The FlowerBall

A little over a week ago, Col. Hotspur O'Toole invited a few Caledonians to a fascinating art build. While there, I struck-up a pleasant conversation with Mr.Douglas Story, who is one of the artists on this amazing project...






Mr. Story sent me the following press release...

FlowerBall - An Interactive Art Thingy

by
Douglas Story - concept, prims, pictures
AldoManutio Abruzzo - soundscape
Desdemona Enfield - scripts


FlowerBall is a very large, very colorful, very musical and very immersive bit of art - the kind of thing that truly is possible only in Second Life. At 120 feet high and wide, it’s huge - your avatar flies up and through five layers inside a gigantic sphere, your interaction with the layers changing the visuals, and adding new layers of sounds and music.

Soon to be open to the public on a pristine sim owned by Princeton University, FlowerBall presents the almost abstract close-up floral photography of Douglas Story in a unique way. As you float inside these luxuriant images, you are awash in a multi-layered tapestry of lush ambient musical sounds by noted Second Life live musician AldoManutio Abruzzo. All of this is powered by complex scripts written by the talented and energetic Desdemona Enfield.

One early visitor compared it to being "inside a huge flower." Another said, "I feel like I'm swimming in sound and color."

Visitors do need to be aware that they really must pay attention to the instructions that they will be given to them as they arrive at the site - unfortunately one must change an audio setting in Preferences in order to hear the sounds properly. The creators assure you that the experience will be well worth that small effort.

Experiencing FlowerBall is one of those Second Life 'wow' moments that is not to be missed. The opening reception with the artists is scheduled for Saturday, July 21st at 2 pm SLT at the usually-private Princeton University Sim at:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Princeton%20University/24/193/104/

Readers who wish to view the work after the July 21st opening should be directed to its Princeton North location at:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Princeton%20North/75/40/37/

Members of the press who wish a preview are invited to visit this location as well.

FlowerBall is presented under the auspices of Tayzia Abattoir and New Media Consortium, with special thanks to Princeton University.

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Artist Information

Douglas Story creates his extreme macro photography with a 5 megapixel digital camera in and around Los Angeles. All images displayed were shot using natural light, and are essentially as they came from the camera with no, or very little, enhancement after the fact. Douglas has displayed his work in group shows in Los Angeles, and in Second Life at the Aho Museum and the Angel Dorei Gallery.

A Second Life resident since 2005, Desdemona Enfield, in her more serious moments, studies the Zen of Scripting and occasionally dabbles in building. She's highly verbal and will scroll everyone off the screen when given an opportunity. In real life, the daydream that comes closest to her vocation would include a checkered history in computer graphics, medical imaging, data protocols, and embedded systems, plus a tad of physics and mathematics. However, these days she prefers to dance in sky palaces.

AldoManutio Abruzzo is a hugely popular improvisational musician who performs frequently in Second Life. More information and a performance schedule may be found at his web site at:

http://usrslashsbin.angrek.com/

I'm hoping that this team may be able to do something interesting for our projected Second Life Bloggers Convention tentatively scheduled for February 2008.