The greatest story ever told — SL History — 1999–2015

Last July, Sniper Siemens rezzed, for a brief two-week period, a delightful installation entitled Second Life History (about which you may read here) that invited visitors to wander on a physical timeline to view the virtual world's development from its earliest days (as LindenWorld) to the present. Now, an expanded and more in-depth version of that installation opens tomorrow, Saturday, February 7, at 3 pm slt at LEA17, entitled The greatest story ever told — SL History — 1999–2015.

As our story begins in 1999, we encounter Linden Lab's Battery Street home, and move forward through 2001 with a model of the first avatar, or primitar (image above); the 2002 opening of Second Life, with its first resident (Steller Sunshine); the introduction of streaming audio in 2004 (resulting in a proliferation of clubs); the 2005 establishment of the Teen Grid; the 2006 feature on the cover of BusinessWeek magazine, which helped launch broad public awareness of Second Life (image below), and Gene Replacement's megaprim hack; the banking failures of 2008; in 2009, the Lab's stance against bots and camping; the introduction of Viewer 2 in 2010; Project Shining in 2012; and many, many more things in between.

The exhibition also celebrates the contributions of Second Life's residents, including the fabulously imaginative builds of the Rezzable team (who gave us Greenies (image below), Tunnel of Light, Crimson Shadow and other venues that are unfortunately now lost to the past) and Burning Life (which receives perhaps a little too much space). The greatest story ever told is sure to delight newer residents who are curious about Second Life's history, and will no doubt bring waves of nostalgia to those who are veterans of the grid. The installation will remain on display through May 31.