The artistic installation by Maddy Schimitzau and Ciottolina Xue draws to a close. I think I’m not wrong in saying that it was a beautiful present that these two artists have done: emotions, metaphorical meanings and food for thought about the dream, always fascinating topic of conversation and study.
I recorded a video, to future memory, of this suggestive artistic installation, playing between music and images. I hope you thrills you, as it has excited me doing it.
It is with great pleasure that today I can announce the reopening to the public of “Santa Maria dell’Isola di Tropea,” at Timeless Memories in Second Life®.
I think many people will remember with nostalgia this enchanting sim, inspired by the beautiful homonymous Italian town. I loved visiting Santa Maria dell’Isola when Elvira Kytori, the designer of the same, had left it open to the public. Many photographers and simple visitors have immortalized the island from various angles, and on Flickr, there are many images of the island.
Subsequently, Elvira will rent the enchanting sim, and the tenant will decide to “close it to the public” (legitimate choice, in its own right). Many other people and I used to visit the island frequently, we suffered from not being able to contemplate the beautiful Italian landscape, so evocative and realistic. I loved Santa Maria dell’Isola from the first moment I visited it and spent the most peaceful moments on this beautiful sim.
For this reason and because I am an art-in-virtual-world lover (Santa Maria dell’Isola is an artistic creation of extraordinary importance in SL®), I decided to buy it and reopen it to the public.
I’m happy to have done it: the island has been open for a couple of days, and many people have visited it and visit it regularly. Just as many people thank me for having once again opened it to the public: I am receiving manifestations of gratitude which, honestly, I did not expect. I am touched, and I thank all of these attentions.
Santa Maria dell’Isola di Tropea is an excellent reproduction of the homonymous Italian island. Elvira, a Swedish artist, explained to me that she decided to create the sim after visiting the island in Real Life. In setting up the sim, she was also influenced by the style of Croatia, which she visited at the same time she saw Santa Maria dell’Isola in Italy.
I admire Elvira for some time, above all her excellent ability to create “dream” landscapes in SL®, extraordinarily detailed and full of charm. When you visit her scenes, stories come to mind, scents, feelings that are often believed (wrong) cannot be part of virtual reality.
After years of SL®, I can say I’m happy and have reached the “peak” of my aspirations.
I believe that Santa Maria dell’Isola is an artistic creation of considerable importance and that it must be protected. For this reason, I publicly commit myself to preserve it and leave it public.
Flipping through the pages of Flickr is hard to remain indifferent to the photographs of Brenda Menges.
She is a professional photographer in Second Life®, who sells her photographic services to those who wish to have a beautiful profile picture or remember crucial moments in (virtual) life.
Beyond the technical and use of graphics programs aspects, I appreciate her way of “turning a virtual face in a human face.” A face that conveys the fears, weaknesses, and passions. The subjects of Brenda undergo not only a graphic treatment, but a “humanization” through their ability to communicate love, sensuality, tenderness, fear, or loss.
This aspect of her photographs leads me to consider her an artist because she is not merely a “graphic designer” but a communicator through avatars portraits in SL®.
Speaking of people who have remarkable creativity and love to share it with other people, creating around him a community, Skippy Beresford is one of my favorite artists.
Skippy is the avatar of a child, brave and idealistic, learning every day something new about life. He faces new experiences that allow him to grow humanly, often sharing his adventures with some travel partners (other children, animals, etc.).
The most exciting aspect of this cute virtual character, is the author’s ability to create, through images taken in Second Life®, realistic stories that arouse emotions in the viewer, laughter, sympathy, feeling, etc.
I believe it is this Skippy’s ability to emotionally involve the audience that makes him so much loved and followed on his Flickr Photostream.
At the time of writing, Skippy has 9,759 followers, and his images reach top 1000 favorite for a display medium for image over 9000 views.
These figures are difficult to achieve even for skilled photographers to Real Life.
How do you explain, then, this success?
The images of Skippy “immortalize” a situation appropriately narrated in the field “description” of the image itself. In the narrative is enclosed a message, a valuable lesson that likes to people, because it is “a vehicle of peace and love.”
I follow Skippy for a long time, and I think he is one of the friendliest and most creative people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing in SL®.
Speaking of Art in Second Life®, it is worth mentioning the importance that photography has in the virtual environment. In fact, one of the most popular hobbies and pleasant inside the metaverse of Linden Lab ® is just the photograph.
In most cases, it comes to fashion photography related to the environment, so shots that immortalize clothes, look and dress ideas for men, women, and children.
There are lots of Flickr accounts related to “photographers of Second Life®.”
In some (rare) cases in the SL® photograph we can find art.
In this sense, one of my favorite artists is Awesome Fallen. In her photographs, the use of colors, the “depth of field” effect, light and, in some cases, the montage of different images to create something new, are used to communicate.
The titles of her works and phrases that she often uses to clarify her feelings help the viewer to “enter into her artistic world.”
I saw this extraordinary artist at several events, but I must admit that contemplate her Flickr is always my preferred choice.
I think the images speak extensively of her, of her way of interacting with virtual reality, seeing it as an excellent opportunity to give vent to creativity and imagination. The Fallen style is varied, in some cases it is reassuring landscapes, in other instances of disturbing montages.
A few days ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Cabaniss, founder of ArtByte. It is a digital currency that has the mission to help artists of all kinds: musicians, singers, writers, photographers, painters, designers, graphic artists and … virtual artists (artists working in virtual worlds, such as Second Life®). The financial aid which ArtByte gives artists comes from the eponymous foundation that is committed to supporting the art.
ArtByte supports Second Life® Artists
Mike contacted me to ask what ArtByte can do to support the art even in SL®, thus was born in me the desire to better understand the logic of virtual currency in general and in particular of ArtByte.
As for the digital currency, it is a new way to make electronic payments to anyone in the world. The first coin of this kind was Bitcoin. After Bitcoin, other digital currencies are born, including Dogecoin to support Internet posts, Auroracoin for Iceland country and Mazacoin for Lakota Indian tribe.
Speaking of ArtByte, the purpose of this digital money is to support artists.
Art lovers will have, therefore, one more chance to show their appreciation to a particular artist, paying him/her directly in “artbytes.” The donator can pay an artist via a Twitter account in a completely anonymous manner. To better understand the usefulness of this mechanism will give an example: if we want to receive a donation in SL® we have two alternatives: either we put in-world a box with an internal script to obtain a money-gift, or ask to be paid via PayPal or credit card. In the first case, that of the in-world contribution, anonymity is preserved by the fact that the donor pays with Lindens (another virtual currency) an account that coincides with our avatar. We can then sell lindens and convert them into euro/dollar or another currency. Or we can spend lindens in-world, as we prefer. In the second case, the donation via Paypal or credit card does not allow us to remain anonymous and, therefore, our real identity would inevitably be revealed at the time of donation.
Several times people asked me how to support the blog without having an account in SL® and, not wanting to confuse my Real Life with my Second Life®, I preferred to give up on that aid. Through the virtual currency, however, this anonymity can easily be preserved. ArtByte is a digital currency created on purpose to support artists.
How does it work? I must say that it is not necessary to connect to the ArtByte account any credit card to receive donations and all ArtByte services are free for artists.
To open your own “ArtByte wallet” click here: get started.
If you use an online wallet it’s essential to write down your password in a safe place because ArtByte is a peer to peer digital currency, so the password is not saved on the server and, if lost, it can not be recovered in any way. The site warns several times the importance of preserving your password, so be careful, because if you can not access to the ArtByte wallet, you can not, of course, also to have access to your “artbytes.”
Once registered, by going to “receive” we can access our wallet, identified with a numbers-letters sequence.
ArtByte wallet
This string can be shared with all those who wish to donate. I advise to publish it in your socials, on your blogs, and on your SL® profile so that those who want to give can do it without asking for the number of your wallet. You have to think of this alpha-numeric string as the number of your credit card or to your e-mail address for Paypal: it is the reference for those who want to give digital currency. Easy, right? Open an account and share your wallet number.
If you prefer to receive donations via Twitter the only information that the donor needs is your Twitter account. Indeed through a specific ArtByte app, who donates can give artbytes through the famous social network. The ArtByte App Creates an ArtByte address for you if you don’t already have one.
The “Free ArtByte Showcase,” the stunning weekly contest
Another excellent opportunity for artists offered by ArtByte is to participate in the “Free ArtByte Showcase” that in SL® that we would call in a more familiar way “contest.” To do this, you must register for the forum and post your content, not forgetting to indicate the address of your wallet (if you have one). If you win, you would see increase your purse of 5000 artbyes (which, at the time of writing, are 99,50 Euro → Conversion here).
How to spend artbytes?
Ok, we have our artbytes in the wallet, as we can now spend it?
The best way to send Artbyte to LiteBit.Eu. LiteBit is an exchange system that allows you to carry their digital money in your LiteBite Wallet and convert it into Euros. How to do? We should send their encrypted coin on LiteBit wallet. At that point, we can change the currency loaded on LiteBit into money we can spend in everyday life, such as the euro.
Mike explains better than me:
“If a person lives in Europe it is easy. On the LiteBit.Eu exchange, ArtByte can be traded directly to Euros. In the US and the rest of the world, it is a two-step process. On an exchange that trades ArtByte/Bitcoin, you trade your ArtByte for Bitcoin, then trade the Bitcoin for cash on another exchange. In the US the biggest one for that is Coinbase. There are many exchanges around the world that trade Bitcoin for that country’s currency.
ArtByte trades on these exchanges:
Bittrex (BTC/ABY): https://bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-ABY
ArtByte Forum to promote your contents and activities in SL®
Finally, if you are an SL® artist and you want to promote your contents on ArtByte Forum, you are welcome to do. It’s free. You have just registered an account and post them!
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