The Realm of the Otherwise Impossible

Pioneers Over C by Gore Suntzu (on display at Ars Simulacra)
Photo by Serenek Timeless

One reason to be in Second Life is to explore the Realm of the Otherwise Impossible (ROI).  The virtual world permits exploration of all kinds of ideas that would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in real life.  This, I think, is why virtual reality has such potential as an educational tool, but it requires educators to stop thinking about the things they could or already actually do in conventional educational settings and begin thinking about all the things they wish they could do but can't.  I'm sure I'll return to these educational themes many times in future posts, but for the moment I want to talk about the ROI in the visual arts in Second Life.

Cosmic Spectroscopy by Gore Suntzu
Photo by Serenek Timeless

Even though the arts community in SL complains often about lack of Linden Lab support for the arts, there actually is quite a lot of art in SL.  Many artists are adept at digital, 2-D image creation, and one can buy all manner of digitally rendered pictures to hang over the couch on one's SL livingroom wall.  Some of those I like, but the majority of them bore me.  To my eye, the most interesting examples of virtual world visual arts are those with which the viewer can interact -- walk through, climb on, fly around -- many of which do not have any physical presence at all because they are composed of particles of light rather than prims.  They combine the best of color, form, and motion to convey an idea or mood.

As in real life, artists with big ideas need lots of space to create and display their work.  And that requires financial resources which artists often don't have a lot of.  But there have been SL patrons of the arts who have offered the arts community both sandbox space and gallery/installation space for their work.  So it is with some dismay that I learned today that one of the biggest patron of the arts in SL, IBM, is closing up three of the regions they have used for many years to sponsor the creation and display of visual art.  You can read more about IBM's announcement in Hamlet Au's New World Notes post yesterday.

Kaleidoscopical Humbugs
Art by Gore Suntzu
Photo by Serenek Timeless

One place in SL that continues to show some of the best art in SL is Ars Simulacra, sponsored by the New Media Consortium.  The region complements the smaller 2- and 3-D shows at the adjacent Aho Museum.  Large works of art are displayed throughout the lushly forested, hilly Ars Simulacra region, with larger immersive installations high up overhead on sky platforms.

Curator Tayzia Abattoir has an eye for talent and right now the show is Kaleidoscopical Humbugs featuring the work of Gore Suntzu.  The show is best viewed with the sun setting on midnight, which allows the region to come aglow with color, ephemeral shape, and motion.  Simple pictures can hardly do the work justice - the pieces vibrate and pulse!

Why is this show a fabulous example of the Realm of the Otherwise Impossible?  Let me use Gore Suntzu's own words from his notes for the show:

"My prim abuses are unreal prims sculptures made with sculpties andwith some little scripting to make them alive.  Do they have a meaning? I don't know, but if the music is nice, the moon is full sometime it can happen that they catch the mood of the people that are looking at them

For me is more an act of exploration looking for a symmetrical dynamic pulsation."

Gore Suntzu's own gallery, Ye Olde Prim Abuser Shoppe where you can buy many of the smaller pieces in this show, is in a much smaller region, so it's no surprise that his notes for the Ars Simulacra show express appreciation to Tayzia "for the opportunity she gave me, it was lovely to be able to work without the fear of running out of prims and with no pressure and deadlines!"

We should all thank Ars Simulacra for making it possible for all of us to experience the Realm of the Otherwise Impossible.

Kaleidoscopical Humbugs
Art by Gore Suntzu
Photo by Serenek Timeless