Quilting & Code
Second Life never ceases to amaze me. Not surprisingly, many of the quilters in Second Life are quilters in real life. In real life, they use fabric, batting and thread to make quilts; in SL they use code. In both media and both worlds, they are quilters. However, there are some quilters in SL who have never made quilts in RL. I expect that several people who’ve made quilts out of code with digital menus in SL cannot even sew in RL. For weeks now, I have seen this to be one of the fundamental differences between people who make quilts in the brick and mortar world and the digital world…
However, an exhibition I recently saw in SL (I was there for research purposes only–I swear) really closed the gap in my thinking between RL and SL. In the brick & mortar world, people personally touched by HIV-AIDS sometimes make quilts for the NAMES project to honor a loved one who has battled the disease. Usually, these are people who have never quilted before. They become quilters for a specific purpose, to make work to honor a specific person and raise awareness about a specific issue. This does not only apply to the NAMES project. There are people who use quilting as a form of expressive activism to speak out on other issues. For example, volunteers with the Ugly Quilt Project make quilts and quilted sleeping bags for the homeless, often with no prior knowledge of quilting, let alone sewing.
Avatars volunteering at the SL HIV Prevention & Education Center and avatars with the Chilbo Community Building Project have organized the making of several digital quilts by avatars throughout SL to commemorate lives and avatars lost to AIDS, both in real life and in Second Life.
In terms of both creativity and poignant expression, these digital quilts equal those real, tactile quilts made for the NAMES Project. I am somewhat startled as the liminal gap between real life and Second Life closes before my eyes.
Writer,
tigneram
Topics: New Media, Research | No Comments »
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