After the success of our ‘Meet the Designer’ series of talks at the Home & Garden Expo in May, we have decided to do it again – and make it even better – for Second Life’s Eighth Birthday (SL8B)! We’ll be in the SL8B Auditorium every day with not just one, but three different sessions talking to some of the wonderfully creative people who help create the magic of Second Life – which is the theme of this year’s celebration.
At 2pm each day, we’ll reprise our ‘Meet the Designers’ interviews, but this time Saffia Widdershins and Elrik Merlin will moderate talks that bring together great designers to discuss a specific topic! On Tuesday, Nikki Brennan and LaDonna Upshaw will discuss working as creative partners; and on Wednesday the ambituous notion of moving from furniture-making to fashion will be explored with Maxwell Graf and GM Nikolaidis.
Froukje Hoorenbeek and Isla Geleach will discuss their new ‘Designer’s Challenge’ programme on Thursday with the two people undertaking the second challenge: Pandor Popstar andGala Charron, while Colleen Desmoulins and Pitsch Parx join us Friday to talk about ‘Setting a Style.’ Then we’ll round things out Saturday with a fascinating discussion on ‘The Power of Narrative in Home Design’ with Fornicola Butuzova and Elle Kirschner.
We’ll ‘Meet the Artists’ at 4pm each day, and exploring Virtual Art in sessions led by art historian Rowan Derryth, who write the popular Ekphrasis column on our blog. On Monday she’ll chat about immersive art with Scottius Polke; then explore the very nature art with Glyph Graves, PJ Trenton and Eliza Wierwight on Tuesday. Art & Accessibility will be explored with Maya Paris on Wednesday; and the next day it will be a ‘Misprint Thursday’ as we explore collaborative practice with the aptly-named artist.
On Friday, Chantal Harvey will talk to us about the rapidly growing phenomena of machinima; then we’ll wrap things up on Saturday with a discussion on virtual art and avatar identity with fourworlds Ra – who is perhaps better known in the guise of Botgirl Questi.
Finally, at 6pm each day, Ceejay Writer and Aisling Sinclair will join the roster of aforementioned hosts to lead a series of open discussions on a variety of interesting subjects. Panels will be gathered to talk about Breedables on Monday; Linden Homes on Tuesday; the Prim Perfect Pathfinders and Trailblazers will join us Wednesday; two unique communities of Second Life will be explored on Steampunk Thursday and Dr Who Fandom Friday; then we’ll discuss the notion of ‘Virtualism’ and if it could be a new artistic movement on Saturday. Sunday we’ll close our talks with a panel from Treet TV.
And if that wasn’t enough, we’ll be filming our two fantastic TV shows out there – join Saffia & Elrik for Designing Worlds on Monday the 20th and the 27th, and Tricia Aferdita for Metaverse Arts on Sunday the 26th. Whew!
We do hope you’ll join us, and JOIN IN!
Full schedule:
Prim Perfect 