Update, 2:22pm: Thanks to reader Graham Mills, who found my 2004 profile of Mr. Noir on my defunct Linden Lab-sponsored blog, I added the full text and some pics below -- a tribute to Lumiere and a fascinating glimpse of sL's earliest days. Click here to read.
Sad news for the SL community: The man behind Lumiere Noir, one of Second Life's very first members, unexpectedly died in recent days. There's a memorial page for him on Facebook here, and he's survived by his SL partner Tosha Tyran, whose deep condolences I extend. I also recommend paying your respects with a visit to his Ivory Tower of Prims, which he built back in 2003, and which still exists in SL, looking even more impressive in SL's latest generation of graphics: Here it is on the SL web map, in the ancient sim of Natoma.
Lumiere built his tower to teach new SLers all the complexities of building with prims, and I vividly recall getting a tour from him shortly after he built it, being duly amazed at how creative he himself was with prim-based construction. (I'm unable to find my original post, but I recall he also had a seriously cool avatar - maybe a LEGO-man? Help me out, friends of Noir. [UPDATE: Actually, a cartoon devil in tightie whities -- see below.])
Lumiere was dedicated to educating people in every aspect of his life, as his RL obituary attests:
Our beloved son and step-brother, Vincent Frost, joined our Lord in Heaven this week. He will be deeply missed for his kindness, his wit, and his selflessness toward friends, family and his students. A teacher in the Plano Independent School District, Vince dedicated 17 years of his life to teaching students English as a Second Language (ESL), as well as his other passion, literature. A compassionate teacher and friend to his students, he helped countless students assimilate through improved language skills and accent reduction. In the late eighties, he began developing a passion for Chinese cultures and languages, and first served as an ESL teacher at the Taipei Language Institute for 3 years.
He's featured in this article, as well, illustrating how he helped a young woman start a new life in the United States.
Much thanks to Christine for passing along this news and these references.
Update, 2:22pm: Here's my profile of Lumiere from 2004, via the discontinued Linden Lab-sponsored version of New World Notes:
The devil lives in Noyo, and he wears tighty whities.
Instead of flaying men's souls from their bones, however, Lumiere Noir spends most of his time in-world completing the Ivory Tower of Prims, a multi-storied building devoted to teaching new residents the intricacies of building objects. "I'm a teacher [offline], and pretty much a self-taught builder here," Noir tells me. "I've made a lot of discoveries with building and wanted to share them. And I started to get the idea that one of the best ways to demonstrate building here would be to lay it all out visually, down to the workings of the user interface. Because there's really no way for a Basic Building 101 teacher to show that [in an online class], and people get lost." So each level of the tower breaks down the process of creating, texturing, and shaping an objects, step by step, GUI by GUI. Or as Lumiere puts it,
"[T]his is a user interface about a user interface. I like it when there are layers of reality and simulated reality that go in layers like this... I've interviewed a lot of master builders to get tips and
tricks and experience and building methods that go beyond my own."
We step outside the wide, dramatic entrance of the Ivory Tower, the devil and I, to wrap up our interview.
"I want it to be a very public looking place," says Lumiere, referring to the curling, white marble staircase, the reflecting pool, the polished brass lettering, and the giant abstract sculptures that ring
the entrance.
Off-world, Lumiere teaches English as a second langue to high schoolers, mostly Spanish and Chinese-speakers. At the same time, he adds, "I've got a Masters in art... so that's still a strong pull-- part of
why I like SL so much, it's a new medium." The Ivory Tower is his effort to link his twin passions of teaching and art together, and he has long-term aspirations to expand in both directions. "I've considered using the tools of SL to create things in British history to show students," says Lumiere. "Say, like the Globe Theater, Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe and things like that... I'd be able to give them walk throughs."
The bulk of this profile was conducted several weeks ago, so I checked in with Lumiere Noir this week, to see how things had been evolving in the Tower, since then.
"I'm putting in a branch building in Natoma now," Noir tells me via Instant Message. "I've added a lot of advanced techniques to the upper levels of the original building. The branch will cover texturing and avatar attachments. I'm running out of prims in Noyo, so that's part of why I'm making the branch in another sim, until I can get more land in Noyo... Attendance is way, way up with the new arrivals. I'm getting between 40 and 50 visitors a day now, sometimes up to 100."
None of this is to suggest that the Tower is solely a non-profit public works project. Based on the steady foot traffic of new users (i.e. "newbies"), the Tower generates enough Dwell credits to bring in a small
but steady stream of Linden Dollars, into Lumiere Noir's account. "I usually make 200-300 a day," Lumiere tells me-- about US$.90-$1.30, based on the current exchange rate.
"Is all that total enough to cover your monthly fees?" I ask him.
Noir laughs. "Not at all... but it does help a lot to get developer's incentives. People that make the most Dwell are given awards of US dollars, either as a check or as a credit to their accounts. I've received these the last 3 months... the library was never as busy as it is now, but let's see... US $30,
$40 and $33 so far, for the 3 previous months. I just have it taken off my bill. It's nice. It's not what I do the library for, but it does help." His main motivation remains the thrill of teaching, and building to teach.
"I'm often approached by newbies who say 'I learned how to build in your tower!'," Noir says. "And that's all the reward I ever need."
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Missing blog post http://secondlife.blogs.com/nwn/2004/06/all_along_the_i.html
Posted by: Graham Mills | Friday, August 14, 2015 at 09:52 AM
Thank you so much for helping to spread word to the thousands and thousands of people Lumi touched in his virtual life, about his untimely passing . Thank you also for bringing the story full circle by talking about his remarkable personal commitment to teaching in every aspect of his life.There will be a memorial service at some point in the near future on the OpenSim World Craft-world.org:8002, which had been his home with Tosha for many years. Everyone is welcome:)
Posted by: Virtual Christine | Friday, August 14, 2015 at 10:58 AM
Thank you for your the article, for your compassion and for you caring about Lumiere Noir.
Posted by: Tosha Tyran | Friday, August 14, 2015 at 12:45 PM
Very saddened to hear about the passing of Lumiere. I was not close with him but did have the pleasure in getting to know him a little bit. He built our sim in SL and also took time to teach people how to build in SL for one of our machinima productions. Was just a genuinely good human being with a love for architecture. RIP Vincent
Posted by: Robustus Hax | Friday, August 14, 2015 at 01:37 PM
Here is a link to an interview Lumiere did with Dousa if people would like to see what a fascinating and great person he was. https://vimeo.com/7034036
Posted by: Robustus Hax | Friday, August 14, 2015 at 01:48 PM
I remember him IMing me some help once in the early days. Such a great guy! RIP
Posted by: Dizzy Banjo | Friday, August 14, 2015 at 04:54 PM
So many memories.
Well over 10 years ago, I knew Swen (later known as Lumi) as a very thoughtful person, but also quite a bit of an art rebel. This was on a completely different platform which at the time was still fairly amazing: the nascent there.com of 2001/2002. In the early days, there weren't very many ways to create much there. But create he did, using every platform feature (intended or otherwise) possible.
By the time there were decent mechanisms to do much on there.com, he had moved on. Many of us had tried the 'early' SL and quite frankly... it wasn't very good in the early days. It took vision to see the potential. The first few visits, I didn't 'stick' but did manage to look up Lumi on the fourth or fifth try ~ and he did see the potential. He was in a space suit, building... something, with the intensity of a madman.
We caught up, and in short order he shared his visions; online presence for him was very transformative. It sounds cliche now of course, but then it was fairly revolutionary: an online medium of expression, rather than simply a place to color by numbers. I could see the constraints lifted from my old friend, and he was truly happy.
Of course, the first thing he did with his newfound vision, was to free the constraints of tens of thousands of other people. Perhaps more. Back in those days, everything was very 'fringe' ~ only the highly tenacious early adopter types could survive. Lumi was a true educator, and changed that. The magical SL of 2004~07 simply wouldn't have been possible without the Ivory Tower.
And somewhere in that process, he turned me into a zebra (I was following his rapid instructions) and then was completely unable to figure out how to change back, later. I was stuck as a zebra for days. Help me! I brayed to anyone who would listen, and eventually got a friendly stranger to explain how to undo it. Classic Lumi, simply not worried about that kind of thing! It was worth being occasionally turned into a zebra or something, to keep up with him.
Later on, he was a valuable advisor; I owe much of my own online success to him. He taught me to build, which led to success as a merchant, which led to success with a virtual estate. We would catch up periodically, but he was always ahead of the curve; by the time I got my head around something, he was already on the next thing. Most people would use that kind of vision in selfish ways. He used it for the benefit of others.
I never knew him offline; seeing his face today in the 'fresh start' article link above really got me thinking. "That's him all right." I can feel the same presence.
We lost a true visionary and selfless person.
Posted by: Desmond Shang | Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 01:44 AM
Desmond said all I was thinking and more. Like Desmond, I first met Lumi in There.com as Swen_Wu_Kong. His avatar then was Dr. Zavatars
He introduced me to one of my beloved friends, CrystalShard. And we all followed him to SL.
He was funny, creative, demanding, and above all, curious. It is because of the tools he shared with us that SL became so much more.
I cannot count the number of people back in those early days that learned to create because of the library, the contest, Lumi's passion for sharing knowledge.
Both virtual worlds & the real world are diminished by his loss.
Travel lightly, Lumi.
Much love & respect,
Lali
Posted by: Lali | Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 06:59 PM
Darn autocorrect. Lumi's There.com avid was Dr. Zaius.
And I think Lumi would have been amused by the typo. :D
Posted by: Lali | Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 07:03 PM