Episode 28 of The Drax Files World Makers features an interview with artist Whiskey Monday and it’s a fascinating interview. The interview starts with the revelation that Whiskey Monday turned down Draxtor’s initial request to feature on The Drax Files because she was using Second Life as a means to express her frustrations with the real world and it seems that she did not want to bring her physical self into that realm.
This is a stark honest opening to the interview that many people are likely to relate to. Virtual worlds can be a means to escape or express ourselves in ways that outside of the virtual world we find stifling. This episode also touches upon mental illness, which is still far too much of a taboo than it should be in this day and age.
Whiskey admits that she has suffered from depression but she also talks of something regarding virtual worlds that is often missed, that you can find people who have experience and empathy of these matters. In many ways the anonymous nature of an avatar by default may play an important role as the safety of talking about such issues from behind an avatar can help people express themselves when they may be afraid to do so in a real physical environment.
However that’s not to say that this episode suggests that people shouldn’t talk about their feelings to those close to them and Whiskey talks of how showing her art created in Second Life to her Mother and Daughters meant she had to explain her feelings about the work she created. This was a relatively recent development as prior to October, Whiskey had not told her family about the work she creates within Second Life.
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