Scary Life

Scary Life

I have recently been introduce to the virtual world called Second Life. At first this didn’t appeal to me, seemed like a large scale of the Sims.Second Life is a whole lot more you can interact with people from all over the world, create clothes, animation and a lot more. I have also heard that people have made money from this “world”.

After a conversation with a fellow student Mike, I realised how scary this actually is. It is almost something out of an sci-fi movie. We got talking about how this will develop in the future…well in a few years. The whole name scares me “Second Life” why do we need a second life, its almost like we are getting told that our own life isn’t good enough, why live the life your living when you can create the perfect version of yourself, make yourself taller, slimmer, fitter basically anything you want, I got told you can even be a DOLPHIN. The point we made was why sit in front of your computer screen walking and talking when you could do that yourself in “First Life”.

Second Life is a break through piece of technology and does have so many up sides, but people could end up taking it too seriously and it could turn almost into the Matrix, when “Second Life” become our main life. There is nothing stopping technology like this taking over. If you have a better life somewhere else why life the poor one?

It’s a scary thing to think about, it already has a population of over six million and it is ever growing.My final point is we are slowly losing our identities, the internet is providing everybody with the same platform, whether its myspace giving all bands the same opportunity or you tube doing the same to film makers, how do we stand out from the rest. Second Life gives you the opportunity to start fresh, a new manikin to build a better life…
Is this a good thing?
Whatever it is, it scares the crap out of me.

Dholl

Dholl
I found Dholl on http://www.deviantart.com/, an online community of artist varying from fine artist to photographers to web designer to film makers and a whole lot more.
You can see more off his work at dholl.deviantart.com

Dholl combines many different medias to create his art. I believe he starts with a sketch and then fine tunes it in photoshop, he may also use other tools to create different images. I think this is a great way to work, i see too many people restrict them selves to just one media and not explore the same image to other areas. This is something i am trying to do more myself, Dholl has really mastered his style, the backgrounds show signs of realism, however the front characters have there own freaky image. It is similar to comic book artist Roman Dirge (Lenore) and director Tim Burton (Nightmare before Christmas), but Dholl has a much more finished stylized look.


The images still look sketchy and real, they haven't been completely smoothed over in photoshop. I like that for the reason you can see and feel the emotion in the pen strokes. It has that man made quality, which can sometimes get lost in photoshop.

I would love to see Dholl do some cell animation in his style. It would take a long time, but the end effort would be worth the wait. Dholl uses a great colour scheme, he really captures the atmosphere and his use of textures make the art come to life.

I urge you to take a look at the rest of his work, he deserves some attention.

Facebook Vs Myspace...

The online community battle goes on...
This week for my college course i signed up to a few online communities, i was already a member of Myspace and personally thats where i draw the line. I'm not the sort of person who buys into fashion sites, however i wanted to look at the navigation layouts. It quickly came to my attention that Facebook and Myspace were the two big guns in the online community set up.

Myspace
I have been a member and a fan of Myspace for the last three-ish years now, its quick, fun and easy to use. The navigation system is that simple to use a monkey could get the hang of it.
Those that know a bit more about html can customize there account, add pictures, music, videos, pretty much anything they can find on the net.
The database search engine works well and friends are easy to find. Anyone can view your account and look through your friends list, however you can set your profile to private, which means only your friends can view your profile and people that wish to need to add you as a friend first.
The possibilities for Myspace are endless, it has already revolutionized the music industry and it is doing the same to film and television. Myspace has given everyone a voice to express there thoughts and feelings, whether it is blogging on there page, sending out a bulletin or even going on a forum.

Facebook
I am a new member of Facebook and my first impression is that the site is awful, it seems hard to work and i'm forever lost. The navigation is terrible, there are links everywhere and there are far too many. When you go on a site like this you want something simple and easy to use, not something that gives you an headache. These sites are built for fun, but Facebook seems a little confusing.
Looking at the website from a designers view, it looks ugly, there are bits and pieces all over your profile. It becomes a strain to look at.
This website doesn't compare to Myspace, it is a poor imitation of it...
Is it just me or is all the hobo/zombie wars seem silly and confusing. What i have found quite interesting about Facebook is that some of my old school friends have uploaded old pictures and this is a popular thing throughout the website. In my eyes Facebook is only good for nostalgic reasons.

I'd like to know other peoples views on these online community sites, am i the only one that is sick of filling out about me, film, music sections...

I haven't finished with this blog, i may add some more to it in the near future.

It Begins

The journey of blogging begins here.

This starts my critical studies into the world of blogging...

For my college course, Design for Digital Media

Hopefully over the next few weeks turning into months i will gather research of other peoples art work, and i will be posting some of my own or all to view and comment.

You can learn about me by looking in the ... wait for it ..."about me" section, if you would like to know anything else please contact me.

I am a resident of the myspace community my myspace LINK and also check out my band my bands myspace LINK

Thats it for now, keep tuned in...