Making predictions is an ungrateful job, particularly when it comes to Art or Technology.  Nobody ever gets it right.  And that is exactly how it supposed to be!  After all that is what is so exciting about invention and artistic creativity – surprises, unexpected turns, shockingly new ideas which force us to look at familiar things differently, evolve.

Fully realizing all that I am still going to make a very specific Art+Technology prediction.  And I am not even going to wrap it into a half-joking safer form.  Ready?

I strongly believe that words “Linden Lab” and “Second Life” will forever remain in basic Art History textbooks and The Film Anthologies Index.  The future generations of FA students will have to memorize those ancient names to pass whatever they need to pass to get their diplomas.

However, expect them to be very confused.   Folks who had to take some art or film history classes will know what I am talking about.   Those textbooks are typically written by people who consider systematical, chronological, alphabetical placement of material to be boring and uninventive.  There is always some obvious (to the author, at least) logic behind 3,000+ pages thick art book, and occasionally we can crack the code.  If we get help.  And this is why I am writing~

Dear future FA students, listen up!  Do you want to know what was “Second Life”? who were “Linden Lab”? and why you even need to know that?  Open your book index, go to letter “M” and find the word “Machinima“.  There will be a huge section dedicated to Machinimas, one of the newest art forms which captured the world somewhat around 2010s.

There you will find out why you need to know those words.  They will inform you that there was a little company (Linden Lab) that created a platform (Second Life) which allowed people to take an already existing (but rather exclusive) computer animation technique and develop it into a major mainstream art form known as Machinima.

If you dig some more you will discover that like many other major cultural turns this was a hilariously confusing process.  For example, the Linden Lab and its founders never intended to immortalize themselves on the “Machinima” pages.  They had whole bunch of ideas and plans for their new company, none of them included pushing the film industry to its next level. In fact, they almost sabotaged the film brewing by trying to force people into some bizarre unusable viewer (fortunately it didn’t work)

Sound familiar? Yes, I think it is safe to say that Philip Rosedale is our modern digital age Columbus.  Just like his predecessor he “discovered” already existing new continent by trying to find something entirely different (and much less significant).  Lets see if the new Columbus repeats the history and remains oblivious to what he really found or will he have a chance to find his name under “M” letter?

Speaking more seriously, yes, of course virtual worlds are a lot more than just films they inspire.  VWs are about the new unknown before ways to connect, network and communicate.  And Machinimas happen to be one of the most exciting amazing subproducts of all that.

I realize that Machinimas are still too new and mostly unknown to most people (even to those who are already virtual citizens).  If you are one of those, this is a perfect time to meet this new cool kid!

Today is a very special day – the deadline for the University of Western Australia Machinima contest submissions.  I am one of the judges and I just can’t tell you how exciting I am!   Less than a year ago I proposed a Machinima contest to the UWA in SL manager,JayJay, and while we both were not sure what would happen he took risk and agreed to raise money and we experimented with co-hosting it at the UWA.  It turned to be an amazing success.  We got 12 films, some of them were so great that we, judges, had really difficult time to pick the finalists.  The University officials were duly impressed, intrigued, flattered. I was so happy to learn that after this contest Jayjay fully financially secured the program for the virtual UWA. Here is the winner video by Cisko Vandeverre.

If you watch it you will wish every university had such a “promotional” video.
But that was back in February. Now, six months later, the UWA is hosting the second contest. And the response from the Machinima makers community is unbelievable. In a few hours we will receive the final submissions (I know few directors who are waiting till the very last minute to post their creations). I have no idea what will be the final count, but last night, 24 hours before the deadline, we already had wooping 35 (!!!!) entries from some of the best known Machinima makers. And they are not kidding around! only six moths since the first UWA contest and the level of competition is noticeably up.
Last night JayJay, Cisko (the winner of the 1st contest and now one of the judges) and I had an intense skype discussion trying to figure out the best ways to organize the presentation. We are going to find some ways to give you a chance to meet with the film makers, watch the entries together and discuss them. During a week before the announcement of the winners I was asked to host something like “preliminary viewing”. We are still trying to figure out the details. Experimenting as we go! isn’t it exciting?

While we are waiting I am going to introduce you to one of my favorite Machinima makers.
In my next post you will learn how people start filming and what it takes to become one of the hottest new Machinima stars in one short year!