Alongside RL celebrities like Ray Kurzweil and Jeff Barr, I was lucky enough to present on the BizTrack and EdTrack, and sit on two panels on the FashionTrack at SLCC 2009 (Second Life Convention) at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. Here are my presentation PowerPoints (ppt) slides:

BizTrack presentation:

“Branding for a Cause - Two Case Studies in the Arts” was a two-part presentation by avant garde virtual world artists Eshi Otawara and Ina Centaur, that tells the story of each artistic brand name that both sustains and is their art, in a very economically-materialistic virtual world. The presentation started with an introduction (slideshare | ppt) that set the “status quo” of Second Life, and how that really isn’t a medium for art or any endeavor that requires the input of abundant time, care, and love:

And continued with - Eshi Otawara’s presentation, which is available on Eshi’s site.

And, concluded with my presentation (and an informal Q&A), entitled “Ina Centaur and The Creation of the SL Shakespeare Company” (slideshare | ppt)

EdTrack presentations:

Shakespeare’s Virtual Theatre (The Ina Centaur SL Shakespeare Company - The SLCC Introduction) (slideshare | ppt)

Primtings: A Museum of 3d “Primmed” Paintings (slideshare | ppt)

sLiterary, Inc.: A Mini-Overview (slideshare | ppt)

Just confirmed and finalized - I will be presenting on the Business Track and the EdTrack @ SLCC (Second Life Community Convention) in San Fran @ the Westin St. Francis Hotel! (I might also be a last-minute panelist on one of the Fashion Track’s, and maybe the EdTrack 5×5’s and SpeedGeek.)

So. Presentation-craze. Hoo!

(On Friday the 14th @ 3:30 PM, I might be popping into the Fashion Track as a designer-CEO panelist.)

On Friday the 14th @ 5 PM, Eshi and I will be the two black swan-esque independent artists presenting on the Biz Track. Here’s both the brief 250-char version of our abstract, and our longer abstract for “Branding for a Cause: Two Case Studies in the Arts”:

On Saturday the 15th @ 10 AM, I will be presenting an overview of three of my dearest artistic projects on SL on the EdTrack.

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I will also be popping into Grace McDunnough’s Music in Virtual Worlds event Sat @ 3 PM. Here are my answers to her survey:

I am answering as a venue owner/event organizer, performer, and attendee/fan.

• Based on your experience, what’s working really well now? In other words, what would you NOT change?
  Second Life is a painful medium to use for performances. It’s passable for rehearsals and small gatherings, but, for large events, due to lag and object loading issues, Second Life is not better than a radio stream.
• What needs to be FIXED and why?

  Load abilities (It’s very difficult explaining to an RL audience why your Stephenson-esque metaverse can’t accommodate more than 100 avatars per sim, and suffers from non-trivial lag starting at merely 20!)

• What services, features or options need to be ADDED to improve your experience overall?
  Voice-chat moderation in main-chat (not group chat). Listen-in only feature for non-mod’s.Make large events less crash-prone.
• In your opinion, what is the MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE to be made in the next 6 months?
  1. Minimally, some voice chat moderation features in main chat (not just group chat). Listen-in only feature for non-moderators.
  2. It would be nice if performers could easily port their local voice chat (with lip sync) to group voice chat - directly without using external software. This would be useful for directly “simulcasting” a local event to another venue, using only SL.

  I believe both of the above would not require the invention of new technology. Item 3, below, however, may be something the SL prim-based-architecture can’t get by:

  3. Make large events less crash-prone? Allow more than 100 avatars per sim?

Screenshot of my survey quant’s:

Oh, btw, everyone go and take Grace’s SLCC Music survey!

The Super Spoof plays @ 5 PM on April 1. ONE DAY ONLY. The SL Shakespeare Company is going to multi-parody a whole bunch of things from 2008, and see if they flow with Twelfth Night–that is, this is the SLSC’s “Twelfth Night - Popular Culture Analogues” Edition.

Everything is summarized by the playbill above. Please feel free to link. This is a strictly unofficial fan production; the SUPER SPOOF-esque version of Twelfth Night just for April Fools Day 2009 - just for fun - join us at the SL Globe Theatre at 5 PM PST (GMT-8).

Naergilien Wunderlich has created a “One of a Kind” dress that is a meticulous Second Life reconstruction of Queen Elizabeth I’s Rainbow Portrait dress.

This dress can be obtained through a silent auction that ends at 4 PM SL Time on Winter Solstice December 21, 2008.

The bid is currently at L$10,600. IM and notecard Naergilien Wunderlich directly with your bid.

Proceeds benefit the SL Shakespeare Company in their SOS “Save Our Sims” Campaign.

Closeup Image:

Here are a few more shots (click for big pic):

Unedited “Direct-from-SL” shots of the two main ad photos above are here (click for big pic):

These photos are taken direct from SL with “Atmospheric Shaders” turned off in Edit > Preferences:

This dress is also available in “3d preview” at Wunderlich’s Garb Mainstore and at the Shakespeare Island sim. More details here on Wunderlich’s original post.

Queen Elizabeth I will be making an appearance as Gloriana Sixpence in the SL Shakespeare Company’s Shakespeare on Ice to premiere on December 21, 2008.

The SL Shakespeare Company Returns to Shakespeare with Twelfth Night:
In Their Usual Trademarked Extravagance…

Shakespeare, Second Life: The SL Shakespeare Company (SLSC) will perform a full ensemble performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: Act 1 in a special short-run advance miniseason as part of their Fall Season 2008 repertoire. Opening on SLSC Thursday, November 13th (following a “sneak peek” on November 12th), the full-length Act 1 is the first part of the culmination of a summer’s worth of rehearsal-performances in SLSC’s tag-team staged reading series of Twelfth Night.

Maintaining their tradition of visual and theatrical extravagance, the miniproduction also introduces the usage of multiple rotating sets, incognito animation preloading, global lighting and weather control to SLSC stagecraft technologies. Live dynamic camera control by a director finetunes the performance with a cinematic appeal, while international subtitles, the SLSC’s “Pay as you Will” philosophy, and the play’s location in the confluence of four island simulators of the SL Globe Theatre make the performance accessible to as many as possible.

Directed by Ina Centaur and Voice Directed by Enniv Zarf, the production stars MadameThespian Underhill, Joff Fassnacht, Prospero Frobozz, Ludo Merit, Maedin Tureaud, and Lorne Harlequin, and also a motley cast of “silent actors” who create a different variation of a background crowd each time.

Miniseason schedule (All times SLT or GMT-8):
Wednesday, Nov 12 - 11 am “sneak peek”
Thursday, Nov 13 - high noon
Friday, Nov 14 - 1 PM
Saturday, Nov 15 - 2 pm - (ticketed)*
Sunday - no show
Monday, Nov 17 - high noon

*Most of our shows at the SL Globe Theatre are free, but VIP/ticketed shows charge a nominal admissions fee of L$500. The smaller audience may entice.

ABOUT The Company: <<<
The SL Shakespeare Company (SLSC) is a resident-funded and resident- supported professional theatre company that embraces the best of what Second Life (SL) has to offer. Since 2007, we have been making history by providing extravagant and unforgettable theatrical performances on Second Life. With each show, we continue to shape the field by developing and releasing a new technology for virtual theatre on Second Life. Our vision is to make live Shakespearean theatre available to anyone anywhere with a computer to create new possibilities in entertainment, culture, and commerce for residents of a diverse, unbounded geosphere. Those are the side effects of our mission: to make Shakespeare cool again! Latest News: http://blog.SLshakespeare.com

ABOUT The SL Globe Theatre <<<
SL Globe Theatre, sLiterary is a virtual reconstruction of the Original Globe Theatre that historians conjecture stood in Shakespeare’s days. It is meticulously adapted as a functioning theatre in the massively multiuser virtual world of Second Life. The SL Globe Theatre is the most historically accurate rendition of the Globe Theatre on the Internet. Its SL rendition is set in the confluence of 4 island simulators - thus allowing for the maximal number of local audience members. Web preview: http://visit.SLshakespeare.com

Drop by a free show (or a VIP-ticketed one), take photos, post to the group, and win! Drop by the SL Globe Theatre anytime before the show for a sneak peek of the sets.

SL Globe Theatre Pit entrance: http://SLurl.com/secondlife/Shakespeare/255/255/25
SL Globe Theatre Main entrance: http://SLurl.com/secondlife/sLiterary/23/13/23

The NEH recently switched from the icky PureView form (which actually requires a Windows 98 machine to use!) to Acrobat form packages. It’s interesting the pdf is made to emulate the old PureView form interface. After about half a dozen submissions errors (Error: Intake servlet is unable to save the data. Error message:: Broken pipe), I finally get a grantor-received email, so I guess I’m FINALLY done. Yippee!

SLSC Pillar #1 Reloaded

We didn’t quite make our first pillar in our 14-Pillars fundraiser. Nope, though at the time we started it there were 14 million registered accounts on SL, we haven’t yet seen every single one of them drop by and donate just L$1 to fill these 14 pillars, a million per pillar. We only raised about 0.25 of our first pillar. Now that we’ve had our fun with art in our last production, we must return to the nitty gritty fundraising again. So, here’s Pillar #1 Reloaded.

To kick off this fundraiser, Aberdon Enigma and Fauve Aeon of (Ardentia)Ars has donated 38,976 square meters of double-prim contiguous land in an Azure Island private residential estate. The land can be taken as a whole, or as parcels, with starting bids:

Seth 1 4208m2, 963 prims, L$1510/week tier @ STARTING BID L$6000
http://SLurl.com/secondlife/Seth/123/68/61
Seth 2 4416m2, 1010 prims, L$1575/week tier @ STARTING BID L$6000
http://SLurl.com/secondlife/Seth/69/59/57
Seth 5 4592m2, 1051 prims, L$1630/week tier @ STARTING BID L$6000
http://SLurl.com/secondlife/Seth/31/69/56
Seth 7* 8992m2, 2058 prims, L$2953/week tier @ STARTING BID L$12,500
http://SLurl.com/secondlife/Seth/197/214/63
Seth 3 16,768m2, 3837 prims, L$5193/week tier @ STARTING BID L$20,000
http://SLurl.com/secondlife/Seth/82/115/57

Or, if you want all of the above parcels,
ALL: 38,976m2, 8919 prims, L$12,871/week tier @ STARTING BID L$42,000
Note, if the ending bid of the smaller parcels is more than the ending bid of this large parcel,
the large parcel will not be auctioned off as a whole.

)))))))))))))))))) The auction will be LIVE Tuesday 9/23 at high noon SLT. (((((((((((((((((((((((((
at a special location on the land to be auctioned:
http://SLurl.com/secondlife/Seth/97/76/59

But, for those who cannot make it, a silent auction will be in session. Visit the parcel you’re interested in and find the pillar owned by your favorite SLSC-spectator avatar “Ticket Stand.” All donations are accepted and noted, but bid your highest bid to win!

In addition to owning great land for a great cause, winning bidder of each auction will receive a choice of three skins from the SL Shakespeare Company’s SL Globe Theatre Gift Shop. (The runner up will also receive their choice of two skins.)

*Seth 7 also comes with two free Adobe houses created by Azure Island builders!

Please contact Ina Centaur if you’ve any questions. ina.centaur@gmail.com

Pillar #1: Ransom for the SL Shakespeare Company & SL Globe Theatre

Shakespeare, Second Life: The SL Shakespeare Company last month announced its Fourteen Pillars Fundraising Campaign, whose goal is to fill up all fourteen pillars to raise L$14 million, L$1 million per pillar. On Friday, July 18, to kick start the closing weekend of its month-long Twelfth Night staged reading series, the troupe plans to hold a “Twelfth Night MegaFundundraiser” in attempt to fill up the first pillar.

At 1 pm on Friday the 18^th, seven actors will be jailed for their acting crimes by “an evil director,” likely Enniv Zarf, producer and director of the Twelfth Night staged reading series. Each actor’s bail will be set to L$100,000. Their goal is to woo the audience with only improv acting and their wits. Enniv Zarf explains, “The practical point is to get all of them out by 7 PM so that we can give the encore performance at our previously scheduled time.”

For the remaining L$300,000, the Company also plans to turn the SL Globe Theatre into a true black box theatre—“black, black, and nothing else”—in the historic first ransom of a virtual building.

Ina Centaur, artistic director and executive producer, comments, “We are truly what we say we are—a group of thespians and other professionals dedicated to our craft, bound together by Shakespeare, and way-too-excited to wait for outside funding before beginning something truly spectacular within the virtual world of Second Life. Furthermore, beyond the fact that we are trying to be Shakespeare’s analogue in live virtual theatre (the man was the foundation of modern theatre; we aim to establish the foundation of virtual theatre), we are also trying to create good within and for the audience of a virtual world that has more often been associated with the bad. In turn, though the money would be raised to create the good within, we believe this good will flow out of Second Life through the positive impact of the experience we create.”

Centaur has also been involved with numerous fundraisers based in Second Life, most notably her recent notable contributions in the Second Life Relay for Life campaigns. Despite her success she holds uncertainty in this upcoming fundraiser, “While my RFL teams together have raised over L$3 million through passive efforts and huge bursts through short-term events, we had the relatively easy job of campaigning for an existing and well-established charity for a direct health-related cause. Albeit The SL Shakespeare Company is known to be a source of good in Second Life, the concept of campaigning for major funding for a good within Second Life may be too revolutionary for others to get. We’ve got some tough mileage ahead, both with the technology and production mechanics, and also with convincing people of our ideas… We’ll just have to see what happens.”

Shakespeare, Second Life: In June 2008, the SL Shakespeare Company (SLSC) announced the “Fourteen Pillars Fundraising Campaign” to help raise capital for its highly anticipated full-length full-ensemble production of Hamlet and other Shakespearean works. The goal is to raise L$14 million to fill up all 14 currently-empty pillars of the Campaign.

In a backstage private presentation given to VIP and members of the 1300+ member SL Shakespeare Company group on Second Life, executive producer and artistic director Ina Centaur gave a brief recounting of the various Globe Theatres she had built on Second Life and other virtual realities, and also the Second Life land problems the Company had to face, which ultimately forced her to invest in purchasing four island simulators for the Theatre. She then explained the Company’s goals and revealed its financial status, “We’re not funded by any external agency other than our own passion for the endeavor—and that’s really also internal… And it is so rare to see that in a humanities project, but we have it! We’ve already done what other projects with hundreds of thousands of real US dollars could not do. But, to maintain it for any longer, we will need your help…”

The problem arose in April from the Company’s all-too-sensational, but all-too-sudden miniproduction of Hamlet: The Mousetrap, which featured a cast of a baker’s dozen live actors and introduced the faces of the play’s main characters, including Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Polonius and Gertrude. Centaur explained the miniproduction’s major problem, “We tried our best to work the schedule based on the actor’s availabilities; but having Second Life as a second or third or fourth or lower priority simply won’t do for a full-ensemble full-length production.” Managing director Sabina Stenvaag stated, “Scheduling was chaos, and we’ve even had to deal with some last minute re-casting before a show opened.” Co-executive producer and director Enniv Zarf agreed that, “The only way a full-length full-everything production would work is if we had everyone taking Second Life seriously, take their roles as a full time first life job for a month.”

“We’re going to continue no matter what. We hadn’t planned to ‘demote’ our productions to staged readings, but we had to do so due to funding and because we wanted to be able to continue to perform,” said Enniv Zarf.

Ina Centaur explained, “Outside institutes and funding agencies do not seem to understand what we’re doing, and that perhaps explains for their reluctance in funding. We’re new and we’ve got a sprakling new idea. For the past eleven months, I have been spending a huge chunk of my time in both finding and fostering the SLSC. The theatre prides itself in its professional productions and large-scale venue—but those come at a cost. Practically everything I have done on Second Life is in attempt to break even and make the theatre self-sufficient within Second Life.”

The Campaign’s characteristic donation kiosk is a self-updating posterboard, which visually represents the fourteen empty pillars as printed woodcuts on aged parchment. As the funds accumulate, the pillars will appear “filled.” Currently, two kiosks are placed in the SL Globe Theatre. They will soon be dispersed on the walls of upcoming builds in the Shakespeare island simulator as “Elizabethan graffiti”.

I get so much done when SL is offline.

Finished makeup editions for Kassia and Dria, and also finally pdf2tga’ed the SL Shakespeare Company programme!

And now for more SQL fun @ SQLzoo…

Two Table Join

1b. Show the who and the color of the medal for the medal winners from ‘Sweden’

SELECT who,color FROM ttms JOIN country ON (ttms.country=country.id) WHERE country.name=’Sweden’

1c. Show the years in which ‘China’ won a ‘gold’ medal.

SELECT games FROM ttms x JOIN country y ON (x.country=y.id) WHERE y.name=’China’ AND x.color=’gold’

2b. Show which city ‘Jing Chen’ won medals. Show the city and the medal color

SELECT city, color FROM games JOIN ttws ON (ttws.games=games.yr) WHERE who=’Jing Chen’

2c. Show who won the gold medal and the city.

SELECT who, city FROM games x JOIN ttws y ON (x.yr=y.games) WHERE color=’gold’

3a. Show the games and color of the medal won by the team that includes ‘Yan Sen’.

SELECT games,color FROM ttmd JOIN team on (ttmd.team=team.id) WHERE team.name=’Yan Sen’

3b. Show the ‘gold’ medal winners in 2004.

SELECT name from team JOIN ttmd ON (ttmd.team=team.id) WHERE ttmd.games=2004 AND ttmd.color=’gold’

3c. Show the name of each medal winner country ‘FRA’.

SELECT name FROM team JOIN ttmd on (ttmd.team=team.id) WHERE ttmd.country=’FRA’