Remembering 9/11 in Second Life
By Eric Reuters
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Odin Liam Wright was in his apartment three blocks from the World Trade Center. After the second plane hit, he ran for refuge up New York’s West Side Highway, fleeing the smoke and debris. He lost family members and friends of friends.
Now an accomplished Second Life builder, Wright, known in the virtual world as Liam Kanno, constructed the September 11th Memorial in Second Life, a hauntingly beautiful tribute to the 2,974 people who perished in the calamity.
“I experienced 9/11 first hand,” Wright said. “After that, I spent the next several years going to monasteries, spending time painting.” He also entered the WTC Memorial Competition.
Like Wright, avatar Jethrony Hax was blocks from the towers in New York on the day of the attacks six years ago. “I have chills,” Hax said on Tuesday as he took in the virtual memorial. “The mood, the weather, the flowers, the pictures. It’s a true tribute.”
The memorial had been attracting 1,500 visitors a day, so many the site’s curators had to disable the tracking programs to improve performance at the heavily-trafficked sim. Wright hopes to make the September 11th Memorial a permanent fixture in Second Life.
(Photo courtesy of Odin Liam Wright)
