The Stage at One Billion Rising, photographed by Honour McMillan
One Billion Rising sees twenty-four hours of music on a stunning stage (designed by Victor1st Mornington. You can find out which musicians will be playing on the One Billion Rising web-site – which has a special Event Schedule page. Find out if your favourite DJ will be playing!
But there’s more than just music.
The stage is set in open parkland, landscaped by Winona Wiefel and Aisling Sinclair, utilising plants generously supplied by the Heart Garden Centre. And at the edge of the park, there’s even more.
Capcat Ragu & Meilo Minotaur’s installation, photographed by Honour McMillan
We are thrilled to have 18 of the best SL artists from around the world supporting the One Billion Rising event. Details of their installations, set around the edge of the four sims, appear on the One Billion Rising in Second Life website, where you can find bios, information and samples of the artists’ creations.
And we realised that it might be a little hard to appreciate all this wonderful art when the performers are in full swing, so we are opening the four regions to the public on Wednesday 13th of July, a day ahead of the main One Billion Rising event.
There will be an Open House on all four sims from 12 midnight SLT till 12 noon SLT on Wednesday 13th February.
My Property by Haveit Neox, photographed by Honour McMillan
After noon on Wednesday, the sims will close to the public as we perform final load testing. The event will be fully open starting at 11pmSLT on Wednesday, February 13. We want to allow people the chance to stagger their arrivals to lessen the strain on the sims. You will thus have time to find your way around the event site and make your way to the stage before the dancing starts at midnight on Thursday, February 14.
And don’t forget to collect information from our kiosks and gifts supplied by our sponsors too!
In addition to the opening of Rose Borchovski’s ‘The Arrival’ – which Rowan Derryth wrote about here yesterday – today also sees the launch of a new installation by Fuschia Nightfire – Winter Outlined, which sounds exciting … and rather fun.
I received this notice about it:
Gallery Graine’s Sculpture Garden is proud to announce the grand opening of Winter Outlined by Fuschia Nightfire, a sculptural ‘sketch’ of a winter scene, with an interesting use of invisible prims. This is an interactive installation, with a free outline avatar that you can wear to skate on the frozen water alongside the sculptured figures. Come and meet Fuschia and skate to the music of Whirli Placebo this Saturday January 12 from 12-2 PM SLT!
Winter Outlined poster
I ran into (and very nearly through) Fuschia herself a few days ago at Eliza’s Wierwight’s beautiful Patron. She was testing out the special invisible avatars – I was awestruck and couldn’t resist taking a few pictures which had fascinating effects on the land behind too …
This is, of course. part of a long and fascinating exploration that Fuschia has been carrying into identity. We visited her beautiful black and white installation in Inworldz for the Designing Worlds. And now … being invisible is promising to be a lot of fun (and possibly a little chilly … You might even say downright crazy …
Fuschia Nightfire’s invisible avatar at Patron
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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).
If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.
A new region is opening adjacent to 1920s Berlin which will offer virtual vintage items as well as shops that will ship real life items to you bought in world. The area is called Vintage Retro Market Street, and its launch party is scheduled for Sunday, 25 November, at 1pmSLT.
Fortunate coincidences brought the area to life. Mila Edelman, owner of Old Time Prims, realized her store had outgrown its space. A full sim was tempting but more than she needed for herself. The roleplaying region of 1920s Berlin which Mila co-owns with Jo Yardley was having severe prim shortages. In order to hold an event, the owners had to empty their homes to have enough prims. Adding a region to 1920s Berlin allowed them to move the welcome center and free up prims for the roleplaying side. The vintage stores that made up the welcome center have moved into larger spaces and more stores have been added with the vintage theme.
Some stores at Vintage Retro Market Street, an in-progress photo taken by Mila Edelman
The list of stores for the region is impressive. Not all have moved in as of the writing of this post, but here is the list of expected tenants -
- Old Time Prims by Mila Edelman (mainstore)
- Weimar! by Jo Yardley
- Sonatta Morales by Sonatta Morales (mainstore)
- The Millinery Shoppe by Bubbles Roxan
- Swank Brothers by Doc Wrangler
- Garconne by Pola Solo
- Retropolitan Magazine by Phideaux Mayo, Echo Underwood and Nivelm Bing
- Earthstones by Abraxxa Anatine (highlighting her vintage jewelry)
- Curious Seamstress by Kembri Tomsen
- Eclectica Jewelry by Tiffy Vella
- Melu Deco by Melusina Parkin
- RADIO by Jo Yardley
- Golden Oriole by Oriolus Oliva
- Clarrington’s Tea House & Home Goods by Morganic Clarrington
- Oak Outdoor Outfits / Fogey Gentleman by Olrik Jacobus
Storefronts were constructed by Mila Edleman based on photographs of stores in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, France, Germany, Austria, and more. She wanted each to look unique yet create a cohesive region.
The real life component of Vintage Retro is something rare yet exciting. Just a few stores are planned to start -
- Jolly Lolly by Poldira Basevi and her daughter, a candy store
- A Yet-Unnamed Store by Mila Edelman, featuring yarn crafting and vintage clothing from her real life collection
- RADIO by Jo Yardley, selling real-life recordings
If these are successful, Mila wishes to invite other crafters to sell their works there. So many Second Life residents have talents beyond virtual creations, and this is a promising outlet for them.
The streets of Vintage Retro flow seamlessly into the gateway for visitors to 1920s Berlin, a recreation of the city during this specific period of its history. There are luxurious hotels and grand avenues where people live a life of leisure. Not far away are dirty, narrow alleyways and crowded apartments where others struggle day to day. This is a roleplaying region, and visitors should check the welcome area for any rules of conduct and appearance for the region before boarding the train to the city.
The meeting hall, an in-progress photo taken by Mila Edelman
The launch party will be held in the region’s new meeting hall, inspired by the grand opera houses of Munich and Budapest. This will be the first of many parties for the hall. The space will be available to merchants for announcing new products and to residents for their own celebrations. With the detail put into the building, somebody should stage an actual opera performance there.
The finishing touches are still being applied as this post is being written. The in-progress photographs provided by Mila Edelman can only hint at the future appearance and potential of this region. For more information on Vintage Retro, follow their Twitter feed, Facebook page, or Flickr pool. Better yet, visit and see it in person!
Usually one goes to LEA (Linden Endowment for the Arts) sims to see the creations of Second Life’s best known (and sometimes newly discovered) artists. Many will offer a high level of interactivity in their creations – some will offer sound as part of this.
Of Sound Mind – there’s a wealth of sounds here!
Now there comes an installation – more properly a series of installations – that references primarily sounds. It’s called Of Sound Mind, and it’s the creation of Lorin Tone and friends (said friends including Glyph Graves, Madcow Cosmos, Inventor Alchemi, Mia Anais, Meriadne Merlin, P4ndor4 Quintessa, Marcus Parrott, Judi Newall, Chantal Harvey and Cube Republic). There’s a wealth of different environments and sounds to explore – instruments to interact with … and, actually, some stunning things to see, ranging from a spooky cave to a giant musical castle in the air, from a Hindu te,ple with a wealth of musical instruments to an amazing total windsculpture by Glyph Graves.
Sculpture by Glyph Graves at Of Sound Mind
And the whole environment has notecards and signs that explain what is going on – and who the people are who have created this. It makes for a fascinating an informative visit.
The installation kicks off with a performance by the Second Life performance group DRUM on Saturday, 17 November at 2 PM SLT for the Sim opening party. A very exhausted Lorin Tone will be happy to show you around the builds and answer questions after the show. Free beer and waffles.
On Monday, 19 November at Noon SLT: Discussion on environmental sound effects in SL, hosted by the likely still exhausted Lorin Tone.
A chance to try out a range of instruments …
And there will be more events to come. Lorin Tone says, “We’ve got a lot of time on our hands with this sim, and things will change as it goes along. Expect other classroom discussions with well known builders, scripters, composers and musicians as well as numerous live performances.”
If you want to learn more about sound and music in Second Life, this is for you … or if you just want to explore a stunning land/soundscape.
Saturday the 25th of August was another little step in the young history of virtual worlds.
The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life is having its first season in a second virtual world : InWorldz.
The kickoff took place in an amazing asteroid field, with the attendance of the committee, team members and volunteers made up of a mix of InWorldz residents and veterans of RFL of SL.
The Chair of the Committe , Hairy Thor , gave the opening speech, followed by TIGGS Beaumont and by Sting Raymaker, the ACS Representative. The soundtrack of the event was taken care of by KyFire Oaklef.
At the Kickoff in Inworldz
At the end of the opening speeches there were dances and the first kiosk was rezzed where donations totalling 50,000 IWZ$ (100 USD) were deposited in just a few minutes.
Launching tomorrow is the new London Olympics site, part of the London UK region owned and managed by Debs Regent and Virtually Linked.
Situated on a new sim – London Community (not yet open), the site features elements of the London Olympic park (such as the amazing Cauldron that holds the Olympic Flame and the stunning Orbit). There’s also a variety of sporting venues too – the main athletics track, a tennis court, a basket ball court, a velodrome (for cycling) and a swimming pool.
It’s scheduled to open tomorrow, Friday 3rd August, with a grand party at 8am SLT.
But this isn’t just another region echoing a real event - the London sims have a history of working with real life events (London Fashion Week, for example) and with the Olympics, they have associated with the Local Leaders’ programme,
Seb Coe, Chair, London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, welcome the Second Life involvement, saying: “We are proud that the power of the Games is inspiring communities to get together and celebrate the Games. The Games can be celebrated on your doorstep, and its people like Virtual London are making this happen across the UK. I congratulate everyone involved in the Line the Streets project for bringing the spirit of the Games to life in Kensington and Second Life and wish you every success with your event.”
The Olympic Orbit at the London Community
In the real world, long term London Sims resident and host for many of the real life London Meet up , Julius Sowu, is working in the Africa Village in Hyde Park, daily streaming live interviews and entertainment online for our diaspora. http://www.africaolympic.org/eng/.
Debs says, “As a leader of this community of over 30,000 members since 2006, I have been inspired to see their enthusiasm for all things ‘London’. The London 2012 Games are an exciting opportunity to enjoy an international celebration within this community, yet as London is the host nation and we are based in London, it’s also way to celebrate the achievements of our own home town of London.”
In case you missed it, here is the video of yesterday’s Opening Ceremony for SL9B, filmed for Metaworld Broadcasting by Mal Burns and Petlove Petshop. Below is the text of Saffia Widdershins’ opening keynote, with images from Victor Mornington.
Hello everyone – and welcome to SL9B!
Welcome to over three hundred exhibits created by the denizens of Second Life and spread across twenty sims. Welcome to a week of music and performance by the finest in Second Life.
Line Up for the Opening Ceremony: Saffia, tinies and dragons
Welcome to a week of beauty, a week of interactivity, a week of games, a week of music and dance … welcome, in fact, to a week of everything that a birthday party should be.
There’s presents – yes, it’s just like those parties you had when you were very young – at least you do in the UK – when you leave with a swag bag of goodies.
There’s cake. There’s beer – please remember, though, to take your litter home with you.
And there will, unfortunately, be lag. And possibly, like a rainstorm on the barbecue, there will be sim crashes. But, you know, we live in Second Life. We’ll keep calm and carry on.
But we nearly didn’t carry on at all. Back in April, on April 16th, just over two months ago, there was an announcement by the grid operators, Linden Lab, that they would not be donating any sims for the community birthday party this year. They suggested that we took the theme of community … and celebrated in our own communities.
I think I can safely say that that decision disappointed a great many people. There were those people who had already started their builds, in anticipation of the opportunity to exhibit on the largest communal platform that Second Life annually offers. There were scores – no, hundreds of people who were preparing to donate their time and energy to the celebrations – the musicians, the educators, the greeters, the estate managers and assistants …
What would we have lost, if we had accepted what Linden Lab had said, and partied in our own communities?
Honour Macmillan, greeter lead (who introduced the ceremony) with dragons, tinies … a few humans and a birthday cat
I think the clear answer is that we would have lost our sense of a greater community. Many of us belong to strong communities – lifestyle communities, national communities, role play communities, study or work-based communities, communities of interest. And we have parties there – fantastic, wonderful parties. We could have done that for the Birthday.
But …
We would have lost the sense of being part of the greater community.
We would have lost our sense of awe and wonder at what we can achieve individually – as new exhibits continue to astound us and delight us. We would have lost the crazy serendipity of seeing wonderful things rubbing shoulders with each other. We would have lost the chance to salute people who make our virtual lives – and our real lives – a better place.
But that didn’t happen.
For what was an agonising month, there seemed to be hope … but finally, on May 9th, just over a month ago, it became clear that there would be no communal sims from the Lab. And with that final “No” – it all seemed hopeless. How could the huge birthday party – the biggest annual celebration in Second Life – be gathered together, organised, built and launched in what amounted to … five weeks?
And that was when we found our fantastic sponsors.
Let’s salute Zeebster Colasanti and his team from DreamSeeker Estates, who donated ten sims, and his lead here at SL9B, Samantha Ohrberg. Let’s salute Callie Cline of KittyCatS and Equinox Pinion and Dennis Lagan of Fruit Islands, who donated two sims each. Let’s salute our anonymous donor, who gave a further six sims. Thank you – for having faith in the Birthday, for having trust in the community that we would make the birthday happen. Thank you for your belief in the Second Life community.
People gathering at the Cake Stage for the Opening Ceremony
As we started pulling things together, I heard one question more and more … “Why are you celebrating Second Life’s birthday, when Linden Lab can’t be bothered to? Why are all you people putting in time, and money and so much work when Linden Lab can’t even drop twenty sims on the grid for a month and say, “Here you are. Get on with it.”
And, you know, I have an answer for that.
It’s not Linden Lab’s birthday. It’s ours.
Yes, Linden Lab have created the framework. They have given us the grid, the land on which to build our dreams – and sometimes our nightmares. They hold the data that drives our Second Lives. They’ve given us the power and the ability to shape our imaginations in virtual forms. Amazing, wonderful virtual forms.
But … it’s not their birthday. It’s ours.
I hope that on June 23rd they’ll be opening the champagne in the Lab – maybe some of it non-alcoholic, and much of it organic – they are, after all, in California. I hope that they’ll be exchanging a few stories, a few laughs, a few guilty chuckles over where the bodies are buried. I hope that one or two will raise some bright shiny ideas –“Hey, wouldn’t this be cool to do?” And I hope that they then don’t spring that shiny coolness on us without consultation and rigorous testing!
And I hope they raise a glass – a rueful, bewildered, maybe slightly apprehensive, maybe slightly awed glass of champagne … and drink to the denizens of Second Life – that awesome, troublesome, mulish, mutinous, sarcastic, angry, loving, fabulously creative group of real life people who make Second Life what it is.
Because it’s not Linden Lab’s birthday. It’s ours.
We built it. Everything you see here – and everything you will see across the grid was built by the denizens of Second Life. But none of this celebration would have happened without the efforts of a small, dedicated and totally awesome group of people who took those twenty sims and bashed them into shape. Who hoped that people would want to come – and wondered, to begin with, if we needed more than four sims. Or ten. And who were then deluged by people wanting to join us and be part of the Best Birthday Ever.
Thank you. Without you, this wouldn’t have happened. Without your hard work, your perseverance, your unparalleled ability to stay patient and smiling in the face of everything that the grid and its denizens can throw at you has been just mindblowing.
So – thank you.
Celebrating the Birthday
Thank you to Mikati Slade, who built this amazing four sim Birthday Cake stage. Thank you to Kaz, Kazuhiro Aridian who built the Lake stage. Thank you to Donpatchy Dagostino, who built the Lotus stage and the wonderful train … Thank you again to KT Syakumi who created the breathtaking Egyptian stage … and the breath-holding underwater stage!
Thank you to Artistide (Artee) Despres, who made the Community Hub that links this event to the other SL9B events that are happening across the entire grid. Thank you to Bo Tiger – whose lovely HUD is going to have us all bouncing happily from A to J and back over to Q … Thank you to Yavanna Llanfair who has made the pod tours that provide the most amazing way of seeing the sims.
And thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who have come together to make sure this happens. The Sim Co-Ordinators. The Exhibitor Assistants who have been on hand 24/7 to make sure that everyone who needed help and support would have it – pretty damn near instantly. The stage managers who will be making sure the stages stay stable – and that the streams work and all the artists appearing are happy. Do you guys ever sleep? Thank you for every last one of those bleary-eyed hours. You have made it happen.
Thank you too to all those people who have committed time and energy to being greeters and volunteers. You make SL9B run smoothly – your efforts, your patience and your enthusiasm are phenomenal.
And thank you to those of you who responded to our call. Thank you to the exhibitors, the musicians, the speakers at the events, the trainers – who have come into these open spaces and created such an incredible event.
And while all that was going on, we had to make sure that people knew – so they would know to come and visit. So from the beginning, there was a team of bloggers and media people dedicated to making sure that the word got out to as many people as possible. Daniel Voyager, Inara Pey, Ginette Pinazzo and … our very own Angel of Death.
Fireworks explode!
This was the year of the “last minute”.
This was the year of the sponsors galloping to the rescue, of the “will people want to build here?” and oh boy they did.
This was the year of clawing every last parcel out of the flat green plains – thank you KT for finding square metres where none existed, for clawing back prims to give us those extra parcels.
This was the year of discovering that more and more people wanted to join us, to help, to perform – so this was the year of the last minute fifth stage and the frantic re-arranging of schedules.
This was the year of the hasty training classes, the year of the flying by the seat of our pants, the panics and the crazy improvisations and the last minute ideas so shiny that they just had to be acted on – and thank you to all those people donating gifts to the Egyptian expedition and to David Abbot for writing the fun tale you’re all about to read!
This was the year of the last minute birthday party and – I hope you’ll all agree – we pulled it off.
But – thank heavens – it doesn’t have to be like this.
Next year is the Big One. The Tenth Birthday. And, believe me, we’ll be prepared.
Because it will be Huge. There will be more sims, more exhibits, more art, more music, more of everything than ever before. We’ll be entering double figures – and we’ll be shouting to the world that Second Life is bigger and better than it ever was – a place where we have claimed our world for our imagination.
And we’ll be holding our first planning meeting … well, maybe in a month or so. Because today – and for the rest of this week … we’re going to PARTY!
You know, other things are happening in Second Life, apart from ever increasingly frantic preparations for the launch of the Birthday on Monday 18th of June.
For example, we’ve received exiting news of a new store development.
:: 2Xtreme :: will be opening a new mainstore! In close cooperation with Mimi Juneau of Mimi’s Choice, the new mainstore @ Deep House Island will open at the 16th of June with much more space and a more open lay out.
:: 2Xtreme :: Opening and Hunt!
You can come and check it out at the opening on the 16th of June and collect the great opening gifts that will definitely cheer up your garden! It’s a set of 12 different birdies all with their own real life sound that can be scattered around your land and gardens. All the birds can be found “somewhere” in the new store and are free to collect ONLY that weekend!
And you’ll also be able to see the elegant minimalistic approach in appearance and textures makes the 2Xtreme furniture recognizable. You can also view the choice of furniture; many items inspired by the furniture of the great designers of the 20th century like Charles and Ray Eames and Le Corbusier.
Owner Tunes Meness says: “What makes :: 2Xtreme :: totally different from many other furniture stores is that the furniture is only a small part of the whole collection. I sort of create a whole world, the world of :: 2Xtreme :: consisting of houses, furniture, beaches, rocks, plants, birds, fish, dolphins, paintings and more, much more. Come check it out on the opening day!!”
Mark your calendar now! Friday, December 23rd, 7pm slt!
The Java Jive and surrounding vintage shops in Seraph City are now bigger and better than ever! Please celebrate these new beginnings and the holidays as the lovely Adevina Citron sings live until 8pm, followed by Diana Garsdale’s taking the stream for an hour of selected jazz and Christmas tunes.
We suggest formal clothing from the 1920′s to the 1940′s. If your wardrobe is lacking, arrive a bit early and browse the shops on either side of the Java Jive. You’ll find many of Second Life’s best vintage designers for women AND men.
2000 avatar portraits explore identity in online environments
The largest ever documentation of Second Life® avatars has reached another milestone.
Gracie Kendal, Los Angeles artist, Kristine Schomaker, in real life, has photographed her 2000th avatar and she has declared the project finished, at least for now.
Begun in October 2010, the 1000 Avatars Project is part of Gracie’s ongoing examination of online identity and anonymity. Her inworld exhibition space on Coyote is stunning and humbling with its complexity of portraits of avatars from all corners of Second Life.
“In the portraits, I explore the representation of the avatar as a construct, distinct from any traditional notion of the self,” says Gracie. “I examine the sitter’s identity and probe below the avatar surface to reveal and comment upon their character, personality and their diversity.”
In June of this year, Gracie released a fine art book of the first thousand avatar portraits. 1000 Avatars Volume 1 was well received by the Second Life community and now Gracie is preparing to release the second and final volume of the series.
In volume 1, avatars are shown from the back, the way we view our own avatar in most situations, but also expressing the desire for anonymity in our virtual environment. In volume 2, however, Gracie has shown avatars in the traditional front view.
It was after the publication of 1000 Avatars Volume 1, that the Google corporation inadvertently set off a battle for online anonymity, the so-called “nym wars”, with the release of Google+. Both Facebook and Google+ were cancelling “fake” accounts of persons choosing to use avatar representations of themselves online.
“I realized I needed to show these people as strong, brave souls who are proud of their online identity,” Gracie says. “I felt showing each avatar in full front portraits was a way to stand up to these big online companies who are trying to take away our privacy.”
1000 Avatars Volume 2 includes essays by virtual reality researcher, Garrett Cobarr, and Point Park University photography professor, Patrick Millard, who place the project in social and art history context.
For more information on the project or to purchase your copy of 1000 Avatars, visit Gracie’s blog at http://1000avatars.wordpress.com/
