A New LEA? How Can LL Best Support the Arts in Second Life?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Following pretty quickly on the heels of the official announcement of the forthcoming end of the Linden Endowment for the Arts last week (it is slated to wrap up at the end of August), Inara Pey reports that there is now a movement within the arts community to produce proposals for a replacement program to continue to encourage and nurture the arts within Second Life. An in-world group, called "LEA 2.0 The New Future~ SAVE LEA!" has been formed to explore a new way to structure such support, it being generally conceded that the old model was no longer functioning very effectively.

You can read more about this group, alongside LEA committee member Jo Balogh's thoughts on the reasons for the failure of the old program, on Inara's blog, to which I've linked above and again below. Here are Inara's own ideas, which I quote directly from her post:

 

Quote

• Keep things simple, keep them open. One of the long-running critiques concerning the LEA was its star-chamber like nature. Meetings were largely closed-door affairs, the by-laws tended to discourage guests  rather than welcome them (with some understandable reasons for doing so); the grant selection process came to be seen (and not entirely fairly) as biased in favouritism; the blog / website never really reported on committee activities, furthering perceptions that it was all somehow secretive, etc.
   
• Revisit the AIR [Artist-in-Residence] grants: these were set-up at a time when arts installations had to be largely built and scripted by hand, making them intensive builds. Times have changed, and as more recent years have shown, installations can be developed using prefabricated mesh elements that can be used in a transformational manner, rather than being built from scratch. So, are 6-month grants actually still required? Could they be reduced somewhat to allow a greater range of expression through a year? Need they all aligned, starting and finishing on the same dates twice a year, or could they be set to operate on a more rolling-style basis with smaller groups of them overlapping with start / end dates? Is 20 AIR regions actually too much to be properly managed, and would a smaller number be preferable?
   
• Utilise outreach and engagement. This loops back to the first bullet point in some respects. For assorted reasons, it is not unfair to say the LEA often tended to be regarded as being “apart from”, rather than “a part of” the broader diversity of arts and expressionism in Second Life. Better engagement with the broader arts information groups (e.g. SL Art, Cercle Fafner, to name two of the more prominent groups) would therefore perhaps be beneficial.

(Inara Pey, "LEA: more on the closure, and a move to save it," 22 July, 2019)

It seems to me that this forum is a pretty good place to brainstorm for other ideas: there are many people here, I know, who have thoughts on this, or more generally care about support for the arts in SL.

What ideas, thoughts, and insights can we bring to the discussion?

(And thanks to @Fionalein for drawing my attention to Inara's post!)

[Chic Aeon]

Here are my thoughts (caught me just before bedtime).  Some of these comments are following from Inara's post.

 

I was contacted by one of the new group leaders not long after the closure was announced. At that time I understood (perhaps incorrectly) that they were trying to KEEP the current LEA, not start a new but similar program.   I declined to be a part, and I am sticking with that -- simply because I believe it should be NEW  people involved.  I do wish them great success.  

 

I have been out of the LEA loop for a few years now. I curated LEA6 all on my own  these last 18 months  with no input from the remaining committee members, so I have no recent knowledge of LEA "politics" or any discussions that took place.  I was  an adviser for three years ending in summer of 2015.  Even then the quality of applications was moving in a downward spiral. There were a few stellar exhibits but  many installations were no longer made by the participants -- the glory days were definitely over IMO.  

 

That doesn't mean that the artists have disappeared or lost their talent. Of course not! But once the exhibits became more about "styling" a sim rather than expressing thoughts and feelings via personal art ....   well, my enthusiasm faulted.   So --- for me -- the answer isn't that art is changing, it is that the new LEA (should it happen) really needs to be about ART --- not getting friends together to party amidst forests and flora made by other creators.  For years I made machinima's of LEAs inspiring artworks, I would really like to see a return of that wonder.  

 

So, again for me, I would have the exhibits once again be MADE by the creators -- say 90 percent. You can make some wonderful art with prims. We did it for many many years. 2D art is a viable medium; artist don't also need to be MESH creators.  There could be collaborations between artist who make mesh and those who do not.  

 

I was always in favor (and voted down continuously :D) of having SMALLER plots like 1/4 sims for artists that didn't need all that real estate. I had a quarter sim plot the first round of the AIRS project and built UP several stories and had a very popular exhibit -- mostly due to Firestorm landing folks at my doorway, by hey, some stayed around and wandered.  

 

Honestly, full sim installations can take a very long time if you are building things on your own. My last full sim project (before MOSP returned in 2018) took me a month of working full time to complete. Most folks in SL don't have the luxury of working fifty hour weeks on their art, so I think at least some of the grants should remain 6 months -- others could be shorter and would work well for 2D arts that mostly need to make a building and hang their work.  Personally I think six full sim installations that were ORIGINAL and THOUGHTFUL and ENGAGING  would be plenty with maybe a sim or two of the quarter plots. There could even be some ready-made art gallery spaces for 2D art and if someone isn't waving their hands madly to volunteer to make them  I will (with minimal input from the committee LOL as I don't play well with other children).

 

So far as organization and committee, I think the new people who want to be involved should hash that out. I would suggest seven members if possible and hopefully from various art backgrounds.  I guess I DO have one suggestion, that  on voting for participants. I would suggest a POINT system like 1 - 5 so that if two proposals seemed equal in worth they could receive the same "score"; then tally all the scores of the committee to find the most "worthy" (at least on paper). 

 

I don't see that having Lindens involved would be very beneficial and in the past they have not been interested, but if the new regime thinks that's a good idea and the Lindens do too, then it's worth a try. 

 

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

11 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

[Lots of great insight and ideas!]

Thanks, Chic! These are terrific ideas, and the more so because of your own experience with LEA.

I like that you suggest gallery spaces for 2D art: there is, as you know, a large community of SL photographers, for instance, and it's pretty much a sure thing that there would be a great deal of interest from both photographers and visitors.

Do you have thoughts about opening it up to other kinds of art, including performance (for instance, dance or music)?

[Akane Nacht]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

 

... exhibits once again be MADE by the creators -- say 90 percent.

... SMALLER plots like 1/4 sims for artists that didn't need all that real estate.

 

Agree with both of these suggestions. It would make it a great deal easier for hobbyist artists to participate, and keep the exhibits fresh.

On my last few visits to LEA exhibits it seemed that most were just nicely decorated landscapes. Pretty, but not memorable. 

Random memory - I don't know if this was under the purview of LEA or something else, but I remember from years ago, some group used to have art competitions for people building sculptures on the fly, with a time limit and only using inworld tools. They displayed them later and awarded prizes. Never seen it since but it sounded fun.

[Inara Pey]

Scylla - thanks for posting this!

I would emphasise the comments in my blog post were deliberately generic - and abbreviated.  I've actually dropped a more extensive note card based on my time writing about arts & the LEA & working with the Lab to the organisers of the "LEA2.0" group - would strongly urge those who read this thread and who haven't already to do the same .

[kiramanell]

2 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

[Lots of great insight and ideas!]

 

Thank you for this wonderful initiative! ❤️ Especially in the wake of HL on the verge of closing down, it's really heart-warming to see good ppl like you step up, and help preserve the Arts in SL. You're the best! /me, handing you a crown: 👑

[Qie Niangao]

Two unrelated tangents.

The first was suggested* in a recent trainwreck of a thread, and I keep thinking of it now as a potentially important way to promote SL public art while reducing dependence on a centralized "Art Authority" to direct decisions over artists, delegating much of that to "the market" of benefactors. The idea is for the Lab to offer a new Land product package for Estates consisting of a five-region bundle, four at the normal rate and the fifth at a significant discount where no commercial activity is permitted. At least initially, the model is for the discounted region to be in the center of a cross-shaped cluster, adjacent to one side of each full-priced sim. That central "exhibit" region would always be open to the public.

That's pretty much it. It's up to the owning Estate to find a use for that central region. Some of them would become the role-play nexus of a rental cluster, irrelevant to the former LEA's public art mission. Some would become public art. There may emerge curatorial collectives that offer their services to Estates to help commission the contents of those regions. Some Estates may have artists and builders on staff to fill that space. It's up to them to decide.

Some caveats:

• Some artists may still need an interval of private in-world assembly during which the exhibit would need to be closed to the public; I'm not sure anybody still works that way, but if so, it might be decided by the benefactor how long development and installation lasts before the sim is reopened to the public -- the point is it could not be closed-off to just some role-play group and still get the discount.
• Governing exhibit access, etc., to deter griefing is also left up to the benefactor. (But I don't know how this was done at LEA. It was my impression that LEA artists were the most common griefers, so there may be more details to work out here -- and work already done on the subject -- than is evident to an outsider.)
• Possible discount schedules: Four full-priced Homesteads gets a fifth Homestead exhibit region free, or a Full exhibit region at the discounted rate offered non-profits. Four full-priced Full regions get a fifth Full exhibit region free. ("Full-priced" and "discount" might be scaled by any existing "Atlas Program"-like discounts the Estate already receives.)
• It may be that configurations involving four Homesteads would benefit by having those pinned to the same core, if such a thing is feasible for Operations. Or maybe not. The broader issue of sim performance needs to be addressed regardless.
• Not all worthwhile art fits next to residential or retail rentals. The "cross-shaped cluster" doesn't have to be the only configuration.
• Not all worthwhile art may find willing benefactors. (Just because it worked for Leonardo...) There may still be a role for a central Art Authority to promote such art.
• Worst case, maybe this promotes no art and only sells some extra Homesteads on what amounts to a quantity discount for diverting 20% to "commercially fallow" use, whatever that ends up being.

Second tangent:

At some point the idea that "original mesh" (or prims) defines SL artistic creativity becomes obsolete. As an assumption, it's looking pretty provincial already.

I mean, calligraphy is an artform but it's not a big factor in judging literature.

__________________
*suggested not by me, and I have not consulted with the person who originated the suggestion -- who may or may not think it relevant to "LEA 2.0" considerations.

[Chic Aeon]

3 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Do you have thoughts about opening it up to other kinds of art, including performance (for instance, dance or music)?

I believe that should be up to the new committee members.  Thinking back to the beginnings of LEA I can only remember one performance venue builder and their work was at least as much a display of artful building skill as it was a place for music.  Later, the definition of art became more open and we saw more performance art, frequently in the core sims.  While there were some very good uses of the AIRS sims as schools and community areas, "I" would like to see more of a return to the early  3D art builds -- which for me was always the most interesting parts of SL.  

 

The art sandbox has always been popular although there seem to have been constant issues with squatters. It would be nice if a building school area could be incorporated into that region. 

 

For those folks who are younger and missed the early days of LEA I am going to past in a video of the first round. Remember, these were in the days BEFORE mesh ----- 

 

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

8 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

So, again for me, I would have the exhibits once again be MADE by the creators -- say 90 percent. You can make some wonderful art with prims. We did it for many many years. 2D art is a viable medium; artist don't also need to be MESH creators.  There could be collaborations between artist who make mesh and those who do not.  

 

I was always in favor (and voted down continuously :D) of having SMALLER plots like 1/4 sims for artists that didn't need all that real estate. I had a quarter sim plot the first round of the AIRS project and built UP several stories and had a very popular exhibit -- mostly due to Firestorm landing folks at my doorway, by hey, some stayed around and wandered.  

 

6 hours ago, Akane Nacht said:

Agree with both of these suggestions. It would make it a great deal easier for hobbyist artists to participate, and keep the exhibits fresh.

On my last few visits to LEA exhibits it seemed that most were just nicely decorated landscapes. Pretty, but not memorable.

I can see a lot of merit in Chic's suggestion that it should be required that exhibits are made, presumably from scratch, by exhibitors. It certainly would reduce the number of examples that look like they were simply assembled tastefully after a shopping spree on the MP.

And opening this up again to those who use prims and sculpties is a great idea. In fact, one of the more interesting exhibit spaces at SL16B -- by a sometime forumite, @Dekka Raymaker -- was explicitly focused upon a celebration of the prim as a worthy and powerful artistic material.

However, I don't personally think that any new version of LEA should be too prescriptive in this regard. Modern art is often built upon the idea of "remix" -- re-purposing and re-contextualizing existing objects or images or sounds in ways that either re-imagine them, or utterly change their significance. Think of Warhol's use of pop images, for instance. Such art can be both very subversive, and also challenges, and forces us to think about, how we define "art."

And there is something of a blurry line between an art object that has been "made from scratch," and one that has been assembled from bits and pieces. Much of Ai Weiwei's most celebrated art has been produced using things like bicycles, or even (more recently) Lego. He obviously did not build the bikes himself -- and what is more, he and many other contemporary artists are often not the ones who are actually even assembling (i.e., carving, painting, welding, etc.) the work.

So, maybe it would be best not to be overly fastidious about this aspect? Or perhaps reserve at least some space for work that does employ "remix" or whatever you want to call it.

 

[Qie Niangao]

29 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

And opening this up again to those who use prims and sculpties is a great idea. In fact, one of the more interesting exhibit spaces at SL16B -- by a sometime forumite, @Dekka Raymaker -- was explicitly focused upon a celebration of the prim as a worthy and powerful artistic material.

If you liked that, you may want to pay a visit to LEA7 before the whole thing closes.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

8 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Worst case, maybe this promotes no art and only sells some extra Homesteads on what amounts to a quantity discount for diverting 20% to "commercially fallow" use, whatever that ends up being.

Despite the attractiveness of this as a model to encourage the development of more community-oriented estates (and I think that is valuable), this would be my concern. I wonder whether "public spiritedness" or even the belief that art is likely to attract more renters (and I suspect that may be an arguable assumption) is enough to actually motivate landowners to seek out and host "art." I am sure a few would, but functioning as a patron is hard work, especially if you want to change up the art every few months or so. It would be much easier to simply turn the non-profit region into a more conventional parkland sim.

So, this may be a really good idea, but as you concede, I'm not sure that, without some sort of additional inducement or rules, it's going to do much to support "art" (if by that we mean something separate and distinct from the more usual "really attractively laid out region").

8 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Not all worthwhile art may find willing benefactors. (Just because it worked for Leonardo...) There may still be a role for a central Art Authority to promote such art. 

Any thoughts about what that might look like?

Edited July 27, 2019 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Qie Niangao]

7 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

8 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Not all worthwhile art may find willing benefactors. (Just because it worked for Leonardo...) There may still be a role for a central Art Authority to promote such art.

Any thoughts about what that might look like?

Me?? Nope, to me all curation is voodoo. I don't even know why I like one tweet and not another. And the history of LEA is said to be a cautionary tale, so I guess we should be cautious? If so, I really think the focus should be on achieving as much as possible, somehow, without the involvement of a (still necessary and valuable) Authority.

And yet you're probably right: without some kind of Arts Incentive, those proposed "commercially fallow" regions would compete for the most pastoral to better suit the furniture in the prefabs next door.

/me steps back to leave more room at the drawing board

[Selene Gregoire]

I still struggle with the idea of creating a work of art only to see it destroyed later. It does not sit well with me. Not when it always reminds me of the precious works that have been forever lost because of war and other human actions. 

I have always had the same problem with LEA.

And the knowledge that SL will come to an end at some point in time.

I think it is a terrible thing there is no place for such things to be preserved.

Which, for me, makes it all seem rather pointless. So maybe, instead of approaching it from the same angle as LEA, do something completely different. Something unexpected. Maybe a whole new (small) continent devoted to nothing but the Arts donated or sponsored by LL. Something that will be at least as "permanent" as SL itself is.

[Akane Nacht]

5 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

So, maybe it would be best not to be overly fastidious about this aspect? Or perhaps reserve at least some space for work that does employ "remix" or whatever you want to call it.

 

Sure. I'm not going to attempt to define "art", I'll just say I personally like works that make me pause and think. If a remix does that, great. 

[Dekka Raymaker]

I was one of the original committee members of the LEA, I left after a year because quite frankly the main core of committee members with regards to the rules 'it' had set up, was incompatible. Most of the original members, imo, were itching to use the Linden granted land liberally for themselves, but 'it' surprisingly stated in 'its' rules, that no committee member should benefit from the LEA, i.e. no free use of land. So what happened instead was that committee members would come up with ideas that would include the need of creative input from themselves, i.e. a stage, a museum, a landing point, it became a "look what I did".

And thus the members choose to do their thing and not give any extra time to the LEA that did not benefit them creatively, and only 3 members (out of 10?) did the core of the work. It depressed me and I exited SL, I actually didn't resign from the LEA I just faded away, I had to come back a couple of years later because I realized I was still paying the 'find in search fee' for one of the sims and had to leave as owner so other members could make changes, so for two years nothing was really done on that sim.

After coming back to SL 6 years later I was a little appalled at how the LEA had turned out. It was definately a shadow of its original self, even though the original self had already been lacking.

I came to a conclusion a while ago that I might even be a art snob. Maybe the real demise of the LEA was because the committee members didn't have the guts to acknowledge what 'real art' was. For there is a huge difference between 'real art' and craft, the majority of work I saw at LEA was craft, it was not art. 'Real art' isn't nescesarily popular, 'craft' needs talent to be effective, there is nothing wrong with amazing craft, but you really do have to be a art snob, to know the difference.

Most people who do not understand 'real art' do not realise what an amazing artist SaveMe Oh is, and don't get me wrong, I also know how much of an annoying ***** she can be too, but essentially she is aware of the avatars that don't know the difference between 'real art' and craft, and it is those people she attacks, and if you can't defend ourself against SaveMe Oh, then you do not deserve to call yourself an artist.

I guess everything I have said above appears to be pretty negative of how 'art' works in Second Life, but you need to know that to come up with a better plan for art in Second Life it is bull***** to think that it should be fair. Art is definately not democratic.

My more positive feedback is that there should be two sims, one for building, like a sandbox, but it should be controlled like a fascist regime and any mother*****ing 'residential type' looking builds should be sent back immediately. The second sim should be for display of finished work, it should be visible to all avatars who go there, therefore it has to be near the ground. Any thing placed at the display sim is not precious, anyone can come along and cover it up with their own work, they can add to the work to give it a new or alternative meaning, and as an artist, if you cannot deal with that, then never put work on that sim again.

[Chic Aeon]

Well I had to smile as I found myself thinking that I was SO glad that I came along after Dekka. 

I was on the side of  also letting "budding artist" use the sims to learn and grow, not just ONLY having "real art". (Honestly I have no definition for "real art" other than I believe it should make you THINK) -- just my take. I was more interested in what they were trying to say and how well they portrayed their vision than the details of the build.    And I was FINE with well crafted and popular installations. But again, once the committee started letting people in that just "styled" a sim with other people's creations (giving no credit to those creators -- which made it look to some as though the sim stylist created the work) most of the inspiration disappeared for me. 

 

I can also say that by the time I arrived in 2013 (after the big exodus had faded in memories a bit) I didn't see any of the board members or advisers using the sim for their glory.  But of course Dekka (who I don't know at all) may consider my tenure at LEA a complete bit of self indulgence.   I guess it just depends on points of view.  

 

Editing with a positive IDEA as that is what this thread is supposed to be about. 

If people want music and theater to be a part, then there could be a permanent ready-made theater complex made up of two sims with the theater  - music venue spanning the border between two sims.  Art galleries could fill in the rest of the area with paths and greenspace and possibly some water elements. This would be ready-made so participants wouldn't need to worry about building a venue, just getting their props together. Since it would be contiguous and open it would naturally have more of a finished feel with building in the same style. So "flow" which hasn't always been possible in the past on the LEA sims.

 

OK. That's all I've got for now.  

Edited July 27, 2019 by Chic Aeon
adding info

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

If people want music and theater to be a part, then there could be a permanent ready-made theater complex made up of two sims with the theater  - music venue spanning the border between two sims.  Art galleries could fill in the rest of the area with paths and greenspace and possibly some water elements. This would be ready-made so participants wouldn't need to worry about building a venue, just getting their props together. Since it would be contiguous and open it would naturally have more of a finished feel with building in the same style. So "flow" which hasn't always been possible in the past on the LEA sims.

This fits in quite nicely with what I suggested.

It's actually part of the myriad of thoughts that ran through my head when I made the post but don't tell  Chic that.

[Kiera Clutterbuck]

So can mesh be art or is it only a craft?

[Selene Gregoire]

4 minutes ago, Kiera Clutterbuck said:

So can mesh be art or is it only a craft?

Crafting is a form of art so why not.

[Dekka Raymaker]

My views on members of the LEA are only on those who were there when I was, I do not know how well or not any member did thereafter. Only you Chic can know whether it was an indulgence or not, I have not judged any individual who was there after I left. New committee members have to become involved in all aspects of art at a new LEA, there should not be any pick and choose, however, members that excel in various disciplines can of course take a leading role. If the committee have meetings and certain members start to frequent the meetings less and less, they should be replaced asap.

Communication will always be key. For every action there should be honest feedback. Every committee member should be prepared to except change frequently if it is desired.

Regarding 'art' and 'craft' it does not matter what I think, I will not be a committee member. My main point (I think) was that either as an individual or collectively, the committee has to quickly make decisions on what is acceptable to show and what isn't.

Is mesh acceptable? well certainly if the mesh is produced by the artist showing the work. But, I make objects in SL and I ask Penumbra to convert them into mesh when it is needed (she paid for the program to do so), so although it says Pen is the creator, it is actually all my work.

There are some talented artists that do use mesh objects bought from the market place and use those ideas in a collage type method, there is nothing wrong with that, if done as a stand-a-lone piece of work. But to do the same thing to produce a sim of fairy mushrooms and rainbow frogs really isn't art at all. But again it will not be me making those decisions.

Dekka

Edited July 28, 2019 by Dekka Raymaker

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

19 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Despite the attractiveness of this as a model to encourage the development of more community-oriented estates (and I think that is valuable), this would be my concern. I wonder whether "public spiritedness" or even the belief that art is likely to attract more renters (and I suspect that may be an arguable assumption) is enough to actually motivate landowners to seek out and host "art." I am sure a few would, but functioning as a patron is hard work, especially if you want to change up the art every few months or so. It would be much easier to simply turn the non-profit region into a more conventional parkland sim.

So, this may be a really good idea, but as you concede, I'm not sure that, without some sort of additional inducement or rules, it's going to do much to support "art" (if by that we mean something separate and distinct from the more usual "really attractively laid out region").

I don't know if they still do this or not, but at one France (the one IRL, lol) had a requirement that all public works have an art aspect. A city here in Indiana (Columbus) used to do something similar, they had a very evolved development plan.

So, I don't know if they would fly in SL, or if LL would even be interested in the '5 sims/1-for-Art' plan anyhow, perhaps this would be an option? Maybe the LEA (which I didn't even know about before this thread, lol) could provide guidance with the sim owner putting up the money, with perhaps say some percent of what the free sim would have cost (20%?) as development funds?

[Seicher Rae]

I have been toying with the idea of joining the new group, as posted on Inara's blog, but have yet to hit the "join" button due to what could be a tangle of thankless political drama. That said, I'm in a place where I could donate some time and energy to things I care about: art and SL. I was never involved in LEA's past dramas, political or otherwise. I vaguely knew they existed. It does seem that "start from scratch" may be the way to go to revive LEA. Learn from the positive; learn from the negative. My involvement was as a visitor. My thoughts are thus guided by my lack of experience other than as a visitor:

• Fewer exhibits at one time, with more staggered timing.
• Work it somehow where you don't get exhibit "bleed." By that I mean, trying to immerse in a quiet installation and you look around and see the fireworks and neon particles from the adjoining work. We teleport in SL, the sims don't need to be adjacent.
• I would not want the proscription against pre-made, MP purchased mesh constructions. Some of my favorite LEAs have been constructed this way. I would argue they are "real art" (whatever that means). I would like to see some guidelines to prevent the "fairy mushrooms" that Dekka mentioned. Don't the artists have to present some kind of written reason and description of their prospective art?
• If administrators don't participate in x-number of times, replace them.
• I like the suggestion of stage and galleries, for performances and 2D art, respectively.
• Active Linden participation in the admin group is not required.
• Personally, I don't mind if some artists have exhibits frequently, as long as they are producing quality work. But if there are a smaller number of spots, then I think some kind of deference needs to be made to new people, but with quality in mind not just new vs old. All things being equal, give the nod to someone new, with the experienced artists always welcome to reapply for another round.
• Have an active LEA blog, Facebook, whatever social media site. Renew interest in LEA. 

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by Seicher Rae
To add last bullet point.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

21 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

without some kind of Arts Incentive, those proposed "commercially fallow" regions would compete for the most pastoral to better suit the furniture in the prefabs next door.

 

2 hours ago, Caerolle Llewellyn said:

I don't know if they still do this or not, but at one France (the one IRL, lol) had a requirement that all public works have an art aspect. A city here in Indiana (Columbus) used to do something similar, they had a very evolved development plan.

So, I don't know if they would fly in SL, or if LL would even be interested in the '5 sims/1-for-Art' plan anyhow, perhaps this would be an option? Maybe the LEA (which I didn't even know about before this thread, lol) could provide guidance with the sim owner putting up the money, with perhaps say some percent of what the free sim would have cost (20%?) as development funds?

Caer, this pretty closely echoes my own thoughts, and something I was going to suggest in response to Qie.

As you say, well-run municipalities (esp. ones that aren't governed by a city council that's in the back pocket of developers) generally negotiate concessions with those who want to build largish office buildings, condos, and so forth. And those agreements will very often include (in addition, in my city anyway, to things like a certain number of low-cost non-profit housing) things like public parks, public art, attractive pedestrian thoroughfares, bike lanes, and so forth. And ordinarily, too, the developer will need to show an architect's plans so that council can be sure that what is proposed isn't going to be hideous. Generally, an aesthetically attractive proposal is going to get more support than one that involves slapping up a pre-formed glass and steel structure.

That exact model is probably not sustainable in SL, because LL is not a government but a for-profit organization, so, as a sort of elaboration on your plan, what if, instead of making this model of 5 sims/1-for-art (or whatever combination is financially feasible) generally available, LL offered, say, between two and five of these proposed models per half year (I'm making up the numbers as I go along), and asked those interested to submit a brief proposal. LL would need to make this sufficiently financially attractive that people were interested, and it would need to keep the number of slots available reasonably low, so that the financial hit that they are taking is manageable.

 

[Chic Aeon]

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

I have been toying with the idea of joining the new group, as posted on Inara's blog, but have yet to hit the "join" button due to what could be a tangle of thankless political drama.

 

Going to be tough to work around that I think --- other than ignoring :D.  

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

That said, I'm in a place where I could donate some time and energy to things I care about: art and SL. I was never involved in LEA's past dramas, political or otherwise. I vaguely knew they existed. It does seem that "start from scratch" may be the way to go to revive LEA. Learn from the positive; learn from the negative. My involvement was as a visitor. My thoughts are thus guided by my lack of experience other than as a visitor:

• Fewer exhibits at one time, with more staggered timing.

Yes, I tried to get the staggered timing in with the suggestion of "middle timing" -- changing out grants on a 3 month schedule. That was not accepted as it would be more work (my point of view on that of course). Agree that there don't need to be 20. Already said that

 

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

• Work it somehow where you don't get exhibit "bleed." By that I mean, trying to immerse in a quiet installation and you look around and see the fireworks and neon particles from the adjoining work. We teleport in SL, the sims don't need to be adjacent.

 

I think that is a very good point and certainly was a problem for me personally, both when I had AIRS grants and in running MOSP.  DRAW DISTANCE was the only "fix" and not the best one.  A central LEA HUB area  (perhaps connected to the art and performance area (see my post above) would solve getting to issue.  Note that this poster click area has been part of LEA for some years now. It may have been removed when the AIRS sims went away though, I never checked. 

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

• I would not want the proscription against pre-made, MP purchased mesh constructions. Some of my favorite LEAs have been constructed this way. I would argue they are "real art" (whatever that means). I would like to see some guidelines to prevent the "fairy mushrooms" that Dekka mentioned. Don't the artists have to present some kind of written reason and description of their prospective art?

Personally I am not AGAINST using the works of others within a installation, the problem is (and was shown over and over) that forgetting about original content is a very slippery slope and very soon anything resembling art (by almost anyone's definition) disappears into the "fairy mushroom" realms of "look I can decorate a region all pretty like" -- and that is very depressing. VERY depressing. 

 

And yes, artists are supposed to describe the build they are making. Unfortunately they do not always do what they SAY they are going to do. And as Jo said in Inara's comments toward the end there were very few applications to pick from when trying to fill 20 AIRS grants all at the same time.  Somewhere along the line (I think in the years when I was gone from LEA although I had almost no influence there) the "original content" part of the equation was left behind --- possibly because there were not enough applicants in the pool -- again, not there; don't really know.

 

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

• If administrators don't participate in x-number of times, replace them.

 

That has been the rule from the beginning. It was not however followed. So YES, very much agreed that should be etched in stone.  Again, the problem is that while many people in the past have wanted to be part of the LEA committee, they didn't actually want to do the work. And some people didn't want to get into the political issues (Chic waves hands madly) so finding enough people who would actually participate was difficult. 

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

• I like the suggestion of stage and galleries, for performances and 2D art, respectively.

Me too. 

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

• Active Linden participation in the admin group is not required.

Agreed, and likely by the Lindens too unless there has been a big change in focus.

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

• Personally, I don't mind if some artists have exhibits frequently, as long as they are producing quality work. But if there are a smaller number of spots, then I think some kind of deference needs to be made to new people, but with quality in mind not just new vs old. All things being equal, give the nod to someone new, with the experienced artists always welcome to reapply for another round.

The rule for a long time had been that artists could only have TWO grants in a row and then had to "sit out" a round (or actually couldn't apply).  That seemed to work well --- when there were more very talented folks were still applying (not there weren't some good exhibits in later years).   Some of the artists that you saw in the early to middle days of LEA stopped applying when they could no longer have tip jars on their plots.  Personally I thought the no tip jar rule was a good one; I mean they are getting a full sim for six months for FREE; that seemed "enough" to me. 

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

• Have an active LEA blog, Facebook, whatever social media site. Renew interest in LEA. 

There has always been an LEA blog.  Currently it is here: https://lindenarts.blogspot.com/      The "new" version with info on "Save LEA" is here:  http://lea-sl.org/aggregator/sources/1  and the MOSP blog has always been here: https://machinimasl.blogspot.com/

30 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

 

 

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

2 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

That exact model is probably not sustainable in SL, because LL is not a government but a for-profit organization, so, as a sort of elaboration on your plan, what if, instead of making this model of 5 sims/1-for-art (or whatever combination is financially feasible) generally available, LL offered, say, between two and five of these proposed models per half year (I'm making up the numbers as I go along), and asked those interested to submit a brief proposal. LL would need to make this sufficiently financially attractive that people were interested, and it would need to keep the number of slots available reasonably low, so that the financial hit that they are taking is manageable.

Yes, totally different model. In the RL examples, the developer is pushing to build something, in SL they already don't have enough people buying sims. Like most of my ideas, totally impractical, lol.