IBM 6 sandbox - a sad farewell.



This pigeon was at Runnymede subway station down the street from me. Kind of unrelated to anything but maybe the pigeon is IBM6 sandbox and the subway car is Second life. Yeah maybe thats the connection. Or maybe the artists are the pigeon and IBM6 was the subway car.. and .. they are off looking for... a .. new..
Or maybe the pigeon is me and... no that doesn't work.

When I joined Second Life on March 25th 2007, I had no real understanding what I was getting into. After about a week of wandering around I accidentally created a box in the back yard of someones private home. I remember the owners being a elderly couple from opposite sides of the world who had "dated" for many years through things like ICQ and other instant messaging platforms. With second life they created a more physical way to share time together. They knew they would never meet in first life but this to them was as close as they would ever get to being together. I remember them quietly watching me build for months on their land occasionally coming down to chat but otherwise just leaving me be. I met other friends of theirs and it became a sort of family for a while. One of the only other family feelings I ever encountered was when I discovered IBM6 sandbox. For months before discovering it, I had been working on typical SL sandboxes where you pretty much had 15 min building time before someone decided to try out a new machine gun on you that they had just bought. This became quite irritating as you can imagine, and eventually I purchased the most expensive fighty thing I could find. Bullets couldn't hit me because I had a shield that stopped them and it quite helpfully informed me of people who tried to orbit, shoot, deform etc my peaceful avatar. I would then unleash unholy vengence on the griefers while chastising them in IM. It was really quite entertaining, however, I still was not getting work done.
I tried out IBM6 one day and stayed there for a year without a single fight. On most days it would not be uncommon to be working beside AM Radio, Spiral Walcher, Tezcatlipoca Bisani, Colin Fizgig, PatriciaAnne Daviau, Jessica Qin and other talents. I was there when Jaymin Carthage built a tree which grew over time before it collapsed. It also unfortunately collapsed much of SL and he was given a bare ass spanking by LL. There would be flying fish who would serenade you with poetry or massive avatars by Madcow Cosmos or Flea Bussy would wander around. It was a hangout for some really great artists. So I was sad to hear that due to restructuring IBM6 was no more. To me it was an iconic sim much like the art bars that were meeting places of great painters. I remember meeting Bettina Tizzy and Tayzia Abbatoir there one day and through them discovering a thriving art world in Second Life. It really was an amazing place.

So while sad, it is not all doom and gloom. IBM have given Tezcatlipoca a handful of Openlife sims and I think three SL ones. Tez has named one IBM Exhibit B and it is the new IBM6. I stopped by today and saw works out by AM Radio, Robin Moore, Mobius Enzo and a suspicious looking rat by Jaymin Carthage. Hopefully it will again become a hub for builders in SL. Below is the SLURL if you happen to be looking for a peaceful place to work.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM%20Exhibit%20B/123/184/23

Oh and should you wish to use scripts there just ask Tez or Patti for a group invite.

Comments

Cole Marie said…
IBM sandboxes are the most fun places to build. If I bother building much anymore that is usually where I wind up XD There are times I will just sit there and watch Colin or Robin build and it makes me all happy. Anyway... YAY FOR TEZ <.< he is so great XD
Bettina Tizzy said…
Certainly one of the IBM6 highlights for me was discovering you, Bryn.
Bryn Oh said…
Thank you Bettina that made me feel great. Actually over the next few days I am going to post a few things Tez wrote about the sandbox and art in general. He is a brilliant writer so its great to be able to post it here.
Cole Marie said…
WTF... Pigeons? srsly Bryn?
XD hahahaha <.<

I know a few Tez quotes but...
I won't write them here ;p
hahaha

Also...
my word verification right now to post here... is... lickit

I shit you not
Corcosman said…
I saw Tez tweet about some sims on Reaction Grid, and I asked him the names...I had just been there and happened to notice those sims on the map...then there was a tweet recently about an IBM land grant thingie in RG recently. Not a major cost thing for IBM...I think they have a 4 sim package which runs about $75/mo...that's like having another phone these days...don't know if there is a set up fee, I don't think so. Caerleon has some sims there, Wizard Gynoid, too. I was goofing around one day on the Chilbo sim and Igor Ballyhoo came wandering by visiting RG and gave me a gift.
Bryn Oh said…
Yep its much better financially for owners to be on RG. Very affordable for certain. Unfortunately without an economy its not so good for the artists. Not to mention its deserted and very buggy.

And Cole why am I not surprised :)
Juko said…
For more details on the IBM Exhibition Spaces, see the web site here http://exhibitionspace.org/about.cfm and the Flickr group here http://www.flickr.com/groups/ibmexhibition/ if you have pics to share.
Anonymous said…
"To me it was an iconic sim much like the art bars that were meeting places of great painters."

SL life/virtual art has a tenuous presence in the mindscape of those not in world, artist or other wise. And yet. The story is there waiting to be told. Not about Linden Labs, not about the statistics, the technology, but about the narratives. Someone to grab hold of these narratives and meld the personal stories of these artist with the artistic visions they are creating here. Stories of world wide artist/avatars with quixotic names meeting in “sandboxes”, playing with time/space/color/scale/music/and text, teleporting in and out of worlds both immense and miniscule of their own making, will be no less, and probably more so, exotic, remote, and otherworldly than historical portraits of expat and continental artist meeting in the bars of Paris. Semaj
Anonymous said…
Thanks Bettina cheap diablo 3 Gold of which made me feel good. Basically over the nextD3 Gold 3 days I am about to write-up quite a few Tez composed regarding the sand pit as well as art work D3 ITEmsgenerally. He could be a fantastic article author so it is
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