…is the pixelated version of a real life Art & Design Historian (guess who), making her way through the fascinating, creative, comical and surreal landscape of Second Life. Think of her as a pseudonym, and alias, and avatar. Well, she is an avatar. A bit of an experiment that became something of a pasttime. Meet her here: I, Derryth. Or, take 6ish minutes and watch the PechaKucha where I ‘came out’ to my academic friends…
I was curious about virtual worlds as a creative and educational tool, and Second Life was the easiest one to access. It has a bit of a bad reputation for various reasons (the terrible name implying users don’t have a ‘first life’; the well-earned stigma that it is a place for pixel pRon; the fact that those who do use it for creative endeavours can’t export their content and take it with them… etc.). But I still think it is a fascinating place full of interesting creations. For a taste, check out these posts:
- On ‘The Loveliness of the Virtual Art World’, which is a nice overview of the subject I think.
- On ‘The Dresden Gallery’, the first virtual museum I visited, written on the day they closed.
- On ‘The Conservation of Virtual Art’ in Second Life – a major problem.
Writing about specific artists from my column ‘Ekphrasis’ for the Prim Perfect Magazine blog:
- AM Radio part I and AM Radio Part II
- Bryn Oh’s ‘Imogen and the Pigeons’
- PJ Trenton
- Glyph Graves
- Rose Borchovski (the virtual version of internationally acclaimed artist Saskia Boddeke), plus an earlier piece on her Susa Bubble work
- Gracie Kendal (real name: Kristine Schomaker)
You can also read more about a virtual exhibit I had the pleasure of curating there, A Rusted Development, which includes the work of several leading international New Media artists. Below you can see a machinima (a film shot in a game environment) made in the installation:
Robyne Calvert 