Art Still Standing

Film makers, builders of figurative, immersive, animated, and multimedia art, Zonja Capalini together with Ludmilla Writer and Plastichansa Bade have roots in the Opensim art scene going back well over a decade. Here, for example, is Zonja's build at Avatarfest a hypergrid community festival that was such a joy for so many of us.

When hypergridding was still not an immense thing in opensim, Zonja invited me to make an avatar on her minigrid Condensationland to review the art over there, and it was an unforgettable experience to wander the installations and drink in the landscape there, it led to this blog post from 2012 . 

Breaking Banham

Our second stop on this week's trip was on Arkham Grid. We lost a few at the first stop, so it was quite a small group - but very enthusiastic about visiting another art region by Felix Mafia. Felix, his partner Sharon, and Grid were on hand to welcome us. HG Address as always, at the end of the post.

Not too many of us and for once, we didn't break anything - although it remains to be seen if James poisoned the fish. 

Most people think of Arkham as a place to grab freebies, and while there is that side to the grid, there are also dozens of installations by Felix that merit a visit. This one, Banham, is a s Cyberpunk Futuristic Egypt. 

Grid, Felix and Sharon were there to meet us

Felix is Italian, and while his English is good, our visit at 10pm at night, Rome time, is a little late in the day to be fielding questions in your second language. Luckily Grid Admin, a native |English speaker as well as grid guru, was on hand to help us with lots of info that contextualizes the build, and really brings it to life. He told us that the title of this very cinematic build could be Banham Region “Your heart may be much older.” A vision of the future where past and destiny collide - that's at the back of this extraordinary place.

Hooray for Monterey

 Our first stop this week was in California, on the misty, mysterious, magnificent waterfront of Monterey. This build, on Groovyverse Grid, was a group effort, and so we not only got a glimpse of some terrifically well done landscaping, but also of a warm generous welcoming team of builders. 

Our Guide was Dee Zee, on horseback so it would be easier for the gang to see where she was going - great idea! and on hand to meet us was Grid owner Hyacinth Jean, builders Herbie Haven and Doc Indy

dee zee: Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid. My name is Dee, I am another of the builders and will be acting as your host / guide while you are here.  Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid.  We thank you for visiting us today and hope that you enjoy your visit.

Thirza Ember: mmmm smell that ocean air

Forest Azure: /me sniffs

 dee zee: First off, I would like to introduce two of our "primary" builders  here with us today.

 Herbie Haven  and Doc Indy.  They are both wearing our  Cacophony Society group tags.

 Also, please say hello to  our grid administrator/owner,  Hyacinth Jean.

Lavia Lavine: Hi Hyacinth Hey everyone sorry I'm late.

Arwen Evenstar: Hi Hyacinth

Dings Digital: Hi all

Hyacinth Jean: Hi everyone :)

eva Nowicka: /me waves

Thirza Ember: have my meds kicked in or is Hyacinth on a reindeer

Hyacinth Jean: This is clearly a ferret.

Trouble in Tromsø

 Our second stop this week was a late substitution and a welcome return to one of the funnest places - the revamped Tromso region on Wolf Territories Grid. 

Jimmy Olsen the creator is always working on refining his builds and with the help of his close friends Tessa and Xenon, the trip was guaranteed to have us laughing from the get go. It's a large, mountainous VAR with an excellent road system and teleports to all the main attractions and features the real world weather conditions of Norway thanks to a scripting system (available for free) that reads the latest meteorological conditions, the time of sunrise and sunset etc, and then reproduces them inworld. Just another of the fabulous freebies of Opensim that inspire us all to give something back to the community according to our own talents and abilities.

One of the many innovations on the region is the use of the Expo Center as a temporary gallery. People from anywhere in the hyperverse may exhibit here, the shows stay up for about a month, and occupy the entire ground floor of the most prominent building on the sim, the one by the Landing Point. 

Skates on with Tina

Tina Bey's art has garnered her a huge following of admirers and collectors. Her sixteen year long inworld career as a digital creator in open sim is founded on her studies at the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires; her imagination and passion for science fiction, environmental causes, and a love of play - bringing humor and a lighthearted sense of youth into our often world weary realms -  inform and give flight to those very creditable foundations.

This new build, which has been an ongoing project for several months, finally got its big opening with a HG safari visit, our first destination of the fourteenth Safari trip of 2026. The location of the event - Star Ravenhurst's grid TenthDimension. The region, Imagination Island (full HG Address at the end of the post) is an annex to the main gallery, Le Beau Retrouve, which opened in the summer of 2024. 

We were all invited to wear skateboards to take the tour as they are fast and fun. Most of us got ours on before we left the clubhouse, but they were also available on the region so if you jump over to view the sim, look  for the green and black rezzing area and take the board from one of the boxes.

Star Ravenhurst: Welcome Everyone!

James Atlloud: Loving the colors here!

Forest Azure: oh, snow! cold feet!

Tina Bey[es→en]: please read the posters hehehe....  all is free, as a gift

Thirza Ember: ahahah of course Lumi is the best on the skateboard

Luminalore Resident: Hahah you know me too well now. XD

Tina Bey[es→en]: let's start!!! follow me

James Atlloud: Tina has a one-wheel board!! <jealous>

Safari Gets Sky High

Marlon Wayne: Hello everybody

Yara Eilde: Hallo Karsten :-)

James Atlloud: I feel some crashin' in my future!

Karsten Runningbear: hi james

Dings Digital: that is the kind of optimism we need

Karsten Runningbear: most people crash only one time :)

Karsten Runningbear: hello everyone welcome to our little airfield... we made some extra things... first please change visibility to 1024m if possible. Its a 6x6 var sim. We made airplanes usable for everyone, 2 fighter planes, which can use a race timer, or fly just for fun, a rescue helicopter, 3 waterplanes, and a Zeppelin, scenic flight with explanations.

James Atlloud: PLANE!!

This was our second stop of the week and what a treat!

On Centauri

 Our first stop this week was on Geo Portal's Outofthisworld grid. It's dedicated to his unique vision of the future and while Geo is not personally a mesh maker he has surrounded himself with some great talents, and on this grid you'll find the work of Luna Lunaria, Tina Bey and Symphony Vive, whose work was particularly being showcased during this visit.

We were provided with comfortable chairs, somewhere for us to sit as Symphony and Geo explained the ideas behind the region and of the grid in general.

Centauri arrival area

Geo Portal:  welcome to the last city of frontier Centauri creation of Symphony Vive we meet and she collaborate with this futuristic creation

Geo Portal

Symphony Vive: ty  Geo,  your ideas  and vision is  inspirational

Thirza Ember: you make a good team!

Geo Portal[es→en]: she create many creation at her mesh lab and I see ask her she can make city and she said ok and this is the beginning great futurist city to visit and explore  Rios  is to another helper and Zafiro,  plus Tina Bey. Also my friend Luna she is not was us anymore, only in spirit

MARICRUZ WORLD[es→en]: you have the imagination for movies

Thirza Ember: how long have you been working on this, Symphony?

Symphony Vive

Symphony Vive: We  Geo  and  I  have  been developing  this grid for several months....   bit  by  bit as  Geo  creates more areas to create the  vision.