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.