“The name of the sim and the zoo is the RL name of my mom. You can find a memorial place for her at the camping part.”
Anarya Vhargon, the creator of Ariadne Zoo in Second Life, talks about the inspiration behind her amazing Zoo and her creative process in this month’s Creator Spotlight – brought to you by The Nature Collective.
Q: How long have you been in Second Life?
A: Since Oct. 1st 2007 – so 14 years and 7 months [gosh, I feel like a fossil now!]
Q: What brought you to Second Life?
A: There was a soap on the Dutch TV and one of the main characters had a Second Life account in the soap. I thought “Hm, interesting” and then I joined.
Q: What inspired you to create your nature space?
A: Well, I have had the sim/region Ariadne for 13 years now and started out with a forest with a small Gorean inspired village. Then I got rid of that after a year and I made a full sim Mesh mountain with around 10 caves in it, all decorated in it’s own style. Also, the mountain itself was decorated so you could walk and explore the mountain. Then after two years I got rid of that and fiddled around with the sim for around a year, tried out a lot of things and then… after saving money and buying/collecting animals for all those years, I built the zoo. Then my girlfriend gifted me the Theseus sim around 3 years ago so I fiddled around with that for a year or two and then I made the camping area. So, as you see, I have always done something with nature. I guess I like nature. 🙂 P.S. The name of the sim and the zoo is the RL name of my mom. You can find a memorial place for her at the camping part.
Q: What’s your creative process like: Do you have everything all planned out or do you have a general idea and improvise along the way?
A: I have a picture in my head and I work from there.
Q: How long did it take you to create your nature space? How long does it take you to create additions to your space?
A: The zoo part took me around 2 weeks almost building non-stop and the camping sim took me around 2 days non-stop. Additions take me between 10 minutes and an hour.
Q: What are some of your favorite places to visit in SL?
A: I don’t explore that much anymore, but I like nature stuff best though. Do you remember from years and years back the Africa sim? I almost lived there, I loved it.
Q: What do you do in your spare time outside of SL?
A: Because of my RL physical condition I don’t do much. I spend my days behind the PC doing games, mainly [beside SL] Minecraft mod packs. When the weather is really good [above 22C] I go to the local zoo [Artis Zoo Amsterdam]. I use that as my “backyard” even though I have a lovely garden myself.
Q: What are some of your favorite nature-related places you’ve visited in real life?
A: Mainly the Veluwe [ a huge nature forest in my country] and the beach parts of my country.
Q: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?
A: I always wanted to move to Essex UK – there’s lovely nature there. But the older I get, the more I want to go to my “roots” and that’s Israel. Never going to happen but yeah, a person can dream right?
Now onto the fun stuff!
Q: Favorite drink?
A: I’m very boring person, that would be water and herbal tea.
Q: Favorite food?
A: Oh, so many things are my favorite… but with a gun against my head…. hmm… Hummus and Baba ganoush
Q: Books or TV?
A: When I was young absolutely books but now I have concentration problems, so now it’s TV.
Q: If you could be any animal, what would it be and why?
A: I would be a Dolphin for sure.
For additional information regarding Ariadne Zoo, please visit the following:
Discord: https://discord.gg/sB6TAHWy
Facebook:
ttps://www.facebook.com/Ariadne-Zoo-106052084156594
https://www.facebook.com/AriadneFantasy
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/ariadne-mountain-and-fantasy/pool/
SL Group: secondlife:///app/group/746ae99a-6066-81a5-1f41-d0849164e836/about
(to join the group, copy and paste the above into “Nearby Chat” in your Second Life viewer and then click the link to bring up the group profile)
Visit Ariadne Zoo in Second Life:
Zoo – http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ariadne/129/8/23
Camping – http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Theseus/198/78/22
Creator spotlights are published monthly. We hope you enjoy getting to know a little bit more about your favorite nature creators and some behind-the-scenes information about your favorite nature places in Second Life!