EUTOPIA & EUPHORIA

Eutopia and euphoria are two words that seem to go together, but it didn't start that way, at least not for me.

One of many aspects of Tempura

This is my story of how I entered SL (Second Life) full of mocking cynicism and how and what changed my mind.


Illness and Recovery
After a long illness I faced the boredom of recovery and recouperation. Recovery is in some ways more taxing than illness. The desire for a return to normalcy is high therefore so is the frustration level when strength and concentration can't live up to expectations, so a few hours in front of a computer seemed a more rewarding diversion than the rubbish served up on TV.


I had laughed (derogatively) about the virtual world of SL, but decided to look at what the fuss was about, assuming I would have some more laughs in doing so. In time I learned to eat humble pie over that attitude.

Svarga was the first sim (virtual parcel of land) that captured my imagination. And so ... I began to 'tour'. These pictures and the blog are the result of almost 4 years work in obtaining the skills and knowledge to present my artwork based on my thoughts and feelings about SL.






Capture
What captured me and kept me there?


At first it was the astonishing creativity I encountered. Later it was the friends I made, friends from all over the world.


When do-gooders and politicians decry SL for their own biased reasons, I think of the 'shut-ins' I've met who, while in SL, meet, greet, make friends, and learn new skills - skills that can be applied in the real world, or RL (Real Life) as we say in SL;  friendships that span both worlds and would otherwise be impossible. Given how SL friendships enriched my own life at a time when recovery kept me shut inside to the point where I became quite agoraphobic, I have little patience with fundamentalists of whatever colour and belief that seek to ban SL.  Their reasons are, as usual, to do with sex (ho hum!). Of course there is sex in SL ... hello! there are human beings in SL.


Horse and carriage. Where's the one, there's the other. Funny how the people who most want to do away with SL seem to know more about the sex sims than the rest of us! Oh, whoops, except of course, those journos who go looking for sex stories to spice up their badly written 'human interest stories'. Sorry, if you're looking for those I just haven't had time to find them and capture them. Maybe later :)







Controversy
If you want to get into some controversial arguments the best place to start is with Linden Labs, what they are doing (or rather NOT doing) to protect creators:
the viewers that leave LL's own viewer eating the dust:
the loss of Phoenix and all the fuss around that loss:
not to mention the sacking of some 30 LL personnel who were fully engaged in SL and both supportive and protective of SL creators.  
Now that's worth getting in a knot about. And it's just the start.
So hold off on all the blah about sex sims and let's talk about creativity.

One of the most imaginative and most visited sim creators in SL and recognised outside of Second Life for her considerable talents.

Creativity and SL
Sadly more than a few sims, and quite a number of creators in SL have departed, and not because they had other or better things to do. They left because of theft.

Maxwell Graf - creator of Rustica - has had more than his fair share stolen by those who do not respect copyright. His artistic talent ensures that his creations stand out as unique, and his sim at Rustica is much more than a place to buy 'interesting furniture'.

There are those in SL who come in with what has become known as a 'game mentality'. Perhaps they've played other 'games' where winning was everything. The thing is, Second Life is NOT a game. It's a social platform where one can indeed play games if that's what one wants. But a game it is not. Games have defined roles and goals.


Ironically if it was a 'game' and the rules were enforced, the losers would be those who steal, sometimes in ways that are so blatant as to leave the most vocal stunned into silence.


This is my tribute to those creators who enriched my life during my recovery, and who continue to amaze, surprise, and delight me. My wish for you is that LL will at last wake up to the fact that without you, there is no SL. Without your talent, imagination, willingness to work for a pittance and put in long long hours to produce marvels, SL would (and may yet) die.



May you continue to flourish and give us wonders to enjoy. Every minute spent working on these has reminded me of just how much joy I had in those first months of recovery when every day seemed bleak until my cynicism was wiped out and my eyes were opened to a whole new world. A world that included friends from
USA
China
Japan
UK and
Germany to name a but a few.
My heartfelt thanks.

(To be continued)