Exhib coming to an end

It will go away sometime between today and tomorrow, so just in case you didn’t have the chance to visit my not-that-secret exhib, you can still do it, for it’s still in Lust4Art Gallery… and this is a sample of what you might find in there:

What he left behind

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Kinda sickish

I surely am not meant to take any pills. Whenever I start taking them to ease some symptons they most certainly raise some other issues. This is how I turned out to be at home since friday. With no will at all to write much or even hang around in Plurk or Facebook, I limited to explore the Melt installation and shoot some images not only of the place (previous post) but also of some of my favourite shopping around.

Because words refuse to make much sense in my head these days, I’ll leave you with just images (anyway, I’ve been writing quite a lot lately so at least this time you only have to look at things and not following my not that often linear speech, hehehehe).

Spring in the Artic

Details:
Hair: [SC Hair] Lawless (F) – Pumpkin Pie
Tattoo: ~silentsparrow~ (iced) Ursala Glacies Tattoo Upper
Outfit: MIEL TARY SKIRT & TOP (Polar Edition)
Boots: MIEL FAR BOOTS – POLAR EDITION
Puppet pose: [SC] Surf Couture – MELT Marionette

Playing with the moon

Details:
Skin by Imabee
Full outfit by runoruno
Pose by (pda)
Background: part of “Can’t Sleep” by Vlad Studio (modified by me)

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Melting

Ever since I first heard about Melt – an installation on thin ice I have been waiting for the place to be available and jump in. Have to admit that I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to tp there, but unfortunately I was not lucky enough and no parcel was to be found until I finally gave up.

As I woke up today, Melt was my first thought. So I took the chance that the household was still sound asleep and was absolutely delighted as I found myself there just upon my first trial. I will let Radio Signals, the mind behind the whole project speak about it… for no doubt her words are far more appropriate than mine:

“Artists absorb the world around them. Their environments, that which they can feel and touch and see – and that which they can’t. Sometimes that which they can only dream of. They absorb it and translate it into a language that affects us all in some way.

This project is a study of translations. I presented 25 artists within Second Life with a concept of creating art with these words in mind: Drowning. Melting. Polar bears. Arctic. Culpability. Corporate greed. Inevitability. Extinction.

What they have done is breathtaking and beyond any realm of my expectations.

Welcome to Melt – Please explore and involve yourself in this temporary world created here. Interact with it, wear it, enjoy it and immerse yourself in it.

Melt is only open March 6 – March 21, Please feel free to share your experience by adding your snapshots to the Mirror Installations Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/meltinstallations/

Thank you
Radio Signals”

As for me, I will let images speak – simple photoshootings I took of this venture that gathers some of the best artists and designers in-world. Be prepared to spend some of your lindens as well, therefore do not forget your wallet at home!

Melting bears

One with the sea

One with the sea II

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Are we cannibals? Or are we dancers?*

I went back to Cacariou and found another spot that caught my attention. As usual I uploaded it to Picnik, played a bit around with the effects and published it on my Flickr stream as soon as I was happy with the result. This is a great evening therapy that I recommend everyone: do something that pleases your soul each day before going to bed and sleep. You will see it is so much efficient than any sleeping pill, hehehe.

Anyway… as my eyes closed, my mind flippered a bit. I had included the image in a Flickr group called “Sl Art”. Not because I labelled my picture as “artistic” – I rather consider myself a reporter who aims at drawing people’s attention to interesting facts or creations – but obviously because the installation itself is a work of art by Vive VooM.

But then, you see… a photographer in First Life keeps his/her eyes wide open and does his/her best to catch a moment in time. Something that most probably will never repeat itself again. In the atomic world, he or she would only a few seconds tochoose the right angle and light, be fast on the camera trigger and shoot what afterwards will become itself a unique work – it is the whole of these skills and hard work that makes of them true artists as well. Even if we think of a studio photographer trying to shoot the perfect image of a model, we have to recognise abilities and effort put together in choosing the right timing, the best expression and pose, the most suitable post-editing.

And this is where I suddenly choke at what I have been doing. As I wrote already, my first aim when I take those pictures is to communicate and spread the word about those creations that make me drool. But. I couldn’t help feeling that maybe I was also cannibalising their work. I mean, for some minutes I wandered whether I could possibly be taken credits that are not actually mine. Because all I do is…capturing someone’s else work.

Of course I try to show them at the best possible light. I enjoy playing with colours, which often create an environment that is quite different from the default one that people will find upon arrival at that specific place. However, it is not like I have created something. The only merit I trully may deserve comes from the pictures taken in places that I have built myself, which is something I don’t do that often, lol.

Unlike First Life photographers, I had all the time in the world to choose amongt 50 different windlight pre-settings and as many angles as I want, for the scene before my eyes was not to change in the next couple of days… weeks ? 😉 You see, the fishes in this image are not swimming anywhere, lol. They will remain at the same place and be visible for anyone who will visit Cariacou up to the moment their creator decides to replace them by something else. So… in fact, not only there is nothing in that image that is a creation of mine – I am in fact taking advantage of someone’s else work.

So indeed… am I helping these creators in anyway? Or am I simply cannibalising their efforts and taking credits for a final result that is mostly due to their amazing creativity and know-how?

* Couldn’t help making my lil joke around that dreadful song, sorry about that, LOL

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Hunger

Second Life often seems to push us over the edge. I mean, as if we couldn’t stop wanting more and more… of just about anything.

This evening, I wanted to see something… different. I looked for places that were not beaches nor mountains, neither forests or deserts.

This evening, I was hungry – and I found Cariacou.

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Immersion

Last week, during my working travel to Brussels with a colleague, I found myself trying to explain him what was Second Life all about. Last time I had done that, I remember babbling something about “leasure time”, “entertainment” and “having fun”. Time went by, though and last year I began watching Second Life with different eyes. And these days, the more I explore and discover, the more I think that SL is a privileged platform for artists.

I know Linden Lab strives that SL becomes a corporate-oriented platform and does their best to develop the metaverse in order to fulfill the virtual needs of First Life Business. However, I don’t really think that is how residents are taking it. In fact, I look at some sims and I cannot help thinking that the in-world allows us all… to play God himself.

Then, I bump into places like Immersiva and my hearts misses a throbe. For true. Because in places like this it is impossible not to feel that here is where you find the ultimate expression of the art. Does anyone doubt that a sim may include all possible ways of expression? It can put together the traditional arts with new multimedia techniques, which ultimately opens up infinite possibilities as far as creation is concerned.

Oh, most of the time one may not even be able to aprehend what the artist tried to communicate. Other times we may disagree with the main message of the site. One thing for sure, it is quite impossible to remain indifferent. More than that, looking at art in-world inevitably changes the way we look at and interpret art in general. Have you been to an exhibition lately ? Didn’t you suddenly felt that just maybe the artist could have expressed him/herself more completely should he/she be able to build a gallery more suitable to their work? If only he/she had been able to draw the sky above and the soil below your feet, together with every piece that is in place ? Ah yes, an amazing painting will always delight our soul and an expressive sculpture will always speak with our heart… but don’t you just feel that pieces of art need to be included in an environment that is able to optimize their message and that help us, mere voyeurs, understand their meaning?

You may find places like Immersiva arid and naked, empty of emotion. But at the same time, have you noticed that the place is filled with life ? Yes, maybe a different kind of life, but surely Miss Bryn Oh’s vision of it! From a personal point of view, I tend to connect more easily to nature-landscaped sims. BUT.

It’s a challenge beyond words to try to understand a mind so diverse and so rich that conceives such a unique universe. Thanks to Second Life, that is no longer a role only for immaterial beings that we worship – it is something at the grasp of our own hands… only thing we have to do is to stop thinking in terms of what we know, let our mind wander… and dare exposing before others’ eyes the visions of our souls.

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On Art

This recent interest in SL Photography made me look at SL pictures with different eyes. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t aim at being an artist, I am perfectly aware of my own boundaries, limits and even patience. On the other hand, art is intimately bound to human nature, and this one indeed is the main target of my neverending research.

Right. Now that I assumed myself as a vampire of human minds, let us proceed to the main subject of this post: SL Art, specifically SL Photography. As I was saying, shooting some pictures and playing around in gimp changed the way I look at pictures posted everywhere. From my initial awe at every beautiful image I saw, I learnt to recognise sensitivity and hard work where it exists. And then… boom! I was deeply disappointed when I came accross sites like Picnik, for instance. Then, I had some conversations with friends in-world who really work their butt out to offer us expressive images that were born inside their imaginations and got to some conclusions.

You see, one thing is coming in-world, shooting a picture and applying some cute fast effects in an application that is at reach of everyone, then posting it and calling it… Art! Another, totally different, is coming in-world, characterise yourself or your model in a certain way, look for the perfect environment, light and angle (or, if you are lucky enough, recognise them when you come accross them by a coup-de-chance), adjust your windlight settings, then take a bunch of shootings from which you will choose one. Then yet, going into an editing image application and sweating your fingers and mind until you get the desirable result – which may be something really simple (like the ad I produced for Clio, which actually took me most of a saturday. Or better yet, look closely at Ana Lutetia’s pictures, don’t do they look easy ? Well, they are NOT!).

Between one and the other, there’s a world of differences. Of course, an imprepared eye will not notice it at first. Most of us are simply drawn to delightful effects and don’t even stop to look at it properly and notice that they simply required going to some place and clicking on a button saying “blurr from focus”. Instead, I’ve been keeping myself more and more attentive to pictures – in flickr, for instance – which description includes “unedited”. This means that the photographer limited him/herself, most of the time, to correct the final light, the whole picture remaining exactly like the image that was captured in-world.

This state of affairs sort of makes me sad. Not because I don’t find it fair that even the less skilled are able to play around and produce nice images – I count myself amongst these and am really pleased that I have been gathering a nice portfolio of pictures thanks to those tools. But. That’s not being an artist. And it pisses me off a tad whenever I see those people pretending they are a peer amongst real artists, joining their groups and posting their pictures as if they were doing something original, of their own. They are not.

You see… there’s nothing wrong in having fun. Let alone in trying to learn and developping your skills. Just… don’t take advantage of living in a virtual world to turn yourself into a fraud.

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