Split Screen Closes (definitely for now, possibly forever)

The last installation at Split Screen, Scottius Polke's The Scribbled Cliffs

After hosting 30 installations across almost two and a half years, I am closing the Split Screen Installation Space. I don't know if this is a permanent closure; I'm keeping half of the land, and after maybe six months I'll decide whether to re-open, close permanently, or continue in a holding pattern. I've installed a number of small works by a few of the artists who have built at Split Screen, creating a sort of sculpture garden or installation park, which everyone is welcome to visit.

The decision was very difficult, but it was neither sudden nor recent: I came to it several months ago. Close friends heard me mulling it over for much longer. Once I made the decision, I kept my promises to the artists who I had already invited to Split Screen, but I scheduled no new ones.

There are three main reasons why I'm closing Split Screen. None of them are financial.

The #1 reason is that I'm exhausted. Curating even a place as small as Split Screen takes a lot more work than I ever imagined, and my one or two efforts to delegate work to someone else didn't bear fruit because I couldn't see any way to delegate the hard parts.

Second, my feelings about the curatorial work changed, which was partly the result of the amount of time involved, and partly the result a few unfortunate incidents (which I may discuss in a later post). I started Split Screen because I wanted there to be more opportunities for artists to create the kind of works that interest me most. And it was a great pleasure to do so -- in fact I was prouder of Split Screen than almost anything I've done in RL. But as time went on, it became less of a joy, and more of a job. I don't want my contributions to the SL art scene to feel like a chore.

Finally, I'd like to blog more. It's been hard for me to blog about SL art partly because with Split Screen going, I have little time for it, and partly because sometimes it feels like a conflict of interest. (If I criticize the work of someone I might want to bring to Split Screen, will they agree to come? If I criticize their work afterwards, will that spoil a good relationship? What would happen if I think an artist's work at Split Screen isn't as good as I hoped -- can I criticize Split Screen shows?) Blogging more will depend on my available time, of course. But with any luck I'll be able to, hopefully with the analytical and critical eye (not just cheerleading) that I tried to bring to it originally.

As I said, none of my reasons are financial. The main thing is that I'm burned out.

In many ways, Split Screen was a "proof of concept" experiment: I wanted to find out if it's possible to have a high-quality installation space within the limits of what I could afford, merely half of a homestead sim. That's a relatively small financial commitment. The prim resources are also small, but I bet on the idea that artists can create major installations with only 900 prims. And indeed, despite the limitations, the quality of the installations artists created for Split Screen was high. OK, a couple of works disappointed me, but that's always a risk when commissioning new art. Of course, the limits of available money and land resources weren't the only potential barriers: so was being a completely unknown person.  Would people trust me to let them work as they pleased?  It turned out that even two years later, some of the artists I invited to Split Screen had never heard of it before, yet gladly agreed to build there anyway, and only one artist ever said that it (or at least I) wasn't good enough for her.

On the whole I think Split Screen succeeded artistically. From that perspective, I accomplished my main goal. I wasn't able to achieve two other goals. One was fairly minor: not many of the builds had the level of interactivity that I hoped for. The other was more frustrating: I wanted to give "emerging artists" opportunities to create large-scale works, but the only time that happened was when the artist got in touch with me, rather than vice versa. (Hint: the easiest way to get to build at Split Screen was to tell me you want to!) My lack of success in this area looks stranger and stranger these days, because LEA has often given full sims to people I'd never heard of. One reason might be that I simply haven't had time to see enough art. Another reason might be that people apply to LEA because it has high visibility, and never think of Split Screen or perhaps don't know about it. Compared to LEA, everything looks little-league (maybe this explains the artist I mentioned who sneered at me). There was also a lesser goal -- I wanted to schedule artists that would make an interesting pair, whose work would rub against each other in intriguing ways. Unfortunately, cancellations and scheduling problems skewered almost all of my attempts in this regard.

Interestingly, one incidental aspect of Split Screen -- the fact that it was located on a residential sim -- became increasingly important to me. Nearly all art in Second Life is safely enclosed, either within a gallery or museum, or on a sim to itself. A few places show art outdoors for essentially decorative purposes. Not many areas mix art and residence, and in Split Screen's case, because the installations were large, the mixing was "in your face" -- certainly for the residents, and for the artists too if they paid attention. For that reason I started describing Split Screen as "art unboxed."

I have a long list of people to thank, if this really is the end of Split Screen. First, the artists (in alphabetical order, except when working as a team): Alizarin Goldflake, Artistide Despres, Betty Tureaud, Blue Tsuki, Bryn Oh, Cherry Manga, Douglas Story & Desdemona Enfield, Eliza Weirwight, Eupalinos Ugajin, Giovanna Cerise, Jo Ellsmere & Pyewacket Kazyanenko, Kolor Fall (Patrick Faith), Maya Paris, Miso Susanowa, Misprint Thursday, Oberon Onmura, oona Eiren, Pinkpink Sorbet, Pixels Sideways, Rose Borchovski, Selavy Oh, Scottius Polke, shellina Winkler, Simotron Aquila, soror Nishi, Trill Zapatero, and Yooma Mayo. Three dear friends helped keep my insanity going: Emma Portilo had the dubious honor of hearing most of my muttering, Kara Trapdoor helped fund Split Screen as it got off the ground and always promoted it in her blog, and Isabelle Mavendorf was the DJ for nearly all of the parties (and an exceptional one too: hire her!). Various other bloggers and magazine writers helped get the word out about installations, and a few people made machinimas there. And I thank all the people who enjoyed coming to Split Screen. I heard many kind words from them.

But my deepest thanks go to someone probably none of you have heard of: Syzygy Merlin. She owns Beleza, the homestead sim where Split Screen is located. Without her support and the support of her partner DFox Spitteler, the Split Screen Installation Space literally would not exist. Not every sim owner would be willing to let half of a residential sim become an art space where a bunch of crazy people created large works (sometimes visible from over a sim away), which sometimes blocked other residents' views and occasionally led to complaints and I suspect a couple of departures. Syzygy has been in many ways Split Screen's greatest supporter. If you ever want a little space to work or a cottage to live in, please rent from her. Nobody in Second Life deserves it more.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (that I made up)

Have you really thought this through? Don't make hasty decisions!

I have. I didn't.

Are you leaving SL?

No. In fact if I blog about SL art, you might wish I did! :-P

Is this permanent? Will Split Screen ever come back?

I have no idea. Maybe yes, maybe no. I'm taking a break, but I'm keeping half of the land so I can delay that decision. If I do re-open Split Screen, I may do it under a different model (perhaps only one artist at a time, or less frequent changes, or more repeats of previous artists, or who knows). Or I may continue the same approach. In the meantime, don't hold your breath.

What are you doing with the land you're keeping?

I've turned it into an installation park or sculpture garden for my personal enjoyment. I won't be advertising it, but it will be open to the public. The SLURL is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beleza/3/243/23

Aren't you worried that artists are going to be upset with you?

Not really. Some will be. Some won't be. Probably SaveMe Oh will be delighted: one less curator in the world to interfere with Art! <grins>

You're really doing this because artists are assholes, right?

Actually, most of the artists who've built at Split Screen were wonderful to work with, and it was truly an honor to host them. Some even became good friends. A couple of them lived up to the stereotype about artists, but the majority were great.

Was Split Screen hurt by the LEA sims?

I feared that it would be when the sims were opened. LEA provides enormous opportunities for artists, far beyond what Split Screen could offer. However, Split Screen's small size meant that as long as I could get two artists, I was on my way ... although getting artists to meet their agreements was sometimes a challenge. The LEA sims could have hurt Split Screen by drawing away potential visitors -- for casual art viewers the LEA sims clearly offer more bang for the buck -- but the visitor statistics don't bear that out either, because they have been reasonably steady. (Not that the numbers were ever what I hoped, but I suppose many curators feel that. Except maybe for the curators of the now-closed Art Screamer sim, where the visitor counts passed the tens of thousands.) My concern at this point is that LEA inadvertently led artists to feel no need to seek or talk with independent curators.

Are you thinking of curating a LEA sim?

No, I don't plan to apply for a LEA sim. I can't think of a circumstance in which I'd want to -- the basic issue, after all, is that I'm burned out from curating. I suppose anything is possible so I'm not going to say I never will, but for the time being I doubt it.

Nooooo I was hoping you'd invite me to build at Split Screen!

I hadn't yet invited all the artists I might ever want to bring. But are you saying you're so fantastic and famous that I should have come begging you to work at Split Screen, or that you're not very well known yet but nevertheless I should magically know you exist? The best way to get to build anywhere is to ask. Maybe a quarter of Split Screen's artists got there by asking. I really liked being asked, and to be honest, had more artists asked, I might have kept Split Screen going longer. In a few cases I had to tell someone no (maybe they weren't creating the sort of art I want, or they weren't quite ripe, or whatever). In one case, a year later the artist asked again and I said yes. But usually I said yes right away. That includes one person who was decidedly an emerging artist.

Can you loan me 10 lindens? I'll give it back to you tomorrow!

My, that certainly is a frequently asked question. Sure, just give me your credit card number as security. I'll give it back to you tomorrow.

OK, folks. Maybe Split Screen will return some day, maybe it won't. Meanwhile, everyone is welcome to start their own installation space. I've shown it can be done. And thanks, all of you.

Nice blog post on "The Scribbled Cliffs" by Scottius Polke

Honour McMillan wrote a lovely blog post on "The Scribbled Cliffs" by Scottius Polke, at Split Screen through 10 May. Thanks, Honour!

Scottius Polke's "The Scribbled Cliffs" at Split Screen

Through April to 11 May, Split Screen is presenting The Scribbled Cliffs by Scottius Polke, Second Life's most famous tiny otter. An earlier version of The Scribbled Cliffs was actually built some time ago but it was never exhibited to the public, which was an otter disgrace. Also Scottius stopped building in SL for a while to focus on his physical world art (where he's known by the name Scott Rolfe), notably his assemblage illustrations for some of Aesop's fables called Æssemblage, which is available as a book. So it's great to have him back in SL with a revised version of The Scribbled Cliffs.

The Scribbled Cliffs by Scottius Polke

Walk up the road until you reach the volcano, which spews out colored tubs (script credited to Desdemona Enfield). Click once or twice on the blue tub sitting in front of the volcano, and it'll rez a tub which you can ride into the sky. You can grab the tub (if you hover your cursor over the tub, your cursor will become a hand) and fling it across the sky.

The windlight setting for The Scribbled Cliffs is "[TOR] SUNRISE - Tusken"; if you use Firestorm, it will set automatically.

There were several preview posts for this one, by Quan Lavender , Ziki Questi, and Kara Trapdoor.  Thanks, all of you!

Teleport to the entrance at Split Screen: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beleza/21/220/27

A Rant on Men's Clothes in Second Life

I'm going to go completely off-topic. This is my blog, I'll write whatever I like!

Despite my past efforts to convince Kara Trapdoor to the contrary (it's fun to pull her leg), I am in fact male in the physical world. And like a lot of men, shopping for men's clothes appeals to me about as much as cleaning up after an overstuffed and rancid-smelling garbage bag bursts on my bare legs. Possibly less. I almost never do it. A friend once gave me a gift card and it took me a couple months to even go to the store. It doesn't help matters that few stores in SL pay much attention to men, let alone men with my particular tastes. (Me in a store when TP is down: "Help! I'm a male and I can't get out!")

So when I heard about the 49L Sale For Dudes, I thought I'd check it out -- at least I might find one or two stores with worthwhile men's clothes. The experience was almost enough to put me off clothes shopping for a year. Alright, that's partly my own damn fault, I should've dragged a female friend around with me. I have zero patience for shopping; they have zen.

First, pleeeeeze large and even medium sized stores, especially in malls: I'm not shopping for women's clothes. If I want women's clothes I'll send a female alt (assuming I have a female alt). Right now, I'm looking for the men's clothes. So you gotta help me find the men's section! I shouldn't have to spend 15 minutes camming everywhere to find the 3% of floor space where the men's clothes are. Put up a teleport system, or at least a map! I want to get to the men's section fast, find the one or two things I'd actually wear, and scram. Point #1: Figure that I want to arrive at the right spot 45 seconds before anything's rezzed. (Yep, I'm zen-deprived.)

Ducknipple is right over ... right over ... ummm ..... OK, truth in ranting time: the reason I didn't find the teleports inside Ducknipple is that I couldn't find the store. There's no directory at the landing point, and there weren't store names above all the entrances. I ended up camming like mad until I found men's clothes. Yeah, stupid me, not knowing instinctively that Ducknipple was the big store with its name way off to the sides in gray lettering over a slightly lighter gray background. (Click photo to enlarge.)

Second, let's assume I've found the men's clothes and now I'm looking around. What do you have to offer me? Let's see ... oooo a pair of jeans! Yay! It can join the 47 freebie jeans already in my inventory, where yours will be indistinguishable from the ones I picked up five years ago! Woohoo, I gotta spend my money for those! And OMG, a tank top saying "Suck my Richard," gosh how can I live without wearing that! Over there, wow, a leather jacket ... a business suit ... a plaid sweater ... a solid-color tux .... /me keels over, nearly comatose with boredom.

I'm not kidding, look at the photos in the website for the sale, you'll see what I mean. A couple of items are worth a TP, but nothing is a stand-out. I can't entirely blame the designers -- men's clothes in the physical world are excruciatingly boring too -- but seriously, with all the ideas they pour into women's clothes, surely they can spare a few for guys too. I suppose even crap sells, and undoubtedly the tepid as well, but possibly it sells because men aren't given many alternatives. In any case, once I have (say) one decent leather jacket, I'm not going to waste my money for another unless it really has something special. Point #2: Don't bore me to death -- if you want to sell to me, then make something interesting and unique. I'm never going to buy just another leather jacket, but I might buy a very different one.

Top row: Two of the items in the 49L sale. Yes, I know, if I don't like it I don't have to buy it; the issue is that this approach to men's clothes is depressingly widespread. Shoot me now. Bottom left: One store's men's section. Bottom right: Did the designer get a license from DC Comics to use the Superman insignia? There are definitely ways to appropriate other people's work that come under "fair use" (in the UK, "fair dealing"), but this is not one of them. But the point here is the utter vacuum of imagination required to simply swipe what already exists. And yeah, more tank tops.

I told a female friend about my frustration with men's clothes; she agreed, but added that men's roleplay clothes can be really sexy. Maybe I'll join Gor, just for the fashion sense. (Sigh ... ok, not my style either.)

After visiting some of the stores participating in the sale, I went to Hoorenbeek, which a friend suggested I check out. What I found was very well made, but mostly standard issue stylistically. However, to my amazement, they did have some shirts that were kind of neat, up on the second floor. (At the store I visited, the entire first floor offered whole outfits, which isn't a bad idea since piecing together an outfit from one's inventory as about as dismal a prospect as buying the stuff in the first place.) So I checked the price and had myself some sticker shock. L$480? For a simple shirt?? I checked out a couple of the women's stores nearby and saw attractive gowns for less than that, plus full outfits for L$500. I don't know whether Hoorenbeek thinks that their work is so fantastic or their customers so desperate for anything half-tolerable, but I'm not buying it, in either sense. I don't think the shirt is mesh, but that too would be no justification for overpricing. (Besides, mesh is both overused and overrated.) Point #3: Selling me something for L$200 may be L$200 less than you think it's worth, but it's L$200 more than not selling it to me at all.

Interesting men's clothes at a reasonable price definitely exists. For example, a few years ago I picked up some vests from Pixeldolls in various colors (colors!!) and with different designs on the chest (designs!!). But eventually my women friends told me they were sick of my vests, go find something else. I've been miserable ever since. I even pay attention to Fashion Freebies for Men, but usually it seems to be a lost cause. I'm not simply being cheap: if a store offers free yet appealing clothes, probably there's more and better to be found there. Presumably that's why designers offer freebies for women.

And in fact it works. I was frustrated by Ducknipple's lousy outside signage, and the item they offered in the 49L sale looked like a "maybe" in the photo but didn't grab me when I looked at it up close. Still, while I was there I noticed a few other men's items that I'd actually consider. Yep, a bit of style there -- and good prices (mostly L$195, for the women's clothes too). Ducknipple focuses on casual clothes somewhere in the continuum from funky to spunky. Probably a little "young" for me, but I'll probably look again.

So, clothing designers: I know some of you are earnestly striving to offer good men's clothes, and I appreciate that. Here's what you need to know: I'm well over 35 (like most of SL), I didn't discover my Richard three weeks ago, I'm intelligent, and I don't need to prove how tough or powerful I am. It's fine by me if the women who have the hots for guys with huge muscles leave me alone. (Well, sorta fine ... I mean, I wish ... oh, never mind.) While I'm nobody's idea of a butterfly, I do have an aesthetic sensibility. I don't just want excellent execution: I want interesting. I'd like a dash of flair and creativity in my clothes. Maybe even more than a dash. Subtle is good, but so is directness. I've seen plenty of women's clothes that hit that mark. Surely you can make some for men?

[End of rant. We will now return to our regularly placid programming.]

PS: The fact that I hate to shop for myself does not mean I hate accompanying women when they shop. In addition to the pleasure of spending time with a friend, I get to satisfy my wish to see clothes that are both sexy and smart, and help her look attractive too.

PPS: After reading a draft of this post, one of my women friends threatened promised to take me to some men's shops, and then she dumped a boatload of LMs on me, so we'll see. Maybe I'll take this all back. Or maybe I'll need psychotherapy due to the trauma of shopping. I've probably doomed myself by writing this post....

Machinima by Hypatia Pickens set in Cherry Manga's "Danse Macabre" at Split Screen

Hypatia Pickens just released the machinima "Winning Touch," set in Cherry Manga's Danse Macabre, which Split Screen hosted in December 2012.  As part of it she reads one of her poems (she frequently incorporates her own writing into her machinima).  Hypatia is a superb machinimatographer who knows how to integrate other's art with her own.



Thanks, Hypatia!

Yooma Mayo and Pixels Sideways at Split Screen During February

Yikes, am I running behind on things!

Running through 28 Feb, Split Screen presents two new works: Yooma Mayo's Yes, Giovanni, and Pixels Sideways's Afterlife: A Journey Through the Imagination of Pixels Sideways.

Yooma is well known for his fantastical, enormous, mechanical, steampunkish animals, such as the seahorses at a LEA sim and the elephants at The Lost Town (La Citta Perduta). In Yes, Giovanni he continues in this vein with two huge goldfish leaping through the air, looking like they are charging into each other. Beneath them is a railway stop, with the engine off in the distance. I haven't come up with an interpretation for any of this (including the title) but it's magnificent nevertheless.

Yes, Giovanni, by Yooma Mayo

Pixels has a long history in SL arts, and Afterlife is to some extent a retrospective, but many of the works have never been publicly displayed before. She writes, "The concept behind Afterlife continues to shift and change, in much the same way each individual interprets the meaning of 'afterlife' in their own context of existence.... More specifically, Afterlife is a journey through my imagination which is in a constant state of loco-motion." (Note: the lighting in Afterlife is intentionally low, so photos are a bit difficult to take.)

Afterlife, by Pixels Sideways

SLURL to the Split Screen entrance: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beleza/36/219/1501.

A reason to spend more time in Second Life

At the top of my front porch stairs, 22 inches (56 cm) deep

At the bottom of my front porch stairs, 26 inches (66 cm) deep

The official depth was 34 inches (86 cm).  Guess I got off easy.