New World Notes

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Beautifully Challenging Images by Alias Amethyst

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

Hellhound is one of those artists that I value because they force me to stretch the boundaries of my aesthetics. At first glance, Alias Amethyst is is not the sort of picture I “like.” But then what is liking? It’s such a tepid emotion. This artist wants to provoke, not to be liked. I’m guessing but I think this artist wants their pictures to be loved or hated, but nothing so passionless as liked. Is like even part of the Goth sensibility?  Of course, they wrote “I hope you like it.” So what do I know? 

Since this picture is demanding so much from me, asking me to think beyond the surface, one truly wild idea came to mind. The braces with their vulpine made me think of kintsugi, the art of repairing pottery with gold, making a pot that was broken and repaired more beautiful and valuable than a new pot. Ostensibly, braces are to remediate problems with the teeth, but these braces add those incisors, creating a kind of beauty in the repair. It’s a thought. 

For more pics that challenge my aesthetic, click here:

Richard Bartle, Top Virtual World Expert, Tries Explaining Core Problems With NFT & Blockchain at a Crypto Conference. It Does Not Go Well.

 

Richard Bartle, the game industry's most respected expert on virtual worlds and the virtual economies in them, was recently invited to speak at a UK cryptocurrency conference about the immense challenges of integrating NFTs and blockchain into a virtual world (to put it diplomatically). He recently posted on social media what happened next, and with permission, I'm republished it here.   

 

 

I was in London yesterday evening to sit on a panel for an informal group called the Crypto Circle. The members are all people who are interested in crypto-currencies, mainly on the investment side (seed fund investors, hedge fund managers, regulatory bodies, banks) but also including tools creators and commentators.

 

The reason I was on the panel was because of the conflation of blockchain, web3 and metaverse concepts. People seemed to be of the opinion that blockchain tech would be a boon for gamers and that this would extend to the metaverse as a whole. I was invited merely to explain why it wasn't all quite as blissfully rosy as they perhaps thought it was.

 

In the end, the panel didn't get much to say; members of the audience started asking each other questions.

 

I did explain some of the issues arising from the use of NFTs and play-to-earn for games, but people either ignored them, brushed them aside or doubled down on them.

 

Delightful Second Life Photos Depict the Virtual World from a Bird's Eye View

 

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

 

Erika Xaron fooled me with this photo. My first thought on seeing it was Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire.” I found myself singing sotto voce, “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free.”

 

But this is not one bird, it’s many. And they have company. Look closely, that’s no cuckoo in the nest. What is truly delightful is that she has taken pics with friends before, as in “We used to be friends” and “My Friends.”

 

 

For more wild looks at the world, click here: