Angry's Tripping the Metaverse

I've Moved to a New Blog

2012-01-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

New Year, New BlogLudicSpacesas I'm starting to branch outside of Second Life and more related stuff to games and education, game engines like Unity etc,my musings and endeavours will be slowly posted to this new blog... thanks for following in the past

Bye Bye Old Home....

2010-08-31T08:42:00.001-07:00

Empty Hillside in Gourdneck, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

After 5 years, I've moved on from Historic Gourdneck...

Boldly Going....

2010-02-14T14:56:00.001-08:00

USS Prometheus, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

Checking out Star Trek Online

The Anatomy Lesson

2010-02-05T12:54:00.001-08:00

The Anatomy Lesson, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

The Port goes Electric

2009-09-22T08:51:00.001-07:00

As The Port moves into its 4th Year, its about time to give the old sim a facelift. Experimenting with a Disco Tron feel to the walkways.

Angrybeth becomes a Hero

2009-09-05T05:02:00.001-07:00

Angrybeth in Champions Online, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

Artist Sandbox at the Port

2009-08-26T03:20:00.001-07:00

As I'm slowly tidying up The Port sim over the next few months, I'm keeping aside a 8000 m² section as a public sandbox for Artist's to build and play with their ideas.

Rather than adding a new gallery to the every growing number of exhibition spaces in Second Life, I'm hoping to provide a space for people to develop ideas somewhere quietly before releasing to the public.

The plot has a prim bonus - so there's generally 5000 prims available to play with ( depending what other projects are going on in the sim ) and the land is terraformable.
The return time is set to 24 hours.
For members of the Port Community - you can keep up projects for a few days... ( but I'll delete them myself - if they've been there longer than a week )

Link to Sandbox

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse - performance 7/8/09

2009-08-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

For the opening of Kriti Island - Kritical Works exhibition for ISEA2009, Avatar Metaverse Orchestra did a wonderful performance - one utilising am Note, We are Music, which then blended into one of their own compositions 'Aleatricity'

Click for Performance

The video file is mp4 and 27 mins long...
0:00 - 11:00 mins - I am Note, We are Music
11:00 - 27:00 mins - Aleatricity

Kritical II and ISEA2009

2009-08-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

You might have caught me twittering on about ISEA lately - its the International Symposium on Electronic Art, and this year its exhibition and conference is a bit closer to home in Ireland. I've been part of a collaborative show based in Second Life for the last two years, organised by WanderingFiction Story.
I'm exhibiting two pieces - ( machinima below ) and presenting a paper on the 29th August at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast, as part of a panel on Dialogic Exchanges for Virtual Curation.

The exhibition begins from the 7th August - till the end of the Month, and the SL show will stay up for a bit longer. SLURL here -> http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kriti%20Island/21/136/22

I AM NOTE, WE ARE MUSIC

video duration - 11 mins

This piece turns avatar height into musical notes, inviting the audience to social play and shapeshifting of one's avatar. The Machinima shows an Improvisation by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, who did a wonderful performance to demonstrate how the Installation works, and also how it can integrate into their own work.

GESTALT CLOUD

video duration - 5 mins

This is the complete installation I've been working on for a while - complete with growing Trees and immersive music. It requires four avatars to make it work, coming together in the Cloud Generating Matrix to create rain, starting a cycle of Forest Growth.

Reflections

2009-08-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

I still can't get enough of the mirrors in Twinity...
Also neat that you can change the colour and falloff of lamps as well.

Just needs to sort of shadows...

search for Annabeth's Art Gallery in Twinity...

Twinity Apartment Cave

2009-08-02T08:49:00.001-07:00

I had to do it! I converted the Bathroom in my Twinity Apartment into a small cave.

Twinity added the ability to upload your own 3D objects a few months ago, and I'm starting to get my head around it... ( there's little documentation on how - so I'm bumbling around with trial and error ). I'm using Blender - to create COLLADA files, which is the file format Twinity likes stuff imported with.

Clothing Templates are supposed to be coming soonish to the public.. but at the moment it seems most of the good stuff is in the realm of registered developers.

Regardless - Twinity's slowly moving towards User Generated Content, and with a micro-currency system called Globals - hopefully another virtual 'mirror' market to create content for, or at least a new 'Gallery' opportunity for VW Artists to show more than just flat art in frames.

Playing with Shadows and Light in Snowglobe

2009-07-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

Angrybeth's 4th Rezday

2009-07-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Another year whooshed by... where shall the next 4 years take Beth?

Lava Chambers in the Port Caves

2009-07-26T06:10:00.000-07:00

Continuing to document the sections of the Port Cave project I'm working on. A hellish section that will eventually be tapped to provide energy for a new chamber to come.

The Port Caves - new additions

2009-05-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Caves are continuing to grow beneath The Port ...

an abandoned Underground Station - ( now linked up with the Tardis Network - for Web of Fear Fun )

One of the other secret entrances to the Caves ---- ( think I've been playing to much WoW lately )

Now most of the build is nearly done - time to move on to making some Games to play down there...

Anyway - no SLURL for now - you got to find a way to get there --- hint - look for some curtains in The Pencil Factory

Education Blog

2009-04-25T01:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not the most frequent at blog posting, at best I chuck up some post or video on here once every few months... but I do keep another blog about using Second Life / Virtual Worlds for education ( which is equally as unregular ). I've tended to keep these seperate, but lately there's been more posts that overlap my interest in Virtual World Art and Machinima - so I thought I'd throw a few blogpost links up here, that might be of interest...

Playing with Pachube
http://ddmcollective.blogspot.com/2009/03/playing-with-pachubea.html

Using Pachube to make a prototype Camera Tracking to SL project
http://ddmcollective.blogspot.com/2009/03/playing-with-processing-pachube-and.html

Using the Machinima Camera Switcher
http://ddmcollective.blogspot.com/2009/04/using-multi-cam-machinima-switcher.html

Photography: Rules of Thirds
http://ddmcollective.blogspot.com/2008/09/exploring-rule-of-thirds-in-second-life.html

Poppity Pop

2009-04-14T14:31:00.001-07:00

There's nothing quite as ephemeral as a virtual bubble....

SplitSite Sound Installation.

2008-12-20T06:52:00.000-08:00

While I'm on a roll - documenting old Second Life projects and idea development, here's another multi-avatar oriented sound installation I'm working some ideas with.
In this work, the control of a set of loops of music are split between two remote sites, requiring the avatars to work as a team to explore the full extent of the available loops. The Blueish space controls the more ethereal sounds (eg. voices) and the Orangy space controls the more earthy sounds (eg. xylophone)

This is early stage idea development, so there's room to develop a larger range of sounds, and consequences to the remote control of someone else's sound installation. Ultimately - I'd like to see this as a work, seperated over two different Virtual Worlds. So much to explore, so little time :/

Gestalt Cloud ( work in progress )

2008-12-18T12:17:00.001-08:00

Continuing my investigation into group based art installations, Gestalt Cloud, is a follow on from the Sensorspace test.
The work, requires a group of at least 4 avatars, to come together inside the sensor space. Each avatar is tracked by a cloud of blocks, as areas of blocks overlap with other avatar's cloudblocks they become darker... until any block that is an overlap of 4 or more avatars it begins to rain.

The idea is to continue this work, in that, the combined effort of the creating rain, then triggers another piece of networked art... ( but I'm still having a think about what that will be )

I am Note, We are Music

2008-12-14T21:53:00.001-08:00

Documenting an old sound installation in SL, using Kirsten's Viewer. Its a group based piece, assigning notes to avatar height, and ordering notes based on distance from center. Up to 16 people can play on it at once.

----

to get a feel for what 16 avatar's would sound like - here's a link to the original prototype from April '07
http://angrybethshortbread.blogspot.com/2007/04/work-in-progress.html

2008-12-14T07:24:00.001-08:00

"You are a true believer. Blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. Thou art a subject of the divine, created in the image of man by masses, for the masses. Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy Now. Buy. And be Happy!"
OMM
from THX1138 (1971)

Faffing around in PS3's HOME

2008-12-13T03:35:00.000-08:00

Flythru of the Port Caves

2008-12-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

A 2min flythru of work in progress, incase I delete the thing again....

Fungi Grotto - The Port Caves

2008-12-06T11:25:00.001-08:00

Fungi Grotto - The Port Caves, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Port/167/193/7
work in progress for Fungi Chamber

Fungi Grotto - The Port Caves

2008-12-06T08:27:00.001-08:00

Fungi Grotto - The Port Caves, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

musical mushrooms down in the grotto

Second Life into Googlevideo

2008-11-12T11:11:00.001-08:00

Second Life into Googlevideo, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

As per challenge set by Leon Cych - l4l.co.uk - here's Second Life captured via WebCamMax on the PC into Googlevideo chat.
The Software has the bonus of being able to 'doodle' over the live webcast, so you can annotate, or draw silly space helmets :)

Beware of the facehuggers though!

----
Still was chuffed that I got a Second Life screencast into Twinity using UStream last week -

SensorSpace

2008-11-12T03:58:00.000-08:00

Fungi Grotto at The Port

2008-11-10T04:58:00.001-08:00

Fungi Grotto at The Port, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

(work in progress) another chamber in the cave system....

Machinima MultiCam Switcher

2008-09-23T06:05:00.001-07:00

Machinima MultiCam Switcher, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.
a prototype for an upgraded idea of the old machinima TV studio. This version is 4 multiple (static) cameras, and allows you to switch instantly between them using the arrow keys.

Camera Points and Targets can be moved around whilst in Build Mode - (edit linked). When you sit on the camera itself, the particle trails and guide objects disappear.
Simply build your set design or interview stage, and drop this tool over the top of it.

Tomb Raiding in the Port Caves

2008-08-20T08:01:00.001-07:00

Tomb Raiding in the Port Caves ( work in progress ), originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

a work in progress.....

The Pencil Factory turns 3

2008-08-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Pencil Factory, is my studio / sketchbook in Second Life™, which can be found at The Port. Its been my home for 3 years, this August, where I continue to investigate interactive art projects in the metaverse. Its had a bit of a tidy up, and a new set of caves are being built underneath as we speak. If you ain't been in a while, drop by... and if you've never been - here's the SLURL.

Recently I also took over ownership of The Port sim itself, which is in a state of rebuild at present, but more about that another time.

Angrybeth's Third Birthday

2008-07-26T05:40:00.001-07:00

George the Whale, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

its been 3 years in Second Life, time flies..... especially if you're on a skywhale

work in progress

2008-07-25T01:46:00.001-07:00

work in progress, originally uploaded by AngryBeth.

Faffing around with a simple avatar movement tracker tool.

2008-05-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

Story Island

2008-05-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

PLAYtime is over....

2008-04-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

PLAY : a collection of sound sketches... is now closed.

Thanks to everyone that popped over to explore, I hope you all enjoyed!

some nice posts from nice people about the show here:
Not Possible in RL
SLDepot

Giant SL/Twitter typewriter

2008-04-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Now residing at The Pencil Factory, The Port. Originally created for Penguin last year, this giant typewriter publishes to Twitter. Touch to type, or sit on the keys to type in capitals. Feel free to create upto 140 characters of nonsense or poetic gems. Once you've typed it, touch the carriage return lever - to publish to - http://twitter.com/SLtypewriter and also onto the virtual paper.

Pusher-Tron

2008-04-04T17:09:00.000-07:00

a physics based sound toy, for one or more to play...

Just the FACTS...

2008-04-03T03:42:00.000-07:00

long time, no blog...

On 2nd April, I did a talk/demo at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool, as part of a day long event called PEOPLE : PLACE : PRESENCE, a day of debate and presentation of sonic art and audiovisual performance.

As part of the demo - I collected together all the sound sketches I've made in Second Life™ world over the last 2 years, which showed some of the ways you can create a Sonic Art work that dealt with PEOPLE (AVATARS) : PLACE (VIRTUAL) : PRESENCE (TELE)

Thanks to Terry Lightfoot, Nikk Huet and Kisa Naumova for helping out on the night, demonstrating the social aspect of some of the Sound sketches that I create.

If you are interested I'm going to keep the collection up till the end of the month and can be found at:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Collective/44/68/701

The Port is 2

2007-08-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, how time flies. Today is 2 years since The Port sim 'official opened'. Which means the Pencil Factory is now 2 as well, dated from the day I planted the giant yellow pencil at the edge of the sim. Hopefully soonish, I'll get back to making some art stuff and updating the gallery.

Oh no, not again.

2007-08-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings

2007-06-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

The 29th June was the launch of the Second Life version of 77 Million Paintings. This launch ran concurrently with the North American premiere of Brian Eno's Art installation at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
The event will continue to run till the 1st July. With new bits and bobs happening over the next days, so keep an eye out.

The Second life installation was a project I've worked on for the last few weeks and co-ordinated by Cyrus Huffhines of Blueair.tv and Alexander Rose of the Long Now Foundation.
Placed across four locations in Second Life, each installation was a unique install, with a several locations offering extra Eno related 'freebies' to pick up on the tour.

Install hosted at Leeds College of Art and Design's sim - The Collective

Install hosted at The Art Center

Install hosted at Ars Virtua

Personally this has been a fun and interesting Art work to translate into Second Life, and hopefully one that conveys the ambience and scale of the original work at San Francisco. At each installation, the music stream plays the generative sounds created by the 77 million Paintings installation.

More infomation about the event can be found at Blueair.tv

Installation 1: Kula Sims
Installation 2: Art Center
Installation 3: Ars Virtua
Installation 4: The Collective

Facebook album of launch night link here

Sculpted Prim Based Visuals

2007-05-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

Having a muck about with the sculpted prims to create a visuals generator, based on random list of paintings.

Today, I've mostly been an audio jog shuttle

2007-04-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Click To Play

Work in Progress

2007-04-11T03:10:00.000-07:00

Having a play with some ideas for a new project.
link

The Collective

2007-04-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

Not blogged for a while, but then very little has happened in Angrybeth world. Thought I'd post a little about my RL education side. After 'totting up on fingers' 15 months of asking my college, they finally agreed to support an Island for the students on the Foundation / Ba(Hons) Design for Digital Media course , which came online about 2 weeks ago. Called ' The Collective ', this gives them a sandbox island to build, script, experiment within SL, and ultimately a home. The course itself focuses on moving image, webdesign and interactive screen based media, so many of their skills are transferable to Second Life and vica versa.
anywho - a link to what they're doing is here - http://ddmcollective.blogspot.com

Musing in a breeze of 3.192009mph

2007-01-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

Object-Name: Angry's Blogging Laptop
Region: Gourdneck (260352, 253696)
Local-Position: (172, 179, 120)

just testing the old blogging script

Physics Instrument Final Version

2006-12-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

After a break, and a little play on Psi-Ops, I came back to my project, and thought I'd try another idea with the thingies I was making. This time making something I can hurl around with my Psychic powers.
Anywho - enough for today...

Physics Instrument Version 2

2006-12-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

A little more fiddling, adding some floating tone blocks for the jumpbeans to bump into.

Simple Physics Instrument

2006-12-10T04:31:00.000-08:00

a sketchbook music project playing with physics.

A Cave System is like the Internet....

2006-09-29T02:32:00.000-07:00

Long time, no post. A combination of RL priorities and just a general lack of enthusiasm for Second Life over the last month, has given me some timeout from the metaverse.

Anywho - something I've been picking away at, is a cave build hidden under the Port Sim. I have a thing for caves. Its just in its foundation stage so far, need some more time to put in the details, then eventually some scripted events, to make it more of an experience.

So far the cave system covers about a 1/4 of the Sim, and you'll find two (not so well hidden) entrances to get into it. Best viewed in midnight mode , with a torch.

Synthy-go-Round Remix

2006-08-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

Messing around with some synthy-go-round tunes I made a while ago, I thought I'd try mixing them together, as a kinda of interactive remix. Anyway this is the rough and ready live recording of playing it at the Port.

You demand too much of me...

2006-08-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

A work in progress on a time-based / sensor sculpture. ' You demand too much of me... ' is a visual metaphor for my period of burnout in the past.
The sculpture reacts to avatars near it, the larger the number of avatars, the more parts disappear from the overall sculpture each cycle - until it disappears completely.
When no one is in its 'personal space' ( well 8m sensor zone ) - it slowly repairs itselfs, though only one bit at a time. Healing takes longer than destroying...

The sculpture could also be interpreted as an eco-system of sorts, sustainability of resources, or even an ode to lag.

Anywho - if you want a peek its at The Port - in the Pencil Factory....

George the Skywhale's B'day

2006-08-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yep, he's a year old - my prim hungry familiar...

Communal Whiteboard - V1.0

2006-08-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

One for the Educators in SL....
The Communal Whiteboard is a complete version 1.0 now - that can be rezzed to face North, South, East or West facing. It also has acceleration on all the overlay tools - so you can move them around the screen quicker.

Info and Instructions are on the Metalab website - Link

To grab a copy - goto this SL location - Gourdneck 205,191,724.

I put a L$1 price on it - so I can track who's buying it.

There should be one at the ICT Library soon...

Super Simple Movie Stream Image Viewer

2006-08-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

Been doing some collaborating with genius phpcoder Kisa Naumova, to make a Flickr slideshow object in SL , that displays set and group images.
Anywho thought I'd share the really simple startpoint script that began it all --

This script you can put in a prim, if you own your own land ( or should work with deed too ).
Create a screen object. On the face you want to display on put your media streaming texture.
On your webserver - create a folder for the images you want to view...

The script is :
____________________________

default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llSay(0, "Please say the filename to show....");
state piccy;
}
}

state piccy
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(0,"",llGetOwner(),"");
}

listen(integer channel,string name,key id,string message)
{
string url = llGetObjectDesc() + message;
llSay(0, url);
llParcelMediaCommandList([PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_URL, url]);
llParcelMediaCommandList([PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_PLAY]);
state default;
}
}

____________________________________

setup is simple - make the the object description the url for the folder
ie - http://www.mypics.com/slideshowfolder/

then when you touch the object - simply say the file name
ie - boat.jpg

NB: make sure the images are the same size - or they'll streatch and squish when showing on the screen. - so this might be useful for someone wanting to show a powerpoint style slideshow - where all the images are 800x600 pixels - and a prim in SL is 4x3m

____________________________________

After Dolmere Talamasca's dissection of the script, here's a tidier version... ( I agree less public chatty better. )

Though the original script above is in historical context, the public chat was so my collaborator could hear what was going on to, but filtered to me, so it didn't just pick up everyone whilst testing it.

Anywho a tidier script is :
____________________________

default
{
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llOwnerSay("Please say the filename to show....");
state piccy;
}
}

state piccy
{
state_entry()
{
llListen(0,"",llGetOwner(),"");
//change the channel integer to a private channel number if you want...
}

listen(integer channel,string name,key id,string message)
{
string url = llGetObjectDesc() + message;
llParcelMediaCommandList([PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_URL, url]);
llParcelMediaCommandList([PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_PLAY]);
state default;
}
}

____________________________________
anyhow - Dolmere's added other comments on how it can be improved...
though you don't need the listen remove as that's done by state change automatically.

Angry goes on Holiday

2006-08-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Well I've downloaded First Life 1.0, so going to be checking out the Cornwall Sim on the UK server, for a week or two. See you all later, hopefully with a nice tan skin.

Farewell Telador Isle?

2006-07-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

1pm SL time today, is a farewell party to this great sim. Telador is an URU (Myst) build, and one of the first islands I visited when I joined SL. It'll be a shame to see this game sim disappear. Hopefully some generous benefactors might sort it out at the 11th Hour.

Work in Progress - SoundSpace

2006-07-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

Slowly putting together, a cubic based sound toy. As you walk around inside its space, it rezzes cubes - in a bizzare prim contrail behind the avatar. With each collison interface - it plays a note, getting higher as you approach the center. Its quite a mediative piece - ( unless you play it by firing guns at it ). Anyway - I'll keep tinkering away at it for now.
If you want to check it out - its at The Port (18,65,601)

Angry's first Birthday

2006-07-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

Crikey, a year has passed sooooo quickly...
here's to the next one.

Catharsis Post

2006-07-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

6 months ago to this day, was my partner's funeral. Fiona had took her own life after fighting depression for most of her life. I generally don't talk about my real life side, but I have been reflecting on the last 6 months after her death. Something that helped me get through a period of post traumtic stress shortly after her death, was occupying my time with Second Life. It was something that helped me communicate with people on an everyday level, even though in real life, somedays I couldn't get out of the house. I threw myself at creating things, it was a prolific time, especially creating 'art' work.

For most people in SL that know me, I only talk a little about my real life. Much of my personality in SL is a mask, a pretense of a normality, so I apologies for the times when I veer and come across as overbearing, indifferent or nonattentive when in the grid. For the small few that know me a little better, thanks for keeping me cheered up.

I know a great number of people in SL deal with much more on their plate, than I. I feel SL when used right can be a great theraputic tool, though it must be tempered right not to become a crutch. It is great that sims like SupportforHealing exist, and I urge all that feel the need to talk or stressed and blue to seek it out.

Anywho, somberness over, and I'll return to my Skywhaling self.

Ars Virtua - 'Transposition' exhibition

2006-07-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

The New Media Center and Gallery in Dowden ( 27, 46, 52 ) is hosting an exhibition on the theme of Transposition - the translation of data from one form to another.

Curated by Servo Quatro and directed by Rubaiyat Shatner, the show brings together international Information Artists, with links to websites of their work from the gallery. - also you can check out www.arsvirtua.com

I'm chuffed to have my phonic installation as part of the exhibition. It is a development from my DNA sculpture - which changes the avatars' key into a musical phrase. This is played as part of a group installation of sound emitters, that creates a harmony of avatar's keys, musically representing an evolving community.

The focus of the piece is the Sound, so the sound emitters are parred back visually, to simple upright glowy soundcones. We generally, as an audience read the visual element first and give that greater meaning, when presented with an audio/visual work. Something I want to explore further is sound and its presence in the 3D space of Second Life.

Also check out MichaelJohn Turner's, exhibit 'How have you been an artist today?'
in the adjacent gallery space. This is an exciting intervention project, that involves Second Life Residents, centered around conversations.

Pooh Sticks..

2006-06-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

Something I built a while ago, and then completely forgot to blog about, is a Pooh Stick bridge.
Its hidden away in one of the corners of the Port Sim - so if you need a few moments to chill out and race some sticks, here you go.

Hmmm Pie....

2006-06-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Developing some ideas of Jeremy Kabumpo's - www.simteach.com, to visualise data from outside Second Life (ie. from a Online Learning Environment ) into a SL classroom, or use as a way to visualise communal voting, this Pie Chart Maker was an interesting scripting project - ( that made me tear my hair out every so often. )
The script will be available on the simteach wiki for those that want to adapt it for their needs.
A nice subversion of the script is it can make a nice staircase too.

I'm hoping they'll have some new scripting functions to detect residents (pay status) soon, then I can make a visual traffic counter for my shop. ( why? I haven't figured out yet )

Scary Hole

2006-06-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

Musical Keys

2006-06-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

Installing a phonic variation of the DNA sequencer for the SL 3rd Year Anniversary 21st - 25th June. This version takes an avatars' key and plays it back as a unique musical phrase. There are 3 sound emitters, that randomly pick a key, from a list of people that have been near the sequencer. - The sounds overlap to create a harmonious compostion of the intertwined avatars. ( anywho - enough of the pretencious dribble )
I'll probably be tweaking it till the event opens on June 21st...

Just make sure you all pop along to see all the amazing work on display, packed across 6 sims ( It'll make a Grand day out! )

A Whale of a Tale

2006-06-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

It's a wrap - here's The Final Film...enjoy.

Revisiting Old Times

2006-06-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

Doing a clean out of my inventory, particularly old landmarks, I came across my first place in Second Life. Curiosity always getting the better of me, I'd thought I'd see how the old sim had changed over the last 10 months.

(above) This is an early pic of my first building in SL, 'Hamster home with windturbine', back in August 2005. The sim is Zeuzera, and I was one of the first residents there. Back then I can also remember Zeuzura being right on the top edge of the New Continent.

(above)10 Months later, Zeuzura is quite a packed sim, and all the lovely woodland has disappeared :( , but a very eclectic mix of creativity from the residents.
Also a traintrack now runs through the adjacent sim, woooh.
Zeuzera itself is somewhere in the middle of the New Continent now, as the land has expanded.

Its amazing how in a little amount of time, the whole look and feel of a sim can change dramatically. Wish I could dump a timelapse camera to observe the world change over a few months (or devote a computer to do a screengrab every hour ), especially to see how each individuals organically respond to each others builds around them.

Ultimately, I can see why zoned building can be popular to many residents. Personally the main reason I left my first plot, was eventually being hemmed in by private parcels. Thankfully I found a nice hillside to live on now, but I do have an old twinge of nostalgia for my old place once in a while, especially the swings out the back. :)

Playing with Lights

2006-06-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

Having a fiddle around with the new dynamic lighting within SL. Turning down the ambience of the Nighttime brightness (in prefs), emulates a really nice low key lighting effect.
Hmm, might have to get round to doing a noir style machinima

Windmills of my Mind

2006-06-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

Finally got round to replacing my windmill at Gourdneck. The added bonus to this one - are the sails rotate according to the wind speed.
( Well it does an update every 2 mins, and hiccups as the targetomega is changed , but what the hey. )
Anywho, its doing a fine job grinding my virtual wheat :)

Weather Girl

2006-06-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

Being the weather obsessed Brit that I am, I've made a simple changable weather icon that shows my general disposition.
Today's outlook - overcast with occasional sunny spells.

MetaLab

2006-06-06T07:35:00.000-07:00

As a sideline to most of my endeavours in Second Life, I've created an offshoot project called MetaLab, for exploring specific educational / community aspects of using Second Life. This is to support my real-life occupation of lecturing in new media and my study towards an MEd in Collaborative Networked Learning.

Metalab's own blog is at metalab.blogspot.com

Techgrrl Store goes on a Summer Holiday

2006-06-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

Bringing the same old zeitgeist detritus to another sim :) The New TechGrrl Store is camped up on a hill, in a decommissioned Routemaster Bus. It can be found rusting up, over in Everlite.
LOOK OUT CLIFF!

Alazarin Mondrian's Invisible Band

2006-05-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

A nice way to unwind the night, listening to Alaz's blend of etheral Space Rock Music at Menorca. The live gig drew a great crowd, and hopefully one of many to come.
Alazarin's music can also be found at http://www.alazarin.plus.com/
Make sure you give him a tip !!

the neat thing about playing in SL, is that it's afantastic way to reach people around the world - Alazarin Mondrian

Inworld Interactive Whiteboard

2006-05-19T13:53:00.001-07:00

I've been working on creating an interactive whiteboard for inworld lectures, lately.
At a basic level, it functions as a communal slide presenter. Allowing people to drop images into it, or delete images already in its contents. It also can change the aspect ratio of the display, to present images as 4:3, 1:1, or 2:1

With the overlay tools, a teacher or a group can highlight parts of an image. Each element brought onto the board, can be moved or changed by anyone. At the moment the tools include , filled and outline rectangle and circle, verticle and horizontal lines, XyText element, and pointer and crosshair.

This also allows the board to be used for simple mind-maps or brainstorming sessions.
At the moment the project is in beta, but you can check it out at the Port in my gallery space.

Radio 1 comes to Second Life

2006-05-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

Yay! BBC in Second Life.
The RADIO ONE Sim is hosting the One Big Weekend music festival over 13/14th of May, and hopefully future music events over the next year.
Congrats to Avalon, for bring convergence one step closer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4766755.stm

Proud to be British :)

what makes up an Avatar's DNA?

2006-05-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

Biometric madness in SL. The DNA sequencer visualises the UUID (key) of the Avatar into a chain, making hex numbers into base pairs. Each chain created is unique to the avatar.
It's up and running at my gallery space at 'the Port' if you want to check it out.

Metaverse Tarot Deck

2006-04-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hanging out in the Sandbox, Alazarin Mondrian showed me the amazing tarot deck made by Tateru Nino - (in which he appears as the Wheel of Fortune - hmm now that's a game show I'd like to see. )
The images themselves are photographs of residents and props in Second Life - many recognisable celebrities and Lindens of SL. These represent the cards of the major arcane.
Clearly lots of work had been put into creating them.
Tateru turned up later, and told me it was photographed over 3 days, and though a fun and creative venture, has put thought into the symbolism / meaning of the cards as well.

Tateru's own blog, show's the cards in detail - dwellonit.blogspot.com

Virtual Campanology

2006-04-27T05:26:00.000-07:00

Bringing some bellringing to Second Life. The Bell Tower is a group based musical instrument, where each avatar controls one of the notes via the bellrope, allowing upto 8 avatars to co-operatively produce peals. The Octagonal building is based on an English 18th Century structure.

Amended 3/4/08
The Bell Tower can be found at St. Diablouxhttp://slurl.com/secondlife/St%20Diabloux/174/43/50

Find the Celebrity in your Avatar...

2006-04-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Another great way to idle away an hour or two in the metaverse, finding out what celebrity your avatar looks like! ( YOU know you have too !! )
Using the Face Recognition software at www.myheritage.com, upload a pic and let it do the rest.

Results - 72 % - Celina Jaitley , 70% Sade Adu, 70% Juliette Binoche, 64% Annie Lennox.

Who'd of thought, :)

Angry TV

2006-04-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

Another tentative step towards making some Machinima. ( eventually )
Finally getting around to playing with the new Camera Parameters, means I got to try out building a TV studio in SL.

This one has multiple camera angles set up for an interview style show - allowing for live cutting from close ups to wide shots, or audience cam.
( Eventually when the new light features arrive, I'll have a go at toggleable redheads, yay!! )

Second Annual Satellite Exhibition

2006-03-12T13:03:00.000-08:00

After a long time, a new entry... YAY.

11th and 12th of March, saw the opening of the 2nd Annual Satellite Exhibition, sponsored by Timeless Prototype. The Exhibit at Georgean saw a wide range of rocketry, vehicles and avatar detection and communication devices. Impressive builds and extreme scripting skills were on display, highlighting what is capable of being created in Second Life.
In the adjacent sim of Fortuna, the Alliance Navy had a large display of their work and a recruitment centre.

The Exhibition, gave me an opportunity to unvail the Serendipity Travel Pod to the public, with a special Telemetry version, that recorded how far the user had gone and scanned for avatars near the landing zone. It then emails this info back to Mission Control - hopefully in the future, I will adapt this into a game version.

Also the Frogstarr Cargo Podule made an apperance, over the stand, with my Lil Red Robot keeping an eye on things.

Personal Projects in SL.

2005-10-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

From time to time, I like to make little projects within Second Life, to slowly hone my scripting skills or understand how the world works. Here be two of them :

Serendipity Travel Sphere - ( A bit like Dr. Who's TARDIS - if it was round and went bang!)

The idea behind this Vehicle, was a fun way to navigate the Metaverse. Once activated "Serendipity", randomly projects itself around the World, like a crazy firecraker..

Able to carry 4 people, the sphere can leap a SIM in a single bound, taking you or a group to destinations that you may of never considered visiting before. ( perfect for a sunday day out in the Continents! )

CloudMapper Version 1.0 - ( A Meteorogical Sculpture )

Taking the cloud density across a SIM, this data is visually translated into a 8 x 8 grid, and updated every second. The denser the cloud, the taller the blocks.

Clouds are based on Cellular Automata; With the Mapper, the dynamic nature of the weather that goes on in the SIM, can be seen to unfold in front of you.

Jeff Wall - Exhibition at The Port

2005-09-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

Tensta Konsthall 2 exhibits the work of Canadian photographer Jeff Wall in this collaborative telepresent virtual gallery via the Port and International Festival.

Jeff Walls staged photographs are usually presented on lightboxes, and here in the virtual they are vibrant through the illumination of the computer screen.

I love this kind of use of Second Life as a presentation medium of creative work, as the sense of space and size in works of art can be put across to the audience, which is lost when we just see the image on a website. What I like with this exhibition is the fusing of the real and the virtual gallery by being decorated the same, blurring where the computer's role in the mediation / presentation of the art begins and ends.

Lil' mention in New World Notes

2005-09-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

Was well chuffed to see my Avatar Cannon got a small mention in Wagner's New World Notes. Make sure ya'all get down to Burning Life before it all goes :(

Work in progress on Adventure game

2005-09-16T03:36:00.000-07:00

Slowly getting on with a Myst style puzzle adventure in Gourdneck (175, 206). Hopefully should be up and running in October.
As an experience, its aimed as at beginner game players - (so experts will complete it in 10 mins.)
Doing this project is getting my head around the scripting side of Second Life, and I've always making these types of games in software like Macromedia Director and ScalaMM300(if you remember that Amiga Fans)

Musing in a breeze of 4.009894mph

2005-08-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

Object-Name: Angry's Blogging Laptop
Region: Gourdneck (260352, 253696)
Local-Position: (195, 179, 104)

Here's a quick thunk, does an Avatar's starsign have any impart on their personality.. (bemused)

Lively Burnt at Burning Life

2005-08-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the Burning Life Festival, the Land of Interaction plot is a mix of avatar throwing machines and scripted madness created by Jesrad Seraph and myself. So if you want to get tossed on some physics based toys or have your tarot read in playmobil, pop along. ( just make sure your wearing a helmet. ) - Burning Life 4 (138,100)

Wheeeeeee, who needs to fly.

Portraits of Lindens.

2005-08-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

This time a more personal project, Morgan Albion's Portraits of Lindens (in Drawbridge) is a great digital photo project, curated in a tranquil phonic landscape. Like Pokeman, Morgan had to collect em all ( or as most of them that frequent the place ). Each photo had a great sense of individual personality caught in them. The Opening saw a few Linden's in attendance - which for a newbie like me helps cement the feeling of being part of a bigger developing cyber community.

Port a GoGo.

2005-08-28T14:15:00.001-07:00

Well Friday 26th August saw the launch of the Port Project - with a collabrotive musical extravaganza in both SL, and a live event in Sweden with around 160 peeps in attendance. - if you want to know more check out theport.tv . The event on the night lasted just over an hour, with several sets of music, each with its own moods and personality.
Hopefully the video will be online in the next week.

In the space of a few short weeks a lot was achieved with the co-operation of designers, dancers and musicians, using Second Life as a place of collabrotive artisic expression. The mix of asynchronous and synchronous abilities of working virtually in SL, can be very facilitating for these endeavours, and bode well for future bigger projects.

Now for the pics....

Getting to the climax with Gary Bukowski's D&B set, everyone hit the dance floor at the end. Keeping the visuals up to pace on the night was a killer on the fingers, and the firewall box ( that died half way through the night - yikes !! ) - :)

Even I managed to get out of my VJ shell and have a few prances about.. :)

Video Linden filmed the whole event, and went out live on the official Second Life Website - 60mins of fame :) - and the event was also video projected into a park in Stockholm.
New World Notes ran an article about the event on which can be seen here.

So well chuffed, and lots of big love to those involved .. we ROCK!!

Sim Running

2005-08-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

The gloryiously textured and detailed Midnight City is a perfect place for a spot of Free Running. ( Some damn fine shops too. :oD )

Rehearsals at the Port

2005-08-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

Sunday saw the first proper rehearsal of the Port.tv's SL Live Performance, giving an operated for the collaborating musicians and performers to get a taste of the material all running together. It was also a good technical run through, with the little Lag effecting the proceedings.

The Porters get busy planning the musical numbers. A fair set of sample loops, means there are a few thousand ways these can be mixed.

Getting down to the rhythm. :) Dance Animations a go go.

Big Invader Boom, as the sky goes dark and the VJing comes more vibrant.

Musing in a breeze of 5.251961mph

2005-08-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

Object-Name: Angry's Blogging Laptop
Region: The Port (246528, 255744)
Local-Position: (205, 153, 26)

You know your playing too much Second Life, when you look for the poseball on your sofa.

I owe it all to BigTrak!

2005-08-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

Having some thunks recently, why I'm into what I'm into. It all goes down to BigTrak! ( the 70's programmable Robot from MB Electronics or that White Tank that my brother ripped the electronics out of. ) This was my first foray into programming and using digital computers to make stories or "BigTrak goes on rampage through Pillow Valley I, II and III." as I remember them.

All hail BigTrak - please come back, the pop kids need to learn LOGO...

(right, off to the sandbox to make one....)

Steampunk Whale

2005-08-14T04:44:00.000-07:00

Work in progress, for my flying whale...

(I'm suprised how flexible the tools for creating shapes are in Second Life. SL Might be a great way to initiate artists into more complex 3D packages.)

Angry released the WarpCore (again.)

2005-08-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

Musing in a breeze of 6.830155mph

2005-08-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

Object-Name: Angry's Blogging Laptop at Home
Region: Zeuzera (258304, 261376)
Local-Position: (83, 105, 103)

Yay!!!! I finally made it, a pair of garden swings... :) joy.

Looks like a tough Boulder Problem.. :)

2005-08-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Jesrad starting foundations of a flying island.
(I'll have to keep you posted on the build.)

Musing in a breeze of 4.943221mph

2005-08-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Object-Name: Angry's Blogging Laptop
Region: Goguen(Sandbox) (255488, 255232)
Local-Position: (56, 142, 13)

Just catching my thoughts in a sandbox. Jesrad is building castles in the sky and lots of other creativity going on around here too

Lomography Fun from Second Life

2005-08-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Catching Rays and Cheesy poses at Grand Canyon with Petal.