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We created Richard’s island in the shape of his treasured Gretsch Guitar. Visitors land in the centre of the island where a sign-post gives directions to the three main areas – ‘Fargate’, ‘High Storrs’ and ‘Low Edges’.These are all real places in Sheffield but on Richard’s island ‘Fargate’ is at the end of the pier (where you can buy an animated copy of Richard’s guitar – see below), ‘High Storrs’ is the location of Richard’s house and the secret bunker (see below) and ‘Low Edges’ is the beach and performance area. Beyond the signpost is a bus-shelter with an adshell advertising the release of Richard’s latest album. On arrival visitors are given a notecard encouraging them to join the group ‘Richard Hawley Fans’ to receive news about special offers and performance events. This group is a useful data capture tool for Mute. |
  
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Richard’s house appears as if its been violently torn from his real-life street and has been transplanted to a precarious cliff-top location on a remote desert island. In the process its lost a couple of walls and the rafters are exposed (removing the walls serves a practical purpose in that it aids navigation around the house). There’s lots to interact with – click on the doorbell and it rings, click on the windows and they open. Outside the house one of Richard’s kids has left his trike (in Sheffield Wednesday colours) – sit on it and it’ll take you on a rollercoaster ride to the beach. In the yard at the back pick up a free t-shirt from the washing line. The house is an architecturally accurate model of Richard’s real-life Sheffield home. 
The living room contains a number of interactive objects. The television features a selection of Richard’s videos which can be selected by pressing the channel buttons. The jukebox contains many of Richard’s favourite songs (from the Chess Records back catalogue and over 50 years old to avoid copyright issues). You can play as many tracks as you like and the display shows dynamically generated type with the current track and the queued selection. The bookshelf shows his favourite books and dvds and links to an Amazon affiliate webpage where they can all be purchased. Mute receive 5% from Amazon for all sales. The mobile phone will link to downloadable ringtones and the clock on the wall always tells the right time! 
In the kitchen Richard’s ‘Roberts Radio’ plays a choice of his favourite internet radio stations. At the cooker Richard has been preparing a tasty meal of beans on toast. In the cupboard above is a stash of Henderson’s Relish bottles – but be careful how you open it – they might all fall out! If you fancy doing the washing up click on the sink. 
In the back bedroom you’ll find unpacked boxes of memorabilia from Richard’s previous bands – Pulp and The Longpigs. On the laptop that sits on one of the boxes you can follow a link through to his website. In the bathroom why not take a shower or use the loo – but remember to flush! In Richard’s bedroom pick up a pair of his trademark sunglasses which he’s left on the bed. 
Hidden behind the house is a mysterious half-open manhole cover emitting a curious green glow. Click on the cover and you’ll be taken to a secret bunker. Inside the bunker is Richard’s Chesterfield Armchair. Click on it and your avatar will assume the pose that Richard takes on the cover of his latest album. Take a photo of yourself and share it with friends. |
 
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At the far end of the island you’ll find a billboard offering you the opportunity to ‘Play Guitar Like Richard Hawley’. Click on the sign and, if you’re a member of the Richard Hawley Fans group, you can buy a replica copy of Richard’s Gretsch guitar for 500 Linden Dollars (non-members pay 1000 Linden Dollars). The guitar comes with a looped guitar track and Richard’s motion captured hand and arm movements which will make your avatar play the guitar just like the man himself. |
 
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When Richard is in-world this is where he plays – on a beach littered with beer cans, tyres, a motley selection of old chairs and abandoned shopping trolleys. If Sheffield had a beach this is what it would look like. For the launch event Richard played a live acoustic set to an invite only audience. Audio was streamed live from our studio in to Second Life and Richard’s avatar was animated on the fly using pre programmed motion captured movements (see also movie ‘The Making of Richard Hawley’s Second Life’). |
 
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Richard’s avatar looks like the real thing even down to his hair-lip. With the addition of motion captured common movements such as walking, drinking, smoking and playing guitar his avatar really comes to life. |
 
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We have created a short movie documenting the making of Richard Hawley's Second Life. This includes footage of Richard's reaction to seeing his avatar for the first time and also Richard performing live from our studio. You can also view a short insert made by BBC North West for their nightly news programme. |
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If you have the Second Life application installed you can visit Richard Hawley's Island in Second Life by following this link. If you don't have the viewer then follow the download link below. |
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You can download all of the items displayed on this page by using the links below, Images are avaliable at a much higher resoulution while the video's are the same size but in downloadable quicktime format.If you don't already have the Second Life viewer installed you can download it here. Download Second Life viewer |
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