Saturday, May 12th, I went simploring again. I picked “2ᴇʟᴡƎ“, a homestead designed by Miuccia Klaar and Squonk Levenque, from scoop.it SL Destinations. I also read two blog posts about “2ᴇʟᴡƎ“, one from Kate Bergdorf titeled “2ᴇʟᴡƎ” (read here) and one from Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: 2ᴇʟᴡƎ” written in German (read here).
The landing is on a skyplatform with a chequerboard pattern, You’re welcome by a little robot “SiM DRONE S.5 whispers: Welcome Diomita, thanks for bringing some colors in 2ELWE! Make a phone call for a notecard.“
Landing Point and first impressions of “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”
In fact there is a sofa, a few trees and a phone and the phone gives you the above mentioned notecard. The notecard contains no information about “2ᴇʟᴡƎ” itself, it recommends to keep the sim’s windlight settings and proposes a few alternatives.
From the skyplatform you come through a trap door and a long tunnel to the sim itself.
Impressions of “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”: The start and the end of a film at the Ends of the road, the 12 birds, the 12 dolls
“2ᴇʟᴡƎ” is a sim in grey, just like an old film in black and white. The atmosphere is particular and it rains at many spots. The rain is an important style element at “2ᴇʟᴡƎ” and alternates between a few drops and heavy rain. In the middle of the sim is one straight road lined with telegraph posts. At one end is a billboard showing the start sequence of an old film counting back from 8 to 0 and then fading into the word “2ᴇʟᴡƎ“, at the other end is the ending sequence of an old film showing a man who pulls down a screen with the word “The End”.
Impressions of “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”: along the road
Along the road you’ll find 2 installations, one with 12 brids and one with 12 dolls. The dolls are quite impressing, they have a darkended forehead and do look upwards into the sky as if praying. Along the road are more billboards all showing very short scenes of an old movie.
Impressions of “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”: spots and Scenes in the mountains
The straight road parts the sim in two halfs. One half has some mountains and you can find litte spots with other art installations within the mountains. You can even sit there at several places and watch the scenery.
The other half is dominanted by 2 artificial tree-like buildings that you can climb up to get another view and by an old abanndoned plant site where you find 12 monkeys who play on the old structures. I also noticed some other animals, like a dog on the road or another single bird in the old plant site. Within the plant I discovered a cinema build into an old storage tank. I first thought it’s a night club because of the illuminated advertising “Girls”
Impressions of “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”: at the abandoned plant site (except upper left)
“2ᴇʟᴡƎ” can be pronouced as “twelve” and the number 12 plays obviously an important role at the sim. Kate Bergdorf suspects in her blog that the sim is a reminiscence of the movie “12 Monkeys” (read here in wikipedia). I’m no cineast and I didn’t see this movie, hence I can’t judge. The 12 birds though reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s birds.
More impressions of “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”
“2ᴇʟᴡƎ” is impressive because of it’s dense and scary atmosphere, it’s surreal, yet it is fantasic for taking artful pictures. I enjoyed my visit.
Thank you, Miuccia Klaar and Squonk Levenque for providing this piece of art for us all.
P.S.: this blog post contains 2 * 12 pictures *winks*
Landmark to “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Daffodil/85/159/22
Kate Bergdorf’s blog post “2ᴇʟᴡƎ”
https://katebergdorf.wordpress.com/2018/01/27/2ᴇʟᴡǝ/
Maddy Gynoid blog post “Simtipp: 2ᴇʟᴡƎ” (in German)
http://echtvirtuell.blogspot.de/2018/05/simtipp-2.html
Wikipedia about “12 Monkeys”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Monkeys
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 