Where is the uncanny, the creepy, the Gothic in Second Life? I asked this question some months ago, and received excellent feedback. Based on that discussion, subsequent conversations, and some research, I'd like to summarize what I've found.
A quick definitional lunge: I'm using "uncanny" is a very broad sense, ranging from the creepy to Freud's understanding, from doppelgangers to humanoid robotics. I'm interested in different forms of uncanny SL, including narratives describing Second Life as uncanny, as well as examples of intentionally Gothic in-world content.
Gothic-themed content is a very popular category. So popular that it's worth breaking down into subcategories.
- Buildings and venues drawing on the Gothic literary and cultural tradition. Examples include a vampire museum and a Dark Shadows home (which I can't find in-world). There's a spook house ride (more here). Svarga had a ride, but is now inaccessible. Horror comedy is hard to pull off, but people try, as with this take on The Shining.
- Sites for mourning, such as this memorial island.
- Horrific objects, such as a functioning electric chair (chez Warren Ellis, of course).
- Gothic lifestyle/subculture sites abound, such as Darkside. Transylvania town features an extensive castle, with many poseballs for cuddling and feeding. Goth clothing is enormously popular, as with this person's outfit (another Zelmanov: greetings!), various Elegant Gothic Lolitas, the stunning Kyrah Abattoir (image below right), or Kaliko Kreations' products (via Bloghud). Goth-themed parties occur, like this one last week.
- Publishing SL Gothic imagery to the Web, as Azkaronne does.
- Describing SL design with an eye towards Gothic concepts, as per Life Squared:
Our project - LifeSquared - is all about revisiting pasts that come back to haunt you, reworking themselves into your psyche, into your immediate present, and threatening your future (sanity) through those forms and characters so beloved of the Gothic - doppelgangers, the dead who refuse to rest in peace, monsters of our own creation, such as Frankenstein's creature.
We face the dread of incarceration in the prisonhouse of society and culture, trapped in our corporeal, abject selves.
For another category, we can lump together different ways of viewing SL as uncanny or Gothic.
- The popular press sometimes considers SL, like the rest of cyberspace, as a pit filled with anxieties and Bad Things. Time assumes that as a given. The Boston Globe goes for the somewhat edgy alter ego angle.
- One method of designing an avatar involves starting from a person's photograph. This can lead right down the uncanny valley, according to an Apple article.
- Owen Kelly notes that the copybot scare generated fear and anxieties around duplication.
- Desolate places can offer disturbing qualities. For example, Steven Kaye experienced this surreal landscape of absences. Warren Ellis described his reactions to loneliness.
- Accidental surrealism caused by rendering problems is one of SL's underrated pleasures. Sometimes the results are disturbing, as with a missing body part, these missing eyes, this missing face, or this skinless holidaygoer (thanks to Alan Levine). More of this sort of thing can be found at the Flickr Second Life Oddities group; thank you, rosefirerising.
- Deliberate surrealism and distortion with a pedagogical mission. The University of California Davis psych department has a schizophrenia simulation, which is, appropriately, disturbing.
- Games within Second Life (which isn't a game, of course) can partake of the Gothic, as games do. The Manoa ARG relies on a sense of mystery and disaster.
- New World Notes held a contest for uncanny valley examples. Watch this video of semihuman smiling.
I'll grow this list over time. Suggestions are welcome!
(thanks to Gardner Campbell, Steven Kaye for off-blog help)
Thanks a lot Bryan.
Posted by: greg | May 09, 2007 at 03:36