The Metaverse Museum in Craft World and its role as witness and memory of the history of the virtual world. “The Blog City” by Sarima Giha
(on the cover “The Blog City”)
One of the jewels of Craft World, grid of which is owner Licu Rau aka Raffaele Macis, reconstructed in the MdM region, Museum of the Metaverse of which Rosanna Galvani has been curator since 2007, is “The Blog City” by Sarima Giha aka Maria Luisa Grimani.
The story of “La Città Blog” in Rosanna Galvani’s account.
In 2011, for Arena Call for Artists, Maria Luisa Grimani, known as Sarima Giha, presented her blog “Sarima’s folio” as a unique work dedicated to Second Life, entitled “The Blog City.”
Arena (http://uqbararena.blogspot.com/) was a group exhibition held in Second Life from October 21, 2008 to January 21, 2009, featuring fifty-two artists, both Italian and international. This exhibition was presented in the form of videos and photographs during the International Exhibition “Virtual Renaissance,” organized and curated by Mario Gerosa, at the Museum of Natural History, Florence, in October 2008.
Artists who participated in Arena: – 2LifePhotos association of photographers (ChrisTower Dae), – Akira Gonaikawa, – Alan Sondheim, – AVATAR ORCHESTRE METAVERSE (AOM) (Blaisedelafrance Voom), – Bingo Onomatopoeia, – Biagio Francia (Aka Blaise de la France Voom), – Bryan Oh, – Caterina Davinio, – Cheen Pitney, – Chi5 Shenzhou, – Cienega Soon, – Cometa Morigi, – Dancoyote Antonelli, – DB Bailey, – Douglas Story & Desdemona Enfield, – Eifachfilm Vacirca, – Evaluna Sperber, – Evo Szuyuan – Four Yip – Frieda Korda – Georg Janick (aka Gary Zabel) – Giugiola and MariTer Auer – Giuseppe Stampone – Gretel Fehr – Harper Beresford – Helissa Halasy aka Elisa Laraia – Holy888 Skjellerup – Humming Pera – Ichtyo Brome – Kimberly Mirabeau – Leif Inge (aka Gumnosophistai Nurmi) – Lucian Iwish – Man Michinaga with Second Front – Marco Manray – MillaMilla Noel – Luce Laval – MosMax Hax – Nathalie Fougeras – Nicolas Sack – Patrick Moya – Sarima Giha – Sasun Steinbeck – Sca Shilova – Selavy oh – Shellina Winkler – Solkide Auer – Stephen Beveridge aka Sowa Mai – Stephen Venkam – Therese Carfagno – The CARP Group Events Velazquez Bonetto) – Wirxli FlimFlam.
Sarima’s Blog takes the form of a city, allowing visitors to the installation, curated by Tommaso Correale Santacroce, to read the blog pages in 3D format within the virtual world of Second Life. The immersive installation, with its parallelepipeds of different heights, has the appearance of a contemporary city.
In January 2011, Sarima wrote on her blog, “It is a great opportunity for me to be able to present in a unified vision a fantastic city, suspended in space and undulating, where images, words and sounds soar. One more page for my “book that sounds that sings that dances.” At this stage, my narrative acts as a conduit between the real world and the virtual world, and it is an evolving work. It is not yet finished but it is taking shape before everyone’s eyes. A blog that becomes a city, where the protagonist Sarima tells about herself, but also about others, avatars, art, architecture and real life that is inevitably reflected in the virtual world, in an attempt to improve the quality of it wherever it takes place.”
In 2024, “The Blog City” was rebuilt in Craft World, in the MoM region, next to the Metaverse Museum, much to the satisfaction and joy of the founder and the community orbiting the Museum.
It is a privilege for the Craftians, thanks to the efforts of Rosanna Galvani and the availability of Marisa Luisa Grimani, to be able Fiona Saiman delivered us his emotional reading of “The Blog City” (https://www.kafeneio.blog/it/2025/04/08/io-cero/), which well made us realize that it more than the story of a digital “artifact,” is the story of a generation that continues to carry all this experiential baggage with it and draws inspiration from it to build other perspectives and other worlds.
The voice of Maria Luisa Grimani aka Sarima Giha
It is with this in mind that we asked Maria Luisa Grimani aka Sarima Giha to tell us how she came to digital art.
Digital art was a chance for me to go on a long journey using my computer as the locomotive and my mouse as the steering wheel. My son Thomas, knowing my passions inside out, told me about a virtual world where I could freely express my creative flair. I already had painting experience and research on the use of words as images behind me, and what lay ahead now was a journey in the form of an avatar in a program called Second Life. Already the name intrigued me, a “second life” parallel to the one I was living in the reality at my disposal, not bad! I accepted his proposal and together we created the avatar I would use for my adventure. The name I could choose freely, the surname I had to choose from a list they would submit to me.So it was that I was called Sarima (anagram of Marisa) Giha surname, chosen from a long list, because if I wanted to read it well, it could be pronounced sarimagiha, with the aspirated acc to emphasize the word magic. My robe, a kaftan, with wide blue/white flowers, complete with hood and bare feet.
My first entry was complicated. I was wandering around not knowing what to do or where to go. I noticed luxurious houses, gardens, buildings and I had a button that controlled the four phases of a day: morning, afternoon, evening, night. However, I also had a feather that was used to fly as soon as you put it on your shoulder. I tried it and it was great, but the impression of being alone remained. I couldn’t see a soul. Then I looked up and saw a few books appear hanging in the void then a little at a time more books, and more until it formed a bookcase and next to it a character, finally someone!
I greeted him by writing and introduced myself. He was Archimedix, the owner of the Archimedical Bookstore in Idearium and we began to converse through our computers. I still have on file everything we said to each other because at that time there was no possibility of hearing each other by speakerphone, one could only write to each other. He gave me wise suggestions having understood that I was interested in discovering the creative side of this virtual world.His books were books that existed in real life and many had been presented as well as in reality here for avatars. It was not long before we could even hear each other, the audio worked perfectly. My role was that of the special correspondent to report on unknown worlds. I created a blog “Sarima’s leaflet,” which served as a way for me to chronicle everything I was seeing and experiencing. I had no fixed abode, existing only when I opened my computer in the evening and entered the virtual world of Second life to work late into the night.
The experience took place from March 2008 until March 2012, and everything is strictly documented in my blog.
What salient actions did you perform with other avatars, in the name of the culture of community that is proper to the metaverse?
I remember the first exhibition set up by Core Tatham of 2lifecast on a system of vertically arranged round platforms. Appropriate seats facilitated the viewing of each individual work. Then the fashion show of the dresses made by Josina Burger: I had the models parade not on a catwalk but by having them go up and down vertically, the effect was stupendous with the skirts swelling like flowers in the descent to recompose themselves then going up again. At the same time images appeared on the floor of children who were stooping to work on looms to weave the precious fabrics that were used by large tailors; a denunciation of child exploitation. “The Blog City,” which translates my blog ‘Sarima’s fogliomondo’ into 3D, which was presented in 2008 for Arena, an event by Roxelo Babenco (Rosanna Galvani) and Arco Rosca (Paolo Valente) is another of my experiences in the digital art world. The study of a map, the creation of tall skyscrapers, and a sky above it all. The skyscrapers had the words and images of each post on the walls: a skyscraper a story, and if you got close you could also hear a narrator’s voice illustrating everything in sight. A construction largely created by Core Tatham, Tommaso Correale Santacroce. Also, in a land in Second Life whose owner I unfortunately do not remember, I had permission to put all the photos of my exploratory trips, Sarima playing on a swing, making an angel on a snow field, walking under the sea, playing the piano, a great passion (mission impossible) crushed by my own hands that could not coordinate, and many other fantasies such as the trip sitting on a pardulas, a typical saffron sweet, to visit Sardinia with two very nice guides.
We thank Marisa Luisa Grimani for entrusting Kafaneio, the Craft World blog, with the memory of her digital art experiences. They further enrich with suggestions the visit to “The City Blog,” in the land MdM in Craft World, an important visit not only for its high documentation value, but also because it is a spur to want to contribute with their own narratives to build a real “history ”of immersive digital art, enhancing the opportunity of the permanence of digital artifacts in virtual worlds.
