The Sum of Our Parts @ Nitroglobus

Is Happiness A Warm Gun - Alles Klaar

Last night I attended the opening of Alles Klaar’s and Kynne Llewellyn’s exhibition of photography at the Nitroglobus Gallery, owned by my friends Dido Haas and Nitro Fireguard.

Actually, I was late to the opening. I got involved in a fun and funny IM and time just flew-by even though I’d had had the opening pencilled in all day. By the time it finally dawned on me that I was late, the region was already full – such is the popularity of Alles’ and Kynne’s work, and the Nitroglobus Gallery itself. It would be another 90mins before there was enough space on the region to squeeze in!

Hats In Art - Kynne Llewellyn

The exhibition, called ‘The Sum of Our Parts’, showcases some of Alles’ and Kynne’s extensive flickr collection, a sample of which can be seen here. The exhibition is so named according to Alles’ notes because “if you look at our work you will often see me in human form but with android arms, or Kynne in dolly form but in the most wonderfully glorious outfits.”

What I especially like about these photographs – apart from the obvious fact that they are superbly composed with fabulous avatars, outfits and attachments – is that each is a little vignette of a larger story. You are not told what events proceeded the image or what follows, but are given a momentary snapshot in time. It is analogous to opening a novel randomly and reading just one paragraph or page.

Two Dolls and a Troll - Alles Klaar

Kynne herself puts it well, “My images are just pictures …. a mood … a moment in time. I would love to be thought of as a visual storyteller and my pictures as illustrations to a children’s book… It is fascinating to hear what imaginative stores others come up with as they look at them.”

Sunday Afternoon - Kynne Llewellyn

Once again Dido and Nitro, artists in their own right as well as gallery curators, have put together a fine exhibition well worth the effort to visit.

The exhibition runs at Nitroglobus Gallery until the end of July. I highly recommend it, as well as viewing Alles’ and Kynne’s respective flickr accounts.

Pixie xx

Breathe Easy - Alles Klaar

Scissorhands - Kynne Llewellyn

The Enchanted Doll - Alles Klaar

Circus Roncalli - Kynne Llewellyn

Seeking Hazardous Adventures

Norman Avedon has been niggling at me to visit Hazardous for a few months! I’ve put it off time and again because I wanted to commit all my spare time to completing ‘mere reflections of her’. With that machinima now released, I teleported over to the region for a gander.

The landing point at Hazardous looks fabulous and has an unusual, fun and quirky method of getting you down to ground level. I’ve deliberately not taken any photographs of this area so as not to spoil the surprise. But I’d recommend tp’ing to the landing point yourself rather than having someone teleport you directly onto the island.

On finally landing at ground level, you find yourself amidst the small (presumably Australian) rural outback community featured in the photos in this blog-post and on the flickr page devoted to the island.

Everything on the island is detailed and picturesque. It is ripe for a machinima to be made there and I can easily see myself returning to film scenes.

I especially liked the mountain gorge and cliffs. I would say however, that on my first visit they did not rez in my viewer until I right-clicked to make them pop into place. I am happy to report that when I returned on the new Firestorm version (4.4.1 (33164)) I saw them straight away.

One of the more remarkable things about Hazardous is that so many people are there at once – taking photos, dancing, chatting, parachuting, whatever – between 10 and 18 at a time, with people coming and going constantly. I experienced no lag at all and didn’t drop below 50 fps even at 288m draw distance with ‘Advanced Lighting Model’ and ‘Ambient Occlusion’ on. As I say, ripe for machinima.

There is something very attractive about this region. In many ways it reminds me of our own home island. They are both homesteads being used to the fullest extent – lovingly landscaped and decorated to describe the small rural communities they serve. Whereas Hazardous is a decaying outback community, our home region is more a lush farming community in the Hebrides, say; whereas Hazardous is open to the public, our home region is private to the group of eight artists who live there. But these are only surface differences – the *feel* is extremely similar, and so is the awareness of the labour of love that went into creating it.

   Mandingo Quan (Dingo), the owner of Hazardous, has done a fine job of creating a popular, scenic and charming place. I really do recommend a visit. Incidentally, Hazardous also wins this month’s ‘Telegraph Pole of the Month’ contest (picture to come soon), so congrats are in order there too!

Pixie xx

MachinimUWA VI: mere reflections of her

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

-       Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)

Click for full-size

Embedded below is Lazarus Doghouse’s and my MachinimUWA VI entry, “mere reflections of her”.

How it fairs in the actual contest remains to be seen but regardless of that, and as trite as it might be to say, the result itself pales into insignificance compared to the amount I have learnt from making this film, and with the enjoyment of collaborating with Laz.

Although I have not yet managed to find time to watch all of these year’s entries, I have seen a quite a few. A number stand out for me as most certainly in the running. Of her three MachinimUWA VI entries, I’d single out Hypatia Perkins’ ‘Cloud’ as very special indeed; of their two entries, Karima Hoisan and Natascha Randt’s ‘Window On A Train’ is an exceptionally good and inspiring machinima; Chic Aeon has three entries and I particularly enjoyed ‘Drawing Outside the Lines’; Erythro Asimovo’s ‘Egmont’ is a visually impressive piece set to Beethoven; Braclo Eber’s action-packed ‘Stolen Reflections’ was tremendously enjoyable, especially the imaginative way of incorporating the ‘UWA Treasure’ at the end; Tutsy Navarathna’s ‘Narcissus’ is possibly one of the most finest Second Life art-machinima I have seen, now enhanced even further with an English voiceover provided by Rysan Fall.

All these deserved to be watched and enjoyed in HD. Most certainly there will be other exceptional and enjoyable machinima amongst the 30+ entries thus far.

“mere reflections of her” is a simple tale of lost love, simply told. I had in mind a melancholy-feel immersed in a field of vibrant colour. Kierkegaard’s “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” was never far from my thoughts during the post-production process. Another more personal and private matter – unsuited for this public blog – was also constantly in my awareness. To those to whom this film is privately dedicated, we hope that it helps in some small measure, and also warrants the trust placed in us.

“mere reflections of her” is not and was never intended to be a “feel-good” movie.

With its completion however, I can now get to do those things which have been lingering around on my list-of-things-to-do, like watching Serenity and Arwen’s latest machinima, ‘Wet Weekend’, writing the next machinima review for Alexus Minotaur’s high-quality online periodical, blogging and catching up with friends in Second Life.

Please enjoy Laz Doghouse’s and my “mere reflections of her” in 1080 or 720HD:

Pixie xx

Film Locations:

Alirium Gardens, Alir Flow
The Sun Also Rises, Mabb Dilweg & Shane Fairlock
Topophonia, Alpha Auer
Rainbow Horizon, Adec Alexandria & Debbie Trilling
DeePosed, DeeDee Deepdene
UWA Treasure, University of Western Australia
Winter Moon, Dream Shadowcry

Special Thanks:
Adec Alexandria
Debbie Trilling
Herc Serpente
Mabb Dilweg & Dr. Shane Lovelock
Tutsy Navarathna

Film & edit by Pixie Rain
'Left Out in the Rain' written & performed by Lazarus Doghouse