Outline of the beginning of Music Island

Organizing and presenting concerts on Music Island is part of my work and play within Second Life. It is a specialized new platform and in this blog I hope to share the basics of what I have learned about presenting concerts in Second Life, as well as some information about the concerts that have happened at Music Island and the artists who have performed there.

In 2007 I became a member of the open-learning community of Cedar Island. Cedar is the private project of a remarkable individual Second Life resident, Jon Seattle. Wishing to create a space where people can develop and share positive learning in life he has created a community within Second Life for people pursuing individual projects that contribute to the intellectual, cultural and spiritual life of residents. Residents present on their projects twice a quarter in the form of status updates, formal presentations, exhibits, concerts, events.

During the prior year of 2006, my exploration of Second Life had been sporadic and personal, simply learning to navigate, exploring worlds and thinking about what the whole thing was about. Having to choose a first topic I focused on developing a basic skill I would need if I were to pursue a musical project in Second Life--the ability to digitally stream music. I presented on the topic and created a kiosk display of help materials.

In my second quarter, seredipitously, the leader of the Classical Music Group in Second Life--Tyrol Rimbaud--was looking for volunteers to help in a group that promoted occasional classical events to about 3,000 group subscribers. It was her thought that group Officers should/could also help the artists with creating and distributing concert programs and acting as helpers on site to direct traffic, make announcements, and provide general assistance. I reported on this at the end of my second quarter, citing a number of problems occuring in concerts and venues that were outside of the control of myself or the performing musicians.

These concerns--which I will detail in future posts--led to future projects and the development of the existing Music Island Concert venue and series:

1. organizing a consultation on the creation of a non-profit venue for music, involving musicians, artists, builders, event promoters, classical group leaders, and Cedar Island community residents
2. taking the advices of the consultation and applying it to the building of Music Island... this was work undertaken by Cedar Island owner and architect, Jon Seattle
3. launching the Music Island Concert series
4. beginning a Music Island Concert group
5. reporting on my work at the Technology in the Arts Conference in May 2008
6. the development of a Music Island Board of Directors