Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of grim news in the world today that we all ought to be aware of, but it's good for mental health to take a short break from worrying about it. And what better way than by taking in a nice 2 hours of culture, friendship, and beauty.
But before we get to the eye candy, (supplied in this gif by Kith Whitehawk, scroll down for even more Wyldwood Bayou gorgeousness) there's an important new cultural hub on Craft Grid, that we visited as our first destination. Hosted on regions curated by Roxelo Babenco aka Rosanna Galvani whose Museo del Metaverso has been a beacon of art in virtual worlds over 15 years. HG Addresses are, as always, at the end of this post.
Rosanna Galvani and Velazquez Bonetto were waiting on Craft Grid to welcome us as we arrived at the new Ebook Library on sim Uqbar 2 which is in the group of art regions under the aegis of the Museo del Metaverso. This project is a great example of how international Craft Grid is, because we were talking in Hungarian, Spanish, Italian and English, not to mention typonese.
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| Rosanna and Velazquez in the Library |
Velazquez Bonetto aka László Ördögh you may remember from Second Life where he, together with Josina Burgess, ran the CARP Diabolus region, a gallery famous for futuristic installations. Together with their own art, they frequently collaborated with some of the biggest names in SL's creative community. SL art and artists - and some Opensim creatives too - are immortalized in a series of books, and these have now a place of honor in a purpose built Library building, designed by Velazquez, in an area called the Virtual Artspace Diabolus CARP. CARP stands not for a fish but for Cybernetic Art Research Project. As colleagues and fellow galleristas, Rosanna and Velazquez bring together some of the best talent of the golden days of SL art, which is a grand basis upon which new artistic projects can grow and thrive in opensim.
Rosanna Galvani [it→en]: The idea for the Library was Velazquez's and of course I totally approved of his idea! This floor is dedicated to the ebooks that Velazquez has made and collected since 2006. You click a book and go to page, if you want to browse, you just clicking on the book, and you can see all the projects carried out by CARP and MdM
Velazquez Bonetto: Minden könyv felett találtok egy feliratot ami a könyv címe, a könyvtárban eddig 98 könyv található a metaverse művészetről [hu→en]: Above each book you will find an inscription which is the title of the book, to date, the library has 98 books on metaverse art.
George Equus: Great way to present books!
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| Rosanna |
Kelso Uxlay: Gorgeous design, this building
Wizardoz Chrome [it→en]: Yes both in the build and in the design and in the special effects .. Great Velazquez
Nebby Newman: it is easy to cam around here
Velazquez Bonetto [hu→en]: you can always come back and read. On the lower level are the e-books and on the upper level are the video collection
whirli placebo: such wonderful history here! thank you for archiving it.
Rosanna Galvani [it→en]: we said that the material is rich and varied
whirli placebo: yes! I love those who archive these kinds of things for history. Such an important thing to do
Rosanna Galvani [it→en]: There are15 years of photographic and film documentation here.
Kelso Uxlay: Fabulous
Velazquez Bonetto [hu→en]: The library was opened 2 months ago in this form. If someone wants to read the library to the end, it is guaranteed to last several months!
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| Velazquez |
So if you are/were an artist active in SL over the past decade or so, or have a friend who falls into that category, you should check out the library and see if you're in there!
After the Library presentation, we went over to the art sim Più Donna Zero Violenza dedicated to installations about violence to women, and also some protests against the current was situation, and an interesting illustrated timeline of women scientists
Nara Nook: This so cool and a message so much needed
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| Rosanna in some wearable art by Cherry Manga |
There was so much to see, I'm sure many will return to discover, or rediscover, all kinds of art and cultural expressions available on these monumental regions.
Rosanna Galvani [it→en]: all installations are inspired by violence against women
Nebby Newman: all is nicely done! thank you!
victoria logan [es→en]: excellent work
Kelso Uxlay: Thanks for the visit
Time had gotten away from us, and we were quite soon heading out to our next destination, on Wyldwood Bayou grid, where they had held over Mardi Gras just for our delight and entertainment.
The bright colors and lively music on Wyldwood Bayou are matched perfectly by the warm welcome on the Grid. The residents and regular visitors call themselves a Tribe, and immediately here, you know it's a family of like minded creative, musical people who are quick to make any stranger a friend. Our guide was Harmony Beningborough, who explained a little about the grid, with help from the others.
Harmony Beningborough: I am Harmony and I am club manager here on Wyldwood! I'd like to introduce Wyldwood's owner, Kith (our awesome DJ for today and our RP leaders Fiteach (Fit) and Contessa (aka Tessa and Amara). The 4 of us and Maggie and Durham Redmond are Wyldwood Bayou's Admin team! There are freebies up here to your right by the stage!!
Nara Nook: I so need some Cajun spirit today :)
Kith Whitehawk: We got it for ya Nara!!!
Nara Nook: I'm soaking it up
Xaria Aubrey: sorry if my tail feathers smack anyone around ;)
Lifted Pixel: yeah i clicked the freebies and they're finally showed up! Slapping all this stuff on, gunna be surprised when it loads lol
Wizardoz Chrome: I had an incredible desire to dance :) Finally!
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| Lifted and Wizardoz |
There was some lag, I can't lie, and we got this great effect of Lucy dancing by herself, and we were just all having a lovely time, camming around the region, and glad to be in such happy company, it was pure joy.
The New Orleans townscape is astonishing, with breathtaking attention to detail. Cam or go inside all the shops and houses, visit the Asylum, the river boat, pose on the balconies and do it all with the most amazingly appropriate soundtrack - good music played well!
Harmony Beningborough: Wyldwood Bayou was created by Kira Wyldfire (Whitehawk) in Inworldz in 2011. It is a region based on New Orleans, Louisiana, and although Kira was never able to visit NOLA, she fell in love with the "Big Easy" and wanted to spend her virtual life there, sharing the blues music that she loved so much. When IW closed, she brought Wyldwood Bayou and her venues.... along with staff and many "Blues Tribe" members to open sim! Kira passed away a short time later and her partner, Kith, along with staff and friends, kept the venues going and in 2020, we moved to our own grid which we affectionately call "Our own dayum swamp"!
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| Harmony Beningborough |
Kith Whitehawk: yessaahhh!!
Harmony Beningborough: Wyldwood Bayou grid is now home to the venues Rockin' the Blues, Hot Daddy's Dance Dock, The Bayou Belle and Lady Blue with some special event venues and two awesome Medi/Fantasy roleplay groups, Brigantia and Ravenquest!
Nebby Newman: awesome!!
Kith Whitehawk: Every part of of the region has something special in it ...lots of bits of detail... the Asylum is interesting and has RL pics
Fitheach Eun: We also have a new region called "Wyld Thangs Ride Park: where you can participate in many types of individual and group sports, attend musical events and go to the movies!! It's a great place to relax and play!
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| Rockin' The Blues |
We made our way over to the beautiful music venue called Wyldwood Bayou Rockin' The Blues.
Nara Nook: loving the music
Thirza Ember: so what was it like for you guys, when you left Inworldz? Was it a shock or did you know it was coming to an end?
Kith Whitehawk: lol well.... we had done a trial run in a grid that went down shortly after it went up so we had a small inkling. We were not really prepared for IW to go down of course...
Nebby Newman: hey, a whole 4 days notice! it's good the Kira wasn't on vacation <sigh>
Kith Whitehawk: lots of rushing around to get the important stuff. Kira had made all the important builds, so... we were fortunate in that ....
Thirza Ember: you guys managed to stay together, that's not easy when a grid disappears
Kith Whitehawk: Anyway :) was a great surprise but we were fortunate and had a lot of Tribe around us and a lot of support. Tribe is an amazing group of people. We still get folks that come in that we haven't seen in years.... is like old home week - don't care if you come in once a year or are a regular... once you Tribe, you always Tribe :)))
The focus of Wyldwood Bayou is on being a destination for dancing and roleplay, leaving drama and real world problems outside, making it an oasis for anyone looking for a relief from the stress of day to day life. There are five weekly music events, two roleplay sessions, and of course, you can visit any time to enjoy the scenery and explore the cultural history of New Orleans.
Sometimes you come across grids that, maybe out of concern for losing content, or members, or some other paranoia, are not big fans of hypergridding and the challenges and opportunities it offers. With their background on Inworldz, a closed grid, how quickly did they take to the crazy pastime of gridjumping?
Fitheach Eun: Well personally I found OS to be a wide and wonderful place and I love the hypergrid
Maggie Redmond: Agrees completely with Fit! There are so many people here willing to help with just about anything, quite unlike SL
Contessa Lacombe: I love the HG. It took me just a little while to learn to navigate, but I'd never go back! And I love that we are a Destination here at WWB!!! We are your prime HG vacation spot!!!
Destination Addresses:
Museo del Metaverso and Virtual Artspace Diabolus CARP
Ebook Library craft-world.org:8002:Uqbar 2
Art Gallery against violence craft-world.org:8002:Più Donne Zero Violenza
Downtown New Orleans
wyldwoodbayou.com:8002:Wyldwood Bayou N'Awlins
Music Venue 'Rockin' the Blues'
wyldwoodbayou.com:8002:Wyldwood Bayou Rockin' The Blues
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