Second Life’s Most Acclaimed Cyberpunk City Set to Disappear This Month -- The Life & Death of Hangars Liquides, As Told By Its Mysterious Creator

Hangars Liquides, a cyberpunk city created in Second Life by an elusive 3D artist known only to the SL community at large by her avatar name, “Djehan Kidd”, is among the virtual world’s greatest works -- shadowy, moody, awesome.

Unveiled into the metaverse in June 2007, it has surely attracted hundreds of thousands if not millions of visits over its 12 year history. As its reputation spread through the virtual world, numerous cyberpunk roleplay groups flocked to it, adopted it as their oven, turning it into their staging ground for ongoing stories they created on the fly.  Over the years, they have uploaded thousands and thousands of HL screenshots and videos, documenting their adventures (many of them inevitably Adult-rated). They even started renting apartments from Djehan Kidd, so that they could have a permanent (albeit virtual) home address in Hangars Liquides.

During that time, as this reputation grew, the outside world took notice: It was featured by the UK Guardian in 2014 (see above); cyberpunk godfather William Gibson mentioned it on his Twitter feed; Oprah Winfrey herself once posed in front of a giant poster depicting the city.

At the end of this month, however, Hangars Liquides is destined to be deleted from Second Life, at least as it exists in its current form -- so click here to visit it in Second Life while you still can.

As with countless other beloved sims that have left Second Life, Hangars’ fate was sealed by Linden Lab policies, chief among them the high cost of monthly tier. And that is even though Hangars is owned by a non-profit French media organization of the same name, and qualifies for Linden Lab’s nonprofit discount.

“As a cultural nonprofit organization,” Djehan explains, “Second Life has become unsustainable for me. Several months ago, I was told that the new Terms of Service for nonprofits did not permit us to offer rentals anymore; as a result, the city couldn't pay for itself any more.” 

As Hangars became unsustainable, the real person behind Djehan Kidd (at right) was increasingly swamped by the demands of a project based in another floating, magical city -- but more on that down the way.  

Linden Lab has been in contact with Djehan in recent months, and there’s talk about the company making an exception to the “no rentals” rule, since that’s how she subsidizes HL’s operation. There’s also discussion of Linden Lab itself taking over Hangars, to preserve it -- but that may only consign the city to becoming a ghost of its former self. (When the Lindens acquired Svarga, a fully operational ecosystem, some of its scripting went awry, breaking its simulated cycle of life that made it an early masterpiece of SL.)

In any case, Linden Lab has not announced anything to Djehan Kidd as of yesterday, and so the city as it stands has only a few weeks more to remain.

“So I am going to have to send a ticket asking to close everything down on July 31st,” Djehan explains, “and tell [the Linden rep] who submits the regions for preservation to tell me if they preserve Hangars Liquides or not, so I can move on.”

But again, even if the Lindens intercede at the very last moment, Hangars will likely no longer exist now as it has since 2007. But before it went away, Djehan Kidd told me the story of the city, how it came to be, its thriving culture over the last 12 years -- and the surprise opportunity that came from it.

The Meaning of Hangars Liquides’ Name

“It could translate properly as « liquefied hangars »… the name comes from [the firm’s] founder La Peste (the plague). It is that moment when you are temporarily occupying a hangar or another huge industrial building made to host machines, and you experience the psychedelic liquefaction of all your direct audiovisual surroundings, through the exacerbation of your senses getting triggered by the most extreme audiovisual stimuli. For the artists at Hangars Liquides, it can be an artistic approach to universal chaos.”

Joining Hangars Liquides the Multimedia Organization -- and Founding Hangars Liquides the Second Life City

“I was lucky to know I wanted to become an artist very early, so I started taking academic courses of still life and figure drawing at my hometown’s « Beaux-Art » (fine art) school when I was 11… [Later I learned] all the major software and techniques used for online and offline content creation, including 3D [while] still training in classical art...

“I joined Hangars Liquides a week before 9/11. At that time the music industry was at the peak of its crisis due to P2P tech… Major [labels] counted on marketing budgets while the underground had to count on the unification of the artists’ workforce, from all disciplines…  the only promotion we really value is when the work can promote itself alone, for it has been worked on so much that it promotes itself just by existing…

“In 2006 a musician friend told me he saw a new online platform in the news, that online world where people could deploy and sell their own content was called Second Life, so I logged in and with the experience I already had with software I had no problem to learn it very fast and see its potential.

“In 2007, I met with a lot of elected delegates for culture and technologies, to tell them about Second Life. Then the French ministry of culture gave Hangars Liquides a grant, and we could start our nonprofit cultural organization work in various fields, including Second Life.”

Creating Hangars Liquides -- While Roleplay Groups Created Communities Around It

“I often saw the virtual city as an art gallery on a virtual street, like any real life one we’d visit in any given street -- you know these places are often very calm and not very crowded. Being in Second Life offered me a rather good spot on a rather cool boulevard for an art gallery...

“I think I stumbled upon a dozen indie roleplay groups, but it was never my initiative to organize any RP. I built and said, OK, any roleplayers can come do their thing, but I am building. Some Dark Elves community, the Shadowrun RPers... HL always had RP going on like any big virtual city gets, I guess, without being centralized around roleplay.”

How She Went from Hangars Liquides in SL, to Working on a Project for the Venice Biennale in 2021

“I met my Venetian curator at Hangars Liquides! Second Life is a place where people like that go, it can get very serious, even though almost everyone seems to mock SL -- you know, avant garde was always mocked, always « it is bullshit, it is ugly » this and that. Reading art history, this is a constant. When the impressionists came up, they were mocked.

“With him I applied for the Biennale in 2013, for an Augmented Reality artwork, and we were officially selected by the curator in chief and the director. We had the chief urbanist of Venice backing us too and UNESCO -- but the mayor of the city who is now in jail because he is a corrupt politician said it was too dystopian for the city..." 

[Pictured at right: Djehan with her curator and staff at the museum la Punta de la Dogana in Venice]

“But now the Biennale is more advanced for high tech and they have a special VR section ready, which will be easier than AR. 

“And I will probably use Sansar! Because it has such a beautiful engine.

“Venice is so beautiful. Hopefully I grow old and in dozens of years I will present my last project too, there, hopefully. [It] will be AR, if tech doesn’t come up with even more magical things.”

Above: Djehan IRL: “I am wearing the real life outfit from SL designer Joy Laperriere, who owns the SL brand .shi. She first released them in polygons then IRL and I bought one. :)”

Oprah photo by Jason Spingarn-Koff, director of Life 2.0 -- the acclaimed documentary was acquired by Ms. Winfrey’s cable TV network.

Interview edited and arranged for clarity.

UPDATE, 7/15: Amended the title for better clarity; by request of Djehan, updated the landing teleport link to Hangars Liquides.

Comments

[Alazarin]

I'm gonna miss Hangars Liquides. I really liked that place.

[Zanne]

I am dumbfounded! We do NOT need anymore amazing places leaving SL. Hello? Linden Labs???

[Lawrence Celestalis]

Apparently we will be left with badly built porn sims only. All the builders now use prefabs, ripped textures.
No one builds like Djehan anymore, from scratch, doing research and experimental art. Many of her textures are hand painted. Top Italian architect who teach at MIT, who I showed her work to, told me she's genius, despite having graduated as a multimedia artist and not as an architect. I am always surprised as LL doesn't get that good content, especially real new and groundbreaking art, like what Djehan is creating, should be supported and cherished. LL should fund Djehan so she can keep creating and updating Hangars, and Second Life will still have its best art city. Moreover, they should ask her to be their consultant for great building, so we would avoid builders who are supported by LL, who still imitate Salvador Dalì in 2019! LOL! I've seen so many good sims go since the rising of the servers' price in 2010 and it's hard, as a resident of HL since 2011, to see the best Sl sim, created by best friend go.

[Duchess Willow]

I can't imagine second life without Hangars and I think it would be a terrible shame for Linden Labs to do nothing and allow the place to close, when they can step in and prevent this. If any place is worth preserving it's hangars which is a work of art and the best cyberpunk sim I've seen, of the many that I have visited. I am hoping LL will help save her hard work and creativity.

[Coralineo]

If any sim within secondlife is worth such an exception it would have to be Hangars. Many countless times it has been the sole reason for myself to continue logging in; it is one of the very few sims that still instil a sense of wanderlust, a unique gem in a sea of so much...well if you've played secondlife before, you should know.

As Lawrence mentioned before, it's such a work of love and labour where each piece of it is in essence, handmade. It goes far beyond than just the build, the music and the whole atmosphere of the place all work to captivate you. If anything within this silly game is worthy of considered being art, I feel as though Hangars is.

I logged in here to add my two cents to this discussion hoping it'll somehow land on LL's ears, yet if anyone knows of a petition or something similar, please post it here.

[Dantelicia]

By letting these incredible sims disappear LL is contributing to the increasing loss of meaning of this realm.
SL cannot be reduced to a giant department store with no soul, no fantasy, no creativity, that will be the death of it.
It makes absolutely no sense to stop an artist from being financially self sufficient.

[Skye Donardson]

To lose Hangars would be tragic. It is a thing of beauty, a rich environment that tells many stories the more you poke around. I've spent many an hour there exploring, doing pictures, and taking it in and just enjoying it. It's one of my "Go to" places...one of the few places in Second Life that I return to again and again.

Truly artistic environments like Hangars Liquides are a dying breed in SL. We get LEA exhibitions, instead of permanent places that artists can afford to keep up all the time for members to enjoy. It's a terrible shame, and I hope LL does the right thing, and saves it from disappearing.

[Soul]

SL is worse than RL now. In RL, artists can create without hassle.

SL and LL is ALL hassle because it is run by fools. RL is run by God.

[amandamagick]

I am very afraid that all the most amazing original builds of SL from the beginning are leaving. I am also afraid of what we will be left with when its all gone. True real creative builders in SL are leaving and then all we will have left are shopping events, porn, fetish and people who have no idea what SL is all about or what it once was about. The creative expression is disappearing.

[Helena Wells]

SL seems to be making some horrible decisions that make me wonder if they any business sense. It would be stupid to lose a draw such as this over something so petty.

[Joey1058]

This news just hit me like a ton of bricks. I haven't been this distraught over losing a sim since the disappearance of Japan Dream Kenjin. I would rant over what I think is the underlying political move for this, but it's absolutely useless. All I will say is, catering to certain "authorities" to defund a non profit group under suspicion of perceived intentions without a body of proof, further erodes my faith in both SL and Linden Lab.

[Varianblake]

As it was stated above, truly artistic environments & RP ARE a dying breed inworld. Now I'll have to seek out another refuge worthy of my time & $L. It's situations like this that make me even more introverted & bitter, not to mention look @ the traffics on a Fri/Sat evening @ log-in...SAD. Most importantly though, a prodigious THANK YOU to Dejhan & crew for the brilliant time, work and dedication. I'll continue to rent out my bunker in the West cell & wander. Get it together Linden Labs, you're drawing away from Second Life's mission and flocking in a new generation of simpletons who thrive on 16 dozen alts and re-branded shitty content and afk clubs, 75% of what I believe are your inept right-wing employees, NOT everyday members...*drops mic*

[Lawrence Celestalis]

SAVE HANGARS!

I made a thread on Sl community so you all can make yourself heard: https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/439936-hangars-liquides-is-closing/

[Fionalein]

Reading this discussion made me think a bit.

The true tragedy of creative content in SL is that you have to shell out about 200 bucks a month to get your playing field - many aspiring artists just cannot afford that and many seasoned ones are not willing to pay that anymore - the current land costs in SL limit virtual art to the upper class. And LEA? Well looks like a pretty much closed society to me.

Actually I am amazed on how much still is out there.

[Lawrence Celestalis]

Fiona, Hangars costs about 300 euro per month at the moment. By blocking rentals because it is a non profit it's really crazy! It's always been an open city, open to everyone, human, furries, robots, anyone.

[kaori]

It's about time Linden takes over the costs for this fine piece of art.
Spread the word, scream and maybe we are lucky.

[Saisei Heliosense]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79EjAYr9H-g

[Grady Echegaray]

Hello Djehan and friends, I have done a little lookback of pictures I have taken in HL over the years.
Dje, whatever happens, thank you for all the years of Hangars Liquides, one of SL's most memorable sims! <3

Lookback
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12613871@N02/albums/72157709604333412

[Saisei Heliosense]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aiko-hextave/27957388408/in/album-72157694569475591/

[Saisei Heliosense]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aiko-hextave/28491957378/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/aiko-hextave/42091073142/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/aiko-hextave/28449452888/

[Emanuelle Hultcrantz]

I have been to Hangar Liquides a lot two years ago. I knew the owner personally at the time, and it was an amazing thing to be able to just go along those roads and see the magic of that sim. Everything there have a reason, Hangar was built with magic from someone that know about art like almost no one knows in Second Life. Such piece of art can't basically go to crap, can't be destroyed because of petty interests. Linden Labs receive a ton of money for us, and so they should at least make reasonable rules and make ways for great sims such as HL to survive. It's already a cultural patrimony of Second Life... We preserve in real life the important historical monuments, so why not Hangar Liquides?

[Bathsheba]

At least artists know not to bother creating stuff in LL-based junk.

A true waste of time.

[sirhc desantis]

Some interesting stuff over the road and nice to see others among the usual suspects. This is the first of the 'save a build' that I have actually gone 'I have a sad' as actually visited over the years. This will be a loss.

“And I will probably use Sansar! Because it has such a beautiful engine."

If anything one tenth as well made as HL could be made there, it might even be worth visiting. Sansar, that is. Possibly drive up the concurrency too but - can it handle a whole hundred people logged in? :)

[JohnC]

Having owned quite a few well known popular sims, all with strong communities, each one easily as popular as HL in their time, and all of which have had to close because of SL's crippling costs, I actually find it un fare that one should be singled out in any way and preserved. I also think it is just weird when people who are driven out of SL then decided to patronise Sansar, which is without doubt one of the reasons SL is in such a mess anyway. I also think its just funny the amount of times people have IM'ed me after a sim is closed to tell me how terrible and sad it all is, when the sim had stood empty for months. Or people turn up 6 months after it is gone and ask where it is because they loved it so much.

[Better then Cake]

Agreeing with JohnC

Sansar is the reason for SL being in a mess due to the last 5 years almost any money used in development has been used to make sansar instead. and i too once owned sims that were very popular and got tired of the trolling by not just trolls but other sim owners, it went from being an expression of my thoughts to being a headache on a daily basis instead, I also felt the prices were way too high for land as monthly tier payments could pay for a new car in RL instead.

I still get strong daily sales on the MP but have not updated my stores in two years just due to the fact I've moved on to other platforms where I am not locked in while not having to hear excuses or stall tactics of why the grid is in decline.

Sad to see another community lose its home but at the end of day you have to keep a roof over your head while having mouths to feed, not that anyone in San Francisco on Battery St would understand from those big ivory towers they look down on the rest of us commoners from. one thing LL knows all too well is video games can be an addiction while they love to roleplay as the dealer.

Better to shut down now then to pay another five years only to get news they are closing the grid after getting enough fools to invest in that new cash cow.

[madeline blackbart]

I hate being the chicken little type but the more I see beautiful sims in SL go away the more I feel that SL is dying. It's sad because I really enjoy SL and all my friends so I'll be sad when I see it close.

[Lawrence Celestalis]

JohnC I wouldn't say that, only because historically LL never had a real policy to support outstanding artists, they should keep going the wrong way. A change for the better is always possible and may contribute to invert the trend.

[irihapeti]

the "new" ToS granting non-profits a 50% tier discount to provide their non-profit service, in exchange for not renting spaces to residents on the discounted region, has been in force since 25 July 2013

"The Discounted Regions must be used for primarily non-commercial purposes. For avoidance of doubt, Discounted Regions (or any parts thereof) may not be subleased."

so only took about 6 years for the owner to read the contract they signed to get the 50% non-profit discount

when a non-profit can't rent space then they can put out tip jars to solicit donations. The fans can then donate to the non-profit

but is the old story. The fans of whichever the latest region is about to go down the gurgler, don't want to donate the amount of money needed to help keep it going. If the fans don't care enough about chipping in to do this for stuff they like, then why would anyone else care

[Gargoyle]

LL creates these problems by making foolish policy changes without fair warning. An artist (or non profit group) comes in, spends countless hours creating something (something that people at LL could never do in their RLs) and then LL decides to change the rules do THEY CAN MAKE MORE MONEY. Then they have their minions come on here saying "donate to it if you love it so much". It's the typical method of the mentally-defective corporate monkey-thinking.

Nuff said

[Amanda Dallin]

While it would be nice if something can be done to save this sim, Art in SL is not permanent. It's like a theatrical play. It has a time limit. Theater sets can be very beautiful and take a lot of talent and work to create. Then you have costuming, lighting, sound, the performance itself, and all the other artistic skill it takes to produce a theatrical production. But it's all limited in space and time. You can have video and photos to remember it but in the end it's gone. SL spaces are just like theatrical performances.

[Lawrence Celestalis]

irihapeti that's of course not what happened. There was a technical misbilling which created a misunderstanding that was only recently cleared. I'd avoid assuming things without knowing what really happened.

[Lawrence Celestalis]

http://slnewser.blogspot.com/2019/07/linden-lab-still-in-talks-with-djehan.html