Having left Arkansas, Dr. Ikegami and the NHK crew arrived in beautiful Jackson, Wyoming, a mountain town set in between various big US national parks. Here we would visit an autistic avatar Larre who is a devoted musician and trance music DJ in Second Life. Larry (in real life) has worked in a local supermarket for 18 years.
Larry’s many avatars
The airport at Jackson, Wyoming was beautiful, situated right in front of snow peaks in the northern mountains of the United States.Picking up the equipment and luggage at the airport (itself, very beautiful).A small group shot outside of the airport.The airport and the town of Jackson are in the middle of a mountainous area, in between three different national parks.Outside, Dr. Ikegami is filmed walking towards Larry’s apartment.Larry and Dr. Ikegami.Already inside Larry’s apartment, he shows us his Second Life life.
He’s a DJ, making all the preparations for his dance event the next day. Larry has three main Second Life avatars. For all of them to appear at the same time, he needed to use three computers simultaneously.Normally, he uses each one of these avatars for different purposes. “Larre”, who resembles him the most physically, will be his virtual DJ alter ego for the event.
Dr. Ikegami joins Larre in Second Life. He sends her a “teleport request” to make their avatars appear in the same place.Larry’s many avatars united in Second Life, along with Kiremimi.
Larry’s avatars, with Robert (Dr. Ikegami’s research assistant) as “Falkor”, at the end.In Second Life, communicating through respective avatars.Mr. Takeuchi filming Second Life on Larry’s screens. Notice that Larry’s apartment was very small, but had everything needed to focus on music-making.
Larry most loves doing music, especially Trance. Second Life allows him to be a producer and DJ, despite the fact that Jackson is not really a town where proper venues for this kind of music exist. He still needs to make some money to keep up with what he loves, so also works the night shift at a local supermarket.Just a reminder that we are in an area of national parks. This is at the supermarket where Larry works.Larry does not drive (when he was young his father told him he should not, as he could get easily distracted), so takes the bus to work at night. It takes him about 45 minutes to get to work this way.He likes working at night (stocking shelves) because he avoids being overwhelmed by people or “too many inputs.”Dr. Ikegami and Larry have a small conversation about his work at the supermarket, which he has done for 18 years. Being on the autism spectrum does not mean he cannot have a job or be independent.The supermarket’s backroom. Fortunately, most of his co-workers understand that Larry can sometimes be overwhelmed. Sometimes he uses this space to calm down.Filming at the supermarket late at night. It has been a very long day.
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