3- Imagine the Expansive

3- Imagine the Expansive
Virginia Alone by Bryn Oh, 2012

Third in Series of Pivotal Projects
Chosen by Bryn Oh to represent her development as an immersive artist
Review by Eleanor Medier / Liane Sebastian, virtual art critic

Creativity is looking at what everyone sees, but finding something different. Bryn goes further: she sees the new in the new. She embraces the various advanced roles of the artist that open up in the virtual arena, including editor, composer, director, and author. And, she brings all these facets to Virginia Alone.

Artists do work hard, but to edit through hundreds of cassette tapes containing the pondering ramblings from a wheel-chair-bound old lady is not a task for the timid. Yet through Bryn’s depiction (and editing mastery), Virginia becomes real, long after her rocking chair has become empty. Though Bryn built Virginia’s house virtually for the original sim, the Machinima’s sensitive sequencing and visual enhancement of memories is captivating. Within a mundane setting, there is an imaginative world that transcends.

Most purely a work of Machinima, Bryn establishes the virtual as her tool box for visualization. Bryn uses the video medium to advantage in creating metaphors for thoughts. Through the use of scenes and minimal animation, each frame displays her painterly training. Virginia narrates her perceptions, making the virtual aspect of the work transitory. This time, it is not really about the setting, except as a stage to display fantasies. Here Bryn steps out of the boundaries of RL versus SL. Neither matter. Both are used to blend a tale that can be told adequately in neither. Virginia leaves a legacy through Bryn’s tribute, representing the end of a real life, but the beginning of an aesthetic one.

“Virginia is a complex lady (a real person). She lived alone and blind and used the tapes to record music she liked, to make grocery lists, or just relate things from her experiences. With Virginia, I was able to take a real life situation and develop a virtual artwork well-suited to telling the story. It was a massive amount of work to find her cassette tapes, hundreds of them, strewn around the house. Then I had to find and use software to convert them digitally into mp3s. Each tape was 120 minutes and had to be distilled down to eight minutes or so. That info got distilled yet again. Her home in the virtual space needed to be built, and so on. People connected to her story from so many different cultures—Africa, the Middle East, France, Netherlands, etc. There were at least 40,000 visitors! It is important that Virginia is pretty much the only work not in the ‘world’ that connects all the other stories. It helped me to further understand the power of the medium and its unique abilities.” —Bryn Oh

—– Links for online viewing:

Machinima:

https://www.youtube.com/user/VirginiaAlone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyD1ybNmybc

 —– Links to continue reading Pivotal Projects by Bryn Oh series:

“Becoming Bryn” review by Eleanor Medier / Liane Sebastian
The various levels of Bryn Oh’s creations are represented by these seven pivotal works, chosen by the artist. Giving context to the review, Bryn’s voice gives even greater nuance to understanding both her work and experiences, combined to leave a lasting effect.

“1- Breakthrough Perception” review of Condos in Heaven by Bryn Oh
Ideas find new form in the virtual world.

“2- Integrate Media” review of Standby trilogy by Bryn Oh
Developing an underlying theme to tie series into a fictitious futuristic world, portrayed through strong plot structure.

“3- Imagine the Expansive” review of Virginia Alone by Bryn Oh
Incorporating levels of reality from memory recordings to virtual build to Machinima presentation.

“4- Transform Limitations” review of Imogen and the Pigeons by Bryn Oh
Discovering key moralistic conflicts of life, death, and the quality between, developed into narrative series.

“5- Choose Metaphors” review of Singularity of Kumiko by Bryn Oh
Integration of multi-media, giving strength to literary incorporation.

“6- Define Communication” review of Lobby Cam by Bryn Oh
Simplifies technologically-inspired relationship into representative metaphor.

“7- Experimental Themes” review of Obedience by Bryn Oh
Interprets classical theme from new perspective, designed for real world viewing.

The in-world edition has further comments on these pivotal works. This overview article can be like a guide into Bryn’s world, giving its own structure to appreciating her environments and immersive experiences. Viewers can’t just look at a piece and not wish to know more. Each is enigmatic on its own. Each hints of more levels to come. The in-world review explores how the virtual world serves as the stage for Bryn’s creations. Like the levels that she incorporates between media, and complementary messages that use the features of each, Sim Street Journal is also multi-media in a similar range: from experiencing sims in SL, to capturing representative images, to building themes using complementary online vehicles. This review of Bryn’s work is best experienced as a suite. It is now released in a PDF to archive. Receive the in-world different, yet expanding edition, click on the kiosk at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Innu/40/36/1650, or download PDF Sim Street Journal #18.
— The in-world magazine has topics that relate to those who understand the virtual context, including photographs, parallel articles. It has tabs for information landmarks, and web links.
— The online magazine expresses what the virtual world offers the real one. It is a mirror that reflects parallel articles, hot topics, and provides more links.Contributions are encouraged if covering topics relevant to real world readers.

Please see the INDEX for all contributors and articles.
(Back issues are available on MARKETPLACE).

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Eleanor Medier (avatar of Liane Sebastian)

BLOG: http://www.eleanormedier.wordpress.com

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eleanor-Medier/735735156500378?ref=bookmarks

ASN: http://www.avatarsocialnetwork.com

EMAIL: eleanormedier@gmail.com

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Liane Sebastian FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/liane.sebastian

Sim Street Journal explores the relevance of second to first life.
© 2016 by Liane Sebastian/Eleanor Medier, Sim Street Journal.
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