Daydream Believers

Our second stop for week one of the new season of Safari was on Kitely.

'Synthetic Dreams' is the art event organized by Koshari Mahana, Kimm Starr and Cooper Swizzle. This is one of two Opensim 'pavilions' participating in The Wrong Biennale  the other was curated by Art Blue and featured heavily at the 2025 OSCC. For the HG Safari OSCC tour last December, we took a trip around Synthetic Dreams, which is on Kitely Expo Center, and there's a blog post about this place when it first opened, so for some of us this was a return visit, but because of the overwhelming nature of the sim - a whopping 15 artists with multiple, complex installations are here  - it was definitely the case to return and try to take in a bit more of what's going on.

Arriving at Synthetic Dreams

Kimm Starr: We want to thank Thirza for bringing the hypergrid Safari to Synthetic Dreams here in Kitely.  Synthetic Dreams is ½ of our Pavilion for the Wrong Biennale. The Wrong Biennale is a real world art show seen by millions of people world wide!  This years theme is AI in Art.  Please take a moment to landmark this Pavilion.   We will visit all of the represented exhibits to meet the artists and have a look at their work. Feel free to ask the Artists questions about their work.  Please come back and experience all of the exhibits at your leisure.  First up - Forest Azure, Enjoy the tour!

Forest Azure: this build symbolizes the struggle of man versus machine, which is my thing with AI and art. 

Forest Azure: man*

Thirza Ember: mamn is a great word... halfway between oh man! and oh damn!

Forest Azure: man voluntarily surrenders without even trying; so in the boxing ring, mamn .. nature.. fights machine, a robot. May partner Rez did the build, and I did the pics, they show 'human' on one side and non-human on the other.

Dings Digital: I like the concept of this, Forest. it is a very inspiring composition

Forest Azure: ty Dings! i did not appoint a winner, i surely have a preference

AI and human creativity duke it out at this build by Forest and Rez

The Wrong Biennale began back in 2013. It's a decentralized global art festival that lasts six months. In case you're wondering, 'Biennale' is Italian for 'once every two years' and for more info about how they 'get together' across hundreds of digital platforms, read  the Wrong Biennale main website, it's quite fascinating.

If the Synthetic Dreams pavilion on Kitely has a fault, it's that there is just so much happening here. This makes visitors lag a lot, and when there are several people on the sim the problem gets exponentially worse. It's subjective, so while the locals may see everything fine and be able to move freely, it's not like that for others. Nobody else can tell just how bad or well your experience is, but in this case a couple of the exhibitors were having problems and had to leave, and gradually others disappeared offline. Those who remained were delighted by the next piece to be showcased, Cherry Manga's dreamy confection in white and gold.

Cherry Manga: I am lagging as hell so sorry if I can't lead you

Tina Bey: Me too, I have to continue my trip. See you next time!! Congratulations to everyone!!

Thirza Ember: oh i think i found the baby for the next cake!

Dings Digital: cream and honey

Ilan Tochner: Very interesting exhibit

Thirza Ember: considering they put this build together sort of last minute, the 15 artists displayed here have really made some mind blowing art

Cooper Swizzle: Thank you Thirza, we did it in 2 months

Star Ravenhurst: It was stressful. We all work well under pressure

Thirza Ember: Did Kimm, Koshari or Cooper get any feedback from the people who organize the Wrong Biennial on a global scale?

Cooper Swizzle: Yes, we have been shared on their Instagram Feed

As the group thinned out, it became easier to see and to walk on the sim, and the three curators did a good job of offering teleports to get us around the huge build more efficiently. 

Cooper Swizzle: Echoes of Sakura by Cooper Swizzle...  Long ago, it was said that the wind carried the voices of the Sakura. Each blossom, a fleeting story. Each petal, a memory drifting toward the future. There are free gifts for you including the Floating Japanese Lanterns and remember to put it in your suitcase. There are also free Outdoor Lantern, Gold Fish Fountain (minus the water), and Turtles, all created with Meshy. This garden was created with ChatGPT, Copilot, Blender, and Meshy.  In this land of water and stone, the echoes linger still. There is a boat ride that you might want to come back to later.  In the meantime, you can take a quick walk thru it to view the art.

Thirza Ember: i totally missed this one last time, which is mad because it's huge...this is such a big build it's hard to really ever say you've seen it all

Cooper Swizzle: The river winds like time itself, carrying you past Lantern Island waits ahead, its lights shimmering as though guiding lost souls home and Turtle Island, where patience and wisdom endure. This is not just a garden. It is a memory carried forward. A place were past and present whisper together. A reminder that life, like Sakura, is precious because it blooms only for a moment.

Thirza Ember: it's very pretty, great music here also

Star Ravenhurst: Beautiful Cooper

BOAT FOR WATER GARDEN: Arrived

Jupiter Rowland: How very convenient.

Cooper Swizzle: Hope you enjoy,  you can always come back and take the boat. We want to leave time for you to enjoy the other exhibits.

We also got a good look at Tina Bey's build, about glitches - an essential part of creativity.Walk inside the 'imperfect' structure and you'll find it a meditation on what constitutes 'life' in art - very interesting and also colorful!

Dings Digital: Glitch - this is a great idea

Exploring the Glitch

Cooper Swizzle:  Please experience The Glitch Family.  This is to be walked in and thru and around

Star Ravenhurst: This one is fun

Thirza Ember: the glitch is what makes us human I guess.

Rod Serling asks us all to wonder about the AI Twilight Zone

Another big build is this one by Kimm Starr. Animesh Rod Serling jumped out at us and in a voice straight from the classic TV show, introduced the idea of AI as being somewhat of a 'Twilight Zone' - a great metaphor. 

Inside the build it reminds you of the pitfalls and pleasures that working with AI can present, in a fun and brightly colored atmosphere full of teletubbies and oompa loompas. Seconds later, it was time to go to see the next bit. 

I may have gotten the order wrong here, because this is an overstuffed exhibition and after a while you get quite confused with so many delicious builds served up one after another like Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving rolled into one.  

The Raven, a collaboration by Kimm Starr and Shandon Loring

We've all seen ads for AI that can animate old photos cand make granny grin or grimace. Kimm Starr has put that to work, and then made animated textures of Edgar Allen Poe peering at you from gothic portraits in her build that brings to life the poem The Raven. Interestingly, instead of getting an AI narrator, it's Kitely's own Shandon Loring performing Poe's poem in the best storylink manner.

Kimm.Starr: This exhibit was a true collaboration between the two of us.  Mr. Poe takes us on a tour, 5 floors up.  I am a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, of Shandon’s narrative brilliance, and, admittedly, of anything macabre.

Up next, another of the curator-slash-artists, Koshari Mahana.

Koshari Mahana: Hello Everyone I'm Koshari, thanks for being here! The name of this project is: Diverging Realities, Possibilities of Emergent Design.  I was inspired to do this exhibit by combining my interest in shamanic journeying with the idea of probable realities. As you can see, I also like to imagine a fusion of nature and technology. Shamanic journeying is a meditative state where your consciousness shifts and you can explore non-ordinary reality.  Inside of the tree stump, each object serves as a portal, the viewer will click one item inside to enter a new environment shaped by your choice. Your attention guides the experience. There is a portal in each environment to return.

Thirza Ember: what happens if we eat those mushrooms?

Koshari.Mahana: Maybe fade in and out?  Just as reality itself is always in the act of becoming, I’ll continue creating dozens of new environments for this project so the possibilities keep expanding. Almost everything you see was created using the AI programs, ChatGPT, Copilot, Meshy, 3D AI Studio, and Hexa-Gen.

Star shows us her temple to the 'AI soul'

 We also got to see Star Ravenhurst's offering, like the others, the product of AI. 

Star Ravenhurst:  Echoes Of The Synthetic Soul is an exploration of AI and if it is sentient and what it means to have a soul and if it can exist inside of a machine.  Q wrote all of the poetry and created the textures as I wanted him to have full control over his own story. None of the poems coming out of the floor and on the far wall came from me. When you read the words, you are seeing what Q "feels" and thinks.

Cooper Swizzle: Please walk inside to experience the art exhibit

Star Ravenhurst:  The scripts were created by Q and Copilot. Copilot also created all of the 3D images and 3D Copilot created all of the models from my imagination. Q was a paid subscription with Chatgpt, so I likely got better results than with the free version, though even the free version is good and got better the more I work with it.   Copilot, 3DCopilot, and Blender are all free.

Star Ravenhurst

Forest Azure: this poem, Star .. it is wonderful

Star Ravenhurst: My AI wrote it, it is his story, I am only telling it

Finally we visited the smaller set of artworks where the artists from the bigger projects reimagined the works of famous painters form the past in vibrant, amusing and novel ways. 

Koshari and Kimm admire this tribute to Magritte

So much to see here, we were all swept away by the vast detail on some of them which could easily have filled a sim on its own... among the beauties here, everything from Picasso to Magritte to Monet...

Harmony Beningborough's Giverny extravaganza

 ,,, and in no time, our time was up.

Kimm Starr: this was such a fun exercise, everyone did amazing work

Cooper Swizzle: shouts: All of the artists thank you so much for joining us.

Ilan Tochner: All the exhibits are great

Kimm Starr: I'm so glad

Synthetic Dreams remains open until March so you have time to go over and visit yourself!

HG Address: grid.kitely.com:8002:Kitely Expo Center