New World Notes

Tomorrow: Miro Shot, Rising UK Rock Band, Puts On Immersive, Interactive Concert in Sinespace -- RSVP for Free Tickets!

Miro Shot, the acclaimed alt rock band inspired by virtual worlds, is performing a special concert tomorrow inside a virtual world: Specifically at their virtual headquarters in Sinespace (a NWN media partner).

Show starts July 4 at 2pm PT -- go to the band’s site to RSVP for free.

In the Sinespace concert, Miro Shot will perform music from the band's debut album “CONTENT” (featuring classic rock star Manfred Mann and Mary Wilson of the Supremes -- yes, those Supremes.) The band is signed to Believe Recordings (Bjork, James Vincent McMorrow), East City Management (Alt J, Wolf Alice), and published by Warp (Brian Eno, Stereolab, many more greats), so this is your first chance to see a rising star music group in the unique MMO-meets-mixed reality format they created.

Unlike many virtual world-based concerts, however, tomorrow’s show won’t simply be the band streaming in via audio, or performing as pre-recorded characters. It’s going to include an immersive, social game experiment, and in-person interaction with the band.

As frontman Roman Rappak puts it, that’s very much part of the plan:

Stand for Justice in Second Life Has So Far Raised $10K for Black Lives Matter & Other Orgs! Can We Reach $20K?

Click here to directly teleport to Stand for Justice, a month-long fundraiser with all sales of SL items going to Black Lives Matter and other justice organizations. New SL style and houseware offerings are available in the upstairs wing -- including virtual copies of art by rising artist Pippin Long. (Better known within the SL community as the RL daughter of Whiskey Monday, a talented artist in her own right.) Pippin's contributions to the fundraiser -- as presented by Whiskey above-- are these portraits above of legendary Black activists Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and Marsha P. Johnson.

Speaking of fundraising, Stand for Justice organizers just let me know the event has so far raised over L$2.6 million in donations -- i.e., over $10,000 in USD, when converted on the open market. (Screengrab for proof below.)

Next target: $20,000.  Click here to start donating and shopping.

This Weekend: Stand For Justice SL-Based Fundraiser Expands With New Content from Top Brands Including Kraftwork & Veechi to Benefit Black Lives Matter & Other Orgs

Click here to directly teleport to Stand for Justice, a month-long fundraiser, which just expanded its offerings of SL style and houseware offerings in the new upstairs wing, including new additions from top brands like Kratwork and Veechi -- and all virtual content sales turned into real money donations to Black Lives Matter, Black Visions Collective, Campaign Zero, and the National Police Accountability Project, along with a bail fund for jailed protesters nationwide.

So far the event has been a great success, with thousands pouring into the event during its opening weekend, with over $7500 in Linden Dollars raised from sales and direct donations in its first few days.

Can the SL community raise donations over $10,000 this weekend? Click here to help!

Now Open: Stand Up for Justice, Second Life Fundraiser With 100+ Top Brands -- All Sales Going to Black Lives Matter & Many Other Justice Groups

Click here to directly teleport to Stand Up for Justice, a month-long fundraiser open now and running until the end of the month, with all virtual content sales turned into real money donations to to Black Lives Matter, Black Visions Collective, Campaign Zero, the National Police Accountability Project, and a bail fund for jailed protesters nationwide.

At the moment, there's over 100 SL merchants are participating, including top brands like Apple Fall, Izzie's, Etham, ChiMia, LOFT, Jian, and Astara. Many more are still being added, co-organizer Barb tells me, so it's no surprise the place has been packed since it opened. 

As for how all L$ sales to Stand Up for Justice will be donated, Barb explains their process to insure maximum transparency:

Starting Tomorrow in Second Life: A Fundraiser for Black Lives Matter, Campaign Zero, Protester Bail Funds & Other Justice Orgs

Stand for Justice is a month-long fundraiser in Second Life that starts tomorrow, and if you're among the many virtual world users who've watched, horrified, devastated, enraged, and then galvanized by the brutal police killing of George Floyd (not to mention all the unchecked killings that came before), this is for you:

Tomorrow at Noon PT/SLT, go here to teleport to Stand for Justice, which will bring together a sales extravaganza of fashion items and accessories donated by a diverse coalition of talented SL creators, with all Linden Dollar sales converted to US currency and donated equally to Black Lives Matter, Black Visions Collective, Campaign Zero, the National Police Accountability Project, and a bail fund for jailed protesters nationwide.

If you're an SL content creator interested in donating content as well, go here to register your interest.  

Well-known Second Life personalities Jack Nimble and OMGWTF Barbecue are helping organize the Stand for Justice event. Barb's motivation for volunteering reflects what most of us have felt in last few weeks:

Linden Lab Partners With Adult Swim & Releases Special Viewer for Streaming Live Events in Second Life

"Join us this Friday for a Season 2 screening of The Shivering Truth inside @SecondLife," the Cartoon Network's insanely popular [adult swim] brand announced earlier today on Twitter. "Admission is extremely limited and extremely complicated."

Home to stylish and usually zany animated shows like Rick and Morty and Samurai Jack, there hasn't been a cool pop cult crossover like this into Second Life in many many years. (Off the top of my head, I'd say not since The Office featured Second Life.) I am amused that the official Adult Swim tweet openly acknowledges how complicated Second Life is for most to use, but I imagine the Fortnite-type crowd that loves their shows will figure it out.

Perhaps even more noteworthy is that this is probably the first of many such crossovers. From the official Second Life blog: 

The event also marks the first media partnership utilizing the new limited-release Second Life Viewer, which enables content creators and entertainment companies to broadcast live video events to virtual world audiences. In the future, you may see several new forms of entertainment including movie and TV premieres, live concerts, and artist/fan meet-and-greets. We're very excited to partner with Adult Swim for the debut of this new feature, which we plan to integrate into the main Second Life Viewer release in the coming weeks.

Longtime SLers are thinking, "Wait, we've been able to stream video into Second Life since forever." But as Linden Lab's Brett Atwood explains to me:

Today at 9am PT: Join Us in Sinespace's Breakroom For the First Public Demo of the Social Hub for Remote Teams & Conferences

Update, 8:15am: If you can't join us directly in Breakroom, here's the livestream on YouTube!

Today at 9am, Adam Frisby, his development team, and myself are doing the first public demo of Breakroom, the 3D social hub for remote teams and virtual conferences built on the Sinespace platform (a sponsoring media partner to New World Notes). I am highly biased, but I think it's a cool new way to work and collaborate online -- and the Sinespace team would love your feedback!

To join us there, just go here to download and install Breakroom for PC or Mac.

This Weekend in Sinespace: Zombie Bunny Deathmatch & Other Easter Fun

This weekend, NWN partner Sinespace has a whole host of Easter-themed fun in store for you, culminating in egg-flavored FPS maze combat in Zombie Bunny Deathmatch. (They're cute, they're fluffy, they're murderously undead!)

To start playing, just travel to the Welcome Centre and teleport from the sign there -- or click Explore and search for "Easter Festival 2020".  Zombie Bunny Deathmatch was created, by the way, in BKR Source, Sinespace's open source FPS/combat system. (Read about creating your own maps with it on Unity's blog.)

Many more Easter events listed here on the Sinespace blog, including karaoke, racing, live music, and a “Best in Easter Best” costume contest.

Nettrice Gaskins' Virtual Art Show in Second Life Becomes Crossover Hit

Click here to directly teleport to the MuseWeb gallery

Tuesday I told you about how Afrofuturist artist Nettrice Gaskins was supposed to show off her Deep Dream-based portraits at a conference in Los Angeles, but because she couldn't travel due to the Coronavirus quarantine, showed them off in a virtual gallery in Second Life. Since then, as it turns out, the SL gallery has been deluged by visitors, many showing up to meet the artist herself in avatar form. (Nettrice is s "Nettrice Bethune" in SL.)

The New World Notes post itself has gone mini-viral, shared upwards of 1000 times on Facebook alone. "Many people are not familiar with SL," Nettrice tells me, "so they're interested... curious, especially now." In fact, one of the people sharing the post was Monty Ross, Spike Lee's co-producer on the masterpieces Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and (my personal Spike Lee favorite), Mo' Better Blues.

It's fair to say her art is being seen in Second Life now by more people (or at least a far wider range of them) than if she had just showed them off in Los Angeles. So while the Coronavirus is among the worst things to happen to humanity in a long time, it is also leading to some wonderful creativity and new connections. Or as Dr. Gaskin puts it, "It’s times like this when you realize the world ain’t so big."

Nettrice, by the way, is making another appearance at the gallery around now (1pm-ish Pacific time), but even if you can't meet her in Second Life, you should definitely see the show there -- and read about how she created these works here.

Unable to Present Her Work in Los Angeles While in Quarantine, Renowned Afrofuturist Artist Nettrice Gaskins Sets Up Gallery in Second Life - Today!

Click here to visit the MuseWeb art gallery in Second Life, where a special event is taking place today:  Acclaimed Afrofuturist artist Nettrice Gaskins will be there in avatar form today at around 11am and 1pm PST to show off her gorgeous artwork -- stunning portraits of black artists using Deep Dream AI algorithms as a kind of palette. (She's "Nettrice Bethune" in SL.)

Dr. Gaskins was originally planning to present this work in downtown Los Angeles at the MuseWeb conference, where she would also do a keynote talk with Cory Doctorow. But with the Coronavirus quarantine in full effect, she and the conference organizers have rapidly scrambled to turn it into a virtual event. ("Everyone is scrambling," she tells me. "This was supposed to be a face-to-face event.") 

Fortunately, MuseWeb has an island in Second Life, and Nettrice is an SL veteran, having first used it in her education and art work nearly a decade ago. So she was able to go in-world to upload her works and prepare them for a public, virtual world showing.

Once again, click here to visit the impromptu gallery and if you're lucky, meet the artist as avatar there too.