Making real art in a virtual world

As more people join the online world of Second Life, artists and musicians are also dropping by to entertain and enlighten, writes Haydn Shaughnessy

In my Second Life I look like David Beckham, with a full set of metatarsals, and for a reason as yet unknown to me I walk around with my underpants outside my jeans.

For those who have not yet heard of it, Second Life is a pretend world, a virtual environment on the web. A virtual world is a strange place to be. Even stranger is the fact that Second Life, the animated world on the web, has attracted a membership of approximately 700,000 people, and it's growing fast.

In Second Life, by the way, my name is Haydern Otsozum, in case you feel like dropping by to say hello.

Having spent a while there, I can tell you Second Life's attractions are a singular pleasure. It is a relatively simple virtual world, a version of what we used to call virtual reality, but it is by far the most successful online unreal community ever created. Seeing yourself kitted out, walking, sighing, even flying for the first time is a joyous moment.

Nick Laurence is a designer with London-based River Run Red, an agency that creates virtual experiences on Second Life. The attraction of Second Life is both obvious and elusive, says Nick: "It's like explaining to people what swimming is like . . . You can't until they've tried it, and that's what Second Life is like. The level of engagement is compelling and you develop a sense of attachment with your avatar. It is your creation."

In Second Life people are buying land to set up home; they are also making movies, going to concerts, performing, creating newspapers and selling goods.

I went there, however, to check out the artistic activities. I'd heard that Suzanne Vega played Second Life back in August - the first major recording artist to do so. Duran Duran got more publicity for their gig but they were second in the Second Life laurels.

Music is picking up in the virtual world (the Humming Bird cafe is a place to go and be seen as well as to hear the latest vibes) but so too is the real thing: drawing and painting.

In September, Second Life began hosting its annual arts festival, Burninglife, named after the real-world Burning Man festival. The images in the Burninglife show are of virtual worlds. More accurately, they are perspectives on Second Life that combine the brilliance of a Miro, the colour sense of a Kandinsky, and the perspective of an Escher. Exaggerated? Distorted? Of course, of course.

I find myself engaged by these images, though, as much I felt a couple of years back sitting in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam looking back at the future of painting.

Not all of the images are inspiring. There's trash in Second Life art as in the real world. There is also a growing number of videos on Second Life. I can't gush about them but I can say they offer a glimpse into the future and a new dimension to content, one that the creative world badly needs.

WOULD-BE CONTENT creators who lack the finances to do old world content have long dreamed of a virtual reality opening up where their imaginations could play out alongside limited skill levels. New content technology has that unique feature - it's hard for everyone at first so you feel like the playing field is more level than you would picking up a video camera. Also it's there under one person's control.

In Suzanne's Guitar, a video animation on Second Life that pays curious homage to Suzanne Vega's appearance, an avatar makes a guitar for Suzanne's concert. Simple idea, simple film, early days. I enjoyed some of the tangential lines and graphics that appear from nowhere and for no solid reason, just like I enjoy watching the strings in an orchestra, enjoying the geometry as much as the sound. Second Life films are art, they're just not great yet.

For those unfamiliar with Second Life, it's time to come back down to earth. Second Life is a website that allows you to create the second you. Because so many people have already taken the step, there is now a range of activities up there and the accoutrements of a real existence.

Musicians can play to the fictional-factual audience, as can DJs; and artists are creating works that might grace a wall or two.

To join in at Second Life you become an avatar. You choose your looks, your hair colour (mine's red again and there's plenty of it), body shape (Beckham's leanness in my case), clothes, eye colour, the lot. Apparently you can also choose to wear your underpants the Superman way. It may be a bug or it may be an error on my part. It may become a new fashion but I don't know where.

Second Life was born from a philosophy about the apparently mundane worlds of real estate, ownership and mortgages. Real estate is imbued with the deepest philosophical significance. Catherine Smith, who is a real-life spokeswoman for Linden Labs, creators of Second Life, explains.

"Imagine yourself for a moment being the owner of all before you, a fictional future world where you might want to justify the cornerstone decisions you are now making. Your mind naturally turns to bricks and mortar. Technological innovations like stock markets and banking aren't the key to countries becoming prosperous, which is what people have traditionally thought," writes Catherine, uncannily pre-empting a question I was not going to ask. Second Life is like that.

"Rather," she continues, "the key is that each individual be empowered with the ability to be entrepreneurial in their own backyard. Look at eBay or the early United States and it really makes sense. There is something here for every tech entrepreneur to study. This was one of the key things that drove our ideas around land ownership also being key to the growth of a 3-D online world."

IN SECOND LIFE, your ability to act and participate is based on your small-holding, your house, your garden. This has proved an enormously important point for Linden Labs. Though Second Life can be enjoyed for free, there's a small price to pay to become a fully fledged citizen. You have to buy land. Once you have you can start up a business, and then you can trade or become the artist you always wanted to be - musical, fine art, or just busking.

"I don't think anyone anticipated how popular Second Life would be," says Catherine. "Keep in mind, it's still very much an early adopter product requiring time and effort to learn how to get around and use the 3-D modelling and scripting tools." So people are likely, then, to find it difficult to get dressed in the morning, emulating childhood errors? Yes!

Real businesses as well as real artists are now using Second Life. The global PR agency Text100 just opened a Second Life office and American universities have begun offering courses there. Text 100 explains more in its blog (http://text100.typepad.com/). Second Life even has its own radio station.

Adidas and Reebok are launching Second Life worlds, giving people a chance to experience the Adidas and Reebok brands. It's also an opportunity for companies to rack up a number of firsts. First brand in Second Life, first band in Second Life, first broadcaster in Second Life (the BBC already bagged that one).

The intrusion of commerce into a dream world might not send shivers down your spine. Nick Laurence gives one example that might. During the summer the BBC went into Second Life to become the first broadcaster to do its stuff in a virtual world. On their behalf, Rivers Run Red set up a virtual version of the BBC's Big Weekend Festival, Europe's largest free music festival. As the Big Weekend Festival ended and the stage began its journey back into the packing cases, on the Second Life stage the closing act Slim Warrior continued to play. While all the real people were making their way our of the field and into their cars, the Second Life folks from Australia entered the festival and gave Slim a bit of backing on acoustic guitar, a group of singers provided the backing vocals from the US and the guys at Linden Labs felt a tear dropping from the collective eye. The world's first ever global singalong in virtual reality.

www. secondlife.com

To read more of Haydn Shaughnessy's views on digital culture and on novel web content, his blog is at www.mediangler.com