In Search of the Memory Garden

Teleporting from Doug Gayeton’s landmarks didn’t quite get me to my intended destination.

The Submarine Channel recently released an interview with machinima director Douglas Gayeton. His recent work includes a the first of seven planned movies in a serial work about exploring Second Life (). While these “dispatches” are all about exploring Second Life, Gayeton hinted that Molotov will likely be heading to other virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft. The director also has some opinions about the importance of the virtual world:

Second Life represents a major paradigm shift in terms of how the web functions. It is as significant as the introduction of the first web browser. As for whether Second Life remains the dominant online world platform, that depends on the path taken by its owner, Linden Labs. Will Second Life become Netscape or Real Networks, two players who dominated in the early days of the Internet, only to flame out in the face of competition from Microsoft (Internet Explorer) and Apple (I Tunes)? Only time will tell.

Both Molotov Alva and Gayeton Ringo, the director’s avatar, have profiles in SL. Ringo’s profile has a number of landmarks, including one to the Memory Garden. I clicked on it, hoping to walk a virtual mile in Molotov’s fake shoes. I wound up in a workshop filled with high-quality trains and the making of a depot. I explored the space for a while, falling off the edge of the floating platform at one point and experiencing a completely different scene in the movie.

SL with a Mac is not always easy, and I’ve had plenty of problems flying very high. My avatar, Old McDunnough, has had more than his share of fatal head injuries, surviving only because one never dies in Second Life. I had to get an assist from a train-building avatar in the floating workshop. I didn’t sense any change in my flying skills when I wore the new item I was given, but I somehow managed to get to my destination by teleporting through Gayeton’s landmark a fifth time. With the wing widget, I guess it took.

There wasn’t a lot to do there, of course, except look. But I got the same strange thrill walking around (and sometimes through) the large pictures and strange red trees as I did recognizing the parking garage from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or the ritzy hotel in the final scenes of The Fugitive. The context of walking around where Molotov Alva did in the movie was especially strange since, this being a mediated experience, I was still watching my computer screen.

I’m not sure when Dispatch #2 is due out, but I hope the Gayeton interview is an omen.