Many of UWA's "
100 treasures" designated by the Centenary celebration
committee, are reproduced in beautiful detail on the UWA virtual campus in Second Life.
In fact, UWA's presence in Second Life is itself listed as one of the treasures. As many would be aware, these form the core of the
L$725,000 MachinimUWA V challenge with the theme "Seek Wisdom."
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| Winthrop Clock Tower in Second Life |
In perusing the objects in the 100 treasures book, one thing that struck me
was the number of them that are in, near, or part of the iconic Winthrop Hall
(including, of course, the building itself as a whole). The beautiful and
meticulous rendition of the façade in Second Life with its adjoining reflecting pool is
known to anyone who has spent time here or has worked in the nearby sandbox.
You can see the busts of
Socrates and
Diotima,
the Rose Window, the clock
tower, the
Mosaic Marble Floor in the entryway and wrought iron rail, even the
subtle winged lion frieze below the eaves of the building.
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| Mosaic Marble Floor (Image - Virtual) |
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| Winged Lion Frieze (Image - Real) |
Among the treasures inside Winthrop are the interior ceiling beams with
aboriginal-inspired decoration, the use of the venue for the annual student
exams, and the rose window once again, but illuminated by the sun and framed by
the majestic McGillvray pipe organ that dominates the proscenium.
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| McGillivray Organ (Image - Real) |
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| Image - Real |
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| Image - Real |
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| Image - Real |
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| Ceiling Beams (Image - Real) |
In March we held an Artists' Choice challenge on the theme
"music." On a lark I thought it would be fun to install the world's
largest pipe organ. I built a pipe rezzer that arranged a set of pipes in
more-or-less correct proportion (assuming equal temperament using the 12th root
of 2 as a scale parameter), but at an utterly impractical scale. Nonetheless it was an
appropriately musical backdrop for the exhibition that month.
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| Initial Pipe Organ (Image - Virtual) |
What I didn't realize until later when Jay Jay Zifanwe (Jegathesan) pointed it out, was that my
organ bore an uncanny resemblance to the one in Winthrop Hall at
UWA (including the clarion horns), another of the 100 treasures. Having done what I thought was the hard part
by building the pipe rezzer, I figured why not go ahead and recreate the
Winthrop organ? And of course I couldn’t just build the organ. I had to
recreate the entire interior of Winthrop Hall. This project has absorbed much
of my spare time in the last month or two and it is now yet another treasure of
UWA recreated in SL. Machinimatographers and any other curious people may now
enter Winthrop from the foyer. There is a teleport device there. The interior would not fit
comfortably within the existing façade, so I had to put it on a platform above.
But I think you’ll get a pretty realistic feeling of what it is like in that
space and it is appropriate for the MachinimUWA V challenge.
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| Image (Virtual) |
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| Image (Virtual) |
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| Image (Virtual) |
I want to thank Jay Jay for taking many pictures of the interior details and
long shots. I used his photos for the stone wall textures and doors, as well as
the ceiling decorations, the wall medallions, the stained glass windows, and the large wall hanging in the
back of the hall above the choir loft. I have detailed some of the challenges
in creating this space on
my own blog.
FreeWee Ling
Editor's Note:
FreeWee Ling, the UWA Curator of Virtual Arts has done a remarkable job in bringing this space to life. I graduated in Winthrop Hall, as did many thousands throughout UWA's 100 year history. This brings full circle the efforts to recreate Winthrop Hall in Second life. The facade, Atrium with Mosaic Marble Floor, Rose Window & Reflecting Pond were created by Dr Chris Thorne, David Gaze, Wong Tzu Yen & quadrapop Lane in 2009, and in May 2012, thanks to FreeWee Ling, the full creation is realized!
Jay Jay Jegathesan
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