I have the good fortune of meeting and getting friendly with a wide range of people in my capacity of creating many large ‘environments’ across the Second Life grid. I often get invited to engagements, weddings, parties and a couple of funerals. A few months ago I noticed a couple riding horses around the Pond cobble lanes and then befriended Pollyanneke and scubasteve. They have many friends and are about to get married in Second Life (a 2nd attempt - story below) which I will video for them next week. To demonstrate and be more committed in world they are doing a potential world first - sponsoring a real world (read: developing or troubled world) child as a virtual couple inside Second Life. I interviewed them at their large mansion house inworld to understand their motivations and how significant this could be.

Could you tell me a little about how you met

scubasteve Canning: We never planned to meet, I was learning to build and Pol came up to me and asked me to teach her.
Pollyanneke Pera: It was a rainy day for me in real life and thought why not for a day. He kept tp’ing (teleporting) me to teach me. I had zero interest really.
scubasteve Canning: Yeah no intention of ever getting together but we had so much in common and we know each other so well.
Pollyanneke Pera: But…the pull. We are an odd couple as it has turned out.

So you dated or just grew to know each other through buiilding

Pollyanneke Pera: Not through building, he would’ve ditched me. We found at we had a lot in common, like horses and causes.
scubasteve Canning: We both have horses in real life.

So how long exactly have you known each other

scubasteve Canning: We met in March 2007
Pollyanneke Pera: I think I met scuba his first day (rez day), he was such a cute shy newb.

And how long after SL dating did you connect in real life

scubasteve Canning: Well probably after a month, but we have never met, just on phone.
Pollyanneke Pera: We shared photos too he has a great voice though.
scubasteve Canning: But we are together forever.. eternally apart
Pollyanneke Pera: It’s weird when u know someone in one medium and then you get to talk, the voice will be different.
scubasteve Canning: But we know each others voices and I love talking to her at work and trying to make her laugh.

Why did you decide to get married in Second Life

Pollyanneke Pera: Scuba asked as a joke initially and it butterflied from there
scubasteve Canning: Just a crazy idea at the time lol
Pollyanneke Pera: He likes a challenge, must be a build thing?
scubasteve Canning: For me its was after the first time Pol left me in Second Life and then I felt that I really like this girl. I took a pic of her that nite and we will always remember that nite she went away.
Pollyanneke Pera: That was awful nite, I didn’t know my password was saved to laptop. Oh real life sometimes doesn’t like second life to begin with until all is understood.
scubasteve Canning: We will always be locked apart, we will always be together in Second Life. Together forever.. eternally apart.. thats us.

So how do you think your relationship will change after the wedding next week. Also how big is the wedding? How many people coming to it?

Pollyanneke Pera: we already are committed
scubasteve Canning: as hard as it is we can never meet in real life
Pollyanneke Pera: well we can, but we won’t!, too perfect as it is. Sluv is a word scuba created… best word to describe how I feel about him.
scubasteve Canning: we got at least 100 that i know of coming to the wedding and the list keeps getting bigger

So you have taken a big step of adopting a real world child from within Second Life. Whose idea was this?

Pollyanneke Pera: Well not really it was not a big step. It was a very easy one…
scubasteve Canning: it just made sense to us to do this. We had to find a way to declare our sluv for each other
Pollyanneke Pera: i saw the posters of madeleine mcann and I thought wow, what a medium for lost children. Then World Vision was having their 10000 appeal for one month and i thought hang on.
scubasteve Canning: we so hope that others will follow us and show their sluv for each other as we have done
Pollyanneke Pera: World Vision are one three aid based Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in Second Life at the moment I believe. They need to look at Second Life in a big way I think. So many great people and from fairly secure lives.

So do you think you are the first to do this? And how will the child be made aware that he/she is adopted by virtual couple!

scubasteve Canning: yeah.. Pol had this great idea.. never been done before
Pollyanneke Pera: hmmm, another good question… Oh I have had World Vision children for years and no I don’t do that its seems so patriarchal somehow. Scuba and I just want to start this we are not an organization but we are so committed
scubasteve Canning: We are two kindred souls who wanted to make a difference because we so care about each other and want to use our feelings for each other to help others
Pollyanneke Pera: My 1st sponsored child was from West Bank in Gaza. Her name is Abeer Mahmoud. She sent me one card that totally changed me last Xmas, it said ‘I love yo\u forever’” - and she doesn’t know me, she doesn’t need to.
scubasteve Canning: we shall have a pic in the house here of our child

A little bigger picture. What is your opinion of the virtual world sponsoring the 3rd world

scubasteve Canning: We hope to get tip jars that can transfer money direct to World Vision and we have hundreds of friends in Second Life
Pollyanneke Pera: yes and sponsor children worldwide
NOTICE: Second Life: Second Life will be closing for a scheduled update at 6am PDT. Watch the blog for details.

At this point the second life grid closed for its bi-monthly update and the interview was sadly cut short. I will try to catch up with Polly and scuba at a later date, perhaps post wedding, to see how things are progressing. For now some information about World Vision.

Change the life of a child
The best way to change a child’s life is to change the world in which they live.
By sponsoring a child, you will help to bring about long-term benefits to the child, their family and community for just $43 per month. Your support will help to fund vital development work in the child’s community, such as digging wells, improving sanitation and building health clinics.
This work ensures that the community will be able to provide the children with the basics they need, which helps them to grow up in a healthy environment and have the chance for a better future.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

Categories: Bio World, Charity, Friends, Identity, Inworld relationships, Residential, Second Life, Sent In-World
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Second Life Gary’s Sim Marni 10, originally uploaded by Gary Hayes.

I have been so busy since October last year that I have completely forgotten to mention the island I bought. I did the sums and it actually worked out way cheaper for me to buy and island and divide it into four with three other friends. So Marni was born. Marni is an aboriginal word meaning welcome.

I terraformed the island with a large central and shared mountain space with 80m waterfalls with rivers and smaller hills separating the four quadrants. It is a very tranquil area and the images here are some building designs I did over 6 months ago! I hope to get time to finish some of them and add some more architecture in the ‘Sci-Fi Persian’ style.

The other three folk on the island are a wonderful immersive sound sculpture artist, a designer with his own company and an SL entrepreneur. I am sure they won’t mind you looking around.

Please pop along and have a look around. I am unlikely to be there most of the time, but you never know. In any event you are very Marni (Welcome). Heres the SLURL

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from Inside Second Life

Categories: Architecture, Building, Environment Design, Environments, Music, Music Experiments, Neighbourhood, Residential, Second Life, Sent In-World, Travel, Virtual Tourism, Virtual Worlds
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or sounding-out the Metamatic Neighbours

It’s been over a month now since myself, Jjason Jedburgh, Adam Ramona and Mashup Islander bought a sim together. It is called Marni and is attached to the south of Esperance and is now growing to be a great hive of artistic, business and social activity. I terraformed the island to give the four of us a great environment and some privacy for our various expoilts.

I have talked before about Jjason and his splendid architectural visions so now I wanted to interview Adam and Mashup (whose quarter sim plots are visible above) about their work and passion, real-time spatialised sound sculptures. I have been watching with glee as both of them get used to the possibilities in this world being relatively new to Second Life and create what I regard already as major, innovative pieces. Firstly a little about the Metamatic Collective piece.

Cantata Park 1 by Metamatic is an interactive, spatialised sound sculpture built in Second Life. The sculpture is made from 256 individual nodes in a 16 x 16 grid. Each node is embedded with a single word, triggered by a participant’s movement through the work. Each participant creates a random narrative, assembled on-the-fly, and in real-time. The work explores the possibilities of metaverse art, limitations of Second Life’s construction tools and scripting language, and the ability to appreciate conceptual art by proxy of an avatar. Cantata Park was produced in December 2006 Copyright 2006, Metamatic Collective

Adam and Mashup collaborated on this piece which is the first part of the interview below and then I met with Adam seperately to discuss five of his other works. We were also joined by Lisa Dapto, who is a close colleague of both of them. We met firstly at the site and then inside Adam’s self made garden retreat.

You: Who is the collective and what brought them together

Mashup Islander: The collective is Adam and myself for the moment. Adam was doing some funky 3D art on his land and I was inspired by this. I guess we found (Adam and I) a similar liking for abstract real-time art and decided to work on a project together

You: You mentioned that there are limitations to achieve what you want to in this world could you explain what these are in more detail for the readers

Adam Ramona: The technical limitations of Second Life are significant but this makes it a challenge, and often the best work is done in restrictive environments

Mashup Islander: It helps define boundaries for the work too

Adam Ramona: Relatively speaking the scripting language is an impressive achievement

You: And what are the benefits of this world for contemporary expressive 3D art?

Adam Ramona: Given the environment, collaboration is also a major plus of this space

Mashup Islander: Also the audience is large and open to new forms of expression

You: Yes I was going to ask about the methodology of collaboration how did it work for you both on the Cantata Park piece for example

Mashup Islander: It was really easy actually. Adam and I seem to think the same thing at the same time.

Adam Ramona: There are the usual teething problems getting used to the process but its a joy to be able to work collaboratively *within* the environment that the work will be consumed in.

Adam (left) and Mashup pose inside Cantata Park 1.

The work is now permanently installed on Mashup’s land and there are already many word-of-mouth visitors coming along to try the piece. I list some direct SLURLs at the end of both interviews for you to pop along yourself. I asked more about the background to the work.

You: What actually inspired the creation?
Mashup Islander: I was fooling around with basic prim sculptures and getting off on the whole ordered nature of basic 3D design. After a visit to an early version of Adam’s Bell Park, I saw a possibility to incorporate spoken words into the architecture. The randomness of each participant’s experience excited me and we explored some possible narrative structures before settling on a Burroughs piece, which was appropriate given the subject matter.

You: The 256 spoken fragments triggered by motion through them? What is the intention behind that and what experience is it meant to invoke?

Mashup Islander: Its a fractured narrative inspired by the Beat poets of old the actual passage is a Burroughs piece appropriate given the context

You: Each person has a different route through the piece of course - do you think there will be any shared experience?

Mashup Islander: Yes, the participant makes their own narrative and it was interesting just then with four users simultaneously that a layered narrative with many intersections can result. In specific answer to your question, I can’t put feelings into other people’s experience. Its up to each person to explore and take away their own assumptions

Above Lisa Dapto flys above Cantata Park 1 while Adam and Mashup introduce Pix (a visitor) to the piece. We talk more about the narrative, semantic elements of the work.

Adam Ramona: people make their own narrative always, and probably people who have similar outlooks will create similar experiences?

You: But presumably given that it is Burroughs excerpts there must be a common narrative that everyone can take away? Not completely random fragments

Mashup Islander: Burroughs believed all narrative had hidden meaning, each iteration of disassembly can provoke further insight and messages

Lisa Dapto: He and tristan Tzara before him were the lightning rods for the cut-up technique

Adam Ramona: Tzara was definitely about disassembling the dominant narrative

Mashup Islander: From paper, to tape recorder and now real-time 3D

You: I wonder if you see a kind of art renaissance developing in this world?

Adam Ramona: The art itself is thoroughly contemporary for me, it is a matter of using the medium for its strengths, and not trying to have it imitate some other medium. A new technology is always used first to do something that can already be done. Going with the native strengths of the medium as the basis for the formal decisions which makes it very simple to process. It’s the same thing with Hyperformalism if i understand DanCoyote Antonelli’s work correctly, it is using the ‘native’ qualities of the medium to make the formal decisions

Lisa Dapto: the involvement of the “audience” as co-authors of the work makes Adam’s and Mashup’s work fascinating and challenging, it reflects the ultimate potential for users in this world to generate their own scenarios

Adam Ramona: One of these “native qualities” of which i spoke is indeed the interactive nature of the audience/residents and this art is ‘for’ those people

You: Are you going to allow people to come and explore the work/s at this stage? If so can we publish the SLURLs?

Mashup Islander: Absolutely. The work is open for public viewing, with more on the way. Metamatic as an experimental playground for our artworks and we’ll be cycling new installations across both Adam’s and my land as they unfold.

So just for readers of JustVirtual a world exclusive a direct link to Cantata Park 1. Marni 205,53,25

Adam’s Place

I went back the next day to Adam’s quarter sim (which is actual adjoining mine), to talk to him in more depth about some of his latest pieces. I am particularly fascinated by the strong primary colours developing ‘over the hedge’ and the strange, exotic sounds floating on the wind across to my place. Adam has a rather unique appearance that I will save until another post, but below you can see him posed by his latest and greatest creation Anahat, The Mute Swan. You actually enter all these pieces by either teleporting in or just walking through and The Mute Swan is interesting in that it morphs from being attactive sculpture into a full surround sound and phantom prim experience. But I will let Adam explain.

Adam Ramona: The four pieces completed here are: The Bell Garden, Pure Absence, Anahata the Mute Swan, and the Blue one. (there is also a white one recently finished)

You: What would you say are the common elements between them all?

Adam Ramona: As we talked about yesterday, I would say their commonality is that they use the ‘native’ qualities of the medium to suggest the formal considerations of each piece.

You: As these are more sound and music orientated than Cantata Park 1, are there any common elements in the way you use sound in the pieces

Adam Ramona: Generally, I try to approach the work as an ‘audiovisual’ piece, and wherever possible apply the same formal rules to the sounds as to the visuals. It is not always possible, so sometimes the sonic formalities are decided through real life (ed: bio world for regular readers) considerations of a ‘music’ or ’sound’ basis. For example, the Bell Garden is in the key of E flat Major, just because I think that is an excellent key for a bell sound Once I’d decided that, then the manipulation of the sounds was the same as the visuals - no textures, just the geometry so to speak, which in sonic terms means a very dry synthesised, unadorned sound. I think it works well in the Bell Garden (ed: night pic below)

You: One of the remarkable things about all the pieces is the synergy between the visual and the sound - in that they are inextricably linked and reinforce each other. Could you talk a little about that process?

Adam Ramona: Yes, well I have always (since 1996 when I was first introduced to real-time 3D art) thought of this medium as a “composition” medium - in that previously when I was “writing” “music” I would have a very similar sort of thing happening inside my mind as a real-time 3D scene. I would have particular shapes with particular colours making particular sounds which were animating around in the space and when I saw VRML, i thought “yay, this is the medium for me!”

You: I notice that the five pieces here are all based around subtle variations of the same colour or tone - based on primaries like blue, red, white. Because you have graduations of that one tone is this because you don’t want the visual to overpower the sound?

Adam Ramona: Yes, this is the way I work. I think of each piece as a “song” if you like and just as you don’t put every note or chord into a song, similarly, the sounds suggest the colours (and vice versa) and they always end up being like this - graduations.

You: You have your pieces on show in a wonderful zen like garden and the works are indeed very powerful but meditative and tranquil to a great extent. Would you say you are about the balance between visual and sound so they are both, equally important.

Adam Ramona: Yes indeed, I would go further and say that I don’t really recognise any distinction between sound and vision

You: Ah very interesting and that would include I suppose the amount of authorship you give the participant in your pieces so they travel the sound and visual journey on their own path?

Adam Ramona: Yes, that is definitely part of the rationale of the work - these things exist almost independently of their consumption, a little like theoretical physics or something, and therefore, any mode of consumption, temporal visual sonic is valid.

You: We talked earlier also about many of these pieces being 4 or 5 art forms in one piece - sculpture, surround installation, performance piece, interactive and even architectural. Is this intended or a by-product or the medium?

Adam Ramona: That is this medium (RT3D) - these distinctions are valid in the real physical (bio) world, but not so in RT3D, so in that sense, I guess it is a by-product, but it is also an anticipated, welcomed, part of this medium in fact. That is one of the very main reasons why I like to work in this medium.

You: To discuss a level of detail. What is the difference in your mind between a piece that is triggered by the audience or one that they just move through picking up variations in sound level and direction, without triggering the various components within?

Adam Ramona: Not really any difference, other than a pedantic one in fact, you could say that a piece that is constantly sounding is actually only sounding when an avatar moves near it and in that way it’s always triggered by an avatar, but that is true of this entire medium.

You: If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it make a sound?

Adam Ramona: You are right when you call it LOD, it’s the ultimate practical existentialism, because it literally doesn’t exist (for you) when you are not looking at it, unless the LOD has been coded badly

You: Very true! I always ask this next question and it is difficult to answer but are there any specific emotional responses that a viewer may get from some of these works. I noticed for example in the Mute Swan I felt much more relaxed and quite passive after a while whereas Pure Absence with it’s strong reds and high pitched sounds quite confrontational.

Adam Ramona: Good, interesting, difficult question. I definitely aim for an emotional response because I am emotionally engaged with all of my works and that is what leads me to create them. But as for audience response, I think it is tricky to second guess, but there are probably certain things you can aim for. For example, I am glad that you felt that about Anahata, the Mute Swan, because that is what I was aiming for, emotionally, an attempt to invite the audience to reflect on the nature of silence. In fact that piece specifically asks the question “If there is a sound playing when you are born and after you die, would you hear it?”

You: I was particularly struck by the combination of words and sound in that piece and it had more impact perhaps than the Cantata in the Park work because the words were more subtle, enigmatic and mysterious?

Adam Ramona: I’m very happy to hear that. I always try to keep them impressionistic, or as you say “equal to sound”, so that they represent more the signifier of meaning rather than meaning itself, and then the listener will more than likely provide their own meaning

You: One thing that you haven’t yet incorporated into your pieces and in this world it is a significant layer of course is our beloved ‘chat/IM text’ - is there a reason for that?

Adam Ramona: Yes, I did that in a bio piece, Scorched Happiness (2004), which was a multi-user VRML piece, where the chat text was typed live by the performers based on excerpts from the work by Julia Kristeva that formed the basis of the work. So, I am definitely interested in it, since it is a part of the medium but I would rather work out a way to make it similar to the way I use words that we discussed before, IE, without actual meaning, which is harder to do in text of course. But, now you’ve mentioned it I’ll get onto it straight away

You: Finally Do you think it easy to explain or recreate these works outside our environment or is that the basic point of formalism, that they are rooted here and here only.

Adam Ramona: Absolutely the latter in, of and for this medium. However, it doesn’t mean SL specifically, it means multi-user real-time 3D, of which SL is a very, very good example and one that is very popular and therefore provides and audience.

You: Finally, finally. If you had 3 ’sound feature’ wishes from Linden Lab (our creator!) what would they be?

Adam Ramona: Ah, yes, the first one is easy and obvious: generative sound synthesis in the SL engine should be simple to do, since they’ve already using Havok for physics. Second would be 5.1 out (as we mentioned before). Third would be increase the sample time limit to *at least* 60 seconds.

You: Totally agree with all of those and maybe much more control over sound spread. Adam, for now thank you, and as we are neighbours I don’t really need to say goodbye, rather look forward to hearing from you again very soon.

Adam is also happy for visitors to come and explore and discuss his works. This SLURL drops you in the middle of the Zen sculpture interactive garden and next to some teleport points to take you to the skybox creations. Adam’s place can be found at Marni 220,199,23

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

Categories: Creative Collaboration, Digital Art, Environment Design, Exhibition, Experimental, Friends, Neighbourhood, Residential, Second Life, Sent In-World, Sound Design, Virtual Worlds
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Been away from SL for over a week and thought I would bring you all up to date with the bay area I live in.� The changes, the new residents and so on. (Here is a bio flickr set with on-going tracking of this Second Life neighbourhood evolving from nothing to very crowded). Firstly, and sadly, Heather and Max have moved to new pastures as the escort agency (see below) that moved in nearby was too much. She kept getting asked about her rates! But I am staying in touch with them as they have found a great new patch in Hokkaido. Anyway, so what is new in my patch - as if your really interested. But I did promise to keep you in the loop as the area developed from nothing a few weeks ago, remember, good. Well lots of new folk are moving in. Attracting a good wide selection. Sadly a club. No malls yet though. I did a quick Sunday morning one hour fly around (snoop) to see whats around and said brief hellos to those who were in-world - many are happy to do longer interviews later. Keep watching.

Close to me. Yes thats my place top left, is Koko and Ice. They weren’t around but in this world one can find much about the people via their profiles attached to the land. So a big traditional house of Ice Franchini and Koko Blackhawk. They met in SL and got married on the 19 Sep - will catch up with them later. For now

“Koko you gave me the most precious gift there is to give a person, your love and your heart and i will treasure them both till the end of time. You showed me I can love again and i do baby i love you so very much. My love for you will far out last this game in my heart you will forever be mine.”

awww. So a good traditional couple - at first glance. Anything is imaginable here. More later perhaps. At the other end of the spectrum we have a traditional escort agency. Xposed Escorts and their slogan “When you want only the best”. Ummm. Here is a pic of their boat and ground build. Wish some folk would finish the ground before they do the sky! The ubiquitous sky club pic follows.

Something more interesting is a very secretive build going on right in the bay below me. Under the water and a strange blue boxey thing growing on top, lots of furious build activity. Home to Inaria and the Avariel Winged Lords. Their mission and convenant.

Fun and Flight. Love and peace. To roam the skies. Rarest of the elven races, the avariel, the winged elves, live a reclusive existence, seldom seen by outsiders. Such is their scarcity and seclusion, that their status is almost that of legend. Despite an aloofness that can astound even other elves, avariel rarely exhibit the haughtiness and arrogance many have come to associate with elvenkind, though they pity all races lacking the ability to fly. They have little to do with other races.

As I write, Inaria Oranos (the Speaker of Winds) and builder friend KiVanyel Adria are busy designing a turret or two sticking out of the water. Like the furries (Kitsu’s) who built their underground burrow these Winged Lords are after a quiet underwater existance and I didn’t venture into their underwater lair just yet as they seem a private group. More about Inaria

“Daughter of mermaid and Avariel Lord. Raised on cliffs over-looking the seas. Apart of two worlds and made the most fun of it. Resides on the winds and in the water. Willing to help any soul who asks.”

To add diversity to this little patch we also have the lesbian (escort?) world of Olivia Marquette (sky platform above). She has built a tasteful, ancient garden with elements of Trompe L’oeil to add space. I said hello she is happy to do a long interview later. They also have a strange black sky platform, antithesis to the open gardens below. Now what secrets in there I wonder? For now here is Olivia’s profile to give some insight and a picture of the garden afterwards.

“I am a passionate, loving and caring Mistress. My heart is full of love and tenderness and I give this to my girls who deserve all the love I possess. Sometimes a switch, I can be delightfully submissive in the right hands. I have collared the beautiful and sexy Amelia Hainsworth (first girl), the lovely and adorable (beloved pet) Stacy Fuller, cute and sexy Kitti Meek and poetic Satsuyo Kinsei. They are my girls and I protected them and love them. Any problems with any of my girls IM me.”

Most of the above is very close to me, within 500m and on adjacent blocks of land. I have been lucky so far that my block of land (what some call a sim) has been quiet. Well there have been some additions on the far edges. First some furries I actually recommended this area too when they were looking around (have some pictures somewhere), Kitsu’s Korner, the furries on hill. They spent ages building a burrow so from the air you couldn’t work out there was actually a large space underground, see photo to the right. Then they built a castle. Still havent had chance to catch up with them, they are behind me over the hill, but perhaps some furry/vamp thing happening here?

Literally on the opposite end of the land I am on we have Ellies Home. Elly Crispien has set up a rental business for either the tudor mansion, a range of houses or the castle from $800-3000L pm. Good deal and a community spa! Not too laggy too. Lots of trees and no animations to see.

Finally just down the bay and on the peninsula we have a lot of activity. I will explore another time as my alloted hour is up for this but lots of people to speak to and exciting stories to tell. Obviously I need to get a life A third life perhaps…although still uncertain of what a 1st life is? Here is a pic of more to come, all further along the shore front in view of my once peaceful, uncluttered view.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

Categories: Architecture, Communication, Environments, Friends, Identity, Neighbourhood, Residential, Second Life, Sent In-World, Virtual Worlds
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I have been meeting the neighbours. One of the first ones I met was Heather Steadham. She has created a lovely Japanese (a bio style apparently) building enhancing the bay and a sky deck with grand piano for those romantic evenings as the sun sets. But Heather has a secret. She has a few ‘associates’, as she likes to call them, simultaneous and alternate personas that are driven by the same ’spirit’ - inextricably connected in this world. Sounds strange? On their sky deck I met up with Heather, Max and their alternate furry personas on Sunday evening to find out more. I started by asking when this real time, parallel, duality began.

Heather Steadham: Hmm. I’d have to say about a month ago or so.
Maximillion Steadham: Essentially, Heather was the first to come to SL. She found that among other things, people were much nicer to female AV’s than to male and were much more willing to help out.
Heather Steadham: The female AV has many more friends than the male side. Females from my observations are more willing to assist one of thier own before they would assist a male.
Maximillion Steadham: We can get different responses to the same question from the same person depending on our outward appearance.

They refer to themselves at the start as avs and talk about an unknown force simultaneously controlling them so I dug a little deeper.

Maximillion Steadham: I’d have to say our mannerisms and speech / typing styles. They are very similar to each other. The same entity or controller as you call it, operating two AV’s as one unit. Sometimes it is mind boggling as to how it can be done. We also have additional personas that we can assume.

Some people may find this parallel ’sibling’ type existence a little odd so I asked a little about their relationship.

Heather Steadham: Think of it as good side / bad side. We’re still trying to determine what our relation ship is…and I’m the bad one. :> They sometimes ask about our relationship… We are delibrately elusive. When pressed, we will respond that we know each other and are exploring further relationship possibilities. There are also times where I will dress completely different from Max as well.
Maximillion Steadham: We leave it as “associates”

Given the obvious connection between the two of them I asked how both would feel if one of them developed a relationship with another av and started to lose contact with each other.

Maximillion Steadham: That is her choice, much the same way that I am also free to develop other relationships as well. We normally take things one day at a time and keep options open.
Heather Steadham: The depth of other relationships is something that gets determined as time goes on.

Referring back to something Max said about ‘additional personas’ I found out that the two of them go deeper into the rabbit hole by as well as the parallel existance they have alternate personas that they use. They both regularly transform themselves into ’skunks’. Yes indeed. I asked why and what did it mean.

Heather Steadham: Heather in human form is generally a warm and friendly person. Max knows if I am “in skunk mode” to tread very carefully…or it could also mean that I’m involved in a construction project. The skunk makes an appearance when the need for “being left alone” outweighs the need to be sociable.. i.e.: when building or taking clases. Not wanting attention. That skunk appearance would be a mask I wear to be left alone rather than to interact with others.
Maximillion Steadham: When she is in her skunk persona in public, she is also not entirely “happy” that day. So, when she is in “skunk mode”, I serve as a guardian / protector of her emotional state. It also helps in public when she is in skunk mode to have a much larger human present to ward off criticism.

I had met both of them a few days ago at a popular furry club and found them dancing together so I asked about their relationship in their transformed state.

Maximillion Steadham: Yes. Heather and I have been to several clubs where they are furry / human tolerant. Depending on Heather’s emotional state that day, I can appear as a gray, mature skunk, like a father figure to her or as a black skunk similar in appearance to Heather. The transformation is mostly to ward people away from Heather. The difference being either paternal/familar or as a trusted associate.

As part of the interview Heather implied that she prefers Max as Skunk, making her feel more comfortable as that persona, which I think surprised Max. This lead to a discussion about their relationship as regards money.

Maximillion Steadham: There is also the disparity in the division of wealth between our personas.
Heather Steadham: I have the income. Max is my trusted employee.
Maximillion Steadham: Not really. I control her funds at her request.
Heather Steadham: I have a tendency to buy on impluse and consult Max depending on the amount.
Maximillion Steadham: Essentially, anything over $500 requires my assent to purchase.

They both demonstrated how they dance together and talked about clubs they go to, so I prodded again on the question of how people perceive their relationship

Heather Steadham: We normally will visit blues/ rock / and slowdancing clubs on the weekend. Max has a list of the ones we can be found in. But we could also be two friends just having an enjoyable time, free from drama.
Maximillion Steadham: It’s up to the other people present to ask. We don’t volunteer our relationship.

I politely requested that they transform into their ’skunk’ mode to ascertain if their indeed was a personality shift and to see how they related to each other but more importantly why the need to wear the mask.

Heather Steadham: This is my general appearance in public when I am in skunk mode - elegant, but also ready to spray you if needed. I would considered Heather’s more wild, but shy side - if that makes sense. In this state, I’m usually emotionally vulnerable..They are more suprized to see me as a human than a skunk. This is the persona most people see me with. The skunk came out after about two weeks of first moving into SL. When I lived in Seogwipo…any male AV would stop by and check out the female AV who had taken some time and pride in making her appearance as elegant and functional as she could. It detracted from being able to educate myself or just relax at home. It has its functions. I can maintain an eloquent appearance, but at the same time keep the general male populace away from me.
Maximillion Steadham: We are observed holding hands many times, and it keeps the furs away…they tend to have a higher “leering” factor than the humans do.
Heather Steadham: If Max is right next to me in a fur area, it is generally assumed that we have a relationship - and we are not bothered in that way. Incidentally humans in fur areas are generally looked on as newbies without the funds to make the transformation to fur, furrys tend to have the overactive sex drive.

I mentioned that when I first met them there was a crowd on their big black decking and they came up with the ruse that Max was tired due to being recently serviced. Now I see how it works. The simultaneous existance of the Steadham’s ‘from just one mind’ is rare in this world. I must admit to doing the same on many occasions and have started a ‘group’ called the SIMULs which has a growing membership. One of the attractions is the real time, duality of being, whether dual gender or creature or whatever and communicating with individual avs without their being aware. I asked Heather for her reasoning.

Heather Steadham: That is what also keepspeople from guessing we’re the same. If we are here at the same time…kind of hard to say we’re ALT;s. The typos occasionally give it away too. I can fool people, but if Max is just hanging around, it give the illusion away sometimes. If I “occupy” Max, there are less questions.

It was great to see fellow simul’s operating smoothly and obviously enjoying the complexity of dual, triple and quadruple, real time, parallel identities. We did talk much more about the gender differences in this world and how a female av is treated more favourably, freely given more ‘gifts’, has more friends and generally at a social advantage. I am sure we will see an increase in the numbers of simuls in this world as it affords multiple perspectives on the world, which is impossible in the bio world I understand. It is easy to point out that this may be verging on dissociative identity disorder but I see it more as acting and multiple, simultaneous, in-world role playing. Being able to communicate as parallel identities allows me and others to understand more about how others relate to a wider range of person or creature that stands in front of them and that understanding increases your own self awareness.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from Second Life

Categories: Communication, Friends, Identity, Residential, Second Life, Social Experiment, Virtual Worlds
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This world has a wide range of architecture. Much of it has been imported, so to speak, from the bio world and replicas of that worlds cities and famous buildings abound. But as I have said many times in previous posts, why not fire the imagination and create never before seen builds that utilise some of the unique features of this world. One of my in-world colleagues and Esperance LAMP office resident Jjason Jedburgh has been involved for quite a few weeks building his dreamhouse here. He took the intelligent step of employing an experienced architect called Elvawin Rainbow who has built over 50 custom homes before and has some words of wisdom for wannabe architects. Both of them showed me around their creation yesterday while I asked questions and took pictures. We talked about the concept, process and inspiration behind this wonderful, very livable and special creation. I joined them on a sunny Sunday evening and began by asking Elvawin a little about her background

“I’ve been building custom homes for a while and they are a unique challenge in that it isn’t so much the architecture thats difficult but understanding what the customer wants. So its a lot of talking ‘tell me what you like, show me some things’ get to know them. So listening is as important a skill as building”

So Jjason talked and Elvawin listened and they went through numerous iterations. Jjason told me about some of the primary goals for his home.

“I wanted something that was breathtaking, yet elegant and sparse, something that would exhilarate with scale and aesthetic resonance. I wanted colours that were golden, yet translucent - full of heavenly light that would entrance and uplift. We experimented with numerous textures.”

He talked privately later about this home being a kind of memorial to a family member he lost in the first world, and how it now has very personal significance but will respect his privacy before going into anymore detail. Jjason also came across like a boy with a new toy when he talked about some of the unique features of his new four and a half floor home.

“We experimented with balconies at first. They were initially a significant part of the design. The sweep of the glass, including transparent horizontals round the outer rim, allow the view to be enjoyed 360 degress. In the main accommodation privacy is afforded by configurable partitions, controls on either side, ocean or rear of building, north or south. The holodeck is available in the centre core section. “

Elvawin talked further about some of these features

“Probably most of the house is scripted for control over privacy and still provide the open vista, the ability to control openess at whim. Each and every panel is scripted so you can open or close at whim as well as all at once. They are controllable by the owner of who he gives access to.”

Jjason got even more enthusiastic when he talked about some of the interior design motifs

“Ultimately we chose this golden ambience, with the star motif in the centre and the aquarium is another feature that is in concert with the environment, but also functional because it allows access to each floor. The furnishings are both modern and sometimes gothic or morroccan. There is an artificial beach and fish as well as a waterfall that spans the distance from house to ocean”

I was surprised when Elvawin told me that it only took one week to complete the actual build (Jjason joked that he only employs architects with whips, perhaps suggesting a slave/master-like work ethic?) and create this work of architectural splendour - but as was explained, the pre-production and conceptual design took many weeks prior. This reminded me somewhat of composers who write music in their heads and admit that getting the notes down on paper for others to play and hear is a final, relatively mundane task.

Some of the buildings surrounding this house are very drab in comparison and I suggested that Elvawin needs to create a complete city, even though she is a self confessed ‘prim hog’.

“My plan is to buy an island or 12 or so someday and you will be able to see what I can really do” Jjason continued “yes, Elva should have done the entire suburb - but I couldn’t afford the land or the prims! The municipality would have thanked me.”

So now it is built what is this masterpiece actually like to live in?

“I love sitting on the edge of the waterfall” said Elvawin.

“I love the roof. Sitting on the edge is heavenly and lying on the hammock at the outer circumference, listening to the wind and ocean below is sublime” said Jjason

So I left Jjason and Elvawin to do some final tweaking to the swimming pool and central entrance hall and made my excuses. It is wonderful to see two people collaborate on producing something together that creates beauty in this world rather than just being a functional living environment.

It should be a lesson to us all as well to plan and make sure our motivations are driven by more than just making money or increasing the value of the land. Architectural creativity, as always, needs to be focused on being innovative and functional leaving a legacy that we can all enjoy and admire. Jjason and Elvawins creation definitely falls in that camp and more importantly enhances the natural environment in the process.

For those in the bio world who want to visit Jjasons house here is the Slurl link. Please respect his privacy while there naturally.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

Categories: Architecture, Environments, Friends, Residential, Second Life, Social Experiment, Virtual Worlds
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So after less than 3 days of settling in three new neighbours appear and who are these folk? I was creating a nice place, blending in with the environment and I haven’t managed to get time to find the new neighbours online to chat to them. But my word their places leave a lot to be desired. The first one is just between me and the sci-fi sim, a platform mall floating off the ground and what are they selling? Slustler, this worlds erotic magazine.

Wonderful. Something blending in with the surroundings and creating a community - not! And what of other developments in this short time. In this world where you can build anywhere without recourse - so some of the other close neighbours decided to build on the left mountains, all fifty or so of them on disorganised tiny plots, bit of a mess. Oh and remember that nice view I had down the bay a few days ago well someone has built a lovely place on the ocean, not around the bay but in it! Right in sight. Arghh…

Not that it is a bad build just totally inappropriate sitting right in the middle of the sea. Where are the architects, the community planners, land management? If this is progress in 3 days I don’t bear to think what a few weeks will bring.� The only course of action would seem to be the obligatory island. Still angry at these first few residents, be careful what you don’t wish for! Here is the reverse shot for reference. Anyway should be fun watching the rest of the developments for a while.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt inside Second Life

Categories: Environments, Residential, Second Life, Sent In-World, Virtual Worlds
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Well that was a short series of posts about looking for a new plot, after a couple of hours of searching it just appeared? Literally. As I was flying around in my land hunting jetpack I spotted a whole range of new land growing beneath me and not far from this a whole range of fresh new ‘for sale’ plots. How does this happen? Makes you almost believe in an invisible, mystical force connecting us all together that also has power over nature. Anyway back to the land. So I was after a great view (for the glass/grantite house I have customised), next to the sea, especially flying out over the sea from the house, and low lag. Oh and on a hill. Well would you believe it. Just look at this.

After a lengthy coversation about protected ocean, terraforming and developments with a lady from the ever present AnsheChung agency, I looked at a couple of nearby plots but was drawn back to this. Exactly same size and prim allowance as my old one but $10k less, plus I made a $10k profit. I was so excited I quickly erected a couple of big builds. The avie energy here is soooo fast. No one around for miles None of that city lag. The wind blows up the pass and the sailing is going to be great. Looking back from the sea you can see the lovely location.

Great for walks and I think I will do a time-lapse type sequence to show how it grows from these early views to being over-populated - to the point I have to leave again. Suppose after all the strange houses it will be the first mall and club appearing that will signal time to move yet again! Bit annoying all this but that’s progress I suppose. If that ‘cosmic force’ can keep making more land then I will just have to keep searching for new pastures. Anyway should be enjoying this moment of freedom (although Esperance is not too bad yet) here is the view now from the music top floor.

Lovely at sunrise. Might put the bed in here too The second floor is TV and large sofa (when I can find it again in my inventory), the bottom floor meeting and large real fire for those cold evenings. I have spotted some very. very interesting neighbours. Well they are actually a whole sim away. The one adjacent is called “The Sci-Fi Sim” and it is full of wonderful ‘modern’ buildings and transport. Will definitely be going for a walk at the weekend to check that out. The place is so tranquil I stimulates the creative juices. I also put up a quick gazebo on the lower level after I quickly terraformed three land tiers down to the sea - in fact less than an hour after buying, all the land and this was set-up, including the furniture. So quick. The area near the gazebo below will be my weekend morning relax area, reading the latest SL journals and listening to the morning birds. A few flowers, plants and perhaps a hammock. Nearly home sweet home.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

Categories: Environments, Residential, Second Life, Sent In-World, Virtual Worlds
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I have never enjoyed all the time wasting that goes with looking for a new place and it seems I have had my personal land on sale for an eternity. Now it is sold I am faced with the long, tortuous search for a new place. Given the amount of time I seem to be spending on Esperance it seems less important but I have to find somewhere soon as the island is slowly being invaded by colleagues. My previous spot that I had for a long time was lovely in the beginning. As below, great views of the ocean, forests all around, airy big glass house, high ceilings, walk down to a river and so on.

But as I said earlier a shopping mall moved in below the hill and cluttered the sky with ads. Then the owners, a Gorean group, built houses on two sides. Then Wiccans (witches) moved onto the other side and many then put barriers up all around which stopped me flying or walking to the coast or sailing down the river. Finally to top it all of a once friendly neighbour put a 200m tall skyscraper up in the middle of all of this on some kind of ego trip. Thats progress for you - just look at the below two pictures to see how it changes in a few short months! Time to sell.

That was my little plot on the hill. Once a few nice beach neighbours and now a thriving but very laggy wannabee metropolis. Even since I sold a large mall has moved in just to the left of my ‘once’ hill. I remember the days� when this was five or so friendly neighbours and walks to the beach and boating on the rivers. Ahh happy days. Still onwards and upwards!

Made a little profit but not ‘my’ reason for buying land - unlike a few others. So in looking for a new place to build and call home this is what we are faced with in this world…

thousands of potential plots. A few hundred in ones price range and land size and then about thirty or so that may be worth checking out. Already seen ten and quite dissapointed. I am constantly looking at the likely developments, strange sky dwellings or crude buildings and have even chatted to a few potential neighbours to see what sort of place it is. If I find a place with lots of space around it I think that a club or mall will move in next door or someone whose idea of a house is grey rectangular monster, modelled on single prim with a hollowed centre. If I see something too developed I then notice the lag and I can hardly move - one place I looked at had three spaces around it and a club on the fourth side, I know why it was vacant city, clubs use so much of the mystical ‘collective’ energy, that should be democratically shared. If it is on the coast I have to check it is protected and there won’t be another landmass added a week later. Finally to make things even more tricky one is faced with the question of terraforming, can I customise the land for certain builds - oh and then the sun positions and on and on. Anyway will keep you up to date with the quest. Here is a typical example of a spot worth considering. Protected waterway and quiet not too developed neighbours on each side - bit small though and claustrophobic. Really need 4096+. Even better I would be great to share a full island with three others. If you fancy contact me in-world but will keep a look out for new land, the early bird, buy early etc:

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

Categories: Environments, Residential, Second Life, Sent In-World, Virtual Worlds
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