ART & CHAT AT DARK MOON CAFE II

The international group that gathered

 This week's artist Michiel Bechir, who dazzled us with his inworld landscapes. This was the second of the Art & Chat series, and an international group assembled. Perhaps it was because Michiel is from the Netherlands. Some of his friends attended, as did Zola Zsun, Ludo Merit, Fenix Muhindra, and my old friend Mirella Dallagio, from Italy. Mirella, an inworld photographer, in her own right, had just told me how she takes a phenomenological stance to her experiences in SL. Mirella believes our perceptions are all we have access to in any reality, therefore our experiences in Second Life are as real as those in real life. . . or should I say First Life? I tend to agree.

Mirella & Neph

Perhaps the fact that English was not everyone's first language contributed to the meanderings of the conversation. Part of the groups seemed to want to talk about the more technical side of Michiel's photographs, whereas Einy Marksman, always the emotional fellow, wanted to know about motivation. He finally had his answer as to what motivated Michiel, in his photography, when Michiel admitted he was a traveler and explorer in First Life too. I was still thinking about perception and our experience, in relation to the landscapes.

Einy surrounded by women

 I am very tied to my home Dark Moon. There are several other places in Second Life that I have deep emotional ties to as well. Who can forget their first few months in Second Life when our mirror neurons were firing like crazy as we discovered Second Life's magic? I actually cried in First Life when I was first hatched as a dragon! Celtic music was playing in the background and I felt I had entered a dream, or childhood fantasy.

Michiel pointing out one of his photos

Michel describing his works

So perhaps that is what Michiel feels as he photographs the lovely landscapes of various role play sims in Second Life! If you want to check out more of Michiel's photography, look at his Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39613053@N03/

ART & CHAT at DARK MOON CAFE

Gang at Dark Moon Cafe

Theoretical Afterthought

Today was the first of a series of small events I am holding at the Dark Moon Cafe. Basically, they are two dimensional, themed art shows accompanied by a discussion. These small gatherings will feature one artist showing themed work to talk about, on every other Sunday at 10 am PST or SLT.  Next one will be February 13th. Theoretical Afterthought was our first presenter. Theo's series of self portraits documents her avatar evolution here in SL, and her biting wit!

Zola Zsun & Ashe Haight

Einy & Widget

The group attending was small enough (eight all together) to really discuss the work. Zola Zsun had introduced me to Theo. Of course Zola was here and chatty fun as usual. Zola also brought up the fact that unless a real life photo is doctored in some way, say in photoshop, you get what you see, whereas in Second Life, one can also build what you want in the frame. Of course this does not negate exporting pics to another program, using the same process. Einy Marksman was interested in Theo's process. Einy is a photographer himself, and has very nice shows here in Second Life and real life (that is a hint, Einy). Fenix came as a mermaid, as the theme was the construction of an avatar. Widget Whiteberry, who organizes Virtually Speaking, was there (check below for the SLurl to the amphitheater of Virtually Speaking). Widget said that her avatar prompted her to lose weight in real life; which was interesting because my real life body has prompted Neph gain weight! This has had an interesting effect on me too. I feel better!

Why would I feel better? Well, I was sick of looking at how skinny Neph's butt was! We all know that most of the women in Second Life tend to be skinny with big breasts! How do these so called "perfect" bodies reflect us? How do they make us feel in real life and Second Life?  Of course this makes me think of the objectification of women in general, the pressure to be thin, yet somehow retain large breasts. Well, one of Theo's self portraits depicts her with several feet for breasts! The title is "Don't Look at My Feet!" To me this is a comment on the random, yet systematic sexualization of female body parts. Of course, Fenix Muhindra, who is a teacher, as well as a counselor, wondered how foot fetishists would react to the photograph. I say some research is afoot!

The Lovely Fenix as a Mermaid

At any rate, we were also happy to see Sapphoria Shilova back in world! I love her photographs too, and hope she will show them here at the Dark Moon Cafe soon too. Sapphoria will once again be opening Zanphoria Gallery (check below for SLurl). Another guest attending was Ashe Haight. Ashe is an interesting new friend who is frequently around Dark Moon, and I for one hope she continues to grace us with her presence at these events.

Sapphoria looking GOOD!

Theo on her work and other things

But here is what Theo says about her work. Here is a copy of the notecard of her thoughts about the show that she gave me to hand the guests:

"Some say that the imagination seems to be the limit within SL, but I disagree with that statement.  Without the proper skills and tools at our disposition, we are unable to convey that which we intend.  That is why I see my own avatar as a work in process, a never ending journey into what I could be, but am not as of yet.

What I have before you is but a glimpse of many attempts at assigning anthropomorphic qualities to a set of pixels.  I cannot recall how many incarnations I have had over the past two years as an avatar, but I can say that I have not remained in any one shape or skin for extended periods of time. Early on in my forays into SL, I discovered that I could change my shape at will, and I have never stopped experimenting with that aspect since.  Even as a completely free avatar, one without an account on record, I still managed to find suitable resources to enable to me have variability in every other form, be it skin, hair, clothes, or other artifacts that I could pile on my avi.  The capability for transformation led to a need for the development of a visual diary and that is how I became a screenshot capturer and consequently a creator within SL.

Yet with all the changes available to me, I still find a very strong identification with my multiple pixel selves. I have created the whole of those avatars through the compilation of multiple elements and thus they all represent me in virtual form. As a short anecdote, let me relate the strength of identification through a reference within the visual social network Flickr.  I recently purchased, after two years, my first animation overrider (AO) within SL.  Someone captured the likeness of my avatar in a hyper sexualized position enabled by said AO and by an invasive camera angle that I found distasteful. I am a creator, a vendor, a weaver of dreams for others; what I am not is a trophy, a sex toy, nor represent a person to be commodified. Were it not for a strong identification with my avatar, I would not have objected.  The image was quietly removed, but I suspect not without some form of surprise to the noob who had posted it.  All ended well, he was very apologetic, and I reverted to my hermit life.

Still, as I come into yet untapped resources, I cannot help but wonder what the coupling of imagination and tools will yield for the evolution of avatars."
 ~ Theoretical Afterthought

 Be sure to see Theo's Flickr stream at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theoreticalme/ 

Virtually Speaking Amphitheater: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtually%20Speaking/125/124/25 
Or you can listen to the show from anywhere LIVE: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking

Zanphoria Gallery: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lionheart%20Vitani/238/114/32

 And be sure to check events for Sunday morning discussions at Dark Moon Cafe. Here is the SLurl:
 http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dark%20Moon/147/149/55

OH! Stop by anytime!

I LOVE TERRAFORMING!

 So I had this chance to terraform 3 sims for UTHSC. It was a lot of fun, cause as we all know, I LOVE TERRAFORMING! The university wanted kind of a camel back mountain flowing into the beaches east and west of it. So that I did. The really fun part was landscaping and creating little areas to interact within. ConstructivIST Solo provided the major structures that educational evens would take place in. Zola Zsun, of course, made all the plants, and I provided the final touches includings all the animals. I created a little shanty town in the west, the Frida Kahlo Memorial Library in the east, right next to a fishing village. Now don't forget this is Texas, so much of the lanscape and theme reflects this.
 

 

However, the sims are scheduled to be reclaimed! No one was using the joint! So I had a little fun! I figured the shanty town had a history that went way back to the Victorian Era. And indeed there was the Green Faery Pub! Fallen to disuse now, we openend a burlesque club! Of course Zola HAD to perform, but I guess I did too (tee hee). The club was in a swampy area and had to be demolished due to malaria.

So then I decided to really go nuts! I re terraformed the western sim, textured all three of the sims again, and made the islands a giant, but slightly surreal grassland full of ruins and herds of goats and sheep. *Sigh* That was fun! Here is a pictorial record of it all!

ZOLAAAAAAAAAAA

So this is my good friend Zola Zsun! You can see her blog, Zola Novela, by clicking on the link on the left of this page! Zola’s great! We talk quite a bit, and are constantly modifying our skirts due to the fact that we don’t want to be skinny like the standard Second Life avatars. Well, the human ones at least. Though I must say, I see very creative women about! Not everyone is anorexic. Now I am feeling like I should be saying something extremely intelligent about how avatars reflect our mainstream culture of sexist lookism, but actually, I just wanted to talk about Zola.

Zola Zsun

So there she is. One night we were feeling silly and made a little zoo. Absolutely no reason except we wanted to take all our animals out! Now, you got to realize, this was a very silly thing, nothing elaborate. But a few friends did finally drop by and we all chatted and sat on hippos and things. Sometimes SL is just about hanging out and being silly. Hell, in my case it usually is!

You know? That’s not really true at all! Zola had a great a idea a while back for a Role Play Exposition. She is an educational design and technology grad student who works here in SL. So the idea was to have different role play groups display and demonstrate their stuff. You will have to ask Zola, but I guess the idea is to use SL for interactive, immersive and synergistic learning, not just each student clicking on things alone. Actually, my sister, Elle Bellah is in the field too. Now she is working on machinima for nursing classes. Anyway, Zola had this idea, and I got to do the terraforming! 

Zola, Miss Wright & Me

Dramatic Terraforming!

Zola in all her glory

More terraforming

Each role-play group needed a space that reflected what they did, and it had to be parceled for media and music. If I recall, ultimately it was Pandora, Deadwood, Antiquity, Pern, Toxian City, and Renaissance Island. It was quite a well-rounded sample: three different historical periods, fantasy, science fiction, and a dystopia.

Gianfar

Pandora

Renaissance Island

Antiquity's Tea Area

Deadwood

Antiquity's lighthouse at the site

Toxian City's Miss Wright

After getting commitments from all the role-play groups, terraforming, landscaping, parceling and setting up, Zola decided we needed a tour and party! So I got Ragnarok Dragonash, my good friend to DJ and we set up a fun dance area too! Rag’s a great DJ, btw, he does Celtic music, on Fridays, at Sarras Village’s medieval tavern. Rag and his partner Katje Broek are my oldest friends in Second Life, and own the sim next to Dark Moon. ANYWAY... the tour! Now that was a gas! (hahaha~) Zola got stage fright! But I tell you she came through! We were on voice, and I walked her through the first stop, Toxian City. After that, all I had to do was type in chat, “FOLLOW THE REDHEAD!” and everyone trailed after her. 

The Party

Follow the Red Head!

The dragons of Pern were particularly interesting because they gave a live role-play demo of a dolphin healing a sick dragon! I don’t know about you, but that’s something I don’t see everyday~! 

Tiny Dragon Advising

Einy Marksman & Me watch

Zola is happy the dragon is healed!

 So, as I said, for smart fun, FOLLOW THE REDHEAD Zola Zsun! Kiss, Zola : )