Update on LEA 2.0

It's been a few weeks since the Linden Endowment for the Arts's committee made the decision to close it down. Not long after, Tansee Resident and Riannah Avora began an effort to save it. Marcel Mosswood recently went back to them to ask about developments since her first interview. As it turned out, there are several, including Linden Lab responding to their email.

Read Marcel's story in Design.

LEA 2.0 - An Effort To Save The LEA

Last week, it was announced that the Linden Endowment for the Arts, or LEA, would be closing at the end of August. Since then, a number of people have expressed sadness and hops that somehow it can be avoided. Tansee Resident and Riannah Avora did more than just talk. They started a movement to try to keep the LEA in existence: LEA 2.0 The New Future. Marcel Mosswood met up with them, and talked to them about the group and what they hope to accomplish.

Read Marcel's interview in Design.

Linden Endowment of the Arts Set to Close August 31

In what can only be described as a stunning development for artists and supporters of the arts in Second Life, the Linden Endowment for the Arts is set to close down on the last day of August.

The Committee of the Linden Endowment for the Arts regrets to inform residents of Second Life that the LEA regions will be closing at the end of August 2019.

In November 2018, the Committee decided that the best way forward was for the members to step down, and allow Linden Lab to revamp or re-organise the program, with new members if they wished. At that time, the bi-annual Land Grant (the AIR regions) were shuttered. A small number of the Committee stayed on to administer the Core regions until the remaining grant commitments ran their course.  Those grants are now coming to an end, and therefore the LEA will be closed at the end of August 2019

The Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) was established to help create a center of arts activity in Second Life. It was founded in 2010 and launched its first events in 2011. For the last eight years, it has been a collaborative venture between Linden Lab and the arts community. Guided initially by a board of renowned Second Life artists and more latterly also bringing in people with a strong interest in promoting the Arts in Second Life, the LEA has been committed to providing access to engaging experiences in the arts for the Second Life community. Over the last eight years, through its exhibitions, programs, and events, the LEA has fostered awareness of artists’ contributions to our virtual world and encouraged others to get involved and be inspired.

It has long been divided into two parts; The Core Regions and the Artists in Resident Regions.

The LEA Land Grant (the AIR Regions) was a program to distribute 20 regions (LEA10 - LEA29) generously donated by Linden Lab. These regions were used to promote art and artistic endeavors in Second Life. Full regions of virtual land were made available to in-world artists through an application process. The AiR Land Grant was a 6 month grant.

The LEA Land Grant was shuttered by Linden Lab in January 2019 at the request of the LEA Committee, pending decisions on the future of the LEA.

The Core regions  (LEA1- LEA9)  hosted a variety of artistic events and installations for a three month period. The Core regions included a Welcome Area, a four region theatre, a sandbox for artists, and partial and full regions that could be used for the three month period, with a great emphasis on community art events.

This program will be closing at the end of August when all the regions will be shuttered by Linden Lab at the request of the Committee.

The Committee wishes to express its gratitude and deep respect for the artists of Second Life, whose work they have been privileged to support over the last eight years. We hope that in time Linden Lab will be able to create a new program that will continue their support of the arts in Second Life.

Any questions concerning the Linden Endowment for the Arts should be addressed to PatriciaAnne Daviau or JMB Balogh.

The  Linden Endowment for the Arts Committee:
PatriciaAnne Daviau, JMB Balogh, LaPiscean Liberty, Jayjay Zifanwe
Advisors:  The Dove Rhode and Corcosman Voom


Until recently, there were many more LEA sims. But in November 2018, it was announced 19 of the 29 then were closing down as part of "restructuring" of the LEA.

Saffia Widdershins invited me to talk to her for a few minutes. She stated Linden Lab had nothing to do with the LEA closing down. If anything, they wanted it to keep going. But the LEA Committee "were pretty much burned out." After inviting a number of people to join the Committee, and being refused, they had decided to step down so a fresh start could take place.

Saffia told me this wasn't necessarily the end of the LEA. It could still be saved in some form, "But the initiative needs to come from the arts community. They need to pull together and create a workable proposal (or several proposals) for the Lab."

Inara Pey had a number of things to say on her blog, "As was pointed out to me after I wrote the article on the 2018 restructuring announcement, running any organisation like the LEA is going to be a thankless task; there is no remuneration for time given, there is always going to be hostility over actions taken and the grants awarded, and so on; it really can be a thankless task. ...

"However, there can be no doubting then when all is said and done, the LEA did a tremendous amount of good for the artists who participated in its programmes, offering many the means to express themselves and reach audiences in a manner that might never otherwise been able to achieve.

"While the LEA many have had its warts and at times had to face undue criticism, it has through its nine years of existence been a force for good for those arts who have been able to make use of its facilities and it has certainly helped enriched art within Second Life and allow many to appreciate work and installations they might otherwise never get to see. So, it’s not unfair to say its passing will be missed."

So will the LEA be saved, or will this chapter of the history of the arts in Second Life come to a close? Stay tuned for more details.

Bixyl Shuftan

LEA Announcing 19 of 29 Sims To Close Temporarily For Restructuring

Yesterday on the blog for the Linden Endowment for the Arts, it was announced that on January 1, there would be a "hiatus for restructuring." LEA sims 11 to 29 would be temporarily shut down "to allow for a major restructuring."

Come January 1st 2019, the Linden Endowment for the Arts, known as the LEA, will be temporarily closing its Artists in Residence regions (LEA 10 - 29) to allow for a major restructuring.                                           
                                           
Over the last seven years, these regions have been open for artists who apply to build their dreams, each for a six month grant. We have seen many great installations here - and some that have attracted controversy.                                           
                                           
The nine Core regions (which include the Theatre, the Sandbox and Photohunt) will remain for the present, and short-term grants will still be available in these regions for community-inspired arts projects.                                           

Applications for Core regions can be made here:
https://sites.google.com/view/linden-endowment-for-the-arts-/home

Discussions between the present Committee and Linden Lab about the future form of the LEA are ongoing, but it is anticipated that there will be a new organising committee when the AiR regions re-open.

The Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) was established to help create a center of arts activity in Second Life. It is a collaborative venture between Linden Lab and the arts community. Guided by a dedicated board of renowned Second Life artists, the LEA is committed to providing access to engaging experiences in the arts for the Second Life community. Through its exhibitions, programs, and events, the LEA fosters awareness of artists’ contributions to our virtual world and encourages others to get involved and be inspired.
See more at: http://lea-sl.org/

How long the sims will remain closed is unknown.

Source: LEA blog

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager, Saffia Widdershins

LEA9's King Kong's Skull Island "Live in New York" Show on Sunday

The Linden Endowment for the Arts sim LEA9 has harbored a setting familiar to classic movie fans: Skull Island, the home of King Kong. Besides the well-detailed exhibit of dinosaurs, snakes, and other creatures, there are occasional events there. One is this Sunday on July 31st, "King Kong's Live in New York Show."

"Watch him smash New York. Will the airplanes destroy him ?

For those dropping in before the event, they can still see King Kong in his cave. Unlike the huge ape in the movie, Second Life's Kong is a bit more easy to get along with.

The event takes place Sunday July 31st at 1PM SL time. There is also a schedule for events next month.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/LEA9/115/112/30

More On The ToS Content Creator Rights Controversy

By Bixyl Shuftan

In the past few days, there have been more reactions to the revised Second Life Terms of Service concerning content creator rights. On Saturday October 5, Bryn Oh, a well known artist in Second Life known for her work on "The Rabbicorn" and other exhibitions, resigned from the Linden Endowments of the Arts' committee.

As it stands now I don't feel comfortable luring artists into creating content for Linden Labs who can pretty much do whatever they want with it.  I will take the risk with my own content but I wont encourage others to do so.  ...  Linden Lab could scoop (your content) up and put their money behind it, while you struggled to promote it from your basement.  The TOS ... is just another indignity artists and thinkers must suffer, and I don't want to be a part of it.  ...  I don't honestly believe Linden Lab would do these terrible, immoral things yet they have not explained anything to the community.  They have not said "Oh hey I can see how it looks alarming but really we just need that wording to help us market the product easier etc ect.. and we needed to add "sell" and "re-sell" to the wording for this reason.."  Do you want to sell our content through Desura your new digital distribution acquisition as some have speculated?  If so then explain and share and you might have a willing partner.  But right now there is a lot of speculation, distrust and no clarification.

Bryn Oh felt for now, the public should continue to watch and see. After that, "If in a few weeks they still have not addressed the concerns from the community, then perhaps it's time we preserve our avatar names in other virtual worlds as well." Bryn had accounts in both Cloud Party and Inworldz, "Perhaps spend an hour in a different virtual world each week. Hopefully it is all just a big misunderstanding and we can we can be reassured that our ideas and content are safely our own."

The following day, another artist became involved in the controversy. Johnas Merlin stopped work on his exhibit at LEA26 due to the new ToS. The reasons weren't specifically because of ethical questions, but the "new Terms of Service … make it illegal for me to use some of the content I had planned to use." Johnas has not yet decided whether or not to keep making art or other goods in Second Life.

Last week, New World Notes started a survey for content creators, asking those responding if they had stopped creating or selling content. Of the 266 people who answered, 121 or 45% answered "yes" compared to the 113 or 42% who answered "no." Hamlet Au remarked the results "suggest concern over the ToS which is actually affecting user behavior. Often a Linden Lab policy change causes drama and protest, but has little impact on activity. Apparently not so in this case."

Hamlet asked the Lab two weeks ago if they planed to change the words in question of the ToS to ease the content creators. He has yet to receive an answer.

Sources: Bryn Oh, Ziki's Blog, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Tyrehl Byk’s “Catharsis”

Tyrehl Byk, whom made news last year with his groundbreaking “Event Horizon” particle show last year, was a busy artist in November with his shows at the LEA6 sim. Besides his “Not-A-Knot” exhibit, Tyrehl had another particle show, “Catharsis.” It offered all of what Event Horizon had, and then some.

I was with Chantal Harvey when she was sent a location to go to see Catharsis. She invited me to go along, and I went with her. But getting there, we found ourselves in a cavern. We looked around, things slowly rezzing, and eventually one of us found a passage to a door. Clicking on it teleported us to a triple overhead platform. I noticed a few other familiar faces there, such as Gemma Cleanslate and Eymerich Lane. For a while, the radio had a robotic voice greeting the crowd, then it began making snide remarks about Tyrehl Byk. It was cut short by a gun shot, followed by Tyrehl apologizing for being late, giving a few hints to properly view the show, such as setting the view to Midnight, and telling those who hadn’t to take a seat.

And before long, the music started, along with the colorful particle flashes in the night sky.The particles were a little more sophisticated than last time, taking on the shapes of buildings, roads, yards, even entire pictures. After a while, the show took on a certain theme, more so than it did with “Event Horizon.” The first segment after the introduction could be called “Jesusland” after one of the songs played, a look at the American south known for it’s churches but becoming more and more around discount shopping malls. The second segment could be described from the line of one of the songs, “Buy it now!” There were a few money themed songs, with plenty of particles of dollar signs, pound symbols, and other currencies, with pictures of avatars living it up.

Segment three was a brief play of American Indian music along with a scene of a desert mesa. Then the music changed to “I Wanna Rock an’ Roll All Night,” and the screen was filled with lots of splashes of particles. Then came a sunset, with more American Indian music, and images of pairs of faces could be seen. This was followed by arrows flying across the screen, splashes of red, then the screen turning to night. And as the night went on, the bleak landscape began to bloom.

The show ended after about 24 minutes. When our eyes fell back to our virtual surroundings, we found another surprise, the floor was covered with pink flower petals. Tyrehl received plenty of complements, “Thank you for the great show, Trehl.” “Gotta say, came here not knowing what to expect... good thing too because I wouldn't have come close.“ Chantal thought of the old Event Horizon show, “but it is so much better now.”

“Catharsis” is over now. Chantal and I had come across one of the final showings in November. But it may appear again on the Grid again.

Bixyl Shuftan

Tyrehl Byk’s “Not a Knot”

In November, there were a number of performances of two works at the LEA6 sim by artist Tyrehl Byk. Longtime readers will probably remember him for his “Event Horizon” particle show over a year and a half ago. Besides his new particle show “Catharsis” (more on it later), there was also his “Not -A-Knot” artistic exhibit.

When I got to his “Not-A-Knot” Exhibit, high above the sim, it looked much like a nature build at first, a small fenced stone platform leading to a forest full of tall trees on a floating island of rock. Going along however, one could see letters floating with the wind through the woods. Next to a campsite was a river, with various words such as “illusion” and “prejudice” floating down, the water eventually falling over the side. With the forest thinning, the letters in the breeze gave way to words such as “apple” and “tree.”

Finally one arrived at what at first looked like a recreation of the scene of “American Gothic,” a farmer and his lady in front of their farmhouse. But this wasn’t the bald, spectacled farmer in the famous painting, but Tyrehl Byk. His voice was on, but instead of him talking I could only hear nonsensical noises. I thought he was Away From Keyboard as he never answered by questions. The farmhouse itself kept fading in and out. Next to it was the edge of the floating island, the words “Not A Dangerous Ledge” floating over it. I never did go over to test it.

Later on at his “Catharsis” set, I had a few words with Tyrehl. Asking him about the American Gothic theme, he answered “That was just one component of it. It is a very large, very complex build with much subtlety, and it comes alive more when I'm there actually doing a performance. Many folks rush through and only see the surface of it.. So much like how they navigate off-world. It's tricky to see the depth when one gets hung up on surfaces. There are also many hidden items that are in play if you look hard enough and touch/sit on many things.”

“When I'm there, there is an additional layer of confusion brought to bear and some find it very disorienting. There is an element of disconnect many people rely on when coming in-world. The meaning of the piece is constantly changing and depends on if one is there alone, or traveling with a group. The dialog changes and is sometimes private and sometimes public. It is very much like the layers of internal monologue that go on inside everyone, echoed in different ways externally.”

I neglected to ask if the “Not-A-Knot” exhibit regularly changes, but presumably it does. So perhaps next time it’s open, it will be different. The November exhibit was at LEA6 (173, 192, 501).

Bixyl Shuftan

Three-Ring Flea Circus

"A flea circus created by Miso Susanowa & Wizard Gynoid in Second Life, using dolls made by Bryn Oh. Filmed on location in the LEA5 sandbox. Popcorn not included."