Diomita Maurer’s Blog

I got an invitation to visit Gem Preiz’ newest installation “Gem’s Skyscrapers” which opened Sunday, April 19th. As so often I wasn’t able to attend the opening celebration but I went there the very next day.

Gem’s Skyscrapers – instructions and bird’s eye views

The landing at Gems Skycrapers is in a skybox where you can grab a notecard about the installion. I use a lot of this notecard it in my post. Furtheron you get instructions how to set your viewer, which windlight is recommened (I used the recommened windlight “TOR Night Under a Yellow Moon”) and how to hide you avatar for a visit. I shied back from that first as you have to get rid of all of your attachments but then prepared myself as instructed. There’s a reason for that and I will explain that lateron. I teleported to the installation and although I had seen a picture of Gem’s Skyscrapers in the invitation before I was really overwhelmed by the first views. I selected an UFO and started my visit flying through the alleys and above the skyscrapers. Great!

Impressions of Gem’s Skyscrapers (1)

“I love the infinitely large and the infinitely small. I love stars and atoms. I love skyscrapers and grass strands. I have presented on Secondlife very large fractal frames teeming with tiny details. These differences of scale are one of the levers of the immersive feeling.” (Gem Preiz)

Impressions of Gem’s Skyscrapers (1)

With the city Gem had two objectives:
– the first one is purely architectural and linked to my fascination for the skyscrapers, modern cathedrals which are, like those of the past, the synthesis of all the techniques of their time, dedicated to the collective aspirations of their builders.
– the second one aims to create a stronger sense of immersion on Secondlife. How to push the 256m limit of a Sim and give a city its natural dimension compared to our character? The solution I found is to build on a 1/10th scale and make the avatar invisible, apparently enclosed in the cockpit of a vehicle whose size and speed are made consistent with the scale of the buildings. Thus, it is in a city of 2.56 km side that you move, which is the equivalent of the surface of 100 normal Sims. The offsim background emphasizes this scale effect since these hundred meters high hills really seem here to be mountains topping up the skyscrapers.

Impressions of Gem’s Skyscrapers (3)

About 11000 prims, 500 constructions of more than 100 different designs, 6 transport lines of 20 km in total (at scale), 6 bridges; diversity and excess that evoke but do not equal that of the megacities of our time. I hope that you will take as much pleasure in visiting this city as I had to build it during the 6 months of its realization.
(taken from the notecard)

Impressions of Gem’s Skyscrapers (4)

The city, that Gem has built, has clearly different districts in which the skyscrapers are of the same colour or at least of a similar style, just as they had been built by the same architect. Some forms and silhouettes seem familiar. The reason is that Gem has used some of the world’s most famous skyscrapers as a model for his skyscrapers. He added some drafts of skyscrapers that were never built and some of his own ideas.
The city remembered me of Chicago with the river and the bridges crossing it. You must try to move your vehicle close to the ground for a different perspective as well as flying above the city in order to get an overview.

Before I finished my visit I went home, dressed again and returned to see Gem’s Skyscrapers again but this time 10 times smaller. Again I got different views!

List of buildings or architectural projects evoked or displayed in the city

– Burj al Khalifa (Dubaï, UAE)
– Marina Creek (Dubaï, UAE)
– Sydney Opera (Sydney, Australia)
– Geode (Paris, France)
– The Interlace (Singapore)
– Abu Dhabi Plaza (Astana, Kazakhstan) (competing project, not selected)
– The One (Colombo, Sri Lanka)
– The Address (Dubaï, UAE)
– Lodha World Towers (Mumbaï, India)
– Ecocity (Tianjin, China)
– ADNOC Headquarters (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
– Etihad Towers (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
– Hyatt Regency (Xuzhou, China)
– Sheraton (Huzhou, China)
– 900 Biscayne Bay (Miami, USA)
– WFC Tower (Shangai, China)
– St George wharf Tower (London, UK)
– Sky Mile Tower – Tôkyô Bay (Tôkyô, Japan) (project never built)
– Wynn Hotels (Las Vegas, USA)
– Central Park Tower (New York, USA)
– Pullman Hotel (Roissy CDG, France)
– Grand Rama 9 (Bangkok, Thailand)
– Bride Tower (Bassorah, Iraq) (project never built)
– Lincong Bridge (Huashan, China) (project by Santiago Calatrava)

Impressions of Gem’s Skyscrapers (6)

I wrote already quite often about Gem Preiz and his fractal art, the last time just a few weeks ago, when I visited his installation “Elusive Reality“. In 2019 I visited his own art gallery the “Gem Preiz Fractal Art Gallery”.
Gem Preiz is educated in science and mathematics and is fond of anything related to Nature, Cosmos and Earth, from astronomy to geology and to architecture. Seeing his work in Second Life is always a particular experience and so was my visit to Gem’s Skyscrapers.

Thank you very much for this great installation, Gem. I enjoyed it to the fullest!
Thank you Akiko Kinoshi who provided the space for Gem’s skyscrapers (as far as I understood).

Landmark to Gem’s Skyscrapers
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Akiko/128/128/2981
Landmark to Gem Preiz Fractal Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Seductive%20Horizons/11/228/297