Most residents in virtual reality agree that the learning curve is what may keep these worlds from going mainstream. Learning curves have never stopped technology from progressing—beginning with complexity for the elite and ending with simplicity for the masses. The same will happen with virtual reality; it is just a question of time.
Every medium does require an adjustment. It affects the way we think like a color palette affects a painter. Going into virtual reality with a purpose is needed, but attempting to force a medium to expectations means missing its potential.
The journey is complex to learn, more due to choices than due to technology. Many begin by joining fund raising projects or building exhibits or performing. Many begin is less respectable ways too because people will be people and given such a safe environment, love to let loose on the fantasies! Having a sense of humor is mandatory.
My interests remain exploring this as a presentation medium. Unlike Sketchup or Cad based 3-D programs, in virtual reality we have an audience. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, we can interact with them as if they were in our own living rooms.
Every point in the journey also has its temptations. In retrospect, now that i have been working in SL for getting close to 1.5 years, I was wise to choose role play as a way to learn. Beginning in the Chicago Roaring 20′s sim, I was able to find how publications adapt to a virtual environment—and learn the basics like how to move objects and change clothing!
The Chicagoan Magazine that mirrored the real one, ran for about the same length of time online at http://www.slchicagoan.wordpress.com. Having an office in the sim ensured interaction with the residents. Writing collaborative fiction in my own titles has helped me explore new ways to write. The series has become a long-term project. Fiction, even closely tied to history, requires a character development so different than writing nonfiction. It is a good creative stretch.
What I initially hoped to do in the Chicago SIM was represent the Art Institute of the 20s. Having gone to school there, having grown up with the place, I have a loyalty to its cultural contribution. And it would be fun to show people from my past there what I have created. But it didn’t fit in with the SIM owners. What DID, however, was the publication. Still, the last project in Chicago was helping to open a bookstore/gallery with a partner. There, I presented a new kind of publication that responds to online features in ways that traditional media can’t.
Presentation receives a boost by scripts that allow pictures to change upon the viewer's click. Therefore, a new kind of publication is born that combines the visual features of the slide show with the visual job of showing art. Posing in front of Winterwolf Bookstore, the logo I designed for the store reads even small.
Somehow I wasn’t done with the role play sims. Going into Serenity Point, I wanted to see how that sim owner operated as compared to the one who owns Chicago. Sure enough though, I got talked into doing a 50′s publication. Producing a format that they can continue, I created the first issue as a way to explore some new visual techniques. Like photography approximates reality—and professionals know how to fool the camera—photography in SL further distorts. It captures a frame of what is more like a video of action. Very few images that I work with come through to publication without Photoshop work. That, to me, elevates it from the realm of the snapshot. The visual principles of balance, enhancement, eliminating the irrelevant, cropping, condensing, and vibrancy all dictate improvements from raw shots. Mirroring reality in setups and timing, the comic nature of SL offers special challenges of expression. It in itself is an expression, as each avatar is its own self-portrait. Capturing the personality of those expressions is the challenge.
Select Magazine fit the 50's genre and gave a solid portrayal of not only vintage style, but also vintage attitudes. I had a cool office there and made some good friends.
Producing Select Magazine did fulfill the fantasy of being a periodical publisher. Having always been on the production side, I did enjoy being able to direct contributors and distribution. Set up to be a quarterly, what I learned fast is that it isn’t a good idea to tie a publication in SL to sim property. Things change too fast.
Yet that wasn’t enough for me. I had gotten a taste of having a gallery in Chicago and I yearned to express my excitement about vintage presentations. With a generous sim owner for space, I set up an exhibit of paintings created by American artists in 1957. It is a show that could not actually exist in reality due to the complexity of assembly. But it can easily exist in SL and is a vehicle for presenting art history in a new way. This, true to form, led to a book inspired by the show. This book is now for sale at Book Island, the gallery, and soon on Marketplace.
Vintage gallery shows works created simultaneously but never shown together. The book is like interviews of the artists in their studios
My sim role play in Serenity Point ended with the owner deciding to move and redo the whole place. A periodical or a gallery, whether in RL or SL, needs a solid organization behind it that can sustain. I came in at the end of the first group of players in this vintage sim. I also learned that these settings go through generations of players—not a roller coaster I can ride. Still, I will be watching how it redevelops and wonder if my vintage gallery approach will fit in. Stay tuned, though, because I have some other ideas to explore that fit my own foundation.
It is cathartic to wrap up this phase of mine in SL. I move on to apply all the skills and develop the threads from these projects that have the most relevance. Offshoots from these beginnings could keep me busy for years—writing vintage publications, presentations, and exhibits. I continue with a few because of the potential I think they have. What impresses me in this process is the amazing educational value of role play. I can’t think of a better way to learn about history than to experience it. As a reporter, publisher, and presenter, the lessons I have learned color everything I do now. I am affected thus by the past and draw from times I did not live!
