researching the other life
I've been getting into my research into second life during my recent times at DPI. I first saw a presentation about second life back in the beginning of 2006, when someone from Linden Labs came to NYU. I was pretty amazed by it then, but have never spent time there until now, mainly because of my natural disinclination to spend (even) more time looking at screens, and also because I find that 3D aesthetic to be tough going.
But I've been in there, hanging out, dancing, chatting, staring around stupidly and flying for no reason - the things that a newbie does in SL, I guess. As I guessed, there seem to be very few non-humanoid avatars. In fact, it's more like going to a halloween party in LA. Many people look like they've had cosmetic surgery, and most have some kind of 'sexy' costume. This is probably good for my portrait project, because it's going to be easier for a stylist to convincingly dress someone up as a gothic vampire than a blue frog, or whatever.
My avatar is a fox. Simply because this was the sole non-human option on offer on arrival in SL. Screw it - I'm already human in RL.
Anyway, so far I've been to a dance club, a British theme pub, a New Moon Ritual, a new age church and a rather serious artists discussion group. I've been very interested to observe my own familiar reactions to group social situations, even though I'm not even in the room...
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Giantkeying
Not giantkilling, but giantkeying.
My trips into SL are still digesting in my mind. I'm most fascinated by the surprisingly well-attended and meticulously participated new moon ritual. I'm becoming rather fond of telling it as a story. Sitting cross-legged on my lillypad, my big camp fox standing out like a sore thumb amongst all the olde-england hobbit druid types. All of us, wherever we actually are around the globe, copying and pasting text in time, instead of chanting. I wonder how to translate the peculiar hilarity of that very undramatic exchange? Maybe I need a huge close up of a finger, clicking the mouse button in dramatic fashion, while accompanying the most banal of ritual changes?
Anyway, I'm sitting here surrounded by lights, cameras, led's and screens. I recently decided to move out of the loft i've been living in for the last 3 years, and it's got me in a hurry to do some architectural projections, which has long been a desire of mine. So, I'm working on a couple of sketches - the first is of arms that reach out of windows to tap on other windows and to socialize, flirt and fight with other arms, and the second is of a pair of giants trapped in our building.
The idea with the giants is to use 3 video projectors to simultaneously rear project synched videos onto the inside of the windows of our loft. The idea is that for people on the sidewalk below, it will look like two huge men have been trapped inside, and are tapping on the windows in boredom and frustration.
It's really just for the pure fun of it. Anyway, so I've been testing tonight with an 8' long piece of plexi with an anti-glare coating to try and reduce reflection from the lights. Ariel Efron will be shooting myself and Andrew Schneider through the plexi, so that we can press our hands and faces up against the surface, to look like we are pressing against the windows.
I'm trying to use LED rings and retroreflective screens (courtesy of Kevin Centanni - thanks Kevin!) to key out the background. The LED ring needs to be mounted right on the front of the camera lens. The rings I have don't fit the 82mm lens I'm using, so I tried clamping the ring to the top of the camera. However, just that change in placement creates shadows that make the key pretty poor. So gaffer tape it is...
Anyway, it's looking like the tricky balance of lighting, reflections and keying may be workable, so I'll go ahead with this sketch.
more soon....