Places: The Peatonville Asylum
Posted: December 31, 2011 Filed under: Places Leave a comment »
My last post for the year 2011 will be on an asylum. Not because I am particularly fond of such establishments or anything, but simply because it is a gorgeous place. I am at the Peatonville Asylum, in which 1934 apparently 22 people mysteriously disappeared. This is a good example of a Second Life place where the creators seem to have put in great effort to obtain a desired effect; the textures are fantastic, the objects are well-positioned, the sounds are great and the attention to detail is astonishing. This is not a warm and inviting place; this is a grim environment where one would not like to be trapped for too long. The Peatonville Mystery hunt is a grid-wide hunt and you can get a hunt hub at the landing point if you like to participate. Go and check this place out, it will close its doors on January 6, 2012: http://slurl.com/secondlife/MadPea/100/221/22.
Interview: romy Nayar
Posted: December 31, 2011 Filed under: Interviews Leave a comment »
I am so excited to interview for this blog, romy Nayar. romy, together with Ux Hax and Lanjran Choche, curates the sim MetaLES. romy has also won several UWA awards and she is currently showing her work Intimidad at Nordan Art (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nordan%20om%20Jorden/138/50/2502). Ux Hax created two machinima about this powerful work, please check them out at http://vimeo.com/32637965 and http://vimeo.com/32673915. Below please find the interview.
Flora Nordenskiold: Your work is beautiful and it always delivers a message. I have seen your work at UWA, where you were awarded prizes at least twice. Presently, you are showing your work, Intimidad, at Nordan Art; please elaborate on the meaning of this powerful two-part installation.
romy Nayar: Thanks Flora. When you invited to me to exhibit at Nordan Art I thought about making a special work, about all these realities of abuse that we have today in our society and how we make them disappear. With this work, Intimidad, that I have done I want to show not only that reality (which for me is very important that we don’t forget that it exists), but also to show the feeling of all those people, the victims of abuse (women, children and sometimes men). This work was heavily inspired by the website of Real Life friend of mine Jaume Nualart (http://nualart.com/area2/), which exposes all femicides from the year 2000 until now, on this page you can see all the causes of each death. This work is dedicated to them. Intimidad (Intimacy), is composed of two parts; Falsa Realidad (False Reality) in which a female victim of abuse looks in the mirror, watching what she was and what she really is now. And a second part, Destructor de Infancia (Destroyer of Childhood), which attempts to recreate the fear that a violent oppressor produces in a child.
Flora Nordenskiold: Ux Hax, Lanjran Choche and yourself created and now curate the installation space MetaLES. This place provides an incredible opportunity for artists to show their work on a larger scale. Please tell us a about MetaLES and how it came about.
romy Nayar: Per4mance MetaLES ..O.. (http://slurl.com/secondlife/MetaLES/180/165/1502 ) was created, as you well say Flora, to promote art and culture in the Metaverse. Undoubtedly, the most important promoter of the organization is Ux Hax, closely linked to Second Life art since 2007. Her interactive installation Geometry of Sound has been shown now for 4 years in MetaLES ..O.. and has been temporarily exhibited in many other places like, for example, Diabolus Gallery. Lanjran Choche and myself joined her to work together on a project that is special to all of us; we offer an entire sim, empty to an artist, to make an interactive 3D creation for one month. On this sim, the artist can edit the field, change water and light. We try to make each artist bring out the best of him or herself. We started with the consolidate artist Bryn Oh and then I was honored to continue with my work Papermakis. Since then we have invited artists who we believe may offer a work of high quality and certainly we admire. We have actually as you write in your blog the incredible work of Rebeca Bashly; Arctica Dreams (http://nordanomjorden.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/rebeca-bashlys-arctica-dreams-at-metales/)). And we give an annual price of 50,000 Lindens to the best installation of the year. For more information please see http://metalesperformance.blogspot.com/.
Flora Nordenskiold: What inspires you to create in Second Life and what are some of the challenges you have come up against?
romy Nayar: Second Life has opened to me the door of a world of creation that I could not ever get in Real Life. When I paint a picture in Real Life my imagination feels limited, there is always one side that I can’t see and a space that I can not fill. The virtual world offers the possibility to all to create anything that goes through our heads, gravity disappears, no limits and here the art is free!
Flora Nordenskiold: The Second Life art community is diverse and vibrant, the creative possibilities appear limitless. Who are some of the creators that inspire you here? What are your thoughts on art and creativity in Second Life in general?
romy Nayar: When I discovered Black Swan, suddenly my mind was opened and I realized the infinite possibilities that this world offers for creation. All artists who were there possessed technical skill and had an admirable creativity, even at that moment that Second Life did not have all the possibilities that it has now. From there I followed the work of Bryn Oh’s Immersiva, also a very important place for me. IBM exhibits have been a great source of strength and inspiration and I also Mysterious Wave’s incredible beauty. And always, of course, places like Diabolus Gallery, Museo del Metaverso, Pirats, UWA, UTSA, Nordan Art, etc., which show a large number of creative artists of which I am a fan. And I could also mention an endless number of sims with no intention of art but they have still been very inspiring to me.
Flora Nordenskiold: You have been in Second Life since 2008, for about three years now. What are some of the best and some of the worst things about Second Life and how have things changed since you have been here?
romy Nayar: Second Life has certainly changed during these three years, many things in me and in my everyday life. I can not say that it contributed anything wrong, quite the contrary, Second Life alone has given me happiness and now it’s my way of expression. Thanks to all these people working and making progress in Second Life, giving the best of themselves to this virtual world, making it what we can see today.
Flora Nordenskiold: Thank you, romy!
romy Nayar: Thanks to you Flora for giving me the opportunity to exhibit at Nordan Art. 
Betty Tureaud’s Art Planet 2012
Posted: December 26, 2011 Filed under: Reviews Leave a comment »
Betty Tureaud gave me a tour of her most recent additions to Art Planet 2012 today. This installation is on a 1/4 LEA sim; I had visited it before on December 10, 2011 and written a blog post then as well (http://nordanomjorden.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/review-betty-tureaud-fall-2011/). This work is on multiple levels and it is like an explosion of colorful swirls and bubbles. Much of the work is also interactive. The music by Ultraviolet Alter is very fitting. As we reached our final level, we bumped into a few people and one of them commented on Betty’s work saying “it always makes me feel happy.” I couldn’t agree more, one definitely gets a feeling of joy when experiencing this work. I asked Betty for some final words and she said, “come and get some feeling!” Go and check out this large installation, you don’t want to miss it: http://slurl.com/secondlife/LEA13/64/150/21.
Review: Artistide Despres and Eupalinos Ugajin at Split Screen
Posted: December 25, 2011 Filed under: Reviews Leave a comment »
I finally found my way over to Split Screen to check out the works by two artists; Artistide Despres and Eupalinos Ugajin. One of the reasons for my delay was the fact that I didn’t have a mesh viewer; without it I would not have been able to see part of Artee’s work, which is constructed using mesh. Arte’s installation, Let These Facts Be Known, deal with the Occupy Wall Street Movement. When you teleport in, please turn off media and turn sound effects on; the sound of protesters is an integrate part of this work. Also, don’t change the windlight settings, leave on Barcelona, sunset; this setting is part of the work. This installation shows a circular space surrounded by skyscrapers; it could be NYC or any city really. In the space we see a large white figure standing on ground on which is written “Let These Facts Be Known;” on the sides many messages like for instance “they have accepted private contracts to enslave and murder prisoners often without due process” can be seen. Standing in the circle amongst the skyscrapers I could imagine what it may have been like standing in the Occupy crowd itself. With this important work, Artee succeeds again in producing a meaningful message by skillfully combining well-crafted objects with a thoughtfully delivered content. Next, I moved on to Eupa’s work, D’ailleurs grâce au Soleil, l’herbe est plus…, which is completely different. Upon arrival I stand in front of a hole (note card with instructions is provided here), which I jump into, fall through a rainbow of colors and then land on a circular, wooden platform. Several little cubes swirl around in front of me, I click one and I am inside of it. Once outside again, I move around a little and suddenly find myself standing on grass in an area that is enclosed by a fence, I can’t get out. As always, with Eupa’s installations, there are lots of things to discover, click and try out; you will need time. I don’t fully grasp the meaning of all of it, but have come to terms with that this is just the way Eupa’s work is and its fine. Hurry up to check these two installations out, the exhibit closes in a week, by the end of December. Here is the slurl for Split Screen, from there you can teleport to both exhibits: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Beleza/35/140/26.
Immersiva gone?
Posted: December 24, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »
The strangest thing has happened to Immersiva, the sim created by Bryn Oh. It suddenly disappeared about two weeks ago and it remains gone to this day. Nobody seems to know what happened, including Bryn Oh herself who notes in her blog that the sim is no longer even visible on the map. I initially thought it was just one of those Second Life glitches, that the sim would be restored to its beautiful self again within a day or so. But no, Immersiva remains gone. People are commenting on Bryn’s blog (http://brynoh.blogspot.com/) expressing their confusion, sadness and dismay with this situation. Bryn is putting her work up for sale on the Second Life marketplace. I am at a loss for words. What happened here? Will Linden Lab please provide an explanation soon? What are the implications for the Second Life art world if this incredibly significant work is actually gone? This is truly a bewildering state of affairs. Photo above of Immersiva taken by me in October 2010.
Review: Animals in the Scribbled Wild by Scott Rolfe aka Scottius Polke
Posted: December 18, 2011 Filed under: Reviews Leave a comment »
I am at the beautiful Flying Eye Art Museum at the Looking Glass checking out the exhibit Animals in the Scribbled Wild by Scottius Polke. This exhibit shows the Real Life work of Scott Rolfe, aka Scottius Polke in Second Life. This is a small, only twelve or so paintings, and very fine exhibit showing Scottius’ paintings of animals in their natural habitat. I am uncertain about the medium, it might be drawings. These works show great detail, clear colors; there is something sweet and very straight forward about them that immediately appealed to me. Go and check them out for yourself at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Horizon%20Dream/115/133/58. For more information about Scott Rolfe’s work check out http://srolfe.com/. Scottius is also currently showing his Starfish Thrower at Nordan Art, check it out here http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nordan%20om%20Jorden/22/104/25.
Happy Holidays 2011
Posted: December 17, 2011 Filed under: Holidays 8 Comments »
This is my third Christmas in Second Life. To me, more than anything else, the holidays are a time for reflection in addition to being a time spent with family and friends. Much happened this past year. The Nordan Art gallery continued to thrive, as did the Nordanomjorden blog. We published the online publication Nordan Art: A Retrospective 2010-11 and the first yearly Nordan Art Prize was established and awarded. I witnessed with sadness a special friend leave Second Life behind this year, I still miss him. I made new friends and got even closer to the ones I have. There was love. Art and creativity continued to flourish and to expand in Second Life; there were also continued controversies and heated discussions about what is art in second life. It was a rich year. I wish you all, dear readers, a beautiful holiday!
Rebeca Bashly’s Arctica Dreams at MetaLes
Posted: December 16, 2011 Filed under: Sneak Peak Preview 3 Comments »
I’m with Rebeca Bashly at MetaLes one hour before the opening of her new exhibit, Arctica Dreams. This place is like a dreamy fairytale; I am really at a loss for words. Initially, when one teleports in, one finds oneself in a large snow landscape with only one large barren tree. After a short walk, one finds a way down under the blanket of snow, entering a world of ice. Here, amongst, tunnels, and various kinds of ice positioned upon water, we find Rebeca’s beautiful ice statues. This is a large work, it spans over a whole sim, lending a true sense of magic. Please set to midnight for best effect. Come take a look at this wonderful installation, you don’t want to miss it: http://slurl.com/secondlife/MetaLES/210/187/73. Bottom photo by Rebeca Bashly. Also, check out http://www.slifefantastic.blogspot.com/, http://metalesperformance.blogspot.com/, http://quanlavender.blogspot.com/2011/12/damned-cold-and-damned-nice-arctica-by.html, http://honourmcmillan.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/frigid-dreams-in-second-life-a-world-of-ice/.
Simotron Aquila’s Mon Plus Beau Cauchemar
Posted: December 12, 2011 Filed under: Reviews 3 Comments »
Simotron Aquila’s new work Mon Plus Beau Cauchemar (Most Beautiful Nightmare) at The Wall consists of wide stairs with small objects on them (perhaps TVs). From these stairs, to the left and to the right, are paths (created of large white boxes) leading to two rooms. Each room contains various objects. This work deals with subjectivity and objectivity as experienced in space and in relation to objects. Simotron notes, “[a] theatre without actors is the stage for a representation of our relationship with objects: how our presence can define the identity of a place and how a place is part of our own identity.” Go and check out this thought-provoking exhibit, its only there for a few more days, until December 15, 2011. Here’s the slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chipiona/170/69/1030.
I’m Pretty by Piedra Lubitsch
Posted: December 31, 2011 | Author: Flora Nordenskiold | Filed under: Artist Comments | 2 Comments »I decided to make this picture, I’m Pretty or the girl with the paper bag head, by seeing it first at http://bemorenice.tumblr.com/post/3566237311/petapeta-100-ziza-qip-ru. So I thought I would create a simple bag with the message “I’m pretty,” I’m nice, look at me, post it in second life and wear it, and I must say it is a very comfortable bag. Trying to find the author of this image I found nothing but a lot of other blogs using this image for different purposes, and I guess the story of the paper bag head is an old story; the girl, or the boy, who you only want to have sex with a paper bag in the head, though this one is sending a message. I think it is among and above all other things a joke. A joke to laugh of the everyday tragedy of all women trying to be pretty, for different purposes or for anything in life mostly, a gender tragedy. Please, all comments and opinions are more than welcome.