Syncretia

Second Life sims exist for a multitude of purposes. Some are there to promote companies or specific products; some are private meeting areas; some are for educators; some are the playgrounds of role-players; some are shopping malls and some are simply residents' second homes. A very few are there "just because" - and one that might fit this category is Syncretia. The sim belongs to Elif Ayiter (Alpha Auer in Second Life) who, according to her website, is "an artist, designer and educator, specialising in the development of hybrid educational methodologies between art&design and computer science. Elif speaks fluent English and German along with her native tongue, Turkish."

As she explains on Flickr: "Syncretia is my island. It is the third island of an archipelago comprised of die Angewandte on the far west, the Synthetic University in the middle and Syncretia on the east. Both die Angewandte and Synth Uni are domains of my colleague Mosmax Hax, who actually teaches at both these institutions in RL. I intend to use Syncretia for research, education and personal creativity; as well as a building ground for friends to share with me..."

At the moment the island of Syncretia appears to be at an early stage of development - and very much focused on personal creativity (in my view). I stumbled upon it while poring over the Second Life map, and am pleased I did. Even though it is not much further forward than initial terraforming and a small number of objects, I thought it was a lovely place and I like Elif's take on Second Life. Why put plants on the ground when they can float in the air? After all... they don't need nutrients to thrive in SL. Why not have a meeting place at the bottom of the sea? You are hardly likely to drown in SL. I hope to make many return visits to see how the island evolves, since its sensibilities are fairly in tune with my own.

To get a flavour of the place, here are my photos. Since blogger seems to have taken to enforcing downloads when clicking on pictures I thought I'd try something else - so here goes:



Well I like it :-) (Thanks to Xantherus for the viewer tip)