Some of my pic(k)s from Burning Life 09

Beautiful build by Marko Seurat

 

OhMy Shalala's build at BL09

Selavy Oh - irregularity BL09

Just part of Filaments of Life

The Goonies at Burning Life

This would have to be my favourite video of Burning Life this year. The Goonies run amok through many of the sims and party at Centre Stage at the end. Fantastic and creative view of the Burning Life Sims! and it’s fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9blBnYb5P8

Evan a Goddess gotta go…

Here is my entry in the porta potty design “comp”

Fit for a Goddess don’t you think?

Temple of the Goddess A’vatara – Burning Life 09

This year I decided to have another go at securing a plot in Burning Life and lucky for me I was successful – right at the last moment mind.  Pretty exciting waiting for the seconds to count down, ready to tp into the available sims and grab a spot as there are always many people trying to do the same. Once I had successfully claimed my art parcel and started breathing again it was time to realise that I had no idea what I was going to do with it.

So for some inspiration I decided to look through my inventory and see what I already had. I remembered a large wall of red flags that I had made months ago and pull them out to see just what they looked like.  And then I just let the ideas flow from there using some textures I had made and by arranging the flags, changing colours and properties etc suddenly a sort of Temple arose.

I decided to base it on the Seven Chakras like a meditation rising up to the crown and out to the heavens. Suddenly it was a tower of colour and light.

One of my textures was of a photo an early avatar of mine that I had added a drawing of a headdress to in Photoshop.

She looked like a Goddess and that started me on a whole train of thought about societies, Creation Myths, and Deities and what their place should/could be in Second Life in the future and so the Temple of the Goddess A’vatara was born.

At the beginning of the the Second Age of the New Era, the Great Goddess A’vatara awoke from a deep slumber and breathed Life upon The Grid in the form of prims.

Welcome all who come to honour Her.

Who knows?

Lamplighters

The Lamplighters have been going around BL at 7pm each night in a rag tag procession to bring in the night ending in a party at the Temple. I joined in the mayhem and here are the pics.

Lamps are lit and dancing begins at the Temple

Things quickly hotted up

Dizzy Banjo goes off into space

Lamps are well and truly burning

WooHoo!

Temple of Sound and Colour

Coming upon the Temple in Burning Life

Ninah in her Temple of Sound

Burning Life is full to bursting with wild and crazy builds, some tacky, some sublime, some so complicated it is hard to navigate them and many built so close to each other that you feel quite claustrophobic, if that is possible in virtual space. I can only spend a while exploring before my senses are fully overloaded. (I did find that if I reduce my draw distance to 64m a lot of the distractions are filtered out and it allows me to focus on one build at a time.)

Wandering around yesterday, I came across an interesting build and was lucky enough to bump into the builder, Ninah Puchkina when I returned for a closer look today. She was showing a friend around the build and I tagged along for a while. Lovely Ninah was full of interesting facts about her build which incorporates original soundscapes created by Ninah and her friends and art by her partner and well known artist Mike Dringenberg.

The temple is a series of eight rooms on two levels each with a different soundscape.

Here is an edited version of our chat which will give you an idea of the concept.

[2:09]  Ninah Puchkina: there is water dripping, that’s a friend who makes natural instruments
[2:09]  Ninah Puchkina: you’ll hear me on my harmonium in here
[2:09]  Ninah Puchkina: more water
[2:09]  Eric Bazar: i really like the natural sound
[2:10]  Eric Bazar: really peacefull
[2:10]  Ninah Puchkina: i like the water dripping onto the metal sounds

[2:12]  Ninah Puchkina: they’re most all recorded by myself and the collaborate ensemble i do radio and live performance with

[2:12]  Ninah Puchkina: and since SL only allows 10 sec samples only
[2:13]  Ninah Puchkina: i had my work cutout for me
[2:13]  Ninah Puchkina: but i tried to make an extreme contrast of noiz
[2:13]  Ninah Puchkina: that worked in sympathetic ways
[2:13]  Ninah Puchkina: and allow the explorer to move themselves with the sounds
[2:13]  Ninah Puchkina: it’s like ur inside a giant sound making instrument
[2:14]  You: well I think you have succeeded

[2:15]  Ninah Puchkina: and up on the roof,
[2:15]  Ninah Puchkina: which is an homage to the theme of BL
[2:15]  Ninah Puchkina: The American Dream
[2:15]  Ninah Puchkina: if you look at the painting, there are all kinds of symbolic things going on
[2:15]  Ninah Puchkina: oil wells drilling in the background while the dreamer woman muses over her persian text
[2:16]  Ninah Puchkina: and all the pillows depict various ancient dynasties
[2:16]  Ninah Puchkina: emperors, rulers and such
[2:16]  Ninah Puchkina: the american flag is there, in reverse colours
[2:16]  Ninah Puchkina: and the bird of peace (which you cannot see unfortunately- because i had to crop in such a way) — is upside down
[2:17]  You: ah hah but it is still here…hidden … I like that
[2:18]  You: I especially like this room
[2:18]  Ninah Puchkina: http://ubuibi.org/images/market_inside.jpg
[2:18]  Ninah Puchkina: that’s a better full view of the painting
[2:18]  Ninah Puchkina: the painting is by Mike Dringenberg
[2:18]  Ninah Puchkina: who has done a lot of our artowrk for many years
[2:18]  Eric Bazar: this makes me want to go out and lay in the feild across the street from my house and just stare into the sky

[2:18]  You: oh I heard an old music box then
[2:19]  Ninah Puchkina: he is the original designer of all the Neil Gaiman books The Sandman (the earlier ones)
[2:19]  Ninah Puchkina: yeaa the music box is ours, from our music studio
[2:19]  Ninah Puchkina: i ran out of prims or i’d have placed a few more natural sounds up here

I hope this build finds a permanent home in SL somewhere. Currently to be found in Hyper (31,173,36) at BL

Timing…

It’s amazing… I don’t get much time to visit Second Life for extended periods…I dip my toe in now and then to see what is being created, and have a go at it myself but of course every time I do have an extended period of peace that I feel I can dedicate to SL what happens – but SL plays with my mind and either logs me out continuously or is as slow as a wet week! Phew! Just thought I’d get that off my chest.

“You are being logged out and cannot access your account until 1.00.54 Pacific Time”

Grrrrrr

The burning question…

One of the advantages of being an SL Festival-goer is that unlike in the real world where the inevitable moment arrives when you realise too late that all that lovely water you have been drinking to keep yourself hydrated has to make an exit somewhere, only to be confronted by a huge queue, SLer’s can just announce “brb” and pop off to their own lovely clean, empty convenience and be back in the action in no time.

But where would be the fun in that!

At Burning Life nothing it seems is overlooked – even the ubiquitous Porta Loo – which are available freely around the Playa and of course decorated by SLer’s.

A little overwhelmed by the number and size of all the exhibits at this years festival, and fighting lag at every turn, I decided to start small and do a survey of the Burning Life’s smallest exhibits – the PortaPotties. You’ll find them dotted all over the Playa but here are just a few that caught my eye.

(Just don’t call me Kenny! )

Hard to see here but fish are swimming…

Burning Life – Sept 27th – Oct 5th

The Man himself

Burning Life  starts today and runs for a week. Covering 22 sims, it is an explosion of creativity and a showcase of the many talented people who inhabit SL. Inspired by the long running celebration of life, people, art and engineering skills in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada called Burning Man, Burning Life was instigated in 2003 by Phillip Linden (founder and CEO of Second Life)  and has grown in size and popularity each year now being run by a dedicated group of volunteers.

Claiming a space at BL is an achievement to be celebrated as there are always many more applicants than available spaces. Applications can be made initially for specific parcels of land set aside but if you are not successful in your application you have a second chance in the “land grab” sessions that follow soon after.  I made an attempt to claim a spot this year in the land grab sessions but it seems the demand is far greater than the supply with many SLer’s missing out. Hopefully there are more sims set aside next year.

BL officially begins on Sept 27th and runs until October 25th. This year’s theme is The American Dream but Sl being the slightly anarchic, and international place that it is, there are installations on many themes. In the meantime I took a sneak peek and here are a few snaps from a couple of sims – Chaos, Port Zero and Babel.

The Man burns on 4th October.

Homage to Burning Man

That’s me riding around on one of the many free bikes available past what looks to be a giant Slinky after my dog has got to it:)

A comment on the Oil Pigs (or is that us?)

Interesting treatment of a Maori Longhouse

ciao

freecloudgirl

Ego – an immersive exhibit by Tyrol Rimbaud

Stumbled upon this powerful exhibit today. Complemented by the music of Atheene Dodonpa and Naftali Torok, Tyrol Rimbaud has created a space to ponder Power, Responsibility and Sacrifice. Made up of four separate installations (there could have been more but I did not find them), one leading to another, you are taken on a journey from “the flickering shadows of our ancient beginnings” through history to face a challenge “to live bravely in the light of reason and judgement”

Tyrol, in his Welcome Notecard reminds us:  “Our efforts here must be in service of our real lives. We work and toil to build a community for the purpose of arousing you, the real person, not your avatar.”

Well worth a visit.