M is for Music

Morlita Quan's Second Life adventure started 16 years ago, and it was pure boredom.

Morlita Quan:   I even remember myself thinking : " Ok, I won't stay here more then two days". But as you well said, SL is a nest of creativity and very soon, I had the luck to meet persons there who used SL as a professional tool for art and music, and not like a simple social game. 

Morlita at her new, as yet unfinished, gallery on sim MorlitaM on OSGrid.

Sixteen years later, Morlita is still working on projects that overlap between the real and virtual worlds. Recently she has revived her interest in Opensim, and has an exciting new sim on OSGrid - address at the end of the post, as usual!  What, though, makes virtual worlds a special place to be creative?

Morlita Quan:  In virtual worlds there are no creative limits, and physical factors like architectural laws disappear. But still, SL works like RL, On one hand you can create all you wish but, on another hand you can't always expect a huge welcome from people. If you have an specific way to focus art or music, which aren't mainstream, to reach the right people takes time, but finally they are the most loyal.

Morlita is famed for her far-from-mainstream music. It's experimental, edgy, ethereal, uncanny. 

You can try it out for yourself by visiting her pages on Bandcamp and Soundcloud  and of course her Youtube channel. 

DJ Morlita enriching an art show on MetaLES in SL back in 2011

Her musical style has proved the ideal soundtrack to events and installations. Morlita is very well known in SL Art circles, and has exhibited and performed in popular and innovative galleries like La Maison D'Aneli, MetaLES, and Owl's Eye. In 2021 she collaborated  with Bryn Oh on 'Aural' an installation that you can still get a glimpse of, thanks to this video. Second Life art blogger Apmel has been a fan for quite a while - for example this post from 2016. I asked Apmel today to speak a little bit about this multi talented girl.  

Apmel:  I fell in love with her Dj mixes a dozen years ago. She had did some great video work together with one of my favorite artists Cherry Manga that introduced me to her own compositions. Her latest album Alive Banshees is superb!

When it comes to inspiration and collaboration topics, Morlita sees a direct link between the chemistry that happens in virtual and real life.

Morlita Quan:  When your ideals are based in  share to grow and learn, and you meet the right persons, the simple fact to work with other artists and their way to see the art or music,  is already a point of inspiration and learning. Still now, after 20 years making art and music in a public way, I feel a totally ignorant in many subjects. I don't think I stop to keep learning of me and from others. It's a life motto.

Abstract art by Morlita

Morlita's interest in art, music, books and history began when she was a child. She started out with a guitar and some percussion instruments when she was still small. Self taught, and always with the feeling that she was never quite able to delve into any of these subjects as deeply as she would like, she started writing poetry as a teen, alongside painting and working with consoles and synthesizers.

Morlita Quan:  When you learn without expecting anything, out of pure passion, and for yourself, in the end things happen organically and the curiosity to continue learning and exploring helped a lot. Painting, writing, playing instruments or DJing soon became my internal catalysts.

All this led to public poetry readings, competitions, and DJing, each thread of creativity feeding and reacting off each other. Surprisingly, Morlita's quite shy about her work.

Morlita Quan: I never sought to make my projects known, but a small group of people insisted me on doing so. From this point the offers to exhibit or DJ began to arrive and with that , inside me I needed to evolve. Therefore, starting to produce was a logical step and the experimental and abstract world was always my point of reference.  As a rebellious thinker, these are styles that give you the luxury of creating without rules.

Figure by Morlita

Morlita Quan: Music and art is something I do in parallel and both,  are a self salvation. I will keep doing it even if no one is interested on it because, is a personal needed and the way I explode my inner feelings . So with this, I could say I never had premeditated artistic intentions, at least in terms of technique and style. With time, however, your personal evolution and maturity gives you other needs, and this needs at once, scream to you to make different things or change your way at some point. 

Morlita at Cherry Manga's build Anatobotanica on Pangea Grid.

That need for change, exploration, and new challenges led Morlita to Opensim, encouraged by her good friend Cherry Manga.

Morlita Quan: Cherry was one of those people I met at the beginning of my Second Life and our connection was automatic. Very soon we became friends in there and started to make common projects in art and music . More than one decade later our friendship is stronger and my admiration by her works it only increase. With her I always feel free to work on my way and at vice-versa and that's all a treasure to find. Cherry is not only a great friend to me here and in RL, I consider her, honestly, one of the best 3D artists I have seen in virtual worlds, so nothing I can do here will compare to what she offers. 

Morlita's Opensim avie hints at the dialectic of suffering and creativity.
Photographed on Anatobotanica

This new Morlita on Osgrid is only a few  weeks old, but her experience in Opensim goes back a long way, albeit sporadic. Here she is DJing a Halloween event on FrancoGrid in 2013. 

Le Village, FrancoGrid

She was also the music provider for the epic Fest'Avi events that we all remember so well. It was also her music that Cherry Manga used for her art performance on last year's HIE event

So what plans for the future, and the new sim? 
Morlita Quan: On my land I am going slow and RL is so demanding to me right now. But in a few months, I plan it as an art refuge where I can show my current rl collections, and other artist's works. But also I will try to bring there non mainstream musical artists.

Morlita's sim on OSGrid has a gallery that is already a fascinating place to visit.

 Morlita Quan: The final land project is still a secret and I plan to do it with Cherry, if we can get the technology we need for the sound, but it will combine sound technology that has not yet been seen in virtual worlds and the greatness of Cherry's 3D art.

Plenty to look forward to!

You can bookmark Morlita's website here, or connect with her on Instagram. Listen to her music here on Bandcamp,  Youtube, and Soundcloud 
And keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events = they are bound to be spectacular!

HG Address: 

hop://hg.osgrid.org:80/MorlitaM/172/107/2075

Cherry Manga's region Anatobotanica also featured in these photos

pangeagrid.de:8002:Anatobotanica