Second Life as Art

When I first visited Second Life back in the late Fall of 2006, I ran into a resident from an even earlier era who appeared as a mermaid and lived in a cave behind a waterfall. She explained to me that the first generation of Second Life residents were there to create art. That was all they cared about - creating beautiful art. The did not care about commerce, gambling, pornography, land sales, or numbers of accounts. They just wanted to create beautiful places to visit.

Since my brain was on fire, at the time, with the business potential of Second Life technology, I only half listened. How could you make money just creating beautiful places to visit? Would you charge admission? Would you clutter your art with shops to sell virtual products? I just couldn't see how it would work and didn't think much further about it.

Since then, I have visited many, many beautiful places. I am always impressed with the creativity, the detail and the level of effort that the land owners invest in their creations. It is like visiting a three dimensional painting in a virtual art gallery. I still don't know how they make money. I suspect they don't. They probably pay month fees to exhibit their art. But whether or not these creations are economically viable, they certainly have great value. So, I thought I would take a break from the business of Second Life for a few weeks and highlight some of these lovely places.