Art in Second Life 2023 (39) Michiel Bechir Gallery July 2023

13 Jul 2023 2 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

When I visited Milena Carbone (mylena1992)’s newest exhibition named “Resilience 2049” at Michiel Bechir Gallery (read here), I saw that the Gallery features also other artists. Actually Michiel had invited me to the opening even, that happened tuesday, July 11th.
I visited the other parts of the July exhibition at Michiel Bechir Gallery on Wednesday, July 12th. The overall theme in July is “Portraits”

The Michiel Bechir Gallery has been remodeled. It now provides 4 exhibition rooms on two floors. In July you can see Michiel Bechir’s own artwork on the 1 floor left, Myra Wildmist’s art on the 1st floor right, Karma Weymann’s pictures on the 2nd floor left and Milena Carbone (mylena1992)’s exhibition “Resilience 2049” on the 2nd floor right.

I started my 2nd visit with visiting Michiel Bechir’s exhibition. Usually Michiel’s takes pictures of extraordinairy landscapes in Second Life. The selected pictures for July are different as they all show females, but not portraits or close-ups. Instead the female avatars enrich the landscape in which they are photographed. In my personal opinion, that makes the pictures of the landscape and places more lively.

Michiel Bechir has started his long virtual journey into Second Life as a photographer in 2009. Michiel enjoys seeing new places, meeting new people from all over the world and expierencing the creativity in Second Life (just like I do!). Michiel discovered the possiblities of different tools to improve his pictures. By editing them he also tries to add a personal touch and feeling.
Besides owning and creating the Michiel Bechir Gallery, Michiel also has a gallery with a selection of pictures at Art Park. Furthermore you can also see more of his work on his flickr page.

On the 1st floor to the right you find the art of Myra Wildmist. According the the theme of the July exhibtion, Myra presents portraits, female portraits. One wall shows portraits of different characters and ethnics with different techniques for portraits, another wall is dedicated to females as an element of highlightening an otherwise boring landscape or background. I personally like her self portrait, which she presents herself with 3 different filter settings – quite a difference in my opinion, and proving what can be done within Second Life photography using simple filters.

Myra Wildmist is in Second Life since 2012. With her pictures Myra’s “goal is to demonstrate that virtual photography is a new art form and Second Life is a true medium for virtual art. Using the tools SL provided, she creates her photos using many of the same photographic techniques one would use in real life, while also incorporating virtual techniques not available in real life. Myra’s photography is done entirely in-world using SL environmental effects, graphic settings, and photographic filters.” Myra also creates sculptures and installations.
The notecard, that you can grab in her exhition room at michiel Bechir Gallery contains a long list of her exhibitions in-world so far as well as links to other publications of her. Myra writes for magazines and blogs, in partilar she is a staff member of Kultivate/Windlight Magazine. You find more of her art at her flickr page and on her own blog.

On the 2nd floor left the art of Karma Weymann is exhibited. Karma makes pictures of females in everyday scences. The images initially look like snapshots. The women either look shocked that they are being photographed like this – or they don’t even notice it. And that is exactly what makes the pictures so appealing.

Karma Weymann joined Second Life already in 2007. You can grab a notecard about her in the room. Karma writes about her art: “I take most of my photos at my homemade studio in SL but there are some location shoots as well. I create my own avatars for models and try to give them an unconventional kind of beauty, a sex appeal that seems more real than cookie-cutter barbie doll avies. I usually focus on shapes, shadows and light, with overall composition and balance being the desired goal. Lastly, I try to depict my models doing ordinary things with a seemingly innocent natural sensuality.”
Karma Weymann owns the Karma’s Gallery Store at Starz and a store at Kultivate – Karma’s Store at Kultivate.
You can see more of her art at her flickr page.

Finally, on the 2nd floor right is Milena Carbone (mylena1992)’s exhibition “Resilience 2049”. I wrote already about it here.

As the name implies, Michiel Bechir Gallery is owned by Michiel Bechir. Thank you Michiel and the whole team Maggie Runo, Tresore Prada (tresore) and MsToya (Mstoya Bailey) for providing the space for the arts!
Thank you to all artists involved in this July exhibition. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Michiel Bechir Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Embrace/30/228/2503
Michiel Bechir’s gallery at Art Park
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fermat/148/36/53
Michiel Bechir’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39613053@N03/
Myra Wildmist flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/myrawildmist/
Myra Wildmist’s blog:
https://myrawildmist.wordpress.com/
Karma Weymann’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133613428@N06/
Karma Weymann’s Store at Kultivate
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Water%20Haven/51/77/26
Karma Weymann’s Gallery Store at Starz
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Draconis/109/247/32

Art in Second Life 2023 (38) Resilience 2049 by Milena Carbone @ Michiel Bechir Gallery

12 Jul 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , ,

It’s been a while that I covered the art of Milena Carbone (mylena1992). When I got the invitation to visit “Resilience 2049”, her newest exhibtion, I decided to visit it for two reasons – firstly her exhibtion is at Michiel Bechir Gallery, a gallery that I cover comparably regularly, and secondly I read her notecard that came with the invitation and I became curious.

Milena Carbone’s notecard explains the background of the exhibition, the main story, that connects all presented pictures (portraits), she explains the word “Résilience”, she explains the technique how the portraits were taken – and finally she outlines her own thoughts.

The “Resilience 2049” exhibition grew out of the “Resilience” dance show presented at Noir Wen in April 2023. Behind the dancers, the background featured a series of portraits of “resilient” people, most of them children. The show gave little explanation for the staging, which everyone interpreted in their own way.
(Get more information about the ballet “Résilience” here)
I got a lot of feedback on these portraits, and decided to make them a permanent exhibition in my studio, the Carbone Studio. The exhibition in the Michiel Bechir Gallery is a first sketch of that exhibition.

Resilience is the ability of an individual, a group or a community to adapt and recover from crisis, trauma, loss or major change in their lives. This is what my generation and generations to come are going to have to face, forced and coerced by previous generations who were unable to mobilize to spare us from the suffering of an increasingly violent world and a planet going haywire.

Impressions of “Resilience 2049” by Milena Carbone @ Michiel Bechir Gallery (1)

And why 2049?
Blade Runner 2049 and, three years apart, Wong Kar-wai’s 2046. Both films deal with the end of a world
2049 marks the centenary of the Chinese revolution, and the Chinese government’s project to become the world’s dominant power.
2049, or 2050, is a key date in the IPCC reports, which see it as the climate tipping point.
Resilience 2049 is a portrait gallery of witnesses from the year 2049 to the dangerous, violent and inhospitable world we’ve handed down to them.

In the center of the exhibition runs a video. In this video the characters shown as portraits on the walls of the exhibition come alive. They talk and change their facial expression. The video can also be seen on youtube here.

The video as well as the portraits were created using AI – the result is very impressive! And as Milena wrote, the portraits and the characters are still her art, her style.
The portraits were all created exclusively with Midjourney, applying my style parameters. The application is relatively unstable today, with almost weekly updates and improvements, making the stability of my style more fragile.
I used a face animation app for the first time. The characters in the video may seem caricatured in relation to the seriousness of the subject. I’m aware of that. But I had to try. Here too, the application is regularly updated. In a recent update, after the creation of this video, the emotional mimicry of the faces was improved.

Impressions of “Resilience 2049” by Milena Carbone @ Michiel Bechir Gallery (2)

Resilience 2049 is an impressive exhibition with a message, a clarion call to action. It touched me – as Milena intended it. The portraits are quite realistic, they express their feelings, their anger and their desperation. Resilience 2049 is not an exhibition “to enjoy”, more “to experience” – another piece of art fo Milena Carbone.

Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.

The Michiel Bechir Gallery has a new main building. “Resilience 2049” by Milena Carbone is on 2d floor on the right. I haven’t (yet) visited the other current exhibitions. Thank you Michiel and the whole team Maggie Runo, Tresore Prada (tresore) and MsToya (Mstoya Bailey) for providing the space for the arts!

Landmark to Michiel Bechir Gallery and to Resilience 2049 by Milena Carbone
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Embrace/30/228/2503
Landmark to The Carbone Studio
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/179/188/3316
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/214/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery
About the ballet Résilience :
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/dance/ballets/resilience
Youtube video “Resilience 2049” :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXy9A_p1lTY
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568

Art in Second Life 2023 (9) Reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) & Onceagain Art Gallery

06 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I got an invitation to visit Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s latest exhibition named “Reflections” at Onceagain Art Gallery. A good reason to visit Onceagain Art Gallery (once) again, as it is more than one year since I my last visit there (read Art in Second Life 2022 (2) Onceagain Art Gallery).

The landmark leads you to a small gazebo within a park. From there you walk through the park, cross the gate, turn left twice and walk a path upwards to reach the exhibition “Reflections” which is shown in kind of a cloistered court.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (1) – from the landing point to the exhibition

Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) wrote about “Reflections”:
“I’m really pleased to host in my gallery a delicate artist, who I discovered last year by chance when I won one of her works at an auction.
In life you don’t always need to look for deep meanings, sometimes beauty is enough to reconcile you with the world and Maddy with her works is what she manages to do.”

The exhibition consists of 11 pictures all showing woman, mainly portraits, in their beauty. Most of the pictures are monochrom (not all) and the women are all dressed beautiful and they wear flowers, ornaments, jewelery and other accessories underlining their beauty and attracting the spectator to look for details and to get pulled into the picture.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (2)

Maddy wrote: ““Reflections” is a journey of portraits that experiments with new ideas using A.I. technologies. The exhibit showcases photos created with Midjourney and Second Life Avatars, combined with the use of A.I. to create a melancholic and dark atmosphere that captures the essence of the subjects portrayed. The soft colors and blurs emphasize the intense emotions and intimacy of the portraits, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in the images.”

Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) is in Second Life since 2009. She’s passionate about photography in RL and SL. She writes: “I’m not an artist but a researcher of images to be developed… a dreamer with open eyes of this world “out of time”. In SL always open to new possibilities of experimentation trying to convey the magic that I see.”
I’ve seen Maddy’s art the first time back in 2017 at Enchanted Art where her exhibition “Maddy 2017” was showcased (read here). Further on I saw Maddy’s work at La Maison d’Aneli in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 and at GenovArt Glass Gallery in May 2021 (read here). You can see more of her art at her flickr page.

Once at the gallery I took the teleporter, where I landed for my visit to “Reflections” and visited the Onceagain Art Gallery.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (1) – Two buildings / Two sculptures (Cherry Manga and Bryn Oh)

The place has changed quite a lot, the concept is still the same. In a large park are several buildings. The park and the buildings are full of Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s art collection. In the park you find 3D art as well as inside of the buildings at windows or larger spaces. The buildings are galleries and feature the art of many artists.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (2)

I know and wrote about most of them, though I admit that there’re some, who I didn’t come across yet. The following list of artists is certainly not exhaustive, but it testifies to the size of the art collection and the many styles:
Moki Yuitza, Mihailsk Syros (mihailsk), June Langer, Kika Yongho, Eviana (eviana.robbiani), Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau), Milena Carbone (mylena1992), Filthy Fluno, Marina Münter (vivresavie), Melusina Parkin, CioTToLiNa Xue, Zia Branner, Maloe Vansant, ZYNTHEA, Mareea Farrasco, Celestial Demon (celestialdemon), Gully Rivers (gullyrivers), Karma Daxeline (Karma Weymann), Cad (cadwallader), Lika Cameo (LikaCameo), Scylla Rhiadra, Mara Telling, Frank Atisso, Cherry Manga, Harbor Galaxy, miu miu miu (miumiumiusecond), Therese Carfagno, Bryn Oh ….

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (3)

onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) ist in Second Life since 2007. Manoji is Italian and lives and works in Tuscany, Italy. She “likes photography, art, landscapes, animals, visiting strange places, most of these things she also does in RL“. You find more of her also on her flickr account.

Thank you for showcasting so many artists in a great environment and for enabling Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s exhibition “Reflections”.
And thank you Maddy for your art.
I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Onceagain Art Gallery and to Reflections by Maddy
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Peaceful%20Mountains/51/173/3502
Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/magdyne/
Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69389809@N03/

Art in Second Life 2022 (102) The 5th Season by Milena Carbone

15 Dec 2022 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I got an invitation from Milena Carbone (mylena1992) for the opening of her newest exhibition “The 5th Season” at Artsville. The opening was yesterday. I visited early on Tuesday, December 13th.

Milena herself wrote about “The 5th Season”:
“The fifth season is a three-part installation that questions our tendency to follow a path of self-destruction. It is related to the imminent threat of dramatic consequences for all living species as a result of climate change. It tries to dig deeper into the roots of our denial.
The “fifth season”, is an imaginary season, which will replace the four seasons we have known. One season in a year, chaotic, devastating. A foul beast that humanity will have created. I sincerely hope that this work will allow us to go beyond good conscience, purely intellectual awareness or judgment to lead everyone towards a fertile, new reflection on ourselves, on our relationship to the world; and to our planet, the only paradise that is a closed garden whose walls we have hit.

The 5th Season is the final exhibition of a triology, consisting of “Blind”, “Africa” and “Heroes”. All three parts are shown at Artsville. Milena recommends to see “The 5th Season” in exactly this order.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (1)

It is recommended that you use “Shared Environment” and “Advanced Lighting”. If your macine allows it, use shadows from projectors and sun/moon and allow media streaming.

I saw the first part “Blind” in June 2022 as a part of an exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli (read Art in Second Life 2022 (57) La Maison d’Aneli June/July 2022)

Blind explores our denial of the studied, validated, stated, detailed crisis of climate change for which we are collectively responsible : natural, economic, social and demographic disasters. And yet we do nothing, but continue our frenzy of senseless consumption and expend our energy in war.
Blindness is a recurring theme in myths, particularly Greek myths. Tiresias and Oedipus are well known examples. Blindness is both a punishment and a way to change one’ s view of the world and oneself.
The exhibition consists of five themes displayed in an original installation, thirteen images and seven short stories.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (2) – part I: “Blind”

The exhibition is not set up as the one I saw at La Maison d’Aneli in June. There are 4 rooms titeled “Don’t Look Up”, “Don’t Look Beyand”, “Look Down On” and “Look Away”.
Milena’s art consists of texts, pictures and visual experience. Each room is dedicated to a story that you can download to read and that Milena illustrated with pictures and objects. In total you find seven stories … that feature Tiresias, Daphne, Oedipus and his daughter Antigone, Clarissa Dalloway, and George and Martha. Milena published the stories on her website,

“Africa” is the second part of “The 5th Season” and I saw it end of October 2022 at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, (read Art in Second Life 2022 (88) Africa by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery).

Milena wrote about “Africa”:
“Africa” takes a look at the African continent, both amazed and crude.
Amazed, because Africa is a fertile paradise of biodiversity and beauty and the cradle of humanity, born in the rift, the vagina of the earth.
Crude, because Africa is a continent raped, slaughtered, poisoned, looted with impunity by empires, in cynical disdain of its inhabitants. Africa is what started it all by the grace of evolution, and will end by the rapacity of man.

“Africa” consists of 13 pictures:
The story of Grace, in seven paintings, an Ethiopian orphan who, at age 33, inherits the home of her father whom she never knew. As she explores this strange house, she more or less follows the biblical journey from creation to paradise and God’s doubt one Sunday night (“Oh my God, I think I’ve screwed up so damn bad”). In this part, Milena Carbone clears God of predestination and gives keys to understand that, if he is at the origin of the Creation, he has created the conditions of free will.
The Twilight of Humans is the story of Abel, an African man whom Grace meets in her house. In six tableaux, he travels through the destruction of the African continent, ends up being the last man in the world and makes his own burial ground in the rainforest.

Again “Africa” is displayed different than at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. I personally was more impressed of this part of “The 5th Season” the way it was presented at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The pictures at Artsville are presented at the walls. In the center are some 3D statues of African animals. Once you get closer, the statues vanish and texts appear instead. As always in Milena’s exhibitions, texts and pictures build one unit. While in “Grace’s wing” the texts deal with God, the texts in “Abel’s wing” deal with the plagues that mankind has caused on earth: climate change, extinction of species and forced migration.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (2) – part II: “Africa”

Milena mentioned in the accompanying notecard that her writing style for the texts featured at the exhibition “Africa” is “more syncopated than usual, cutting the story with several levels of interpretation with inserts of scientific facts, memories or questionings of herself. I readily admit to having been amazed and inspired by the American author Jenny Offill.“

For the pictures Milena continued further expanding and broadening her style. She used the AI Midjourney again to create the backgrounds of her pictures. Milena had an exhibition of pictures created with Artifical Intelligence just recently: “Metamorphoses” (read here). The characters were added from Second Life.

The third part of “The 5th Season” is called “Heroes” and it was new to me.
Heroes tells 12 extraordinary stories of ordinary or mysterious people, all imaginary. The stories take place in the future, in all parts of the world. Milena’s intention is to set the stage for new myths. Myths structure our vision of the world. The myths of today are the same as those of ten thousand years ago: men dominant and superior, carnivorous and subduing the living, violent and cunning, explorers and conquerors in a world without limits.
We are facing the limits of our planet, our myths are no longer operative. We must create new myths, new imaginaries that allow us to find our place in an entirely new, exhausted and limited world. Each story features values compatible with this world, diverse heroes from all walks of life. They are written in a style reminiscent of the news stories found in the back pages of newspapers.

Impressions of “The 5th Season” by Milena Carbone @ Artsville (2) – part III: “Heroes”

When you approach one of the the 12 pictures it folds up into 3 parts – the picture in the center and the story on the left and right. Just one picture folds up into tow pictures and one text in the center. As it takes time to read the stories, there’s a chair in fron ot each of the 12 heroes where you can sit down and read – and get into Milena’s world of pictures and texts.

Heroes is the concluding chapter of the trilogy “The 5th season”. It is the hopeful part of the work.

Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.

Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso. Frank is also the curator of exhibitions at Artsville.
Thank you for another great exhibition, Milena. I enjoyed my visit. Thank you Frank Atisso and the whole team at Artsville for enabling “The 5th Season” by Milean Carbone.

Landmark to Artsville and The 5th Season by Milena Carbone
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caribbean%20Ocean/62/97/3201
Landmark to The Carbone Studio
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/176/163/3287
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/news
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568

Art in Second Life 2022 (88) Africa by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery

31 Oct 2022 2 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , ,

Today, Monday, October 31st, the exhibition “Africa” by Milena Carbone (mylena1992) will be opened. It is the November exhibition at the Nitroglobus Roof gallery, owned and curated by Dido Haas.
The opening party will start at 1 PM SLT (9 PM CET) with a dance performance created by Milena, where visitors can join in. DJ Fleming with provide the tunes and the particles will be contributed by Venus Adored.

“Africa” is the second part of the 5th season, a triology by Milena Carbone that deals with the causes and consequences of climate change. The first part, named “Blind” was exhibited at La Maison d’Aneli in June (read here).

Milena wrote about “Africa”:
“Africa” takes a look at the African continent, both amazed and crude.
Amazed, because Africa is a fertile paradise of biodiversity and beauty and the cradle of humanity, born in the rift, the vagina of the earth.
Crude, because Africa is a continent raped, slaughtered, poisoned, looted with impunity by empires, in cynical disdain of its inhabitants. Africa is what started it all by the grace of evolution, and will end by the rapacity of man.

“Africa” consists of 13 pictures:
The story of Grace, in seven paintings, an Ethiopian orphan who, at age 33, inherits the home of her father whom she never knew. As she explores this strange house, she more or less follows the biblical journey from creation to paradise and God’s doubt one Sunday night (“Oh my God, I think I’ve screwed up so damn bad”). In this part, Milena Carbone clears God of predestination and gives keys to understand that, if he is at the origin of the Creation, he has created the conditions of free will.
The Twilight of Humans is the story of Abel, an African man whom Grace meets in her house. In six tableaux, he travels through the destruction of the African continent, ends up being the last man in the world and makes his own burial ground in the rainforest.

Impressions of “Africa” by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (1)

As always the pictures can develop their strengths with the mirroring floor at the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The story of Abel is in one wing and the story of Grace in the other wing of the exhibition space. Between the pictures of Grace is a video wall playing the short film “Living Picture 4 Africa” which is also available on youtube here.

There are some 3D statues of African animals in the center of the gallery space. Once you get closer, the statues vanish and texts appear instead. As always in Milena’s exhibitions, texts and pictures build one unit. While in “Grace’s wing” the texts deal with God, the texts in “Abel’s wing” deal with the plagues that mankind has caused on earth: climate change, extinction of species and forced migration.

Impressions of “Africa” by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (2)

Milena mentioned in the accompanying notecard that her writing style for the texts featured at the exhibition “Africa” is “more syncopated than usual, cutting the story with several levels of interpretation with inserts of scientific facts, memories or questionings of herself. I readily admit to having been amazed and inspired by the American author Jenny Offill.“

For the pictures Milena continued further expanding and broadening her style. She used the AI Midjourney again to create the backgrounds of her pictures. Milena had an exhibition of pictures created with Artifical Intelligence just recently: “Metamorphoses” (read here). The characters were added from Second Life.

Impressions of “Africa” by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (3)

Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is owned and curated by Dido Haas. Thank you, Dido for providing the space for the art and for enabling the exhibition “Africa” by Milena Carbone. The exhibition poster of “Africa” was created by David Silence based on an image of Milena.

And thank you Milena for another great exhibition. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery and “Africa” by Milena Carbone
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/38/22/1001
Dido Haas’ blog
https://exploringslwithdido.blogspot.com
Landmark to The Carbone Studio
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/176/163/3287
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/news
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568

Art in Second Life 2022 (79) Shoshin by Zia Branner

11 Sep 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I got an invitation from Zia Branner to attend the opening of her latest exhibition named “Shoshin” at the Museum for Art (MUFA). The opening takes place tonight, Sunday, September 11th, at 12 PM SLT, that’s 9 PM CET (Paris). The music for the opening party will be provided by Carelyna, the owner and creator of the ArtCare Gallery.

The Museum for Art (MUFA) is owned and curated by Vandeverre who “likes to share her passion for history, culture, literature and art, so she built the Museum for Art.” Vandeverre provides several links in her profile, there an instagram, a flickr and a twitter account for the Museum for Art.

Zia Branner’s paintings are exhibited on the ground floor near the stairs (just where the provided landmark of the Museum for Art (MUFA) takes you) and near the DJ stand.

Besides Zia Branner’s paintings there are more artists featured:
Illustrations ‘From Oz to home’ by Lis Xia (Xia Chieng).
A sculpture garden with works from Cherry Manga, Vincent Priesley (sweetvincent), Art C (ar10a2.crescendo), and Milena Carbone (mylena1992)
SL Photography by Vandeverre herself – current expo “PORTRAITS”.
Digital 2D Art by Nia Atreides (Nia Voxel), Lis Xia (Xia Chieng), Dragon (dragonangelvs) and RL Photographs by Nils Urqhart
Historical art by Claude Monet made in Holland and Guiseppe Arcimboldo.

Sculpture Garden at the Museum for Art (MUFA)

Back to Zia Branner’s newest exhibition “Shoshin”.
Shoshin is a word from Zen Buddhism meaning “beginner’s mind.” It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. The term is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts (source wikipedia).
In the accompanying notecard Zia explained the word shorter: “Shoshin means: the practice of seeing life with wonder”

The paintings belong to “Shoshin” are near the DJ stand, and it is the first time that these paintings are exhibited.

They are abstract, yet the human brain tends to sort the impressions and to compare with known patterns. I saw teeth, toes, hands, I saw a river with stones, I saw a woman, I saw smoke and an explosion – and I saw colour compositions that were eye candy for me.

Zia’s paintings exhibited near the stairs are abract landscapes, a style that I saw already in former exhibitions of her art.

“Zia Branner had many drawing and painting art lessons at official institutes RL. She is also autodidact on things that did not come along in class. To her making art is a way of life. Often experimenting with techniques as a learning process …. The most important thing to her is that it makes her happy to see others enjoy her art as much as she loves creating it.”
Zia is in Second Life since 2008. She uploaded her RL paintings into SL. Zia owns an art gallery/shop “Elven Falls Art Collective“. Zia also has other permanent exhibitions at The Galleries, Emergent and at Carmel Art Community.

Zia Branner’s art is mostly colourful. She paints abstract and fills the canvas with what just in her mind. She’s inspired by nature and landscapes and consequently her art often looks like landscapes or like flowers. Hence the boarders between abstract and real life paintings are blurring. And what is dominating lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Zia intends to expand her art into painting RL, portraits or still lifes, but so far she’s painting abstract.

Zia paints, primarily, for herself. It is a way for her to express herself. a way to step away from the everydy hustly and bustle of things.
“Figuring out, struggling with or succeeding in creating a painting, capturing things the way I see them on the canvas … it is a big drug. Well, okay, there you have my addicition…. ‘The Earth without ‘art’ is just ‘eh’…“

Enjoy your visit to the Museum for Art (MUFA) and to Zia Branner’s newest exhibition “Shoshin”. Thank you Vandeverre for providing the space for the arts, and thank you Zia for your newest exhibtion.
I enjoyed my visit!

Shoshin by Zia Branner at Museum for Art (MUFA)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tokebi/79/213/3970
Museum for Art (MUFA) Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/museumforart
Museum for Art (MUFA) flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/museumforart
Museum for Art (MUFA) twitter
https://twitter.com/GVandeverre
Zia Branner’s art gallery/shop “Elven Falls Art Collective”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Elven%20Falls/252/41/22
Zia Branner at “The Galleries”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Georgiana/241/100/57
Zia Branner at “Emergent”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mystique%20Isle/191/20/21
Zia Branner at “Carmel Art Community”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/McFarren/236/161/36

Art in Second Life 2022 (74) Metamorphoses by Milena Carbone

29 Aug 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

Today, Monday, August 29th, Milena Carbone opens a new exhibtion named “Metamorphoses” at her own gallery, The Carbone Studio. The opening event is today at 12:30 PM SLT (8.30 PM Central Europe Time)

Milena decribes “Metamorphoses” as a journey into art. The exhibition consists of 24 pictures, showcased over 2 floors. All pictures were created with an Artificial Intelligence robot named “Midjourney”. Milena had a dialogue with the Midjourney bot on Discord, providing pictures, which she made in Second Life, to the robot, and asking the robot for it’s own interpretations of her artwork: “Then, according to its answers, I adjusted instinctively by asking it for new variants or by giving new parameters. The feeling of “happy awkwardness” that always marks a creative process was multiplied here.”

Impressions of “Metamorphoses” by Milena Carbone (1)

On Milena’s website you find a snapshot of the dialogue with the robot (see the picture above). On the floor you reach with the landmark are 6 pictures. Each of them is a result of the work with the robot. And for each picture Milena provided the orginal picture from where the robot started to change the picture in a dialogue with Milena. On the lower floor are the other 18 pictures. Each room shows different results based on the same original picture.

“So this is my first collective exhibition with a deep dreamer. The result is a metamorphosis of my creations in SL. A change of state. A flight into a more complex world. The startling revelation of hidden meanings and emotions behind my own work
I realized, through this experience that Midjourney is neither an artist nor a machine. It is a mirror.“

Impressions of “Metamorphoses” by Milena Carbone (2)

The results are really surprising and artful. And as the robot based it all on Milena’s pictures and made it’s iterations based on Milena’s input, Milena was still the owner of the process, it is still her art work – and it is intriguing!

For Milena AI opens up a new world – “Metacreation”: “This is only the beginning of the journey, the first awkward steps of a newborn baby. If the climate drifts and the wars we are all collectively responsible for do not cut it short, it seems to me that what is happening here is as important as the invention of language and writing, which allowed the appearance of multiple art forms. It is a meta-writing, a meta-creation, with huge consequences on the world of art which nobody can measure yet.”
You can put it shorter – AI is a game changer also for the arts.

Impressions of “Metamorphoses” by Milena Carbone (3)

Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.

Thank you Milena for another great exhibition, very inspiring what you created!

Landmark to The Carbone Studio – and to Metamorphoses
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/176/163/3287
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/news
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568

Art in Second Life (73) “Noir Vibrations” by Noir Tater

15 Aug 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Dido Haas invited me to the opening of another new exhibition at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The new exhibtion “Noir Vibrations” by Noir Tater is showcased in the annex to the gallery, that is usually used to display Dido Haas’ own artwork. The opening shall take place today, August 15th at 12 PM (9 PM Central Europe Time). At the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery the exhibition “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” by Debora Kaz (read here) is still ongoing until end of August.
I will be busy with my SL family and hence can’t attend the opening of “Noir Vibrations” by Noir Tate. The opening event starts with a contemporary dance “Silent Love” performed by and specially created for this exhibition by Milena Carbone (mylena1992). Noir Tater will be the DJ and spin the tunes, Venus Adored will add enchanting particles.

I visited the exhibition on Friday, August,12h. As in the main gallery space, the floor in Dido’s annex has also the mirroring effet. “Noir Vibrations” consists of 14 pictures. The exibition space is augmented with 3D sculptures and with balls and light effects by Adwehe. All pictures have a neutral brown/grey background and show a person, who might be in most cases a male.

Noir Tater wrote about “Noir Vibrations”:
‘Choosing to be this or that is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil, what we choose is always good, and nothing can be good for us if it is not good for everyone. ‘
Jean Paul Sartre

My need to be free in all aspects dominates, anguishes and suffocates me.
Vibration Noir is my daily struggle to be what I am and who I am.

And Dido Haas wrote:
“Noir is an interesting figure, who struggles with gender identity. Well this is not unique and for sure not unique in SL. In Noir’s photography them presents themselve most of the time as male and also in this exhibition it’s the unique awesome looking male Noir we can admire. ”

Impressions of “Noir Vibrations” by Noir Tater at Dido’s annex of the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (1)

The pictures are intriguing. As opposed to Dido, I did not recognize a male in all pictures, some show just hands and feet and parts of a body. In many pictures the body looks like vibrating. The effect is emphasized by choosing different colours for the vibrating part of the body. Another style element, that Noir is using, are cut-outs that are placed almost like non-fitting puzzle pieces into the body. You can see the struggle and the emotions as if it isn’t clear how the pieces will fit together and what the body might look like when finished. These two artistic elements used in different strengths and combinations and make Noir’s art unique.

You can grab a notecard with Noir’s biography at the exhibition:
“My name is Francesca, formerly known in Second Life as Noah and now my name is Noir Tater …. It was through my friendship with Debora Kaz that I … started to explore photography. By using photography I found a way to express myself, so others are able to understand me better …… I am a woman going through duality about my gender. Here in SL I can show both my sides: female and male through my images with all my anguish about these feelings.”

Noir is in Second Life since 2016. You can see more of Noir’s art on Noir’s flickr acount.

Impressions of “Noir Vibrations” by Noir Tater at Dido’s annex of the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (2)

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is owned and curated by Dido Haas. Thank you, Dido for providing the space for the art and for enabling the exhibition “Noir Vibrations” by Noir Tater. Thank you Noir for your art, and thanks also to Adwehe for the light effects.

“Noir Vibrations” shall stay open for about one month at the Annex of Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. For a limited time until end of August you can see the exhibitions “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” by Debora Kaz and “Noir Vibrations” by Noir Tater” within one visit.

Landmark to the Annex of Nitroglobus (and to “Noir Vinrations”)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/166/41/1001 
Landmark to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (main gallery)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/38/22/1001
Noir Tater’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/essenciall-harad/
Dido Haas’ blog
https://exploringslwithdido.blogspot.com

Art in Second Life 2022 (72) “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” by Debora Kaz

01 Aug 2022 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , ,

Dido Haas invited me to the opening of the August exhibition at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. today, August 1st at 12 PM (9 PM Central Europe Time). I will be busy with my SL family and hence can’t attend. The exhibition is titeled “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women”, the artist is Debora Kaz (deborakaz), who is new for me. The opening event starts with a contemporary ballet “Demotions” performed by and specially created for this exhibition by Milena Carbone (mylena1992).

I visited the exhibition on Friday, July 29th. The exhibition space with it’s mirroring floor is quite full this time. The exhibition consists of 14 pictures, 6 3D sculpture installations and 1 video screen. The whole exhibition is held in dark purple and violet tones. All the objects and semitranparent frames together with the light effects set by Adwehe provide an outstanding art experience.

Debora Kaz (deborakaz) wrote about her exhibition:
“The fight against violence against women practiced by women is the theme of this exhibition. The predominance of the hot pink color in the installation represents this struggle, as well as hot pink is also the color indicating female empowerment i.e. the potency of women.
This installation also brings a mix of colors in a chaotic and disorganized way, to represent female emotions and unconscious conflicts.
Invisible cities are present in the composition of the works, giving them an imaginary physical space.
The structures and lines suggest a non-Cartesian timeline inserted in a space

‘Invisible Cities – Fighting Women’ wants to show the pain and difficulty of being a woman in a world where women historically were portrayed as objects of desire, exposed to consumption, which induced rivalry resulting in us women not having a real union to fight the violence that is directed at us..“

That sounds complex and it is complex.

Impressions of “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” by Debora Kaz @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (1)

For me the colour purple/violet still stands for the women rights and equality movement in the outgoing 1970ies and in the 1980ies. I remember wearing a purple overall, real fashion at that time.
As I wrote above the exhibition is complex. The pictures are all made up of several layers, so that the spectator has to decide where to focus first. But looking at them for a while you recognize more and more details. Debora works with lines und geometric forms as well, thus generating urban spaces in some of her pictures. You can see the fight and struggle in many pictures. The 6 3D sculptures show one or two (fighting) women in a more red colour. The scuptures are surrounded by semi-transparent frames and pictures, thus providing unique views together with the pictures at the walls. I am a fan of this kind of art, as every picture you take is unique as well depending on light, view angle and distance.

Impressions of “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” by Debora Kaz @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (2)

On the video screen a youtube video is showcased. It is named “fighting women”, yet for me it shows 2 dancing women with a stylised city in the background. Also have a look at the text that is shown at one of the walls next to the pictures. Debora wrote a text addressed to all women that fits to the exhibition and gives you some background information for the exhibition.

Impressions of “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” by Debora Kaz @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (3)

Debora Kaz (deborakaz) is a digital artist from Brazil (if I figured it our corectly). She’s in Second Life since February 2012 and discovered its opportunities for creativity. She writes in the accompanying notecard: “Exactly 9 years ago I became interested in the language of wireframe, the lines, the structures and the voids they provide. When making wireframe images it is as if you can make the invisible visible. It’s as if I could reveal something that hides inside our structures, our feelings, emotions and maybe reflects on some subjects.” Just a few months ago she began to exhibit her artwork.
Debora has a flickr page, a facebook account and a youtube channel.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is owned and curated by Dido Haas. Thank you, Dido for providing the space for the art and for enabling the exhibition “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” by Debora Kaz. Thank you Debora for your art, and thanks also to Adwehe for the light effects and to David Silence for creating the exhibition poster for “Invisible Cities – Fighting Women”.
“Invisible Cities – Fighting Women” is the August exhibition at  Nitroglobus Roof Gallery and hence shall be open until end of August 2022.

Landmark to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/38/22/1001
Debora Kaz (deborakaz) flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/deborakaz
Debora Kaz (deborakaz) on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/debora.kaz
Debora Kaz (deborakaz) on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/c/deboraKaz
Dido Haas’ blog
https://exploringslwithdido.blogspot.com

Art in Scond Life 2022 (64) Living Picture #3 by Milena Carbone

13 Jul 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

Milena Carbone invited me to see her newest installation named “Living Picture #3” at the dance hall of The Carbone Studio.

The landmark leads you to the entrance of The Carbone Studio. You get their instructions how to set up your viewer for the best experience. Choose “Dance Hall” from the teleport pad to get to “Living Picture #3”

Living picture is a series of art experience in Second Life that combines a short contemporary music video piece and a dance sequence in Second Life of one or more avatars in phase shift. The video and dance sequences run in a loop, 24/7. Milena calls this technique “phase dance” in tribute of the “phase music” created by Steve Reich and Terry Riley in the 1960s/70s.

Living Picture #3 by Milena Carbone at The Carbone Studio – Dance Hall

When you enter you see the phase dance in front of the video and you hear the music. The music is a beautiful jazz piece named “Rites” by composer and saxophonist Jan Garbarek. Two avatars, Milena herself and her dance model Lalitha, were dancing synchron when I visited Monday, July 11th. You can easily join the dancers and dance yourself by clicking the sphere next to the big board and below the smaller board with technical instructions.

There are 2 rather dystopian video clips of 5 minute length each that are shown in the background. One is a fantasy ficition with hunt scenes, the other shows scenes of waste, distruction and poverty and people who live under these circumstances. The scenes seem to be from the Middle East, some seem to be from the African continent. The dancers and their art are quite a contrast to the video. As the dance sequences are 4 minutes long as opposed to the 2 times 5 minute video clips, there’s hardly not a single scene or picture that you could reproduce once again.

There’s also a teaser video on youtube of Living Picture #3 by Milena Carbone, that you can see here.

Milena Carbone’s art always consists of at least 2 elements, one is always a text. The text Milena published along with Living Picture #3 did touch and impress me:

“A team of researchers recently discovered that the cells of a corpse continue to live after death. Their activity was even greater than before. Some have seen, blinded by hope and dread, the proof of eternal life, but it is not so.

The activity of the cells corresponds to desperate signals they send, like bottles to the sea, to other cells. All the cells scream, but apparently none hear the others. They can no longer listen to each other, to coordinate. It is as if, what is dead, is not a set of cells, but its consistency, the relations between them.

Are we, the human species, already dead ? We have never communicated so much, and we have never been so alone. Every second, thirty thousand billion bytes of information is emitted worldwide. Data, new data, data adjusted for seasonal variations, data on data, personal data, pornographic data, financial data, a lot of financial data, lolcats, spam, seflies, lots of selfies… These data scream “Hey! I’m here ! Why do not you hear me! “And the more data shout out personal information that never interests others, the more data they have and the more they scream.

Refugees in their little cabin, stood petrified in front of their makeshift radio. They were no longer receiving any message. Neither from Earth nor from the sky. The cells eventually die, too.“

Impressions of Diomita, Milena and Lalitha dancing in Living Picture #3 by Milena Carbone at The Carbone Studio – Dance Hall

I played a bit with my camera while dancing and noticed that the video screen is semi transparent from the backside. Looking from the backside you can see the dancers completely embedded into the video, quite intriguing.

Diomita, Milena and Lalitha dancing in Living Picture #3 by Milena Carbone at The Carbone Studio – Dance Hall – seen from the backside of the semi-transparent videoscreen

Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
Milena has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.
Milena also published an own article about “Living Picture #3” on her website.

Thank you Milena for another great art experience.
Living Picture #3 by Milena Carbone cane be experienced at The Carbone Studio until July 31st.

Landmark to The Carbone Studio
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/176/182/3331
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/news
Milena’s video teaser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJSKUHVNw6I
Milena’s post about “Living Picture #3” on her website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/dance/living-picture
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568

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