Post #4, For Which I Make My First Virtual Latex Purchase

[2009/11/16 19:24] Marisol Koenkamp: how was the exhibit?
[2009/11/16 19:24] Pale Lilienthal: very cool

[2009/11/16 19:26] Pale Lilienthal: it's called "Storm Cells"
[2009/11/16 19:27] Pale Lilienthal: and samples the SL clouds above to effect changes in the components of the exhibit

[2009/11/16 19:30] Marisol Koenkamp: ooooh. *makes note*

[2009/11/16 19:31] Marisol Koenkamp: thanks
[2009/11/16 19:32] Pale Lilienthal: there you are

[2009/11/16 19:32] Pale Lilienthal: it's visually striking, too
[2009/11/16 19:32] Pale Lilienthal: would make a fine backdrop for your blog pieces
[2009/11/16 19:32] Pale Lilienthal: (yes I read them)
[2009/11/16 19:33] Marisol Koenkamp: ty...i'm feeling overwhelmed by what was going to be my next post idea.

[2009/11/16 19:33] Marisol Koenkamp: (and thanks for reading my blog!)
[2009/11/16 19:33] Marisol Koenkamp: (you are one of three, I think!)
[2009/11/16 19:33] Pale Lilienthal: you could dress in turquoise latex. *grin*

***

Upon arrival, Marisol caught a little tile tram that took her through the color-shifting turquoise cubes. I like how floating through the middle of this one only affected the color of the front prims of Marisol's hair:

Avatar facial expressions/glances/eye direction are a constant frustration for me when taking photos. Getting Marisol to look less autistic--without using the grotesque facial distortions that pass for smile and frown animations in SL--is a challenge. I rather think the most effective tools are context and body pose--if you provide a context and an interesting pose, then our imaginations do a lot to fill in the blanks and breathe emotion into an avatar's face.

While Marisol was floating around the cubes, on occasion she would suddenly look straight at the camera (and somehow her glance looked full of slightly creepy meaning) but the tile, with her on it, would immediately zip along quickly out of my camera frame. I couldn't figure out what I was doing to cause this, but I really wanted to get a photo of it. I finally did, with Marisol half out of the frame:

Deciding to take a rest, Marisol sits on the edge of one of the weather cubes and stares blankly and doll-like at the horizon:

The cubes are constantly shifting, and eventually, if you stand too long on them, you will fall right through. Let yourself fall down to the ground, where you'll find yourself in a very cool sim (see Credits/Notes below).

Here's a view of the cubes from below up through to sky:

Credits/Notes:

In the slightly paraphrased words of Zachh Cale, curator: Storm Cells is an etherial installation by Oberon Onmura constructed of a thousand 8mx8mx8m cubes, each of which is programmed to react to the density of the SL clouds directly overhead. As the cloud density over each cell increases, it simultaneously lightens its color toward white and increases its height. The result is a dynamic multidimensional map of SL's random cloud function.

Storm Cells is located on a sim called Cetus (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cetus/122/125/2622), which is devoted to the exploration of a new building form in the virtual world. It is also the studio of DB Bailey (David Denton Architect in RL).

*I did a little messing around with contrast and saturation on these photos, but not so much that the exhibit looks different from what you'll see if you go.*

Marisol is wearing MEDUSA-limited edition hair from Minnu Model Skins (now known as LeLutka). I did a quick search around LeLutka and couldn't find this hair. Sorry. The outfit is part of the black with sweet blue piping "Latex Concubine" (without the skirt) from KDC: Kyrah Design Concept. I added a sweet blue buckled latex corset (also from KDC), some torn fishnets from Sheer and Bax Coen's black leather Prestige Boots. Skin is Baroque Gothic from Kleineschwein Designs.

And thanks, Pale, for telling me about this installation and suggesting turquoise latex.