Dragon Curves

Numerous people have already reviewed the first opened LEA Exhibit of this round - Dragon Curves (Wikipedia) - which came into being within forty-eight hours of the new land grants being announced. I've linked to a bunch of them on my LEA 26 Post, but please let me know if I've missed anyone. I don't know if the rash of reviews is a result of my looking for them so close to the event, before blogs change or close down, or if it has to do with the general flow of information in Second Life and the paucity of exhibits right now, but Dragon Curves is definitely worth a visit and a look. It is, first of all, enormous - a full sim from side to side and with individual pieces at least a meter or two horizontally, and often eight or ten meters vertically. And individual could easily stand on one, as I am above, but over the flow of distance everything begins to seem smaller and smaller in rapid succession. There is no easy sense of size or distance the way this is set up, all blocks of bright colors and long, indirect pathways with sudden and unexpected drops. I can't count the number of times I ended up flying down through the air into nothing, only to land on another level of bright, moving angles. It's a striking effect, to be inside of a moving, breathing fractal that can vanish underfoot - one of the more similar experiences I had was watching this YouTube Short, which has a similar perilous, unexpected feel to it.

I spent a lot of time trying to make it up and down the narrow dragon stairways, which are some of the only solid and unmoving things in the exhibit. Other than that, you are at the mercy of the programing - and the ground can literally fall out from under you. The background is also continually changing, which made it both challenging and fun to photograph. It's largely an experience rather than something easily captured in static pictures, though. This reminds me a lot of something that some bloggers in Second Life were very existed about a few years ago - things which are not possible in real life. This entire created world is a good example of this; nothing mechanical could create the smooth movement over such immense space not to mention the color changing depending on the level of the blocks. I ended up flying around it a lot. I'm not the most dexterous in a virtual 3D space, and I kept falling off of things - and also the size of everything is so much larger than an avatar, that in order to see things like an entire block moving up and recoloring itself, one needed to not be standing on other blocks. I really encourage you to go - linger a while and fly around. The first sight of an immense column of color rising or falling, then shifting in color is impossible to capture in words or pictures.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Tukinowaguma, Reigetu
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Ear Deco: Illusions, Wrapped Cords
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Buzz, Gem Lips (Lunar New Year Event)
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Bracelet: Ezura, Bangles Jade
Nails: A:S:S, Precious 1
Fan: Attic, Tree Macha Fan (Lunar New Year Event)
Dress: Junebug, Quanyin in Jade (Lunar New Year Event)

Pose: !bang

Location: Dragon Curves
Light Settings: TOR, NIGHT Bright Blue Horizon
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only