Over the past year, one of the most extensive and impressive virtual world art projects has been undertaken. I’ve written about it repeatedly here, for three reasons. First, it’s an Australian initiative driven by the University of Western Australia. Second, the scope of the project was enormous, encouraging submissions across a range of mediums. Third, the passion of the organisers was very hard to resist – each and every person was driven by their passion for art and progressing virtual worlds art.

On all three counts, it’s hard to argue anything but outstanding success. As an Australian initiative it’s rightly been lauded. As a showcase for the ways in which mediums such as sculpture, art, music and film can be mixed and enhanced, the exhibits speak for themselves. Finally, the organisation of the monthly heats and the grand final has been superb, let alone the day-to-day enthusiasm for the project by all involved.

My point? That virtual worlds art, as evidenced by the UWA competition, is in for a bright future. Nish Mip’s winning entry is stupendous, as is the majority of the works submitted. I was thrilled to be one of the large panel of judges, and it’ll be fascinating to see the ripples that radiate from such an intensive project.

The inexhaustible Jayjay Zifanwe has the full wrap, including lots of pictures, on the UWA in SL blog. Otherwise, read on for the full results, the winning machinimas and Jayjay’s grand final speech.

The full winner’s list:

UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE

GRAND CHAMPION, IMAGINE ART CHALLENGE, 61 points (L$75,000):
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

2nd Prize IMAGINE Grand Finale, 54 points (L$16,000)
THE LAST OCEAN by Nish Mip

3rd Prize IMAGINE Grand Finale, 44 points (L$15,000)
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo

4th Prize, IMAGINE Grand Finale, 38 points (L$12,000)
WILLOW by Bryn Oh

5th Prize, IMAGINE Grand Finale, 27 points (L$10,000):
TENDRILS by Glyph Graves

1st Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 63 points (L$75,000):
PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Nexus 

2nd Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale,57 points (L$16,000):
DB BAILEY & PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Gallery & Labs

Joint 3rd Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 46 points (L$13,500):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future
NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Jan 2010)

5th Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 40 points (L$10,000):
HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (August 2010)

1st Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, 95 points (L$14,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

2nd Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, 73 points (L$10,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

3rd Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED, 37 points (L$5,000):
CONCENTRIC SHELLS by Ichiko Miles

PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$15,000):
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$7,000):
THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$5,000):
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$15,000):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$7,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (July 2010), replaced the destroyed Dec build!

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$5,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (August 2010)

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$8,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$5,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED (L$3,000):
THE WHITE GODDESS TREE by Soror Nishi

MACHINIMA II: ART OF THE ARTISTS

Joint 1st Prize (L$55,000 each):
BRADLEY DORCHESTER – Art of the Artists

LAURINA HAWKS – No Tomb for the Arts

3rd Prize (L$30,000):
TUTSY NAVARATHNA – An Art Form is Born

The Aview TV Award (L$10,000):
FAKE JEWELL, Song of Medusa

Best Art Visualisation (L$10,000):
RYSAN FALL – MachinimUWA, Art of the Artist

Best Art Visualization, Single Artwork (L$10,000):
ED VESPUCCIANO – Lessons in Democracy

Best Crossover Impact (L$10,000) :
L1AURA LOIRE – CLICK, Immersive & Interactive Virtual Art

Best Story (L$10,000):
YESIKITA COPPOLA – Inspiracion

Best Editing & Message (L$10,000):
PIA KLAAR – Art of the Artists, A Closer Look

HONOURABLE MENTION PRIZE (3-WAY TIE, L$3,333 each)
SPYVSPY AEON, I Am Not A Robot
SUZY YUE, Across A Crowded Room
LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, City of Art

For the dedicated – the full speech:

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the University of Western Australia, or UWA as she is known and also welcome to the Grand Finale of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge & MachinimUWA II. As is tradition at UWA, I would like to acknowledge that the University is situated on Nyoongar land and that the Nyoongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land and continue to uphold their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.

Today brings to an end the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge which was launched on the 15th of August 2009, with 841 entries received across the IMAGINE Art Challenge and the FLAGSHIP Building Design Challenge. Today also sees the conclusion of MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists and with this, we had 45 machinima submissions where the theme was to film the artworks submitted to the UWA Challenge.

Its been an absolute pleasure for me to work with all of you over the year, and especially to those who went above an beyond the call of duty to make all of this a success. Thank you quadrapop lane, curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, thank you Taralyn Gravois, thank you LaPiscean Liberty, thank you Raphaella Nightfire. Also much thanks to those who have provided support and sponsorship which raised the overall prize pool from L$100,000 to more than L$1,000,000 now across Art, Architecture and Machinima. So I would like to also thank the Cultural Precinct at the University of Western Australia, ShedworX.com, the Casey Family of Western Australia, the Residents of Artemesia, MidnightRain Glas, Phillip Vought, Bohemian Ghost, Gumby Roffo, Sasun Steinbeck, Galea Yates, Kip Yellowjacket and a host of others.

Before any further announcements, first on the agenda today is our Special Guest Speaker whom I would like to sincerely thank for agreeing to attend and address everyone at this event. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce the creator of the legendary Ivory Tower Library of Primitives, and Grand Finale judge for the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, Lumiere Noir.

(Lumi Speaks)

Thank you Lumiere, it was truly a privilege to have you here! At the end of all the announcements, we will have the privilege of hearing Mommaluv Skytower singing live, and this will be followed by super Art DJ, Eifachfilm Varcirca, who is the definition of a multi-talented artiste having also been part of the UWA 3D Art Challenge across the year as well as machinimUWA II !

First… will be the announcements for MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists. MachinimUWA II grew almost by accident, out of a desire to honour the wonderful work that the artists of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge had created, and so the theme was, ‘create something that will take our breath away’. And the subject matter was the artwork of the Grand Finale of any of the works featuring in the July and August rounds of the 3D Art Challenge.

When the winners, it will be done in 1 minute intervals. We do invite everyone to comment and congratulate the winners and for the winners to respond before the next announcement (and if they could please use the SHOUT function :). Hopefully we can get pictures of you attending the event. If you do take them yourself, please email them to me at jayjayaustralia@hotmail.com. These will go into the UWA in Second Life Blog (www.uwainsl.blogspot.com), the Metaverse Journal, Prim Perfect Publications, the SL Enquirer, The Australian Trader and a number of other journals and blogs.

I want to thank our judging panel for their sterling work in looking through the incredible array of 45 entries. It was unbelievably hard to seperate things, and the panel was put to a great deal of work!

1. Professor Ted Snell (RL) – Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
2. Dr Carmen Fies (RL) – Second Life Lead: University of Texas San Antonio
3. quadrapop Lane (SL) – Curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
4. White Lebed (SL) – the founder of AppliedGameology.com
5. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) – Owner of The University of Western Australia (SL), Creator & co-host of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
6. Iono Allen (SL) – Official Machinimatographer of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
7. Cisko Vandeverre (SL) – Reigning UWA MachinimUWA Champion
8. Dr Kim Flintoff (RL) – Lecturer, Instructional Design, Centre for eLearning, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
9. LividEye Yoshikawa (SL) / John Yap (RL) – Senior Media Producer, National University of Singapore
10. Michelle Glaser (RL) – Senior Project Officer, Department of Culture and Arts, Government of Western Australia
11. Ian Booth (RL) – Chief Executive Officer, Screen West, Western Australia
12. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) – Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery (SL)
13. Laetitia Wilson (RL) – Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, UWA
14. Aaron Kennedy (RL) – Chairman, WAnimate, Raging Pixel Productions

Now to explain how the judging was done. Each judge listed their top 8 in order of preference. 8 points was allocated for a 1st place vote, 7 points for a 2nd place vote, and so on, with 1 points being allocated for an 8th place vote. The top 3 were taken as a straight aggregate compiling the individual rankings of the 14 judges. The special awards were then selected by discussion among the judges taking into consideration the overall rankings. There was also a special award provided by Aview TV & LaPiscean Liberty.

First of all, and you can see the trouble started here, we have the Honourable Mention Prize. This is a single prize of L$10,000. However, the judges were hopelessly deadlocked. And so it was, that we had a 3-way tie for the Honourable Mention Prize, which becomes L$3,333 each! And so the Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, goes to:
SPYVSPY AEON, I Am Not A Robot

and The Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, also goes to:
SUZY YUE, Across A Crowded Room

AND FURTHER, The Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, also goes to:
LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, City of Art

Next, we have the special awards, and we start off with The Aview TV Award, with L$10,000 provided by Aview TV & LaPiscean Liberty. The Aview TV Award, goes to:
FAKE JEWELL, Song of Medusa

Commenting on this, LaPiscean said, “When identity and prose meet one another, the content is heartfelt. I know, because i was a Medusa in my time. At least thats why I so like the Song of Medusa, as if to say this Machinima was about myself. While a Medusa among Medusas, I shone and now that I’m not among Medusas, remaining one at heart, I still shine!”

Next, the Award for Best Art Visualisation (L$10,000), goes to:
RYSAN FALL – MachinimUWA, Art of the Artist

The Award for Best Art Visualization, Single Artwork (L$10,000), goes to:
ED VESPUCCIANO – Lessons in Democracy

The Award for Best Crossover Impact (L$10,000) goes to:
L1AURA LOIRE – CLICK, Immersive & Interactive Virtual Art

The Award for Best Story (L$10,000) goes to:
YESIKITA COPPOLA – Inspiracion

And, the Award for Best Editing & Message (L$10,000) goes to:
PIA KLAAR – Art of the Artists, A Closer Look

Now we come to the top 3 prizes, and we start with 3rd Prize. When all the statistics were done taking into account the judges rankings, this piece finished with 42 points, and 12 of the 14 judges listed this piece in their top 8. A wonderful whimsical story with a sublime message. The L$30,000 3rd Prize, goes to:
TUTSY NAVARATHNA – An Art Form is Born

Next we come to 2nd Prize. Now truly, for 2nd Prize, when I did all the calculations following the judges submissions, I got the shock of my life! I apologize to this person, but I just had to shake my head, I can’t believe this was selected for 2nd and so, the 2nd Prize of L$50,000, goes to:
NOBODY

Yes ladies and gentlemen…. nobody, because incredibly, we have a TIE for FIRST PLACE, on 60 points each. One of the 2 winners appeared on 13 of the 14 judges lists of top 8, while the other had 3 first place votes and 3 second place votes. No other piece had more than TWO 1st place votes and TWO 2nd place votes. So we had to recalibrate the prize, and put the 1st & 2nd Prize together and divide by 2, making that L$55,000 for each of the two 1st Prizes!

So, one of the JOINT-WINNERS of MACHINIMUWA II: Art of the Artists (L$55,000) is:
BRADLEY DORCHESTER – Art of the Artists

this machinima certainly took many breaths away! lets all enjoy the winning Machinima, so please turn on your media everyone, as we play it:

AND NOW, the JOINT-WINNER of MACHINIMUWA II: Art of the Artists (L$55,000) is:
LAURINA HAWKS – No Tomb for the Arts

a film of epic proportions, let us all enjoy it now!

We also had an viewer participation event, where we asked SL residents to predict who would be in the top 8, and to rank the order, and and we have 3 winners, 3rd (L$1,000) is Pia Klaar, 2nd (L$1,500) is EdwardIV Beaumont and the winner (L$2,500) of the viewer participation event is Beau Aie !

And now, we move to the Grand Finale of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. Before announcing the winners here, there are a few things I do need said.

First please help me thank the curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge once again, who has for an entire year, magnificently marshalled the 841 entries that I allowed to come in at all times of the day and night with not a single day break as to when the works were submitted, and not a single day when the gallery was closed across the year. Ladies & gentlemen, quadrapop Lane.

And sadly, we have to announce that quadrapop will from today be stepping down as the curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, as the Challenge comes to a full stop, and qpop will be able to get the great breat she deserves! Thank you quadrapop Lane!

I would also like to thank Taralyn Gravois for her great work in being the Director of the UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre, and looking after events held at the 4-SIM Theatre. Sadly, she is also stepping down today, as a number of other pressures wont allow her to continue in her role. Thank you Taralyn!

The Torch passes however. FreeWee Ling will take over as curator at UWA & Chantal Harvey will take over at this theatre! 3 Cheers for FreeWee & Chantal!

Now, what is there to take over at UWA? Well, I won’t have a NC to distribute for a few weeks yet, but basically once the curtain comes down today, the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge (L$1,000,000 Prize Pool), which again will run for one year will kick off. This will be a Grand Collaboration among the major art houses of SL, and aside from the top 3 monthly awards, in place of the Honourable Mention Awards, we will have a monthly Pirats Prize (selected by Merlina Rokocoko & Newbab Zsigmond), an Odyssey Prize (selected by Fau Ferdinand & Lizsolo Mathilde), an SL Arts Prize (selected by Gleman Jun & Sunset Quinnell), a Show & Tell Prize (selected by Florenze Kerensky & Barney Boomslang), a CARP Prize (selected by Josina Burgess & Velasquez Bonetto) and a BOSL Prize (selected by Frolic Mills & Giela Delpaso).

The rules for this will be simple. The theme is ‘Create something that will take our breath away’, and the prim limit is 100! As it always has been. So anyway, the receiver for the works is in the same location as before !

Professor Ted Snell, Director of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge whose 5 minute meeting with me 2 days before the very first mini-Launch we had at UWA in August 2009 sparked off these challenges said, It began with a rush but the entries just kept coming, rising from over thirty in the first month to a final total of over one hundred artworks in the final competition. What was most exciting was the obvious increase in
the standard of entries, the increasing sophistication of the conceptual basis of the works and the extraordinary skill in rendering them within the
virtual world. ”

As with the Machinima, I want to thank and acknowledge the judging panel. There were 23 judges in all, however 22 for either the Flagship or Imagine side as one of the judges, only looked at the Flagships, while another only looked at the Art.

JUDGING PANEL for GRAND FINALE of the UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE
1. Lumiere Noir (SL) – Creator of the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives
2. Sasun Steinbeck (SL) – Founder of the Art Galleries of SL list
3. Lowell Cremorne (SL), Owner of The Metaverse Journal
4. White Lebed (SL) – Founder of AppliedGameology.com
5. Phillip Vought(SL) – Art Philanthropist & Founding Patron of UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre
6. Lanai Jarrico (SL) – CEO SL Enquirer
7. Reslez Steeplechase (SL) – Founder First Call Musicians Co-op (FCMC), CEO Matters of Music Media Group (M3)
8. Mal Burns (SL) – Metaverse News Aggregator and Broadcaster
9. Apollo Manga (SL) – examiner.com Writer & Novelist
10. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) – Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery
11. Dr Gary Zabel (RL) / Georg Janick (SL) – University of Masachusetts
12. Saffia Widdershins (SL) – Owner and Editor of Prim Perfect Publications
13. Jordan Whitt (SL) – Editor in Chief, ICON Lifestyle Magazine
14. Rowan Derryth (SL) – Art & Design Historian; Writer for Prim Perfect Publications
15. Courtney Linden (SL) – Linden Lab
16. Paisley Beebe (SL) – CEO of Perfect World Productions TV
17. Bohemian Ghost (SL) – Owner of Summerland Estates
18. Jopsy Pendragon (SL) – Founder of the Particle Laboratory Learning Center
19. Professor Ted Snell (RL) – Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
20. Frank Roberts (RL) – The University Architect, The University of Western Australia
21. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) – Owner of The University of Western Australia (SL), Creator & co-host of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
22. Dr Chris Thorne (RL) – Co-Founder of the UWA (SL) & UWA Honourary Research Associate (RL) (judged Flagship only)
23. Frolic Mills (SL) – BOSL & CO CEO (judged the IMAGINE sections only)

First though, the results for the People’s Choice Awards. For the people’s choice, all of SL could vote for their favourite pieces across the month of September, and had to use a HUD (created by quadrapop) to visit all the builds rezzed across the grid, as it needed more than 30,000 prims to have everything up. And I need to thanks Caren McCaw & Nyx Breen (Annapurna), Dijodi Dubratt (Toor), quadrapop Lane (Poorlatrice), Kip Yellowjacket (Virtlantis), Lilli Field (Mysten), Phillip Vought (Acquitaine), Cuwynne Deerhunter & Eliza Wierwight (Patron) and the LEA for valuable space to rezz the works.

And so for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED 3rd prize goes to (L$3,000):
THE WHITE GODDESS TREE by Soror Nishi

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED 2nd prize goes to (L$5,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$8,000) is:
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

Now we move to the People’s Choice Awards for the FLAGSHIPS

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP 3rd prize goes to (L$5,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (August 2010)

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP 2nd prize goes to (L$7,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (July 2010), replaced the destroyed Dec build!

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$15,000) is:
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

Now on to the IMAGINE ART SECTION

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE 3rd prize goes to (L$5,000):
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE 2nd prize goes to (L$7,000):
THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$15,000) is:
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

And now we come to the crunch. The overall juried Grand Prizes for the UWA 3D Art & Design competition. The results are extremely interesting, and I do need to explain how the Judging was done. Each judge listed their top 10 in order for IMAGINE & FLAGSHIP & top 5 for the non-scripted. Works receiving a 1st place vote were allocated 6 points, 2nd place 5 points, 3rd 4 points, 4th 3points, 5th 2 points, and 6th – 10th place votes received 1 point each. The winners are taken as a straight aggregate compiling the individual rankings of each member of the judging panel. No one individual had any greater influence than any other. Every single piece featured in the top 10 of at least 2 judges. Every single piece was also NOT in the top 10 of at least 2 judges. So there was great individual variability, however, when put together, I am staggered by how clearly the results come across.

First the Non-Scripted. I will reveal the aggregate points received by the winning pieces, and also of the ones which just missed out. The Prize winners will receive special trophies created by Miso Susanowa who won the Trophy Challenge some months back run by FreeWee Ling and the Residents of Artemesia. There are 3 prizes for the non-scripted. It was very close, between 3rd prize and the works in 4th – 6th. There was in fact a 3-way tie for 4th place in the non-scripted, these being:

4th (non-scripted) BLACK PEARL by Solkide Auer – 30 points
4th (non-scripted) THE NIGHT ORCHID by soror Nishi – 30 points
4th (non-scripted) BLOOM GLOW by Sledge Roffo – 30 points

All said and done, the overall IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED 3rd prize, on 37 points goes to (L$5,000):
CONCENTRIC SHELLS by Ichiko Miles

For overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED 2nd prize, on 73 points goes to (L$10,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core – 73 points

And the runaway WINNER for the overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, on an incredible 95 points (L$14,000) is:
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

Now for the Flagship. There are 5 prizes, but I will reveal the relative positions and point allocations for the top 10 so everyone can get a sense of how things shaped up. Again remember, these are not ratings of artworks… these are more similar to how things work when selecting the MVP for a football game or the world footballer of the year. 6th through 10th place from the 23 builds overall fell as follows:

6th FLAGSHIP : HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (July 2010) – 30 points
7th FLAGSHIP : ELIZA WIERWIGHT: The Patron Gallery Build – 23 points
7th FLAGSHIP: OWL RAE (MOTH REXEN): Arcapelus Sanctuary – 23 points
9th FLAGSHIP: NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Feb 2010) – 20 points
10th FLAGSHIP: NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB  (June 2010) – 18 points

OK, so for the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 5th prize, on 40 points goes to (L$10,000):
HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (August 2010)

For the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 4th prize, goes to (L$12,000) :
NOBODY – as we have a tie for 3rd place on 46 points apiece

For the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, we have a JOINT 3rd Prize, and this goes to (L$13,500):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

3rd Prize for the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, also goes to (L$13,500):
NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Jan 2010)

I had told Nyx a couple of times that this was my personal favourite of his many amazing builds!

Next the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 2nd prize on 57 points goes to (L$16,000):
DB BAILEY & PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Gallery & Labs

And now for the winner. This build will remain on UWA grounds as long a UWA in Second Life stands, and will be looked as as a foundation for the design of the real Cultural Precinct Flagship build at UWA in a few years time.

The WINNER of the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, on 63 points goes to (L$75,000):
PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Nexus 

Finally, to the IMAGINE Grand Finale. Again, there are 5 prizes, and I will reveal the top 10. Things were very close just outside of the prizes, and the gap between 5th place and the 3 way tie for 9th is only 6 points, and here they are:

6th IMAGINE: THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight – 23 points
7th IMAGINE: CYBERSHARK by Igor Ballyhoo – 22 points
7th IMAGINE: ATOMIC-GO-ROUND by Atomic Gaffer – 22 points
9th IMAGINE: IMMERSIVE ART: THE MAZE by Alizarin Goldflake – 21 points
9th IMAGINE: 26 TINES by Bryn Oh – 21 points
9th IMAGINE: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine – 21 points

OK, so for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, 5th prize, on 27 points goes to (L$10,000):
TENDRILS by Glyph Graves

4th Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 38 points, goes to (L$12,000)
WILLOW by Bryn Oh

3rd Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 44 points, goes to (L$15,000)
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo

a real favourite especially among the machinimatographers, as it is the most filmed artwork

2nd Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 54 points, goes to (L$16,000)
THE LAST OCEAN by Nish Mip

Now its a stunning result for 1st place, and in fact what happened with this was the reason why I decided to release the point totals of the cumulative judges rankings, and ensure that the prizes extended to the top 5, instead of what is was going to be initially, which was a top 2.

And so, the GRAND CHAMPION of the IMAGINE ART CHALLENGE, on 61 points (L$75,000) is:
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

Its almost unfathomable. To achieve what Nish has, in taking the Top 2 spots from amongst 772 artworks across the year. I cannot begin to calculate the odds against that happening. UMBRELLAS received SIX 1st place votes and only 2 other works received more than ONE 1st place vote being WILLOW & THE LAST OCEAN which each received THREE.

Congratulations Nish! Anyone wanting the full results, please send me an IM. Do check and link to the blog as well, as everything will be there in 24 hours http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/

The UWA 3D Open Art Challenge is now officially open! And with that ends the formal part of today.

Thank you so much Eifachfilm Vacirca for helping stream voice to all the 4 sims during the announcements!

I now hand the floor over to the incredible Mommaluv Skytower who has wowed many an audience with her incredible performances! Please give her a warm welcome all!

The University of Western Australia continues its 3D Art and Design Challenge, announcing the March winners. All those details are replicated in full below thanks to the indefatigable Jayjay Zifanwe and the UWA in SL blog.

What’s even more impressive is the announcement that the UWA have agreed to fund the monthly competition for a further three years, to the tune of a million Linden dollars per year for art and half a million for machinima. That equates to around US$6000 per year on top of maintaining the UWA presence, which is certainly a demonstration of confidence by the University. It also extends the life of the competition to August 2013, ensuring exposure of a lot of artists over that time.

Onto the March winners:

Fuschia & Flivelwitz snatch IMAGINE, Breen machine chugs on: March Winners of UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge

For the very first time, a collaborative work has taken the top IMAGINE Arts prize for the March round of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. The enchanting and enveloping HEATH, created by Fuschia Nightfire & Flivelwitz Alsop held off a very strong field of 55 works from artists all across SL in taking the $L5,000 first prize. Meanwhile in the FLAGSHIP building design challenge, no one seems capable of supooing Nyx Breen who has now won 4 of the 7 to FLASHIP prizes as this yearlong competition has crossed into month 8!

First time entrant, Flivelwitz and veteran Fuschia were thrilled and stunned to have taken the top gong. “Well i suspected we had won something! but not this”, said Fuschia, while Flivelwitz when asked to comment said “It is exciting to be the first to win in a collaboration at the UWA”.

The top 3 in fact were very close, and for the first time ever, a joint 2nd prize was awarded to Julez Odigaunt & Kolor Fall for their incredible works, JULIA’S WILTING HEART SHRINE & OCEANS OF LIGHT.

“Its such an honor that UWA appreciated Julia’s Wilting Heart Shrine. It is a very personal piece and I am glad it was well received. I would like to thank Ulrich Lionheart, the author of the poem. His words are so powerful and full of emotion – purely expressing what I was feeling at the time – it inspired me to create a shrine that allowed me to expose the mindset I was in at the time. It was quite healing” said Julez.

With Nyx’s back to back to back win in March to go with his October win taking his tally to 4, seems it will take some doing to dislodge Nyx who has declared that he will have one FLAGSHIP build submitted each month for the rest of the competition. It is going to take some doing to stop Nyx from having more than half of the entries that will come under consideration for the Grand Prize!

Following the announcements yesterday at the traditional winners announcement party at the UWA SIM, Nyx said, ” I would like to state that outside of developing some wonderful friendships in Second Life, that nothing has been as enjoyable as participating in an event that has truly global and groundbreaking results as the UWA Flagship Challenge. UWA has taken a small art show and made it a must see destination in the Cyber world and an event that if missed in Second Life, then one doesn’t understand the true potential of what was envisioned as the purpose of Second Life… creativity shared across a medium that brings us all closer.Great Job UWA, JJ & Quad and all that help make this possible.”

The best non-scripted entry was BLOOM GLOW by Gumby Roffo, another vetran of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, while Sharni Azalee’s FOREST OF DREAMS was voted top for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD!

The Artist Book Prize, being awarded for the final time, went to Miranda Mhia work, STANDING ROOM ONLY. UWA would like to thank Juanita Deharo, Victor Vezina and Juko Temple for making this award possible.

Other winners include Sundog Branner, Ichiko Miles, Gleman Jun, Betty Tureand and Nish Mip. Full list below.

Some other exciting things were also mentioned during the awards ceremony. First of all, UWA played host both in SL & RL to the Big Kahuna himself M Linden, who for the very first time in any universe was displaying his wonderful artworks. These can still be seen at a permanent exhibition within at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery which is on one of the 5 UWA SIMS.

This space has been listed as an SL destination for the Arts, which is the 2nd location within the UWA SIMS designated as an SL destination for the Arts, the other one being UWA’s Art & Design Challenge platform.

You can hear M Linden’s speech and watch some of the wonderful machinima created for the event on the UWA in Second Life Blog.

The next wonderful thing, is because of all the good news and publicity surrounding the machinima, the art & design competition and M’s show, UWA have been given funding for the Arts & Machinima for a further 3 years following then end of this current cycle in August 2010. The funding have received will allow UWA to provide L$1,000,000 per year for Art Challenges and L$500,000 for Machinima.

Also mentioned was the work of Lili Field, an Australian RL architect who has recreated UWA’s School of Business Building. A replica created based on the original buidling plans of an incredible award winning build at UWA .

IMAGINE CHALLENGE – 3D ART

Imagine Challenge 1st Prize: ($L5,000 + Custom T-Shirt)
HEATH by Flivelwitz Alsop & Fuschia Nightfire
Imagine Challenge 2nd Prize: ($L1,250) JOINT
OCEANS OF LIGHT by Kolor Fall/Patrick Faith
JULIA’S WILTING HEART SHRINE by Julez Odigaunt
Best Non-Scripted Entry: ($L1,250 + Custom T-Shirt)
BLOOM GLOW by Sledge Roffo

Casey WA Cultural Prize 1st Prize (L$4,000)

TBA

FLAGSHIP CHALLENGE – BUILDING DESIGN
Flagship Challenge 1st Prize : ($L5,000)
AxS GALLERY by Nyx Breen (4th time winner)

Honourable Mention Prize for ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES (L$500)
PRIMATAR’S LOVE: THE EVOLUTION by Gleman Jun

THE ANTON MESMER Honourable Mention Prize (L$500)
KINETIC-ART ELLIPTIC THREADS by Sundog Branner

Honourable Mention Prize for ARTISTRY (L$500):
HERA’S LYRE by Ichiko Miles

Honourable Mention Prize for TEXTURE & ATMOSPHERE (L$500):
BUTTERFLY HOUSE by Nish Mip – submitted for the FLAGSHIP Challenge

ARTIST BOOK PRIZE – 1st Prize (L$2,000):
STANDING ROOM ONLY – Miranda Mhia

ARTIST BOOK PRIZE – Honourable Mention (L$500):

WOMEN ARE AFRICAS HOPE – Betty Tureand

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD (L$500):

FOREST OF DREAMS by Sharni Azalee

The University of WA’s 3D Art and Design competition continues its significant momentum, with the December 2009 winners now announced. The full announcement below, plus you can view pictures of all the entrants on the UWA in SL blog.

As on of the finalist judges, each month makes me more nervous as I realise the depth of talent amongst the artists that have submitted so far. As always, have a look for yourself – the range of art and sculpture is astounding. The December round saw more than 70 entries across the different categories, so it’s an understatement to say there’s lots of interest.

The winners announced:

Igor Ballyhoo & Patch Thibaud truimph in DECEMBER ROUND of UWA 3D Art & Design

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD (L$500)
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo