Author: Johannes Huntsman

The University of Western Australia has been a long-term patron of the arts in Second Life

From 2009 through through 2018, the University of Western Australia (UWA) was a name synonymous with patronage of the arts in Second Life.

The university first became involved in Second Life largely through the encouragement of faculty member Jayjay Zifanwe, and under his guidance and the curation of FreeWee Ling, UWA oversaw a series of art challenges that offered impressive cash rewards for 2D, 3D and machinima artists.

These Art and Grand Challenges yielded some of the most exceptional displays of art and creativity seen within – and beyond – Second Life, and became a hallmark for artistic excellence.  Over the years, I attempted to cover down the years through this blog; however, from the end of 2015, UWA started a gradual winding-down of their operations in Second Life.

This started with the…

Artists’ Village, Campbell Coast

The Artists’ Village at Campbell Coast, created by BJoyful and Doc Rast (rasterscan) and curated by Owl Dragonash, opened A Street Fair, an extensive ensemble exhibition of 2D and 3D art on Tuesday, September 22nd.

A Scottish themed Mainland residential setting that’s open to the public, Campbell Coast offers access to both Linden roads and protected land and to sailable water, with the Artists’ village occupying one corner overlooking the coastal waters. The exhibition features a mix of residential artists and guest artists, with art displays both within the town houses of the village, along the cobbled streets and on the outdoor walls of some of the the buildings.

Artists’ Village, Campbell Coast: Etamae

Participating artists within the studio spaces comprise:  Dhyezl, Moondance, Reycharles, Gidgy Adagio, Whimsical Aristocrat, Michiel Bechir, Owl Dragonash, John and Tempest Huntsman, Suzen Juel, Dimi Ludwig, Jed Luckless, Lexus Melodie…

A Thousand Windows, September 2020 – click any image for full size

Lotus Mastroianni and Fred Hamilton (frecoi) are back with another region design that will likely be around for a month(ish) for people to enjoy. Their most recent builds have tended to have an urban design rooted in the physical world, starting with their take on a Brazilian favela back in May of 2020 (see:  Visiting A Favela in Second Life), and this latest design continues this theme, appearing to be inspired by a part of a place that lies very close to my heart.

With A Thousand Windows, Fred and Lotus seems to take as their inspiration the tight-knit tenement blocks located in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula. Mong Kok is a place I’ve visited on numerous occasions in my life (notably as a result of once living in Hong Kong many…

via Linden Lab / RedBubble

Some might say it’s a long time overdue, but on Friday, September 25th, Linden Lab announced the launch of the official Second Life Merchandise Store offering a range of physical world merchandise related to Second Life and Linden Lab.

The on-line store is hosted by RedBubble, and currently comprises a range of SL and Lab branded clothing items and accessories utilising both the “new” and “old” logos, with the promise that more items t come soon, including seasonal and limited time items.

The Second Life store on RedBubble

As with most virtual market stores, the RedBubble Second Life Merchandise Store feature a list of categories down the left side of the page (note: these are a part of the site design, and not all of them may apply specifically to Second Life / Linden Lab). The main part of the site is then devoted…

via Linden Lab

In August 2019, and after an eight-year run (it’s first public exhibitions coming in 2011 after initially being announced in late 2010), the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) closed, the organising committee having decided to step away from managing it (see: Linden Endowment for the Arts to officially close, LEA: more on the closure, and a move to save it and Linden Endowment for the Arts: update).

Following the announcement, there were numerous discussions on how the work of the LEA might be continued. In particular, artists Tansee Resident and Riannah Avora launched an in-world group specifically with the aim of gathering ideas and viewpoints on how the work of the LEA – and Linden Lab’s involvement in the body – might be continued.

At the time, a lot of discussions were held and a considerable number of ideas put forward (I was happy to…

Linden Realms is now running in the cloud – on the beta grid. Image courtesy of Linden Lab

Linden Realms was the first Linden Lab developed game using experience tools. First introduced in 2011 (see: The Linden Realms game: Rock on!), the game has been updated numerous times over the years, the last time in 2018 (see: The further revamp of Linden Realms in Second Life).

It is now the next major element of Second Life (after the core Blake Sea regions) to be cloned to Aditi, the beta grid, and uploaded to the cloud – and Linden Lab are asking users to give it a go, so they can further test region  / simulator operations under load when running on AWS services.

The request for assistance came via a blog post on Monday, September 15th, which reads in full:

As you may know, we are in the process…

Hermes Kondor: Reflections

In July I wrote about an exhibition of physical world photographs by Hermes Kondor, available at his own Kondor Photo Gallery (see: The beauty of steam machines in Second Life). However, that gallery is only a part of a complex that Hermes has put together, so I decided to hop back for a further look. The complex comprises several individual areas linked by a teleport disc system. These facilities comprise: a boulevard of rental studios for artists, an attractively Deco night club, and three galleries – including the photo gallery noted above – and a studio/gallery used to display Hermes’ SL avatar studies.

Hermes’ primary gallery is the Kondor Art Centre, which at the time of my visit was home to an exhibition entitled Reflections.

I invite you to join on a journey deep inside a magical lake, where we will find strange and…

Boulder, September 2020 – click any image for full size

Note: membership of the [valium] group is required to access this region – see below for why.

We first visited Boulder, the latest region to be opened by Vally Lavender (Valium Lavender) back at the time of its opening at the end of July  2020.  At the time, I admit I held off on writing about it, as both Caitlyn and I found the region somewhat heavy-going – which can often be the case with terry Fotherington’s regions designs (as Boulder is) when heavily populated by avatars. As such, I had intended to drop back in August, once the initial rush of a new region opening had passed and Boulder would be quieter. But things bring what they have been, I’ve only just managed to make good on that plan, so my apologies to Vally for only now getting…

A rezzing system makes it easy to swap between house designs and furnishings, and the Multi Scene Rezzer & Multi Scene Erazer Pro V5 makes it an exceptionally low-cost option

While hardly new to SL, rezzing systems are something I’ve written about on a few occasions as a means of making convenient use of space, and being quickly able to swap between house interiors with things like Linden Homes (see: Saving your Bellisseria house designs for re-use with a rezzing system) and / or being able to swap back and forth between vehicles within taking up too much in the way of LI by keeping them rezzed all the time (see: Adding a little vehicle space with a rezzing system).

I’ve used such systems extensively throughout my SL time, particularly with reference to house / landscape designs, where I’ve tended to lay out house and landscape and then drop…