Ein Spaziergang übers Expo-Gelände

O schau, da stehen sie wieder

Wie bunte Melodien

Kreativer, schöner Lieder

Aus Opensim Galaxien!

Mein Herz kann sie verstehen,

Denn auf jahrelanger Fahrt

Erwarb es ein Wissen von Wehen

und Freuden höchst virtueller Art.

Ich liebe diese kleinen Kunstwerke,

die an allen Wegen stehn

Als hinreißende Augenmerke

Ihrer Designer leuchtender Ideen.

Das erste, was auffällt, ist tatsächlich das schöne und liebevoll gestaltete Drumherum... Berge, Wasserfälle, Flüsse - es fehlt wirklich nichts. Durch diese Schönheit schlängelt sich ein komplizierter, sich immer wieder verzweigender Pfad und genau in der Mitte befindet sich der Zuschauerraum mit Bühne und Darstellungsfläche für die Vortragenden und die Künstler:innen!

Der Pfad der Ausstellungs-Stände

Ich bin dem Pfad gefolgt, nicht etwa in geordneter Folge, Stand für Stand abklappernd, sondern eher chaotisch (wie es meine Art ist...), mal hier mal da schauend.

Setting up the Expo

The park that surrounds the auditorium for the Hypergrid International Expo, or 'HIE' for short, isn't the biggest expo park in Opensim, or the one with the biggest builds, but it is chock full of fun and diversity every year.

HIE Auditorium 

The Conference part of HIE happens in April - from the opening party on Friday April 4, through two days of talks in French, German, Italian and Spanish, with subtitles provided, if you don't speak those languages.

But before that, and after it also, we have a huge expo where everyone in Opensim, whatever their language, can participate, with a simple booth, like a market stall, where they can tell everyone about their grid, or their sim, or their project. 

Everyone is welcome, there is no charge to participate in this event, and your booth can be simple or more complicated, as you prefer, keeping in mind the need to maintain reasonable levels of lag on the sim.

Booth News!

 The next Expo is in April 2025 but we're gearing up already to create the Expo park full of publicity booths where you can let the community know about your grid, your region, your projects. As always there is no charge to participate, and all are welcome. 

This year we have an innovation - Petlove Petshop has prepared a series of how-to videos - in seven languages! Congrats to her for all her hard work, and for the seven narrators - Rosa Alekseev for Portuguese, Minord Loup for French, the German one is narrated by Loru Destiny, and we have Akasha Kokuu for Japanese, Karima Hoisan for Spanish , Lux Tergeste for Italian and James Atlloud for English - thank you all so much for participating!

While it's true that AI makes translations easier these days, authentic language speakers can't be beaten especially when you've got specific jargon like the kind of specialized terms which we use on our virtual platform. Plus it's fun to emphasize the beauty of our multi-language society.

Just to give you a flavor, here's the Japanese one, you'll see the others on our Youtube Channel.

The idea is to make it as easy as possible for people of all languages to participate, and to answer the frequent questions about what's needed when making a booth - where to get one, who to give it to when finished, what limits there are on the way you can mod it. Please, share these videos with anyone you think ought to be represented at HIE, and with all your friends. Liking and commenting on the videos also helps us to get the message out there by 'feeding the algorithm' so if you can, do your part to help us out.

200 Days before the next HIE

Wait, what? Two hundred days from now? That's forever! 

Well, kinda... but time is like a train, chugging along with a regular rhythm but moving much faster than you think until it's suddenly right there, on top of you! So we're already planning ahead for the next HIE event, which will be from April 4 to April 6,  2025. Scroll to the end of this post to find out how you can stay informed about the event via the Socials.

What is HIE, or Hypergrid International Expo? 

If you're a regular reader of this blog you already know! If you're new to the idea.... it is an Opensim conference, party, expo, and art performance extravaganza, experienced live and archived on our Youtube Channel - please help people find it more easily by giving a Like and Subscribe! 

HIE gives Opensim people of any and all grids, whose first language is not English, the opportunity to speak about the projects, experiments, sims, and builds that they are proud of. They get to tell their stories in their own languages, and we provide a sort of Subtitle system that allows you to follow what's being said in English, or any one of the major languages of Opensim.

In the past, HIE has been held on Craft Grid, with the kind assistance of the lovely Licu Rau.

This year, we have a new home, a 3x3 space on the new HG Safari grid - address at the end of the page. This will resolve a few logistical issues, and means we have a brand new playground for all the HIE activities.

Nazirah Avro speaking in Spanish, HIE23

Why aren't the talks in English?

Simple - there already is a very big annual event for Opensim, where all presentations are given in English. It's called the OSCC  the Opensimulator Community Conference and this year the 12th annual event will be held on December 7 - 8, 2024. However, not everyone's comfortable giving a lecture in English, so the Hypergrid International Expo is a space for these other voices, a sister convention, if you like.

Next HIE Event

 The Hypergrid International Expo for 2024 recently closed its doors on Craft-world, with a final show by Cherry Manga of her fabulous light and sound performance "Variations monochromes autour d'une coordonnée".

About 25 people showed up to say their goodbyes to this multi-language, multi grid event.

Many asked, when will the next Expo be? Who will be the speakers, and which artists will be performing? What languages will be featured, and on what grid will the event be held in the future?

All excellent questions, and the answers will be posted here on this blog over coming months, so do not forget to subscribe! If you do not know much about Hypergrid International Expo, you may find it useful to look at our  main website, which has details of how to participate in several languages.\

https://sites.google.com/view/hieopensim/home

We can announce that the next HIE event will be from Friday 4 April to Sunday 6 April, 2025. Please save the dates in your calendar, and stay in touch so you don't miss any of the details as they emerge.

End of an Era

 This year's Hypergrid International Expo on Craft Grid was held over the weekend of April 19 - 21, as you probably know. It was a fun event, enriched by singers including the Italian Zeno Voxel, the German Wolem Wobbit, and DJ Marlon Wayne, Portuguese singer Zoree Jupiter, who did a set of Fado songs, and Thai performer Ouienanda. It was a kaleidoscope of culture.

We had two days of interesting talks on subjects ranging from education to opensim development, to personal stories of life in the metaverse. Four languages were used for the talks - plus the universal language of art, with fabulous displays by Velazquez Bonetto, Tutz Zabelin, Terra Merhyem, and Cherry Manga.

All this plus Jeff Kelley, CapCat Ragu, Lampithaler Artist, Drusus Zonenations, Gudule Lapointe,  Thirza Ember, and our Moderators, Rosa Alekseev, Tosha Tyran, Dabici Straulino, Lorenza Colicigno and Em Jannings. Plus a huge participation of people of all parts of the metaverse in our huge Expo region -103 booths this year!

Thanks to everyone who participated, we hope you will join us next time

Sunday at HIE

 The final day of HIE 2024 was on Sunday 21 April and once again, it was a mixture of presentations and performances, weaving together work in real life, with personal experiences of virtual worlds, along with some very big and impressive art.
The warm voice of Lorenza Colicigno was the first we heard as she welcomed the audience to take their seats, open the Subtitles group for their native language, and to turn on Stream.

Thirza Ember's talk was all about HG Safari, the history of the hypergrid touring group, its goals and its evolution over the past ten years, as opensim has changed and grown, providing so many interesting places to visit (and to crash in!)