Attending Burning Life was a virtual blast! I've never had so much fun staring at a computer screen. Technical difficulties installing the latest version of SL almost prevented me from attending my schedule events. Although I missed the
Chang High Trinity Sisters Fireshow of Light, Life and Love I made it to the "DJ Iknow Party." I was thankful to finally see SL residents who looked much more mature and accustomed to SL than myself. The avatar dancing was very impressive. There were multiple floating balls which offered a wide variation of dance styles for the avatar to wear. I picked "random" just to see what Fierce would do
naturally; she really had some moves! I also learned how to partner dance in SL with my friend Jozi. The DJ took requests which was surprising. After playing a series of rock tunes I requested a hip hop song called "Stanky Leg" just to see if he would play it. He gave Jozi and Fierce a shout out for making the request and played the song. The other avatars at the party danced along unchanged by the drastic genre change of the music.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems as though avatars in SL have a scandalous quality about them. Pictured above are Fierce and Jozi dancing to "Stanky Leg". When we selected the "random" style of partner dancing and the avatars automatically began grinding on each other. I observed a similar sexual undertone in many of the other avatars mannerisms and dancing. Nevertheless, I fulfilled my dance curiosity by watching the avatars break it down at the dance party.
Once I had enough of the Fierce's erotic dance technique, I explored other areas of the desert. Many of the structures were random and didn't appear to have any other purpose than to be visually appealing. Like this for instance..
I also ran into Taiko drums. This was ironic because I recently studied Taiko drumming and had the chance to play one in First Life. Fierce was awarded the same opportunity in Second Life, courtesy of the Burning Life festivities.
Pictured below, Fierce boldly sits at the base of a volcano. With each new adventure her actions continue to be manifestations of her name!
We had so much fun staring at our computer screens. =)
ReplyDeleteIt's not odd for the dance not to change with the music--many avatars use a linked dance in a dance-ball hanging over the dance floor. I carry a few "dances in my pocket" so my avatar can switch around as the music changes.
ReplyDeleteSL seems to magnify sexuality in a number of ways. To me, based on two years of experience, I'd conclude that the lack of sublety (not all five senses get employed in a virtual world) lead residents to enhance what they can enhance: appearance, behavior, animations.
Cinderella was at that same dance party and I saw Jozi Oakleaf there and we also saw like two guys dancing together provocatively and we commented on it to each other. I thought that is was interesting that dance is personified this way in a virtual world and how prominate sexuality penetrates into Second Life, especially the way some avatars dress as well. I am sorry that I missed you Fierce!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a lot of fun in Burning Life. I too think that it is interesting that even the "default" dances, the dances that your avatar does "naturally", have a very sexual undertone. But I bet doing the "Stanky Leg" was a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteJenna,
ReplyDeleteI was doing a little research for my final project and found a few things that may or may not be useful to you: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/02/a_census_of_sec.html
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/sex_and_romance/index.html
They are from new world notes and are about sex/sexuality and romance in SL. Hope it helps.
You should have called me up for the Stanky Leg! Anyways, I'm glad you had fun at Burning Life but I have a question, how did the drums compare? I mean, how immersed did you feel about the comparisons to the real life?
ReplyDelete