Artist Vlad Bjornson opens new avenues for expression through his Sculpted Thoughts art piece. The morphing sculpture impresses the eye with a smart mashup of sculptie functionality and the Second Life media interface. The sculptie object is coded to take on a new shape as it cycles through the textures from a QuickTime movie stream.

SL limitations in this area were surpassed with some clever and custom scripts made by the artist. For example, Bjornson's sculptie is updated at a speed of almost 8 frames per second in order to maintain a smooth animation (see the machinima demo above). "If sculpties reacted to the video stream properly, [the motion] would be totally fluid [...] SL probably doesn't pick up the changes otherwise", explains scripter Candide LeMay.

Thanks to Gwyneth Llewelyn for the tip. You can see the sculpture yourself at Caledon Highlands.

Gwyneth Llewelyn, she of the prodigious brain, has provided a link to a mystical source of prognostications: the Superior Inner Core! While entries here are somewhat sparse, it's an ongoing concern, despite the chunks of time between posts. From the site: "Once Upon A Time we had the Feted Inner Core. Their origins are also shrouded in the Mysts of Time. They reigned supreme at the Time of Immersionism.

Alas, that time is no more. The Dawn of The Age of Augmentism is upon us. And this time, a New Mystical Order emerges - the most powerful Superior Inner Core.'

Well, clearly, Nostradamus has nothing on Gwyneth! Go check out the site and provide your comments!

(Thanks, Gwyneth!)

This is the thirty-third (and a third?) in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

I have been an admirer of Gwyneth Llewelyn for quite some time; ever since I found SL, actually. The level of intellect displayed on her blog is rather mighty indeed, and I read it often, frequently having to mouth the words to myself in a vain attempt to understand. This also marks the first time a Resident Snapshot has gone longer than one page!

SL name:
Gwyneth Llewelyn

How did you first come to SL?:
In mid-2004, I was looking for some 3D environment on the Mac, just to have a bit of fun, after being bored with The Sims. There are very few ones, and World of Warcraft was not available for a "trial download". I came across SL which at that time had a special feature announcement on Apple's website. So, it was mere luck. Most "games" tend to grab my attention for about 15 minutes; they're simply not compelling enough ... although "building" games like the Sims, or Civilization, Alpha Centauri, etc. always fascinated me, even if I cannot claim to be good at any of those :)

After spending 90 minutes tweaking my avatar (6 times longer than I expected SL to appeal to me!) I thought there was "something" to SL. I spent that first day 20 hours online ... then slept another 4 hours ... and logged in for a further 16 hours :) After that, I realised that SL was something totally unexpected, new, completely different, with an appeal that I haven't felt about any application whatsoever - at par with the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, back in 1993.

I have the utmost respect for Gwyneth Llewelyn. I find her blog consistently full of interesting, well-reasoned ideas and explications. I envy the power of her mind; beside hers, mine plods along like a train on square wheels.

So when Gwyneth creates something like her 'Secrets to Success in Second Life', I sit up and take notice.

You'll find a lot to like in this lengthy, yet easily understandable document. She's broken down the steps to success into 6 areas, and goes into detail about each. Whether or not you own your own business, plan to create one, or simply want to better understand commerce in this virtual space, you'd be well-advised to take a look.

One request, Gwyneth, if you're reading: Please replace your main page's 'Winking Gwyn' graphic with a static photo. Seeing the same animation over and over gets a little tiring. This is just a personal plea; doubtless there are many who enjoy it!

Lys Ware, of Second Life Creativity, has coined two terms to identify the two prevailing views of residents.

The Immersionists believe that SL is a complete and discrete world in itself, and should have no truck with anything to do with RL. One could gather roleplayers (for example, the Goreans) into this camp. Immersionists tend not to disclose any of their RL information, and form groups to help flesh out their SL experience.

The Augmentationists view SL as an extension of their RL, more as a tool to be used to interact with others. These residents see nothing wrong (in general) with more interaction and connectivity with RL (for example, the Home Run Derby, or Suzanne Vega's in-world concert). You can read more of Lys's thought on the subject here.

Increasingly, it appears that SL is trending toward an Augmentationist profile. As more and more RL companies and media become aware of the viability of the SL experience as a marketing tool, we can expect to see continuing incursions on the SL space by advertisers, schools, and media industries. I believe this is inevitable, and we should be ready for more of this coming down the pike. This is not to say that the Immersionists are doomed to be crowded out of SL, but rather that we'll likely see the creation of roleplay-only enclaves, bereft of any mention of RL. On what side of the fence do you fall?

(Thanks, Gwyneth!)

Thank you to Gwyneth Llewelyn for blogging about this: Indie filmmakers Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, on their website, have been accepting requests for showings of their autobiographical film Four Eyed Monsters. They plan to commit to a showing in any town that's had requests from at least 150 people.

What's interesting about this is that on their Request page, wherein you can sign in to request a showing in your town, there's a drop-down menu of countries from which you may choose. Right below 'United States' is '2nd Life'. Apparently, we rate as our own country now!

The film itself sounds intriguing, and you can go to their website to get a summary. Let's make this happen! If we can get 150 to request a showing in SL, that could be just the beginning ...

Unretouched photo of the drop-down menu after the jump!

(Thanks, Gwyneth!)

The freethinking Gwyneth Llewelyn has once again given us an article that's worth your consideration.

For those Outside the Know, crowdsourcing is a term coined by the authors of a recent article in Wired magazine, written to cover the concept. Crowdsourcing is a reaction to the need for new media companies' desire to grow while remaining competitive and relevant, without having to expend the financial and spatial resources to provide the content necessary to do so.

In other words, these companies depend on their users to generate the assets necessary for added value -- for free. Gwyneth points out in her article that this is Linden Lab's primary mode of business: they provide the servers, and we provide the content. Gwyneth goes on to develop an idea for what avenue LL might take to further this concept, and how doing so could be of great benefit to us all. The next time you're feeling down on the way things seem to be going with SL, I recommend you read her article, and have some hope for the future -- it looks bright!