As you can see on the picture, yesterday Ayiki did reproduce a nice building within an hour. We are impressed enough to thank her for the show. Thanks to Soror also for her very comprehensive texture making class.

Today will be like a ‘bouquet final’ because we have two great panels. ‘Architecture for Planned Community’ and ‘How Professionnal Architects use Second Life’ will definitely help us to answer the question “how to inhabit a synthetic world”.

Wednesday 19th Nov.

12PM SLT: Discussion: Architecture for Planned Community (Lower Plaza Auditorium)

The speakers will discuss the impact that community planning has on architecture, and ways that architecture supports community narrative, and discourages or invites patterns and habits in a community - practices like gathering, playing, debating, visiting, etc.

Speakers: Michael Linden, JJ Drinkwater, Jamie Palisades, and JeanRicard Broek.
Moderated by Malburns Writer.

Malburns Writer is a former designer, now metaverse news aggregator and correspondent. He is the host of the weekly webcast, “Metaverse Week In Review”. He also Twitters a ton and can occasionally be found moderating a discussion panel on Orange Island. :)

Michael Linden is the In-World Content Manager for Linden Lab; He leads the “moles” in creating objects, terrain, etc. for improving the Mainland of Second Life. Previously he was involved in SL Governance and customer support; and (before working at Linden Lab) He has been a game developer for text-based MUDs.

JJ Drinkwater is the director of the Caledon Library system, and of the Alexandrian Free Library, a consortium of libraries serving themed communities such as Caledon, Steelhead, and and Winterfell. JJ’s “physical avatar”, JJ Jacobson, is a librarian with longstanding interests in narrative, intentional community, and the history of everyday life.

1.30 PM SLT: WikiTree Demo

by Keystone Bouchard (aka Jon Brouchoud in RL) from Studio Wikitecture.

Studio Wikitecture is composed by Keystone Bouchard and Theory Shaw. They teamed up with i3dnow, and developed a unique inworld interface and accompanying website. The in-world interface, which they called the ‘Wiki-Tree’, acts essentially as a 3D-Wiki, allowing members to upload their different design ideas and/or modify the designs submitted by others. Along with version tracking of the various designs, the interface allows members to vote and leave comments around the evolving designs.

2.00 PM SLT: Discussion: ‘How Professional Architects are using Second Life?’

Speakers: Keystone Bouchard (Crescendo Design & Studio Wikitecture), Kliger Dinkin (Building with Immaterials), a member of the RMIT Avanced Environment group.
Moderated by Nick Rhodes (Orange Island team)

Keystone Bouchard
Jon Brouchoud (Keystone Bouchard in SL) is a freelance virtual architect and founder of Crescendo Design, a studio specialized in creating innovative, cost effective architecture. Jon has a Master of Architecture degree from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Jon’s work as an evangelist for virtual architecture has focused on the convergence of architecture, virtual worlds and augmented reality. He is author of ‘The Arch’ blog, founder of Architecture Islands, an incubator for architects and designers in virtual worlds, and also leads the Architecture in Second Life community group. He is co-founder of Studio Wikitecture, a Web 2.0 based architectural collaboration methodology. His ‘Nutrihouse’ design was chosen for construction in the Cradle-to-Cradle Home competition from over 625 entries worldwide. He also won 3rd place for his entry in the Tuscon Gateway International Design Competition.

Kliger Dinkin
Brad Kligerman (aka Kliger Dinkin in SL) is an architect cloaked as an artist and teacher who is trying to better understand what it actually means to make architecture. What, how and why we inhabit virtual worlds is the most important question he is addressing at this time in his work and life. He does both gallery scale installations and projects at the scale of a territory. As a teacher, he lead a studio in an architecture school. Both of these activities (architect + teacher) are tied together by a strong emphasis on the invention of intelligent, interactive space that is respective of and emergent from its integral representational media, its local and global context and integrated constructive technologies.
He blogs about his projects at MySimulacrum. You can find, in particular, news about building with immaterials, the project he have with Jamil Mehdaoui (aka Bounty Gandini in SL)

Greg More
Greg More (a.k.a Dynamo Zanetti in SL) is a Lecturer of Architecture and Design at RMIT University, operating within RMIT’s Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL). More is also the director of OOM Creative, a digital environment design and consultancy firm. Greg is interested in the synthetic spaces of contemporary culture where exchange between material and digital economies is transforming the relationship between the subject and architecture. His design work has been exhibited at MoMA NYC, selected for OneDotZero and Resfest International film festivals, and featured in a range of international architecture and design publications. In recent years More has been researching, developing and teaching videogame technology for design and artistic purposes.

image courtesy of Keystone Bouchard

We would like to thank Scope Cleaver, Marc Montague, Neil Robinson and Keystone Bouchard for participating to the Show & Tell. We had a great time!

If yesterday was more about introducing Architecture, today will be about creation, with two workshops. For the first, we are proud to have Ayiki Takakura making a live building demonstration. Then, Soror Nishi will give us all the best tips we need for importing content into Second Life.

Tuesday 18th Nov.

12PM SLT: Live Build Performance (Orange 3)

by Ayiki Takakura
Ayiki Takakura is a young Belgian woman who graduated from the Brussels High School of art history and history. She first created as a painter. Since 1995, she is a 2d/3d designer and illustrator. She started evolving in virtual worlds as Cybertown, Move, There. She moved to Second Life in 2006.
Back then, she started building in a sandbox. There she met talented people who gave her the passion of collaborating, exchanging and learning everthing about building ; scripting, texturing… She put her hands on many forms of creation: clothing, skins, hairs, shapes, scipts, animations, and architecture.
Consequently, she has a good understanding of creating in SL. That’s why she started the group Cre@ction, a team of independant creators with all the capabilities required to realize any kind of projects.
Nowadays, she designs entire sims for companies and residents.

1.30PM SLT: Texturing Master Class: “an alternative to baked textures” (Lower Plaza Auditorium)

hosted by Soror Nishi

Soror Nishi was born in Harajuku, Japan. She is the daughter of a flower seller and her husband a software magnate. She started creating at an early age and quickly turned her attention to the natural environment.
Concerned about the diminishing native flora of Second Life, she set about planting and nurturing the plants that the Lindens had cleared from the land with an over-grazing of goats and the like.
Her work in preserving “the Ancient Ones” for future generations is well known, and recent discoveries of rare orchids has generated much interest. Her principle nursery and shop are on Lifstaen (an island) and neighbouring Moldorf. She has shown “flora virtua exotica” at Burning Life, NPIRL Garden of Delights, Orange Island, … and an extensive refurbishment of Avgi, Isle of Awakening.
Soror uses Blender and Photoshop to make her pieces, preferring to paint textures rather than photograph them.

The Orange Island Team is happy to welcome you to three days of focus on Architecture in Second Life. Architecture Days kick off today with a Metanomics Show and a ‘Show & Tell’ session dedicated to Architecture. For a detailed schedule of the week, please check this page.

Monday 17th Nov.

12PM SLT: Metanomics Show (Lower Plaza Auditorium)

Liquid Artifacts: Architecture in Virtual Worlds
Jon Brouchoud (aka Keystone Bouchard in SL) of Crescendo Design and Studio Wikitecture
Kirsten Kiser will be On the Spot to talk about her recent work with architect Frank Gehry, and her efforts to bring architects to virtual worlds through her influential online architectural magazine, arcspace.

Jon Brouchoud

Jon Brouchoud (Keystone Bouchard in SL) is a freelance virtual architect and founder of Crescendo Design, a studio specialized in creating innovative, cost effective architecture. Jon has a Master of Architecture degree from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Jon’s work as an evangelist for virtual architecture has focused on the convergence of architecture, virtual worlds and augmented reality. He is author of ‘The Arch’ blog, founder of Architecture Islands, an incubator for architects and designers in virtual worlds, and also leads the Architecture in Second Life community group. He is co-founder of Studio Wikitecture, a Web 2.0 based architectural collaboration methodology. His ‘Nutrihouse’ design was chosen for construction in the Cradle-to-Cradle Home competition from over 625 entries worldwide. He also won 3rd place for his entry in the Tuscon Gateway International Design Competition.

Kirsten Kiser

Kirsten Kiser (aka KK Jewell in SL) is an architect and independent curator. After practising architecture in Los Angeles and New York she opened and managed Kirsten Kiser Gallery for Architecture in Los Angeles during the 1980s. She was the European Editor-in-Chief for Design Architecture.
She created Arcspace, an architecture and design magazine that features today’s most creative projects as well as the most influential of the past. Kiser is now in the process of developing a Virtual Community for arcspace in Second Life.

1PM SLT: Show and Tell, Architecture Edition (Orange 3)

Come show your best architectural work and share the technique behind it.

In our discovery of the aspects that influence the most the residents life, we decided to focus on a topic that is at heart of the our experience in Second Life: Architecture.

From Monday 17th to Wednesday 19th, join us on the Orange Island for the Architecture Days. We will have promising panels dotted with talk-show, show&tell, class and demo.

We are very proud to host a Metanomic Show dedicated to Architecture in Virtual Worlds. We would also thank the SL Architecture key player, Keystone Bouchard, for participating to many events of the series-event.

Below is the final schedule of events for Architecture Days. Please check back next week for a detailed daily schedule.

Monday 17th Nov.

12PM SLT: Metanomics Show (Lower Plaza Auditorium)
Liquid Artifacts: Architecture in Virtual Worlds
Jon Brouchoud (aka Keystone Bouchard in SL) of Crescendo Design and Studio Wikitecture
Kirsten Kiser will be On the Spot to talk about her recent work with architect Frank Gehry, and her efforts to bring architects to virtual worlds through her influential online architectural magazine, arcspace.

1PM SLT: Show and Tell, Architecture Edition (Orange 3)

Tuesday 18th Nov.

12PM SLT: Live Build Performance by Ayiki Takakura (Orange 4)

1.30PM SLT: Texturing Tools Master Class: “an alternative to baked textures” (Lower Plaza Auditorium)
Hosted by Soror Nish.

Wednesday 19th Nov.

12PM SLT: Discussion: Architecture for Planned Community (Lower Plaza Auditorium)
Speakers: Michael Linden (Bay City & Nautilus), JJ Drinkwater (Caledon), Jamie Palisades (Confederation of Democratic Simulators), JeanRicard Broek
Moderated by Malburns Writer.

1.30 PM SLT: WikiTree Demo
by Keystone Bouchard (aka Jon Brouchoud in RL) from Studio Wikitecture.

2.00 PM SLT: Discussion: ‘How Professional Architects are using Second Life?’
Speakers: Keystone Bouchard (Crescendo Design & Studio Wikitecture), Kliger Dinkin (Building with Immaterials), Dynamo Zanetti (Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory).
Moderated by Nick Rhodes

Meet us, Friday 14th of November, on Orange Island at 12PM SLT for our monthly Photo Session co-hosted with Koinup. We are very proud to welcome one of the most famous and talented artists on Koinup.

This time we will intensely study Cienega Soon’s work in Second Life.

From basic pictures to virtual pieces of art, have you ever wanted to know how SL photographers create those perfect snaps (creativity, idea, perfect angle, tools and software…)? Come find out what Cienega is up to and she will give you her best tips and pieces of advice. What better way to become a skilled photographer and an artist than learning from the best?

Who is Cienega Soon?
Second Life is filled with such rich talent. I feel privileged to be a part of it all. I enjoy the people I’ve met along the way but for the most part; Cienega is a loner …”She’s Not Normal”. Wondering around exploring and gathering things. Taking photos in SL and turning them into my-artistry is my passion.

Real life is somewhat the same for me. I enjoy my family, my Great Danes, my friends and then the rest of the time is spent alone artistically creating everything. Graphic design, stained-glass, sculpting with metal, wood and leather, painting in oil and acrylic, photography and gourmet cooking.

How did you learn taking pictures in SL?
OMG, I was so excited to find that we had a snapshot button at the bottom of the screen, I went crazy at first. The reason I became a premium member was because my job as an SL land consultant didn’t pay much. I was taking the snapshots and paying that very pricey L$10 for each and ultimately had to buy lindens. What a wonderful find when someone told me I could upload directly to my hard drive. Yeah … then I had to buy a second hard drive cuz that filled up really fast :)

What’s the best photography trick that someone gave you in SL?
Rezzing a cube to sit on, so you could rotate the horizon during a shoot, and rezzing your own lighting. That changed everything for me. Now with windlight, subtle changes are a breeze.

Are there any SL artists you particularly admire?
When I acquired my very first photoshop program in June of 2007 and posted my first photoshoped SLphoto on flickr, it was the amazing artist Melodious Source commenting on my humble beginnings, I am in awe of her work. Collin Savon’s rich powerful emotion in his all his SL artwork is a mark of excellence. Others include, Stephen Venkmen, Kee Llewellyn, Maded Shepard, Simone Alva and many many more.

Which are your favorite photo-related destinations in SL?
Maxwell Graf’s Rustica, is the most amazing build I have come across to date, besides all the NPIRL builds. I actually keep a notecard of landmarks as I fly during map exploring. Forests, cities, tropical, industrial, fantasy and so on. To pick just one amazing place is to daunting, because around most any corner is a picturesque spot. The trick is to keep your eyes open and keep a record of landmarks as you travel.

What photo-related initiative would you like to see in SL that hasn’t been done yet?
Real-time Shadows! OMG that would change everything for SL photography. Oh and whats up with reflections? Why couldn’t someone script a copy/mirror image to a facing surface? There is an old 3D chat virtual world called “Worlds” they have mirrors! and they work like real ones no matter where you place them and no clicking either, just walk by… hmmm interesting … come on people make some mirrors that really work!

What are your upcoming projects for 2008/2009?
Artists Park Exhibit December 13th thru January 3rd 2009
Uqbar Media Art Culture
ARENA Experience Italy Janurary 31st thru February 2nd 2009
ARENA SLURL

You can find Cienega Soon’s work here

Please join the Metaverse Explorers tomorrow as we visit the digital art studio Atelier Alizarin!

When: Wednesday, November 12th, 11:00AM PST
Where: Meet up on Orange Island. We’ll teleport over as a group.
Who: This event is open to anyone who would like to attend. IM Jade Lily or Fab Outlander for more information or for a teleport.

ABOUT ATELIER ALIZARIN:

Located in a wooded park in Huntsman, Atelier Alizarin is the Second Life studio of digital artist Alizarin Goldflake. There are three floors on the land and two in the sky. On the land, the first floor features a piazza with a pool, sculpture, digital dawings from RL, and digital banners. With the exception of the Linden plants, all of the textures throughout the atelier - art, furniture, and buillding - were drawn by Alizarin (more about that at the end).

In the ground floor gallery, there is a display of 2-D digital collages made in RL. In the east piazza, there is a skating rink with vendors offering freebie ice skates. On the second floor, there is a meditation alcove and a selection of black and white digital drawing imported from RL. On the third floor in The Particularium you will find 3-D art made from sculpty line drawings embellished with particles and animated textures.

Next stop is the Sky Studio: Day. Here the main display of immersive art begins. It is called immersive art because the viewer is meant to enter the work either with one’s avatar or camera. The art is made of nested prims, digital textures, and scripts. Many of the builds have sit poses in them and many have sounds as well. The point of the art is the kaleidoscopic interaction of the textures, as well as the different moods expressed in the pieces. Last and perhaps best of all is the Sky Studio: Night. Again this is all immersive art. Ali has chosen the pieces here because they glow in a dark environment, and she finds the effect magical.

All of the art at Atelier Alizarin depends heavily on the artist’s RL digital drawing skills. Digital drawing (or painting) is done just like traditional drawing except that Ali uses digital tools, including a software program called Corel Painter 10 and a pressure-sensitive digitizing tablet and stylus. As she draws, the tablet and stylus electronically translate the motions of her hand into strokes that look as though they were made with the drawing tool she has selected (charcoal pencil or pastel, for example). She sees these strokes occurring real-time on her monitor.

Alizarin has been a professional visual artist in Real Life for a long time. She shows in several prominent galleries, and her work is included in many museum, corporate, and private collections.

On Friday 7th of November from 10am to 8pm SLT, join us for a day long event celebrating two sides of bassline driven music, Drum&Bass and Reggae, organized by the BasslineJunkiez.

Twelve hours of live DJs from ten different countrys giving a truly international atmosphere. We will be filling two zones, one with warm soothing Reggae and the other with heavy bassline DrumNBass, both located near the Orange Island Amphitheater.

Decorated to bring a real Sense of the Caribbean and Inner city Life, come get a real taste of the music,  culture and Vibez that fuel this genre.

BasslineVibez will be broadcasting a Live video feed to their website and a recording will be available on youtube shortly after the event.

Break on through to the other side: What’s the future of virtual worlds?

Speakers: Christian Renaud (Technology Intelligence Group), John Hurliman (libOpenMetaverse), David Levine (IBM)
Moderator: Bruce Joy (VastPark)

Below is the audio transcript of the discussion

X | Media | Lab (XML), the internationally acclaimed digital media think tank, is making its first steps into virtual worlds through Second Life. On November 3rd at 12:00 PM noon PST, Vastpark founder/CEO and XML mentor Bruce Joy will be leading four other industry luminaries through a discussion on “the web of things.” The event comes in the wake of XML’s recent lab on digital worlds in Seoul, and marks the beginning of the group’s utilization of virtual world technology as an augment to their existing program. This short panel discussion aims to expound upon the state of the immersive web, one of the more stimulating topics of discussion covered covered during the Seoul lab.

X|Media|Lab is the internationally acclaimed digital media event: a unique meeting place designed to help people get their own ideas to market through creative development, business matching, and access to world-class networks of digital media professionals. XML works to connect the world’s most creative minds by reconsidering traditional media practice, and interacting with virtual communities like Orange is directly in line with that mission. X|Media|Lab hopes to establish this practice across multiple virtual world platforms moving forward, both interacting with and contributing to existing communities.

When: 12pm to 1:30pm PST on Monday, November 3rd
Where: Orange Island 3

Break on through to the other side: What’s the future of virtual worlds? Come hear what the geeks and industry veterans are saying about the immediate impacts of the credit crisis and the future of the Immersive Web and how it will effect devices, your community and the Web as we know it.

• The broader web: the Web of Things is coming: Web 2.0 died last week according to TechCrunch. What’s coming to impact virtual worlds? ARG, RFIDs, virtual/real world goods crossovers, and the widgetization of everything. Forget the Semantic Web, something’s coming quicker and with greater impact long term. The Web of Things is coming.
• Break down or break through? With tough times ahead, which groups of virtual worlds need to batten down the hatches and wait it out and which can gain greater traction in entertainment and corporate use? Who’s in trouble.
• Forget the Metaverse, it’s the Immersive Web: When you’ve got thousands, perhaps eventually millions of independent virtual worlds and they start connecting with each other without any central coordination, you’ve got a web and the dream of the Metaverse and a community of communities is dead and buried. How are we going to get there? Standards versus code.

Bruce Joy (moderating) is the founder and CEO of VastPark, a user generated virtual worlds platform company helping to define the Immersive Web. He has been running businesses for over 15 years. Writing his first computer game back in 1982, Bruce’s background in the convergent space of media, technology and virtual worlds has led the creation of VastPark. Bruce studied media and literature at Deakin University and venture capital at HAAS, U.C.Berkeley. Through his businesses, he has worked with many of the largest and smallest brands in the world with names such as General Motors, Deloitte, Mars, BMW, Fuji Xerox and Linfox.

Christian Renaud is the CEO of the Technology Intelligence Group, an early-stage technology analyst firm. Founded in 2008, the Technology Intelligence Group is an open network of emerging technology subject matter experts that provide their insights and experience to early adopter enterprise and public sector clients. Christian also advises multiple start-up companies on their business strategy, consults on emerging technologies for large and small companies, and serves on a number of advisory boards for technology companies, venture firms, educational programs, and arts organizations. He is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences on the subject of the future of the Internet. His personal blog is located at www.christianrenaud.com.

John Hurliman is the founder of the libOpenMetaverse project and a virtual world researcher for Intel’s Connected Visual Computing division. libOpenMetaverse provided the first open source library for connecting to Second Life(tm) and has become a cornerstone for several software platforms. John has delivered research on topics ranging from peer-to-peer architecture to economic models in virtual worlds. His work at Intel is focused on scalability and adoption of open standards for the next generation of virtual worlds.

David Levine, from IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center, is a 23 year employee of IBM Research, with summer and university interneships, extending back another five years. His interests in Social computing and online collaboration extends back to work in 1982-1985 in IBM’s BBS style conferencing systems, and tools for sharing applications in the very early days of Personal Computing. David’s current work is focused on Virtual Worlds technology, and the long term implications of broadly deployed social collaboration tools. He works with Linden Lab’s Architecture Working Group, and IBM’s OpenSim team. David’s work includes both the technical work needed to permit interoperation between virtual worlds, as well as the policy and social implications of this work.

Second Life game developers MadPea have a new magic trick up their sleeve for you this Halloween! Come find out on Orange Island this October 31st, 12:00PM SLT!

Events:

12pm SLT -  A Mad pumpkin hunt
Follow the riddles to find 40 hidden pumpkins on islands 1 and 2. 10 of them contain big prizes for the first finder. Spooky goodybags for all finders.

1pm SLT - Enter our Movie Cellar
Firefly trailer revealed

1.30pm SLT  - Evil Inheritance
Auntie Eva had 7 husbands. She has left you an interesting inheritance. Interactive spooky story.

2pm SLT - Laser Tag - madness for all!