An interview in Chinese and English with virtual superstar Cao Fei - Will you be the next artist showing at RMB City?

Cao Fei (aka China Tracy in Second Life) is one of six finalists for the 2010 Hugo Boss award. The $100,000 prize is presented every other year to “the artist (or group of artists) working in any medium, anywhere in the world” for making the most important contribution to contemporary art.

In Second Life, we know her as the artist who conceived and produced the four sim/islands work collectively known as RMB City, and also for her 3-part i.Mirror machinima, a documentary shot in Second Life and presented at the 52nd Venice Biennale 2007.

This is a second blogpost in a two-part series we are publishing today. The first, "Wherein I finally love Cao Fei's RMB City," can be found here.



These days, it is almost impossible to pick up an art journal, read an art blog, or watch a TV documentary on the arts without hearing about Cao's Second Life persona, China Tracy, the pig-tailed avatar that looks to be a cross between a medieval dragon slayer and a space-age bot girl. This global fawning is not without merit. As PBS' Art:21 points out in its recent episode Fantasy and Contemporary Art, Cao "reflects the fluidity of a world in which cultures have mixed and diverged in rapid evolution. Her video installations and new media works explore perception and reality in places as diverse as a Chinese factory and the virtual world of Second Life."

Now that I've confessed (in the preceding blogpost) that I'm late to the China Tracy fan club, I can also say that I've been making up for lost time by learning considerably more about the artist. Soon after my epiphany and subsequent appreciation of RMB City, I sent Cao nine questions, and I didn't pull any punches, either.


B. Tizzy: 如果让你说出你事业中最关键的时刻，它对你选择从事现在的工作起过至关重要的作用，你觉得是什么时候？为什么？
If you were to identify the most pivotal moment in your career; that moment that most shaped what you are doing now, what would it be and why?

Cao Fei: 我创作的发展旅程是一个自然发展和逐渐过渡变化的过程，没有突然的转折点，没有什么重大时刻，它是一个循序渐进的、对这个世界、包括自己的人生的一个慢慢堆积、感悟、理解的过程。
My work has developed along a natural and gradual trajectory. There haven't been any sudden turning points or significant moments. It's been a gradual progression and a process of accumulation, inspiration and understanding of the world, including my own life.



Shot entirely in-world at RMB City, this video is by Lainy Voom, with writing by Wagner James Au (aka Hamlet Au)


B. Tizzy: 你所从事的工作是从什么时候开始有全球性视野的？你是有意决定这样做的吗？
At what point did your work take on a global aspect, and was it a conscious decision?

Cao Fei: 生活在今天的中国，每个个体都不能避免被卷入这全球化的运动，都不能对我们身边的激烈变迁视而不见，我只是在用自己的方式记录、表达我对身边这些变化的深切感受。这是个身不由己的时代，时代会迫使你作出一定回应。
No living being in contemporary China can avoid globalization or turn a blind eye to its acute changes. I am merely using my own method to document and express my honest feelings with regards to the changes that surround me.









B. Tizzy: 你是使用什么软件建立起了第一个人民城寨••••••是我们一开始在Youtube见到的那个吗？你是先做好了它然后才发现第二人生的，还是你那时就已经是虚拟世界居民了？
What software did you use to create the first RMB City... the one we first saw on Youtube? Did you make it first and then discover Second Life, or had you already become a virtual world resident?

Cao Fei: 我是在2007年1月成为虚拟世界居民，然后用了半年时间在虚拟世界旅行，拍摄了i.Mirror，紧接着，就有了建造人民城寨的构想，并开始用3D Max软件把城市基本构想勾勒出来，也就是后来你们在youtube看到的video: RMB City Planning (2007)。
I became a virtual world resident in January 2007. Then I spent half a year traveling in the virtual world and filming i.Mirror. Soon after, I had the idea of building RMB City and started building the basic blueprint with 3ds Max software. The result is the youtube video which you have seen: RMB City Planning (2007).



RMB City on Cao Fei's computer



RMB City in Second Life


B. Tizzy: 人民城寨备受现实世界艺术评论家以及博物馆和媒体的推崇，但却未得到第二人生居民的充分赏识。我们是应该解决这个问题，还是转向只针对现实世界（Real World）来做这个项目?
RMB City is acclaimed by Real World art critics, museum and media, but under-appreciated by Second Life residents. Does that matter moving forward, or was this project intended for Real Life?

Cao Fei: 我想，这是个悖论，我们总是很难做到周全而完美。要得到更多第二人生居民的赏识，我还需要做很多我不胜任的工作，如如何竭力保持社团的黏性，如何不断组织虚拟居民喜闻乐见的活动，如何发展会员等等。人民城寨项目是一个艺术项目，它具有在当代文化概念上的指涉，以及在这个框架下的实验价值，它不一定要具有虚拟社会内的普罗大众的功能，而做一个在虚拟社会里很pop的地点也不是我的初衷，我更原意把它当作一个超越对固定理解之外的“现场”，不刻意针对现实世界或虚拟社群，甚至忘记其的虚拟特性和现实依据，它是一个模糊的、开放的、不被彰显定义的地带，一切事物都可被卷入而最终不再成为他们的原本。而它作为一个具有沟通现实世界特性的项目，迂回在两个世界之间，这也可能是其他虚拟城市／项目所缺乏的。
I think this is a paradox. It's always difficult to create a perfect thing. To win the appreciation of more Second Life residents, I would have to do a lot of work that I am incapable of doing, such as maintaining a tight-knit community, organizing regular activities that interest Second Life residents, develop membership, and so forth. RMB City is an art project and contains references to contemporary cultural concepts. Given the experimental framework, it doesn't have to serve the proletarian function of virtual societies.

Furthermore, it was not my intent to create a very pop place within the virtual world. I would rather treat it as a "site" that transcends fixed interpretations. I don't purposely address the real world or virtual groups and even forget its virtual characteristics and foundation in reality. It is an ambiguous, open zone that eludes definition. Things get pulled in and may never revert to their original form again. This project channels real world characteristics and rests outside of two worlds, something that perhaps other virtual cities/projects lack.


B. Tizzy: 人民城寨被认为是具有讽刺意味符号集合的典型。事实如此吗？还是你有别的看法？
RMB City is typically described as a satirical collection of icons. Is that what it is or is there something else?

Cao Fei: 除了讽刺，还有赞美，甚至歌颂，但这都不是它的全部。它还有失落、忧郁，以及回忆和怀旧。作为一个文化意义上的“空间”，它具有研究、讨论、实验、实践的特性。作为一个心灵景观，它无时无刻都在上演流动的戏剧。作为一个折射当代中国的镜像，它有着后现代的狂欢和梦呓，同时有着反省与自悟。当然也有包括其他城市都共同具有的特性 ——“虚空”。
There is satire, but also praise and even admiration. But this does not describe it in its entirety. There is also loss, melancholy, memory and nostalgia. As a cultural "space," it lends itself to research, discussion, experimentation and realization. As a spiritual site, it is a constant, ongoing drama. As a reflection of contemporary China, it has the revelry and balderdash of postmodernism. At the same time, it is introspective and self-perceptive. Of course it also includes the one trait that all cities have – “emptiness.”


B. Tizzy: 飞机撞上大楼的景象让美国人见了就火冒三丈，什么促使你把它带进了人民城寨？
The image of a plane flying into buildings is nauseating for Americans. What compelled you to introduce that to RMB City?



Cao Fei: 我想这个问题所表现出来的先入为主是文化差异的表现，或者是差异所导致的联想。我们城市里的飞机不是撞上大楼，而是卡在密集的建筑之间，中国急剧的城市化导致建筑密度大幅增加，不断外扩的CBD淹没我们的天际线，逐渐的，我们只能在楼宇和城中村的缝隙间看到飞机越过天空，而在RMB City，飞机一旦掠过城市，就再也飞不出去了，永远地卡在这个溢出的都市中。
I think immediately of cultural differences, or rather the associations that form as a result of difference. The planes in our city do not crash into buildings; they are caught between densely concentrated architecture. China's rapid urbanization has resulted in a building boom. The constantly expanding CBD has submerged our skyline. Eventually, we will only be able to see planes from inside buildings or gaps within the city. When a plane flies over RMB City, it can never leave, and is forever trapped inside the overflowing city.


B. Tizzy: 人民城寨有什么需要发掘的秘密吗？有什么是第二人生居民不能理解，或是觉得不值得关注的？
Are there any secrets that need discovering at RMB City? What haven't Second Life residents understood or picked out that is noteworthy?

Cao Fei: 人民城寨从来没有什么秘密，也没有什么需要去发掘的，去慢慢体味它可能更适合，或者你尝试放弃飞翔去徒步漫游，再或者飞到城市之颠或无限接近城市的边缘。喜欢一个城市与否，和你喜欢某本书一样，有人喜欢畅销书，有人喜欢冷门的诗歌集，大部分人喜欢流行乐，还是有人喜欢偏门的噪音，这就是趣味和选择，我们很高兴人民城寨能成为另外一种选择或者众选择之一。欢迎大家，也许，有一天你会爱上它，或者短短的一次性旅程能让你记忆深刻，以至于它在某天突然消失了你恍然间感到隐隐不舍。
RMB City has never had any secrets or things waiting to be unearthed. It's probably more appropriate to slowly experience it yourself; you can give up flying and walk around or fly to a high point in the city or one of the countless peripheral points on the outskirts. Whether or not you like a city, is the same as whether or not you like a book. Some people like best-sellers and some prefer obscure chapbooks; most people like pop music, but still some prefer experimental sound This has to do with preference and choice. We are very happy that RMB City can be an option or one of many options.


B. Tizzy: 请再给我们介绍一些关于人民城寨新古根海姆大楼的情况。
Tell us more about the new Guggenheim building at RMB City.



Cao Fei: I have been invited by the Guggenheim Museum to participate in the 2010 exhibit: “Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum Rotunda” for the museum's 50th anniversary. The Guggenheim invited approximately 250 artists, architects and designers to imagine their dream intervention in Frank Lloyd Wright’s rotunda.

Therefore, I built a virtual Guggenheim that can transform into an "ox horn." I chose an ox horn because of an ancient Buddhist story. Second Life is an intangible non-physical space that has its conceptual foundations rooted in the virtual dimension. As such, our perception and comprehension of this space is largely reliant on visuals and psychological impact. Within Second Life's RMB City, the Guggenheim Museum is transformed into an ox horn floating in the city's sky, like a manifestation of the notion of "nothingness" as depicted in the story of Milarepa Thera and the horn, and the parallel relationships that the virtual and real worlds possess towards "nothingness." On some level, it is also akin to the idea of inherent harmony amongst disparate entities within Buddhist cosmology.



Director: Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy)
Concept/Script: Huang He (SL: QueenShoe Voom)
Translation: Venus Lau (SL: Nokan Vlodovic)
Project Manager: Samantha Culp (SL: Miniature Tigerpaw)
Project Coordinator: Mengxian Li (SL: Ume Freiman)
Engineer of Fengshui Project: Sinewave
Camera / Editing: Avatrian
Co-produced by Kaaitheater, Festival PERFORMATIK 09, Brussels, Belgium


B. Tizzy: 放眼未来，你对未来人民城寨合作在艺术以及艺术家发面有什么期望？
Moving forward, what are you looking for in art and artists for future RMB City collaborations?

Cao Fei: 人民城寨它是一个持续时间为两年的艺术项目，接下来还有1年的时间就要结束了。人民城寨是一个用来运转的作品，它不仅仅是用来看和游览的，它鼓励和邀请人们参与，对系统建设性地提出问题与假设，并向更开放的方向发展。称之为：行动的，自由的，系统之间的。
RMB City is a two-year project. There is one more year before it ends. RMB City is a revolving piece and not just for viewing or visiting. We encourage and invite people to participate and raise questions and hypotheses about the system structure so we can develop a more open(ly and) in an even more open direction. It should be considered: moving, free, seamless between systems.


Many thanks to Philana Woo for making this interview possible with her English to Chinese/Chinese to English translations, and to Honora Shea of Vitamin Creative Space for making the arrangements. I also especially want to thank Cao Fei for graciously agreeing to this interview at a time when she is busy caring for her baby son Cowboy Lim, born in March of this year, in addition to working on her many projects within and outside of Second Life.

Groundbreaking, literally - Faith in Selavy Oh

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

And they said you couldn't move mountains... Oh ye of little faith!

Physics and now Land artist Selavy Oh has created a script that operates the terraforming capabilities in Second Life®, resulting in the continuous and automated reshaping of land, even without her presence.

To my knowledge, this is without precedent.


That's me filming in the center of the mountain peaks. Selavy was not even in-world for that portion of the taping!

Filming and editing: Bettina Tizzy
Music: "Truth of the Legend" by Kevin MacLeod

Terraforming, the ability to intentionally transform surface topography, atmosphere, temperature or ecology, is not unique to science fiction or even science (where it is primarily called planetary engineering).

In his book, The Making of Second Life, Hamlet Au (aka Wagner James Au), explained the in-world terraforming process quite poetically: "Standing on a hill like a demi-urge, a Resident can wave her hand and cause the ground to swell, expand, or even collapse into the sea."

In Second Life, terraforming land is a skill that looks easy to do, but frequently results in unrealistic and poor duplicates of mountains, lakes and canyons.

Selavy, who rezzed in February of 2007, is most widely recognized for her physics work with the most basic of prims: the humble but noble cube. She has expanded her range considerably in the past few months and now works with any number of shapes and even Alpha textures, but physics are always involved. Art historian Amy Wilson once compared Selavy to Rauschenberg, explaining that, "I can’t help but think she’s the Rauschenberg of SL, albeit one whose hands are much, much tidier than his ever were (makes sense for the environment we’re talking about). Navigating in this little space created by artists whose work is pure abstraction (DanCoyote, Juria) and artists whose work specifically references real life (Cheen, Nebulosus), she comes to find some very fertile ground indeed."

Given recent developments with Comet Morigi's terraforming explorations and her anchoring of huge prims to sims - thereby extensively and surprisingly expanding the canvas - and now Selavy's epic work - many of the most exciting innovations in virtual worlds at this time have to do with Land Art so extreme that I can't help but wonder what James Turell and Micheal Heizer would think.

Possibly the closest reference to Dancing Mountains in Real Life might be Heizer's 1971 Double Negative project in Nevada, for which he removed 240,000 tons of stone to make two slices 30 ft wide by 50 ft deep on opposing sides of an existing canyon to suggest a line between the canyon walls. His focus was on the removal of something, thereby creating a Land Art piece that stressed space, rather than an object. But I have no Real Life reference for land that wiggles, shrinks and grows, with no attending human, in an automated fashion.

Selavy accomplishes this by leaving her scripts with Negative Overland, a bot that is hidden underwater.

Some years ago, I was traveling in the rain forest in the heart of Costa Rica. My traveling companion and I had just sat down to a white tablecloth dinner at a lodge perched a top a mountain less than two miles opposite the Arenal volcano. The volcano was erupting (and still is to this day). Constantly. With a surprisingly loud and deep rumble, the mountain would cough up the fiery lava and rocks, dressing itself in a never-ending kinetic skirt of thick veins in an orangey red.

We struck up a conversation with the couple sitting at the table next to us. They were vulcanologists from Finland and they spoke about volcanoes the way we talk about virtual worlds. The woman shared how she got a kick out of hugging active volcanoes at the base and putting her ear up to them. She swore they sounded like the loudest heartbeat on earth. That certainly had a lasting impression on me.

For some reason, it was the first thing I thought of when Selavy teleported me in to watch a proof-of-concept demo of Dancing Mountains. She has managed to breathe life into the landscape in ways heretofore unimaginable.

~*~

Dancing Mountains can be experienced on arts patron Mab MacMoragh's Soup sim by teleporting directly from here.

In addition, Selavy nearly always has an installation at Brooklyn is Watching. Teleport directly from here.

See also:

• Land Art in Second Life: A historical perspective and an introduction to virtual artist Comet Morigi
• The Patron Saints of Poetik
• It's Hip to be Squarish
• Selavy's page on the Odyssey Art Ning
• "Attention Economy" by Beth Harris on smARThistory
• New York Times piece on art in Second Life

Can Linden Lab stop the exodus?

I dropped in on my new friends over at the Openlife Grid this afternoon and learned that they've enjoyed 30,000 sign-ups and over 1,000 land orders, just this week.

Meanwhile, Hamlet Au (aka Wagner James Au) has just reported that in his phone conversation today with Mark Kingdon, Linden Lab's new CEO said that "in the next few days, the company will post an update to this policy which will incorporate feedback from Openspace owners."

Too little, too late?

* Second Lifers have banned together in the many thousands to protest... well over 5,000 in the SOS group alone, and that's just one of four groups that I'm aware of.
* The LeavingSecondLife email address has received dozens of fascinating emails already from people that, while not claiming that they are leaving Second Life® for keeps, have made it clear that they are upset and looking elsewhere, especially on the Opensim grids.

Is Kingdon just putting a finger in the dam?

Random stuff about Hamlet Au, and some questions for the man who asks questions

In as much as I routinely go against the advice of nearly every social media specialist and don't shrink from publishing long blogposts here, it is hard to condense what I have to say about Hamlet Au (aka Wagner James Au) in one article... so, to heck with that. Today a morsel... tomorrow the world!

Instead, let me give you some tidbits that have little or nothing to do with the recent publication of his book "The Making of Second Life," which has been praised to the hilt by everyone including me, or that he publishes New World Notes, the most widely read Second Life® blog (and it is believed that there are at least 1,000 of them), or the fact that Torley Linden credited Hamlet and his New World Notes for convincing him to dip his watermellony toes into Second Life, or that Hamlet's been covering the gaming industry for GigaOM.com since July 2006, or importantly, that he was hired by Linden Lab as the first embedded journalist in Second Life between April 2003 and February 2006, or that whenever he's blogged about me, or NPIRL, or the Garden of NPIRL Delights, readership of this blog has soared.

I don't know how he does it.

And that's not the half of it.

Whenever I get to feeling sorry for myself and my combined Real Life/Second Life workload, I think about Hamlet. In all my dealings with him, I have never once heard him complain, even when he was in the throes of launching his book and doing most everything else at the same time.


At home, Hamlet has the bestest wall clocks. If I knew how to file a JIRA, I'd ask for something similar: the current time in these six places in the world, on the top of my screen

But back to those tidbits:

* He didn't major in Journalism; rather, his BA is in Philosphy from the University of Hawaii
* In fact, he's originally from Kailua in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, which also happens to be the location where episodes of the television series Hawaii Five-Oh were filmed and where Lost is shot today
* His first by-lined article was an interview with David Lynch
* His first published piece was erotica for a now defunct San Francisco magazine called Future Sex , and yes, I did look for it and didn't find it :D
* He has a lot more on his mind than virtual worlds and games. In his January 1, 2002 controversial piece "We were wrong" for Salon he asked "When will Nader, Moore, Steinem, Chomsky -- and the other leftists who were monumentally mistaken about the war in Afghanistan -- join me in admitting it?"
* Hamlet doesn't rightly know what his true rez day is, especially since his Hamlet Linden account has been deleted

I find it interesting that someone who was born in paradise - Hawaii - and lives in one of the most sophisticated and exciting and delicious and expensive cities of the world - San Francisco - spends most of his time in front of a computer.


In his virtual living room, Hamlet enjoys a photograph of the view outside the window of his Real Life home

Several weeks ago, just before my two lives went simultaneously crazy, Hamlet indulged me and let me ask him a lot of random questions - some which are now as old as a good bottle of Port (how time flies in Second Life!), but a few are perennials - like, what did he look like when he was a newbie? Did he wear wings? His answer: "I had giant weird 70s hair and white pajamas because I didn't know how to make a suit or adjust hair, and it took me forever to bother doing either. A bit like an afro meets, I dunno, Sean Cassidy."

What were some of your earlier epiphanies as a user... not as a journalist?
Hamlet Au: Any epiphany I've had, I've written about. That's how I did it. I didn't want to insert my epiphanies directly, but rather, describe what I saw and experienced and who I met.

The way I see it, you take yourself out of the equation as much as possible and look at it almost as if it were a film... except that you get to ask questions. (BTW, Hamlet had originially intended to work in film way back when).
Hamlet Au: Well, if it's a film, then I try to be more like Errol Morris. That is, I have a definite perspective, but I try to keep it underlying the narrative and not let it overwhelm what people are telling me and doing. So, (I try to be) "Someone like that." The book finally gave me a chance to put my perspective more to the fore. My editor had to push me on that, it's been so ingrained for me to shut up and let the story unfold.


Ha! I knew Hamlet had the NPIRL blood in him. Here's a couch in his living room

We wonder about the person behind the man who reports for us.
Hamlet Au: "Reporting," per se, I consider less my role. I don't write "news" so much as try to find emblematic stories and content. My blog has become more "newsy" ironically enough, as I started writing the book and had less time to go in-world and really root around for that perfect story. That's always been a tension. People will often ask "Why aren't you writing the news about Linden doing X?" or whatever, and the thing is, if it's just the usual downtime or whatever I don't necessarily jump on it.

What's your daily life like?
Hamlet Au: I usually get up late, say 10am ideally, and either blog something immediately or more usually I was up the night before and blogged a late night post. I'm usually in-world late night, which probably means I've come to know more EU Residents than I otherwise would.


On the terrace of his Second Life home, Hamlet has a humongous marijuana plant that must be watered every day or it begins to IM him, complaining

How is the book promotion going?
Hamlet Au: The book tour has been fun, but most of the radio interviews I've done were so basic, I end up giving tech support. Seriously. The radio guy is like "Where do I go to download this?" "Do I have to pay money?" Etc. etc. Most have been curious. Just one radio host (I won't say her name) really didn't like the idea of Second Life. She kept wondering if she went in-world if a serial killer would attack her, so we spent about five minutes talking about serial killers. I said "Well, if you're worried, you can always log off. But she wouldn't give it up. I (then) said, "Well, there's serial killers in real life", and she's all "But I'd know to run away," and I'm thinking "Yeah, Ted Bundy was really popular with his female co-workers," and then I'm like, "Why the fuck am I arguing with this lady about serial killers?"

What were some of the better interviews?
Moira Gunn of Tech Nation did a really great interview with me. She's a smart cookie. She asked me if I was an evangelist for Linden Lab, and that was a good point to raise. I said "No, I'm an evangelist for the community, and for the idea of Second Life." I don't think I was even when Linden Lab was actually paying me as a contractor. Residents I interviewed would often go "OMG I love LL! I love Philip!" I rarely quoted that stuff. What's important is not what they think of LL; what's important are the things they express in here, what it says about them, about the world, and the world outside.

Good answer!
Hamlet Au: Virtual Worlds 2008 was hugely fun. It's so great and humbling to meet such a diverse group of SLers. "Colonel Bob in the Morning" - that's the name of his show - Very nice guy. He kept talking about wanting to be Dean Martin in SL.

You did tell him he CAN be Dean Martin?
Hamlet Au: Well, of course! Dean Takahashi did some great interviews and reviews for Industry Standard and Wall Street Journal. Very gratifying.

In between our chatter, I learned that Hamlet hasn't read "The Painted Word," a book that I have easily given away 50 copies of, by Tom Wolfe, the man who originally inspired Hamlet's three-piece white suit.
Hamlet Au: I've been meaning to send him a copy of my book. He seems to keep up on the latest tech stuff.


Hamlet Au... from Tom Wolfe-ish to Hunter S. Thompson-ish, but really his very own person who just happens to like three-piece white suits, seen here at Parsec

Seems to me that back in the early days you had more direct access (to Linden Lab). Is this just because everyone's gotten so busy?
Hamlet Au: I used to be able to ask Lindens I know about this or that issue and now they want it all funnelled through their PR agency. Again, it sort of is understandable, but then, I don't know how it's helping them overall. They're trying stuff, they deserve credit for that, press conferences, etc.

How often do you deal with their agency versus with them? Do they have an account exec that takes your questions and then "gets back to you?"
Hamlet Au: Yeah. I used to be able to e-mail Philip and get a direct quote within 24 hours. Wow, up until mid-2007, I think. I've always tried to be an intermediary between the Lindens and the Residents, sort of an ombudsman, but that's become quite difficult.

I get the sense that it was almost a personal loss for you when Cory Linden (aka Cory Ondrejka) left.
Hamlet Au: Yes, I was really upset even without knowing what happened; I still don't. And I still am.

What would you like to have happen with New World Notes?
Hamlet Au: Well, I want to take NWN to the next level, and that could mean many things, including more Second Life content creation. I loved working with Lainy (Voom). I'd love to do more stuff like that. (Hamlet and Lainy created this vid to promote his book).

How ingrained is this life with you? And can you imagine another? Are you actively exploring other virtual worlds?
Hamlet Au: I report on lots of other VWs for my day job, so to speak, with GigaOM.com, and I am interested in an abstract level, and there are definitely a lot of good ideas going on out there and folks building competitors to SL that I admire. Still... People keep asking me, What are you doing now that the book is out, will you leave SL? And the thing is, there's really nothing else out there that has everything I could ever want. This is what I do.

The Perils of Mixed Realities events - as experienced by Hamlet Au

Last Thursday, and in the company of my friends and NPIRLers Pavig Lok and Flea Bussy, I teleported into a recreation of a penthouse in Manhattan. The event - a mixed realities party on the occasion of the Real Life and Second Life® book signing of Wagner James Au's (aka Hamlet Au) The Making of Second Life.



Hamlet was in New York city, in the company of Iris Ophelia, to speak at a Fashion Institute of Technology event. In fact, Iris gave the keynote address on the Institute's Technology Day. Go Iris! As an aside, there's a girl who's inventory I'd like to raid any old day of the week.

Since Hamlet was already in the Big Apple, the opportunity to throw a Real Life media bash in his honor was... um... low-hanging fruit, so his publisher - HarperCollins - did just that.


Falk Bergman, Hamlet Au, KallfuNahuel Matador, oh-dear-I-didn't-get-her-name- but-she-was-very-nice, and Flea Bussy

I've never attended a mixed realities event on the Real Life end, and I tend to get engrossed with the people around me - in any life - so I can well sympathize with Hamlet who was torn between attending to his guests in Manhattan, as well as the avatars who were present at the pixelated penthouse. I understand that there was a balcony that he kept heading for, during which time he would leave us avatars to our own devices, and his white-suited self would slip into "away."



Fortunately for him, Iris - who was also present in both worlds - would stand up and jiggle his mouse now and then to bring him back to life - but there was really nothing she could do short of operating his avatar - in the face of the onslaught of tricks that some of us (I'm not naming names) pulled on the poor man.


The lovely Iris Ophelia kept coming to Hamlet's rescue

Various lamp shades were placed on his head, a skirt wrapped around his waist, garbage bags rested at his feet, and cockroaches the size of Saint Bernard doggies visited him.



I stashed my photographic records of these horrors (lol) away, thinking they would never see the light of day, but then Kit Meredith blogged about it and, good sport that he is, Hamlet did, too.

It is a concern, isn't it? Those of us who inhabit virtual worlds must live two lives, and it gets even more complicated when we have to be present - and darling, witty and engaged - in two places at once.

Contemplating virtual worlds: Dusan Writer nails it

Like Hamlet Au and his omnipresent and indispensable reviews and reporting on the metaverse via New World Notes, and his new book The Making of Second Life - which I am devouring, by the way - blogger and specialist in vertical integration of media content and experiences, Dusan Writer has become a touchstone and a muse for me... Someone who takes the time to rephrase raw data, reflect upon it, and then present his take on virtual worlds and those who people them so coherently, so eloquently, that after reading his analyses, the rest of my day is forever changed. Dusan was especially profound and silver-tongued in this post, called "Leaving Second Life." Here is but a paragraph of what I consider to be one of the best internal conversations I've come across on any topic:

"But for now, a few pathfinders will live in that space of tension. The tension between dreams and reality. Between on the one hand the hope of translating the impossible into new languages and ways of living, and on the other despair at its erosion in the face of bad policy, code or a cool indifferent world."

Photography in virtual worlds: More production elements than Real Life shoots

The work of photographers Arahan Claveau and Luna Zolnir - two gifted Not Possible IRL Flickrites - has been featured recently in Hamlet Au's New World Notes, the online zine that serves as a main artery and chronicle of just about every aspect of Second Life.

This has caused me to reflect on the additional complexities behind the creation of great photography in virtual worlds. While the best pics in real life also involve studio work or location scouting, model and prop selection, art direction, styling, and post production, other factors come into play when that shot is taken in a virtual environment.

Luna Zolnir is making her own animations, for instance. Another NPIRL Flickrite, ColeMarie Soleil, often uses particles, thereby introducing the special effects within the environment that is being photographed. Arahan Claveau is a pioneer in creating narrative photography in the metaverse, that doesn't depend on text or other aids to relate a story. He also brings several special effects inworld. All are now working within the Windlight First Look viewer whenever possible and appropriate, which enables them to specify the time of day, as well as some weather visuals.

In fact, since creating the Not Possible in Real Life Flickr groups: Not Possible in Real Life - Content Creation, Avatars - Not Possible in Real Life, and Situations Not Possible in Real Life, I've had the good fortune to discover several really exceptional photographers. One such artist is Stephen Venkman. His work has already graced the pages of this blog, and I have taken to actively tracking his creations. Yesterday, I happened upon this photograph and have been going back to look at it again and again. I believe Magritte himself would have enjoyed it.


"Floating with nothing but..." by S-Venkman © All rights reserved

I asked Stephen what was involved in producing this work.

Stephen Venkman: I had taken a bunch of shots while in a suspended animation of sorts (within a build called) "The Afterlife" (by NPIRLer Toran Cult)...and the first part of the experience was floating around in darkness while everyone joined you. All was black for me 'cept some sparkles of light... so when I pulled it into Photoshop, I removed the black backgrounds first. As soon as I had seen the series of shots, I knew I wanted them somehow all on one piece. I created a new file and dragged each one in scaling and sizing...added a cloud layer with some brushed and there you go... Oh, some lens flares, too.

HBO acquires machinima "My Second Life" - Molotov Alva's video diaries

HBO announced today that it has aquired a documentary that was filmed entirely in-world.

Our very own Orhalla Zander, founder and King of the SecondLife Hobos group (more of a tribe if you ask me, and I'm happy to say I'm one of them!), has been working for some time now as art director and assistant director on the 7-episode Machinima "My Second Life."

Here is a somewhat blurry version with Portuguese subtitles, so please do realize that it is best to view it directly from their website.


The virtual biopic narrates the story of Molotov Alva - played by Douglas Gayeton, director of the pixelated documentary - after he disappears from his home in Petaluma, California. You will all recognize many SL locations that have been used for the shoot.

Hamlet Au of New World Notes was the first to break the news, and subsequently Reuters has carried the story worldwide.

HBO is owned by Time Warner, Inc. and the piece is slated to air sometime in 2008.

We asked Orhalla today how he thinks the mainstream world will react to My Second Life, and he replied: "I'm certain the documentary is going to be very educational to people who know NOTHING about Second Life. It's not tutorial at all. It reminds me of a documentary about the culture of SL. And for the people who are already residents of SL, they will certainly love the film."

He added, "I think it is becoming fairly natural to have crossovers from the virtual to the mainstream media realm; they have already happened. You have Frogg Marlow and Jaycatt bringing their music inside SL. Then you have Anshee Chung who founded virtual real estate. They were the first of the firsts... and I think that while our crossover may not be the first, all sorts of people will find something tantalizing about the documentary. It just captures so much of Second Life's culture."

We're immensely proud of you, Oz.

It's time to batten down the hatches

Over the past few days, interest in NPIRL has mushroomed and a number of very talented people have joined. I must remark on two of them.

Tonite, the "architect's architect" of SL, Scope Cleaver , became a NPIRL member and Hamlet Au (aka Wagner James Au) appointed a representative from his New World Notes to the group: Amalthea Blanc. Welcome, you two. We are honored.

I propose to all of you now that we restrict all future membership to only the most serious or promising content creators. Period. I see this as a working group, and while you may not know everyone here, I have had an opportunity to speak with each of you. What we have here is pure gold.

Meanwhile, I have some extreme goodies just begging to be shared with you and I can hardly wait till Friday to do so.