An interview with Alpha Auer

                  Alpha Auer 

Alpha Auer is the first artist I have interviewed.  She is not only a very talented artist whom I have collaborated with on the Exquisite Corpse build Further Along the Path and also more recently with The Golden age of the Russian Avant-Guard, but also an academic writer and editor for an arts magazine.

Bryn Oh: Where are you from?  And who are the most renowned artists from your country in your opinion?

Alpha Auer:  I am Turkish, living in Istanbul, Turkey. My RL name is Elif Ayiter and I am a professor at the visual art and visual communication program at Sabanci University in Istanbul. (http://www.citrinitas.com/

I am not sure who the most prominent artists from Turkey would be. But, there is a significant amount of artistic activity here in Turkey (and especially Istanbul) these days. Especially noteworthy is that our huge young generation (65% of Turkey is under the age of 35) is very active, both in art and in design. And new media art is also a very hot topic amongst them.

Two of my personal favorites are actually people that are also close friends: Murat Germen (http://muratgermen.com/) and Erdağ Aksel (for whom I  can't seem to find a website, but here is a link to his work on google images: http://tinyurl.com/oq58zgr)

Bryn Oh:  Often the average person outside SL  is perplexed with virtual worlds in general.  When people unfamiliar with the virtual ask you what you do how do you explain it?

Alpha Auer:  Very very hard to explain it, as I am sure you know also. I usually try to draw analogies to online gaming worlds, with which most people seem to be more familiar with, and then throw in the building stuff to explain further.

Bryn Oh:  Who are a few of your favorite artists and why?

Alpha Auer:  If you are asking RL - then most of my faves are long dead. I like Nordic Renaissance art and I look at a lot of it. I also like illuminated manuscripts, miniatures, old copperplate gravures, maps, celestial atlases - things like that.

But if you are asking SL - then the list is quite long actually...

Bryn Oh:  Whose artwork do you personally dislike the most and why?

Alpha Auer:  I really dislike Cloaka by Vim Delvoye (http://vimeo.com/45127139). For all the obvious reasons, but I am especially outraged by the amount of money that cultural foundations across the world shelled out to manufacture this thing.

Bryn Oh:  Which of your own works are you most proud of?  Do you feel any failed and if so do you now know why?

Alpha Auer:  Whatever I am currently making I like best. And as soon as I have made it, I lose all interest.

As for failed work - I have several external hard drives, all larger than 600 gigabytes and they hold some of the rejects, that I may go back to and try to salvage at some point. Because that is the thing about working in the electronic medium - there is no such thing as failed stuff, one can always go back to it. Sometimes I do, more often than not, I don't. However, I do copy paste a lot of bits and pieces from the unwanted stuff when I make new things.

As to why they failed - I find that hard to explain actually. Usually I end up not liking how something looks or it fails to come together somehow. So, mostly my rejection criteria are visual ones. And also, I noodle around quite a bit with making my own soundscapes, and there I have even more problems like that, since music is not a native medium for me. So, more often than not, things don't sound right, no matter what I do...

Bryn Oh:  Do you have a method when creating? If so how does it often progress?  For example do you sketch or write out ideas first for weeks or do you perhaps just jump directly into the project with little planning and adapt as you go?

Alpha Auer:  When it comes to the visual stuff, I am a complete un-planner Bryn. I just get an idea and do it, and adapt as I go. And very quickly, I like to work very fast. And very often what I started out with has absolutely nothing to do with what I actually do as I go along.

I make things because I have fun making them. And so, another criterion is having a good time. If I am not having a good time while I am making something I lose interest very quickly. And then I guess, it becomes yet another "reject."

However, when I write it is different. Then, there is no issue of fun, and I do plan. I write because I have to. As an academic it is a professional necessity - as in "publish or perish." And so, since it is a chore rather than a play session (as the visual stuff always seems to be), I proceed very rationally. And, trust me, I loathe every minute of it...

Bryn Oh:  What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to inspire your work?

Alpha Auer:  I am a crime fiction addict. I have a very large collection, accumulated over decades. I always become hooked on new authors, but then I also re-read the books that I already have. And I have so many that I can do this in a very long cycle. I especially like procedurals, and one of my all-time favorites is the Rebus series by Ian Rankin and another one is Ed McBain's 87th precinct series.

I am not a big music person. I never listen to music when I do other stuff. I really only listen to music on the shuttle going to and coming back from work. And then, it is usually hard rock that I listen to. But, I can't say that the things I read or that I listen to directly inspire what I make, except maybe in a very general way - as in crime fiction which is usually a "dark" genre and I think most of the thingies that I make are "dark" also. ;-)

As for visual stuff - I already gave this rather quaint list above, like manuscripts, maps, old paintings etc etc. These things do inspire what I make directly and I am very conscious of the fact that quite a bit of what I do are actually a remediations of these antique artifacts.

Bryn Oh:  Does your work have an overall theme and if so what might that be?  If not please describe how you tend to pick your topics. 

Alpha Auer:  Ummm... No, I don't think that I have an overall theme. Except maybe for this very generalized "dark" thing that I was just talking about. In fact, the reason why I made alpha.tribe was that there were several styles/themes that I was working with, and this seemed to be a very good reason to investigate the idea of multiple creative identities through a bunch of fashion designer alt avatars. Each of the designers of alpha.tribe has his or her distinct theme/style, but ultimately of course it is all me that does it.

I think this also has to do with the fact that I am a graphic designer first and foremost, and I have had the ground rules of that profession pounded into me for as long as I have been professionally active: Graphic designers work with multiple styles depending upon the product or client that they are designing for. And, as an art director (which is what I was before I became a nasty old professor) I spent almost two decades doing just that - changing styles between one campaign and another as a routine part of the work.

Bryn Oh:  Have you ever had to deal with negative publicity or a disappointing rejection of your artwork?  How do you deal with it?

Alpha Auer:  But of course. :-). Especially with academic writing. So much gets rejected in that world. And also back when I worked as a graphic designer, where clients will routinely decimate your work and furthermore seem to take a huge kick out of doing so. So, yes, I am very used to the rejection of my work given that as a professional designer I have had a long life to get used to it.

So, rejection doesn't get to me in a big way - I take it very much as par for the course of creative activity.

Bryn Oh:  Would you like to take a stab at explaining what defines virtual art?

Alpha Auer:  For me it is really one word alone: "Play!"

Bryn Oh:  What would you say makes virtual creations unique over other art forms?

Alpha Auer:  I would actually prefer to use the term "digital" rather than "virtual" here, to begin with. Because, I think that a major part of the uniqueness resides in digitality, which deals with a completely new medium for artistic activity - bits. While in the analogue realm we work in a medium of atoms, inside the computer we mould bits. And, that is a huge difference right there since atoms deteriorate as we work upon them and their earlier states cannot be recalled; whereas bits can be manipulated endlessly and their earlier states can be recalled - just look at the photoshop history palette. Or the fact that we can save endless phases of the process and can always go back to them. And then we can make copies of digital work and every copy is an original in its own right and these can also be combined with other "original copies," resulting in even more original work. And meanwhile the first "original" that we started out with has stayed intact.

This turns digital work into a perpetually "unfinished" process - and I will in fact quote Brian Eno on this:

“Think of cultural products, or art works, or the people who use them even, as being unfinished. Permanently unfinished. We come from a cultural heritage that says things have a ‘nature,’ and that this nature is fixed and describable. We find more and more that this idea is insupportable – the ‘nature’ of something is not by any means singular, and depends on where and when you find it, and what you want it for. The functional identity of things is a product of our interaction with them” (Eno 1995).

And virtual art, after all, is a part of this larger digital medium. True, in the metaverse we do not have the "undo" quite in the same way that we have in photoshop. So, what we do instead, is that we take back copies of the work in progress into our inventories. And that is our "save." But then, the rest is the same really: We copy, we duplicate, we combine. And, most importantly, I think what we do also remains perpetually unfinished. I think that this is the big uniqueness. Something that we simply do not get with non-digital art.

Does this make virtual/electronic art better? No. Just makes it different, I think.

Bryn Oh:  Centuries ago there was no such thing as an "artist" just craftsmen, as time progressed superior technical ability and creativity created the elite "Master" artist whose work stood recognized above all others.  In 1917 Marcel Duchamp submitted a work entitled "Fountain" to the Society of Independent artists.    He stated "... He (the artist) CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object"  He wanted to shift the focus away from technical craft to more of an aesthetic intellectual interpretation.  Some say that because of him almost everything is considered art today.  From an elephant painting with its trunk, a Banksy, a child's drawing to someone vomiting paint onto a canvas.  What is your perspective on this?

Alpha Auer:  Well, at the risk of sounding a bit like a fuddy-duddy elderly person - my vote goes to all the craftsmen who evolved into "master artists." And I do not think that this evolution was just due to technical ability or even creativity, but also due to the intellectual sophistication needed to transform abstract concepts into visual artifacts (religious paintings, for example), which they accomplished through the usage of highly evolved skills and techniques.

Yes, Duchamp made his point, and it is a valid one. What I think however is that ultimately there is no difference. A crafted work which grabs us, engages our imagination, which transports us, will hold as high levels of "aesthetic intellectual interpretation," as will work based upon the "object trouve," I would say.

But, even though my personal preference is for the "old stuff" (it just inspires me more, I find more imaginative material in it); at the end of the day, it is all a question of how good the individual artist who has created the work (crafted or found) is. So, no need to make a drastic choice, I guess.

upcoming artist interviews

soon to receive a punch in the face

     Every month or so I will be posting an interview with an artist from our virtual world whose work I find interesting.  What I decided to do was to create a dozen or so questions which each artist would answer in their own way.  For me it has been fun to see how the artists interpret the questions, which they avoid and so on.  I am going to post the questions below and explain a bit why they were used and then next week I will post an interview.

1-Where are you from?  And who are the most renowned artists from your country in your opinion?

Simply to give a context from where the artist is creating.  For example, when I lived in Florence,


Italy for a year studying art, the Canadians in the program would have group shows in a space we would share with Italian art students.  One thing people would often comment about is how completely bizarre the Canadian artwork often was.  Some terrible and some quite interesting.  When you looked at the Italian work in the same show you could often see artworks that were following the traditional teachings of masters from centuries before.  What this meant to me was that, historically, Canadians don't really have a long list of well known artists whose shadow the students fell under.  Canada is a pretty young country and to be honest there is not a whole lot of pressure to follow in footsteps.  Italians on the other hand have endless history and perhaps the most legendary artists ranging from Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Caravaggio and so many more.  It was apparent to me that there was much more pressure on the Italian art students to live up to those masters, the rich history was both a gift and a curse.  Renowned doesn't necessarily mean "best" but rather a selection of historical artists from ones country which may create some context in order to view the artists work within this frontier of a new art movement.

Georges de la Tour

2-Often the average person outside SL is perplexed with virtual worlds in general.  When people unfamiliar with the virtual ask you what you do how do you explain it?
Ah the question about whether we should even bother to try to explain what we do here.  Perhaps there will be some insights.

3-Who are a few of your favorite artists and why?

     This was interesting to me as I wanted to see if those "favorite artists" would also include Second Life ones, be predominately Second Life ones or not include them at all.  Also it is a chance to learn a bit about the artist themselves and, in some cases, discover new artist who were previously unknown to us.

4-Whose artwork do you personally dislike the most and why?

     It is rare for an artist to point out another (well known) artist whose work they dislike, and then explain why. For example I find many of Modigliani's drawings to be fairly shitty, while I do enjoy his paintings.  I recall seeing a show just of his drawing at the AGO in Toronto once and thinking how they were trying to elevate his drawings into masterworks when really he just wasn't very good with a pencil, and he may have agreed with me if not extremely dead.  It is just my personal aesthetic though, I love the drawings of Van Gogh and Degas for example, they were both known mainly as painters but they were brilliant draughtsmen as well, but there is no rule that a good painter must also be good with a pencil or vice versa.

5-Which of your own works are you most proud of? Do you feel any failed and if so do you now know why?

     It is interesting to see how an artist evaluates their own work, especially the ones that didn't work
out as well as they hoped, and then their insight as to why they failed.

6-Do you have a method when creating? If so how does it often progress?  For example do you sketch or write out ideas first for weeks or do you perhaps just jump directly into the project with little planning and adapt as you go?

I always find the process of art creation to be interesting, there are so many different methods ranging

Ray Ceasar

from months and months of preparation and detailed drawings before the work even begins, to people whose attempts to connect to their subconscious requires spontaneity to achieve it.

7-What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to inspire your work?

I always enjoy hearing of the varied and sometimes disjointed ways people get inspired, or the quirky unexpected things people read like an encyclopedia of insects for example (ok thats me)

8-Does your work have an overall theme and if so what might that be?  If not please describe how you tend to pick your topics.  

Swoon

Banksy

For many artists, their entire careers focus on a very precise interest or theme which is sometimes quite small in scope.  They twist and rearrange the way they see that theme over an over always trying to understand it, this question might uncover what these artists focus on.

An Elephant

9-Have you ever had to deal with negative publicity or a disappointing rejection of your artwork?  How do you deal with it?

     I recall having a painting rejected from a juried exhibition once only to have the exact same painting win a much larger juried show later that same year.  Had I let the rejection from the first show affect me then I would likely not have put the same work out to the second, and much more prestigious, show.  For some artists it is very difficult to accept any criticism at all, or if they do, for some, it can fester in the back of their mind spoiling any positive words of encouragement, even if there are ten times more accolades than criticisms.

10-Would you like to take a stab at explaining what defines virtual art?

Ah the art trap.  It is usually a lose/lose situation when an artist tries to define "art" as there are often people waiting on the sidelines ready to hammer them.  Most artists prefer to side step this question.

11-What would you say makes virtual creations unique over other art forms?

Sharing a space with people from around the world simultaneously?  The powerful immersion it is capable of?  An open ended medium that gives the viewer the ability to chart their own experience within a medium that uses colour, composition, sound, interaction and emotion without being a static painting or the fixed camera of cinema?... or maybe its not unique?

12-     Centuries ago there was no such thing as an "artist" just craftsmen, as time progressed superior technical ability and creativity created the elite "Master" artist whose work stood recognized above all others.  In 1917 Marcel Duchamp submitted a work entitled "Fountain" to the Society of Independent artists.    He stated "... He (the artist) CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view  created a new thought for that object"  He wanted to shift the focus away from technical craft to more of an aesthetic intellectual interpretation.  Some say that because of him almost everything is considered art today.  From an elephant painting with its trunk, a Banksy, a child's drawing to someone vomiting paint onto a canvas.  What is your perspective on this?

Marcel Duchamp

Another tricky question, Duchamp is revered by many and any criticism aimed towards him can result in you being unfairly categorized as an "elitist".   He made the world think of art in a different way, but did his message get twisted over time?

Next week I will post the first artists responses to these questions.

biometrics and things

    A few weeks ago I attended an event at GEL (the Gaming and Entrepreneurship Lab) within IDEAHUB, in a charming small town called Port Hope in Ontario, Canada, about an hour outside of Toronto.  The event essentially drew forth local enthusiasts with ambitions of creating their own games.  There were stations set up where people could play the games developers were working on or just socialize with like minded people.  One of the companies, Capybara games, had their game Super Time Force featured at E3 for XBOX.  It was funny actually, the owner of that company was talking to the Mayor and a member of Parliament who attended the event, then excused himself saying he had someone asking questions in relation to his game and needed to go attend to them.  He then went off and began enthusiastically talking to a boy of 8 about his game and they played Super Time Force together with him being almost more animated that the boy.
    What really impressed me though, was this permanent remarkable set up they had to test peoples

reactions as they played the games.   Before someone was to play a game, sensors were attached all over their body (though they didn't hook up everything as some were a bit invasive for a public event) but there were things which measured the heart, sweat or even little muscles above the eye.  Then on a series of monitors streamed a wide range of data in real time.  One screen showed the hands of the person playing, then another screen the game itself.  A screen showed the face of the person playing and there was another but I forget what it showed.  So this highly advanced system measured, in great detail, what was going on with a person, emotionally, as they played a game.   
     This was fascinating to me as, as an Immersivist artist, because it tells you what works and what may fail in an environment you have created.  So for example, suppose you create a scene in a narrative where you want the viewer to be scared or perhaps heartbroken for a character.  Say you create a build up to a spooky event and arrange the music accordingly.  You work with colours and composition to try and attain a certain mood within the viewer.  With this monitoring set up you can see if what you think works, actually does.  You could watch someone navigate your carefully planned artwork and then perhaps see them have almost no reaction in the manner you expect.  Seeing this you could tweak things and so on until you have achieved what you desire.  I just found it really interesting watching a teenage boy try and try again to figure out a puzzle.  Watching his face and this meter (which can show either joy or fear as the same reading) and seeing him complete the puzzle and his happiness meter shooting way up, but his face carefully showing almost no reaction.  We were all laughing like crazy half the time as the teenagers readings were going "YES I ROCK!" while his face carefully said I am bored.  Anyway just very insightful and thought I would share it here.  They say video games will reach 55 billion this year and so I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of testing became the norm.

     This final bit of info is just for myself to read in five years or so from now.  I found this thing on my blog that tells me where traffic comes from across the world to my blog.  I am close to a million page hits now and so here is the current list of the top ten countries that come to my blog.  It does vary apparently but this is how it currently looks.  Kind of surprising that Germany and Japan are ahead of Canada.  Spain and the Russian Federation were just outside the top ten.

1-United States
2-Germany
3-Japan
4-Canada
5-United Kingdom
6-Australia
7-Italy
8-Netherlands
9-Sweden
10-France

Sky falling?

     So that was pretty exciting news wouldn't you say?  "What news?!"  Oh well the news of a Second Life 2.0 that has been in the works and is projected to open in 2016.  "Oh fucking hell they are going to close second life and I will lose my shoe bling and ass extension!".  No no they won't close SL while its profitable (and it's quite profitable) and I strongly suspect they will transfer our mesh and avatar identity over if we want to migrate, though probably not scripts, sculpts and prim work.  Why?  because I expect the code for the new place which I sincerely hope they don't call Second Life 2.0 but something that doesn't imply a substitute or secret life... like the Grid!  The Grid sounds kind of Matrixy and cool but I digress.  So yes the code will likely be so different in the new place that it wont know what scripts or sculpt are anymore.  The new code will be like "what the fuck is that shit!" but all in 01101101001's.
     One of the things I have heard for years, (no not that SL's death is imminent which I have heard since 2004) is that the reason why Linden Lab can't repair half the problems with SL such as voice, group chat, lag and so on are due to the original rather shoddy code that the entire world is based upon.  So essentially the foundation of our house is made of rubber balls for some reason, and they try to fix a wobble in the kitchen table.  They really have to fix the balls first, yet that meant tearing down the house, which would have been a fatal course of action at the hype time of SL.
     It all makes sense though now.  The TOS debacle where they stated that they own everything we do, say or think.  I believe that they have been testing the transfer of our content for a while now, and they don't need to ask permission to do this because ... well they own it equally to us.  And that's fine nobody cares about that.  Something else that makes sense to me now is the seemingly odd choices of "improvements" to Second Life.  For example, pathfinding.  Mr Zippers is a pathfinding wonder, perhaps the best use of pathfinding so far in Second Life.  The reason why Mr Zippers is so remarkable is because I stopped trying to script it myself and asked a particularly talented scripter named Wolfur Windstorm to do it.  I could go on for ages why it is remarkable scripting, but most of the reasons aren't obvious.  But for example pathfinding objects get stuck.  They climb a hill and get stuck, they meet another pathfinding object and get stuck sometimes and so on.  One thing Wolfur did to help Mr Zippers chase people up hills while not getting mired down, was to allow him to recognize when he was in trouble, then have him turn physical, jump in the air and roll down the hill, then once on flat ground he would activate again and go on his merry psychotic way.  What an novel idea to overcome that problem.  Anyway, so for pathfinding to work beyond simple use, it required a master scripter!  Seems odd to make something for such a small group of people.  Then you look at the new Materials.  They require people to be in ultra graphics mode to see it.  Most people don't regularly wander about on full graphics because its laggy.. so why spend so much time on something so few will use or see?  Well I think because these features were made to work in Second Life 2.0, yet they could also be ported to Second Life and so they were.  I think some things are made specifically for upgrading SL while other things were made for SL2.0, but could also be made to work in SL as well.

Penator

      
     While it would be sad for me if SL were to close, specifically from the loss of so many personal artworks I have created over several years, I don't really think it will close.  SL will continue while its profitable, if it were becoming less profitable then I suspect Linden Lab would sell it.  And if not then I expect it would join the hypergrid (with open sim, inworlds, kitely and so on) and they would open up marketplace to all of them as well.  Ebbe Linden (Linden Lab CEO) said a while ago that he liked the idea of the hypergrid, so if that's his true opinion then which product would join the other virtual spaces on the hypergrid?  Not the new one in the works as it might not be open source and compatible, so it has to be Second Life.  Will the new fancy world with spectacular graphics, low lag and game mechanics make everyone move to it?  Hmmm.. well maybe ask Cloud Party and Blue Mars why their "better" worlds are dead while the dated SL continues?  There is something special about SL and just creating a new virtual world might not capture what people desire, so I think Linden Lab are quite aware that SL must always be a reliable plan B, because letting it go and then having SL2.0 just not work with people for whatever reason (similar to cloud party and blue mars) then it remains as something to fall back upon, ironically a strong foundation, rather than its loss being the death of their company.  But then what do I know?  I am just an artist.

The resourceful noob

The Daughter of Gears tower

     I just wanted to relate a funny little story.  So one of the things I have worked on over the years is to noob proof some of my artworks as I build them.  What I mean by this is that while my work generally is designed for the advanced user of our virtual world, made a bit complex and requiring the use of an adept cam and so on, I also know that the artworks tend to appear on destination guide (a guide to virtual world events found on the Second Life website eg http://secondlife.com/destination/bryn-oh-singularity-kumiko )  What that means is that my work also will get people appearing from the destination guide post who are on their first day or week in a virtual world.  Noobs are adorable, I like noobs.  They are like little kittens all clumsy and prone to sudden little naps.  They stand in your personal space or walk right over you heading, unerringly, to the one place in the sim where they can get stuck.  They are unpredictable and remind me of how magical virtual worlds are when you first arrive.

Anna's Many Murders

For the Daughter of Gears, Rabbicorn Story and Standby noobs would attempt to climb the main tower only to get stuck under steps whirling and twirling until they logged out.  At Anna's Many Murders they would immediately rush off of the mountain on the outside and get wedged like sardines on top of each other.  Over time I would begin to recognize danger areas for noobs and put up anti-wedging deterrents.  Eventually I got to Imogen and the Pigeons and decided to just corral them in the main desert area because there was no way they were going to fly the chair, climb the main steps or have any hope of making it up the self rezzing then falling steps.  I am sometimes surprised no doubt, as my friend Alixxbella whom I met when she was just a week old, was busily making her way through all my work in a very competent manner, but in general noobs take a few months at least to get good with using sl in an advanced manner.

Anna's Many Murders

   Anyway, so a few months ago I designed a sim for a project called the Russian Avant-Garde.  You can read about it here if you like http://brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/the-golden-age-of-russian-avant-garde.html  Within the Menage museum in Moscow's Red Square there were four kiosks designed to allow visitors at the museum to explore the artwork within Second Life.  So essentially people would sit down and attempt to navigate the virtual environment as noobs not a day or week old, but rather seconds old.  This was, as you can imagine, quite a challenge for me.  (You can visit the virtual space here)

Imogen and the Pigeons noob corral

The Golden age of the Russian Avant Garde

     The build itself was all catwalks high above the ground. It was inevitable that they fall off, however, I placed invisible walls all along the catwalks and so on.  Long story short I noob proofed the build.. or so I thought.
     The museum had four kiosks as I mentioned, and with each station was created an avatar for them to use, so four avatars named Avantgarde 1-4.  At the beginning of the project Rose Borchovski (working with the organizers in Moscow) friended me on one or two avatars and over the course of the exhibit noobs on the other kiosk avatars would somehow find my name and friend me, then speak to me in Russian which my Google brain deciphered.  So in a unique and unexpected new way these noobs unintentionally invented an escape against my attempts to protect them. Many times I would log into my Sim Immersiva and find an Avantgarde avatar wandering inside the Singularity of Kumiko's main arrival area.  They would have somehow opened my profile and teleported to Immersiva, away from the build they came to see!  How someone would manage to do that at the museum is beyond me.  It is remarkable really, initially they must have clicked on something I made and found me as the creator, then opened my profile and teleported to my sim.  That is a lot of work for someone sitting down to a kiosk.  Once at Immersiva they would wander around in that little enclosure for hours until someone opened the red door into the main story to the Singularity of Kumiko.  I  would watch them rush through the door into the story and promptly get murdered by Mr Zippers.  I would sometimes message them and offer to help them find their way back to the Russian Avant Garde sim, but they would never notice the message.  Anyway, I just kind of found the whole thing funny and worth relating.  I have a deeper respect for the noob and its ability to get into mischief no matter what precautions are taken.  I really think someone should create a nature show style machinima describing the various noobs.  The bling chested duck waddler, the random friender and so on.

The Singularity of Kumiko letters 13 and 14

 If you would like to catch up to what I am talking about then the previous posts can be found below. 
 http://brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/imogen-and-kumiko-part-one.html
http://brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/imogen-and-kumiko-adverts.html
http://brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/the-singularity-of-kumiko-initial.html
http://www.brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-singularity-of-kumiko-letters-1-3.html 
http://www.brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-singularity-of-kumiko-letters-4-6.html
http://www.brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/05/letters 7-9
http://www.brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-singularity-of-kumiko-letters-10-12.html 


Day thirteen
Dear Kumiko

Kumi please, I know how disoriented you must feel alone in the dark.  When I say "we" I am talking about others who are also concerned about you.  Come back to us.  Come back to the world you left behind.  Remember the movie theaters or that music band you like so much these days?  I forget their name.  Evangelist tea party? It’s something like that.  Think of your shiny green car and those virtual games you so love to play.  Think of the fine restaurants and a closet full of new clothes.  Think of bright city lights... you can't possibly like the dark.
 
Kumiko we can get you a new PowerPet.  There is a popular one out right now called Zinger the Rocket Dog and he is full of advanced functions.

We are in the Singularity Kumi, and all we have to do now is play.   

     I have to admit to you that I have used Life Encryption.  I did it last night and I will try to get Imogen to consent when she is lucid.  I know I am not supposed to mention this Kumi, but they must have your consent soon if we are to record you as well.  I need you to tell me in writing in your next letter that you wish to have your memories preserved.  Don't be stubborn Kumi, this is not a game.  We know you have stopped looking for the exit sign.  You can't possibly want to stay there.

Please come back to us.

    In this letter from Iktomi it becomes clear to Kumiko that he, her mother Imogen and the Scientypes are all attempting to steer her in a direction.   He uses the intimacy they shared, the talks late at night, the touch of skin, in an attempt to save a part of her as she lay dying in a coma.  To encrypt her mind and bring her back one day, but Kumiko has changed, the hooks that may once have caught her attention no long hold the same allure for her.  To them it is inconceivable that Kumiko could prefer the dark and lonely place she is in.  Iktomi says that they are now in the Singularity and all they need do is play.  Play for eternity while the machines of the Singularity chart an exponentially changing course for humanity.  We are Gods whose dream is to become children to a machine.

Day fourteen
Dear Iktomi

     I went exploring with Scruff today and found a beautiful field of light bulbs with huge powdery white moths hovering above them.  All I could hear were their wings gently moving.  Later we found the skeleton of a giant cat and some shopping carts tied up in trees like the bones of a consumerist Sherpa.
     
     Over by a stump I saw a real live Honeybee.  Not the pollinating machines they said would replace the bees after they disappeared.  It was trundling about on the stump paying no attention to us.  Did you know they have a stinger?  They would defend their hive with their life should they have to.  Their stingers were serrated like a hook, and in the act of protecting their hive they would themselves die as their singer was connected directly to their heart... when pulled free it meant
their death.
     
     I watched him walking around and thought of that old saying you used when talking about something wonderful.   "That was the bee’s knees" you would say, but I never really understood it.

Now I think I do.

     When I looked upon him I noticed his big fat legs where he was collecting pollen.  When he got home to the hive it would be converted to delicious honey.  So when we say "the bee's knees" we mean the simple yet beautiful gift of honey that they bring us.

Iktomi this will be my last letter to you.

     I know that something has happened to me in the real world.  I don't know what it is, but it's not really important to me.  You tried to lure me back with products and promises but I am afraid they hold no interest to me anymore.  Well that's not entirely true.  They have studied, marketed and addicted me to it all like a Pavlovian dog, yet I am fully aware of this and still gleefully wag my tail.  It is true that it is dark here, but I have Scruff and Rabbits and Honeybees.  You won't understand and that is ok, but I need those things.

Goodbye Iktomi

Please tell Imogen that I love her.

     In the final room we see Kumiko at the hospital.  By her bed sits Iktomi writing a new message to send to her by USB.  Imogen watches from the shadows by the Rebirth memory encryption machine whose wheels remain still.  Standing over Kumiko singing quietly is a Vera Lynn singbot which they hired to sooth her in the coma, if she can hear.  It is the same Vera Lynn, though cleaner, who stood singing to the memory encryption machine of Imogen (which now also has Kumiko) from the previous story Imogen and the pigeons.  It was her final purpose, and even after the end of the human world, she remains to sing to the final recording of a human mind, the digital mind of Imogen whose love and longing is powerful enough to change or rewrite her digital memories allowing her to bring back Kumiko as the child she remembers her as.  The first birth of a digital species.

     In Kumikos final note she tells Iktomi that she chooses to stay in her dark world, knowing it may just be a dream, but one in which her loves are not products but rather things that mean something to her on a deeper level.  A fake world perhaps, but one which has her beloved dog Scruff and rabbits.  A world with Honeybees that collect pollen on their legs and during their daily travels spread life.  The mysteries of nature which were obscured by the opacity of her technological existence.  Ironically Kumiko rejects her life being preserved digitally, feeling that a single life has more meaning over an eternal one.  She rejects the notion that being preserved would bring happiness, yet much later, that same technology is used and manipulated by her mother Imogen for her own salvation and joy.  A joy derived from being reunited with her lost Daughter.  There is no black and white morality to the Singularity of Kumiko, just a melancholy grey. 

The Singularity of Kumiko letters 10-12

Scruff

If you would like to catch up to what I am talking about then the previous posts can be found below. 
 http://brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/imogen-and-kumiko-part-one.html
http://brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/imogen-and-kumiko-adverts.html
http://brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/the-singularity-of-kumiko-initial.html
http://www.brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-singularity-of-kumiko-letters-1-3.html 
http://www.brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-singularity-of-kumiko-letters-4-6.html

http://www.brynoh.blogspot.ca/2014/05/letters 7-9
Dear Iktomi:
     Today I woke up to Scruff licking my face.  I suddenly sat up and he was so excited to see me that he kept running in and out of my room as fast as he could until he finally launched himself onto my bed and licked me all morning.
 
     I am so happy Iktomi, there is no love so pure and honest as that of a dog.  Did I ever tell you that he is a German Shepherd and Border Collie mix?  Haha he is always trying to herd and protect me simultaneously. 

     I was going to search again for the door but will do that tomorrow.   Today I just want to spend with Scruff 
Love
Kumi

So the Scientypes are not too happy with the appearance of Scruff into their controlled environment.  In fact they are quite disturbed by it.  To Kumiko the appearance of Scruff has washed away much of the gloom and fear she feels within this place.  It marks a turning point for her where she shifts and begins to see that which is most important to her.

 

Day eleven

Milkdrop

Milkdrop

Kumiko
We sent Mr Zippers to you before and today we are sending a boy to keep you company.  His name is Milkdrop as he is a... peculiar pale boy as you will see.  He may be a bit odd but he should be able to help you find the door.

    Please do as he says... if it seems sensible?  Ah now we take risks to test things.
   
     We don't know how your dog managed to get there, nor the Rabbits for that matter.  They tell me this... process... is new and has a few things to sort out.  We think it would be best for you to stay away from Scruff and the Rabbits as well as anything else you encounter there that we didn't send purposely. 
     I should let you know that we have been sending over things that convert well.  Hmm how to explain.  The Robo insects for example, their nature allows them to be translated... ah it's not important and I really am not sure this is a topic I am allowed to speak about anyway.  This is a very serious matter Kumiko, please find the door soon.

Hidden

Hooks

 In letter eleven the Scientypes send over to Kumiko a boy named Milkdrop.  They, and Iktomi, are not terribly confident in sending him, but feel he can help her find the doorway out.  Milkdrop is the introduction of a new character who will have his own story (and build) at a later time.  I don't want to spoil his story so will leave it at that, but in regards to helping Kumiko he was not a good choice and a bit desperate for them.  When Iktomi tries to explain how they send things over that "translate" well he is talking about code that can be converted to code.  So for example Mr Zippers is a Powerpet which is half organic and half machine with programming.  For them it is much easier to recreate something for Kumiko that exists already partially as a programming language.  For them to send over Scruff for example would be impossible as they have no idea how to recreate something so intimate and well known to Kumiko, but to create a Robobee it is relatively simple as it does not possess the same depth to it.  Mr Zippers was the most advanced test they could try and to them was a great achievement fit for the Science journals.

Hooks

Day twelve

Imogen sewing her pigeon disguise

Kumiko discovers her mothers sewing room

 Dear Iktomi
     I went upstairs today and found myself as I used to be.  I saw myself hiding and fearful in one room and in another it was a different sort of me.  It was my sensual side that I hide, but I could see all the little hooks trying to pull me, control me or expose me.  The pressures from all sides to be this way or that.
     In another room I found my mother's sewing machine and as I turned there behind me was Mr Zippers… but changed horribly.  He was like a caricature of combined toys trying to gain my trust.  He had tried to incorporate a jack in the box from my childhood but also possessed hooks that were tied to his paws.
     He unzipped his mouth and told me the hooks would keep us together and hurt only a moment.  I screamed and suddenly Scruff was there and they fought.  Scruff was unstoppable and tore Mr Zippers into pieces, his parts strewn around the room.
     I don't know what happened to Mr Zippers here, but he became warped and somehow manipulated.
You used to say "I" in your letters Iktomi, yet now you always say "we" but you don't mean me and you.
Who is looking over your shoulder?

The death of Mr Zippers

In letter twelve Kumiko introspectively writes about seeing a weaker version of herself from the other side.  She recognizes the confusing pressures of a Society which perceives her as an object to manipulate and harvest.  Hooks in the form of advertising or expectations which she struggled to understand and conform to.  She discovers the mannequins and sewing machine of her childhood as used by mother Imogen, whose memory also brought them forth to sew her pigeon costume.   As Kumiko turns from this she finds Mr Zippers beside her with his own hooks to bring her back to the exit.  He is still the loyal loving powerpet intent on saving her, but he has slowly degraded.  He is now a monster driven by love for her, a sad lonely creature who has watched Scruff emerge to take Kumiko, his world, from him.  He is the villain in this story to many (since he slaughters people regularly), but really only wants to protect Kumiko and keep her to himself.  As he comes to bind Kumiko to him with the hooks Scruff appears and they fight.  But how can Mr Zippers fight when his eyes never leave Kumiko?  Scruff tears him apart and another string connecting her to the other side is severed.