Metaverse Art 2011-2013 Nr 1.Tendences by laszlo diabolus

josina burgess nazz lane velazquez bonetto

metaverse art

2011-2013 Nr.1 tendences

This e-book dedicated to

Giorgio Vasari

(30 July 1511 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 27 June 1574)

Intergrid Metaverse Art 2011-2012 Content _________________________________________________________________

1. Tendences 1.1 MESH 1.1.1 claudia222 1.1.2 Atari Patrucci yes it is MESH 1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2

FULL SIM Mikati Slade Kuru kuru world Rebeca Bashly Inferno

1.3 Narratives 1.3.1 Bryn Oh 1.4 Colaboratives 1.4.1 Pirats art chaos 1.5 1.5.1

Migration to OSG Alien Bolero in Craft and in Metropolis

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Metaverse Projects

2.1

UWA 3D OPEN ART CHALLENGE

2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.1.5 2.1.6 2.1.7 2.1.8 2.1.9 2.1.10 2.1.11 2.1.12

FLY WITH THE WIND by Josina Burgess FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE by Miso Susanowa THE GLOWING SERPENT by Ginger Alsop LAZER BALLS by Betty Tureaud DREAM OF THE COLD SLEEPER by Typote Beck (“It’s raining in my heart, as it’s raining in the town” by Cherry Manga TRAVEL IN THE SHADOW OF TECHNOLOGY by Anley Piers PARANORMAL FROTTAGE by Misprint Thursday THE ILLUSIONIST by Gleman Jun LIGHT TOWER by Betty Tureaud TURNING THE TIDE by Nish Mip CHOOSE YOUR BLOSSOM by Suzanne Graves

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metaverse art 2.1.13 2.1.14 2.1.15 2.1.16 2.1.17 2.1.18 2.1.19 2.1.20 2.1.21 2.1.22 2.1.23 2.1.24 2.1.25 2.1.26 2.1.27 2.1.28 2.1.29 2.1.30 2.1.31 2.1.32 2.1.33 2.1.34 2.1.35 2.1.36 2.1.37 2.1.38 2.1.39 2.1.40 2.1.41 2.1.42 2.1.43 2.1.44 2.1.45 2.1.46 2.1.47 2.1.48 2.1.49 2.1.50 2.1.51 2.1.52 2.1.53 2.1.54 2.1.55 2.1.56 2.1.57 2.1.58

SYMPHONY IN THE BARREL OF A GUN by Arrow Inglewood PLANET CENSORED by Anley Piers STRANGE PLANT...UGLYNESS & BEAUTY by Claudia222 Jewel THE RHYTHM OF MOOD - Lea Supermarine & Jarapanda Snook DIGITAL GLOVE by Misprint Thursday THE WILD WILD WORLD OF ILLUSION by RazorZ & Olga Soulstar THE MINOTAUR OF CARTON by Typote Beck ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Cherry Manga SHATTERED by Ginger Alsop THE FRAGILITY OF THE SOUL IS NOT A DEFECT by Gleman Jun SPANISH BULL by Silene Christen TROIS PETITS TOURS ET PUIS S’EN VA (Three little turns and it goes away) by Josiane Sorciere JUNGLE CHALLENGE by Dusty Canning THE DOCK SPIRIT by Scottius Polke ULTRA VIOLET by quadrapop Lane THEATRE OF WAR by Miso Susanowa VENUSTRAP by Claudia222 Jewell ONE AND FOUR TIMEBOARDS by L1Aura Loire UNE HORDE DE CORDES by Aristide Despres 5x8 COMPUND CUBE by Wizard Gynoid TIME AS A HELIX OF SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES by Miso Susanowa THE HUMANICAL FROG by Lollito Larkham HERE COMES THE SUN by Sledge Roffo TV MORNING EXERCISES by Dusty Canning PIUME DI PAVONE by Nino Vichan DANGLING NARROW CHAIN DEMONSTRATOR by Emilin Nakamori HARMONIES IN C GREAT (+) by Artistide Despres NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAIN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire LIVING FRACTAL by June Clavenham THE MATTER OF IDEAS by Gleman Jun THE SUPERHEROES BREAKFAST by Typote Beck DOWN ON THE DATA FARM by Miso Susanowa PETITE ETUDE SUR OLIVIER MESSIAEN by Artistide Despres OMNIPOTENT by Pixels Sideways THE CHASM by Oberon Onmura EXCERPTS FROM REALITIES by Glyph Graves THE ABANDONED DAUGHTER by Eliza Wierwight YOU CAN’T TOUCH HEAVEN by paleIllusion AUTUMN by nexuno Thespian THE CROSSING by Nish Mip FANTASIA EN LA SOMBRA by Romy Nayar PRIMSCAPE DREAM by Sledge Roffo 99% by Harter Fall BLACK SHIRT by Misprint Thursday IN DREAMS by Blue Tsuki SWALLOWED UP BY THE CROWD by Fuschia Nightfire

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L’IMPATIENCE by Josiane Sorciere

2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5

CARP Metaverse Exhibition Szombathely Naomi Devil Josina Burgess Velazquez Bonetto Frieda Korda Maxxo Klaar

2.3

Inworldz Dreamz & Visionz Festival 2011

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Metaverse Procedual Art

3.1 3.2 3.3

SL TLC The Schöffer Tower The Change Sky dance V

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IMAB Events

4.1 4.1.1

Craft World Vulcan - Artists in connection

4.1.2

building competition

4.2 Inworldz 4.2.1 Alizarin’s Aquarella 4.2.2 soror Nishi 4.2.3 Teal Freenote, “Dreamsinger Sculpture Garden” 4.3 Metropolis 4.3.1 SoA Albert Querstein Alex Boyd Alex Grün Antonia Ling Atari Patrucci Carda Mom Caro Fayray ChapTer Kronfeld doong susu Eliopod Beaumont

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First Prim Galen Dreamrezzer Josina Burgess Junivers Stockholm Keve Magic kjs Yip Klarabella Karamell Kueperpunk Korhonen Larysa Firehawk Moewe Winkler Pixel Prim Thierry Noir Uwe Furse Velazquez Bonetto Wanda Shigella

4.3.2 4.3.3 4.3.4

Josina Burgess Installation Velazquez Bonetto VJ Rebeca Bashly Factory

4.4 OSGrid 4.4.1 Ruben Haan 4.4.2 H. J. Kaeppeler 4.5 4.5.1 4.5.2

Second Life Tuna Oddfellow Solkide Auer

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of “why they were doing it”.

An Introduction to Metaverse Art by Nazz Lane

The idea for this book germinated from a three part article titled “The Arts in Second Life”, which I published just over two years ago. The scope of that effort was limited, due primarily to my limited knowledge of the art scene and that age old question of “what is art”, and especially “what is art in the metaverse”. With regards to answering either of those questions, I left it up to the readers to discern and decided to include as many of the artists from the visual, performance and literary arts fields that I could identify. Then with a scope established, I performed a search of groups and initiated contact with as many as I could in order to take a snapshot in time. I limited it also in drawing up a set of survey questions, which were intended to capture the elements of who was doing what and when, however I neglected asking the much more important question

Since publishing that series, I’ve drawn much pleasure from meeting many talented people in the arts communities - viewing their creations, watching their performances, the reading of prose and poetry and in writing about them for several different metaverse publications. And it was shortly after that initial publication when I met my collaborators for this book, Velazquez Bonetto and Josina Burgess, co-founders of the Cybernetic Art Research Project (CARP). Vela and Josi are both well known as artists in their own right and as leaders of the group “Art Space Diabolus”, they are promoters of the arts in all forms and in multiple contexts. It was with the end of 2009 approaching and my somewhat more comfortable knowledge of who was doing what in the arts that I first approached Vela and Josi with an idea of revisiting the survey to incorporate a much broader field of participants. It was in our initial discussions and analysis of that first endeavor where we decided to move away from a survey which focused on, “the trends and events whether past, present or future” and instead ask a set of questions that focused on, “the creation and cognitive process”. With that idea firmly planted and nurtured through discussion and analysis of the “Cognitive Aesthetic”, which is explored in more detail by Vela in the following section, we established categories to describe the forms of Metaverse Art and a methodology for conducting the survey. The taxonomy follows:

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Metaverse Art Expression Form Taxonomy: Literature Poetry Inland sound objects Collaborative inland sound productions Soundtrack creation 2D Metaverse snapshot and picture manipulation Machinima, video kaleidoscope Online broadcasting 3D Static virtual space objects, installations Costume and avatar design Virtual architecture Virtual landscape 4D Avatar animation Kinetic virtual time-space artworks Virtual art large scale complex Cybernetic virtual time-space artworks www.collaborative virtual time-space artworks Virtual performance Virtual theatre Immersive 4d Cinema

Picture: CARP CHANGE performance

Combinations of the different expression forms. On the borderline of the art and science (Manax synesthesia theatre, Emoticon, Graph theory orchestra With questions drawn, and the survey respondents

Picture: Igor Ballyhoo exhibition in Artspace Diavolus by Rebeca Bashly

Picture: CARP CHANGE performance

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identified the distribution and collection process began. The list of those who replied is varied and long, with slightly over seventy respondents. We believe the results establish a framework for those who may choose to follow, in assessing this nascent foray of humanity into the metaverse as they explore their place in it through the visual, performance and literary arts. I would like to extend a special thank you to all the respondents for taking the time from their daily pursuits to reflect and explain themselves to us and to posterity. In August of 2010, Artspace Diabolus Cybernetic Art Research Project (CARP) announced the release of a Metaverse Art, a four volume series of books which are available via print on-demand. The production of the book was a collaborative effort between: Velazquez Bonetto and Josina Burgess (CARP’s founders) and Nazz Lane ( author of Lanes List)with a foreward of Dancoyote Antonelli. The four volumes of Metaverse Art brought to light the creative minds of many of Second Life’s notable artists and content creators. These are the cutting edge creators, who are utilizing virtual worlds to extend art into this newest space of human existence, the Metaverse. In the books introduction, Nazz wrote that; “We believe the results establish a framework for those who may choose to follow, in assessing this nascent foray of humanity into the metaverse as they explore their place in it through the visual, performance and literary arts.” Two years later, after a idea of Velazquez Bonetto, the editors of the Metaverse Art volumes have gotten back together and are about to launch into repeat effort that extends beyond Second Life and in other virtual worlds as well. With the initial framework now established, we have agreed to build on that framework with an initiative titled, “Intergrid Metaverse Art Biennial”. It is the goal of the Biennial to present future orientated

ideas such as; Techniques, Scripting, Methods (Need more examples here of future orientated ideas). As part of the goal it is our intent to not only exhibit these important trends, but also document them. IIn my closing to that first series, I’d quoted something from Kurt Vonnegut’s “A Man Without a Country”: “Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. We are dancing animals. How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are on earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.” In fairness to Mr. Vonnegut, that had been written well before the birth of Second Life and of virtual worlds. In my commentary to his quote, I wrote the following: “I believe that those surveyed for this and previous editions of ‘The Arts in Second Life’ would disagree as each has built a community in this electronic metaverse of second life. All are remarkable and every day they get up and go out to do something for us and themselves. And it is something.” It is our hope that you enjoy this book. Josina Burgess Nazz Lane Velazquez Bonetto

Picture : SKYDDNCE V by Dancoyote Antonelli

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Picture : Inferno by Rebeca Bashly (detail)

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1.1 Tendences MESH Atari Petrucci Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

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Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

metaverse art

Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

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Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

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Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

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Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

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Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

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Atari Petrucci Yes this is MESH (Metropolis SOA)

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1.1 Tendences MESH claudia222 Jewell

The Surrealist Art of claudia222 Jewell: Phantasmagoria and the End of Spirit By Jami Mills On September 9, claudia222 Jewell’s Spirit installation closed after a spectacular and much-acclaimed 7-month run in Second Life, so this seemed a good time to reprint Jami Mills’ enlightening interview, first published in the July issue of rez magazine. I’ve waited patiently to incorporate the word “phantasmagoria” into one of my articles, but nothing I’ve ever come across in Second Life has warranted its use. That is, until now. Claudia222 Jewell’s latest mesh installation, “Spirit”, which occupies an entire sim, is now open

to the public at Art Screamer. This ambitious work, sometimes garish and disturbing, but always compelling, is packed with forms reminiscent of her earlier work — a multitude of shifting phantasms (replete with self-referential images of Claudia herself ) and sensuous alien plant forms populating a dream-like, primordial and seemingly hostile world. If you haven’t yet experienced the fully-realized imaginings of a 3-D installation artist at the height of her powers, then I urge you to drop what you’re doing (please finish this article first!) and take just one little peek. I know full well that, as with my last visit, a peek can turn into hours of blissful exploration. The fine textures and attention to detail that have earned Claudia a well-deserved reputation as one of the most technically proficient 3-D installation artists in Second Life are on full display in “Spirit”. Claudia is doing things with mesh technology that are simply breathtaking. And the fantasy–laden imagery filling “Spirit” represents a continuing evolution of other themes first sounded in works like “Parallel Worlds” and “The Path”. I’m as curious as you must be to know what makes this brilliant artist tick. So, let me introduce you to the artist herself and let her words illuminate her unique work. Jami Mills: Thank you for joining me today, Claudia. I know our readers will enjoy this opportunity to learn something about the artist behind your dazzling and original work. To get started, please describe for our readers your childhood and how and when art first enchanted you? Claudia222 Jewell: I was born in Melbourne, Australia to Swiss parents. We traveled around the world when I was three and a half. I have a strong visual memory. I always drew a lot, and not so much looking at things while I did. I remember my teacher asking my mother

metaverse art

to come in because she was a little disturbed when she saw my drawing of me and my family. She expected that we would all draw squares with stick arms and legs, but I drew everything – even what they wore that day – the hair and shoes and real arms and legs. My mother was laughing for days. She was worried that I had done something wrong. So for me to work with my eyes and hands was always my world – the creating. No other thing ever got my full attention. I have been to many places, but I stay mostly in Amsterdam, Melbourne and Zurich. It’s my personal Bermuda Triangle. But I have other places I always go time and again. I call them stopovers JM: So you’re a city girl at heart. CJ: I think I like the idea of being in the more natural places now. It’s just common that when we are young we want to live fast in cities where we have all we need. To make a storm – and money too. JM: You wouldn’t miss the stimulation of the city? CJ: Yes. I like both, like we all probably do. Apartment in the city and a nice house in the country shared with loved ones. I think that’s a very basic dream we all have for the balance. JM: One commentator has likened your work to that of another Swiss surrealist artist, H.R. Giger (of Alien fame). What were your earliest influences and do they still find their way into your current projects? CJ: I think he was one. I used to love to draw with just a single pencil for hours and I came up with very similar shapes, I think due to the fact that the pencil is so small. It would have been different if I would have used markers, but the creaminess of pencils was just super to set the tone of things and go surreal and let intuition move me. H. R. Giger is very well known, but still somehow many say he’s no artist. Maybe because

he is just himself and doesn’t really care much to fit in the scene of acclaimed artists there. I like that about him. JM: He goes his own way. CJ: He used cutouts from the metal industry to make all the patterns. It was an ingenious way to make details with whatever was around. In the end, for me creating should be a straight line from your mind and heart to the object we make. I am also more into just doing what I have to do, yes. I never really liked the ‘90s art scene. It was a weird time and I didn’t want to be connected to art. There was a lot of money around. Many just used connections and did work in 20 minutes, talked about it a lot, and in the end, sold it to a friend of your parents, who invested in us like we were a pony in a race. JM: Smiles. Like a commodity. CJ: I can’t say I admire that time. Now I think with the economy depressed, art is still a good investment, but people do buy things more because they like it, just in case it never makes money I think I spend too much time on paintings to sell them to a heartless person that puts them in a vacuum box for later. JM: Art needs to be exhibited and enjoyed every day, I think. CJ: I believe so too, when we count all sorts of art. I am more visual but many have music, dance, theater or other ways to express creativity. Some write. Without it we would be left to watch soccer and drink beer JM: *Laughs* You seem particularly enamored with the natural world, and especially with its various flying species…butterflies, dragonflies and your own fanciful airborne creations, some newly emerging from their cocoons. Does winged flight have a particular significance to you as a metaphor? CJ: Haha! I tried to make creatures like plants and in-

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sect mixed together. We overlook them, squish them, feel almighty, superior. But when I grew up, I studied them so closely. I crawled through forests and looked at them all and saw such beauty in them. Not many ever try to imagine how life would be in their position. We need to understand how life is for others in order to develop a personal bond. We don’t care much as long as it’s peeled and finely chopped on a plate. It’s horrible for me the idea that we just raise animals in the most inexpensive way, just to eat them before they even reach maturity and never see nature. All this has a price. Our need for things that are cheap is a handicap. I hope we don’t have many more scares and worries where we get sick eating cows that were fed dead ground up sheep. Quite sad, when we do not look closely. That’s why animals are very welcome in my mind. All of them. Even the ones that make some scream when they see them. JM: Your work has an almost prehistoric quality to it, as if we’ve witnessed the very origins of some fantastical world. The forms are primordial and elemental. Almost everyone notes their “organic” nature. Some of the enormous dangling plants resemble the carnivorous Nepenthes (tropical pitcher plant) and others resemble its meat-eating cousin, the Venus Flytrap). Still others appear to have vaguely sexual cravings. They all compete for attention in a miasma of other animal, vegetable and mineral offerings, including the occasional green-scaled dragon. You create a world both menacing and seductive. Should we be afraid as we wander around your art? Will the plant tendrils caress or strangle? CJ: Haha! I think I never considered it art. That’s more what others say. I prefer to say I create and learn. SL is such a neat world, filled with secret desires of people. I think for me it’s quite natural to go in the opposite direction. I can’t stand everything nice. I like to have the ugly parts and the beautiful parts mixed. It’s a much stronger sensation we get from it. We remember it

much more than just beauty. I avoided always making things that fit the wishes of people here. I would much more love it if they opened up and experimented here, instead of buying things they can’t have in RL – if they went into their subconscious minds and let go of conventions – experienced things where they can be sure no damage would happen to them. Sure, some will think I make scary things, but I maybe showed with the plant what most people fall victim to in SL. It was more a kind of parody. I base all I do on organic shapes. It’s like an inner drive. I can’t fight it. I am very into anatomical forms and organic shapes. No geometrics ever interested me or caught my eye. That’s just a cheaper way for us to build in RL. JM: There is little that is technological or “modern” about your worlds. Do you herald the digital revolution as a true advancement or a threat? CJ: Good question. I never touched a computer until 2002, and I am still a social misfit. I refuse to use social platforms (besides here). I do worry about it, but I also embrace it. I try to understand how to use new media, like 3-D software to create. I am addicted to it. But deep down I think we can live in both worlds at the same time – be into nature and have a computer at home. It’s always the way we use things. Like money, power, love. All can be potentially bad. JM: Many of the characters populating your works are composites of humans and animals….centaurs and other half-human, half-animal creatures. Are they metaphors for the tension between our baser appetites and more civilized behaviors, or do they represent for you the harmonious union of humankind and the natural world? CJ: I think I’ve always done that. It makes me see creatures. I see loved ones in my paintings. I’ve done it

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many times. There is a lot of mythology also. It’s hard to say the specific reason. I just wish we would associate more with other inhabitants in this world and understand we all need to make it work out. Like bees. See? We need them. I know they sting – I am even allergic to them – but I love them for that. I know without them, nothing would be fertile. There’d be nothing to eat for the animals we eat or us. It is a huge challenge to do their job JM: The giant bumble bees scare me too. CJ: Haha! Yes, they’re loud ^^, but I find them kind of plump and cute. Haha ^^ JM: You created another world altogether in your segment of “The Path”. Your structures reminded me of the Cambodian temples of Angkor Wat. For those readers who missed this amazing collaboration, “The Path” was an “exquisite corpse” work by some of SL’s most prominent artists, Bryn Oh, Rose Borchovski, Desdemona Enfield, Douglas Story, Colin Fizgig, Maya Paris, Scottius Polke and Marcus Inkpen. How did you manage being part of a collaborative process like “The Path”, and would you do it again?

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

CJ: I think I would. The group of people that did it was for me the whole reason. I love to work with others but do my own part. I admire all the others and we did very well. I encountered no arguments or any weirdness during the making. Everyone did their thing, and when I saw it all in a piece, I was amazed. It worked so well, showing so many different minds the character went through. Sure, I would work with all of them again one day when I consider to do more art-based things again. “The Path” was like working on a surreal dream with others – using my abilities to create an environment for a story character. When I make a play with others like “The Path”, it is a little less emotionally driven – we focused like a custom creator to gain a goal. But when we are free and just can let go, the deeper elements come out. I never speak about the meaning. I prefer it when people just feel something. That’s better for me. We see what we want to see and

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we feel what we want to feel. JM: You have described your work as a “letting go of a long grieving, to let the spirits pass, and start new in peace”. Your work stunningly explores themes of rebirth. The spirit of one character dramatically rises from its corpse in “Spirit”. Do you draw on Eastern beliefs of reincarnation? CJ: I can’t say I am a religious person, but I have an ethic, and an inner belief that we want them to go in peace. A dream is like an everyday tiny death for me. I drift off into another world in my dreams. It seems quite natural to me that death would be quite similar to sleep. I went to India alone when I was 18, and it made a deep impression on me, like time travel. There were so many different smells in the cities – some nice, some horrid. I learned they have different gods they pray to. They said one god is too busy to listen to all of our problems. I found it brilliant. I’m not sure, but I think I can’t see it as a one-god thing. For me, all here is a wonder in itself. We just rarely notice things. Our lives are usually busy and we’re always in need of time rushing from one appointment to the next. It’s easy to forget that there is something else here besides ourselves and the favorite shopping we think we need. For me, to create is like the opposite of consuming. Yes, I think seeing India broke my heart, made me scared, made me feel like in a fairytale, and made me just feel like I traveled into a totally different time. I’ve never felt it again that strong since. We call it adventure, because we were afraid and had big open eyes. But it was sure a trip I will never forget. Maybe we need hope, where our rational minds can’t make up a good reason to keep on doing the hard life, but I realized that we accept what’s normal to us, and in their system of belief, it is karma. Nobody demonstrates on the street for more rights. It is the acceptance of their destiny that was so different than what I’ve seen in Western cultures. I saw such beautiful people in rags, dirty brown walls with eaten away posters, but such a

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

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grace around them. It’s hard to explain. It was mythical or magical. The feeling I brought back was incredible. It makes us see our normal life so differently. JM: Your works are technically very sophisticated and you have successfully incorporated mesh elements into your recent work. How do you find working with mesh and do you see it as the future of the virtual arts? CJ: It is a dream come true for me, it really is. I did start with sculpts because I was told it’s soon going to be mesh here, but I couldn’t wait. Mesh has its trickiness. It’s very hard to do all yourself from beginning to end and make it render okay here. We do have land impacts and no matter how much we like something, we do need to make sure it doesn’t fill a sim too fast. I think that it enables us to have much more freedom to create here, to show how we work also. Many always use prefabricated sculpties. It was a format that was just useful in here. Mesh is a medium that’s used in games, movies, digital media. I see it as a challenge; it is harder for me to make something I like. Technique is very much needed to do it well. And the programs aren’t easy to understand either. But I am sure some, like me for example, will bloom in some ways. To see what they’ve made rigged inside here is an experience I wish for all to have. Compare it to making your own cake. The smell out of the oven – the choice how to decorate it. It’s freedom. We all can go on building with prims or sculpties. Mesh is just an extra that can enable some to get further into a new medium one day.

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

JM: Our readers would be very interested in the technical aspects of your work. Without revealing any trade secrets, what software and other technical tools do you use in your creations? CJ: I use Zbrush most, but do retopo of my models in other software and uv unwraps. I felt like I was in an airplane cockpit at first, with all my bearings lost. After awhile, I saw more and more ways to understand the process. I still have so much to learn. I try to use Maya now also, and used Blender often for rigs and other

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parts. Blender is well documented and has many tutorials online made by users – very good ones – but it is a little hard for a creative person to be confronted with an interface that has too many words, numbers or terms they’ve never heard of. Now some free programs, like Sculptris, get people’s passions into manipulating in a clay-style way. I made a notecard with some links for people that asked me. It’s best to get free programs and just explore a little, and do step-bystep beginner tutorials, as silly as that sounds. It’s the best way to get a little understanding. JM: Someone did about a 10-minute machinima of your work – to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. CJ: Yes. That was jjccc, He’s an artist himself. He did a few and he’s great – so different. He made them and never told me a word until later after I had just seen them by accident. I couldn’t make machinimas like the ones of my work here. They’re amazing. Some even made songs themselves and were singing. I realized how much they had love for it that way. It was really nice to see it how they saw it. It becomes a new creation. I think like some write and some make machinimas. Others make content art, play SL gigs here or sell things. We see this virtual world differently than the way just visitors do. We all have a drive to make things better, in our ability. Also all the photographs. So many ways to create here. Even drama we can have here ^^. Just no smell or touch. I love SL. It made me learn new things. Who knows what we’ll do next year, but I do see why people like it here. JM: As a prolific and successful virtual artist, what do you see as the future for virtual artists? Is the picture rosy or bleak? CJ: It’s up to us. I feel we have some tools. Who will use them and see them as a gift, time will tell. But I do believe that we will see better graphic rendering, better creations, and new ways to express. I hope one day to

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

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Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

make a RL an installation, characters kiPath” was “exquisiteusing corpse” work byI made some in ofaSL’s netic So visitors not Bryn familiar virtual worlds most way. prominent artists, Oh,with Rose Borchovski, can walk intoEnfield, a spaceDouglas and accidentally creaDesdemona Story, Colinanimate Fizgig, Maya tures a screen with renderings I set. Much not Paris, on Scottius Polke and Marcus Inkpen. How was did you very easybeing for uspart to get making 3-D, manage of aexperienced collaborativewith process like “The but SLand is a great to start to understand the basics Path”, wouldplace you do it again? of film-related methods and techniques. We CJ:game I thinkorI would. The group of people that did it was probably would have always wondered how it’sothers done. for me the whole reason. I love to work with My in part. SL are the ones whoothers experiment but favorites do my own I admire all the and weand did find make something special. Noormatter what very ways well. to I encountered no arguments any weirdmedium theythe prefer to use. We all try. ness during making. Everyone did their thing, and when I saw it all in a piece, I was amazed. It worked JM: The Lindens beendifferent faulted for not supporting so well, showinghave so many minds the characthe arts enough SL, but through (Linden ter went through.inSure, I would work the withLEA all of them Endowment forwhen the Arts), which to supported Path”, again one day I consider do more“The art-based they have made tolike helpworking artists. What more, things again. “Theattempts Path” was on a surreal ifdream anything, you think the my Lindens could to help withdo others – using abilities todo create an nurture the virtual arts community? environment for a story character. When I make a play with others like “The Path”, it is a little less emotionCJ: questionlike haha. I am not sure. to I think allyUmm, driventricky – we focused a custom creator gain we all try makewe things here,and no just matter it’sgo, called a goal. Buttowhen are free caniflet the art or other names. Seeing the LEA makes deeper elements come out. Iallnever speaksims about the me feel that manyithave place tojust make meaning. I prefer whena people feelinstallations something. now, than before. all That’smore better for ever me. We see And whatamazing we wantartworks to see and of I think can to befeel. difficult for sim owners that wethem. feel what weitwant always invited artists before, now that LEA is here. All have many sides, and it’syour difficult forasme to say what’s JM: You have described work a “letting go of right wrong. I to hope all enjoy and do best as a longorgrieving, let the spiritsitpass, andthe start new long as it’sYour there. We will feel a missing once of it in peace”. work stunningly exploresspot themes is gone again. I amofsuper seeing my progress. rebirth. The spirit one happy character dramatically risesI think as corpse long asinwe love something weon doEastern with a befull from its “Spirit”. Do you draw heart, can make us so passionate that we get out of liefs ofitreincarnation? any CJ: Idark can’thole saythat’s I am left. a religious person, but I have an ethic, and an inner belief that we want them to go in JM: Claudia, it has a pleasure to share peace. A dream is been like ansuch everyday tiny death foryour me. thoughts your work andinthe art scene. hope I drift off about into another world mySLdreams. It Iseems these insightstowill readers to explore quite natural meencourage that deathour would be quite simi“Sprit” and other of your works, for when you truly are18, one of lar to sleep. I went to India alone I was and the shining creative lights here SL. Thank you,travel. Clauit made a deep impression oninme, like time dia. I hope to enjoy your phantasmagoThere werewe’ll so continue many different smells in the cities – ric delights many yearsI learned to come.they have different some nice, for some horrid.

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gods they pray to. They said one god is too busy to rez magazine listen to all ofby ourJami problems. I found it brilliant. I’m not Photographs Mills and Cat Boccaccio sure, but I think I can’t see it as a one-god thing. For me, here a wondercorpse” in itself.work We just Path”allwas anis“exquisite by rarely some notice of SL’s things. Our lives are usually busy we’re always in most prominent artists, Bryn Oh,and Rose Borchovski, need of timeEnfield, rushing from one appointment the Desdemona Douglas Story, Colin Fizgig,toMaya next. It’s easy Polke to forget there is something Paris, Scottius and that Marcus Inkpen. How did else you here besides the favorite shopping we manage beingourselves part of a and collaborative process like “The think For me, Path”, we andneed. would you dotoitcreate again?is like the opposite of consuming. Yes, I think seeing India broke my heart, made me Iscared, me feel like in athat fairytale, and CJ: I think would.made The group of people did it was made feel like I traveled a totally different for meme thejust whole reason. I loveinto to work with others time. felt itIagain that since. Wewe call it but doI’ve mynever own part. admire all strong the others and did adventure, we were afraid and had bigweirdopen very well. I because encountered no arguments or any eyes. But it was a tripEveryone I will never forget. Maybeand we ness during thesure making. did their thing, need rational minds can’t make up a whenhope, I saw where it all inour a piece, I was amazed. It worked good reason to keep on doing the hard life,the but I realso well, showing so many different minds characized that through. we accept what’s normal towith us, and inthem their ter went Sure, I would work all of system of belief, it is karma. Nobody on again one day when I consider to dodemonstrates more art-based the street for “The morePath” rights. It islike theworking acceptance their things again. was on a of surreal destiny that others was so–different what to I’vecreate seen an in dream with using mythan abilities Western cultures. saw such beautiful people environment for aIstory character. When I makeinarags, play dirty withPath”, eatenitaway posters, such a with brown others walls like “The is a little lessbut emotiongrace around them. It’s hard It was mythical ally driven – we focused liketo a explain. custom creator to gain or magical. feeling I brought a goal. But The when we are free andback just was can incredible. let go, the It makeselements us see ourcome normal so differently. deeper out.lifeI never speak about the JM: Your works areit technically very sophisticated and meaning. I prefer when people just feel something. you successfully meshtoelements That’shave better for me. Weincorporated see what we want see and into your recent work.to How we feel what we want feel.do you find working with mesh and do you see it as the future of the virtual arts? CJ: is ahave dream come true for work me, it as really is. I didgo start JM:ItYou described your a “letting of with sculpts because wasspirits told it’s soon going be a long grieving, to letI the pass, and starttonew mesh here,Your but Iwork couldn’t wait. Mesh has itsthemes trickiness. in peace”. stunningly explores of It’s very The hardspirit to doofallone yourself from dramatically beginning torises end rebirth. character and it render okay Do here. do on have land beimfrommake its corpse in “Spirit”. youWe draw Eastern pacts no matter how much we like something, liefs ofand reincarnation? we do need to make sure it doesn’t fill a sim too fast. I think that itsay enables to have much more to CJ: I can’t I am ausreligious person, butfreedom I have an create here, showbelief how that we work also.them Manytoalways ethic, and antoinner we want go in use prefabricated It was atiny format peace. A dream is sculpties. like an everyday deaththat for was me. just in here. Mesh is a in medium that’sItused in I driftuseful off into another world my dreams. seems

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

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quite natural to me that death would be quite similar to sleep. I went to India alone when I was 18, and it made a deep impression on me, like time travel. There were so many different smells in the cities – some nice, some horrid. I learned they have different gods they pray to. They said one god is too busy to listen to all of our problems. I found it brilliant. I’m not sure, but I think I can’t see it as a one-god thing. For me, all here is a wonder in itself. We just rarely notice things. Our lives are usually busy and we’re always in need of time rushing from one appointment to the next. It’s easy to forget that there is something else here besides ourselves and the favorite shopping we think we need. For me, to create is like the opposite of consuming. Yes, I think seeing India broke my heart, made me scared, made me feel like in a fairytale, and made me just feel like I traveled into a totally different time. I’ve never felt it again that strong since. We call it adventure, because we were afraid and had big open eyes. But it was sure a trip I will never forget. Maybe we need hope, where our rational minds can’t make up a good reason to keep on doing the hard life, but I realized that we accept what’s normal to us, and in their system of belief, it is karma. Nobody demonstrates on the street for more rights. It is the acceptance of their destiny that was so different than what I’ve seen in Western cultures. I saw such beautiful people in rags, dirty brown walls with eaten away posters, but such a grace around them. It’s hard to explain. It was mythical or magical. The feeling I brought back was incredible. It makes us see our normal life so differently. JM: Your works are technically very sophisticated and you have successfully incorporated mesh elements into your recent work. How do you find working with mesh and do you see it as the future of the virtual arts? CJ: It is a dream come true for me, it really is. I did start with sculpts because I was told it’s soon going to be mesh here, but I couldn’t wait. Mesh has its trickiness. It’s very hard to do all yourself from beginning to end

and make it render okay here. We do have land impacts and no matter how much we like something, we do need to make sure it doesn’t fill a sim too fast. I think that it enables us to have much more freedom to create here, to show how we work also. Many always use prefabricated sculpties. It was a format that was just useful in here. Mesh is a medium that’s used in games, movies, digital media. I see it as a challenge; it is harder for me to make something I like. Technique is very much needed to do it well. And the programs aren’t easy to understand either. But I am sure some, like me for example, will bloom in some ways. To see what they’ve made rigged inside here is an experience I wish for all to have. Compare it to making your own cake. The smell out of the oven – the choice how to decorate it. It’s freedom. We all can go on building with prims or sculpties. Mesh is just an extra that can enable some to get further into a new medium one day. JM: Our readers would be very interested in the technical aspects of your work. Without revealing any trade secrets, what software and other technical tools do you use in your creations? CJ: I use Zbrush most, but do retopo of my models in other software and uv unwraps. I felt like I was in an airplane cockpit at first, with all my bearings lost. After awhile, I saw more and more ways to understand the process. I still have so much to learn. I try to use Maya now also, and used Blender often for rigs and other parts. Blender is well documented and has many tutorials online made by users – very good ones – but it is a little hard for a creative person to be confronted with an interface that has too many words, numbers or terms they’ve never heard of. Now some free programs, like Sculptris, get people’s passions into manipulating in a clay-style way. I made a notecard with some links for people that asked me. It’s best to get free programs and just explore a little, and do step-bystep beginner tutorials, as silly as that sounds. It’s the best way to get a little understanding.

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JM: Someone did about a 10-minute machinima of your work – to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. CJ: Yes. That was jjccc, He’s an artist himself. He did a few and he’s great – so different. He made them and never told me a word until later after I had just seen them by accident. I couldn’t make machinimas like the ones of my work here. They’re amazing. Some even made songs themselves and were singing. I realized how much they had love for it that way. It was really nice to see it how they saw it. It becomes a new creation. I think like some write and some make machinimas. Others make content art, play SL gigs here or sell things. We see this virtual world differently than the way just visitors do. We all have a drive to make things better, in our ability. Also all the photographs. So many ways to create here. Even drama we can have here ^^. Just no smell or touch. I love SL. It made me learn new things. Who knows what we’ll do next year, but I do see why people like it here. JM: As a prolific and successful virtual artist, what do you see as the future for virtual artists? Is the picture rosy or bleak? CJ: It’s up to us. I feel we have some tools. Who will use them and see them as a gift, time will tell. But I do believe that we will see better graphic rendering, better creations, and new ways to express. I hope one day to make a RL installation, using characters I made in a kinetic way. So visitors not familiar with virtual worlds can walk into a space and accidentally animate creatures on a screen with renderings I set. Much was not very easy for us to get experienced with making 3-D, but SL is a great place to start to understand the basics of game or film-related methods and techniques. We probably would have always wondered how it’s done. My favorites in SL are the ones who experiment and find ways to make something special. No matter what medium they prefer to use. We all try.

JM: The Lindens have been faulted for not supporting the arts enough in SL, but through the LEA (Linden Endowment for the Arts), which supported “The Path”, they have made attempts to help artists. What more, if anything, do you think the Lindens could do to help nurture the virtual arts community? CJ: Umm, tricky question haha. I am not sure. I think we all try to make things here, no matter if it’s called art or other names. Seeing all the LEA sims makes me feel that many have a place to make installations now, more than ever before. And amazing artworks all of them. I think it can be difficult for sim owners that always invited artists before, now that LEA is here. All have many sides, and it’s difficult for me to say what’s right or wrong. I hope all enjoy it and do the best as long as it’s there. We will feel a missing spot once it is gone again. I am super happy seeing my progress. I think as long as we love something we do with a full heart, it can make us so passionate that we get out of any dark hole that’s left. JM: Claudia, it has been such a pleasure to share your thoughts about your work and the SL art scene. I hope these insights will encourage our readers to explore “Sprit” and other of your works, for you truly are one of the shining creative lights here in SL. Thank you, Claudia. I hope we’ll continue to enjoy your phantasmagoric delights for many years to come. rez magazine

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Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

metaverse art

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

metaverse art

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

metaverse art

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

metaverse art

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

metaverse art

Pictures: Spirit by claudia222 Jewell (Secondlife)

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ebration of Japanese popular culture”. (click images to enlarge)

1.2 Tendences Full Sim Mikati Slade

A Healthy Dose of Mikati Slade Pixi Rain I logged in to see a group notice from Art Gallery Diabolus (home of the Cybernetic Art Research Project) announcing that the latest installation by Mikati Slade would be opening in a few hours. I knew I would definitely be pulling out all the stops to be there! Mikati is a Japanese digital artist who studied classical sculpture and drawing at university. I first met her at Burn2 2011 and said at the time: “Now, if I had to isolate just one exhibit for you to go see…just one, then, without doubt it would be Mikati Slade’s simply stunning ‘Popscape’. It is a gigantic, no-apologies, no-compromise cel-

Her new installation, Kuru Kuru World maintains the Japanese Pop Art style of Popscape but, believe it or not, is actually even bigger than Popscape, is even less apologetic than Popscape and makes even fewer compromises than Popscape! This is a tremendously good thing! Such is the respect for and interest in Mikati’s work that at the opening I saw Bryn Oh, Scottius Polke, Marcus Inkpen, Fuschia Nightfire, Claudia222 Jewell – all of whom I admire and have previously blogged – prolific art photo-journalist Tim Deschanel, noted art blogger Quan Lavender and many others also attended. However, I was the only person with the depth of fashion sense to proudly don Mikati’s “Popscape” hat! There is something decidedly uplifting and healthy about Mikati Slade’s work. It is brain candy; indeed, it is ?????? for the soul! Mikati’s work cheers the heart on a frosty day! It provides colour, comfort and warmth in an increasingly gray, disturbed and cold world. Is there a deep meaning to this work, Kuru Kuru World? Probably, yes. Almost certainly Mikati will be able to share with you some philosophy or idea behind her installation. And this is all good. But, you know what? The work is - in and of itself, as a visual structure in its own right - enjoyable enough that there is no *need* to overlay a secondary layer of significance. I love it just how it is. I mean, you don’t play Pacman and expect to

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discover supernatural life, right? Or amuse yourself with Super Mario Brothers and expect each coin to turn into the Higgs Boson. Or even while away a few hours on Street Fighter II Turbo and expect to fight Titian as the End-Level Boss! Of course not. But nevertheless each of these activities is thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile in their own right, without any need for further explanation or justification. And so it is, I believe, with Kuru Kuru World. There is nothing “shallow” about this installation. On the contrary, Mikati Slade proves herself to be a digital sculptor of formidable knowledge and talent, with a deep understand of colour and shape. It is just, simply, that Kuru Kuru World is so enjoyable an experience that it doesn’t *need* any vindication other than to be what it is. Kuru Kuru isn’t, in my opinion, a cerebral installation. Nor is it a sensual installation. It is a visceral gut-level injection of innocent joy. And for that reason alone, I sincerely hope you visit it.

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mitaki slade

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ally about how I am. I have these impulses to do this or that and before I know it I am half way in creating it.

1.2 Tendences Full Sim Rebeca Bashly Inferno

Interview: Rebeca Bashly I am happy to report that Rebeca Bashly agreed to be interviewed for this blog. We spent almost a week trying to find a time to sit down together and finally ended up getting together last night at Rebeca’s place. Below is the interview that followed. Rebeca is currently exhibiting at Nordan Art. Flora Nordenskiold: Your ice statues are absolutely magical. Would you please tell us a little bit about how they came about, i.e. what got you started working on them? Rebeca Bashly: Well Flora, I honestly have no idea how all started…I know I did not plan to make ice sculptures…I just did them, that is re-

Flora Nordenskiold: Together with Igor Ballyhoo you also made Snowcrash, a creation based upon the novel by Neal Stephenson. This is a fantastic project, I have never seen anything like it in Second Life. Please tell us a little bit about this experience. Rebeca Bashly: Building Snowcrash with Igor is the most amazing thing that happened to me here. Imagine, building such fantastic project with the best builder in SL…my mind was ecstatic!! It is not something you can easily describe, you just have to be there….to feel it. His creative energy is so strong, so forceful… it’s just overwhelming. We were building Snowcrash so fast…it was like in a dream. Building with Igor made me the builder I am now. Flora Nordenskiold: Your new build, “House Where Nobody Lives,” left a lasting impression on me, but its different than the ice statues and different than Snowcrash. What inspires you to create so many different things in Second Life and what are some of the challenges you have come up against? Rebeca Bashly: Inspiration can come from anything and anywhere really, but all that I make is different and will be different, because that is me. I am always breaking out of my creation comfort zone and that makes me feel so free, so happy! When i was building Snowcrash the difficult thing was that I had to log out to get some sleep and I wanted to do it 24/7. When I built ice sculptures it was really hard to make perfect ice texture and it made me crazy. When I was build-

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ing house where no body lives, I was not really thrilled when I realised that I was making it just for it to sit in my inventory, and it was way too pretty for that. So every build has its challenge. Flora Nordenskiold: What are your thoughts on art and creativity in Second Life? Rebeca Bashly: I generally don’t think sad thoughts. Most of it I don’t like or I just don’t understand.^^ Flora Nordenskiold: Finally, I love Second Life, but I know I also sometimes struggle finding time for it. There are other times when I ask myself why I keep on doing it. What is it in your opinion about Second Life that keeps us coming back? Rebeca Bashly: I can only speak for my self really, I see that ppl are often here from completely different reasons than mine. What makes me come back is that I can create here with such ease, I have all I need for it! And those wonderful ppl i met here. Besides, its like being in a cartoon, and what kid can resist that. :) Flora Nordenskiold: Thanks, Rebeca. Rebeca Bashly: Thank you.

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Inferno The first circle, Limbo The second circle, Lust The third circle, Gluttony The fourth circle, Greed The fifth circle, Anger The sixth circle, Heresy The seventh circle, Violence The eight circle, Fraud The ninth circle, Treachery Rebeca Bashly’s work Inferno is a nine-level work based upon the nine circles of suffering described in the Inferno, the first part of Dante Alighieri’s Fourteenth-Century poem, the Divine Comedy. The nine circles of the Inferno (or Hell) are located within earth and are separated into three parts, representing three types of sin; self-indulgent sins (the first five circles), violent sins (circles six and seven) and malicious sins (circles eight and nine). The journey starts off in the dark woods, where we first meet Virgil, the poet, who will guide us in our travels to the underworld and through the nine circles of hell. The grey, threatening seeming forest consists of barren trees, with suffering faces as an integral part of their trunks. On our journey, we will continue seeing Virgil, not only as a guide, but also a teleport, transporting us through the nine circles of hell. We eventually enter hell through the Gate of Hell, noting the inscription “abandon all hope” above the gate. The entrance is large and dark, lending a sense of doom. The first circle, Limbo, is a region on the edge

of hell and it is meant for those who did not accept Christ, in some sense it is a lesser form of Heaven. The stone castle with the seven gates, representing seven virtues, is large and dark. We enter from a bridge and then find ourselves standing in a yard, with a grass ground, in front of groups of white, translucent figures sitting on the grass in the dark; these are some of the great thinkers, wise men, scientists, poets and philosophers. Entering the castle, we first come across Homer and Socrates. As we continue, climbing winding stairs, we see other white, translucent figures, there is even a child in a closet at the bottom of the staircase. The second circle, Lust, contains those led astray by lust; these are the first ones truly punished in hell. We find ourselves standing in a barren, moonlike landscape, on the edge of a large, deep hole, out of which a reddish, translucent whirlwind of faces appear. These faces seem to be in great agony and distress. Here we witness the conflict of love and lust and the tension between attraction and desire. The third circle, Gluttony, is a space for those involved with self-indulgence and addiction. This is a gloomy place where people lie scattered in a brownish area containing vile slush and mud produced by a never-ending muddy rain. There is a sense of doom and darkness hovering over these people suffering in their own misery.

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