Dekka Raymaker's puzzler: Skullduggery

Skullduggery or Skulduggery: 1. A devious device or trick. 2. Underhanded or unscrupulous behavior.

It is not a simple matter to reach the point where you are standing in front of this installation in Second Life®, but if you are in the mood for a bit of mystery and deductive reasoning, you are in for a wee bit of a challenge and a treat.

First, teleport from here. You will find yourself in the middle of a field, but if you look behind you, you will see a brown brick building a few meters away. Head towards the front door.

But wait! You need to punch in a code to gain access. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a hint or two (or three) nearby?

Once inside, and at the end of the long hall, there is an apothecary table and shelves containing all matter of turn of the century as well as contemporary pharmaceutical supplies, mixing and writing tools and clocks and... a voodoo doll? Skulls?

Somewhere in this room is a clue that will help you, as its creator Dekka Raymaker, suggested to me, "get it."

"It is there. Obvious when you know," said Dekka, as I fumbled around touching everything and looking everywhere.

"The inspiration of the piece started with a photograph by Philippe Halsman after a drawing by Dalí of a human skull consisting of seven naked women's bodies. Other references include psychological fear, horror, selling one's soul (selling out) and a little bit of subtle recession phobia," added Dekka. Hmmm. I wonder if Dekka's financial advisor had a bad year?

His advice for how to view this:
: Midnight is preferrable for the first look
: Turn off streaming music and video
: The entrance is code activated, 3 numbers
: Some objects can be interacted with, drawers open & touch sound
: Some things are not obviously on view; with a little cam action they can be seen
: I hope you 'get it'

Voodoo Shilton melts clocks in a 3D world

I just bet that more than a few of you have stopped to think how much Salvador Dali would have enjoyed Second Life®...

There's Gary Kohime and Izikael Novi who were inspired by his Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) to create their own Unconsious Crucifixion - Dark Night of the Soul for the Garden of NPIRL Delights last spring.

Now Voodoo Shilton's rendition of Dali's "La Persistencia de Memoria" [1931] (The Persistence of Memory) is visitable by teleporting directly from here.



Says Voodoo, "I've long been a fan of surrealist artists (M. C. Escher and Salvador Dali in particular) and thought a Second Life interpretation of Dali's classic was long overdue. For me the melting watches are a metaphor for the relativity of time and space, a relatively new concept at the time of Dali's work. The artwork as a dream allegory combines new understandings of the universe with the mystical personal experience of the individual. It was a landmark, mind-broadening artwork for its time that asks us to reconsider assumptions about reality and existence."

Oh! Thanks to Voodoo, I realized last night that Dali placed a poseball in his painting. It's right there, I swear!