Category: Kultivate

SL18B Welcome Area

Each year the Second Life Birthday events attracts resident exhibitors from across Second Life and its multiple communities, giving them the opportunity to promote their work and their activities to the virtual world at large, and SL18B in no exception. One of the communities that, through individual and cross-supportive exhibitions, always offers much to see is the Second Life arts community, and in this article I’ve tried to highlight as many of those that I’m aware are participating in this year’s event. If I have missed yours, then I extend my apologies.

Be sure to have Advanced lighting Model (ALM) active in your viewer (Preferences → Graphics → check Advanced Lighting Model) and that you are set to use Shared Environments (World → Environment → check Use Shared Environment).

Amaze

• The Ablyss – an immersive art experience by Manx Wharton and Zinnia Zauber that invites visitors to experience…

GenovArt B&W Gallery: Caly Applewhyte

I made my first 2021 trip to the GenovArt Galleries, curated by Juna (Junanuj) this week to take in the latest exhibition to open at the centre’s B&W hall. It  will certainly no be my last.

Featuring the work of Calypso Applewhyte, Sandi Benelli, Sisi Biedermann and Christower Dae, the exhibition opened on Monday May 31st, and is very much a must-see collection of art by SL artists and photographers I highly respect or am just coming to appreciate.

Sisi Biedermann is someone who needs no introduction to those who regularly read these pages. I have been, and remain, in awe of her artistry, which is broad-ranging in style and technique, encompassing everything from photography to oil or watercolour on canvas, etchings, tiled mosaics, and digital mixed media, whilst encompassing just about every kind of subject.

GenovArt B&W Gallery: Sisi Biedermann

The pieces offered…

A Touch of Scotland – Bluebell Coast – June 2021

I’ve been a little preoccupied with various things of late, which means some of my blogging has been slipping. I’m not sure when the preoccupations will decrease to a point where I’m back to a more regular cadence of posts (the usual two a day at least), but in the meantime I am still trying to chug along with reports and articles on art and places to visit.

All of which brings me to Bluebell Coast, a Homestead region designed by Christina Riolz (Christina Hammerer) and John Dee Riolz (JohnMcFluff), which takes as its full title: A Touch of Scotland – Bluebell Coast, which the couple describe thus:

The Ayrshire Coastal Path- Be ye Man or Bairn or Wumman, Be ye gaun or be ye comin, For Scotland’s Pride no Scotland’s shame, Gether yer litter and tak it Hame!

A…

via Linden Lab

On Friday, June 4th, Linden Lab broke the news that the company’s CEO, Ebbe Altberg had passed away.

The post, from Patch Linden, reads in part:

Second Life found new highs in 2020 between a worldwide pandemic taking grip, through the times of a tumultuous leadership change in the United States, and during movements of civil changes that will forever live in history books.  Second Life provides many with the comfort of a normal that continues to exist for all of us, where many use it to escape real life pressures, stressors and day to day challenges.  In Second Life we can be our ideal, our best, celebrate all that is good across the world together.  Sadly we have also seen some people go, and they will never be forgotten as they touched us, gave us their best from their hearts, minds and souls – this thing…

Jaimson Arts, June 2021

Having opened its door in mid-May, Jamison Arts is a boutique style gallery operated by Harlow Jamison (HarlowJamison), a long-term Second life resident enjoying a new lease of life within the platform.

Located in a  cosy building of a style popular with SL gallery owners simply because it naturally lends itself to being used as exhibition space, Jamison Arts offer two floors for displaying art, which might be used for joint or ensemble exhibitions or (potentially) for a focused exhibition of a single artist’s work

Jamison Arts: SabrinaCooke

For the May / June exhibition – which I’m getting to a little late, so my apologies to Harlow and the artists – the former is the case, with Harlow devoting the ground level of the gallery to a New Artist Showcase featuring the work of SL photographer SabrinaCooke, with the upper level split between the original art…

via Linden Lab

There have been a series of announcements from the the Lab – formal and informal – that I’m catching up on.

Linden Dollar “Buy” Fee Change

The biggest – and the one formal announcement – is the notice that Linden Dollar “buy” fees are changing as from Thursday, April 22nd, 2021.

Currently, a flat fee of US $.149 is applied to all Linden Dollar purchases. From April 22nd this will be changing. As of that date:

• A new 7.5% buy fee will be applied, based on the total value of the transaction purchase amount, up to a maximum of US $9.99 per purchase transaction.
• The US $1.49 will become the minimum fee charged per purchase transaction.

Examples:

• You purchase US $15 of Linden Dollars – 7.5% of 15 is  $1.10 and less than US $1.49 – so the fee charged is US $1.49.
• You purchase US $30…

Photographer Nils Urqhart is organising the 2021 “RL Photo Festival” – you can see his work at his Art Gallery Rill’Arts

The Third “RL Photo Festival” (formerly  the Annual International RL Photography Festival) will take place between Wednesday, March 31st, 2021 and Sunday, April 25th, 2021. organised by photographer Nils Urqhart, and  hosted at the Helvellyn Gallery).

The festival is intended to be a celebration of artistic photographic  expression for the physical world, and is open to anyone from across Second Life with an interest it, or passion for, photography. All submissions should meet the following guidelines:

• Submissions must be original photographs recorded in the physical world (to images captured in Second Life or computer games).
• Submissions may be in colour or black and white, and may be on any theme,  and in accordance with the following criteria:
  • All content must be family friendly. Submissions can depict the human form…

VWBPE 2021

The 14th annual  Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference will take place in Second Life between Thursday, March 18th and Saturday, March 20th 2021, with the supporting programme commencing on Wednesday, March 3rd.

The core schedule of events for the conference has been officially announced, and highlights include (att at the main auditorium, unless otherwise stated):

• March 18th:
  • 08:00-09:00 SLT: Kick-off event at the VWBPE Gateway.
  • 09:00-09:50 SLT: Keynote address – About the History of Virtual Reality and the Meaning of VR for Education with Dr. Undine Frömming (Angenblick Winkler SL); HMKW Berlin, University of Applied Science for Media, Communication and Management.
  • 15:00-15:50 SLT: What’s up at the Lab? with Patch Linden and hosted by Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal), VWBPE Director; Rockcliffe University Consortium.
• March 19th:
  • 08:00-08:50 SLT: Keynote address – Heike Philp (Gwen Gwasi).  Details TBA.
• March 20th:
  • 09:00-09:50 SLT: keynote address…

Raging Graphix Gallery: Yin and Yang

Currently on show at Raging Bellls’ Raging Graphix Gallery is a joint exhibition by Second Life partners, John (Johannes Huntsman) and Tempest Rosca-Huntsman (Tempest Rosca) entitled Yin and Yang.

It’s a title that reflects both the art on display and the artists themselves on a number of levels. At its most literal, the title reflects the fact that whilst opposites on several levels (e.g. male and female, the fact that they originate on opposite sides of the Atlantic, etc.), Tempest and John naturally combine to form a whole. There’s also the fact that all healthy relationships contain within them the ability to grow and change, for both sides to contribute to the whole – and through their art and other endeavours in Second Life this is very true of John and Tempest.

Raging Graphix Gallery: Yin and Yang – Tempest Rosca

The title…

Dya’s Little Jordan, February 2021

The start of February saw me hop over to tour Dya OHare’s latest design at her homestead region after receiving an invitation from her to do so. It’s a setting that sees Dya move away from the Americas, which have been a focus for her last two designs (see:  Dya’s Scent of the Caribbean in Second Lifeand Dya’s Southern Twilight), and instead turn to the Middle East for inspiration.

As its name suggestions, Dya’s Little Jordan is a take on the Kingdom of Jordan, and it has quite a lot to offer Second Life photographers. However, I’ll state up-front that, thanks to past idiocy on the part of some visiting Dya’s builds, group membership (L$300, so not a fortune) is now required to access Dya’s region, so do keep that in mind. I’ll also confess that Jordan isn’t a country with which I’m…

via Speedlight

I’ve fallen behind in my tracking of Speedlight, the browser / Android / iOS Second Life client. There are several reasons for this – most of them down to me & time (or lack thereof), although I admit a couple of issues with the application have also kept me from using it. With regards to the latter, I’d like to offer a doff of my virtual hat and a “thank you” to the Speedlight Live Chat support mechanism and Speedlight Support Manager QuincyJohnes (that’s a name you have to love for it’s little play on things) for getting me sorted in very short order.

There have been numerous changes to Speedlight since my last article in July 2020 (see: Speedlight: group functionality and other updates), some of which are more under-the-hood than user visible, and there are several more in the pipeline. As such, this piece is offered…

Tonarino, February 2021

On February 1st, we dropped in on Tonarino, the Full region held and designed by 秋元のん (n0rik0). At the time, the focus of our visit was the region’s sky platform, Nekomachi Street (see: The cats of Tonarino in Second Life), but I noted we also hopped down to see what had changed within the region’s ground level design since our last visit in December 2019 (as recorded in Tonarino: an oriental curio in Second Life), and I promised to provide an update.

Well, truth be told, first looks tended to suggest not a lot had changed; the majority of the region is still given over to a large landmass in part cut through by the single line of a railway track that terminates abruptly alongside a little station building, while a small stream slices through the bedrock. Around both lies a landscape suggestive of the…

Monocle Man Gallery: Hilaire Beaumont

Currently available the Monocle Man Gallery, curated by Kit Boyd and Lynx Luga, is an outstanding exhibition by Hiliare Beaumont. Untitled, it presents a series of self-portrait avatar studies that are – despite the fact I often use this phrase with regards to art exhibitions in Second Life – genuinely rich in their depth of narrative and content.

These are piece that bring together a range of inspirations – literature, film, music, elements of fantasy, historical drama to present pieces that are evocative, layered and often highly emotive. Through their presentation, these are pieces that illustrate the fact that Hilaire was initially drawn to Second Life as a place of role-play, and has since grown towards photography as a means of expression and emotional release.

Monocle Man Gallery: Hilaire Beaumont

The role-play aspect can perhaps be seen in the likes of Le Fantome de…

PAC Featured Artist: Giovanna Cerise

Giovanna Cerise is an artist whom I’ve admired for years. Her work, which spans both the virtual and the physical, is exceptional, whether seen as an individual piece, or as a complete installation.

As I recently reported, she has recently returned to artistic expression through Second Life after a hiatus of several years, opening a studio gallery at Campbell Coast – and I’m particularly honoured and delighted to announce that Giovanna is the first artist to appear at the Phoenix Artists Collaboration as a Featured Artist.

PAC Featured Artist: Giovanna Cerise

Officially opening on Saturday, February 6th, 2021 at PAC, is a special display of art Giovanna has put together, entitled Traces. It marks her first formal exhibition since her return to Second Life – although it will obviously not be her last. It  presents a mix of her work, past and present; …