The University of Western Australia (UWA) in Second Life: SUZANNE STARES DOWN THE BARREL OF A GUN - JANUARY WINNERS OF THE UWA 3D OPEN ART CHALLENGE

Suzanne Graves' 'Choose Your Blossom'

'Choose Your Blossom', a work exhibiting a mesmerising array of stylized blooms has won Suzanne Graves 1st prize (L$10,000) for the January round of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. Arrow Inglewood's poetic, 'Symphony in the Barrel of a Gun' took 2nd Prize as well as the Nordan Art Prize. There was a tie for 3rd between Anley Piers 'Planet Censored' and 'Strange Plant...Uglyness & Beauty' by Claudia Jewel who created a record by taking home an unprecedented 4 prizes on the day, winning both People's Choice Awards and the Show & Tell @ Avaria Prize as well.

Arrow Inglewood's Symphony in the Barrel of a Gun

Suzanne who also won the CARP Prize (joint with Betty Tureaud's X-Ray) said, "I am really happy, don't know what to say. I did not expect this work to win the 1st prize. It's a variation of something I have been working for months. This work is built from simple geometric rules, and I have been fascinated by the results. I am really happy that others appreciate it too."

One of Claudia222 Jewell's winning works

Claudia who was exhibiting for the first time anywhere, and who took home a lion's share was overwhelmed, "Thank you and all of you very much. This has been maybe the most exiting 2 weeks for me in Second Life ever. How little I knew when I came here to see this, and now 2 weeks later .. so much has happened to me .. meeting all these people and getting offered exposition places and making great new friends. Never before was I able to find my name in Google. This experience gives me wings to bring me to higher planes!"

Nino Vichan, first time entrant to the UWA Challenges and winner of the Pirats Prize said after receiving his award for his work 'Surveilance' said, "Art is the air that our souls breathe, community is the life blood of mankind, artistic communites like this one are essential to the well being of our collective consciousness", while veteran soror Nishi who took home the BOSL prize shared, ""Well, I knew it was a good tree, but with so many great entries it was a pleasant surprise to win something."

Nino Vichan's 'Surveillance'

As mentioned, 'Symphony in the Barrel of a Gun' also took home the Nordan Art Prize, and the panel commented, ""Arrow Inglewood's work consists of a large gun, which one can enter. On the tip of the gun is smoke and a sheer white flag on a pole moving in the wind with songtitles written on it speaking of shooting, murder, including Emily Wells' "Symphony in the Barrel of a Gun". Once one has stepped inside the barrell of the gun, large bullets are falling in one's way. At the end of the barrell is the image of a man, a woman, a goat and a picket fence. The man is sitting on a gun. Entering and standing in the barrel is an experience of emptiness. At the end of the barrel, standing in front of the image, there is a sense of having arrived at the light at the end of the tunnel, perhaps the experience of the fulfillment of a wish. Is it a death wish? The viewer is left with this sense of ambiguity, with a dilemma that is unresolved. Arrow’s piece stands out to the jury of Nordan Art because we feel that he succeeds in presenting work that shows great craftsmanship and thought provoking content."

74 entries were received for the January round of this Challenge wchich represents a grand collaboration between major art houses and groups in Second Life. These include The University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) led by Dr Carmen Fies, SL Art, led by Gleman Jun & Sunset Quinnel, CARP led by Josina Burgess & Velazquez Bonetto, Pirats Art Network led by Merlina Rokocoko & Newbab Zsigmond, Odyssey led by Fau Ferdinand & Lizsolo Mathilde, Show & Tell @ Avaria led by Florenze Kerensky & Barney Boomslang, BOSL led by Frolic Mills & Giela Delpaso, Nordan Art led by Flora Nordenskiold and Apmel Goosson & UWA with Professor Ted Snell, Chair of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council as Chair of the UWA judging panel.

The works were expertly marshalled by curator, FreeWee Ling, who selected FLUCHTPUNKTE by Harter Fall for the Curator's Choice Award. "Harter is interested in exploring the peculiarities of this land without shadows -- a 3D space on a flat screen that distorts perspective and confounds scale. When first confronted, it is impossible to determine how large or how far away his piece is. An intriguing illusion that exploits the limitations of the medium."

In exciting developments over the month of January, 3 new groups joined the fold, offering 2 additional prizes. The S&S Gallery of Fine Art led by TheDove Rhode, with The Workhouse Gallery led by Astarte Haalan joining forces with Art Place d-oo-b led by Eifachfilm Vacirca to collaborate in offering an award. And in a stunning finale to the announcements of the January round winners on the 6th of February, a new monthly L$5,000 award, the Tornado Gallery Prize was offered by Taralyn Gravois moments before the announcement of the 1st Prize winner.

Speaking on behalf of the panel when awarding the panel when awarding the prize, Eifachfilm Vacirca, leader of Art Place d-o-o-b (and DJ extraordinnaire), said "Moeuhane Sandalwood has created a fresh and unique sculpture titled "Shivering Rock." It depicts a large boulder undulating slowly, as if from the cold or from some mysterious interior force. The concept has humor, originality and a certain sense of daring and self-assurance. There is also a tangible uneasiness to it, a sort of unsettling sense of the ominous, like something that just shouldn't be happening. The execution is basic but adequate. It definitely isn't slick or flashy, but it is effective in its ability to captivate and engage the viewer. It is almost monumental in its subtlety, and deceptively simple in appearance. For these reasons, the Art Place and the Workhouse Gallery are please to recommend it for the award."

The third month of this year long L$1,000,000 challenge, saw an expansion of the countries represented in the various UWA events, spanning 6 of the 7 continents of the world. Artists, Builders & Machinimatographers from across the globe are represented including Russia, Venezuela, Belgium, Mexico, Wales, Canada, the USA, the UK, Uruguay, Scotland,England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Holland, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Cuba, Serbia, Tunisia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

Other winners include CHROMA (LOOM) by Oberon Onmura (SL Art Prize), ANGELOVE by Fiona Blaylock (UTSA Prize), HARPY OF GLUTTONY by Cherry Manga (Odyssey Prize), TELEVISION RULES THE NATION by Loup Erin (S&S Gallery OFA Prize) and DAUGHTER OF THE WIND by Fae Varriale (Best Non-Scripted Artwork Prize).

Numerous Machinima were inspired by the artworks across the December and January rounds. We had Pia Klaar interpreting the December round as well as Yesikita Coppola's official machinima of the December round winners

Asmodea Damiano was inspired by Ginger Alsop's, January work, Liquidity, to create a machinima, with Ginger Alsop herself putting the finishing touches with her much anticipated machinima of her personal favourites that have become somewhat of a tradition for the new challenge:

The month of January also saw a number of media reports in various places relating to the UWA SIMS and activities especially across arts and Education. First in the Artists's Chronicle, with the cover page, editorial and lead story referencing the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge and also in the Science Network of Western Australia.

On the broadcast media front, Honourary School of Physics Research Fellow Dr Chris Thorne (SL: Dragonmage Bogan, co-founder of the UWA Second Life presence) is featured in a documentary. It shows a bit of the history of the development of virtual worlds at UWA including the Google earth project and shows snippets of Bradley Dorchester's prize winning effort from the original UWA Machinima Challenge (Watch from 8:35 onwards).

Also at the fore is the UWA Pavilion Project (an RL Project) which asked graduate architects and early career designers to create an exciting and original structure. It had to be a fusion of art and architecture and employ green technologies and principles to provide economical and environmentally friendly emergency shelter for remote areas and communities at times of disaster or distress. Young Italian architects, Elisa Mansutti & Luca Pavarin’s design was judged the winner from the 76 submissions from 24 countries.

The winning design will be erected in Whitfeld Court at the University of Western Australia and launched on the 14 February 2011 as part of the University’s centenary celebrations. In the meantime, Evgeni Sergeev (SL: Mrs Brandi) who invented the Sketchlife method of creating objects within Google Sketchup and transferring it into Second Life, used the method to bring a model of this onto Whitefield Court within Second Life. For the centenary celebrations, the winning design will be standing on Whitefield Court both in real life and Second Life!

The other major announcement, was the launch of MachinimUWA III: Journeys, with more than a half million Linden prize pool. Organized by White Lebed, Laurina Hawks and Jayjay Zifanwe, what the actual journey is in itself, will be left to the Machinimatographer. A journey through Second Life. A journey of self discovery. A journey within. A journey from SL too RL, or vice-versa. A journey through space, through time, a journey of hope, a journey of despair. One's own journey, or a journey by someone else seen through the eyes of the machinimatographer! The deadline for this is the 1st of May 2011. Full detaills linked on the blog, along with the Eliza Wierwight created official poster.

Finally, UWA's full sim art series moves to Month 2, with Blue Tsuki has taking over the UWA Virlantis for all of February from Betty Tureaud. Blue has created an amazing installation called 'Vessel', terraforming the land, and changing the skyscape! Click this link teleport to the start point of the installation.

The February round of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge is officially open for receiving. Artwork entry receiver is located here.

UWA 3D OPEN ART CHALLENGE - January Winners

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD, 2nd Prize (L$1,000) :
SERPENT CHAIR VEHICLE by Claudia222 Jewel