The Second Life Archetype: Comic Book Guy
a mapping, a collaboration, a narrative (2007)
Overview
There are a variety of urban legends. There are cautionary urban legends, mysterious urban legends, but there are also people who become urban legends. These characters are defined by the culture around them and become mythical through their relationship to that culture. A comic book guy becomes an urban legend, not solely because he owns the most comics, but because something stimulates a cultural memory to remember him as an urban legend.
Second Life mimics everyday experience. Users mimic real life through their avatars and through the environments they move through. As in real life, urban legends can be discovered in Second Life. We wanted to find the comic book guy archetype inside Second Life to recognize his status within the system. In the beginning, we tried to find comic book sites through the use of the search engine within Second Life. By using keyword searches, as well as keyword inquiries to other avatars, we visited locations that might lead us to the discovery of the possible archetype of the comic book guy.
Virtual space in Second Life is similar to hyperlink space in internet navigation. The physicality of Second Life is deceptive: the reality of virtual space is only the coexistence of simultaneous virtual locations. Space is not dependent on moving from point A to point B, on moving from one location to another; space is not a distance but a form of identity. Identity in virtuality stems from the locations/sites we visit, not through the physicality of the locations, or the physical relationship of the locations. Users are defined by where they go and who they interact with. The archetype’s identity is to be defined and discovered through the exploration of their virtual space, using a system that is begun by the archetype.
Methodology
Before we could search for the comic book guy archetype, we had to define the characteristics which would make him an urban legend. For example, the comic book guy archetype was defined to be someone who had vast knowledge of a comic-based fantasy world, as well as an extensive collection of comic books and paraphernalia. The comic book guy would surround him/herself with a comic book world.
From there we moved into exploring Second Life with the goal to find this archetype. Knowing that Second Life imitates real life, we searched in ways similar to contemporary methods of information retrieval: search engines and social networking. We used keywords such as: comic, marvel, comic books, comic stores, and superhero, in order to search for locations and people affiliated with comics.
From the results of these searches, we visited the virtual spaces and checked the owner information for each site, contacting the owners and anyone on each site. This quickly led us into joining groups which had comic book themes, allowing us easy access to the members of these groups. We refined our search down to two primary avatars. This searching method led us to the comic book guy archetype, but we felt that this was a limited discovery of the comic book guy’s identity.
As we have previously explained, identity in Second Life is mostly defined by where you go. In order to understand who the comic book guy is, we asked for his most frequented three landmark links – excepting his own property – from which we could begin a journey through Second Life to discover where the comic book guy would lead us. Each of our avatars then visited one of these three links, and from there, we asked the closest avatar in proximity to then give us a new location (their most frequented landmark), virally leading through the Second Life world. This journey is initially determined by the comic book guy; our goal was to follow a path that was in some way related to the comic book universe created by the comic book guy.
This path was documented through location landmark links, a geocached map of places visited, screencaps and all conversations documented. We then built a mock-up model of the second life world with each location giving the viewing avatar the information to recreate the path experience. This sculpture was presented on the comicsgazillion land.
Identity
This project follows the experience of location which emanates from the archetypal “comic book guy” in Second Life. After a search for the best candidate in Second Life who exemplified the predefined traits of a “comic book guy,” a team of three artists began a journey through Second Life documenting the most often visited landmarks of avatars connected to the “comic book guy” by space. The journey began by following the top three locations from an avatar named Siroverkill. This then placed the three artists in locations once-removed from the archetype “comic book guy;” by requesting the favorite landmark of the nearest (by proximity) avatar, we continued our exploration, in degrees, of the world around the “comic book guy.”
After the journey was explored for a few days, a model of the Second Life world was made on the comicsgazillion land site, mapping out the paths each artist took and documenting the conversations with avatars at each landmark. By viewing the map and interacting with the information, the viewer receives all the necessary tools to recreate this path on their own, including landmarks, conversation guides and screen captures. For more information on the comicsgazillions site in Second Life, visit >>here
Social Map
After the performance, each location was marked on an interactive in-world map. Users could visit each hyperlinked location via the points on the visual map of Second Life.
Documentation
superhero convergence
social apollo
Siggys waterland
Sinner's Paradise