Fun with robots and donuts

Friends Bibi and Count Bayliss are the happy, over-worked owners of a set of sims that I became acquainted with via racing. On one of said sims, Snowpeach, Count set up an homage to renowned British motorsport venue Brands Hatch, which we use in both MotoSL and FormulaSL. But this post isn’t about racing, it’s about the Museum of Robots next door on Kubrick. This is a comprehensive, well-curated and polished display of the electromechanical cybernetic stars, sidekicks, and villains from Hollywood classics and the shelves of toy stores all over the world. It’s all there, from Metropolis’s Maria to the Terminator, infinity and beyond!

Eric Joyner and Bibi Bayliss: a conversation at MoR

Now Count and Bibi have put together an art exhibition of the work of Eric Joyner, based on the artist’s forthcoming book, Robots and Donuts. On the evening of Monday the 15th Eric was on hand to open the exhibit, graciously taking time away from his Famous Artist Duties to present a talk, and then engage in a Q&A with the gathered throng.

So you missed that bit, but chin up: the exhibit will run through August, so just go browse the collection, ok? And take a look at Eric’s website and blog. Maybe read this article from the San Francisco Chronicle on the man’s work. See what’s up at the San Jose Museum of Art, where Joyner is a part of current show “Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon“. Or pick up a copy of Robots and Donuts (in pre-release) on Amazon! This is seriously fun stuff. Seriously.

New home, same old look

I’ve moved, but you’d never know to look at the place. My old “home” on Hotgates has undergone a change in ownership at Stanford, passing to the care of the Stanford Libraries as an archival site along with NEWare, the adjacent project space island that was the Humanities Lab’s initial foray into Second Life. Hotgates is still open, and looks the same as it did before, but with its new role as project memory it no longer serves my needs for project development, experimentation, and general goofing off.
So now I have Hotspot! Initially, it’s pretty much a duplicate of Hotgates, although I expect the two islands will diverge rather quickly. But the galleries for the Revolutionary Tides and Crowds projects, the Asian-American Art exhibit, the Life Squared pavilion referencng the Dante Hotel and Roberta Breitmore projects, all will remain as long as they’re of interest.
Here are a couple snapshots of Hotspot, Day One:

A “Type One” island freshly transformed with Hotgates’ RAW terrain file.

Sundeck, Buddha garden, and beach pavilion in place: first things first!

So far, so good. Y’all come!