Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Bruce Damer in Vancouver and 3D Harbour!

Here is a group pic featuring a pic of Noel Paul Stookey of Virtual Party and Peter Paul and Mary fame... I am the one who looks like an i-phone or a stretched out mixing console. Bruce Damer is the pharoah avatar below me and Emailman is the blue spiky guy from England...

Hey there Traveler Avatar Community Members and Assorted Blog Readers,

Yes, I realize it has been almost a full year since I last blogged here and I humbly apologize for my relative lack of activity in Traveler lately.

Those in the Traveler community have not seen much of me lately because I have been spending alot of time as a performance artist named Wirxli Flimflam in the mainstream virtual world, Second Life.

I do, however, truly miss all the Travelers I have come to know over the years and being back here again reminded me of all the fond times I have spent with the Traveler community these past few years. Digitalspace Traveler in general is a much closer community than in the more urban reality that belongs to Second Life.

Anyways, I returned to Traveler today because my friend Bruce Damer (who currently owns Traveler)gave a speech in Vancouver where I live...He actually gave a talk very close to where I live (about a 5 minute drive) but I could not attend in person due to the fact that my 2 year old son was being far too demanding to bring him along with me so I worked out a compromise with Bruce that I attend via Traveler instead.

The in-world portion of this event was hosted by Nick at 3D Harbour. Nick was actually the very first avatar that I ever met in Traveler way back in 2001 so this event was a sort of homecoming for me. I have always thought of Nick as the virtual equivalent of my guardian angel as he was the first to make me feel truly welcome in a potentially alienating virtual world.

Well, I was able to chat with Nick and his new friends Emailman and Circuit Breaker a fair bit (Magnus and Woo were also there) before Bruce arrived for a brief discussion about Traveler. I was also allowed to speak before the physical panel (I guess this presentation was projected into the conference space) and summarize what Traveler and its community meant to me... I should summarize here by saying my work as a documentarian and co-producer of this community back in 2003 for a DVD called AVATARA became much more than merely that of a cultural anthroplogist, I was an embedded community member from day one...

Well, here are a few more photos to help commemorate this nostalgic event:

Here I am posing with the Pharoah of Digitalspace, Bruce Damer...As you can see, my son was exhausting me behind the scenes....look how heavy my eyelids were drooping when this photo was taken... Sigh!

In this pic, I am posing with Nick (left) and a mixing console (right). Nick did a great job of creating this coffeeshop space in 3D Harbour!

Here is another pic where I zoomed out to show more of the space where Bruce was about to lecture in. I really like that laser-buttressed diamond down by the piano there...

As it was a chilly day in vancouver, I thought I would have my avatar cozy up right next to the fireplace...er.... IN the fireplace! OUCH! ;-)

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