Machinima 14:23 min, 2008, a collaboration with Rasmus Albertsen, projected on a wall accompanied with the seperate sound of a Buddha Machine. Shown here without Buddha sound.
"Reality Check" is a machinima, a movie recorded inside a virtual world, captured inside Second Life. In this machinima two avatars are trying to discuss reality, from a real world and a digital world perspective, on a virtual island. The avatar Cyxos Hax takes the position of a natural science realist using falsifiability to falsify the possibility that Second Life is reality. On the other hand the avatar Bix Hax argues in favour for Second Life being reality using relativism and a postmodern perspective.
In the end the dialogue in the machinima turns into not being about Second Life being real or not, but about the right to create a subjective relative reality.
Excerpt from dialog:
-Truth is subjective, even in natural science. Science is based on persons and their private experiences, curiosity, inquiry and selectivity transforms the results. When two or more individuals agree upon an interpretation, they create a consensus. A consensus within a group may be perceived as the "truth" when it is in fact is a consensus reality. "Most people" are something I would consider a consensus.
-And a consensus may be related to the world but it is not "truth" in itself.
-This is a most delusional and cynical argument. It's one thing to say that I am wrong when everything is peace and quiet. But tell your views to me when I feel pain and see if a different perception of reality change the pain to pleasure.
-A good point and a point I can't ignore. No, I may not change that, because First Life may be a simulated reality but if there is a consensus of it being real, the simulated problems has real consequences for those involved.