Contemporary Ijinle well underway

Non-denominational Christian church in Ijinle

Being too uncomfortable and fractious from my cold to grade exams, I threw myself into building this week. I wanted to really see some accomplishments! So, after shrinking the new palace and throwing up the build that emerged during the conference, I started to work. What next?

In fact, what content? What should a modern Yoruba town show, albeit truncated and in miniature? I want the mix of building styles to be clear–Afro-Brazilian intricacy, Yoruba concrete spinoffs of the same pleasing, old style buildings, something sleek and modern, paint deterioration–so, a mix of styles.

And what of content? I want to discuss religion, both as a major bulldozer of traditional patrons, but also as an interesting force within the country. I first lived in the Middle Belt, where Muslims and Christians (really perceived outsiders vs. indigenes, rather than religious rivals), and just last week several hundred were killed in clashes there. As I started building the cathedral, I realized the Yoruba aren’t usually involved in these clashes–perhaps because they are normally inter-ethnic problems, and the Yoruba are fairly evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. That’s quite a success story.

Tamsin piously reading her Bible and sneaking a peek at other ladies; outfits

So, the church and mosque became my first two complex structure from scratch, the church a somewhat modern building, the mosque in full-blown Afro-Brazilian style. It has loads of little sculpty decorations and pastel details. Even the roof–corrugated sculpties, rather than a flat textured surface.

Placing things inside has been terrific fun, and shows just how skilled and in love with building many of SL’s creators are. My church pews are very reasonable, built by Duke Magneto. If you click on the back of a pew, you’re offered a candle or a Bible, and multiple poses are available to make you a very pious set of prims!

Looks like a cathedral, but it's a mosque!

The mosque has poseballs I first saw in the fantastic Al-Andalus mosque build, back when it was the Chebi Mosque. They include the poses for salat and can be timed according to the various times of the day. The maker, Ruuh Cassini, also has a fantastic build that allows a virtual hadj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, as well as free copies of the Noble Koran–not just books with a cover, but USABLE full Korans–incredibly complex and time consuming!

I wanted both builds to include select YouTube videos of specifically Yoruba hymns, Yoruba Koranic recitations, and the were music played during Ramadan, and merrily gathered them. And then–yesterday YouTube changed something, and no SL YouTube viewer works. This has happened before, so I’m hoping the maker will develop a fix–it added so much!

Skilled emancipated slaves from Brazil built plaster-detailed mosques, churches and houses in southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin

The church also has bells, and I’m developing a specifically Yoruba call to prayer, which will make me explore sound further. Wonderful free sound scripts are available at Twisted Thorn’s ScreamShop on the second floor, courtesy of the wonderful soundstress Meriadne Merlin, who is incredibly kind. More on the sound adventures later.

I love sticking in the little details, like a few pairs of shoes in the mosque vestibule.

Today I put up the tailor shop, with treadle machines and some of Meriadne’s sounds. Finding some of the textures for posters, etc. was time consuming, but it makes it come alive for me, at least!

Need a new blouse? Stop by our tailor's!

Now what other builds should modern Ijinle have? The conference building is going to be a library (each modern sector will have one, each with different contents). There will be outdoor hair braiding somewhere, and an assortment of signs. An Internet cafe? An art gallery? Certainly a wealthy family’s house or two, and a not-so-wealthy room and parlor. A tall office building is a possibility, but it might be disproportionate. A little beer parlor/buka restaurant. Some market stalls. What am I forgetting?

Furnishing the palace of Ijinle

Building is taking longer than I’d hoped. I had started on the modern Ijinle palace thinking it would go up very quickly, since it was in essence a prefab. But cannibalization was so thorough, I may as well have started from scratch. Having whipped it into shape, I had to think about the furnishings.

This is where the scale of SL is problematic. In order for an avatar’s camera (particularly one newer to the platform, but it also applies to everyone) to swing around well, buildings have to be bigger than usual. Doors and windows can be gargantuan, giving an Alice (“What did I eat?”) in Wonderland feel at times. I am trying to be prim conservative (ha!) so I can use as many enticing items as possible, but a palace must be furnished!

Nigerian rulers tend to commission modern thrones that are gilt and red velvet or brocade–Louis XIV would feel right at home in their atmosphere of lush draperies, red carpets, chandeliers and brass. They get gifts from their subjects, so the walls are covered with cuckoo and other clocks, decorative brass ewers adorn display units, and wealth is evident.

But how rich is the Oni of my fictional, composite Ijinle? Fairly wealthy, but not a multimillionaire like the Oni of Ife or the Alafin of Oyo, businessmen both before they took the throne. We are only seeing two rooms in the new palace, an anteroom and his reception room. So how opulent should it be for prim purposes? Well, he has a planked wooden floor–unusual that it is not marble or tile, but I kept the original floor planks because of the building’s date. Now that I think of it, this should probably be changed, since the present Oni would doubtlessly do a little tinkering even if he were not ready to erect an even newer structure.

Imported rugs, often in regal red, would cover the floor, no matter its own material. Curtains behind pelmets would probably be satin, however, so I’ll have to see if I can change their texture. Modern palaces, just like modern mansions or poor men’s homes, are primarily decorated by large framed photos stuck up on the pelmets, and by calendars featuring clubs and unions. The Oni of Ijinle must display his loyalty to his state governor and his president–after all, he–like every Nigerian traditional ruler–is paid by his governor. All traditional rulers are on salary, and fall into three tiers of payment, dependent on the wealth and influence of their kingdom in the past and (somewhat) in the present. The Oni is a Class One traditional ruler, and is concerned that another oba about 80 miles away is lobbying the governor to be upgraded from Class Three to Class Two (oh yes, it happens, and can be successful).

A Yoruba lady stands outside the palace wall of Ogbomosho

One thing I must make for the Oni are a series of certificates and awards that should also bedeck the walls, as well as some religious images. I haven’t decided if he should be Christian (Christ, the Madonna and Child) or Muslim (Arabic inscriptions, the Kabba at Mecca), which will determine that line of decoration. Certainly the modern Ijinle will have both churches and mosques.

I’m going to have to change the governor’s photo. Because composite Ijinle is in a composite state (Ibile), it really needs a fictional governor. Who better than my friend who supplied a town name and oba’s title when requested? He will get a kick out of this promotion into a royal family! Though, of course, I will have to create a suitable royal personal name–Yoruba royals (and there are many!) usually bear names that include the word “ade” (ah DAY), which means “crown.”

The photos are the only place I’ve added content so far, and already it will have to be changed!

Some animals are already in residence. The oba has an albino peacock (I’ve seen them at the palace in Okene, and pigmented ones throughout Nigeria’s southwest), as well as an enormous tortoise. The latter is a reference to Alagba, an actual tortoise kept at the palace at Ogbomosho, and said to be (possibly) 300 years old. So, not random choices! No cats or dogs, of course–these animals are thought to be gateways for witches to gather information, so dogs are for hunters or as watch animals, not indoor pets.

Sculpties, sculpties, sculpties and prim building too

Sculpty wall sections by Belial float over the Ijinle landscape

Last week saw me fully succumb to the power of a good sculpty builder. Belial Foulsbane (a fellow Philadelphian!) became a Team Ijinle member. He’s an expert sculpty maker, and tackled the problem of “pleasing irregularity” in the Old Ijinle palace and town walls with gusto. For those new to SL, objects can be built in two ways: with prims (simple
primitive” geometric objects, which can be manipulated or textured in a variety of ways–but there’s a limit as to how many can be on your sim!) or with sculpties. The latter are made outside SL in a 3D program, like Maya ($$$$), Blender (free), or 3ds Max (in the middle), then imported. Apparently the way most of these programs work is by creating a mesh, but SL doesn’t use meshes outright, so they have to be converted. From discussions in Builder’s Brewery, I understand “bad” sculpties aren’t built with this factor in mind, and take a long time to “rez” (come into focus), often reverting to a blob-like state, particularly from a distance. Belial usually uses Tatara (http://kanae.net/secondlife/tatara.html), created by a Japanese developer with Second Life in mind. He is dangling the temptation of redoing the palace in sculpties for me, and I’m waiting for a quote to see if it’s possible. He’s very reasonable, and it is oh-so-alluring. Ah, the other thing about sculpties? One “prim count” each, so a room that “costs” four prims in prim building might only be one prim in sculpty building.

Oh that irregularity!

I’m also cannibalizing a building by the great SL architect Barnesworth Anubis. I lived in Barnesworth’s Moroccan house for years, and worked in one of his prefab shop builds, and admire how he is prim conservative yet creates handsome structures. Well, you can modify everything in the builds, so I bought a shuttered French Riviera house and am transforming it into the modern Yoruba palace, built in the Brazilian style that developed after 1888 and grew regularly in popularity through the 1950s in Yorubaland (more on that later). I’m learning a lot by changing the proportions, altering the windows, etc.

oh, once you get your corrugated metal roof and doodads, Barnesworth himself won't know you!

The proportions are much roomier on the Barnsworth, because he knows SL’s camera limitations–but in the sim’s first incarnation, I can’t normally be as spacious. So another issue as the palace develops is literal climbing of the walls. SL operates on a scale somewhat different from real life, and doesn’t care much for walls placed too closely together, as they are in some of the palace sections. Before you know it, your avatar is off the ground, wall-scaling. Those great folks in Builder’s Brewery told me how to solve the problem. Here’s the transcript:

mirror your build in a linked set
[3:22]  Mayah Parx: the walls tha is
[3:22]  Mayah Parx: now reduce height
[3:22]  Mayah Parx: dramatically so only like 1 mte high
[3:22]  Mayah Parx: phantom your original walls
[3:23]  Tamsin Barzane is listenng intently
[3:23]  Tamsin Barzane: ooooh!
[3:23]  Mayah Parx: then make your new walls transperent
[3:23]  Prometheus Flux: Are the walls sculpties or prims?
[3:23]  Mayah Parx: and slip them back inside
[3:23]  Tamsin Barzane: prims
[3:23]  Mayah Parx: round about the middle
[3:23]  Mayah Parx: this will create an invisible barrier
[3:23]  Tamsin Barzane: oh, Mayah that sounds like a good idea! and at the moment at least, I have plenty of prims
[3:24]  Mayah Parx: that avatars wont climb

Laying out Ijinle

In starting with Ijinle, I have to plan the town in both 1796 and the present. Some elements, like the city wall, will only be complete in the earlier time period (though I’d like to show remnants of it in the modern section). The palace and market will exist in both, crossing the “time gate”, though represented in fragmentary form.

Ijinle being plotted with colored plywood rectangles

So how to differentiate the two and produce a sense of change without negating some continuity? And how to block out the settlement? Well, I decided to get a sense of the latter by laying down different colored rectangles as mental notes, almost like giant Post-Its. My code tells me which are palace courtyards, which chiefs’ houses, ordinary folks’ houses, stores, etc. This is just the first stage, so I realize my spatial limitations if I want to include all these structures, and I think it worked for me (maybe because I haven’t started the buildings yet!).

Mentally, I had to distinguish categories of change. All older buildings were earthen, with thatched roofs. Only an occasional building in the town will be earthen on the contemporary side, but corrugated sheeting replaces thatching–and the cement buildings will have it, too. Courtyards will dominate both sides of the palace and the old chiefs’ houses, but be limited in the present. Many of the new buildings will be storeyed, some in the “Brazilian” style, some in ultra-modern expensive modern mansions.  Today will have churches, mosques, stores, schools, and certainly house Ijinle’s library. It should probably have a pharmacy to contrast with a 1796 traditional healer’s place. Cars! The current Oni Ijinle (our oba, or king) must have several nice Mercedes, while his ancestor had stables, and there may have to be a Mr. Biggs (Nigeria’s most widespread fast-food chain) in the new side. Oh, these are the fun decisions!

The Proverbial Nutshell

A Yoruba market women with the ethnic marks of times past

Okay, what IS this Yoruba Light Project anyway? In its most basic form, it’s an effort to show the glories of a specific African culture and its interconnectness with two other parts of the world–Salvador da Bahia in Brazil and Philadelphia, PA–in 1796 and today. The Second Life platform allow the creation of a 3-D like environment that visitors’ avatars can move through and interact with, so they can discover information about each sub-region and time period, and get a visual sense of the changes. With an immersive environment, they can assume the appearance of a Yoruba, Brazilian, or Philadelphian from each era–with the appropriate skin, hair, clothing, etc., and a variety of ages and looks to choose from. As they move through the regions, clicking on various objects can provide them with more detailed information (What is the meaning of the motifs on this carved door? Who is the artist who created this colonial portrait and how did he get commisions?), or trigger an animation that provides a vicarious action (pounding yam in a mortar, dancing a samba, taking a city bus). It allows for exploration of ideas in multimedia ways, including links to videos and webpages, but can also provide the inventive with the basis for creating their own dramatic plays (perhaps filmed with machinima or photographed within Second Life). Historical reenactment of this sort can stimulate curiosity and send visitors on a quest to find out more information, and our three sectors’ libraries can set them on an appropriate path.

In addition, a small fourth sector acts as an orientation center to the project and to “advanced basic” Second Life skills, and permits Cleveland State art history students to use SL gadgets to review the content of their courses with virtual flashcards and a variety of both multiple choice and open-ended questions.

It’s overambitious, and it’s going to get more so–a sort of mini-platform that combines a 3-D textbook, a film/photo studio, a study session, office hours, classroom, and virtual time machine/tourist destination. Too many people don’t know about Africa’s fascinating contributions to the world. With millions of international participants, SL provides a way to spread that information and show (at least for now) ONE culture in greater detail. In addition, student contributions to both the planning and the content help them think about communicating information in new ways–a preparation for the 3-D Internet to come–and invest them in the learning experience, as well as providing a way to have joint study sessions from home (where they can perhaps scratch their heads about why their teacher is turning them into cartoons!).

It has begun! (and here begins the catch-up…)

Once you have a logo, it's official

Several years ago, I was reading the funnies in the newspaper and came upon a reference to Second Life–I’d never heard of it, but I’d had a long interest in the idea of Virtual Worlds, born of exposure to Adobe Atmosphere and games like Myst and The Legend of Lotus Spring (the latter not so great a game, but a jaw-dropping introduction to what could be possible with interactive education). So I merrily registered, immediately thinking, “Ah, some day…some day when I can actually walk and my feet don’t protrude from my shoes, I will figure out a way to use this in class.”

After learning about human interactions and interests as a jazz club hostess at the lamented late Soul Lounge, on Chan Dejavu’s great cultural sim, Dejavu Isles, I got interested in building, and started making clothes. Then came my own cultural homestead sim, Saminaka, a virtual fraction of Nigeria. That taught me plenty about niche interests, ways to open strangers to the wonders of African and diaspora culture and art, and what people wanted to know. We had an African festival and I learned how to make masqueraders on stilts; a friend created a tribute to the Middle Passage, set in the U.S., and I created the African side of the Middle Passage Experience; I tried to create Nigerian regatta canoes and didn’t get far.

But I hungered for an academic sim. And this year I was lucky enough to get a teaching enhancement grant at Cleveland State University. As far as I know, it’s the first full-fledged CSU Second Life project. I’m getting it established this semester with the help of my two classes in African and African American art history, then hope to keep it alive and bring in other disciplines, both within CSU and at collaborative institutions….and expand, of course, to a whole slew of sims!

But here we begin. There is now a (as yet inaccessible) sim entitled Africa Illuminated, and it will host our first over-ambitious effort: The Yoruba Light Project. Whaaaaa? and ?????????

The Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria and an eastern sector of the Republic of Benin are probably the best-studied African ethnic group–whether history, art, religion, oral poetry, music, dance, proverbs, written literature, politics, urban life, agriculture, some prof

essor somewhere in the world has published on it. My interest in the Yoruba sparked my path to the Ph.D.–the whole society is interesting, complex, and has a high fun factor and irresistibility. Due to the transatlantic slave trade, the Yoruba (especially during the inter-kingdom wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries) ended up in many parts of the Americas. Their cultural stamp in Brazil is clear, as it is in Cuba, in Trinidad, in Haiti, and in the U.S.

More coming on the project and the sim, but here’s the history of the logo–the background shows indigo-dyed Yoruba cloth, or adire, and the foreground shows a mudfish, a frequent motif in Yoruba art. The mudfish, a kind of catfish, can crawl short distances over land or remain still in mud, reviving and scurrying away after a rain. It’s a liminal More coming on the project and the sim, but here’s the history of the logo–the background shows indigo-dyed Yoruba cloth, or adire, and the foreground shows a mudfish, a frequent motif in Yoruba art. The mudfish, a kind of catfish, can crawl short distances over land or remain still in mud, reviving and scurrying away after a rain. It’s a liminal animal, crossing realms of water and earth, and as such is a reminder of travel between worlds. The Yoruba see the barrier between this world and the supernatural world as permeable to specialists. Our Project will send people from one continent to another, as well as zipping through time. So it seems suitable!

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