Welcome to our new site + M Linden @ MMIF

Warm welcome to Pop Art Labs new domain. Finally we managed to move all our content and can begin PALs next level of growth here.

In many ways I have enjoyed Linden Labs moves lately. Yesterday they beta released their new 2.0 viewer and to me it’s plain eyecandy. Especially the new media app that allows html on a prim – will have significant impact on how we adopt and develop virtual worlds in the future. As a collaborative tool in organizations, edu and libraries it has a huge, yet unseen, potential.

And yes, there are issues in new viewer. I would like see further integration of events from secondlife.com event calender into the viewer. When a new user enters there should be an easy pop-up window at the right sidebar that showcases the most important events going on right now – as it does on secondlife.com. This feature would allow new users to find all the cool stuff in just a few clicks.


[Mark Kingdon aka M Linden enter the MMIF festival theater (and yes I am no good as a photographer).]

Ok next the lab also aired new initiative Supporting the Arts in Second Life. Which makes me think few days back when the MMIF Festival took place (MaMachinima International Festival). This event was infact indirectly supported by the lab since they sponsored the event with 4 sims allowing MMIF to host a 200+ audience for the 7 hours screenings of best machinima.

Chantal Harvey who headed the festival informed me more than 800 avatars attended the festival. Add the Malburns Writer live webstreaming to at least 3-4 websites must have generated thousands of views and the event was even set up as mixed reality live in Amsterdam RL too. All to say I hope we’ll see more lab supported events like this in the future and maybe it can grow out of the new Supporting the Arts initiative. I hope so. It is a cool (and cheap) way for the lab to showcase how wonderful creativity can be fostered inworld and the huge value such events have.

Next, the Lab recently opened Linden homes to premium accounts. Very nice move again although I never have enough time for the housey stuff due to too much work but still I enjoy my new Linden home since I haven’t rezzed my old house since I opened Pop Art Lab and dedicated all the prims there to music related activities. Now I have a home when I need peace!

Lastly, I will end this post by telling how wonderful it was to see Mark Kingdon aka M Linden show up last Saturday during the MMIF festival. Not only the pleasure I had by seeing head of the lab in “person” (well I met him for real in San Francisco once) but also the fact he stood right there surrounded by the beautiful Pop Art Lab designed theatre. And I couldn’t stop bidding him welcome in IM and we even had a short chat! Ty Mark was wonderful and so glad you showed up and liked what you saw.

So yet again warm welcome to the brand new Pop Art Lab site and all the wonderful stuff Linden Lab currently set up. We can’t wait to bring more eyecandy and music into Second Life. Now we have passed MMIF, launched this new site and next step is the grand opening of our new PAL sim plus new episodes of Pop Vox music TV.

See you soon!

MMIF: 7 Hours of Machinima + DJs added

Countdown tonights the night! 10 hours of entertainment. Remember to come EARLY before the screening since only two of the four sims are open for the public (9 am – 6 pm SLT/PST). Other sims dedicated to productioncrew, hosts and each machinima artist will come present their film using SL voice! The last sim is dedicated to each machinima artist during full event plus hosts, VIPs etc etc.

When the 7 hours screening of more than 40 artists films are over all fours sims will be opened and afterparty will kick-off in center theatre. Also make sure to check out a giant video dome and artists showrooms.

Details on afterparty: Miss Cyberpink kick off with a set of electro and will show her superb mixing skills. Lastly at 7 pm SLT/PST Gomi Mifume (a regular in the Insilico community) will start. This will definately not be Top 40 but a fine selection of the NOW sounds of tech, noise, industrial and dubstep. To be updated….

Program EU/US

Saturday 20th of February

19:00 CET (= SL 10 am PST) – DOORS OPEN
20:00 CET (= SL 11 am PST) – Opening ceremony + Machinima film screenings
03:00 CET (= SL 6 pm PST) – THE END + After party online

MMIF2010 hosts:

11 am – noon: Blue Linden and Toxic Menges
Noon – 1 pm : Pooky Amsterdam
1 pm – 2 pm: Draxtor Despres and Chantal Harvey
2 pm – 3 pm: Poid Mahovlich and Paisley Beebe
3 pm – 4 pm: Evie Fairchild and CodeWarrior Carling
4 pm – 5 pm: Lauren Weyland
5 pm – 6 pm: Phaylen Fairchild
6 pm -> Afterparty hosted by Pop Art Lab
6 pm – 7 pm: DJ Miss Cyberpink
7 pm – 8 pm: DJ Gome Mfume

All Machinimas will be streamed live by Malburns Writers at Metaverse2 channel, Aview.tv and ofcourse here!

MMIF3 Public Seating Region
MMIF 4 Public Seating Region

For updates follow http://live.MMIF.org, aview.tv and here!

Film and Music collide at the Lab!

‘MMIF 2010′ is the second edition of an annual film festival in 3D cyberspace with a screening in physical space (‘RL’). A seven hour movie marathon with a two hour afterparty. MMIF 2010 can also be followed on the web via live stream broadcasts.

A month ago, while I was multitasking at a real life Sirikata workshop at Roskilde University, I happened to meet Chantal Harvey at the lab. Actually I had met and become friends with Chantal ages ago-well, that’s what it feels like!

Back in 2008 she was a frequent visitor at the very beginning of Pop Art Lab. Then we both became busy with our separate projects, the years passed, but we managed to stay friends. Ok back to real life or whatever! We met in 3D and talked over this new project she was about to launch- the second global Machinima Festival MMIF which she had scheduled February 20th 2010.

The early days of the lab must have made some impact, because Chantal wanted to recreate the PAL vibe in the designs for the festival and also knew PAL had handled several quadsim events (where designs are centered in 4 sims to increase attendees up at 200+).

Well, of course I was interested in hosting a Machinima event this size plus PAL has actually had screenings and a movie center since back in 2008. We also produce the Pop Vox music shows at Treet.tv of which I have never thought of as machinima-but it is!

So our common interests have both grown since our first meeting and Chantal and I somehow realized we have come a long way since 2008! (ain’t virtual collaboration wonderful! I’m really excited about meeting her RL too at the Metameets conference in Dublin May 2010).

Back to MMIF festival! The lovely Linden Lab soon supported Chantal’s non-profit project with 4 sims and within a short time, we mingled up Chantal’s team with ours and decided to combine prefab designs from the lab and add new as well. By then setup was getting 4 sims 3 days before the event so timeline in design process had to be short. Days passed and Pop Art Labs chief commander/engineer Emily Hifeng quickly showed her building magic! Then magic collided when Linden Lab soon added 4 sims with full perms and freedom for the crew.

Ok so now the designs and set are close to finished and we are tweaking all kinds of details and also the set lists for the 2 hours after party Pop Art Lab has been asked to host there.

Many details and awesome weird rumors will be aired during next week. Let’s start.. Will Torley Linden open the festival? Will M Linden step by late and do a dubstep dance? Will Linden Lab bring news on their new Amsterdam office? (The festival is screened real life there). Will some of the 52 short machinimas screened at festival be broadcasted at secondlife.com? Will event show up as message of the day at login screen?

What we do know by now is

It will be action packed… no shit!

Pop Art Lab loves projects like this. This shows Chantal Harvey’s love and passion for the art of machinima and will expose the talents of many of SL’s finest film makers. And we at the lab just add some sugar!

MMIF 2010 press release, info, promo video, full program, live streams, contact and latest updates and changes at http://MMIF.org

The Future is Now

The New Year has got off to a flying start at Pop Art Lab! Apart from all the hot, new CD releases landing on our real life desks each day (2010 is shaping up to be a great year for music already….) we are very excited about what 2010 will bring us in Second Life.

Claus, myself and the rest of the PAL team had barely got over our holiday hangovers when plans for the future direction of PAL got underway. Expect to see a whole new look to the PAL sim soon (and a huge party of course!) fresh activities and us working with new partners in other genres of virtual media.

Our existing business partnerships continue to go from strength to strength and many congrats to the Treet.TV team on the launch of their new and wondrous website! Our work as a solutions provider for Linden Labs has only just begun and we have some superb guests lined up to appear on POP VOX.

Expect even more crossover of RL and SL projects to take place this year and if you think you know PAL…well…you haven’t seen anything yet!

Thanks to all our friends, supporters and sponsors for helping to make PAL the most cutting edge mixed reality music project in the world-2010 is gonna rock!

Persia Bravin X

Merry Christmas! 2009-2010 Round Up

Pop Art Lab would like to wish all our friends and supporters a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Last few weeks we’ve been taking a break simply due to a very busy year.

To look back highlights been some very cool Pop Vox TV shows think we up at 8 shows till now and we will soon start filling up slots for 2010. Also a Pop Vox website is under construction.

We don’t keep track of events but guess it’s been 10 bigger ones during 2010. The climax surely was our 1 year anniversary b-day event.
Also of note we managed to get our own sim back in June and it’s been wonderful with full powers and more freedom. We are still building a brand new design and PAL as you know it by now will soon be history! Ofcourse we will keep a copy in case we need to put back someday but we can ensure you the new PAL is completely different. We expect to open new PAL in February.
Another lovely moment was our attendence at SLCC09 The Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco back in August. So nice to hook up with Dusan, Hamlet, Starr, Beyers, Pathfinder etc. and to shake hands with Cory Ondrejka, Mark Kingdon, Tom Hale and even Amanda Linden shortly in Battery Street at Linden Labs HQ.
Few months ago PAL managed to be part of Second Lifes Solution Provider programme and we was invited in to try out the new SLE, Second Life Enterprise. Madhavi Linden been a great contact in this process and we are looking forward to support Linden Lab further to promote Second Life as well as the PAL platform.
Guess this was the most important points in 2009.

2010 is coming and looks like it will be a great virtual year. So far I been booked for a speech in Finland and as consult at another RL workshop about virtual worlds.
2010 might well be the tipping year for Second Life! Lately Metaplace and Forterra announced what looks like a disclosure. This let me to the conclusion that Second Life is still the most solid and and fully functional virtual world. The Open Sims still lacks stability and users to become really interesting. Blue Mars have a long way to go and maybe Second Life graphics will be up there when they finally get fully functional.

Therefore Pop Art Lab will continue to operate in SL and expand our position. First step will be the openning and continuing developement of our new sim(ulator). To face such nice creative process is simply wonderful. Centered in the magic mix of a wide range of real life inspiration we’ve found some 5 codes to enrich the final immersive experience. Deadlines constantly delayed but who cares it will arrive timely!

To sum up we can’t wait to show you all our new designs and builds!

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

Updates from the Lab

Finally time for some updates the day after Linden Lab launched their behind the firewall solution formerly code named Nebraska now SLE Second Life Enterprise. Watch the mixed reality vid. at Metanomics or read more I recommend visiting official LL press and Dusan Writers blog.

Now some great news. Pop Art Lab now part of SLs Solution Provider programme. This can be seen as yet another step turning the lab towards enterprises who want to benefit and be part of our well branded and respected visions – to provide a solid unique platform for music minded projects or simply some outstanding designs and collaborations.
During approval of submission it was nice to give Linden an 1 hour tour showing the lab.

As earlier mentioned here we are currently planning and designing a brand new Pop Art Lab. The launch is set to New Years Day! The designs and build is happening and hidden away untill we get done and can move it almost overnight!

The next Pop Vox our music tv programme in partnership with Treet.TV is scheduled December the 7th. Again little info can be aired yet although I can promise we already work on make it more spectacular than any previous shows!

This leads me to another exciting ongoing project – the creation of a magic Pop Vox/Pop Art Lab showroom at Treet.TVs sim.

The regular visitors might have spotted we’ve added a new Amazon app. right side of this blog. Now u can simply support the artists and the lab by buying direct via this app or by visiting our listening booths inworld and click the albumcovers. The service is still under developement but works smoothely already. More on this soon!

Finally we are working on setting up next event including many live acts. Please IM or email us if u aware of very talented musicians u would like to see at the lab tx.

Wow….what a trip!!!!!

What an INCREDIBLE 1st birthday party we had at PAL! The whole sim looked amazing thanks to the lovely people at Caerleon Isle Art Collective, with swaying psychedelic flowers, some groovy fractal art and 3D acid trips! Everyone partied in an array of hippy inspired clothing which really added to the 1960’s theme chosen to celebrate Pop Art lab’s first year.

Our visitor counters went into meltdown when we reached 230 people-but the lovely new Class 5 sim did us proud and there were NO crashes-The Linden Lab gods must have been smiling down on us!!

The musicians were all awesome and we were lucky enough to see some new and established acts come and play for us-testament to the absolute professionalism of the musicians who use Second Life as a platform for showcasing their immense talent. Special thanks must go to these artists: Hazideon Zarco, Avvy Barzane, Obeloinkment Wrigglesworth, Engrama, Starflower Orbit and long time friend of PAL-Mankind Tracer.

There was a real feeling of love in the pixilated air as local chat echoed with congratulations and some funny anecdotes-it really was a great crowd of people who came to support us!

Congratulations to the whole PAL team who are some of the hardest working people in Second Life and real life media/music, but extra applause must surely go to Claus Uriza-CEO of PAL who has poured his heart and soul into making PAL the most progressive music project not only in Second Life-but in any virtual world. You rock Claus!!

I am off to sweep up empty beer tins, underwear and other rock and roll items off the floors of PAL and to look back on a hugely successful first year-bring on year 2!!!!!

Peace

Persia Bravin xxxxx

Thank you: To Claus Uriza, Emily Hifeng, Xray, Serendipity, Starr Sonic, RLF Easterman, Syl Darcy, Saturnine Dryke, Maxes Loon, Twstd Ruggles, Austin Ellison and all the other 22,000 people who have visited and supported PAL in its first year.

PAL at MySpace seeking Artists!

We’ve just launched new MySpace site dedicated to bring in RL artists to the Pop Vox TV shows. It’s still beta but check it out and friend us there.

If your an artists who wants to play with 3D enviroments feel free to drop us an email.

We have already had such famous artists in as Greg Hawkes (from the US supergroup The Cars), Max Morgan (UK/US Singer/songwriter), Baby “Lorenzo” Woodrose (from the acclaimed Scandinavian Garage band) and Mankind Tracer aka Seth Regan (who recently won Linden Labs Resident award choice as Best SL Musician!)

To view previous shows hit the link right side of this blog!

Our services include custom designed builds, avatar creation, avatar controlling while U play your instruments, audio tech. stream setup, lights and particle setups at stage.
We even have a homestudio in Copenhagen if u step by there while on tour!

We make sure the only thing you really have to care about is play your music while we stream it out throughout the Internet in HD 3D quality!

Pop Art Lab ReLoaded

Short notice telling PAL move to C5 sim next to current location this weekend.
Landing Point in Linden Labs Showcase will be changed Monday April 27th.

This means better performance for all and a reloaded PAL with more activities SOON!

We expect opening party next coming Friday.

Pop Art Lab Info

Welcome to the Pop Art Lab blog – June 2009

Pop Art Lab is a media center located in 3D world Second Life. Its main purpose is to explore how to present and promote new music in 3D enviroments.
Visitors recieve a daily/weekly overview of the very best albums released on the market streamed full length in 5 domes.

Pop Art Lab was born January the 1st 2008. The architecture was a collaboration of long time SL friends setting up the venue and arranged into details in accordence to supply the concept. During 2008 I experienced the importance of stability and management.

September the 5th Pop Art Lab had its official opening. Linden Lab included PAL on the frontpage of their Showcase section 3 hours before we opened!

November the 4th Pop Art Lab was featured in SLCNs weekly RealBiz TV programme. Few days later the planning of PALs next project was set. To increase the concept with TV shows promoting high quality music as well as interviews … moving towards the 3D web.

December the 12th Pop Art Labs first TV production was launched featuring Greg Hawkes of 70-80s supergroup The Cars doing a 30 min. interview followed by an 1 hour live set.

Pop Art Lab partnered with SLCN.TV now Treet.TV and gave birth of further music TV productions under the Pop Vox moniker.

During first Q 2009 the upcoming Real Life star Max Morgan, the Danish underground icon Baby “Lorenzo” Woodrose and voted as best SL musician by Linden Labs residents award choice Mankind Tracer were featured in Pop Vox.

Since September 2008 Pop Art Lab have had more than 20.000 visitors based on local stats counter. The return of visitors is constant at 25-35% showing incredible satisfaction and among the highest rates in Second Life! The PAL group is up at 475 unique members with a slow rise.

Given the fact Pop Art Lab runs next to “normal” office hours on limited budget and time we have a good thing going!

Welcome!
June 2009,
Claus Uriza