SLaaristokaupunki
Kuopio (Finland) and Second Life®, 2009.
Commissioned by ANTI Festival.
In Second Life, the 3D online digital archipelago, space is discontinuous and walking is anachronistic. For ANTI Festival 2009, Stephen invited each participant to join him on a short ‘meatspace’ walk to an intimate space, looking over Lake Kallavesi towards the archipelago of Saaristokaupunki. Here, his avatar Drifter Rhode accompanied participants on a second walk, this time through a virtual landscape, where together they searched for connections back to the Real Life Kuopio. SLaaristokaupunki was for one person at a time, and previous experience in the Second Life environment was not required.
Images: Stephen Hodge, ANTI Festival, Pekka Mäkinen, Finnish Tourist Association.