Not sure how to begin this post without sounding like I am blowing a very blaringly immodest horn, but really I just want to share the miracle..that somehow fate made me a “builder” on the virtual alternative and growing world of Kitely- Virtual Worlds on Demand.
Kitely Worlds Showcase
I have told this story and several variations of it before, over the past two years. I “blame” my sudden impulse to create virtual worlds on my friend and mentor DB Bailey.
DB (David Denton Architect in RL) who is always ahead of just about everyone,and invited me to come see a world he was building on a place called Kitely, that at that moment was in beta testing, and was inviting people to come create anything they wanted at absolutely no cost.
Dogwood by David Denton
I will include here a small machinima I made for DB and this world (in my very primitive and novice style) below:
Now, two years later, I have many worlds that I created on Kitely, and Kitely has grown up and out of beta testing stage, and has begun its metamorphosis into a thriving virtual community (Complete with its own Marketplace.)
Yesterday I got an email from one of my oldest friends on Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand, Lawrence Pierce who is owner and creator of “Serenity Island,” one of the most beautiful worlds to be found there, telling me about the creation of a Welcome Center and a place that housed and Showcased some of the more interesting worlds.
Lawrence Pierce’s “Serenity Island”
Below I will do a bit of my own Showcasing and show you some more of my favorites too:
“Transgenia” by Daniel Hoffman.
Daniel also paid my world “Float” a visit and we struck up a friendship.
Mat Mahogany, another Kitely friend, who is a real builder has some great worlds to explore.
“Butterfly Cove” by Mat Mahogany
The most loved creator perhaps (surely in my book) has to be Linda Kellie because her hundreds- closer- to -thousands of very useful and beautiful merchandise was given away freely to everyone in her Mall and other locations. Before Linda, I had to invent my clothes, my furniture, and my everything, and she was the first to say, “Here, use any of this if you like” to the whole virtual community at large. I love that kind of pure generosity.
Thank you Linda Kellie!
“Evergreen” by Devokan Trust is a nice steampunk serene atmosphere to explore:
“Evergreen” by Devokan Trust
Now… to the immodest boasting part… Lawrence Pierce said he was very happy to find along one side of the showcase area, an entire wall of my worlds.
A wall of frenzied inspiration...
There they were, sure enough, when I came in today to see the installation. Five worlds, five obsessive passions of a poet who never thought she could build, and yet on Kitely she went almost crazy building one themed installation after another. I give them to you below:
“Between The Profound and The Profane”
“Beyond Sebgram X-99”
“Deeper”
“Deeper” has its own crudely but lovingly made machinina too, which you can see below”
“Float” my personal dark favorite
My last world along the wall is this one below. It was my 2nd build, and also one of my more “normal… less dark and more romantic ones”
“Water and Glass”
“Water and Glass”
I want to thank Ilan Tochner, CEO of Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand and my very first friend more than two years ago too, for the honor of including 5 of my worlds (I have created 8 in all) in this tasteful exhibition of a selection of public Kitely worlds at the Welcome Center. The whole installation is serene and well done, and I invite you all to come see it and wander over to the Kitely Worlds Showcase and visit and click on one of them to teleport to it and explore. I promise you, if you can make a prim, it would be worth your while to get your own world, and let your imagination out to romp and play. I did…and look what happened:)
Just Click here to go to Kitely Welcome Center
Open your eyes inside the virtual...You’ll never close them again:)
Digital Rabbit Hole 
Thank you Karima, you have lovely builds so we’re proud to showcase them in the Kitely Welcome Center.
As an aside, Kitely Market just opened so you have a lot more flexibility in the type of content you can get In Kitely. Kitely Market is a virtual goods marketplace that will create a unified market out of all the separate grids that make up the Hypergrid metaverse. This will enable content creators to make serious money, while setting up only a single web-based store.
You can read more about Kitely Market here: http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-news/2013/08/30/kitely-market-is-open-for-business/
We recently added a product analyzer to Kitely Market that helps find problems in listed products, this free tool can be very helpful even for people who create content in Kitely for later use (or selling) in Second Life. For details see: http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-news/2013/09/06/tools-for-finding-and-fixing-problems-in-products/
Finally, if you want to learn more about how Kitely Market can help both merchants and virtual world users, I suggest viewing the presentation I gave a few days ago in the OpenSim Community Conference 2013: http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-news/2013/09/08/kitely-market-presented-in-opensim-community-conference-2013/
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Thank you Ilan, and I am very happy to see the amazing growth of this wonderful project. I feel so honored to have come in as a witness when you were just starting out. Kitely is a testimony to hard work and creative vision..and you and Oren have shown both and I wish you continued success. We, the residents, are benefiting more each day:) Thank you too for including the links..Very interesting and exciting innovations in Kitely!!
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I find your comments to be generous and your worlds to be inspiring…
It’s particularly inviting of you to describe virtual worlds as places for the imagination to reign supreme.
Where I live we have rabbits. They are often out at night to eat the lush green grass. I often wonder where they go to sleep – the community I live in is so developed and manicured, and between the residents and gardeners they are nowhere to be found during the day. But every night the rabbits appear again.
Virtual worlds exist as places nearly unsuspected by most people. Yet those of us who build come out when the demands of real life permit, to feed our souls by creating. The harsh realities of the modern results-oriented world often push aside these subtle yearnings, but there they are. And just like those rabbits, virtual worlds are a joy to see and I feel comforted every time, realizing the concrete jungle hasn’t completely stamped out the humble impulses of creators who relish process over completion, joy over utility.
Your worlds especially exemplify this and you suggest ideas that are normally kept away in the recesses of our minds… And thank you for including Serenity Island in your thoughts of beautiful worlds.
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Thank you so much Lawrence for your very generous comment! I loved your metaphor of the night-time rabbits..and yes I agree, virtual worlds keep our creativity alive and well.
Thank you too for sharing Serenity Island with all who are lucky enough to discover it. I think we who create and we who enjoy others’ bursts of creation, have been very lucky to make Kitely our home. Yes, we can invite people to wander through our subconscious corridors, our hopes, dreams and even nightmares….Such a blessing! I think the world in general is just opening up to all the myriad possibilities our virtual worlds promise, and begin to deliver so tangibly.
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Karima, I have loved your worlds since I discovered them in Kitely months ago. You also have the additional grace of being a generous and warm personality and a talented poet. Thank you for sharing your visions with us. I agree with you that a strength of virtual worlds is to provide a space for the creation of art and expression in a medium different from any other. 🙂
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Daniel, seeing you floating on Float on your Facebook page, made me so happy/ I felt that thrill when we touch a stranger, and we didn’t even realize at first that we did! Your imagination is an endless supply of form, skins, and Art. I think what you are doing and have done on Kitely is so innovative,alluring, and beautiful. For those of us who have not been able to find our medium for expressing the Art we carry inside, virtual worlds are an endless canvas, or a lump of magical clay, that comes with all the paints and all the tools…
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So neat! Although I have (as you know) greatly enjoyed some of your Kitely worlds, it hadn’t sunk in that there were so many, and such variety. I will have to pry loose some time to explore them, and even more of Kitely. And how can you possibly have time to be building in Kitely when you also have such a great sim in SL, and when building is just a sideline to your poetry? I wish I had your time-management skills. 🙂
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Thank you Dale,
and yes please come and see the worlds you have missed. Float, which as you know, is my favorite has nicely working and a bit less perilous boats because of your scripting, and that is very much appreciated.Kitely does not have to be an alternative to SL (like you can only choose one) For me it has been the perfect complement and I have proven you can can do both (and I am sure even more with time) As you say, my time is a bit limited at the moment, but yes, I would love to make a new world on Kitely soon. I have 8 functioning (and 4 back up) worlds on demand for $40/mo. Hard to beat that:)
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First of all, Congrats Karima!!
I remember the first time I was there. Last year, when we prepare to shoot “Tar Pit”. And being honest, it isstill one of my favs of our collabs.
More than a year has gone by and many many things happened, the good the bad and the ugly.
But we shot lots of scenes for “Dharma” on Kitely. And the SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARKS at Float. 🙂
I am waiting the day aeroplanes conquer Kitely.
Oh and let me repeat what I wrote about “Dogwood Dreams”: I like the poem and the music, the music and the poem:)
Hugs
Nat
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Aww thanks Nat and yes I too think the day on Kitely will be very soon when you can do some amazing flight videos over 16 seamless regions with no sim borders…Ahhh won’t that be fun/
I agree with you “Tar Pit”, although depressing, was a pretty neat and experimental film. Kitely for me is just coming into its potential as a dream-place for machinima. As more content is added daily, soon you will be able to get that plane and shoot it going out of sight:) Ahh Dogwood…was a nice little inspiration, and DB’s world was pure DB creative!!
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