Anthropomorphy

When I was 16 I went to my first sci-fi convention somewhere (I think Troy, NY). I drove there in a red VW van full of D & D players, including a guy who spent hours in his garage making chain mail armor (when he wasn’t crafting sundaes at Friendly’s). Besides the thrill of getting away from home and staying in hotels with my boyfriend, I was thrilled with the characters we met along the way. One of my first memories of the con was skulking down a hallway, around 3 a.m., and coming across two people in white bunny suits. One was slumped against the other, receiving a shoulder rub. S/he turned to me, with big black eyes and drooping whiskers, and offered me a slug of cherry brandy. They were so striking, and so strange to me (in a good way). The memory is kinda hazy now and reminds me of Aphex Twin’s vid for Donkey Rhubarb.

Furry fandom is a whole scene in SL, and one I’ve hardly explored. For those of you that don’t know, furries are role players, artists, writers, and other appreciators of anthropomorphic animal characters with human traits. The scene is noted for its anime styled artwork, handcrafted customized fursuits, and, some think, kinky sexual practices (I have to read up on plushophilia). Anyway, a friend of mine is writing a paper about furry fandom so I offered to make a reconnaissance mission into Luskwood, the capital of SL furrydom, to see what I might learn. I donned a steampunk tail and ears and landed in the middle of a small dance party. No one greeted me, and, like most anthropologists making first contact, I felt a bit like an intruder. Then I got to thinking, most animals don’t talk....After a few minutes however, there was some chat, mainly about cheeseburgers. I began scrawling in my notebook and snapping pics of a lovely large chested red fox with a serpent’s tongue, a foxy white wolf with swinging hips, and a twee little raccoon with librarian’s glasses and a brownie camera round her neck. I noticed that most of them were from Texas...then I started imagining W having a secret life as a brandy sipping bunny and got distracted...Luskwood definitely warrants more investigation. Stay tuned...

Poetik

One day I was approached by a newbie in a superman outfit who shouted in my face (even though he was standing right next to me) “Where’s the party at?!” I’ve been to some really great parties lately – the closing for the Pornosophy exhibition organized by LogLady Loon (you can imagine what went on there) and most recently at Poetik Velvets.
The Poetik sim was conceived by Nur Moo and Juju Dollinger, patrons of some of the best artists on the grid, as a place to immerse visitors in art, “concept sound and light reveries” (as described by Bettina Tizzy). Artists are chosen to create something site specific, like the sculpture above by Bryn Oh, and the work is celebrated, animated and complimented with music and visuals through Poetik Parties. This concept works better in SL than at a RL art opening. In the actual world, at an opening that purports to support both art and music, crowds press up against the art so works can’t be regarded, damaging wine is spilled at the feet of sculptures, and no one can hear each other over the booming echoes bouncing off white gallery walls. People self-consciously tug at their short skirts and trendy beards, distracted by everyone but the person right in front of them. And when the booze is gone, so are the peeps. At the Poetik Party the other day I could cam the craquelure of Oh’s sculpture at my leisure, chat to individuals and the group, and boogie all at the same time. And I only spilled wine on my typist. Satisfying!

Black Eyed Dog part 2

When you're not up for it, SL can feel like a horrible vacuum...you sign on, throw some chat out into the metaverse and it feels like it's disappearing into a black hole. I was just about to erase my account when I wondered, could SL offer some form of respite from the blues? I crept along to Aught's field of flowers (discovered through Wyatt :) ) and threw myself down into the cosmos. I thought about Susan Weed and her healing tinctures made from dandelion and nettle. I took a long look at this sim, the ruins being overtaken by riotous growth and sat down in the darkest spot I could find, feeling ruined. Erase the account or not...? Then I felt the glimmering hand of a friend, was lifted up and out of the dirt, and was connected again.

the unexamined life

is not worth living...said Socrates. Gordon Bell takes it to the extreme as a lifelogger - documenting every single moment in his life through audio and video recorders he wears around his body. Molotov Alva documents his disappearance as he moves away from the actual world and is fully absorbed into Second Life.

The Birds and the Bees

The birds and the bees, aka true love(some lines overheard):

SEX HUD (wear me) whispers: Balls ready
[10:53] CR: you're pretty new to sl - are you having fun?
[10:53] LT: yeah
[10:53] LT: it's great
[10:53] CR: it's addicting - haha
[10:53] LT: yeah
[10:53] LT: i now
[10:53] LT: and the sex....
[10:53] LT: puff
[10:53] LT: you can made things that never imagine before
[10:53] CR: oh i know
[10:54] SEX HUD (wear me) whispers: Balls ready
[10:54] LT: yeah
[10:54] LT: u know?
[10:54] LT: i have a lover
[10:54] LT: he is crazy for me
[10:54] LT: and buy things for me
[10:54] LT: and give me money
[10:54] LT: and that's amazing

Body Parts by Alpha Auer

In response to the last post - can cyberspace offer a place for the soul – I visited Alpha Auer’s “Body Parts”, an installation that confronts the idea of loneliness in cyberspace and the avatar as a sole soul. She writes, “once all the beautiful words have been uttered and all the chips are down, in the end love is a physical thing - and like Kafka in relationship to Milena, we are not. The sum total of our physicality is a bunch of cleverly strung together pose animations purchased from Vista. At best.... No corporeality = no love. There is no manifestation of love in the metaverse. Lots of other things - yes. Absolutely. But love - no…”

Visitors to “Body Parts” are invited to don cold monochromatic skins to blend in with the silvery sculpted figures clutching at and towards one another. The figures travel across the landscape like a Rubens composition (I thought of Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus), across and up. Jump on one of the pose balls and complete a circuit with a fellow avatar – aka human being – and notice how the figures struggle between refusal and gratification, between wanting the connection and revolting against it. I don’t know if I agree with Alpha’s claim that love cannot exist in the metaverse without physical connection...there are enough descriptions by others about the rl sensations felt when first dancing a waltz with a partner, or the shiver of the typist when crossing a snowy sim, not to mention the hundreds of seemingly fruitful partnerships. But because so much of our experience in-world relies on imagination which we use to fill in the blanks, (and there are blanks) are we ultimately only loving ourselves? Commune we will, our fellow avatars are our hand-held mirrors, but ultimately, we must self-gratify. Love can be blind and the brain compensates in the actual world as well as the virtual one. Writes Edward Castronova, “for the first time, humanity has not one but many worlds in which to live.” One could argue that there are more choices for love as well. /me jumps back on Alpha’s pose ball and continues to wrestle the thought....

Siri heavy lidded, half asleep

A while back I was recruited as an illlustrator for Lycos. I met with the company head and showed him my portfolio. “These are great” he told me “But why continue using pens? I haven’t picked up a pencil in five years.” He brandished his art tablet and stylus at me and I knew then I couldn’t work for him. I like to see the hand in the work. I like the erasures and the depth on paper that graphite makes.

MIT professor and cybernetic pioneer Marvin Minksy believes that cyberspace will liberate us from “the bloody mess of organic matter”. In 1991 Michael Benedikt described cyberspace as a New Jerusalem... “If only we could, we would wander the earth and never leave home; we could enjoy triumphs without risks, and eat of the Tree of heaven and not be punished, consort daily with angels, enter heaven now and die.” Can cyberspace offer a place for the soul?