SL Pro. Post 1

I found the Second Life Project to be a very fun and interesting project. First off, it was great being a part of Team Backline! Secondly, I enjoyed picking apart pieces of SL Amsterdam and wondering about their existence and the reason certain pieces of it were made the way they were. Until Rupert printed off some notes on the real Amsterdam, I actually had no idea where it was out-of-world, and I had nothing to compare and contrast the in-world Amsterdam to, though. I think this project helped me to learn a little bit about the real Amsterdam, even if SL Amsterdam wasn’t completely accurate.

When I first got to SL Amsterdam, I got all excited because I saw this huge windmill:

I assumed that Amsterdam had something to do with the Dutch, but I didn’t know anything about the Dutch, or where Amsterdam was on a real map. I later learned that the real Amsterdam is in Europe.

I knew from the discussion of places in class and by the waterways and the boats that Amsterdam was a port city. I found out that the architecture and arts and practices of the city were all affected by the residency of merchants; artists; financiers and other “well-off” people of the like. For instance, the housing was very ornate. Windows were decorated with fancy curtains. The tops of buildings had ornate “gables” with depictions or decorous patterns. In some alleyways there is elaborate graffiti, which was once considered an art:

Also, the real Amsterdam happens to be the artistic capital of the Netherlands and has many museums. There are a couple of art galleries in SL Amsterdam, but the mature areas seem to be in more populated areas. This little beauty didn't open until close to the end of our project:

There were also many places to store items. Merchants in real-life Amsterdam used to build pulley-systems into their homes so that they could transfer the items they stored there from floor to floor. In “About Land,” SL Amsterdam is deemed a “commercial sim," and it is possible to store your items in a warehouse or a train:

I suppose that in a port city, it would be logical for there to be a lot of foreign influences. Below is a picture of a Chinese restaurant in SL Amsterdam: