Another Videosketch Concept - Supergirl Barbie

I've been thinking about merging my long-unrealized Supergirl Barbie concept and the video for "Revolver." I want to mix RL and SL video. This is a little visualization of what would be RL video in the actual version.

Botgirl's Stages of Avatarian Awareness

Botgirl's Stages of Avatarian Awareness. (Nods to ArminasX Saiman)

1. Virtual Identity is a psychological creation (as opposed to one's real Human Identity).
2. Virtual identity is real.
   
3. Virtual Identity and Human Identity are both psychological creations.
   

One of my goals in the cherrybomb project is to blend media from many sources into a seamless whole. Here's the latest cherrybomb brainstorming clip, plus a machinima I created a year ago that blends SL, motion graphics and RL video.

Peek at In-Progress Song Recording

Here's a snippet from a rough mix of initial music tracks for "Revolver", plus some noodling around with video concepts.

Peek at Revolver In-Progress from Botgirl Questi on Vimeo.

On The Border

So "virtual" band - do you mean like "The Archies" and "The Monkeys" and "Oingo Boingo" where even though they were real bands making real music, they were like ghost-writers for an auther - where a "false" or "proxy" persona was the front? Ari Blakthorne

What a great question! The band concept is definitely related to the three examples mentioned, as well as more recent projects such as Gorillaz and Flight of the Conchords. I see at least two key differences:

• We are extending the genre into the domain of pseudonymous identity within virtual worlds and social networks. Chrome and I have virtual histories that predate the band. So our characters were not created as fuel for a band project, but the band is an extension of the lives of our virtual personas.

• My primary purpose in creating the band is to explore the truth that lives within the fuzzy border between fact and fiction. Human intelligence (outside of enlightenment) fractures the holistic nature of existence into an infinity of disconnected fragments. One way to see through the veil is to deconstruct our normal experience of reality. My intention is to play with reality construction through an evolving synthesis of original music, visual art, social media, virtual identity and multi-media storytelling.
  

Sounds heavy, but it should be lots of fun! We now have three orginal songs written and scratch-demo'd. Stay tuned.

Cherrybomb: The Making of a Virtual Band

Chrome Underwood and I have been playing around for a few months with the idea of forming a virtual band. Recently, all of the pieces came together, including the two other members who will round out the group. We've written our first song and have the recording session scheduled for later this month.

We plan on releasing songs, machinimas and a comic series fictionalizing the adventures of the band (think sexy Scooby Doo). Now we're focusing on creating the look of the band and developing the back-story that will power the fictional narrative.

Instead of working in secret to hone our "brand", we've decided to expose our creative process, warts and all, as we go from the germ of an idea to an "official" release. It's likely that aspects of our concept will evolve significantly during our alpha and beta periods. We'll share ongoing diary blog posts that will provide a director's commentary on the work we create and and insights into the thinking behind ongoing changes. Expect plenty of images and video along the way.

Here is a video with some shots of the first time the full band got together in Second Life. I threw in a fun little music clip of I'm a Barbie Girl. You can find Chrome's related post here. As you'll see, we need a lot of work on animations, the fine details of wardrobes, instruments, set, etc. But a good start, nevertheless!