Last month, Robbie Dingo, SL machinima auteur (and "artist in residence" for Millions of Us, a sponsoring partner of New World Notes), put out an odd and unexplained request for numerous avatar screenshots. Now we know why: for this sweet and mesmerizing machinima exploring avatar-based identity through the appearance of some 70 Residents. Watching it reminds me of something Hunter Linden, one of the world's founding creators, told me about avatars for my book:
“I always liked the idea that if you saw somebody, and they were an eight foot Gundam robot, you knew that was a costume, and inside there was someone who looked just like you.” Instead, the Linden team consciously made it so that everyone who joined Second Life would have the same DNA, so to speak, no matter how strange and diverse each of them eventually became.
My perspective, at least. Watch Dingo's video, than read on, for the creator's own perspective on its inspiration, on its development, and just as important, the full cast of players.
On Making Mask
Robbie Dingo:
The image morphing was achieved through Morph-Age software, on a Mac.
I made this work for two reasons. First, as the appearance and attachment tools (available in Second Life) are quite open and flexible, I simply wanted to find a nice way to record and show a wide range of avatars and their diversity-- a cross-section of the SL community in avatar form. Second, I'm no expert here, but I find the whole idea of an avatar, when used to communicate information about us, very interesting. They are powerful symbols and increasingly an important part of our online lives. Yet there is no standard for their use, and people use them for many different purposes, e.g., for acts of self or creative expression, for fantasy, as an attempt at RL representation, or for anonymity. I should add here that all of this is good in my book, and this work is not at all intended to be a personal statement on how they should or should not be used.
On revealing Robbie Dingo's real life owner at end of the video
RD: The work is called "Mask", and although I'm sure it would have been fascinating to have included images of all of the associated real life face alongside their avatars, it is not intended to be an intrusion into other peoples' private lives. In the context of the title, I chose to end the work in this way. Also, when watching this film, which effectively becomes a series of cartoon/caricature faces when taken outside of the context of a virtual world, it is easy to forget that each face represents an individual - and so perhaps also the ending serves as a reminder of this? This was also the purpose of the short poem preempting the film.
On crediting the film to both his SL and RL names
On a personal level, my attitude towards this has not really changed that much. For things I make and do solely within the scope of Second Life [as here and here - HA], I tend to credit those under my avatar's name and further info regarding my RL self does not appear to me to be relevant. However for machinimators, whose work extends and can be consumed outside of the environment, the situation feels different. I have always credited my film-making work under both my first and second life names.
The cast of avatar characters (in order of appearance):
Qarl Linden
iN Ni
Jupe Ramona
Sean Voss
Stella Costello
Blaccard Burks
Domenico Quaranta
SignpostMarv Martin
Pansy Snoring
Circe Broom
Slim Warrior
Rob Barber
Ravenelle Zugzwang
Dolyn Foley
Lunata Lupino
Lili Brink
Bradley Bracken
Hokuto Sirbu
Kourosh Eusebio
Calmtommy Lowell
Sylvia Trilling
Larry Pixel
Robustus Hax
Johan Durant
Nicholas Etzel
Flea Bussy
Walker Moore
Ginge Reymont
Jaycatt Nico
Lauren Weyland
Steff Ling
Cubist Scarborough
Pygar Bu
Osprey Therian
Torley Olmstead
Phoenix Psaltery
Tayzia Abattoir
Aimee Weber
Sasun Steinbeck
Jaynine Scarborough
Sally Silvera
Lem Skall
Gwyneth Llewelyn
Diana Hooper
Matthew Kidomen
Matthew Kidomen (again)
Tooter Claxton
Brett Bjornson
Marianne McCann
Kit Meredith
Bettina Tizzy
Veritas Raymaker
Hitomi Mokusei
Lalalocca Miles
Max Burns
Pieter Bosch
Gonta Maltz
DrFran Babcock
Anjouli Troncon
Veyron Supercharge
RacerX Gullwing
Olmia Tenk
Lem Skall
Torley Linden
Burnsand Allen
Milos Waydelich
Snow Gretzky
Juko tempel
iAlja Writer
(and Robbie Dingo)
Wow - Robbie....that was absolutely beautiful. I was mesmerized.
Posted by: Tymmerie Thorne | Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 09:52 AM