Tizzy is a Brit, studying for a PhD in Contemporary Art, and some of this film-making will be contributing to her thesis work. She also has a blog, in which she writes very well about a number of themes connected to virtual reality, photography and various Second Life locations.
I’m pleased to say that she has now turned her attention to Khodovarikha, and has made a movie that combines – literally, with a split screen – Second Life footage taken at the sim with an archive film, ‘The Great Northern Sea Route’, that was made in the USSR in 1947. The juxtaposition of real and virtual that Tizzy achieves here is absolutely fascinating …
I wanted to draw attention to three videos that were made recently at Furillen. As can be seen here, the sim has featured in some really well-made videos, and it’s a pleasure to add these three to the list.
All were made during recent music events at the sim. The first is by Tizzy Canucci, and serves as a great reminder of the installation she made for our Radiohead weekend.
The second is by Dooozy, and this captures the sights and sounds of our recent disco night.
This won’t be a regular slot, but who can resist this as a celebration of everything that makes Furillen ‘fit together’ as a sim. Made by Dooozy, I think it’s brilliant.
We have some great scenes (and great music) at Furillen today, with a Radiohead-themed sim that is deliciously surreal. I will post more pictures in due course but here are some early highlights …
The event runs on tonight and will continue throughout the day tomorrow. Even if you are not the band’s greatest fan, I would urge you to drop by simply to take a look at the deco.
We are showing some Radiohead videos on the sim – mainly featuring live performances by the band, such as their legendary 1997 Glastonbury set. In addition, some of our regular visitors have made their own machinima, featuring the sim and set to Radiohead’s music. You can watch them right here …
While we’re handing out the plaudits, I wanted to draw attention to the fact that Carolyn’s wonderful machinima from Furillen was featured in Flickr’s Explore recently. Current number of views – 10,349 !!
Carolyn had to cut the video in order to post it on Flickr, so I am sure she will be happy if I tell you that the full version can be viewed right here on Vimeo.
I know that some of you are working on this, but others were a little reluctant because it seemed like too much work, or too complicated. So while there are still almost two weeks left before the deadline, allow me to simplify what this round involves.
Pictures.
Of, and about, Furillen.
Furillen in SL. And also – if you wish – Furillen in RL.
Theme: ‘what Furillen means to me’.
So … if you are holding back from this round because it seems too complex, please think again.
This is a weekend with a difference, because although I will do everything I can to pull something together that is every bit as rich and as fun as the Bowie event was, on this occasion I wanted to go a step further …
So I am inviting you to make your own pictures and videos inspired by Radiohead songs to display at the sim during the event.
Which give me an excellent excuse to show you this, of Thom Yorke, going kind of apeshit himself …
… and also to brag about being present when this happened – unannounced – during the UK’s Latitude Festival last summer. Thom with Portishead, singing The Rip …
Many people are already working on producing pictures and videos for this weekend. I’d like to make it a really collaborative event in which everyone who wants to contribute, can do so.
If you have an idea but you’re not sure about whether it fits, contact me or Mareea Farrasco, who is helping out with the organization.
The likely answer in most cases is ‘yes’.
Third. Abba. Some of you said yes. But I’d like more. All I have in mind is a costume party, based on one of Sweden’s greatest exports. (I could, of course, have chosen Ikea or Volvo … ?)
Now click this, and I dare you not to be moved, somehow …
If you’re a child of the 1970s, or a more recent convert to the music of this great spandex quartet through watching the wonderful musical and movie, Mama Mia, let me know.
As I’ve said before, although Furillen stands in many ways for solitude with its emptiness and austere mood, it is a sim that lives and thrives on the strength of the conviviality one finds there. The sim is a virtual community of artists as much – if not more – than it is a landscape.
This is expressed in the art that gets made there: in the way that creative ideas are realised and expressed, shared and displayed. With our previous events – the Moon Edenbaum exhibition of portraits and the Bowie weekend – these qualities have been merged to create occasions that have been genuinely immersive and involving, and really quite memorable for those who took part in them.
In more spontaneous forms, too, Furillen is finding its own particular ways of expressing itself as a social space. The flashmob events are a great example of this process – and we had another last night. The line-up reached a peak of avatars on the sim within minutes of being announced, and while people came and went as first life commitments called on their time, a large gathering of Furillenites remained in place for several hours during the evening, plotting and planning future events and collaboration.
This was, for me, Furillen at its very best, as expressed in these extraordinarily fine pictures by Nhera Larnia (above) and Laura …
Of the future events we talked about during the evening, perhaps the most exciting will be the Radiohead weekend.
2016 will be a big year for the band. Having been on hiatus for a number of years, they dropped their ‘rejected’ Bond movie theme song – Spectre – onto an unsuspecting public on Christmas day. The song, which I love, has been on the sim’s music stream ever since that time, as are a number of other Radiohead tracks.
Here is Spectre as we might have heard and seen it in the movie theatre, were it not for the exceptionally poor musical taste of the film’s producers…
Here is the image the band is using to publicise the tour – and possibly the artwork that will be used on the album itself – mocked up as Furillen’s welcome mat. Please note – geek alert! – that the font I have used here (BD Plakatba) is from the Kid A album …
As a few minutes on Google will testify, Radiohead’s music lends itself very well to all kinds of original artistic expression, and this is what we would like to tap into and celebrate at Furillen.
We are therefore inviting producers of machinima and pictures – as well those who work in other media – to join us in exploring any aspect of this band’s music that inspires them. Our suggestion – but it really is only a suggestion – is to focus on a particular song and produce a work that conveys it or responds to it in some way.
We have been approaching people individually to invite them to contribute, but if you read this and feel excited by the project, please get in touch, I am very open to ideas.
As ever, I am pulling this together with help from others. In this instance, Mareea Farassco is lending a hand, so please also speak to her if you want to take part.
Let’s fix a date in mid-March for this.
Not everyone likes Radiohead’s music, of course – and not every band or music genre demands or justifies a full weekend of attention. In this spirit, I wonder about holding some smaller, shorter – evening-long – musical events in which we can face the music and dance.
So here’s a question for you. For a shorter music event at Furillen, involving striking costumes and music from Sweden that you can sing along at home to, does anyone fancy some of this?
Let me know, and I’ll ensure that it happens very soon.
From Potsdamer Platz
You never knew that
That I could do that
Just walking the deadSitting in the Dschungel
On Nürnberger Strasse
A man lost in time
Near KaDeWe
Just walking the deadWhere are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you knowTwenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead
Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know
As long as there’s sun
As long as there’s sun
As long as there’s rain
As long as there’s rain
As long as there’s fire
As long as there’s fire
As long as there’s me
As long as there’s you
Furillen 