You’re probably right about the red-rag to the bull thing… we’ll see. I hope not.

And to clarify when I said in my last post that the Selavy & Ichibot work would now be allowed I meant the ‘playground.space’ piece, ‘epidodic.atomized’ would still be problematic under the Linden guidelines. I cannot imagine how much less interesting the first year would have been without Ichibot’s brilliant contributions.

I did not know that Dekka, so the work I listed above by Venkman, Selavy & Ichibot would now be allowed. But “nipples are still banned”, I mean c’mon, this highlights the ridiculousness of the rules.

Arahan, if you don’t mind- can you give more details, or link to where the details are when your work had to be removed because some artists were offended by it? what was the work?

that example of the cheen pitney nude is troubling for sure.

But who decides what is “culturally significant”? Sounds like a can of worms to me, just as it has been in real-life exhibits – witness Mapplethorpe or Serrano.

RACHEL BREAKER – MAGICENCHANTED DREAM FACTORYNOBASE

TANITH CATTENEO – Untitled Protest

ARAHAN CLAVEAU – fuck me / shoot me

ARAHAN CLAVEAU – Injustice

BUTTERFLYSMASHER DANA – Various works

ICHIBOT NISHI – episodic.atomized

ICHIBOT NISHI & ARAHAN CLAVEAU – Beyond Human

ICHIBOT NISHI & SELAVY OH – playground.space

DEKKA RAYMAKER – 8 Platforms

DEKKA RAYMAKER – Adult Content–Age Verification

DEKKA RAYMAKER – Virgo Violated / No one is safe

NEBULOSUS SEVERINE – Just Fucking Die

NEBULOSUS SEVERINE – Look What You Made Me Do

STEPHEN VENKMAN – Family Portraits

TSUI YAMABUSHI – Brooklyn is Wanking

So, all that amazing work would potentially not have been seen at Brooklyn is Watching had it been PG and everyone followed the rules and BiW enforced them. And if any of that work was reported by a resident the artist and possibly the landowners could face at best a warning to remove it and at worst a suspension or ban.

You might look at that list and disagree, but remember you are not even allowed to swear in a PG area. There is a lot more work that isn’t in the wiki that would be under threat, like ‘Leave me the fuck alone’ left by Neb in the early days, that would fail for the title alone. You might also be thinking “what was offensive about Ichibot’s episodic.atomized?”, well, there were images of genitals on the desk in the little hospital, and outside there was a car crash with bloody, dismembered puppets that definitely be considered ‘mature’. Remember it is not just sexual themes, it is anything that is deemed as “broadly offensive”, and that is always in the eye of the beholder.

Your example of the Sistine Chapel is an interesting one Jay, in theory you would think it would be fine and yet the Cheen Pitney nude was censored at Burning Life and moved to a mature area, so anything can happen.

I have had my own art censored by LL, and it was in a mature sim hundreds of feet in the air, but because a bunch of people (including the charming Filthy Fluno) were offended by it and complained I was forced to remove it.

I’m not writing about all this because I like causing a fuss, it’s because I care about the Brooklyn is Watching project, I’ve supported it from the beginning and watched it evolve and it would be a terrible shame if the life and soul were sucked out of it because of limitations imposed by this move. The new sim IS bigger and better, and it is much more suitable as an art-space, nobody is disputing that, but we, the artists and fans have valid concerns.

Also, is Popcha no longer a sponsor? Is Boris moving with you?

From Second Life Support Center Adult-oriented content controls FAQ:

Content is flagged as Adult in two ways:

Use of adult keywords in names and descriptions
Location on an Adult region

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6010

Jay, the Lindens have this to say (taken from Soup blog 1 June 2009:

Second Life® Adult Content designation updated 1 June 2009 – from blog post by Cyn Linden:

Educational and cultural content will be exempted.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/06/01/adult-content-changes-in-summary

The complete wording in “Knowledge Base>Second Life Info>Legal Matters>Policies>Maturity Ratings: an overview” is this:

We may take into account whether apparent or reported adult content or conduct on a particular Region serves only an extremely limited or passive function, or an important educational or cultural function, and therefore would be appropriate for all Second Life audiences.

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6010