A ticklish issue.. when is the act of photographing existing art, *not* content theft?

Friday night witnessed an unusual gathering of artists and content creators within Second Life. No, this wasn't the NPIRL Garden of Delights wrap party. The word went out over the Rezzable Events Group chat that there was a potential for content theft for many of the pieces within the NPIRL Garden, Rezzable in general, and other immersive art works.



At the * p_OO_f * Gallery run by Miss Music Hyun, many angry artists were congregated. The issue that was upsetting many of them was that Miss Hyun had liberally taken photographs of existing artwork and was selling said artwork, without permission or acknowledgment, for a pretty penny. Several of the artists present saw pictures of their art on sale.



I shall not say what I recognized, as I wasn't affected directly. One of the content creators present felt justifiably upset when he recorded this transaction with the owner of the gallery:

Music Hyun: i take photos of what i want and when i want :) and i do not copy pictures, i photograph architecture and immersive arts

Music Hyun: so have a happy life :)


Miss Hyun didn't create the art she takes photographs of so liberally, but she did create the photographs.. so are they art in themselves, or dangerously derivative of someone else's vision? Where is the line drawn? It's hard to say.

Art imitates Life, er.. podcasts.. er.. virtuality.. what-evah!

I jumped over to one of my personal favorite aethernet destinations, Da Vinci Automata.

I was delighted to see a story concerning the subject of an audio program I had recently performed about the Illustrious Turk, the famous chess playing automaton. What's more, the article informs us that there is now a graphic novel about this very subject, entitled THE CLOCKWORK GAME. I am delighted at this development!



I have high hopes for this and will eagerly subscribe.

Hibernia Media Channel post on the Turk is HERE. (Not my best, a tad breathy, but I was at a high altitude when recording).

Postscript: Jane Irwin, the creator of the CLOCKWORK GAME, also mentions a link a NYT article about John Gaughan, the creator of illusions who has built a modern replica of the Turk. He is also mentioned in the Audio Snippet linked above. I read about John in the last issue of MAKE magazine-- I would love to visit that workshop/museum of his some day!

Primtings! and Nighthawks at the Diner!

Found in the Primtings Sim, a sim dedicated to recreating paintings in the three dimensional world of Second Life.

This isn't entirely original, as Starry Night may attest.

However, Primtings is well worth a visit..

Particularly since one of my favorite paintings, NIGHTHAWKS, is recreated in loving detail:

The Original:



In Virtuality:



Somehow, I don't think Hopper pictured a denizen of his diner wearing Tuna Oddfellow's straw hat and Amy Weber's rose-colored goggles.



Have a visit next time you are inworld!



Hmmph.. where's my coffee? If this waiter thinks he's getting a dime tip outta me, he's got another think coming!

The Job: 100 word short story audio

Hard on the heels of the last one, comes another one.. submitted early so I can make the deadline.

The theme is THE JOB. I'm suspecting Howard Waldrop will not mind too much if use an idea of his... which will become clear as the narrative unfolds. :-D



Words are found HERE. Enjoy!

Pirate Lore: It's true!

Pirates make the worst patients

100 Word Story Challenge: Jimmy Buffett

This week's theme was a puzzler: Jimmy Buffett.

I admit to being a borderline "Parrot Head" in my other existence, but how does one do 100 words exactly on the subject of the happy go lucky musician-gazillionaire? He's so.. so... HAPPY all the time!! And then, the obvious pun hit me. Please don't throw rocks.. I hate that.



I think I may have missed the deadline on this topic, but if you want to hear some other fine audio stories, vote for the entries HERE.

Wanderings about the Garden..

The Garden of NPIRL delights will have been covered by other, more (ahem) legitimate news venues by now. This is a series of four sims in Rezzable, the inworld art community in Second Life. If you haven't visited, I strongly suggested a visit-- I'm sure landmarks will be available in legitimate news outlets. To stroll through the Garden, you must get a HUD and attach it. The HUD, somehow, transports you from place to place (or should-- it broke on me).

There are many sights and sounds and immersive art thingies to visit.

Delightful spirals and chaos



A tower of lightning...


Consuming Ourselves!

a Surrealistic hideaway in the clouds...


Death of a Phoenix...


A steampunk tower

A forest of shapes .. and wheat!

Zombie Food!

Peace Garden..

The Laughing Flowers!

Second Life Videos


Alas, I'm betrayed by the WEGAME utility (again!). This little garden of flowers will laugh in different voices as you walk through it.. quite captivating, but naturally, there's no sound on the footage I got above.. tsk tsk tsk..

The garden is an amazing accomplishment, sort of the critical mass of immersive art projects in Second Life.. for a while. These are just a few things I noticed, and I have not been all over it yet.

According to the notecard given at the start of the tour, views, pictures and machinima are licensed under creative commons with agreement of the artists. The work remains their own and they should get credit for it. Here are the creators I observed (mostly by right clicking on prims, so forgive me in advance if I get this wrong)

Purgatorio, DB Bailey (seen before here with The Bomb Factory)
the Lightning Tree (and various structures nearby, seen above) truthseeker youn
The Samaritan, Scrap Godenot
The Green Steampunk tower, Kheph77 Enoch (and Eladrienne Laval)
Earth Laughs in Flowers (Random Calliope aka the Laughing Flowers Video)
Death of a Phoenix (Eshi Otawara and Irena M. Morris)
Peace Paradise (the Dove Rhode)
Self Consumption (Cheen Pitney)

If I have failed to mention you as the creator in the pictures above, please accept my apologies. It is not always obvious where one exhibit begins and another ends, nor which person created what. Consider it an error of omission, not commission. grin.

(merged previous post "Steam Tower" into this post, fixing an attribution error)

Just for fun, the Paper Steamtank

For the enterprising craftsman or woman, I present the Paper Steam Tank. This is provided gratis by the good people at ONE MONK MINIATURES. Simple retrieve these illustrated files from the Aetherweb HERE, publish them in color (hopefully on a sturdy bond of paper), cut them at the cut lines and glue them together. Enjoy! Instructions included..

Animation of Dancing at Alt 7 in Second Life

Second Life Videos

Just playing around with new techniques..

Paean to McPhee

Some of you may recall my affection for the world of Archie McPhee, mentioned about a year ago.

Now, Guy & Rodd's Brevity comic strip examines that soul-searching question:

"What if Hotspur was a clown by trade, and about to enter into a state of connubial bliss?"

I think it would go.. something.. like.. this..