The final day of HIE was another spectacular mix of cultures and languages, with presentations touching on a variety of themes from alien visitations, to gallery governance, to the clash of cultures, to the technology of the future. All this, and a fabulous international set by jazz and blues singer Forest Azure.
Attendance was strong once again, with 40 plus in the audience to hear first of all Luciana Mattei speak about her wonderful primary school project, unAcademy, located both in the real world, of course, and on Craft-World grid, where she has a sim of the same name.
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| Lorenza Colicigno |
Inworld, Luciana is more than ably assisted by one of Opensim's best builders, Tonino Lane, and educator and writer Lorenza Colicigno, who also introduced the Italian program. This is the third year that Lorenza has been part of the program at the Hypergrid International Expo. In 2023 she gave a talk about her work at NoiLab on Craft grid, and in 2024 and this year she was our Italian Moderator - not an easy job but she handled it with great style, as all of our speakers did.
Following Luciana was another important talk, by Eva Kraai and Salahzar Stenvaag of Edu3D. They gave us a really thorough survey of the state of AI and its future, including some of the history of AI, and a lot of useful tips about available programs.
The Italian session was followed by a nice two hour break where we all got to eat a meal... finally. Virtual is great, but RL hunger comes first!
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| Ana Maggi was the wonderful Moderator of the Spanish session |
HIE wants to represent about opensim - we are exotic!
Veteran of the virtual art world, well known in SL and also a resident of Craft grid, Xirana Oximoxi gave us a really down to earth talk about her life making art across two realities. It was fascinating to hear how her contacts inworld has spurred her on to becoming an author of children's books, as well as expanding her artistic efforts.
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| Xirana Oximoxi's talk : “Vivir el Arte entre dos realidades” |
Next up, the big reveal of the day was the wonderful art exhibit and historical lesson by Tosha Tyran, in which we discovered the Four Worlds of the Hopi - an indigenous people who had to contend with the conquest of America by the Spanish and later other Europeans. Seeing the world through their music and dance, their art, their landscape, and their myths was truly an eye opening experience.
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| One of the four worlds of the Hopi |
I'm sure it will find a home on one of Tosha's many amazing regions on Craft. At HIE in 20 minutes, we were all spellbound and amazed not only by the technical presentation, but by the spirit of the place. The four big teleports were also a lot of fun!
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| Geo Portal onstage (and yes, that is Luna Lunaria and Em Jannings in the foreground) |
Finally Geo Portal told us his story, growing up in Puerto Rico, and his encounters with alien beings, an experience that has led him to write more than a dozen books and also, thanks in large part to the work of talented builder Tina Bey, and Luna Lunaria, to recreate inworld on his grid Outofthisworld many of the ideas, scenes, and technology that you will find in his books which are available for free this week on Amazon.
We wrapped the whole thing up with a fabulous set, by the aforementioned Forest Azure, who really captured the mood of the event and sent us all to our beds tired but glad to have been part of HIE25!
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| Forest Azure's energy was contagious! |
The Expo park is still up and visitable (there are a few last minute freebies you may have missed, if you already visited) it will remain so for another month more or less, so enjoy that.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this event, with their time, their talent, and their effort.
HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE
HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE
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