I am

Jung describes in his memoirs how, as a child he sat on a rock and felt a certain ambiguity. Was he the rock with the child sitting on him or the child sitting on the rock?

Obviously this is quite an unusual philosophical query to pose as a small child, but then he was an unusual child.

This came to me the other day when I was visiting Wizzy’s Klein bottle, of which Wikipedia says..
“the Klein bottle is a non-orientable surface, informally, a surface (a two-dimensional manifold) with no identifiable "inner" and "outer" sides. Other related non-orientable objects include the Möbius strip and the real projective plane. Whereas a Möbius strip is a two-dimensional surface with boundary, a Klein bottle has no boundary.”

...and there’s a diagram here....

Now, because of the wonders of SL and Wizzy’s brain you can actually go and stand in the Klein Bottle. Examining one small section of the structure, and ignoring the wholeness, you can state categorically that you are inside....... however, viewing the structure in its entirety that belief is shaken.

This brings me back to the childhood question of Jung, and, if you wonder where I am going with this thought process, to the dilemma of Typist and Avatar..... who am I?

Humans have, as far as we know, the unique ability to concentrate our attention to such an extent that, for example, on a crowded train, reading a book, we can ‘be’ in ‘a different world’. Currently we have been calling this experience immersion, others call it ‘presence’.

There are two ways of approaching this.
Our way of thinking is governed by the culture we grew up in. The way we think, our logical standpoint, is a fairly recent thing. For centuries the idea that the sun rose in the East and set in the West was accepted as the truth, this is an example of a world view based on a subjective reality (an example of ‘Realism’, a subject-based thought process) whereas now we all agree that the Earth spins, (a ‘Nominalist’, or ‘objective’ thought process), giving the previous idea the status of illusion.

‘Objective’ truth, an extremely controversial concept in some circles, is now held to be the Real Truth in this culture. Subjective reality is currently ‘out of fashion’ in many ways, ‘subjective’ being synonymous with ‘opinion’ and tinged with implications of emotionality, uniqueness and fallibility.

Culturally approved, this type of objective, Nominalist thinking is what formulates the views of those people who state, in no uncertain terms, that they are a human typist and they have an avatar in a virtual world.... end of....

However, it is normal, in spite of ‘objective truth’ to say that you saw the sun rise, or, looking up from your book on the train to say “sorry, I was miles away” without fear of ridicule.

Why?

Well, I think it is because the subjective reality of the experience is stronger than the objective truth and, importantly, so common as an experience that everyone knows what you mean.

At times of 100% immersion in SL I am soror Nishi and I have an insignificant typist in a virtual world.

The question of the boy on the rock, then, looks like this.... I am where my focus, my concentrated experience, is directed. I experience myself as being at that projected centre.

...and the Klein bottle?.... Well, someone said that the sign of a great mind is the ability to hold to conflicting ideas simultaneously without judging either, and, Zen uses exactly this technique to quieten the intellectual ramblings of the brain. The question of ‘either/or’ is wrong, I believe, duality being the source of all delusion...

....for I am both rock and child.

:))

etshirts.com

Well, a while back I won a part of the monthly competition at UWA, namely, for best textures, and, as part of their ongoing sponsorship of the arts, UWA in conjunction with etshirts awarded me the prize of a t-shirt printed with one of my own designs.

I chose this one, from a painting I did before I discovered SL, it's called The Glade.




Well, my t-shirt arrived, having been hijacked, I believe by rogue kangaroos who stole the post van, parked up for a month while they drank the postie's tinnies by the side of a billabong before their little marsupial consciences got the better of them and they handed themselves in to the nearest police outpost.

Post is like that, little eddies in the main stream of postal flow sometimes capture the flotsam of our communications and delay it somewhat.... still such a nice surprise when it does arrive. I had a friend who got a post card 8 years after it was posted.

Anyway... this is the RL thing, hanging under the RL painting (for sale..)

If you like it enough to get a copy... you can talk to the nice people at etshirts... here.. and they will make you a soror Nishi T-shirt..... or, one of your own designs.

Now, the more observant among you may notice that it is far too large for my svelte little form, but that's because I am planning on wearing it as bed attire. Not wishing to be a tease, I don't want you to think that is all I wear in bed. I also wear a lunghi (an Indian sarong, worn by about a billion people on the Sub-continent), and bedsocks. They come off when I warm up, the socks that is.

Now, I can feel a small rant coming on against the terribly poor choice available in the shops of cutsie pajamas with teddy bears, fluffy cats and pink hearts, which, in my opinion should never be seen on anyone over the age of 12 and even that may be too old. So...now that is all too much information and may have lowered the tone of this (occasionally) intellectually stimulating blog, but ...well.. [/me thinks of a way to finish this sentence, but gives up as it's Friday and reaches for the glass of wine instead.]

oh yes... thankyou to etshirts....

:))

How to be a Wizard

Many thanks to White for this transcript..... Wizzy did say to me that there are a few bits missing, I don't know, I just publish and be damned.....I'm sure if you have an serious, or silly, questions, then you can talk to the Wizard....

So....for those of you/us who missed the talk..


--- Wizard Gynoid: Precision Art Sculpture -----------------
Class transcript

The class took place February 22nd, 2010 at 6pm on the platform above the Burning Life Afterburn Art Project plot.
Wizard Gynoid prepared a display of various math sculptures to illustrate her lecture material. You can see some pictures of what was shown here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/white_lebed/sets/72157623480682604/
Also Wizard brought very useful free building tools which she was using to create her sculptures - various rezzers and scripts.
Those will be available till March 1st here
Go grab them while you can!

-----------------------------------------------

[18:02] White Lebed: Hello, Everybody! Welcome to another session of Burniversity. Many of you have admired Wizard Gynoid's perfect math sculptures but never knew how she could make them. Today we will have a chance to learn a few secrets and find out more about one of the most interesting art styles - math art. Please, wellcome - Wizard Gynoid!
[18:02] Benski Korhonen: Clapping!
[18:02] Wizard Gynoid: yay
[18:02] Corcosman Voom applauds
[18:02] Tomkin Euler: Yay!
[18:02] Miso Susanowa: can we use calculators?
[18:02] Nickola Martynov: claps
[18:02] White Lebed: from this point point the chat log will be recorded for publishing
[18:02] Scottius Polke: Applause!!!
[18:02] Scottius Polke: Applause!!
[18:03] Wizard Gynoid: I have quite a few of my own objects scattered around here, some with VERY high prim counts.
[18:03] Wizard Gynoid: If you are having a hard time with lag and it's taking a while to rez everything, you have the option of setting your draw distance down to the minimum and your computer won't have to work so hard to render them.
[18:04] Wizard Gynoid: I'm about to get chatty about my own passion in Second Life, that is to say building precise artistic sculptures from geometric objects.
[18:04] Wizard Gynoid: Have you ever seen Scope Cleaver's architectural builds?
[18:04] Tomkin Euler: Nay..
[18:04] Corcosman Voom: Yes
[18:04] Wizard Gynoid: Scope's impressive non-linear architecture has been featured at Burning Life and on the Princeton sims and elsewhere.
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: Have you had the pleasure of seeing Seifert Surface's mathematical objects?
[18:05] Corcosman Voom: Yes
[18:05] Tomkin Euler: yep..
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: If not, check them out on his sim “xyz”.
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: Have you seen the big perfect geodesic domes at Burning Life?
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: Have you wondered how these things were built?
[18:06] Wizard Gynoid: Perhaps you have tried to build simple geometrical objects, using nothing more than the Second Life viewer UI (User Interface) and more specifically, the Object Editer.
[18:06] Wizard Gynoid: Have you tried to make things like this?
[18:06] 3d2 Pintens: o yes
[18:06] Corcosman Voom: Yes
[18:06] Tomkin Euler: yes..
[18:06] Nickola Martynov nods
[18:07] Tomkin Euler: well, no, actually..
[18:07] Nickola Martynov: the operative word is 'tried'
[18:07] Wizard Gynoid: Or these:
[18:08] Wizard Gynoid: If you have tried to make objects like this by hand, like I have, then you know how difficult it is.
[18:08] Wizard Gynoid: First of all, you have to have incredible patience.
[18:08] Wizard Gynoid: You have to have a basic knowledge of plane geometry.
[18:09] Wizard Gynoid: You have to be able to calculate angles, and determine the placement of x number of faces.
[18:09] Wizard Gynoid: You have to create the faces and place them in the proper location, with the proper “rotation.”
[18:10] Wizard Gynoid: A Dodecahedron
[18:10] Wizard Gynoid: This is not a trivial task, to say the least.
[18:10] Wizard Gynoid: How do you make that pentagon face? And how do you place 12 of them in perfect alignment and rotation?
[18:11] Wizard Gynoid: Once you've spent countless hours struggling to build these objects by hand, then you would no doubt gladly accept the help that scripted rezzers can give you.
[18:11] Corcosman Voom: Indeed
[18:11] Wizard Gynoid: I'm going to chat about some of those tools and how they can be used by artists to create sculpture.
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: This is Nand Nerd's Radial Noob Rezzer.
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: Nand Nerd is one of Second Life's best geometric scripters.
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: #rez
[18:12] Tomkin Euler: woo hoo..
[18:12] 3d2 Pintens: ooooo
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: I'm just demonstrating a simple geometric rezzer here.
[18:12] Nickola Martynov: wow
[18:13] Wizard Gynoid: delete
[18:13] Wizard Gynoid: Nand once rezzed a 256 meter, sim-sized 6,000 prim sphere. I've seen pictures.
[18:14] Oberon Onmura: Does Nand make that available to artists?
[18:14] Wizard Gynoid: you can ask him oberon.
[18:14] Oberon Onmura: nice
[18:14] Wizard Gynoid: Cadroe Murphy is one of SL's oldest geometric scripters. He has a couple of helpful rezzers that have been around for a while.
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Sides: 8.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Radius: 4.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Height: 1.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Hollow: 0.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Z Offset: 0.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Mode: Ring
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Color: <0.00000, 0.00000, 0.00000>
[18:15] Wizard Gynoid: This is Ring Maker.
[18:15] Wizard Gynoid: Ring Maker will rez objects in a perfect ring, hence the name.
[18:16] Tomkin Euler: huh..
[18:16] Wizard Gynoid: Ring Maker is a freebie tool and is over there with my buddy Philip Linden.
[18:17] White Lebed: many of those rezzers are available on xstreet for minimal fee or free - they are very easy to find, you just need to know what to look for
[18:17] Oberon Onmura: I've played with it a bit
[18:17] Wizard Gynoid: i have a bunch of these rezzers available for free next to Philip Linden over there
[18:17] Wizard Gynoid: The Cadroe Lathe is above my head.
[18:18] Wizard Gynoid: Watch this basic object being rezzed.
[18:19] Tomkin Euler: Goo...
[18:19] Wizard Gynoid: lag doesn't seem to be too bad
[18:19] Wizard Gynoid: knock on prim
[18:19] Corcosman Voom: famous last words
[18:19] Corcosman Voom: : )
[18:20] Romper Lohner: ty for the tools Wizard
[18:20] Wizard Gynoid: The Cadroe Lathe is only $500L, and can be found here: http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=56642
[18:20] Wizard Gynoid: btw, i don't have a deal with cadroe. hehe
[18:21] Wizard Gynoid: The Cadroe Lathe is only $500L, and can be found here: http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=56642
[18:21] Wizard Gynoid: Cadroe made a more sophisticated rezzer, called the Shape Maker. That is above my head, and above the Lathe.
[18:21] Oberon Onmura: wizard - do you drop the object to be rezzed into the lathe?
[18:22] Wizard Gynoid: no, you define what you want to rez with the settings
[18:22] Wizard Gynoid: Watch as I rez a torus with it.
[18:22] Oberon Onmura: I mean, the pieces out of which the object is made ...
[18:22] Wizard Gynoid: i love this part
[18:23] Wizard Gynoid: Any Comments or Questions while that is rezzing?
[18:23] Romper Lohner: !how many prims when done/
[18:23] Oberon Onmura: I'd want to use prescripted units
[18:23] Tomkin Euler: it's like vacuum deposition.. spitting chemicals onto silicon wafers..
[18:24] Wizard Gynoid: the number of prims depends on the settings you define
[18:24] Wizard Gynoid: a sim-sized sphere can be 6000 prims
[18:24] Wizard Gynoid: i think i might have the record with my 6,672 E8. ;-)
[18:25] Takni Miklos: whats an ee ate?
[18:25] Wizard Gynoid: you try sculpties. that saves prims. but this lecture isn't about sculpties
[18:25] Areal Loonie: will any just move pre-existing prims? or do they all rez new prims?
[18:26] Wizard Gynoid: they rez new prims
[18:26] Corcosman Voom: You've done some things on Reaction Grid....I presume all your scripts worked there?
[18:26] Wizard Gynoid: i've tried doing sculpties, but so far they don't turn me on.
[18:26] Wizard Gynoid: most scripts work on Raction Grid, open sim, with a few minor fixes
[18:26] Tomkin Euler: for an instant, it's a 'shroom..
[18:27] Romper Lohner: it would make a good mold for sculpty creation "note' to self
[18:27] Wizard Gynoid: The Shape Maker is a freebie and I've put it over by Philip Linden there for you to pounce on.
[18:28] Wizard Gynoid: that worked pretty well.
[18:28] Wizard Gynoid: Seifert Surface has made a few sophisticated rezzers.
[18:28] Wizard Gynoid: two of them are here
[18:28] Oberon Onmura: is there a set menu of shapes? or is it open-ended?
[18:29] Wizard Gynoid: seifert's torus and tapering torus rezzers
[18:29] Wizard Gynoid: ha i didn't know seifert was here.
[18:29] Wizard Gynoid: yaya
[18:30] Wizard Gynoid: ok, so let's demonstrate seiferts torus rezzers
[18:30] White Lebed: those tools are pretty useful for architectural builds - and as you know the 2010 Burning Life theme is Metropolis :)
[18:30] Wizard Gynoid: it's a bit laggy but they seem to be working
[18:32] Wizard Gynoid: now, i like these because you can scale them. you can take pieces and use them in sculpture
[18:32] Wizard Gynoid: scope uses these i think in his architectural builds
[18:33] Wizard Gynoid: the tapering is finishing up
[18:33] Wizard Gynoid: Pieces of these shapes can be used in bigger sculptures.
[18:34] Wizard Gynoid: seifert has very graciously made these available to this class.
[18:34] Corcosman Voom: Three cheers for Seifert : )
[18:34] Oberon Onmura: :-)
[18:34] Sabrinaa Nightfire: thank you, Seifert
[18:34] Wizard Gynoid: This is Seifert's Parametric Surface Rezzer
[18:35] Corcosman Voom: Hehe
[18:36] Oberon Onmura: Seifert - are these Mono scripted?
[18:36] Oberon Onmura: just thinking about the Mono rezzing bug
[18:37] Wizard Gynoid: i love this parametric
[18:37] Oberon Onmura: hehe
[18:38] Wizard Gynoid: All of these rezzers have scripts and settings that can be tweaked to create great non-linear shapes, that can be made into sculptures.
[18:38] Wizard Gynoid: You can go directly into the scripts and change settings, or you can read the README files in the Contents for instructions.
[18:38] Wizard Gynoid: These shape rezzers are the virtual painter's brush, the virtual sculptor's chisel...
[18:38] Takni Miklos: and where do we find those rezzers and scripts?
[18:39] Wizard Gynoid: Now, there are other kinds of tools, other kinds of rezzers.
[18:39] Wizard Gynoid: Perhaps you've seen the rezzers that will rez the major stars in the immediate vicinity around the Earth, or the rezzers that will rez a molecule.
[18:39] Tomkin Euler: I've seen lots of graphs.. stock values..
[18:39] Wizard Gynoid: These rezzers are creating spheres at defined points in a grid around the rezzer.
[18:40] Wizard Gynoid: I would demonstrate but that would be messy here.
[18:40] Wizard Gynoid: And for good demonstration purposes we need to have a convenient “kill/die” command to aid in easy cleanup.
[18:40] Wizard Gynoid: Some of these rezzers have one, but most don't, so you have to delete by hand. And that would be difficult here.
[18:41] Explorer Dastardly: all the old hippies can make a geodesic dome, lol..
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: Around us I have placed some examples of what I think are some of my best creations.
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: Most of these were built with a rezzer that first identifies the points where those spheres go.
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: These are called the “vertices.”
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: The rezzer reads the positions (the coordinates) of the vertices from a notecard, and then places a sphere on that point.
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: Various mathematical formulas can be used to determine these vertice points.
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: The software program Mathematica has been helpful to calculate the vertices of some of these objects.
[18:42] Oberon Onmura: how do the coords get onto the notecard?
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: cut and paste oberon
[18:42] Oberon Onmura: hmm
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: The next step is to “connect the dots.”
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: How do we do that?
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: We do that with a script that sends “intelligent” struts out to connect a pair of vertices.
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: The strut is “intelligent” because it contains a script inside it.
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: A notecard identifies the vertex pairs, and a script inside the rezzed strut shapes, orients, rotates and sizes the strut to fit between the two vertice points.
[18:43] Oberon Onmura: cool
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: Some of these rezzers are based on work by Lionel Forager and Catherine Omega Heavy Industries.
[18:44] Wizard Gynoid: An example of this can be found here: http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=LibraryBezierCurveDemo
[18:44] Tomkin Euler: handy.. I have always wanted a board stretcher in firstLife..
[18:44] Wizard Gynoid: My own work has been largely dependent on the scripting genius of Desdemona Enfield.
[18:44] Wizard Gynoid: With a rezzer of this kind, we can draw “lines” between points.
[18:45] Wizard Gynoid: Desdemona has been generous enough to make one of these rezzers available to the public domain.
[18:45] Wizard Gynoid: And I will demonstrate it here and now.
[18:45] projection - v1a: By your command: version=28Aug08, free=7301
[18:46] projection - v1a: rezzing 27 points
[18:46] projection - v1a: rezzing 216 lines
[18:46] Wizard Gynoid: This particular objects starts with 27 point/vertices.
[18:46] Nickola Martynov: oooo
[18:46] Wizard Gynoid: The script then connects the 27 points with 216 line segments, for a total prim count of 243.
[18:46] Wizard Gynoid: Note that the finished object is not a linked set.
[18:47] Merlin Gray: and to thing we used to have to use toothpicks and a ton of glue
[18:47] Wizard Gynoid: This is similar to the technique I used to rez my 6,672 prim E8 Polytope – vertices connected by edge lines, an earlier example of which is displayed close by to the West, just across the sim line.
[18:47] Wizard Gynoid: Next to that E8 is a 2,889 prim Klein Bottle. The same basic principles were used – vertices connected by edge lines.
[18:47] projection - v1a: lengths in mm: [1236, 1070, 1902, 2000]
[18:47] projection - v1a: counts of lengths: [60, 60, 36, 60]
[18:47] projection - v1a: By your command: version=28Aug08, free=7301
[18:48] White Lebed: I guess we need another class - how to find 6000+ prims in SL to play with
[18:48] Wizard Gynoid: The script to rez the Klein Bottle is open source and available here: http://zonjacapalini.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/2889-working-with-very-large-linksets-in-opensim/
[18:48] Wizard Gynoid: Desdemona's rezzer is also available free of charge over there by my friend, Philip Linden.
[18:48] Oberon Onmura: the link limit is what? 256 prims?
[18:48] Corcosman Voom: How To Cozy Up To Sim Owners, White
[18:48] Wizard Gynoid: true oberon. altho not true in open simulator.
[18:48] Oberon Onmura: aha
[18:48] Sabrinaa Nightfire: lol
[18:49] Wizard Gynoid: i have linked this 2889 prim object into one object on Reaction Grid.
[18:49] Oberon Onmura: cool
[18:49] Wizard Gynoid: Questions before I move on?
[18:49] Wizard Gynoid: ha, sure way to crash a sim free
[18:50] Wizard Gynoid: For artistic purposes, sometimes we like to create textures on the surfaces of the faces of these geometric objects.
[18:50] Wizard Gynoid: These textures can be animated, so the entire sculpture comes alive.
[18:50] Wizard Gynoid: An example of a great SL artist who uses this technique is my friend Glyph Graves.
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: Glyph likes to create geometric objects and then applies animated textures to the surfaces, with lots of alpha (transparency).
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: Let's take this one step further.
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: We already have a rezzer that creates wireframe sculptures.
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: What if I want to apply FACES to the wireframe?
[18:52] poly projector - v4g: [0]: By your command: version=3Dec09
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: Check this out:
[18:53] poly projector - v4g: [1]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: vertices
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: Note that this rezzer is rezzing the vertices, then connecting the dots with lines.
[18:53] poly projector - v4g: [2]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: edges
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: However, it goes one step further and places FACES between the vertices.
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: In effect, we have made the wire frame sculpture into a solid object.
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: or a skinned object
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: rather
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: Note that we are creating both triangle and square FACES.
[18:54] poly projector - v4g: [3]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: triangle faces
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: Faces like this can be difficult to animate textures on, but it can be done.
[18:54] poly projector - v4g: [4]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: quadrilateral faces
[18:55] poly projector - v4g: [5]: done
[18:55] Wizard Gynoid: yay that worked
[18:55] Nickola Martynov: bravo
[18:55] Wizard Gynoid: that's desdemona's masterpiece script
[18:55] Corcosman Voom: Interesting that it does the quadrilateral faces with triangles also
[18:56] Wizard Gynoid: Are there any Questions? I have two.
[18:56] Wizard Gynoid: Are these geometric constructions of mine Art?
[18:56] Oberon Onmura: so ... you'll texture each face individually?
[18:56] Wizard Gynoid: What do you think?
[18:57] Wizard Gynoid: God is a geometer
[18:57] Nickola Martynov: Well...it could be argued that this is just engineering
[18:57] Corcosman Voom: : )
[18:58] Merlin Gray: ....and then it could be argued that engineering is an art form by the broadest definition
[18:58] Romper Lohner: DNA is geometrical as well, beauty to the eye of those that can see it
[18:58] Nickola Martynov: ART!!!!
[18:59] Merlin Gray: DidnNickola..lol
[18:59] Wizard Gynoid: thank you very much for your kind attention.
[18:59] Wizard Gynoid: SOCK!!!!!!!
[18:59] Merlin Gray: ***** APPPPPPPLLLLAAAUUUSSSSEEEEEEE***********
[18:59] Corcosman Voom: Thank you, Wizrd. Great presentation
[18:59] White Lebed: thank you Wizzy!
[18:59] Oberon Onmura: yay wizard!
[18:59] Nickola Martynov: thank you Wizard
[18:59] Wizard Gynoid: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:00] Merlin Gray: I was in a conversation about making Polys when your notecard came out last week..thanks for this
[19:00] Wizard Gynoid: your very welcome. i had fun.
[19:00] Nickola Martynov: Was the surface rezzer one of the freebies?
[19:00] Tomkin Euler: Whee!
[19:00] White Lebed: one more tool in your art box :) go make something amazing!
[19:00] 3d2 Pintens: where's phillip?
[19:01] Wizard Gynoid: philip is free too, but you have to go find him.
[19:01] Romper Lohner: ty wizard
[19:01] Feathers Boa: philip linden is my love child
[19:01] Sabrinaa Nightfire: thanks, Wizzy
[19:01] Miso Susanowa: "Art is not eternal, boys" - Ken Kesey
[19:01] White Lebed: after this difficult class do we deserve a recess?
[19:01] SciFiSancy Chaplynski: Thank you Wizard:)
[19:02] Lampoon Destiny: are you accepting 'tippage'?
[19:02] FreeWee Ling: I'll volunteer to be the final arbiter of what is art. Just show it to me and I'll tell you ;)
[19:02] White Lebed: during March - no classes! we will have the Porta Potty grand show
[19:02] Miso Susanowa: do we get extra credit for this one White?
[19:02] White Lebed: yes, Miso
[19:02] White Lebed: if you make a Klein bottle
[19:02] Wizard Gynoid: i'm amazed i didn't crash
[19:02] White Lebed: and fill it with something tasty
[19:03] White Lebed: no, we went well
[19:03] Feathers Boa: okies everyone
[19:03] Miso Susanowa: yes lets have a round of applause for the sim not crashing!
[19:03] Feathers Boa: have fun and stuff
[19:03] Miso Susanowa: YAY!
[19:03] Miso Susanowa: *claps!!!!*
[19:03] Corcosman Voom: I keep hoping somethng from all tese braIny folks will sink in by osmosis
[19:03] White Lebed: thank you again, guys for wearing light stuff
[19:03] Nickola Martynov: ・*゜*APPLAUSE*゜*・
[19:03] Feathers Boa: i am outta here!
[19:03] Mab MacMoragh: ♪♫♥ Applauds!!! ♥♫♪
[19:03] Tomkin Euler: fun on a bun...
[19:03] Feathers Boa blows kisses around the room
[19:03] Wizard Gynoid: bye feathers
[19:03] Nickola Martynov: Was the parametric surface rezzer included in the scripts?
[19:04] Wizard Gynoid: i think it was yes nickola
[19:04] White Lebed: someone had questions for Seifert?
[19:04] Nickola Martynov: I don't see it over there :-(
[19:04] Miso Susanowa: ack Waya got off my feet :(
[19:05] Miso Susanowa: *puts socks back on*
[19:05] Tomkin Euler: it was there when I walked over...
[19:05] Scottius Polke: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:05] Miso Susanowa: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:05] Waya Sion: lol
[19:05] Scarp Godenot: I think it must be some secret language they have going.....
[19:05] White Lebed: waya behave
[19:05] Scottius Polke: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:05] DeadheadDMT Infinity: I was multitasking all the way through... I will have to read the chat history later to see what programs you used
[19:06] Scarp Godenot dodges the sock
[19:06] Kazuhiro Aridian: sock?
[19:06] Miso Susanowa: i saw it, but it disappeared, maybe it was "bought" as a original
[19:06] White Lebed: I think the kids ARE ready for a recess
[19:06] Kazuhiro Aridian: lawl
[19:06] White Lebed: looks like overheat from all this info
[19:06] Tomkin Euler: Hi, Seifert.. what were the functions?
[19:06] Miso Susanowa: Scarp: if you can dodge a sock, you can dodge a ball.
[19:06] Scarp Godenot: heh
[19:06] Tomkin Euler: sin(x=y) maybe?
[19:06] Seifert Surface: oh
[19:07] Miso Susanowa: let x =... x
[19:07] Tomkin Euler: (x+y), rather..
[19:07] Seifert Surface: i think its sin(x+y)
[19:07] White Lebed: Wizzy, can you leave the rezzers here till the end of Feb?
[19:07] Wizard Gynoid: i hope someone took pictures
[19:07] Waya Sion: if there's a recess, whats the next class?
[19:07] Waya Sion: lol
[19:07] Kazuhiro Aridian: do we get cookies?
[19:07] Miso Susanowa: the class of all classes that is not part of the given class, of course
[19:07] quadrapop Lane: I diod wiz - still am :)
[19:07] Tomkin Euler: Rocking..
[19:07] White Lebed: I will publish the transcript and some people might want to come and get those
[19:07] Wizard Gynoid: ✿⁂✿¨*:•.•:*''* KIMBA *''*:•.•:*¨✿⁂✿

---------------------------------------------------------
You can find transcripts from other classes on the Transcript Board
􀀁
just click on the boxes - they have notecards.
Also I send all the transcripts to the subscribers of the Afterburn Art Program list. You can join it by clicking on the kiosk right next to the board.

-------------------

White Lebed - the Burning Life Art Department Lead; the Curator of Afterburn Art Program
white.lebed@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/white_lebed

....end of transcript.....

.....of course, having the tools helps...but you need a Wizzy brain too...

:))

Koinup.... wallpapers

This is well worth considering for those of you with a photographic talent....

Koinup is launching a wallpaper feature....the details are here, so maybe you wanna take a look.

It's gonna be an app for Nokia phones and looks like being a bit of fun...

and...

..a Koinup app for AU, seems to be a photo sharing thingy. Cool, I think..... Details ...here.

:))

Sponsor

Well, I liked the look of the new viewer but it wouldn't open on my machine... so... I checked system requirements, and my poor old lappy meets those. Well, not. Anyway, maybe it's for the best, tho I did quite like the look of it in the demo on uTube. You can download here.

...and there's a uTube vid too....here.... a tutorial.

So, as long as you don't have a non Intel Mac....(lol)..... go try it.

Now, it also seems that there is news on the art front... LL has decided to support the arts. Now, if it wasn't 6/7 years behind in this announcement I would be somewhat more ecstatic than I am, but I am very glad that the penny has finally dropped.

I have, in previous posts, stated my opinion that Blue Mars and all the competition under the virtual sun will never be able to offer what SL offers .. because of the huge weight of creative talent that has gone into building this environment by builders, designers and artists over the years.

You would think that would be obvious, but, just recently, I, and many others of course, was offered the possibility of attending a conference IN WORLD for 150US$ so I could listen to builders talk about their work. Now, excuse me but isn't that something you would offer FREE if you wanted to promote good building and design. (I know Burninadversity does that now....mainly due to White's great efforts...) I mean, I like Sefert and those peeps, but....150 US...lol... no biscuits even....

....anyway...I am. of course, fully supportive of all such ventures and think that, really, UWA has shamed them up badly. They do their bit for the arts monthly and don't have Millions of Dollars coming in monthly as a direct result of other peoples work.

I personally think that it is a scandal that artists have to pay for the prims that attract other people (and both membership and tier dollars) into SL with almost no recognition from LL and certainly no financial reward. UWA has shown how little it takes to say "thank you" to those who have put their best efforts on show. The Millions of Dollars that LL earn monthly would surely support a couple of sims (they don't pay tier) for more than a couple of weeks during Burning Life..... well...you say...too late to make that comment cos that seems to be what LL now, finally, have in mind.

Big deal, say I.

If someone spends 250US$ per month on maintaining a sim, and, after thousands of dollars of investment in various forms, their sim then makes the Hot Spots in LL search and PR attempts, would it not be very reasonable for LL to offer a 20% tier reduction for those months their sim is used to help sell SL?

That would be sponsoring the arts, not a feeble gesture.

:))

Wizzy gets chatty

Now when Wizzy isn't sitting on things or crashing sims as a hobby she builds some of the most amazing geometrical thingies you are ever likely to see....



If you have no idea what a Klein Bottle is, well, don't worry...it's a like Escher gone 3D, or a madder Penrose Triangle..... basically a geometric thingie that fuses your brain/eye co-ordination into a mushy mess.

...anyway....that is all beside the point, basically, Wizzy is giving a talk...the details are......


"What: Burniversity Lecture with Wizard Gynoid: Precision Art Sculpture

When: Feb 22nd 6pm SLT (Pacific)

Where: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life-%20Deep%20Hole/49/217/251

About the Lecture:

This lecture is meant to be an educational session for intermediate builders. We will be talking about one of the most technically difficult art styles - Mathmatical Art!
Wizard will rez for us a few complex objects and explain how they were created. The techniques of building these precision art sculptures are difficult and take a long time to acqure. In this lecture Wizard will discuss how scripts can be used as tools to make the building of your geometric objects much more precise.

About Wizard Gynoid:

Wizard Gynoid, or " Wizzy" as many friends affectionately call her, has been one of the most known SL artists.

Wizard has works on permanent exhibition at PrimTings, the Museum of Virtual Art, and Galleria Bollogia.
She has participated in many SL art shows and exhibitions, and will be participating in Caerleon's upcoming RL art show in Boston.

M Linden (the Linden Lab CEO) has some of her sculptural works in his private collection:

She has a workshop at the Caerleon Art Collective (courtesy of Georg Jannick).

Her skills and passion for creating 3D versions of abstract mathmatical art won her respect and recognition outside of Second life. Some of the sculptures she has made here in SL have been demonstrated to astrophysicists at California Institute of Technology, physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, faculty and staff at the University of Michigan, the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, and Theatre and Technology students at St. Lawrence University, and many others.


About the Burniversity:
The Burniversity is an educational project - collaboration between Linden Lab, Burning Life and Burning Man organizations

Important:
Please, notice the class will take place on the platform above the regular Burniversity classroom. On the ground you can see the art installation by Nessuno Myoo and Kicca Igaly made for the previous Burniversity class. Make sure to use the link from this notecard to tp to the Wizard's platform or fly up 200 meters.
------------------------------------

White Lebed - the Burning Life Art Department Lead; the Curator of Afterburn Art Program
white.lebed@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/white_lebed"

so....pop over and learn stuff...

:))

Erato Show

Well, a little date for your diaries tomorrow.....

"You are cordially invited to the opening of the Imagine Create No Texture Challenge.

The opening is at 1pm SLT on Sunday, February 21, 2010. Erato of Caerleon is hosting this event that features the work of 32 artists whose challenge was to create artwork using no textures. Sculpties, scripts, bumpiness and color were permitted.

Music for the opening will be provided by the talented and witty Whirli Placebo. So, come out on Sunday and party with us.

Come out and see the amazing creations these artists submitted. The entries are situated along a path through a jungle created by soror Nishi. [It actually turned out to be more of a light birch forest to be exact...] The entry to the jungle is by Jedda Zenovka.

Below (in no particular order) is a list of participating artists:

soror Nishi
Zhora Maynard
Artfox Daviau
Josina Burgess
Asmita Duranjaya
Dale Innis
Corcosman Voom
FreeWee Ling
Merlino Mayo
Laurel Leavitt
Sledge Roffo
Tegan Jenvieve
Kicca Igaly
Chapl Paisley
Gleman Jun
Miso Susanowa
Maryva Mayo
Physeter Nicholls
Al Lurton
Jess Oranos
Jimmy Debruyere
Misprint Thursday
quadrapop Lane
iTony Pleides
Flicky Exonar
Scarp Godenot
Fuschia Nightfire
Sabrinaa Nightfire
ArtCrash Exonar
Alizarin Goldflake
Daco Monday
Gwen Difference
typote Beck"

.....so, pop over...... Sabrinaa always hosts very good shows and there is plenty to look at. Quite interesting to see what can be done with no textures......

:))

UWA VIRTLANTIS, new news....

The University of Western Australia, and Jayjay Zifanwe and Quadrapop in particular, could write a paper on “Harmonious Integration Into Second Life”. Their arrival and establishment here has been exemplary, I think.

Like Orange did before them they have galvanised the builders and creators here and, in an intelligent manner, listened and learnt rather than try to impose any pre-conceived idea on the long-standing residents.

Now, to be announced later today, UWA will be getting a 4th sim.

VIRTLANTIS and SLenglish will be forming an educational partnership under the direction of Kip Yellowjacket, specialising, it seems, in language learning and ‘exchange’ as a non-profit making enterprise.

DanCoyote Antonelli’s Tower of Light which is a piece based on “anti-Tower of Babel” philosophy will stand at the centre of the island as a symbol of what they hope to achieve.

Uni Vice Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, (the guy who took one look at the Machinima entries for their last competition and decided to double the prize money) has made it clear apparently to all senior managers that SL is something all departments should take seriously. [Would be good if we had politicians of this calibre, one’s with a bit of spine.]

So, the 5th sim...plus....may not be that far in the future either.

UWA is also now working on a closer collab with the University of Texas, so it will be interesting to see what emerges from that...

It is great to see such positive results arising from such a lot of (extra) work which Jayjay and Quad have ploughed into this project, and I know there are many artists and builders who would join with me in saying that this success has been well earned and well deserved.


:))

Facebook and Avatars United... cancelled.

Ok..well..I just cancelled my accounts...

I am sooo bored with them both.

I figure "social media" are a bit like a faxmachine...outdated. I would rather have an IM with one person in SL than 3000 "friends" on FB, and really...AU has absolutely nothing to offer.

There are privacy issues, but my data is being mined whatever I do online, it is naive to think it isn't, so it's not that that has prompted me, just boredom with an outdated , and not very social, social setting.

So, if you are a friend mine we'll talk in world..:... if you are a "friend"... goodbye, live long and prosper (if it suits)...

:)))

Treeline 3

Just a little reminder that Virtual Treeline Gallery is showing a new set of artists from tomorrow ....here..

...and I am showing a new tree.

Its called The Bubble Tree and is 225 prims. Maeve Eiren told me a while back that she had a dream with a bubble tree in it and it has stayed in my head altho it doesn't necessarily look like bubbles anymore.....well.....sculptures change as you work on them.

Its built out of a lot of regular prims as "The Tree", my January entry for the UWA comp was. The Tree was an attempt to show that really you dont need Blender skills to build a good tree, anyone can, and altho the same can't be said for The Bubble Tree..i.e. there are a few good sculpties in there, the principle stlll holds good.

It's the second of my underwater trees, the first one, The Coral Reef Tree is not currently showing anywhere altho I have planted three at Maeve's. She will be holding an 'open week' in the near future for visitors. If you can't wait til then, IM me or Maeve for a visit.

Anyway, pop over to Treeline tomorrow after 2, Juanita has a good eye for art and her previous shows have been excellent.

:))

Wednesday stuff

Sabrinaa has very kindly asked me to do a bit of background planting for her new show which opens on Sunday and is in the form of a sort of "No Texture Challenge", it will be on Erato and a number of artists (details to follow) have entered pieces with no texture... colour, shine and shape only.... quite an interesting idea and it will be worth a visit I am sure.

SLartsparks has done a post on Frigg Ragu's storytelling sim.....The Companion in their blog ..here... I don't know much about this group but have joined them on AU, so that's one way to find out...

The big news story this week is probably about the Worlds Fair in Shanghai...

...and Bryn is interested in hearing from those who might like to contribute....

"As I mentioned earlier this week Linden Labs have given me five sims for a real life project. The project is to create a build and machinima for the Madrid pavillion at the Worlds Fair this year. The event hosts 250 countries and expects 70 million visitors. Aino Baar is the Spanish curator who has achieved the SL presence within the event.

Open This End builders who are interested in helping elros Tuominen build a version of Africa are to place work at the above landmark. We will be looking for skill sets that will help him with the build. Your work should showcase that which you are best at building. Be it sound, texture, animation, scripting, structure or other. If you make great furniture show us that, if its sculpted trees then place that. Please limit yourself to 500 prims maximum and only place your best work rather than attempt to fill the 500 prim allotment.

On sunday the 21st we will choose those who are best suited to help with the project.

It is important that you are able to work with some direction and can work with others. That you are reliable and most of all excited and enthusiastic.

It can be difficult to work with many different personalities so most of all we wish to avoid any bickering and drama. We have three months before the event begins and we plan on getting started as soon as possible."

So, if you would like to be a part of this huge event, join up and show what you can do.... Well done to both Aino and Bryn....that's gonna be quite a project.

...and well done to Wizard Gynoid. Wizzy has long been recognised as a bit of a maths genius and her E8 structure has been highlighted by the boffins who are into the Science side of VW's. Good blog on her work here. Last night I went round and saw her latest project which is a mind-bending thingy of 3000 prims called a Klein Bottle. I understood nothing. It was great.

...and, at Inspiration Island tonight... " Wed the 17th at 2pm we have The Born Again Pagans with hexx Triskaidekophbia." I'm a fan.

Well, Inspiration Island has a whole list of musical stuff this week...

"Thurs the 18th we have Damian Carbenell performing at 5pm.

Sat night at 5 we have Maximillion Kleen and at 7pm Arimo Teixeira takes the stage.

Sun 21st is our Haiti Relief Event, from Noon till 9pm we will have one performance after another, while we are also putting on a machinma contest, looking for the best performance art video of a performance here, at Inspiration Island the day of our show.

Mark your calendars now, so you dont miss your favorites!

12-1 Reis & Ald Alter
1-2 JooZz Magic
2-3 Bones Writer
3-4 Celtic Maiden
4-5 harrison Digfoot
5-6 Tone Uriza
6-7 Thumper Boucher
7-8 Arimo Teixeira
8-9 RoseDrop Rust and Cellandra Zon."


But, for me the best news this week has come thro ~NWN, the news that thanks to KirstenLee Cinquetti's Shadowdraft viewer, S19, demo below.... shadows are one step nearer to SL. The effect this will have on my forests and trees will be revolutionary.



For a fuller report....see NWN blog...here.

All I need now is a graphix card with muscles..... oh, yes, and someone who can make this viewer Mac friendly...

I am patient.

:))

New Flower

This is my entry for the February round of the UWA competition.....it's called The Night Orchid... I guess for fairly obvious reasons....

...but before you think you want to have a few dotted around your pad.....it's 100 prims!! ...so..... one per 512 m2 ...hehehhhe.

That's the nature of competitions tho, in FL too, things get bred specially...

Still, it's pretty and if you are over that way, check it out at UWA.

:))

Yahoo Gets Dodgier by the Minute

Now, after the scary revelations of Botgirl re. Google....I wonder what on earth is going on when I get three invitations to join 3 different groups whose only desciption is a group of letters and digits....


"Hello,

I've added you to my b8m05p group at Yahoo! Groups, a free,
easy-to-use service. Yahoo! Groups makes it easy to send and receive
group messages, coordinate events, share photos and files, and more.


Description of the group:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
b271qbypuxva4r0h7

Complete your Yahoo! Groups account:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Your email address has been added to the email list of a Yahoo! Group.
To gain access to all of your group's web features (previous messages,
photos, files, calendar, etc.) and easier control of your message
delivery options, we highly recommend that you complete your account
by connecting your email address to a Yahoo account. It is easy and free."

"Regards,

Moderator, b8m05p "

...so I Googled......

"Your search - Yahoo b271qbypuxva4r0h7 - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
Try different keywords.
Try more general keywords.
Try fewer keywords."



Well...you have to send two emails to get out of it (x 3)....am I the only one being targeted, I doubt it..... can anyone shed some light on this??

Three invitations to groups which have no description and no known sender.... sounds very dodgy to me, but I am naturally suspicious.

Seems scarier than that nice Nigerian man who had all that money for me....

:))

Allsorts

Maeve and I spent several hours transferring prims and linked groups in what has to be one of the most boring jobs we have to do as builders. I fail to understand why there can't be a mass transfer possibility, like somewhere on the land file..."all prims owned by..... transfer to......", well, just one of those things and we were mainly successful just a few sneeky little prims hiding out somewhere to be discovered at another opportunity.

Well, you know a job is nearly at it's end when that happens, and Maeve is very pleased with the outcome as I am. No doubt there will be a possibility of visiting when the place is ship-shape. She owns some nice pieces by Glyph which will really look great in the new underwater habitat.





I was very happy to see my favourite Pixi Cosmos online again after a while (hibernating, no doubt) and we sat down with a friend of hers, Grey to play Uno.





I won one game which had Pixi dancing on the able while I searched my invent for dances...


Juanita posted an amazing image on her blog....here... of a RL/SL interface. It makes you think.


Botgirl has issued a "wake up!!" post for anyone considering using Google Buzz viz.... "Google Buzz Overtakes Facebook in Race to Bottom of Privacy Barrel".... certainly has a bearing on previous posts which she, Lalo and I have written concerning privacy.



...and this from SL's most controversial artist SaveMe Oh, and maybe one of the funniest too.... one of those Public Information adverts.... you add the ending...

Breath from SaveMe Oh on Vimeo.

I have seldom had as many long comments as I did on my Koinup post about her and her vid Fuck the Swiss... but...well..that's the joy of SL, it takes all sorts to make a world.

My best friend (RL) is an artist and he has spent a lot of time abroad (i.e. Europe) as he currently lives in Paris. He has always been seriously shocked by how serious Serious Artists have to be on the Continent to be taken seriously...

No wonder SaveMe winds some people up, iconoclasts (why aren't we all?) have to be disrespectful, it's their job..


:)))

Log in Issues....

Funny how problems and cock-ups are now always called issues....
"Issues" makes it sound like it's a God-Related thing, not the fault of anyone of the Boys...it's just 'like that'...well, good job for them we don't all have payment issues, I guess.

Anyway, someone has cocked-up and won't admit it, so, just like in the old days, I get on my blog and bend your ears, dear reader. I see that a good few of my friends are online, so seems like some of the servers are working, so I may just be moaning unnecessarily, but that never stopped me before...:))

Anyway...at 3.05 PM SLT....they posted the all clear on the status...you know....Issues Resolved..bla, bla, bla.., that sort of thing and timed it as 3:40..... well...Wizzy wondered if they were suddenly all Time Lords...I personally think someone can't even tell the time..so....who knows...new policy???

Well, it would be good PR policy to predict the grid status... I should try that too. I could predict my account balance each month for the Lav.

Anyway...for those of you way behind the news... like me...the big thing this week was the machinima contest at UWA... 215,000 L$ in prize money... not peanuts.... and all three top vids were excellent and the honerable mentions...and...everyone...... Details...here. all three proving how wrong I was to say what I said...:))

Otherwise I have been keeping my head down, bog snorkelling...but all is going well, and Frigg is back so....I have to do some Norwegian things this coming week... all good, keeps me off the streets.

Oh..yes, I'm working on a new tree...but more of that when I finally surface.

Still no luck hacking into my own computer.... :((.... but learning to live with the loss (small)......and the extra work... damned machines... hehehhe...

Keep smiling..!!

:))

Busy and slack...

Been busy building bogs but blog's been a bit bloody slack...so sorry....

So... see above pic of a part of the island I have been doing with Maeve, who owns the joint....It's getting near finished and I have started helping Mab a bit on her :::soup::: sim, she needs some brighter trees as the previous designer was a bit vampirey...

Had an absolutely terrible weekend, and today wasn't much better. Part of the code that recognises passwords on my home Mac is borked and my File Vault is locked against me.... tried everything short of a large hammer.....hmmm.....had that idea too at one point.

Anyway...weird as it may sound, SL is a safe haven as all my work is in my invent, well, while it lasts.

Looks like I have a million friends I never met "uniting" with me on UA...to what avail I have no idea, but I guess when I get kicked out of Facelift I will have others to send me fluffy things. Botgirl is right...I don't pull the plug because I might miss out on something, like a kid that wants to be the last one to bed.... sad. Socially sad.

So, the upshot of all this is that I have been working very hard and hoping to put a few pennies aside for a new machine, hoping mine holds out for another wee while. Then we get to the difficult philosophical bit about how we choose to spend our cash as it seems to be the only real democracy we have. Should I go with Linux and a cheap machine because I believe in the idea of freeware and that stuff...or a Mac because they are better made and therefore more environmentally friendly (lasting 10 years?)... sorry...Windows isn't on my radar....

Anyway, that final decision is still a way off... my heads a mess....may have fried my bio-card......:)) but OK...

:))

The Virtual Word

Well with the launch of the iPad there are a lot of nervous newspaper people and various other print related people airing their views on the demise of the written word...etc.

Now, I love books, don’t get me wrong, but I also love hand written letters, local shops and hand made crafts. The truth is, however, I don’t use any of them anymore. I write emails, go to the supermarket and buy the same machine made crap that you do.

So...if newspapers die, well, more than half of them should anyway....and books get less read and more expensive...well...the forests of the world may heave a sigh of relief, but it is probably a cultural thing.

I, personally, will miss the smell and feel of a good book, but the next generations may not, never having experienced that closeness.....ah well...that’s progress, apparently...

Books are a part of my generations culture, and Twits a part of the current generations. Fast food, fast remarks, low attention span etc...well.. that cannot in any rational way be blamed on the type of media you use to view the written word.

All words are virtual. All words are psychic phenomena. Stupidity is not contained in the mode of delivery, only in the mind of the viewer, reader, listener.

Now...ease of publication, however, does have an effect on the quantity of material available, and, therefore, there will be more dross online. Just look at uTube....anyone can publish any old crap they want. You have to search for the gems.....

Many people in ‘developed’ countries have a music library some would have killed for 40 years ago, and I can easily understand that the idea of traveling on holiday with several thousand books in your pocket would be great. Just think how much easier research would be...

In those old days before the printing press, when books were written by hand, you would want to make sure that it was well worth copying before you started, and buying/ordering a book would have been a huge investment and an heirloom. That kept culuture/information in the hands of very few, so....this new iPad is really just the logical next step in the democratisation of information foreseen and heralded by those few forward thinking individuals who gave us the web.

Now....that also means that those horribly protective parents will have to live with the idea that their children may read pornography.... Fanaticism and racism etc will give governments the excuse to try and interfere..

.but... information is amoral. That should be obvious by now....

I think we will have to just say...well done, again, Mac...


:))

Oberon Onmura at Deutche Info Welt ++++ stuff

The first time I saw this piece by Oberon I was blown away by it. I think its the clarity and simplicity...I just love it. It's called Light Traffic, (what else...hehehhee).

He is showing 4 pieces here, it is Asmita Duranjaya who curates the space, and she's done well to get him there. I would also pick out "Antientropic" as a gem (- walk through this 5x5x5 3D cube of white dots to create an explosion of light and motion.).

The "official opening" is February 27, but the space is open now for public viewing, and, after Aliz's opening at Pirats, where nobody (80 of them) could see any art or move.....it might be an idea to pop over early. Now, I think Pirats is gonna have to rethink this idea of multiple openings, it's not fair on artists or visitors. Surely every artist can have their own opening, it's not like it costs anything.


Well, the big thing seems to be Avatars United this week, as I have more friends, suddenly, than I can shake a stick at, not that I would, of course,...... well....maybe one or two could do with a....


Botgirl amused me easily on the subject of 'authentic' avatars in her post...and it seems that some bright spark has made an "app" to help rectify this prob...the prob being that people might not be who they say they are....yawn...well...I think some chaos would liven it all up, personally.


While, I'm on the subject of blogs, cos it's been a rich vein for once.... I loved Chrome's piece here.... a bit of philosophy never goes amiss with this miss. Chrome, for those of you who don't know does great comic style blogposts, well worth following, I think..


...and.... Juanita has once again excelled in her posts on her artists she is showing at Treeline...wonderful to actually help promote and introduce people rather than just pointing them at a wall and saying 'get on with it'...... Two good pieces on two good artists.... Lynda Robinson .... and... Jadyn Firehawk, both of whom I mentioned briefly before, here given more space and time... well done, Juanita.


Now, the Lovemachine, "Philip Rosedale Attempting to Create Sentient Artificial Intelligence That Thinks and Dreams in Second Life!"...well..... good luck. The only bots I have ever met are stupider than toilet seats, and some humans are stupider than bots, so...recreating the human brain may not be such a good idea. ...but...if you want you can join in this (long term, I'm guessing) project, but you have to be clever like Nur or Wizzy, not just amazingly talented like me...they want people to make things work, not look good..


...well...I'm nowhere near as talented as Cole who has a nice piece written about her particle show by Bryn here...and....It's this Sunday, the UWA thingy...don't forget..(I'm really talking to myself here) as the winners of the machinima contest will be announced along with the normal monthly competition results (wrong....see comments...it's the 8th for the machinima thing...)....vote for the people's choice before Saturday night if you want your vote to count. Cole has done a machinima for the competition and I think she has to be in the running for a prize...its brill. Details of everything on UWA blogsite.


...and....last but not least something nice from Alizarin Goldflake, and Flivelwitz Alsop....



blub=
"Alizarin has presented the spirit and form of the god Mahakala (Mahakala is the Tibetan form of Lord Shiva, who controls the universe with his consort Kali) with deep rich reds and blacks, all spiralling around a center point. The music, by Flivelwitz Alsop, is based on the Tibetan singing bowl and the throat vocalizations of the Tibetan Monks."

Beautiful....rings my chimes anyway...

.........and so....back to my bog I go...... tricky chaps, bogs..

:)))