The University of Western Australia (UWA) in Second Life: July Imagine & Flagship Winners: Bryn & Nish in Double Return, DB & Patch Supreme

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Its not an easy task winning the IMAGINE Category of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. Let alone winning it twice. Yet July saw this happen, not once, but twice, as former winners Bryn Oh (26 Tines) and Nish Mip (Overload) were named joint winners of the L$5,000 prize July Imagine First Prize.

26 Tines by Bryn Oh, joint 1st place winner July Imagine

The FLAGSHIP (Architecture) Challenge saw the formidable partnership of DB Bailey & Patch Thibaud take the L$5,000 1st Prize over Brazil's Herick Straaf. 5 time Flagship Champion Nyx Breen won the Casey West Australian Cultural Prize for the 3rd time.

The penultimate month of this year long L$550,000 challenge, July saw a record shattering 80 submissions to the IMAGINE challenge with 5 Flagship Builds with incredible diversity and quality, as has become a trademark of the Challenges.

Some of the July Imagine & Flagship Winners gathered in front of the winning UWA Trophy entries
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Commenting on the win, Nish said, "I am still so amazed that people even like my work There are so many truly great artists with incredible art entering into this
competition. I'm absolutely amazed that I've managed to win something again. It's put me on a real high. Thanks to everyone at UWA who help in organizing these competitions and thank you again to all the artists who have made these events so magical"

Nish Mip, Joint winner of July Imagine prize
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Speaking on behalf of the FLAGSHIP collaboration, DB said, "It's fun to win. The real winner here is SL. What this has underscored for me is how extraordinarily effective this medium is in collaboration. To be able to work with another architect three thousand miles apart and three hours time difference on a design is a great experience. Not possible using the conventional design tools."

DB Bailey (above) collaborated with Patch Thibaud (below) on a winning design for July Flagship
Photos Jadyn Firehawk

Patch was equally effusive about being able to collaborate with DB "DB Bailey and I have collaborated on a number of projects, but we had a special interest in the Flagship challenge. We felt it was a great opportunity to provide yet another example of using a virtual world as a platform for architectural collaboration. We also decided that, although the competition brief did not require it, that we would seek to create a building that responded to the real world site for the UWA's Cultural Precinct building, thus exploring Second Life as a design medium for real world projects. As always, I have found working with DB to be hugely enriching on a creative level, and the University of Western Australia's Flagship Challenge to be a terrific incubator of creative endeavor in Second Life."

First time entrant Gingered Alsop took out 2nd place in the IMAGINE Challenge with 'The Chamber' a wonderfully immersive piece that had many a visitor lost inside in awe for hours.

Gingered Alsop, creator of The Chamber, placed 2nd int he July Imagine

"There is no greater gift then to see through your eyes what you imagine in your mind, and no greater joy then to share what you create to inspire the creativity of another's mind.", said Gingered. "2nd place is completely unexpected ... and I am stunned and humbled purely by the amazing work I saw."

In something that has never happened before in the non-scripted category, the judges could not separate the top 2, and thus this category provided a joint winner for the first time. JUMP by Corcosman Voom, and THE MECHANICAL KNIGHT by Nessuno Myoo could not be separated.

Corcosman Voom's (above) piece Jump, shared the honour of
Best Non-scripted Imagine prize for July with Nessuno Myoo's Mechaniocal Knight.

"I am very pleased to share the July award for best Non-Scripted Entry with nessuno Myoo, an artist noted for being able to make the prims speak to us without disguising their nature. I want to thank the many, many people involved in making the Art & Design Challenge a unique event in Second Life, from both the University and from the Second Life community. An event of this magnitude is not possible without many hands to help. Most of all I want to thank Jayjay and quadrapop for the many hours of hard work they have devoted to this project, they have given us a wonderful gift in the Art & Design Challenge." said Corcosman.

The People's Choice Award followed an uncanny pattern to June, as there were joint winners for July as well, with LIFE by Yabusaka Loon and LESSONS IN DEMOCRACY by Rose Borchovski sharing honours for 2nd place.

Yabusaka Loon, in front of Life, joint 2nd place People's Choice winner.

Lea Supermarine however won the People's Choice an amazing 2nd time running, with NEURAL NONSENSE. The first time this has been achieved. When asked for comment, Lea responded. "Can I think a moment about it? Brains are burning.", which was the right answer, if one examines her submission.

Lea Supermarine's Neural Nonsense took the July People's Choice 1st Prize

There were 6 Honourable Mention Prizes in all. These went to Noke Yuizta, pravda Core, Maya Paris, Selavy Oh (and Identity Absent), Takni Miklos & Yabusaka Loon.

Selavy asked to convey that Identity Absent was very glad to receive the prize, and that this event will be a turning point in her life!

Pixi Cosmos, winner of the inaugral Bohemian Ghost Prize

The Rain Prize (L$1,000) and the newly established Bohemian Ghost Prize ($L1,000 + 600 Prims on The Summerland sim).

These were won by luciella Lutrova (ESCULTURA CON BAILARINA) and Pixi Cosmos (SLICE OF TRANQUILITY) respectively.

UWA Trophy Contest
The winners of the UWA Trophy Contest were also announced. This contest was kindly organized and run by FreeWee Ling and the Resients of Artemesia.

Two L$3,000 prizes were on offer, with one of them being selected as the official trophy for the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, with the other to be used in an as yet unannounced Grand Collaboration.

Miso Susanowa
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Taking top honours here were Miso Susanowa & Sharni Azalee. Of Miso's piece, the judges commented that Miso "...created a beautifully executed graphic design that explicitly says UWA while embodying the creative spirit of the challenge", and in describing Sharni's work, they said, "...it represents elegance and sophistication and is a great representation of three-D in SL". Abstract Baroque & Nish Mip took the Honourable Mention prizes.

Sharni Alazee
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Music & Skyshow

Torben Asp

At the July Announcement's afterparty in DB & Patch's Flagship build live musician Torben Asp wowed the crowd with his wonderful instrumental and particle show. To experience one of his shows for yourself check out his website.

The particles were all encompassing, a fitting addition to the musical offering of Torben Asp

Other UWA News
A number of landmark events also took place with the UWA presence in Second Life. UWA had been providing access to the staff & students of art at Pontific Catholic University of Peru (PUCP - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) to the teaching locations and the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge platform for some time, and on the 19th of July, the relationship ratcheted up a notch, with an address being given to a group of 80 PUCP lecturers and professors being introduced to SL for the first time via a large screen. The main thrust of the presentation was UWA's experiences as to Teaching, Education, Art & Architecture in SL, along with international collaboration. This was in collaboration with PUCP's Joselias Diesel (SL) and this talk was a part of the Technology & Information Integrated Communication in Education: Virtual Worlds and eLearning Seminar, which was carried out for the most part in RL. Other invited speakers included Pamqui Vita (SL) / Pedro Amill Quiles (RL), a Professor at the University of Puerto Rico and August Portilo (SL) of University Cayetano Heredia of Peru.

UTSA students, Jayjay, quadrapop and some Imagine Artists in the Visualisation display
at WASP Land during the UTSA tour of UWA in SL
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Also, a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between UWA & the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), between UWA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, and UTSA President, Ricardo Romo, has been inked by both sides. The first event held following the signing was a Lecture UWA gave to Postgraduate students from UTSA's Technology and Learning Cultures Postgraduate Course in the Instructional Technology Program. The talk detailed the history and development of virtual technologies at UWA. These students were all enrolled in either a Masters in Education,

Instructional Technology Concentration or a Masters in Adult Learning and Teaching. Through Dr Carmen Fies, their Lecturer a lot of feedback was received from the students, including:

"I really liked how an environment has been created within the UWA virtual campus that
fosters interdisciplinary learning. It seems you have brought artist, scientist, engineers, architects, mathematicians, and teachers together to create something pretty amazing. I'd have to say that the last spot we visited with all the art on display was exceptional."

One final milestone is the commencement in August 2010 of RL Postgraduate Classes at UWA using Second Life. Here, Professor Wade Halvorson, of the School of Business is using SL for a new postgraduate unit called Buyer Behaviour and Decision Making, where the students task would be to identify individuals and businesses in SL, interview them and write a research papers as to consumer choices.

WINNERS OF THE JULY ROUND OF THE UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE

IMAGINE CHALLENGE - 3D ART

Imagine Challenge 1st Prize:
($L5,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
26 TINES by Bryn Oh

Imagine Challenge 1st Prize:
($L5,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
OVERLOAD by Nish Mip

Imagine Challenge 2nd Prize:
($L3,000)
THE CHAMBER by Gingered Alsop

Best Non-Scripted Entry:
($L3,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
JUMP by Corcosman Voom

Best Non-Scripted Entry:
($L3,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
MECHANICAL KNIGHT by Nessuno Myoo

FLAGSHIP CHALLENGE - BUILDING DESIGN
Flagship Challenge 1st Prize :
($L5,000)
UWA CULTURAL PRECINCT GALLERY AND LABS by DB Bailey and Patch Thibaud

Flagship Challenge 2nd Prize:
($L3,000)
CONCEPT BUILDING FOR AXS LAB by Herick Straaf

IMAGINE HONOURABLE MENTION PRIZES

Honourable Mention Prize for TECHNICAL BRILLIANCE
(L$1,000)
LIFE by Yabusaka Loon

Honourable Mention Prize for HARMONY
(L$1,000)
DRIFT by Maya Paris

Maya Paris
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Honourable Mention Prize for MYSTERY
(L$1,000)
THE EMPTY CHAIR by Selavy Oh

Selavy Oh
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Honourable Mention Prize for FURY
(L$1,000)
MINOTAUR'S WRATH by pravda Core

Honourable Mention Prize for IMMERSION
(L$1,000)
XIBALBA by Noke Yuizta

Honourable Mention Prize for SECOND LIFE WONDER
(L$1,000)
CHATMORPHER by Takni Miklos

Takni Miklos

The RAIN PRIZE
(L$1,000)
Established by one of the Founding Patrons of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
ESCULTURA CON BAILARINA (sculpture of a female dance) by luciella Lutrova