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

 

Light Thoughts 2

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

In the past few months, real life and Second Life events seemed to be taking me away from scheduling, exploring and writing about my SL adventures. To get back to my old schedule, I went through all my favorite tricks for finding new sims to explore. One of these tricks is the World Map, found in the viewer and also at secondlife.com. I remembered that, only a few days earlier, I had been looking at the map and made a mental note to visit a sim that caught my eye. Returning to the area of the map, I learned that the sim is one of the LEA sims.

Based on past experiences at LEA sims, this would have been enough to keep me from going, but my intuition was telling me I would find something good, this time. The problem was, every time I visited a LEA sim, in the past, as an artist/designer, I always found myself asking how much this artist had to pay LL, to get them to promote his excuse for an art project in the Destination Guide. It sounds harsh, but I hold all products up to the same standards. If it requires advertisement, instead of word-of-mouth, I probably won't buy it. On the other hand, the inner voice of my intuition has always given good advice.

Given that the sim in question was near several other "interesting" looking sims, I felt sure I would find a good adventure and promptly headed down to check out several of the sims. Art should communicate the thoughts of the artist. The first sim I visited had me wondering if it's artist was thinking at all, so I flew over to the next sim. That sim showed a bit more thought, but was also under construction. With a lot more work, it could be worth a return visit. From this sim, I could clearly see the next. It was brightly lit and just a short walk, so I strolled over for a look.

This sim is LEA 20 and was host to "Light Thoughts 2", by Mario2 Helstein. Within seconds, I knew this was the place that was calling me. I cannot even begin to describe this project, until I explain that NONE of the pictures, shown here, do it justice, because a major part of the art is moving light and textures, playing on and incorporated into the solid sculptures on the sim.

To any observer, this exhibit of lights and sculptures will be a wonderful adventure. To a seasoned Designer, Artist, Builder, there is an inner beauty that shines for them. This Artist, Mario2 Helstein, is an adept in the sciences of Geometry, architectural strength and chromatics, and even a fair amount of Psychology. I found his sculptures somehow fascinating, but it took a couple of days, looking at the photos, to discover why. Bless his PXL (Pneumatic Xtal Lattice) heart. He builds with triangles. His triangles have holes in the middle.

I will confess, I don't know, exactly what a LEA sim is or how they work. I assume LEA means "Linden Endowed Artist", since they are temporary and have art exhibits on them. What I did discover is, some times they can impress and inspire even a professional artist. The point is, don't take  the Destination Guide or this writer's word for where the fun is. If you hear of an interesting sim, go see it for yourself. Remember, the word YOU has U right in the middle of it.

 

 

LEA20 (126, 129, 21) 

"Sha"

Reflect the Light

By Gemma Cleanslate

When I was visiting Art Farm at LEA, I noticed another region was opening, though maybe still being installed, So I went off to visit it on the next week. "Reflect the Light" is in LEA 18, and I loved it. 

Kiesta Aljon is a real-life photographer and has been making art in Second Life for three years and has created this for the region.  The entrance is through a long hallway with the message “I am not the light or the source of the light But I can reflect the light into the dark hearts of men.“ I then descended a ramp , passing figures that lit the way along a path of the dark Hearts of Man and the reasons .. loneliness and isolation, our personal prisons, loss of faith and hope- the dark night of the soul. 

I arrived at a circle where I picked up an information card that tells you background about the artist’s inspiration for the installation. Four doors that open to the parts of the exhibit, black , blue and red will lead to more levels , each lovelier than the other and then you realize how the dark hearts can become lighter. The black door gives you access to dancing within sparkling art and being part of the works. The blue takes you to beautiful moving art pieces and the third red door lands you at a gallery containing works or real life and Second Life art pieces on the walls. 

There is the last door which is a checkered door that swirls you into a checkered world. The walls and floor are checkered and there are checkered blocks and balls all around the floor that I found I could push.It was fun! Pushing the balls around the floor and away from the walls.  Some balls are floating off into the open sky above, perhaps released from their dark night . 

It is a exhibit you will want to experience so take a trip and reflect your light. One piece that I enjoyed most was the small globes at the entrance to each level on each  side of the door. From the entrance to the checkered room it is all an wonderful experience .You can also pick up a landmark for her sl gallery, Sacred Art and see other works .
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA18/136/53/998

Gemma Cleanslate