THE GODS DWINDLE

Poster and graphic editing by Paolo Seaside. Photography of exhibit by Lilia Artis

The party after the lecture tour. Two of the three pavilions seen in this view.

THE GODS DWINDLE

Environmental exhibit by Haveit Neox

Opened Sept 28 2014

Click here for taxi to exhibit.

     I received a fantastic surprise yesterday during the opening of my exhibit at Plusia Ars Island. The curator, Marea2007 Praga gave a talk about my installation as she lead the group to all three buildings in which my three stories were installed. She speaks with confidence, clarity, and went into depth about each aspect of the build and its meaning. Marea had not only read my notecard description about the exhibit, but she did her own research, and so expanded what I’d given her into a full talk. I only understand enough Italian to have gotten the gist, which was enough to see the direction she went. I was at once flattered and intrigued by this unexpected gift. And there was still more. Paolo Seaside who is also one of the hosts had asked me to provide him with some photos of the exhibit and any YouTube film that I might find applicable to the exhibit. I searched and found MAN (about how the environment is used by ‘man’), and also asked my friend Lilia Artis if she would take photos of my installation since she is so much better the photographer than I. Paolo received her photos and made the exhibit poster seen on this entry. He also made a promotional film on YouTube for the exhibit which includes excerpts from the MAN film. 

     Watch the films here:

     "Man" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGMYdalClU

     "Plusia Ars Island" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF1XLtY3v0E

     Marea added this link for an excellent message delivered by a child:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MFbIX1LqHg

     Below is the description of the exhibit from my notecard:

     Humanity has devastated the planet. Only three Gods remain: Gaia, the Earth Goddess bleeds internally, her lava burning landmasses, boiling lakes and rivers. Neptune, God of the Sea suffocates in the hot oxygen deprived oceans of dead fish. Horus, the Sky God, gives up the heavens and all his days, freezing time into a mirror.

     The sparse human population lies in wait for death, in disbelief of what the planet has become. They had not imagined that global warming might kill even the Gods. Now, all their resolve can have no effect. The remaining few look around their hot graves. They close their eyes for the last time, their surroundings so unrecognizable, that even death cannot bring them home.

Taking a look at reality:

     It’s almost too late now to change global warming, yet we still have a chance to beat the odds, if we are quick on our feet. Our governments will not do anything of true value for the environment because they have limited imaginations, and center almost exclusively on economics. But I wonder if we, by virtue of being the consumers, might have far more power than our leaders and the corrupt lobbyists. Since half of the global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture, the world population turning predominantly organic vegan could greatly help save the Earth despite the dangerously slow pace of traditional politics. Using our wallets to bring animal agriculture and GMO agriculture to their knees is within our power as consumers. And hey, gaining good health is no bad deal either!

Haveit

XXX

AERIAL MAP OF 2 SIMS

Map of two neighboring sims. Click on the image to see it much enlarged.

     Here is a bird's eye view of the sim ACC Alpha (also known as the city of Accentaury), and the neighboring sim Sparquerry.

     Visitors to the sims will quickly discover that the cities have many layers. The aerial map here is an overhead shot, helping people see the prevalent landmarks and quarters of the cities. The two tours available at Accentaury will give the visitors an idea of the land.

     Short tour: Starts at Cabinet of Curiosities. Hop the unicycle which will take you past various sites including the Library of Darkrodin, on the way to the Camel Pavilion.

     Long tour: Starts in the Merchants' Quarter in front of the waterfall. The horse and carriage will fly you by Caravan Terminus, Paper Tower Court, Paper Village, under the sea, the neighboring sim of Sparquerry, then return to Accentaury, at the small but scenic Darkrodin Plaza. From there you can continue to explore the adjoining Medusa Locks cliffs, or enter the Library of Darkrodin.

XXX

ICE CAP SPILL

LEFT: Ice Cap Spill: the fountainhead of the Lost Alphabet Wash.
RIGHT TOP CENTER: Camel Pavilion (aka Camel Kiosk).
FAR RIGHT: Part of the House of ACCentaury tries to pop over the trees.

     Over the past week, big remodeling changes have come to Caravan Terminus. The West and Central Asian styles are giving way to a more indigenous ACC Alpha palette. They are heavily swayed by both modern and South East Asian influences. Following are some of the changes:

1. Modern cap covers the main dome of the Camel Kiosk. It’s silhouette is influenced by South East Asian stupas. When my friend Lilia Artis saw my original stupa, she said it looked too heavy for the Kiosk, and suggested a very modern set of transparent rectangular tiers. I compromised, and threw in areas of stone along with a few circular modern tiers, then combined them into the silhouette of my intended stupa. The original dome of the Kiosk is still in place… nothing was removed from the build, only added to.

2. The main Gate to Caravan Terminus, which lead to Maze Gardens, and had the best views of the garden, has now been removed. This made me unhappy indeed. That large Gate with the comfortably furnished lookout, was one of my favorite buildings. But I felt the move was necessary. The Gate was erected with the intention of drawing visitors’ attention to the end of the reflecting pond, and seeing that beyond it were the gardens. But in fact, it had the opposite effect. Caravan Terminus looked like a closed off square, and few people realized that there was more city beyond.

3. The arcade named “Caravan Tent Theater” gets a new roof too… and quite a large one. The theater was built to house my idea of shadow puppet performances, yet I never had time to build a show. The building simply served as a corridor. Taking the Trevi fountain in Rome as a model, I had decided a long time ago to flood the arcade’s façade, turning it into a wall of water which then flowed into the ancient reflecting pond. The sculpture formed the Lost Alphabet Wash (see earlier blog entry). Now, with the new rooftop and ACC Alpha’s increasing environmental themes, I have renamed the theater to ICE CAP SPILL. Though the gushing façade is the same from its earlier history, its providence falls into a more obvious story: the melting of our polar ice caps. I removed a good number of the statues that stood before the wall of water, but kept enough of them to convey the drama of the coming floods. In addition, the force of the flood is increased as it appears to have washed away two little margin gardens that used to frame the Wash. Aerially the spill has increased in size.

LEADING UP TO CARAVAN TERMINUS

CARAVAN GATE. The cliff-like walls constitute a gateway in effect.
They are an extention of the older walls of the Topiary Fortress.
I decided to photoshop the lighting in this image to darken the shadows.
However, the basic play of light is very similar inworld by virtue of
the sim's windlight settings.

NOTE: The luminous building in the distance is the Camel Kiosk. 

Replacing the old Gate that once stood above the ancient stone steps [from Maze Gardens' earliest days in 2010], the simplified but massive Caravan Gate now stands. Low prim, cliff-like walls, with an added balcony offer visitors a relaxing place to sit while viewing the gardens from a bird's eye perspective.

XXX