UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge - September

On the evening of Sunday October 11th, 2009 (8pm in Perth, 5am in California or SLTime) an excited group of avatars gathered at the UWA 3D Art & Design platform on WASP Land to find out the inaugeral winners of the Imagine and Flagship Challenges.

The level of skill and concepts displayed by the first round of entrants has been good to excellent, with some interesting concepts and impressive craftsmanship.

After having given the guests time to gather, and welcoming each by name as they arrived, JayJay Zifanwe began the proceedings by revealing new developments in the Challenge - more funding and prizes! This is now one of the biggest (if not the biggest) prize pools in SL Art history.

JayJay then went on to announce each of the prize winners in turn, only one of whom was not present. As he was in voice with his speakers sounds level up we could hear the ker-ching of his Linden balance emptying with each prize - lovely to hear such support for the arts in SL.

Here is the full transcript of the speech JayJay made:

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the very first announcement of winners for the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. I am so happy to see all of you here today. You honour us with your presence, and we have also been honoured by the incredible, varied and wondrous artworks submitted since this competition kicked off on the 21st of August 2009. Before going on, I would like for everyone to acknowledge one of the most wonderful people I have come across since my SL journey began. Zhie has been an inspiration, a colleague, a confidant, and a tireless champion of all we have been trying to achieve at UWA, and also a champion in the artworld of Second Life over the years. Please join me in giving a big round of applause to the jewel of Western Australia, and co-host of the UWA 3D Art & Design challenge, quadrapop Lane !!! Some exciting new developements that happened today. Thanks to ShedworX.com, we have managed to raise the GRAND PRIZE for both the IMAGINE & FLAGSHIP Chalenges to L$75,000 (& L$14,000 for the Second Prize. Monthly prizes, with immediate effect will increase to $L5,000 & $L1,250 respectively. For the IMAGINE challenge, the Best Non-Scripted entry prize will also increase to L$1,250 and the winner of the 1st prize and best Non-Scripted prize will have RL custom T-Shirts made for them based on their favourite texture. This will be custom made in RL, and posted to them, wherever they are in the world! These special prizes come curtesy of Shedworx.com and www.etshirts.com
Also a special artists participation pool (donation) has been established thanks to the generosity of Sasun Steinbeck & Tranguloid Trefoil who have agreed to join me in contributing L$1000 monthly toward the pool, and Phillip Vought who has agreed to contribute for October. This will be reset at the start of every month. All artists who submit a genuine entry (not a block of plywood) and who do not receive one of the main prizes, will receive a share of what has been contributed to the donation jar for that month. Nothing is being kept for the land tier, 100% will go back to artists. On the judging panel were:

1. Professor Ted Snell (RL) - Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
2. Frank Roberts (RL) - The University Architect, The University of Western Australi
3. John Barret-Lennard (RL) – Curatorial Director, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery
4. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) - Owner of The University of Western Australia
5. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) - CEO SW&MB Fashion Productions, CEO Evane Model Agency
   Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery
6. Tranguloid Trefoil (SL) - Owner of WASP at the University of Western Australia

I apologize for the long speech. Now to announce the winers. The winers will be announced in 1 minute intervals. We do invite everyone to comment and congratulate the winners and for the winers to respond before the next announcement. Winners also please do ensure you get a photo of you and your artwork taken by quadrapop before you go. Four honourable mention prizes have been awarded.
The Honourable Mention prize of $L500 for Legacy is awarded to: FIRST PRIM - VENOM SILVERFALL

The Honourable mention prize of $L500 for Elegance & Movement is awarded to: PEACOCKS - NINKA DARKSTONE

The Honourable Mention prize of $L500 for Technique, is awarded to: SEAHORSE - TWEAK SERPENTE/STRIX SERENITY

The Honourable Mention Prize for Excellence in Texture Creation, which is a Custom Made RL T-Shirt for them based on any texture they would like, is awarded to: SOROR NISHI - THE WIZARD FRUIT TREE



Next we move to the 2nd overall prive for the IMAGINE Challenge. There were an incredible array of remarkable entries, and it was very difficult for the judges to seperate the top 6. After long consultation, the 2nd prize ($L1,250) was awarded to: IMMERSIVE ART: THE MAZE - ALIZARIN GOLDFLAKE

We also have for this month, a special prize for Best New Artist. This was judged 2 weeks ago, by Arts Philanthropist, Phillip Vought, who contributed 7,000 prims on his land at Excalibur, Aquitaine for use by the artist for the month of October. UWA have added L$1,000 to the prize. This award, was given not for a single artwork, but for the incredible range displayed by the artist. The prize goes to: ISAA GELBER

Please visit the Exhibition she has set up on Aquitane, and do let all your colleagues know about it.

Next is the prize for Best Non-Scripted Entry ($L1,250). What the judges were looking for, was the entire message the artwork gave, and the capacity of the artwork to make the viewer pause and ponder. This prize has been awarded to: AN UNKNOWN RACE - ISAA GELBER An amazing double triumph for isaa, from 2 different judging panels

Can everyone please set land to midnight, and CAM to look at the balloons from a distance. Now for one of the overall winner prizes. Again,as mentioned, 6 artworks were shortlisted for the top 2 positions, and very little seperated them, but in the end, the judges decided that inaugural monthly winner of the L$5,000 IMAGINE Challenge prize is: OUR SOULS COLLIDE - SNUBNOSE GENOPEAK

The final prize for the day, is the winner of the FLAGSHIP CHALLENGE for September. The judging panel, elected not to award a 2nd prize for this category, and hence we were able to award the Honourable Mention prizes. Inaugural monthly winer of the L$5,000 FLAGSHIP Challenge is: ARCAPELUS SANCTUARY - MOTH REXEN

That concludes the official part of the evening. quadrapop will reveal a special TP that has been set up to go to the wonderful creation by Moth Rexen, where there will be music and dance. A bigthanks to our wonderful DJ Briana Spires!