A full 500MB version with uninterrupted play will be linked from here soon.

The Cybernetics Arts Research Project - SECOND LIFE - THE WALL V-2

Performed live in front of a audience at the New Media Consortium West sim in Second Life.

• Creative Director: DEBBIE TRILLING
• Producer: VELAZQUEZ BONETTO
• A JustVirtual Film - Machinimatography & Editing: GARY HAZLITT

THE FULL 44 MINUTE EXPERIENCE EMBEDDED AS A YOUTUBE PLAYLIST BELOW - ENJOY.

Features songs: In the Flesh, The Thin Ice, Mother, Young Lust, One of My Turns, The Trial, Goodbye Cruel World, Is there Anybody Out There and an original piece by JUNIVERS STOCKHOLM & JOSINA BURGESS “Break Those Walls”

Filmed & Edited: GARY HAZLITT
© JustVirtual.com 2008

A well known track from the album was wisely left off by Director Debbie Trilling due to it’s popularity but while I was putting together this ‘mash-up’ compilation I tried a recording of the reunion performance of the Comfortably Numb at Live 8 a few years ago and was entranced by the synergy of visual and song. Hope you do too. Credits after the embed of my film below.

Medium quality (90MB MP4) download available here. Worth playing full screen with the volume up and the lights down

SECOND LIFE - THE WALL V-2 FILM

A special long form promo edit of the Live Virtual Show…Machinimatography & Editing: GARY HAZLITT

SECOND LIFE - THE WALL V-2
Creative Director: DEBBIE TRILLING Producer: VELAZQUEZ BONETTO

Special thanks for valuable contributions from: Haven Colville, Scio Kamanchi, Gypsy Paz, Lyddyn Tzara, Celeste Moonlight, DJ Jenns, windyy Lane, NMC Campus and George W Bush and, of course, Pink Floyd’s incredible album ‘The Wall’

Song selected for this compilation by Gary Hazlitt, The ‘Live 8′ Version COMFORTABLY NUMB (please note: not featured in the live show)

Creative Director: DEBBIE TRILLING
Producer: VELAZQUEZ BONETTO
Wall Design and Build: ELFOD NEMETH
Animated Puppets: DUGGY BING
Animations: CARAVAGGIO BONETTO
Original Music: JUNIVERS STOCKHOLM & JOSINA BURGESS
Stills Photography: ADEC ALEXANDRIA
Dancing & Joyfulness: KLUTE CUPPLOA & SOUTHERN RIPTID

Filmed & Edited: GARY HAZLITT © JustVirtual.com 2008

SECOND LIFE - THE WALL V-2 FILM “Mother Should I  Trust the Government” Full 43 Minute Version Available Soon

I was asked by Debbie Trilling, the creative director of this show, to be the machinimatographer on the last two performances of Pink Floyd’s The Wall in Second Life recently. It was great listening to music I remember growing up with being performed by a passionate group of people from all over the world who recreated elements of the film, animated sequences and live show in one of Second Life’s most spectacular displays of creative coordination. It was created by The Cybernetic Art Research Project CARP.

There were audiences of 60+ crammed into the NMC sim which slowed things down a touch, but not noticeably (I was still getting 15 fps or so ). I have a lot of footage to edit into a short 10 minute and the longer full 90 minute film but for now I selectively scanned the footage for interesting frames and created 107 medium resolution photographs which capture a little of the atmosphere and thought put into this.

The performances have  received rave reviews over the past few weeks and over 2000 avatars have now seen the show…

• “Amazing. Not so much viewed as it is experienced” ~ Metaverse Messenger
• “All I can say is WOW. GREAT show” ~ Second Arts
• “Nothing short of spectacular. A complete immersion” ~ Looking Glass
• “Impressive, touching and thoughtful. Second Life at its best” ~ MixedRealities
• “Never seen anything like it.20A perfect amalgamation of creativity” ~ sl-newspaper
• “Cutting edge art and performance” ~ NMC Observer

Stills (on this page and on flickr link here) - Taken from Gary Hazlitt’s Machinima of CARP’s “The Wall in Second Life” - video available soon. Stills medium ‘video’ resolution.

Production Credits

The CARP Wall Team:

• Creative Director: Debbie Trilling (UK)
• Producer: Velazquez Bonetto (Germany)
• Wall Design: Elfod Nemeth (UK)
• Animated Puppets: Duggy Bing (US)
• Animations: Caravaggio Bonetto (Austria)
• Original Music: Junivers Stockholm (Sweden) & Josina Burgess (Holland)
• Stills Photography: Adec Alexandria (UK)
• Dancing & Joyfulness: Klute Copploa (France), Southern Riptide (US)

with valuable contributions from:

• Scio Kamanchi (US)
• Gypsy Paz (US)
• Lyddyn Tzara (US)
• Celeste Moonlight (US)
• DJ Jenns (UK)
• George W B ush (US)

A two world machinima I did this week exploring the themes of a cross-world quest for love, mixed-reality and online game relationships. The song ‘The Soul of Icarus” was composed and sung by Gary Hayes © Cubrisound 2004 and a special thanks to my co-star, SilkCharm for her patience and WoW’ness. There are some nice Flickr film stills here too! and I am really spoiling you now a selection of video sites with the film on here - YouTube, Metacafe, Google and Blip.tv

“Come to the edge. We can’t. We’re afraid. Come to the edge. We can’t. We will fall! Come to the edge. And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew”. - Guillaume Appollinaire

Credits:

• Filmed in World of Warcraft and Second Life sims:
• CityScape from NBC and Marni created by Gary Hazlitt.
• Medium rez download (85MB MP4) available here.
• Machinimatography and editing by Gary Hazlitt © JustVirtual 2008

“And once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return…” - Leonardo Da Vinci

UPDATE: We are producing a special DVD so the videos have been temporarily removed for the moment.

The Full Credits for the above film:

• Created by DC Spensley
• Produced and Directed by DanCoyote Antonelli
• Machinamatography by Gary Hazlitt
• Editing by Gary Hayes
• Original Score ZeroOne Paz
• Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser
• Costumes Queue Marlowe

SkyDancers:

• Assistant Director Anhinga Chaika
• Deborah Stranglove - Prima
• Angelique Menoptra - Prima
• Lina Lageos
• Pyper Dollinger
• Buffy Beale - Training Director
• Pielady Smalls
• Tatiana Kurri - Puch

ZeroG SkyDancers are Produced and Directed by real life artist DC Spensley - below is earlier descriptive synopsis of the work.

Second Spring is a completely LIVE story performance. SkyDancers perform in-flight choreography without the benefit of animations or gestures of any kind following cues given in REAL TIME on a private IM channel. DanCoyote “calls” the show to keep time with the score written and performed by ZeroOne Paz.

DanCoyote and Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser have pulled out all the stops this time and created the most dynamic stage set ever. Set pieces will evolve, vanish and change position as the story plays out.

Production Designer Queue Marlowe has created an incredible array of SkyDancer costumes called “cascades” that change many times over the hour long show.

Set pieces have been created by venerable Second Life artists Jopsy Pendragon and Nand Nerd. Expect the unexpected!

=========Earlier Press Release Jan 1, 2008=========
For Immediate Release

New Media Consortium Presents
ZeroG SkyDancers III - Virtual Flight Choreography

Pioneering Performing Arts Soar in the Metaverse - Again - Under the Direction of DanCoyote Antonelli ††

January 1, 2008, (Second Life) - Avatar DanCoyote Antonelli is accustomed to breaking new ground. Even in virtual worlds he is considered avant guarde. The real man controlling that avatar, DC Spensley, has been wowing virtual audiences since 2006 with art installations that would not be possible in real life, but perhaps the most coveted ticket in all of Second Life is one to a performance by his ZeroG SkyDancers. On January 6, 2008, the premiere of the highly anticipated, third, completely redesigned production of ZeroG SkyDancers will debut.

Second Life’s history making, critically acclaimed world performance group, the ZeroG SkyDancers is a new form of ensemble performance that uses the airspace of this virtual world, resulting in a cross between water ballet and aerial acrobatics, in ways that would not be possible in the physical world. Wearing spectacular, flowing costumes called cascades - that are many times larger than their avatars - the SkyDancers move through space, and become part of the stage themselves. Altering and evolving, their flight triggers audio samples, which provide a unique layer to the original musical score commissioned for the production.††

The production, sponsored by the New Media Consortium (NMC), will introduce an all-new reactive-interactive stage set that is repeatedly and dramatically transformed over the hour long performance. The ZeroG SkyDancers III will formally debut at 9PM Pacific Standard Time, Sunday, January 6, 2008 in the virtual world of Second Life. Seating is limited, but the show will run every week during the first 90 days of 2008, to accommodate the most guests possible. Tickets will cost $10 US ($3000 Lindens) a piece. For ticket information, please contact Spensley directly at dc@spensley.com.

Those with tickets will need to complete a 5 minute registration process with Second Life, http://www.secondlife.com , in order to access the ZeroG SkyDancers III performance.† A basic account is absolutely free, includes unlimited access to Second Life’s tools, events and communities.†Spensley recommends that audience members spend a minimum of 15 minutes learning the basic skills of the Second Life world prior to attending the performance. “Familiarizing yourself with basic navigation of Second Life will add even more enjoyment to the show,” said Spensley.

Gary Hazlitt’s video of a ZeroG SkyDancers II performance is available at YouTube and has received more than 10 thousand hits.†† “It’s difficult to convey the dramatic and immersive effects of the Second Life virtual world in a 2-D web environment, however this video by Gary Hazlitt does convey the overall concept of the performance,” said Spensley.

You can download a 15MB medium rez MP4 here. It was fantastic to experience this next generation performance and witness a new layer, a narrative across the three musical movements in addition to what has been visually more abstract in the past. Other exciting elements included the movement by the dancers around the volumous space triggering elements of the soundscape and the long prim cascades they are wearing integrating seamlessly with the more static set elements. A show well worth going to (if you can get tickets) and yes, I know, my little trailer and previous well received captures of the shows only gets half way there in terms of capturing the essence (see bottom of post)…but you who are not in this world are watching/reading this

75 still photos on flickr here. Here is the official blurb

New Media Consortium (NMC) proudly presents:
DanCoyote’s ZeroG SkyDancers Third Production:
“Second Spring”.

Second Spring is a completely LIVE story performance. SkyDancers perform in-flight choreography without the benefit of animations or gestures of any kind following cues given in REAL TIME on a private IM channel. DanCoyote “calls” the show to keep time with the score written and performed by ZeroOne Paz.

DanCoyote and Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser have pulled out all the stops this time and created the most dynamic stage set ever. Set pieces will evolve, vanish and change position as the story plays out.

Production Designer Queue Marlowe has created an incredible array of SkyDancer costumes called “cascades” that are change many times over the hour long show.

Set pieces have been created by venerable Second Life artists Jopsy Pendragon and Nand Nerd. Expect the unexpected!

To be our guest at this performance please send a message to DanCoyote Antonelli. DanCoyote will invite you to join the tickets group. Seating is very limited so only members of the tickets group will be admitted to the performance space.

Please contribute generously to the donation kiosk. A production of this quality and depth takes many hundreds of hours to prepare as well as tens of thousands of Linden dollars to produce. Suggested donation is $3000 Lindens with a sliding scale from $1000 up.

Cheers!

DanCoyote Antonelli, Producer Director, ZeroG SkyDancers

=========Press Release=========
For Immediate Release

New Media Consortium Presents
ZeroG SkyDancers III - Virtual Flight Choreography

Pioneering Performing Arts Soar in the Metaverse - Again - Under the Direction of DanCoyote Antonelli

January 1, 2008, (Second Life) - Avatar DanCoyote Antonelli is accustomed to breaking new ground. Even in virtual worlds he is considered avant guarde. The real man controlling that avatar, DC Spensley, has been wowing virtual audiences since 2006 with art installations that would not be possible in real life, but perhaps the most coveted ticket in all of Second Life is one to a performance by his ZeroG SkyDancers. On January 6, 2008, the premiere of the highly anticipated, third, completely redesigned production of ZeroG SkyDancers will debut.

Second Life’s history making, critically acclaimed world performance group, the ZeroG SkyDancers is a new form of ensemble performance that uses the airspace of this virtual world, resulting in a cross between water ballet and aerial acrobatics, in ways that would not be possible in the physical world. Wearing spectacular, flowing costumes called cascades - that are many times larger than their avatars - the SkyDancers move through space, and become part of the stage themselves. Altering and evolving, their flight triggers audio samples, which provide a unique layer to the original musical score commissioned for the production.††

The production, sponsored by the New Media Consortium (NMC), will introduce an all-new reactive-interactive stage set that is repeatedly and dramatically transformed over the hour long performance. The ZeroG SkyDancers III will formally debut at 9PM Pacific Standard Time, Sunday, January 6, 2008 in the virtual world of Second Life. Seating is limited, but the show will run every week during the first 90 days of 2008, to accommodate the most guests possible. Tickets will cost $10 US ($3000 Lindens) a piece. For ticket information, please contact Spensley directly at dc@spensley.com.

Those with tickets will need to complete a 5 minute registration process with Second Life, http://www.secondlife.com , in order to access the ZeroG SkyDancers III performance.† A basic account is absolutely free, includes unlimited access to Second Life’s tools, events and communities.†Spensley recommends that audience members spend a minimum of 15 minutes learning the basic skills of the Second Life world prior to attending the performance. “Familiarizing yourself with basic navigation of Second Life will add even more enjoyment to the show,” said Spensley.

Gary Hazlitt’s video’s of two previous ZeroG SkyDancers II performances are available at YouTube and have received nearly 15 thousand views. “It’s difficult to convey the dramatic and immersive effects of the Second Life virtual world in a 2-D web environment, however the videos do convey the overall concept of the performance,” said Spensley.

Another Gary, a bio one ;-), managed to take over four hundred images plus hours and hours of sound so I could recreate what it is like to be out there, with you folk in one of your most popular cities. Umm very cramped I must say. Anyway as you can see below it generated lots of Second Life press interest and it was fun creating a few token, Second Life not possible in real life elements.

Here’s a SLURL too. and a load of links…

SL News - Australian city Melbourne Laneways comes alive in SL

Australia SL News Source SLOZ - Virtual Melbourne has arrived

Shhhhhhhh - melbourne laneways in second life. NOOOOOOOO

Second Life Insider - Melbourne Laneways comes to life at ABC Island

Victorian Government - Victoria - Would your Business benefit from a Second Life?

TheProjectFactory - Melbourne Laneways Come to Life for Multimedia Victoria

Boxxet Second Life - Melbourne Laneways comes to Life

Multimedia Victoria - Virtual Worlds (Melbourne Laneways Case Study)

GDay World - Melbourne Laneways in SL

Mal Burns Annex - Melbourne Laneways Comes to Life

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inworld © 2007

Listening to unforgiven (RealPlayer Windows LiveWriter WordPress Plugin)

Also available medium rez 70MB WMV download

The story grew rather organically. I was playing with one of my new Space Navigator joysticks, which gives me unlimited camera control and is great for flying across mountains - I had just terraformed three sims with some ‘placeholder’ vertical interest. So I got Kylie Wollongong to join me on a private sim to do some walking, talking, romantic shots.

About half way through we went shopping to get a new skin. Next to the sims only store was a rather bizarre ‘camping’ area - around 50 avies all sitting around. Not a normal one, it looked positively like a wake, no one chatted, they just sat rather miserably. Gong. Mountain walking plus wake, a story was born.

“A couple in love. It starts with her funeral then flashes back to their recent life, ‘climbing together’. At the funeral again he sits with their friends. Flashback to the decision to be together and then reaching ‘the top’. She walks off by herself and tragedy. Just before she ‘ascends’ they recall a happy moment in Venice, tinged with sadness at the end when she has a premonition of her own short future…”

So I shot some sequences of just me and the crowds quickly and then went back and added some extra elements to the mountain journey - which obviously extended the narrative. I also wanted a few flashbacks of earlier romantic times, so Kylie and I visited Venice for three simple shots.

When I added the music during the edit the whole piece took on extra power and poignency - the emotional quality forcibly reminded me of past lost loves. It became a metaphor for the spirits of love. As it says on my YouTube decription “The story of a couple very much in love whose upward journey ends in tragedy. Flashbacks from the wake and their favourite time in Venice”

Some production stills on flickr here.

Avatanimation, Machinimatography, Editing, Story Written, Directed and Produced by Gary Hazlitt - Copyright 2007

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life ©2007

I have noticed that this blog is turning into mostly things I have created in Second Life or close friends, not a bad thing I suppose as long as those creations are worth singing about. I believe this one certainly is. I was lucky to work with Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman (of Physical TV) who are the drivers behind an ‘idea’ called Thursday’s Fictions. This idea has been manifest in film, book, theatre and my task was to be the designer, producer, builder etc: in Second Life. It was only a small project compared with many of the multi sim creations I have done and are currently working on, but it excelled in being a worthy, experimental, artistic and aesthetic statement. It fell strongly into something I call Story Environments - spaces that have narrative embedded in them at varying degrees, more on that later.

The basic premise of the story is a woman who lives for one day only is trying to take her most valued creative possession (her dancers in a trunk she carries with her) between various reincarnations. There is more to it than that of course and the themes of death, love, life, mind, body, spirit all intermingle to create a fascinating pot pourii of philosophy, psychology and self awareness.

My challenge was to find appropriateness in Second Life which is itself an allegory of the themes of the piece from the outset. In other words, as I mentioned in this panel interview on SLCN.tv, (yes I talk!), SL is a space that is already routed in parallel existance, new incarnation and so on. It was about trying to find something that was different enough from quite a few existing ’spiritual’ areas in SL but also providing links back to ‘real world’ perceptions of spiritual architecture.

I haven’t time in this blog post to go into vast detail but to say the build was done very rapidly and I worked iteratively with the writers (that included script consultant Rock Sonic - SL name) who are all relatively new to the true creative potential of this world. Some of the techniques used to deliver the narrative elements included invisible sensors that talked to you randomly, spirit ’spheres’ that whisper as they pass through you, moving and still texts of various forms on the walls, objects and nature that chats residual and direct thoughts, sound and embedded gate-keeper questions.

There are effectively two longer form experiences at the moment. Purgatory, a series of halls and alcoves exploring a range of ideas mostly routed in one word ‘choice’. What life to go to next, what to take, decide what happened in the previous one, choose a state of mind and so on. The second experience is one life you inhabit, the ‘fractured’ mind of one of the characters. For the latter I created something that was slightly unnerving and disorientating yet also welcoming and familiar. It was loosely based on the sets of the film but I injected some play and elements of confusion. Go see and you will understand. The first main area purgatory is populated by Richard’s a range of texts, my favourite being the ’self-destructive’ lines (in the floating spirits in the main hall) from his book Kamikaze Mind. I also wanted Purgatory to show how music, sound and visual effects, text, signs, places to explore and architecture create a new kind of experience in SL that becomes very cinematic. There were many compromises that had to be taken but happily they are all easily overcome in future experiences I will create in this and many other properties. I/we also wanted this experience to be as social as possible. In a full 3D social space anything that doesn’t allow a shared user journey through it is doomed so it has been great watching couples and small groups exploring.

There are many more elements planned for this ‘idea’ of Richards and these will include another 6 or 7 more life journeys that will attempt to cover a broader spectrum of the ‘human drama’. To go to this experience now here is a link to the starting grove - SLURL.

Posted by © Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

I was lucky to be contacted by my friend DanCoyote Antonelli to go along to the last two performances of his invigorated ZeroG SkyDancers as part of Second Life’s 4th birthday celebrations. After my popular one take video film and article “The Organic Beauty of Hyperformalism” from last year I had a much deeper understanding of the group’s vision and this time, 6 months later, captured what I believe to be film that ‘really’ gets under the surface of these wonderous experiences - but thats just my opinion. I edited the film out of order from the original performance to hopefully enhance the structure of the piece, to make it build and grow and look forward to DanCoyote’s take on it. It is very hard to put these immersive surround experiences into a 2D linear environment - but I am getting better and about two and a half minutes in things start to happen!

The ZeroG dancing troupe are now a year old and it showed with much greater synchronicity between the the music, the voluptuous large scale hyperformalist moving art and the flying dancers - the flyers particularly demonstrated amazing feats of acrobatics and sublime balletic motion than in previous performances. Anyway the video goes some way to capturing the “oh you really had to be there” statements, while I was filming this and travelling along through the air with the dancers at high resolution, it really felt like I had a privileged glimpse throught the matrix to the next level, I was ‘dancing with angels’.

Credits approved by DanCoyote from the video.

ZeroG SkyDancers Spring 2007 Production June 29th 2007 at Ars Simulacra, NMC Art Showcase in honor of the Second Life Fourth Birthday Celebration and the ZeroG SkyDancers 1st year anniversary.

Created by DC Spensley

Produced and Directed by DanCoyote Antonelli

Machinamatography and Editing by Gary Hazlitt

Original Score ZeroOne Paz

SkyDancers:

Assistant Director Anhinga Chaika

Assistant Producer Callypian Christianson, Deborah Stranglove

Prima Tatiana Kurri, Angelique Menoptra, Lina Lageos, Kensai Uriza

House Manager Onyx Bijoux

Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser

Costume Designer Sabine Stonebender

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life