Welcome to the Spacexcape Project.

The Spacexcape Project started over two years ago, as part of an ongoing enquiry into the "Blurred Edges: Perspectives on Reality" project by Alison Aylwin Raimes, a London based mixed media installation artist.

Spacexcape, is a virtual reality character created by Alison in the online worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft. In the first, Spacexcape works in a collaborative team of artists, scientists and philosophers to create an experiential, interactive installation that allowed other online avatars to participate in the project.

In World of Warcraft, the scenario is very different. Spacexcape's journey takes her through a world of conflict and battle in an attempt to understand the environment that attracts millions of players. This is a young, male dominated environment that is alien to Spacexcape as she encounters the addictive and compulsive behaviour of the predominantly adolescent users.

In both environments there are similar yet contradictory situations. Specific language becomes imperative to the sense of belonging that each environment creates. To be new to the games is a crime and the term 'noob' is used as abuse at anyone who displays the qualities of being a newcomer to the game. There is bullying in both environments and in a lot of cases, inflated egos dominate the behaviour of the players. One-up-manship is strife. At the same time, there is a camaraderie amongst the players that is familiar in competitive sports. The game provides an immense challenge that is addictive and subject to obsessive behaviour. But, of course, there are many who just enjoy playing the game in the same way as watching TV.

Identity play an important role in their acceptance into both worlds - players want to fit in and stand out at the same time. In both worlds, there is commerce - in Second Life this commerce is 'real' in that it involves actual currency. In World of Warcraft the commerce is internal (like monopoly) and no money is exchanged outside of the game. Avatars take on a character which is often completely different to their 'real' character and the forums provide environments for relationships to develop in various forms.

Above all, the Spacexcape Project questions what is and what is not 'reality' through the eyes of the user.

Blue Mars is now live and Spacexcape Phase 3 will start there in the next few weeks. In this stage, the Spacexcape Project will embrace the gaming of WoW and the creativity of Second Life to produce an installation that is both educational and at the same time experiential.

This project is not intended to make conclusions but to observe and reflect on the affects on the way online, cyber worlds are changing the way we see the 'world'.