SL Burning Life Blog

Second Life's 5th Birthday Exposition.

GavinLeigh Wake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:09:28 GMT

The relationship between Second Life's 5th Birthday Expo and the Burning Life event are tenuous at best, but as there is no news on the BL08 event so far this year I thought I would at least promote SL5B which is in full swing until July 7th.

That's a nice birthday cake!

It's doubtful that any Second Life resident who has signed on in the past few weeks has missed the references to SL5B on the sign on screen. I'll admit to having avoided visiting the sims until now, but finally I decided to drop over and check out the Expo.

20 Sims to choose from.

Spread out over 20 sims the event is like a corporate version of Burninglife. Many major content providers have exhibits at the event as well as many established groups. This is perhaps one of the only times you will find such a diverse set of creations arranged so neatly. But this Expo is 'neat" in many ways and I recommend you stop by. There are many facets of Second Life which you probably aren't even aware of... and this is a chance to see some of that in action. If you take an hour or two to actually 'walk' around the event I am sure you'll see things that you didn't know were possible in SL.

Toxian City

I stopped by the Toxian City demonstration area where they residents role play using the DCS2 combat system. I've never really taken part in that aspect of SL but it appeared to have a large following. There are many individual sims using this kind of system to customize their experience.

DCS2 Demo Area

There were more people at the DCS2 sim than anywhere else at that time, although the Toxian area was pretty quiet during this visit. The last time I was there it was jumping.

The Learning Area

There are impressive pieces of architecture abound and I found the soft futuristic feel of the learning sim to be a pleasure to experience. I even stopped by the Princeton University area and admired some of the creations of Ub Yifu, who's Hendrix and Monroe models seem to have captured the artist's spirits. You'll probably need to stop over there to see what I mean.

Did that sculpture just move?

There are some performance issues and my PC struggled with the incredible amount of textures and construction going on. I love to be able to see out into the distance when visiting these events, but the complexity forced me to drop my draw distance down to 160m when I was moving around. Yes there is a lot here! Some sims seemed to have excellent performance and others were mediocre at best. I don't know if that is just down to the sim servers?

Anyway If you haven't visited SL5B then this is a really good moment to drop by. Search events for SL5B or type it into the map search. You'll easily find all the sims.

For SL WIKI Info visit here:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SL5B

Congrats to the organizers it's great to see so much worthwhile creativity in one place.

Spring is here... and 2008's BurningLife Festival moves closer.

GavinLeigh Wake — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:05:58 GMT

There's not really any news on this years festival yet. With the Linden's dealing with a particularly strenuous set of issue this Saturday (yes SL is down) I guess I thought I'd have a quick look at the blog and clear out the cobwebs. These blogs do get messed up, and I ended up deleting about 100 comments from foreign pharmaceutical companies trying to sell me Rolex watches and something to make my thingy bigger.... see it makes no sense.

I also wanted to popin to let you know I was thinking about all the new possibilities for this years festival and to hope that the problems that surrounded last year's event will not be repeated.

With BurningLife such a long way there are other things to do in world. If you want to be involved in an inworld festival in the near future, then maybe you should take a moment to get involved in the "Second Life Day of Remembrance". If you missed the SL blog entry on this you can find it here:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/04/04/second-life-day-of-remembrance-is-april-17/

The event is designed to be an opportunity to remember those friends and loved ones who are gone from the virtual world of Second Life. The event takes place on Thursday April 17th 2008.

Burning Life Decompression Party, October 19th - 21st

GavinLeigh Wake — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:10:27 GMT

Hans Baldwin and Sundra Petrov will be holding a weekend long Decompression party for those involved in this years Burning Life festival. It starts on Friday, October 19th at 3:45 PM SL time and then runs through Sunday, October 21st over at the Blackrock Sim.

This event is open to all, but they especially welcome those involved in this years Burning Life.

Hans and Sundra say this of the affair:

"A special party in honor of all the creative artists and amazing volunteers who worked together is making Burning Life 2007 a great success. These dedicated team members and artists (builders, designers, musicians and performers) provided SL 22 SIMs filled with spirit, passion and excitement, which allowed all to come celebrate, marvel and ponder greater things in life both SL and RL.

We thank you all and hope to fill Blackrock from Friday, October 19th at 3:45 PM SL time through Sunday, October 21st in celebration and tribute to all who teamed together in the spirit of Burning Life making it a most memorable event."

.: Performers & DJs Line Up:.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19th

ChangHigh Trinity Sisters with DJ Rosie Portello
4:00 - 5:00 PM Friday, Oct. 19th

DJ Hern Worsley
5:00 - 7:00 PM Friday, Oct. 19th

Sage Duncan
7:00 - 8:00 PM Friday, Oct. 19th
http://www.staceyfox.com

Phoenix Fisseux
8:00 - 9:00 PM Friday, Oct. 19th

DJ Lysander Lemuria of Quantum Tribe DJs
9:00 PM - 12:00 AM Friday, Oct. 19th

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20th

DJ Tom Bender
1:00 - 3:00 AM Saturday, Oct. 20th

DJ Hans Baldwin
4:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Jaynine Scarborough
12:00 - 1:00 PM Saturday, Oct. 20th
http://www.myspace.com/julianegabriel

Luigi DiPrima
1:00 - 2:00 PM Saturday, Oct. 20th

DJ Lazrith Fardel
2:00 - 6:00 PM Saturday, Oct. 20th

Thumper Boucher
7:00 - 8:00 PM Saturday, Oct. 20th

DJ Hans Baldwin
8:00 PM - ???

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21st

OPEN

.:: Special Thanks ::.

We would like to offer a special thank you to Winfried Ferraris for allowing us the use of Blackrock SIM to host this party. Blackrock is a SIM for creative people, scripters, builders, a nice community of creative minds.

Kindest Regards,
Hans Baldwin and Sundra Petrov.

See Hans or Sundra for further details, and who knows I might even see you there.

Burning Life Videos

GavinLeigh Wake — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:49:45 GMT

You can see some video from this years event at the following links:

Firstly the Burning of the Man:

And here's a video montage of the Temple Burn:

I'll try to add more links as I come across them.

Burning Man / Burning Life 2008 Theme

GavinLeigh Wake — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:34:14 GMT

Wow... has it really been a year since I posted a blog entry about the future theme of the festival. So here we are again already looking to the next year and all that it holds.

Burning Man's and Burning Life's theme next year will be "AMERICAN DREAM". I personally would have prefered a less flag waving choice in an election year, but I don't get to choose. Of course there are going to be many different takes on this, and I imagine you'll get a broad cross-section of ideals. Right now I am stumped for any ideas myself.

To help better understand the theme, the Burning Man website has this description of the festival next year:

"This year's art theme is about patriotism -- not that kind which freights the nation state with the collective weight of ego, but a patriotism that is based upon a love of country and culture. Leave ideology at home; forget the blue states and the red; let parties, factions and the so-called issues that divide us fall away. Flag burning or flag worship play no part in this year's theme. Ask yourself, instead, a more immediate question. What has America achieved that you admire or feel proud of? What has it done or failed to do that makes you feel dismayed? Put blame aside, in this election year, and dare to ask an even greater question: What can postmodern America, this stumbling, roused, half-conscious giant, yet give to the world?"

You can read more about it here:

http://burningman.com/art_of_burningman/bm08_theme.html

So get your thinking caps on it's only 300 days or so until the next Burning Life Festival.

Thanks
GavinLeigh Wake
.

Burning Life 2008 ???

GavinLeigh Wake — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:26:37 GMT

The festival is now finally behind us, but there are some things I'd still like to tackle before shutting down commentary on this years event.

After the problems that have arisen this time around, it's doubtful that Linden Labs will approach next year's BL the same way. I personally think that 2008 will be Linden organized, and probably not be spearheaded by any one person. I truly hope that a committee will meet regarding the festival at least three months before it begins, and that they hash out the details properly.

There is an outside chance that Vicero will get his Burninglife.org group together and produce a separately run festival, this would take the pressure off Linden Labs completely by putting the whole deal into private hands. I am not sure a private group would deserve free sim space, so I don't know how that would work unless a land sponsor was found. Personally I am against this idea, but then it's true that I am biased against Vicero after his actions this year.

So as things stand right now a huge question mark looms over the event.

Here's what I think should happen next year... from my distinctly subjective point of view.

The festival dates should be set up to end at the same time as Burning Man. The Burn of the Man and Temple should match the days of the RL festival.

The length of the festival should be two weeks, with two weeks build and set up time prior to that. This would allow more events to take place, over a more relaxed time table. Any land without a substantial build at the end of week one of the build phase gets to be reallocated. Any land not used by the time the festival starts should be turned into open build space.

The festival should be based on 16 sims. It's obvious there were plenty of unused plots of land this year. Even if there are more people online next year the festival should not be forced to grow to become any more unwieldy.

The musical events should take place at different locations on the playa, with independent streams available to each location. Musical events are good at pulling a crowd to one place, but the festival is about the different camps and builds. I think a lot of people were drawn to the center camp this year and never went out to explore the actual outlying builds.

Large theme camps should either be cut completely or changed totally. Potentially these camps could become the specific venues next year. In this way groups would be putting forward ideas for the best "venue" camp. Some of this years Large camps had venues, but others didn't. Perhaps 4 main venue camps over the 16 sims would work.

The open playa should be cut in size. The 6 sims based around the Man and temple took up a lot of potential building space. I know there needs to be a buffer around these icons, however there could have been a few extra small camps lining the ouside of these sims.

Roads and the general size of camps this year seemed perfect. I know some people moaned about prim limits, but I think that forced peole to work harder to tighten their building. The 2000 sq meters I was allocated was ideal.

I would remove the radio stream from the roadways. Personally I didn't like having that forced upon me as I moved across the sims, and I think it detracted from the soundscape of the separate builds. Several people told me they would turn off my steaming music when on the roads, and then not think to turn it back on once inside a camp. The main playa, Man and Temple areas could still have a live music stream although I don't think it's actually necessary.

There should be no requirement to fit to the Burning Man Theme. Although I think the theme is important, and it actually affects my opinon of the builds, it can't be mandatory. My desire to have more themed builds this year was probably over ambitious, and in the end people either did or didn't do it. So really... lets not kid ourselves on this and make sure people know it's completely optional.

Land allocation should probably be decided by a lottery system. This is the fairest way to deal with it. The only way to solve land issues is to allow a few days to join the lottery and then pull out names. I am even willing to consider letting people pay for a lottery ticket. Burning Man charges $250 a ticket to enter the playa, so having a $250L charge for a lottery ticket isn't unrealistic. This money could then be donated to offset carbon emissions created throughout the festival, in a minor attempt to reduce the global impact. It also encourages people who are dedicated SL Burners to participate. You would be surprised how a small fee like that might change someone's attitude towards their land.

The Ranger group, with whom I had reservations, actually turned out to be a dedicated bunch of people. A few times I saw them walking around cleaning up the place. They also responded to issues and allowed people to vent their frustrations. I think those involved with this group (as far as I am aware) did a marvelous job. They should definitely be reinstated next year.

The main events of the "Burning of the Man", and the "Temple Burn" needs to be built on the best servers that Linden Labs can provide. This year we had nearly 400 people trying to attend the events, and there is no surprise there were issues. Next year I would love to see large numbers and no sim crashes. A tall order I imagine.

I'd like to see a mature person lead the festival. I feel that an older person would have reacted differently to the situations that arose this year. I can't say how many disgruntled people I spoke to about this issue. Of course it isn't all one sided, I am aware of that too. However, when someone decides two days before the festival begins to pull up ALL of their builds, landscaping and scripting on which the community relied, then takes down the "official" website... well then that is just downright shitty.

Yes Vicero Lambert threw the community spirit out the windows, because it wasn't his personal vision any more. And then, to top it all, he is allowed to put his builds onto the large theme camp (he gave to himself) and then stage a burn of the "original" man. This pretty much spits in the faces of the others. I hope the Lindens put in place someone with the balls enough to deal with this situation properly.

For all the hard work people have put into working within the committees, there will never be enough thanks dished out. I know there was personal conflict, but after all the meetings the festival finally worked out really well.

The important thing about Burning Life is the community spirit it embraces. Next year, through thoughtful consideration, LL can make this festival more successful than ever. And I think this event deserves to be momentous.

So with the BS pushed to the side I'd like to thank those dedicated individuals, be it Lamp Lighter, DPW, Event Organizer, Team Lead or Ranger for your outstanding input this year. I look forward to seeing what you can do in 2008.

BurningLife.com Icy Dome's New Home

GavinLeigh Wake — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:57:58 GMT

As promised, the Icy Dome which so many have enjoyed on the playa has been relocated onto the mainland. You can now find it here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Albulata/204/38/94

It's not quite as nice as when it was on the playa... there's something about that desert sand mixed with the ice. But I am sure that if you enjoyed it before you'll find pleasure visiting it at the new home.

There's no fee to enter but you can support my work and this blog by buying a copy of my snowman.

Also visit the Wake Gallery next door and see the glasswork on display.

Thanks
GavinLeigh Wake.
.

The Temple Burn

GavinLeigh Wake — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:48:41 GMT

The Temple burn at this years festival was programmed for the unusual time of 3:00pm Linden time on a Monday. It still managed to pull a crowd, and was in my opinion the closest thing I've experienced on SL to a religious ceremony.

People started to gather a good while before the event was about to start, and I guess it was with some trepidation that I made my way over there. Deep down I was wondering if the turn out would crash the sims, or worse so few would arrive it would be a flop. I should not have worried because approximately 100 people were there. And yes we did temporarily lose a sim, but it was almost instantly back online.

The Lamp Lighters gathered inside the temple with the "The Spirit of the Burn".
Before the ceremony began, Iridium Linden took a moment to thank all of the hard work that had gone into this years festival. The normally shy and retiring Iridium was alive, sprightly and beamed with an unusual level of frivolity.

Iridium's Avi always makes me laugh, and I know it shouldn't.
After several rounds of applause the crowd hushed and the ceremony began. Some did joke that they had scoured SL for a virgin to sacrifice, but none could be found.

After a few words from the Spirit, the Lamp Lighters retired to a safe distance.
Then almost instantly... the Temple was ablaze.

The open structure was engulfed in flame, and there was little to do but stand and watch. I found myself reflecting on everything that had transpired over the last few weeks... and then wondering about the future for Burning Life.

And while I was introspective, other people just stood and stared. I wonder what they were personally considering?

And as the building started to collapse a true wave of energy came across everyone and they started to dance.

And from there onwards everyone seemed to start joining in.

And for the next few minutes we watched and danced to the ceremonial background music.

When the temple was down and burnt the only thing left was the font of messages. These were messages left by visitors to the temple and to be offered to the gods of fire.

The Spirit made it's way into the center of the messages and worked a little burner magic to send them on their fiery way. And as we continued to dance each message was read into the chat box... line by line. Some lines were funny, some were eloquent, some mildly profound and others distinctly personal.

It was a strange experience, and when I think back to it I actually get goosebumps.

I can't quite explain the feelings it left with me, but it did leave something. And while every little comment drifted etherially away, the people got down, and even got a little naked.

Yes... hedonistic pleasure marked the demise of the Temple and the start of the end for the 2007 festival.

Parties went on for a long time, but by bedtime it felt as if we were all just waiting for the following day... and the packing up of our festival builds.

Again I would like to thank the builders, scripters and performers in this event. And also I'd like to thank those who worked on the festival as a whole. I know that lots of people did work for little or no acclaim, and these are truly the heroes of Burning Life 2007.

Thanks also to Linden Labs for providing the sims and to Iridium for dealing with a lot of squabbling and name calling, some of which seemed very personal.

This is not the end of the blog entries for this year, although I am tired of it right now. I hope to put up some more pictures and information too.

Water is Life - SIZZLE

GavinLeigh Wake — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:18:55 GMT

This might be one of the most controversial builds of the year, but it's still a masterful piece of communication. Cheen Pitney's "Water is Life" is a statement on mankind's extravagant use of water, and how that trickles down to affect everything else.

You may still be able to catch Cheen's sculpture before 5th of October 2007 at this location:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life%20(Diablo)/118/193/25

Even before this piece was completed it had already been the subject of much debate. This piece originally sat upon a PG sim, where it was considered too mature. The artwork was censored and this caused a stir among the artistic community. This put the artists at odds with the leadership of Burning Life 2007. There is more on that subject under "censorship" on the topics link on the right side bar, where "Nipplegate" is discussed further.

Cheen, who has a reputation for fine sculpture, has recreated this piece high up on the newest BL sims. It's hard to push yourself up there, but I recommend going to see it.

As the water flows away from the woman's feet you see a deer trying to drink from the stream. A peasant attempts to sow seeds into the barren soil, and in another tableau someone is recovering drinking water from the run-off.

Personally I found it a very interesting, poignant build and deserving of a BurningLife.com SIZZLE award.

Nice One Cheen.

The Domino Effect - SIZZLE

GavinLeigh Wake — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:54:28 GMT

From time to time you come across a simple and brilliant build that really makes you go "WOW". There are a few at this years festival and I have only managed to cover a couple. However "The Domino Effect" by Ian Newt & Xenia Alemany is well worth mentioning because it's one of them.

If you are able to catch it before the festival builds are returned you'll find it here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life%20(Raudf)/106/54/25

The build consists of a representation of the planet Earth sitting on the edge of a pool of toxic waste and radioactive pollution... really it's a planetary toilet. Then surrounding this scene are rings of dominoes. Each domino has the name of a global problem... lies, pain, racism and pollution are but a few.

When you move the first domino in the build it starts a "knock on effect" that sends all of the pieces falling over until finally it pushes the planet over the edge into the cesspool.

The concept is pretty simple, everything that goes on around us from war, poverty, hatred etc. basically puts the planet closer to the brink until we'll finally spill over the edge.

After a few seconds you can reset the build (I wish it was like that with this planet) and then you can try again. In fact I saw three people playing with this as I watched.

What an excellent and well executed piece this is, and I have to say it well deserves the SIZZLE award I have given it. Congratulations to Ian and Xenia.