The Far Away: Exploring Abandoned Virtual Environments

The Far Away, DreamWorld North was one of the first places I stumbled upon when I returned to Second Life in 2021 to explore abandoned places, isolated landscapes, the old and decaying and forgotten corners of virtual worlds as part of a cyber-landscape art project I’d been thinking about. I’ve always enjoyed wandering around virtual environments – while avoiding the inhabitants that have built them! I believe the majority of people inhabiting virtual worlds do so to meet their needs (needs that cannot be easily met in their off-line worlds) and I’m no different. I’m a city dweller offline but online I’m cyber-urban explorer who enjoys isolated and abandoned spaces free from people.

Far Away by FM Radio, in Second Life, picture 7, photograph by Gillian Hebblewhite — Far Away by FM Radio, in Second Life, photograph by Gillian Hebblewhite, 2022

The Far Away is an immersive interactive 3D art installation built in 2007 by AM Radio. Now curated by Ziki Questi and Kinnaird Resident it does feel like you are in a dream.

Far Away by FM Radio, in Second Life, photograph by Gillian Hebblewhite, 2022

‘[Faraway was created as a place] players could walk around in, often making them feel wistful for a time and place they likely never knew… poignantly evok[ing] an era lost to time, as if remembered in dreams…’
(Au, 2014)

Far Away by FM Radio, in Second Life, picture 9, photograph by Gillian Hebblewhite — Far Away by FM Radio, in Second Life, photograph by Gillian Hebblewhite, 2022

‘Sunlight, for our generation, is something seen through Plexiglass windows, and my art is a reaction against that … an attempt to tear down the fakery, all that plastic in impossible colors and awful rugs and terrible media, like television … And now, here I am in a virtual world, trying to create the organic’
AM Radio cited by Wagner Au, 2014 in his blog ‘AM Radio: The Banksy of Second Life’ – an interesting read if you want to find out more about the artist AM Radio.

Far Away by FM Radio, in Second Life, picture 12, photograph by Gillian Hebblewhite — Far Away by FM Radio, in Second Life, photograph by Gillian Hebblewhite, 2022

A Midwestern wheat field, set back in a time long ago, really does feel far away when you live in Hull, a Northern English city! I thought I would share some of the screenshots I’ve taken so far – but it is well worth a visit of you are on Second Life (while it still exists!).