Re: RHIZOME_RAW: cheesy SL(from beautiful people)

marc garrett <[email protected]> wrote: Hi All,

One of the most disturbing things about Ars Electronica this year was
how dominating Second Life was, it really felt quite unimaginative, but
if you are scared of building an independent community I'm sure that
it's just a sideways step - not much of a shift really.

marc

> Damian Stewart wrote:
>
>> a lot of the people who
>> inhabit second life actually do have quite active (first) social lives.
>
> Well there you are then. :-)
>
>> and those that don't aren't going to find SL a stepping stone toward
>> a 'real' social life. on the contrary, i think.
>
> There is socialization of a kind to be had in SL. As I say it is at
> worst better than isolation.
>
>> anyway my point in bringing this up was to try and figure out why
>> there is this perception around SL that people who play it don't have
>> lives.
>>
>> whenever i've visited SL (even the 'art' parts) it seems to be just a
>> whole bunch of incredibly unattractive avatars standing around
>> staring blankly at each other, with the occasional twitchy body
>> language, and everything is *ugly*, *ugly*, *ugly*.
>
> That sounds like a private view in RL. ;-)
>
> Try Luskwood or somewhere further from the entry area.
>
> If things are ugly then you can get some land and make something
> beautiful.
>
>> as an outsider i just don't get it. i don't understand why people
>> would spend so much time on something that seems ultimately
>> completely self-serving.
>
> There is a long history of aestheticized social affect that SL can at
> least aspire to (drag, dandyism, masked balls, Commedia, LRP, fancy
> dress, subcultural style). People like to dress up and socialize under
> aestheticized assumed personas. This is widespread enough that we can
> assume it's socially useful. I believe SL serves this function in a
> broadcast media age.
>
>> my personal take on things: i write code, yes, i'm a big geek
>> actually, but all of the geeking that i do has as its end an object
>> that is destined to be shown to the world outside - either as an
>> interactive installation piece for uninitiated members of the general
>> public, or as a music performance for non-geek members of the
>> music-listening public.
>>
>> but with SL, no-one's going to see it except for other SL users. if
>> this is going to change, then this no-life perception has to be
>> addressed head-on. this isn't happening, and so SL will remain
>> marginalised.
>
> The world outside comes into SL in the same way it comes into a
> gallery. SL is a less exclusive social setting than a gallery at
> private view time.
>
>> i've watched some of Gazira Bebell's videos and they just don't touch
>> me at all. it's kind of interesting but i don't feel like there's
>> someone /performing/. there's no risk. part of performance is the
>> fact of having someone flesh and blood right there. but in SL,
>> everything matters less, there's less emotional engagement, and so
>> it's so much harder to care.
>
> Early films were shot like stage plays. It wasn't until people stopped
> trying to make films into (bad) plays and developed an actual grammar
> for the medium that film got really interesting.
>
> It is trivially true that an avatar is not a flesh and blood person on
> a stage. Nor is an image of a person in a painting or a photograph. If
> they don't touch you then someone isn't using (or evaluating) the
> medium effectively.
>
> - Rob.
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