Tuesday 14 April 2009

The hidden lives of furniture

When I was younger I would often lay on my back looking up at the furniture in our house and imagine walkways, ladders and the homes of whoever or whatever lived there, etching out their existence on the unused and unseen surfaces. Then one day I tacked along on a trip to the dump and came across the huge pyramid of abandoned furniture there, I stood looking through the legs of chairs, bedside cabinets and into the darkness that was the heart of the pile, looking for the hidden city that must be tucked away inside.......


Anyway, for a long time in SL i've been looking at the relationship that the home, house and furniture have upon the avatars that own or use them. Many houses in SL are exact copies of their RL counterparts along with the living spaces and furniture used to fill them, as avatars we are expected to navigate these spaces and interact with the object within in much the same way that we physically do in RL.


This has been playing on my mind for a long time, almost since my rez day as to how, in a world with near limitless possibilites we are still expected to live and work in a set template of structures, why do homes have roofs when there's no rain, no privacy and everyone can fly for example?

Perhaps a thinktank could be brought together to produce an architectural housing structure that would fit and specs and needs of avatars in a virtual world with SL's abilities.


In the meantime I have been working on this piece based on old sketches and ideas of how we may live in a world with no rules or cares, how would we adapt to fill these spaces when physics and shape can be morphed into any form? Perhaps at night when you go to bed the kites begin flying from under your tables....

2 comments:

  1. YAY !! 100% with you....:)))

    In any real art the Context is vital.....to just take one set of traditional concepts and transpose them into another world is a weird form of madness based on insecurity, I think. It shows extreme cultural insensitivity....

    An avatar architecture will come about but it could take years.... we will just have to keep reminding people that this is cultural imperialism and something to work against.

    :)) xxx

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  2. Why Mr Hoobinoo, you've excelled yourself. All that's missing is the bottle marked "Drink Me" on the table that will transport me right into the world within the furniture. Seriously, though, this is your best yet! Well done you, your name is one I will now drop at every opportunity. ;-)

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