BURNING LIFE '05: QUICK TAKES, TAKE 2

Another glimpse of Burning Life 2005-- context here.

From the top down...

- *Stuff* by Aimee Weber

The founder of the *Preen* line of clothing and the SL-specific media celebrity engages in brutal self-parody, imagining a capitalist dystopia in which her brand rules the city, and her clothes are subsitutes for soulfulness. It reads like knowing satire-- which, ironically, probably makes her clothing line seem even more desirable. (Commodifying your dissent while also commodifying your commodity?)

- Jessica Qin's Burning Life installation

Two pyramids with interiors lined by vibrantly colored tapestries, a clock ticking off the time with white runes that float away, and a self-playing chess set. "Since you're frankly the first person to ask," says Jessica, smiling, after I ask what it's all supposed to mean, "I'll tell you something I've not told anyone else: the structure is something of a monument to someone I know (or perhaps 'knew' is a better word)... she's still alive and making a career out of being a trophy wife out East somewhere... time was a Seriously Big Deal to her, in ways big and small. Yet she was always late...

"The symbolism is rather personal and so I'd be surprised if anyone else 'gets' it. But people have fun riding the chess pieces and it's pretty and it was fun to build..."

- Microcosm by Cory Edo

A mobile containing worlds. An exterior view, an interior view. Created with Cadroe Murphy's Shape Maker, a Resident-made development tool.

- Creation Factory by Thundercloud Partridge

A dozen strange beings create the universe before our eyes (while squabbling among each other.) "It was inspired by reading about various movements to apply warning labels to science text books," Partridge telles me. "These labels were supposed to say something like 'Evolution is only a theory'. The genesis of life in the universe is such a complex issue... beyond the ability of humans to understand at this point in our evolution I believe. That making such a real life broo-ha-ha about it seems ridiculous and narrow minded all around. I find the whole issue easier to understand in Second Life... where Linden Lab and the King of Rock and Roll can be the creator of everything."

- SkyGarden Waterfall by Isablan Neva

- Old Time Radio by Weedy Herbst

With audio clips from old radio shows broadcasting from a radio the size of a small building. Details here and here.

- God Switch by Burke Prefect

One flip, and the universe goes black.

Continued from the top down...

- Fertility by Ryntha Sauvage

- Last Night of Summer by Uri Pasteur

- Geodesic Dome by Chandra Page
Inspired by Buckminister Fuller, a physics-ride within a ball bouncing back and forth inside the muscial interior. (Notes played when the spheres strike the dome are from the C Major scale.)

- Embracing Id by Lash Xevious

- Garden Maze by Vlinder Reitveld

- An Escape from Dragons by YadNi Monde