14th Raglan Shire Artwalk and Interview With Karmagirl Avro

by Marcel Mosswood

Raglan Shire Artwalk the 14th is being held at May 12 – June 16, 2019. This is an art exhibition involving several sims and includes the largest art exhibition on Second Life involving more than 175 artists. Yesterday, I went around all the sims all day at the Raglan Shire Artwalk accompanied by Karmagirl Avro (Karma Da Squabbit). She explained many things about the Artwalk.

The Raglan Shire Artwalk maps

“The first year we had two Artwalks, I think they were a three days event. Zayn Till, the Raglan Shire sims owner, saw a real-life art walk while living in Seattle, and wanted to bring that into Second Life,” she explained.

Karma said that the original intent of the Artwalk was a way for creative people to have a place to display their art. It was originally only for the community members but quickly spread to outside the tiny community. It is a free event, they've never charged rent for it, and this was the sim owners way of giving back as well as fostering creativity both in and out of the community.

The first year the Artwalk had two and it was a three days event. It is now a five-week long event. This one is the largest ever. Karma said that first few Artwalk had about 50 participants, and when she took over as director the Artwalk hit 100 that year. She set goals every year since and have hit them. It is over 180 participants this year, the biggest ever. 40% of the sculpture artists are first time participants to the Artwalk. 20% of the Artwalk participants are new. So even if you have been to every Artwalk you will see something new! “I am always excited to see both new and returning artists to the Artwalk,” said Karma.

One of the 2D art areas

The Raglan Shire Artwalk has had so many great works of arts from within and outside of the community, it's difficult to narrow it down to a few people. “But just off top of my head some very talented people: Silas Merlin, Panacea Pangaea, Maymay Maytov, Petunia Liveoak, Natalmari72, Reycharles, Skyblue Earthboy, Hadiya Draper, Denaliav, FionaFei, ViktorSavior, Layachi Ihnen,” said Karma.

One of the sculptures areas

When I asked her, “What do you think about art in Second Life? Is it have a good future?”

Karma answered, “I think art is evolving in Second Life with the advent of mesh. I remember how stunning it was to see mesh sculptures for the first time. There was one particular sculpture last year in Heron Shire that was so stunning I literally gasped when I saw it.”

“I was really excited last year that we had our first augmented reality art, which uses real-life sculptures and uploads them to a photo that can be scanned using an app to bring the sculptures to life! This display by Natalmari72 is back this year in Artwalk Area #4 in Raglan Shire. It's not to be missed!” said Karma while I watched the work of Magic Murti Lila on my Android phone.

The augmented reality art

Explore the great artworks by Second Life artists here:
Artwalk 2D art area #1: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/30/222/77
Artwalk 2D art area #2: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/68/148/58
Artwalk 2D art area #3: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/13/160/79
Artwalk 2D art area #4: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/75/245/22
Artwalk scuplture art area #1: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Heron%20Shire/125/131/22
Artwalk scuplture art area #2: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Morning%20Shire/237/168/21
Artwalk scuplture art area #3: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Athen%20Shire/68/233/23
Raglan Shire Tree Gallery: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/122/59/59
Artwalk 2019 Vendor & Freebie area: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/116/29/59

Marcell Mosswood

Scenes From Burn2

By Bixyl Shuftan

 Second Life has a number of yearly events, but one of the longest lasting and best known is Burn2. The biggest art and music festival inworld, it's the virtual version of the Burning Man festival which takes place every summer in the Black Rock desert in Nevada. It has a noted place in Second Life's beginnings as some of Linden Lab's staff, including Philip Rosedale's staff attended in the company's early days, and had a partial inspiration on the concept of Second Life. The Lab would subsidize it's counter part event inworld, at first called Burning Life, by providing them the sims free of charge. But after several years, the Lab stopped, and the volunteer group began paying for the sims themselves, renaming the event Burn2.

The entrance to the event is in the Deep Hole sim, where one appears on a road with a few buildings nearby.

 Near the entrance was a memorial sign for Ladyslipper Constantine, whom was one of the more notable members of the Lamplighters group, until her passing in September 2016.

There was also a memorial to Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, whom died on April 28 this year. But the yearly festival he created, and it's virtual reflection, go on.

Burn2, as does Burning Man, has a different theme every year. In one building were posters of previous celebrations.

This year's theme is "I, Robot." The name comes from the science-fiction novel by Issac Asimov that has influenced thoughts about the idea of fully intelligent robots and computers and how humans might interact with them. Would humans treat them as slaves, give them the same rights as they had, or something in between? Would the robots eventually revolt and try to take over, justify their position of service to themselves and continue on, or something else? The artists were asked to make exhibits to express some of their thoughts, and there were a number that ranged from hopeful to cautionary to amusing.

"Welcome home," how Burners greet people dropping in.

It was a little late when I had finally dropped in, so the two greeters were dancing to amuse themselves. They still saw me and greeted me with a welcome.

There were some free gifts available, such as a translator.

The first exhibit I saw was of robots waiting at the repair shop to be fixed.

This artistic build wasn't quite with the robotic theme, but it was pretty. Relaxing music could be heard inside. Inside was a table with seats around it, where one could have some tea or a fruity drink.

 A few other builds didn't quite reflect the main theme either.

 But others did, such as this one showing automations taking items to work.

 This Ranger station had a few robots on guard.

"The Cavern," a DJ place that was empty when I saw it, looking like an abandoned area.

 The theme this place had was one of the cautionary ones.

The story behind this exhibit was of a future in which robots conclude humanity as a whole is a danger to itself and the world, and needs to be changed to become more like it's creation.

One place had dust clouds in the air, which would be at the real-life event.

Are these robots engaging in some kind of devil worship, or are they just fans of "metal" music?

 A robot wrestling match, where the contestants really do have nerves of steel.

This exhibit looked like a scene from a holodeck, or perhaps inside a computer, a digital robot half-sunken into a surface.

One of the club areas in Burn2: Organica.

It was late at night, but people were dancing away.

One girl was dancing with a neon hula-hoop.

DJ Pink Christole was dancing on top of the booth, encouraging the crowd.

"Eye Robot" is a build in which robots with eyeball-like heads are described as living as equals

 A maze with a spiderlike robot looming overhead.

 This build of robots building a "Mother robot" had a couple free robot avatars.

 And where would Burn2 be without it's "Porto-potties?" In the real life Burning Man, the festival simply couldn't be held without them. In Burn2, they're amusing works of art.

 Not a place to be if you have hydrophobia.

Looks like this one sprung a leak.

The Iron Giant's head and hand.

Probably the central exhibit of the festival is"The Man." This is a large man-shaped build that is burned on the day before the festival ends. This will be tomorrow, Saturday October 27.

This year, "The Man" was built smaller than it often is, though is on a very large base.

Second only to "The Man" is The Temple. It is burned on the final day of the event, this year on Sunday October 28.

It's orange glow inside, particularly under a night sky, give the impression of a huge firey furnace. Not a good place to be inside for either human or robot.

A friend ported me to this "interactive dancing" as she called it,"the women who created it put in a lot of work." Dead Kyra (Kyra Msarko) and Dead Cordie (Cordelia Cerise) led the crowd. "Killer moves!" Kyra told them, "I might have to hire you all!"

One of the more amusing exhibits, robots waving in front of a picture of the Paris Arch of Triumph, with someone placing half a toy in front so it resembles a robot's legs.

The "Metropolis Awakening" exhibit, based on the 1927 silent sci-fi movie of the same name and a sculpture made by J. Steward Johnson, Jr., "The Awakening."

"With respect to these artists I mashed their two ideas together to form 'Metropolis Awakening.' A giant robot inspired by the Metropolis original replacing the statue of The Awakening man, emerging from the Playa. The Playa itself bending in resistance to the emerging robot, becomes part of the sculpture. The back wall and 'Metropolis' sign is a stylistic rendition of the Metropolis movie poster.

Sadly, there is not enough time to post all the pictures I took, including some great ones. They will have to wait until the next article.

Bixyl Shuftan

Scenes From "Lovefest" At Inspire Space Park

Inspire Space Park, located high above the Shinda sim at (33/218/1560), is one of those "must see" places in Second Life that has been around for over a decade. Hardly a realistic depiction of space, it's more like a dream or fantasy brought to life, or rather virtual life, in the form of an asteroid field you can watch the planets, stars, and other cosmic objects float by, or perhaps float in space among them yourself.. The following description in the Destination Guide probably sums it up best.

Meditate in a cosmic sci-fi ambient natural space galaxy. Relax to psychedelic, inspiring chill tunes while you fly through the stars and hug the universe at Inspire Space Park. ISP was recently updated with new park areas, hidden caves to explore, an emporium with spacey themed merchandise and more!

While the place is always worth stopping by, on Thursday September 14 there was a reason that made it better. The park was having a twelve hour "Lovefest" with music and particle shows.

Inspire Space Park is one of SL's longest running hangouts and the centre for a great community of people. They are a having a fundraiser event Thursday Sept 14 from 11am to 10pm.

For me, it was a chance to head back to this classic location that I hadn't visited for a while.

 And the show I saw was spectacular.

Some people were dancing to the music that was being played. One had "Dreamer" over her head, which was the name of the group a few of the people had highlighted.

DJ Grafx provided the tunes for the event. I didn't see who was doing the light show.

Some there had dressed themselves fancy for the occasion.

The light show continued for a while, the crowd continuing to "Ooooooo" and "Ahhhhhhh,"

A view of high above the park.

 Now this part of the show fit the name.

Eventually, it was time for me to go. I enjoyed the show while I was able to be there.

When the next light show at Inspired Space Park will be remains to be known. But it's still a nice place to just drop by and visit when the place is it's usual space dream brought to life.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Shinda/33/218/1560/

Bixyl Shuftan