Second Life artist Jake Wikifoo
Jake Wikifoo, whose most distinctive physical attribute is a prominent proboscis, is an artist and art gallery owner (Galerie Wikifoo & Wikifoo Art Museum “WAM”) who lives in the city of New Toulouse—in a spectacular mansion across the lane from the Governor’s mansion. Behind Wikifoo Manor’s sprawling oaks, ornamental iron gates, fluted columns, and pink brick sheath is housed a world class collection of original art. Aside from art collecting, Jake’s interests include drunken carousing, boating, travel, architectural design, and hunting zombies.
Mr. Wikifoo is an avatar who lives in the world of Second Life.
Wikifoo Manor, New Toulouse, Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by a San Francisco based company called Linden Lab. It is said that at any given time there are 65,000 people logged “in-world”, and by 2014 there were over a million users. Some have referred to Second Life as a game, but unlike World of Warcraft there is no conflict or set objective.
Avatars are created by the users—and can be in the likeness of anything imaginable. Jake Wikifoo has a distinguished nose and a great physique; he socializes primarily with a group of humans. But he has met avatars who are vampires, zombies, fairies, ghosts, centaurs, elves, cats, rats, robots, aliens… and the avatars can inhabit realms with like-minded individuals.
The nations inhabited by the avatars are called SIMS and every one of them is different, which makes travel in Second Life quite entertaining. Travel between the SIMS is achieved by teleportation.
Wikifoo Plantation, New Toulouse Algiers, Second Life
New Toulouse, where Mr. Wikifoo resides, is a SIM based on New Orleans circa 1910; in it there are swamps, bayous, bawdy houses, vampires, river boats, open air markets, clothing boutiques, art galleries, cemeteries, VooDoo, zombies, and even a streetcar named Desire. Avatars own the land and all architecture and vehicles must be appropriate to the aesthetics of that period of New Orleans’ history. There is even a newspaper, the New Toulouse Tattler… Other SIMS across the virtual world (or “the grid” as it is known) are recreations of Imperial Rome, Feudal Europe, Victorian England, Fairyland, Wild West, Nude Beach, Outer Space, you name it. I’ve been to the Galveston SIM (which has a Bishop’s Palace to rent by the week), a New Jack City SIM, a Versailles SIM, Sistine Chapel SIM, True Blood SIM (with a Merlotte’s Restaurant), and so on. And fantasy SIMS can be extremely stylized and self-indulgent. If you can dream it up and afford it, you can do it!
River Boat party celebrating the Art Walk, Second Life
It is these worlds avatars explore through 3D generators and are able to interact with others, socialize, participate in activities, shop, or engage services such as hiring an architect or a prostitute. The virtual money is the Linden which is not so virtual as it is exchangeable with real world currency.
Second Life is a creative network and the arts are prevalent. Every SIM is an art project unto itself. But residents express themselves through in-world art exhibits, theater, and even live music.
A few years back a reference to Second Life was made by Law & Order SVU when a young woman’s abduction was linked to an online role-playing game. And apparently Second Life has been mentioned in The Big Bang Theory when Sheldon asked friends if they would like to go virtual swimming in Second Life since he doesn’t like the water in real life.
Wikifoo Art Museum exhibiting Filthy Fluno, Second Life
Membership is free, and there are many free shops in-world, but players (aka residents) must exchange real money for Lindens in order to buy land, luxury clothing, furniture, art, vehicles, or even good hair. Creating a membership is easy; but learning to maneuver can take time, and it can be a bit daunting at first.
I enjoy the people that I’ve met through Jake Wikifoo over the years of participation. Jake Wikifoo is like my puppet and I can interact with other puppets or even the puppet masters; I have friends from real Florida to Alaska, France, Germany, Australia, and Brazil. However, it is not always love and sunshine in-world. As with any social experiment there will be disagreements, quarrels, and people you just don’t like. On several occasions Mr. Wikifoo has been attacked for entering restrictive SIMs, and a few years back after a dispute with the SIM ruler burnt his plantation to the ground as a form of protest.
Wikifoo Plantation Fire, Second Life
But clearly it takes a special person with a lot of time to consistently participate. So this blog post is in no way intended to recruit residents. And while this entry might entertain on its own it is also a primer for my next artist post. There was no other way to communicate his story without first telling an abridged story of Jake Wikifoo and Second Life.
Second Life (SL) has managed to attract many talented and creative people who have used their skills to make SL a vibrant place to visit. In the right hands, SL can be a blank canvas on which to bring imagination to life, and there are many amazing in-world examples of this as you stated in your post. Thank you, Troy/Jake, for sharing your thoughts and personal experiences in this insightful SL primer.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media tends to focus exclusively on the more tawdry aspects of of this virtual space, to the detriment of its residents. As anything is possible in SL, some of these things certainly attract more eyeballs (and ratings) than others. And the outcome is that many people’s opinion of SL is skewed, similar to basing one’s opinion of a whole city on only its worst neighborhood. It’s nice to get a view from the good side of town for a change – across from the Governor’s mansion, no less!