List of Monumental sculpture projects 2015

  • 1 http://swannbb.blogspot.fr/2015/02/sunday-robot-play.html
  • 2 http://shuengitswannjie.blogspot.fr/2015/02/interactive-reading-room-tea-house-2015.html
  • 3 http://swannbb.blogspot.fr/2014/06/neo-ming-bed-luxembourg.html
  • 4 http://swannbb.blogspot.fr/2013/02/yuzi-paradise-tell-moon.html
  • 5 http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2011/09/12th-changchun-international-sculpture.html
  • 6 http://www.saatchionline.com/Shuen-git

Friday 31 August 2007

Bathing Green Peony, Pirate Ship, End of Isakaya, SushiMetal, Diner

I visited many places today, not intentionally.
First, I want to get my Guqin ready... trying to work with the limited margin of error due to the tight time line, I approached several scripting specialists, etc. SushiMetal, a very nice guy was in conference with his team mate... as I sloshed around in his Sushi bar-pool, its waist deep in a block of water bounded by an invisible wall... finally he finished his business and he studied the question with his buddy and me. We examined the koto, and finally decided, he has to go to dinner. He even gave me back my money... :(

Next, I remembered someone else who made an interactive baseball game in real time, in sl, so I approached him - hahaha, I remembered the name wrong! And got another person instead. But she was so nice, and I visited an American Diner instead. She works there, so if you go to this Diner there will be somebody there unlike most of sl places.

Tilly came to update my house and put in the five special rooms, the one I like the most was the hot tub! So i prefer my house to be a huge hot tub, all I need is a desk and everything is fine. A friend once told me, if she could she would stay her whole days at a sauna - a huge sauna bath house in Karlsruhe, very beautiful indeed - in fact, once I saw it in the Green Peony it immediately reminds me of Karlsruhe. So, I got this dream house...

While I was kicking my feet in the water, I invited some friends, and one of them, bought a Pirate ship, we went over there... ho ho ho... my friend has even a captains costume, which he quickly put on, so happy he was.

He played with the bells and canons, and the ship owner also very amused, she thinks of the furnitures, sun chairs etc. etc. In this excitement, I am happy that they made friends...

Izakay formally closed today, they were doing this little dance around a podium, firework, speech, camera man... since they all had fan-fans, I whipped out my super sensu fan as well, as i waved it here and waved it there, goodbye, friends goodbye.
I took a few pictures and came home to my ice cube lawn chair in front of the twin tower castle.

After all this hassle, suddenly its already six o'clock, so I wonder what a closed Izakaya looks like, when I tried to fly back, to teleport back, impossible... totally inaccessible. That, is what an island is... enclosure, onto oneself.

While I was trying to understand what is an island, I checked out the land exactly and found a neighbouring grid, White Wolf it says, so I teleported there instead, and i thought, i could wing myself over to Isakaya afterwards... but no luck. An island in sl is just that... its a cube, it does not exist beyond the cube. Finito. Whats beyond looks like an ocean but in fact, its a wall. :)

White wolf is interesting, i see that its meant for combat, very ceremonious halls, and very "bloody" smell.

I tried to interview the owners of Izakaya before closing, and they grilled me about who I am - "really" - who am I! worries, foreboding... so I gave him my url, web site, etc. and then, not one peep afterwards. But the one I knew, the one I met almost everyday for the last 6 weeks said to me, that after today, he will be going on vacation for one week in rl. Sounds like relief, out of the prison of this totally hermetic puppet theatre.

When I was at the closing party, one girl said hi to me, she called me by my name.

Wednesday 29 August 2007

Great Happiness

I was visiting a friend, because Five has kindly let me use her new Daisy2 plot as sandbox for a little while. While I was looking for her land, I came across the purple Myst house and the pink Lotus house. E told me that she would get a Lotus and she did. I was very surprised but she has changed, her avatar is a sexy young thing, in a chaise longue, unlike the classic chiffon dress that she always had on. As time went on, I felt that this is really more in line with her spirit, shes spunkier, and just something bouncy in her today.

She took me to see a new Japanese shopping mall, it is not at all the quaint pretty Izakaya or Little Kyoto, or a funky design hip place. Its a corporate backed shopping centre, direct, no non-sense, straight forward boxes and ad publicity panels. We flew there and near the end, we shopped around a bit and said good bye. So I went back to check see if the Lotu house would hold on Daisy2, and E IMed once again, she suddenly said, she bought new land today. This giant size mansion, this American home of the CEO is right there behind me with an American flag. She bought it today.

We visited it inside... a dream come true. She was so happy. Inside it was orderly like a regular huge American house with scissor stairs going up on both sides, like a gone with the wind deal, but contemporary classic.

Large bath rooms, furnitures straight forward, no hidden kinky sex balls in view. There are so many houses in sl that, no matter how big or small, once you get to the bed room there is usually some sex bed, or masturbate shell chairs or something... which makes all these habitats totally unusable for regular purpose - this means jsut sitting quiet and have a place to talk... and always these sex crazed over tones...

But this house is a regular house, no such uncool sex things. As a result you could imagine a lot of events could take place. I think the sex component should be something the avatars buys for themselves and not be embedded in the furnitures. Its much more subtile. Anyway...

E was so happy, it was dream come true for her.
A dream come true. And I was very happy to share this mooment with her.

How often could you really be so excited about getting a huge house like this?
This is a special capacity of sl, a dream come true.

Superjoy, says a friend, like the time when we sat together, 2 human beings (no need to be birds) just ourselves as humans - sitting at the top ledge of a 40 storey high bill board over looking the sea, chatting and drinking, to celebrate the first photo taking session in sl - the joy is real and isnt this magic ?

Tim Horten, Emptiness, Puppetry, Mental Romance, Building fever

Today, I checked out Tim Hortens, as usual nobody there, but I love those camping chairs and so i sat there for a little while. Suddenly i thought, why dont I put my flower house here? Though the Myst Flower House is not in the North American Tim Horten style. Tim Horten is set in a truly Canadian space, vaste, clean air, wide sidewalks with generous lawns. Not all jumbled with shopping centers, or cute details, or a gothic castle right next to your nose.

As I consider all this, I think it is hard to change peoples learned patterns of logics: some places want people to camp and pay people for it - these places think this would increase public flow and augment the "business value"? However, most of sl is empty - whether its beautiful or not so beautiful. What kind of places would intentionally want to keep a place empty? Even a private residence left empty looks sad, doesnt it?

The one place I liked very much will be closing in a couple of days, because it is expensive to keep a team of people who gathers at a tea house artificially to generate an appearance of life, busy, active normal life.

The team was building events for television broadcasting purposes, so its a kind of theatre, a stage setting of a sort, so actually the people we see as clients in sl are - are really marionnettes - their real job is on the keyboard, behind the scenes elsewhere. After Aug, there will be no more marionnette positions, so I talked to some of them, who happens to be around, they are all going to be doing something else - no time to come to sl. Sl presence was a job, and the job is finished. The place suddenly feels abandonned.

Most of sl is empty. Whats most precious in any place is not the building nor the setting up of the "hardware" (scenearios) - its in the software. Both in sl and in rl. Its the people, the brains, the conversation, the ideas, and quality interchanges between people that are rare to have, it takes many many years to cultivate an intelligent context in hope of something original to happen.

We know about Dubai in rl, due to the new money, there are islands created artificially for people to pamper themselves, a lot of sl reminds me of "The World" in Dubai. Except that in rl, the land is better developped, the sun is shinier, and the sea is truly beautiful. In both sl and rl, both suffer from an emptiness. But in sl, when there are no people interaction, what else is there?

When you are sailing, is it the sailing that is fun, or is it the sailing with others that are fun? Why is it, if you dont like the avatars style... you really dont want to "date" them...? Is this sl dating the same as rl dating? :) I mean, if you wont bother in rl to spend time in a particular activity, would you do it in sl? Just because you want to "change and live another life"?

Princeton campus is beautiful, and Princeton is mostly empty. I didnt spend much more than a few seconds... no reason to.

A true experiment would be to create, design, an sl experience that - somehow makes use of sl strength to enable a lasting experience in rl; this would be much more ambitious than the current general uses which are : puppet play, Mental Romance, Cartoon sex, and business in the sl scale.

Stand alone virtual building, creation of virtual objects using existing softwares without sl are equally good - and without the "prim" restrictions - so why do people want to build like crazy in sl? For viewers, spectators? To exist, to have a public presence, to have the possibilities to interact in a public 3D world.

Now, after so much fuss, dont you care if anyone visited? Dont you want your big bang to have a few people in it without having to constantly kick start it with some preprogrammed events?

Sunday 26 August 2007

Swann visits rl flower house

Swann takes a tour in rl, she was in a rural area of France. As Swann and Swannjie drove drives along a little country road, they came across what looked like a yourte.

The top had a transparent sky light and all around roped in - like a Mongolian yourte - but in modern fabrics, with a wooden terrace. As the car sped pass, Swann said to Swannjie, hey, look a yourte...

Swannjie said, oh, yeah? A woman yelled from the yourte, she said, come in come in, please come in...

So Swannjie said ok ok, you want to look at that thing...

Swann jumped out of the car, and the woman invited both in.

Well, it looked pretty much like the Myst flower house, but in a much larger form. Its 72sq meter she said. Five doors, so it opens onto any side, and she could see her garden. It will be a wild flower prairie garden, because all she has to do is to sprinkle seeds in Spring... then she showed us every nook and corners of her house...

jacuzi head shower, rah rah rah. etc etc.

Swannjie says, thats nice. After another 15minutes of Swann going on with the hostess, Swannjie says to the man of the house, we have salmon in the trunk, should hurry back... hmm.

So Swann said good bye to the folks of King Dome. And compares in her mind, the lotus home by Tilly in sl, and the King Dome of Liz in rl... hmmm.

Tuesday 21 August 2007

Humour, beauty, thrills, charm, love

One of the things I like about sl is the humour, beauty, and kooki thrills, charms...so, thats at least 4 things... hmm, and love! Five things. Actually a lot more.

I overheard a public conversation at the Hair camping place that if you need a job in sl, you search under classified - and you could make lindens. So Swann checked that out.

One job she rather liked was being DJ, she checked out the club, very nice, softly built with fun dancing... it was a Lesbian only club. There was a lot more attention to details than the other dancing escort clubs. So the feminine aspect of the design really shows! And they had a freebie room, also very nicely done, you enjoy looking at the merchandise. The merchandise had very helpful advice attached to it - again care and attentiveness. There were a few gals dancing, and Swann was greeted in a friendly way.
Swann has never been DJ before, would her application be accepted?

Another job that was really artistic in a humourous way was being "Living Art" at a Gothic, castle (Kitaro 32, 221,116) You explore a scary huge, giant size mediaeval castle, there are some many red balls on the walls in the castle, if you click on any one of them, you are entrapped in some torture rites - differnt soft tortures - and you get paid for the time you accept to be "Living Art". 1 linden per 6mn of torture.
So, Swann was trapped in a cobweb, frantically fanning herself while these bugs are crawling all over... its really funny. Swann took a souvenir picture of herself.

Then Swann went and took her houses down, because one week of being land owner is enough in sl. A friend has invited her to install permanently at the Club Fabulous Tokyo, Swann chose to plant her flower house behind the bandstand and infront of the White Teddy Bear. To put the "For Sale" sign on the ground, she went to ask help from her Japanese wizard friends, but none of them are interested in this ordinary task - though very important in sl life, you only look around and you will see "For Sale" everywhere. Fancy avatars, lingerie, automobiles, pose balls, entire houses, everything in freebie places, but none in "For Sale" signs.

Finally, a good friend of Swanns - swift and pro - she made up one for Swann, that Swann pasted on a huge ball, and left it on the newbie plot. And a geisha at a teahouse gave Swann a Dragon Bone script to display text to wear above her head, just in case it might be handy.

In newbie land, the neighours put up huge highrises - its a water park with a huge water slide! As they are building quickly, they just pop into your house and check around then, gone. They just flew around without time to say hello! No greetings, no time, and the buildings are 100% ground coverage... zero green spaces, and red lines all around the blocks - very unpleasant - to fly around this community.

While Swannjie jie waited for her Hair - the Wild Plum set - a guy came by and asked about Swanns twin, Swann jie, where is your twin? he asked. Oh, so you noticed - Swannjie jie said. Yes, he is in love with her twin. Why? You have never talked to her? Yes, I did, a little. I fell in love with her, while you two were drinking... one Saturday. Oh, yes, I remember, we were so drunk we kept falling off our camping stools. :) He said, he is arranging his Date Cards. Date Cards? What is that? He send one over immediately, yes, he is looking for a wife/girl friend in sl, though he is married in rl, and in his profile it is stated clearly that, there is little chance of crossing over from sl to rl. But, would Swannjie jie accept a date?

That, is the beginning of Love. LOVE.

Sunday 19 August 2007

Escapists, Money Men/Women, Creators

So I am a land owner, for 4 days now, got the green giant flower house where i could
convene friends etc.

Got my pink flower house, the water front plot, the double prim, the good wonderful friends of all horizons, from all continents... what next... how come, its still ... feels like a cartoon.

I cant help seeing everything as a cartoon figure running around, all the airships, the sky diving, the airplane, the floating islands... they are all ... cartoons!

:)

Saturday 18 August 2007

Tubular House !

Tubular House, Land, Sandbox, 17Aug2007

Secondlife is essentially a 3D website with chat capacities and memories for 3D objects - its the future of the internet.

The people who make real life money in an important way are the ones who provide the storage memory to people who wants an existence in 3D online. That’s the Anshe Chung, and all those other "land barons", they are selling real memory storage space for players - this memory space is presented as "land" where you could construct 3D objects.

Yesterday, I noticed there are land for sale and you dont have to be a premium member, but you must be a newbie under 90 days old.

Because of a Tubular House on pedestal that I saw, I decided to get a plot there at the newbie place with a special promotion, no need to be a premium member.

So, I purchased two plots in secondlife using Linden dollars that I sent my avatars out to from answering trivia quizzes at a hair place – I get fancy hair and social chat with other avatars, one “girl” asked if she were "too young" for me - for me? to do what? to play with her ... to play what? If I want to ask her to do things, no, I dont want to ask her to do things. Would I like to do things she asked, no, I dont want to do things she asked. I dont want to give instructions, and dont like to be instructed to do things either... She sent me a snap shot of a teenage girl, and also flashed me with an exposed bosom picture of the same girl, then she tried to begin sex talk conversation with me. The only such case, the other times, many interesting funny women and sometimes men too. And some people sat at the coffee table just to hang out... its a natural social space. The quizzes were mainly British and American tv shows, movie, general history, general knowledge type of question... and there were lots of questions on Harry Potter - which I bombed on almost everyone of them. There are also errors - answers that were not on the list of the multiple choice. But its a quiet moment and we really feel the ambiance of a gals place. Relaxing gals place.

I am still a non-paying member until I have found exactly the site I want. Don’t want any shopping malls or weirdos next to me, just like in real life.

My neighbour has a fancy house - a Tubular pre-fab special - which i had seen couple of years back when doing research for spaceships. There is only one left in real life, abandonned from the 50s, very beautiful structure - after I asked her where she got it, she told me that if i contact the creator, he will give a copy for free and its true. He did almost within a few hours.

She also invited me to use her own house whenever I like... she’s a member of a flying club, by chance I am also member as I had purchased a hot-air balloon earlier with my first Lindens earned - we do simulated airplane flying.

Anyway in Real Life,
There are University conferences on SecondLife, I think I will prepare a paper on this topic.
Sl is much more than an online game for me... if it only exists as a game, with pre-determined rules, narrations etc, without any critical points crossing over in real life, it would soon get tiresome because I hate reading computer game rules... in the far away land of Cococosmo, rah rah rah, I soon fall asleep. Sl is open ended.

Secondlife is a 3D web site, an internet environment for self-expression.

You could play dress up, chat - seeing the taste of the other person because they have to dress their avatars up... if you are lazy, your avatar looks – well, like an unformed mass of brown beige plasticine with funny walk. So people fuss with their skin, hair, clothes, sexy walks… even guys! Yes, guys could play “doll” here.

Strange thing is that most avatars have a specific face... thuggies look like thugs, glam man looks like glam man, escort gal has to dress the part with sexy clothing, etc. You would think people take the sl occasion to be someone else - but maybe in the end, it might be an embellished version of themselves, but cant get too far.

A young geeky guy would never drape themselves in diamond chains etc. They will choose cool waist hip pouches, funky boots etc. Young guys will choose a young avatar... etc. , because that’s what they know best.

:)

Somebody is irritated that Swann is exploring sl so much... he’s trying to get my attention.

Wednesday 15 August 2007

Flower house

I looked outside today, and the Flower House has been returned to my inventory.
So I rezzed it again.

No only was I able to rezz it, I could also rezz the koto instrument - which is a high density prim object.
Wow.

I enjoy being inside the Flower House, so I let my avatar lie on the bed, cushy cushy and continue on with my other work. Had some coffee, cake rah rah rah, when I came back, I saw another person very close to me... this person is inside my Flower House!

She is sitting on the couch, in a purple white kimono with plum blossoms and snow flakes gently encircling her, in waves, falling around her non stop like a perfume.

She sits as if shes at her home...!

We started a conversation in the most easy, familiar manner. A viola musician she said her father enjoys sl even more than her. Her father is a German professor.

I took out the koto and had it played... oh, this is the ambiance that we both enjoyed! So quiet and soft, warm, veiled in pink petals and not behind hard cold surfaces. What a moment.

My avatar Swann bb lying in the day bed with one round plump pillow sheathed in summery small floral bed sheets, she looks pampered and deserves it, yummy time. I feel just like her! :)

My feminity without too much sweetness, just fresh and cool - now, who designed this jewel of lightness and grace? TigerLilly Plisskin, and the name of the flower house - Myst-Flower.

Well, what do you know, I went on writing here, and next moment I looked, three more girls are here, they are all sitting on the couch, looking at me...

hahahaha. More visitors... a real gals boudoir...

Landmark, female hero avatar, flower house

Yesterday was a very exciting day, that I didnt have time to blog... and still no time to put pic up today... please use your imagination... :)

Because of the Dame de Canton project, I blew up the plan for my friend "Spirited Dog" and put it in www.xanga.com/Swann_bb, as a reference for his Chinese ship building project. Then he showed me his current work, the head quarters for FBI; what a jump, from Imperial Emporers Hunting Chair to... interrogative woodened bench of a court house. Anyway they were very well made.

"Spirited Dog" was nude upper torso and in funky warrior pants... hmm, that looks like a female dog to me... I see brioche like breasts! I questioned him twice during our meeting, whether this was a normal attire costume for a "Spirited Dog", but got no straight answers.

We played the piano, the koto, the drums on this airy nice terrace - Taka Teatime, the Club Fabulous Tokyo owner had a full band stand of instruments we could all play and have fun... anybody could, no alarming red lines across his property! Thats the beauty of secondlife, since nothing could be damaged unlike rl, why all these mean spirited red lines all over the place? If its to create mystery to enhance a place, it would not work if there is zero openings. And if there are any openings at all and if you knew how to handle a camera, you would be able to roam around inside and see everything anyway... hahahahahahh

While "Spirited Dog" advised me on whats needed to make a stringed instrument - a Digital Guqin based on my real Half HunDun Guqin in rl - an elegant lady in black chiffon evening gown with white upper translucide boundice flew in and she was Japanese. Unlike a lot of Japanese avatars I met in sl, she spoke readily and in a very fluent English... she showed me her land because she has too much and doesnt know what to do with it yet.
She showed me a beautiful Lotus/Rose Myst Flower - I had seen it many times flying by, and thought it was a pop Buddhist icon - meditation is popular in sl - but no. This is a dream house - we all know about Tree Houses in rl and sl, but here, a flower house! Not yet in rl, but in sl... I liked the design and everything inside.

So I got myself one, and planted it temporarily on Taka Teatimes boardwalk leading to his club. I can put it back in my pocket anytime. In rl, the Ancient Taoist talked about putting the world in a magical hulu gourd which is the size of a bottle of cognac, well, everyone in sl has his Inventory, thats our present day hulu. Dream come true! and so easily visible and sharable.

Then I thought, a flower house doesnt take much room, why dont I just buy a small piece of land - and plant a flower. In anycase, I was thinking of buying land to make a bamboo garden to set up a Qin playing Chinese garden...a flower is good! So as I scouted around and found 2 little plots.

Haha, now I have a landmarked address.

I will tell you where it is in due time.

Oh, the female hero avatar, I also met a couple of Japanese at Nagano Castle, he has a shop in Motomachi - said he creates heros, Batman, superman, robotic guys - and gives them free to people for fun. So I said, how about Chairman Mao? "What?" he was puzzled. I said Chairman Mao is a hero... everybody knows him. Then after a while - through translation of Babbler - he said, oh, he only makes Marvel comic heros, oh. Then I said I like elastic man - actually i was thinking of the elastic gal in The Incredibles - the other Japanese gal said she likes Storm. So we convinced him to next make a female hero. He said he would do it without fail. We drank champagne to celebrate this decision.

When its done, I will present him in this blog with a formal write up.

Arent you bored with my details? I am only writing it for myself...

Purchased today: ice cube armchair, flower house, 1 small parcel of land

Monday 13 August 2007

Koto, Little Kyoto, SushiMetals sushi shop under waterr

Today, I visited once again the various usual spots to see whats going on, and I showed Five the Izakaya place and ended up... great chance! Meeting the one who knows where to get the koto!

I quickly get myself teleported thanks to Ken, and voila, voila, the Qin in plain Chinese character - koto - all ready to go. I paid immediately and took it back to the sandbox and played with it.

To my delight, the designer/creator/scripter, Mr.Rumi has left us an option of putting our own music on it!!!!
I feel so lucky - I could put my Digital Guqin music on it!

Now, all I have to do is to re-design the object itself... shouldnt be THAT hard, should it...?

I also did some craft work - I made my own paper umbrella at Little Kyoto, and its ready to go in 2mn, a beautiful paper umbrella just like my rl parasol (only the one I have is a giant size one for outdoor picnic etc)

Hmmm, happy day today.

I will upload my pictures soon.

SushiMetal is a Japanese guy, fun guy he owns a Sushi shop and its got a large clean room with Botticelli Venus on the wall alongside some child-like spray paint graffiti mounted on canvas. Very chic place when I visited last time, today, hooo hooo, its filled with water... a sushi shop thats in a thigh deep pool... but we are in sl, no damage done, just more splashy fun and I recall this incident in rl, some German friends who are crazy about nudism, they carried a public picnic table into the edge of a lake and had lunch there... so they ate lunch sitting directly in the water with the picnic bench under water - and the table surface above water - as if its floating...

Isnt this great?

Dame de Canton :: a Chinese ship 1979 :: rl -> sl

sl :: Camping, People Qi, Chairs, Dragon Bone Pavilion, InuYasha Meiji, Japanese Castle
rl :: Dame de Canton

In sl, people get paid for "camping" - camping transforms human presence into little green dots on the Map, what the Chinese call "People Qi" - a place must have People Qi. A lot of sl places - no matter how beautiful - are just a little weak in PQ, not enough PQ kills everything in the end; both sl and rl.

People are more likely to teleport to a place with swarming green dots - check it out at least.

So, what makes life in a place ? People!
People cant be standing or flying all the time, we would be mentally exhausted!
Need at the minimum a few comfy chairs, or some pleasant sitting places, mobile or fixed.
A newbie friend IM (instant messaged) to me, that she didnt know how to sit in sl, and had been in the game for two days, never sat down at all... a tearful voice.

I decided to first get some beautiful chairs for my sl life.
Why should we have ugly things in sl when you could have beautiful things?

So, I searched for some Chinese chairs and found one in Dragon Bone pavilion. The pavilion is small KungFu warlord den like place, in the centre is placed a red folding safari chair - for hunting expeditions - conquerors for the ancient Chinese explorers.

I contacted the creator, Mr. InuYasha Meiji, who had carefully put together a Chinese chair based on an original in rl, which was a gift from China to Japan, very beautiful. Mr.Meiji puts this chair and many other historically correct furnishings into a Japanese castle. The land is a little tight for this beauty, but we are in sl, and thats what sl is like.. you could find a shopping mall right next door no problem. I kind of like this jumble of surprises, at the same time I know some creations could be ruined by lawlessness too... well take the good with the bad... :) at least, for now.

His next dream project is to build a Chinese Junk ship...these exotic immobile sailboats that we see in sl now and then. But he wants his to be based on bona fide ships - one that could sail really.

So bingo, it so happens that I have a copy of the plans of the famous Dame de Canton, project of a team of young French dreamers in 1979 who had commissioned such a boat, sailed the slow way from China and arrived along the river Seine - where I had the luck to visit the inside.

I quickly scanned the plan for him...

rl + sl => dream come true.