Chris Marker was a French photographer and film director. One of Chris’ more famous films was the 1962 film La Jetée, constructed almost entirely from black & white photographs and telling the story of a man sent back in time to research past events to help the future. The story is set in a post nuclear war environment. The film is the inspiration for both the film and TV series, Twelve Monkeys.

Chris was rarely interviewed and was often happy to be represented as a cat. More on that shortly. In his later years Chris turned some of his attention to Second Life. Chris passed away in July 2012 at the age of 91, but his work lives on in Second Life on the sim of Ouvroir.

The sim of Ouvroir opened in 2008 and was timed to open simultaneously with Chris’ real life exhibition at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich.

The sim was created with the assistance of MosMax Hax aka Max Moswitzer. Then there’s the cat, the real cat was known as Guillaume-en-Egypte, who also became a furry entity in Second Life.

The sim contains photography and artwork. There are information notecards scattered around, often identified by an image of, you guessed it, a cat.

I’d advise people to play around with their windlight settings on this sim. Some settings reveal more than others when it comes to the visual experience.

Chris Marker may not sound like a French name, that’s because it’s not, it’s a pseudonym, which was at one point, many moons ago, apparently Chris.Marker.

As for the name of the sim, it’s also the title of a movie by Chris Marker, filmed partially in Second Life, with the star of the show being the guide, the cat, Guillaume-en-Egypte. Commenting on Ouvroir, Chris was quoted as saying :

There’s just no other way to say this: Chris Marker has built a museum in the sky of Second Life. That’s right, Second Life—the vast virtual realm, which since 2003 has enabled users to build, explore, and interact via avatars within a tabula rasa of cyber-geography. It’s not just for weird virtual sex anymore: now it has a touch of Old Media class.

I’m sure that the film and the sim won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s certainly a sim that is worth a peek at, that’s for sure.

SLURL To Ouvroir : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ouvroir/191/70/40

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