The Wall

Elfod Nemeth, builder and scripter of the Wall which forms the focus of the performance of The Wall in Second Life, sent word that there was to be a special, last-ever performance, a... um... well, it's hard to know how to describe the event without inventing a new word... an experience put together by the Cybernetic Art Research Project (CARP).

I've been to a lot of art performances and events in four years of Second Life, but this was the first time that I felt I was watching something that literally couldn't have been made anywhere else. It was something which had been designed around the things that can be done in Second Life, and it was certainly an experience.

The performance mixed audio, music, voiceover and clips of sound, with visual, particle effects, building tools, slideshow, performing avatars and performing puppets, lighting effects and scripted objects, to shocking and moving effect. I crashed out a couple of times (until I stopped trying to take photographs and started taking screenshots instead) but fortunately managed to get straight back in again. I'm very glad to have seen the performance.

It was very professionally produced and directed, and although they apologized for a couple of SL glitches during the performance, I had actually noticed nothing except my own crashing, which is something I expect with a popular event anyway. The whole production was planned and executed extremely well, co-ordinating audio, visual, performance and effects brilliantly to make a whole.


At the end of the performance, the audience joined the players in a fantastic after-show party, with the incomparable DJ Doubledown Tandino. I can honestly say that it has been ages since I enjoyed a party so much.

The music choices were good, and someone made free with the particle effects, and people were still dancing enthusiastically when I teleported away to look at some clothes I had seen at the party... about which more anon.


The whole event was being streamed to a museum in Florence as part of a live art performance. I only hope the viewers there enjoyed it half as much as I did in Second Life, where I felt I was living the performance, not simply observing it. I look forward to future CARP productions eagerly.

New Nautilus sims discovered

A new set of sims with Nautilus in the title has been discovered, and is now open for exploration. I have had a few problems getting there myself, so teleported to a nearby sim and flew across. It seems quite mysterious that other people have had no problems at all. The SLURL for the Nautilus - Baal sim is here.

Half the pleasure of new places is exploring, so I don't plan to put more pictures here for a while... but I hear tell that Magellan Linden had something to do with the sudden arrival, and that more is likely to be revealed about that story as the week goes by....

The Nameless Isle

I noticed that Sanctum Sanctorum had moved a few weeks ago, and saw that Relic had moved to a sim called the Nameless Isle, so I went to check it out. Relic Store is now laid out inside a dark place some seven hundred metres above the island.

In case you haven't seen the work of Baron Grayson, I recommend that you get there as soon as possible and explore the shop and the sim. You may well find things suitable for Halloween decorations, and there are always interesting places to explore on Baron's sims.

In his profile, I found a link to Templum ex Obscurum and explored there too. For atmospheric builds, Baron is simply in a class of his own.


I learned a lot from watching Baron build in my first year in SL, and he offers people the chance to watch the progress on the Nameless Isle. You'll also find some bargains in the shop... some of them at a fraction of the price they were originally, and some unique freebies too.

Virtual Worlds Forum postponement

I couldn't afford the prices for the Virtual Worlds forum, and so it wasn't until this morning that I googled to see what had happened there yesterday.

What I found was an announcement that due to a shooting at the venue, the meeting had been postponed... rather more excitement than I expected. I can only feel for the organisers of the event: many of the speakers must have been booked many months ago and will be very difficult to gather again in the near future. While I expect they will all do their best to reconvene, it is likely that many of the people will be unavailable... there will people wanting their money back... they may have travelled from Europe to attend... it must be a bureaucratic nightmare.

Now had they planned the event in a virtual world, it would be easy to pick up and transfer to another venue at short notice. It's a pity that they didn't plan it in the metaverse instead. Apart from anything else, I could have afforded to attend!

Burning Life

Went to see Elfod Nemeth's fantastic Burning Life exhibit last night, a magical mystery lava clock with a tricksy striking of the hour which happens...well, on the hour of course.

Once it rezzes it's a striking build... as I discovered, it looks brilliant at midnight, too. It's a shame that Burning Life produces a lot of clutter in the background, but you can see what I mean in the shot above.

The lava effect is one of the best I have seen in SL, and it's well scripted, the idea being that the cylinders for the hour fill with lava over the course of the hour. Thus cylinders 1-4 fill to produce an effect at 4 o'clock, and cylinders 1-6 fill to produce an effect at 6 o'clock. Shan't say any more - you really need to go see it for yourself. SLURL: Burning Life (Babel) 15, 163, 24.

3D uploads to Second Life and OpenSim

Apparently, Shack Dougall who is forever tagged in my mind as the person who thought the Starax wand wasn't anything special, has apparently managed to produce something that allows uploading of 3Dmax objects to Second Life and Open Sim. Read more about it here, while I weep in the corner.

Angelic Haven opens

The Angel Haven and Ascension Isle, which lives on Goa Island, recently opened to the public. Peacesoul Destiny, owner of the Isle and the Angel Haven and Asecension group, explained a little about the angelic things on offer there.

"Goa is about offering residents the opportunity to explore themselves," she explained. "Also hopefully to enrich both their SL and RL lives with the work of the Angels and ascended masters. I hope it is a place where peace, relaxation, comtemplation and meditition can be achieved."

I asked how she came to be offering angelic guidance, and Peacesoul told me: "The Angels I work with are the Angels of the Angelic Realm. There is an angel for everything that u can call upon, and of course at the birth of our soulw e are assigned a Guardian Angel or as what some people term as higher self. This is where our moments of inspiration and intuition often arise from."

The island includes undersea areas, a coral reef and water sports, a tower, a pyramid.

Peacesoul explained that she had started a psychology degree, intending to help other people, but had been do drawn to the spiritual therapy work that she is doing now, that she had taken up holistic work. She started out with friends and family and expanded the business from there, and has now been working for thirteen years. "I felt connected with Angels and was very intuitive working alongside them."

I noticed that Peacesoul was charging for access and asked why she had decided to organise things that way?

"At the outset Haven was free access and was simply a gift to SL. Unfortunately this was abused and the membership acts as a filter. It's one of the things about being in a virtual world, sometimes people will do here what they wouldn't dream of doing in real life, simply because at the click of a button they can be elsewhere and thus not have to accept responsibility. It's only 12 lindens for 24 hours of access or 250 lindens as a one off fee."

Peacesoul explained that she plans to run some classes on meditation and mantra evenings open to all. Yesterday evening there was a spiritual disco, with spiritual music, which was enjoyed by all, and every Saturday the island will be open to all at 2 pm PDT. Until Tuesday next week, Haven is open to all, so why don't you have a look at what's on offer over this weekend?