 |
|
|
Virtually Belfast?
So we have an agreement on a shared future, a new assembly dealing with the nuts and bolts of everyday practical politics, a burgeoning tourist industry and the biggest capital investment in Belfast’s commercial life in history where do we go from here?
If one local arts group are to be believed the virtual reality world of Second Life.
Second Life is a user generated 3 D virtual world, to get involved you download their program for free from www.secondlife.com choose a name for your avatar, or virtual self, then you are free to roam the virtual world, interact with other avatars, build representations of real world places and objects or anything you can imagine.
It has its own economy, the linden dollar, and if Linden Labs, Second Life’s creators, statistics are to be believed transactions totalling 500,000 real US dollars a day take place.
You can exchange your virtual lindens for real dollars and there are many instances of people making not just a living but a personal fortune, most notably Annie Cheung Second Life’s first paper millionaire.
What has this to do with Belfast? Well local media group www.nbmcmedia.com have built a virtual Belfast in Second Life and I had the pleasure of being shown round by the avatar Stiofainx Rau one of the team running the Belfast sim (as the simulations are known).
It is immediately recognisable as Belfast with the Harland and Wolff cranes dominating the skyline above a representation of the Titanic , St Georges Market selling virtual goods, rows of terraced housing featuring the familiar gable end murals and even The Rotterdam Bar. There are galleries featuring the work of local artists where you can click through to their websites and make a real purchase and musicians streaming live from real Belfast venues.
So how did this start and where is it going I asked Stiofainx. “Last summer nbmcmedia ran the online campaign to save The Rotterdam Bar from demolition to make way for apartments and as part of that campaign we took our first steps into second life and built a replica of the bar and ran streams from the real life bar there “ he says “we were blown away by the reaction in Second Life and when the bar was given a reprieve we decided we should build on our initial success.”
They were joined by Second Life veterans keen to lend a hand and soon Belfast was taking shape.
Live music was always intended to be the backbone of the sim and to this end nbmcmedia have established several broadcast nodes around Belfast and broadcast live from venues in town.
When I was there I listened to performer Dickson McBride , local singer/songwriter Chris Dickson, streaming live from a studio in North Belfast and was very impressed but was even more impressed when I went to the opening party of a representation of the historic Maritime Club several nights later.
This was billed as a global celebration of live music. It started at 9pm with French jazz musician Fabrice Collette live from Paris with some excellent laid back guitar and piano. I saw the commercial side of Second Life in action here as you could click through to his website and buy CDs. Next up was The Etherian Express, a North Carolina blues band featuring the talents of the 86 year old Charles E Bristol, he was the real thing an authentic old times blues man.
Next it was back across the Atlantic to Dublin for more laid back blues this time with a celtic twist with Mash Rhode and Eddie Collins then back to the States for self penned eco anthems with Mythica from Denver followed by UFS Hyde streaming live country ballads from Tennessee. Then we went south of the border all the way to Argentina for some beautiful samba guitar from Joachim Gustav.
5 hours of top quality music, all live, streamed from all over the world into a recreation of the Maritime Club in a virtual Belfast in the company of music fans from all over the world, I was very impressed.
So what of the future? “We will continue to expand “ says Stiofainx “ and get more local artists and musicians involved. This is an opportunity to create an international image for Belfast in this medium. We hope to secure funding to expand to 16 times our current size within 2008 and become a viable commercial venture supplying employment to our local musicians and artists and broadcasting local events around the world. Tourism Ireland currently sponsor a Dublin sim and we believe our tourist board should follow their example. With expansion we can feature our tourist attractions showing real life video or linking to websites featuring them, we can showcase potential future building projects, even something the size of the redevelopment of the Titanic Quarter is feasible to display if the support is there.”
People are taking notice of this brave new world, the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queens University have broadcast there and in march The University of Ulster Computing Faculty will launch their sim featuring a virtual learning experience at an event in Belfast’s W5 centre in the Odyssey Complex.
I don’t know if this is the future but I found it fascinating and it is definitely a space to watch.
related links
second life homepage
nbmc media
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
