The 2010 World Expo runs May 1 through October 31st in Shanghai, China (real life) this year.
Expo. The Expo hosts over 250 countries and expects 70-100 million guests.
The SL group, "Open This End", was selected to be a part of this event. I have been made aware of numerous SL sims, art and machinima participating and will try to show and list some of what I have seen here. I'm told Aino Baar, a first life curator, has been instrumental along with Bryn Oh in this venture. The expo showcases SL machinima on five 4 metre wide monitors on the "air tree" structure at the Madrid Pavillion. Bryn Oh has been given 5 sims by Linden Labs to showcase SL art. Some of SL's leading artists have been asked to participate creating unique sims echoing a traditional chinese folk story "The Whisper Tree". The tree is the central theme to each sim.(credit: Kazuhiro Aridian) Some of the artists involved include Bryn Oh, Glyph Graves, Marcus Inkpen, Colemarie Soleil, Soror Nishi, Azuhiro Ardian, and Desdemona Enfield. Sl residents are also invited to get involved by submitting machinima of the five islands.
Each island will be missing something. Island one is missing love and joy. Island two energy, three colour, four sound and five light. When an avatar whispers to a tree within each sim it grants a wish. The wish is to return that which was missing.
Island one (no love/emotion)=
UtopiaNoLove. This sim by Bryn Oh has unique structures that I had a difficult time capturing all together in one shot, as it is set with specific windlight and spread out a bit. It's a great disply with moving parts, and the first thing I did when visiting this sim is to fly into a big ball that shattered upon impact only to rejuvinate itself for the next of many victims I watched do the same. The tower structure has the dropping balls in true Bryn Oh style and the tree is the central focal point as it is in all 5 sims. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia01/124/99/29
Sim One, No Love
Island two (no energy)=
UtopiaEntrophy. My friend Glyph Graves gave me information about his contribution to his sim, Entropy, Island two. The main thing to emphasize about his is that you absolutely have to experience it first hand to fully appreciate the complexity and beauty of it. True to his form, the sim is interactive and when visiting be sure to read the notecard provided to learn simply how to cause the statues to fragment, color change, flex and float around for a very surreal experience. He even has more excitment planned for this sim, so I intend to keep my eye on this one. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia02/145/101/25
Sim Two, NO Energy
Island three (no colour)=
UtopiaNoColor. Another of Bryn Oh's additions with Soror Nishi is an interesting sim I have seen pictures of popping up around flickr and youtube machinima for a little while now. The old time background music emitting from an old floating tv lends a nice touch to this interesting sim, but when further from the tv, I only heard the humming of machine type noise. I tried to use Bryn's windlight presets again, but these are best for visiting or close ups really and don't seem to lend to full sim pics. The sim includes the Vessles Dream web link. This sim is best known for it's shopping cart pile up surrounded by crows, but while I sat in the top cart, as everyone does, the pile suddenly changed and I was sitting in a beautiful tree, only to see it later chang back to the shopping carts again. Maybe someone else whispered to the tree. A fun sim. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia03/138/126/31
Sim Three, No Colour
Island four (no sound)=
UtopiaNoSound. A sim I visited last night, and posted several pictures to my flickr, is Utopia, No Sound, by Marcus Inkpen. This is a very impressive sim with two primary structures with lots of uniquely designed rooms, texture and style and I hope you can get a little bit of an idea of this from my pictures. This amazing sim is an explorer and photographer's dream. Be sure to check it out. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia04/128/128/21
Sim Four, No Sound
Island five (no light)=
UtopiaNoLight. The last in the series I visited for the first time today and is also by Bryn Oh. The central tree in this sim is covered in lights. At first glance it appears to be the smallest and least detailed of the five sims, but I was plesantly surprised to find many small items of interest upon further exploration. When visiting be sure not to miss any of the tiny details around. While there I even ran in to Colemarie one of the above mentioned artists. href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia05/131/132/21
Some of the machinima I am aware of that are involved are listed below. Check them out on Youtube when you get a chance.
Artists:
Colemarie Soleil
ColemarieBryn Oh
BrynOhChantal Harvey
ChantalHarveyMescaline Tammas
