The Monastery

The Monastery : a dream comes true

In 2006 I came to Second Life (SL) because I was interested in experimenting with the concept of virtual museums. As I have a degree in Archaeology, I joined the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) because it hosted the Roman city of Colonia Nova. There I opened my first exhibition in a tiny house, where I had only 54 prims. This proved very challenging. I thought about the need for another place to create better exhibitions.

I could have built my own private place. As my house was in a democratic community, however, it seemed more interesting for me to create a place open to everyone. In 2007, the CDS planned to add a sim between Colonia Nova and Neufreistadt: Alpine Meadow. This new sim would be between a Roman colony and a Bavarian city of the Middle Ages. I imagined that a monastery could fit perfectly there in-between them. We see a lot of this in the Alps. Ancient monasteries also contributed to the transmission of knowledge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages through their copying of old manuscripts.

The project became to create a place named the Monastery. It would be non-denominational and dedicated to spirituality, wisdom and the transmission of knowledge. I organised a fundraiser to buy a parcel on the new sim. With donations from Tanoujin Milestone, Jon Seattle, Justice Soothsayer, Rose Springvale (the initiator of the concept for the Alpine Meadow sim), Ulysse Alexander, Sonja Strom, myself and a few donors who asked to remain anonymous, we were able to get the plot for it.

By this time I had experience building in SL, but my skill was limited for such a complex structure. I asked for help in the CDS forums, and several people responded to this positively. Beathan Vale offered his private land as a place to work on the Monastery building before the sim was available. There I created a surface that corresponded to the future parcel for the Monastery and a few walls. Then people came to start on the building. Tanoujin Milestone, Samantha Fuller, Jo Sapeur and Sleazy Writer joined this project. Sam and Tan worked together on the tower, while Sam made the stairs and Tan made a wonderful bell. Jo worked in the Library, while Sleazy created columns with scultptie prims for the courtyard. After this work was done we finally could move the building to its new sim, where Moon Adamant and Sudane Erato prepared the final place for it.

After this I cannot mention all who contributed to the Monastery’s further activities, because the list is too long. A few examples are:  Popea Heron from the Roma SPQR community designed a great exhibition about food in ancient Rome, even having animations showing how people prepared meals at that time. For the first Valentine’s exhibition, Alexicon Kurka made an amazing sculpture with the sound of a beating heart. For the exhibition « Second Mirror », Lilith Ivory took a series of snapshots with a mirror in SL and added reflections in it with photo editing software. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have contributed to the Monastery – even those I did not mention.

Eventually it became clear the Monastery could be on its own sim in the CDS, and a plan was created for it to move to a new sim named Monastery, not very far from where it had been before.  This new sim was designed by myself and Ulysse Alexander, who also helped to move the whole structure to the Monastery sim in 2009.

Ever since then the Monastery has continually held exhibitions, and has featured such community events as Egg Painting contests in the spring and holiday Advent Calendars each winter.

By working on the Monastery project I got a great amount of experience in the management of a virtual museum. When I view the success of its activities, I believe the Monastery is also a contribution for the life of the CDS community, and even for Second Life.  The Monastery could not exist without the help and generosity of CDS citizens and SL residents. It needs skill, time and money, and it cannot be truly successful on the shoulders of only one individual. Thanks to Second Life, we can make some of our dreams come true.

Arria Perreault, Curator of the Monastery

A short version of this text was published in the Second Life Community Blog. Many thanks to Sonja Strom for reviewing the english text.

The Monastery is a place in Second Life dedicated to wisdom, meditation, knowledge. It hosts exhibitions and a Library whose aim is to present the transfer of texts from the Antiquity to the Middle Age.

The Monastery was created in 2007. It was first situated on a sim named Alpine Meadow that belongs to the Confederation of Democratic Simulator (CDS), a Second Life community dedicated to virtual democracy (1). This community has then approved a plan to open a new sim named  Monastery to host the building of the Monastery and six residents parcels. This sim was built in July 2009.

The Monastery is managed by a Curator and supported by Virtus, a non-profit organization. Its goal is the development of activities connected to wisdom, meditation, knowledge. It is a non-religious and a non-ideological institution. Virtus and the Monastery are open to anyone who agree with our goals. We will offer exhibitions and events. This blog presents the activitiess of the Monastery.

SLURL of the Monastery:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Monastery/188/126/99

(1) Decisions of the CDS

• Proposal and discussion
• Vote of the RA