SLEA3 - A Dark Star

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

At the Second Life Endowment for the Arts regions, there's an exhibit named "A Dark Star." It was designed by Gem Preiz, and is listed in the Destinations Guide.

A DARK STAR by Gem Preiz will be the third of 3 installations exhibited on SLEA 3 full region grant during the first half of 2023. It synthesizes the colors of "LINES OF LIGHTS" and the shape of the structures of "COLOR & GLOW", both still on display on the same Sim (see landmarks below). After an enclosed maze of lines and lights, and glowing colors open to sky and horizons, A DARK STAR concludes the series with a construction in 3 dimensions, surrounded by orbiters, and nested in an isotropic 3D universe of glowing lines, the boundaries of which are unreachable.

 

I, along with Charlee, headed to the listed location at SLEA3 (80/66/319). And the place was quite stunning, a little like stepping into a "Tron" scene. It was dark with neon-like lines of colored light, with small pyramid-shapes on the ground and larger crystals. Hearing some sound, I looked around, and there was some cluster of objects made up partially of white, blue, and purplish light and partially of black spheres, the latter which were moving in and out of the cluster. There was also a "throne" of amber crystal and shapes. We also found a spaceship, and were able to fly around see most of the place from above.

It wasn't long before I got contacted by someone, the artist of the exhibit, Gem Preiz. He told me this wasn't the only place in the sim, but the latest one of three, the two others being "Color and Glow" and "Lines of Light." "If you see the two first ones, you will see that this third one, the dark Star is a bit the synthesis of the others," he described.

"I have been exhibiting fractals in SL for years, then started to build environment to display them, and then the builds became predominant, and nowadays I show mostly constructions if this kind, using much reflections, lights and highlighting of this kind. (It is) purely conceptual, not aiming at meaning anything special, else than pleasure for the eyes. And I like minerals, crystals, and geometries. I like repetitive patterns and try to create some nice ones to look at. ... as recommendation, advanced lighting model , shared environment, and long drawing distance to see everything as I created it.

 

"I like to build sim wide environments, almost always going off sim as much as I can,  to maximize (for me at least) the immersion I like to be overwhelmed by the environment. 

When I asked what he had made before, Gem answered, "... in summary, many fractals exhibition, several LEA grants in the past, and sim wide builds : skyscrapers, a short model of a modern city, arcadia, a neoclassical city, a space station, a space base on exoplanet. You can see some pictures of everything in my flickr if you are interested:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/187894176@N07/albums ."

Charlee and I would visit the other two places. "Color and Glow" was just as impressive and striking in its own right. The landscape and some objects would change color every several minutes. Over time, we would see it go from red, to green, to orange and yellow, to blue. So would a "couch" that we saw. There were also large dark spheres that would roll down inclines at some places. 

After some time, we checked out "Lines of Light" next. While interesting, it wasn't quite as good as the other two places, lacking the up and down movement of the other two. Sill, it was worth a look with it's lit blue and reddish passageways.

 

To get to A Dark Star, head to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLEA3/80/66/3199 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Pinwheels at LEA 26

By Bixyl Shuftan

Recently at the Linden Endowment of the Arts sim LEA 26, there's an interesting new exhibit called "Pinwheels." A display of fractal art, it takes up most of the length and width of the sim in three dimensions, and every few moments parts of the display will shift position at random. It's made up of triangular-shaped prims high over the sim, going from the starting position in a walkable twisting path consisting of steep cliffs and twisting bends.

While giving the place a visit, in mid-August, I ran into the artist, Mac Kanashimi. He had a few things to say about the place.

"So this is your exhibit?" I asked him.

"It is," Mac answered.

I looked around, "Looks pretty big. Just how much of the sim does it cover?"

"All of it," Mac answered.

"We're just shy of 3000 in the air," I observed, "Does it go all the way to the bottom?"

"Oh no," he answered, "the path (of fractals) goes 256 meters deep."

"What gave you the idea for this build?" I asked.

Mac's answer was, "After my Mandelbrot fractal art in round 4, I skipped round 5 to build fractal prototypes. This is one of the fractals for which I built a prototype. There is a list of fractals on Wikipedia for inspiration."

"Was it hard for you to create it here?" I asked.

"When I deployed it on August 2," he answered, "it was just push the button and wait. It is all scripted."

"How long was the wait?" I asked.

"Somewhere between one and two hours," Mac answered.

"To those not in the know," I asked, "could you explain a little what fractal art is?"

The artist answered, "a fractal is a pattern which is repeated on a different scale. I use 2D fractals and the third dimension is used for the art."

"About how long will this be running in Second Life?" I asked.

Mac answered, " 'till end of December,"

"So far, about how many have been coming here?" I requested.

"1743 different visitors," he responded, "including me and my alt." (the interview was done August 17)

"That's quite a number," I told him, then asked, "About how many a day drop in?"

Mac answered, "between 200-250 since this exhibition appeared in the Editors' Picks category of the Destination Guide."


"So what else have you worked on in Second Life?" I then asked him.

Mac thought for a moment, "Round 6 was Dragon Curves, Round 4 was 3D Mandelbrot Fractal Art. SL8B - SL11B, and an exhibit of small 3D fractals. (The) SL birthday exhibit was a 3-ring gyro with a seat, 88 polyhedron skeletons, a 3D maze and a small dragon curve."

"Sounds like you've been busy," I told the artist.

"Since my SL birthday," he answered.

I had noticed Mac's headwear was done in a style I recognized. So I then asked, "By the way, whom did your hat?"

Mac answered, "the hat was designed my Mikati Slade-san. The hat was a gift during her 'Pico Pico Life' exhibit. I am her scripting advisor."


"Interesting, so you both work together at times?" I asked.

Mac told me, "I assisted behind the scenes with her SL9B Cake Stage."

We were temporarily distracted by a naked visitor dropping in. I commented to the artist, "Heh heh, looks like you get no shortage of interesting visitors Mac."

The streaker then vanished, Mac saying, "I put him on the ban list for indecent exposure."

 I chuckled, "Heh heh, so who have been your most interesting vistors here?"

"Reporters and artists are interesting," he answered, "SaveMe Oh was interesting."

I recalled SaveMe as having gotten the boot from a few places, including Burn2. "What did she do here?" I asked.

"She specializes in wearable exhibitions," the artist told me, saying this time she wore, "dressing cabins with wait-in-line cords and a queue of waiting NPCs, also a complete house and a herd of zebras."

I chuckled, "Heh, sounds funny."

"Oh yes," Mac commented, "but I did move the landing point, otherwise visitors landed inside the house. If someone is hogging the landing point, I always move it to a different spot."

"Sounds like you've been busy here," I told him, "I take it you're already at work on future plans?"

"I am," he answered, "but I have not chosen the definite subject yet."

Before leaving, I asked, "Anything else you'd like to mention about Pinwheels or any other project?"

the artist answered, "for every project, something interesting pops up. For the Mandelbrot fractals, it was the link limit. For Pinwheels it was letting each object know what the direct neighbours are. For Dragon Curves, how to fit 10 curves together like a jigsaw puzzle."

"Okay, well, thank you for your time, Mac."

"You're welcome."

I tipped my hat, and we parted ways.

Pinwheels can be visited at LEA26 (118/5/2969).

Bixyl Shuftan