New World Notes

Six Huge Second Life-Themed Flickr Groups to Follow

Caroline Apollo very kindly shared her list of Second Life-related groups on Flickr, and they're considerably larger than the ones I previously listed:

• Flickrites of Secondlife, 19631 subscribers
• Second Life - Avatars, 13138 subscribers
• SecondLife, 12643 subscribers
• i ❥ Second Life, 12578 subscribers
• Second Life Fashion, 11207 subscribers
• Avatars with Attitude!, 10278 subscribers
• Photographers of Secondlife, 10046 subscribers

Any others in the five or six-figure subscriber range readers should know about?

Cajsa Choices: 12 of My Favorite Holiday-Themed Photos from Second Life

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and seasonal photos are where it’s at. I absolutely love “Couldn’t Resist” from Samanda Eddingham Jewell. I am drawn in by the angle, the perspective that places the rope in the forefront, showing the subject from the back. The slumped shoulders suggest sorrow and loneliness–something many experience during the holidays when they are far from home. I love how depth of field focuses our eyes.

Yes, this magnificent Christmas photo “Merry Christmas to You All” is from Second Life. The artist Doni even explains how she created it and the items she used on her Flickr page. Doesn’t it look just like an old-fashioned illustrated Christmas card? Some of it is how it is framed by the evergreen boughs. It’s beautifully balanced without perfect symmetry which makes it far more interesting than absolute symmetry can ever be. I love the imagination and the creative way it pays homage to the past. And yes, I know it’s from 2011, but I didn’t have this column back then to highlight it.

“Driving Home for Christmas” by Eria Ziemia is an exquisite photo. The lighting is beautiful, the fence forms leading lines and there is even an ess-curve road. This incorporates so many excellent elements of excellent photo composition, but even better, it’s evocative, calling up emotions and memories of years past.

For those of us who love stunning photo compositions, the return of Moos Hultcrantz with this photo called “Baja Norte” was an early Christmas gift. Hultcrantz creates amazing scenes that are set in time and place with an eye for detail and authenticity. His photosets are always complete, but not overstuffed. They are not made to stuff as many bloggable items in the frame as possible, but to be as authentic as possible while telling a story. I don’t know him, but I have missed him during his hiatus.

Many more below the break!

What Are the Largest Second-Themed Flickr Groups?

I'm compiling a list! On a basic Flickr search, the top three groups are:

• *Second Life Glamour* (Fashion is Art) with 8,101 Members now (depicted above)
• Second Life Residents with 7,667 Members now
• Second Life® - Look Of The Day with 7,191 Members now

However, I don't trust raw Flickr searches, since they're likely to miss groups with poor SEO titles. Also, the last time I looked into this 6-7 years ago, there were several SL-themed groups with members in the five figures. So which groups are larger?

Have You Met the Post-Apocalyptic Kitty Cats Guarding Tralala's Diner in the Dead of Virtual Winter?

Jamisson Burnstein has, and so should you (click to embiggenate and for map location). Tralala's Diner, of course, is owned by none other than Ms. Tralala Loordes, a fascinating cyberpunk mistress recently profiled here, whose killer kitties make me want to know more.

Cajsa's Choices: The High Fashion, Cyberpunk Drag Photos of Devereau Beauregard

When I was browsing Flickr, this photo from Devereau Beauregard jumped off the screen, grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed my face toward my monitor, shouting “Look! Look! Did you see that?” It’s the bold colors, of course, that first caught my eye, but that is not what held my attention. It was the angle, the framing slightly off center and diagonal, the depth of field, the story of it, the whole STOMP-ishness that made me start looking for his work with anticipation.

Devereau Beauregard has been in Second Life about a year. His one year rez day was December 11th, though he did create a now-abandoned avatar about eight years ago that lasted about a week. When he first joined he thought about roleplaying, but was drawn to photography and blogging. As he put it, “I just can’t help playing dress up.”

And dress up he does. Most of his photos feature him in drag as Alexandra Nevermind whom he describes as “futuristic IKEA villain drag” in his profile. I don’t know about IKEA, are their colors as brilliant and bright as hers?

For him, Second Life is a bit of escape from his first life. However, he adds, “I would be lying to say that a fair amount of it doesn't bleed into SL. I've always been a creative heart, and much of my line of work has been in creative and technical design, usually in the marketing industry. It's not too much of a far stretch to transition this over to photography, I've found. Then again, art is a great way to get that little splash of colour one doesn't always find in the IT industry. Have you tried turning it off and on again? “

See my interview about his bold and colorful work below.

Cajsa's Choices: The Stylishly Sensual SL Photos of Shiloh Lyric

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Shiloh Lyric’s photos catch my attention with bold colors and heavy shadow, strong emotions, and tasteful eroticism. Light is an important element in her work, even when its power is evidenced by its absence. I love how her work demonstrates how much more erotic discretion is than blatant exposure.

There are nudes in her stream and sexual images, but they are artfully done. They don’t scream “Look at me, I have sex.” After all, having sex is the most ordinary, universal, not-unique thing any of us do.  

After the break, more stylish sensuality from Shiloh -- who shares inspirations for her work, advice for new SL photographers, and a glimpse at her RL:

Cajsa's Choices: The Floating SL Fantasy Art of Coqueta Georgia

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I don’t know who was the first Second Life photographer to compose photos in the style I have come to call “floating fantasies”, but Coqueta Georgia was the first I noticed. It was seeing her photos that made me notice other people working with similar weightless aesthetics, though of course, each with their own distinctive style. Coqueta’s style is certainly distinctive -- I immediately recognize her work without looking for her name. I admire her creativity, not just in framing her photos, but the styling of her outfits and the “set decoration” that makes her compositions so very complete.

In daily life, Coqueta is a musician. She plays instruments, gives lessons and directs choirs. Then logs into SL to disconnect. She wanted a creative outlet that was a rest from music, and found that in virtual photography.

She’s been blogging for three years at El Ático de SL (The SL Attic.) Originally she blogged with a partner who styled and posed for the photos that she took. When they parted blogging ways, she continued on her own, taking pictures of herself which she says became addictive, particularly when the positive response led to stores asking her to blog for their styles.

Tell us about yourself -- how did you come to SL?

Ten years ago, I read an article in the newspaper about a virtual world, a parallel world in which there were communities from all over the world and from my country. I found the concept of "Second Life" very interesting and to be able to fulfill there what in real life I could not do, so I decided to enter this world and became so addicted that I'm still here ...

What keeps you here?

It is like a therapy to disconnect from my real life, work, family, problems etc ... here I feel free and I feel that it is my world and my private space and I can do what I like. That makes me continue to enter this world that for me is wonderful.

How to Virtually Cosplay as Eleven from Stranger Things (Season 1 Edition)

Having just binge-watched Season 2 of Stranger Things, I was super-enthused to come across this impressive Second Life-based cosplay of Eleven (Season 1 version) by SLer Kismet Faith, frozen waffles and all. As fate would have it, Kismet shared with me how she created her version of Eleven (see what I did there?):

Cajsa's Choices: Meet Simon Sonnenblume, Surreal & Stylish SL Storyteller

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Simon Sonnenblume is a fascinating Second Life photographer/storyteller with a quirky sense of humor which is on full display in this interview. To understand his humor, you must know we have only ever corresponded by FlickrMail. Every picture is accompanied by a short story chronicling his and his friends’ adventures in SL and in particular, the continuing story of the Tralala Meat Scandal.

He joined Second Life early on but found it slow and laggy. In 2006, after watching a documentary that piqued his curiosity, he gave it another try and the rest, as they say, is history. He is drawn to the social aspect of SL. If you follow his stories, you will soon learn he is a regular customer at Tralala Loordes’ Diner, the artist/cyberpunk roleplayer featured in a recent Cajsa’s Choices.

My seriously strange Simon interview after the break:

Cajsa's Choices: The Deconstructed Portraits of SL Cyberpunk Tralala Loordes

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Tralala Loordes has this gift for making me laugh. There’s a dry wit in her photos, such as the “How dangerous could one bird be?” (above) where the birds wait in a line, but then so do the people. They are all perching, waiting...and who knows what happens next? There’s a bit of a hidden theme among her photos of people sitting and waiting for something, but they have a wry title to keep them company. She also does fabulous self-portraits that deconstruct identity in intriguing and thought-provoking ways.  

Then again, as she tells me in my interview, Tralala is herself an intriguing personality: In real life, a glamorous international attorney -- in Second Life, a deadly woman running a diner in the cyberpunk future who specializes "in questionable meat".  Uncover her secrets with me below:

How would you describe your aesthetic?

My SL aesthetic is chaotic and a bit political. I like the ruin, rust, dirt, and repurposing of the post-apocalypse existence. I find nothing questionable about Tokyo Piss Alley and Hong Kong rooftop slums being cheek and jowl with the remnants of the apocalypse. My statement would be that life will find a way even in chaos. Of course I had to add a little humor with the weaponized cats.

What is your process for coming up with an idea and executing it?

My process is somewhat driven by political concepts and some sort of unexplained attraction to all things apocalyptic and subsistence level. I think there are two aesthetic conceptual schools of thought on the post-apocalypse. The sere empty landscape group and the survivors group who become pack-rats who hoard every bit of the old world they can lay their hands on. I channel the pack-rat mentality and scour SL for the rusty, broken, but still recognizable bits like one of those survivors. Also that most human of all instincts, an unexpected moment of beauty, finds a place too.

After the break: More on Tralala's fascinating Second Life -- and a quick glimpse at her real one: