John Thompson : on DGM

Shuen-Git

The two main reasons I find the Second Life Virtual Guqin Museum
interesting is that it brings the guqin before a new group of people,
and it allows the presentation of the music within a context that can
in some ways evoke aspects of the guqin tradition better than the
standard performance environment can. Although when well played guqin
music is very beautiful, by tradition it is not so much a performance
instrument as an instrument for self-cultivation or meditation. In
landscape painting it is commonly depicted played in the countryside,
and yet from a musical standpoint such an environment is often
unsatisfactory (waterfalls are too loud, modern sounds intrude, there
may not be an appropriate place to sit or on which to place the
instrument, and so forth). However, such an idealized environment can
be evoked and perhaps more readily controlled in cyberspace. Another
ideal environment is said to the an "elegant gathering" involving
other literati arts such as painting, calligraphy and refined
conversation. Again, such an environment can also be created in
cyberspace through the addition of appropriate imagery and
participation of invited guests. The totality of the guqin makes it
very much a multi media instrument by nature. When fully devoloped the
Second Life Museum has the potential of bringing this all together.

John Thompson
13Feb 2009
www.silkqin.com

Guqin and Hanfu revival, costume ?

A guqin yaji meeting in Cham Shan Temple, Toronto, 20june09, Guqin group, photo by: Juni Yeungs ; posted on facebook. The event is an open invitation, so I hope she doesnt mind my posting it here for the rest of us to see.

The young man on the right is wearing a HanFu robe. As this is a very recent event, we do see a revival of the costume of Han for Yaji gatherings.

There are 8 groups on facebooks dedicated to the study and playing of/with Hanfu.

Guqin International Society, Vulgar Ideas

screenshot of Guqin International society on Facebook - a rich mix of people on guqin music and culture, creator: Juni L Yeung

screenshot of Vulgar Ideas on Facebook - a new turn on guqin music and culture, creator: Stephan Walker

arts birthday 2008

screenshot

sl Hundun + rl Half Hundun

sl Hundun and rl Half Hundun

back side of sl Hundun

back side of sl Hundun and sl avatar

Huahui cube

billboard HuaHui cubes

Tea and Strychnine

Tea and Strychnine; a stylised shop, ambiance also good for playing guqin.

DGM yaji venue, Tukiyo's Moonlit Hotel based on rl Hotel for G8 summit

DGM castle yaji venue, castle renovation/installation



Tukiyo puts up my poster at her 5* Moonlit hotel where there was a G8 summit in rl.

Fresh Fruit, Mary Leung, Ajax Life sl light viewer, one couchsurfers philosophy, HuaHui cube

HuaHui cubes today. Aquito said, he will ask some Spanish friends and his Peppermint sim owner friend to see if we shouldnt put some advertisement so people know about the HuaHui House project.

In fact, I treasure all the cubes that has arrived. All special in their own way. Each one shows the makers personal touch.



After all these years, I just noticed that the tree outside my window gives little red plums! Fresh, delicious, quietly falling on the ground all this time... for so long!

Ajax life, a viewer thats light for not so powerful PCs


H BB told me the story of her aunt - Mary Leung - uncle, her whole family story; so amazing I had no idea, that people I had wanted to meet was so closely related, it takes much less than 6 degree of separation

Mary's - voice, wow.

one couchsurfers philosophy a German guy, from YuenLong (HK)

/ Its nice to be important but its more important to be nice
/ Sei freundlich und bescheiden dann kann Dich jeder leiden
/ Lieber dicht als nicht

He must be a nice guy, this makes him... important in the world.
We need kind people to make the world a better place.

life drawing classes

Such a pleasure to see Life Drawing classes promoted in an accessible way.

I taught life drawing for 4 years at a University and am very happy to see the students discovered that they could draw.

Life drawing is the basis of visual art : observation, color, movement, proportion, form, feelings; also if the drawer is very engaged in their activity they could simulate the physical weight and responses of the pose of the model; at the very minimal level, its a test of courage and freedom. Some students were afraid to put down "a wrong stroke". And as the drawing progresses, often the picture loses the freshness, the challenge would then be, how do you resussitate a fading, losing breath picture? You would have to re-consolidate the overall scheme of things and re-map the important structures over the old; a "renovation" of the existing state of things.

In the 80s it was popular to say "I dont know how to draw" its the "idea and concept" that counts. Just like writing, people think they could do "automatic writing" without learning the basis of writing itself.

And here we are, once again, Life Drawing, and Good Writing.

Take a look at Secondlife, which SIMs are more interesting than others?
The high quality SIMs are much more memorable than the "idea" sim without skills.
In a high quality SIM, the textures, colors, proportions, spaces, sound, all combine to make a memorable experience.
Without foundations of color, proportion, movements where would we be?

tambourine solo

tambourine solo