BURNING LIFE '05: QUICK TAKES

Another glimpse of Burning Life 2005-- context here.

From top down:

- "Two Track Mind" by Siggy Romulus (here and here), which intricately conveys marbles up and down a twisty rail system. "And yeah," says Siggy, "it totally runs by the physics engine (when it's running properly and doesn't crash the sim.)" It took him a couple days to build (with a few false starts.) "Is it actually running at the moment?" he says, surprised, when I ask him about it. I admit it is, after head-butting one of the marbles. "The physics engine isn't totally up to the task," he says. "Maybe next time if we have Havok 2 I'll be able to do something a lil' more elaborate."

- A Beach Bar Sandcastle by Kendra Bancroft (here and here)

- Elevator to an Ancient Space Station (elevator by Kat Lemieux here, space station by Gearsawe Stonecutter here)

- Tower of descent by Moxie Grumby
"We got the idea from Nine Inch Nails' 'The Downward Spiral' and kind of ran with it from there," says Moxie. "People are meant to take the elevator up, and then fall down into the spiral (because falling in Second Life is WAY fun) and then find their way out. We hoped that on the spiral path out people would think about the things in their life that bring them up or out of sadness/bad places. (At the top here and falling here.)

- Regularity by Jackal Ennui (here and here)
"A little ode to mathematics, to regularity and chaos-- may it entertain, bewilder or just amuse you," Ennui announces in a notecard at the entrance. The main rooms have rows of lights that blink in an apparently arbitrary fashion. "Truly random? Well, not really," Ennui's notecard reads. "They play integer sequences-- that is, lists of numbers that obey a certain rule." Other displays include a demonstration of John Conway's Game of Life, a One-Sheeted Hyperboloid, and Menger Sponges. (With acknowledgement to Seifert Surface in conception and artwork. "Also, A big thank you to Agatha Palmerstone who graciously donated two pieces of cellular automaton art. A very special thank goes to Kristian Ming, who also donated some artwork and helped me with the interior design...")

- The Avatar Cannon of AngryBeth Shortbread, which launches you through an ornate, old world bastinado headfirst into the dome of heaven.

(Flying guardian angel cow included.)