Searching For Cyanide Seelowe

Haiku Speedbuild

At Haiku Speedbuild last week, host Special Jewell told me a little about the history of the event and of the parent organization Virtual Artist Alliance. The VAA founders all left long ago. The current organizers run an SL Group where no one has owner permissions. VAA is the host of Haiku Speedbuild and Photohunt.

Cyanide Seelowe

When you click on the group profile for Virtual Artist Alliance, you learn that it was founded by Cyanide Seelowe. According to Virtual Artpedia, VAA was founded by Seelowe on 2 December 2006, just 2 weeks after Seelowe herself had rezzed on 19 November 2006. The original formation of VAA was with 3 entities: Haiku Speedbuild, Photohunt, and VirtualArtPedia.

I’ve spent this past week Searching for Cyanide Seelowe. The virtual world / Virtual Artpedia trails seem to mostly be cold, the websites seem to be gone or years dry, and Seelowe seems to have left maybe 4 of her 6 years ago. From everything I’ve uncovered she seems like a remarkable, charismatic, generous, big picture person. As I sift through the breadcrumbs I think how nice it would be to meet her. Not really to any particular end, but simply to touch for a moment that old dream that I am now a part of in 2013.

I recognize Seelowe as a vaporous apparition, but like a glitchy hologram of Princess Leia, the degraded quality of the transmission only serves to make the distant and inspiring person all the more captivating in the mind.

 From Cyanide Seelowe’s Second Life Profile

VAA

I am the initial founder, event coordinator, and resident smart-ass of the VAA. Our goal is to provide resources, discussion and general useful information for the aspiring and/or well established Second Life artist. If you need help, I’m there, or I’ll find someone who will be!

Virtual Artpedia

This is THE place where members of the Second Life art community can get together and share information about Second Life artists, art venues, and anything else related to fostering the arts on the Grid.

Haiku Speedbuild

The Virtual Artist Alliance in collaboration with the Shin Tao Haiku Retreat is proud to present the weekly Haiku Speedbuild! Every week, a haiku is chosen for the theme of the speedbuild, and the haiku will be revealed right before a contest begins. Each contestant will have 50 minutes to create a sculpture that best exemplifies the haiku within a 50 prim limit. Only ten building pads are available on a first come, first serve basis, so be sure to get there early!

Photohunt

Come and join in on the fun of Virtual Artist Alliance’s weekly PhotoHunt contest! PhotoHunt is a game in which participants must search for the best Second Life snapshot that embodies a theme and/or landmark provided by a moderator. Each contest lasts 60 minutes, and everyone is invited to vote for the winners of each contest!

• Virtual Artpedia
• VAA Blog, 2006-2010
• Seelowe’s Blog, 2007-2008
• First Life Update – Cyanide / Jackie

Cyanide Seelowe’s Biography from Virtual Artpedia

Rezzed on November 16th, 2006. After a month of exploring Second Life, Cyanide Seelowe involved herself in the art community by attending gallery openings and other artistic events. She met Rezago Kokorin at the the opening of Blekinge Sculpture Park and founded the Virtual Artist Alliance on the spot with the intention of providing new residents of Second Life with a portal to the art community of Second Life. This is her continued goal in the Second Life art community, and she uses the Virtual Artist Alliance primarily to facilitate this goal.

She has since coordinated several events and art shows with the Virtual Artist Alliance and its members, collaborating with various individuals and groups along the way. Among these were the First Book Charity Art Auction at Blekinge Sculpture Park in January of 2007, a Haiku Speed Build with the Shin Tao Haiku Retreat in October of 2007, and the Artist Self-Promotion Website with Krystal Epic. She has also curated several sculpture shows at the Virtual Artist Alliance Gallery, including “Kinetic” and the “Awesome Hat Show”.

Virtual Artpedia

Virtual Artist Alliance projects:

• Photohunt – going strong
• Haiku Speedbuild – needs resuscitation
• Virtual Artpedia – RIP

I think Virtual Artpedia was a powerful idea. It could have worked. But perhaps those who like to make web pages are busy with their own blogs, flickr, and other web pages. Those who mostly like to do in-world projects like Photohunt and Speedbuild are perhaps less likely to go make wiki pages. So while I treasure the fragments there, perhaps it’s not surprising that that vine has withered.

Machiniminute

Even though “we” don’t need new innovation ATM, her’s an idea anyway. The virtual world is home to many powerful creative programs: The University of Western Australia has promoted magnificent machinima and other festivals, The Linden Endowment for the Arts has been the site of remarkable, large-scale installations, the many teaching facilities in the virtual world have helped residents create architecture, apparel, vehicles, and toys of every sort.

Unlike long-term projects at places like the University of Western Australia or the Linden Endowment for the Arts, VAA has a tradition of focusing on the “finger exercises.” VAA challenges us to make something: a photograph, a sculpture, a piece of architecture, in an hour. To practice our skills, our “virtual finger exercises.”

I think the time is ripe for, hmm… “Machiniminute”… a 60 minute challenge to produce a maximum of 60 seconds of machinima, upload it to YouTube, and share the results with your fellow explorers…

Meeting your idols

I’d love to meet Cyanide Seelowe, though I doubt I ever will. I’ll always admire her and the contributions she made to avatar culture here in SL.