There are times, when you actually feel the Universe pushing really hard, and at the same time making it very easy, for something to be born, and you are the mid-wife in attendance. This video by Natascha Randt is an example of one of those times for me.
DB Bailey, architect, artist and friend, (David Denton Architect) Im’d me a few nights ago and said these enigmatic words,
“I think I have redefined the word excess.”
Well, of course I had to see this new definition, no doubt in a brand new installation he was finishing…so without hesitation I flew to bear witness.
When I arrived, I was overwhelmed by his textures and colors, and his vision of opulent gluttony for the eye and the soul eyes of anyone who begins to feast on what he has put together. My friends and those who follow my blog, know what an influence DB’s Art has had on my poetry, my narrative prose series, and my machinima. It seems as fast as he builds them, I am devouring them, and then some form of undefined alchemy turns them into something that comes from my own imagination. This new installation which is part of the sim Creations for Parkinson’s is aptly titled, “Compulsive Creativity” and it is a visual delight, at every turn, and at every level.
DB logged for the evening, but I knew who I had to call…my friend and video-collaborator Natsacha Randt to see this build. I won’t try to say her first impressions here, as I am hoping she will make that comment herself, but when she first arrived, it was hard for me to tell what she thought of it. She was sort of silent, taking it in, and then she said, “Gonna take some shots…ohh this is a nice angle…ohh I really like these windows…” and I quietly slipped away and left her alone at the installation, knowing, that there was a good chance a video had just been conceived:)
So, the next day I went back and took some stills that caused a poem too ooze out of the walls of colorful irises, and fall upon my paper, with the title, “Advice to a Flower” (see previous post) I showed it to Nat, and later she told me she wanted to use it as the title, and asked me to record the last verse for her.
So I share with you, an experiment as Nat calls it, filmed in DB’s heady-oppulent romp of textures, with a bit of advice for flowers at the end. The music is Nat’s own creation by the way, and testimony to her many talents as an original film maker. Enjoy!
Digital Rabbit Hole 
Wow! Rich rich rich… This looks to be an overwhelming, gorgeous installation by DB Bailey and I will have to visit it soon in world! Natascha again draws the lucky viewer, or more accurately, participant, along with her on the trail she has blazed. Both her machinima and original music are wonderful. Karima’s words and voice are the perfect finishing touch. Well done and thank you for sharing!
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Thank you WaMark for your comment and your obvious enjoyment of Natascha’s latest. Yes I agree, the first time I went to see this build, I was overwhelmed with how the textures and colors drew me right out of myself…hard to explain, but I had tears in my eyes..because well beauty does that to me. I think Nat’s unique eye captured all the rare beauty that is hidden in so many surprising little views..I love the music too..That’s our Nat:):) I really enjoyed what you had to say:)
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Parkinson’s Disease, my companion, causes in many people an explosion of creative energy sometimes reaching a level of compulsion. I know. So I wanted to build something that speaks to that excess. It’s like a journey through my inventory or my brain on a compulsive day. It’s thrilling to produce in such quantity but can easily spin out of control. This installation is out of control. It’s fun to be out of control when it brings so much relief from the day to day demands of my companion.
Thank you Nat and Karima for understanding that refuge and giving your perspective on it. All are welcome to visit.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Solace%20Lake/72/155/1817
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DB I know this meeting room for the Parkinson’s support group (that has already morphed from the brown circular seating we see in the film, into a burst of greens and orange tones) will be an inspiration for so many.It’s not easy to walk inside your brain, because you are a pack-rat of the most striking colors and textures popping out of those hues, that I have ever seen…and yet, for me personally, what you call excess,I call over-whelming beauty..and yes, it truly does overwhelm the senses..Thank you for sharing your Art, your opulent visions with all of us in Second Life. Your refuge continues to be the inspiration for so many.
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Spectacular experience… stunning color and movement of form and texture, music gliding through this divine many hued madness…. for me, thrilling to allow to enter my sensitivities… a profound yet madly light filled playful creation….WOW!…and then of course, when Karima sees/feels this…..wowzer comes her brilliance to erupt, inspired by D.B.’s amazing and ever morphing Art… and her poetry is inspired, beautiful… and now Natasha enters the fun… and created her inspired machinima…. and what do we have…. a Vision of other worldly brilliant EXCESS!!! X- 3!! The energy of it LIFTS ones spirit!!!
I am honored to experience this. Thank you!!! Now maybe i can take the rush i get from this and pick up a brush…:) Rush to da brush…
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Smiling big..”rush to the brush” indeed! Well you Jan, maybe more than anyone who knows me, you see how much DB’s ever-surprising-mind has influenced my own art form,my poetry. This video was just the alignment of three people, who in some way, have all influenced each other, and now come together in a film so beautifully thought out and made. I just loved stepping back a bit and watch the magic take over, when Art inspires Art. I agree, there is a wonderful and very personal energy in her video. I feel the proud midwife of an innovative birth, that was the product of all of it coming together in Nat’s film. Thank you for your always -enjoyed comments and insight.
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My my:) Thank you Karima for sharing this little experimental video here:) I called it an experiment, cause I got the invite form Karima and hopped in…and wow! I was confused about this explosion of bright green and orange 🙂 but after all, I’ve learnt, don’t trust your first impression, eeehm… sometimes. Especially when Karima shows me something, cause there’s always more than what keeps the eye. So I use the flycam to explore a bit and got some great angles, ahahaha yeah I really love the windows:) I tried to find the rythm of it and I think I’ve found it. The first the scene after the intro is the key point.. or key scene if you want 🙂
Same time Karima invites me to see DB’s new installation, I was playing with the new music software and all the loops and samples which come with it. I had that idea of a fantasy video, after I act as a dwarf and the goddess Freyja for Celestial Elf, a good friend and filmmaker, too. But first I want to have the music for it. So I made this little piano piece.
Back to the first scene of the video 🙂 I shot this while Karima stand beside me, telling me a lot of things 🙂 And…you know, sometimes there’s this little “click” in your head…and I had this vision about an elven palace. powerful, bright, open and in all its beauty. And I knew, wow thats it! With some changes the music will fit perfectly.
So I shot and shot and explored the installation.
Surprisingly Karima wrote this awesome poem “Advice to a Flower” and that was another key for the video.
I know that filming an installation is not my strong suit. I watched a lot of those and painfully I missed the human touch in most of these videos. Thats why I love Spiral’s videos, they always have it.
And I want it too, like in the video “This is just a Nightmare” showing Karima’s “Float” installation on Kitely.
So I changed my outfit to the one from seek wisdom and shot myself a bit to have a contrast to the powerful and colourful installation. Using of the Freyja outfit is a reminiscence to that elven palace above 🙂
Okies, back to Karima’s “Advice to a Flower” 🙂 I was reading it often while editing the the video and It is really awesome and most of all, what is a better symbol for the beauty of life, than a flower in all its colourful beauty. And yes it fits DB’s installation so well. So I asked Karima to read the last verse, cause I want it, naa, I neeeeed it 🙂 for the very last scene of the video. For some reasons, but the most important is that human touch. And Karima made it! Thankies:)
Listening first to it I thought “eeeehm…. hmmm… not sure…” Cause I want it more like a whispering, like the “beauty of life” voice. But then I thought, hey, with a little music it will be a very awesome contrast to that “beauty of life voice”. And yes, it works so well in my opinion.
Lastly I was looking for an really appropriate title design. I really love this one, cause of the letters falling a bit like petals. The white and blue colours are like water and sky and flowers need both. As a side effect the contrast colours make it easy to read the titles 🙂
All in all, I think you know now, why I call it an experimental video, and I am not talking about fx, cause there’s only a little blur effect and some Depth of Field, nothing more.
Finally, what can I say? Big thankies to Karima for pushing me again 🙂 And also a big thanks to DB for confusing me in a very good direction with your installation:)
Hugs
Nat
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Big hugs to you Nat, and yes my intuition told me when I watched you sort of dazed and silent upon arriving on DB’s build, that you weren’t quite sure what you felt…because we can use many words to describe what he has done there, but I have talked to a few now who have come, and one of the first descriptions I hear from them is “overwhelming” But you decided yes you could “find its rhythm… you could ‘whelm it’ 🙂 take the over out of that word:)” I want to say here that one of the reasons I love your comments, is your willingness to share your methods, your thoughts, your doubts… all of it … all of it that becomes part of the process of how you make a film in a virtual world. That brings me to the next point, which is my continuing awe and gratitude for being in Second Life..for having the opportunity to collaborate with others, and as we decided when we spoke of this, each putting in his part, the whole becomes much greater than any one of the parts and that is the a sort of magic that I can do… and love to be part of. This is your film, my poem and DB’s “Compulsive Creativity spread out all over his 3D canvas of choice.In the end it made us all feel good to see how it just moved us that we actually did it. I love that..I know you love that. We talked of this with Seek Wisdom.” Nat we have never talked in voice, yet we understand..our communication is such that what we decide to do, comes quickly..and with almost no muss or stress.. just some dedication and the willingness to throw our talents in a hat and pull out a live rabbit.. one we can admire, and feel thankful that it came into being. Thank you for making this film, for believing that if I recommend it, maybe there is something worth seeing..and allowing me to be a participant..What joy!!
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Karima, Natasha, and DB are a gourmet meal put together by the Master Chef. I am glad I saw this video before I ventured to the sim because had I not seen it first I might have blown a fuse or two. Now I can go well prepared and will try to find my own rhythm to all your art.
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Aww Thanks RAG! Nat’s movie does buffer DB’s build “Compulsive Creativity” a little, and granted this installation is the polar opposite of your very creative participation in the de-saturated Carneval of MadPea, which I too just loved. But you have spent so much time there, I think you very well could have blown a fuse..or maybe just fall under the spell..Speaking of that MadPea build, wow, what an incredible testimony to collaboration is that!
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Loved the poem and the film! You two make Wonderful collaborations! I hope that Many people will visit D.B.’s installation and share his marvelous creation!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Solace%20Lake/72/155/1817
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Thank you so much Spiral for commenting and for believing in us as good collaborators. Yes I think anyone alive should take a few minutes out and visit DB’s awe-inspiring build:)
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I won’t take away from DB, or his companion… for they created “what came from beyond” in all of this. He did… what Karima did… in “This is just a nightmare”… and gave us a view into his mind (and WHAT a view! wwwOW!)…. BUT…
I won’t take away from Karima’s poetry, oh my NO! ALWAYS Karima’s poetry!!! With each word of it, I smile like a fool, for one full hour… (and that adds up to a LOT of smiling) ;o) BUT…
Its official… Natascha is a shining creative genius too. This is so truly amazing. The cinematography, the musical score, her self, the set, and Karima’s poem… all woven into the most beautiful tapestry of motion and sound. Thank you, Nat. I am so truly humbled by the creativity that surrounds me in SL… and this… well, this is next year’s competition first prize winning machinima! I guess you guys are off to Disneyland then… nothing left to do LOL… ;o) I mean, who’s going to top THIS?!! (“filming an installation is not my strong suit”) ohhhh STOP!!! Who’s going to believe THAT any more? ;o) I can’t wait to see the next “reality” the three of you pull from your magic hats! What a thing of wonder and beauty!
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Oh my goodness,what words and how you orchestrated this comment! Well, telling you here your words brought tears to my eyes..and took my own right out of my head..Thank you for everything you said here,..Thank you for the biggest generosity of spirit that I have known in anyone!! You give so freely to support others, and that is rare..so rare. Thank you for being part of my Second Life…Wow if I was moaning a few weeks ago about that SL has “changed” you and everyone in these comments, Nat and DB in their artistry and willingness to share, and so much love and appreciation has changed my mind totally..So blessed to know you Shesa..thank you! Hugs!
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Shesa, you see me a bit speechless after reading your comment. First off all a big Thank you 🙂 Some people say I have an eye for catching the important (or something like that), but without all the artists, poets and builders and all the other creative folks, there were only a blank sheet to film, and that doesnt mean that I want to hide my light under a bushel:) In this way, all what I do is then a part of a collab, it is a kind of give and take and I fear, I take the most:)
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Amazing- breathtaking- this is what the word ” awesome” was created for, the video is stupendous and DB this build is one I want to run to see and lose myself in- Karima what a magnificent finishing touch to this masterpiece! I feel so blessed to have met you both in this second life we live!
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Beacon, thank you so much for your lovely comments and yes, run and lose yourself in “Compulsive Creativity” It is inspiring, and opens up anyone who begins to climb its colorful ramps skyward!
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Goodness gracious… decadent richness that captures the primary senses at every level. I had a beautiful experience accompanied by the delightful music and your prose. It was/is AWESOME!!
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Aww Sis thank you so much..yes it is a delicious decadence that DB has laid out for his visitors..his new definition for “excess” I agree with you,that Nat really captured it and her music took it to another level..Proud I had a little part in it too..big hugs Sis..
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This is a stellar piece of ingenuity combining the talents of three accomplished artists. The alliance of these virtuosos must be credited to technology and Second Life. Nat, DB, and Karima are spread across the globe, but came together to produce this delightful masterpiece. I am awe!
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Aww Hoyt, thank you for your comment and for your eye on the International that becomes our backyard in Second Life. We now take it for granted, that we can have 15 countries represented in any given gathering in SL. Nat’s movie that captures so beautifully DB’s Compulsive Creativity is another reason..I am still here living my virtual life..and you are another too 🙂
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