Episode 3 of The Drax files features Eshi Otawara, I’ll embed the video at the end of the post. Whereas previous episodes have highlighted the benefits of Second Life in areas such as recreating real world objects and activities, this episode sees Eshi make a strong case for use of Second Life for things that aren’t really possible in real life, or as Eshi describes it, physical reality, which sounds more sensible than real life as a virtual world exists within real life, which is another point Eshi makes. A virtual world exists within a real universe …. well the ones we use anyway!
Eshi is an artistic person, a classical paint and brush art type person, who has managed to crossover and embrace art within Second Life by making dresses, which have a lot of flair by the looks of it. I’m not a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination so I can’t really comment on the style of Eshi’s designs.
Again Draxtor succeeds in getting behind the avatar and showing the real person, which ties in with Eshi’s views on using Second Life, it’s a real person projecting on the screen. I find this getting behind the avatar one of the most compelling aspects of this series, it’s the real person that pulls the strings but going into a virtual world gives the person the option to pull new strings.
Eshi talks of how originally she tried to make herself look completely different to her physical self, and then decided that being restricted to a regular virtual appearance wasn’t something she was bound by in a virtual world and now she describes hereself as a shapeshifter. This episode encourages people to embrace the virtual world and understand that boundaries within the physical world, can be knocked down in the virtual world. This therefore gives people the opportunity to be more creative, if they can get their mindset into the possibilities within the virtual world.
Eshi’s point of view comes over as embracing the virtual world for what it is, that a virtual world is real, that thinking of a virtual world as real can enhance the virtual world experience. Personally I see virtual worlds as part of the whole, they are most definitely real, they don’t exist on another plane. However sometimes we are so used to how a virtual world works that we miss out on the fact that we can do things outside the confines of a physical world, even basic things. I can remember seeing Gene Roddenberry Jr talk in Second Life and he was really excited about the fact that he could fly in Second Life.
However Drax shows the physical Eshie too, the artwork outside of a virtual world being displayed as well as the artwork within the virtual world. Yet again it’s very well captured and as this series grows, we’re not only seeing good examples of how Second Life is used, we’re seeing what inspires someone to use a virtual world, what they can achieve on a personal level and these aims and hopes are different for different people, which displays a wider range of use cases for virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are not the narrow corridor that some outside them seem to imagine.
Another good episode and Drax informs me he’s beavering away getting more ready, keep your eyes out for them, this is growing into a great series.
To see more of Eshi’s designs, check out her marketplace store.