Difference between revisions of "User:Solivar Scarborough"
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When I first came to Second Life, over a year ago, I was intrigued by the notion that this was a world where anything was possible, a literal dreamworld. Within my first day, I was seriously discouraged: it seemed that people's dreams amounted to a virtual condo in the virtual Keyes, with a virtual Beemer in the virtual driveway, having virtual sex with a virtual partner wearing virtual pounds of virtual bling, while virtual rapacious vitual land deals percolated in the background. | When I first came to Second Life, over a year ago, I was intrigued by the notion that this was a world where anything was possible, a literal dreamworld. Within my first day, I was seriously discouraged: it seemed that people's dreams amounted to a virtual condo in the virtual Keyes, with a virtual Beemer in the virtual driveway, having virtual sex with a virtual partner wearing virtual pounds of virtual bling, while virtual rapacious vitual land deals percolated in the background. | ||
Latest revision as of 17:05, 18 June 2007
Solivar Scarborough -
When I first came to Second Life, over a year ago, I was intrigued by the notion that this was a world where anything was possible, a literal dreamworld. Within my first day, I was seriously discouraged: it seemed that people's dreams amounted to a virtual condo in the virtual Keyes, with a virtual Beemer in the virtual driveway, having virtual sex with a virtual partner wearing virtual pounds of virtual bling, while virtual rapacious vitual land deals percolated in the background.
I'm glad I didn't stop there. In a very short time I made some good friends who showed me that it wasn't ALL that way - that just like anything else, virtual or otherwise, Sturgeon's Law holds true in all matters where people are involved: 90% of everything is crud. Music, movies, TV, food, literature, art. This is not to say that one should give up because the odds are so overwhelming, but to value even more the things that manage to buck the odds. Not to sound Pollyanna, but you really do need to look beyond the noise and din to see the wonders. They're out there to be found. And the more you find, the more you pursue the miraculous, the less you'll settle for less. It's not easy, and you have to decide to be a part of of it - not simply let it wash over you, or lament endlessly on the shortcomings, but dig your heels in and and draw the line in front of mediocracy.
As much as I hated hearing people chanting "Your World, your imagination", it really IS that. If the world sucks, do something about it. Is making Victorian adventure wear a fiscally wise course? Maybe not, but it's my imagination - if not me, then who? And I happen to think that I like a world where I can get a deepsea diving suit, even if I make it myself.
The Magic Lantern: I've had a number of people ask why I didn't make a video, or convert what I've done to video. That would miss the point. Back in the mid-90's I was working at a major effects house (not boasting so much as suggesting the level of imaging technology available). One of our systems people used our (then) beefy pipeline to download 3d images from the mars lander. He printed them on our very expensive digital printer... and mounted them in a handheld stereoscope from the 1880's. The irony of the massive engine of modern digital imaging being put to work for 19th century technology caught me just right. Hence, a Magic Lantern show, to be enjoyed as it should be - in a particular place and time, with no control by the viewer over the experience. A series of words and pictures, communicating in a 19th century fashion, via the engine of what hopes to be the next generation of a global communication system.