What is it about Secondlife? And virtual worlds in general?
Although I’ve spent the last 2 and a half years away from virtual worlds rather than in them, every day, if only for a moment, my mind is there, planning the next art piece, the next object to build when I get the chance. Sometimes I have to wonder, or ponder on the nature of it’s hold over me. Is it because it’s an uncharted frontier? A place to explore the idea of reality? Is it because when I do log on and arrive at my little home, cozy, designed exactly as I see it in my mind, I am finally at ease? Could it be that in this space I can be unequivocally who I am? Is it because in that world I can create art that touches upon many ideas at the same time, instead of everyday life where I often find I am limited by finances, time, and plain old physics? Or in the end, perhaps it’s all these things combined that keeps my heart there, a dream within a dream.
Whatever it is, I know that I am not alone in my longing for this other place. For me, as for many others, and for many different reasons, it is the fulfillment of a promise of something more than the mundane, in those precious moments that I am creating something beautiful, something improbable, and more often than not, something literally impossible, there is a part of me that is appeased during the process.., or should I say, at peace.