Machinima - Standby

As a result of being nominated for two AVI choice award for Favorite artist and Favorite machinima artist https://avichoiceawards.com/vote-here-the-arts/ I will be posting a machinima every few days.

 Standby is the culmination of three large works into one story.  Back in 2009 or so I was commissioned to create something for a region called Black Swan created by Starax/Light waves for

Black Swan

Rezzable.  It was an open request to make something, so I would spend some time there to try to absorb what the sim "felt" like and what might fit within it rather than clash.   The region had two giant figures embracing in the centre with a ring on the outside with various sculptures.  It felt to me as though it almost had a story to it, though in fact it didn't.  What I decided to do was to create a tower in the center that told a story as you climbed it.  It was full of traps and quite difficult but that was part of an idea I had which was that if you made something challenging to the viewer it would be more rewarding in the end than to just give the work to the viewer to stand back and observe from a distance.   I wanted them to be active participant to the artwork rather than a passive observer.  Black Swan was a beloved sim to many at that time in SL and I got a few nasty messages and even some demands to remove it from upset people.  I recall someone writing in a review at the time that they didn't want to "do work" to see art.  I remember reading that and deciding I would create for the virtual space, for the explorer types and not the snowflakes who brought the elitist art baggage from the real world into the virtual space, hoping the artist would bring them the art on a silver platter for them to observe at their leisure.  There are those who role play art and feel that real art must look like what we leave behind in real life.  The paintings or static sculpture that look like what you can find in real life.  Then there are those who understand the unique traits of the virtual space and realize the art created here can defy all the aesthetic and conceptual rules that exist in the "real" world.  In fact this spurred a successful group called NPIRL or Not Possible in Real Life
     At this time I had the idea to create a narrative which would be told in installments over many years.  In fact the new work "Hand" which should open in a few weeks is a continuation of this original story as has been every work with the exception of Virginia Alone.  Each story resides in the same world and act as layers to an overall narrative.  The work for Black Swan was called the Daughter of Gears and after the exhibition IBM requested to have it shown on their regions.  The following two installments, the Rabbicorn story and then Standy were at IBM.  I used this work to apply for a Government Grant at the Ontario Arts Council and it was the first of three successful art grants to be awarded to me thus far.  Standby is the title of the three stories combined into one machinima and it was my first extended machinima running at around 30 minutes long.