State of Mind at SLCC & Silly Videos

I was very surprised to have Inara Pey tweet me last Saturday and tell me I should listen to Rik Panganiban (SL: Rik Riel), Community Manager at the Non-Profit Commons give his keynote speech "We Built This City: Creating a Better World" at the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC). I had missed the speeches in realtime and figured I'd get around to watching them later, but I called up Rik's recorded video stream. Here's the teaser:

"Rik Panganiban will give a rousing opening keynote, highlighting some of the coolest applications of Second Life toward bettering the human condition and saving the planet. He will also address some of the current and upcoming challenges facing the "public good" sector in virtual worlds."

I was very pleased to see him feature my installation "State of Mind: The Politics of Information" in his presentation, calling it "a really powerful use of satire and dark humor to talk about government surveillance and privacy issues."


Mostly Rik spoke about the privacy and identity issues State engages (which is understandable as they are currently on everyone's mind lately). The installation is very info-dense and takes several hours to encompass all the hidden and interlocking themes (not to mention the carry-away Documents Briefcase).

I am glad not only for myself but for the Four Bridges Project & sims, particularly millay Freschi, Trill Zapatero and Coyote Longfall for their continued support of this installation in Second Life. It was very difficult to do and continues to occupy time and effort, as these issues are only growing. He also mentioned Loup Erin's "Television Rules The Nation," which Loup was kind enough to let me feature in the installation because of the way the theme of the piece dovetailed with the message of State of Mind.

You can read a bit about the installation here, on my new blog Netpolitik and at the Four Bridges site although I really need to do a thorough post on it someday.

Thanks Rik; I am proud to contribute not only to my own enjoyment of Second Life but to the dialogue and debate surrounding the very dark issues State of Mind seeks to engage.

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Silly Videos

Ok, still playing with my flycam and editor but I did two silly videos (that may be yanked off You Tube, because WMG (Warner Music Group) thinks they own Wagner and Pomp & Circumstance -_-).

Anyways, here's the one that's a tribute to StS (Santeri Ojala)'s brilliant shreds and the new art form of shredding-

weaselFEAR - Bunny Bologna (an animal shred)

Ride of the Avatars (with Trill Zapatero as Da Pony)

and my tribute to Wizard Gynoid being unsuspended from Google+

Wizard Gynoid - Heroine of the Nymwars

enjoy (before GoogleTube yanks them)