Location: UR Island

I went to the virtual island that the university has purchased for faculty and students to do experiments with virtual reality.  It’s a safe location for students, because only those approved and on a list may be on the island: no weirdos except Ignatius present.

While that protection, perhaps coddling, itself deserves an entry, I want to discuss how I took off my face.

“In a Strange Land” has led me to interview other SL residents for a series of upcoming profiles, and I was talking to Beeble Baxter, the avatar (in the form of a cartoon animal) of a UR colleague. We sat there on the island and Beeble asked me about how easy it is to change not just one’s clothing, but one’s entire appearance.  He’s not had as much practice as I’ve had. . .so. . . I made my face vanish. 

In the snapshots the result is as dramatic as it is comic.

Using the option to “change appearance,“ I made my head into a blank white nothingness.

Avatars’ faces consist of a series of flexible graphics files that form a mask on a template. Remove that mask, and you have only the putty-like manikin head as a persona.

I put on my sunglasses. I planned to stay this way for a while

The interview continued.  More anon.

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