Molotov Alva leaves Straightworld behind

Props to Sophia for alerting me to this. The only YouTube videos I have ever watched have come from someone telling me to watch it, so I broke down and got myself an account. Not sure what to do with it, but it did allow me to subscribe to the director of this nice little movie on what I hope is a long-term cultural examination of Second Life.

The premise is this: At the start of the year, a man named Molotov Alva disappeared from his California home. A director, visiting Second Life, discovers a series of video diaries by an avatar of the same name. In the first one, “Out of My Skin,” Molotov explains his initial sense of disconnection from “straightworld” and how he is losing the memories of that life. To prevent this from happening again, in-world, Molotov is documenting his existence. Quoting Socrates and illustrating his various metaphors through virtual objects, he claims, “I’ve been in my second life so long, I’ve forgotten.”

When I fell into the world from the heavens, I had less than nothing. Forget about clothes, I didn’t even have skin. I soon discovered that in this Brave New World, everything – from who I was, to what I look like – was changeable. I could be whoever I wanted … for a price. Did I want to be strong? Tall? Big? Small? Black? White? Muscle-bound? Perhaps older. Or maybe a perfectly rendered digital facsimile of my carbon-based self. I decided that, in this new world, at least who I was would remain constant … except for maybe a new set of clothes.

The next installment—”Is Almost Real … Real Enough?”—will be released some point in the near future. There is also a lot of backstory available at Circuit Books, as well as some YouTubed videos Molotov Alva supposedly made and posted. (What is the Circuit? It seems to be a cross between Jack Kerouac, This American Life, Fight Club and discordianism.)

The meta on this movie comes from Submarine Channel, a mini-movie art house with a bunch of interesting video content. Director Douglas Gayeton has some previous digital movie experience (Johnny Mnemonic, Delta State) before this project, which will have seven installments of the documystery. Molotov had some buzz in the SL community earlier this month, thanks to an article in New World Notes—a news blog on in-world and meta-world activities—and Boing Boing.