A look at the Linden Endowment for the Arts

There are a lot of things I could say in regards to LL Announcing the “Linden Endowment for the Arts”.  I am not even sure where to begin on this. It sounds like a great idea, at first look. A program to create an immersive space for artists to share their art and to give art a way to live on, in the transient world of online creation. That is just what is needed in many ways.

The problem with this project is the big question that plagues RL and SL art: “What is art?”. Well. That is a constant question up for dispute and I am not going to really drag that question out any further. I think what applies here is, “What defines SL art?”. What makes it “ground breaking” and “inspiring”?

There are so many “Art Galleries” in SL who are little more than JPGs on a prim. It loses value from conversion from the original item in the real world, when brought over into a 3d world and displayed in a very basic 2d manner, to just show the “art” hanging on a prim. While this has it’s uses and it’s great that people are interested in all manners of different art here, I hardly think these kinds of things are worth value or should be taken into consideration for these things.

I think personally, works like artists of Selavy Oh, Bryn Oh, Dizzy Banjo and Glyph Graves are the PERFECT examples of art that SHOULD be placed into consideration for these kinds of things. These artists create art FOR the medium not WITHIN the medium only. These artists understand the nature of virtual worlds and are constantly pushing,creating,and experimenting with the possibilites of SL. That is not to say that it is only these artists. I am just putting some examples of some already established artists doing work that is ground breaking and inspiring. Works that LIVE within SL and do things not always easy to pull off so easily (or at all) in real world art.

As Bryn Oh recently pointed out, she said: “Determining what is unique about this medium should really be the guideline as to determining what should be included. ” I think this is very true and one of the most important things that should be discussed when adding an artist or a project into this program.

Also, the issue of musicians and music within SL has been brought up in the comments, I noticed, by many performers and creators. I think this needs to be addressed entirely differently and not addressed within this program. What I would like to see perhaps, is an island dedicated to performance art and live music within SL. Somewhere that holds monthly LL supported events. Perhaps re-open a station just for people who perform live within SL. Another question that should be taken into consideration during this topic is… Can you really consider people who perform in SL constantly doing nothing but covers all the time as really artists? I’m sorry but I don’t think you can. I think that music in SL sorely lacks people CONSISTANTLY performing their own Original material. I think that cover artists in SL are little more than glorified karaoke artists. Just my two cents.

The endowment for the arts is a great idea as long as LL takes into consideration what truly makes something here valuable and timeless. Something that could be considered historical and immersive art. Something that makes the user not just a passive observer but a PART of the art. THAT to me is what they should be looking at.

Art galleries and gallery owners really have no place in a program like this either. There should be no middle man for the voice of the artist in these situations. Galleries are wonderful donations and they provide a place for the artist to show but, an artist is an artist, with land or without. The problem with many art galleries is, they stick the artist inbetween the problems of them and other artists,individuals,or art groups. In those situations they cease being a help to the artist and are little more than dictatorships. For this reason I think, while art groups and galleries can be a wonderful help in MOST cases, they should be left out of the discussion here. This is an endowment for the arts, not, an endowment for the galleries.

SL is awash with a lot of people Roleplaying artists in their free time, with the real artists wading in the sea of oversaturated media. If LL fairly asses the art and the artists involved, the RELEVANCE and creativeness of the art not just being art for sake of art but truly embracing the virtual media for all that it really can be, then, this will be a success. If not… will be a real shame to see a good idea go to waste. Here’s to hoping?

Timeout with Skye Galaxy

Yes yes, I know. If you’ve met me in world and asked me a thing about live performers in Second Life, you already know what I think of Skye Galaxy. He is the best live performer I have come across in this place. I am pretty finicky, and I’ll be honest. Most live shows, I’ll listen for a song or two but then I’d rather go back to my Lolly Jane Blue or my Bon Iver. I have to listen to music that moves me or I can’t listen to it. That’s just how I am. Skye is like that. I listen to him and I get to relax for the hour I get to go visit. It’s a great break from the stuff I do during the day, when I get to catch him during a show. I enjoy how he banters with the audience and his fan base is well… pretty affectionate. This is a guy who can have a sim full before he sings a note with only a notice in his group that reads “???”. I’ve seen it. I know you can only get so many people in a sim but I mean, it’s full in about three minutes after the notice goes out. I think that at least shows that people are willing to drop whatever they are doing to hear him right away. I can’t always, but when I can, I like to.

If you’ve never seen Skye perform live… I’ll share with you a video of a live performance he did at Burbon Island in Champs De Mars singing a cover of Gotye – “Heart’s a Mess”

I had the chance to sit down with Skye and bug him for a few minutes, and he was nice enough to share some of his feelings and thoughts on music, fun, second life, and his goals. Not only is he a talented guy, but a really nice kid as well. He works pretty hard at what he does. I hope to hear sometime soon: “Hey Cole! The album is finished” *coughs*hint*coughs*

I asked Skye where some of his personal favorite places to sing in SL were and he said to me:

“You know, I could sit down and list off a lot of venues that I enjoy performing at, but as much as that enjoyment reaches my favorite places to play are those that I have spontaneous abducted throughout my time spent on Second Life. A few of my friends would let me steal their land for a night, and I would invite everyone in the early stages of the group out for the simple ability of sharing a night of musical ambience with a piano, myself, and a fire crackling gently in the background. No tips, no advertisements, no pay, simply music. It was an amazing feeling to be able to perform and have people that simply wanted to listen without any time of pressure or gimmick, and I feel those moments will continue to top all the others for a very long time.”

Skye’s love for just singing and expressing himself honestly sets him apart from a lot of the more financially driven performers I have run across. It really puts him on a more personal level with his audience, I think. So I asked him what is it about performing that he loves so much and how does that feeling differ with his online performances? He replied:

“I love the interaction with people. My dream, ever since I was little, was to look out into the crowd one day to see the entire crowd singing my song, right along with me. As much as I love Second Life, I feel the physical presence of a show offline will always reign supreme. The aura is soul-piercing. Offline I always get to explore playing primarily original material, something I miss doing more of on SL. Playing as many covers as I do, though, there has been so much learned about the music I love and listen to every day. What better way to discover a piece of music than playing, singing, and feeling every note?”

I totally agree As you are able to hear in an amazing rendition Skye did of Bjork’s Joga which I was lucky enough to film and you can catch here:

Anyhow… so then I got to wondering about what Skye hoped to achieve this year as far as his music was concerned. So I asked him.

“Getting signed. Mark my words, it /will/ happen, or at least I hope with all of my heart. My mother and I were driving home a few weeks ago and I turned to her in the car and said, “this year is my year.”I have far too much of a need to make this hope become reality to let the year pass without something happening, and dream about it too often.”

Big dreams and plans and goals. I hope he does really well. His music is amazing. Before I let him get back to running around I just felt like picking at him a bit more and asked about what he enjoyed to do in Second Life outside of his musical pursuits and he told me:

“Usually, my friends and I are causing trouble amidst the grid, and on occasion I visit clubs and like to DJ on the side, from time to time. You would be surprised at whom actually plays and takes part in Second Life. There are so many back-stories to people here, and I love hearing all about when, where, how and why they signed up, and continue signing in. This is very much a virtual ecosystem of endless personalities and types of people, and I don’t think I would have met so many offline, where my shyness usually takes over much of what I say and do. I am still a kid, okay maybe twenty is pushing it, but I am just a normal guy trying to ease the dull moments of Suburbia here in Dallas. So far it is paying off.”

Seems like he’s got his head screwed on just tight enough to know what he wants and up in the air enough to keep dreaming dream about it. Good luck Skye <– will be stalking…

I mean listening? <.< (Thanks Skye)

I will leave you with my personal favorite original song from him which I used in a video that you can watch here:

The Steampunk Princess

Where to begin on this post? Bah, I’m still getting used to the idea of baring all here I think. Though, it’s the only way to begin this thing, I think. Miss Oh. Miss Bryn Oh. There are so many things I could say about her. I suppose this will be a long blog. Apologies in advance. She is an amazingly deep and artistic soul, a watered down blog just isn’t going to work out. All I can say is… some days Miss Oh is the reason I don’t up and nuke my account. Seriously.

Immersiva. What is it? I hear so often, visitors will approach Bryn and I. A lot of the times, the first question they have for us is: “What is Immersiva?” Well, let me explain. Immersiva is a narrative. It is a story for people to find their own meanings in. It is not a place Bryn could give you a single definition for. It’s not that simple. Immersiva. It’s Bryn’s personal stories, translated into poetry and surreal images. She takes aspects of her life and transforms them, placing the essence of what they “are” into prims. It is a story tellers gift. Not something you can “teach” through build lessons. You can teach skill, you cannot teach soul.

Teleporting into Immersiva you will find sky settings to transform Immersiva into a hazy foggy sky. This overlays the atmosphere and sets the sim up into a mood. Unlike a lot of people, Miss Oh understands the need for total immersion (as much as can be granted to SL, we all know someone tapping you on the shoulder or a phone ringing can really fuck things up). She tries as much as she can to create a total world for the visitor. If you have the patience for it, it is worth it to take the sky settings notecard and set it up for yourself. (Or you can download emerald viewer: http://modularsystems.sl/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=sections&Itemid=5 and it has Bryn’s sky settings already loaded as a default windlight view. SWEET DEAL huh?)

There are so many beautiful stories Bryn has created for Immersiva. One of my personal favorites is her story for the Rabbicorn. I could explain it to you but you really need to see it for yourself. If you’ve never been to see it, you can find the entrance to it by going to the pier in Immersiva and finding the metal tower stand, beside Bryn’s statue holding the first page of the story. If you left click it, you will teleport into the next room. Each room has one of these, until you reach the end.If you make it to the end, you will find a video Bryn has put together to tell the story of the Rabbicorn. Which you can see here: (Aw I made it easy on the busy folks <.<)

(beautifully done by the way Bryn)

There is also another story (among many many other stories all scattered through Immersiva) called “Vessels Dream”. It was Miss Oh’s build for Burning Life 2009. Immersiva is constantly restricted by prim limitations so things are always moving to new guest art sim hosts (thankfully). If you never got the chance to explore this amazingly unique and moving experience, you may take a glimpse into the moments we had during Burning Life in a machinima I put together while checking in on her during the festival. You can see this video here:

I am sure I will write more and more about the wonderful and unique soul that is Bryn Oh. I could go on for weeks really. You would probably get pretty annoyed. Though all of my ranting about her talent and heart would not be exaggerated in the slightest.

Another story I have a soft spot for would be her tale of the “Angler Girl”. I’ll give you a small back story on this piece. Running around playing on Immersiva as we usually do, one day Bryn turns to me and says: “What do you think I should build?” I don’t know. Hell, I never know what to do myself 0,o So without thinking I just blurted out: “Oh, I don’t know Bryn. An anglerfish thingi?” Ok ok, I know, this wasn’t the most expressive of ideas, but Miss Oh seemed interested by it and ran off to work. An evening later appeared this marvelous statue series of a very sad girl, holding a net, with big sorrowful eyes and a dangling light-bulb extending from her head. It reached out like a lure guiding two lost robots over to where she stood, bucket collecting batteries behind her. I was so moved by this particular build that I filmed it, taking the poem Bryn has hidden inside of her (and the sounds from the build she generously shared with me to add to the video) and narrating the machinima to tell her tale. You can see this video here –>

So much effort and work Bryn puts into every single tiny prim work that she does. She understands the need for narrative in SL. She understands the need for things to have lore, to tell tales. It is what makes her robots more human sometimes than their visiting human counter-parts. Sure, there are plenty of builds that are beautiful just to be beautiful, but, after that? What are they? Just prims. Nice things to look at, and eat up your prim count. Yes, I know, each to his own and everyone prefers different things, and well, this is my blog right? ;p

Before I wrap this entry up… I wanted to share one of my favorite areas to appear in Immersiva lately. This is her new puppet and it’s backing stage. (if you pay attention to the stone nearby the front of the stage and walk over it, you will be pleasantly surprised) This build touched my heart, for many reasons. First and foremost, it is a puppet who has been broken. While she could just be free of her strings, she is sitting there trying to hang herself back up. Something about this build really spoke to me, I suppose.

My dear sweet friend miss Justine from the eclectic industrial/experimental/orchestral project “Absolute Entity” allowed me recently to use what is going to be her first single from a new album called “Stay with me tonight” to assist me in a little story telling in Immersiva. I used this brilliantly emotional and deep song to tell the story of a sad robot girl who wants to be real and learn to love others to sort of explain why I found the puppet so special to begin with. I was so pleased to hear just this evening back from Justine (who has been very very very busy doing new music and YAY THE WORLD NEEEEEEDS her voice, omg so seriously not even joking), who had a few things to say about the video. What touched me the most was that I did not know anything about her real life, and when I came to find out a few details, I was floored by how oddly accurate my imagery chosen really was. She said a few really sweet things to me but what touched me the most was: “I used to be a ballerina when I was younger and for my first “show”, I was the main character and I played the role of a doll with a key who had to wake up all the other toys around her to show them that they had a heart/were alive…

Strange “coincidence” isn’t it?”

Sometimes people just vibe on the same channel. I think that is what Immersiva is about the most. Connection with like-minded individuals. I will leave you with that video “Stay with me tonight”. Thank for you for following and sharing in my mind rants. -_o

Love, peace, particles

and

Keep rocking the grid

-Colie