you aim your body when you grab a suitcase off the baggage carousel, so that you don't end up walking away with the pink polkadot carryall, which would be bad, because that one has my stuff in it.

Or contrariwise, the Coriolis effect.  Nothing pink and polka dotty in the frame of reference of Oberon Onmura's very masculine new installation Coriolis, in the sky high above TCC Island. Six months in the making, it contains many elements familiar to those who've visited other Onmura build, but this is far from a repetitious dramatic arc. This time, the apparent twist in the trajectories of moving objects - even the weather -  due to the turning of the earth is at the heart of the concept. You will also find notions of weight and propulsion, the cycles of creation and destruction, the phantom and the physical. Soon you become aware that what had at first seemed a fairly empty space is populated with discrete sensations. The opportunities to interact with the different elements - whether it's sitting inside the Ghost Mountain, obstructing the cube spiral, or riding a spouting prim -  draw you even deeper into the artwork.

A single aluminium chair lifts to a central column on a square, edgy, quartered plane. A flock of creatures, halfway between birds and paper planes, flies restlessly about the build and chairs, more chairs, suddenly appear, pale and plain, shifting and falling over. Sit on one and see what happens.

Like four seasons, each quadrant has its own mood, sounds, and effects, its own point of focus, from the fizzing white energy of the Moire to the violence of falling cubes and the spectral music of Xenakis in the Mountains, to the exuberance of the Yellow Geyser and the stately swarming singing prims of the Cooling Tower, which contains within a hidden message. Turning, each quadrant turns on the viewer, offering for a moment the optical illusion of seeing where we are in the world.

Coriolis opens tomorrow, September 15 at 1pm SLT with a concert by Zachh Cale.

Music in the Park

If you ever kindasorta feel guilty about 'wasting' time in SL, the cure is - go to a baseball game, and you'll suddenly feel your Second Life is a whirlwind of useful learning and productive experience. Me n my alt went to see the Hoos play the Tarheels, in front of a record crowd of four thousand; what can I say, there was a lot of lag, quite a bit of singing and swearing, and an infinity of broken peanut shells. Is it true, by the way, that boiled peanuts are good in coca-cola, or is that just one of those outrageous lies people tell? The game seemed to last several lifetimes. There was a twitchy pitcher, and a lot of foul balls, and one ball went out of the park and we heard it hit someone's car, which was when we were glad we walked. We were less glad when we had to walk home again. There was lots of shouting, and a certain amount of sunburn, grrrr gotta remember to put sunscreen on those shoulders...

Anyway the 'Hoos beat the Tarheels right at the end, in something involving a lot of running and bases and a homer apparently. I was not taking notes, but I did film a little, though not when they did the YMCA thing with their arms, which was actually the best bit, after the icecream.

After several non-refundable hours I was mercifully released from the grip of bball, and headed over to Two Fish where Rose Borchowski is hosting Oberon Onmura's new piece, Transition Zone. Pastel coloured panels rise from a platform, accompanied by soothing, magical music. You can watch them as they transition through space and shades, and if you touch one, it remembers your name and floats away...

An exquisite experience. I had SL hooked up to the plasma TV and stereo, to show a friend what it's all about, and there couldn't be a better way to introduce someone to the Life. Oberon's work simply beamed out of the screen, captivating us.
We then moved over to another big event this weekend, MayFair at the beautiful French Quarter. After the huge success of the Benefit concert for cypress Rosewood, (hope he's 100% drier these days, btw) which presented many of SL's topline musicians in half hour sets, Symbiotic's Votslav Hax and BobbiJo Johnson organized a piano sampler along the same lines, and it was wonderful.

The park setting for this piano concert in the French Quarter shows SL as a real-atable space, and  for a first-time visitor to Second Life, it made a superb contrast to Transition Zone. For some mysterious reason my inworld no-lag streak keeps going, so that made it all look twice as nice, but the MayFair event was really all about the sound, the amazing sound of almost a dozen different pianos, each saying the same thing in different accents. Mayfair kicked off  with the brilliant Zachh Cale, (in the photo at the top of this post)  grr because of the baseball I missed him at the  French Quarter but I caught him singing Cole Porter in a marked manner over at the Mango Yacht Club - what a voice, I love it. The MayFair lineup included some great musicians I'd not heard play before, like Kyle Beltran,  Horatio Allen and Thwip Zifer  seen here at his distinctive blue piano, they all rocked.
Ankhari Holder, Phoe Nix, Bluemonk Rau and Hathead Rickenbacker followed each other almost seamlessly. Each half-hour set was filled with a different energy, and the changing styles and voices made my friend ask - why did you not show me this before? Cylindrian Rutabaga ended the event with great charm, but I have to say it was Tip Corbett's bravura performance that swept us away, that huge piano sound filling the whole house. I may have to move into the metaverse permanently; surrounded by all this talent, one can't help joining in with that song - "I don't care if I never get back..."

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!

Scripted weekender

Imagine a thousand cubes, each reacting to SL clouds directly overhead, getting lighter and higher as the cloud density increases, creating a dynamic multidimensional map of our random sky, softly mutating with the movement of light and shade. If you imagined it, good! but you're too late to invent it, which, on the whole is also good, because you can effortlessly go and enjoy the excellence of Storm Cells by Oberon Onmura showing at project Z on sim Cetus.

Storm Cells is interactive, you can fly around on a vehicle, hang out on the central platform, or go for a wander in flight or on foot. If you stand on any one of the cells for a bit, they adopt your name so folks will know you passed this way. Like a lot of big art, you need to give this time, it's a good place to stand and chat, hum, or think while camming out to a vast horizon, and allowing the weather to overtake you. More Zachh, he is playing his piano at Solace Beach at 3 pm SLT where there is also a "Live Music Treasure Hunt! And no, I have no clue what that means, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go and find out. See you there!
Also on Saturday,at noon SLT, Good music and a good cause, with a French accent: at the Monet sim Giverny . Soleil Snook let me know about this wonderful-sounding classical baroque concert! Swiss duo Tom Dowd and Françoise Pronguét will be performing 15th Century music, streamed inworld in aid of the Pancreatic Cancer Reasearch Fund UK, so another for your weekend calendar, at trip over to the Bistro Le Chat on sim Giverny.

Fun Guy

Phewww! Zachh Cale invited me over to project Z for a preview of a new installation mushROOM, by Scottius Polke. The stinky sock knocked me out right away!

It will be opening to the public tomorrow Nov 1st at 1PM SLT
Scottius hand drew all the textures in the room from Housekeeper's Hell, where you're grateful smellivision is still a thing of the future. It's a giant bedroom with a sense of humour, an interactive trip through, as the notecard says, "the artist's subconscious - which manifests itself in life forms such as mushrooms, molds, amoebas, and other unclassifiable organisms. The bedroom is a fitting location for these life forms that slowly creep and wander, just like the images and feelings our subconcious may conjure when dreaming in our beds.

Their impact can be quite lasting into the "real" world of the concious." ...Bottom line, you can jump on the bed, study the funky plants, swim with the amoebas, climb on the desk and take a look at the witty books on the shelves (he may be unsanitary, but at least he is literary). You can sit on the rocking chair and feel very small, and of course pose on the rank-looking sock and be bothered by the trash that is scattered on the rug... there are things living under the bed too, I think they are evolved from leftover pizza. Just leave your Lysol spray at home, you don't want to ruin the ambience.

Seriously though, Scottius is a proper artist, quite newly arrived in SL. He cites Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Cornell (oo I like his Medici Boy) and the Catalan artist Anton Tàpies among the artists that have influenced him.
His art career began as a child with drawings and a strong interest in dioramas, and discovered collage in college, (OK he calls it 'assemblage', but that's not alliterative enough for me: we're talking "various found objects such as toys, computer and mechanical parts, jewelry, clippings, fabric, ink, paint, wood and paper.

There is often a build-up of material that results in an organic feel, in contrast to the metal and plastic objects within. ") Under the whimsy, the tension between opposing moods and mores comes into play; all is not as it seems, or indeed smells. While I'm here, Don't forget the ongoing Japanese Jazz and Art Festival here at sim Cetus. Room two is full of art by the likes of miyuki Alter, Kerupa Flow, Saneharu Yoshikawa, edaeda Mistwallow, yos Kamm, kazue Voom.

TP over before the fun is done!

bi-cycles

Rolling Shuffle, artist, photographer and musician, recently in SL but you'd never guess it, showed me some Loopy Love last night...
No, not kissing and telling - as if !!
We went to see - or rather accepted the invitation to "Come loop yourself silly in the 7 stages of LoopyLove." by Maya Paris (that's her blog link) at Project Z on sim Cetus, which is, well, look for yourself... mmm machinima!
Yes, Project Z is owned and run by musician and composer Zachh Cale - who also has an upcoming Jazz Festival, from 17/OCT-14/NOV 2009:

日本語の案内は後半になります。
Jazz & Art Festival 2009

Top SL Jazz musicians perform at 10 unique venues,

and 6 individual Japanese artists exhibit their work

with beautiful Jazz Music! Greatest ever musical event in SL Japan!

On Zachh's profile, these two pearls of wisdom, just thought I'd pass them along...

When you fully commit,

the universe conspires to assist you.
If something feels wrong, listen deeply without prejudice:

suffering is resistance to what is.

A girl can never have too many pearls. So these are some of the stages of loopy love, the fireworks bit, the dreamy bit, the jiggly bit, the wondering and talking and not talking bit. I am not sure at what stage your eyes pop out on stalks, maybe I'm doing it wrong... comments always welcome... You tp in to the gallery, it's important to read the notecard and remember turn off your A/O and music, and to wear the helmets provided for each room

not simply beacuse they allow you to hear the ...odd sounds and to be part of the animation of the spheres, but also because you get to look really funny wearing a cone-head hat. The sounds loop, the rooms loop, the animations loop, the cycle of rooms loops too, and you've that feeling, of having been here before, somehow. There is a funky offbeat slightly hysterical feel to the place, every sphere is a champagne bubble of emotions, some giddy some more reflective, some just slightly worrying. But in the end you float to the top, ready to go again. The colours are gorgeous and I am probably missing a lot with my usual woes, so as ever I recommend you go and see this for yourself... take a friend, of course.

So the other cycle, because I know you read the title and are wondering, is the Four Seasons exhibit at Tanalois, Gemini Isle, the Italian Art sim owned by my good friends Tani Thor and Aloisio Congrejo. Tani has just redone the whole land, and the results are spectacular. to celebrate the 'rebirth' of the island, they've a show with 20 artists divided into four seasonal areas, including Maryva Mayo, Shellina Winkler, Gleman Jun to name but three. There's too much to say about each of the artists to fit in this post, (apologies to those who didn't get a mention) but here are some of my faves... do TP over to see them properly, and show your Linden Love.

This is yer classic Italian Summer, Lion Igaly's people on the beach, ermm mummy why are those two people fighting ah happy days... interestingly, there is a bicycle in this picture... Builder Tani Thor has made four harmonious and complementary areas, it's a delight to go walking across the sim, and absorb the art along the way.

... and here next to his painting we have artist GIOBY Later with his very lovely girl Lauretta76 Carling - what's that, a proposal, Gio? Well, it is springtime at Tanalois... and there's an African summer feel to Zhora Maynard 's striking sculpture. I absolutely love the colours and the setting couldn't be better. I keep meaning to go to see Zhora's studio, so seeing her work here was an excellent reminder.
But my Best Bit award goes to the brilliant Nessuno Myoo. The classical subject matter, the delicacy of lines and the cleverness of perspectives leaving the whole work counterbalanced somewhere between two and three dimensions is so perfectly nuanced, you must check it out in person. TP to the 4 seasons show at Tanalois, you'll be glad you did.

... E no, ogg nn lo riscrivo... penso che le foto parlano da sé e cmq ti fa bene, ogni tanto, lottare con l'inglese. Dico solo che Nessuno Myoo è eccezionale, questo vale in qualsiasi lingua.