What New York Times Magazine Gets About Second Life (That Others Often Don't)

New York Times Magazine contributing writer Sara Corbett has a very fine piece on Second Life's emerging art scene in today's issue, using abstract painter Filthy Fluno as a narrative framework. (Metaverse artists AM Radio, DanCoyote Antonelli, and the Brooklyn is Watching project are also given space; the online version includes a link to Robbie Dingo's classic "Watch the World(s)" machinima.) 

Only three months ago, the Times' Magazine ran a feature on Second Life as an architecture platform, by Sam Lubbell. That's quite a double affirmation in what is arguably the world's most influential weekly publication. Even more crucial, Corbett, Lubbell, and their editors seem to grasp what makes Second Life important and worth writing about on a fundamental level.  (This in stark contrast to other media outlets, which often stumble without such understanding.)  In my view, that includes three general principles:

Second Life is important for what it makes possible now, not what it might eventually become.  Instead of writing about SL as the future of online advertising, the next generation of the Net, or anything so conjectural, Corbett and Lubbell write about actual applications of the user-creation tools and the world platform: in their case, 3D digital art and architecture that evoke a genuine response from people, often for practical applications extending into the material realm.

The Second Life user community is the main story, not Linden Lab. Both Times articles mention Linden Lab only in passing, and this is as it should be.  (If you were profiling an artist who uses Photoshop, would you seek a comment from the CEO of Adobe?)  Two or three years after Second Life's commercial debut, the ecosystem of user-generated content in SL became far too rich, complex, and international for any one company to shape, let alone fully comprehend.  

Second Life must be understood as a world that's experienced first hand, not a platform to be observed at a distance.  This I think is the most important point to grasp: describing the experience of controlling an avatar in a virtual 3D world should not just be descriptive filler.  Without understanding Second Life as an immersive, embodied experience, there is no story, because then, it is just another 3D graphics building platform. Cannily, Corbett cites research by scientists at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, which a suggest a real psychological foundation between avatars and our self-awareness.  This lends academic weight to our intuitive response to virtual worlds, and explains the investment we put in them.  So when she mentions that her avatar loses her hair, making her feel "bald and vulnerable", she's not just making a comic observation -- she's also suggesting why it's even possible to create art in Second Life, and find people willing to pay for it, too.

Update, 10:28pm:  Kanomi Pikajuna has related (if much more acerbic) observations on her blog, well worth a read.

Comments

[hunter]

am i a total wuss for coming close to tearing up when reading articles like this? The NYTimes article that is, not your blog james ;-)

the ability for people to express themselves in new ways and create deep meaningful connections between each other. I've rarely used second life in the years since i worked there but the humanity of what can occur inside is just amazing.

[kanomi]

I had a http://kanomi.blogspot.com/2009/03/bright-swatch-of-color-in-old-gray-lady.html>similar reaction to the article the other day, so good to see I am not the only who was pleasantly surprised to see some real writing about SL out in the IRL for a change.

Corbett's approach should be the exemplar to other prospective "embedded" journos.

[Hamlet Au]

Thanks Kanomi, will update.

[Koinup Burt]

I read the piece on the NYT Magazine and its surely a great story. I loved the genuine approach and deep look in the emerging Second Life art scene. I loved that the author wrote the right names in the right way. And this is a prove of an enthusiast Second Life survey.
Regarding your notes, Hamlet I totally agree when you say "The Second Life user community is the main story, not Linden Lab".

Managing a virtual world community and a social web 2.0 platform (koinup), I learnt that the most important thing, when you work on that area, is not having someone talk about you, but
listen to other talking and writing about what your members do. I think that your comparison with Photoshop hit it on the nail.

Isn't SL a sort of immersive-first person-interactive 3d tool for creation? Probably this metaphor and approach isn't so used, because media prefer to talk about sex, people which lose their first life (for the second), scandals. And probably at least for a period, LL encouraged such approach in order to get a mass viral coverage....

I think that also the new major metaphor brought by LL that is "SL as a sort virtual-conference tool", along with the evident benefits doesn't really do justice to real power of SL and it is a sort of "consolation prize"

[CyFishy Traveler]

I read the article (in the paper version, no less) and was delighted to see a description of the Second Life that I actually inhabit for a change.

(It was also rather novel to see an article about Second Life that didn't quote Prok as a source . . . )

[Isadora Fiddlesticks]

spot on, hamlet...:) and the article is such a fine one at that...:)

[Mo Hax]

Great job distilling what anyone wanting to cover Second Life must first understand in terms of a very successful publication, both yours and the New York Times. The greatest value of Second Life is connecting with--and interactively experiencing the works of--perhaps the biggest community of creative minds available in our history. It Michelangelo, Da Vinci or even Jane Austin were alive today, you can bet they would be in SL.

[Nebulosus Severine]

It's great to see something positive written about Second Life in a major publication. However, I hope to see the NY Times write an article about artists who use SL as a medium, and not simply a vehicle for promotion.

[Filthy Fluno]

I'm so glad there's so much great feedback about this article. Nebulosus... SL is much more than a vehicle for promotion for me and the other artists mentioned in NY Times.