Expo “A Dream within the Dream”

Similarities and differences between Second Life and Real Life

by Blue Avedon

In the land of Dreamland (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Shax/57/252/24), has just been opened an interesting and inusual exhibition entitled “A dream within the Dream – similarities and differences between Second Life and Real Life”.

Each artist partecipated exposing a couple of pictures, in which they expressed through images their reflections and interpretations on the subject.

The works are still on display in the land and, as you may notice, the expo includes a wide look, with more than 60 pictures.

The exhibition has been curated by Spacestar Magic and Riannon Rives. The words used by Riannon during the opening night describe very well the deep meaning of the central idea:

“The idea of this exhibition was born during a walk in the woods. For a moment, watching the trees, grass and sky around me, I had the impression of being in a dream and couldn’t recognize the place in the familiar dimension of the everyday life. I spoke about this with Spacestar and we started a refelction about the similarities between the dimension we live in, and the dimensions we experience in dreams or in SL. Second Life really looks like both the dimensions of wake and sleep.

We marveled at how, in the darkness of closed eyes at night, you could build landscapes and situations; which is very similar to what happens on the computer screen, where a three-dimensional world is created, and in this world, through avatars, we move and live experiences. In SL there are places and objects modeled after those of RL or of oneiric origin. The behavior patterns are unintentionally emulated or exceeded or intentionally replicated. We wondered if anyone else did similar considerations, so we had the idea of an exhibition made of parallel images taken from RL and SL, si that everyone could show  in their own way the interactions of these two worlds, emphasizing the similarities, the differences or their own refelctions about it.”

In this event, audience and artists had the opportunity to share and trade their opinions, ideas and aspects of one’s interpretation of the different worlds, virtual or not.

Gwenn Whiteberry: “I believe this exibition is interesting, mostly because it leads me to take a look around  and wonder “where am I?”.

Ollin Triellis: ”Interesting parallelism with the dream state, it’s cool:  RL, SL and dreams...”

Nikol Bingyi: “The idea that appealed me the most is that RL and SL at the end have much in common.”

Robroy Mayo: “I personally tried to see things in SL that had fascinated me in RL, and still I’ve been impressed by the variety of interpretations. Some of those are very mysterious...”

Spacestar Magic: “…some others are funny!”

Violasophie Kondor: “Others very poetic.”

Esmeralda Arai: “I’m amazed by a picture of  two cats: I really couldn’t say which one was real…”

Nikol Bingyi: “There are both virtual things in RL and real things in SL…”

Esmeralda Arai: “Yes, Nikol, you’re right!”

Melanie Oconnell: “In my opinion, SL and RL appear to be two different and distinct worlds: a real one and a virtual one, but in the end they’re not so different. RL seems to be concrete, because it’s made of matter, but the consistency of matter is, essentially, nothing but an interpretation of our senses… In my pictures is represented a bridge, that one bridge for me represents the corrsing of different worlds, and the possibility to play and experiment as a protagonist.”

Spacestar Magic: “Melanie, I had many other ideas, on the basis of what you just said.”

Balenga8: “I think these two worlds give us the opportunity to look at things in their various facets: the one we percieve “live” and the way we process those, through the sensations we lived.”

Violasophie Kondor: “In a couple of pictures, the ones with cats’eyes, I expressed the feeling that a look on RL and one on SL exhibit the same profound  mystery…”

Spacestar Magic: “It 's been lots of fun to share this adventure. I am neither a photographer nor a curator of exhibitions... but what really matters, in my opinion, is the interaction between the participants.”

The evening continued with a celebration in which the participants danced and chatted joyfully, planning future projects. All those who didn’t have had the opportunity to visit the exhibition on Second Life, can visit this link: www.shan-newspaper.com/web/component/content/article/496.html