Lost Light

One of the giants of virtual worlds, Lumiere Noir, died about a year ago, on August 10, 2015. He had been ill for quite some time, but his passing came suddenly, sending shockwaves through the community of virtual worlds where he had long been revered as an inspirational educator for hundreds of builders. 

Lumiere Noir on Craft Grid in 2011

The expression 'Ivory Tower' was coined in 1837 by the French writer Sainte-Beuve and it means a frame of mind, or sometimes a place of scholarship and learning, that holds itself aloof from the less educated, everyday happenings. That's rather ironic, considering Lumiere's lifelong desire to inform and assist others to be part of the building community.

Lumiere's passion was explaining the many ways in which prims can be cut, tapered, twisted and textured. He was infinitely intrigued by the possibilities of these basic but versatile forms to make intricate and organic looking structures. The Tower - in Second Life, and later on Craft Grid -  gavee detailed explanations on how prims work, and can be worked, cutting out so much of the guesswork of the self taught, and explaining things that have frustrated would be creators, so that they could move on with their projects.

The buildings you see here house the project, but are not actually built by Lumiere. This is the work of his partner, Tosha Tyran with whom he left Second Life and settled on Craft as two of the original four members of the grid, the other two being grid owner Licu Rau and his partner, Tao Quan. This build, which comprises of a central tower surrounded by pavilions, each one with its own unique basket-worl pattern, is located on Sanctuary Grid. 

It has gone through a few iterations over time, because it's a huge project and there are infinite ways in which to express yourself with a prim, so that is part of the poetry of the place.

Lumiere didn't live to see this version, sadly, but his inspiration continues to be part of the makeup of every builder who has ever twisted a prim into something new!

Opensim Oldbie Fu Barr was on hand to give a little speech and demonstration about the importance of prims in our ever more mesh world. His talk emphasised the virtue of the Free community, in which people choose to make things to share, rather than focus on money, in their virtual lives, and the event ended, of course, with a joyful party on sim Chameleon, on Craft.

HG Addresses:

Lumiere Noir Tribute and Building Tutorial region       sanctuary.homelinux.org:8012:ivory city 2
Chameleon Party zone on Craft                                                   craft-world.org:8002:chameleon