OMNIBUS lovely landscapes

Second life is a bit back-to-front in a number of ways, one of which being that, despite the manic striving for ‘realism’ by some, it, and other Virtual Worlds are all bald. There is, unlike the ‘real’ world a total deforestation of land before you buy it, so you start off with a blank canvas. This obviously has it’s pro’s and con’s.

It isn’t unusual for land owners to put buildings up first and then, with the few prims they have left to throw a few Linden “photo-on-sticks’ trees around the site in an effort to make a landscape.

Luckily for us all there are exceptions, those who realise that actually a house is not so important in a climateless zone, and they relish creating a natural habitat.

Now this is not a "Meet me in the Metaverse" post.....just a look at some landscapes......so....some images of these attempts....






This picture by Vani ice called second life world shows just the sort of thing I mean. Here the designer has realised that it is the natural setting that really shows off the building. The photo is simple and well composed.






Bountiful isla mallorca ll by riotgrrrl 1974 is a riot of flowers. The simplicity of the landscape is actually quite realistic in that much of nature is a simple community of very few plants. Her treatment of the image takes it to other dimensions though.






LookatmyBack has, similarly, transformed a fairly plain scene into a rich image enhancing a sunset to the sort of surreal colourscape that we do see sometimes in RL, well...nearly.. This one is called....Isolation is not that good to me... I'm going crazy! .... :)) great place to go mad, though.






The woods can be quite moody and mysterious, and The Colours! by Franzael from the World of Warcraft, has certainly captured that magic. Dark, with light in the distance, it really makes you feel you are in there.






Well, while not quite as good a photographer as some I felt justified in popping this little one in here by soror Nishi as I've worked all my Second Life on landscaping. This one is from Magoo and shows the power of a good Windlight setting. This is Gelatto, one of the many settings you can play with, and suddenly transforms the scene into a swamp landscape.. worth playing around a lot before you snap.






Swan is another case in point, here Novadyszel has changed the whole feeling of this picture with a bit of simple re-working of the image in Photoshop, or Gimp or whatever....and it is suddenly an oriental swan... I think water, with its reflections is one of the most effective 'terrain textures' in Virtual World, certainly better than most 'grass'...


Now, maybe it’s because there are a lot of urbanites in Second Life, after all, if you love the Great Outdoors, the chances are you hate sitting in front of a computer screen, but those who have a genuine feeling for Nature make all our lives that much richer....

...and those that document the varied environments of Virtual Worlds give us all a chance to see what is out there to go and visit: keep it up...

:))
sorornishi@mac.com

New Koinup Column: Stories From The Machine

Greetings Koinup friends! Phaylen here! Some of you may know me from the machinima web series "DiVAS" while others may remember me from Virtual Big Brother or as the American Correspondent for the Italian production company Magnolia in their virtual production of Celebrity Survivor which aired in Italy, Germany and Japan on Rai.Due. Maybe you've listened to my Podcast or watched the show I produced "I Wanna Be A Celebrity!" Maybe you've run into me in Second Life where I've been active for the last 7 years!

What's that? You don't know me at all?

Well nice to meet you! I can't tell you how honored I am to have been asked to join the family here at Koinup where I have been a member since it's very early days! I am so fortunate to have gotten to know a great many of you artists in the realms of Machinima, photography and digital art during my time here, and the work many of you share on Koinup is nothing short of inspiring.

As a contribute to the Koinup blog, I'll be writing a weekly feature on virtual films - or, Machinima - from around this vast Metaverse. The community of filmmakers who harness the power of various virtual platforms to tell compelling stories is ever growing. In "Stories From the Machine," we will spotlight creators who have made some of the most remarkable achievements in that spectrum. Today, stories that have the power to move, immerse or invoke reaction are no longer limited to books, television or Hollywood productions. In fact, some of the most interesting tales are coming right out of World Of Warcraft, Second Life, The Sims, Halo or any number of virtual words and engines! There are even some amazing productions coming from various software developed specifically for machinimists to manufacture their stories. Ultimately, the term Machinima (A portmanteau of Machinine Cinema) encompasses any production created in a graphics engine or game engine, and it has carved out a pretty profound niche for itself in online culture!

I hope that you - yes you out there, will upload your works here at Koinup to share with, and contribute to our wonderfully diverse community! Don't forget - You can even import your works from YouTube directly to Koinup! Help has created a wonderful tutorial if you'd like to know how! That said, I hope you'll also join me each week as we embark on new adventures together and explore some of the best Stories from the Machine!

Phaylen Fairchild

Phaylen's Official Blog
Phaylen's Koinup
Follow Phaylen on Twitter!

Virtual Desktop Wallpaper Competition

With the help of the Metaverse (and Wallpaper) artist Shoji, Koinup is launching a new awesome competition open to all virtual worlds guys! The contest is called: Virtual Wallpaper Contest and basically it ask participants to create a wallpaper desktop by using imagineries/sceneries of virtual worlds. You can read all the rules, and guidelines, here!

JOIN THE CONTEST NOW!

The three winning pics will gain a placement in the Koinup front-page, moreover, we're talking with metaverse developers for providing winners and honorary mention participants other cool prizes and awards....

The best of Koinup. This week

BURNING LIFE
It's not easy to sum in a single post the most awesome things done by all the Koinup members during this week. But surely, something very relevant has been created by the Koinup blog team made up by Poid Mahovlich, Soror Nishi, Fiona Haworth. The fab three covered the Burning Life events, with a series of useful posts and with the creation of group that collect hundreds of Burning Life 2009 images.




3D GIRLS CONTEST
The 3D Girls Contest has been not started this week. But it seems that most of the entries were submitted these days, so it make sense include this news in "the best Koinup things of this week". One of the most exciting things about the 3D Girls Contest is that the challenge is open not only to virtual worlds members, but also to creators and artists that use 3D tools as Posers, Daz3D, Maya. So, its a sort of 3D Art manifesto!



(image by Kaya Hansome)


WORLD OF WARCRAFT ARTIST
On the Koinup Facebook Page we daily profile the most interesting Koinup members, groups and artists (so, well, you're clearly invited to join the page and stay tuned with its updates). One of the profiles of the week is from a fantastic artist, mostly active in World of Warcraft: Arowhena. I invite you to browse her amazing gallery of Warcraft images

Koinup's Cream of the Crop - Burning Life

As our continuing coverage of Burning Life continues this week I bring you Koinup's Cream of the Crop - Burning Life. This is an excellent group to join and add your memories from this year's event and also to browse and get a good look of all there is going on. With 218 works in this grouping posted by 41 members it's a really impressive collection.

There are only a few more days left to such a great event, so I also wanted to provide you a few links on what's going on out on the Burning Life sims so you can time your visit: http://burninglife.secondlife.com/eventsbrowse. Here's your link to the front gate: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life-%20Hualapai/253/3/24%C2%A0. I recommend if you are going with friends grab a tie dyed cart just inside the gate and travel in style.

Machinima by: RockerFaerie

RockerFaerie takes us on a really fantastic journey around a few of the exhibits at this year's event. It's really well shot and put together. If you don't think you have time to make it....at least watch the vid, you'll change your mind. This piece highlights works from Snowy Hoobinoo, Donpatchy Dagostino, Kazuhiro Aridian, and Poid Mahovlich.

Photo by: TaliaTokugawa

TaliaTokugawa's BL Berlin09 is a fantastic shot of one of the many stages out at the Burning Life sims. This particular stage was made by Kazuhiro Aridian...who is the fabulous creator of Europa.

Photo by: LoquaciaLoon

LoquaciaLoon's piece named Moon was shot at Burning Life-12 Mile and is just one of the many freebies available for you this year. Grapho Fullstop, of alpha-tribe, not only includes five marvelous avatars but some corresponding animations and some fabulous fun. Grab the notecard and enjoy this site.

Next week we return to our regular columns so please feel free to PM me on Koinup and tell me all about what's happening in your groups. You never know when you'll be Koinup's Cream of the Crop pick of the week!

Fiona Haworth
Guest Author - Koinup.com
Staff Blogger - Phantom’s Republic
Co-Owner - Prim Pads
Twitter - Fiona_Haworth

The Art of Burning Life .. Part Five

OK, so here are a few things I have seen at BL09 that you might like to check out.
These are a mixture of great pieces and pure fun, so I hope it will save you lots of laggy flying around and bungie walking over sim boundaries.....




Now, some of your humans may be old enough to remember the Mouse Trap game, and Nawlins Streeter has faithfully reproduced it here for your amusement...





for those of you unfamiliar with the game its a Heath Robinson type construction produced for the general amusement of kids in the 60’s or 70’s...somewhere around that time, back in the mists of antiquity....

You might need Nawlins to reset the green man to get the full effect....stand under the cage as it descends.






and the DMV is well worth a visit, right next to the mousetrap game.
Poid has a well written interview with the madman (well.....genius/madman) that made it all....here..
You can drive a spaceship, a fairy cake, an office chair....etc out into the desert....






Mr Bones .. here....is the sort of person that always leaves you with a wry smile..... I love most everything he builds. Tongue-in-cheek is a great starting point to design....






Poid has written a great interview with Selavy Oh ...here... and If you want a bit of fun, I can definitely recommend a visit....go smash some geometry.



If you haven’t yet been to see The Tower...well...you should, I think. It's built by Frigg Ragu and Alpha Auer.
Alpha Auer is a very talented builder and has provided free, high-class avis for you to play around in. Frigg has forgotten more about animations than I will ever know.


If you fancy doing NOTHING....then go see nothing by Naxos L.
I did enjoy doing the bunny hop, but then, as I have said before, I’m easily amused....







And, last but not least two builds I would have in my backyard... firstly, madcow cosmos.
here
Enjoy it just for the quality of the build, it is better than any monument or archeological site you could ever find on the atomic planet...






and....a person I don’t know much about, Marcus Inkpen and a great build....here...


Then.....happening more or less NOW.....(that's Wednesday......21st Oct. .)
Party....

“It's time to light up the playa night again!
Come and join the Lamplighters as we walk north, from Lamplighter Village, to Center Camp, The Man and The Temple, lighting roadside lamps along the way.
After the procession we will dance and drum at The Temple, and illuminate the night with fire, from SL sunset to sunrise. That's 7:30 to 8:30 PM SLT.
FREE drums and gifts at Lamplighter Village. Drums available at The Temple too. Come PARTY with us! :-)))”



Now, if that doesn’t keep you amused...there’s no hope for you.
.......that should be enough for a few hours......

:))

sorornishi@mac.com

Koinup at SMAU 09 Milano

Dear friends, this short post is just to tell you that Koinup is exhibitor at SMAU Milano 09. SMAU for the people that don't know yet, is the most important tech fair in Italy.

Koinup is exhibiting inside the project: I percorsi dell'Innovazione, a startup program directed by the innovologist Emil Abirascid.

If you're passing or leaving near Milan, we invite you to visit SMAU and meet us (rl). You can find the Koinup stand in Pad.4. All the info to visit SMAU, here

See you!
Pie

Selavy Oh - Irregularity - The Art Of Burning Life Part 4 on metanopsis

Selavy Oh brings together something truly interactive with her build ‘Irregularity’ at Burning Life this year – ''Initially, the structure is completely symmetric and regular, but becomes more and more irregular over time. Each visitor actively participates in this transformation: When avatars fly through the structure and collide with it, the edges touched fall down and the structure temporarily becomes damaged. After a certain time, which depends on how many visitors are present, the edges will start to rise and slowly move back towards their original position. However, they never end up in exact the same position, thus resulting in an accumulative disarrangement of the structure'' – She writes in her note card by way of an explanation.

Her work to me, on this particular occasion, makes me feel like I am playing and interacting with a maths formula, and an almost childlike feeling came over me – as I felt myself regress to that simple childhood state and I recalled the same curiosity of seeing what would happen when playing with building blocks – It’s great fun, and a great example of the how scripting in combination with a beautiful artist form, works on both a visual and technical level. Interactive art in this virtual world of ours provides an added immersive experience and this to me is a key factor.
I think that it’s a very important than even though Burning Life is trying to aesthetically mirror aspects of Burning Man, that it still retains and explores the added dynamic of the virtual creative possibility which reaches beyond the day to day dynamic of a physical earth world. It’s very much a natural creative evolution – and I would like to see it come full circle – perhaps with virtual art being part of the real life playa – that opens in return a door and adds a cross connectivity that portals in both directions – maybe, say in the form of a Burning Life art work being displayed on a giant screen at Burning Man, showing the virtual playa or maybe bring a virtually created art piece to the playa and tackle the limitations that a non virtual world imposes – let’s see how this unfolds ...

You can find a camp directory to Burning Life by using this link You can also find a list of Burning Life events by using this one Also if you so wish take a direct TP to Selavy’s art plot by clicking here



Q1. Tell us in 6 words what best describes you best of all.
Seven spheres inside a single head

Q2. Tell us in 11 words what best describes your Art best of all.
Here we go: if that would work, I would be done

Q3. What brought you to the Metaverse and how did you get here?
Just as every other avatar, I was created. You never know for what reason. You may be created just because of ennui, or you may be there to act as representation of your creator. You may even be an art project. But take your chance; get your own life, your own identity!

Q4. You have an Art Project at Burning Life this year, what challenges if any did you have to overcome or consider whilst building at this particular event? Would you like to tell us a little more about your build?
The challenge is always to build within the given boundaries. Since I had applied with a specific project in mind, the space and size restrictions actually posed a problem. But the most difficult challenge was the restriction on script load: my scripts take more time just because of their number, but I hope that white lebed continues to back me!
Briefly, my build called "irregularity" is a structure consisting of 1872 poles arranged in a three-dimensional grid and forming a hollow sphere. Initially, the structure is completely regular, but over time each intruding visitor participates in making it more and more irregular. At the end of burning life, I hope that the structure will have evolved to assuming a new unique shape, which is formed by the behaviour of the visitors.

Q5. What is your personal favourite art plot or camp or indeed both at Burning Life this year and why?
Well, I didn't really see much of the other work; just what's next to mine, and therefore I can't give an informed answer here. I’ve visited the plots of friends such as those of alpha auer, bryn oh, and dekka raymaker, I’ve seen the build of adam ramona, and I can recommend them all! and of course I’m looking forward to what others like am radio will show.

Q6. What would you recommend changes in Second Life to facilitate the arts in a better way?
An alternate user interface that could be used in the setting of a gallery or a museum. Presenting art that uses second life as medium in an exhibition is currently very difficult, and in my opinion an easy interface which allows not much more than moving and touching, not even teleporting, would help. and then a possibility to possess artworks, not just inside second life. you can possess a photograph, a video tape, even a CD containing the executable of a piece of computer art. but art made with second life will always remain on the servers of linden labs. at the moment, i'm afraid that this doesn't really help collectors and museums in recognizing virtual-world art as a serious art form.



Q7. How important do you think the creative arts plays a role within the Second Life community?
My guess, without being able to verify it, would be that it plays a similar role as in everyday life. Just as an example: the MoMa, which is open the whole year and makes 20 to 30 different exhibitions, has about 2 million visitors per year. The Munich beer fest, the Oktoberfest, which lasts for just two weeks every year, has about 6 million visitors.
At least we have an advantage: while you can enjoy art in second life, drinking beer isn't really fun.

Q8. What is your next project going to be? Are you mulling over anything?
The next project is a terrain composition for several prims.

Q9. In what way do you like to document your work in Second Life best? Which form would you personally recommend?
How do you document a performance? Or graffiti on a subway door? Is a photograph or a video sufficient to document it? My work involves participation, and you cannot really document that, you have to experience it. But is an accurate documentation what we really need? What we need is an audience, and if we're lucky, we'll be remembered.



Q10. We all tend to have an influence that inspires us when creating - whom has this effect on you?
Taking a shower or reading the LSL (linden script language) wiki inspires me a lot. More seriously, and concerning the 'whom' in your question: art as I see it is always also about art. And therefore it's obvious that you certainly can find references to contemporary art and artists in my work; you may call that inspiration, but in fact it means placing my work in a context.

Now Selavy - yo have a chance to ask yourself 3 questions it can be about anything you like ANYTHING!
Q1. How frequently do you take showers?
Q2. Why do you participate in interviews like this?
Q3. How is Rrose doing?

Ok well that will teach me to say ask questions - I didn't mention about answering them 0_o *note to self ha

Until next time on metanopsis

Poid
Poid Mahovlich on Koinup
Poid Mahovlich - blog spot

The Art of Burning Life .. Part Three

Now Burning life has had around a thousand people participate this year and for many it was their first time doing so, Burning Virgins.
I thought it might be nice, as a lot of press will be given to the more famous and accomplished builders, to show a few shots of people I have been to see, or encouraged to show this year.

Everyone has to start somewhere and if I can encourage someone to think of doing their first show next year then that would be excellent.

Here are 4 new Burners.

Firstly a girl called Trill Zapatero, who hasn’t reached her first rezzday yet, amused me (I am easily amused) with her ladders, I climbed up through the clouds effortlessly...





....to this little hide-away which I enjoyed high above the madness below it felt very safe and secret. I thought this was a great place to hang out for a while.






There is the option below to take a balloon ride too, her slurl is... here






There is also the option of joining a group and building with others.

Two other new builders are both members of A Freak of Nature, a group I set up for people who either build or enjoy strange flora, so they have the same slurl.. here

In no particular order...... Pixi Cosmos, maker of this fine pink tree and various waterlillies on the site, has only recently started building and has shown some plants here for the first time... Pixi has a garden where she works and reworks her landscaping ideas in Carrick.... check out her profile, I’m sure you would be made welcome.






Snowy Hoobinoo is a creator of strange alien plant forms which are unlike the flora anyone else creates in SL and worth exploring further. He has a shop called EPIstems... check out his profile for details.







Then, Betony Greggan, also a newcomer to Burning Life created this classic little campsite ......here
.... with all the sorts of details I would want in RL, including the walrus...:))

It’s nice to pop in and see these places, it sort of makes it more likely that you might build a camp next year if you have never done so before. It doesn't have to be earth shattering to give you an immense feeling of achievement, and the feedback you get is a great morale boost. The encouragement is vital, I think, to us all...old Burners and new.

So....if you haven't 'burnt' yet, talk to some of the new people on smaller camps and find out more....I'm sure you won't regret it...


:))
sorornishi@mac.com

Meet Me in the Metaverse - Burning Life

Yesterday marked the opening of the Burning Life sims, and already we've had a number of really fabulous photos submitted to the Places collections. There are 34 sims with over 400 installations to visit. It's quite a sight to behold.

If you've not attended Burning Life before there are a few greeter stations available near the main gate of http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life-%20Hualapai/253/3/24 or http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life-%20Deep%20Hole/4/3/24.

Machinima by: Poid_Mahovlich

Our own Poid Mahovlich claimed a bit of virtual land on Burning Life - Rabbithole. She used some inspiration from the RL Burning Man and produced a lovely installation called Cabaret of Flames. It is full of fire, drums, and dance. Watch this lovely bit of machinima shot at the installation and then go experience it for yourself. Additionally, you can read more about Poid's inspiration at her website: http://cabaretofflames.blogspot.com/

Photo by: RAFTWETJewell

This snap from RAFTWETJewell was taken at the Radiant Bliss Music Project installation located at Burning Life - High Rock. It's both psychedelic and a really fun place to party. They have events on Monday all day and Wednesday all day so try to stop on out and catch it.

Photo by: bark

As a huge fan of Gulliver's Travels I just had to include this installation by Ub Yifu. bark's photo of this installation on Burning Life -3 Mile is really wonderful. All the small people on Gulliver are about avatar sized and there are some poseballs for you to play on and takes some photos of yourself participating in the capture. Really wonderful work!

Burning Life only runs until Oct 25th so make sure you get over there and check out what our residents have created just for this special event. And stay tuned to Koinup's blog as we all bring you our own perceptions of such a fabulous event.

Fiona Haworth
Guest Author - Koinup.com
Staff Blogger - Phantom’s Republic
Co-Owner - Prim Pads
Twitter - Fiona_Haworth

Emcee Widget The DMV -The Art Of Burning Life 2009 Part 2 on metanopsis

The gate road entry to Burning Life is thrown open today, Saturday 17th October at 12Noon SLT – there is so much to see and do there its breath taking, it’s the biggest art event in the metaverse – so I urge you to take some time out from your day and take a peak, no rush to stampede it you got a week! Reduce lag by lowering your draw distance, remove any attachments and embrace the lag! I decided to take a peek at one of the volunteers working hard to get this show on the road – so introducing to you Emcee Widget, who works in the DMV – Department of Mutant Vehicles - building art cars; he in fact leads that builders group. The DMV have a very cool hang out diner where you can also grab an art car via the rezzer – TP direct from here and grab yourself a fun vehicle and start your adventures on the virtual playa! Art comes in many forms this being another of them .... ZZZZzzzzzzzzoooomm - Alright over to Emcee ...



Q1. Tell us in 6 words what best describes you.
Seeking better questions, rather than answers.

Q2. What brought you to the Metaverse and how did you get here?

That is so lost in the mists of time and happenstance, but I think it may have had to do with an article in Wired or in the Economist, which says a lot about me and it made reference to Neal Stephenson's Cyberpunk novel Snow Crash. Being a big Stephenson fan, I had to see this place! If you know Snow Crash, the first thing I bought in world after getting off Orientation Island was a Katana sword from Hiro Pendragon. I also experienced a resident "giving back," as Hiro Pendragon taught me how to unpack a box to get to my Katana. I thought that was amazingly cool and kind to do, and that Second Life was different. Thanks Hiro! You set me on a course of giving back to others in SL through that kindness! Rest assured I've progressed a bit since then buddy! Day two saw me in a sandbox making simple things, ironically enough the first thing I made was an Avatar accessory - a simple Halo. /me laughs. I have gotten a bit more expressive since then.

Q3. You’re involved in Burning Life again this year, working in the DMV (department of Mutant Vehicles) how did this come to pass?


Woody Allen says that 99% of success is showing up. I showed up last year for BL08 fully engaged with the principles of Burning Man and I was ready to DO something...our 2008 DMV lead's computer crashed and he couldn't get on. Well push came to shove and Gypsy Paz and I practiced radical self reliance and we started...leading and we took over as Leads for the DMV! We were caught a little short on time and we both agreed when we were done with building vehicles non-stop that we loved the experience, but we thought that Burning Life Vehicles and the DMV could really represent the Burning Man experience of Community far more than they did. Gypsy and I, friends forged from the fires of Burning Life 08 stayed close through the year. We stood up pretty early and volunteered for BL09 Lead positions again. I guess we had everyone snookered last year and so off we went with the blessings of everyone to get 'er done at the DMV and have a good time doing it. My goal was to create an atmosphere of creativity and community for DMV builders. We practiced Radical inclusion - accepting near all the volunteers that wanted to be a part of the DMV, and we saw the results - radical self expression from our DMV team. Dang they rock.

Q4. You have created a number of art cars for Burning Life - what is your personal favourite and why?

So that is like asking someone to pick their favourite child Poid! C'mon! Out of the works that I have done personally, (so I don't have to pick from somebody else's builds that are ALL better than mine!) my great labour of love was building Dusty and Danger Ranger’s 1963 Plymouth Valiant last year http://www.flickr.com/photos/10111/sets/72157619086192579/with/2878845719/ . This was literally my first ground vehicle ever and it challenged me. I mean ... I normally work in nanoprims. I now know way too much about Plymouth valiant’s...but the car came out nicely and was a lot of fun to gift over. This year I have passed the gift of this build on to someone else and the DMV is rebuilding the Red Death with Sculptys.



Q5. Other members of the DMV have also been very busy building, can you tell us a bit about the type of art cars they have been working on?

First of all I LOVE the work that our team has done. Period, hands down there are truly AMAZING Artworks that are vehicles that White Lebed (who is far more of a real artist than I) says stand up against some of the best non-moving art that she has seen in SL. We have highly participatory vehicles that are used by individuals, groups for touring, and we have bikes for just gettin' around like the yellow bike program. We also have reused all the 2008 vehicles and we have one of the first BL vehicles, the Cupcake car. A number of the vehicles are clearly evolved..Like riding snails and a giant tick (eww! *grins*). We have alternative energy vehicles that run on everything from honey to passion. Hows that for Evolution?! We have giant touring snails, Water trucks, cars that are "absurd" that will make you laugh, vehicles that will make you think, vehicles you can dance on, vehicles that you can cuddle on. If you have ever wanted to ride a spermatozoa...this is your chance at BL09! It’s amazing what the DMV has come up with in a radical participation. We have made some amazing friends during this journey prior to the burn, and we will be seeing everyone at the DMV diners for CRUISE NIGHT events. I want to give special thanks to our Diner team for creating an amazing place to hang out or pick up a Mutant Vehicle. Check out the menu at the DMV diner!

Q6. When scripting for an event such as Burning Life - what are the challenges you come up against when utilizing vehicle scripts? Do you have any recommendations or words of wisdom to give? We all know crossing a sim boarder is a tough one - any tips at all?

First of all our Scripting Gods in the form of Gypsy Paz and Waya Sion have crafted some amazing vehicle scripts. Me, I do a good job adjusting Jopsy's particle scripts. hehe. Our vehicles rez out of our gas pumps at DMV DINER camps and around SL at DMV kiosks. There are somewhere around 30 different DMV vehicles! You just walk up to one and DRIVE. We have some good default views setup, but you may want use camera controls to change the view. When you are done driving stand up and the vehicle won’t eject you like most do thanks to Waya's script wizardry. The vehicle sits for a few minutes waiting for a new driver and then if nobody takes it...*poof* it’s gone! Most of the large vehicles accommodate a driver and passenger. Very large ones will accommodate up to six avatars and our tour vehicles accommodate 8 avatars.

As far as tips go - Ride any physical vehicle in Second life with a light hand and a sense of humour. Consider others experience when you drive out onto the playa. Clearly you can't hurt yourself or anyone like at Burning Man, but you can impact their experience. Be Civil! Drive slowly as the Sims may be laggy despite our best efforts. Plan your route and drive with the minimap open. Stay away from sim borders and turn on land borders in your client. Some roads straddle sim borders. CUIDADO CHICA! Cross slow and with care if you do have to cross a sim border. Weird stuff will graphically happen, and it will go on and maybe on longer than you expect. Be patient and give it all a chance to settle out. Some parcels of land around stages will cause the vehicle to stop working. They are set to a different group. You may find that out soon enough if you drive into them. Let a Ranger know that you have abandoned ship and they will get the vehicle off the playa. Stay on roads as much as possible, and stop if a Ranger, staff, or Linden hails you (just like Burning Man). Heck, it might be me with a gift for ya!

Q7. What aspect of creating art cars do you enjoy the most?

The very very first time you drop the scripts in and do a sit. There is absolutely nothing like that first movement forward EVER for your creation. It’s very cool. Now, most people laugh at what I make, so I usually look forward to that too...at least I think I do! *Grins*



Q8. Where does the inspiration come when building these art cars? Or is it all from the depths of your imagination?

So setting me aside, our group did a lot of thinking about the theme of Evolution and they also scoured the Burning Man site and Danger Rangers site: for inspiration. Then..They got together and started building. Some built their own cars and others formed groups. There was a lot of interaction and cross fertilization of ideas and general hubbub. Some had been waiting all year to put forward their designs. Some started out with moderate skills and as a result of the experience they learned a lot. Others gave the gift of mentoring and didn't build much at all, or simply helped in a small way here or there. Some were inspiration themselves for the vehicle. There is a certain BlackWolf Brand matchbox out there made into a vehicle!

Q9. Other residents working outside the DMV also have traditionally created art cars. What have you seen? What caught your eye at Burning Life?

One of the things we chose to limit ourselves to, and it was just a choice to keep things simple, was to not do flying vehicles in the DMV. Now with that said I have seen some amazing touring blimps with fantastic textures that would be right at home in Black Rock City. I have also seen a BRC water truck that people who go to Burning Man IRL will recognize as where they take their showers...Camp Builders have come into the DMV looking for scripts and help with their vehicles, and like the borg they have been assimilated into the DMV without much fuss..So a lot of the vehicles you may see in DMV rezzers started out from the Camps.

Q10. What would you personally recommend to a first time visitor to go see at Burning Life 2009?

I've been waiting for this trick question....! Go see? Go SEE? What?? No! NO NO! Participate! Go PARTICIPATE. You don't see Burning Life. You DO Burning Life! Wade in! Get Messy! (Didn't Miss Frizzle say that?) And participate with whoever is there with whatever is there in an honest unmediated straightforward exchange. Bring gifts! Accept them too! Talk, laugh, Dance with fire! Become part of the community! I really don't give a hoot if you never get out of one sim. Just do THAT, and you will be a Burner.



OK Emcee you now have the opportunity to ask yourself 3 questions - it can be on any topic that you like - so please knock yourself out!

Q1. So, you've been living the Burn for over a month now with the DMV. Are you burned out yet? Going to do it again in 2010?

You know, I sit here writing this on the eve of opening of BL09 so ready, so in the groove of the 10 principles of Burning Man that I want to just get out on the playa and GO! Hehe. I will be Rangering (look me up! I have goodies!) And leading some of our Cruise Nights and sock hops. You will probably see me around next year too, as this is my favourite event in SL. Who knows what I'll do next year!

Q2. So what do you realllly do..No not in Real Life,(who cares about that!?) but in SL?

*Grins* It’s really funny because people do ask me if I do vehicles, can I do a custom vehicle, etc. I typically do jewellery, and I have taught jewellery making and founded the Master Jeweller’s Guild of Second Life. This is a community self-managed group that sets standards for excellence and training as well as business ethics. Sounds kinda Burning Man like, eh? I am also a Browncoat if you know what that is. Browncoats are Burners, they just don't know it.

My Links to Koinup and flickr

Q3. Give us your best parting shot and then shut up. This has run waaaayyy too long!:

Danger Ranger drew a line in the sand and told us all that everything would be different...I would be different...and we held hands and stepped across that line together, as one. The wind whipped up and I looked back to see that bare etching in the Playa blown away, erased from earth and memory. I could never find that line again to cross back. And I didn't care. Hand in hand we walked forward into the best Burn ever - Burning Life 09!

Until Next Time on metanopsis
Poid

Poid Mahovlich on Koinup
Poid Mahovlich - blog spot

The Art of Burning Life, ....Part One

Over the next while Koinup will be helping you find your way around the huge area that is Burning Life 2009.

We, Poid, Fiona and I will be pointing out some of the artists who's work we like. Some are famous, some less so, but we hope to give you a few "pointers"; some interviews, some pictures, some reviews and background info.




The first one I have been to see is "Bringing Water to the Desert" it's a joint build by Alizarin Goldflake and Rezago Kokorin.
(SLurl at the end of this post.)

Both are artists who have been working for quite a while in SL....here's a bit of background info...

Alizarin Goldflake has been creating immersive art in Second Life since 2006. She specializes in hand-drawn textures (Corel Painter) and the creation of builds with strong moods. She shows widely in SL, including Angelgate, Ars Simulacra, the UTSA Imagine Festival, and the Crescent Museum.

Alizarin has done most of the textures and structure of the build, Rezago has done the "critters" being a skilled scripter amongst other things....




Rezago Kokorin is an accomplished Second Life builder and a founding member of the Virtual Artist Alliance. Before his recent sabbatical from SL, he ran the weekly Haiku Speed Build and an extensive series of classes on script modification. Many of SL's best artists got jumpstarted by Rezago. He also, along with Sunn Thunders, created the popular and informative build called "The Abyss."

It's great to see Rezago back, I learned a fair bit at his scripting classes but the timezone got me in the end....




Watch out....I got my foot bitten by the clam....... well....you can click on almost anything in this build and you'll get a ride.... or an animation of some kind...

“With everything in flames in the hot, dry desert, we thought it might be handy to have a great big tank of water at Burning Life, so we are contributing an aquarium. Come on in and take a cool, freshing swim with one of the pose balls. Right click on the giant fish to go for a ride. Look for the mysterious vanishing blue jelly fish. Sit on the rocks and relax as the diatoms drift down around you and the seaweed gently waves.”

Like all of Alizarin's builds you get inside the piece and feel you are there, underwater in this case, and the outside just fades away. Relaxing, amusing and well made, this one is well worth a visit, and both the builders are very pleasant people to chat to.

OK....so the SLurl is here...


:))

sorornishi@mac.com

Auto-Share your Koinup pics to Facebook

What's better than updating two accounts with only one click? Today, we release a new Koinup feature that allow our members to auto-share their Koinup pics to Facebook. Its a two steps procedure. You have only to grab your Facebook upload email (the link works only if you're logged in FB) and paste it in your Koinup Account (same here, click if you're logged in Koinup). Then, each new picture you will upload on Koinup, it will be automatically posted on your Facebook profile.

Have a look at the tutorial, to visualize the procedure.


(You can also expand the autosharing functionalities, by adding your Flickr upload email to your Koinup account and starting to crosspost on Flickr. We explained this other option, extensively here)

The best of Koinup. This week

This is the second post of the new Koinup blog column: "The best of Koinup" The column is for those readers tht if though they love Koinup, they don't have so much time to stay in loop daily. So we abstract some of the most interesting stuffs, people and news of the website and place here in this post.

FACE OF KOINUP CONTEST WINNERS
This week, we announced the winners of the Face of Koinup Contest. The pool was filled with hundreds of amazing submissions, and it was really a challenge to pick only a few entries. We picked 8 winners and a bunch of honorary mentions. Read the complete announcement, here




OMNIBUS TAKES ON KINGS AND KNIGHTS
The clever Soror Nishi, guest blogger on this journal, wrote an interesting pieces on an archetypal subject that often feature in virtual worlds images: Kings and Knights. A must read, if you want to go deeper in the secrets of the Virtual World Art




THE ART OF MACHINIMA BY ROCKER FAERIE
Talking about Virtual World Art, you can't miss the art of Rocker Faerie. She is an artist, photographer and mainly an imaginative machinimator. Explore the RockerFaerie portfolio or watch now her new machinima: Circus

Koinup's Cream of the Crop - Virtual Worlds Untouched

So last week I took you on a tour to see some heavily post processed works of art. This week I bring you Koinup's Cream of the Crop pick of Virtual Worlds Untouched. This group was created to showcase virtually raw shots that were not just mundane in nature but superior snaps made by composing and lighting the shot just right in game.

The 33 members of this group use the tools in game as well as using their creative eye or classic photography rules to compose beautiful shots that just makes our jaw drop. For some great ways to spruce up your raw photos while shooting try some of these resources:

• Secondlife sky/water settings - http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/WindLight_settings
• Classic Photography Rules - http://tinyurl.com/ygavqmu or this one is a bit more funny but it emphasizes the point http://tinyurl.com/rxpmzc
  

Photo by: Musique

Musique has done a fabulous job composing and lighting this shot called Immerse Yourself in Fashion. The backdrop in game perfectly accents the model. And I really love the butterflies in the contrasting color.

Photo by: TheaMaiman

Thea Maiman has picked the popular sim of Bitterblue where it's always raining. The choice in place and the overall composition of this shot makes it a real winner. I really like how the lights look.

Photo by: Crystalship-Rehula

I love Crystalship-Rehula's entire collection of work. Here she shows off Memories of Blue. What a fabulous in game effect that makes it more ethereal looking.

Please feel free to PM me on Koinup and tell me all about what's happening in your groups. You never know when you'll be Koinup's Cream of the Crop pick of the week!

Fiona Haworth
Guest Author - Koinup.com
Staff Blogger - Phantom’s Republic
Co-Owner - Prim Pads
Twitter - Fiona_Haworth

The winners of the Face of Koinup contest

We picked 8 images as winners of the Face of Koinup Contest
The images will be displayed on the Koinup Front-Page since today and they will be highly featured for the next months. Before listing the winning artworks, let us say thank you to all the participants of the contest. The quality of the entries has been superlative (but unfortunately we had to choose only a few of them). Anyway, in the next days, on this blog and on the Koinup Facebook Page, we will highlight the galleries not only of the winners, but also of many other participants that create original and imaginative works.....

A note about the criteria we used to select the winners. At first we considered the global quality of the image, then we took in consideration if the work fit the guidelines and tasks of the contest, eventually we analyzed the originality of the subject.

HERE THE WINNERS

Damien Surf 5




ContestBS




It's Summer





L'oubliée



untitled



Twilight



Station Train




JohnLe

Meet Me in the Metaverse - Black Taj & White Taj

One of the things I like best about SL is the opportunity to explore places I've been or I've wanted to go in RL. I really enjoy seeing how creators recreate RL places as well as expound on them and make them into something completely different. Today in Meet in the Metaverse I want to take you to just such a place. White Taj is modeled after the RL Taj Mahal. It's neighboring sim Black Taj is a product of the creator's imagination building on top of this already amazing structure.

These two sims are just amazing to explore and they connect via an impressive black and white bridge. Visit the dance hall, the shops, fountains, forest, and courtyards. Make sure you take the zeppelin ride fantastic tour among the grounds or grab couples rowboat if you like a bit more work. Lastly don't miss the sky garden at high above the white taj. Both sims were built by the ever talented Jenne Dibou of JD Mechanical Toy Factory and a version of the Taj Mahal is on sale at her shop.

Photo by: mizuki

White Taji by Mizuki really rocks. The illusion of 3D really brings an element of being there. As you can see both structures are contained within as well as the zeppelin coming off the page. Additionally, the colors on this work are just amazing. Well done Mizuki!

Photo by: HarperGanesvoort

Harper does a really fantastic job of capturing both the White and Black Tajs in this piece. As you can see they are not identical and that the black is a lovely derivitive into fantasy.

Photo by: Sebcaen

The White Taj by Sebcaen is a really great stylized piece. It reminds me of drawings done of the RL structure.

If you are interested in having your sim featured on Meet Me in the Metaverse, please feel free to contact me in game or via the PM feature within Koinup.

Fiona Haworth
Guest Author - Koinup.com
Staff Blogger - Phantom’s Republic
Co-Owner - Prim Pads
Twitter - Fiona_Haworth

OMNIBUS.... Kings and Knights

Kings and knights, alpha males every one of them, are archetypal images which appear in various forms in Virtual Worlds as they do in dreams, stories, and film. So it is only fitting that I touch, this week, on the subject of the male ego.

The King as a traditional All Powerful Male is a component of many a fairy story, and often he falls ill, or dies so that either the New King or Prince can then take his place. The old, dogmatic ego fails and the ‘reconstituted” ego arises in it’s place.





This photo by MasterChief from one of the MMPORG (“other worlds”), called MasterChief 1 it is a very accomplished 3D image of a dominant male.

It presents an armour-plated male; like a crustacean the skeletal material forms on the outside making him impervious to any external influence. Symbolically he represents a dogmatic view of life which is so insulated and self-referential that future development is impossible without his total transformation or symbolical death, (in Egyptian myth the ‘king’ is dismembered before being rebuilt).





The King of Fairies by Nenny, from the Sims, is a much ‘softer’ King, semi naked, being advised or influenced by powers behind the throne he seems like the sort of guy you would happily have dinner with. He gives the impression of being a ‘modern’ sort of male, even the slightly casual way he wears his crown denotes a certain informality; the opposite of armoured dogma.





Staying with this rather romantic image of the male, Knight by Marty86, is a classic fairy story image. The devout knight humbled on his knees before the gods he is off to do battle with the forces of evil ... it’s all classic Hero stuff and a major part of most cultural traditions.

He appears in many different guises in modern films, differently dressed, from Indiana Jones to The Matrix, he’s the nice guy, tough, but kind to children and furry animals.






From the World of Warcraft we have Blood Elf Death Knight, courtesy of Fricka. Unlike the previous, romanticised image of the knight we see here that the knight, any knight, is just a posh soldier who’s job it is to kill. So we get a more ambivalent image... good or evil? Well I guess that depends on whose side you are on.







Midnight sun gives us another example of the battle-scarred alpha male. The Evil is a more modern view of a dominant male, this one with no pretensions to romanticism. Alert, thoughtful and confident, again, his intentions are ambiguous ... depends, again, who’s side you are on, I guess.

Now, I would be surprised if anyone, anywhere, had foreseen the popularity of the Slave and Master role playing games that many are involved with in SL and other worlds. I have no idea how many women and men have been collared but I suspect it is a very large number.

Psychologically it could have been predicted, I suspect, as the partial “Liberation” of women leaves a gap in the clear delineation of gender roles. The need, at least in a romanticised way, for a dominating alpha male to lay down precise rules of how to perform in a relationship is obviously greatest in a time where the guidelines inherited from previous generations no longer seem applicable.

Few would tolerate it in RL, of course, our ‘freedoms’ being seen as ‘Human Rights’...so to play with these concepts in a pain-free environment seems relatively harmless and obviously fulfills a biological need...

..but living with (as) an alpha male is not all a bed of roses, I guess...

I had always thought that women see men as a bit like a refurbishment project, a dilapidated house, in need of a good clean, new wallpaper, a few scatter cushions and a some scented candles.

:))

sorornishi@mac.com

The Face of Koinup Contest - Honorary mentions

Picking the winners of the Face of Koinup Contest is going to be incredible challenge for us. On one side, we're so proud of the amazing quality of the entries. On the others, we are forced to pick only a few of them. This post is to announce we have picked about twenty entries for an honorary mention. Basically, it does mean that the following images really deserve to be mentioned and moreover, we can also, that the winning photos will be picked from this pool.

While waiting for the final announcement of the main winner (reminder: they will be displayed in the Koinup front-page), we have setup a pool specifically for the honorary mentions. Enjoy it now!

Disclaimer: If your pics are not here, it doesn't mean that they aren't valuable or well done, or excellent. This selection reflect the personal choices of judges (koinup staff) and it is based on what we think are the images that mostly represent Koinup


HONORARY MENTION

http://www.koinup.com/PonyMeredith/work/185697/
http://www.koinup.com/MSnook/work/184624/
http://www.koinup.com/Ilary/work/183541/
http://www.koinup.com/rocapc/work/182128/
http://www.koinup.com/WIND/work/165675/
http://www.koinup.com/Karro_Lean/work/180936/
http://www.koinup.com/rira/work/179185/
http://www.koinup.com/Kleinfeld/work/156003/
http://www.koinup.com/Kleinfeld/work/178869/
http://www.koinup.com/Betty_Rogan/work/171126/
http://www.koinup.com/Amaliscious/work/176083/

http://www.koinup.com/sororNishi/work/114468/
http://www.koinup.com/JohnLe/work/27619/
http://www.koinup.com/sincetta/work/177829/
http://www.koinup.com/Winter/work/177356/
http://www.koinup.com/thatguygauge/work/114371/
http://www.koinup.com/Vero1324/work/130360/
http://www.koinup.com/Franzael/work/175014/
http://www.koinup.com/PeaceOfArt/work/145917/
http://www.koinup.com/Maiyya/work/115790/
http://www.koinup.com/Ilary/work/171813/
http://www.koinup.com/scottyK/work/112179/
http://www.koinup.com/Crystalship-Rehula/work/168013/
http://www.koinup.com/WIND/work/158404/
http://www.koinup.com/BarbarellaNoel/work/169663/
http://www.koinup.com/Brad/work/175924/
http://www.koinup.com/PANTELEIMON-AEON/work/75814/
http://www.koinup.com/brunaozao/work/171918/

(image above by Maiyya)

Koinup's Cream of the Crop - Heavy Image Treatments

Today on Koinup's Cream of the Crop I bring you the group called Heavy Image Treatments. This fab group of individuals are more than photographers. They use the screen capture as a jumping off point then manipulate it with a photo editing program making the picture into a wonderful work of art.

The Admin, SysperiaPoppy, writes "What interests me is not the shot itself, but what the artist wishes to do with that moment: How they feel, what they want to communicate and what means they use to do that." This group has 59 wildly creative members who have submitted over 650 works to the collection. For those of you who haven't tried your hand at such things, like me, there are tons of tutorials on the web about manipulating photos. I know after seeing some of these I'm gonna give it a try! Here are a few sites I found that may help you try your hand at it: Layering SL Snapshops in Photoshop, 30+ Most Wanted Photo Manipulation Tutorials and 75+ Huge Compilation of Stunning Photo Manipulation Tutorials.

Photo by: Tessybaby

Tessybaby's Time and Space is a great example of layering a texture on top of a photo and really dramatically changing the piece. It is a really fabulously composed original photo or a nicely composed collage; either way this piece really pops.

Photo by: NeveryLorakeet

NeveryLorakeet's Dreaming the Sky is just fantastic! I can't tell where the photo starts nor ends. This is one of those pieces that just embodies photo manipulation techniques. I love it!

Photo by: Photoliv42

Photoliv42's Flight of Icarus is another really brilliant piece. It looks more painted than photographed. Really lovely use of layering and filtering.

Please feel free to PM me on Koinup and tell me all about what's happening in your groups. You never know when you'll be Koinup's Cream of the Crop pick of the week!

Fiona Haworth
Guest Author - Koinup.com
Staff Blogger - Phantom’s Republic
Co-Owner - Prim Pads
Twitter - Fiona_Haworth

White Lebed - A woman with Vision

White Lebed works as a gallery curator in Second Life which sometimes can be a thankless task as we both agreed, added to the fact that you can never please everyone – so doing what you think best is the compromise often taken. White is Russian born and ‘Lebed’ means swan, so we have White Swan, which in Russia has great mycological history behind it – history in the form of who and how art was seeded in Second Life seems a subject close to White’s heart as she enthusiastically throws her efforts and time in this directional pursuit. White is Lead of the Art Department this year for Burning Life , which is the virtual equivalent to the Burning Man event of Art, Fire and Community, which she herself admits is not been an easy task but White has taken it on with great style and humour – the role encompasses a broad spectrum of skills and I personally applaud her efforts. White has also been working with the Angelgate Gallery, and has curated some wonderful collections including 'Primavera' and 'Soleil' which have been hugely successful art events. White is also an artist herself, a sculpt maker in her own right, and is extreamly gifted in this area, she has a rare thing - 'a good eye' and an understanding of what that is and how to use it. So that was a little bit of background from me, now lets move on.



White was able to take some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions, but this time we skipped the 3 questions she could have asked of herself had she wanted to – each to their own say I.

If you would like to see more images from Burning Life check out the Koinup group here and you can also peruse what has gone on before in the various Burning Life Sims by clicking here
White also has her own Koinup area which you can see here

So now to continue onwards to the questions.



Q1. What brought you to the metaverse?
It was a pure accident. I never played any video or computer games and I hardly watch TV. But one day I caught a Discovery channel program that mentioned how video games have reached the next stage where it is not considered a game anymore since now they are a place where people can make things like art and fashion. They mentioned Second Life, a name I had not heard before. But what they said and showed made me interested enough to download the program.

Q2. Please tell us in 5 words what best describes you.
Constantly searching for the excellence

Q3. What aspect of the metaverse interests you the most and why?
I love the "zero-resistance" nature of the metaverse. It is easy to get used to amazing freedoms when we get here and stop noticing them. But think about the easiness with which we can make anything we want, share it with the world immediately by completion, talk to anybody, learn from people, spread the knowledge, discover your own creative abilities, start performing etc Yes, the technology is not perfect yet - we wish things were less laggy, less buggy, more predictable. Yes, some people take advantage of the still vague laws and low protection from breaking them. Metaverse is not going anywhere - it will grow larger, more powerful, and more complicated. And it is exciting to be at the very beginning of it and watch what is basically a natural for anything new a "trail and error" process.


Q4. Burning Life is upon us any advice to first time visitors?
The festival will be over by the time you realize how many interesting things are there. It attracts the best artists and performers from all over the grid. Examining only the 12 featured art plots and the 52 themed art camps might take a day or two. And those are only the beginning. You can find something amazingly creative and original anywhere on 34 Sims. To help all the viewers, and particularly first-timers, we are going to try a new program - Art Pathfinders. We will invite people who love SL art, good at finding things, and willing to share their finds with others. They will preview the BL grid and create specifically art related tours. Since this is a new program, we are not sure yet about the details and the process. You should visit the Art Department plot right away by arrival to BL - we should have a schedule and a lot of useful information about what and where you can see. Plus a huge green tent full of presents from artists and designers :)

when the Sims are open to the public you will be able to TP directly from this link The Sims open to Burning Life on October 17th 2009.



Q5. Which aspects about being involved in Burning Life did you enjoy the most?
Meeting new people. I made so many friends during last year’s BL. And the friendships we formed lasted a whole year. I hope for the same in 2009.

Q6. If you could change or improve anything to access the virtual world better what would you do?
I believe virtual worlds generally and SL particularly can benefit from more creative and active marketing/advertising. As I mentioned I came to SL by accident after seeing a 10 minute long segment about it on TV. I haven't seen any mentioning of SL in mass publications ever since. Even in the Bay Area, were I live - quite close to the actual LL office - very few people know what I am talking about when I try to explain virtual art. And even if people find SL, register, download and rez it for the first time, it is questionable if they will stay. I invited a few rl friends to join and their first experience wasn't that good. If I didn't ask them to come back and explore it under my guidance they would never have relogged again. I think it would be great to advertise SL in special art related media sources and direct them to more specific places from the first minutes of their existence in SL.

Q7. You have been actively involved within the arts community in Second Life - how did this come to pass?
As I see it now, I got very lucky. By accident I met the right people from the beginning and landed right in a middle of the active sl art life. I was lucky to find very creative supportive friends and as a result, within first months I was making art, exhibiting in places like Crescent Moon museum, Garden of NPIRL, Angelgate and working on Rezzables projects. But I know many people who were not in such a favourable environment wasted a lot of time struggling to find places to work, to exhibit. So when I was told that the very first gallery that invited me to participate, Angelgate, was looking for a curator, I decided to join it and attempt to create a friendly place for looking at art, showing art, learning about techniques, meeting each other, etc The first multi-artist show, Primavera, was so well accepted by visitors and press it gave me a lot of confidence to continue. I was particularly happy about the fact that most of the visitors considered the show to be at the level of "who is who in SL" and didn't notice that 9 out of 24 participants were debutantes. One of the best things that happened to me during my first months in SL was participation in the Artropolis art talks. Filthy Fluno kindly invited me to join his weekly art talks featuring successful artists and I met a lot of good friends there. Plus, I loved building art workshops around SL. So that’s how my Master class Seminars started - inviting accomplished successful artists to give a workshop. It proved to be a very successful idea, the classes are always full.

Q8. If you could improve access to the arts across the metaverse what would you suggest?
I think it is time to have a kind of docent group and art tours. Virtual exploring doesn't come easy for everybody. Some people are not that good at learning how to navigate metaverse and need help and guidance. I am not sure I would learn and discover as much as I did in such a short time if I didn't have people like that helping me.

Q9. If you could have unlimited space to host an exhibition of art what would you be inclined to do with it?
Oh this is the easiest question! Given resources, I absolutely would make a well organized comprehensive art museum. We are witnessing the birth of a very exciting new, never seen before art form. And it would be great to preserve the history of how it developed. As far as I know there is nothing like that. I would try to hunt down the very first art objects while it is still possible and make a chronological exhibition of important art creations. It would require not only unlimited space, but a lot of time and energy. But I think it would be worth it.


Q10. I know you have background with arts - would you like to tell us a little more about this?
SL helped me to actually do what I was taught to do. Despite taking all possible sculpture classes, I never made anything 3D aside from the class projects. I was painting in oil because doing anything sculptural would involve conditions I didn't have - a studio, materials, tools... Then I developed allergies and had to switch to acrylic. The closest thing to making sculptures while using acrylic would be painting murals, so that is what I was doing. When I found SL I realized how many 3D things were sitting in my head and I was almost addicted to watching them to realize in at least some form.

Until next time here on metanopsis!
Poid

Poid Mahovlich on Koinup
Poid Mahovlich Blog Area

The best of Koinup. This week

If you have only a few time, to browse the amazing stuff on Koinup, probably this weekly guide will help you to focus on some selected and worth contents and people. So that you don't have to waste your time.

INTERVIEW WITH BARK
Each week, we're interiewing artists, machinimists and photographers active on Koinup. During an open forum launched on our Koinup FB page, some members suggest us to give the word to Bark. Bark is one of the most quintessential photographers in SL. If you're wondering what's the difference between art and photography, you can't miss the interview






MEET ME IN METAVERSE LANDS TO ZARBI
Fiona_Haworth continues the exploration of the metaverse, browsing and teleporting each day in dozens of fantastic locations. This week, Fiona "send a teleport" to reach her in Zabri. Filled with cathedrals, amazing builds and open scenery, Zabri is really a place you can't miss in SL. Read the full story here






ORANGE ISLAND MEMORIES
One of the most wonderful partners, we ever had the chance to team up unfortunately left Second Life. We're talking about the wonderful community of Orange Island. If you have spent a bit of time on Koinup, you know how much we loved to partner with Orange Island. The Orange Island Memories is an hommage group to share images, memories and observation on this wonderful island and community





OTHER WORLDS ON THE RADAR? EXPLORE AION
If though Koinup is highly popular among social worlds users, there's a part of the Koinup community that its highly active in more traditional mmorpgs. These weeks we see tons of wonderful images taken in a new massive 3d world called: Aion. We invite to browse some of these images in the group Aion, and enjoy this wonderful Aion avatar (created/photographed) by SysperiaPoppy

OMNIBUS ...the Journey

Just imagine having to choose your own name, decide on a body shape, and then get thrown into a world where you can’t speak, or move and only see the back of your head.

Things get worse as you find...
a) you are having the worse of all possible hair days imaginable in any world
b) your clothes are worse than any tramp would be seen wearing
c) you walk like a duck
d) you are penniless

Yes, it is like a birth, being a noob...and like Life, the whole thing is a journey.... the land may be virtual but the journey is real.
It is certain that many don’t unpack even, they just turn around and get the hell out.





Canella has captured that travelling feeling really well.... the start of a journey, in her image from the Sims, called Somewhere..... yes, that’s for sure... we are all somewhere...:)







Now voyaging over seas is an archetypal image for a psychic journey. The sea is the image of the shifting, deep unconscious and we are all at the mercy of forces beyond our control.

Torley has made a great image of that feeling here, Most Dignified Journey of the Many-Ventured Envoys is, I think, a great title.

Intrepid pioneers setting out for unknown lands.... sound like anyone you know? Oh yes....us.







TanaRobbiani has us landed in Africa, the Unknown, in her fine piece The Journey Through Africa. I really like everything about this image, colour, composition and content.

Journeying in an unknown land.







Hermes Slade seems to have his subject ‘arrived’,.... but you never really stop travelling as the ship in the centre of the photo seems to indicate. You pause for a while ... 362 Kawai Long Journey... about to start, or just ended...the ambiguity is interesting.


Well, the journey for all of us, it seems to me, is the one that takes us nearer to our full potential. Not a straightforward path, but the only real journey worth taking is the one that leads over turbulent seas to strange and foreign places.

Tourist and seeker alike ... keep posting those snaps documenting your paths....

:)))

sorornishi@mac.com

Meet Me in the Metaverse - Zarbi

This week on Meet Me in the Metaverse, I present a sim still in progress - Zarbi. While taking you all to unfinished sims isn't my typical modus operandi, I was pretty floored by what Jimmer Gabe has already created. Zarbi is a homestead sim where Jimmer's goal was to see what he could create in a space that only has 3500 prims. Currently, the sim consists of the Cathederal, caves, forest, treehouses, a summer villa, and Aquapolis. Apparently, he's only used about 2200 prims thus far.

Photo by: toxicmenges

Upon landing in Zarbi, you can easily see the impressive gothic cathedral. It sits high on the mountain side prominently featured simwide. Jimmer's real talent lies in the custom sculpts he's made for it: flying buttresses, lancet arched windows, vaulted ceiling, multi-faceted columns, and stunning spires. The stained glass windows really set this build off.

Photo by: toxicmenges

Don't stop exploring at the cathedral though. Jimmer has a whole world below on several different levels. Matter of fact it's wildly easy to get lost in his genius. I was lucky enough to have him as a guide. Take the spiral staircase from the cathedral and explore the caves and the forest. And make sure you get out to the cypress laned summer villa while not as finished as the cathedral it's worth the trip out there.

Photo by: fiona_haworth

Lastly, go to the bottom floor of the summer villa and jump in the pool between the stairs......you'll land far below in a special place Jimmer's made for the merfolk -The Aquapolis. Complete with an amphitheatre, temple, stoa, and merhotel. The channels all connect so the merfolk have plenty of room to swim about.

Photo by: toxicmenges

If you are interested in having your sim featured on Meet Me in the Metaverse, please feel free to contact me in game or via the PM feature within Koinup.

Fiona Haworth
Guest Author - Koinup.com
Staff Blogger - Phantom’s Republic
Co-Owner - Prim Pads
Twitter - Fiona_Haworth

SHOOOT Awards. Call for Machinima Submission!

SHOOOT to stardom and be rewarded when you submit your Machinima film for SHOOOT Awards 2009. The Grand prize of the SHOOOT Awards is a fully sponsored trip to attend SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 in Yokohama, Japan! You will also stand a chance to win attractive prizes from our sponsors!

All you need to do is to create your own movies* from either your favourite 3D game or virtual world and submit your work to us! It's simple, and you could just be our lucky star!

Submission fees are waived for all Koinup members! All you need to do is to send us your contact info and Machinima link on Koinup to awards@shooot.com

All the koinup machinimators are highly invited to join the initiative!
Read the guidelines to submit your videos and get your chance to win the fantastic prizes!


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