Monday, April 11, 2011

AM Radio to Close His Places in Second Life in Six Months

AM Radio is an artist in Second Life whom has worked several places like a canvas. Some of his builds are small, others larger which take a little time to go about. His wheatfield, also known as The Far Away, is perhaps his best known work, and was shown to me by a few friends when I was new to Second Life, notably in Voss’ Second Life Tours. It was at the tour group I saw the artist himself, a tall avatar dressed in a rustic black coat and stovepipe hat.

Unfortunately, these classic places now have a time limit. In the Prim Perfect blog, it was announced AM Radio had made a group statement saying his places would be gone after six months time.



Dear Friends,

I know there are folks who visit my sims daily, weekly, or monthly and that these spaces have become a part of their experience in Second Life. I am announcing the closing of my spaces 6 months in advance so that it won’t come as a surprise, drama, or rumor.

It is merely the end of a series of artworks. I continue to paint, sketch, photograph and write about my time here on this little rock collection that’s spinning and hurtling through space.

IDIA Labs of Ball State University has been gracious to host my work without demand or requirement. The sunsetting of the IDIA Lab sim is the result of positive and thoughtful input from IDIA, myself, and many of you.

I have archived the work already, and I appreciate the impulse to want to save the work.

The work though was as social as any avatar in SL, making friends with many of you and enabling so many positive experiences many of you have let me know about. ALL OF YOU are what the artwork really was. It isn’t in the prims, the textures, or scripts. It was in your willingness to explore and experience the world in a way I tried to share it. My time in SL has been like having hundreds of people analyzing my dreams every morning. I have learned so much about many of you, but truly learned so much about myself.

Please feel free to continue to visit. Please encourage anyone you know who will miss the spaces to visit them with you. See my picks in my profile for landmarks. The extent of my estate is a foothold by the water. All are welcome to the infinite within it.

Sincerely,
AM Radio

In an interview by Rowan Derryth, AM Radio described his grandfather as one of his major influences, working on the Gemini space program’s fuel cells, “He was doing a lot of the prototype work in his own basement.” His father’s interest was in old time tube radios. In many of AM radio’s places, one can find an old radio in a corner.


AM Radio has places at the following:

The Quiet – IDIA Labratories (150, 79, 23)

The Far Away – Dreamworld North (220, 130, 22)

A Little Further Than Before: IDIA Labratories (145, 229, 3476)

Superdyne: Surface: IDIA Labratories (164, 183, 3024)

Surface: IDIA Labratories (137, 110, 2058)

The Ferry: IDIA Labratories (133, 160, 1309)

Checking out these places for myself, they certainly had the feel of a work of art in three dimensions. One on which one can walk about, and sometimes be a part of. In the Wheatfield (The Far Away), by touching part of the windmill one can float around, for instance.

Perhaps not as large as some places, but Second Life stands to lose a classic.

::: I never stopped sketching you.
::: The smooth flesh on your cheek,
::: the gentle wave in your hair
::: dictating calculations of graphite onto paper.
::: The blurry trees behind you
::: drawn like baby's breath
::: in a wreath around your portrait
::: growing like vines
::: in stop motion animation
::: until you're gone.
::: The memory is left behind,
::: imprinted with a chemical mix
::: in a grand collection
::: of landscapes upon a life
::: of sketches as memories
::: looking to incorporate the next.

::: -- AM Radio

Source: Prim Perfect

Bixyl Shuftan

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