This time the location of the photography is Charleston, South Carolina, our favorite vacation destination for sure. Hope you’ve been yourself, and, if not, it’s highly recommended, especially if you’re within, say, 7-8 hours.
Second part of the Wheeler-Jasper series just ahead, then, the Jasper half.
One, final middle aisle photography exhibit awaits Baker Bloch 2 ramps up, this time from the mostly deserted coal town of Pocahontas, Virginia.
END OF B_HIVIA GALLERY TOUR.
… this time containing more Parkway related photographs by Edna. Nice.
Thought I’d show a little popup which occurs when you scoll your mouse over any picture in the gallery. This one indicates that the work is the 1st collage of the (10 part) Hidalgo series, is named “Lemon World”, and costs L65, or 65 lindens, about a quarter to us flesh and blood Americans. What I’d also like to include on all pictures are their dimensions, so that if one chooses to resize the work to fit a particular space, the original dimensions will not be lost. In all cases of resizing or stretching, in SL terms, one should always check the “stretch both sides” and “stretch textures” boxes when doing so. That way the original work can be scaled to any size under the 10 meter maximum.
Just as at the beginning of the Rose Hill series on the same level at the opposite side of the gallery, at the start of Hidalgo, Baker has to quickly ascend 2 ramps to reach the middle floor of the gallery and continue his tour.
A look down to the west end of the gallery and the Rose Hill collages.
Standing on the same spot, Baker now turns south to view Hidalgo collages 5, 6, and 7…
… then rounding the corner, Hidalgo collages 8, 9, 10, as well as the first of the Wheeler-Jasper series.
Ascending another ramp takes him to the second collage of the new series at the top. This one’s called “Wilsonia Driver”, created just this year, as were all the works of this newest series.
‘Nother waterfall, a blue one this time.
“Nother trip through the middle aisle of the gallery instead of choosing to walk around the waterfall.
Baker Bloch beaming down to floor 1, of “Photography Central” again. He’s finally ready now to ascend the other side of the gallery, starting with the Oblong series.
Walking toward the far end of the gallery to ascend the ramp that will take him to the first works of this series.
We’re going to skip a bit more on this second leg of the tour, since the two halves of the gallery, structurally, are almost exactly the same. Instead, what Baker is going to do now is to walk through the *middle* part of the gallery on each floor instead of bypassing that option, has he did all through the first leg covered in parts 1-4 of this blog tour.
Below he is at the top of the second ramp on this side, looking toward the middle part of the Oblong series. If he followed the procedure of the first part of the tour, he would walk around the waterfall directly in front of him to that narrow, 3 meter wide walkway and ascend the next ramp for a direct continuation of the Oblong series to its finish. But instead he’s going to choose to go in the middle of the gallery, and view more of Edna Million’s fine virtural photographs…
…such as these from Herman Park near our RL house, encountered just after turning a corner.
And then rounding the next corner, he spies the sign giving directions to the second part of the Oblong series…
… or just up the next ramp…
… again at the top of the next ramp after that, a choice: Baker can round the waterfall here to see more collages and more quickly ascend another ramp to more collages, bypassing all photographs.
Instead he chooses to walk down the middle aisle of the gallery, as before…
The beginning of the Yale-Newton series greets him at the top of this ramp, or tiers 4 and 5 of the overall 10 tier work. This is the last collage series appearing in the east side of the gallery.
First 5 collages of Yale-Newton. Again notice there is no waterfall in front of the next ramp here.
Instead the waterfall is found in the mezzaine area containing the everpresent pool, 1/2 floor up. Again the water flows up from this direction. The idea is that the water flows from this pool and into this pool at once, creating a kind of perpetual motion action somewhat akin to the one in this famous Escher print called Waterfall.
Notice also that the waterfall now is white and not blue, like the one passed through before in the Greenup series rooms. There are, in fact, 2 blue waterfalls and 2 white waterfalls of this kind in the gallery as a whole.
Same story as before: the passage here has been enlarged to form a path for easy access to the remaining 10 collages of Yale-Wheeler.
The first 2 collages of the Newton half of the Yale-Newton series.
First 6 collages of Newton. I should also add here, perhaps, that we have a resurfacing of Lake District images in the Yale-Newton collages of the art 10×10, absent since the Greenup series (where they otherwise dominated). Each series beyond this, all the way up to Wheeler-Jasper that ends the 10×10, will contain at least several collages with this type of imagery.
End of the Yale-Newton collages. Another pool and another fountain, just like the one already found by Baker Block in his tour of floors below.
Newton 10 Collage…
… and after another tight fit through a subsequently enlarged passage, Baker only has another quick ascent through two successive ramps to reach the top of the whole structure, technically floor 7. He has ascended through the entire height of the east wing.
To continue his tour of 10×10 collages in the correct order, he must use the provided teleporter (“b_hivia Gallery: Roof”) to head back down to floor 1 (“b_hivia Gallery: Photography Central”).
Baker Bloch actually has to walk through the phantom waterfall to ascend the next ramp, taking him to…
… a room or space very similar to the floor below, once again. Differences: the water in the pool is now flowing down, not up, and there is also a fountain on the wall to its left in the picture below. The end collages of the Greenup series (17-20) are found displayed here.
Better view of the fountain with its Green Man like visage.
He’s now standing beside collage 20 of the Greenup series, its endpoint. Another triangular opening must be traversed to quickly reach the next series, Rose Hill. Just as before, there’s now in this space a 3 meter (or so) wide path, making the ramp considerably more accessible, or allowing avatars to know that this is the correct way to ascend, at least to get most quickly to the next batch of collages.
Baker now stands in front of the first of 10 Rose Hill collages, the series following Greenup in the overall art 10×10. This is from 2005, and the style of the Rose Hill series will hopefully appear much different than Greenup, more artsy and self-contained, perhaps. This was the conscious intention at least.
A little different twist in the ascent comes now, because Baker Bloch must quickly climb not just one but two ramps in succession to reach the next floor and complete his viewing of the Rose Hill series. Collages 1-4 of this series appear, left to right, in the picture below.
Floor 4 of b_hivia. Baker Bloch looks through opening framed by Rose Hill 06 Collage and Rose Hill 07 Collage toward Rose Hill 08 Collage with its dominating blue and tan geodesic shapes.
One of the 3 teleporters currently in b_hivia is located beside where Baker Bloch stands above and below. I decided to name it “Collage Central”, for on this floor (4) is found only collages and no photographs, the only time this happens within the gallery.
Baker Bloch turns right and through the last two collages of the Rose Hill series, toward yet another ramp. He’s just over halfway up the innards of b_hivia now.
Since creating this post and its snapshots, I’ve deleted the wall fan pictured below. The idea was to let visiting avatars realize this is the wrong way, and that you should keep ascending the provided ramps to correctly follow the collage story of each series.
Baker Bloch ascends the next ramp, the second on this side of the gallery. He turns around to find a straight-as-an-arrow waterfall flowing *up* from a rectangular pool. Collages 6-11 of the Greenup series surround this central scene.
Nothing within the rectangular pool. Just sand or sumtin on the bottom.
The 11th collage of the Greenup series. Here Baker Bloch must either turn around or…
…walk through the triangular opening provided just beyond collage 11 here.
Now this is where the gallery has changed in the meantime, because I’ve edited the ramp prim to create a small, maybe 3 meter wide path in the space Baker Bloch is standing on below.
Baker Bloch looking back to the triangular space he just passed through, now a path, as I just said.
He’s now reached the room containing collages 12-16 of the Greenup series, which is almost exactly the same as the one passed through before containing Greenup collages 1-5.
About the only difference is the seating provided in the alcove to the room, where Baker Bloch now sits. Oh… and the waterfall of course.
The b_hivia tour begins. Sorry that the pictures mostly look the same but the gallery is designed as a no frills, large volume art warehouse of sorts. The gallery is a bit of an art piece itself, though, and I hope it’s not too confusing to the uninitiated — i.e, the ones that didn’t build it. 🙂
To start, let’s talk about what exactly is in b_hivia, or refresh one’s memory. It contains the entire art 10×10 of 100 collages that I, baker b., created from 2004 until 2009. I consider this to be my most important art project, and certainly the one that took the longest. Not that I was working constantly on this project during those years, but 10/12ths of a solid year was fully devoted to it out of this 4 1/2 year span, to the exclusion of almost all other creative energies. I know this because each tier of the 10×10, numbering 10, with 10 collages in each, (thus the “10×10” title) took almost exactly 1 month to create. No real variances on this, whether it was toward the first or toward the last. It’s an interesting, little fact, and one reinforced recently with the Jan-March completion of the the final two tiers (9 and 10) from this year, or what I call the Wheeler-Jasper series.
The unfolding of the 20 collages in the 2 tier Wheeler-Jasper series is chronicled in some detail in this blog at the time, and you can read about them if you wish here (link also provided under the “My Galleries” page at the top of the blog, within the b_hivia description). Again, as with all my blog posts, the most recent posts will come at the top. If you dig back even further, you’ll find that the Hidalgo collage series is also described during the time of its creation, which, in that case, would be during March-April of 2008. This also means that 30 collages of the 100 collages, almost a third of the whole work, were created during the time of this blog, which dates back to February 2008.
I might also add here that I’ve constantly seen the Baker Blinker Blog as being divided into sections according to months, starting with the first post on Feb. 20, 2008. I still organize it this way, and when I print out the blog and put it in ring binders, I’ll reverse the order of the posts to make them read front to back, but I’ll also arrange them according to these month long sections. As of the present, I’ve completed, then, 17 sections, and am finishing up the 18th this weekend, perhaps.
The reason I bring this up in connection with b_hivia specifically is that my deep involvement with each of the collage series during this time, besides taking up exactly one month apiece, also corresponds with one of these month long sections, namely:
2: Hidalgo (3/17/08 – 4/17/08)
12: Wheeler (1/23/09 – 2/20/09)
13: Jasper (2/23/09 – 3/17/09)
*****
But I’ll leave a fuller discussion of that subject for another time.
The other important aspect of the new and hopefully improved gallery besides the art 10×10 of 100 collages is the presence within of about all of Edna Million’s photographs formerly displayed in the Temple of TILE, which number around 60. To remove them from the context of the temple, where they admittedly worked so well, was a difficult decision. As I mentioned, b_hivia has its pluses and minuses, and I can’t discount a shift back to the old galleries where the Edwardston Station Gallery contained *just* the 10×10, and the Temple of TILE contained *just* Edna’s photographs. But for now they are blended, and in an interesting way, I feel. This *may* be the best way to exhibit the works, separately or together.
Let’s start the tour and see how the two collections, one collages and one photographs actually complement one another within the space of b_hivia.
Below is the beam in point for the gallery as a whole. This will be floor 1 in our numbering system… there are 7 floors altogether, not counting mezzanine areas. Floor 1 only exhibits Edna’s photographs, and the teleporter for this level is currently named “b_hivia Gallery: Photography Central”, because this is the largest, contiguous display of photographs within the gallery as a whole.
A look toward the center of the gallery, with its blue table and light. Clicking on this light provides a URL for more in-depth b_hivia information, as mentioned in the notecard that should pop up for visitors when they teleport into the main entrance here.
The right or west side of the gallery on this floor contains some of the more abstract of Edna’s photographs, as well as a couple of Charleston, South Carolina shots. More Charleston pictures will also be found higher up in the gallery.
The left or east side contains Land of Oz related photographs, which should be familiar to those who visited the old Gallery at the Temple of TILE.
Ramps on each end of b_hivia (east and west) provide access to higher levels. In front of Baker Bloch below is the east, lower ramp. A green sign has since been added to indicate that up the ramp will be found the Oblong series of the 10×10.
Baker Bloch ascends the ramp to view the first of the Oblong collages…
… but let’s back up and start our tour of the collage sections of the gallery in the correct order, at least according to the age of the collages within the overall 10×10. For it is the Greenup series that actually begins the 10×10, not the Oblong series, which instead starts the 2nd half of same. So Baker Bloch has now walked to the other side of the gallery, passed the *red* sign for the Greenup series, and is, below, looking at the first collage of this series, which is also the first of the 10×10. From this point Baker Bloch will keep ascending higher and higher through the 6 floors of the west side of the gallery until reaching the roof, when he’ll need to beam down to floor 1 again to begin a similar ascent through the east side of the gallery.
The first 5 collages of the Greenup series, created *way back* in late 2004. Seems like a decade ago now. Amazing to think that Second Life itself was just getting its feet underneath it at the time.
More details soon, but for the past 2 days I’ve been heavily involved in creating a new gallery in Noru called b_hivia on my 2 remaining 1024 parcels there. As of about 8 tonight it’s done! It presents an alternate way of displaying almost all the photographs and collages of the 2 main Horisme galleries, or the Gallery at the Temple of TILE (Edna’s photos) and the Edwardston Station Gallery (my collages). There are strengths and weaknesses to both displays. If the Temple of TILE hadn’t been recently revised itself I might just say the heck with it and go with b_hivia as the main venue for Edna’s photos. I’m still tempted… I’ll have more to say about these 2 display options later. Some pictures for now of b_hivia, and, yes, it uses the old b_hivia from Gliese as its base. There’s 4 of them in this new structure, kind of a mini-Ubertemple. But the Ubertemple was too big, and perhaps its smaller successor in Otherland was as well. This seems to be just the right, and will fit snugly onto 2 side-by-side 1024s (2048 total, of course). This makes it also the alternate version of the stacked cube version of the Temple of TILE and the Edwardston Station Gallery first proposed this Spring (after the demolishment of the Otherland mega-gallery), which also fits snugly on the same amount of property (2 1024s). Very interesting… I’ll give a tour asap. And I want to chat w/ Hucka D. a little bit tonight as well. Don’t want to forget about Rubisea. But I have some more land decisions coming up soon. Do I give up Horisme already, since I have the new b_hivia in Noru at half the prim count (and 1/2 the land)? Do I rent more land in Noru, since I know I want to keep b_hivia there now? (there’s an issue with who can build at each location — considerably more options in Noru since Hucka D. and Baker Blinker can also build/rez things
there). Also the proximity to Chilbo must weigh in here; I simply am not attracted now to the Atoll continent like I use to before the escape this past winter, although I’ll always have a soft spot for the Rubi Forest itself… and the Great Wall a bit. And I have a good SL/RL friend that lives in the immediate area. Difficult decisions coming up. I’ve been in Noru about 2 1/2 months, with 3 months assured since I’ve paid rent through 8/15. And now it will be beyond for at least the 2 parcels that the spanking new b_hivia hovers above in the sky now (it’s at almost 300 meters).
There’s also the problem of where to put the newer narrative, SL photograph based galleries, starting with Where are we on that? and extending through “E” a letter of stories now. Both of these galleries have their origin in exhibits for the Something To Chro About Gallery in Yapland. Do I now keep that as well? I’ve been in Yapland, wow, almost 1/2 a year, an eternity in SL, at least for me. And I definitely want to keep options open for renting in other places as well, especially, now, Maebaleia, or most immediately. I still have my cottage in Bluedrake presently.
But to the preliminary photographs of b_hivia…
First, actually, let me present some pictures I had in my queue re the ground forest of my Horisme property, specifically focusing on a mound on the north side of the property. Not sure why I’m so interested in this; again, the mound makes a kind of convex/concave dialect with the pond immediately south of it, and the 2 represent the most prominent landscape forms of this miniature forest. Is it a remnant of a much vaster Sylver Forest that use to exist in this area, as Hucka D. has proposed? Could be. Here’s those pictures, then…
Then here’s the b_hivia gallery in Noru. More soon on that… (it’s 60 meters tall, 60 meters long, and 30 meters wide in case you’re wondering about the dimensions)
Created a preliminary study of what the future beehive on the new AI1 property might look like. Essentially this thing is 2 B_Hivias to the left here, 2 Temple of TILES in the middle, and yet 2 more B_Hivias on the right. It’s a pretty massive structure. Now whether I follow through and start filling in the outline of this thing presently is another matter. I’ll have to study the subject further. It will probably involve the purchase of yet another piece of property, if I decide to proceed.
That tiny white dot on the bottom platform is Hucka D., just to give you an idea of the scale involved here.
To make room for the experiment in terms of prims, I had to temporarily (?) delete the collage gallery that formerly sat on top of the transplanted Temple of TILE, back on AI1 now where it was originally created. So here’s a look at the skybox without the collage gallery on top of the temple. I think I like this look better… the collage gallery (again, this is the old Wright House Gallery from Tyta) didn’t really fit in stylistically with the rather stark cube that is the temple. So if/when I reinstate the collage gallery I think I’ll move it further up in the sky, still accessible through property teleporters, but perhaps not immediately viewable from the Sky Forest, as I’m calling it.
After he finishes working on the outline for the possible, new temple, Hucka D. relaxes at the central lounge area of the skybox. Unfortunately he has no money to buy a magazine or a soda at this point. Behind him is a map of AI1, with the location of the temple highlighted with a red ball. You can also see the particle ferns to his left here… I have both particle ferns and snapdragons manifesting in the Sky Forest presently. The ferns are in the densest part of the forest, in the snubbed ne corner of the skybox as a whole.
Hucka D. walks toward the table at the eastern edge through this most crowded forest area. A great view of island sunrises can be had there.
Then a little later on, Baker Blinker decides to recheck the skybox and take her own snapshots. This is where you beam in through the provided teleporter at this location. There are about 6 teleporters on the property now.
Baker Blinker looks to the northwest corner of the Sky Forest from near its center…
…then more to the southwest, over top of the purple snapdragons. Altogether there are 5 tables in the Sky Forest, with 3 visible here.
Then looking in the opposite direction toward the ferns.
Nice views can be had of the Sky Forest from many part of the temple itself, such as this one from the 4th floor.
So a decision must be made soon about buying more property. I’m inclined right now to say: I like the Sky Forest as it is, and the temple as well. I’ll just move the collage gallery a little further up in the sky and have done with it for the most part presently. That’s my gut feeling. Again this could change in, well, the blink of an eye. SL is apparently all about rapid change.
“I called this meeting because I couldn’t, in good conscience, do a walk tonight with Hucka D. sort of upset about his new build. So talk to us Hucka.”
Hucka D.: Thank you Baker Bloch. Thank you also, Baker Blinker, for attending as well. I am sorry I cut your walk short, Mr. Bloch, or made you feel guilty.
Baker Bloch:
Eh, it was daylight anyways, and I wanted to do another night hike, where I was heading.
Baker Blinker:
What’s wrong Hucka D.?
Hucka D.:
Not a whole lot. Just that my new build is not going as smoothly as I wanted it to be. We have now a considerable amount of resources.
Baker Blinker:
Maybe a ground build would be a better idea. That Victorian house Blochs was looking at tonight would be nice. We could copy and modify it, even in the sky.
Hucka D.:
Do you miss the old house at all?
Baker Blinker:
Surprisingly little, I suppose. Haven’t really thought about it a lot. We have more options now.
Hucka D.:
B_Hivia was a success. I’m having difficulty recreating that success. I think it was the property lines, the shape of the property, that determined that success. Given the ability to make a full square with the same idea is, interestingly, limiting me again. There has to be tension to create a sucessful build, perhaps. For B_Hivia, it was the tension between the square sides and the diagonal. I’m glad we had that property first.
I will tell you a little more about the new build…
Baker Bloch:
Before we get to that Hucka, let me say I was walking through B_Hivia tonight just before trekking and had some ideas for modification.
Hucka D.:
Ok, go ahead.
Baker Bloch:
This is for you too Blinks. First off, those sparklers in the middle gallery have to go. They’re causing a little lag. Next I thought about floor, tiled floors for some of the middle part. The walls are good… the floors may need a little work. Maybe.
Baker Blinker:
Perhaps we should tell the two or three readers of the blog about the switchback to the “Outlands” idea, and putting up those two signs again.
Baker Bloch (smartly):
I believe you just did ma’am.
Baker Blinker:
So Hucka, finish the story about your new build.
Hucka D.:
Well, recreating the pattern of B_Hivia may have been a good idea at the time for the new land, but I’m thinking we should go in a totally ‘nother direction, maybe. I can save what I have of this build and come back to it, of course.
Baker Blinker:
What did you have in mind? It has to be a beehive of sorts, since you’re a bee. Do you miss your original beehive?
Hucka D.:
It was cozy. Back to my new build. It was or perhaps still is going to be called the Temple of TILE.
Baker Bloch:
What about that cave system near AI5? Might we study that for a possible model? And I also remember some nifty 9 level cave you could buy on SL Marketplace Exchange. We could study those as models.
Baker Blinker:
Good idea Blochs. Might we make a *ground* cave? Something different.
Baker Bloch:
Possibilities are pretty much wide open now.
Baker Blinker:
We do have the mini-forest already at the road. I like that.
Hucka D.:
It’s nice.
Baker Bloch:
We could just make the whole lot ground cover, like [delete explorer name] did with his island setting. Maybe we should go back to that island. We also have the second property to work with on this project if needed.
Baker Blinker:
Move the Hidalgo Gallery to the new lot, although its perch on the old seems perfect in a way.
Hucka D.:
The new build, getting back to it, is 250 meters higher in the sky that B_Hivia. The view will not be as important, then. Viewing the island is not really an option at that height. It becomes more of what I’d call its own microcosm, internal. As such, essentially divorced from the island far below; it has to sustain its own energy in a different way than B_Hivia, which was more open to the outside. There is a nice flow or interaction between outside and inside on that long diagonal. You can see the outside, and the outside can see in to you.
But there are several things I like about the new build. First is the greater height of the project. Second is the use of properly rugged floors, for now [i.e., the floors have rugs this time]. Another is the several linked parts that fit one into the other.
Baker Blinker:
Sounds like you’re not ready to give up on the temple idea, Hucka D.
Hucka D.:
Yeah, there’s just so much more we could do now. Baker Bloch, I’d like to talk to you more about TILE soon.
Baker Bloch:
Any time Hucka D. Would you like to start now?
Hucka D.:
Maybe a little. As you know, I’ve had this idea to either make a robot or become a robot myself since entering this body from RL.
Baker Blinker:
Blinkerton, you mean.
Hucka D.:
Yeah, mostly. So, what I really like about the temple — and I’ll go ahead and share some of the design ideas with you since I’m unsure I’m going to keep working on it — is that it could be seen as a tetractys. Remember Mr. Bloch told me that Tik Tok in SID’s 1st Oz can be seen as a tetractys, and this is the first robot in literature to many or perhaps most. This is because he is a summary of 1, 2, 3, 4.
If this temple is to work, and it perhaps still could, there are several things that must be recognized. First off, it is a symbol of Seathwaite Fell in England, where the Council of 9 made the important decision to become the Council of 1 and make the least the highest instead. The temple is this mountain or fell in British-speak. It is also a symbol of the 36-Square as adapted to fit SID’s 1st Oz in your interview of Booker T. Collectively, I mean.
Baker Bloch:
You mean baker b.’s interview of Booker T.
Hucka D.:
Right. Another idea, then — following this original idea which has to be true if the temple is to be a success — is that we would have not one but two waterfalls in the structure, one symbolizing the real Taylorgill Force on the northwest side of Seathwaite Fell in England, and the other, in the opposite corner of the structure, as the TILE or Tyle waterfall projected by your collective Oblong collage series.
Perhaps to get from one level to another you have to “fall down” these falls, even. But it would be like the waterfall in B_Hivia, except doubled, at least. The falls would somehow have to be perpetual again, like the Escher waterfall.
Baker Blinker:
Interesting that you’ve divided the waterfall in B_Hivia into two distinct parts again, but with no connection to each other now. And that the central tree grows out of the upper pool that feeds this/these waterfall/s.
Hucka D.:
The waterfall in B_Hivia is a key, yes. Also perhaps Wet Rock.
Baker Blinker:
It sounds like to me that you know what you’re doing, Hucka D.
Hucka D.:
Baker Blinker, have you thought more about Alma and the concept thereof?
Baker Blinker:
No.
(to be continued)
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