New World Notes

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: ABADDON

Summer Axon and Detect Surface tend bar

Recently I stumbled across a dark and beautifully foreboding industrial town, and on further investigation, learned it was Sector 13 in the City of Abaddon, on the island of Merrick's Landing.  (Direct portal at this link.) 

I begged the owner Detect Surface to tell me about building it, and he happily obliged with a deluge of description and richly-textured postcards-- and a brochure of the 'bots which finance it.  Take the tour after the break.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: ARS VIRTUA IN DOWDEN

Kliger Dinkin is Ars Virtua's first artist-in-residence in Second Life, chosen in an open proposal request by the real world arts group to create commissions of metaverse art based in Second Life.  His work in Dowden is a colorful and crystalline flood of imagery, words, and sensation, and he sent along a suitably rococo treatise to describe his creative process.  That and more staggeringly gorgeous images and video from Dinkin's Dowden exhibit after the break.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: IMZADI

Recently born to the world, Veritas Raymaker went searching for an ideal home, and having found it in a tropical paradise near a Malay museum and a Star Trek themepark, began creating an expansive educational space (he teaches geography in real life.)  "I know I am not the most objective judge in this issue," he tells me, "but I can honestly say I have not found a more scenic, beautiful, and painstakingly rendered/designed/built sim based on a tropical island theme.

"The residency covenant rules here are very strict," he adds grinning, "and that goes a long way to accounting for that."

Iris Ophelia's World Fashion Tour

Ten wildly diverse locales, ten altogether fabulous ensembles-- one universally glamorous avatar.  Armed with reader tips and her own personal itinerary, NWN fashion correspondent Iris Ophelia fearlessly explored the grid, and returned from her whirlwind tour with her hair still perfectly coiffed-- and a breathtakingly dazzling travelogue in hand.  Where in the world did Iris go, and who was she wearing when she got there?  Find out after the break!

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: 7000 OAKS ON COSMOS ISLAND

Pei Twang and Pei May send a postcard from Cosmos Island [direct teleport here], where they've built an SL recreation of a noteworthy real world installation: Joseph Beuys' "7000 Oaks".

"Beuys' project begun on March the 16th, 1982," the Peis write. "His plan called for the planting of seven thousand trees, each paired with a columnar basalt stone. Beuys intended the Kassel project to be the first stage in an ongoing scheme of tree planting to be extended throughout the world as part of a global mission to effect environmental and social change."

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: THE MOSQUE OF CHEBI-- AND MUSLIMS IN SECOND LIFE

Drown Pharoah at the mosque's entrance

For his World from my Window entry, Drown Pharaoh told me about the Mosque in Chebi, next to a Christian cathedral, and of course, that led to a broader conversation on the place of Islam in Second Life.  His utterly fascinating insights on Muslims in the metaverse, after the break.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: CALEDON HIGHLANDS

"My first day in SL," Chance Takashi writes me, "was the day the first Caledon sim opened, and I fell in love with the Neo-Victorians and with the steampunk style. I didn't officially live there, though, until the Caledon Highlands came into being."  He goes on to lovingly describe what followed next, in the community of the future past-- in words, and in this witty travelogue movie, appropriately created as if it was made during the Lumiere era.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: LAKE GNOMA

Gypsy pauses in his hike to take in the scenery

Johan Durant sends a postcard from Lake Gnoma (direct teleport here):  "Hi, let me tell you about Lake Gnoma, the land owned by my friends and I.  We have more building work planned, but it's already a beautiful place to visit.  Lake Gnoma campground is half of Gnoma, on the east side of the road.  The lake itself is in the southeast corner of Gnoma, but the campground actually extends all the way up the eastern side.  We initially bought the lake in order to preserve it, but our love for the area quickly led us to purchase more and more adjacent plots until we owned half the sim.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: THE MONASTERY OF FELIX MERITUS IN LILL BURN VALLEY

"January 2007," Man Monnett writes me, "I discovered the valley called Lill Burn Valley.  It was empty and peaceful. I wanted to keep this, and started building the Monastery of Felix Meritis. Buying big plots of land to ensure the peace and quietness of the Valley made it into this spectacular area.

THE WORLD FROM MY WINDOW: THE BLOCK (Updated)

Iris Ophelia told me about The Block, a place that had recently become her pinnacle of cool, and since Iris is bound to know these things, I went and saw for myself, and was duly impressed.  So much so, I begged Dragontat "DT" Zagato to tell me about the Block in a "World from My Window" entry, and to our great fortune, he did.  What he describes is a unique and impressive story of social emergence, a community unexpectedly evolving from a shared sense of fashion, culture, and urban space.