Burning Life Opens

On Saturday October 17th at noon SL time, the Burning Life sims were opened to the general public of Second Life. From then until October 25th, there will be over 400 exhibits to view, with over a thousand residents involved in this major metaverse event. This massive nine day art show took almost two months to set up, and takes up three dozen sims. Burning Life 2009 is the seventh annual “virtual burn” in Second Life.

For those new to Burning Life, it is recommended you go to the Welcome Gate in the southeastern corner of the Hualapai sim and the southwestern corner of Deep Hole where a couple greeters will give you a notecard with some recommended places and answer any questions. There is also a Gate 2, and a Gate 3 available should the first be too crowded. Veteran “Burners” can simply drop in somewhere and once everything rezzes (which can take a while in the most detailed areas on older computers) start looking at the sites.

And this year, there is no shortage of things to see, and even interact with. One noteworthy exhibit I came across was the “History of Flight” by Windyy Lane. Stepping inside the “geode,” one is surrounded by a mesmerizing rainbow of colors, with creatures of some kind lazily flying in the air. One could get on them and dance, as well as port up to fly next to the huge silver bird flying over the geode.

Burning Life is inspired by the real life Burning Man art festival in the Black Rock Desert in California. Tens of thousands attend, and once it is over the exhibits are burned and everything cleaned up, “leave no trace.” Some of the Lindens had gone there before the making of Second Life, and have called it a partial inspiration for the making of it. Read more here.

For a list of exhibits, check out the Camp Directory. For special events, check the Events Listings.

“So what should you do and see? Well, ... that's entirely up to you.”

Bixyl Shuftan