About

Digichotomy is an experiment with the concept of merging the Second Life universe with what we have come to accept as “Real Life.”

It is an attempt to expose those who normally would not interact with the Second Life interface to the SL universe via a user interface they are more familiar with: a human being.

Professional audio transmission equipment is utilized to broadcast the environmental sounds and voice chat conversations of Second Life into “Real Life,” (known to the Second Life universe as “First Life”), and in turn broadcast the sounds and conversation of First Life back into Second Life.

On top of that, the performer carries a mobile phone carrying a program we wrote to send live GPS data to a server which is then passed into Second Life. This data is used to control the movement of a Second Life vehicle under command of our avatar. Participants who wish to speak with First Lifers can then sit upon the vehicle as well, and stay in contact with the First Life performer and the people she encounters.

During our first experiment, several very poignant moments took place. In particular, the members participating in Second Life could not grasp the idea that they were being broadcast into First Life. First Life members were often asked by Second Life members to “press the talk button,” and “accept landmarks.”

When First Life members would describe the situation to Second Life members (Such as: “We’re speaking to someone in a suit with a microphone. We’re outside.”)–a situation they found to be very strange–the Second Life members would assume that they meant “outside–in Second Life, where robotic humans are not out of the ordinary” and think nothing of it.