Episode 26 of The Drax Files : World Makers takes a dip into the world of Second Life fashion, more notably the world of a Second Life fashion model, in this case, one who goes by the name of Absinthe.
Now regular readers of this blog may well be aware that fashion in Second Life is not my comfort zone, but this is part of the beauty of Draxtor Despres’ excellent series, it breaks down barriers in a simple fashion by letting the person being interviewed do most of the talking.
In this case we also see someone who plays a role in Second Life that is not a direct representation of their RL self. Absinthe in Second Life is a white female. The person behind the avatar is an African American female. An interesting point to note here is that the person behind the avatar admits that she doesn’t really see colour when it comes to people and she puts this down to growing up with a father who was in the armed forces. This meant that she grew up with different cultures and different races.
This even extends to the point whereby the RL person behind Absinthe doesn’t really view her as white, more of an extension of her inner self.
We also get an insight into what being a Second Life fashion model entails. The Second Life fashion scene is huge and plays a major role in the economy and therefore plays a large part with regards to the content users create. However being a model entails a bit more than some may think, you need to know about animation overrides, poses and Absinthe even admits that she gets performance anxiety when performing at a show, even though she’s only pushing arrow keys.
Outside of Second Life Absinthe works with people who have HIV AIDS and publishes in medical journals about their disease state. Absinthe also volunteers for Camp Hope as a clinical pharmacist.
Absinthe also explains how she goes outside, runs and tastes the real fresh air. Absinthe takes excpetion to some of the pre-conceived conceptions of Second Life users being holed up all day long living and breathing virtual air and she has a point, but it’s not one that the mainstream really seem to want to accept right now. However gamers somehow got themselves accepted in a more mainstream environment as gaming got more popular, if the virtual reality boom really takes off the same will probably happen with virtual worlds too.
Absinhe is also involved in The Ferosh project. Ferosh is a visual art and fashion experience in which those involved use products and designs in Second Life to interpret real life fashion products. Whereas Ferosh is published online, the video actually shows a hard copy. The work has caught the eye of other digital artists who have asked how they can get involved and Absinthe then has to try and explain to them that this project is based on Second Life.
Then there’s the other bonus of Ferosh. Absinthe was able to get her Mom to understand what she does in Second Life via this project.
Absinthe ends by talking about making friends in Second Life and how people bond :
The people are real and I think that’s beautiful.
Quite! Again Draxtor has managed to mix real and virtual world footage for excellent results. Getting behind the avatar most definitely does exemplify that the people are real.