The NMC Symposium on creativity continues steadily through this week's schedule. The conference demonstrates that the "medium is the message" by developing an open learning environment within the participating community. The key lies in instructing attendees on the tools they need to empower their own innovative ideas. To achieve their goal, NMC makes use of their professional organizational methods and top-notch educational material, both in "print" and in the form of incredible workshop leaders.

To explore the attitudes, attendee stories, and daily events, I highly encourage you to read the symposium collaborative blog at Creating Pandora's Box. CEO Larry Pixel set the tone of the conference with a compelling speech on why creativity matters, which is now available online.

Read on to see which pieces of the puzzle may have contributed to a positive reaction .

Straylight sim is not just a forest full of magical flowers and beautifully modeled sculptie trees. This land is, above all, a fresh new approach to developing interesting lighting and a fantasy-like immersive environment. The creator, Kriss Lehmann, is planning further developments and has opened a flickr group for those who love the experience he designed.

The content here has a great level of detail, from the ground textures, to the trees, waterfalls and scripted creatures/plants. My favorite feature is the plethora of stray light rays everywhere. They explain the name chosen for the sim and add warmth to the atmosphere. Definitely put this build on your "to explore" list!

I caught up with resident LUCA Rosmer as he was polishing the last details of his new sim - Motorcity - dedicated to the best of car manufacturers and car-related stores. Created by the EM Cars team (Zak Beltran, Fire914 Flaman, LUCA Rosmer) and frageurs Hock of MH Motors, the island features top notch content and car designs, all in a low lag environment.

The sim isn't fully launched yet, although it is public. Those interested in owning a piece of the Vegas-looking city can obtain a rental space here by paying the rental fee to boxes on the sims or by contacting LUCA directly. There is also an opportunity to sign up for residential space in their swanky hotel, the only one on the island.

What do you call the kind of art that cannot be captured in photographs and even machinima falls short somehow? It can only be unique and visionary.



I have only words of praise for DanCoyote Antonelli's sim-wide installation on Arts and Letters opening today at 6 pm SLT. Second Life is full of beautiful and interesting art exhibits, but DanCoyote (DC Spensley in real life) has taken his insights into the virtual space to a ground-breaking level.

Continue reading on for a sneak peak before the opening and some tips for a better experience!

The NMC symposium on creativity kicked off today at 2 PM Second Life time, with nearly 100 avatars present and about 150 avatars signed up. Considering that the virtual conference is one week long and registration was charged, this is quite impressive.

The art displays organized by Tayzia Abattoir and Ravenelle Zugzwang will be present and provided free throughout SLCC. For those interested, the live performance by DanCoyote Antonelli and the amazing ZeroG dancers is also free for Monday night, at 6 pm and at 7, 8, and 9 pm on Friday, August 17th. Correction - Monday night at 6 pm is the opening of the DanCoyote art sim - Arts and Letters, while the ZeroG Dancers will be performing Friday at 7, 8, and 9 pm SLT. Please check the comments for more info directly from the artist!

If you've never seen the ZeroG dancers, this is something not to be missed! Get to the event spot early on Arts and Letters, shows are limited to 30 avatars. To learn more about it check out the Second Life Art News blog or the YouTube video of one of the performances.

Coming soon: more about the wonderful events and content that keep everyone busy at this meeting!

If you've ever had to post transcripts and share information from a meeting/event, you know how much pain it is to come up with a structure that is still readable later. I usually end up spending hours concatenating sentences to make chat less shattered by random interjections. Well, no more pain!

I was extremely happy to see the new, little tool from Kisa Naumova – Chatlogs. Not only does it render your boring text-only transcript in colors, but it also has a neat graphical way of indicating speakers by pulling their SL profile picture into the web document. In addition, it allows you to use the Leeds Metropolitan University server to deposit your logs and tag them appropriately. This has the potential of creating a neat repository of open knowledge from all sorts of events.

(more after the break)

Patch Lamington, in collaboration with The Photography Studio of Grignano and AngryBeth Shortbread, has put together an amazing little comic/cartoon studio and a machinima demonstrating its capabilities.

You can go try it yourself, the setup is at the top of the photography gallery. After you play around a bit, you can submit your work by entering the contest being run by Osprey Therian. A full set of rules (they are pretty relaxed) and some details on how to send in your work can be found on the Second Life Art News blog.

Starting this Sunday, August 12, NMC launches a fascinating new symposium discussing creativity and education in the virtual space. By the looks of things, this is a very serious conference, charging entrance fees and asking people to register early. The event will contain six different components that search to dissect the issues at hand through a six-day schedule. The structure includes (from NMC):

• Studio Sessions - self-paced, hands-on studio sessions in machinima, fashion, sculpture/modeling, and virtual photography with access to expert instructors;
• Breakout Sessions - highly interactive 90-minute sessions on topics like basic and advanced building concepts, avatar design, scripting, machinima, photography, creative teaching techniques, and more;
• Featured Sessions - keynotes, panel discussions, tours;
• Learning Exposition - a showcase of easy-to-learn techniques, links to educational sites, and video learning;
• Parade of Sims - a set of tours led by the people who built and created some of the most sophisticated islands in Second Life;
• Social and Arts Events - a special series of exhibitions and performances, including DanCoyote and his talented ZeroG dancers
  

Although registration is now closed, I will be searching for participants who wish to share their experience with our readership. Feel free to contact me if you wish to talk about the events you're attending or your general impressions.

With over 500 contacts on Flickr and some 3,000 photos, CodeBastard Redgrave has created her own following and social network on the 2D web. She meets most people based on common interests through flickr, twitter or her blog, and then uses SL as a means to share experiences/connect further with her on-line friends. This is an amazing new approach that has gained her more popularity than she ever imagined.

CodeBastard, or Codie to her friends, has a vibrant personality that is reflected in her redheaded avatars and her artsy SL photos. Looking up to other artists, such as Vint Falken, Hiro Eldeman, SalemNyx Lisle, and Stephen Venkman, Codie is now in a league of her own. She has also recently expanded her reach into SL with a virtual gallery and DJ music events. Her words of wisdom for newbie artists: use all the mediums at your disposal, in particular flickr and blogging, in order to make yourselves known in the community, and do NOT get discouraged! :)

The Virtual Artist Alliance group has put together a nice little guide to launching your art career in Second Life, detailed with information on content creation, display, the need to own land, etc.

To the great suggestions made there, I would add the following --

1. Join Arts Council of Second Life to keep up to date on art events and new galleries
2. Once you have your gallery, send a landmark and note about it to Sasun Steinbeck - her SL gallery kiosk is seen in most well-known art spaces
3. Follow art blogs and announcements on worldofsl.com or set up your own searches on art events on technorati, google reader, etc.
4. Posting images of your art and experiences in SL via flickr and joining the art groups there is also a great way of being introduced to the community.

Town Halls have been a part of SL culture for as long as I can remember. As times change and new rules are set in place to govern our virtual lives, this is precisely when you want to have an open line to help maintain transparency.

In all reality, the Town Hall events have a limited reach and most of them leave a lot to be desired in terms of resolving issues. However, with the Linden Lab forums closed and huge changes on track, a few office hours here and there aren't enough to pacify all the confusion regarding the recent client instability and policy modifications. It's been nearly two months since Cory's straight-to-the point talk on technical aspects, aren't we due for another chat?

I'd particularly love to hear a moderated conversation where both Lindens and residents can weigh in on, for example, any foreseen effects of the wagering policy on SL culture. I am curious to see what factors LL is considering on their end and what worries residents/thinkers/random folk have. There are some neat comments on the TerraNova blog wondering about these effects.

Art takes many shapes and sizes, and this water is particularly impressive.

The waterfall of Liger Island is the collaborative and breath-taking creation of residents Zor Zeddmore and Wisdom Streeter. These images, like many 2D attempts to demo 3D immersive environments, do not do justice to the actual build. Torley Linden has captured better impressions of it on blogHUD using the WindLight technology.

The movement and texture blend together magically, a must see for any nature or artistic enthusiast. This is a great application of sculpties!

For those of you who want an instant look at the live music world, there's a new and exciting event coming up -- Woodstock 2007. A grassroots effort, organized entirely by Traveling Avatar and a handful of enthusiasts and musicians, Woodstock (or shall we say Plystock?) is still searching for talent to participate on their August 16th performance.

Their site holds the schedule and artists involved so far, but there is plenty of room for more! Contact Hope Clary inworld to participate in the show or attend the events at beautiful Twilight Gardens and Nowhereville.

Thanks to Vint Falken for the heads-up.

Architect and well-known French modern artist Yona Friedman is exhibiting his "Ville Spatiale" at DEsign Island. His vision of living quarters in space (or cyberspace) is a multi-leveled build, with personal environments developed by each inhabitant on the various floors. I try to think of it as an evolving art space based on how each resident designs their own areas. It's an interesting idea and apparently Friedman also made proposals for similar architectural wonders in real life, which would be fun to see developed.

The island is also home to student art installations and generally speaking to "fine arts, architecture and designs by professional creatives only". However, beware that most of these exhibits have descriptions in German.

I'd highly encourage you to drop by during a tour or an event in order to ask and be informed of the thinking behind some of their choice in designs. :) Events are listed on their site and are announced politely over the DEsign Island Info group.

The University Project island is a joint effort of The Center for Digital Media and Sun Microsystems, brilliantly executed by none other than Scope Cleaver. There have been other articles that spoke about activities scheduled here, including Vancouver Police recruiting on the sim, but my interest lies mainly in the build.

I am impressed with Scope's design - it's clean and elegant, with beautiful bold colors and curves. Even though it looks primmy and one can imagine that it could even be a real building, it has a certain quality of openness that I rarely find in typical real-to-SL builds. The camera movement inside the building is easy to control and the avatar does not feel dwarfed inside the halls. I highly encourage a visit and I am looking forward to seeing more amazing work from Scope.