Belated Stuff.

Well, you know how it is, sometimes you don't get round to it all and something has to go by the wayside. Unfortunately its been my regular postings which have taken a back seat this last few weeks... as Brinda says..."so it goes"...

Anyway...I have been popping around the metaverse in addition to having my nose firmly stuck in the TV watching the boys and girls in white strutting their stuff on the lawns of Wimbledon ...and what a mess they make of those after just one week. (not helped by people like Djokovic doing a spot of farming with his racket... guess he thought digging up the turf might help...)...

Anyway.... I did get to visit Selavy Oh's "Construct" again, it's found a home on Magoo, Mab's sim...




It started life as a 75 day residency at Humlab, Selavy making a new scripted piece each day (mostly) during her term there. It is now like a catalogue of what can be done with a script. There is probably no other build in VWs that shows such a range of scripts or what can be achieved. Selavy is probably the most 'leading edge' scripter we have.

More details on Mab's blog ... here. Selavy has another piece on Magoo worth visiting while you are there ...its at sea level and called Spherical Topography.






Its your last chance to visit FreeWee's huge build at UWA if you haven't already been. A very large project, Angry Gods will only be there til the end of the month, so, not long.... full details on FreeWee's blog .. here.





...and on the subject of UWA, Gingered has become the latest sponsor there, initiating her own monthly prize from funds generated by her DJing skills... she told me all about it as I cut a rug at Manamizic Tryjen (above) which I have posted before... (built by Trinny Mizin) that she wanted to pick her own winners .... great idea.

The UWA machinima prize pool continues to rise... now at $L300,000,.... that's what I call an endowment...

In other news....

As I predicted .....not all of the world will go along with America and UK on their attempts to strangle freedom of the Internet, and sure enough The Netherlands has announced...

"A broad majority in the Dutch parliament voted for crucial legislative proposals to safeguard an open and secure internet in The Netherlands. The Netherlands is the first country in Europe to introduce a net neutrality law. In addition, provisions were launched protecting users against disconnection and wiretapping by providers."

...so a good piece of news maybe we will all have to end up using Dutch servers... full story here.

...and an interesting take on The Cloud quite clearly seen as The Future by different groups of people...i.e. Google vs. Apple Cloud.. here.. Apparently a companies CEO and their Techies have a very different take on the importance of Cloud... Dell survey details here.

In other news... well my show on Monday ... small post to follow..

.....have a great day.......


:))))

on Service and Servers....

Now, I had sort of planned not to write about LL anymore, for a couple of reasons....

The first reason is that Miso has put The Situation under her microscope and summarised it so well that really I need only to point to her post every time the Boys shoot themselves in the foot... I could even develop a short hand to signify a cock-up covered by Miso's post.... "Reply Part III"?...whatever...

The second reason is the rise in the number of fangirls who want to give me a hard time every time I criticise LL, I know they are all in denial, so I'll just wait til Sunday when they are all sitting on the Right Knee of God..... Peace on Earth.

...but I could hardly deny a friend a hearing. ... and JayJay is not normally so annoyed. Now, no one could accuse JayJay of being a serial complainer like me, but he has been trying to get LL to make it possible for Voice to cross his sim boundaries. He has been in contact with them about this problem for more than 3 weeks now. ...(just a side note here,.... LL has Voice crossing sim boundaries on their sims it seems...)

So...after being given the run-around for three weeks it now transpires that it just isn't possible .... now I understand that this is because some servers are in Dallas, some in DC, San Fran...and (spookie) Phoenix. [thx to @ChuckBaggett for the research] Now...for the signal/data to travel from DC to San Fran does not take zero time. This was a point that was made when we first heard of this plan back in 200X, and it lies behind the reason why LL will never fix sim crossings..... (or chat? in spite of renewed rumours)

But.. what has annoyed JayJay, and rightly so I think, is that he, as customer, was never informed of this when he bought the sims....and it is a basic flaw lurking in his University's Campus arrangement....

Miso's take on this that the servers are like 1Gb laptops (slight paraphrase) is a very good analogy. I had to upgrade. Everyone has to upgrade. The Savoy Hotel (I learned last night ) closed for 3 years to upgrade (cost £200million)... but LL won't upgrade, just get you to wear fewer clothes...and become short-sighted (64m)...Duh!!!

Anyway.... as JayJay couldn't blog it himself (his blog is taken up with Machinima stuff), I am happy to air his problem online .....and hope he will correct any mistakes I've made in comments.

...and mentioning Machinima... I must clarify that just because I am annoyed with the concept ..or the decisions ... of the LEA does not mean I hate everyone who has put in their hard work into trying to make a silk purse from a pig's bottom.... it's not personal... you aren't Mr/s Linden..... jeez ...XXX

...and just because I am boycotting SL8B as well as LEA doesn't mean I hate all Lindens either. I just don't like being told I can't use megas (for a start.. there are other reasons).... Don't get all personal, I can take it as well as dish it... relax. Without self reflection through criticism we'd all be as dumb as... Hmmm... [insert dumb persons name]....


In other news... well... Tateru has word from one of the Boys, Oz Linden, about the Most Hated Viewer In History... here. "If TPV's don't keep up, things will break".... that is his view... mine is : if you don't fix that bloody mess you call a viewer everyone's gonna migrate to IWz..... the idea that things break magically is a sort of schizoid view of life.... things get broken by people, or animals possibly..... but let's assume the Boys don't have a room full of an infinite number of Boy monkeys typing the 800,000 lines of code in the search for perfection.... (oh, and chat).... Who broke it, Oz?? You did.


So, otherwise, the weather is fine, and I'm off to drink a white wine spritzer and make a tree.

:))

The Wizard

Wizzy has probably the best show of geometrical art that you are ever likely to see in VWs on show from today at the UWA sim devoted to art.......here...at VIRTLANTIS.

Now, a full interview is also online at the UWAinSL blog... ... and Juanita has posted about the show here..... the official opening is set for Saturday at 12.

Wizzy has attracted a lot of interest in several worlds as she has a way of turning maths into a thing of beauty, or, in this case several things....... It's really worth going to see for the shear perfection of geometry.

These things could never be made in RL... the one Thingy is 7200 prims...and it took an enormous amount of determination to rezz the bloody thing... (insider gossip...Wizzy was v frustrated...:))...

Anyway, if you wait til the opening or pop along beforehand, you won't be disappointed.

:))

Transubstantiation opens today....whenever...

I actually hate being told how to look at stuff... but for those of you who like to play with their windlight, these are the settings I used when building.... just sayin'...

Midnight, water reflections on, if your graphics card will take it... and..





Well, I put this together in 48 hours as I didn't have ages to play around, I have the sim for just one month....

oh, yes...it's here.

I hope you enjoy it... more stuff on the philosophy...in previous post.

:))

Transubstantiation

Some thoughts about my new build at UWA.., which I have called Transubstantiation.

Now, in the normal course of events I build a piece without much of a ‘back story’ and rely on my feelings for composition, colour etc to compose a piece that has a volumetric balance to it.

I’ve been doing this since I was about 5 or 6 I think and I just try to obey ‘the Law of Volumes and Lines”, if such a law exists.... it seems to, in my eyes.

So, any theory is really a sort of post-rationalisation of what I have built, though it does actually inform the details and some choices I make in the latter stages of finishing a piece, giving, hopefully, a meaning for myself if no-one else.

Some theories are more than just passing intellectualism for me and form the basis of a personal theology.

Considering the prim as Increatum, I had the following to say prior to my build at Magoo...

“Paracelsus was the first person to coin this word, using it to define the "uncreated" which is basically what it means.

"Prima Materia", an Alchemical concept, is what everything is made of, literally the First Matter. Now, according to alchemists, the Prima Materia is what you start The Work with, and through diligence, ritual, and devotion you turn base matter into gold.

Now, as this Matter is "the root of itself" (radix ipsius) it bears a (projected) resemblance to the godhead in that it, like Uroboros, "fertilises and gives birth to itself".

It is the Uncreated Creation. A god.

Now....let’s fast forward a few hundred years to Second Life..... The Prim.

The Prim is the Prima Materia of Second Life, everything is made of this "stuff", and like alchemy (often called The Art) we can, through diligence, ritual and devotion turn this humble prim into pure gold. "Everything is made by prim and without prim is nothing made that was made."

The Prim is an uncreated creation.

The Prim "fertilises and gives birth to itself".

The Prim is Increatum. ....

i.e....... the Prim is a god.”

Taking this idea a step further in my consideration of Nature I wrote the following when I built Tree of Trees at IBM..

“There’s a thing about nature that I have been trying to express these last three years that is intrinsic to the way nature works.

Nature is economical. It takes matter and sculpts it in the most efficient manner to suit its ends.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote a book in 1790 called The Metamorphosis of Plants, in it he points out how a stem is basically a transformed leaf, as is a petal, as is a root. The basic unit of the plant is simply metamorphosed into different ‘organs’ by, as we now know, a fairly mathematical process of the changing shape and nature of the unit cell.

This process is almost identical to the one I use in Blender. I can only do one thing in Blender, namely change the distance between vertices.

In plants this is called homology and has a lot to do with why my plants in SL look as they do. All my plants have evolved in this manner from a single group of vertices in a Blender file: this is Virtual Homology.”

i.e. there is only One Prim, really..

So, in my build at UWA this thought process takes a further step when considering this process, as The Prim undergoes Transubstantiation in the artistic process.

Artists turn stones into bread and water into wine (on a good day).

Alchemists considered that the work of redemption was left unfinished by the Christian god as it basically applied simply to Mankind and not to the actual Matter of the Earth. Nature and Matter were left, they believed, to be redeemed by the Art (alchemy).


The spiritualisation of matter may be the greatest task before the artist, redeeming the atomic world to a conceptual purity, to thought, to emotion, while the Second Law of Thermodynamics charts its destruction... in that “The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.”.

..i.e. erosion is universal, only art creates.

What does this mean?

Well, as greek mythology tells it, we humans stole The Fire of the Gods, the power to create... and were duly punished, not collectively, but poor Prometheus got severely punished by Zeus.

Because we have created virtual worlds, we act as gods.... (I am one of the gods sat here in my Olympus squabbling with the other gods and generally interfering with the lesser avatars below).

We create and destroy worlds and conjure emotion and spirituality from prims, well, actually from The Prim.

Each Prim is essentially a Cornucopia as its final manifestation is at my whim, my desire.

The Prim contains my body and my blood... my essence.

How? ....Every Prim I build is actually a REAL part of my psyche... (there is nothing virtual in this argument/statement).


.. and so this artistic process is a transubstantiation.

I am a god, The Prim is a god, I am in The Prim and I manifest through Transubstantiation.



More details on opening and location to follow when I've finished building it....



:))

Other World at UWA

This is just up my street as a build, no need for an lengthy back story, just land and explore....excellent.





Cherry Manga, Anley Piers & Elfe Imako have done a really great job at the UWA Full Sim Art.





They have created an imaginative world ..




....with lots of stuff to explore (make sure you get into the basement)....

The address is... here.

....and the UWA blog has more details ...here.

One that is well worth a visit and a wander...

Well done to all involved. ...,. formidable

:))

UWA on FRIDAY.....

In a slight change to tradition, it seems the UWA awards thingy will take place on Friday....see below.....

"UWA 3D Open Art Challenge : FEB Ceremony - 6AM SLT, 4th MARCH

Please keep 6AM SLT, Friday 4th March Free for the announcements for the February Round of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge.

Peoples choice vote round still ongoing through Noon SLT 3rd March.

Artwork now also being received for March Round"

....so tomorrow is the last chance to vote...

...and on their Art Sim at UWA Virtlantis (dodgy name, whoever thought that one up...sorry)... a new exhibition for March...
Called 'Other World' it is the work of Cherry Manga, Anley Piers & Elfe Imako

"Mankind created the machine and always wanted to improve it, adding abilities, and even gave the machine artificial intelligence.

The machine had its own evolution, once it gained artificial intelligence it grew to possess artificial consciousness then the collective consciousness. The machine grew up through many aeons, learned from its own mistakes.

The machine is now in the other world, all parts of the machine are closely bounded, if a little robot cuts itself, the sadness is shared by the entire machine. The machine lives in harmony in the environment it is set, all energy needs are calculated to keep and preserve the world, nothing is taken freely from nature, the machine looks after nature, conscious that its energy depends on the global health of its natural environment.

This way of living is what humankind could call utopia or eden.

This exhibition shows the irony of machine beings, supposed to be heartless and without emotional feelings able to live in respect of its environment, and in harmony with all members of its community ... and the sad conclusion that human beings in 2011 are still fighting for power, for money, for religion, not able to think of the future of our children, continuously draining all that earth can give."


I haven't been there yet...but I will...soonish... RL is wasting my time, currently...

:)))

A weeks bits and pieces.

The Inworldz photo competition was one of the first things I popped along to this week.



..and this piece by Us Vemo caught my eye. The show is at Alinja and there is the possibility of voting for your favourite piece.




Nyx Breen's Chrysler Building is an impressive piece of building, the inside being fully 'deco'd' out. The clubroom is amazing..




..and the texture shop which I blogged before has come down to earth..




...and now sits next to the Chrysler., on Sunset Beach, InWorldz.




I did manage to catch the last divorce at Ant Vegas on Monday where "The Aeonia Artist Group presents: “Welcome to Fabulous Ant Vegas” – The Ant-ology". I was very amused ... great fun. It is at Aeonia. Check Ally Aeon's profile for the TP.




Last night I had a dance..




Gingered Alsop was providing the music at a great venue... I didn't have time to ask, but it looked like the builder was Trinny Mizin ... why aren't more dance venues NPIRL? Excellent company and music.

FreeWee has been busy with the UWA and it's just a week left to pop over and cast your vote in the "most popular piece' thingy...
..huge number of artists involved this month. It just grows and grows.

Have a good weekend.

:))

Soror's Saturday Round-Up...

...not that this is a regular thing, it happens some weeks and not others.... still, at least my typist isn't battling viruses this week in a metabolical Ragnarok (on a cellular scale)...

Now, first things first... best pop over to UWA if you want to vote in the People's Choice thingy for this week or you'll be too late.

As SaveMe is keen to point out, and it's pretty obvious to all, you can't really vote for art as it's not, in essence, a popularity contest and, let's face it, some of the most popular things in this world are complete crap i.e. TV programmes and dodgy newspapers. Best advice is to relax, it's just a bit of fun and not really necessary to riot and burn cars in the street.

Alternatively, you could, if you are talented enough, use your artistic ability to produce a piece like Miso's and say everything that needs to be said about the Art Business in one brilliant work.




I enjoyed this piece too, by Loup Erin, TV Rules The Nation, Loup is one of those artists that really catches you by surprise at times ... great imagination and a lateral brain...




...and I like to pick out a piece to show you that may well get over-looked (it happens) as there is such an array of great work in one place. I loved this piece by Nino Vichan, it looks like a modern stained glass which would grace any RL gallery or modern home.... excellent.

So... the news about UWA Machinima competition is all here.

...and the "let's delete megas" debacle I already blogged here...

Yesterday some of our most respected and venerable Elite were admitted into the presence of our Toga Wearing Boss for a little Audience with Rodvik... not much was said of any note.. Rod's contribution being, basically, the following in reply to the basic "What are your plans" Question..

".....firstly to have more people come and enjoy the world you have all built, i would say empowering our current residents to enable easier creativity and better creativity...

........addressing lag and other fundemental issues that kind of take you out of the expereince...
...and address in a very significant way the usuability mountain new customers have. SL is a very very deep experience and many new users are overwhlemed by Ui issues.

........In general those are the areas i would think about. Obviously the hard bit is in the details of how each area is apporached."

Now, the cynical amongst us (who? Me?) could claim that nothing much was said, and they would be right.. but, those present did feel graced to be in the Presence and, let's face it, previous CEO's didn't do much Baby Kissing and Hand Shaking, preferring to keep away from the great unwashed masses.

My number two "mmm" point was that "empowering our current residents to enable easier creativity" are words I like to hear....
(might be my medication again, Brinda,...:))

Anyway...this wasn't what has got some bloggers hopping up and down this week, its the whole Patent Saga that got some peoples blood boiling...
It started with this....here. Reaction Grid announcing they were gonna take out a patent.....on....(and here's where fur started to fly...) ..." to setup, deploy and maintain virtual worlds on virtualized servers."....(the vagueness of it causing the fever).

Well, that spawned a host of comments and blog posts, especially because it was very unclear what exactly it was they were gonna try and patent. As it later became obvious, it wasn't Virtual Worlds they wanted to patent, just a crumby piece of software that no-one is really that excited about. Now....excuse me Reaction Grid Peeps if I have got that wrong...but...you know.... the reality is pretty Yawn.

This is a good piece about patents tho... here. Diva Canto needs a round of applause..... so no friends gained by this move .... just an Adverse Reaction.

On a good, healthy Philosophical level I was very impressed this week by Metanomics. A staggeringly interesting (excuse the superlatives...it goes with the job) chat about Digital Anthropology .. here... with an eminently sensible chap, Tom Boellstorff talking to Dusan Writer. It's a bit long... an hour, but many interesting points which I will, no doubt come back to at some point... food for thought.

InWorldz passed the 30,000 user mark this week and, as Tranquility continues to stick his metaphysical fingers into ancient holes in the Code Dyke, the news is that a new shiny physics engine is, according to Jim Tarber's guestimate still a month of coding away before testing can start...

I have noticed though a significant increase in the stylishness of people, better dressed, with better skins, all looking very chic.

On a personal level, I am starting to gather tools for Machinima production, Space Navigator first and then some software...will have to be ScreenFlow, unless I rob a bank, and ... really. Bank robbery is such a bore.

...as for skills...well..none so far and some of the worst video Tutorials on the planet (for ScreenFlow)...

But that never stopped me before...

:)))

Betty Tureaud at UWA

UWA has a sim it is going to use for the next 6 months to show the work of various artists in a sim-wide show.

Betty Tureaud is the first artist to show here throughout January. Called The Art Planet... Betty says...

"My art instalation is made like a oil painting that evolves during the work.
I use trasparent color surfaces as flip themselves whichever direction you look.
It allows you even to create your own paintings just turn and you see a new one.
It is you who decides what colors and patterns, your picture will serve.."

...as you can see, flying or camming around through this huge build will help you/make you create scenes which are a colour feast.



She has some suggested SLurls, a copy of which will be given to you when you arrive...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA%20VIRTLANTIS/104/72/276 Platform
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA%20VIRTLANTIS/90/164/27 Destruction
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA%20VIRTLANTIS/135/98/61 Colour of lights
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA%20VIRTLANTIS/22/55/91 Artificial life
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA%20VIRTLANTIS/204/219/27 The Wall
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA%20VIRTLANTIS/120/126/541 The box
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWA%20VIRTLANTIS/8/203/28 Dancing sticks


That is.... well worth a visit.

:))

Busy Little B(uilder)

Well, just to keep you all up to date.... I haven't been slacking even tho I've been a little less social recently..



I am currently rebuilding my little forest at the UWA...(don't forget to vote for the monthly challenge).. and am maybe half-way there...




This is my latest orchid, which I have just finished InWorldz, I'm calling it the Fuschia Orchid, which is obviously a name that won't win any awards, but I run out of names at times..:))




And these shots...



...are from Tesseract on InWorldz...




...where I'm working on a forest as a part of one of Mouser's projects....

So pop in/over and say hi whenever you feel like it, the RL snow will be keeping me torturing prims for the next few days it seems..

Keep warm..

:))

UWA Finale...

OK, so tomorrow, Sunday, make sure you get to go to UWA. (that's almost a message to myself as my memory needs jogging...)

The Finale, which is like the summation of the years work, plus, an important plus, the judging of the machinima contest will take place at 6am (sorry West Coast, but thems the breaks) at UWA, of course....

Now, with so many good pieces on view, there are obviously gonna be amazing works that don't get picked, that's life. There is also, obviously, a question as to how you compare an orange with an apple... but they have a good judging team, and I would hope everyone takes it as a little light amusement.


These are the details, in their press release format..



FINALE: UWA 3D Art & Design & MachinimUWA II - 10th OCT, 6amSLT

The Grand Finale for the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge & for MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists will be on SUNDAY the 10th of October from 6am SLT at the 200-seater, UWA-BOSL Grand Amphitheatre. More than L$570,000 will be divided among the winners of both these challenges. Plans for the Grand Collaboration will also be announced!

Date & Time: 6am SLT, Sunday, 10th October 2010
Location: UWA-BOSL Grand Amphitheatre (200 Seater)

Guest Speaker of Honour: Lumiere Noir (creator of the legendary Ivory Tower Library of Primitives)
Star Performer: Mommaluv Skytower
DJ: Eifachfilm Varcirca

UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge Finalists & Prizes
http://uwainsl.blogspot.com

There are 31 IMAGINE finalists, 13 IMAGINE : Non-Scripted finalists and 23 FLAGSHIP finalists shortlisted from 841 entries from across the year. Additional prizes have been added, over and above what was initially indicated due to LaPiscean Liberty, Bohemian Ghost & the Summerland SIM & the Casey Family of Western Australia.

IMAGINE: 1st (L$75,000), 2nd (L$16,000), 3rd (L$15,000), 4th (L$12,000), 5th (L$10,000)

IMAGINE Non-Scripted: 1st (L$14,000), 2nd (L$10,000), 3rd (L$5,000)

FLAGSHIP: 1st (L$75,000), 2nd (L$16,000), 3rd (L$15,000), 4th (L$12,000), 5th (L$10,000)

Peoples Choice (IMAGINE & FLAGSHIP): 1st - L$15,000, 2nd - L$7,000, 3rd - L$5,000

Peoples Choice (Non-Scripted) : 1st (L$8,000), 2nd (L$5,000), 3rd (L$3,000)


MachinimUWA II : Art of the Artists Entries & Prizes
http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2010/09/uwa-machinimuwa-ii-art-of-artists.html
45 entries from around the world were received for this challenge which grew as a tribute to the artists of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. Here too, additional prizes have been added, over and above what was initially indicated, due to a secret benefactor, Bohemian Ghost & the Summerland SIM & the Casey Family of Western Australia.

MachinimUWA II: 1st Prize $L70,000, 2nd Prize $L40,000, 3rd Prize $L30,000, 5 Special Awards of L$10,000 each, 1 Honourable Mention $10,000, The Aview Award L$10,000

UWA 3D ART & DESIGN - How the Judging was done

Each judge listed their top 10 in order for IMAGINE & FLAGSHIP & top 5 for the non-scripted. Works receiving a 1st place vote were allocated 6 points, 2nd place 5 points, 3rd 4 points, 4th 3points, 5th 2 points, and 6th - 10th place votes received 1 point each. The winners are taken as a straight aggregate compiling the individual rankings of the 23 strong judging panel (see website)."

So, it's been an exhausting time for all involved, especially JayJay and Quad I would think.


UWA has really had a major effect on the 3D artistic community and sponsored us with such warmth and positive spirit that it rightly deserves to claim the title of The Most Important Art Show In the Metaverse.

It seems to me that it is all on a scale that sets it far apart from any other art event that has ever happened in SL, and therefore, in the Metaverse.

I can't really do more than offer thanks to all involved, organisers, sponsors, artists; you have raised the bar and increased the standard, and this will have a beneficial effect on all involved in the Virtual Arts world.

Be there.

:))

UWA vote.

Now, I have to admit to not fully registering the details when I was first told about them, being occupied with other stuff... but I think I've got them all right now....

Basically there are prizes which will be awarded on the 10th of October for Overall Winners of the UWA Challenges.

There will be a guest speaker...

"UWA is honoured that the legendary Lumiere Noir, creator of the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives, has agreed to be Guest Speaker of Honour at the Grand Finale Ceremony of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge & MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists, at the 200seater UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre, from 6am slt, Sunday, 10th October."

so...what has this to do with you...? well...there are three peoples awards which you can vote for... you have 6 votes.

"Grand Final People's Choice:
The public can help choose the People's Choice awards in all the categories via the People's Choice Vote boards.

Where to vote:
Panel judges are supplying their votes directly to Jayjay Zifanwe during September. However, the public can vote via the UWA 3D A&D Imagine & Flagship Grand Final People's Choice boards which will be open from 8th September to 30 September 2010 and are sited on the UWA Winthrop Winners' Platform

The People Choice Awards are sponsored by Bohemian Ghost (Summerland Estates) and by the Residents of Artemesia.

Prizes:
People's Choice (IMAGINE & FLAGSHIP)
1st Prize - L$15,000
2nd Prize - L$7,000
3rd Pize - L$5,000

People's Choice (Non-Scripted)
1st Prize - L$8,000
2nd Prize - L$5,000
3rd Pize - L$3,000


How To Vote:
Pick up a TP HUD from the dispensor at the landing point on UWA Winthrop Winners' Platform.
Wear the HUD, visit all 4 floors of the Imagine entries and TP using the HUD to the 23 Flagship builds. Return to the Winners' Platform to cast your votes on the boards there.


How to use the vote boards:
1. You can choose only TWO items on EACH of the 3 vote boards.
2. Only ONE VOTE PER ITEM on the board (you cannot give one item more than one vote).
3. Touch the item for which you would like to vote. The board will tell you alone in chat and in a confirmation menu which item it is you are voting for.
4. Click YES if it is the correct item, or NO if you wish to change your mind/have touched the wrong item.
5. You have 60 seconds to respond before the confirmation menu times out.
6. The board will confirm in chat which item you have voted for and how many votes you have cast. As you get the chance to confirm or decline a vote no discussion of "misplaced votes" will be entered into.
6. You can vote only for a maximum of 2 items per vote board."

You have to pick up a HUD to see all the stuff and that HUD is available here.


Now, in addition to this there are also a good number of machinima (16?) which have already been submitted for the prize for the machinima showing all the winning works... some are very amusing, like the Great Art Theft, ("Thieves Break into UWA Gallery")...I and II....



This one by Laslopantomik Yao, the others all available on the UWAinSL website.... here...

ENTRIES SO FAR

LASLOPANTOMIK YAO - City of Art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHkkZXwalY

PIA KLAAR - Art of the Artists: A Closer Look
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE-SuGbx7yE

ED VESPUCCIANO - Lessons in Democracy
http://vimeo.com/14894926

LAURINA HAWKS - UWA Art of the Artists : No Tomb for the Arts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsrZgMA8SNI&feature=player_embedded

GLASZ DE CUIR - MachinimUWA II: Art Theft done in Second Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxwJJvdl8es

YESIKITA COPPOLA - Inspiracion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubRVBll5muI

TUTSY NAVARATHNA - An Art Form is Born & Gladiator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr1JGXuXs_U&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF3WIJfvN1w&feature=player_embedded

MISSY RESTLESS - Yearning for the Sea & Quantum Matrix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1TgtYzfVHg&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysDal1Q8ERE&feature=player_embedded

FUSCHIA NIGHTFIRE - Moonlit Heath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib_LxjvRgKw&feature=player_embedded

SPYVSPY AEON - I Am Not A Robot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXY12oCNxDQ&feature=player_embedded

BRYN OH - Art of the Artists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9cLyeJ3_cs&feature=player_embedded

MEGAN MERLIN - Wichtels Fantasy Fly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2nnvg60xac&feature=player_embedded

FAKE JEWELL - Song of Medusa
http://vimeo.com/14745121

PENUMBRA CARTER - University of Western Australia
http://vimeo.com/14994248

AIDAN WITRIAL - MachinimUWA II : Art of the Artists & Shibas Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGhczNdRX-o&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGIdPy5O5Cs

APMEL GOOSSON - ROBOT - The Visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB5NiND8h9s&feature=player_embedded

NICOLEX MOONWALL - Silken Vortex, Frames & Balloons
http://vimeo.com/15045751
http://vimeo.com/15027044
http://vimeo.com/15046450

KAFKA MOODY - Aphrodite Visits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcfKbPFA7wA

EIFACHFILM VARCIRCA - The Abyss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifpSfHx9YRU


So, get along to see it all, it is a representative group of some of the best work in SL over the last year, and of interest to artists builders and anyone really...

:)))

UWA ...the last Imagine....

It used to be possible to pop over to UWA to vote for the 'best in show' and be back home in 20 minutes....these days, however, it's a block of time (very well spent) that you have to allocate to view some of the best stuff you are likely to come across all on the same sim.

Apart from beautiful pieces whose style immediately tells you the creator, there are new works by people you/I never heard of before. It's a well spent hour (plus) followed by an impossible decision to pick out three you like most. Great fun.




Now...yummm... how could I not fall for this great tree by Zola Zsun? Absolutely how trees should be made in SL according to my opinion, of course. Great prims and exotic textures... excellent.. I thought it was Pixi's.




Snowy Hobinoo's piece was recognisable a mile off, that's how strong his style is. Better and better prims and better textures too. Love it.





FreeWee Ling always amuses. Here she's made me into a Tarot card... well up to her high standards. This is interactive art that gives a reward, not just an inane click..




Wooo..."Satirical Polemicist", thats quite a title, by Eliza Wierwight, a skilled builder who has shown stuff here before. I really loved the spinning plates and being turned into a music box girl.. quality stuff..




Betty Tureaud has some shuffling commuters on a tube station which had me watching their scripted dance for a longer while...




...and I love a bit of more classic sculpture like this great piece by Penelope Parx, 'resistance NOT futile', great..... great name too...




... and Miso Susanowa, again, classic and well composed....with a touch of humour of course...it's called Prim Charmer.




Now, I have often neglected more '2D' ish art... with very few exceptions they would look better in RL galleries where the poor resolution we live with could be overcome.

HOWEVER, there are more and more exceptions to this as artists use tools not available in RL on their wall art (apart from Anim Smooth)...such as this piece (above) by Sledge Roffo which I really liked...it moves so you have to go see it. It's called Strokes.




Similarly this excellent one by PinkPink Sorbet. Things don't have to be amazingly complicated to succeed. This one works well... not for the visually sensitive tho..




....and Alizarin Goldflake's Quarry Hill gets a new twist with the passing of time factored in to her work... simple but v effective. No one draws this well, well, except Aliz, of course.

So...I could continue till my little figures fall off...

There are far too many to mention them all....

Ninka Darkstone's animated dragon stands facing mine.... wonderful.

Kittibee Babii does things with particles that make me green.

Lea Supermarine ... just wonderful..

Nish Mip goes from strength to strength...

and so it continues... some of the best I haven't even mentioned...sorry....you'll just have to go see for yourselves.

A word has to be said tho about UWA, and I know I've said it before, but...that won't stop me... In just one year, 12 months, UWA has done more to support artists in SL than the Boys have done in 6/7 years. No wonder it has become the Best Show on the Grid.

Quadrapop and JayJay have worked at this, hard..

..with a smile..

thanks from us all.

:))

soror Nishi at UWA.

For those of you that missed my opening at UWA (SLURL) on Sunday....a few snaps...










Great fun was had by all, and I really loved the following song which Eifachfilm Vacirca, the DJ, played ...(the whole set was good)...




Nothing more to say....hehehhehe

:)))

omnibus of trivia

Sometimes there are bits and pieces of things you might find interesting that just don't fit in anywhere else, so, as is my habit now, I mash em all up in a sunday stew....



Imagine Magazine has a small article on me, heralding a more comprehensive piece next month. For those that like to kick back with a mag, I can send you a copy should you want one....









Wizzy, Miso and I were at the 6th rezz day party of Doctor Gascoigne last night. "It's been a strange sort of journey" he said... or words to that effect...and I thought...hmmm...that HAS to be the understatement of the week....:)) well done.






...and I popped over to see what Frigg Ragu had done with the skybox for bunnies I made....she has made a really nice place of the shell I provided....IM her if you are a bunny-nut....It's worth a look...





Last week saw me listening to some classic rock, old-school I would call it.. streaming from the wires of Anek Fuchs. It was Great.

...and then today I was at the UWA awards....full details here.....shortly, the boys and girls have to get some sleep first...

...suffice to say, Nish Mip and Bryn Oh were the joint winners of the Imagine (art) Challenge....and UWA CULTURAL PRECINCT GALLERY AND LABS by DB Bailey and Patch Thibaud won the Flagship (architectural) Challenge.

Pixi won an award on her first ever competition entry and was completely flummoxed...:)) cool

Loads of other awards were won, and I was kinda sad that August will be the last month of this event. Check out the UWinSL website (link above) because the UWA has made some amazing contributions to SL both in credibility as a teaching platform and as sponsors of this, the best art event in SL.

...and if anyone wonders why I get so irritated with the Boys over their attitude to the arts, it's simply because in ONE YEAR only, UWA has sponsored, financially, 200 plus artists with cash as well as with enthusiasm.... without any long list of rules, but with a smile and light touch that has made it a pleasure to take part.

Quad and Jayjay deserve an award too.

In other news.. InWorldz has topped 300 sims and 9500 residents......a 25 to 30% increase in 6 weeks...(old post)...and the shopping just gets better.

...and, tho the number of residents can mislead, those paying tier are real enough numbers, money in the bank......so, soon approaching a quarter of a million dollars in tier (per annum) has gotta help pay the electricity bill.... now...if they can just hold off the Vulture Capitalists...

:)))

UWA penultimate month..

.....not the penultimate month for UWA, UWA isn't going anywhere, rather it's the 11th month of the artistic challenge that has resulted in the best art show on the grid, bar none. 80 pieces are on show, and all of them are worth a viewing.... not a cat or rose photo amongst em....

The awards are announced this sunday so pop over and vote for your favourites while you are there.




When you see that little white Selavy chair, you know you are in for a treat, and this chair is no exception. Identity Absent and I are arguing over a chair and, as usual I am amazed by how far ahead of almost everyone Selavy is in her work. She just stretches again and again what is possible with SL and is the Foremost Frontrunner in my opinion.

Anyway, Identity Absent was a little less argumentative this time I visited, not sure if he/she/it was having a down day, but I did try and friend her ...hehehhehehe/him/it......... priceless.





On the other end of the scale a very nice piece of classical sculpture by Yabuska Loon with some beautiful prims.....





...and Markus Inkpen with some staggeringly good textures, and, most importantly his piece, Know Thyself, had something which is too often lacking in SL art, it has meaning and consistency. It is a very good piece by any standards you want to scale it against.

The ancestors around the walls, the clock, double helix...all work together extremely well.





Now, Pixi Cosmos is no stranger to those of you who have read these pages over a longer period of time. This is only the second time she has shown her work in public. This piece, A Slice of Tranquility is a great composition of her lovely trees....excellent.





...and this piece by Lea Supermarine, called Neural Nonsense is exactly what happens in my head when I have a migraine...made me smile anyway...

...there are too many pieces to mention them all, Wizzy and Aliz, Miso...Rose....there are loads to see...

Fuschia Nightfire shows what can be done without scripts in her "magic wind"...


....and my 99th tree...The Happy Tree is on show for the first time as well....lots to check out...


:))