The Burning of the Virtual Man was epic. So epic that it crashed the servers and we almost didn’t get to see it! Fortunately, we did get to view the outfits on the burners who remained to celebrate around the ashes.
Just in case you are confused between the video and the pics, time moves more rapidly in the virtual world of Second Life (SL) and the night of the burn turned to day shortly after the man became “ash”. You may also notice some less-defined “gray areas” in the video or the pics. These are pixels that weren’t rendering properly due to the heavy traffic on the SL burn servers.
One of the things that is so spectacular about the fashions in SL is that some of these ingenious creations would be impossible in the non-virtual world. By removing the physical limitations, even more potential for expression becomes instantly possible.
At the same time, there is a fine line to be balanced upon as going completely a-wall and abandoning all semblance of physical constraints would almost certainly result in a suspension of disbelief “backlash”. Further, with regards to the virtual burn, there is an ever-present aesthetic constraint to contend with in that burners expect playa couture to appear … burnerly. While it is certainly impossible to define or authoritate what is and isn’t burnerly, I think we can all agree that, though the reason(s) may be anomalous, some looks just don’t seem suited for the backdrop of the playa.
