Coverage of news, issues and events occurring in virtual worlds or those who create those worlds
Slusic is a comprehensive new SL site devoted to music. It has the whole social networking thing down pat – playlists, forums, charts, blogs and so on. Australian artists are well represented – the top artists chart has Australian musician Dexter Ihnen at number one.
I could be wrong but this seems to be the most well fleshed out SL music site I’ve seen. Is it something you’ll use regularly?
Popularity: 16% [?]
Jesse Linden has announced the formation of an email discussion list devoted to music development in SL. Promotion of events is off limits but it will provide a useful forum for discussing ways to improve music options in-world. Linden Lab describe their aims in the welcome email received when joining:
“Second Life has amazing potential for musicians looking to reach a global audience. Music performances in Second Life are a growing phenomenon, creating exciting social events where artists can not only perform live but also interact directly with fans.
Resident musicians, venue owners, buillders, scripters, audiences, and promoters are all working together to make this community happen. Linden Lab recognizes all this innovative work, and we want to do all that we can to help it thrive and continue to grow. We’ve started assembling a team of Lindens who will work together and with Residents to ultimately provide better tools and policies for the music community of Second Life.
This mailing list is open to anyone who is interested in sharing their ideas with Lindens as well as each other on how to better support the Second Life music community. What are some best practices that are currently working well for the music community? What are the biggest challenges? What would you like to see Linden Lab provide to better support this community? These are the types of discussions we’d love to see!
One rule: please don’t use this mailing list to announce specific music events. Information about such events can already be found on the Second Life events calendar. We’d like to keep traffic on this mailing list focused on discussions about ideas for improving the music community.
As we at Linden Lab get a better focus on specific tools and policies we think could best help this community, we’ll share them on this mailing list. Your ideas, feedback, and insights will be invaluable to us as we work to determine what we should focus on. Lindens will be reading and participating in the discussion as much as possible.
Please introduce yourself to the list, let us know a bit about your interests and area of expertise, and thank you for helping us learn more about how to make music truly ROCK in Second Life.”
Popularity: 8% [?]
Veteran Aussie SL resident Wolfie Rankin held his first instalment of ‘Rockit’ this evening on Eragon island. A cross between and RocKwiz, close to thirty people turned up to watch. The two teams of four were selected from the audience after an initial round of questions. Then, a number of rounds followed including audio and video questions.
Team 1 consisted of Profit Enoch, Good2 Go, Angsty Rossini and some nerd from an Aussie SL news blog. Team 2 contained Roget Qinan, Diag Anzac, Noah Millgrove and Kalliee Tomsen. After 90 minutes of battling it out, Team 1 took out the night on 195 points to Team 2′s 170 points.
All-in-all it was one of those community events that everyone enjoyed. Hopefully there’ll be a follow-up as the general consensus was it was an enjoyable, interactive event. You can never have enough of them in SL.
(Disclosure: Yours truly was said nerd who ended up on winning team)
Popularity: 5% [?]
Zak Claxton’s Neil Young Archives is a compact but effective tour of the artist’s work. You can listen to some of Young’s work whilst browsing the visual discography or replicas of Young’s favorite instruments.
Zak Claxton’s take on it all:
“Neil Young is a personal favorite musician and songwriter of mine, as well as someone who has embraced change and technological advancement throughout his long career. After about eight months as an SL resident, acquiring some building skills and so on, I decided that building a tribute of sorts to an artist for whom I have the utmost respect would be a good use of my time in SL. Plus, I felt that other residents of SL who happen to be fans of Neil Young would really enjoy visiting and learning more about him.
BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.
I’ve named the area “Zak Claxton’s SL Neil Young Archives” for a rather tongue-in-cheek reason. In case you’re unaware, Neil and his team have been working on a massive project called the Neil Young Archives for many years, beginning back in 1991 I believe. The latest incarnation of the Archvies is a 2-DVD, 8-CD set of music and media collected over Neil’s career, with over 40 years worth of rare and unreleased material included. Unfortunately, the project has been delayed for over a decade while Neil tinkers with it. It was actually just daleyed yet again, with the most recent date being early 2008 on Reprise Records.
In any case, my SL Neil Young Archives was built as a true labor of love. I don’t intend on selling anything there through which I could profit, even on the microscopic scale of Second Life. It’s my goal to merely give SL residents a place to enjoy Neil, his music, and explore the mystique around one of music’s most enigmatic icons. It was built with the highest level of respect.
Lastly, while I’ve just begun announcing the SL Archives’ existence, I don’t feel it’s anywhere near complete. It’s a slow process for me (I have things like a job and a family to take care of while I’m not playing around in world), but I will be continuing to add to and build on the SL Neil Young Archives for quite some time. I hope people really dig it. If I do it right, even those who aren’t fans of Neil should find the environment a nice spot to hang out in SL”.
There’s also a machinima tour of the exhibit:
(Disclosure: Zak Claxton is part of SL Coyote that advertises at times on SLOz)
Popularity: 68% [?]
The Australia Council certainly can’t be accused of not howing interest in Second Life as a means of artistic expression. Last week we reported on the ‘matchmaker’ service for artists and musicians working in Second Life. Now, in conjunction with the ABC they’ve announced an artist forum for the 12th July:
“The in-world event, to be moderated by ABC’s Sunday Arts reporter/producer Fenella Kernebone, is for the Australia Council’s inaugural Second Life artist residency.
In an open forum at 7pm (EST) on ABC Island, Paris-based artist and architect Brad Kligerman – one of the first artists in Second Life to complete an in-world residency – will present his work, discuss ideas and answer participants’ questions.
Brad, an architect and teacher, completed his 11-week residency with US-based Ars Virtua , a new media centre and gallery in Second Life, where he questioned the idea of materiality in the rendered environment and the nature of image.
Australia Council chief executive officer Kathy Keele said the partnership with the ABC was a great fit with the Australia Council’s Second Life initiative. ‘The ABC was the first Australian media organisation to establish a presence in Second Life and we are excited about working with them on this project.’
‘We hope that Australian artists gain valuable insight from Brad Kligerman’s successful art interventions in Second Life and that they will be inspired to create innovative works in-world that will place them at the forefront of this groundbreaking practice,’ Kathy Keele said.
The Australia Council has also set up an artist’s forum in Second Life for artists looking for other artists with whom to collaborate. The moderated artists forum can be found at ABC Island and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) Island, Esperance.”
Like any event, places are limited so drop an email to slrsvp@ozco.gov.au with your Second Life Avatar name. The event will be streamed live at a location to be announced and and a vodcast . A vodcast of the event will also be available on the ABC Sunday Arts website . Sunday Arts screens at 5.00pm on… Sundays.
For more information on Ars Virtua and Brad Kligerman visit www.arsvirtua.com.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Second Fest is on this weekend and it’s very Australia-friendly with Day 2 kicking off around 9pm AEST (4am SL time). The rumours about an avatar appearance of the Pet Shop Boys are probably nothing more than that, but hey those guys were avatars fifteen years before SL so it’s an obvious fit.
The Intel sims are spacious to say the least with multiple viewing locations:
Popularity: 7% [?]
Over the next three days SL will be host to the International Technology Expo – 2007. It opens on Friday April 20, at noon PDT (April 21st at 5.00am Australian EST).
The organisers have billed it as “showcasing the most innovative in technology products and services created by its residents for business and personal needs.”
The full listing of expo scheduled events has been posted but along with the technology focus there should be a few visitors dropping in for the concert events (in Australian EST):
April 21 Midday Concert – John Legend
April 22 Midday Concert – Black Eyed Peas
The event has an aussie connection in one of the major sponsors, Melbourne headquartered, Cattle Puppy Productions.
UPDATE: final confirmation of John Legend and Black Eyed Peas is pending.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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