Black Box Gallery

SLURL
slurl.com/secondlife/Experience%20Italy%20E/90/100/1149

So this slurl won't seem to work for whatever reason. 


To find the gallery do a search for the avatar named Therese Carfago in Second Life.  In her picks at the top is BlackBox Gallery.  Just click that and you are there.

I have always been a bit resistant to 2D galleries in Second Life. The main reason is because I see virtual worlds as an art medium or tool which need not follow the "rules" of real life. For example, in Second Life we can fly. Why on earth do we create houses with stairs then? Stairs are something needed in RL due to gravity. We have no real gravity in sl. The reason why many of us follow the rules of real life in a virtual world is because it is how we attach meaning to the experience. For new people it might even be essential to create a sense of psychological comfort in the virtual environment in order to make the innitial experience less daunting.

It allows us to go within a comfort zone we can understand and recognize. If, for example, you meet a new avatar who has piercings, tatoos and a mohawk you take this visual stimulus and create a personality profile for them. They are the clues which help us understand who we are interacting with. It is what we do as humans in RL, and we take the same methods of interpretation into this virtual realm.
considering that about 50% of the people I know in SL are actually the opposite gender in SL to their RL, it seems this RL approach might be faulty. I know quite a few prominent "male" artists in SL who are actually female in RL. What you see in SL is often miles away from the person in RL. And that is exactly how it should be. When I first came to SL I created an avatar that looked like me in RL. It was the novelty of seeing myself as a cartoon character. It didn't take long for me to think what a complete and utter waste it was to be myself in a virtual world that allows for so much more. So I then became a great big white moth and eventually how I am seen now.

Back to the gallery. So I have always resisted traditional gallery compositions in SL because traditional galleries in RL suck donkey balls and its really not necessary to mimic that conservative way in which things are displayed. I have a much stronger dislike for showing paintings in SL because they lose so very much when exhibited in a virtual world. The rich colours, the texture and brush stroke... all gone. It would be like a musician composing a work, then channeling it though the speaker of one of those novelty musical gift cards that play when you open them. I don't mind paintings as additions to things, I mean I put my own paintings in many of my builds, but they are just background with the prim build being the main focus.
The Black box gallery is the creation of Therese Carfago and really is just her collection of art she likes in SL. Its been around a while and she has never told anyone it existed. Traffic is 0. It is one of the rare examples of a 2d based gallery in a traditional format which I like. Why? because the artwork she has chosen suits the virtual world. They are pieces created in Second Life and worked on in photoshop and gimp. They don't lose anything by being imported as a jpeg. She has also placed prim art here as well, which creates for a nice balance. We are seeing them as they are meant to be seen not as a watered down product that is far inferior to what we can find in RL. There are a few RL artworks as well but they also seem to work nicely due to the manner in which they were created in RL. For example, four Yip has one of her classic paintings there and due to her smooth brush strokes and blending it seems to translate better here. There are a few rare rl works by AM Radio as well. Anyway have a look if you wish to see a nice subtle gallery whose dark design really allows the artwork to stand out.




This below is how Therese describes her gallery.


"This is my new gallery dedicated to the artists I love the most. There is a permanent collection with works by AM Radio, Berta Liliehook, Bryn Oh, CapCat Ragu, Cestra Segall, ColeMarie Soleil, Del May, Four Yip, Glyph Graves, Haust, Kean Kelly, Keiko Morigi, Marie Lauridsen, Nevery Lorakeet, Sledge Roffo, Suzanne Graves, Thea Denja and Veronika Obviate. The main part of the gallery has rotating exhibitions, and right now you can see "Piano & Pearls" by Eva Grimes."

Comments

Miso Susanowa said…
hah Bryn, "It would be like a musician composing a work then playing it though the speaker of one of those novelty musical gift cards that play when you open them."

This is exactly the problem I and the other sound artists in SL face daily; the gutting of the fine FMOD sound engine in the browser :(

Well... that and the fact that people turn off the SOUNDS channel because of gesture-fests and so on :(
Anonymous said…
slurs not valid
Bryn Oh said…
Yes Miso I recall Adam Ramona saying that once. Tried the slurl again so hopefully it works now.
Anonymous said…
still can't get the slur to work, what region is the gallery in and/or is their another way to search for it, sorry and thanks
Bryn Oh said…
Strange but the SLURL won't seem to work. So just go into second life and search for the avatar named Therese Carfagno. In her picks at the top is Black Box gallery.
Vincent Nesler said…
Bryn, the slurl is good :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Experience%20Italy%20E/90/100/1149
this is your link in the html that doesnt work, your link is "http://"
When you do a link in a post of wordpress just verify that the text of the link is the same than the url of the link, when you edit it in html you will see it. Indeed, the place is very fine and thank you for your posts :)
Bryn Oh said…
Oh right thanks Vincent I fixed it now and it seems to work.
Dearest Myrtle said…
I just want to add my two pennorth as an SL artist and designer. I work with a builder to make houses and art work. We tend to take photographs in world................with some staging naturally or make things that respond to avators and we build.

In al lthese three areas I agree with your comment Bryn. So much in SL is predicated on people unconscious assumptions that SL is some kind of mirror of RL when it is entirely different. Once we have agreed its real people and put that into the equation we can really go to town with everything else. Pet hates of mine in SL which never feature in my houses are:
stairs,cooking or eating spaces
and bathrooms (water is different 'nuff said)
Most types of furniture are also entirely redundant.

Interestingly though on our marketplace we have some ultra modern fit for SL purpose skyboxes and some tradtional Irish cottages.
Which do you think sell the best?
Sigh.

Check it out or yourself
ArchiTech's Marketplace
Sailor (49s, 68, 1001)

Merry Christmas
Anonymous said…
One of the better Cheap wow goldto provide my two pennorth being an SL designer as well as designer. Regularly using a contractor to produce properties and art work. We often take images in globe................by incorporating staging naturally or make items that
Buy rs goldreply to avators and that we create.

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