MachinimUWA IV: Bleu Oleander's 'Bird Song Melody of Remembrance'

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Inspired by award winning artist, Cherry Manga's 'Bird Song', Bleu Oleander presents 'Bird Song Melody of Remembrance' for MachinimUWA IV: Art of the Artists, which brings together 2 of the powerhouses of virtual worlds, Artists and Machinimatographers!

Entries to the L$300,000 MachinimUWA IV close on the 10th of November and looks for the creation of machinima featuring artworks that are part of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge.

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UWA People's Choice Voting Now Open!

Come experience the 62 amazing entries for the August UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. Choose your favorites for the People's Choice Awards.

VOTING ENDS Saturday 3 September August at noon SLT.

AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT CEREMONY: 6:00AM SLT Sunday 4 September.

RECEIVING OF ARTWORKS IS NOW OPEN AS WELL FOR SEPTEMBER.

Vote for as many entries as you like, on a scale of 1 to 3. Note that ANY VOTE is a POSITIVE vote. If you don't like something, don't vote for it. It's important that you look at all the works and to vote for all the pieces that truly speak to you. You are, of course, welcome to encourage your friends to come see the show and to vote for their favorite pieces. But please don't ask them to just come and vote for yours. It's about the art, not the artist!

Guest Blogger Rowan Derryth on the August Round
Silene Christen on her August Round Work
Apmel Goosson on the August Roun Works
Guest Blogger Victoria Lennoire on the August Round Works

AUGUST ENTRIES:
1 Alexxannder Firehawk Anyway The Red Can Go
2 Aloisio Congrejo What's happening?
3 Artistide Despres Petite etude sur Olivier Messiaen
4 Betty Tureaud QR Code v05
5 Blunt Fhang Cosmic Cloud
6 Cherry Manga Aerie
7 Cherry Manga Bird Song
8 CHUCKMATRIX Clip Zephyrus
9 CHUCKMATRIX Clip Going Under
10 Corcosman Voom Goat & Flute
11 Daco Monday Sunset
12 Daco Monday Lights
13 Dekka Raymaker Your Confusion - My Illusion
14 Dusty Canning Read My Lips
15 Earl Dinkin Mosquito Coffee Skull Machine Trap
16 Eliza Wierwight The Abandoned Daughter
17 Emilin Nakamori Still Life With Monkeywrench
18 Fae Varriale Phoenix
19 Frankx Lefavre Post Apocalyptic Golgotha
20 Fuschia Nightfire Fighting Stallions
21 Giovanna Cerise Alternate rhythm
22 Gleman Jun The death of the others
23 Gleman Jun Desperation
24 Glyph Graves Excerpts from Realities
25 Harter Fall Deep Maze
26 Harter Fall Behind Columns
27 Haveit Neox Binary Stable
28 Ichiko Miles Digitz
29 Ichiko Miles Bowling with Jesus
30 Jimmy Debruyere Butter in Green
31 Jimmy Debruyere Tiled Totem
32 Kicca Igaly The Monade
33 Lenore666 Loire *DBL* Pointy Thingy
34 Lollito Larkham Infernal Machine
35 Luko Enoch Burning Monk tribute
36 mcarp Mavendorf Multiplexer
37 Miso Susanowa Anemone Cluster with Seahorses
38 Nino Vichan Hamlet - Alas poor Yorick
39 Oberon Onmura The Chasm
40 oona Eiren Do bears shit in the woods
41 PeanutbuttahJellehTime Magic Rise & Shine
42 Penumbra Carter Grand Hotel BON PORT
43 Pixels Sideways Omnipotent
44 RAG Randt MFS 001
45 RAG Randt Saint Mono
46 RazorZ Absquarium
47 RazorZ Thinker! (Thinking in Circles)
48 Romy Nayar En el Viento- In the Wind
49 Romy Nayar En el Agua- In the water
50 Secret Rage for all its beauty, it is still...just a cage...
51 Secret Rage The Great Debate
52 Silene Christen Forest's tears
53 Silene Christen Requiem for Mother Earth
54 Sledge Roffo HOPE Mountain
55 Sledge Roffo In Silico - Pendulum
56 Soda Lemondrop Sarah's Soul
57 Spiral Silverstar Crack in Time
58 Spiral Silverstar Mixed Bag
59 spirit Radikal Flow
60 spirit Radikal Silly Little Planet
61 Thoth Jantzen/Betty Tureaud YouCubed!
62 Wolk Writer de moeder (The Mother)

Exploring 6 Exhibits from the UWA Design Challenge (by guest blogger Victoria Lenoirre)

Walking around the challenge sim, there is lots to see and touch. Like always, I feel like a small child gazing up in wonder at all the builds and colors. The feeling never goes away and so I thought I'd write about 6 exhibits that caught my eye. All the builds are most excellent and my thanks and respect to all the artists who spent hours creating inworld and offworld. You rock! So, here goes my brief glances at the 6.

I first stumbled upon The Monade by Kicca Igaly.

The Monade

It's certainly a vision in purple. I saw at least 3 contrasting shades of purple. It looks like a snow globe, except that are stars inside it. There is even a place to sit. Just left click on the outside of the globe and you can meditate. The backside is shrouded by mists while the front side is mostly clear. Monade comes from the Greek word monos, which means "unique." According to the philosophy of Leibniz, the monad is the smallest unit and indivisible of spiritual substance of which all things are composed. Enter this little universe enclosed in the sphere, concentrate and listen to the little red heart, your heart..." To see more of her work visit her Flickr page.

Infernal Machine by Lollito Larkham

Infernal Machine

It is made up of 2 conveyor belts with 2 disembodied arms that pick up canisters from the belts and dump them into a deep bin. The animation of the arms looks quite efficient and fluid. Lollito uses blender. He made the avatar animations and loop sound. The mechanical arm was rigged and posed in Blender. You can see a blender screenshot and more of his work at his flickr page. He wanted to build something funny and interactive. Lollito gave me one word of warning, "Be careful, machines can have unexpected behavior..." Will you come play with his machine and see what happens?

Requiem for Mother Earth by Silene Christen

Requiem for Mother Earth

At first glance you see a golden orange altar with pink lotuses strewn on the top. Behind the altar stand about 12 monks humbly offering a lotus plant that they hold in both of their hands. These are their small offerings to give to Mother Earth. The fact that they are all faceless demonstrates their humbleness...their separation from their ego. The altar is under one black arch and the supllicants are under another arch. Some supplicants are even standing above the arch like they are alighting from the sky to make an offering and honor Mother Earth.

Inspiration for Requiem came from a documentary about Sydney [sic] starring Cate Blanchett "where she struck up a dialogue with a biologist about nature that is still preserved and of its representation of the past. They also spoke of the importance of any element in the equation of nature, even a tiny field mouse who is in danger of extinction. This documentary, the passion with which they spoke, I[t] came [from] deep inside. A procession of beings on a permanent pilgrimage to the last remains of life on a planet in decline: humidity, cave, underground, and human beings among inorganic, tenderness, love .... Everything moved like a blender in me and [I] saw the image of what I have shown in this work."

Follow this link and this link to see more pictures.

Frankx Lefavre - Golgotha

Golgotha

It's a dark night scene with plenty of lightning bolts in the backdrop, which is made up of 3 panels. In the center is erected a sort of lopsided cross with an anguished-looking skeleton nailed onto it by his hands and feet, a man being crucified. Golgotha is the place where Jesus was crucified, according to the Bible. There are skulls and bones lying on the dark ground Death is the white horseman in the back panel texture. there is also a second cross. i clicked it and found my avatar bolted down to it, my head bent low over my chest, like i was very ashamed of myself. Frankx told me that the exhibit is about "the basic futility in believe there's a God to save humankind from its own self destructive instincts. Jesus did not return for a 'second coming', "so all that's left is a Post-Apocalyptic Golgotha." The empty cross that I found myself on, that is where you "are crucified to await your own God. The idea behind this exhibit is that there really is no God and people die in vain, waiting for Him to arrive. Frankx says, "They've crucified another son of God yet again and the world's ended anyway...They're waiting for something that is never going to come."

Sarah's Soul by Soda Lemondrop

Sarah's Soul

It's a dreary-looking scene in a rich, wooden frame. You can see a girl sitting on some concrete steps at a train or bus station, bent over her knees, with both hands over face like she is crying. There are pigeons behind her that look as if they're watching her in her distress. The viewer of the picture is the observer as are the pigeons.

Soda says about this piece:
     
           I searched through my collection of photos and felt drawn to use this one. It’s a picture taken of   a  stranger, a student probably since she is wearing a backpack and there are colleges nearby, and her pose made me think of her having an inner moment. She seems withdrawn from the world around her and the small dog nearby seems to be her only companion. To further add to the theme of inwardness, the edges of the photo were blurred giving it a feel of an inner concentration and focus where peripheral details are lost and ignored by ones mind which is traveling inward.  I isolated the figure of the girl in a second photo and added a red tint then layered this image over the first one in the work of art I created. I then placed the images in a box which to me added to the feel of containment. Ones soul is housed and contained, confined to the body during a lifetime, and I used the box to convey this feeling of the walls within which we feel ourselves. Walls of personality, opinion, and belief.


Petite etude sur Olivier messiaen by Aristide Despres

Petite Etude Sur Olivier Messiaen

It means "Small Study on Olivier Messiaen."
My first thought was that it looks like an abacus with balls and cyclinders going up and down, around and around. Some background info: "Olivier Messiaen [1908..1992] may be considered as the master of modern classical music. He was also interested in ornithology and studied the bird songs which he used in his music.

Aristide says, "I wanted to create a piece that would tell about the complexity of such a person as Messiaen, without being illustrative."

The technical side of this exhibit is that the SL wind is causing the balls and cylinders to go crazy. During the displacement, you can hear them making a sound like birds. You just click on one cylinder to reset it back to its original position.

I hope you all vote for your favorite masterpiece! One of the ones I've mentioned OR one of the ones I haven't depicted here. Voting ends by September 3rd! Well done to all the artists who have submitted to the UWA 3d Challenge this month!

MachinimUWA IV: Tutsy Navarathna's 'Welcome to the Other Side'

Reigning MachinimUWA champion, Tutsy Navarathna throws down the gauntlet with another epic creation, 'Welcome to the Other Side' for MachinimUWA IV: Art of the Artists, which brings together 2 of the powerhouses of virtual worlds, Artists and Machinimatographers!

Entries to the L$300,000 MachinimUWA IV closes on the 10th of November and looks for the creation of machinima featuring artworks that are part of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge.

In Tutsy's words:

"The Medium is the Message" With the emergence of virtual worlds, the iconic phrase of Marshall McLuhan is quite topical. What about the extensions of our central nervous system in our avatars? A confrontation with the virtual worlds where, to escape the sad reality of a world which wavers, life in all its forms explodes. A peculiar visit of the virtual ARTS present on Second Life.."

MUSIC: TOIRES "Manara"

3D ARTISTS FEATUREDEupalinos Ugajin, Anleys Piers, Ub Yifu,Toughlove Sabra, Oona Eiren, Dusty Canning, Igor Ballyhoo, Misprint Thursday, Pixel Sideways, Oberon Onmura, Elie Maurice, Cherry Manga, Theoretical Afterthought, Feathers Boa, Typote Beck, Nish Mip, Bryn Oh, Rose Borchovsky, Aequitas, Gleman Jun , Claudia222 Jewell, Lalie Sorbet, Miso Susanowa, Artistide Despres, Secret Rage, Haveit Neox, Harter Fall, Fuschia Nightfire.

UWA Professor's SL Article in Journal of Marketing Education & Virtual Worlds Research

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Professor Wade Halvorson, UWA's most published author with all matters Second Life has another 2 articles up, this time in the Journal of Marketing Education and the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

The JME article is written in collaboration with academic staff from Monash University & RMIT University (both in Victoria, Australia), this article focuses on the use of Second Life in the teaching of marketing.

An abstract is as below, and the full article can be downloaded from the Journal of Marketing Education Website if your institutions provide access or if you subscribe.Click HERE

ABSTRACT
There are compelling reasons for educators to consider incorporating virtual worlds (VWs) in their marketing curriculum. That said, the ways in which VWs can be implemented into the teaching curriculum are many and varied. This article reports on two studies in which notionally similar graduate classes are taught about marketing in Second Life (SL). The degree of student and instructor immersion is intentionally varied: One class is taught entirely in SL, by a technically expert instructor, while novice/intermediate instructors teach the second class in an interactive tutorial setting. Taken together, these studies offer marketing educators insights into developing “full” and “lite” approaches to teaching in SL, thereby lowering the barrier to uptake of the technology by catering to a broader spectrum of both instructor and student competencies, interests, and abilities.

Professor Halvorson and his alter-ego Wad Halberstadt

With the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, the article is a single author paper, in the May issue (Vol 3, No 3), "Third Places Take First Place in Second Life: Developing a Scale to Measure the 'Stickiness' of Virtual World Sites". Full Article Here. Abstract as below:

ABSTRACT
"The objective of this study is to examine what drives visitor retention in successful businesses operating in online virtual world environments. The study draws motivation from increasing anecdotal evidence reporting on high profile corporate brands withdrawing from operations in Second Life - citing low visitor traffic as their motivation. Early adopter corporations that established business operations in Second Life did so anticipating benefits from the new technology akin to the quantum leap made when they embraced the World Wide Web. While disappointingly low visitor numbers left many virtual world operations looking like desolate ghost towns, there are businesses enjoying active repeat customers. Drawing on Oldenburg’s Theory of Third Place, this study seeks to quantify the reasons for high customer retention in successful virtual communities. To this effect, a questionnaire is developed and administered by a team of avatar researchers who interviewed over 250 avatars in Second Life. Website stickiness measures are reviewed and applied to virtual world sites. Conclusions are drawn and future research directions proposed."

Rowan's Reflections: Not Just Virtual But Variable Art (by Guest Blogger Rowan Derryth)

Glyph Graves' 'Enfolded'

First, an apology and a disclaimer. Jayjay invited me to blog for the UWA at the start of this year’s challenge, and I was honoured and excited about it. Since then my world has been increasingly busy, and I simply haven’t had the time to write like I wished to. But this was also somewhat exacerbated by my own hesitance to pick and choose which art to write about, what with being on the final judging panel.

But I’ve come to the realisation that I can write about art here with a clear conscience, as I have no idea who will end up in the finals; and if last year’s results were any indication, my own tastes are far from mainstream anyway. So for these last three months of this challenge, I’ve decided to throw that hesitation out the window and write just a bit about some of the works that have received top marks from me in the monthly people’s choice (but by no means are these mentions comprehensive of my top votes!). With that…

I’m sure by now most UWA patrons will have at least read about, if not actually seen, Glyph Graves new artwork/performance piece ‘Composition in Realities’ in which he interfaces (literally, with his face) with SL via a Kinect. I wrote about it, as did Dividni Shostakovich, Colemarie Soleil (who first filmed it), and even NWN picked it up after Hamlet got a fantastic film of the ‘behind the scenes’ of it in the ‘real’ world. I’m not going to talk more about the awesomeness of this pioneering work again here, but rather I’m going to talk about a few pieces which I think are similarly pioneering in their embrace of Variable Reality at the UWA this month.

I suppose I should start, then, with Glyph’s entry which is a portion of the aforementioned installation, ‘Excerpts from Reality’, which includes two of his new beautiful sculptures, ‘Forests of Water’, and ‘Enfolded’(image above), which are driven by real-time data. In this latter case, the algorithmic information rather spectacularly comes from beyond our world – space in fact – as the data is solar wind measurements taken from the ACE Satellite. Glyph’s art that is truly out of this world! (I couldn’t help myself.)

Betty Tureaud's 'QR Code v.05'

For anyone aware of the SL art world, Betty Tureaud should by now be a familiar name. She is an artist in both the physical and virtual realms, but she is vehement that her work in SL is made entirely in world. This isn’t to say it isn’t about ‘reality’, however – she tackles incredibly difficult and thought-provoking political and social subject in fantastically impactive ways.

That said, I was somewhat surprised by the austere silver cube that was entered by her this month, a far cry from her usual colourful and immersive work. I walked through the phantom wall, expecting to encounter such a display, but was again surprised to find nothing more than what looked like a poseball (and wasn’t, but I think it gave me a notecard), and a small replica iPhone on the ground. Hmm. Then I looked up, and saw another cube textured in a strange (but aesthetically pleasing) black and white pattern. Aha!

I’ve been hearing of QR Code for a little while now, but exploring this bit of tech hasn’t yet squeezed into my hectic schedule, so I was very excited to have the chance. Clicking the iPhone sent me to a free App for a QR Code reader, which I eagerly downloaded (this tech is also available to non-Appleheads, more is at the wiki link above). Once installed, I scanned away (an aside – I LOVE scan technology on smart phones; I’ve scanned my entire bookshelf which put my in PhD bibliography heaven!). Now, I’m going to pause in my description of Betty's work here, because I want YOU to go to see the work, and interact, and think about the messages therein, because they are every bit as thoughtful as the rest of her art (if perhaps more direct). But for using this bit of technology alone, and for a fantastic example of Variable Reality, Betty gets top marks from me. From here, I'd like to see her push it a bit, and start incorporating the codes with her colourful immersive work.

Betty also has a collaborative work with Thoth Jantzen, a walk-through kaleidoscope which, while not necessarily a unique concept in SL, is rather beautiful and worth a pause.

Eliza Wierwight's 'The Abandoned Daughter'

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Eliza Wierwight (and not just because she doesn’t give a crap if I’m her fan, and teaches me how to make cool stuff anyway). Friendship aside, she is simply a brilliant artist, and one of the most hard-working I know. Her entry this month is born from her interest in Surrealism (she’s recently been exploring appropriations of Frida Kahlo in her virtual photomontages), and as well her love of contemporary fashion (in this case Vivienne Westwood). Like her fantastic ‘Three Dresses Triptych’, ‘The Abandoned Daughter’ explores issues of beauty, femininity and the body via a sculpture that is part couture window display and part readymade assemblage. While this might not seem like the kind of pioneering embrace of technology as the aforementioned pieces, it has earned a place here because, like Betty and Glyph, she is dedicated to making her work inworld, while moving between the physical and the virtual to achieve her desired affect. For example, weaving textures on prims, photographing them, and then reimporting them as whole new textures. She works back and forth in this manner, really using SL as an artistic tool.

'The Abandoned Daughter', detail.

Furthermore, what I really love about Eliza’s work is that she is current and relevant in the contemporary art sense; she’s got her finger on the pulse of something without even knowing it, or trying. 'The Abandoned Daughter' is an 18^th century gown modeled from these virtually woven textures, and adorned (garnished?) with Dalí-esque lobsters textured with human hair (yes, Dalí would have loved that indeed). When she explained her inspiration to me (Dalí and Westwood), I asked if she knew the work of Yinka Shonibare. I was pretty sure she didn’t – I always pull out my elite art history crap on her and am surprised and delighted when she has no idea about artists who work in the same vein. But this piece very much reminds me of his fantastic installations, which combine 18^th century fashion with Dutch Wax textiles to comment on European Imperial history and it’s socio-political legacies. In her own unaffected and unpretentious manner, she is making work which is completely in line with some of (in my opinion) the greatest contemporary artists, but in a virtual realm, making it more radical. Move to Britain, Miss Eliza, so we can give you the Turner Prize.

A Review of Chuckmatrix Clip's Immanentize the Eschaton Exhibit (by Victoria Lenoirre )

The UWA FULL SIM ART SIM went offline late afternoon on August 18th. But at least for the last 2 days, I got the chance to walk around CHUCKMATRIX Clip's exhibit, Immanentize the Eschaton.

Imagine living in a mythical, war-ravaged world where dragons, giants, and other creatures of fantasy roam free! The sky is red and angry-looking and the place is in turmoil. It's a realm of death and hate. After I landed, I noticed an altar with skulls piled on another and a cross, "Forbidden Romance". Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the altar and skulls before the sim went down. At the base of the altar were about 3 skulls. The fire from the altar was a bright purple, quite a contrast with the white and red colors. The altar also had a cross to go with it.

All through this exhibit I am struck by the colors, the greens, the browns, the grays, even the purple. It's vivid and it serves as a dichotomy of life & majesty and death & destruction. You can see the difference between small and huge...standing still or being in motion. Though some of the characters are static, their limbs are bent and positioned like they're moving...like they froze as they were moving. There is creation and destruction. The Omen is an interesting example of creation and destruction. Watch him bow, crumble into rocks, and then reform again. The effect is startling and truly creative.

You can also see good versus evil. In front of The Omen are two winged creatures frozen in battle. One is ivory white and the other is black like The Omen. Will Good win over Evil in this world CHUCKMATRIX has created?

The pictures I have taken were taken at the sim where CHUCKMATRIX has his gallery, :CMC:. I got to meet this talented artist and chat with him a bit about his work.

CHUCKMATRIX describes his depiction as "the War of the Worlds"...a mythical war of epic proportion. It's a war of big and small, good and evil, hope and despair, darkness and light, life and death.

His exhibit is truly incredible and I enjoyed walking around it while I still could. The work and detail put into every object and figure is so careful and beautiful. He told me that one of his giants, The Omen, took him several weeks just to plan and build. The Omen was around 50 meters tall, complete with animation. And his builds are all prim...and you thought only sculpts could look good?! Well, you have to see his work and do visit his store. I'm sure he'd love to show you around...when he's not busy building or spending time with his friends.

CHUCKMATRIX went on a year long hiatus from SL and came back a few months ago. So this is his grand comeback into art. Well done, Chuck and welcome back!

Review of Choices by Nazz Lane

The LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES Comes to Life!

LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES rises from the ashes of UWA

The day following the announcement of the end of the UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES, serendipity chose for the birth of the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES. Indeed were it not for the UWA full sim art series, the LEA series would not have arisen in this way, and further, if not for the death of the same series, the Phoenix would not have risen here either. This truly is the end of one age, and the beginning of another!

The LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES, will initially run for 6 months, starting 1st October 2011, and ending on the 31st of March 2012. All artists in SL will be able to apply to have a FULL SIM art show, and the closing date for applications is the 10th of September (we would be keen to highlight those whose works have not had the opportunity to have been shown on such a scale before)

What you get:
1) The FULL SIM to use inclusive of the media and UP TO 15,000 prims (you dont have to use all)
2) The SIM will be given to the artist on the 1st day of the month
3) When to launch the show will be up to the artist
4) Shows will end on the final day of the month, and the next artist will receive use of the SIM from the 1st day of the next month
5) An article on the LEA Blog, UWA Blog, Bryn Oh's blog, Second Life arts and entertainment, the ToxxNews Website and the Virtual Outworlding Blog will appear at the start of the show or during the show (The list above are those who had expressed their interest in writing about each of the exhibits. Other bloggers who have a similar interest, need only to inform of us of their desire and they will be added to the list.)

How to Apply:
1) Send a NC to both Jayjay Zifanwe and Bryn Oh with a 100 word description of what your plan for the full sim artwork is.
2) Include in the NC, the names of anyone who might be working with you on the FULL SIM creation
3) Indicate on the NC which month you prefer, Oct 2011, Nov 2011, Dec 2011, Jan 2012, Feb 2012, Mar 2012 (1st, 2nd, 3rd preference)


* As serendipity would also have it, one hour prior to me writing this announcement, Fae Varriale submitted the Phoenix pictured above to the August Round of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge.

The LEA Blog is relatively new. Do link to it!
Linden Lab Destination Guide on the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES
Linden Lab Blog on the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES
Bryn Oh Blog on the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES
Virtual Outworlding Blog on the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES
Virtually Real Blog on LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES
Modemworld Blog on the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES
Toxx News on the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES
From Japan to SL (Temi Sirbu Blog)

This is that the land looks like now!

Untouched

A Yesikita Coppola Machinima of the July Winners of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge

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UWA 3D Open Art Challenge - Winners July 2011 from Yesikita Coppola on Vimeo.

We are happy to announce the return of our official machinimatographer after 2 valiant rounds filled in by Laslopantomik Yao & Bert Jedburgh.

A Yesikita Coppola Machinima of the July Round winners of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge!

Harmonies in C Great by Artistide Despres
Not everything Is plain Black and White by Fushia Nightfire
Living Fractal by June Clavenham
The Matter of Ideas by Gleman Jun
Tunnel with Light at the End of It by RazorZ
Hurdle by Corcosman Voom
Fantasy by Anley Piers
Child Play by Ub Yifu
The Superheroes Breakfast by Typote Beck
Nude Descending a Staircase by Dekka Raymake
Dotty Autoportrait by Cherry Manga
Down on the Data Farm by Miso Susanowa
Inside a Troubled Mind by Toughlove Sabra

MACHINIMA
Filmed & Edited by Yesikita Coppola
Music:
Miss Under Standing
By Music Inside

THE END: UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES

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Nish Mip's 'Last Ocean' still stands at UWA


Nish Mip's incredible creation, 'The Last Ocean', which took out the 2nd overall prize in the Grand Finale of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge in 2010, came with the following words:

"What  I had in mind here was the death of a virtual world . It's been playing on my mind for some while...When virtual worlds die they go with a flick of a switch  but  I imagined a rag tag bunch of characters  hanging on  to the last remains as an inflated  sun gradually drys their virtual oceans the search for other worlds begins . The whispers  you can hear are  remaining messages  blowing in the binary wind ."

This is what we will witness in the next week, when the lights go out on the UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES. Chuckmatrix Clip, Silene Christen & June Clavenham are holding the fort in the final days as the sun drys the virtual ocean.

I would like to thank the brilliant array of some of Second Life's finest artists who have helped make the UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES what is, and what it has been. I hope in its brief time, it has found its own place in the historical annals of virtual art.

2011 UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES 

JANUARY : Betty Tureaud's 'Art Planet'
FEBRUARY :  Blue Tsuki's 'Vesel'
MARCH: Cherry Manga, Anley Piers & Elfe Imako's 'Other World'
APRIL: soror Nishi's 'Transubstantiation'
MAY: Wizard 'Wizzy' Gynoid's 'The Art of Wizard Gynoid'
JUNE: FreeWee Ling's 'Angry Gods'
JULY: The Artists of AEONIA's 'Ant Vegas: Migr-Ants'
AUGUST: Chuckmatrix Clip's 'Immanentize The Eschaton', Silene Christen's 'Childhood' and June Clavenham's 'Choices'

Review of UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES CREATIONS
Review on 'Ant-Vegas' by Thinkerer Melville (SL)/ Selby Evans (RL)
Review of 'Choices' by Nazz Lane
Review of Immanentize the Eschaton by Victoria Lennoire
Notes on 'Childhood' by Silene Christen
TEMI SIRBU'S Review of the the Final Month of the UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES


Thank you one and all!

POSTSCRIPT: The Phoenix rises with the dawn of the LEA FULL SIM ART SERIES

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Review of Public Talk @ UWA on 14th August for UWA Open Day

On UWA Open Day, 14th August 2011, Jay Jay Jegathesan (Jayjay Zifanwe) gave a public talk on second life at the Woolnough Lecture Theatre at 10.15am in Perth.

Hearing about the talk through the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge Group at 7am that day, Perth based Pieter Kaan  (Seamus Hammerthall: SL) made the trip to UWA to listen to the talk in person. He has been kind enough to provide the following review of the talk:



Pieter Kaan  (Seamus Hammerthall: SL)



Jay Jay @ The Open Day

Review of Public Talk @ UWA Open Day by Pieter Kaan  (Seamus Hammerthall: SL)

"On Saturday 13th August 2011, I attended Open Day at the University of Western Australia campus as a member of the public.

One of the special activities presented at the Woolnough Lecture Theatre was a presentation on UWA's presence in Virtual World

With a brief outline of what virtuality is and how people can utilise this concept in  real life, the presentation explained how UWA began in the virtual world.

It introduced the audience to Second Life, (SL) created by Linden Labs of San Francisco, USA which is best known for virtual technology providing a global grid social network wherein each member is represented by an avatar.

UWA's presence in Second Life is for the global community who in turn contribute their skills in 3D art involving the building of objects, textures and animation scripts.

 

It also showed how graphic image building contributed to Google Earth in the conversion of 2D imagery of satelite maps of city buildings to 3D representations of landmark sites such as the Sydney Opera House and various other well known buildings. This involves the building of objects and the application of textures.

The presentation included a demonstration of three award wining feature videos produced by members within UWA's Second Life community which gave  fine examples of 3D graphics in both static Art and Animation introducing Machinima, the combination of animation and computers. The first feature video produced by a member from the USA, the second from Perth WA and the third from Berlin in Germany.

This demonstration showed the audience that although in an experimental phase, Virtual Worlds were going to be significantly beneficial in more ways than currently realised.

The presentation concluded with a brief demonstration of an avatar whilst being logged in to Second Life, interacting with other people from all around the world who responded by virtue of an incorporated  chat window.

The presentation, in my opinion, was quite information intensive considering the limited time available. It was easy for me to race through with it and understand since I am a regular participant and user in SL. However, I felt that the presentation was perhaps too rushed for members in the audience who may not have been familiar with the concept of Virtual World and consequently would fail to see the point it was making.

From my experience of just over two years in SL with many long hours of involvement on a daily basis, I have learned that online virtual world is a most fascinating educative and creative tool and would benefit not only students enrolled in university but also a broad global community of remote and homebound members.

Its only a matter of time before we begin to see 3D technology virtually pop out of the computer screen."

POSTSCRIPT

In a heartwarming postscript to this review, Seamus revealed an amazing personal journey that also leads to UWA. His words describe it best:

"I met a lovely person by chance here in SL about 18 months ago. We became friends and met regularly. we never stopped meeting. After some time we met in RL after sharing pics etc and She flew all the way from Holland to Perth two times. We decided to get married and we chose to have our wedding withing the beautiful gardens of UWA, where my son also was married about 4 years ago. I never thought SL could become RL...but it did, unexpectantly."

Pieter Kaan  (Seamus Hammerthall: SL)

CHUCKMATRIX CLIP'S 'Immanentize The Eschaton' UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES

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CHUCKMATRIX CLIP'S 'Immanentize The Eschaton', joins the works by Silene Christen & June Clavenham, making it a trinity of creations bringing the UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES to a close! All of this could dissapear anytime after the 18th of August, as the SIM hosting the art series, 'UWA Virtlantis', will, like the isle of legend it is named after, dissapear off the face of the multiverse.

NAZZ LANE'S BLOG POST ON THE FULL SIM ART SERIES

CLICK HERE TO TP TO THE WORK

In Chuckmatrix's words, "You find yourself standing in a field torn asunder by the ravages of war. All around you giants, dragons, creatures of myth and religion alike fight to the death. The very mountains themselves step forth to join the battle. Only one thing can be true, The War of Wars has begun. As you look to the center of the chaos you find the angel Gabriel blowing his trumpet and think at first the end has come from a divine source. Slowly, the Altar comes into focus, an altar made by man. As you see the eerie blue flames rise from a pile of skulls you realize only one thing can be true, some fool, some fellow resident of this world coming apart at its seams, started all of this. A boulder floats by and a nagging thought rises from your subconscious, racing to the forefront of your mind, and you mutter aloud in a voice hoarse with terror, "how did I get here?" Have you been summoned to join the battle? Are you to fight for the fate of the planet, or are you merely supposed to bear witness to the end?"

WILL YOU STAND TALL AT THE END?

OR WILL YOU BE CUT DOWN?

More When Less Is More

More When Less Is More
A second special exhibition of non-scripted entries from the
UWA 3D Open Art Challenge
August 5-20, 2011
INFORMAL OPENING SATURDAY, AUG 6 at Noon SLT
FreeWee Ling, Curator

Last April we had a special post-award exhibition of outstanding non-scripted pieces from the March UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. It was an amazing show of 9 works, titled "When Less Is More" that demonstrated that virtual art does not have to spin and flash and do stuff in order to be compelling art. By stripping away the pyrotechnics we could see that there are some incredible artists working here using only form, color, and texture.
I am pleased to announce that a second special exhibition of 12 selected works from the July round is now on display on a platform above the UWA gallery with the title "More When Less Is More." As with the previous show, I will be publishing an exhibition catalog online.

The artists and works selected to appear are:

• CHUCKMATRIX Clip - Windows to the Soul
• CHUCKMATRIX Clip - Strength
• Corcosman Voom - Hurdle
• Daco Monday - Nudo al mare
• Dekka Raymaker - Nude Descending a Staircase
• Fiona Blaylock - Time flies
• Jimmy Debruyere - Red Catastrophe on a Cocktail Pin
• Lollito Larkham - Go Ban et Luth
• PeanutbuttahJellehTime Magic - A Bottle of Ideas
• Penelope Parx - thinking another me
• RazorZ - Tunnel with light at the end of it
• Typote Beck - Autoreverse
  

SILENE CHRISTEN'S 'CHILDHOOD': UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES (AUGUST)

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As June Clavenham went minimalist in prim count while setting out her full sim art creation, she has kindly offered to share the SIM. This allowed for the multi talented and faceted Silene Christen to set up in the sky. The result is a 2nd full sim art creation for August, Silene Christen's 'Childhood'

In her words, "The point view of childhood is quite different from that of adults. Where we see a tree, they see a house. Where we see trash, they see a battlefield. I wanted to give a tribute to childhood, a tribute to their world. Beneath all the adults we see are their deepest feelings and fears that we do not understand.

* Desire of being  loved
 * Desire for knowledge
 * Personal Fears
 * Dreams and illusions

 The instalation is in turn dotted with small works of art on topics reflected."

CLICK HERE TO TELEPORT TO THE START LOCATION
Note: The SIM may go offline anytime from the 19th of August 2011

 The August month may see the end of the UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES. As described when the series kicked off, this was always going to happen as the 5th UWA SIM on which this is hosted was coming to a natural end of its life cycle (the 4 main UWA sims continue as always). 

Notes on 'Childhood' by Silene Christen

ARTISTIDE IN HARMONY AS FUSCHIA TAKES FOUR: WINNERS OF THE UWA 3D OPEN ART CHALLENGE (JULY)

Artistide Despres's creation, 'Harmonies in C Great (+),' whose power exudes a sense of grandeur, has taken the L$10,000 1st Prize for the July Round of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. Artée, as she is known, doubled the winnings as she also won the CARP Prize and the Nordan Art Prize. Fuschia Nightfire almost topped those winnings with 'Not Everything is Plain Black & White' by taking home 4 prizes and a total of L$17,500. She won Joint 2nd Prize, alongside June Clavenham & Gleman Jun; she also won the People's Choice Award as well as the Tornado Gallery and Pirats Group Prizes. Typote Beck with 'The Superheroes Breakfast' emulated a feat achieved only once before by taking 3 Group Awards (Odyssey Prize, S&S Gallery OFA Prize & Project Z Prize). An unprecedented night saw yet another creation take 2 Group Awards, with Miso Susanowa's 'Down on the Data Farm' also gaining direct entry to the Grand Finale by winning both The Workhouse & Art place d-oo-b Prize and the Phi Designs Prize. The Non-Scripted Prize also resulted in a tie with RazorZs 'Tunnel With Light at the End of It' deadlocked with Corcosman Voom's 'Hurdle', while Toughlove Sabra won the Curator's prize with the deceptive and surprising 'Inside A Troubled Mind'.

Visit the Gallery to See All the Winners


ALEXANDRA'S CHOICE BLOG ON JULY ROUND WORKS
YOUTUBE OF ARTISTIDE'S WINNING CREATION
NORDAN ART BLOG ON THE JULY WINNERS
THINKERER MELVILLE'S Blog on the July Round
TEMI SIRBU'S BLOG POST ON THE JULY ROUND
TEMI SIRBU on the July Round - Part II
EIFACHFILM VACIRCA records events following the announcements

FULL RESULTS FOLLOW AND THE TEXT OF THE WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT IS REPRODUCED BELOW IN ITS ENTIRETY

1st Prize: (L$10,000)
HARMONIES IN C GREAT (+) by Artistide Despres


"I really am in shock . I want to thank Josina and Velazquez from CARP, Flora Nordanskiold from Nordan Gallery and the members of the UWA panel. I was not prepared to such an honor. I can only say this will encourage me a lot in the coming weeks. Merci. " Artistide Despres

2nd Prize (JOINT) : (@ L$5,000)
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

"The piece was originally designed to fit a concept by Katz Jupiter for a show at her sim 'Slightly Twisted'. I would like to thank her for inviting me to make something for this show, because if she hadn't, this piece would never have been made. The show will be opening very soon and has other work by myself and other artists on display, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Slightly%20Twisted/97/41/32" Fuschia Nightfire

LIVING FRACTAL by June Clavenham

"When I started to experience in the digital media very long ago, I feel in love with fractals, and I still mantain many of my works based in them.  I wanted to submit a work related with them this time, and I feel very happy and honoured for the 2nd. place. Thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed my work!" June Clavenham


THE MATTER OF IDEAS by Gleman Jun



Best Non-Scripted Prize (JOINT) : (@L$2,500)
TUNNEL WITH LIGHT AT THE END OF IT by RazorZ


HURDLE by Corcosman Voom

"Thanks very much, everyone. It's a privilege to be able to display my work alongside so many very talented people, The artists have made this a very special event. But it would not be possible without all the hard work by Jayjay and FreeWee. Thank you both. And a big thank you to all the donors. Your generosity is greatly appreciated." Corcosman Voom

UTSA Prize: (L$5,000)
FANTASY by Anley Piers


"This piece is very important to me as I was exhibiting it too at Nordan Gallery in its entire original piece and it was hard to cut it for UWA challenge, so I'm very glad I won with this piece." Anley Piers

SL Art Prize: (L$5,000)
CHILD PLAY by Ub Yifu

"Many thx for that reward! That is good to feel supported and motivates me to go on" Ub Yifu

Odyssey Prize: (L$5,000)
THE SUPERHEROES BREAKFAST by Typote Beck
"I want to thank the groups project Z , S&S Gallery of Art and Odyssey for these prizes. It's a real encouragement for me, and a pleasure that my work could be appreciated." - Typote Beck

Pirats Prize: (L$5,000)
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

"The piece was originally designed to fit a concept by Katz Jupiter for a show at her sim 'Slightly Twisted'. I would like to thank her for inviting me to make something for this show, because if she hadn't, this piece would never have been made. The show will be opening very soon and has other work by myself and other artists on display, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Slightly%20Twisted/97/41/32" Fuschia Nightfire

CARP Prize: (L$5,000)
HARMONIES IN C GREAT (+) by Artistide Despres

"I want to thank Josina and Velazquez from CARP, Flora Nordanskiold from Nordan Gallery and the members of the UWA panel. I was not prepared to such an honor. I can only say this will encourage me a lot in the coming weeks. Merci. " Artistide Despres

Nordan Art Prize: (L$5,000)
HARMONIES IN C GREAT (+) by Artistide Despres


"I want to thank Josina and Velazquez from CARP, Flora Nordanskiold from Nordan Gallery and the members of the UWA panel. I was not prepared to such an honor. I can only say this will encourage me a lot in the coming weeks. Merci." Artistide Despres

Nordan Art Honourable Mention: (L$2,500)
NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE by Dekka Raymaker



BOSL Prize: (L$5,000)
DOTTY AUTOPORTRAIT by Cherry Manga


"For my dotty portrait i would say that this piece doesn't reflect my usual work with the colours and how it looks. I thank you for choosing it though :D" Cherry Manga

S&S Gallery of Art Prize (L$5,000)
THE SUPERHEROES BREAKFAST by Typote Beck
"I want to thank the groups project Z , S&S Gallery of Art and Odyssey for these prizes. It's a real encouragement for me, and a pleasure that my work could be appreciated." - Typote Beck

Tornado Gallery (L$5,000)
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

"The piece was originally designed to fit a concept by Katz Jupiter for a show at her sim 'Slightly Twisted'. I would like to thank her for inviting me to make something for this show, because if she hadn't, this piece would never have been made. The show will be opening very soon and has other work by myself and other artists on display, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Slightly%20Twisted/97/41/32" Fuschia Nightfire

The Workhouse & Art place d-oo-b Prize (L$5,000)
DOWN ON THE DATA FARM by Miso Susanowa

"Thank you... I've been thinking about this issue for awhile, and finished the piece about 12 hours before the #PlusGate story started to break... I was happy to feel "in tune" with the world. It's an important issue and I am glad people are becoming aware of how much they give away for convenience's sake." Miso Susanowa

Phi Designs Prize (L$5,000)
DOWN ON THE DATA FARM by Miso Susanowa


"Wow! Um... golly! Thank you!" Miso Susanowa

project Z Prize: (L$5,000)
THE SUPERHEROES BREAKFAST by Typote Beck
"I want to thank the groups project Z , S&S Gallery of Art and Odyssey for these prizes. It's a real encouragement for me, and a pleasure that my work could be appreciated." - Typote Beck

Curator's Choice Award (L$5,000):
INSIDE A TROUBLED MIND by Toughlove Sabra


"It is always an honor to even be considered in the likes of the great artists that provide their pieces for the challenge, they are all thought provoking in their own right. To win this award is just simply amazing and a honor" Toughlove Sabra

People's Choice Award, 1st Prize: (L$2,500)
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAIN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

"The piece was originally designed to fit a concept by Katz Jupiter for a show at her sim 'Slightly Twisted'. I would like to thank her for inviting me to make something for this show, because if she hadn't, this piece would never have been made. The show will be opening very soon and has other work by myself and other artists on display, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Slightly%20Twisted/97/41/32" Fuschia Nightfire

People's Choice Award, 2nd Prize: (L$1,000)
THE MATTER OF IDEAS by Gleman Jun



For anyone interested in seeing the full text of the announcement by Jayjay Zifanwe, delivered from 6am slt on Wednesday, 3rd August, it is reproduced as follows:

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the University of Western Australia, or UWA as she is known and also welcome to the JULY round announcement of winners and party for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. As is tradition at UWA, I would like to acknowledge that the University is situated on Nyoongar land and that the Nyoongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land and continue to uphold their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.

This is the 9th of 12 monthly rounds for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. The Grand Finale isnt far away! The first thing I would like to do is to thank and acknowledge the major art houses and groups in Second Life that are part of this Grand Collaboration. 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, Jo Ellsmere & Lizsolo Mathilde, BOSL led by Frolic Mills and Editorial Clarity, Nordan Art led by Flora Nordanskiold, S&S Gallery of Fine Art led by TheDove Rhode, The Workhouse Gallery led by Astarte Haalan, Art Place d-oo-b led by Eifachfilm Vacirca, The Tornado Gallery led by Taralyn Gravois, project Z led by Zachh Cale and UWA with Professor Ted Snell, Chair of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts as Chair of the UWA judging panel.

UWA would also like to acknowledge fellow sponsors, MidnightRain Glas, Philip Vought, Bohemian Ghost, Patch Thibaud and Aino Baar of Open This End.

73 entries were received for the JULY round, spread out across this sim-wide 'Living Gallery'! As always, I love seeing new artists (to the UWA Challenges), and in the JULY round we said hello to Asterion Coen, CHUCKMATRIX Clip, Gfresh Botha, Mania Amat, Mudbug Cooperstone, oona Eiren , Theda Tammas and Tyrehl Byk among others.

We have been through 21 monthly rounds since all this started in August 2009 and more than 400 artists have been involved. The magic number is 24 come October.

This L$1,400,000 challenge will see more than L$96,000 being distributed each month, with the Grand Prize winner at the end of it all pocketing a cool L$100,000. The many contributions coming in from everyone through the little donations receiver will this year be put towards special prizes, including the Curator's Choice Award.

It is important to me to also acknowledge everyone who did contribute over the month towards prizes across the year and the Grand Finale. Thank you Mouehane Sandalwood, spirit Radikal, Dusty Canning, Sledge Roffo, Milly Sharple, cullum Writer, Hypatia Pickens and Briarmelle Quintessa.

As always I acknowledge the international connections made through SL, and up to now, the various challenges have seen artists, builders and machinimatographers hailing from India, Colombia, Poland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine, Taiwan, Hungary, Latvia, Russia, Venezuela, Belgium, Mexico, Wales, Canada, the USA, the UK, Uruguay, Scotland,England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Holland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Cuba, Serbia, Tunisia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. More than 40 nations with 6 of the 7 continents of the world represented.

At this point I would like for all of you to help me acknowledge the amazing work required to keep all of this going. Curator of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge & Creator of gallery ....... FreeWee Ling.

Do check out the amazing photo gallery she has put together over the months https://picasaweb.google.com/freeweel

As always many things happened since the last announcements.
We had the brilliant Mexican, Bert Jedburgh stepping in for Yesikita Coppola to present the Machinima for the June Round winners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W09c736lgw&feature=player_embedded

And also, I am very happy to say that after a 2 month hiatus where we also had the help of Laslopantomik Yao, we have our official machinimatographer, Yesikita Coppola back to create the Machinima for the July round!

The amazing artworks have provided the perfect material for the L$300,000 MachininUWA IV: Art of the Artists. The most recent submissions for this have come from Miso Susanowa! The challenge here is to create a machinima that features some (or one) of the artworks submitted to the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. You can choose to film as many (or as few) as you like, and you may submit any number of entries. The theme is wide open, only the subject matter is fixed in that it must have been exhibited at some point for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. This is a tribute to all of you, the wonderful 3D artists who have created all the masterful works that surround you now. This closes in November, so do encourage any colleagues of yours who create machinima to work with you and your creations.
http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/06/journey-continues-machinimuwa-iv-art-of.html

Some great publicity for UWA SL Art activities, as Western Australia's Artists's Chronicle (Issue No 139, July/August 2011), a bi-monthly publication for artists and collectors featured the UWA 3D Art Challenge following the results of a recent survey of people from across the world who have had some experience with UWA's activities in the virtual world.

The article is linked here:
http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/07/uwa-3d-art-features-in-artists.html

The image on Page 16 shows off some of the artworks sent in for the June and July rounds of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge including Cherry Manga's Dotty Autoportrait, Mcarp Mavendorf's Jack Star, Kolor Fall's BeforeY & Adjacent Lovers and Miso Susanowa's Daddy (Venomous Constricter).

With the UWA RL/SL Photo Comp ( UWA Friends of the Grounds Photo Comp) where 12 photos were selected from over 250 plus entries and more than 60 entries from Second Life, I had already announced that somehow the photo taken by a rank amateur who obviously doesnt know what he's doing, namely myself, was selected as one of the 12 photos for the calendar. I had decided of course not to award the L$25,000 prize and use it instead to purchase the actual calendars and use it as prizes for the art and machinima grand finale winners. Sadly, I can't spend L$25,000 on it anymore....

The good news is that another photo from SL has now been selected to be a companion image to one of the RL monthly photos selected. So the person who submitted that photo will receive L$12,500 and I'll tell you who it is (very familiar name) as soon as I get permission from the organizers to print all the photos on the blog. All this should happen this month, as I have been invited to attend a special function with the UWA Vice-Chancellor as guest of honour on the 29th of August where all the photos will be on display at the University Club of UWA.

Another thing of note is that in 2010, the University of Western Australia assisted the University of Western Sydney in their study of the use of virtual moot courts in virtual worlds. Following that, in 2011, Paul Rogers, Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Sydney co-authored a journal paper titled "Virtual Moot Court: A Pilot Study". This was published in the Journal of the Australasian Law teachers Association. See the UWA where part of the paper has been reproduced http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/08/virtual-moot-court-in-journal-of.html

Page 2 details the assistance provided by Professor William Ford, then UWA's Dean of the Faculty of Law and myself. On page 4 Nyx Breen's involvement is described as he was the main architect for the spaces used to conduct the moot court activities, while Raphaella Nightfire is referenced on Page 5 as she helped design the legal attire that was used. Nyx & Raphaella were of course mainstays of the 1st year of art and architecture challenges at UWA.

As I said last month, the October Round will be the final monthly round of the art challenges at UWA. There won't be monthly art challenges at UWA once the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge draws to a close. HOWEVER, this DOES NOT mean that its the end of art at UWA. The art gallery will remain, and revert to how galleries normally operate, and FreeWee Ling will continue as curator.

The only thing ending is MONTHLY art challenges. There will be a major art challenge probably in the middle of 2012, and MachinimUWA V will also be run in 2012. Both will have a theme and will be relatively open but loosely tied to UWA's centenary in RL as she is 100 years old. So everything remains the same at UWA, Teaching, Research, Architecture and Art in general. The only change will be that there will no longer be a monthly art challenge.

For UWA's full sim art series, we thank Ally Aeon and the artists of Aeonia for the wonder Migr-Ants for their brilliant work, and also the smaller creations that were sent in to the July Round that hinted at the larger full sim creation.

The August month may see the end of the UWA FULL SIM ART SERIES. As described when the series kicked off, this was always going to happen as the 5th UWA SIM on which this is hosted was coming to a natural end of its life cycle (the 4 main UWA sims continue as always).

In a remarkable display, June Clavenham of Montevideo, Uruguay has worked her magic within 24 hours of receiving the land from the Artists of Aeonia once the Migr-Ants had moved on.

And thus it is that we present June Clavenham's 'Choices' for the August month of the Full SIM art series. In her words, "Choices is both a visual experience, and a statement about hope. I believe our choices are sometimes not the most wise, but they are the best we can do at a given moment, and at the end we will be able to find what brings kidness and peace to our hearts. I made the textures for the place, and tried to create an ambience to make you immerse and ponder. I hope you find it interesting, and have a bit of fun at the end of the path."

Click here to get the LM's for it:
http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/08/june-clavenhams-choices-uwa-full-sim.html

I would like to acknowledge the members of the UWA judging panel. On the panel were:
1. Professor Ted Snell (RL) - Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
2. John Barret-Lennard (RL) - Curator of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA
3. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) - Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery
4. Len Zuks (RL) - Award Winning West Australian Sculpturist
5. FreeWee Ling (SL) - Curator, UWA 3D Open Art Challenge
6. Laetitia Wilson (RL) - Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, UWA
7. Lyn DiCiero (RL) - Editor, WA Artist's Chronicle
8. And expert paper shuffler and stapler refiller ...... Yours Truly

Those who followed procedings last year would know that for the Grand Finale, the panel expands to include many SL Art personalities, and for this new challenge, the expanded panel will include:

1. Sasun Steinbeck - Creator of the Art Galleries of SL list at http://sasun.info/ArtGalleriesofSL.aspx
2. Tayzia Abattoir (SL) Owner of The Oldest Virtual World Art Museum in SL, curator of the Aho Museum & Arts Simulacra on the NMC Campus and Relay For LIfe of SL Event Chair
3. Lumiere Noir (SL) - Creator of the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives
4. Dr. Phylis Johnson (RL) - Media Professor, Southern Illinois Uinversity, Author - Machinima: Aesthetics and Practice (a.k.a, Sonicity Fitzroy, SL Virtual Journalist)
5. Rowan Derryth (SL) - Art & Design Historian; Writer for Prim Perfect Publications
6. Persia Bravin (SL) - Journalist and Media Producer (SL newspapers, magazines, radio and television)
7 Dr Carmen Fies (RL) - Second Life Lead: University of Texas San Antonio & UTSA Artspace
8. Apollo Manga (SL) - examiner.com Writer & Novelist
9. Jordan Whitt (SL) - Editor in Chief, ICON Lifestyle Magazine
10. Mariposa Upshaw (SL) - Curator - Ventura Art & Jardine; Officer, Arts Council of Second Life
11. Saffia Widdershins (SL) - Owner and Editor of Prim Perfect Publications
12. Phillip Vought (SL) - Art Philanthropist & Founding Patron of UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre
13. Bohemian Ghost (SL) - Art Philanthropist & Owner of Summerland Estates
14. Ally Aeon (SL) - Founder Aeonia Artist Group, creator/owner of the art region Aeonia
15. Aino Baar (SL) - Owner of the Open This End Group

Now for the winners. The winners will be announced in 1 minute intervals. We invite everyone to comment and congratulate the winners and for the winners to respond before the next announcement (and if they could please use the SHOUT function). Also prizes will be given immediately following the announcements, so if you have won, please do stay till the end of the announcements.

I must say... that in all the months of the challenge, this is the most unique set of results that I have come across

First the People's Choice Awards. For this, I always start off by thanking GeeJAnn Blackadder, who created this wonderful voting system for us. Its been working a treat since being set up, and greatly assists in the running of the People's Choice!

The People's Choice Award, where all of SL is invited to vote, carries a 1st ($L2,500) and a 2nd prize ($L1,000). Its almost never been decided completely before the final day, and JULY was no exception.

For the PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD, 2nd prize (L$1,000) goes to:
THE MATTER OF IDEAS by Gleman Jun

AND, the winner of the JULY PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD (L$2,500) is:
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAIN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

Very strong in the voting for the People's Choice Award (and in no particular order) were: Mudbug Cooperstone's 'Regeneration of Life', Fiona Blaylock's 'Time flies', Bety Tureaud's 'Magician's Hat', Ub Yifu's 'Child Play', Cherry manga's 'Dotty Autoportrait', Miso Susanowa's 'Down on the Data Farm', Daco Monday's 'Musico P' and Artistide Despres' 'Harmonies in C Great (+)'.

TWELVE Art Group Prizes of L$5,000 each have been awarded by the various judging panels for the JULY Round of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge:

The Odyssey Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Fau Ferdinand, Joe Ellsmere & Lizsolo Mathilde goes to
THE SUPERHEROES BREAKFAST by Typote Beck

The SL Art Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Gleman Jun & Sunset Quinnell goes to:
CHILD PLAY by Ub Yifu

Said the panel, "Who are we to talk about Ub`s work? We can only thank him for the opportunity to share with us his art. Specifically in Child Play he delighted us with the atmosphere of mystery created with shapes, colors, lights and shadows. Ub is a fine art and uses animations and movements sparingly. Child Play is definitely a mature work of art itself from a creative and experienced artist."

The UTSA Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Dr Carmen Fies goes to:
FANTASY by Anley Piers

The CARP Prize (L$5,000) whose focus is on scripting with a panel led by Velasquez Bonnetto & Josina Burgess goes to:
HARMONIES IN C GREAT (+) by Artistide Despres

Josina shared, "Velazquez and me walked over the exhibition and enjoyed again all works and great creativity, art, builds, installations and ideas. As you know we go for the well used scripts and artistique innovation. And again we chose the work of Artistide Despres this month. Her constant flow of new ideas and developments is just stunning, also the hardness and complexity of the scripts and the use of Inland Sounds is great."

Next the joint Workhouse & Art Place d-o-o-b Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Astarte Haalan and Elfachfilm Vacirca goes to:
DOWN ON THE DATA FARM by Miso Susanowa

The judges explained, "Why did this remind us of the new SL web profiles? 'Google Index +1.27…Facebook Index 209…Sociality 83.' The consumer in her feeding pen is force fed the recycled products of her own artificial biology. She wears the brands of, among others, AT&T, iTunes, YouTube and…Second Life. The consumer has become the captive of the very products that promise to free her. While we enjoy so many aspects of our second lives, and of technology in general, we must always be wary of their ability to enslave as well as to liberate if we are to remain creative, productive, human beings. We may be at a critical juncture, where we are either shackled to devices of our own making or use them to achieve new insights and wisdom. The July award from Art Place d-oo-b and the Workhouse goes to Miso Susanowa for Down on the Data Farm."

The BOSL Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Frolic Mills & Editorial Clarity goes to:
DOTTY AUTOPORTRAIT by Cherry Manga

Said the BOSL Chair, "Cherry shows once again her passion and sense of taste with this wonderfull and playful art piece. One must really be free and elevated to produce a self portrait of ourselves like Cherry did. I have a feeling she is all that and much more!"

The Nordan Art Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Flora Nordenskiold goes to:

An artist to be names later, as first, Nordan Art are providing an Honourable Mention Prize as well of L$2,500 and this goes to:
NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE by Dekka Raymaker

Said the panel, "It was absolutely impossible for the Nordan Art jury to pick one winner for the July 2011 round. Dekka Raymaker's work "Nude Descending a Staircase" consists of a section of a room; part of a floor, a staircase, part of a wallpapered wall. There are seven wooden hangers positioned above the staircase. Watching this installation, one is initially struck by the simplicity of it; hangers above a staircase. But the cleverly positioned hangers, the shape and the turns of the staircase, the pattern of the delicate blue wallpaper, somehow all come together and leave an impression of a nude gracefully moving down the steps. Dekka's work stands out to Nordan Art because he has succeeded in creating an optical illusion of sorts. With his hinting and suggesting using basic objects, he stimulates one's imagination to the fullest. Dekka masters the surreal."

And the winner of The Nordan Art Prize (L$5,000) for July is:
HARMONIES IN C GREAT (+) by Artistide Despres

A 2nd Group award for Artee.... meaning direct qualification to the Grand Finale!

The panel offered "Artistide Despres' work "Harmonies in C Great (+)" consists of a marble platform on which are placed three large wooden strips of wood and two wooden poles. The large wooden strips are moving, bending backwards and forwards, in individual rhythms. The wooden poles are each enveloped by one large and one small cylinder shaped piece of wood; these shapes are turning around and simultaneously moving up and down the wooden pole. There is also a thinner wooden pole within the larger wooden pole; it is moving up and down. Smoke and a small wooden ball are being projected out from each of these constallations. Music, a modern classical pieces of sorts, is part of the installation. Standing in front of this work one is immediately struck by the unpredictable movements seemingly producing an incredibly forceful energy. But at some point, incorporating the sound, it appears the movements and the energy in fact give rise to the music. Artistide's work stands out to Nordan Art because she is able to integrate simple forms, complex movements and sound into a meaningful whole. Her work leaves the viewer thinking and wondering about its meaning. Artistide has created an imaginary instrument. "

The Pirats Prize: (L$5,000) with a panel led by Merlina Rokocoko & Newbab Zsigmond goes to:
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAIN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

A 2nd award for Fuschia, however, unlike Artee's this does not gain direct qualification to the grand finale, as the other award was the People's Choice

The Tornado Gallery Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Taralyn Gravois goes to:
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAIN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

And so... a 3rd Award for Fuschia, plus a 2nd Group Award... meaning direct entry to the Grand Finale!
A member of the Tornado Gallery panel commented, "I love this piece, the use of textures to camouflage the zebras. They are hidden in plain sight. Being in the open room of the UWA gallery does not do it justice, it is an amazing piece. Thank you for creating it, I look forward to more pieces like this."

The S&S Gallery OFA Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by TheDove Rhode goes to:
THE SUPERHEROES BREAKFAST by Typote Beck

And thus we have a 3rd double winner gaining direct entry to the Grand Finale, as Typote took the Odyssey Prize as well.

Said the panel, "Entering the door, peeking in, surprised by the muse in the corner, window filled with a view of storm. Spying the light, shadows light streams eyes widen... I knew this was the corner for a hero, and even a Dove to alight upon."

The project Z Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Zachh Cale goes to:
THE SUPERHEROES BREAKFAST by Typote Beck

this is simply amazing...... Typote emulates Misprint Thursday's feat of winning 3 Group awards in a single month. She did it with Digital Glove. The next closest to this was Lollito Larkham who won 3 Group Awards in the same month but shared between 2 artworks.

The Phi Designs Prize (L$5,000) with a panel led by Ginger Alsop goes to:
DOWN ON THE DATA FARM by Miso Susanowa

And this is why I said July's results were unique. 4 different artworks have been selected by at least 2 Groups as their winner, and without even looking at the UWA panel results, we have 4 works gaining direct qualification to the Grand Finale. This is unprecedented!

many comments from the Phi Designs panelists "Smart and thoughtful, the commentary on being always connected, always accessible and inescapably subbed to the whole world of information. Makes me react in a very visceral way.”

“This says data mining so well, from the secrets people prefer not to tell to the invasive element of data mining, its thoughtful, shocking and brilliant.”

“Disturbing but honest - how we feed on binaries and social networks, and how they grow on our input, slightly scripted and not too heavy in symbolism.”

“This piece scares me ... you can laugh at it, but when you really start to think about it, you realize what Miso has represented is exactly where we are headed. Where we are plugged in to the network, and everything is all about the value of the information we provide or are given.”

Next, the Curator's Choice award is chosen by FreeWee Ling to recognize work that, for whatever reason, may not receive a regular prize, but that is felt to be deserving of recognition.

In FreeWee's words:
"I took over 250 pictures of the entries in this month's Challenge. It's never an easy task, but with 73 complex works to document, this round was especially difficult. It was also especially rewarding. I've never felt so ambiguous about picking winners before. There were at least a dozen pieces I could name that I thought were completely deserving of a first prize. The competition was fierce and the judging could have gone any number of ways. It is remarkable that solid a consensus was achieved. But the consensus belies a lot of discussion and thought.

This month the Curator's Choice award is my opportunity to recognize an artist who came very close to winning several other prizes. She always comes up with thought-provoking works, often in medium to large scale. This month her entry was a total surprise and a delight. I mentioned to her when it was delivered that I was impressed that she packed so much into this space. "

The July Curator's Choice Award (L$5,000) goes to:
INSIDE A TROUBLED MIND, by Toughlove Sabra

Now for the Best Non-Scripted entry. The JULY round once again saw many non-scripted entries come in... so much so that FreeWee has an announcement pertaining to Non-Scripted works. Anyway, the July winner of the Best Non-Scripted Entry is:
TUNNEL WITH LIGHT AT THE END OF IT by RazorZ

It should be no surprise by now to all experienced with the challenge that we are unable to award the L$5,000 prize to RazorZ.

This is of course because the is a joint winner for the non-scripted prize. And so the joint winner of the Best Non-Scripted Entry for July (@L$2,500), is:
HURDLE by Corcosman Voom

As promised, here is FreeWee's announcement in relation to this,
"Last March, we realized how many really great pieces were submitted that were non-scripted. I had a similar realization in the July round and so, as before, I will be gathering a select group of the best non-scripted pieces to be exhibited on a platform above the gallery within the next couple of days. The exhibit is to be titled "More When Less is More" and I will be producing an exhibit catalog as I did for the previous exhibit. That catalog is online at http://freeweeling.com/blog/2011/04/when-less-is-more/. Watch for further announcements."

Now for the top 3 Prizes. All of these works will go straight to the Grand Finale round. 4 works are already through to the Grand Finale based on the outcome of the Group selections.

In 3rd place is someone well known and loved by all who have been attending the UWA Art Challenge announcements. Certainly one to have controversy attached as well whenever their name is called ! Almost as much as the recent ballyhoo in the artworld!

And so, 3rd Prize for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge for JULY goes to:
NOBODY
Yes, NOBODY and many of you already know why.

Well all of you already know what this means. Again, the reason for this is to accomodate the varying views and not spend hours trying to dissect one work from another in terms of which is marginally better. I am happy to announce that we have a THREE WAY TIE FOR 2ND PLACE! We've added the 2nd & 3rd prize amounts and topped that off a tiny bit to make it L$5,000 each. And so, the JOINT winner of the 2nd Prize for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge for July is:
THE MATTER OF IDEAS by Gleman Jun

Gleman's piece also took 2nd prize in the People's Choice as you'd recall.

Next, the JOINT winner of the 2nd Prize for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge for JULY also is:
LIVING FRACTAL by June Clavenham

AND, the JOINT winner of the 2nd Prize for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge for JULY also is:
NOT EVERYTHING IS PLAIN BLACK & WHITE by Fuschia Nightfire

Amazing...... 2nd Prize, People's Choice Winner & 2 Group awards for Fuschia with a total of L$17,500 in prizes this month!

Now to the winner of the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge for JULY, following in the footsteps of past champions Snubnose Genopeak, Glyph Graves, Atomic Gaffer, Fuschia Nightfire/Flivelwitz Alsop, Julez Odigaunt, FreeWee Ling, Bryn Oh, Nish Mip, Josina Burgess, Cherry Manga, Igor Ballyhoo, Suzanne Graves, Lea Supermarine/Jarapanda Snook, Ginger Alsop, Gleman Jun, Dusty Canning, L1aura Loire and Emilin Nakamori.

Now when I first laid my eyes on this piece, I instantly said to FreeWee, 'this piece is going to win something for sure', little did I realize how successful it would be. A piece that according to some of the UWA panelists conveyed a true sense of grandeur, it is with great pleasure that we announce that the Winner of 1st Prize (L$10,000) for the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge for JULY 2011 is:
HARMONIES IN C GREAT (+) by 'Artee' Artistide Despres

2 Group prizes and the overall 1st prize making that a total for L$20,000 for July.

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to all the artists who have entered the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge. We are officially receiving artworks for AUGUST, so please do send in your entries as soon as possible as the entries will close on the 20th of the month.