After lunch, Chris Stephens, Senior Developer with Oxford University Computing Services, shared his Second Life recreation of life and conditions on the Western Front in the 1914-18 time period. The environment uses several levels to model the life in the camps and on the front, and features digitised archival materials from major poets of the time period, as well as shades of soldiers recounting various aspects of life on the front. The WindLight settings were grimly atmospheric, with bomb-blasted trees in silhouette on the horizon. Rats scurried about most realistically and sounds faded in and out as he walked along the trenches in uniform.
As a means of setting a scene to understand literature, this environment succeeded almost too well, as itevoked a depth of emotion unfathomed by reading alone. The senses of sight, sound and touch were engaged, and a desire to learn more instilled. Amazingly, Chris Stephens, with the help of Alun Edwards, had only 6 weeks to complete the re-creation.
If he had not already been an adept builder and scriptor, such a promethean task would not have been possible. Visit the sim in SL, or browse the Flicker photostream. Link to machinima of the sim: Torn Fields – war poets1914-1918
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