wonderwebby

When things look good, I love to look. Many thanks to Roo Reynolds who posted the following artistic Secondlife machinima by AM Radio on Eightbar.

Also kudos to my former lecturer John Power for this magical machinima.

I think it just goes to show the potential for creative types to bring a special aesthetic quality to 3D virtual worlds. I really think we have only seen the tip of the creative iceberg. That really excites me.

I wonder what kind of virtual world networking events are happening to introduce artists to worlds like Secondlife? In 1996 I set up some forums between artists, designers and multimedia technical folk through AIMIA (Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association.) The purpose was to showcase the latest and greatest from pioneers in the interactive media field. It would be great to see a “how to secondlife” session for artists at Horse Bazaar – which reminds me I only have a week left to see best of the independent games festival at ACMI

If you have a chance, take a look at how these artists interpret the gaming metaphor.

3D spaces are immersive, engaging and offer the oo-la-la factor that wows most of us.

However as we discovered designing for interactive multimedia over a decade ago, oo-la-la doesn’t work all of the time when telling a story.

Simplification of space in constructing narrative becomes key, as written in Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. There needs to be a fine balance between the message you are trying to convey and the interpretation you allow the audience to engage with.

Unlike film-making, where you construct a linear narrative to tell a story – 3D worlds take the audience through an independent journey. You set the stage. The audience participates. You can guide and create a pathway to information utopia. Information needs to be clear, purposeful, and constructed “inverted-pyramid style” – with the conclusion first.

“Help” your audience to “discover” the most important information easily and quickly using the interactive and multi-user nature of the 3D landscape. That can be a dazzling experience of it’s own without the need for smoke and mirrors.

Mind you, I know my avatar is wearing some kind of *bling*right now. As they say – Razzle Dazzle.

Here’s a peculiar thing about the subliminal nature of virtual worlds.

I have not spoken German for nearly 20 years. Last time I did, I was living near Stuttgart on a three month student exchange program. Yes, a long time ago.

Now I keep bumping into Germans in my Secondlife travels. And we have conversations in German. OK my grammar might be a bit sloppy, and the odd English word is thrown in. Still, the language flows naturally from my fingertips!

How is it that a language I have not used for 20 years is so naturally fluid in Secondlife when I find it more difficult to follow the language in a German movie ? The informal social context perhaps? Curiouser and curiouser….

…cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)