House of Cards @ Burn2

House of Cards
The History of Social Networking Considered As A House of Cards

SLurl: Burning Man- Hualapai/30/236/24

Burn2 - Oct. 16 - 24, 2010

Miso Susanowa: Concept, prim pushing, texture monkey, sound maven
Xenophile Neurocam: Electrical Engineering & Death Rays, AT Command Set

Trill Zapatero: Art Support, sonic review & testing, gift items

URL: Flickr photo set

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The theme and inspiration of this build is based on personal experience in the growth stages of the social networking scene leading up to Second Life and the present virtual worlds.

Beginning with the earliest BBS and MUD environments, through the VRML and 2D progenitors of the mid-90s to the current VWs, the birth and growth of virtual worlds and communities is imagined as a tenuous structure: a house of cards.

An Avatar has climbed these shaky and transitive platforms and is reaching for the future hypergrid/worlds.

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The House's structure echoes the M-machine's transformation into the demon Moloch in the Fritz Lang film 'Metropolis', whose society is divided into two classes: one of planners/management and one of workers. The Avatar leaping free of the House is Maria.

The architectural inspiration for this piece derives not only from the Tower of Babel in the film but also the Los Angeles California Temple on Santa Monica Boulevard. The second largest Mormon Church in the US and a well-known landmark for Angelenos, it is topped with a 15-foot floodlighted statue of the Angel Moroni which is visible for miles.


The House is both a fond homage to the long path I have taken [along with the Net] in this growth towards the future, and a warning that such technology and such worlds need not only our honest and heartfelt critique but also our enthusiastic wonder and love to survive and grow.


[This installation uses extensive sound as an integral part of the experience and theme, so please have your SOUNDS channel enabled]

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BUILDER'S NOTES


All of the worlds shown here are my own personal experience in the growth of social networking. For those who do not know this history, or those who wish to remember or reminisce, the following Floor Keys might be useful:


1st Storey - Iron Age [The hardware-based stirrings of the net]

telnet, Kermit protocol, VT-100 terminal emulation, the Hayes AT command set for modems, ASCII art, TCP/IP, Windows 3.1 on 5 1/4" floppy disks, ProComm Plus, Trumpet Winsock, Usenet, ANSI, PINE, Galacticomm, WWIV Mustang and various BBS boards, tinyMUD, Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL and The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link).


2nd Storey - Steam Age [The laying of the railroad tracks]

Black Sun, Alphaworld, Cybertown, Cityspace, Maze Wars, Habbo, Habitat, ICQ, The Palace, Virtual Places, Beverly Hills Internet (Geocities), BarbieGirls, The Sims Online


3rd Storey - Industrial Age [The present (mostly)]

Second Life, Inworldz, Blue Mars, Meta7, Hipihi, There, Entropia, EVE Online, Metaplace, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxy, vSide, Moove, Neverwinter Nights, Frenzoo, Sony HOME, Vivaty, IMVU, SpotOn3D, Twinity, OSgrid.

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Featuring an original 18-track [mixed down from 43] 6-positional soundtrack based on the sounds of computers, modems, teletype machines and telephones.

You might hear the ghosts of services past; if you look hard, you might find The Walrus and some Lindens (or hear them).

The quotation on the top Hypergrid is from Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' - it is Jake Chalmers speaking to Roland Deschain of Gilead.

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Many thanks for encouragement, help and support: Doc Gascoigne, Kev Sweetwater, Brigit Ranger, Trill Zapatero, Eddey Enzo, Ronon Carver, Raven Haalan

Working with Xeno was one of the best collaborative experiences I have had in Second Life - very creative, positive, enthusiastic through all the changes; we made our House much more, and much better than originally planned thanks to his involvement.

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BURN2 OCT. 16-24, 2010

URL: Apollo Manga's Burn2 Preview machinima @ youtube

URL: Chantal Harvey's Burn2 Preview machinima @youtube

URL: ColeMarie Soleil's Burn2 Preview machinima @ youtube

URL: Nazz Lane's Burn2 preview


URL: Event Board for Burn2 in Second Life



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