Koinup for Arts News and Views.

Welcome to the new style KoinUp blog, kinda smooth-looking I think. In these Virtual Arts posts I hope to be able to bring you some of the more interesting things on offer in Virtual worlds.

In this post.....
Breaking News for AM Radio Fans
University of Western Australia
Brooklyn is Watching
Lindens Support the Arts????


There’s nothing more frustrating than going to see a show, waiting ten minutes for the thing to rezz and then finding out there’s loads of dodgy photos of roses or cats which would be more at home in Google Images than wasting both prims and my valuable time in some poorly designed virtual gallery. So....I hope to be able to point you, whether you are a noob or veteran in the direction of some tasty bits and pieces.



I am very critical of my own work and feel that this gives me the right to be critical of others too. As I have said elsewhere, if you can’t take constructive criticism, see a shrink, or give up art. Art appreciation is purely personal, you like it or you don’t and any number of intellectual pages or notecard won’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.
I have hung shows in (RL) galleries myself, (often 300 a month) so I have seen quite a bit. I tend to praise 3D work and digital art more than poor resolution shots of RL 2D stuff, for obvious reasons, I think, and hope you enjoy some of my selections.


First up..... Oberon Onmura and Ninka Darkstone..... ....AM Radio news and more









The University of Western Australia has, in a brief two or three months won over a substantial group of SL artists. They have regular monthly shows/competitions both for imaginative art and for flagship architecture. Hosted by Jayjay Zifanwe, pictured above, and aided by the tireless Quadrapop they not only award prizes but also share a small cash pool with all the entrants.

This, (previously) unheard-of generosity should be a lesson for all those who rely on the hard work of artists who provide free content and traffic to otherwise empty sims. Well done, very well worth supporting, I think.





Oberon Onmura is a well known SL artist and this piece, called Light Traffic I believe, really embodies a lot of things I like about the best of SL art. ....imaginative, amusing and only possible in a virtual world. Playing with gravity (lack of) is something architects could do a lot more with than they do too.

This piece, along with the following one by Ninka is on show at UWA....here





Now, there are many KoinUp readers who don’t share my aversion for realism, and, though it is it is fine to be hypocritical (saves me from being consequent) I do have a realistic avi and nice clothes.
So, I make no apology for the inclusion of......
Ninka Darkstone has her flamingos on show here too. The scripting and texturing is of the highest quality and they are well worth a visit, as is her shop....here.



So.... Friday, 13th, Brooklyn is Watching, (an open art show, for those of you who don’t know it) is moving, courtesy of the generous Mab Macmoragh to ::Push:: a sim sponsored by Mab, I believe.

BiW is basically a huge computer screen on the wall of a cafe in Brooklyn (RL) where one avi is controlled by people too frightened to come inworld themselves. Sorry if that sounds a little negative, but I do sometimes feel like I’m in a freak show.
I have already awarded a prize to BiW, namely, title for the worst use of the english language in their sign, which says....” Do something “here” and “you” will be watched.”....now this excessive use of quotation marks has me picturing some complete nerd making little rabbit ear signs with his fingers. I am not a “you” in any shape or form of the english language I have previously read on either side of the pond.

Currently, Oberon is showing the above piece there, Cheen Pitney, Sunn Thunders, Betty Tureaud, Pol Jarvinen, Magina Forcella, Cinco Pizzicato.....to name a few....

However, if you fancy seeing a fair number of well known and lesser known artists, it’s a good place to go to see a range of work, there’s always something there worth seeing, and if you have a performance piece you want to be seen in Brooklyn.....

go here... from tomorrow, Friday....





This is White Lebed, and she, apart from being an extremely fine sculptor (noone bends a nice prim) is an extremely talented curator and organiser. She is the brains behind the success of AG3, Angelgate, and has been one of the key figures in getting BL09 to run sooo smoothly this year.

After what would have been a stressful enough few weeks to put any normal person in a padded cell... White organised Adam Ramona's show at Kolor, covered in Koinup by Poid, here

Talking to White earlier today she revealed that AM Radio was going to bring back his BL09 installation for Afterburn showing.

"AM Radio had major computer problems during BL preparation and he couldn't make exactly what he was planning to do for one of 12 Big Art plots."

"He was very disappointed about that. Even in not completed form his installation was one of the most popular in BL. I think it would be great to give him a chance to realize his vision fully. He is going to be the first presentor of Afteburn program. In addition to that he will teach an advanced building class right next to his BL installatoin. He doesn't talk publicly too often, so I think it would be a very interesting event and a great launch of the new Afterburn season"

Now there are more than a few people who remember Whites great series of lectures which she got top SL artists to give at AG3 (which is now "on hold" for a while)...and I have no doubt those AM Radio Tutorial seats will be taken pretty sharpish...

" I am thinking of making this Afterburn program working like that - established artists show their builds from previous BL sessions and discuss their artworks in a class. We will cover some technical and artistical aspects of content creation in SL. These classes will be a great preparation for the next year BL."

I think Poid had also talked to LL about this idea before, but now it seemed like this is more than a rumour... one sim isn't much, really, but considering how little LL has done previously for artists..... this was news....

A series of lectures on various building techniques could be to their advantage too, of course. According to White the series of 9 "anti-lag classes" she arranged this year led to a halving of the lag at BL09.

"I even have a name for it - Burniversity." White smiled.

:))