Friday, March 27, 2015

March LEA Full Sim, Rebeca Bashly's When Life Gives You Apples...run, a review by Victoria Lenoirre

This month at LEA 6, is a brand new work by Rebeca Bashly. This is also the last month that there will be monthly full sim grants at LEA 6. So it's fitting that Rebeca's work is also the last in the series. Her first installation here at LEA 6 was the Inferno. The name of this work is When Life Gives You Apples...Run.

At the arrival area, you'll see a small, green info with an info hover text.
Arrival point

Click it and you'll get the following info:

Looking at various myths, legends and fairy tales, apple seems to be pretty misfortunate for a woman.
When an apple appears in a story, you know that something will go bad.
From Eve, thru Greek mythology to Snow White there was always a catch with an apple.
It is beautiful, delicious, tempting, seductive. A Perfect disguise for all bad that can come.
I use it as a symbol for the monstrosities that woman too often dont recognise as such in its early stages.
This installation is about domestic violence and eating disorders, on first sight two very different things, but violence against someone and violence against oneself are the same thing, a violence.


Standing inside the apple, looking up


Rebeca's work is always so intense and dark. It's that darkness that highlights the beauty in it.

Even in the seed, you see the women huddled in pain but you also see a beauty in their posture. There is a sort of beauty in pain. That may sound weird. They have each other and they are taking comfort from the physical closeness. The way they hold themselves together is beautiful, I suppose.

As you go through the apple, you will find teleport points to go to another location in the sky. The Dollhouse is one of those locations. Do read the store of the Dollhouse. It tells the story of 2 girls who overcame their circumstances to become a success. It reminds me of the saying about how suffering makes you stronger. The human spirit is strong, our sense of survival is inherent. Even babies know that they want to breathe and eat; they want to live.



The stair inside the apple spirals around until the top of the apple, it's a square door to the stem of the apple and the leaf on top.

The mood inside the apple is ominous. It is simple, unlike the Inferno or other builds I've seen by her. The ominous mood is felt just by how dark it feels and then you see the seed hanging from the ceiling. And perhaps you feel a certain dread when you see the teleport signs. You want to see where they lead, but you feel like the destination won't be cheery and happy. You may wonder how sweet Sweet Home is...see for yourself when you rezz here.

It's an intriguing build. It seems simple but the overtones are mood are not simple. The theme is definitely complex.

Here are my questions for Rebeca:

In fairytales, the bad apple is red. Why did you decide to make your apple green?

- It was suppose to be blue, but while I was painting it I fell in love with this shade of green.
Generally I always have green in my builds, it is personal.

What can we learn from fairy tales?

- Kids are learning from fairy tales in a safe environment about many things like human nature,values,how to deal with adversity in life,
they enhance imagination and creative process... I could go on and on about benefits of fairy tales.

Why do you think the apple is used to tempt people and lead them to unfortunate events?

- Well, it is not really certain that the apple was the trouble maker.Till late 17th century
word "apple" was used for all foreign fruits, except for berries and nuts.

What are your feelings on pain? Do you think there is some beauty in pain? 

- I don't find being beaten up with leather belt  or stomach ruptures caused by binge eating beautiful.
I don't find humiliation,despair and fear beautiful.I don't find Jesus nailed on cross beautiful.I don't find being stung by the bee beautiful.
It is human ugliness in its purest form,except for the bee stung ofc. There have always been  people that are skilled to present pain in a way that we can render
 it as beautiful - Artists. Otherwise probably half of us would just turn away our heads.

How do you fight against violence towards women? Is it a personal cause for you?

- It is personal, i am a woman, i am a human.

Thanks for answering my questions, Rebeca! Great build at LEA6!

Come see her London build at FFL, open until the 29th of this month!

Best regards,

Victoria Lenoirre

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

UWA Delivers Closing Keynote Address at VWBPE Conference 2015






It was wonderful and humbling for UWA to be afforded the opportunity to present the Closing Keynote Address at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference 2015 which wrapped up on the 22nd of March.

The honour was even greater given that it was none other than Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab who delivered the Opening Keynote Address.

The Avataric Website carries a summary of the talk.

A more polished version of the talk itself is in the works, with the currently available version linked as above, which is hosted on the SLArtist Website.

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Monday, March 9, 2015

Final LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES: Rebeca Bashly's 'When Life Gives you Apples...Run"


REBECA BASHLY, takes the lead at LEA 6 for the final round of the  LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES with WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU APPLES...RUN. This brings the LEA Full Sim art series full circle, as Rebeca helmed the very first LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES event, which was also the very first LEA Art event way back when the sims were created.
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Please note this is not the final round of the LEA. It is the final round of the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES in its current format, curated by Jayjay Zifanwe on LEA 6.
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A full list of the LEA Full SIM offering since inception in 2011 can be found HERE.  This final round of the LEA Full Sim series in the current format runs across March and April 2015.
  
LAUNCH: ALREADY OPEN
LOCATION: HERE AT LEA 6
 In Rebeca's Words:

When life gives you apples ... run

Looking at various myths, legends and fairy tales, apple seems to be pretty unfortunate for a woman.

When an apple appears in a story, you know that something will go bad.

From Eve, thru Greek mythology to Snow White there was always a catch with an apple.
It is beautiful, delicious, tempting, seductive. A Perfect disguise for all bad that can come.
I use it as a symbol for the monstrosities that woman too often don't recognize as such in its early stages.

This installation is about domestic violence and eating disorders, on first sight two very different things, but violence against someone and violence against oneself are the same thing, a violence.

Installation starts at the bottom of an eaten apple from where path with teleports develops thru inside.

From ground level only apple is visible,rest is settled in the sky.

Every time visitor gets teleported he has to come back into an apple to continue the path. There are notecards and stories to be collected at each level

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Thursday, March 5, 2015

February LEA Full Sim Speculum by Giovanna Cerise, a review by Victoria Lenoirre

On February 18th, Giovanna Cerise's Speculum opened at LEA 6.

I apologize for finishing this review late.

Speculum is an intriguing piece of art. She always gets you thinking and gazing in wonder at her creations, at least to me her work does that.

In Giovanna's words,

The mirror, as multiplicity and continuous playback.
The mirror, where the invisible overlaps the original and the hidden appears suddenly.
The mirror, as an illusion of which you can not do without.
The mirror as a projection in an unreal dimension.
The mirror that opens the door to ....
The visitor can interact with the environment simply going through it, resulting in different visual impressions.

The recommended setting is Sunset or Verdigris, to appreciate the nuances of the installation.



The sim feels like a speculum forest. If it was enclosed and not on open water, some might feel claustrophobic. There are a lot of them.  Has anyone counted how many there are?

Some of the mirrors made me think of satellites.


I set my world to Verdigris. It gives it a somber, eerie dusk look. The idea of being surrounded by speculums is strange. How does it make you feel? Do you feel like you're in an alien world?


I am just awestruck by it all.

Here are the questions I asked her:

Why did you choose to use speculums?

My choice was motivated by watching once again “The Arnolfini Portrait” by Jan van Eyck. It is an oil painting on oak panel dated 1434 by the Early Netherlandish.

Have you ever felt like life is an illusion? Have you ever had the feeling that you have to look deeper into life to really see what is happening?

I think that sometimes life is a beautiful illusion, but it is always worth living. I always look behind appearances even if the mirrors can be broken in look beyond.

Verdigris created such an interesting glow effect on everything. What was the effect that you wanted to create?

I like to play a lot with the effects of light. Verdigris looked like one of those that did stand out a little dreamy atmosphere. My choice was dictated primarily by the intuition of the emotional moment.




It certainly was dreamy. I loved the dusky effect.

Speculum is no longer up at LEA 6. But stay tuned for the next installation on LEA6, coming soon!

-Victoria Lenoirre

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Linden Endowment for the Arts: LEA27 - FreeWee's Laboratory v.8.0: Music, Myth,...

FreeWee Ling is escaping the brutal northern winter in the warm sunny antipodes during a four month Endeavour Fellowship from the Australia Dept. of Education. See info about new exhibits open at FreeWee's LEA sim! SLURL:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA27/40/108/27

Linden Endowment for the Arts: LEA27 - FreeWee's Laboratory v.8.0: Music, Myth,...: