A fellow who goes by the handle of Lordfly Digeridoo just posted video of a rapid architectural prototype he did in the virtual world of Second Life. As the real-world location of this development was a 16-acre parcel in Ypsilanti, at the intersection of Forest and Norris, I thought that a few of you might find it of interest. Anyway, the video is cool. (The video compresses one week of work into ten minutes.) I can’t quite get my bearings from the video, but either he’s building over the ruins of the Corner Brewery, or the proposed development is across the street, at what had been the old Motor Wheel facility. Unfortunately, it appears as though the project was just done as an academic assignment (I suspect either at UM or EMU), so I don’t expect that it’ll lead to any real life construction mirroring what now exists in cyberspace. Regardless, I think it’s incredibly cool what these tools are capable of in the right hands… If anyone is aware of other sections of Ypsilanti being built-out in Second Life, drop me a line. I’m curious to know what’s going on behind the mirror.

[This post was going to be much different when I first set out to write it. It was going to be called “What the Fuck is Going on at the Ypsilanti School Board,” but then I got distracted by this artificial world, which, to be quite honest, is much more appealing right now.]