Author: John

Solo Arte – Not Only … But Also

Opening on Wednesday, July 19th, 2017 at 1:00pm SLT is a new exhibition at Solo Arte entitled Not Only … But Also. It features the art and images of Boudicca Amat and myself.

Receiving an invitation to display my images always comes as a mixture of thrill and nervousness. Thrill, because I don’t regard myself as any kind of Second Life photographic artist – my images are primarily concerned with illustrating the posts I write about the places I visit. Nervousness, simply because my work, as illustrative, tends to be a little “plain Jane” when compared with the true masters of the SL landscape.

Solo Arte – Not Only … But Also

I mention this not out of modesty, but because I’ve previously written about exhibitions at Solo Arte, and the idea of filling the space there with only my work…

During the past week three new videos of Sansar Creator Preview have been uploaded on the official Sansar YouTube channel. Sansar Creator Preview will open to the public sometime before the end of the summer.

If you have missed any of the latest Sansar videos then you can watch them all below. The latest three videos are all pretty impressive showing a glance into Sansar. Hopefully the lab will launch Sansar Creator Preview within the next month or so.

19th July 2017

Blueberry shares her experiences creating “Blueberry Town” and other works in Sansar.

12th July

3D content and environmental artist Maxwell Graf shares his thoughts creating “Neptune’s Revenge” and other roleplaying experiences in Sansar.

6th July

Ria shares her thoughts on this new platform and offers a sneak peek at “Little Giant,” one of the first experiences created with Sansar during the creator preview.

What do you think…

Ever heard about Moya, about Patrick Moya? No? Nor did I.
Looking for a place to visit and scrolling through the SLdestinationguide I came across StudioMoya: “Explore this creative, messy and chaotic art space by Patrick Moya“.
Well I did explore it stating at MoyaLand.

Patrick Moya (born 1955 in Troyes, France), is a French artist. He is a part of the artistic movement “Ecole de Nice”. Moya has been at the forefront since the 1970s of straddling the latest forms of media and technology to benefit art rather than rendering it extinct. He is an early pioneer of video art.
Moya become a digital artist since his early work on computer in the mid-80s : now, since 2007, he is the owner of a virtual Moya Land in the 3D web of Second Life.
In 2009, he participates to the first major…

Early last week I viewed several current gallery exhibits which I’m going to share the landmarks to so you can enjoy them as well. At Gallery 23 at Virtual Chelsea Hotel six artists are showing work through August. On the left in the photo above is shown work by Pepper Chaffe. On the right are Decayed Maps by Klaus. Other exhibitors are Jim Garand, Gjo Bing, Pi and John B.

At La Maison d’Aneli in Virtual Holland through August are works by Kicca Igaly, Red Bikcin, Vonniethefox, Terra Merhyem and Rage Darkstone. The photo above shows art by Vonniethefox with a glimpse of Kicca Igaly’s in the background to the right.

The colorful pieces by Vonniethefox are animated and I find them delightful.

‘Absences’, a photo exhibit by Melusina Parkin is at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The sculptures are by Nitro Fireguard.

You can pick up an intro notecard written…

Commonwealth Village

Commonwealth Village is a Mainland located Community themed on the looks and climate of New England. Developed by Derek Boston, it offers residential rentals, village shopping and an expanding arts and music programme.

Built around a central square without outlying rental residences all in a New England style, the communal heart of the community is a tavern-side meadow where live music events are held, together with open mic sessions. Friday July 14th will see Nikita Mortenwold performing on the stage from 14:00 SLT, followed by Ian Bleac at 15:00 SLT.

Commonwealth Village

Also opening at 14:00 SLT on Friday 14th July is a new art exhibition at the Commonwealth Village. An open-air event being held on the paved piazza in front of the village’s imposing pavilion, I’m quite delighted and honoured to say that the display is of work by …. me!

It was a genuine surprise and…

Commune Utopia: Cybele Moon

I often discuss the idea of narrative in images when review art in these pages. Not every picture has to tell a tale beyond itself, but for me, depth is added when it does; when the image before you becomes a glimpse caught in time of a far broader canvas, inviting the imagination into it and consider all that might lie beyond the window we see.

When it comes to the art of Cybele Moon (Hana Hoobinoo), we are given not so much a window into a narrative, but a doorway into entire realms. Her work is, in a word ethereal; there is a beauty and depth to it which is magnificently and hauntingly moving – and you can can witness this for yourself at the meadow art area in Commune Utopia, where she has been invited to exhibit her work. She presents 15…

SL14B, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

The latest episode of Designing Worlds – where we visit some of the amazing builds and installations of Second Life’s 14th Birthday celebrations – is now on the web!

We explore some of the open public builds, including the Auditorium and Max’s Mystery Island and of course the amazing Russian fairytale Cake Stage, as well as the Welcome Area, where we speak to Darkstone Aeon and BB Woodford and the Left Stage (The Guardian), where we talk to Walton F. Wainwright.

SL14B: TJ’s Magic and the Cake Stage, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

We also take a look at a small selection at the wealth of the individual installations, including iSkye Silverweb’s Hippie Carnivalesque and Loki Elit’s The Stuff Inside His Head, and we talk to Baron Jiminy and xJessicax Harvy about the Shakespeare Theatre; to Daark Gothly about the installation she created with Dream Wrexen…

Radegast Rebranded

Cinder Roxley continues with her promise to maintain and improve the Radegast lightweight client for Second Life and OpenSim, and on July 15th she released version 2.24, which sees a range of improvements, both visible and under-the-hood.

In terms of user-visible changes, Radegast2.24 allows:

• Triggering gestures directly from nearby chat, just as you would from any viewer (e.g. by whatever trigger is set for the gesture – such as “/hey”).
• The wearing of multiple system layers (multiple pants, shirt, jacket, tattoo, layers), again as has been the case with the viewer for the last several years.
• An audible “pop” sound when blue notifications open, to assist the visually impaired when notifications are received.

Under the hood are even more changes, with Cinder continuing to refactor and improve the code – notable focusing on the plug-ins manager, and a new tarball for Linux installation. In the case of…

SL14B, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

The latest episode of Designing Worlds – where we visit some of the amazing builds and installations of Second Life’s 14th Birthday celebrations – is now on the web!

We explore some of the open public builds, including the Auditorium and Max’s Mystery Island and of course the amazing Russian fairytale Cake Stage, as well as the Welcome Area, where we speak to Darkstone Aeon and BB Woodford and the Left Stage (The Guardian), where we talk to Walton F. Wainwright.

SL14B: TJ’s Magic and the Cake Stage, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

We also take a look at a small selection at the wealth of the individual installations, including iSkye Silverweb’s Hippie Carnivalesque and Loki Elit’s The Stuff Inside His Head, and we talk to Baron Jiminy and xJessicax Harvy about the Shakespeare Theatre; to Daark Gothly about the installation she created with Dream Wrexen…

Builders Brewery – photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

Join us at 2pm SLT today, Monday 17th July, for the new episode of Designing Worlds at our studio in Garden of Dreams, where we will be learning all about the special Second Life educational establishment that teaches you all about building (and much more) in Second Life – Builders Brewery!

We visit the Brewery with Sensuous (Sen) Maximus who explains something of the history of the Brewery, and also the different elements on offer, including stores stocking materials for building, a sandbox and a terraforming area. We visit classrooms and Saffia actually attempts a class and discovers how to build a special summery creation!

Builders Brewery – photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

We also talk to Yen Verhoeven who is carrying out research for her Ph.D thesis on Virtual Learning: An Application of Constructivist Grounded Theory to Explore Emergent Learning in…

Sofia brought this sim to my attention after seeing it somewhere and we decided to pay it a visit.  Let me start by stating that this is a BDSM Adult sim and a very beautiful one at that.  I am happy to report that we did not get bothered in the manner that you might at other Adult BDSM sims (which was refreshing) and were able to enjoy looking around and taking pictures without harassment of any sort.  The build itself is breathtaking and any toys and tools for the fetish have been incorporated tastefully into the layout of the place very well. If you seek a beautiful place for some breathtaking photos, I highly recommend this sim and, if you are so inclined or just curious, there appears to be more than just photos there to enjoy 🙂

I hope you enjoy the pictures and I have included the…

It’s midsummer and the heat has set in RL. Wow…heat indices over the century mark (Fahrenheit) is serious business as we seek relief at the beach, in the shade, or indoors where the air conditioning hums along. Æon often boasts that it’s always a balmy 72° at Ce Soir Arts – and he’s right on the money, thank goodness!

Come on over and relax in the refreshing and invigorating environment of the BEACHES Art Exhibit, newly opened at Côte de la Mer Galerie & Lawn. There are 12 artists sharing their vision of beaches and what they represent in our lives – how they impact relationships, how they inspire our dreams, and what emotion they evoke in us…deep in our souls. There is something about water – moving in a natural body – that touches the spirit. The ebb and flow, whether at the ocean shore or the…

On Tuesday, July 11th, Linden Lab issued an updated Terms of Service, which is due to come into effect on July 31st, 2017. As is the Lab’s usual practice, anyone logging-in to one of the Lab’s services for the first time after the new Terms have come into force will be required to accept them. As such, a read through is advisable beforehand.

The summary of the changes indicate them to be:

• A restructuring of the Terms to include terms and conditions that apply to all Linden Lab products, with separate product-specific references (such as Linden Dollar and LindeX for SL) now contained within product-specific policies. The new Second Life Terms and Conditions contains all the Second Life-specific references that were previously in the Terms of Service.
• Reference to the Lab’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Tilia Inc. and Tilia Branch UK Ltd., have been added. These companies will be handling payment…

Automattic strongly believes in a free and open Internet and it’s hard to imagine a truly open Internet without Net Neutrality.

What Is Net Neutrality?

“Net Neutrality” is the simple but very powerful principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Whether you’re reading a blog post on WordPress.com, streaming Game of Thrones on HBO GO, or browsing handcrafted tea cozies on Etsy, your Internet service provider delivers the Internet to you at the same speed, without blocking, throttling, or charging extra tolls based on the content you’re viewing. You can learn more about Net Neutrality and why it’s important by visiting battleforthenet.com.

Net Neutrality gives all online businesses, large and small, a chance to reach customers and succeed. It also protects important free speech rights online by prohibiting Internet providers from slowing or blocking sites or messages they don’t agree with.

Net Neutrality means an Internet where…