UWA 3D Art and Design Challenge August Winners Announced

September 18, 2010

The September 5, 2010 party at the Second Life® University of Western Australia (UWA) sim marked the 12th and final monthly announcement of winners since the beginning of the UWA 3D Art and Design Challenge. Jay Jay Jegathesan, Manager, School of Physics, (otherwise known as Jay Jay Zifanwe) announced the August 2010 winners to a crowd of artists and friends.

 Jay Jay Zifanwe

The party was a culmination of the 12 months of the challenge, divided into the Flagship and Imagine categories. The Flagship category accepted entries of designer/builders, with the expectation of building the winning design on the real world UWA campus. The Imagine challenge, which accepted entries of 3D art, ran concurrently with the Flagship. The winners may be viewed at UWA Imagine Winners Level 4.

Of the August entries, Mr. Jegathesan said, “An incredible, unprecedented 109 entries were submitted to the August round, with 103 Imagine entries and 6 Flagships, making it 841entries across the year by some 300 Second Life Artists and Builders.” A list of the winners appears below.

Now, the Grand Prize round has begun, as well as a People’s Choice Vote, both of which will wind up on September 30, 2010. The impressive panel of judges includes Frolic Mills (BOSL CEO), Courtney Linden (Linden Lab) and Rowan Derryth (art historian and writer for Prim Perfect Publications).

Each of the 16 judges will be asked to list their top 10 Imagine works, their top 5 non-scripted Imagine works and their top 10 Flagship entries. Quadrapop Lane has created a HUD to easily teleport you to all the winning entries for the People’s Choice Vote. It’s available at Level 1.

 Celebration Party

After the briefing, the guests teleported to a celebration with DJ Eifachfilm Varcirca.

UWA in Second Life

The UWA 3D Art and Design Challenge is only one of the initiatives by and within SL UWA. Since its inception, the UWA sim has had the intention of “creating true bridges between SL & RL [real life] for prospective students, current students, staff, alumni and the community” through the core elements of arts, architecture, teaching and research. The elements of arts and architecture are exemplified by the Art and Design Challenge and the MachinimUWA Challenges.

The first machinima challenge was born of a desire to showcase SL UWA and its purposes in a public venue, e.g. the internet, youtube, etc. MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists exhibits the winners of the Imagine and Flagship Challenges in the same way. The entries are linked to the UWA blog.

At the moment, entries including Fuschia Nightfire, Bryn Oh and Yesikita Coppola are posted. The contest continues until September 20, 2010. If you would like to enter, the rules are here.

Teaching and research are at times accomplished in conjunction with each other. For example, a post graduate class allows students in the business program to participate in a unit (1/4 semester) entitled “Buyer Behaviour and Decision Making,” in which they research consumer behavior in SL. SL is also a component of a unit on social media for undergraduate commerce students.

Mr. Jegathesan stated they would like to expand this, but “art has been the back bone whereas the teaching is sporadic.” Aptly, a new challenge will be issued in October, an art collaboration that will involve major art groups in SL.

Satirical Polemicist by E. Wierwight

In the same vein, the UWA has executed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Texas at San Antonio, principally to promote exchanges in the categories of art and teaching, entailing matters like judging and lectures.

“The international connections made through SL are very important to me,” Mr. Jegathesan explained, “and through August the challenges have seen artists & builders hailing from Venezuela, Belgium, Mexico, Wales, Canada, the USA, the UK, Uruguay, Scotland, England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Holland, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Cuba, Serbia, Tunisia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.”

The Last Ocean by Nish Mip

The challenges have drawn the attention of many of the most notable artists in SL, as well as important media outlets such as BOSL, ICON Lifestyle Magazine and SL Enquirer, thereby boosting the popularity of the UWA sim. Alumni and prospective students like to visit the sim with its replica of the actual campus, including Winthrop Clock Tower and the Morton Bay Fig Tree, which are favorites of Mr. Jegathesan. The Clock Tower is “the main UWA building; it was the inspiration to come into Second Life and build it to let the world see.”

Here is a listing of the August challenge winners:

Imagine Challenge
UWA Legacy (for submitting an entry in each of the 12 months) - Jesse Keyes, Alizarin Goldflake and soror Nishi
Honorable Mention (for submitting an entry in 11 of the 12 months) - Corcosman Voom and Oberon Onmura
August Imagine Challenge 1st Prize - The Last Ocean by Nish Mip
2nd Prize (joint) - The Satirical Polemicist by Eliza Wierwight and What a Wonderful World by Lea Supermarine
August Imagine Challenge Honorable Mention - Stop Fear by Gleman Jun, Dotty the Dragon by Soror Nishi, The Deep by Blue Tsuki, Quantum Matrix by Gingered Alsop, Partly Antsy Chamber by Pinkpink Sorbet and Antarctica - An Individual Existence by Glyph Graves
Rain Prize (established for and selected by one of the Founding Patrons of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge) - The Satirical Polemicist by Eliza Wierwight
The Bohemian Ghost Prize (selected by Bohemian Ghost/Owners of the Summerland Estates) - The Aerialist by Corcosman Voom
August People’s Choice Award 1st Prize - Stop Fear by Gleman Jun
2nd Prize - The Satirical Polemicist by Eliza Wierwight
Best Non-Scripted - The Unicorn Wood Edition by Nessuno Myoo

 Aug Flagship Win Herick Straaf

Flagship Challenge

UWA Legacy (for submitting the most entries) - Nyx Breen (submitted 13 of the 69 of the builds)
August Flagship Challenge 1st Prize - Concept Building for AXS Lab by Herick Straaf
2nd Prize - UWA AXS Lab by Nyx Breen
August Flagship Honorable Mention - Black Swan by Oldoak Merlin
Casey West Australian Cultural Prize (established to encourage the seeking of knowledge about Western Australia, its culture and its people) - Black Swan by Oldoak Merlin

Thank you for reading.

Se7en Wirsing
Press Pass Reporter