Tutsy Does Nish: MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists Entry

More brilliance by Iono Allen: July winners of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge

Iono Allen again sets the standard!!

A spyVspy Aeon Production for MachinimUWA II

Features the works of Yabusaka Loon, Merlino Mayo, Igor Ballyhoo and Noke Yuizta

tutsy Navarathna kicks off MachinimUWA II Entries!

A wonderful entry by tutsy Navarathna and also starring Kit Guardian kicks off the entries to MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists

A little more than a month out from the closing date 20th September, plenty of time for those still filming to include the August (Final) Month entries to the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge.

Wonderful to see so many of the artists featured in this including works by Glyph Graves, Jarapanda Snook, Igor Ballyhoo, Lea Supermarine, Rose Borchovski, Noke Yuizta, Nish Mip, Merlino Mayo, Silene Christen, Abstract Baroque, Eliza Wierwight, pravda Core, Anyunie Daviau, FreeWee Ling, Fuschia Nightfire, jeri Rahja, pol Jarvinen, Ichiko Miles, Gingered Alsop, Zola Zsun, Miso Susanowa, Sistagrlro Wei, kyra Roxan, Yabusaka Loon, Atomic Gaffer, Alizarin Goldflake, nessuno Myoo and Flivelwitz Alsop.

Machinimatographers needing to rez, please contact quadrapop Lane or Jayjay Zifanwe.

July Imagine & Flagship Winners: Bryn & Nish in Double Return, DB & Patch Supreme

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Its not an easy task winning the IMAGINE Category of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. Let alone winning it twice. Yet July saw this happen, not once, but twice, as former winners Bryn Oh (26 Tines) and Nish Mip (Overload) were named joint winners of the L$5,000 prize July Imagine First Prize.

26 Tines by Bryn Oh, joint 1st place winner July Imagine

The FLAGSHIP (Architecture) Challenge saw the formidable partnership of DB Bailey & Patch Thibaud take the L$5,000 1st Prize over Brazil's Herick Straaf. 5 time Flagship Champion Nyx Breen won the Casey West Australian Cultural Prize for the 3rd time.

The penultimate month of this year long L$550,000 challenge, July saw a record shattering 80 submissions to the IMAGINE challenge with 5 Flagship Builds with incredible diversity and quality, as has become a trademark of the Challenges.

Some of the July Imagine & Flagship Winners gathered in front of the winning UWA Trophy entries
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Commenting on the win, Nish said, "I am still so amazed that people even like my work There are so many truly great artists with incredible art entering into this
competition. I'm absolutely amazed that I've managed to win something again. It's put me on a real high. Thanks to everyone at UWA who help in organizing these competitions and thank you again to all the artists who have made these events so magical"

Nish Mip, Joint winner of July Imagine prize
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Speaking on behalf of the FLAGSHIP collaboration, DB said, "It's fun to win. The real winner here is SL. What this has underscored for me is how extraordinarily effective this medium is in collaboration. To be able to work with another architect three thousand miles apart and three hours time difference on a design is a great experience. Not possible using the conventional design tools."

DB Bailey (above) collaborated with Patch Thibaud (below) on a winning design for July Flagship
Photos Jadyn Firehawk

Patch was equally effusive about being able to collaborate with DB "DB Bailey and I have collaborated on a number of projects, but we had a special interest in the Flagship challenge. We felt it was a great opportunity to provide yet another example of using a virtual world as a platform for architectural collaboration. We also decided that, although the competition brief did not require it, that we would seek to create a building that responded to the real world site for the UWA's Cultural Precinct building, thus exploring Second Life as a design medium for real world projects. As always, I have found working with DB to be hugely enriching on a creative level, and the University of Western Australia's Flagship Challenge to be a terrific incubator of creative endeavor in Second Life."

First time entrant Gingered Alsop took out 2nd place in the IMAGINE Challenge with 'The Chamber' a wonderfully immersive piece that had many a visitor lost inside in awe for hours.

Gingered Alsop, creator of The Chamber, placed 2nd int he July Imagine

"There is no greater gift then to see through your eyes what you imagine in your mind, and no greater joy then to share what you create to inspire the creativity of another's mind.", said Gingered. "2nd place is completely unexpected ... and I am stunned and humbled purely by the amazing work I saw."

In something that has never happened before in the non-scripted category, the judges could not separate the top 2, and thus this category provided a joint winner for the first time. JUMP by Corcosman Voom, and THE MECHANICAL KNIGHT by Nessuno Myoo could not be separated.

Corcosman Voom's (above) piece Jump, shared the honour of
Best Non-scripted Imagine prize for July with Nessuno Myoo's Mechaniocal Knight.

"I am very pleased to share the July award for best Non-Scripted Entry with nessuno Myoo, an artist noted for being able to make the prims speak to us without disguising their nature. I want to thank the many, many people involved in making the Art & Design Challenge a unique event in Second Life, from both the University and from the Second Life community. An event of this magnitude is not possible without many hands to help. Most of all I want to thank Jayjay and quadrapop for the many hours of hard work they have devoted to this project, they have given us a wonderful gift in the Art & Design Challenge." said Corcosman.

The People's Choice Award followed an uncanny pattern to June, as there were joint winners for July as well, with LIFE by Yabusaka Loon and LESSONS IN DEMOCRACY by Rose Borchovski sharing honours for 2nd place.

Yabusaka Loon, in front of Life, joint 2nd place People's Choice winner.

Lea Supermarine however won the People's Choice an amazing 2nd time running, with NEURAL NONSENSE. The first time this has been achieved. When asked for comment, Lea responded. "Can I think a moment about it? Brains are burning.", which was the right answer, if one examines her submission.

Lea Supermarine's Neural Nonsense took the July People's Choice 1st Prize

There were 6 Honourable Mention Prizes in all. These went to Noke Yuizta, pravda Core, Maya Paris, Selavy Oh (and Identity Absent), Takni Miklos & Yabusaka Loon.

Selavy asked to convey that Identity Absent was very glad to receive the prize, and that this event will be a turning point in her life!

Pixi Cosmos, winner of the inaugral Bohemian Ghost Prize

The Rain Prize (L$1,000) and the newly established Bohemian Ghost Prize ($L1,000 + 600 Prims on The Summerland sim).

These were won by luciella Lutrova (ESCULTURA CON BAILARINA) and Pixi Cosmos (SLICE OF TRANQUILITY) respectively.

UWA Trophy Contest
The winners of the UWA Trophy Contest were also announced. This contest was kindly organized and run by FreeWee Ling and the Resients of Artemesia.

Two L$3,000 prizes were on offer, with one of them being selected as the official trophy for the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, with the other to be used in an as yet unannounced Grand Collaboration.

Miso Susanowa
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Taking top honours here were Miso Susanowa & Sharni Azalee. Of Miso's piece, the judges commented that Miso "...created a beautifully executed graphic design that explicitly says UWA while embodying the creative spirit of the challenge", and in describing Sharni's work, they said, "...it represents elegance and sophistication and is a great representation of three-D in SL". Abstract Baroque & Nish Mip took the Honourable Mention prizes.

Sharni Alazee
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Music & Skyshow

Torben Asp

At the July Announcement's afterparty in DB & Patch's Flagship build live musician Torben Asp wowed the crowd with his wonderful instrumental and particle show. To experience one of his shows for yourself check out his website.

The particles were all encompassing, a fitting addition to the musical offering of Torben Asp

Other UWA News
A number of landmark events also took place with the UWA presence in Second Life. UWA had been providing access to the staff & students of art at Pontific Catholic University of Peru (PUCP - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) to the teaching locations and the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge platform for some time, and on the 19th of July, the relationship ratcheted up a notch, with an address being given to a group of 80 PUCP lecturers and professors being introduced to SL for the first time via a large screen. The main thrust of the presentation was UWA's experiences as to Teaching, Education, Art & Architecture in SL, along with international collaboration. This was in collaboration with PUCP's Joselias Diesel (SL) and this talk was a part of the Technology & Information Integrated Communication in Education: Virtual Worlds and eLearning Seminar, which was carried out for the most part in RL. Other invited speakers included Pamqui Vita (SL) / Pedro Amill Quiles (RL), a Professor at the University of Puerto Rico and August Portilo (SL) of University Cayetano Heredia of Peru.

UTSA students, Jayjay, quadrapop and some Imagine Artists in the Visualisation display
at WASP Land during the UTSA tour of UWA in SL
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Also, a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between UWA & the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), between UWA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, and UTSA President, Ricardo Romo, has been inked by both sides. The first event held following the signing was a Lecture UWA gave to Postgraduate students from UTSA's Technology and Learning Cultures Postgraduate Course in the Instructional Technology Program. The talk detailed the history and development of virtual technologies at UWA. These students were all enrolled in either a Masters in Education,

Instructional Technology Concentration or a Masters in Adult Learning and Teaching. Through Dr Carmen Fies, their Lecturer a lot of feedback was received from the students, including:

"I really liked how an environment has been created within the UWA virtual campus that
fosters interdisciplinary learning. It seems you have brought artist, scientist, engineers, architects, mathematicians, and teachers together to create something pretty amazing. I'd have to say that the last spot we visited with all the art on display was exceptional."

One final milestone is the commencement in August 2010 of RL Postgraduate Classes at UWA using Second Life. Here, Professor Wade Halvorson, of the School of Business is using SL for a new postgraduate unit called Buyer Behaviour and Decision Making, where the students task would be to identify individuals and businesses in SL, interview them and write a research papers as to consumer choices.

WINNERS OF THE JULY ROUND OF THE UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE

IMAGINE CHALLENGE - 3D ART

Imagine Challenge 1st Prize:
($L5,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
26 TINES by Bryn Oh


Imagine Challenge 1st Prize:
($L5,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
OVERLOAD by Nish Mip




Imagine Challenge 2nd Prize:
($L3,000)
THE CHAMBER by Gingered Alsop


Best Non-Scripted Entry:
($L3,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
JUMP by Corcosman Voom


Best Non-Scripted Entry:
($L3,000 + Custom T-Shirt) JOINT
MECHANICAL KNIGHT by Nessuno Myoo





FLAGSHIP CHALLENGE - BUILDING DESIGN
Flagship Challenge 1st Prize :
($L5,000)
UWA CULTURAL PRECINCT GALLERY AND LABS by DB Bailey and Patch Thibaud


Flagship Challenge 2nd Prize:
($L3,000)
CONCEPT BUILDING FOR AXS LAB by Herick Straaf





IMAGINE HONOURABLE MENTION PRIZES

Honourable Mention Prize for TECHNICAL BRILLIANCE
(L$1,000)
LIFE by Yabusaka Loon


Honourable Mention Prize for HARMONY
(L$1,000)
DRIFT by Maya Paris

Maya Paris
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Honourable Mention Prize for MYSTERY
(L$1,000)
THE EMPTY CHAIR by Selavy Oh

Selavy Oh
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

Honourable Mention Prize for FURY
(L$1,000)
MINOTAUR'S WRATH by pravda Core



Honourable Mention Prize for IMMERSION
(L$1,000)
XIBALBA by Noke Yuizta



Honourable Mention Prize for SECOND LIFE WONDER
(L$1,000)
CHATMORPHER by Takni Miklos

Takni Miklos

The RAIN PRIZE
(L$1,000)
Established by one of the Founding Patrons of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
ESCULTURA CON BAILARINA (sculpture of a female dance) by luciella Lutrova

luciella Lutrova
Photo Jadyn Firehawk

CASEY PRIZE
JULY (L$4,000)
UWA AXS LAB by Nyx Breen



THE BOHEMIAN GHOST PRIZE
(L$1,000 + 600 Prims on the Summerland SIMM for at least 3 months)
SLICE OF TRANQUILITY by Pixi Cosmos



PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
1st prize (L$1,000)
NEURAL NONESENSE by Lea Supermarine


2nd prize
(L$500) JOINT
LESSONS IN DEMOCRACY by Rose Borchovski


2nd prize
(L$500) JOINT
LIFE by Yabusaka Loon

A Gnueon Aeon Machinima of the JUNE Winners

A wonderful machinima by Gnueon Aeon of Running Lady Productions of the JUNE IMAGINE winners of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge! With thanks to Suzy Yue!

A Suzy Yue Machinima of the JUNE Winners

A wonderful machinima by Suzy Yue of the JUNE IMAGINE winners of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge!

APOLOGIES... technical problems. Will sort out and embed.

Pontific Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) & UWA

UWA had been providing access to the staff & students of art at Pontific Catholic University of Peru (PUCP - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) to the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge platform for some time, and on the 19th of July, the relationship ratcheted up a notch, with Jayjay Zifanwe being invited to address a group of 80 PUCP lecturers and professors being introduced to SL for the first time via a large screen.

At the invitation of Joselias Diesel (SL) of PUCPO's School of Art, this talk was a part of the Technology & Information Integrated Communication in Education: Virtual Worlds and eLearning Seminar, which was carried out for the most part in RL.

Seated Left to Right: Pamqui Vita, August Portilo, Jayjay Zifanwe

Other invited speakers included Pamqui Vita (SL) / Pedro Amill Quiles (RL), a Professor at the University of Puerto Rico and August Portilo (SL) of University Cayetano Heredia of Peru.

MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists

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WHAT:
MachinimUWA II : Art of the Artists

THEME:
Create something that will take our breath away!

WHEN:
Submissions are open 7th July 2010 till 20th Sept 2010
Shortlisted entries will be displayed on the University of Western Australia (UWA) Second Life Blog.

PRIZE:
PRIZE POOL: $L140,000
Winner to be announced during the announcement of the Grand Prize winner of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge in early October 2010. 1st Prize $L70,000, 2nd Prize $L40,000, 3rd Prize $L30,000

THE CHALLENGE
Create a Machinima of between 2 and 5 minutes in length (we wont be finicky about time limits) that features some of the winning artworks from the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. There are more than 35 artworks spread across 4 floors, and you can choose to film as many (or as few) as you like.

SUBJECT MATTER
Winning artworks for the monthly rounds of the year long UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge located at the UWA 3d Art & Design Winner's Platform
(note the artworks are spread across 4 floors)
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4

you may also choose to film any of the art entries to the July or August rounds of the IMAGINE or FLAGSHIP challenges, as part of the Machinima, should those pieces better suit the machinima you are trying to create. These will be located on the UWA 3D Art & Design Platform and the Flagship Platform (accessible via TP panels on the Imagine Platform)

METHOD OF ENTRY & OTHER INFO:
* Load the Machinima anywhere, preferably youtube or vimeo, and provide the link to Jayjay Zifanwe
* The length of machinima referred to above is only a suggested maximum, and will not be enforced nor cause entries to be disqualified
* Please acknowledge the artworks you feature (full list below)
* If you need to rezz (blue screen etc), contact Jayjay Zifanwe, quadrapop Lane or Taralyn Gravois

CLOSING DATE:
Midnight 20th September 2010
(winners announced in Early October 2010)

UWA Logo Texture to be used if you wish
(available from Jayjay Zifanwe or quadrapop Lane in SL)

JUDGES
1. Professor Ted Snell (RL) - Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
2. Dr Carmen Fies (RL) - Second Life Lead: University of Texas San Antonio
3. quadrapop Lane (SL) - Curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
4. White Lebed (SL) - Lead of Burning Life Art Department, Curator
5. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) - Owner of The University of Western Australia (SL), Creator & co-host of the UWA 3D Art& Design Challenge
6. Iono Allen (SL) - Official Machinimatographer of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
7. Cisko Vandeverre (SL) - Reigning UWA MachinimUWA Champion
8. Dr Kim Flintoff (RL) - Lecturer, Instructional Design, Centre for eLearning, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

ARTWORK LIST
(Works currently in the contention for the Grand Prize - this will be updated over the next two months with the July & August winning entries):

SEPTEMBER 2009 WINNERS
OUR SOULS COLLIDE by Snubnose Genopeak
IMMERSIVE ART: THE MAZE by Alizarin Goldflake
AN UNKNOWN RACE by Isaa Gelber (non-scripted)

OCTOBER 2009 WINNERS
Willow by Bryn Oh
Holophrasis by Snubnose Genopeak
Concentric Shells by Ichiko Miles (non-scripted)

NOVEMBER 2009 WINNERS
Tendrils by Glyph Graves
Consolation of Philosophy of Ichiko Miles
Jackobs Stairs by Silene Christen (non-scripted)

DECEMBER 2009 WINNERS
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo
AURACARIA ARTIST BOOK by Anyunie Daviau
BLACK SOIL PLAINS RUNNING THROUGH MY VEINS by Sistagrlro Wei (non-scripted)

JANUARY 2010 WINNERS
CYBERSHARK by Igor Ballyhoo
MUTASCOPES by FreeWee Ling
BLACK PEARL by Solkide Auer (non-scripted)

FEBRUARY 2010 WINNERS
ATOMIC-GO-ROUND by Atomic Gaffer
NIGHT LIGHT by Alizarin Gldflake
THE NIGHT ORCHID by soror Nishi (non-scripted)

MARCH 2010 WINNERS
HEATH by Flivelwitz Alsop & Fuschia Nightfire
OCEANS OF LIGHT by Kolor Fall/Patrick Faith
JULIA'S WILTING HEART SHRINE by Julez Odigaunt
BLOOM GLOW by Sledge Roffo (non-scripted)

APRIL 2010 WINNERS
JULIA'S MAGIC MIRROR - DEMON by Julez Odigaunt
ORGANIC RECURVE by Glyph Graves
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee (non-scripted)

SCIEN&ART (PHYSICS ) WINNERS - MAY/JUNE
COSMIC SHOWER by Merlino Mayo
STRING THEORY by Abstract Baroque

MAY 2010 WINNERS
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip
IDENTITY CRISIS by Cat Boccaccio
TORSO SERIES (FIRE & WATER) by Eliza Wierwight
THE WHITE GODDESS TREE by Soror Nishi (non-scripted)

JUNE 2010 WINNERS
VERTICAL SPIRAL KALEIDOSCOPE by FreeWee Ling
EINSTEIN'S UNFINISHED SYMPHONY by Gleman Jun &
SIERPINSKY SIEVE by Takni Miklos
MEDUSA'S GAZE by pravda Core (non-scripted)

JULY 2010 WINNERS
TBA

AUGUST 2010 WINNERS
TBA

UWA Professor wins Pearson Prize for Second Life Study

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Professor Wade Halvorson Teaching at the UWA Sky Theatre

A/Professor Wade Halvorson of the School of Business, University of Western Australia (UWA) has won the Pearson Education Prize for the best Case Study paper at the July 2010 Academy of Marketing Conference. The Academy of Marketing annual conference is the largest academic marketing conference in the United Kingdom, and was held this year at the Coventry University Business School.

The case study concerns “Virtual Dublin”, a very successful online business in the virtual world, Second Life (Halvorson, W., Bal, A.S., Pitt, L.F., and Parent, M. (2010) Cashing in on the Green Dots: Marketing Ireland in Second Life, Academy of Marketing Conference, Coventry University, UK. July 2010).

Professor Wade Halvorson

This follows hot on the heels of the nomination of the University of Western Australia’s Second Life Presence and Jay Jay Jegathesan of the School of Physics, UWA (founder of the UWA Second Life presence), being nominated into the top 10 for the 2010 Linden prize for contributions to Art, Architecture, Research and Teaching in Virtual Worlds.

Professor Halvorson who uses Second Life as a teaching tool to undergraduate and postgraduate students at UWA for the Bachelor of Commerce and Masters by Coursework programmes said, “This means that Second Life businesses can be taken seriously. The case study presents a viable business model that works in the virtual world and that increased our knowledge in this field. Virtual world businesses have seen exponential growth. The total annual revenue of virtual products has reached a staggering USD 2 billion.”

Professor Halvorson described a paradigm breaking moment while he was completing his PhD at a Swedish University, while using Second Life to conduct classes with his students in Perth who were logged in at the UWA Sky Theatre within Second Life while simultaneously being addressed by a guest lecturer from Vancouver, Canada.

“It opens up the world to my students. We have students using the computer labs to conduct international consumer behaviour research. Second Life also allows me to conduct tutorials in brand communities such as at Harley Davidson Island in Second Life and give students exposure to brand community members without leaving their desktop.”

Since its official launch on the 2nd of October 2009, by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, the UWA presence in Second Life has seen a meteoric rise and is a recognized education leader in the virtual world.