Friends

All of you out there who have a network of friends, with whom you socialize in-person, on a somewhat regular basis -- never, ever take that for granted. You may or may not realize just how lucky you are.

You're lucky, and I envy you.

Beta-testing AvaLine

Arahan emailed me today to tell me about AvaLine, a new way to use voice chat in Second Life -- it enables you to receive phone calls to your avatar. It's only in beta testing just now, but I thought I'd be one of the 1,000 people who would give it a shot!

Here's how it works:

1.) Dial one of the numbers listed below:
Boston: +1 617-861-0749
Chicago: +1 312-348-3694
Dallas: +1 972-813-0067
Los Angeles: +1 213-271-2575
New York: +1 212-660-9951
Philadelphia: +1 215-475-5291
San Francisco: +1 415-490-9443
Washington DC: +1 202-629-9859
London, UK: +44 20-7100-5624
(* long-distance rates may apply, check before you call)

2.) When prompted, enter the access code of the person you want to call, followed by the pound sign (#). [Obviously, you have to know their access code beforehand.]

-- If the person is logged in, and is currently accepting voice calls, they will get a notification, which looks like this:

If the call is accepted, it connects the way a regular voice-chat IM would:

-- If the person is offline, is unavailable, or does not have voice enabled, you will be able to leave a voice message, which will be emailed to them in the form of an .mp3 file:

Bear in mind that the person you call WILL be able to see what phone number you're calling from.

For more information about this service, or to sign up for the beta-test yourself, check out the following link:
http://secondlife.com/avaline
(Note that you will have to sign in to the forums using your SL user name & password.)

In case anybody is interested, my access code is 807141. Leave me a message!

Upcoming NYC show - Aequitas

More information about the show that my recent painting, Bending Trees, will be in.

From the press release:

AEQUITAS

Dekka Raymaker Andrew MacLachlan Penumbra Carter Beth Olds Nebulosus Severine CM Pauluh Sowa Mai Stephen Beveridge David Ferrando Banrion Constantine Robert Garlick Elif Arat

For immediate Release:

Social media has drawn together a group of international artists to New York for Aequitas, an exhibit of art based on childhood experiences.

Artspace OSA in New York City and the virtual community of Second Life will host a joint exhibition of international artists: paintings, digital work, and virtual world installations during the month of June 2009.

Artists can be a solitary lot but with the advent of virtual worlds and web 2.0 they are finding each other and communicating in the way they know best: making and exhibiting art together. This disparate group of artists, having never met face to face, nevertheless finds a common ground in exploring their childhood for art.

Sowa Mai, also known as the artist Stephen Beveridge, conceived and planned this exhibit as an extension of the relationships he had formed in the Second Life virtual world with artist/avatars from different time zones and cultural backgrounds.

The exhibit in Washington Heights, New York City will display paintings and digital work by the human artists. An exhibit in the Second Life virtual world will consist of (art) installations and scripted objects by the human artists' avatar counterparts. Both exhibits are based around the theme of mining childhood experience for art.

Aequitas
Artspace OSA
June 1 - June 30, 2009
Reception Friday June 19th. 6:30-8:30
178 Bennett Ave @ 189th St, NYC
1 train to 191st Street | A train to 190th Street

Second Life Version
Caerleon Art Collective
June 26 - July 3, 2009
Reception June 26th. 6:30-8:30slpm

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Art%20Collective2/108/48/24/

Contact:
Stephen Beveridge
212 928 8351
SowaMai AT gmail dot com

AEQUITAS

Dekka Raymaker Andrew MacLachlan Penumbra Carter Beth Olds Nebulosus Severine CM Pauluh Sowa Mai Stephen Beveridge David Ferrando Banrion Constantine Robert Garlick Elif Arat

The Caerleon sims were founded by Georg Janick, the SL avatar of Gary Zabel who has been teaching in the Philosophy Department at the University of Massachusetts at Boston since 1989. Virtual Art Initiative (an associate member organization of the nonprofit company, Media Working Group, Inc.) is an organization of artists, writers, musicians, and scholars who are using the immersive and interactive digital media of such virtual worlds as Second Life to develop new forms of artistic content.

Virtual worlds are computer generated three-dimensional environments that allow people from around the globe to interact with one another through “avatars” (digital bodies) and shape their environments, both individually and collectively, by using graphical and programming tools.

Those involved in the Initiative believe that virtual worlds are like photography, cinema, video, electronic music, and so on in that they provide the opportunity, in the form of a new technology, for radically innovative forms of aesthetic expression. Most of our work is done on the Second Life virtual world grid, though some of us have worked in other virtual worlds as well, such as VastPark and OpenSim.

http://www.virtual-art-initiative.org/Virtual_Art_Initiative/Virtual_Art_Initiative.html

Artspace OSA is part of Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church. With Rev. J. Barrie Lawless the church building is an active hub in the community hosting music, poetry and visual art as well as dance yoga and public meetings. The building is home to an ELCA Lutheran congregation with people from many different faith backgrounds. OSA is a Reconciling in Christ congregration, which actively welcomes and supports participations of its Lesbian and Gay members.

Source: http://sowamai.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/aequitas-june-2009/

Groups - on Flickr, in Second Life, and otherwise...

4 years in Second Life.

Today marks the fourth anniversary of my arrival into Second Life -- my fourth "rez day," as it's called.

I celebrated the occasion as I usually do -- in solitude, in thought, while visiting the realms of an SL resident whose work I particularly admire, Baron Grayson.

(Incidentally, his rez day is about one year before mine, almost exactly - his is May 23, 2004.)

When I first came to SL, I spent much of my time at his island, Sanctum Sanctorum -- it was my "home" for the first couple of months. Baron's builds were my first realization that building, creating, and making art in Second Life could be something really extraordinary.

Several weeks ago, I visited his current sim, The Nameless Isle, and found a breathtaking scene at the virtual water's edge. I've spent hours there, immersed in the colors and ambient sounds.

As a tribute to Baron Grayson, I made a brief machinima with some video clips I filmed there:

(If you cannot see the above embedded video, click here)

Thank you, Baron, for continuing to inspire me 4 years later.

Arrgghh

Consumers of the world: Read the Return Policy BEFORE you buy. Don't take it out on us because you couldn't be bothered.

My newest painting in upcoming NYC show

I was asked recently by artist Stephen Beveridge (known as Sowa Mai in Second Life) to participate in a crossover real life/Second Life art event. A few other artists from SL are also participating, Dekka Raymaker (Arthole's current guest artist) and Penumbra Carter among them.

The theme of the show, as told to me by Stephen, is "mining your childhood for art exploration." I had no trouble coming up with an idea for a painting; in fact, I had a particular set of childhood memories in mind that I have been meaning to channel into some art for a long time now. I'm not going to go into exactly what those memories are in this post, but I will share the image of the painting itself and the title.

Bending Trees (diptych)
Year: 2009
Dimensions: 16 in. X 10 in.
Media: Acrylic and thread on canvas.

I am relatively close to NYC, but rather than deliver this painting myself, I shipped it out and it arrived there Tuesday. I haven't decided yet whether I am going to attend the opening reception, but I have time to think about it. At the very least, I will be attending the Second Life event.

Show details:

Aequitas
OSA Artspace
June 1 - June 30, 2009
Reception Friday June 19th. 6:30-8:30
178 Bennett Ave @ 189th St, NYC
1 train to 191st Street | A train to 190th Street


Second Life Version
June 26 - July 3, 2009
Reception June 26th. 6:30-8:30slpm
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Art%20Collective2/108/48/24/

More details soon!

A call to my fellow artists: What do you consider YOUR first work?

On my last Arthole Radio show, I proposed an interesting challenge to my fellow artists.

I got the idea a few months ago, when I received the book No. 1: First Works by 362 Artists, edited by Francesca Richer and Matthew Rosenweig. It features a wide variety of 20th century artists like Matthew Barney, Dale Chihuly, Chuck Close, Gilbert & George, Takashi Murakami, and Robert Longo.

An excerpt from the review page for the book:

The artists were asked to submit what they considered their "first" work of art--not necessarily the first piece they ever created, but the one that first successfully represented who they are as an artist today. Some of the works are first "mature" works, others are seminal or pivotal, others are catalysts, some are new beginnings. These submissions, along with written artists' statements, make up this fascinating look at the process of art-marking.

(source: http://www.artbook.com/1933045094.html)

What do you consider YOUR first work?

Contact me with your contributions either in Second Life, on Facebook, or by email. Whether you'd like to record a conversation about it, or write something, or if you'd like to send pictures of the work in question, however you want to do it is fine by me.

I will discuss the contributions to this project, including my own, beginning with my next show on Arthole Radio, which airs on Weds, May 27th. I will follow up with more entries during later shows, so if you can't make this month's deadline, that's okay too.

I look forward to hearing about YOUR first works!

Bunnyken Party video

Here's a quick machinima I threw together with footage I captured this past Friday --

(Click here if you cannot see the embedded video)

Last-minute Bunnyken party at Le Cimetiere

Some of my friends from Le Cimetiere have requested a Bunnyken party!

So at the last minute, I had to scramble to throw something together, but I think it will be a fun time.

It will begin Friday evening at 7 pm SLT and last until the wee hours of the morning.

My friend, DJ Emi Brissot, will be spinning the tunes.

FREE Bunnyken avatars will be provided!

All are invited!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Le%20Cimetiere/206/218/167

Technical difficulties

I will be taking most of this week off from Second Life and other internet-related activities to do a complete system restore of my computer. This will take awhile since I have a TON of backups to make beforehand.

I will still be able to access my email for the most part (via my cellphone).

Wish me luck. :(

Arthole Radio on New World Notes

Hamlet Au of Second Life blog New World Notes has generously written a very positive article about Arthole radio's most recent broadcast:

...This is an inspiring, profoundly moving audio compilation of great music and voices, artists from around the world of every age, offering insights into how they became the creators they are today. You'll be awed by the eclectic diversity of the music, everything from an avant garde composer from the 1960s to a contemporary Oakland hiphop group with belly dancer accompaniment, and the stories told by Residents from Japan, the US, the EU, Australia, and elsewhere. Sometimes there's a direct line from the music to their Second Life work, sometimes the connection is more subtle. In either case, it's one of the very best things to come out of the metaverse art world, audio testimony to a vibrant community, and the soundtrack that helped make it real...

Read the full article here.

Arthole Radio show archives from Weds. 4/29

Recordings of all our shows from April 29th are now available in the archives.

Direct links:
Amy
Arahan
Nebulosus

Thanks to Klink for the server space!

Art I like lately - lots of Second Life stuff and more.

I've been finding a lot of fantastic art these past few weeks.

Earlier this month, I read about artist Adam Makarenko via the website PDN Photo of the Day:

"...Influenced by science and nature, Makarenko creates a vivid tableau vivant through miniatures, which he photographs into poignant visual narratives concerned with human intervention in nature..."

Not only are his miniatures amazingly well-crafted and minutely detailed, the photographs he takes of his work are evocative and haunting. More of his art can be viewed on his website, adam-makarenko.com.


Right around the same time I found Makarenko's miniatures, I came across miniatures by a different artist, this one working in Second Life.

PatriciaAnne Daviau creates tiny villages and scenes, working with the smallest prims (SL's building blocks) imaginable. I was lucky enough to see her miniatures up close. [Those are my legs & feet in the picture; I stood close to this scene to give a sense of scale.]

These builds are so impossibly small that one has to learn how to maneuver SL's camera controls with a bit of skill in order to see any of the details. Check out the slideshow to see more snapshots:

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this installation was only temporary, so I don't think there are any current locations to see it in SL. However, Youtube member chenderson33 has made a video dedicated to PatriciaAnne's work:

-------------------------

AM Radio's The Red and The Wild was another build I was fortunate enough to see for myself in SL, during a preview of the show for members of NPIRL/ImpIRL.

As all of his works are, The Red and The Wild is rich with imagery, detail, and genius loci (spirit of place); it is intensely evocative. AM talks about the build in an excellent interview on the NPIRL blog:

"...I had the courage to say that this abstraction means something, that here is a symbol of something, that we have these abstract parts of ourselves, these fears, these wild things we try to bury, and without them, we don't become who we are..."

Excerpt from A Burst of Conversation: AM Radio's "The Red and The Wild"

Words and mere snapshots cannot adequately do it justice, so if you are in Second Life, do yourself a favor and spend some time immersed in The Red and The Wild, which is now open to the general public. Explore every detail, make sure to read the notecard given to you upon arrival, click on everything, look at everything.

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/IDIA%20Laboratories/15/154/20

More snapshots from my visit are in this slideshow:

-------------------------

I've also spent a bit of time exploring Enluminuria, a collection of artists whose work is bright, colorful, and abstract:

Slideshow here:

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Saucier/128/128/20

Arthole Radio this week - Wednesday, April 29th

Arthole Radio returns this month with an exciting line-up of music, chat and very special guests.

Tune in from 1pm Second Life time
(1pm US-PDT / 9pm UK-BST / 4pm US-EDT)

Arahan Claveau has asked a number of Second Life artists to select a favourite piece of music; the artists themselves will introduce each track and talk about what inspired their choices. Guests include AM Radio, Adam Ramona, AngryBeth Shortbread, DanCoyote Antonelli, Dekka Raymaker, Dizzy Banjo, Douglas Story, Gore Suntzu, Klink Epsilon, Man Michinaga, Misprint Thursday, Nebulosus Severine, Oberon Onmura, Penumbra Carter, Sabine Stonebender, Selavy Oh, Tanith Catteneo, Tuna Oddfellow and Juria Yoshikawa.

Nebulosus Severine will discuss some of her recent art findings both on the web and in Second Life, interspersed with a selection of her current favourite tunes.

Amy Freelunch's show will feature a conversation with Jeff Edwards discussing his graduate thesis for the Masters in Art Criticism & Writing program at the School of Visual Arts. There will also be a short lecture given on German artist Gerhard Richter's Baader-Meinhof series of paintings, delivered by a robot.

To listen to the live broadcast copy and paste this link into your media player: http://slan13.ipr365.com:10320
(e.g. in Windows Media Player press CTRL+U or in iTunes CMD+U)

________

Download PDF here

*after the live broadcast recordings of the shows will be available in the archives.

"Sometimes I lie awake at night..."

One of the many reasons Charles Schulz was (IS) a genius:

Squirrel

I passed a window on my way to the bathroom to get a drink of water, and saw a squirrel sitting at the corner of a rooftop a couple of houses over. Don't know why, but I felt like crying. Not because it was beautiful or touching in some way. No idea why. Lack of sleep, maybe. I saw an illustration today of a figure caught in a storm, the words "It will all be okay" written over the scene. I hope to god it will be.

"I think Americans need to realize how easily they can be led and lied to..."

I know that it's easier for people to just love their country and to never, ever question the judgment of their elected leaders.

I know it's easier to just pretend that everything's okay, that the government always knows what's best for its citizens; it's easier to simply not think too hard, to deny that anything bad could be going on behind the scenes; to trust that the people on TV are telling the truth all of the time. I realize that people don't WANT to think about uncomfortable, disturbing issues. They just want to live their lives and pursue their own version of the American Dream, or whatever.

"Let’s say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link."
-- Paul Krugman (link)

I browse the stories on Reddit frequently, and came across this discussion about the Bush administration's use of torture to interrogate. The article it referenced was very brief, but the resulting comment thread on the Reddit page is worth reading and pondering.

This comment in particular:

It's a bit hard to say, "We're better than those guys," when we do similar shit.

It may not be the worst of the worst, but seriously, it's still disgraceful. It taints everything else. Just because we aren't skinning them alive or burning them half to death doesn't mean it's OK.

I think Americans need to realize how easily they can be led and lied to. Wave a little war flag over their heads, shout "USA USA" a few times, wear a nice suit on a flight deck, and they eat it up and shut up. They shout down anyone who says, "Hey guys, we might want to look at this a little closer..." as being "unpatriotic" or "unAmerican". Later on, when they wake up from the patriotic masturbation fantasy, they wonder, "Wow, that was kinda stupid. Someone should have been doing something about that..."

Well yes, people were. But they were being ignored, or called names, or lambasted for being "pinheads" or whatnot.

The sad thing is that it'll happen again. And again. And again. It's human nature. :(
(link)

Well-said.

And I think we need to keep an eye on EVERYBODY who gets elected to public office, whether we personally voted for them or not.

And we need to wake the fuck up and realize that certain acts against human beings are wrong, even if they ARE the enemy.

The gRiM cOuTuRe Artist Grant

gRiM cOuTuRe, in partnership with the Art & Artists Network and the Artist Mentors Group in Second Life, present The gRiM cOuTuRe Artist Grant.

The goal of this grant is to aid newer artists in establishing their place within the SL arts community.

Artists are encouraged to complete the application process which will entail a general application, submission of art work, statement of authenticity and a summary of thier artistic vision with in SL. Applications can be found at:

http://sasun.info/grantapp.aspx

A grant recipient will be chosen by officers of gRiM cOuTuRe magazine, the Art & Artists Network, and Artist Mentors groups.

The recipient will then be given an option of

1) 30 days tier paid on an approved art space

or

2) Financial support, organization and promotion of an SL art event featuring their work.

Grant recipients will also receive one on one business and artistic mentoring through other SL artists involved with the program. Their artwork will also be showcased in an issue of gRiM cOuTuRe.

Please send a NoteCard to Tricia Aferdita, Elysia Ashbourne, Nebulosus Severine or Sasun Steinbeck for more information.

The dangers of "adult" classification.

Amazon.com has recently adopted a baffling, backwards new policy:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
[Source: http://markprobst.livejournal.com]

Just how the hell does that work?

...Basically, any title that Amazon consider "adult" will no longer be included in the "Best Sellers" lists – or ranked at all. These titles will not show up on all searches, even when the exact title of the book is entered. Who decides what books are "adult"? That’s not at all clear. But whoever’s making the choices is casting the net far and wide, and hauling in an awful lot of GLBT books...
[Source: http://www.dailykos.com]

A comment to the article about this issue on the SeattlePi site says:

It's not that the books are no longer listed. If you search for a book by title or author, you will still be able to find it.

Rather, it's that those of us with books that have been deranked no longer have our books in the bestselling book ranks, where they appeared before (and would still appear, as that is based on our sales) nor listing under the subject headings in lists for our subjects/genres.

So, unless someone is coming unto Amazon and looking for our book by title or author, they are unlikely to find it. That's a huge issue for authors -- especially those of us who are marginal in some way to begin with -- as often consumers browse those lists to find our books.

Here is a disturbing example of the results for searching homosexuality on Amazon:

(view full-size)

Who the hell gets to be in charge of defining exactly what is considered to be "Adult," anyway?

It seems that a lot of books with homosexual themes, or authors, are falling into the "Adult" category, even ones that don't contain any explicit sexual content. However, many books featuring graphic heterosexual content still get to keep their sales rank. But that pattern is not consistent; it doesn't follow any apparent logic. Maybe it IS a bias, or maybe it's a faulty automated system.

The L.A. Times blog compares title lists:

Our research shows that these books have lost their ranking: "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs; "Rubyfruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown, "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel, "The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1" by Michel Foucault, "Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison (2005 Plume edition), "Little Birds: Erotica" by Anais Nin, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominque Bauby (1997 Knopf edition), "Maurice" by E.M. Forster (2005 W.W. Norton edition) and "Becoming a Man" by Paul Monette, which won the 1992 National Book Award.

Books that remain ranked include: "Naked" by David Sedaris; "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller; "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis; "Wifey" by Judy Blume; "The Kiss" by Kathryn Harrison; the photobooks "Playboy: Helmut Newton" and "Playboy: Six Decades of Centerfolds"; "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs; "Incest: From 'A Journal of Love'" by Anais Nin; "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominque Bauby (2007 Vintage International edition), "Maurice" by E.M. Forster (2005 Penguin Classics edition).

Certianly many of the books that are no longer ranked are no more "adult" than many of those that are...
[source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/]

Here's another reason why this new policy doesn't make any sense:

This sounds like a big old bowl of BS, does it not? Especially when you consider the fact that Amazon has vibrators, clitoral stimulators and anal plugs available in their search system with sales ranks attached. One wonders why these items are allowed to remain in the system with sales ranks while books including gay and lesbian content, themes, and even, as a commenter points out, autobiographies of gay and lesbian authors such as Stephen Fry, are deemed too "adult" for such things.
[Source: http://jezebel.com/]

Regardless of WHAT Amazon is marking as "Adult" -- why the hell does it feel the need to implement a system to "protect" its customers in the first place? It's a thinly-veiled way of censoring certain content or products, and censorship is one of THE worst assaults to human freedom, ever. I'm against the exclusion of ANY book from search or availability, even titles I don't agree with, like Mein Kampf, or BIRTH CONTROL IS SINFUL IN THE CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES and also ROBBING GOD OF PRIESTHOOD CHILDREN!!

One thing's certain; Amazon will definitely be "protecting" itself from lots of its customers' money (including mine).

Are online petitions worth it? Maybe, maybe not. If you are so inclined, there is one you can sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy

Ultimately, the best way to show your dissatisfaction is to boycott. I won't be spending a fucking dime there unless they fully eliminate their policy of censoring content.

Suck a fat one, Amazon.com!

Sources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/
http://blog.seattlepi.com/amazon/archives/166259.asp
http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/12/719278/-Amazons-New-Moralityfor-your-protection
http://jezebel.com/5209088/why-is-amazon-removing-the-sales-rankings-from-gay-lesbian-books
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy