UWA's LAST OCEAN - ONE SIM WILL REMAIN

In the very first art challenge UWA held about 7 years ago, an artist by the name of Nish Mip, sent in an artwork called 'THE LAST OCEAN'. It ended up winning the 2nd overall prize, behind UMBRELLA's, incredibly by the same artist.

As follows is what Nish wrote about 'THE LAST OCEAN' (which you can still see for the next 2 weeks)

Entry:  THE LAST OCEAN (SLURL)

"What  I had in mind here was the death of a virtual world. It's been playing on my mind for some while (I wonder why? :) ). When virtual worlds die they go with a flick of a switch, but I imagined a ragtag bunch of characters hanging on to the last remains as an inflated sun gradually dries their virtual oceans and the search for other worlds begins. The whispers you can hear are  remaining messages blowing in the binary wind. I think I spent more time thinking of a title for this than I did building it. I still wasn't happy with what I came up with, but as it had more sea than anything else in it  and Ocean has to be one of my favorite words, so that's how it'll stay."

In my years leading the UWA sims, this piece has never been far from my conscious mind. I guess I was always thinking about when that day might come for UWA in Second Life. Its not quite here, but it is with a heavy heart, that I must inform you all, that 4 of the 5 UWA sims, will vanish into the binary night on the 9th of October 2016. The SIM that will remain for at least another year is the Uni of WA sim, which is our flagship sim housing Winthrop Clocktower and the Reflection Pond, The Sunken Gardens and The Somerville Theatre.

Everything on All Sims will remain as is for the next 2 weeks... do come back for a visit as many of the artworks going back 7 years are still at various locations. Once those 2 weeks are up, our curator, Freewee Ling will start to rationalise what is on the UWA sims, so that some items from all sims are brought onto the one remaining sim.

SIMS THAT WILL GO:

• UWA - Main art sim with the gallery and various UWA campus buildings.
• UWA WINTHROP - Hosts the grand finale art winners as well as other selected works, and Glyph Graves's seminal work "Strangers Also Dance." 
• WASP LAND - The UWA Research sim, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery with M Linden Artworks, and a 1052 prim model of Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral. Also an amazing 2012 collection of works by Rebeca Bashly in a 200m sphere.
• UWA VIRLANTIS - This sim will be taken over by Dr Phylis Johnson (Sonicity Fitzroy). The sim has been housing facilities for teaching, and we are happy that this will remain where it is, under a different owner.

Everyone, do come..reminisce....look through the blog posts here, find yourselves. It is all of you who made all of this possible. I normally am known for long drawn out presentations and speeches perhaps, but, this time it is too hard for me to think of what else to say... except ...

THANK YOU EVERYONE


Why are the sims closing?
There have been clouds over UWA in RL for some time in terms of structure. This uncertainty has created a situation where it is difficult for me to do the things I had been doing to keep the sims going. This was never my 'job'....  but the realisation of a dream that started in 2004.

JAYJAY ZIFANWE


FROM FREEWEE

I am saddened by the restructuring that is happening at UWA and that the university's presence in SL will be so drastically curtailed. JayJay has done a remarkable job establishing the virtual campus, maintaining the sims and, more significantly, building a worldwide reputation for UWA's virtual presence. He has worked tirelessly to promote UWA in SL for the last seven years. There is no one at UWA who didn't know about it, and tours of the rl campus by everything from local school kids to international delegations were routinely given a tour of the virtual campus as well. Our reputation for inspiring the creation of literally thousands of virtual artworks and machinima by hundreds of artists from around the globe has helped to raise awareness of what creative people in virtual worlds are capable of achieving. Our programs have served to elevate and legitimize the work we do here. We had an inclusive open entry policy that allowed newbies and veterans to exhibit and compete on equal footing. I am very proud of all the work you submitted to our programs. I will share more of my personal thoughts in a separate post.

BUSINESS STUFF
If you are an artist or builder who has installed an object yourself on any of the UWA sims and want to retrieve it before it's removed PLEASE CONTACT FREEWEE FIRST! I am working hard the next couple of weeks to complete the documentation of the IMMATERIAL show for the exhibition catalog. I will then be hammering away at documenting all the UWA sims for posterity. I want to be sure to capture what I can before it goes away forever. If you need to retrieve something rather than having it returned to you, contact me ASAP!

The current Uni of WA main sim is nearly maxed out, so I will be removing a lot of stuff that is not essential in order to make room for selected objects/installations from the other three sims. As things progress, objects will be moved or returned as needed and there will not be time to notify anyone that their property is about to be returned. I cannot guarantee that pieces will arrive in your Lost & Found intact. Please contact FreeWee Ling inworld if you have questions.