Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Cabinet of Curiosities Court

The exterior of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
I began the current remodel of the main interior room on Jan. 16th.


     The Cabinet of Curiosities was a copy of the house I made for myself at Sparquerry, and placed on the ACC Alpha sim in early 2010.  This old structure has seen many remodels, though the bones remain in place with some original walls and textures. The floorplan has been expanded over the years, but the old rooms remain fairly intact.  Had I traveled in time from 2010 to the present, and seen this new version of my old Sparcurian house, it would have been a shock, yet I would recognize the space.

   
     From private home, to a merchant establishment, to a cabinet of curiosities, the building now becomes the first seat of power at Accentaury: a royal court… a rather small but functional palace.

The interior: a red court sets a brighter space than the dark textures from the
past few years. A large well was excavated in the middle of the room which
reaches down to the water table. While digging, I found a lost plywood cone
I rezzed in June, 2010. I encased it in an outer shell without having moved or
altered it. Such archaeological finds on the sim are preserved.



     The Quing* of Accentaury has an important role to perform. That avatar is the representative of the sim, and must be a curious appearing and acting soul, and must be equally curious about the outside world. The throne, after all, stands within the walls of the Cabinet of Curiosities, and this relationship dictates the role.

On one side of the pit's rim, is an arcade with stools which face the throne
across the 'pond'.




*Quing – the mix of king and queen. Neither is dominant over the other. It is pronounced kweeng. There has yet to be a coronation, as I have not made a crown, nor decided which avatar(s) is best suited to the role for the present. If there is no coronation, and no avatar to fill the quingship, then an empty title will ironically fulfill the curious requirement. In that case, the present Quing of Accentaury is a collection of unrealized but imminent pixels. 



Notice the tail behind the second throne chair on the lower level. The 'pond'
can be seen below the thrones. Wearing the celery crown I made today.
Chairs and thrones by Silas Merlin.




UPDATE Jan 17 2018

     Silas Merlin made the chairs for an upcoming Gatcha that I added to the court. When I showed him a picture of the room in progress, he said the armchair didn’t come across as a throne. That night, he had made a regal variation of that armchair which serves as a perfect throne. He gave it to me as a gift and said if I wanted it to be uniquely at the court of Accentaury, he wouldn’t put it up for sale. In response to his generosity, I said that such a gorgeous chair should be made available to whoever would like it. It’s more than enough that I got the first one! When I saw Silas’ new chair collection, I instantly knew they correlated perfectly with my new project for the court. In fact, the reason the new space is red themed is due to the upholstery on the chairs. I took this shot at an angle so you can see a little of the side of the second throne… the chair has a tail. The back has wonderful detailing as well. Silas asked if I had a crown, to which I realized I didn’t have an appropriate one. So this morning, I hopped onto Zbrush after getting the idea to make a stylization of a bunch of celery stalks topped with their leaves. Being a vegan, I felt this was an ideal kind of crown.

Reworking some of the textures: I replaced yesterday's back wall with one I made
for THE PLANT, a past installation by Eupalinos Ugajin where he had invited
others to participate. I felt this texture blended well with the architecture of the court.

UPDATE Jan 18 2018

Shameless selfie. Still working on my outfit, buying clothing items that seem
to fit the style of the ACC Alpha sim. I made the towering 'celery' crown,
and painted orange strands at the base to make it appear some of my avatar's
red hair trails up into the crown, like little flames.


UPDATE: January 21, 2018

Silas Merlin magically transformed into a jester, sporting the hat he made a while
back for one of his statues. He rides a jester donkey I'd made for a past event, and
he nearly insisted I make a scepter for my Quing outfit, which I now hold in my
hand, and a copy I gave to Silas which he made glow blue. The scepter is topped
by the same donkey upon which Silas rides.
 We stand here in a neighboring sim hoping to get into the event where he is showing his newest
creation, a furnished belvedere. That's where I got the chairs in the above photos.









XXX