The Collective - Leeds College of Art and Design's Island

- by Plurabelle Posthorn

Cool! A new art and design SIM is up!

It's Angrybeth Shortbreads work. As she says in this blogpost at her blog Angry's Tripping the Metaverse: "After 'totting up on fingers' 15 months of asking my college, they finally agreed to support an Island for the students on the Foundation / Ba(Hons) Design for Digital Media course , which came online about 2 weeks ago."

(By the way; Angrybeth is one of the speakers at the next SL dorkbot meeting OBS! rescheduled to 15th of April. You can see her work at The Pencil Factory at The Port. SLurl here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Port/241/62/26)

I went over to see the new island.

Here's the notecard you recieve when arriving:

Thank you for visiting The Collective's - Design for Digital Media Lab.Home of the Foundation Degree in Design for Digital Mediaat Leeds College of Art and Design, UK.
The Studio lab and Development Island in Second Life, are a resource for the students to explore the metaverse, as a tool of production and to investigate it as an emerging communication and entertainment technology.
The main philosphy of the Lab, is to be part of the community. It is a public space, so be prepared to see work in progress and experimentation.Work from their Real Life projects will also be showcased in the Gallery lab.
So please drop by regularly to see new work.
SLurl for Collective Gallery in the Main Grid: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gourdneck/171/183/121
SLurl for the Collective's Development Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Collective/59/203/24
Moving image work is viewable at http://ddmcollective.blip.tv/
The Collective SL experience is blogged at http://ddmcollective.blogspot.com/
Annabeth Robinson - ( aka Angrybeth Shortbread )Senior Lecturer
FD Design for Digital Media
Leeds College of Art and Design http://www.leeds-art.ac.uk

While I was watching this fine animation by Ben Claidon, streamed on this pile of 12 tv sets, a young handsom avatar came up to me...

NOS Shinobu: need help with something?
Me: i just came. i'm going to explode this new place. (writing error. i meant explore...)
Me: so, are you one of the students at Leeds college of art?
NOS Shinobu: i am

Now, this handsom young avatar suggested he show me around a litle...

NOS Shinobu: this is the main building made by our tutor, that at the moment stands empty

Me: exhibition space?
NOS Shinobu: most likly. she hasn't discussed it with us fully. the last building she made she set up as a gallery for our work, but at the moment people are making their own buildings for that so nothing here yet

So we went to see the student's houses

NOS Shinobu: this is my house

Me: wow! this is beautiful
NOS Shinobu: thanks. everthing here is my design and creation. still a little work to do though
Me: so how do you like second life so far?
NOS Shinobu: im hooked. its a bit of addiction now i have got into it. i didn't like it at first
Me: takes some to to get used to it yes
NOS Shinobu: some little art bits i made here
NOS Shinobu: and my giant fish

NOS Shinobu: i made him for my friend cos her rl fish died
Me: this one's never gonna die
NOS Shinobu: true
NOS Shinobu: for the next bit we need to go on my roof. i made this teleporter to take me to another place 300 feet up. this is my club were me and my friends go when the island is full of people


NOS Shinobu: i scripted the disco ball to make people dance and i'm making the music machine now. on this wall i put the pictures me and my friends take
Me: how long have you worked to build your place?
NOS Shinobu: a week or two
Me: OMG. but you have a good teacher
NOS Shinobu: i do. one who has a passion for things like this

NOS Shinobu: ready for the next building?
Me: ok

Me: can you do whatever you want in the course?
NOS Shinobu: well no. sl isn't actualy a part of it but we do game design and 3d modeling so it fits in well
Me: ok, can you transport those things into SL?
NOS Shinobu: only as pictures, but building this here is very easy, simpler
NOS showed me all the houses, but I'll only give you a glimps of fio kaminksi's house here, and then you'll have to go explode the rest of the Island yourself.

NOS Shinobu: she made this laptop and it actualy attached to a webpage (Yes, it takes you to this beautiful blog HERE, website HERE.)
NOS Shinobu: she has made hers a home and a gallery in one
Me: only for her to use?
NOS Shinobu: our use. our group of friends we're sharing everything