Friday, March 30, 2012

MachinimUWA V: Sophia Yates' 'Seeker of Wisdom' & 'Philosophy & Wisdom'

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'Philosophy & Wisdom' and 'Seeker of Wisdom' by Sophia Yates are monumental journeys in the search for wisdom. They are now part of  the L$725,000, MachinimUWA V: Seek Wisdom. MachinimUWA V's theme is a tribute to the Centenary of the University of Western Australia and UWA's New Courses 2012.

Entries to MachinimUWA V: Seek Wisdom close on the 30th of June 2012 and seeks for the creation of machinima with any storyline that fits to the theme of 'Seek Wisdom' so long as at least ONE of the 100 Treasures from UWA form part of the story. Click HERE for full details and landmarks to the locations of the treasures in Second Life.

ADDENDUM!
Now there is a photo collage machinima too of seeker of wisdom!

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Friday, March 23, 2012

MachinimUWA V: pallina60 Loon's 'Colors'

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'Colors', by pallina60 Loon is an enchanting search for wisdom that has been entered to the L$725,000, MachinimUWA V: Seek Wisdom. MachinimUWA V's theme is a tribute to the Centenary of the University of Western Australia and UWA's New Courses 2012.

Entries to MachinimUWA V: Seek Wisdom close on the 30th of June 2012 and seeks for the creation of machinima with any storyline that fits to the theme of 'Seek Wisdom' so long as at least ONE of the 100 Treasures from UWA form part of the story. Click HERE for full details and landmarks to the locations of the treasures in Second Life.


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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

MachinimUWA V: Carl Velde's 'Sophia's Gaze'



'S0phia's Gaze', by Carl Velde is an atmospheric creation that has been entered to the L$725,000, MachinimUWA V: Seek Wisdom.  MachinimUWA V's theme is a tribute to the Centenary of the University of Western Australia and UWA's New Courses 2012.

Entries to MachinimUWA V: Seek Wisdom close on the 30th of June 2012 and seeks for the creation of machinima with any storyline that fits to the theme of 'Seek Wisdom' so long as at least ONE of the 100 Treasures from UWA form part of the story. Click HERE for full details and landmarks to the locations of the treasures in Second Life.


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Victoria Lenoirre's Review on the LEA Full Sim Series March 2012: Labyrinth of Absurdity by Kicca Igaly and Nessuno Myoo

Hello all you Art supporters and Artists here at UWA in SL! I hope you've all been well and pleased with the art at LEA this month. This month's installation at the LEA Full Sim is a creation by Kicca Igaly and Nessuno Myoo entitled "Labyrinth of Absurdity".  It opened on March 8th at 2pm SLT. I was late and couldn't make it at that time (dinner time for us EST people), but I was happy to have gotten the chance to meet the artists when I landed at the teleport pad around 4pm SLT. They were quite friendly and were talking with visitors and friends while  I was there. Here is the LM: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA6/136/107/21

Right at the teleport pad, if you look up and behind you, you should see a sign with a picture of  the entire installation, a photo of an industrial plant with 8 sections. Each section is a little exhibit. Each exhibit is absurd. All are unrelated, however.

I wanted to see if I could simply walk through this whole body of work. So I climbed the first set of seeminly endless spiral stairs. However when I got to the top of the stairs, I was faced by a hoop and I could not go through it or sit in it. I wondered if I could walk around it, however I ended up falling down to the teleport pad and about 1m in front of Nessuno so I was face to face with Nessuno. Ha, I was a bit shamefaced and I said to him, "Sorry, I couldn't go further, so I had to fall." He slowly took a step or two back and said "Np." He was pretty nice about it and Kicca told me that flying is the easiest way to navigate around the installation. And so I flew up and back to the point where I had fallen.

The first exhibit I saw was "Untitled" by Kicca. It depicts a girl sitting on a swing and an anvil is positioned above her head. Click on the yellow cylinder on the left of the exhibit for a notecard. The notecard contains English and Italian. I will just include the English. Kicca wrote to describe the exhibit "As Magritte said: no title, because there is no explanation for one paradox." This reminds me of the saying of having something "hanging over one's head"....as in something that irks a person and follows them like a black cloud of doom. Or perhaps it is more like how someone will do something that can lead to a bad result, but they do it anyway. Humans are not always rational. The paradox, in my opinion, is  that we will do dangerous or unhealthy things despite knowing that if we do them, the consequences could be fatal or disastrous.

"Colored rain" is the second exhibit I spotted. You see a bunch of colored tops in green, yellow, blue, orange, and red. in all sizes. Some are on the floor, but others seem to be floating in the air, just a tangle of tops. The notecard says,"An colored rain on the frenetic life of young men. Where are the children that we were? ".  I think this one is about how in this day and age we are  surrounded by all kinds of toys, whether traditional toys like dolls and figurines or modern toys like a digital camera or camcorder, but yet we are just bored with our toys. We set them aside and instead run around all stressed out and frantic and confused, just lost in ourselves...unable to appreciate toys or the wonders around us. This is a great time to live, so many toys and inventions to use and play with, so why do we take them for granted?

"A strange coincidence" is the third exhibit I saw. You see a man in the bathroom, tipped over as he sits in a chair with a noose around his neck, and a baby above him, on the other side...a man sitting on the toilet with a muzzle of a rifle stuck up his mouth. "The ambiguous nature of a trip of an bullet, fatal for some, providential for others... " This was one of the stranger exhibits, in my opinion. This one really made me stop and think. Did the baby annoy the father so much that he feels the need to end his life?


"The Dissolve's Snow" " by Nessuno Myoo. "The impatience of a meet, with the desire that dissolve even the snow that falls from the sky. Synthetic and biodegradable daisies for our love?" This exhibit is of a man on a ladder with a hair dryer, a marrionette man? Nessuno's words about this one make me think of a man trying to "reach for the sky"....trying to attain his heart's desire. The absurd thing could be that he is not free to reach for what he wants, he is constrained by something unseen...maybe something we will never know or something that is unknown to even him.


The Disssolve's Snow by Nessuno Myoo

"Cocktail of grubs" is a scene of a frog in a suit in a diner being served by  a waiter, and pictures of nature behind the booth where he's seated by Kicca Igaly, "In a parallel world, everything is possible. 
In our world is absurd ... perhaps in another universe ..." Why would a frog be in an enclosed man-made space when he could be swimming in an open, naturally-created pond?

"Try you, now" is a scene with a fish outside of a fishbowl staring at a man in a fish bowl, but both are skeletal in a cave. "Maybe it will take time, but at the end we are led to try everything that we could not understand." I was perplexed by this one. So I asked Kicca and Nessuno about it. Their explanation will follow my exploration descriptions.


Try you, now! by Kicca Igaly

"Mouseman" - "uomo mouse", is an exhibit authored by Kicca. You will see a mouse man looking at a laptop screen on the floor of his living room. "The absurd is born often from reversal of the parties, among the actors of every day reality. This is the creative process  that made me imagine this scene." Perhaps you have heard of role reversal or when "the tables are turned." This is one of the most dramatic scenarios ever, I believe. It is mind-boggling when events happen unexpectedly. The symbolism here could also be that the person in front of the computer has transformed into a mouse...not physically but abstractly or figuratively speaking. He/she peers at the screen, like a mouse will peer at food hungrily. Every day, we consume information as we watch, even if it is only a few minutes. There are other ways too, like we may creep around the Internet, not wanting our friends to know that we enjoy being in a virtual world, much like a mouse will sneak away bits of food from a storage facility or some other place like that. Or even, how we hoard bookmarks in our Internet browsers like a mouse hoards food and other items for its comfort. The list goes on. So in a way, many of use are like this "mouseman." :-)

"Until to Touch the Clouds" by Nessuno Myoo is "A tribute to the poetry of an immensely artist as Philippe Petit." From wikpedia: Petit is is "a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, on 7 August 1974.[1] For his feat (that he referred to as "le coup"[2]), he used a 450-pound (200-kilogram) cable and a custom-made 26-foot (8-metre) long, 55-pound (25-kilogram) balancing pole". Because of this, he brought more attention to the Twin Towers. He made people appreciate them more. You should read more about his accomplishments at wikipedia and other sources. It is quite fascinating and inspiring.

And now onto the questions about Labyrinth of Absurdity:

What do you think absurdity is about?

Kicca: It 's an intriguing stimulus for creativity, just this theme helped me a lot to produce new works and scenarios for this installation for the LEA.

NESS:
The absurdity is' one of the most interesting, and intriguing, in the daily life of everyone,
all sooner or later we came across an episode so bizarre
and devoid of logic such as to be ... the sense of the absurd in some way unites the people, resets the differences,
puts everyone on an equal footing, one of astonishment that strikes something deep and not understood never quite ...

Why make a sim about absurdity?

Kicca & NESS: Why we think it was a good solution to allow to we both to express ourselves in absolute freedom,
without any constraint, ideological, logical, expressive ...

Which is your favorite exhibit of the 8?

Kicca: I can not say, of which of the eight works, absolute that I prefer more...  I can indicate,  in my four that the I prefer is " Try you now ".
Has been challenging and fun see it grow, develop,  piece by piece, a prims after the other ....

NESS:
Among the my sculptures that have show my favorite is  'Strange Coincidence' ...
I think it is an excellent example of structural complexity and narrative to which I tend lately.
Contained in terms of space but very rich in details, with references ...
A bullet in his journey to the same extent takes away the life and saves from death,
with the promise of an inner rebirth ...

Try you now, is an unusual one. Why use a fish and a man? Why are only their skeleton's showing?

Kicca: A fish and a man, just because in the game  of shares is always a man that observing a fish  in an aquarium.
Subverting this scheme,  we face a fish that looks a man and seems to say
to him:  " Try you now! ".
We're seeing only their skeletons, because in an absurd future and hypothetical, you could see what remains,  that the skeletons.

"The Dissolves Snow" is a puzzling exhibit. What is happening in that one?

NESS:
Is a poetic and absurd image of a lover with the help of his resources trying to melt snow
before falling to the ground, in order to be able to reach your love in a hypothetical emotional journey ...
Absurd the wobbly ladder is not leaning against anything, as the hair-dryer that has the plug just lying on the ground ...

"Mouse man" is a funny one. So the mouse is watching man on the screen?

Kicca: Even here, jast as Try you now, the parties are reversed  and the mouse controls the computer, with a device with umana shaped.

In "Cocktail of Grubs", a frog is waited on by a man. Could animals ever become sophisticated enough to rule over men, you think?

Kicca: I do not think that animals can never rule above the man, but even here to play on the inversion of the parties to provoke who see it. The whole plant work  is contrary to reason, at the logic ... but for this coming from stereotypes, capture the attention and forces you to think at the party game.


Ciao nessuno. i was wondering, why is "Until to touch the clouds" absurd?
talk soon. grazie. bacio. :)


Nessuno: Hi Victoria :O) yesss sure this is an good question :°) me too ask this to me when i have insert "Until To Touch The Clouds" inside the installation dedicated to the absurd theme... In the beginning the work dedicated to Petit had be a little different, the man on wire playng as an juggler with all objects of the everyday life on work, money, love, family...etc etc... but when i make it in this mode that you can see i have decided that is finished and this is him mode of to be absurd... then why not insert it? :°))
Un bacio, ness... :°)


Nessuno Myoo & Kicca Igaly on opening night of  their LEA Full Sim collaboration

E voilĂ ... my look at Labyrinth of Absurdity.

I really enjoyed flying around and examining each exhibit. Thank you so much to Ness and Kicca for an excellent body of work this month! The details and textures really enhanced the meaning in each work. Wonderful choice for the windlight! I am also so thankful that they answered my questions so well, I loved reading their answers. They have been very kind. Grazie mille!

Also, on opening night I saw nexuno Thespian there. I have been interviewing him for BOSL magazine for several days. He won first place in the UWA 3d Art Challenge in September 2011 for his installation, "Autumn." He also submitted "Come Into My Mind". He currently has 2 installations at LEA, INSECTIA and ARACNIA. To get to INSECTIA: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA13/78/31/1144. Check them out when you have time! Molto bene! I had a lot of fun talking to him and following him around. Hehehe. BOSL's March issue is about SL art and will feature other excellent artists, so definitely check it out! I will post the link to it as soon as I get the link, so stay tuned!

Have fun and enjoy the art!
 Divertirsi  e godetevi l'arte!

~Vic

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

New UWA Vice-Chancellor in Second Life

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Professor Paul Johnson: New Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia
The 1st of January 2012 marked the momentous change of Vice-Chancellor in real life for the University of Western Australia from Professor Alan Robson to Professor Paul Johnson.

Professor Robson was instrumental to the creation of the UWA Second Life presence, and without him, it would simply not exist. Click here to see a CNN report interviewing Professor Robson on the UWA SL presence.

As in real life, so follows SL, and the above image displays the avatar of UWA's new VC, Professor Paul Johnson in Second Life. Many people need to be thanked for their efforts in assisting in the creation of the avatar of our new Vice-Chancellor. They include Starla Farrella, Briarmelle Quintessa, Eolene Uralia, quadrapop Lane and Kit Guardian.

When asked by one of the visitors the first time Professor Johnson saw his new avatar what he thought of it, he responded that it was 'pretty close to the real thing' and gave his stamp of approval to his SL look!

Said Jay Jay Jegathesan, leader of the UWA SL presence, who coordinated the effort, "I probably know more than most people now about the types of ties and clothes our Vice-Chancellor favours'.

LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES (March): The Labyrinth Of Absurdity by Kicca Igaly & Nessuno Myoo

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THE LABYRINTH OF ABSURDITY by KICCA IGALY & NESSUNO MYOO

The LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES moves to March with The Labyrinth Of Absurdity by Kicca Igaly & Nessuno Myoo.

Honour McMillan Blog
Sneak Peek on Quan's Travelogues
Virtual Real Blog
Italian Blog
Firlefanz Ramshackle Hut
Lionigaly Machinima
Nakoto Exonar Machinima
Art in Second Life (Russian Blog)
Virtual Outworlding
Mal Burns SEcond Arts
Victoria Lennoire Review

Launching on Thursday the 8th March 2012 at 2pm slt, this Full SIM installation, is according to the creators, best seen in the AM Radio Nostalgia sky setting.

GRAND OPENING: The Labyrinth Of Absurdity by Kicca Igaly & Nessuno Myoo
Date & Time: Thuirsday, 8th March 2012, 2PM SLT
Location: HERE on LEA 6

Kicca & Nessuno describe this creation as follows:

8 Small installations in a labyrinth that is really just imaginary and that appears in the unusual shape of an old and rusty disused industrial plant ...

You can choose your own path, where it is possible, carrying on up to reach the platforms
with the works whose only common denominator is the absurd, is in nonsense, in poetry, in tragedy and in hope ...

At the point of arrival please take a notecard with all the details of the works on display, as well as detailed information on the individual works that make up the whole ...

We recommend to set a good quality graphics and a draw distance of at least 200m.




 

Monday, March 5, 2012

The sweet smell of success

The results are in for the UWA Artists' Choice Perfume theme show. The dozen or so participating artists created some remarkable interpretations of the olfactory sense, with roses and memories and synaesthetic visions. Both the artists and the general public chose Secret Rage's oversize bottle of cologne inspired by memories of her mother as the most evocative entry, as she walked away with First Place as well as the People's Choice award. Full text of the awards presentation is given below. Thanks to Taralyn Gravois for emceeing the presentations.
The winners:
First Place Award (L$6000): MAMA'S PERFUME by Secret Rage

Since there was a 3-way tie for Second, no Third Place Award was given.

Second Place Award (L$3000): PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDER by Cherry Manga

Second Place Award (L$3000): THE LAST ROSE by Chic Aeon

Second Place Award (L$3000) : 8 AM APPROACHING THE WORK by Silene Christen
Since the non-scripted awards are given to the highest ranking non-scripted entries in the regular voting, two of the Second Place winners are also non-scripted winners.

Non-Scripted Award (L$2000): PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDER by Cherry Manga
Non-Scripted Award (L$2000): THE LAST ROSE by Chic Aeon
People's Choice Award (L$2000): MAMA'S PERFUME by Secret Rage
Sponsors:

  • JayJay Zifanwe.and the University of Western Australia
  • fiona Blaylock and artFiona
  • armany Thursday and Dyce Underwood for DNA Art and Music Fusion
  • Eliza Wierwight and Patron
  • Cherry Manga and Anley Piers for Mysterious Wave
  • Ginger Alsop and Phi Designs
  • Zachh Cale and projectZ

Complete list of entries:
  • Charles Hera Sweet Success
  • Cherry Manga Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
  • Chic Aeon The Last Rose
  • Chic Aeon The Scent of Memories
  • Eifachfilm Vacirca d-o-o-b flacon
  • FreeWee Ling Parfumerie: La Roue Libre
  • Huntress Catteneo Perfumed Shopping Aisle
  • London Junkers Fragrance of Existence
  • Menubar Memorial Olfactory Synapses
  • Nino Vichan She will always be roses
  • Praxis Synasiezure
  • Secret Rage Mama's Perfume
  • Silene Christen when I lie down on your chest
  • Silene Christen 8 am, approaching the work
The award ceremony text (written by FreeWee Ling, read by Taralyn Gravois):

Welcome to the second of the UWA Artists' Choice Awards!

As is tradition at the University of Western Australia, we would like to acknowledge that the University is situated on Nyoongar (nyungGarrr) land and that the Nyoongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land and continue to uphold their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.

Before we announce the winners, FreeWee would like me to announce the publication of an exhibition catalog for the Perfume show. The current draft will be online later today to include the award results. She also asks the participating artists to please let her know any brief descriptions or comments you would like to add to your entries for the book. It is expected to be complete within the next couple of days. See the website for this and last month's catalog: http://issuu.com/freeweeling

The UWA Artists' Choice challenges are designed to inspire and support the work of artists. The key difference from earlier challenges is that the main awards are determined entirely by the votes of the participating artists and sponsors themselves. Who knows art better than they?

Votes were collected by FreeWee Ling and verified by JayJay Zifanwe, and Eliza Wierwight. Anyone wishing to know their particular ranking may contact FreeWee.

So you know what the future is to bring, the Artists' Choice Challenges continue through March with the Music show. Beginning April 1 we will be accepting entries for a major competition. The UWA Centenary Art Challenge will be a single round lasting three months. Prizes totaling 500 thousand Lindens be will awarded. Anyone can enter a single entry of up to 100 prims. Official launch will be April 1, running through the end of June. Stay tuned for details to come. Look for the Artists’ Choice challenges to start again with a new theme announced in early July for an August show.

Please remember also that MachinimUWA V: SEEK WISDOM has begun accepting entries with a staggering 725 thousand Lindens in awards to be given. There is also a sponsored Poster Challenge associated with MachinimUWA V being run by Ginette Pinnazo & LaPiscean Liberty on behalf of the SL machinima Poster Archive & AviewTV. Full details are on the UWA blog. http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/

Today represents the end of the Perfume show and the mounting of the Music show for March. We have received around 20 amazing entries for the Music theme and we urge you to come visit them. The opening of Music will be announced within the next day or two.

We had a total of seven sponsors for Perfume. L$20,000 was donated by our sponsors this month.

Clearly, none of this would have been possible without the tremendous support of UWA in SL, and most especially the imagination and vision of JayJay Zifanwe.

We also express our deepest gratitude to the other sponsors for this event:

  • fiona Blaylock and artFiona
  • Armany Thursday and Dyce Underwood for DNA Art and Music Fusion
  • Eliza Wierwight and Patron
  • Cherry Manga and Anley Piers and Mysterious Wave
  • Ginger Alsop and Phi Designs
  • Zachh Cale and projectZ

Anyone wishing to support future challenges, please contact FreeWee Ling.

Now to the awards. The idea of communicating senses that are lacking in virtual worlds presents interesting challenges. We cannot touch things and yet we flinch when hit by a falling object. We cannot taste here, and yet we put out food and drink at art openings. Our hope with the Perfume challenge was to communicate olfactory experiences by representing what they mean in reference to other things. We see a flower or a picture of a grandmother and that evokes a memory of smell, just as a smell can evoke a deep memory of a person or place. This show expresses those cross-sensory synaesthetic experiences in many different and engaging ways,

The People's Choice voting received 212 votes total. The voting was clear, with 8 points separating the winner from its closest competitor.

The People's Choice Award of L$2000 for UWA Artists' Choice Perfume goes to:

MAMA'S PERFUME by Secret Rage

Rounding out the top five were:

PARFUMERIE: LA ROUE LIBRE by FreeWee Ling, PERFUMED SHOPPING AISLE by Huntress Catteneo, PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDER by Cherry Manga, and FRAGRANCE OF EXISTENCE by London Junkers.

For the top awards we had an unexpected situation arise. FreeWee is profoundly honored to have gotten such a nice reaction to her entry. She states that while the installation was created entirely within a couple weeks of the deadline, the fact is that she has thought about the topic for a long time, and because she is the one who is deciding the themes, it seems possibly an unfair advantage. So in consultation with JayJay she has respectfully (and happily) withdrawn her entry from prize consideration. She thanks you all for your support.

So on to the awards.

The awards are determined by individual votes by the participating artists, rather than by a panel deliberation, the results, while close, are clear. Though with such a small pool of voters, any of the prizes could easily have turned out differently if only one or two people had voted differently.

First we go to the Non-scripted Award. For the first time in The Non-Scripted Award for UWA Artists' Choice we have a tie.

We have boosted the prize pool a bit to accommodate this situation, so the two non-scripted winners will split a prize of L$6000, and receive L$3000 each.

The top two non-scripted entries are:

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDER by Cherry Manga

and THE LAST ROSE by Chic Aeon

Now for the top three overall awards.

For the Third Place Award we have another surprise. The Third Place Award for UWA Artists' Choice Perfume goes to:

NOBODY!

Since the non-scripted awards are determined by the same process as the regular awards, this month the two non-scripted winners happen also to have tied for third place in the overall voting. Therefore they will be sharing the Second Place award.

So the Second Place Award for UWA Artists' Choice Perfume ALSO goes to:

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDER by Cherry Manga

and THE LAST ROSE by Chic Aeon

But Wait! There's more!! The Second Place score was actually a THREE-WAY tie! So a third Second Place award also goes to:

8 AM APPROACHING THE WORK by Silene Christen

Again the prize pool has been adjusted and the three will be splitting a total of L$9000.

That’s the last of the ties for this round. The top award stands alone.

The First Place Award of $6,000 lindens, for UWA Artists' Choice Perfume goes to a piece that was clearly a crowd pleaser:

MAMA'S PERFUME by Secret Rage

Other artists who ranked strongly in the voting, in no particular order, included Silene Chritsten, Menubar Memorial, Nino Vichan, and Huntress Catteneo.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all who participated in a great show! Please take a final look around before you leave today. The Perfume show will all be gone by this evening to make room for MUSIC! Thank you all for coming! Have a great day!