Turned

Vampires love knitted jumpers. Didn't you know?

sian pearl teleported to my skybox yesterday and found me on the roof, taking photos of Kitti posed with crystal tears and pointed white teeth. She said, 'Kitti has been a Creature of the Night a lot lately. Has she been Turned?' 'No,' I replied. 'Kitti is everything and nothing.' 

And then I giggled to myself (as I do) because I felt a little bit like Kohta Hirano's Warrant Officer Schroedinger, who likes to state often, courtesy of his maker's sense of humour, that he is 'everywhere and nowhere'.

I couldn't find any 'about' links that didn't lead to massive Hellsing spoilers, so I'm settling for this picture of him. Google his name at your own risk.

It's that line again, though, isn't it? - the making and breaking of Second Life, the reason to sign up and the reason never to sign in ever again. An avatar has the capacity to be everything and anything, but also to be absolutely nothing. Not everybody sees nothingness as a positive, nor as an opportunity. Freedom isn't necessarily the absence of all rules, regulations and obligations, but instead the ability to have decisions to make, and to make them for yourself. In nothingness, decisions have questionable use and importance, and if we cannot find a use or importance within ourselves, we flounder. I have said this a thousand times here, although I think that might be the most succinctly I have ever written it out.

It was kind of funny that sian made this observation, however, since all I think Kitti has consistently been lately is half-naked, and a little bit, well...of a fairy. This is new for me, as a lover of fantasy, because fairies have never been a creature I was especially interested in. And let's be fair here, Kitti doesn't look like the sort of fairy who is going to go around sprinkling magical dust or making flowers bloom, or collecting teeth - unless she'd knocked them out in the first place.

Mean Mischief

The naked-and-fey thing is courtesy of Monica Outlander and her BlackLabel collection. I haven't stopped wearing it for any real length of time since the Golden Thread show two weeks ago. It isn't that Kitti doesn't have other beautiful clothes - because she does - but I just keep switching back to the Miamai outfits. I'm addicted. And Monica Outlander is not a fan of t-shirts. We'll have the self-confidence conversation later.

I like the opportunity to play with Kitti's appearance, to dress her up sometimes as a vampire or a mean-looking fairy or anything else I can imagine. There are a few basic elements that I like to keep the same - her face and body shape, her hair colour (between two shades), her eye colour, etc - but everything else is up for grabs. And I enjoy that I can do it with such ease, and that the consequences of each change can be as significant or insignificant as I allow them to be. I am a whimsical shaper of nothingness. Let's go and play.

And on the subject of playing, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and I hope that the new year brings you what you need to (or to continue to) be happy. I will see you on the other side of the sea of wrapping paper.

Bathed in Quicklime: a Ramble along the Golden Thread

quicklime

The Golden Thread appears to have been a great success. It sold out, so to speak, with audience members queuing for over an hour to get in and those that couldn't hopped on to the livestream to view it there. Since then, MIAMAI's BlackLabel Golden Thread Collection has appeared all over Flickr, and two trailer-style videos have been made of the event (links at the end). The venue itself is to remain open until the end of the month, so those who didn't manage to make it there in the flesh, so to speak, have chance to see it for the first time, and audience members a second. I promise that it's worth it.

I don't want a write a huge review here: it's already been done, and I find that often, after being in a show, it's difficult to write about it. Not because there's nothing to be said, but because there is so much to be said, and no real way to say it all. To speak only half of it would feel like a betrayal. What I want to do is write a summary here - a conclusion, if you will - that might go some way to explaining what this virtual performance was like to both SL and non-SL users alike.

The Golden Thread: on the floor at the MIAMAI store

The Golden Thread is an avant-garde fashion collection released by MIAMAI under their BlackLabel. Instead of releasing the collection with a 'normal' fashion show, CEO Monica Outlander organised what can only be described, kind of lamely, as an art event. She commissioned work to be produced by four groups - two dance groups, one acting troupe, and then sian and I - and built a vehicle that would transport the audience members from one performance to another. All of four took place on individual stages within a (purpose-built) dark and winding forest. There were lights, music, a very gracious host to explain what was going on, and, of course, the clothes themselves. Everything worn by the performers and the models is being sold in the MIAMAI store, and the forest is also dotted with associated artwork, some of which is now for sale. Information about all of the performers has been put into notecards and made available to those who wander the venue. 

The sheer amount of work and effort that went into the creation of this concept and this production is insane. 

Knowing I wouldn't have too much to do during the performance itself, I set myself up to take lots of photos of the event. However, it didn't end up being that way, and as a result, I only managed to snap one quick picture of Kitti before the show began. For no reason I can fathom, Monica asked me if I could mind operating the vehicle the audience travelled about on (doesn't she know I am still having driving lessons?! :P) and that took all of my concentration. All of the pictures used in this post where taken after the event, at the venue.

MIAMAI is, I think it's fair to say, a fashion giant if such a thing exists in SL. Mesh has come such a long way since I first blogged about it - and I was slow to the mesh party - but the new collection is just something else. The cut and texture of everything Monica has made are just incredible. You can genuinely almost reach out and feel them with your fingertips. My photos here don't do them justice. I can assure you that more will follow because I don't think I'm going to be wearing anything but the BlackLabel for a long time yet. This collection is a game-changer, I think, and it will be interesting to see if and how other fashion designers respond.

shadow cousins; Kitti and sian in costume

What was so remarkably unremarkable was that, come the day of the performance, working on this show in SL became exactly like working on a show in the real world - in my experience, anyway. The day began with panic as someone was sick and a script needed finishing. Then nobody turned up to the dress rehearsal, and not everybody received the message containing the time we were requested to arrive at the venue to set up. During the final show (we performed three consecutive shows), we had technology troubles and our wonderful host was forced to improvise off-script and keep the audience happy for a full ten minutes at least whilst we got it up and running again. I was interested to see how performing in Second Life might differ from performing in real life, and honestly, I think it's pretty similar.

Obviously, it was also completely different in a million ways, too. I could argue about physicality, and I didn't get the same kind of nervous shakes that I get every time I go on stage in real life. I could also talk about language barriers, and how this performance had much more of a global reach than anything IRL is likely to have without a physical tour. There is, too, the fact that I could leave my body standing on the stage beside sian, costumed and ready to perform, but have my screen focusing on the vehicle moving the audience around. I couldn't have been in two places at once IRL, although such a feat is often called for back-stage at a show on opening night. Let's not forget the danger with so many people occupying one small space that any one of us could have crashed at any time, effectively vanishing from the performance space and the entire world at any given point during the show. 

But for all intents and purposes, what happened and what went wrong and what went right and the general atmosphere was a very similar to my experiences of putting on a show in real life.

And, as I have said, it appears to have been a great success. It was really fantastic to meet Monica, and then to meet so many of the MIAMAI staff and models, and meeting other performers, particularly those who are professional SL dancers - doesn't that raise a lot of questions?! -, is always interesting. 

And I only swore at someone once. That's probably a record for me...so maybe performing online isn't like performing IRL after all ;).

Promised and related links: a video by Thalia Heckroth / a video by Forren Ashford / MIAMAI Pool on Flickr / the MIAMAI store (SL viewer required) / the MIAMAI performance venue (SL viewer required) / see all the photos from this post, with more to come, on my Flickr here /

The Golden Thread

Hey - I'm back from the United States! After two severe winter weather warnings, rain that freezes upon impact with the ground, a metric fuck-ton of orange de-icer, and an aeroplane hit by lightning as it came into land in North Carolina, I somehow managed to make it back to England (four hours later than I was supposed to, but still). 

Just in time for this little no-longer-secret event at which I am appearing:

TONIGHT - see on Miamai's flickr stream here - here!

Because of my holiday, sian and I were unable to make the performance we might originally have wanted to, but what we have created instead is, I think, definitely worth experiencing (that's as close to blowing my own trumpet as I am going to get). It is only the third short story I have ever finished writing, and sian and I have worked on it (and worked on it) to make sure it's the best it can be. sian will be performing it live in voice - and she reads wonderfully. This is so much more than a (fantastic) fashion show. We really hope to see you there.

If my writing today isn't fantastic, blame jetlag. I lost six hours of life in turbulence somewhere over the Atlantic. It seems bizarrely appropriate to have stepped from the snowy forests of North-West Arkansas into the darkly beautifully forests of the Miamai show venue. You're really in for a treat.

Without further ado - the press release:

_________________________________________

MIAMAI

BlackLabel

...            The Golden Thread        ....

An Epiphany in Four Parts

The creatives of MIAMAI have gathered together for the fourth year of their triumphant Black Label series of fashion events. Join us as the year closes and wind your way into the forests of the night. Come, follow the Golden Thread on a journey that will take you to the heart of life and love.

______________________________________________

December 7th, 2013

   1st public show:  1.15 pm - 2.15 pm SLT

   2nd public show:  2.30 pm - 3.30 pm SLT

Location: SLURL

______________________________________________

  

Every attendant will be required to wear a mandatory outfit that will be provided upon reaching the event location.

Due to the nature of the event, the spots on the sim for each show are very limited ; however, we are providing different means to follow the show for those who can't get in:

. Livestream, to follow the event starting from 12pm SLT
. Live blogging on Plurk:
  http://www.plurk.com/MiamaiSL
. Live blogging on Facebook:
  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Miamai/309836555791103
After the event, the venue will be open to the visitors for a month.

______________________________________________

With the participation of:
  . Aesthetica
  . A:S:S
  . ContraptioN
  . Metatheodora
  . PXL Creations
  . Slouch Poses
  . Wasabi Pills

__________________________________________________

 
Performers:
  . The Basilique Performing Arts Company
  . sian pearl + Kitti Wytchwood
  . Spirit Light Dance Company
  . ChangHigh Trinity Sisters

___________________________________________________

 
Visual Artists:
"The Golden Thread":
  Aemeth Lysette
  Clem Velinov
  Ganymede Galaxy
 
"Anima"
  Dita Actor  
  Kynne Llewellyn
"A Story Of Details"
  Absinthe
  Anna Sapphire
  Calima Dufaux
  Carthalis Rossini
  Chii Kimagawa
  Dagmar Haiku
  Eve kazan
  Grazia Horwitz
  Harper Beresford
  Katime Vacano
  Lada Leeroy
  Nadja Baxter
  Petra Messioptra
  Saleena Hax
  Shae Sixpence
  Shortcake Sugarplum
  Tania Tebaldi
Machinima: Forren Ashford, Thalia Heckroth
 

__________________________________________________________

 
Sponsors:
VVON VOICIC™ ; Production House, Studio, Copy, Exhibit est. 2013
The Magazine
DavidThomas Scorbal Scripts

__________________________________________________________

Credits:
CONCEPT: Monica Outlander
DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING: Faust Steamer, Pill Kanto
BLACKLABEL MODELS: Amita Yorcliffe, Anna Sapphire, AnnaG Pfeffer, Caoimhe Lionheart, Carley Benazzi, Dragonia DeCuir, Tania Tebaldi, Zaara123
BLACKLABEL MANAGEMENT: Grazia Horwitz, LaurelRose Anthony,Magenta DeVinna, Shae Sixpence, Shiloh Fouroux, Winter Jefferson