User:Thaumata Strangelove

Thaumata Strangelove

Hello, my dearies.

I found SL in November of 2005 and have had countless wonderful experiences with all of the awesome people I know here, so when I was asked to participate in SL's birthday, I happily agreed. So uh... welcome to my first gallery in SL. Having never done one of these before, I'm not sure what the etiquette is, but I'm not really one to stand on ceremony anyway.

I am really interested in SL as a new medium for bringing people together in new ways. So, when I made my gallery, I didn't want it to be just photos on a wall. I wanted it to be a fun space that would encourage people to hang out and socialize... to meet new friends and to CONNECT, instead of just wandering through quickly.

So, I have some photos here, but they display slowly, to encourage you to hang out and visit with your neighbor while your eyes nibble. Sit long, talk much, and enjoy them. When you're done, if you'd like to visit with me, also, I am generally found making messes on my plot in Wollaston, and you can find the LM in my picks.

With love, Thaumata Strangelove

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Thaumata came to the grid in November 2005, after a friend suggested she would highly enjoy the collaborative nature of the residents there. The friend was correct, and Thau immediately dell in love with the grid and all of the amazing people she met there day after day.

Artistic mash-ups are absolutely the normal course of things for Thaumata. She is frequently seen building crazy homes on her lot in Wollaston, from steampunk airships to elaborate gardens and everything in between. These homes are always open to the public, and Thau highly enjoys watching people explore them. She started taking photos in SL to document these builds, and accidentally stumbled upon the Second Life Flickr community, which sealed the deal and dashed any hopes of ever escaping from this virtual life. Impressed at what she saw there, Thau started dabbling more into artistic photography and modeling. Modeling was kind to Thaumata, with several gallery shows, the cover of Anastacia SL magazine, and a story about beautiful avatars in a real life german magazine.

SL4B is Thaumata's first official gallery of her own, and she was flattered to participate. Not wanting to create a static space, she instead concentrated on building a simple space that focused more on gathering and less on photos, because that's what has been the most meaningful to her in SL.

Off the Grid

Thaumata is a musician, playing piano since age 5, majoring in opera and tackling a plethora of teaching and performing gigs in the years since. Her current project is Splice, a website that allows musicians from around the world to make music together via the world's most advanced online sequencer and creative commons licenses. The 10-person Splice team will re-launch the site and present the world's most advanced online sequencer in June of 2007, which is making Thau's life a little hectic at the moment.

Another recent project was filming a portion of a pilot for VH1 for a show about airing your confessions on the internet, something Thau got very good at a few years ago, when she was one of the first people to use YouTube to broadcast her video diaries. The vlog got so much attention at the time that it was normal to get 200 emails a day from viewers. Thaumata used this power for awesome and launched a fundraising campaign for the 60-mile (90k) breast cancer walk she does each year. Through $5 and $10 donations from the internet, she raised nearly $10k for the cause in three months.

In her 'spare time', Thau likes to work on her spanish and meet new people. She calls Chicago her home, but often resides in Barcelona, Spain, as well as frequent trips to San Francisco for work.

If you'd like to keep up with Thau, she suggests her Flickr page or just googling for Thaumata and picking your poison.

Thaumata is a greek word; it means Miracles.