Top 10 Art Installations of Second Life

Amalthea Blanc surveys the SL arts scene for New World Notes

Without further ado, here is the toughest list I have ever had to make. A big thank you to everyone who offered suggestions!

1. DanCoyote Antonelli's Arts & Letters Installation
A brilliant new way of describing space in Second Life, filled with interactive exhibits and breath-taking panoramic paintings. The image above is of one of the artist's works - "Exploding Starax". Read about it in more depth.

2. Sabine Stonebender's Installation at Zero Point in Kelham
This is an amazing journey into a land born straight out of imagination. Its electric colors and the architecture of the space, including the scripted ride are things you must experience for yourself. Read more about it here (link includes a video).

3. Seifert's The Future Installation
With an interesting blend of mathematics and art, Seifert Surface is both a visionary and a skilled artist. His installation is an experience comprised of a journey through his futuristic teleporting system and a myriad of sculptures, some interactive and some pushing the limits of prim modeling in Second Life. Read more about it here.

4. Edo Autopoiesis "Resonating with Wind"
A compelling journey into a side of Second Life almost unexplored - sound. Edo creates a field of windwills, each producing a note when an object set in motion by the Second Life wind hits an acoustic resonator. Read on for more details.

5. Greenies Rezzable Home
This playful build is a collection of scenes in which green aliens invade an island-big house. It has been acclaimed immediately as one of the most interesting and artistic places to explore in Second Life. Read on for more details.

6. Princeton Sims - Architecture and FlowerBall Installation
The Princeton University sim is a beautiful reconstruction of the original, real-life campus, created by the New Media Consortium team of artists. On the Princeton North island, you will also find FlowerBall, a playful interactive show by Douglas Story and a brilliant architectural piece by Scope Cleaver.

7. Gallery of Reflexive Architecture
Keystone Bouchard's installation of scripted art with reflexive properties, with a combination of white and black background to create the feeling of another world. Check out a video of it here.

8. Clock Island Installation
...Where the numbers come to life inside of a huge hourglass. Careful, some of the numbers are quick in developing certain attitudes towards visiting avatars! Read more on this.

9. Crescent Moon Museum
One of the oldest and best outfitted art museums in Second Life. Curator Tayzia Abattoir is always on the look for new artists and keeps the exhibits on rotation here. A must see for any Second Life exploration!

10. The Library Art Gallery
Home of Daruma Picnic's interactive sound installation and many other promising 2D and 3D pieces, this is part of the larger Info Island sims, which hold a bevy of amazing finds.

For the adventurers at heart, I highly recommend joining the Not Possible IRL (In Real Life) group - Bettina Tizzy shares landmarks to innovative art spots with the entire group and holds regular events. Other art groups I highly recommend are the Arts Council of Second Life and Art & Artist Network! - both of which you can join for free.

Amalthea Blanc also covers SL arts and culture for SL Art News and the Second Life Insider.

Comments

[BettinaTizzy]

Hi Amalthea!

Thanks for mentioning the Not Possible IRL group. While the group is limited to serious content creators only, others can benefit from our findings by visiting our blog at http://npirl.blogspot.com.

Loved your piece on the top 10 art installations and never forget that there is still so much more for us to see and explore. In particular, I plan to make a bee-line TP to Keystone Bouchard's Reflexive Architecture, and finally finally see DanCoyote's work. The discovery never ends...

Fondly,
Bettina Tizzy

[Juria Yoshikawa]

Yeah! I'm glad to see Edo there. Sweet stuff. JY

[Thea]

Juria - I really loved your Blink installation (http://youtube.com/watch?v=OusYDN2Da8g). It would have definitely made the top 10 had it been a permanent show. If you ever put it down anywhere, do let me know :)

[Robbie D]

This was a nice idea, to give more reporting space to the art scene - and the top 10 list is full of really amazing works by very talented people.

However, I can't help but feel that - as so many were inevitably overlooked - a rank ordered list is perhaps not the best way to do this?

Perhaps it's just me? - rather I would love to see this becoming a regular feature, each week highlighting a single work and its merits - than standing the works up in a list *against* each other...

Either way, thanks.

[Thea]

I'm actually considering a more regular feature and it has been very hard to compose this list - rank, as you may well realize, is very subjective here.
In the end, I put this list together for newcomers to SL - a must see list of the art scene. There are tons of other amazing places being built every day though and I am definitely planning on writing about new installations and giving more detailed coverage. Thanks a lot for weighing in, Robbie :)

That's brilliant news Thea, please do keep up the good work! - It is much apreciated.

[james]

You might consider looking at these as well:

Here is info about this special empyre dLux Pony Club tour held on Monday 20th August, 2007. The tour was specially curated arts tours by the empyre guests and participants of the August discussion: 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Being in Second Life'.

Here are the places we visited:
Gazira Babeli's works @ Odyssey Exhibit A Gallery, Ian Oh's Squat
Odyssey, 49, 19, 22
Website: http://odysseyart.ning.com
Website: http://www.gazirababeli.com

Adam Nash's works @ Ramonia: Garden of Immersive Sound & Vision Sculpture Art
Miami, 220, 199, 23

The Bitfactory/Columbia SL Exhibition space
I AM Columbia, 186, 100, 26

Gallery of Reflexive Architecture by Keystone Bouchard
Architecture 193, 111, 601

Website: http://www.archsl.wordpress.com

Brad Kilgerman's work @ Ars Virtua
Dowden 43, 59, 52
Website: http://www.arsvirtua.com

==================================
Here are some places we may not have had time to see:
The Port
The Port, 235, 62, 26

DanCoyote Full Immersion Hyperformalism Exhibition
Arts and Letters, 45, 133, 706

Chris Dodd's sound works
Marni, 210,54,24
==================================

[Thea]

That tour sounds amazing, James. Wish I knew when on Monday it was happening so I can join you. I'll definitely go check out those spots, thanks for the suggestions :)