The VAA gallery has undergone some overhauling, and this is a sneak peak of what you will see when you first arrive The reason for the overhaul is this Wednesday, October 31st from 6-7PM– we are hosting an Artist Networking Party for the Best of SL Art, not only to encourage members of the community to go to the website to vote, but also to meet their peers in the art community and flex those networking muscles.
Joining us that evening will be DJ MariusNo1 Streeter, who will be sharing some serious Funk alongside his live turntable skills. Hope to see you there!
This last week has been an exciting one! The VAA had its first speed-build, which was graciously hosted by VAA co-owner Rezago Kokorin at the Virtual Artist Alliance gallery in Chiaksan. The theme was “things that scare you”, and the resulting builds were awesome:
Coming in first place was Sunn Thunders’ “Afraid of Chaos”
Second place was Madcow Cosmos’ tiny cubicles.
Third place was Cos Hirano with “Vertigo”.
It’s amazing what one can do with 50 minutes and a 30 prim limit– I’m always impressed with the results of speed-builds!
More Pictures?! Oh goodness, yes.
The improvisation/collaboration event with Enniv Zarf and Gwenette Writer was undoubtedly the most fun I’ve had in Second Life in quite a while! Enniv Zarf was at the helm, improvising music on piano, Gwenette was reciting improv poetry, and I was building an improv sculpture– all feeding off of and contributing to one another’s works in a colorful flurry of creativity. It was definitely a unique experience, and I’m hoping to participate in another event like this very soon:
The last ten minutes of the concert invited the audience to participate by contributing poetry, particles, sculpture, music– anything and everything to collaborate and contribute to the experience. The next time you see a notice for one of these Collaborative Improv concerts, it is strongly recommended that you go– you’ll be in for quite a treat!
Oh my, but I’ve been slacking lately… I’ve been stuck between a rock and a hard place (i.e. my First and Second Lives) these last couple of weeks, scrambling between interviews, speed-builds, event planning and my Boy forcing me to stop for a moment so I can eat something. The balance that I seek to achieve between my two lives is no where to be seen at the moment… but hell, we all go through spells like that.
Here’s what’s going on in the lives of Cyanide:
Saturday, Oct. 20th7PM PST- Friend and colleague Enniv Zarf has requested that I join him for an evening of improvisation at the KE Business Complex’s Krystal Wood Performance Center. In addition to his lovely improv piano skills, there will also be the improv poems of Gwenette Writer while I create an improv sculpture. It’s gonna be a lot of fun to participate, as we’ll all be using each other as wells of inspiration to create our respective pieces of art– I hope to see you there!
October 22nd- Busting out my VAA To Do list–no more procrastinating on October! Items on this list include writing the October press release for the Best of SL Art ‘07, contacting Pathfinder Linden, and beginning work on two top secret projects. Stay tuned!
October 25th- My First Life rezz date ;P my presence in the virtual world shall be scant, if any!
November 2nd- Hosting the Haiku Build, which is sponsored by the VAA and the Shin Tao Haiku Retreat. It’ll be taking place at the VAA gallery, and I’ll be throwing L$ at the top three builders! I’ll be putting up the event notice, soon, so keep a look out for it.
And now, since I can’t think of a graceful way to conclude this blog, I’ll just share a video of Dan Coyote’s Zero G Sky Dancers and make my escape unnoticed…..
Check out this month’s issue of The Seventh Sun, wherein I was interviewed about the Best of SL Art and the various roles that the Virtual Artist Alliance plays in the grand scheme of all that.
Look at me, hogging the spotlight– Enniv was interviewed, as well, and the article is just as much about he and Krystal Epic as it is about me and the VAA. The point is that word of the Best of SL Art is spreading like roots, inching further outward to drink from the vast underground pools of artistic knowledge in Second Life!
On that note, I would like to congratulate Mirrorcle Writer for becoming the Seventh Sun’s artistic correspondent– I can already tell that your contributions to the Second Life art and literary scene will be massive!
Oh yes. This excites me.
On the topic of my First Life:
It’s a general rule of thumb to provide pictures with editorial writings to help obtain interest from readers– and so, to give you a glimpse into my First Life over the past day, here is a digital painting for your viewing pleasure:
I am in love with the Adobe Creative Suite and Corel Painter, and I find that I am addicted to magazines such as Advanced Photoshop, Corel Painter, and Web Design… these things and a cup of coffee or tea keep me going into the wee hours of the morning with all the vigor of… someone who stays up too late and drinks too much coffee. HA.
Ahh Sundays. A time to relax, a time to recuperate, a time to gather yourself and your thoughts before you return to the work-week with that Monday Morning Smile (or perhaps, in some cases, the Monday Morning Blues). I, like so many other dedicated professionals in the retail and service industries, grudgingly have to work on Sundays.
I don’t have a terrible job, mind you. I sell questionably-made and over-priced antiques from the far reaches of the globe, spanning from Argentina to China and back again. The business here is not what one would call “booming”, as the neighborhood we are currently situated in is inhabited mostly by lower-middle class citizens, dumpster-diving veterans, and houses painted in interesting and non-stylish shades of brown. Needless to say, my shifts are spent sitting on my ass, waiting. It’s not a terrible job, you see, but not the most fulfilling. And so I spend my Sunday shifts from noon-4, tending to my Second Life commitments and making plans.
“Plans?” you ask.
Yes. Plans. But description of said plans will have to wait for another day, because there’s a blog I’d like to tell you about. But first:
All Hail the RSS Feed.
Seriously. If you don’t have one, you can learn about it here, and you can get a web-based RSS for free here. If you don’t have one, you need to get one– it makes staying informed so much easier.
But I digress:
Upon opening up my RSS feed today, I stumbled upon the blog of Fiend Ludwig. Specifically, I came across his latest blog, “And Anonymity Masks Much But Reveals All”, which proves to be an entertaining and insightful look about Second Life identity. A deeper look into this blog reveals an intelligent literary mind with a library of interesting contributions to various Second Life publications, and a penchant for using Waterhouse paintings to illustrate his points throughout.
“Anonymity shields Typist from prying eyes and leaves him free to traverse his Real without concern of recognition or retribution. It deflects criticism and accountability. Fiend can say anything, however vile, and Typist can expect protection.”
If you don’t at least passively browse through this blog, I’m convinced you’ll be depriving yourself of Something Special.
I’m sure everyone has experienced a workload so immense that they rarely come up for air to see what kind of effects their efforts are having on the community. I’ve definitely got one of those workloads on my hands at the moment, and to actually see results is utterly fantastic:
I found these while hanging out at the Cookie Sim, checking out their Autumn Writer’s Exhibition. I was thrilled to see that the nomination banners Enniv made are being put to good use! Furthermore, it was nice to see the poster that I designed for the Second Life Ballet’s latest performance, “Windows”, is being distributed and seen throughout the grid.
On the subject of the Autumn Writer’s Exhibition in Cookie– it’s worth a stop-by. There’s a lot of great poetry and prose hanging out there, and it’s definitely a testament to how active one of Second Life’s most thriving sub-cultures is. The sim itself is worth exploring, as there are a lot of hidden gems and stellar builds to see throughout.
I don’t really want to get into the habit of double-posting things here that I’ve already posted on the Virtual Artist Alliance newsblog… but I’m so excited about this recent development that I can’t contain myself!
The best part about this Reflexive Architecture stuff? It’s open source! You’d better believe I’m gonna take full advantage of Keystone Bouchard and Fumon Kubo’s generosity to beautify my Second Life experience– I hope you guys will as well!
You can acquire three of the reflexive architecture scripts here. Remember everyone– the purpose of open-sourcing is to help improve upon a great creation to make it better for the whole, so don’t abuse the generosity!
Alright… so after I had posted the entry from last night, I decided to further deprive myself of sleep and do some work with Dante and the girls on the Fall Festivals and what-not. I finally got my set of rules for the Haiku Build to Dante, and I’ll be posting them here so they can be easily referenced and reviewed.
To correct my last post, the Haiku Contest’s theme will not be fall festivals in general– specifically, it will be inspired by the Frog Festival. Even MORE specifically, it will be about Frogs. So prepare yourselves for some amphibious building madness!
And now, the rules:
Building pads are claimed on a first-come, first-serve basis– be sure to show up as early as you can to claim a spot!
No prefabricated builds are allowed– your build must be created from base prims from beginning to end.
Three winners will be chosen at the end of the contest by the spectators of the build, via a majority vote. In the case of a tie, the host(s) will get together to decide the winning build. The winning sculptures will be judged based upon how well they exemplify the featured Haiku.
In my first year in Second Life, I’ve found that the summer months are relatively quiet in the art community, probably due to beautiful weather and vacations and the like. In that time, I’ve been a little slack in my duties… which is fine, it seems, because the moment I started to pick up activity in SL again, people started coming to me with projects and ideas.
Best of SL Art 2007
The Virtual Artist Alliance is currently the co-sponsor of Krystal Epic’s Best of SL Art 2007– I’ve been working on public relations and the like, encouraging artists and venue owners alike to nominate themselves or someone else. November was a breeze, it seemed, because all I had to do was pound our presence into the public mind. After Enniv Zarf had the End of Nominations party on September 30th, however… I kind of dropped the ball. That night was so exhausting that my brain is forcing me to take a rest. I think once this weekend comes around and I’ve had a couple days to rest, I’ll be able to get my ass back in gear. I’m sure the final two months of BOSLA 2007 will go smoothly…
Fall Festivals Haiku Build Contest
Currently, the VAA is also co-sponsoring an event with the Shin Tao Haiku Retreat– I’m not quite sure what it’s called yet (my brain is a useless gray mass at the moment) but it’s a three-day festival that celebrates Halloween, All Saint’s Day/Dia de los Muertos, and the Japanese Frog Festival. The gist of the contest is as follows:
DanteOsaka Deschanel and his assistants, Pomona Writer and Sunnie Beaumont will be holding a haiku contest for the Shin Tao haiku retreat. Whoever writes the best haiku that exmplifies the fall seasons and the festivals therein will have their Haiku be featured as the subject of the Haiku Build. At the Haiku Build, artists will be challenged with creating a sculpture that best represents the haiku. First place prize will be awarded L$400, second place will be L$200, and third place will be L$100. I have a feeling that this contest will attract a good crowd, and we’ll be able to have a lot of fun with this collaboration!
Who Will Save Lauk’s Nest?
Not so much a project as it was a helping hand in making waves in the SL community– Morris Vig IMd me one morning and asked me to help him spread the word on a pressing issue regarding the European VAT tax that was going to eradicate Lauk’s Nest, a substantial landmark in the artist community. I don’t recall exactly what was up at the time, but poor Morris was unable to send notices or view or create notecards. So I launched a notice with a notecard directing everyone to Morris’ blog so the community could be informed. Further steps were taken the next day when Morris and I contacted our press resources to further spread the news to a wider audience. Now this stuff is all over the news, and I find that I’m preening myself a little bit because I was able to help Morris with an issue he felt so strongly about.
Speaking of which, I need to talk to Morris about a top-secret project. It’s on the to-do list.
Hello. My name is Cyanide Seelowe, and I’m a work-a-holic.
I have my up-days and my down-days… but rest assured, my plate is always full. You see, I have a difficult time saying “no”, especially in situations where I know I’ll be of use. Every time I undergo a new project or shake hands to seal the deal on a collaborative effort, there’s a little voice in the back of my head that says “What the hell is wrong with you?! You have 90 other projects to worry about!”
That voice, much to its dismay, is frequently ignored. I’m sure it’s getting sick of my shenanigans, and is planning an uprising of some sort… but I’ll worry about that when it actually happens.
In the meantime, stay tuned. This shall be a place of musings and silly-things, news and random thoughts. It’ll be an insight to both of my lives, and you’ll get a chance to see how I operate. I’m using this blog as a way to maintain my sanity, because I’m sure if I keep all of these thoughts, ideas, and To Do lists in my head, I may very well explode.
The reason for the overhaul is this Wednesday, October 31st from 6-7PM– we are hosting an Artist Networking Party for the Best of SL Art, not only to encourage members of the community to go to the website to vote, but also to meet their peers in the art community and flex those networking muscles.
