Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.20.1706111443510.17261@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Changing Terrains and Architectures in a Virtual World
Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2017 14:45:28 -0400 (EDT)
Changing Terrains and Architectures in a Virtual World http://www.alansondheim.org/switch7.png http://www.alansondheim.org/switch.mp4 http://www.alansondheim.org/switch1.png http://www.alansondheim.org/switch6.png http://www.alansondheim.org/switch2.png Abstract - It's possible to change sims in mid-stream in a virtual world; in other words, the avatar isn't teleported, but the visible land itself alters at the level of the program. The result is a tool for investigating edgespace and glitch phenomena. The different sim files are oddly 'mixed.' The following were created with a localhost opensim; the inven- tory files remain the same but the environment - built and landscape transforms. Keeping the terminal window open allowed me to load - while the browser remained open - different .oar files - ("Oar file type is an OpenSimulator archive file format in which scene objects, settings and terrains of a given region are stored." - one after the other, each modifying or replacing the other. The result is glitch/anomalies in the edgespace of the sim (and the sim itself is transformed). Think of this as hallucinations of consensual realities. The video was recorded with Fraps. The sims are from the MacGrid; three of them are mine, two others unoccupied. The .oar were downloaded by Daven Bigelow. The browser is Singularity. The console command is load oar New.oar - it's simple enough. The localhost Opensim runs on a Lenovo X1 Carbon, Windows 10 Creator. The possibilities and critical interests here are fascinating; we generally take the world we're in for granted, but this gives us the possibility of considering, phenomenologically, divergent multiverses fundamentally out of our control, reworking presence and histories. I'd love to see experimentation with VR in this regard as well. I hope I have this straight in "this" reality; if not, I can at least be assured that something has split, and it's pretty much ok in another. Isn't it?