Diomita Maurer’s Blog

I visited the light installation “Refractive Index” by Adwehe that was opened July 20th at Artsville.

“Adwehe presents a stunning installation bathed in 16 different EEPs of her own creation, transitioning from one to the other very slowly, thus coloring the installation in different shades much like a dynamic 3D abstract painting.” (taken form the accompanying notecard).

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (1)

Upon landing you’re asked to set your viewer to use Shared Environment, enable Advanced Lighting Model, set shadows from Sun/Moon + Projectors and to turn you sound volume up. And I can only recommend to follow the instructions as Adwehe’s installation is based on these viewer settings.
You enter the installation through a long tunnel. On it’s sides you find the wavelengths of different colours and different refractive indexes for these colours.

“In optics, the refractive index of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index may vary with wavelength. This causes white light to split into constituent colors when refracted. This is called dispersion. This effect can be observed in prisms and rainbows, and as chromatic aberration in lenses.” (source wikipedia).

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (2)

“Refractive Index” consists of different elements. It seems to be a court surrounded by town houses on the first glance. But there’s also a single house on the other side. There are sculptures arranged on the court: two hands, some dancing figures, other figures and abstract objects. The scenery is very different depending on when you visit. I saw it in bright yellow, in red, in blue and in green. The ground is transparent and the the light from the ground changes as well.

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (3) – 4 pictures of the same view

What seems to be rain first are particles that form words. I saw: silence, truth, post-truth, expanding, breaking-up, reflecting, responding, recording, focus, colliding and refractive. I assume there are more. Around the corner is a semie transparent wall with a quote from José Ortega y Gasset “… the stupendous reality that is language cannot be understood unless we begin by observing that speech consists above all in silences“.

Spheres of different colours pop up every once in a while. The combination of permanent changing colours, the permanent changing particles and the changing spheres make this installation so outstanding. There’s no single scene that isn’t unique. Every single picture you take is unique and not reproducible.

The sound adds to the experience. It’s not music, there are words and noises of different kind.

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (4)

I took quite a lot of pictures again. The installation “Refractive Index” captivates the visitor. You can’t get enough to take different points of view. Everywhere there is something new to discover. And what was just blue now appears in red or is covered by a colored sphere or the particles become words or …. or. An intriguing great piece of art in Second Life. Thank you Adwehe.

Adwehe joined Second Life in September 2018 and describes herself in her profile as “Instable media Artist, Sound explorer, Painter and Photographer“.
What I saw so far from Adwehe was always very different as she tired out herself and the artisitic opportunities that Second Life offers: “I explore an ever changing drawing using lines, light and darkness, strong color and whatever i can find to express. Creating depth and perspective expanding the dimensions of the exposition room, mostly abstract and animating. The theme’s I always come back to are everlasting change, transformation, (in)stability, chaos, light, color, movement, slowness and (different) ways looking at the world. I mix textures from my traditional RL drawings, acrylic and oil paintings inside and outside of SL to achieve abstract and figurative patterns, moods and motions“

Impressions of “Refractive Index” by Adwehe at Artsville (5)

You can find more of Adwehe, mostly unedited landscapes and some art snaps, on her flickr page.
In the Virtuality blog you can find an interview by Violet Boa with Adwehe here.

Artsville is owned by Vally Lavender-Prodigy (Valium Lavender). Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso. Thank you Vally and Frank for creating Artsville and providing the space for the arts.

Landmark: ARTSVILLE – Refractive Index by Adwehe
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ValiumSL/112/12/3201
Adwehe’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/people/187796045@N03/
Virtuality Blog Interview by Violet Boa with Adwehe
https://www.virtuality.blog/interview-with-adwehe/