While looking through the destinations categories, I discovered a sim in the Editor's Picks category called 'Digital Art - Cammino e Vivo Capovolto'. Upon arriving at the sim, I discovered it was a sim put together to display digital sculptures. I found this particularly interesting because it gives artists a way to produce their sculptures without the limitations of real world physics, as well as being able to put them in the ideal situation for the sculpture.
I found that this environment was perfect for my exploration in photography in Second Life. Each of the sculptures was off in its own area, most of them far enough away from other sculptures that they wouldn't actually load in, which made it much easier to move around the sculptures to take photos of them. That, plus the lighting, made it possible to experiment with all the different ways to view these works by utilising the free movement camera to test different angles, lighting and focus.
This chessboard of fighting chess pieces was my favourite sculpture in the sim, particularly because of the use of shattering. While in the human sculptures the shattering gave the effect of dissolving or fading away from the edges, this fight scene made the shattering pieces look more like blood, or parts of the body being damaged by the weapons.
The doubled-over queen piece was my most favourite within the set, particularly because of the angle and the sense of movement that is able to be portrayed. While I'm sure that a sculptor would be able to find a way to portray these sculptures in traditional medium, I really doubt it would have the same effect due to the inability to replicate the environment these pieces are in easily, as well as the scale.
Another plus to sculptures in Second Life is there is no need for base skeletons. Sculptures like these that shatter would also require skeletons to keep the shattered pieces in place, which are very difficult to make invisible so they take away from the illusion of the effect.
As I wandered around the sim, I discovered a plot of land beside the sculpture garden that was owned by a tango club. They had two very interesting features. One was a camera where up to two people could pose in tango poses. The poses looked rather ridiculously when done alone.
The other interesting thing I found was a dance animation system. It was set up to be used in pairs and had a variety of dances, though the obvious focus was tango.
Next week, I will continue to look at art in Second Life. I am not sure which I will focus on yet, though I would like to find another sculpture garden like the one I looked at this week. Alternatively, I would like to find a sim that offers an opportunity to take photos and experiment with camera work and lighting more.
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