Many months ago I was approached by email to give permission for the song Nicole to be used in an art video in New York. I didn't understand much about it except that it was being made in Second Life, but I had no reason to doubt the artist so I agreed, not expecting to hear about it again. Last week I got a still from it and then the actual video, which is extraordinary.
Mab – the 'machinimatographer' (yes, it's a word!) – created the characters – Nicole, the narrator, the doctor, the priest etc – and other people with exotic names like Dekka Raymaker and Penumbra Carter built the virtual environment in which it all happens. And there's a lot happening! I've watched it a lot of times now and see new things all the time. My favourite parts are the strange squid that appears just after the mother, and the fade-out with the narrator and the wife boogying on down while the elusive Nicole rollerskates around them. It's a privilege to be part of this!
A side effect is that it's renewed my affection for this earlier rough version of Nicole – less muscular than the version I did with Lynsey, but I can still enjoy the snaky bassline and the brass parts.
Nicole/There's no bible in here? from Mab MacMoragh on Vimeo.
1. Thank you Norman, for giving me permission to use this great song! It was a pleasure to work with it.
2. I’m very sorry to have somehow given the impression that this is a New York video! I never meant to do that. It is set in the virtual world of the mind, a real place that does of course exist in New York as much as it exists anywhere else, and yes, it has been seen by people from there, as well as from other geographic locations (in the USA, UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Canada, Australia, Russia, and South America). Second Life® was used as a tool, a 3D canvas to represent the virtual environment and its immersive capability.
3. I wanted to share this blog post by Tracy Cochran, which I read today. The last paragraph is a good way to sum up what making Nicole/There’s no bible in here? was like for me.
“I felt called to read it–not to decipher it but to follow where it lead.”
More here:
http://parabolatracy.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/fierce-warriors/