Thursday, September 22, 2016

SafariMania

          So, this season of the Safari, we are going to be promoting builds with some kind of - let's not call it educational benefit, that sounds too dry, but the idea is that we all come away from our tour feeling like we now know something we didn't know before. First up, Anachronia sim on the German language grid, Dorena's World.
          HG Addresses at the end of the post, as usual.
          Dorena and Anachron, the grid-mama and grid-papa were there, along with other residents like Uwe Furst, Lureen Persephone, and the lovely builder and creator Klarabella Karamell, an authentic opensim heroine. We first sat down which really helped with the lag that comes when a region is bombarded with a dozen or more avatars arriving from multiple grids.

Dorena Verne: Welcome to Anachronia. This region is more than 6 years old. This is the second region we set up on this grid.
Anachron Young Thirza told me that you might be interested in Egyptian History ... that's why I thought we start up here ... for above us is a pyramid that contains history Info (unfortunately in German only)if you look out of the windows here you will see 4 glowing yellow lines ...these symbolize the RL-size of Cheops-Pyramid in Giza, the building below is an exhibition of human megalomania ... so I thought I better make it BIG <grin> Does everybody know what happened to the nose of the sphinx ?
Don Smith: erosion?
Thirza Ember: I heard Mal Burns was involved. Just saying.
snowbody Cortes: ehm I think yes...soldiers?
Mal Burns: pft!
https://gyazo.com/21c162f877c95f4a87875e996cc756eb
Anachron Young: Well it was neither Obelix nor the troops of Napoleon that broke of the nose. It was Sa'im as-Dahr - a Sufi monument hater ... that considered the Sphinx a heathen symbol and cut off the nose ... before he was then lynched by the mob in 1378
Thirza Ember: still, let's blame the french. or Mal.
Aime Socrates: this time was not the frenchies thi
Don Smith: i'll never understand how anyone can simply destroy ancient artifacts or builds and think its ok.
snowbody Cortes: yeah Don ... but it happens nowadays
Mal Burns: taliban - grr
Don Smith: sadly very true
           At ground level, enjoy the exhibition on Megalomania, which was inspired by pictures of the tower of Babel.
Thirza Ember: I think anyone in opensim has to have a little bit of megalomania... just enough to be brave enough to try building a world of one's own.
Lucy Afarensis: I can move mountains!

Anachron Young: You may notice that there are still displays empty (covered only by the building grid) ...that means I never got this finished! I guess I will add Displays about "Stuttgart 21" and the Airport BER next (which seems never to get finished as well LOL
          We moved on to the Irish pub, named after world-class darts player Trina Gulliver, and asked when is the best time to visit and meet people on Dorena's world
Anachron Young: Every Friday evening, in the Rock-house, and every Thursday is a party at the Club-gridTalk. Tomorrow DJ Keule (Uwe Furse) will give his Debut performance, we usually announce our events on http://gridtalk.de

          Our second destination was on a tiny grid built for an interesting experiment. It is a crazy, warm, confusing place, with various platforms and places to hang out. If you think you'e seeing double, two avies both called Maras Sa, then don't worry - that's what the DualCorps project is all about! The EuniceVSG non profit is associated with a number of big-name French universities, the two 'authors' - performers, participants, residents, whoever you want to call them, are Claire Sistach and Soizic Sanson. Here's the english page of their website, including the project summary, but we got Praline B to explain what is going on here also.
https://gyazo.com/ba4acd6cbdf563b83cd71f3079585079
Praline B: The two authors will only be living through the virtual world during two complete weeks (each day and without any other activity). They will only use their avatars to communicate, all others ways of communications will be cut and their living environment is limited to a closed apartment for each of them. All the things which happen here, they know. This is a special software, in this way they are two but one at the same time.
James Atlloud: I'm ... amazed.
         The two participants pass the day dealing with this strange environment, 24/7... they're here talking, building, (including a whole range of labyrinths, like this one) and entertaining visitors, living ...and loving.
Praline B: that is the best thing to fill a day ;)) they are like two brains very close
Chip Angelvi: 2 cerveaux egale une noix
Praline B: ahahha, chip is not a serious guy, two brains equal one nut
Thirza Ember: sounds like the first days for most of us in Second Life
Praline B: yes but the difference is that their only contact with exterior is here , inworld, its very immersive, you may have an eye on them here http://eunicevsg.org/retransmission/  The two brains have a personal diary, and they have to answer few questions each day, but at the end of the experimentation, they will put some data online.
https://gyazo.com/8b714db2dbee9213089f131534a4c41b              The retransmission web page uses a Unity Web Player that won't open in Chrome, but if you have Firefox or Explorer, you can watch and hear the two hearts beating. 
Praline B: its a very intimate experiment and at the same time very public
Maras Sa: yes it's quite strange
Cherry Manga: first reality tv in opensim :))
Maras Sa: :-D
Lucy Afarensis: this is getting deep
Thirza Ember: that's kind of cool to be in a virtual reality show
Praline B: You are hearing the real beat of their hearts online, all is in real time
Cherry Manga: wow ça devient super intime, vos coeurs font une jolie mélodie, c'est magique
Praline B: so the red cloudy dot is the connected heart. Its really beautiful this way to show your presence, you are alive infact ! 
Maras Sa: yes we are !
Maras Sa: il faut me faire peur, les fetes d'avatar font accélérer mon rythme cardiaque ;)
Praline B: So keep this url, http://eunicevsg.org/retransmission even you are not online you may have a look at the two brains in activity, they will calm you with their beats, it's very zen 
snowbody Cortes: zennnn
Maras Sa: moi c'est l'inverse, ça les calme
          Jumping around the region was confusing, and yet there was little or no lag, which is impressive. We found our way to the glowing castle, and hit the dance floor, with its many cat-related poses. 
Wizardoz Chrome: I saw you a few days ago, your appearance has changed now you have the tail ..as you decide which changes to make?
Praline B: these are compromises
https://gyazo.com/cb209960cb77bf83130d26f63416534bMaras Sa: for the appearence, it is a negotiation but this happens quite naturally
Praline B: one does and the other say yes or no
Maras Sa: il n'y a pas eu de conflit pour le moment
Praline B: no conflict for now
Maras Sa: plus des surprises je dirai
Praline B: they have surprises ;) more than conflict     
          The experiment is set to last two weeks, and are already five days into the experiment, so there is plenty of time left for you to go over and meet them, or watch their hearbeats on the link. I reccomment the TinTin danceball.
  https://gyazo.com/3343d8e72bdb89ced94765c4c6825a58      Our final destination, on Kitely, was with Graham Mills, a talented builder, educator, and story-teller. Named, Age of Steam, the build celebrates the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company  
https://gyazo.com/ba6eb44f10156f06ae1d62ce4422dae4

Graham Mills: this is a recreation of the world's first railway station 
Don Smith: Nicely done Graham, i was here recently, loved it
Graham.Mills: opened in 1830 and closed in 1836 because it was too small, all before photography, so just paintings and sketches to go from. The opening day was 15th Sept, there were 750 guests, amazingly complex to organise; the army must have helped, Wellington was guest of honour, he was Prime Minister at the time and rather unpopular he got a particularly rough time at the other end of the line, Manchester, 30 miles away, a lot of folk didn't want the railways either as they thought it would ruin the nvironment and put poeople out of a job, which was true in part.
Serene Jewell: Darn railway/automobile/internet/cellphones.... 
 Praline B: wow this build is awesome and all in prims
Graham Mills: normally 4 horse-drawn omnibusses would bring 1st class passengers here, you had to book the day before, on the opening ceremony they came in their own carriages -- there was a one-way system outside. The railway carriages were incredibly tightly packed, 26 was a typical number
Serene.Jewell: Pretty crowded
Graham Mills: most were 4-5 coaches on opening day, yellow were first class, blue second class
Serene Jewell: Let the random sitting on things begin!
Graham.Mills: all sorts of ways to make second class passengers miserable, not least Embers from the firebox, lol many complaints of damage to clothing at the front is a pilot wagon, this was used for brakes
Thirza Ember: some scary umbrella accidents too i bet
Serene Jewell: Lots of stepping on dresses I'm sure.
Graham Mills: the dresses were huge in those days major issues getting into carriages, but folk were used to stagecoaches,  so nobody thought proper platforms necessary. This is the first ever railway shed and incidentally platform, although it was poorly designed as the pillars sometimes meant you couldn't open the doors
Serene Jewell: I need a ticket!
Kurtis Anatine: That will be 1 shilling please
Graham Mills: this was the train used by the Duke, the VIPs and the Directors of the company, it started in the tunnel and they pushed it out -- nice theatrical effect, gasps from the audience, three bands are playing, the Duke arrives. Thousands of people around cheering. He waves to everyone. He's dressed in black but has a sensible thick cloak on (the King had just died)... Notice anything?
Graham Mills: No engines!! They made the tunnel too small!
snowbody Cortes: wow!
Thirza Ember: that is hilarious
Praline B: yes lol
Graham Mills: but there was a slope anyway so they couldn't use engines (which liked it flat) so they ran the carriages down by gravity and up by rope or donkeys, so to get started the staff would push the train - technical, eh?
          We walked through the dark tunnel to the next station Edge Hill, which is where they coupled trains, the dark interior made us al think about how much soot people must have breathed in back then.
Kurtis Anatine: this is where coal lung came from right?
Serene Jewell: What are the barrels for?
Kurtis Anatine: i think its for water isnt it?
Graham Mills: This is where they coupled up the locomotives, the barrels are for water -- to make the steam - easy to forget they needed water, but they were on the outside of town - no mains water, so they pumped their own. The arch above me has stationary engines, one in each tower; they powered the rope for hauling the trains, and pumped the water, the arch was a signature build, but cleverly hid all the techie stuff :)
Serene Jewell: People are ingenious.
Praline B: coming from indian architecture?
Graham Mills: yes -- asian, unusual as most was neo-classical, ie Greek
Praline B: ok ;)
Thirza Ember: people must have thought they were living at the end of one age and the beginning of another.. like the Moon landing... life would never be the same
Graham Mills:it was a momentous step -- travel had never been so fast they moved vast quantities of coal, and fresh food; cities and factories became possible, one end of the country was soon connected to the other - railwaymania began
Serene Jewell: So many people that had only known there one small area would be changed by traveling on railways.
Praline B: yes, a real step , revolution, how exciting it was at this time!
Thirza Ember: what got you interested in this station and event?
Graham.Mills: um, I work on Crown Street. Never knew it had such a pivotal role. Decided it was a good subject for a build,  it's a public park now, so i can do mixed reality.
Praline B: Really interesting build Graham, I very glad to revisit this part of the steam history! This build is really realistic,
Serene.Jewell: So, someday people can take their iphone and see what the park used to look like by viewing your recreation, Graham.
Graham.Mills: yes, Serene, it's easy enough to capture panoramas already, RL to Opensim to AR To RL, that's the idea, connect ppl to their heritage, release an OAR, let them work with it.
Praline B: that works fine Graham ;))
snowbody Cortes: super
Graham Mills: trying to get cultural and historical organisations interested at city level, some progress - I would, of course, like to get the trains running, maybe next 15th Sept
Thirza Ember: that would be wonderful also, but they tell a story here in the statio that is very interesting
 snowbody Cortes: it seems all alive
Graham Mills: well, as you may know, the opening ceremony was a disaster after the triumphal departure - the local Member of Parliament was killed, run over by a loco, so a very gloomy return!
Serene Jewell: Saving the gruesome bit for last, Graham? :-)
Graham Mills: very hostile crowd at Manchester- Hasty return - engine failures, engines in the wrong place, 3 engines ended up pulling 24 carriages -- very slowly, but the next day they ran an excursion and the day after that opened for business and never looked back!
HG Addresses
The Pyramid and Megalomania exhibit on Anachronia  dorenas-world.de:8002:anachronia 
The DualCorps project (open for the next 10 days) vr.t-data.com:9000
Age of Steam by Graham Mills  grid.kitely.com:8002:age of steam

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