Xirana's HIE Adventure

All the participants at the Hypergrid International Expo have a story to tell - and in some cases it's not just a story but a storybook! That's true of our Spanish moderator, the lovely Xirana Oximoxi, in real life Catalan author and illustrator Nuria Vives. 

In September, over on SL, Xirana's drawings were the subject of an exhibition called 'The Undefined' at the gallery of Aneli Abeyante - there's a picture of that - but even though she's a busy lady, both in RL and in the virtual, she was able to make time to become an integral part of the preparation and of course the main event at this year's HIE Spanish session.

Xirana had been part of the first edition of the Hypergrid International Expo back in 2017 when she was one of our speakers, this time her duties were different. Each section of the conference has a Moderator who introduces the speakers, and they take on the responsibility of getting to know the people they will be introducing, so as to be able to give the best biographical information possible. It's also a good excuse to better know fellow opensimmers! 

First question for Xirana... being moderator, it can be a bit of an adventure, so much can go wrong... so was it difficult? was it scary? was it fun?

Xirana Oximoxi

Xirana Oximoxi: Being a moderator was not scary...just nervous about everything working fine and also the artists, and you hope that Internet the day of the event is ok and no storm outside etc,_) ... It was also fun all the process of preparing the sessions...talking with all your team every week... you are a nice team, very gentle and interesting. people :)

The Spanish session of this year's HIE event featured Victoria Logan talking about community art project, Nazirah Avro discussing her adventures in  making fashion and singing in virtual worlds, as well as a beautiful build by Tosha Tyran explaining the power of art in the real world in her piece about the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao - complete with mesh version of the iconic building. Xirana has plenty of experience in the international art and creative communities of both Opensim and Second Life, but the HIE experience too it to to another level.

Xirana Oximoxi: .I was aware that virtual worlds offer the possibility of meeting people of a lot of countries, but what I did not know was how to manage to translate every presentation to all these languages a lot of work to prepare it all.

In the Green Room at the HIE Auditorium, where presenters wait before coming onstage

Xirana Oximoxi: To tell the truth, the HIE team makes it all very easy with clear instructions

 my advice would be to keep in touch with the artists you are going to introduce, talk about their projects. That way you know much better what and who they are, that makes it easier to to write the introductory comments. Also..not to miss the rehearsals. It is the best way to know what to do and to check the voice and the coordination with Mal well..at the end everything was working more or less. 

Xirana Oximoxi: in Craft and also in SL I usually share my RL paintings, also some tales and also some new projects like the last I did about learning to draw comic strips. In SL the exhibits are there for a short time...so I put them in Craft in my region  Karnak and there you can find most of the works I've been showing during these years. Here we also have a cafe where we meet to learn and practice Italian.

Another HIE event is planned for the Spring of 2024. The provisional dates are from 19-21 April, so the question is - would Xirana consider participating again? and would she encourage other people to participate?

Xirana Oximoxi: wonderful! yes, sure :) I hope to encourage other people...although I don't know a lot of people that speak Spanish...

Links

http://mynicebooks.com/

http://mynicebooks.com/

hop://craft-world.org:8002/Karnak/68/180/22