Maybe I should have called my piece “this is not a house”.

I have been thinking a lot about what is and what isn’t art in SL, I have asked myself a lot of questions about my own work and about how it is different to the content I created when I first came to SL (cheap low prim furniture for houses) and then Jay posted his comments about ‘Light Shrine by Gorath Hyun’. I was mostly in agreement with what Jay said, but I felt guilty about feeling that way and then had the idea to create ‘content’ that could also be art.

So I built House, it seemed to pop into my head. I had firm goals for this build, it had to be done in as few prims as possible (37 actually) it had to be possible for it to be a fully functioning house if it was to be used for that reason. So there are TWO doors that open! a kitchen area, a living room, a landing with bathroom and on the top floor a bedroom.

So as I’m throwing prims together to get a shape and I remember a work being shown at BiW earlier, and Shirley I believe, posted the words to a song that describes homes as little boxes, so then I knew it had to be boxed shape/cubed.

I believe I paint my prims and veneer those prims with textures. When I build I have to have a physical relationship with the space, so I don’t float in one spot and cam and construct in that way, I walk around the piece, sometimes I can walk around a structure all day, deciding how and where pieces should go, every piece goes where it goes because imo that’s the right and only place for it. I go through this process with texturing too, sometimes the two things work in tandem. Sometimes a prim needs a texture I need to specifically make for it.

The initial model of ‘House’ was done at half scale to the version shown, so really the ‘Dolls House’ came first, however it was not my intention to make a doll house in the beginning. My original idea was for ‘House’ to be placed at BiW as a sterile composition of prims, colours, textures and space that just so happened to all intents and purposes appeared to be a house, if that’s what you wanted to call it.

Then I recalled the original scale model and it came to mind that I wanted to place a doll’s house version inside it, so it was done. Technical note: yes the house could only be reduced so far due to the limitations of the minimum width of a prim, however, I did adjust prims on this version, three times, to eventually get to the reduced scale I wanted it to be. Then I placed it.

The next day Milla had added the first picture to ‘House’ and I was actually pleased to see it there, even more so, that she had gone to the trouble to replicate the picture into the same place in the dolls house. So I amended the dolls house at this time, I added a hinge to the front of the dolls house so the whole interior could be exposed for other works to be put inside it more easily, such as a dolls house does in real life. I believe Selavy’s followed and then someone placed deck chairs on the roof terrace (forget who, sorry) and DCs pieces came next including the van and caravan, followed by a case of beer place by Penumbra Carter.

The doll house idea came to be, because in podcast #33 Ichibot talks about Rachel Whiteread and in responses on the blog Selavy says “ichi told me later that rachel whiteread’s mission seems to be to litter the world with white boxes”. A while ago I offered Rachel Whiteread a dolls house I have, with reference to her work ‘Place (Village)’, about which someone wrote “The lights are on all over the little doll house town, but nobody’s home.”

Left by Dekka Raymaker on November 15th, 2008

Thank you for featuring “TRUST NO ONE” on this week’s show.

To follow up on a couple of aspects you talked about: the texture was something I hastily made from scratch in Photoshop; and the prims are actually NOT sculpties — just regular prims, though a couple of them were made flexible.

I compulsively made this piece on spur of the moment while my feelings were intense — which I’m sure is fairly obvious.

Jay, I found it really fascinating that the emotional content of the piece made you feel defensive & caused you to put up your guard right away, rather than to become “disarmed” and drawn into it.

Left by nebulosus.severine on November 16th, 2008

a quick technical note for optimizing audio on Glyph Graves’ wind and sound installation- in the audio and video tab, turn the ‘rolloff factor’ slider down to about 200, it will allow you to hear the sounds from multiple directions at once.

Left by Hollow Prim on November 16th, 2008

I didn’t get a close look at Dekka’s House but from what I saw it was very beautifully designed and after learning from the podcast about all the added objects inside it sounded really interesting. I thought it was strange that Shirley dismissed it because he considers a home is only ever something to be lived in. Dekka mentioned Rachael Whiteread who has done some extraordinary things that challenge our traditional perceptions of what a house is, and when you place a house in Second Life it raises all sorts of fascinating questions.

Left by Arahan Claveau on November 16th, 2008

It might be helpful here to add my perspective on the piece to the comments already made … just for completeness.

The best way to think of the installation and the way it is meant to be thought of is as one large kinetic sculpture whose elements interact with the digital fabric of SL.

It is meant to be viewed not momentarily but over a period of time. Of course, the aesthetic of this sculpture – like any other sculpture – is an emergent property of its elements. In this instance, it is helpful to understand what the individual components are doing, not just the sum of the parts.

Each element expresses the same thing but is mapped into a different part of our perceptual spectrum (hence the reference to Synaesthesia in the notecard).

The position and movement of each element of the sculpture IS the shade of colour, it IS the note it produces. That is, the elements are the same thing expressed in a different way, appealing to a different sense, so that together they reinforce the whole.

Just as the combination of the notes from all the elements produces an effect equivalent to a symphony that unfolds over time, so do the colour and the movement. All three combine to produce the sculpture.

Finally, the project was aimed not only at extending our senses but also showcasing a small sampling of the tools that SL offers us. The lovely thing about SL is that we are not limited to forms that are constrained by conventional media. We are freed to do more, though there are other constrains such as prim numbers and server loads. I didn’t have to use the SL wind. I could of just as easily used a more conventional approach such as different algorithms to do similar things, but I find something quite beautiful in the way the wind has been implemented in SL. It deserves a showing.

I could have also used inanimate objects instead of worms and jellyfish, but that was a design choice on my part that I felt introduced another layer to the sculpture. My work usually has an organic feel to it though the elements are not usually so recognisable.

-Glyph

Left by Glyph Graves on November 16th, 2008

Also Jay, you need to finish your sentences dude! You started talking about the performance ‘Shutup little man’ by Ichibot Nishi and then Shirley urged you onward to something else. What you didn’t say was that despite the technical difficulties Ichi had at BiW he did eventually set it up at another location, which I believe you attended.

Left by Arahan Claveau on November 17th, 2008

Laughed out load at D.
C.’s placement of the “Painter of Light” around the house installation.(DC if that is wrong, then I will stop using.Shh, I also know the words to the Carpenter songs.) Jay you need to “muck the physical(?) stable at BIW” I have a pair of high boots on already, since mucking has been done on another level there. Will cost a few Lindens only. Rave on. Penumbra Carter

Left by Pen Carter on November 17th, 2008

By “mucking” I meant that BIW had a bit of left over parts of artwork about the place. It was in no way meant as a comment to any art there as a whole.

Left by Pen Carter on November 19th, 2008