Today, I have been looking at ways of creating a projection-style beam of light for my installation.  Unfortunately the methods which I had read about in tutorials didn't work, I think this was due to the black walls and the particles which I am using to create the impression that the space is full of fog.  I decided to make my own beam of light - which needs a little tweaking, but seems to work quite well.  I also made a little projector for the light to come from.

I decided to brighten up my gallery space too - I'm not sure whether it will remain this way, but I thought that it needed a little 'something' other than the plain white walls which I had previously. 

​I'm hoping to have my build finished in the next couple of weeks so that I can open the space up to the virtual public.

Today, I have been looking at creating sound experiences in particular areas, birdsong near trees and the sound of waves crashing near virtual water.  I have also been experimenting with a script for creating bubbles.  I am looking into how to script a looped rotation for colour and transparency in the objects in my installation, and have imported a 10 second sound clip of audio (as this is all that the environment can support) which I have set to loop continuously within this area.

Today I am hunting for a suitable device/gadget to put on the land I am using, which will track visiting avatars (both whether they teleport to the location or fly in from elsewhere), and send me an email or similar with details of arrival and departure times.

I have also experimented with object textures, modified one of the other artworks, altered the region's environmental settings, and finished setting up my 'base camp' for the next couple of months while I am working in the space.

After a weekend away from the sim, I returned today to test out a couple of ways of tracking visitors - the first being a simple script to count daily visitors to the space, and the second being a product purchased from the Second Life Marketplace to provide more information and an emailed report - so that I can refer to this information later once the sim is no longer there.

I have also taken the opportunity to move a few of the exhibits around, create some lights and shadows, and test a second script for creating a fog/smoke effect - which I may consider using instead of (or together with) the script which I amended last week, and to continue my experiments with particle effects and engaging with the space itself.

Today's session started with documenting the space as it currently stands, and creating a colourful platform of circles to survey the landscape and the beautiful sea view beyond.  

Next, I undertook some virtual research, taking a trip to Second Life's 'Particle Laboratory', after which I experimented with different particle effects and parameters within the scripts to create some really interesting effects in my studio area.  I have now created a large foggy area with coloured shapes in the installation area, to mimic how I hope my real life installation in January will look.  Over the next few weeks I hope to be able to add an audio element to this area.

I also tried out the game clip recorder which is native to my computer's operating system to record real-time exploration through the different areas of the sim.

Today has been a day of trying things out, and changing my plans when things didn't work out quite the way that I had hoped.  For example, I tried to set up a screen to beam a video from my Vimeo channel onto the island, which didn't work - however, I have managed to create some objects which look like projected images, which I am very happy about.  I also took the opportunity to search out and work with Linden Scripting Language (LSL), creating a greeter and notecard giver, and modifying a particle projection script.

I have been experimenting to see if I can create the illusion of different material properties too, such as clear, coloured plastic boxes and bubbles, and also recreated one of my pastel sketches as a sculpture, and begun to look at how I can represent other works from my PhD practice. 

Today I have been terraforming, landscaping, and working on the welcome area, including creating some teleporters to reach the three main sections of the sim.  I have also created a few additional works which I have hidden around the sim for visitors to find and engage with.

At the end of the second day of my Second Life residency, I have created a gallery space.  I have taken full advantage of the unique physical properties available within the world to hang photographs in mid air and create transparent images which can be walked through, and have also experimented with the different lighting effects within individual objects to create a glowing, unreal, dreamlike space.  I've also attempted my first SL sculptures entitled 'One' and 'Together'.  The placing of the works in the space and the unmodified textures on the reverse of the images is a nod to Robert Morris and his plywood sculptures.

I now have full ownership of the sim in Second Life, which will be my virtual home for the next  three months.  Access to the space can be gained here.  As you can see there isn't much here at the moment but over the next few weeks will gradually develop.  At the moment I am building four separate areas and working on the first, gallery style, 'zone'.

I am currently undertaking some background reading and making notes ahead of my new (and ambitious, as I haven't done anything like this for a while - and certainly not on this scale) project in Second Life as part of my LEA (Linden Endowment Fund) core sim grant.  I get access to the space on the 1st October so will be posting images of my progress over the coming weeks.