"Gustav’s"

“Gustav’s” is a new and recently opened store, found near the Norgaard Village train station. It’s owned by Gustav von Rosenheim, a 1920s Berlin resident and one of my oldest friends in SL.

Gustav has been dedicating a lot of his time and effort researching period items and furniture and then recreating them in Second Life. His work is well known within the 1920s Berlin Project community – and very popular. His items look great, and equally important, they are all low-prim, which is essential given the residents’ constant struggle with prim limit. It’s a mystery to me how he does it, but all the items available at the store have the land impact (LI) of only 1.

For the purpose of this blog post, I asked Gustav a few questions about his work.

Abi: Where do you find inspiration for the items you make?

Gustav: Well, the major inpiration comes from the 1920s furniture and gadgets because I mainly live in the Berlin 1920s Project sim. I’m more interested in the ordinary down-to-Earth furniture for ordinary people living in those days rather than stylish Art Deco items, because I would love to know how people used to live and look at their life in those days. Recreating RL historical items virtually is really an interesting approach to studying people’s life historically. Why did they choose those colours? Why did they choose those shapes? Why did they choose those materials? Those pieces of information are connected to each other and show you many things, such as the reality of international trading, the economy, even the systems of thought like ethics, taboos and social standards in those days.

Since I started renting a part of Norgaard Village where I opened my shop – Gustav’s – I’ve also started exploring more the things I’m interested in, in terms of design and virtual modeling, as well. Looking at RL decor items and furniture, now I’m thinking, “How can I recreate this shape virtually or how can I recreate this texture?” Exploring my creativity has been a very fun process.

Abi: Is there a specific reason why your focus is on the 1920s?

Gustav: I guess it’s the same reason why I got attracted by the Berlin 1920s sim. I am openly gay both in RL and SL. I wanted to know if we could have avoided gay Holocaust during the Nazi regime. If possible, how? From my point of view, patriotism and conservatism are currently arising in all countries in the world, for various reasons. Because of the economy, as a reaction against liberalism, or just because of the staggering feelings in society. Some people say they’re seeing similarity with the interwar period. The swell of conservatism and patriotism led to the gay Holocaust where an uncountable number of gay people was killed. So, I thought, “Oh no! I don’t want to get killed by being deported to a gas chamber! Then, let’s go back to that period and look at what was actually going on in the pre-gay Holocaust era.” That’s why I got interested in the 1920s, especially the Weimar period in Germany.

Abi: Do you have plans to create items from some other periods, as well?

Gustav: I don’t have any plans right now. However, as I said, I’m also interested in the visual art aspect of virtual modeling. I will create items that are not restricted by historical accuracy, too, along with creating objects related to the 1920s.

To visit Gustav’s store, please follow this SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Triphosa/170/176/35