Maar Auer's Metaversal Greetings

Right then. I guess I should present myself also. Maar Auer, Metaversal designer. An artist: musician, dancer, graphic designer, a hopeless geek...

In June 07 I was contacted and asked if I'd be willing to give a live net interview during my first steps in Second Life. The bait on the hook was to attend an SL live ballet performance. My insatiable curiosity immediately raised its ugly, hairy head. SL? What the heck? I happily plunged straight into trouble; after a few careless mouse clicks, Maar Auer found herself clumsily bumping into pixels under SL the sun. Maar is a shortening of my RL name, and Auer means 'morning light in the horizon' in old fashioned Finnish.

No, I didn't make a habit of it at once. I grew roots like a persistent weed: kept returning every time I was yanked out of SL soil by merciless grid crashes. From the very beginning I was fascinated by the possibility of building things in a virtual world. Here was my chance: I had always admired acoustic instrument builders in RL. So why not build a lovely, fat ass double bass, a true big mama. I can't play that one in RL - but feel sympathy for those poor, apologetic musicians negotiating their huge basses into jam packed rush hour buses. Took me a loooong while, I can assure you, but boy, was I proud of my first creation, even before finding out how to add sounds or animations to it...

Dar's and my paths crossed earlier. Yolanda followed Darleez to take a look at my newly built house and all my creations. Well - we understood and befriended each other at first glance, and not only because of that bizarre burst of grunts called Finnish. These two powerful ladies asked if I'd be interested to join Metaversal Arts. As you might have guessed, I didn't see any point in hesitating this time either: head on towards trouble once again. (In general, I've noticed it's much more interesting to say yes than no, so.... >;)

MaarBaZaar has been a proud member of Metaversal Arts Shop since November 07. Instruments, animations, furniture... My passion lies in acoustic instruments (those beauties!) as well as animations. Being much too busy and very, veeery much too unorganized in RL, I'm not able to spend a lot of time in SL. Can't release new stuff often. But when I do, I do it with heart involved. MaarBaZaar's best selling article is Maar Auer Concert Grand, an antique grand piano, the result of endless hours of effort. So all the praise received from satisfied customers feels heart-warming and truly encouraging :) I had a scripter helping me with the awesome scripts in the lid: Moundsa Mayo, who since then has become a close friend also. I do script some, but only simple stuff, whereas he's a script artist. Yeah, better stick to where your talent really lies, isn't it.

Next release? I'm working on a lovely mechanical piano, with automatic music sheet rolls. It's almost ready now - so soon, soon! It will be released in two colour options, rosewood and ivory. Also I have a menuet dance coming along, intended to be used as an antique style ballroom dance, for multiple dancers. Fit for a king, so to say. Well, that's the goal at least...

What else? I love witty chats, playing music and performing, traveling, computers and green apples. I hate getting up early, cockroaches, shopping, money, cooking and spam. To mention a few.

To know more u just gotta IM me.

The Story of Metaversal Arts

by Darleez DeCuir

I believe that you, our readers, are interested in what the history and background of Metaversal Arts is. Well, let’s say that it all started summer 2007 when I had in mind that I definitely need an office in SL (sure, everybody needs an office :-)). So, I wanted to have a small office space beside my home in Sabulella. I had met my friend Yolanda Hirvi earlier in the spring, and I also knew that she was very keen on landscaping and building things. She presented her work to me and I really loved what saw! Then we got an idea: Yolanda will build the office for me. Oh yes, otherwise I would have bought some kind of trivial prefab… Already that time, we also had all kinds of ideas for the future activities in SL and some initial plans of becoming business partners. In order to be able to start building the office on my land, we needed a group. The very same group was going to be used for other business purposes and networking later too. In short, this is how Metaversal Arts was founded in July 2007.

Metaversal Arts Headquarters and the founders at the front door, August 2007

As the building process proceeded we realized that of course the office needs to be furnished too. And all of a sudden, Yolanda created a custom desk, office chair, cabinet, conference room seats and even a fan in the ceiling to keep the office cool, a perfectly designed set suitable for just this steampunk stylish office space.

Soon after all was completed in Sabulella, Yolanda wanted to build a shop for herself. I supported her idea because I was already that time convinced that her builds would have commercial potential. I can tell you, I didn’t make a mistake! The first shop saw its daylight in The Admiral, and after few weeks it was already a success with all the antiques and old-world style furniture. That time we also met artist Moondrift Tomorrow, who joined Metaversal Arts and had his premier SL exhibition of Globulus Art in the second floor of the shop.

Metaversal Arts Mainshop in The Admiral, August 2007.

We were lucky to meet and network with even more other creative residents. They joined Metaversal Arts in order to create and work together and help each other whenever their expertise is needed. Scripting guru and chaotician Moundsa Mayo has helped us many times with scripting and other tricky technical questions. Moundsa’s creation, the Chaos Machine is absolutely worth of another article! Multi-talented artist Maar Auer has designed and created beautiful builds, scripted and playable musical instruments, and unique animations for various purposes, just to mention a few of her works.

The shop got soon too small and we ran out of prims, which was a good reason to acquire more land and enlarge the business in The Admiral. In October, the Metaversal Arts Factory Area was introduced in The Grand Opening event. That time the new Mainshop in the Factory Area consisted Oblonski, antiques, gothic and old world furniture by Yolanda Hirvi, MaarBaZaar with musical instruments and household stuff by Maar Auer, Crys’ Creations with garden items by Crystaleen Laval, and exiting magic stuff by Fnordian Link. The Chaos Machine and a steam engine by Moundsa Mayo could be admired and played with in the yard, and also the new Metaversal Arts Headquarters had moved in the area.

Gothic furniture by Oblonski, Metaversal Arts Mainshop, The Admiral, October 2007.

Musical Instruments by MaarBaZaar, Metaversal Arts Mainshop, The Admiral, October 2007.

The Chaos Machine by Moundsa Mayo, Metaversal Arts Factory Area, The Admiral, November 2007.

In December Maar Auer designed the new antler logo of Metaversal Arts. After Christmas we launched the new logo and arranged The Skate Away the Xmas Blues skating party in the Factory Area. The event was fun and successful with Maar Auer’s ‘Skate Like a Champion’ and dancing animations, raffles and good music with Yolanda as a DJ. We planned to arrange another skating party too, but then we suddenly got a chance to get a whole sim for Metaversal Arts, so we moved again…

Metaversal Arts Island grand opening event is planned to happen very soon, we are looking forward to meeting you all in the opening, and in the meantime in the Mainshop temporary location at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cherish/122/153/539.

Metaversal Arts Mainshop in Cherish, February 2008.

My goal for SL

By Lord Lisle

The 4th of February is a day I shan’t forget very easily because it is my Second Life birthday. Over a year ago I read an article about SL in a computer magazine and in sheer curiosity I took a free subscription. I had some vague ideas in mind about promoting my RL books in a special way, but firstly I wanted to know whether it might be worthwhile to put effort and time in yet another project.

I did not choose my name Lord Lisle for being an imaginary British Lord or a GOR warrior, but principally because I am a fan and reader of the Lord Lister trivial books (see http://www.lordlister.com/). In retrospect, if I would have known, I think that I have been more considerate in the choice of my SL name.

Lord Lisle dressed to attend a SL wedding of a friend in a medieval community

Like most of new SL avis, I experienced the learning curve in SL as steep, not only how to move and fly, but also the conventions are often difficult to grab…’Overwhelming and confusing’.. are words of expressing these feelings, exclaimed by many of the newbie avis I talked with over the time. One of the most wonderful things in SL is (to my personal opinion) the ease of communication and discussion with other avis, often open and without any restrictions.

Although the first weeks in SL were spent just roaming around, often amused and amazed, sometimes the contrary, I made good friends of just only one (but the most loyal) is still left. After a few weeks I tried some basic building and constructing, a thing that not really thrilled me very much. I took this up again, however, after a few months when I was offered a free plot to put up a little shop, reviving my original idea of promotion.

In the mean time I rented a small gallery, displaying the paintings of a relative unknown Dutch artist, brought to my attention by my SL life friend and niece April Lisle. You find my art gallery and little vintage wireless shop (with a THiNC Second Life version of my 4th RL book) in my in-world profile

December 2007. Demo skating with Yolanda Hirvi on the ice rink at the ’old’ Factory

Although I never shall become a contributor to the Meta Art Factory like the talented co-owner Yolanda Hirvi, you may see me regularly in the Factory, playing an Arcade game or sitting as a male model on one of Yolanda’s new creations, whether it be a Captains Desk, an antique couch or a highly decorative bed. Second Life may be time consuming; it is also rewarding and generally gives back what you put in: I never regret to be a part of it!

Recently I took up flying, and next time I should be pleased to tell you more of the thrills of SL aviation, along with advice how to construct your real flying plane from a free 'Do It Yourself ' pack.