MOLOTOV ALVA & HIS SEARCH FOR THE CREATOR
Posted on May 13th, 2008
by 
Happiness
Happiness
Screen shots from www.molotovalva.com
"Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey"
(Thanks to Burt Kempner for this excellent alert!)
TV Lookout: highlights for the week ahead, May 11-17
By FRAZIER MOORE – 1 day ago
What could you learn about reality while immersing yourself for months in virtual reality?
Filmmaker Douglas Gayeton ponders life's big issues by means of a digital surrogate in "Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey," premiering 8 p.m. EDT Thursday on Cinemax.
Its premise is simple. Gayeton delves into the online virtual world called Second Life for an extended stay, professing to have left real life behind.
"Whatever connection I once had to that carbon-based world is now gone," he claims, while his avatar, Molotov Alva, journeys far and wide in this alternate realm, trying to figure things out.
Billed as the first documentary shot entirely in virtual reality, this half-hour meditation seems to be the creation of Molotov Alva, who captures footage of Second Life's sights with the camera he totes.
Meanwhile, he contemplates such issues as the "reality" of standing on a virtual-reality beach. There is no crunchy feeling to the sand, no salty scent in the air. It's up to his sense-memory to fill in the gaps.
"But what would become of this place after my memories faded?" he wonders. Without memories to give life to the artifice of Second Life, how could this digital facsimile sustain him? Unless, maybe, "after my 'first life' memories were gone, I would no longer miss what I'd lost."
Maybe you're a Second Life regular. Or maybe talk of avatars and virtual worlds leaves you cold. No matter. This "Search for the Creator" is whimsical, thought-provoking and visually arresting. Even when experienced from the real-life couch in your living room, it's a trip.
Access: Public
metaverse
July 2008