Was für ein toller Movie, oder? Und doch muss ich mal eine Lanze für das gute alte Radio brechen: Am kommenden Mittwoch, den 2. Juni 2010 läuft im SWR 2 von 22.18 - 23.15 Uhr ein Radiofeature über Second Life mit Namen »Fenster zur Welt« von dem Autor Egon Koch. Ja, ich habe auch erst gestutzt: Kann man Second Life wirklich verstehen, wenn man es nicht sieht, sondern hört ... und dann noch fast eine ganze Stunde lang?

Ja, man kann. Und man tut offensichtlich.

Egon Koch hat es in der Tat fertig gebracht, nur anhand von Stimmen, Geräuschen und Musik eine Atmosphäre zu schaffen, die einen abtauchen lässt in die virtuelle Welt unseres Vertrauens. Er hat dabei als die Figur Sologo Hoxley mit einer ganzen Herde von Avataren inworld gesprochen, Interviews geführt und die Geschichten aufgeschrieben. Dabei ist es zu einer ganzen Reihe von Begegnungen gekommen, die so im realen Leben wohl nie stattgefunden hätten. Und das Ende ist wirklich überraschend.

Also, unbedingt anhören. Das gilt vor allem für diejenigen unter uns, die Second Life immer noch nach dem beurteilen, was sie wissen ... oder an was sie sich zu erinnern glauben. Grundsätzlich ist das natürlich nicht verkehrt, Dinge nach dem zu beurteilen, was man weiss. Allein, es wäre gut, wenn der Wissenstand etwas aktueller wäre – und nicht unbedingt auf das Jahr 2007 basiert. Da war nämlich ohnehin alles anders.

Bei dieser Gelegenheit sei noch erwähnt, dass die Radiosendung auch per Livestream in Second Life übertragen wird. der Autor wird anwesend sein und auch alle Residents, die in dem Feature zu Wort kommen. Wo? In Köln ... virtuell, versteht sich. Einfach hier klicken!

Sei`s drum. Glotze aus am Mittwoch – und Radio an.

Dabei wünscht wie immer viel Spass

Kai-Michael Schmuck

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Image via Wikipedia

I just came back from James Cameron's 3D movie Avatar which was a really great experience. For almost 3 hours, I just forgot the time, my mind was not anymore in cold snowy Paris, but in Pandora, where you could see the slow move of Jake Sully to his long tall blue semi-lion man avatar. I wish I could also have jump into that jungle and fly on those strange birds.

Great 3D movie with hundreds of people stuck on their chair and applauses at the end. Sophisticated media, simple message and the idea that soon, someday close to us, our Second Life will also be as real as the world of Pandora for Jake. I know for some this may sound as a nightmare, but for some of us, - and I belong-, this will be a small revolution....

How did we arrive in Second Life ? What was the main reason . How did we end up to incarnate our avatar, what was the drive, when was the exact moment ?

For some, it might be easy to say, but others more shy or modest, it would be more difficult to explain. For some coming from video game univers, it was a natural prolongation. For others, manipulating the keyboard took a month before they could get handle movements properly.

Reasons to get and to stay into Second Life  are all individual choices. Maybe SL was an answer to loneliness, tough and modern, maybe just an inside solitude that nothing could kill before. Maybe it was a way to keep active, brain & engine. Maybe it was an overdose of television, bars and light relationships. Maybe it was sickness, handicap, difficulty to move but will to share and socialize. Or unemployement,  or opportunities. Or maybe just curiosity, fantasy, creativity. And maybe for some, it was a little bit of everything.

Whatever was the reason to get in, there was an instant, short, fleeting, an immaterial flash, where we and our avatar became the same person. The avatar was not anymore a puppet on the screen, but the person behind it, mind, soul and body. We even did not realize it, we were just in the mental flow, no more idea of time and space, just inside this 3D world that was so hard to leave.

This is called immersion, brain immersion, and that makes all the difference.
Because when the avatar becomes a part of us, and that we can evoluate in a 3D environment,  then all the doors open to leave a stream of emotion going from inside the screen to outside the screen. That helps us to get interested by others, their culture, their mood, their life. That is why we can spend hours building a house or decorate it. That is how we can make real friends and relationships. That is also how we can learn more easily, or share a conference together, or understand concepts better.  

When emotionnal doors are open, what happens to our avatar also affects us. It can be good, like a friend of mine who suddenly discovered she had no more vertigo in her real life after using parachutes a few times in Second Life. It can also be sad, like when suddenly you learn that someone you used to talk to everyday, had a mortal accident in a trip on the Himalaya Mountains.


Yes, our avatar changes us, that is a fact. 

People who never were in virtual worlds can laugh about avatars and maybe they do it because they dont get it. They understand you need a pen to write, or a screen to watch a movie.
But they dont get the idea, you may need an avatar to enter in another dimension, and eventually spend the vacations you can't afford in real, go to bars, laugh and dance, meet people, share time and mental energy with them, architect a palace you would never be able to afford, become the Madonna of the international virtual stage from you small village in Arkansas. But apart from the fun, your avatar in a 3D world, is a way to feel the abstract space, to see yourself in an environment that flat design or internet lists & catalogs are unable to provide.  For business people, an avatar will allow you to travel during the same day in many regions of the world, hold meetings and media conferences, exhibit your goods and products, recruit specialists, visit prototypes...

Your avatar is all about putting your dream in action, and at the end, you never know how this action will impact your person in the physical world.

People do not understand it mostly because they are afraid of it. Afraid that you would lose all contact with your reality. It is a risk for some, but for how long ? As Jake Sully, you do not feed your body with pixels...

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