A Portuguese paradise for surfing and relaxing in SL

I happened to visit Ilha do Sol in Second Life shortly before its transformation — and when I recently went back there, I had the pleasure of finding a small beach town inspired by traditional Portuguese coastal villages and flanked by a surf area and a vineyard plantation. The whole thing extends over three regions […]

Geography matters

One of the most interesting tasks involved in building a sim or a group of sims in Second Life is the one of landscaping: not only because this is how we give some (virtual) concreteness to the atmosphere we mean to create, but also because it determines how integrated the different areas of our project […]

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 […]

Randy’s chairlift installed at home

At times, my journey in Second Life takes me back home – which is great: after all, home is the place we build for ourselves. And what motivates me to write about the sim where I live, now, is one of those marvels of SL: technology for reproducing physical aspects of the atomic world (or […]

The poetics of decay: revamping a parcel in Second Life

Recently, I caught myself thinking of change and permanence in Second Life, as Randy and I decided to revamp our parcel and redesign part of it. The parcel we live in can be roughly divided into two parts – a rural residence and the small town of Brazen Fair Ends – with a transition section […]

Will we meet far away? (or sims as art works)

ATTENTION: UPDATE on the party at the end of the text. The invitation, open to the whole Second Life community, to a celebration called Radio Days, on Saturday, November 21, at The Far Away, brings a good opportunity for me to share some thoughts on sims (or parts of sims) as art works. The event […]

What is a home for in a virtual world?

“Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.” Herman Melville In Second Life, many of us build homes. We have houses, apartments or skyboxes and fill them with stuff that we like. We decorate, we landscape, we create our own safe havens. We try to mirror ourselves in them, we hang photos and artwork on the walls, […]

The eye catcher: an experience on virtual photographing (and some WindLight tips)

“In every photograph there is a phantasmagoric element.” CARVALHO, Bernardo. Nine Nights. A number of places in Second Life are built to be photographed – and they tend to look really beautiful. This is the case of Just Another Tequilla Sunrise, a “picturesque sim full of fall colors and secret hideaways” created by photographer Arol. […]

The many faces of evil and horror

Horror comes in many forms: as the unknown or the disturbingly unpleasant, sometimes as a perturbing pleasure, as a force of nature or even as some inexplicable feeling, as panic. Still, in popular imagination, one of the most horrible sources of fear, disgust and anxiety is evil, often identified as horror itself. Thus the direct […]

On the road with Ben

After a long while planning this, the opportunity finally came for me to prepare a post with one of the greatest photographers that I’ve met in Second Life, my friend Benjamin Glendale. And it was like taking a trip, like going west in the US and experiencing all the iconic elements of that travel: a […]

Horror and terror in a (fictional) Southern U.S. town

Missing Mile is a fictional town in North Carolina where some of the stories by Poppy Z. Brite – including two of his novels, Lost Souls and Drawing Blood – take place. And it’s also a virtual place in Second Life (which I’ve stumbled on thanks to my friend Tristan Treves). Inspired by Brite’s work, SL’s Missing Mile […]