The Rabbicorn story scene two and three

The next scene is of the Rabbicorn in a cart being driven home from the laboratory.  After creating the Rabbicorn and seeing its capacity to love actually succeeding as a program she felt that perhaps she had created a type of life.  Where we feel emotions from thoughts that trigger chemicals that then trigger say a smile for pleasure, or a fast heartbeat for fear, the Rabbicorn has her body triggered by similar emotions.  It is all zeroes and ones but the scientist questions what constitutes life.   So this is a bit strange but, when I created the Rabbicorn I imagined the whimsical things from which she was built and in my mind I imagined her heart to be connected to a music box on her back.  The music box reacting to the various emotions that were now a part of her.  When a strong emotion is triggered in the Rabbicorn then the music box will begin to turn and the spokes were retractable to change the tune.  In the scene two it is activated by separation from the scientist who created her.

        When she was done
        she knew the Rabbicorn must go
        and that the government
        must never know
       
        For they would not
        care about her heart
        they would rather
        take her apart
       
        So she gave her to
        a man she met that day
        who had mentioned that
        it was his son's birthday
       
        She made him promise
        to look after her
        and for the first time
        the Rabbicorn's heart did whir
       
        As she looked back
        she said "Please don't fear"
        and as they drove away
        wiped away a tear

 
   Scene three shows the Rabbicorn from a wooden box in the living room peeking out and waiting under a grid of computer screens.   This world, much like our own, is obsessed with multiple triggers for ones attention and the screens almost seem to look upon the Rabbicorn with concern as she may interfere with their dominance over the families attention.  The morning brings down a young boy who excitedly opens his birthday present to find the Rabbicorn.  The Rabbicorn's music box heart is triggered again by his arrival and she imprints upon him. 



        She was placed in a box
        wrapped in a bow
        on a wood floor
        under a computers glow
       
        In the morning
        feet did race
        a lid did open
        a child's face
       
        Eyes of cerulean
        looked down on her
        and again the Rabbicorn's
        heart did whir

Part two: The Rabbicorn story

     The third and final part of the Standby trilogy is now open on Immersiva.  All three parts are there which is a minor miracle.  Originally when the stories were created in prims they each were close to 20,000 prims for a grand total of around 60k.  Far more than a sim can hold.  But yay for mesh which has allowed me to reduce the footprint down to 19683.. which lets all three be on at once.  So this post might be long and will explain the second part of the story called the Rabbicorn.  You can read about the first part of the story called the Daughter of Gears here http://brynoh.blogspot.com/2019/03/part-one-daughter-of-gears.html

Slurl to Standby on Immersiva http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Immersiva/11/106/22

the crystal corridor

      My philosophy when creating virtual spaces is to design the narrative so that the viewer will have environments with changes in scale or lighting etc.  The first part to the Rabbicorn story begins with the viewer opening a door to a corridor of glowing crystal rocks.  Projector lighting casts their reflections over the body of the viewer until they come up to the surface of the grey sky and for some a familiar building.  It is the shed where the science lab is hidden below.  This is a structure from 26 tines http://brynoh.blogspot.com/2017/12/26-tines.html     which tells the story of a maintenance robot and a little robot boy in a jar who come together at night when everyone is gone home, to connect and feel comfort through a cable.  The cable has 26 tines or spokes with which to plug into the other.   I have mentioned before that all my stories are in the same world and over the last 13 years or so I will crossover characters to show how they relate to each other.  One of the scientists from the 26 tines story is also the creator of the Rabbicorn.   She created the Rabbicorn  as a side project with the intention of trying to instill "Love" within a machine, a deviation from the war robots she builds for the government.  She succeeds with the Rabbicorn and eventually it appears in other things such as the powerpet Mr Zippers from the Singularity of Kumiko, who got the love upgrade.  Anyway I better not fall down these rabbit holes of explanations.  The science lab is again quiet with the maintenance robot still at her station and upon the work bench sits a peculiar machine.  It is called the Rabbicorn.  A mix of a rabbit and unicorn.  Spinning slowly beside it rests her heart which has not yet been installed.  Looking inside the heart will show things like a wee poem and a bird wrapped up in fishing wire which represents my father who passed away from ALS a few years ago.



On the wall is the first poem

The Rabbicorn

    
        A Scientist
        in a lab
        built the Rabbicorn
        from things she had
       
        From Tesla coils
        and a music box
        parts of a gramophone
        and fur from a fox
       
        She gave her a heart
        and a strong mind
        she was the only one
        of her kind
       
        For the ones she made
        before her
        were Robobears
        meant for war


 Ok a bit more of the rabbit hole.  This isn't important to know but the scientist from Catching Feathers machinima also works at the same place.  I will include that machinima too.


Ok I can't sum up the entire story in one post or it will be massive so I will do a series.  

Part one: The Daughter of Gears

     The Daughter of Gears is the first part to a three part narrative currently showing on Immersiva sim in Second Life.  The second part called the Rabbicorn Story is just opening, so I will sum up the first part of the narrative for those who were unable to climb the tower, which is admittedly difficult.

     One of my philosophies in creating virtual art is that the art itself should not just be handed to the visitor.  I truly believe, or in my case anyway, that overcoming a challenge of some sort to experience the artwork makes me not only appreciate it more, but also connect to it on a different level.  When people come to see my work I create it with different layers for the experience.  Some enjoy a quick run through which is fine, while the majority who follow my work enjoy or even expect to look below the surface of the story to contemplate various conceptual layers.  They understand that they need to click on things and study the environment to find different elements within the narrative.  That my stories tend to not be black or white morally and often lead to debate with the viewer and their friends as to whether they would do as the characters in my stories did.  What I would like people to feel is that they found something that perhaps many others missed.   This creates a type of ownership of the artwork for the visitor and places them on a level of being an "expert' when it comes to knowing how to experience my work.  I try to create so that everyone is able to enjoy the work on some level, but my real focus is on those who follow my work and enjoy this method of creation.

     The Daughter of Gears story was originally created years ago when I was commissioned by a

company called Rezzable to make something for an existing region called Black Swan, built by Lightwaves also known as Starax.    I have rebuilt the story in mesh mostly because I have made the main characters, the daughter of gears and Rabbicorn, into bronze sculptures.  There were a total of 15 pairs and some still remain should you be interested to purchase a set.  Just message me if you are.  After I made the bronzes it occurred to me that probably few would remember the story and so here we are.  As I said the first was built for Rezzable for Black Swan but  the second and third parts were hosted by IBM when they were actively within Second Life.  Anway, so here is the story for the Daughter of Gears.  It is a series of poems you discover as you climb a tower, it is about a girl who is dying and her mother places her soul within a machine, because she can not bear to lose her and the technology exists.  Her daughter returns to her but those living nearby feel it is an abomination to have such a creature exist.  Some feel so strongly that they decide to come to her tower and take the daughter away from her.  The mother naturally will not allow this to happen and fights them and succeeds, but at the cost of her own life.  At the last moments she realizes that she has condemned her daughter to a life of solitude and lonliness.  An outcast for eternity.  The Daughter, now alone on the tower, puts herself on Standby much like a computer does.  In her standby she resides in a virtual world where she lives with the memories of her mother, while in the real world the vines and weeds slowly grow up her body over the course of a century on her deserted windblown tower.

Part one:

They called her obscene   
they called her a blight
a mob slowly grows
in the dark of the night

My Daughter of Gears
transistors and moss
she resembles to all
the one that I lost.

They come to the tower
to take her from me
our bond is from love
but that they can't see

My knees shake and tremble
awaiting the worst
but to get to my Daughter
they must pass by me first.

Part two:

Eyes of cerulean, mirrored by mine
to my daughter I hide my grieving
behind me the vessel chimes
sensing that she will soon be leaving

Shallow breaths, quiet sighs,
tesla cracks, nascent mother
the vessel slowly opens her eyes,
across the room my reborn daughter

 Part three:

Fluttering heart,
nervous start,
I know not what to do

Her skin like lace,
a child's face,
now only eyes
of cerulean blue

Your whisper of gears
bring out my tears
from the shattering
of a dream

The confused eyes
of my love who died
whom I bound to a machine

Part four:

When the cables came away
and I looked into your eyes
that was my first day
but you did not realize

That you were imprinted on my heart
zeroes and ones in digital blue
and when you finally did part
I would stay and think of you

You fought them like a spark
but on that day you did die
and when you left for the dark
I put myself on standby

So I could dream of how
your love kept them from me
but I am alone now
for eternity.

Part five in her stanby.

Inside here
they won't find
the memories
stored in my mind

Inside here
just me  and  you
a love so pure
and always new

Inside here
a reality I've prepared
for you to hold my hand
when I'm feeling scared.



Part two the Rabbciorn story is now open on Immersiva.
slurl   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Immersiva/11/98/22

The ice storm

I was working in Second Life today and disappeared for an hour.  When I finally returned,  both cold and wet, I had a bunch of instant messages waiting patiently for me to reply.  One asked if I was away writing a story.  Yes... yes I was.  And here is that story.  A completely made up story that has nothing to do with me.  Because it would be far too embarrassing had it actually been me.

The fictional character named Willow

     To preface the story,  I should mention that the main character, lets call them BO,  well Bo was
fostering an 8 month old black Labrador retriever dog named Willow.  Willow had been living with Bo for a month and was quite energetic to say the least.  Bo saw her at the animal shelter where she had been dropped off and felt Willow would do much better living in a warm house until she was adopted by a family, than in a cold shelter. Willow has medical issues going on with her back legs so the vet felt the bandages needed to stay dry.. so when BO takes Willow for walks around town some yellow plastic dish washing gloves must be pulled over the bandages and taped.  Also to stop Willow from bothering her feet she needed a lamp shade thing over her head.  Lets just say that when Bo takes Willow for walks she gets many strange stares from people wondering why someone would put dish washing gloves over a dogs feet.  Why not those dog booties or something.  In fact Bo is starting to become the odd person around the neighbourhood I think, judging by the amount of rubber necking and laughter.
     So last night there was a big ice storm in this made up story.  Kind of like the ice storm Toronto got last night, but not the same one obviously since its a made up story with made up characters.  The ice storm covered everything in a very slippery layer making it treacherous to walk.  Anyway Bo, not aware of this, lets Willow out into the back  yard, after a while Bo hears Willow barking and looks to see her standing, in her rubber gloves, at the bottom of the porch steps unwilling to climb up.  Bo opens the side door and calls down "Willow come on up! why are you waiting down there?"  Willow just barks.. and barks.. and barks a bit more and Bo realizes it's very slippery and Willow is having nothing to do with climbing those slippery steps.  Now Bo works from home and so admittedly doesn't always get dressed RIGHT away in the morning.  Might actually be wearing pajamas at that particular time, which is not a crime!  Anyway so Bo feels that Willow needs encouragement and steps down in slippers to the icy deck and immediately realizes it is far more slippery than anticipated.  So slippery in fact that Bo must move at a snails pace to get along the deck and slowly down the steps, but fortunately Bo brought gloves so the ice on the handrails was not too hard to grasp.  Reaching Willow, who was gleefully barking this whole time, they both look back up at the steps and realize its too slippery, and so they must take the side gate to the front door to get in.           

     Walking slowly to the wooden gate Bo discovers that it is frozen shut and impossible to push open.  It's like a snowman sneezed all over it.  Willow then takes Bo's gloves and runs away with them wanting to be chased.  Slowly inching to the steps Bo hatches a plan and begins to climb the back up to the house.  The steps are very slippery as I said and it was with no shame that Bo decided to crawl up the icy steps, perhaps looking a bit like a dying crab, while Willow barked at Bo's bum.  Finally reaching the house our hero, Bo, boils a (sealed) pot of water and returns to the deck and then down the steps to the gate.  Pouring the water around the bottom of the gate the ice melts freeing it from its icy prison.  The ordeal is finally done!  Thinks a shivering Bo.  Holding willow's collar together they walk the path to the front door.. the path is very slippery so Bo decides to crawl beside Willow, seeing as there is nobody around to see.  Well until the mailman arrives unexpectedly and sees someone in their pajamas with a dog wearing bright yellow dish washing gloves crawling to meet him.  Bo makes it to their feet and says to the Mailman, who is looking at bit perplexed at the pair, "Oh I can take the mail, you don't need to put it in the box."  Bo attempts a conversational tone thinking perhaps this might hide the rather ridiculous scene and make it seem a bit.. normal.  The mailman leaves and Bo and Willow take the mail and go back into the house.   Bo notices that Willow no longer has the gloves and that they are likely in the icy back yard still.  Bo decides to buy new gloves.
     In Canada many of us don't lock our front doors.  I don't usually, and Americans think its because we have no crime and are very trusting.  The truth is we don't lock our front doors in case there is an ice storm and we get stuck outside in our pajamas without keys.  That's the real truth.

Daughter of Gears

Bryn Oh's The Daughter of Gears

Part one in a three part trilogy with each chapter opening a month apart. This is the story of a dying girl whose soul is placed into a machine. A decision that places her alone and outside a society that views her as an abomination.

Visit in Second Life

New arts grant from Canadian government

     I was just informed a few days ago that I have been awarded another grant from the OAC, a
Canadian government arts funding organization.  I am so pleased and would just like to thank the OAC for their continued support over the years.   This is the fourth time I have been awarded a grant by them and to be honest I am not sure where I would be in my career without their financial help.  There is a saying in Canada among artists that many of the larger art organizations support Canadian artists once they have become successful elsewhere, almost as though they need evidence that other countries think we are talented in order for them to accept and support us.  They don't take us while we are fragile and encourage and support our growth thus helping to create the success, but rather appear once it is evident from the perspective of other Countries that you actually do have talent.  I don't know if it is true or artists griping, but when I look at my own successes ranging from Vogue, to television in other countries to exhibiting in museums in Germany, Moscow and galleries and festivals in the USA... I have to admit that I have never been approached by anything Canadian except Universities which have me on their syllabus.  Actually Universities have been really great too.  So I would like again to thank the OAC because they do support me and it is very much appreciated.

     So about the grant.  It is substantial and will allow me to further embrace working with the Oculus and other technologies to create immersive spaces.  One element of the grant is to film the work "Hand" and build it in Sansar (will also go in Second life).  The first obstacle?  Sansar doesn't support the space navigator mouse which is used for filming.  From what I understand it is not going to be supported anytime soon either.  There is a feature request that I submitted a while ago if anyone wishes to encourage them to work on it https://help.sansar.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115018282103-Space-navigator-3D-mouse-support
     I understand that Sansar has lots of things to work on and they are often coming up with new features.. just a few weeks ago they announced the ability to sit in chairs.  They are doing great but my humble suggestion would be to focus on things which will help promote Sansar.  Machinima is a great promoter and Sansar might be  an ideal place to make machinima.  A news article or blog post is great too.. but they are static and show the space in 2d snapshots.  Machinima is the best was to show people the virtual space other than them actually going there to try it.  The thing is, if I can't film in Sansar for my grant,  then I will have to try High Fidelity (a competitor) or Second Life.  See I told you artists gripe about things.  Ok I will confess why I am griping today.  I am fostering a black Labrador 8 month old puppy from the Shelter.  It is exhausting!  She has leg issues so I have been keeping her at home for the last month rather than her staying in the rather cold and lonely animal shelter.  She needs people.  Once she is healthy someone will adopt her, though sadly I can't though I would dearly love to.  But it is exhausting.  I spend most of my time trying to get my gloves back after she has snuck them out of my pocket or rooting things out of her mouth.  That's a gooey job.  The other day on a walk she ate a cigarette butt.  Its like .. why? that must have tasted like stink!  Also the other day she suddenly launched herself at me while I was reading and shoved her entire tongue into my mouth.  Possibly a bit of her nose too.  She is lovely and  sweet really, but I also have had to put on one of those lamp shade things around her heads so she can't bother her feet, and then she turns into a wrecking ball.  She hasn't figured out her turning radius yet so she is constantly knocking over everything... and worst thing is she wants to go for a walk at 5am every day!.. and will  bark.  So yes I am griping but its justified! justified I say!  I am sleep deprived.  Anyway, to sum up yay! grant and thank you OAC, spacenavigator please and dog gah!.   

An image in Vogue

     It is ironic that I am in Vogue magazine as my fashion choices involves various clothes in black.  I will stop wearing black when they invent a darker colour.  That's not true I actually do wear grey sometimes.  I am as elegant as a black friday Wallmart aisle fight.  I have all the grace of someone

trying to put on a sweater with one sleeve inside out.  My sense of direction is so poor I would get lost on the runway.  All these attributes add up to someone who should not be in Vogue.... unless.
    Unless it is about art, I can do art ok.  So it was a nice surprise when Linden Lab said they were contacted by Vogue who wanted some of my images.  My plan is to get the print magazine and strategically open it to the page where my art is shown and pretend the magazine fell off the bookshelf to that page for when friends and family visit.  They will stoop to pick it up and say "Oh is this  your art?" and I will be all like "Oh seems so, I am not really sure how that magazine got here but yeah I guess they must have put my art in there, I hadn't really looked at it.  I don't keep track of that sort of thing"  play it all cool and indifferent.  And if they don't notice it on the ground then maybe I will say something like "I think I dropped my contact lens on the floor by this magazine.. can you help me find it?  it may have fallen on that picture there" or actually I could just tape the magazine, open to that page, to my face so that when they talk to me they actually have to look at the article instead of my face.  Anyway, I have plans.

     So here is the link to the article.    https://www.vogue.in/content/this-is-how-technology-is-changing-the-way-we-see-art/

     Would have been nice if they had embedded the machinima in the article since it better shows what the virtual space is like, though still not the same as experiencing a virtual space.  If you have not seen the machinima for Lady Carmagnolle you can watch it below if you like.  Oh and I am on instagram as bryn oh now if you want some phone candy.