New World Notes

Monday Memory: How Suzanne Vega Singing in Second Life in 2006 Helped Shaped the Virtual World's Culture

When Caroline Mimbs Nyce of The Atlantic asked how much Taylor Swift is like the Metaverse, the question seemed pretty bizarre at first -- but then got us talking about Suzanne Vega performing in Second Life, the first platinum-selling artist to do so in any metaverse platform. While's Vega's appearance did help inspire a rush of other real world brands appearing in SL, it also helped shape Second Life's culture going forward, cultivating it as a virtual world popular with women and indy creators. I have to think if another, very different artist had performed in 2006, Second Life would have evolved in another direction. 

Relatedly, Taylor Swift's massively massive fanbase (229 million followers on Instagram alone) has many tens of millions of gamers/metaverse users. Which is why I said:

WATCH: Pianist & Video Artist Hypnotically Improvise Together in Real Time in The Metaverse

I just had the most fascinating if totally left field press interview about music in the Metaverse. Which makes this as good a time as any to share this video, depicting one of the more innovative and ambitious metaverse-based music performances I've seen in awhile: Tia Rungray (IRL Japanese musician Takayuki Noami) performing hypnotically ambient live piano in Second Life. And with an added hook: As he plays, his collaborator Hebeerryke Caravan projects video images into the virtual world space which accompany the music... in real time.

Listen: I Chat About the Future of Music on Metaverse Platforms With Water & Music -- Annotations & Links Below!

Wagner James Au · The Metaverse & Music -- Wagner James Au w/Water & Music

Starting around 7 minutes in, here's audio from my Twitter Spaces chat last week on the Metaverse and music with Water & Music, a music business research DAO collective, spinning off on this huge research paper they just published on the topic (and that I was interviewed for). After the group's intro, our conversation starts at about 15 minutes in. 

Some highlights by time code:

Tomorrow at 11am PT: Avant Garde Pianist from Japan Improvises Live in Second Life Next to Two Massive Cubes Rising Up in the Desert of the Real

Tomorrow at 11am PT, watch live above or click here to witness in Second Life a pretty intriguing event: Tia Rungray, a Second Life avatar and a "Noise Classical" project by musician Takayuki Noami, is going to improvise live in the Metaverse, in front of two massive cubes in the desert.

"[Sculpture] Blue Tsuki's new installation art is titled Vinculum. This is a Latin word that seems to mean 'bond' or 'cord' in English," Rungray tells  me. "The piece consists of two giant cubes that rise up in the desert, reminiscent of electrical circuits and an organic structure within them. Appreciating his art reaffirms that we are not unrelated to the scientific human history that has spread across the earth beyond the desert.

"I usually play my original music, but when I face his work, I use an improvisational performance style. This is because this style allows me to intuitively express what I feel from his work as music, creating a chemical reaction, as it were, like a catalyst. And although my sound is abstract, it has the advantage of not fixing the interpretation for the viewer of his art."

Sounds like this could be spectacular, and the very kind of art only possible in a metaverse platform.

Influenced by Erik Satie and John Cage, Takayuki Noam has been performing in Tokyo since 2013 (when his first of three albums was released), and in Second Life since then:

Watch: Rising Indie Pop Star Aufwie Kickstarted His Career in Second Life During the Pandemic -- Now Here's His First Music Video Shot in SL

After performing in Second Life during (and because!) of the pandemic lockdown since last year, rising indie pop star Aufwie recently released his first music video shot in Second Life -- watch above! Very nicely shot and edited by VRutega, Aufwie's "throw me to the sea" because quite literal in the virtual world.

"[The machinima] uses the sea as a metaphor for oblivion and how someone can actually throw u into oblivion by forgetting about you, taking u out of their lives," he tells me now. "Sinking as a metaphor of how depression pulls u down."

His virtual performances in SL through 2021 helped him take his career to the next stage -- both in the virtual world and across social media:

Risking Indie Musician Keith Rankin Illustrates Latest Album Cover With Images by Acclaimed Second Life Artist Whiskey Monday

Faith in Persona is a pretty banging experimental pop album with a top-rated track from rising indie artist Keith Rankin aka Giant Claw, and if the album cover seems familiar, there's a very good reason for that: It's drawn directly from works by beloved Second Life-based artist Whiskey Monday (with her full permission of course).

"He just saw my stuff on Flickr and asked if he could use it," Whiskey tells me. "He had no idea this kind of art existed in SL."

He certainly found the right artist. Here's how Rankin announced it on his Instagram, plus a compare/contrast with Whiskey's original images:

FOX 's Alter Ego: A Mixed Reality Competition Show from Producers Who Don't Understand Avatars or Why Virtual Worlds Make Them Real

Above: Pop star Grimes, who believes reality is a virtual world created by an omniscient AI, explains how Alter Ego works

Months after its producers began scouting among the Second Life community for avatar-based performers, the avatar-based reality competition show Alter Ego is here: Watch on Fox TV's site. 

I just saw the first episode and I have mixed feelings about its mixed reality presentation. Fundamentally, the whole concept seems to be directed at an audience who don't quite understand how virtual world avatars work, created by producers who definitely don't know how they work. Which is strange, because the vast majority of the show's target Gen Y/Z audience (I'm tempted to say all of them) have an avatar in Fortnite and other virtual worlds.

Speaking of which, as I suspected, the show uses Unreal, the graphics engine that also runs Fortnite:

Listen: "Polygon Sea", a Song by Jim "Babbage" Purbrick Inspired by His Days at Linden Lab -- Buy a Copy to Benefit Code Club for Linden Dollars!

"Polygon Sea" is a rocking, Radiohead-ish new track (recently featured on the BBC!) by Alien Alarms, the one-man band fronted by Jim Purbrick. (Disclosure: A buddy from way back in our Linden days.) It's inspired, Jim tells me, by "Radiohead's 'Pyramid Song', the billionaire space race and the Second Life residents who used to ask me about uploading their consciousness into SL."

Yes: During his time as an engineer at Linden Lab,  when Jim was known by his avatar Babbage Linden, he'd meet SL users who saw the early Metaverse as a platform for Kurzwelian transcendance:

Singer Performs Live in Second Life While Streaming Her Real Life Performance on YouTube & Facebook

I've caught countless live music performances streamed into Second Life over the years, but performer Katica Pajic (Katiaportugal.genesis in SL) has a fresh new twist that I haven't seen before: While performing in SL, she also streams her computer display/webcam feed on Facebook and YouTube. That way, you not only get to watch the virtual show, but can also watch Katia singing (and chatting with her audience) in real life.

She started doing shows like this in April 2020, during the height of the pandemic, and after a brief pause, began doing so again, often performing twice in one night.

The inspiration, she tells me, is "to show people how it looks from the performer's side and who are they behind their mic." And also, that "I am not just an SL name... I am a person."

I love this extra level of engagement, and it's also a smart way for performers to build their brand. Anyway, Katia's next show is set for tomorrow at Noon and 2pm SLT -- follow her Facebook and/or her YouTube channel to watch!

Watch: New Video from Yasushi Watanabe, Top J-Pop Composer Who Created a Spinoff Project Based Around Second Life

Dropping on YouTube just an hour or so ago, here's the latest music video of BYNORAL, aka Yasushi Watanabe, a major figure in the J-Pop world (he's composed songs for top girl groups AKB48 and Nogizaka46) who earlier this year spun off a side project creating music videos in Second Life. Video summary:

This track is a sentimental song that incorporates various elements of electro, chill, and pop with the theme of light and darkness of modern society.

Not quite seeing the dark side of this beautifully shot, candy-colored video, but maybe the lyrics are where the shadows reside.  He was actually active in SL ten years ago, so this side gig represents a return to the virtual world.  (His new brand "BYNORAL”, by the way, is a play on "binaural stereo system."