A place where you can get visually (and musically) high

Altitude (noun): the vertical elevation of an object above a surface […], the angular elevation of a celestial object […], vertical distance or extent, position at a height, […] a high level (as of quality or feeling). (Merriam-Webster, 2019, Altitude) Altitude is not only a club for alt music, but also a place for an […]

Celebrated cyberpunk city 2019-XS reborn as Drune

Back in December and January, different blogs featured a futuristic, cyberpunk region in Second Life called 2019-XS. It was, some will have figured already, a tribute to Blade Runner, the movie by Ridley Scott which is set in a dystopian Los Angeles of… 2019. After a few posts on that great sim, though, the place […]

6 curious ways to die in Second Life

Death in Second Life is a particular experience: in many cases, it may result in great fun. One of the great advantages of SL for that matter is that avatars can always be brought back to life. In my early days in the virtual world, I used to enjoy jumping from the sky and seeing […]

An ‘in silico’ experiment that faces the challenge of being viable

In silico is an expression that refers to computer-based simulations of biological processes, in contrast with processes in situ (in the places where they normally occur), in vivo (in live organisms) and in vitro (in closed and controlled laboratory environments, such as test tubes). In Second Life, it was the inspiration for the name one […]

From Blade Runner to Alphaville in a virtual cyberpunk city

I realized a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t visited cyberpunk sims in Second Life for a while and, since the theme fascinates me, I decided to go checking them. I noticed, then, that though it has been out there for some years, I had never been to Mesa 5 before, and its structure […]

When architecture beats gravity

“Architects spend an entire life with this unreasonable idea that you can fight against gravity.” Renzo Piano Back from my vacations, I recently had to build a new house for myself – my first mesh one – and started thinking of the ways architecture has been following in Second Life. Not that I’m a creative […]

Visiting a post-industrial dystopia

“There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean.” ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Science Innovation Company, S.I.C., is a classic […]