Noise Ploys with Lorin Tone

How many dimensions, would you say, are there in virtual worlds? If your answer is three, then maybe think again. For a virtual environment to really be immersive, there is another dimension that will lift, color, enhance and amplify your build, whether it be a sci fi paradise or a woodland tableau. That is sound.

Sound is one of the hardest things to get right in virtual worlds. Too many noises, or noises repeated too often, can spoil a sim, while if your audio is too sparing, visitors may not notice it at all. But how can you create the perfect aural environment?  Consult the Sorcerer of Sound, of course.

Lorin Tone: Sometimes sound effects can be used as a major component in build or environments. For most environmental soundscapes, the sound should not be featured, but more "felt" than noticeably heard. At other times, you can bash people over the head with sounds that enhance the most important elements of a build. 

Lorin Tone

Lorin presents a fascinating course on using Sounds in virtual worlds. The class lasts about an hour, and is held twice a month on Sundays, at 10am Pacific Time, on his region Soundscapes, within the Koryphon

'Tis (almost) the Season!

 Two weeks until Safari returns!
The third and final season of Safari trips for 2022 begins on September 14 and ends on November 16.

Safari trips are on Wednesdays  at 12 noon Pacific time, that's 3 pm for those on Eastern Time, and 9pm for most Europeans. That's our departure time, the time at which we are expected at the first stop on the trip, so if you can, do show up at the clubhouse a bit before. This way, you can get the latest news of what's going on, and you can friend other safari goers. This is more than a polite gesture - if you friend us, we may be able to tp you if you get lost (or even better, you can tp us if we get lost!) 

Each expedition involves two destinations, each for about an hour - some of you may remember our three hour Safaris, with anything up to five destinations, back in the day when long crashes and highly unstable grids (and, if we're being honest, quite a few highly unreliable hosts) made it sensible to have plenty of time and plenty of options. 

These days there are a lot fewer last minute cancellations, and that is thanks to the hard work of the Opensim Devs, and some really magnificent grid owners who go the extra mile in making our visits possible and delightful. The quality of builds in opensim continues to amaze us all, and the enthusiasm of our hosts is heartwarming - thank you all so much!

VWs - Distraction, or Inspiration? By Xirana Oximoxi

 This is a guest post by Xirana Oximoxi, aka the Catalan artist Núria Vives. She writes and illustrates children's books, including the delightful Amanda and the Snowman - presented in voice to the HG Safari group, back in 2016. Her books have a truly international feel, available in a variety of languages, making them ideal teaching tools as well as entertainment.  Xirana has shared her adorable art across both OpenSim and SL, as well of course in the real world too. Follow her blog to keep up with her latest creations and exhibitions.

Xirana Oximoxi - Núria Vives

The inspiration or stimuli we receive to enhance our creativity comes from the effect that the world and the people around us have on us, either in real life or in the virtual worlds in which we also relate with people who, behind the figure of their avatar, are very real. Music, Literature, Art and everything that happens in virtual worlds continues to be an experience that influences us.

Cherry Manga 1: The Early Years

There was a poetry to old school SL names. 

Their two-partedness and their permanence spoke of  a level of self expression that leaves the dumbed down display name and single moniker in the dust.  To make a name for oneself - that brush with destiny: the first name chosen from within, the second name chosen from a world-imposed list. Together they formed a double-edged identity card, showing a piece of yourself as an individual and where you place yourself within the wider world. Perhaps that's why so many SL names persist in opensim.

Cherry Manga is a case in point. Manga, and the mind flies to the unreal figures of the comics, to the culture of Japan, to romance and theatrical gestures, to space and cyborgs and superpowers, to lovely elemental battles. And Cherry? Thoughts, perhaps, of sakura, or of chérie, or of red and ready fruit, tasting sometimes sweet, sometimes a little sharp, fated to be popped. It's all in there, one way or another. 

Cherry Manga: Japan always fascinated me, it's so far from my own culture, it's delicate, precise, perfectionist. It's like I am related to Japan even if I never put a foot there. I would say first inspiration would be surrealism though, all mysterious, dark, and mostly everything I make is autobiographical. I build my feelings, my dreams, my pain.

This Midjourney AI artwork, made in 2022, glimpses the future of Cherry's art. But first, let's go back to the beginning.

Cherry Manga 2: FrancoGrid and More

Katia Venegas: Cherry Manga artiste futuriste aux talents multiples lorsqu’il s’agit de se dépasser ou de nous surprendre. La poésie est dans chacune de ses réalisations, la beauté également, aussi, le réalisme d’un monde décadent que ses créations soulignent pour mieux y échapper en s’envolant, gracieuses et dansantes, créatures étincelantes, immatérielles, uniques... Architectures de cristal aux formes inédites, l’art renouveau du futur… Un style marqué reconnaissable entre tous, une évolution constante de ses techniques et de son imaginaire, font d’elle l’artiste visionnaire de notre futur.

You don't have to know much French to see that Katia Vanegas is a fan of Cherry's art. She was the first gallery owner to exhibit Cherry's work in Second Life, and moved to FrancoGrid shortly before her. Katia's region Parc des Arts (now to be found on Craft Grid) soon had a spectacular build that the Safari visited in 2014, on FrancoGrid, a moving and powerful installation on the theme of AIDS.

FrancoGrid was founded in 2009 and had, as the name implies, an almost entirely francophone population. It was already a vibrant, art-centric community when Yann Minh introduced  Cherry and her partner Archael Magic, a nifty builder himself, whose Alpha Base is a fantastic scifi playground, to opensim in general and FrancoGrid in particular.

Cherry Manga 3: OS and SL

Throughout the years, Cherry Manga has accomplished the rare feat of maintaining a notable presence both in SL and Opensim. Her 'extrametaversal' experimentation includes forays into Tilt Brush as you can see in this video. Google has discontinued Tilt Brush but there is an Opensource version if you are interested in trying it yourself. It's a brilliant way to augment inworld art in further layers of surreality.

(By the way, please take a moment to watch all these videos in Youtube, like, subscribe and comment if you can, it's a nice way to show your appreciation for the hard work of the machinima makers.)

Summer of Love on Pangea

There was another triumph tonight at the Pangea Art and Culture Festival, ongoing throughout this year.
No doubt Lampi will have a video of it on her Youtube channel shortly, so make sure you subscribe!

'The Summer of Love' was a choreographed performance by the dance group The Imaginals, Medora Chevalier,  Zimp Rexi, Alazi Sautereau,  along with  DJ Arianna Nightfire, Lampithaler Artist, Eva Noir, Arcanquest Frank, Roxelo Babenco, Eva Kraai, and Nele Paulson.

All the Rage

 Rage Darkstone has recently arrived in opensim, and has already begun to make his mark. His first big show was 'Death and Transfiguration' for the Pangea Art and Culture Festival, directed by Lampithaler Artis. 

Rage's 3D art is ephemeral, vibrant, tenuous, full of life and drama, and this performance had it all. Pretty good, too, for his first attempt in what many artists find a foreign country, OpenSim, where even on well conducted grids, scripts can mess with you, and your carefully honed SL inventory is not available, making life a little more... interesting.

Collaboration, by Karima Hoisan

 The following is a guest article by Karima Hoisan. Well-loved in both SL and on Kitely for her poems and sim-sized installations (called 'worlds' in Kitely), she shares here some thoughts about the most significant collaborations in her career. On her blog Digital Rabbit Hole, you will find many poems including this tribute to Natascha, called 'Lone Rider'

When I hear the word “collaboration”, I think of two people: Natascha Randt and Dale Innis.

In 2012.  Natascha and I knew about each other, but not well, until one day she said, “Let’s try something together.” In our first collaboration, we took 2nd place in the 2012 UWA Machinima Competition “Seek Wisdom”. We just kept going and going from that day on, until last September, when Natascha passed away while waiting for an artificial heart. She was 40 years old. 

In these last 10 years we learned so much, how and why we worked together so well. Our collaborations were not the norm, but they were successful and a delight to be a part of. 

Home Sweet Gnome

 "Sometimes I feel like I'm actually on the wrong planet, 
and it's great when I'm in my garden. 
But the minute I go out the gate I think:
'What the hell am I doing here?' "
George Harrison

In January 1970, George Harrison bought a house called Friar Park, on the western edge of  the Thames-side town of Henley, about an hour west of central London. The 60-acre estate has its feet, as it were, in the realm of the bus-stop-and-bins of suburbia, but its head rests quietly on the edges of the Chilterns. A rambling neo-gothic mansion built in the 1880's, by the '70s Friar Park had fallen into such a state of disrepair that it was due to be demolished. Instead, it was rescued and repaired. For thirty years it was home to Harrison, and the location of his main recording studio, and his family live there to this day. 

The house must have hundreds of tales to tell, but this post is about the garden, which has been recreated in the virtual world of Littlefield Grid by Pete Clements, aka Mudpuddle Cleanslate, on a region called 'All Things Must Pass'. This picture, as with all the landscape images below, was taken in that place in the  metaverse.

OSgrid Turns Fifteen

 Fifteen is a great age, and in Opensim it's virtually prehistoric - just four years younger than the old Grande Dame, SL. 

Event Plaza

So congrats off the bat to the entire operation - the geeks past and present who have kept OSGrid up to date, the creators, and the entertainers, the testers and scripters and artists, and even more to all the individual contributors who with sums large and small have paid for it to stay online. Let's see what some have to say for themselves.

On Fluorine

 Fluorine is full of toothsome goodies, way more than can reasonably be mentioned in this post, which is one for the ladies. Don't hesitate to jump on over to grid.opensimfest.com:8022:Flourine to do the full tour, and see these builds for yourself.

The theme of Opensimfest 2022 is Medieval/Fantasy which is a great piece of wordplay, because it leaves things open for fans of the medieval, fans of fantasy, and fans of imagined medieval. So that has us all covered. The first build that impressed and inspired me is this one by Susannah Avonside. 

It's the real deal in terms of medieval builds, and of course Suzi is flying the flag for her beloved Wales. 

By Jupiter

 Dewdrops, on a sultry summer day, could not be more welcome. And when Azi Az and Danger Lytton put out the invitation 'Do drop in', the appeal is twice as strong, twice as compelling.

The Dew Drop Islands on OSgrid are delightfully mysterious. Make sure you have Advanced Lighting enabled in your graphics, or you will miss out on the spectacular sky that makes you feel like you've arrived on a moon of Jupiter. A watery, flower-abundant moon, where you begin to wonder... and wander... everything has delicious doubt written into it.

On landing, a question. Is this a dragon, or a sea snake, an illusion, a guardian or a greeter? 

Art and Soul at the OSF

OpensimFest has as its motto 'The chemistry of community' and that's why the regions take their names from the periodic table. Some are words we're all familiar with like Oxygen and Carbon, while others have names that sound a bit made up, come on, admit it, by scientists who just want to mystify their craft. 

The heart of Chlorine. Greyer than I expected, tbh

Here are two OpensimFest regions you might like to explore,  one with an everyday name, the other sounding more exotic. What do they have in common? Big art, and interesting projects. Both regions are full of good things to look at, I've chosen my favorite three from each, so go and explore, perhaps you'll find something I have overlooked.

More than Music: OSF's Event sims

OpensimFest opened on Friday July 8 and will stay open for a full 17 days, including three 3-day weekends with twelve hours of musical entertainment, focused on the four Event regions that are all smooshed together, with four separate stages, so each performer can have the backdrop that matches their musical style. There is a shared dance floor spanning all four regions, and you can hear the music, whichever sim you happen to be dancing on. If you missed the first couple of days, no worries, there is plenty more to come.

Some of the performers have really gone to town in creating an ambience for their events, like this set up by Karima Hoisan, a perfect environment for the wonderful poems.

Many have brought the house down just with a bit of nifty dancing, as seen here where Holocluck Henly and Snoots Dragon are giving it welly.

Spectacular Sound & Adorable Alice

   The final Safari of the season (We start back up again on September 14) and two more absolutely unmissable destinations. If you and everyone you know don't know these places, well... Go. See. Enjoy. HG Addresses are as always at the end of the post.

First up, a visit to The Nuna Gallery on 3rd Rock Grid, more specifically, some sky-high sound based installations by the sorcerer of sound, Lorin Tone and region owner and brilliant builder and region owner Alia Soulstar.  

The Nuna is a walkable Encyclopedia of world art that is as peerless as it is rigorous. For me, it's one of the Seven Wonders of Opensim. Magnificent in its size, layout, detail, complexity, and precision, it must have taken a vast amount of time and talent to put together. This is a useful and beautiful place, an educator's resource of the highest quality, and a place that anyone can enjoy, and find within its walls serenity, knowledge and beauty. 

The Gallery opened in December 2019, and comprises five floors of outstanding world art, with information that sets it in context and basically will give you a degree in Art History by the time you've done the whole building, or, if you just sample a few bits, will in any case expand your mind and help you make sense of the world of art. It's bliss in a box.

Goodbye to Metro

 Nobody would argue (and on this venerable grid, that is really saying something) that the hero of Metropolis Metaversum is Neovo Geesink, seen here dancing along with the other star of the Goodbye to Metro party, LadyJo Martin. Wait, did this gif capture the hand of Kashi Takeshi? Classic Opensim. Metro was slated to close permanently on June 30, 2022, and we decided to party her offline.

LadyJo in green, Neovo in grey, with the partygoers

The party got started, not at noon Pacific as advertised, but well in advance, thanks to the fabulous

The Gift

– Adieu, dit le renard. Voici mon secret. Il est très simple :

on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur.

A secret, a heart, a book, a voice, a concept, a collaboration, and a sim. A gift.

It began with Unadecal Masala. He runs a region hosting service, where you can rent a fast, efficient region connected to OSGrid, and I think other grids too, but you should ask him. He has always been a supporter of the Safari and Opensim Arts in general, and he offered a space for a project by and for the Safari. 
The idea of doing an event  this season to mark the 122nd birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupery was already on my mind. His most famous text is The Little Prince, written in French but translated into over 250 languages and dialects, making it one of the most international and best loved books in the world.

But who to take on the job of imagining the book for opensim? It could only be one person, Wizardoz Chrome, machinimer, conceptual artist, word lover and a brilliant and delightful collaborator, not to mention one of the founding members of the Safari. She soon involved others, including Tina Bey, Art Blue, Venus Adored, and Cherry Manga, who presented each of us with a white animesh rose, freshly invented by her, on our arrival on sim Exupery. A truly international group to celebrate these sublime words that have resonated in hearts all around the planet.

Babylonie

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; 

and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language;

 and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, 

which they have imagined to do.  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, 

that they may not understand one another's speech.

So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: 

and they left off to build the city.

Genesis 11:4-8

Arrival - Photo by Fitheach Eun

Ignis Fatuus grid, our second destination this week. Ustengrav is a new region from Max, Chip and Harthelie, whose prowess in intricate construction and textures is always mindboggling. The theme is Mesopotamian, proto-Mediterranean, with  a little pre-Columbian mystery in there for good measure. An idyll of idols, if you will. Colors and textures, layout and lighting, this is not a build that is meant to be immediately understood.
We were, how can I put this, informationally challenged, in that yes, there was an intro to the build, in

Dreams of Destiny: Paul Stephen Dixon at Pangea

Lampithaler and Marlon Wayne's Art and Culture Festival on Pangea Grid continues, this time with "Dreams and Nightmares", an art show by Paul Stephen Dixon known inworld as Tryad Destiny.  

The "Dreams and Nightmares" exhibition is at pangeagrid.ddns.net:8002:Norge

 The venue is your classic NPIRL place. Dancing in a forest sim. A few meters away looms an unusual hemisphere gallery, alive in the half light, quite unlike the typical bricks-and-mortar framework favored by many artists in 2D.