Sasun Steinbeck Leads Discussion on Art Gallery Owners of SL Kiosk System

Sasun Steinbeck will be leading a discussion and feedback session on the Art Gallery Owners of SL Kiosk system today at 1 pm SLT at the Second Life Art Community Center (SLACC). Below is an excerpt from her notecard announcing the event:

The Art Gallery Owners of SL Kiosk system was designed to connect art lovers to all the fantastic art galleries in SL. The goal is to make it easy and fun for people to locate and travel to your galleries and bring in more traffic, helping more people see (and buy!) your art.

On Saturday at 1pm I'll be leading a discussion seminar at the Second Life Art Community Center (SLACC) hosted by Mar Dwi to talk about this system with you. I'll give you some insight into how the system works and how you can best take advantage of it to achieve your goals, be that sales or increased visitor traffic. Since this system was designed for YOU, I'd love to get feedback on how I can make this system better for you.

At the session I will be unveiling a beta test version of a new remote voting kiosk that can be used by your gallery visitors to rate your gallery. This is designed to gather more gallery ratings and reviews from your visitors without forcing them to go back to the Art Galleries of SL kiosk to rate your gallery. I am currently beta testing this kiosk and will be giving out test versions at the session if you would like to help test this for me.

Guest Appearance by Virtual Ability's Gentle Heron

John Jainschigg (SL: SmarterTechnology Wizardly) has as his guests today, Alice Kreuger (SL:Gentle Heron), Chairman of the Board of Virtual Ability (VAI) and Eme Capalin, Vice President of Development for Virtual Ability. VAI is a nonprofit organization whose focus is in facilitating the use of virtual worlds by the disabled. VAI was a co-recipient of the 2009 Linden Prize, and has as part of its projects three regions developed currently with plans to expand to a fourth early in 2010. Virtual Ability is well known for their innovative use of virtual world platforms, and in exploring unique ways of using virtual worlds for peer support for the disabled.

Alizarin Goldflake to hold Open Studio for Acquarella

PRESS RELEASE

From: Alizarin Goldflake

Topic: Acquarella, a new immersive art build

Event date: Saturday, November 28, 3 - 5 pm PDT 

Alizarin Goldflake will hold an Open Studio at Atelier Alizarin on Saturday, November 28, 3 - 5 pm PDT, for "Acquarella," her latest immersive art build.

"When I was a child, I kept an aquarium and I would stare into it for hours, mesmerized by it then as I am now by Second Life, a magical weightless world populated by strange and beautiful creatures." These memories were the inspiration behind the creation of "Acquarella." An aquarium on a cosmic scale, "Acquarella" is filled with swaying, lacey aquatic plants, schools of neon tetras, animated angelfish and goldfish, drifts of diatoms, and huge green lily pads that bob up and down in the invisible current. The build echoes with the songs of whales. Pose balls invite people to swim to their music, and throughout, there are traces of an untold story. A fragment of a submarine that torpedoed itself hints at an apocalyptic destruction that could possibly be a metaphor. Who is hunting whom with those ghostly sonar pings? Why does color sometimes creep into a largely monochrome vision? How to explain the fact that the black and white tetras school, while their rainbow-hued counterparts are solitary? Who is Acquarella? Is she a giantess or are we liliputian? People are invited to submit their own back stories via in-world notecard to Alizarin Goldflake or by going to and dropping their stories in the comment box under the Acquarella post. A panel of 3 judges will choose the most creative story, which will be published via an Art & Artists Network! Group notice and will receive a L$1,500 prize on December 28.

There will be champagne and hors d'oeuvres for the realistically-inclined and salsa dancing to the energizing jazz flamenco land music. A careful search of the build will yield a freebie containing one of the exquisite digital drawings.

"Acquarella" employs highly-detailed digital drawings done with Corel Painter software and a Wacom tablet. It uses scripts, animations, and sounds to provide an immersive art experience that is intended to create visual and psychic pleasure for the participant.

Other Atelier Alizarin Attractions include: Orfeo's Oratorio, immersive art and musical kinetics in Sky Studio Night, The Particularium on the third floor, RL digital drawings on the second floor, 2-D digital collages on the first floor, and a beautiful sculpture park on the ground.

Celebrate the Grand Reopening of the Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum

I didn't catch this one until early this morning, my inventory being a mess of note cards lately. The reopening celebration is a week-end long event, it started yesterday and ends Sunday the 22^nd. Here's the note in its entirety:

Celebrate the Grand Reopening of the Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum

November 20-21-22

We have moved to our own region with a brilliant new layout of the museum buildings. See the models of Mr. Wright's buildings in wonderful new settings. Please join us for a series of special events, including a ribbon cutting, tours of the new museum region, roundtable discussion, fireworks display, general fun and the chance to dance the day/night away at a formal Gala Ball.

Friday, November 20

(All times SLT)

2:00 - 3:00 Shantu Selene concert

6:00 -8:00 Special Dance at Breeze

Intro to Silent Auction

Saturday, November 21

2:00 Welcoming Speech and Ribbon Cutting by CEO Frey Bravin

2:30 Round Table Discussion with Craftsman Build-off Winners, moderated by Barbara Collazo, Director of Education

Silent Auction continues

Sunday, November 22

1:00 Silent Auction ends

1:30 Winners of Silent Auction will be announced

2:00-2:15 Fireworks by Jeande Laville

2:30-5:00 Exclusive Members Only Formal Gala Ball

(Join as a museum member or Hippogroups member outside the Ball entrance)

Two Full SIMS of ART

I received a press release from friend Tayzia Abattoir, curator at the NMC Campus and Ars Simulacra:

On Sunday, November 15th at 10 am SLT and 5 pm SLT, come see TWO FULL SIMS OF ART with live music by Winters Kanto and Joaquin Gustav.

The Aho Museum on NMC Campus West and Ars Simulacra will host the artistry of over 30 artists.

What will you discover?

The FEATURED ARTISTS for the Month include the 10 following artists.

Maya Paris
Saiwun Yoshikawa
Spiral Walcher
Bryn Oh
nessuno Myoo
Ub Yifu
Glyph Graves
FigBash Snook
Gleman Jun
Sunn Thunders

4 Special immersive exhibits also being featured are:

"Orfeo's Oratorio" by Alizarin Goldflake
StormEye by Douglas Story and Desdemona Enfield
Flickr Gettr by Mencius Watts and Taggert Alsop
MacBeth by CJ Carnot and Stella Costello

Juried Photographic Exhibition at WoW Art Gallery

The following came my way via Morgana Nagorski:

WoW Art Gallery is pleased to announce a juried photographic exhibition.

• Theme: Song title or a line from a song

• Limit of 3 entries per person

• Deadline 6:00pm SLT 28 November

• The pics must be SL not RL

• And yes photoshopping etc is not only allowed but welcomed!

• Prizes
1st $5,000
2nd $2,000

And the top 10 entries will be exhibited at Wow Gallery in mid December

• Judges: a magazine editor, 2 art reporters and two gallery owners (I am solely the organiser and will not be involved in judging).

• How to submit an entry
Full perm texture to me in a note card
Note card must be titled WoW Photographic competition - Your name
Note card to contain the name of the piece and/or the line of the song, if that line is too long as a title
Dimensions of the piece in pixels to be included so that I can put them on prims for judging.

• Top ten entries will be asked to hang a prim version for the resulting exhibition.
They can, of course be marked for sale with 20% commission taken

If you have any questions feel free to IM or send a note card.

Regards
Morgana Nagorski

Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum's Craftsman Home Build-Off

Late yesterday evening, while I was sorting through inventory items an instant message arrived from Gentle Heron along with a note card inventory offer. I opened both.

"Hi Nazz. I thought you might like to hear about this success story." Gentle said and then added in her next line. "Hey, this gal is amazingly skilled. I'd seen her doll houses, but here she beat the pro builders!"

"Thank you Gentle." I replied and then read the note.

"Virtual Ability member Jadyn Firehawk's newly built house recently won First Place Novice in the Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum's Craftsman Home Build-Off 2009. She outscored the first place professional builder in the competition. As Jadyn says, "Who're they calling "disabled"?"

Use this SLURL to teleport to the SIM, then look at all the entries. Jadyn's build is on the back row of houses on the east side of the SIM. Check out the two-story fire place and all the lovely wood texturing.

Jadyn also builds exquisite small home models. Her award is sitting right on the front porch. Congratulations Jadyn."

"Very cool." I replied after reading the note card.

"She's very talented. She is also exhibiting her photographs in our Cape Able Art Gallery. Second Life has given her a lot, and she's sure taken it on and made a name for herself." Said Ms Heron.

New Video from the Virtual Worlds Story Project

I came across this in my daily feeds, a link to a video "Educators Discover the Magic of Story Quests". The video recounts highlights and of course relays the benefits of questing with excellent footage of the latest quest by Jenaia and Marty of the Virtual Worlds Story Project. It's a short video, but definitely worth a look. Jen and I spoke briefly a few days ago about the project and of the plans for Worlds Aids Day on December 2^nd. If you page down a bit, there's a press release that I posted earlier in the day about the event to be held in Second Life. I had participated in the "Uncle D" quest and had written a short story. I was thrilled when Jen asked me to read the story on December 2^nd and eagerly accepted the invitation.

Life in the Nazz Lane for October 2009

Those of you who know me in Second Life have seen my group tag name "Life in the" Nazz Lane, which I readily admit having adapted from an Eagles song. I'm using the group tag name for a monthly posting in Lane's List, "Life in the Nazz Lane for (fill in the month and year)" to highlight my activities. Besides the posting here in Lane's List, I also freelance for several publications, the SL Newspaper and Avenue Magazine, plus the Second Arts blog. Here's a link for the articles I've written that have been published.

SL Newspaper:

"The Fire King" Author in Second Life: An interview with New York Times Bestseller List Author Marjorie M Lui about her book and a recent appearance in Second Life.

Artists 4 Mercy: I had the opportunity to meet Anu Papp and discuss with her the activities of her charitable organization Artists 4 Mercy.

"The Life and Times of Uncle D" Machinima Premiers in Second Life: Good friends Jenaia Morane and Marty Snowpaw hosted the premier event as part of their Virtual World Story Project.

Second Arts:

An Interview with SL Artist Xenophile Neurocam:

Exhibition Comet Naima Las Islas:

Interview with Artist Trill Zapatero:

Yuri Gallery of Fine Art Opening:

Burning Life Art Department Picks Twelve Art Projects:

Avenue Magazine:

IBM Exhibition Space Presents State of Formation by Selavy Oh (page 219): Interview with Tezcatlipoca Bisiani and Selavy Oh.

Virtual Ability Benefits from SLCC ArtAThon (page 225): The presentation a check to VAI of funds raised at the SLCC by Filthy Fluno and Winter Nightfire.

Second Life Avatar Repertory Theater Group to participate in a Global Theatrical Festival (page 245): Interview with Ada Radius.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2009” A TRIBUTE TO THE HEALING POWER OF STORIES IN REAL AND SECOND LIFE®

INTERNATIONAL HIV/AIDS GROUPS SET TO COLLABORATE ON MULTI-MEDIA, MIXED REALITY CELEBRATIONS OF LIFE

____________

A "Virtual Story Tree" Dedicated to the Life of Ryan White among the Highlights of the Day

Los Angeles, CA November 9, 2009 --As more and more leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS recognize the potential for outreach and education in Second Life® (SL), their focus has gone virtual. This year's World AIDS Day events promise to break new ground as a diverse group of international organizations join Karuna* (the NLM-funded HIV/AIDS sim in SL) and its SL partners to cross borders of time, space, and geography to celebrate the lives of those dealing with HIV/AIDS.

World AIDS Day 2009 events in SL will be focused on the healing power of stories and storytelling - a hallmark of the work being done by Karuna and its partners. "One of the mandates of the grant that funds Karuna is that we collect, preserve, and share stories," says Jena Ball, the Coordinator of Karuna. "It is among the reasons we chose to celebrate the courageous life and story of Ryan White and created a 'Virtual Story Tree' to honor his memory."

"Second Life® has allowed us to create an immersive, supportive, and collaborative environment in which information can be presented in ways that help de-stigmatize and personalize the subject of HIV/AIDS," Ball continues.

Partnering organizations for the World AIDS Day events with Karuna and SL are a broad range of organizations and individuals from universities, research organizations HIV/AIDS activists, corporations and foundations - HIV/AIDS NLM, RTI, RTP, STHLNY, CFAR, NIH, ALS, IBM, AIDS.gov, TVWSP. ROF, RTP, Four Bridges Project, Jokaydia, VHH, and SAM (list in formation).

"We all believe in the emerging use of virtual worlds that allow people to create content and to connect in ways that are more rich and experiential than historically possible through traditional media," says Brent Ward, Director of Commercialization for Research Triangle International (RTI), one of the world's leading independent, nonprofit research and development organizations.

Highlights WORLD AIDS DAY 2009:

* Welcome

* Formal Opening of "Ryan White Story Tree"

* Live streaming of activities at Research Triangle Park (RTP)

* Guided Tours of SL HIV/AIDS Sims and Activities

* Live music by SL musicians at Remember Our Friends (R.O.F)

* Guided Tours of "The Life and Times of Uncle D" (TVWSP)

* SL Exhibits by sculptors, photographers, painters and builders

* International Exhibits by Students at universities and colleges

* Presentations of original stories, songs, poems and letters by SL artists

365 Day Photgraphic Journal of Chestnut Rau

I've been watching daily with interest, the photographic journal of good friend Chestnut Rau on her blog, Second Life of My Dreams. Her latest was posted on the 6th of November, it is day 6 of 365. I readily admit being hooked by day three and eagerly check my daily RSS feeds to both see and read her daily perspective. When I chatted with her a day after seeing it for the first time, she told me she was quite surprised and pleased at the interest it's received. When you have a moment take a look, you will not be disappointed to see and read of what has caught the attention of this very talented writer.

JAZZLIVE in Second Life

"The real and the virtual interact as digital artwork on a monumental scale provides a stunning virtual landscape while real-world jazz gigs, broadcast live from a small London club, are injected into the cyberspace."

Beginning on Friday 6th of November 2009, Partisans open the season live from The Crypt. From 8 pm (GMT) in London and 12 noon in Second Life. Partisans are Phil Robson - guitar (jazz musician of the year 09 Parliamentary Jazz Awards), Julian Siegel - reeds (best instrumentalist 07 BBC Jazz Awards), Thaddeus Kelly - bass and Gene Calderazzo – drums. Since 1996 Partisans has been thrilling audiences with its energetic performances of tightly knit themes and groove-based sound, bridging the gap between New York swing, European improv and UK jam band. The combination of each musician's influences feeds a genuine creative spark generating huge excitement and energy. The concerts will be broadcast live from the Crypt in London into Second Life.

Those attending the concerts in the Second Life venue will also be exposed to great artwork commissioned especially for the events by some of the virtual world's most respected artists; DanCoyote Antonelli, Oberon Onmura and Juria Yoshikawa. Those attending The Crypt will also experience the art show, as it will be viewable on big screens in the venue. This two-way interaction is an essential element in the project.

Also to be screened are excerpts from a forthcoming film about JAZZLIVE by multimedia artist Steve Millar (aka Arahan Claveau).

JAZZLIVE at the Crypt was established in 1995 and quickly gained a deserved reputation as one of the UK's premier jazz venues. Its weekly Friday night concerts have featured the top musicians from London, the UK and Europe, and beyond. JAZZLIVE at the Crypt (situated in the basement of St. Giles Church, Camberwell) continues to break new ground with the JAZZLIVE in Second Life project.

Jazz fans in the UK can of course attend the gigs in person at The Crypt, St Giles Church, Camberwell Church Street, London SE5.

The JAZZLIVE in Second Life Web Site can be accessed from the beginning of November.

For further information contact Asher Hebert in-world.

 
 

 
 

National Educational Technology Plan Meeting in Second Life

Thursday, November 5, 2009 6pm SLT

ISTE Island Events

Event support is coming from ISTE, Metanomics and the University of Michigan.

The federal government of the United States of America has assembled an 18 person team to update and revise the National Education Technology Plan. Their report deadline is November 11, 2009. There will be a community meeting in Second Life for educational technology stakeholders to provide input into the planning process. Currently, we expect that a representative of the national team will be present as an observer at the SL event.

The event coordinator is Perplexity Peccable. Perplexity is the University of Michigan Emerging Technologies Librarian for the Health Sciences, and the community manager for Wolverine Island in SL. Contact Perplexity for more information or to volunteer support or services for this event.

Information on prior versions of the plan is available here.
National Educational Technology Plan:

Information on the current planning process is available here,
National Educational Technology Plan:

The team is seeking input from the public. You can join the conversation on their website here.Opportunities for Input:

"If you had five minutes to talk with President Obama about educational technology, what would you say?"

The key topic discussion points are these.

* Learning: Providing unprecedented access to high-quality learning experiences.
* Assessment: Measuring what really matters and providing the information that enables continuous improvement at all levels of the education system.
* Teaching: New ways to support those who support learning.
* Productivity: Redesigning systems and processes to free up education system resources to support learning."

Dysrhythmia - A Graphic Novel by Kaznats Oh

The presentation of "Dysrhythmia, A Graphic Novel" by Kaznats Oh, will begin on Friday, November 6^th at 9 am SLT on the northeast lawn of Virtual Ability Island in second life. This is the first day of a three part program, with activities planned for Saturday and Sunday. The program will begin with the opening of a portable gallery of Kaznats' works, "that carry a thought-provoking message about the importance of good heart health, and every person's responsibility to take charge of his/her own health". On Saturday the 7^th, Mr. Oh will give a presentation on the information in the gallery from 1-3 pm SLT and will be available for a Q & A session on the 8^th also from 1 – 3 pm SLT. The gallery will close and de-rez at 5 pm on Sunday. All presentations will be in text, with optional T2V transcription available if desired.

Autumn Writers Competition Winners Announced

Here's an update from Autumn Writers' Exhibition which finished yesterday.

Competition winners were:

Best Poem: Hypatia Pickens

Best Prose: Renee Silversmith

Best Display: Huckleberry Hax

Best Grand Ball Costume: Corwyn Allen.

 
 

Congratulations to the winners! The promise was that details would be available on the Written Word website soon.

Fireworks & Music @ Autumn Writers' Exhibition

The notice from the Written Word group came from Jilly Kidd:

It's the final day of the Autumn Writers' Exhibition with fireworks by the wonderful Judi Newall at 1.30pm SLT followed by the Grand AWE Ball with live music by pianoman Djai Skjellerup. Come dressed as a favourite character from a book or an author for a chance of the L$5K prize. We'll also be announcing the prizes for the writing contests (apart from journalism) and the best display. Let's end this AWE in style!