Hybrid Reality Art Blues

I tend to like esoteric things. Take Second Life and virtual worlds for example - pat od a huge game and technology culture, yet an acquired taste for many people. Postal history and stamp collecting - rather passé for the Internet set. And soccer futbol - in the USA, at least in the Midwest, you might as well be talking about cricket. And yet there are attributes these interests of mine have in common. Second Life and virtual worlds are global pop culture technologies. Postal mail was the original social media, and reflect the modern (as opposed to postmodern) world. At one time philately was the world's most popular hobby. Soccer futbol is the world's most popular sport. You would think it'd be easy to create community around that. But it's not. Everyone seems to be doing it these days, but the art of social is hard.

Watching soccer in Second Life at The World Club

 
Last night I watched the Lamar hint U.S. Open Cup matches at The World Club, a new soccer futbol club of my own design. And by design, I mean the design is to create community. So long lacking in my corner of SL, I plan to use this space as a hangout for friends and fans of the beautiful game. I'll call it an open studio for the art set, a work in progress for the academic set, and perhaps the worlds geekiest fan club. The main modality is text chat, something I've found I like quite a bit.

As I build, engineer and invent, the idea is to create community around international soccer as a gateway to other international cultural modalities. I will continue to problem solve around the idea of culture. The hybrid reality format suits me, but not everyone. Yesterday I posted events around the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup matches and the Copa Liberatores matches. Not much traction. But then again, the art of  social isn't easy.