Heresy of The Intimate "Kitely - Virtual Worlds on Demand"
As I wrote in an earlier post, fate dragged me to an alternative virtual world about five weeks back, and dropped me off on an empty sim and said, “Make something.”
Being a die-hard Second Lifer, I had never set sail to the many other worlds out there on the virtual seas, but all of a sudden here I was at “Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand” with no building skills and no idea what I would build if I could figure out how. I must say however, there is nothing like an empty green square staring at you that now wears your name as owner asking, “So what will you do with me?” to get the mother of invention we all seem to have, wake-up inside of us and answer it with something tangible. I let my kind of whacky off-beat subconscious dictate to me, and as no other voices were balancing it out, gave it free reign on the new world, and began to terraform, tall peaks, deep seas, and make eels and odd flexi things that moved with the wind. Heresy of The Intimate was born.
The Eel Hatchery
One of the first and only actual structures I created was this “Eel Hatchery”that I put a stained glass roof upon, some mattresses/Arabic cushions on the 2nd floor (over the eels swimming in their respective tanks) and began to dream about what I could do with the rest of an empty sim. Why eels? Well because I was afraid of them, so making hatcheries, and building them homes from eggs to adult seemed to change them from relentless terror-producing little monsters to creatures as familiar as chickens (something I did grow up with in Real Life)
Before I knew it, I was making things...
Before I knew it, I was making things, and adding sounds everywhere. If flags were flapping in the breeze, I found a flag sound, if there was a snake under a rock I found a hiss sound etc, and by the way, a wonderful site to go to, to get just about any sound you can imagine, free, with just a simple registration process is: The Freesound Project. I had to use the scripts I could find out there in the LSL and Opensim Library and one of the easiest and simplest was the rotation script. I love rotating orbs, the calming hypnotic feeling they produce, and so many rotating spheres and orbs began to spring up in several spots linked to some sculpture-like creations, that my subconscious was inventing, as fast as I could make them
abstract birds flew in the sky
All of a sudden I looked up one day, and abstract birds flew in the skies, strange fish rotated in the sea, and the desert sands of Heresy called out to be filled with something meaningful and beautiful. That category is beyond my skills as a builder, but then I remembered I had The Colored Dreams, the photo testimony of my series just completed, and so I began to scatter them around, each dream being housed in a little cave like arch, and resting on its place in the sand. You can visit them, walk around and hear the sounds surround you, remember the chapters if you have read them, and hopefully be inspired to read them if you have not yet done so.
It seemed like so much empty space to fill
It seemed like so much empty space to fill at first, but once I started, and let my mind out loose and free along the dunes, the world started to take shape and became a resting place for my Colored Dreams. Each chapter is represented, and some main themes, such as fate/destiny and love after death, I have built small monuments for, so you will encounter an oncoming truck on a highway, or the glorious final dance. The mood is generally of peace, with some eeriness floating on top of breeze layers on the remote desert at night.
The Dreams are now in their own museum
The dreams are now in their own museum, and in a way it seems like that was what made it easier for me to write the words, “The End” on the last page, as I had identified so much with the tale, I was not really prepared to end it. So now it doesn’t have to, it can stay alive on its own world and each person’s imagination who visits this world, perhaps will add their own fantasy to an already collective ethereal story.
Is there ever an escape...
Is there ever an escape from what is written on a marker and pounded into our timelines?
Underwater hospitality also offered
I have created a few places, some tents, and even a restaurant that offer the visitors a rest stop, a place to sit and contemplate, after they finish wandering over hills, plains, and mountain tops revisiting the chapters of the Colored Dreams.
The song of a whale calls out plaintively at the end of the world
The song of a whale calls out plaintively at the end of the world. Sonar pings echo into the darkness of the beyond. The end of a sim never felt so final as it does down here.
No one knows what lies beyond the barrier
No one knows what lies beyond the barrier but at my little “Orbhenge” I hint that it is all light, and resurrection into a brand new world. You can sleep on a rotating pillow, go into mouse-view and contemplate your own version of what this place means to you.
"Orbhenge" where the full moon is always in the middle
In the end, there is a feeling of peace and glorious dance and soaring that invites the heart to do the same, that Karima of the story did, when she trusted and took that leap into flight.
glorious flight of our human imaginations..
Now the only thing left, is to share it with anyone who would like to come. If you already have a viewer it is very easy. Just go to my website for my world here: Heresy Of The Intimate and you will be asked to download a plug-in that works with your SL viewer and you can log in with your Facebook account. That is the only way to log-in for now, but soon there will be alternatives to fb. Since my world is open to anyone and everyone who wants to visit it, we don’t need to be fb friends, so just go back to my page and “Enter World” If you enjoyed my Dream series, I hope you will enjoy the world that it spawned. Explore and Immerse. It is my hope many will come, and if inspired by what I did with limited skills, perhaps make their own world too. Read all about the way it is set up as a virtual world on demand, as it makes it affordable to almost anyone to have their own sim and keep it indefinitely, as you are only charged the time you actually are on it. No reason why you can not do this and still be very much a part of the Second Life community. I see it as a great way for real artists and real builders to build, expand or import their art installations and keep them up, so we can go visit whenever we want to.
Contemplating the desert in the coolness of the night
I leave you with this last shot of my friend Mari who followed me from SL creating her own world, and Ilan Tochner the CEO of Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand, who along with Oren Hurvitz, is one of the visionaries, a friendly and very helpful co- creator of this new virtual world. He has come to Heresy twice to visit, and says he enjoys the peace and ambiance of the resting place for my beloved Colored Dreams. Really, if I can do it,(build a world) anyone can, and I would love to hear from those who have made the leap and come over to visit Heresy of The Intimate on Kitely. I hope you do agree that I have given my Colored Dreams an honored and lasting resting place. Come visit soon.
Digital Rabbit Hole 