Overview

Miri Segal

This documentary film captures the artist's journeys through the virtual world of the popular Internet site Second Life. An avatar of the artist observes the meaning of life and human relations in this imagined world, in which hundreds of thousands of Internet users surf under invented identities. Surfers can "trade" in this world using a currency that can be converted into dollars; gamble and entertain sexual relations; choose for themselves alternate identities; inhabit various spaces and landscapes; and even create art. Segal's observation of this parallel world raises questions concerning the possibility of truly finding refuge in a virtual reality. Employing sophisticated animation techniques, she provides the viewer with multiple perspectives, and allows us to intimately follow the adventures of her avatar. As the film progresses, so does our realization that even in a limitless fantasy, participants continue to desperately long for love, and experience solitude and emptiness.

Born in Haifa, 1965; lives and works in Tel Aviv