Co-Facilitation

Boellstorff opens his article talking about visuality in Second Life. I found particularly interesting his analysis of the common understanding that land that is owned is not independent of the land nearby to it. Groups even tried to creating zoning requirements as to preserve the aesthetic of their "neighborhood." This reminded me of the rules many gated developments have about various things such as colors of paint, the height of the grass, etc. I found it particularly interesting because many people go on Second Life because they want to shed the limitations that RL provides, however many willfully accepted these rules. In the next paragraph he notes that vision has been "valorized over sound." I believe that this is also true in RL as in the case of dealing with the loud lawnmowers, and leaf blowers to preserve the visual integrity of a space as opposed to the auditory sanctity.
I was somewhat confused over the economics of the purchase of land in Second Life. Land retains its value in RL due to its scarcity in relation to its demand. This is why land in New York City costs so much more than a patch of land in upstate New York. There are more people who want land in NYC therefore the price goes up. In SL, however, land is created by Linden Labs on a regular basis. This makes the supply unlimited, thus in economical terms, losing its scarcity. This means that every time a new patch of land is created, the value of the land currently owned goes down.
In Chapter 5 the therapeutic value of Second Life is discussed. He states that it can be helpful for both psychological and mental disorders. In the paper he gives the specific examples of autism, ADD, agoraphobia, and schizophrenia. I believe that SL might also be a helpful tool for combating other psychological disorders. I think it could be useful in treating social anxiety disorder. One example that is explained fits with my theory: "I noticed yesterday that I had no problem talking to a complete stranger at the shopping center, simply because I have spent a lot of time in SL recently doing the same thing." It could also be helpful for generalized anxiety and depression because of the ability to share your feelings with a neutral party. I also see potential in treating other phobias such as arachnophobia through controlled progressive exposure in SL that might be a helpful step before attempting a RL exposure.
I found very interesting Linde's quote in which he states, "In order to exist in the social world with a comfortable sense of being a good, socially proper, and stable person, an individual needs to have a coherent, acceptable, and constantly revised life story." I found this interesting because it shows the façade behind the real world as much the virtual. One knows that someone's virtual identity is partially fabricated, but this shows that we all wear a mask of our real life that we find to be acceptable and coherent, as well as changing that mask when we see fit in order to be happy.
There is further talk regarding the reasons behind using several avatars, as well as the race and gender of the avatars that are used. I think the application of SL as a tool to help improve the RL of the players, however, is the most important thing discussed and should be further examined.

Race and Gender in Second Life

I decided to approach the subject of race and gender in Second Life through the use of a sociological experiment. I would act as 3 different avatars: a black male, a white female, and a neutral avatar (I ended up using a robot). I would log onto each for a period of 20 minutes. During those 20 minutes I would count how many people I was approached by, the nature of the conversation, as well as reactions to a simple question, as well as their reaction when I told them my true identity. The question asked was how to build a simple object. As a black male I was approached by only 1 person. He was new to Second Life and asked for interesting places to go to. I walked up to 3 people and asked how to build. Two of them were patient and walked me through the process. The third said he was meeting someone else and could not talk. Upon telling them that I was actually a white male, one of them said he didn't care while the other inquired as to why I changed my race. I told him it was for a class project and he was interested and asked more about.
As a white female I was approached 3 times. Two times for casual conversation and one who asked me to go to a bar in SL with him. All three people I asked for help with building obliged me and talked for a while. Upon being told that I was actually a man at the end one person didn't seem to mind, one just walked away, and a third just transported elsewhere.
As a robot I got approached twice. Both times I was asked where I had bought the avatar. I pointed them to the freebie room I had gotten it from. In regards to building of the three people asked 2 helped, but were not quite as friendly about it as they had been when I was a human female. When told I was not actually a robot none of them were surprised.
I didn't see any racism or gender discrimination in SL but people seemed to be more friendly when they thought I was a female. Interestingly, I was only approached by males in all three characters. I didn't get much insight as to why people stopped talking to me when they found out I was male because the ones who minded just stopped talking to me. I imagine it is because I crushed their fantasy.

Project Process

I started my project by looking through the songs that I had already started. Many of them used sounds from software instruments because they were completed prior to my purchase of Roland's Fantom X keyboard. The sounds from the Fantom are superior so there was a process of changing sounds from VSTi's to patches on the Fantom. Most songs were incomplete. Just 8 bar ideas that had never been completed into songs. They lacked structure such as bridges and changes. Variation needed to be added. I picked the three best old songs that I had done and restructured them until I found them satisfactory. Having so many patches available added much time to figuring out what sounded best because there were many that sounded good. Eventually I had to end my perfectionism and just select the best one I could find in 20 minutes. After making the initial changes and listened for what sounded like it was lacking in an area and determined where the "boring" parts of the songs were. At the parts where songs sounded like they had too much high end I would add a stronger bass line. It gave my songs a better balance. The parts that were boring needed a stronger lead. I listened to several albums for ideas on what to do with my songs. Some of those albums include American Gangster by Jay-Z, Discovery by Daft Punk, and Men Women and Children's self titled album.
After getting a working draft on the songs I had already started I played the songs for friends and relatives. I asked them to express their opinion about the songs as objectively as possible, naming the parts that don't work as well as telling me what they liked. They provided further insight into what parts needed another look as well as what parts they felt were catchy or stood out. This let me know what worked and what sound I would need to go towards on the remaining songs that needed to be written.
One of the songs that was finished used a sample (Cassidy V. Jackson 5) and it was a favorite of many of my listeners. It added a familiar quality to the song. I wanted to create another song that used a sample but chop it up more as to make it less distinguishable from the original track. While watching the movie Less Than Zero I was struck with inspiration. The opening song was a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel song "Hazy Shade of Winter" performed by the Bangles. It was a song that suited remixing well and had the energy to be a hit. I started the song sampling 4 bars of the intro riff. After adding some parts I saw that the song needed a breakdown. I chopped up the sample in 2 beat sections and found the parts that sounded interesting. I mixed them up until I found a pattern that worked. I placed that at the end of my composition and the song was completed.
Overall the process of working on the songs was very rewarding. Many of my friends hearing the final product of the CD versus the initial versions noticed the difference and many even asked for a copy of the CD that they could play their friends. This project increased my songwriting abilities significantly.

Project Proposal

I will create a CD using entirely electronic components (Midi, VST virtual instruments, etc.). The genre will be electronic dance. I will subsequently release and advertise my work using modern distribution methods. I will make a web site which not only includes information about the CD, but music and original art to go along with it. I will develop a room in Second Life which also displays the art and music. I will release the CD using the Bit-Torrent protocol to relieve server congestion. For the group presentation I will do a live performance of the music using Ableton Live, as well as show the web site and Second Life world I created.

Bibliographic References:
Designing a Great Band Site – Michael Allison
http://www.musesmuse.com/00000143.html

Building in Second Life – slbuilding.com
http://www.slbuilding.com/

CHANCE MEETING – Ean Golden (An introduction to Ableton Live)
http://remixmag.com/performance/dj_tips_techniques/remix_chance_meeting/

Listen without prejudice – Simon Hattenstone
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/difficultartforms/story/0,,758377,00.html