A Virtual Reflection of Protest...

Recently I was reading this mashable article discussing the way in which Second Life has become an arena for Islamic communities to display their identities, and interact with other communities from around the world, both Islamic and not. What really interested me though, from the visual standpoint, was the discussion of the protest that occurred on Second Life. In this virtual world, reality was being displayed as a virtual protest was made of the violence happening on the Gaza Strip. The protesters used the virtual world to display images of a reality happening (I highly recommend, if you are interested in the political discussion, that you go beyond the fold on this link and read the comments below). The virtual reality, in the moment of protest, becomes surprisingly real. It does more than reflect a reality, it makes commentary on it with images of violence, destruction, and death. This is then catalogued in news sources like protests taking place on the actual streets of cities (though usually on a smaller scale).

So what do we do with this? I think there is an idea of the novelty of this inflating its current importance...but really, I think what is more interesting is the way this points to a path to a virtual exploration of complicated and troubling issues, as well as a way to bring people from widely differing backgrounds together to discuss the issues in a way that is not only peaceful, but could possibly becomes very effective. Imagine the virtual worlds with millions of players world wide demonstrating these values...what's more, imagine the very walls being made up of images of protest. The effectiveness of the medium then becomes reflective largely of the popularity of the medium.

There is something different about the interactive, and virtual nature of created worlds though that seprates it even from social programs like facebook and twitter...something that isn't being used to its full effectiveness yet but could definately become an interesting realm where the visual encompasses everything...and where the words become secondary to the experience of that visual. When a person surroundings are not so much reality, but a visual rendering of such...how does that situate the individual and how they react to the world. And how do protests made on virtual mediums affect the world at large?

What do we say about the idea that the protest images are a visual rendering in a visual world...a world that is being used not only to create social interactions between people, but to create an alternate reality for people? When do we stop considering virtual worlds entertainment and start considering them a part of the fabric of our realities, and has this already happened? I don't know the answers to most of these questions, but I do know the visual interactive medium is starting to change the way we think about real world events. It is already demonstrating itself as our phones define the way we interact with the world...defining us through twitter and facebook posts...even if we aren't the ones posting. These are already being taken seriously by major companies, and as these ideas become more and more prevalent we are going to find the mediums through which we socially interact become more technological, and more definingly virtual.