Dreams on the 10th Dimension

All is like a dream

Star Ravenhurst's new grid Tenth Dimension is home to her art gallery Le Beau Retrouvé, and there's a big new show scheduled for September 29. 

You're still just about in time to participate. If you make art this could be your chance to exhibit alongside the likes of Tina Bey, Xenon Darrow, Remmy Ravenhurst (no relation), Savannah Joy, Forest Azure, Arcfury and a huge multimedia install by Cherry Manga  and Nico Kailani. The deadline to submit art is September 23, although the sooner you do it, the better it is for Star's nerves! Organizing art shows can be onerous, so why does Star do it?

Star Ravenhurst: It can be difficult to get into a gallery in the real world and most artists never get that opportunity. In fact, they are lucky if anyone beyond their family, friends, or instructors ever sees their work. Having my own grid, I can now give them more opportunities to showcase their work in virtual.

If you're a regular dipper-in to this blog, you may remember reading about Le Beau Retrouvé here although bear in mind, the location of the gallery has changed since then (just part of the way opensim is always in flux and keeping it interesting), and perhaps you caught the episode of Inworld Review where Star spoke about the gallery, among her many other projects. 

Star Ravenhurst:  What does the gallery mean to me? I am an artist in RL and have formal education in Fine Arts, Graphic Arts, Art History, and Design. During college, I worked for an art gallery and learned a lot during my time with them and also took classes in Marketing and Professional Practices to help me learn the business side of art. I do not have the funds in RL to open my own gallery, but in virtual, everything is possible. I have seized the chance to create an art gallery that is welcoming and supportive of new artists as well as established artists. 

How Not to be Lonely in Opensim

Ever heard someone say 'there's no-one in Opensim'? Or maybe that was you, talking to yourself - hey nothing wrong with that!

Opensim can often feel like a wide open, empty place. Quite intimidating after, say, the bustling sims of SL. That's not surprising when you compare its size to that of Second Life. 

SL in 2024 by primerib1 aka Claire Morgenthau

SL is not small. This picture shows the main continents at the center of a galaxy of private regions, but if you think that's huge, Opensim is waaaay bigger - if fact, if you're wondering why there's no map of opensim here, that's because it's impossible to say how big the connected hypergrid universe is. 

A few people try to give statistics about it, but they do not, and indeed cannot, know the full extent of opensim, since it is a completely decentralized and unregulated meta-place where anyone at any time and for any duration can have a grid without reporting to any higher authority. 

That means there's no central control, nobody keeping complete records of all the comings and goings of our hyperverse - it just can't be done in a meaningful way. 

Life Goes Oni

It turns out, not everyone knows that the words 'tribute' and 'obituary' aren't synonyms. Oni Kiri, perhaps best known for the freebie regions with the umbrella name Adachi, hasn't died or anything so dramatic. However, Oni has retired from opensim, and closed the grid CopyKat where Adachi was located.

Having made countless friends over a decade-long career in opensim, Oni's friends wanted to celebrate the person who had given them so much good advice, kindness, prim space, and content with an upbeat retrospective of Oni's oeuvre.  

The new sim Adachi is on Blackswan Grid, and is the brainchild of close friend  Maurice Shamroy - you'll find the HG Address at the end of the post, the sim is visitable anytime.

Maurice Shamroy by the big 'I Quit' poster on Adachi CopyKat in Blackswan  

Maurice Shamroy:  Oni has been active in virtual world for 17 years, and I understand his choice to take a break (definitive or not we will see), my self I started in SL in 2007 and created Blackswan in 2010, so for me it's very easy understand Oni's choice. I think the best way to understand  what he did is resumed in the message I published in Adachi at landing point. 

Zoey Cutie standing by the message for Oni from OSW

At the party on the Adachi region of Blackswan grid, (check out their  Flickr Gallery !!) we all read the illustrated info boards that explain the many iterations of Oni, reflecting the ups and downs and crashes and comebacks of Opensim.

Aether Way

Air or sea? Light or dark? Either way, our final stop for this season of the Safari is an oasis for the senses. 

Nico Kailani invited us to visit sim Aether, whose definition defies simple terms. Part art sim, part clothes collection, part gallery, part party place, it is all worth seeing. HG Address, as usual, at the bottom of the post. Check out that EEP!

Nico Kaliani: So, anybody got a notecard? Imbedded in it is "The Story of Aether" Read it if you like. Alot of cool stuff about the Greeks and all

Forest Azure: yes... yes...yes...yes

Wizardoz Chrome: yes

Tree Kyomoon2: this is an excellent place to be hit with the epiphany that Hypergrid works, we already have a metaverse. Thanks everyone!!!