We have completed!! I would say we have conquered, but I am not quite convinced we have come that far. Still, we have miraculously managed (all about the mmmm I tell you) to edit, finish and compress our tiny film. You can watch it above (be forgiving on quality, as this has been compressed for the mobile phone size), or locate it in Second Life here (coordinates: 238, 87, 25), or on the pool here.

If you prefer, you can also download the video here, with slightly better sound and picture, and you can also download the .3gp version here.

While it is not the most sophisticated work, it is our exploratory journey of a completely new genre and media, constrained by extensive time and skill limitations. And yet we produced something, which is always some kind of wonderful.

Please enjoy (even if you don’t, please try) and I look forward to repo-ing my blog very soon. It’s been real, university. Adios.

As I discussed in this earlier post, companies had been embracing second life as an environment where they could further market and promote their products to virtual consumers. While it wasn’t necessarily a way to generate revenue, it did offer a huge opportunity to create brand awareness and brand recognition, and to engage the realm of Second Lifers who were engaging with the virtual world. In a world no longer limited by time, boundaries, language or cost, it provided the perfect opportunity to reach a whole new demographic of consumers. But it seems Australians are not interested.

Unbeknownst to me, Tourism Victoria had built their own environment, a replica of the popular lanes district in Melbourne, as an attempt to attract visitors to explore the city of Melbourne. After witnessing a decline in popularity in the use of Second Life in the last 9 months, however, they have decided to pull the plug. While the investment wasn’t costly, it was no longer worth the investment of time and effort, considering there were only ‘a few hundred’ Australians using Second Life at any one time. It looked fantastic, check it out.

Perhaps not necessarily the fact that Australian’s are ‘over’ second life, but maybe more that the uptake of applications like Facebook have distracted the target audience from engaging with it?? I know that the general consensus from participants in this subject seemed to be that Second Life seemed a little ‘passe’, a little dating and even a bit cringe-worthy. There was talk of ‘nothing happening’ in Second Life. In experiencing it, it quickly becomes clear that it is not actually a game, but a virtual world, one in which you have to drive the narrative yourself, by exploring, building, engaging and actually working at it. This is something that not only alienates traditional gamers, but also might have grown tiresome for the digital natives of Gen Y, who are fickle and of short attention span.

There is talk of life being injected into the game again if it affiliated with another online marketing tool, say ebay, but for the moment it will be interesting to see whether Second Life retains its momentum and its appeal to younger up-and coming generations. Perhaps it is just Australia that is experiencing this apathy towards it…

It still provides an excellent platform to explore Machinima, however, and a cost-effective way to produce beautiful media, should you be so inclined. While I don’t doubt machinima will continue to grow in popularity as an efficient and effective cinematic production tool, perhaps more sophisticated engines than Second Life will take precedence. Watch this space.

In a way, the Second Life environment began as quite threatening and alienating. I didn’t really like that I could terraform the land with the touch of the mouse, that I could ‘build’ a tree, that people could move and manipulate my objects, and mostly I didn’t like the concept of blocks floating in the air. That didn’t fly with me at all. If this was my Second Life, why was everything so uncontrollable? It lacked the order, the stability, the normality, the banality of the real world. A creature of habit and routine am I.

But over the course of building, my attitude changed, and the philosophical challenges became benefits, attributes to the experience. Terraforming the land and the ability to build, copy and modify (described to me by a seasoned SL inhabitant as the key functions of Second Life) meant responsibility, but also freedom, sharing objects meant letting go of my controlling side and learning that collaboration can mean incredible synergy, and floating blocks in the sky…. well, i still grapple slightly with this, but have also learnt to tolerate it.

Ethically, Second Life is an excellent sounding ground. It is about people, places and experiences, and although we have practiced our time there in a relatively controlled environment, it is easy to be aware of the limitations, the challenges and the possibilities. More experienced SL’rs would have a different relationship to the space than I do – more time inhabiting the virtual space would allow for a more engaged response and a different perspective… To me my set was just a street I built in a computer game, but to another inhabitant it is an new environment, unexplored territory, a potential demonstration of values and ideals.

Building the set in Second Life forced me to consider some of my own spatial relationships, my perception of space and narrative. What did a space mean to me? What did it have to look like to convey the sensations I wanted it to? Why did I choose a conventional environment, rather than a castle in the sky? While some of the perimeters set responded to the brief, others were personal – my own preference of order and stability. But this is all about learning to relate to space and narrative, representation and communication, in a completely new and different environment. This video introduces it nicely:

Courtesy of GiffForseti and available under creative commons.

It’s only as i dig deeper and deeper into machinima, and start understanding what can make it amazing, that I am learning to treat the space in Second Life in a different way, view it differently, see it from another angle. It is the capability of machinima to use these environments in imaginative and innovative ways that is exciting – the reworking of existing characters and spaces to create new and unprecedented narrative devices.

We talk about remediation; understanding the relationship between old and new media. I think this is similar in a sense to learning to understand the relationship between old (actual, traditional, conventional) and new (virtual) space. Only after understanding and practicing this virtual space can we break away from conventions, utilise it innovatively and effectively, and produce fantastic and amazing media. Recognising the limitations of real space allows us to recognise the limitless possibilities of the virtual world.

“Given the accelerating links between the major urban centres of the world economy, the so-called global cities, it may now be more helpful to consider matters in the terms of one global city. …the degree of interconnection of global markets, the ubiquity of the cleverly named VISA cards, and the worldwide interconnection of airline schedules suggests at least an embryonic single system. …Understood as the global city, the whole planet becomes an interconnected hinterland.”

With its network capabilities and its very representation of space, this is exactly the situation that Second Life is emulating. And in turn, rapid globalisation means that real life is becoming more and more like Second Life, as barriers that previously divided and segregated social and physical spaces – barriers such as geography, communication and accessibility – are increasingly overcome. Second Life in a way presents a representation of a kind of utopian and ideological society, but one that is actually being realised. Dalby points out the potential use of science fiction as a tool for

“critical reflection on the cultural assumptions about nature that modern geography has taken for granted for so long…. Science fiction offers ways of reflecting on such possibilities precisely because it so effectively facilitates a critique of the ontological categories of modern culture and in the process raises questions of how to think rethink environmental geopolitics.”

Second Life, as a virtual world with its capabilities of networked technology, can be used in a similar fashion to science fiction to allow us this rethinking of space. Just in the way we are able to redesign our environment, our cultural and social limitations in Second Life, we are witnessing exactly this in the modern world. A space like Second Life, the concepts it provides, can therefore be a powerful reflective tool when considering social, cultural and geographical issues. Then translating it to a very product of the networked world – mobile phones – adds a whole new element of transcending spatial limitations. Mobility, immediacy and reach must all be considered, and again echo conceptual elements seen in Second Life. But more on the translation to mobile content another time.

Second Life:
…and Real Life:
Note the uncanny resemblance?? Except that the possibility of me buying a Mercedes Benz is much much higher in one of these locations. I’ll let you guess which one.

“When I was thirty I moved to the city and lived in a street of bricks and concrete, where nobody spoke to anybody else. One day, someone left their bike in my street, and never returned to collect it. It sat there for months, rusting sadly, until one day it was collected by the garbage men.”

The focus of the story is on the bike, so after using a mid-shot to establish the street, I plan to slowly pan down the street before the camera comes to rest on the bike. It will only be two or three shots in total, although there may also be a lead in and lead out shot – from and to the streets before and after. Here are my planned shots (may need reconsidering after seeing them so small):

These will be even more tightly framed in the final shooting (i.e. get even closer to the bike) and I may stick to just one wideshot, as they are the trickiest on the small screen. I was surprised also to find that after originally being pretty against just using stills, I am now leaning more and more towards it – I think with the use of narration, just fading between these shots could be quite affective. I am not sure if movement in the frame will add to the story (not much action is going on anyway). I will push for this, but it will depend on the overall style of the entire piece also. I’ll let you know after recording on Wednesday.

Oh, and check out my backdrop – it’s Melbourne!! That’s probably about the coolest thing I’ve done thus far. Ha.

My story, which takes place when our character is 30 years old, is about her life in the inner city. While the city is noisy, busy, crowded and urban, she is surprised by the isolation she feels in this space, one that is inhabited by so many others. She lives in an back alley in the city, and a poignant reminder of the lonliness experienced in the city is an abandoned bike that sits in her laneway, untouched for months. To her, it is a symbol of the disconnectedness of the city life, where neighbourhoods exist for years with no sense of community, no sense of belonging. This bike, left unclaimed to rust in the alley, is like a representation of an discarded dream, an abandoned childhood, a happier time when the street had a sense of community.

A voice over will outline this, but will need to be very concise to fit into the 23 seconds. It might go something like this:

“When I was thirty, I lived in an apartment in the city. The city was always busy, but I always felt like it was also lonely, isolated. No one in my street knew anyone else, and kept to their own concrete boxes.
One day, someone left their bicycle in my laneway. It sat there for weeks, slowly rusting, with no one to claim it. For months it sat there, like a lonely reminder of someone’s life, someone’s happier times.
No one in the neighbourhood ever claimed it. Everyone kept their eyes averted, minding their own business, secluding themselves behind closed doors, until one day the garbos collected it, another piece of trash discarded from someone’s life.”

This is too long, but I will refine it. A work in process!!

Following a discussion on computer ‘games’, I discovered there are various formats (think turn-based, multiplayer online games etc) which apply to each game. While each type of game has a narrative of sorts, some are far more controlled than others. For instance, we are all familiar with a game where you must complete a range of tasks before advancing to the next level (think traditional mario bros and other arcade games). These games maintain a linear narrative – there is not much opportunity to stray from the dictated plotline that has been assigned to you.

On the other hand, and increasing in popularity, are spatial narratives, games such as WoW, many RPGs, and, essentially, Second Life. A game featuring a spatial narrative can essentially be multi-linear, with the capacity to branch off in any direction at any time depending on your decisions. It comprises endless different variations (think of a tree branching out) and will be different each time you play it. Second Life has taken this one step further by emulating real life to such an extent that narrative becomes almost non-existent – unless you create it. You can wander around endlessly with no real plot or structure, other than that which you devise. This has strong links to the theories of hypertext and the concept of ‘choose your own adventure’ that hypertext provides, and also tends to develop in a more organic fashion, as opposed to the structured development of linear narratives.

A spatial narrative can be taken even more literally though. We can also derive narrative based on the spaces we inhabit, as pointed out in this University of Nebraska article. By simply inhabiting a space, ‘almost anything one does…”takes place” and becomes a “spatial practice” that shapes, and is shaped by, the social, economic, political, or cultural space of the [location]‘. The space that Second Life provides is a perfect example of this.

This is just another element I am considering while putting together our script (the actual narrative, in a conventional sense) and while inhabiting a spatial narrative such as Second Life.

Here is what a (very simplistic) spatial narrative structure looks like, just in case you were wondering (also called a tree narrative):

Courtesy of the very interesting Digital Worlds, a blog on interactive media and game design.

In real life we have worked hard to subdivide, control and shape the wildness of nature into spaces we can maintain, access and utilise for our own purposes. This in turn has aided the division between nature and our own artificially created spaces, and this application of orderliness has been applied consistently by humans to their real life environment over history. As Dalby notes, ‘the urban aesthetic of orderliness and the necessity to civilise wilderness have had…powerful manifestations in recent history’, even at the cost of the natural environment. As humans, we seem intent on recreating our environment to adhere to our cultural and spatial desires.

Nowhere better to do this, then, than in a virtual world. But with the ability to terraform, shape and build, potentially without the limitations imposed by real life such as cost, building permits, time and expertise, geopolitics in Second Life seems to evolve in a completely different way – almost backwards. Every individual has the opportunity to shape and define their space to their liking, starting from scratch. Hence we have a whole lot of incredibly messy, unrefined, unplanned (dare I say) environments, but also some outstanding ones, possible only in a virtual world free from the contstraints listed above.

One might consider the effects of globalisation in real life, the merging of spaces and spatial identities, as a reflection of the happenings of Second Life. Second Life creates an environment devoid of ‘the obvious distinctions between local and distant, large and small, us and them’ (Dalby, pg 501). The conventional physical and economical spatial boundaries we are accustomed to dissapear in a virtual world where land is essentially limitless and its value is not determined by the resources it houses or how developed it is. Globalisation points towards the idea of a global village, and this exactly the concept we are witnessing in SL.

So if space equates to power in Real Life, what does space mean in Second Life? As culture and nature become more matters of geopolitics and spatiality, Second Life provides the perfect place to play out a kind of spatial democracy. While in Real Life the powerful – i.e. those that make the political and economic decisions – are effectively redesigning the planet, Second Life allows us all to.

So… what does this mean for my laneway? It can be whatever I want, hold whatever I want and be shaped in the space exactly as I see fit. I can control virtually any aspect of it, including who can enter it, what time of day it is and what might be lying around. It allows me to reflect on the urban culture of my street and redefine it, increasingly understanding the environment and space as I go. And, as again noted by Dalby in reference to science fiction, this make-believe environment is extremely effective in facilitating a ‘critique of the ontological categories of modern culture, and in the process raises questions of how to rethink environmental geopolitics’.

I am starting to realise just how isolated our lives, contained within these constructed spaces, really are.


Photo: Lonely street, courtesy of Bondidwhat on Flickr.

The light was extremely bright, and I also ran out of batteries almost immediately (being the prepared media practitioner I am) so I haven’t captured possible angles yet, but this is a good idea of space and shape of my street, and also of how it might appear on small screen.

I am trying to explore the space, find a definition for it. Is it urban? Suburban? Industrial? It represents to me an interesting separation between nature and our modern lives. While the lane is composed of concrete and tar, and is mostly devoid of life, it also represents the intersection between our private lives and the common social space of the neighbourhood, as small elements of people’s lives spill out of the back of their homes onto the laneway.

This careful construction of closely aligned spaces was what inspired me to build an inner city laneway as my Second Life set. The construction of space as seen in cities represents an urban culture which, as Dalby points out in Environmental Geopolitics – Nature, Culture, Urbanity,

‘usually specifies itself as separate from wild, untamed nature…[and] is one that has a long colonial history of drawing boundaries and dividing nature into spaces which can be administered and altered to make them orderly.’

This urban culture, that inevitably shapes social and cultural spaces, has interesting ties to our real life identities and relationships with public and private spaces. Echoes of the construction of space is obvious in a space like Second Life – land is controlled, terraformed, built – but what this means for the identities of the inhabitants of a virtual space is much more complex. But as Dalby notes in his discussion of geopolitcs, the themes of space and power and the relationship between the two is recurring. Just as the cultural spaces are shaped and constructed in real life, they will provide an important understanding into social construction in virtual worlds.

And a short film, exploring this space yet again. (I needed practice please).

After watching Jenny’s instructional video on how we were going to record in a second life, I had a go at it at home, but instead of using the dv recorders, I used a video capture program called Fraps (it’s free!!).

I am not sure why we aren’t using software like fraps to record our movies, because it seems an easier way of doing it, but perhaps it has something to do with that irritating watermark that mysteriously appeared on my movie (It wasn’t there last night!! Foiled.) Still, I wanted to have a look at what we were working with in terms of size, movement etc. Unfortunately I didn’t record it in our actual set (as there isn’t really much there at the moment :cough:) so it is not a set test, more of a recording test.

It gave me an idea of just how small this movie is going to be. Teeny tiny. Simplistic sets will be best, and as has been reiterated, close ups will be essential.

But take a look. It’s kinda fun. If you watch carefully, I think you can see Darth Vadar pillaging something. I’ll be uploading more test recordings, from within the set, as they come to hand. Bring on the machinima!!