It's done.
On September 11, 2007, a virtual reality World Trade Center Memorial will be presented to the people of the world. The location is in Second Life, on the island we have named after the original design: Celestial Requiem NYC. We have built this memorial because, to be blunt, the world needed it done years ago, and the two years longer to await the completion of the "Reflected Absence" memorial in New York city (by Michael Arad and Peter Walker) was in our opinion two years too long.
More, lots more ,coming up.
Roll the Credits
The design was my original 2003 submission to the World Trade Center Memorial Competition. It was easily replicated in Second Life using the eDrawings application. The inputs were a two-dimensional blueprint (see link above) and a spreadsheet detailing the height requirements. The celestial coordinates required for the main exhibit of the memorial were provided compliments of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Solar System simulator.
Funds for the project were provided by myself. The considerable work and technical expertise required to both implement, build and organize the project were provided by a team led by Melody Regent (not her real name, but ask yourself how many real DailyKos names you know) :)
That we met at all was a fluke. I think Melody explains it best:
Like so many seemingly trivial but actually life-changing events, this whole project began with a chance conversation. CS was renting a condo in Venice. Naturally enough, we got to talking about SL, about the freedoms it gives us, the building and scripting possibilities, and the chance to realise and to live dreams, big and small. We also spoke of the intimate relationship between SL and RL and agreed that so much of what happens here is driven by experiences and events in RL. That’s when he told me of his big dream – to create this memorial. It was quite a revelation but I knew and we both realised that I had a team which could make his vision a reality. The friendly chat became a conversation with a purpose.
Neither of us, nor any member of the team was in any doubt about the nature of the task. We weren’t just setting out to create a new sim, or indulge some individual fantasy. This wasn’t a forest or a city, a temple or a maze, this was the World Trade Center – three words that bring a silence and a deep human response whenever they’re spoken. They evoke a vile act of wanton, inhuman destruction – an act so fathomless in its lack of compassion that many would prefer to simply erase it from their minds, force it back into a forgotten history. Perhaps for them the rebuilding of the towers would be too much, would rekindle the pain.
But the more we thought about it, the more we felt a sense of pride, an excitement and a conviction that this was a positive response. There was a sense of defiance in what we were doing. These structures, before and after the event, were symbols of achievement, of the possibilities that are open to people of will and vision. By rebuilding them, we might bring closure for some, help with the healing process, generate hope or even just a small, secret smile of satisfaction.
....
Finally came the choice of how they would appear. That, too, was dictated by the story they tell. These aren’t functional structures. They’re transparent. Because, of course, the towers no longer exist. What remains is the image in people’s minds – they way they used to rise above the Manhattan skyline. In other words, they exist as a memory, a ghost of what they were. But a powerful, resilient, defiant ghost. So we decided it would be a mistake to have them inhabited and used. Their power comes precisely from the survival of those memories, from the persistence of the ghosts and the pride that will never be destroyed.
None of us – Americans or citizens of countries throughout the world – will ever forget the towers, their destruction and the way in which that date fractured global history. This memorial is our small tribute to the event and to everyone who has been affected by it.
Tragedy ennobles the human spirit. We learn from it, we’re made better by understanding it. This memorial – which began as one person’s vision but was turned into a reality by cooperation and teamwork – is dedicated to one particular event but has reverberations and significance far beyond SL and even beyond the event itself. It’s an affirmation of strength, of our determination to prevail, a demonstration that, in the end, our humanity will always win through.
The Results: Incredible.
The pictures say it all.
Ground Plan, original submission to 2003 World Trade Center Memorial Competition
Results, original JPL Simulator Query
This radial pattern marks the location of the six planets out to Saturn, the Moon and the four great moons of Jupiter (the 11 first worlds discovered) at 0846EST on 11 September 2001. When the 9/11 Attacks Began. The Earth and Moon are at roughly "9 o'clock" on this picture.
We cannot rebuild the WTC; we do not try here. We restore their image...apparitions in the mist, built to precise scale. Sunbeams past through them, as would anything else. They will remain unchanged and untouchable forever.
We have left the rooftops solid; it is possible to land on the Towers, for a moment of reflection.
It takes about nine seconds to fall from this height. Yes, I have tried it, and I have thought about the people who jumped, every time.
As I said, the towers are apparitions. This is me after having stepped just inside the phantom structure.
In real life this would be Fulton Street. The Memorial proper is on the far side of the North Tower phantom.
A clearer shot, same angle.
Walking through the apparition, toward the memorial.
This is the inside of the phantom structure; yes, those are low-hanging clouds wafting through the World Trade Center.
From here the red granite pillars are now clear, the star shaped array of pillars that converges on the celestial timestamp.
The pillars grow taller as one coverges; the tallest pillars are offset, on the SW side of the central dais.
Looking up to capture backdrop of the phantom towers. The low dais is where the celestial timestamp is located.
This is the view as seen from a person of average height; the center wheel of red granite is about 10 meters across and in real life would weigh approximately 80 tons.
The tallest pillars are about 20 meters high.
Lighting to be installed shortly.
Here as in the real New York, city life continues. The Memorial is an island of repose in the midst of the downtown bustle. Those who can, come. Those who cannot, know they can at a later date.
And now our visit is done. We will be introducing the memorial to the world on September 11 of this year. We invite you to attend, if you can. Most of all , we ask you to remember.
Of Course, I Get the Last Word
This is from what will be my draft speech on 11 September:
Behind me loom two ghosts; the most invisible buildings in the world. I speak, of course, of the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center buildings destroyed the morning of September 11, 2001. For six years all that has stood in their place is a short, simple slogan: 9/11.
We have in their place here two holographic images, made to scale, no more real than a glint of light or the shadow of a passing cloud, but rest assured...they are no longer invisible. They are ghosts; you can walk through them like a sunbeam and they will remain, unchanged. But you will be changed, because the Twin Towers, gone as they are, will never be invisible again.
Here in front of me is the the memorial proper, a star shaped array of red granite, so hard that they can only be cut with diamond saws, a procession of pillars converging on a 20 meter-wide central disc.
Set on this circle of stone will be a 10 meter-wide emblem, which will have on it a star shaped pattern as well. Eleven rays of gold, reaching out as if from the Sun itself, in an offset pattern. What does it mean? What does this have to do with 9/11?
Why, everything. The rays mark the moment of destruction itself.
At 08:46 Eastern Standard Time, on 11 September 2001, all the many worlds and moons of the Solar System were in a particular location; for every moment in time that has ever been or ever will be, there is a particlar configuration.
The ray pattern marks where the planets out to Saturn, the Moon and the four big moons of Jupiter were when the attacks began.
These were the first 11 bodies of the solar system that were discovered, from the time Humanity first noticed the lights in the sky to when Galileo first pointed his telescope and observed the four great moons of Jupiter.
Sometimes this life surpasses us; the pace, the intensity, the sense of closeness with others, the absence of certain privacy. We come to know one another very quickly; that can be wonderful. It can also be quite frightening, and the chance for misunderstanding and hurt, angry feelings is always there.
There is plenty of pain in life, plenty of loss. Every life has this, and every life has healing and recovery. 9/11 was a great wound to our country, yet we have not moved past the pain, the loss, the injury.
We are frozen in pain, and until we start to remember and heal, we will remain in the moment of flame and flying paperwork and falling bodies, and we can linger there no more.
And this goes for all lands and all people; we must free ourselves from our own moments of pain, because there are too many grudges, too many causes, too many reasons for silence and clinging to dark memories and harrowing nightmares. We cannot remain frozen in pain any further, for it is slowly driving our world mad.
Let it be that everyone who comes to this place of remembrance and regard
find that cornerstone of common ground -- that as we all can hurt, each and every one of us can heal.
This place offers no flags, no slogans, no anthems. The memory of what was, and the hope for what will be, and the healing whose time is now does not require such things. The moment we commemorate is written in the heavens themselves, where worlds were when our world changed.
Yes, our world changed after 9/11; it was moving before, and it kept moving. As did all the worlds everywhere. as did most the world we live in.
Yet we remained frozen in pain....and in silence. It is time we moved on, as well.
We cannot linger in the instant of flame and fear, locked in the nightmare, for the rest of our lives.
We are not helpless, we are not victims, but we need to nudge each other awake.
We need to say softly to our brethren, here and there "Wake up. You were having a nightmare. Do you want to talk about it?"
This one country is a nation of 300 million very strong, opinionated, valuable people.
We have so much to give to each other and to the world
As builders
As creators
As makers
As healers
We are all this, still. We are neither fully devils or angels, but both. And we must learn how to move on, to get on, to become each day more than what we were the day before.
And as we have learned so well in this place, the way to building, to hoping, to healing, to learning, to making dreams real and making certain those dreams stay good and true is through talking.
And this lesson we can take everywhere. All we need to do is wake up, to let loose the tears we have feared for so long, and get back to the work we do best: leading by example, leading the world to a better future, for when we look to our better angels, the world looks with us not out of obligation but out of admiration.
We need to talk, all of us. To awaken, and begin the work of healing that has been set aside for six years too long.
We will awaken, and look about, and begin the long-silent conversation again.
We will rebuild, my friends.
One stone, one step
One hope, one truth at a time
One day, one song,
One child, one prayer at a time
And sing, I hope, one day for true with
One voice
One anthem as
One people
May it be for all time. Thank you
Top Comments - Thanks to Sardonyx Bailing Me Out
Sorry, but tonight I am TOTALLY glomming off of submissions. What are are reading here is the product of almost three months of my non-working life. Darn right I am cutting corners tonight. :)
~~~~~
Send your Top Comments nominations to:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
Please include your Daily Kos user name and the direct link to the comment(s) you're nominating: you can get it from that comment's date/time link. As long as your mail arrives by 9:30pm Eastern Time, you're likely to see them in that night's diary.
pfiore8 and Janet Strange and CT Liberal all submitted this nomination:
Before we start any more wars maybe Congress should read this comment by Ming Vase. There's nothing more that needs to be said. From clammyc's diary ["...You don't introduce new products in August" http://www.dailykos.com/...
sardonyx has a late nominee from last night and one from tonight:
DSPS owl relates A shocking statistic on maternal mortality from Dr A's diary World Tour IV: Viking Medicine.
After Eddie C's "Testosterone Tip Jar" for his "Got a happy Story?" diary, rserven's reply induces another Eddie to adulterate his beer in an unfortunate manner.
Crashing Vor considers the subject line of Mary 2002's comment one of the most poetic things anyone could say about the Bush years. Or any other sad thing.
teacherken writes:
I have one from my diary We have to do something different here: Donna Z offers an incredibly thoughtful comment entitled About those visionaries, which I really think she should expand and turn into its own diary to give it more visibility.
tryptamine sent the following:
shpilk explains the common ground between us and our Republican neighbors in order to understand how to bridge the gap. From the diary My neighbor, John by feduphoosier.
From rserven:
From the diary Teacher's Lounge: Defective Products? — Lefty Mama writes there's lots of disparity in the early grades, and algebrateacher comments about [The unusually "ready" student in the classroomhttp://www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/9/1/114022/8251/33#c33].
emeraldmaiden sent these nominations:
From the diary My Neighbor, John by feduphoosier: BenGoshi thinks this comment by simaramis is worthy of Top Comment status, so I thought I would pass it along. Also, I think this comment about Midwestern Republicans by danthrax is right on the money.
This conversation in WYFP was started by exiledinTN, but citizenx quickly ramped up the giggles.
Top Mojo - Thanks AGAIN to Sardonyx Bailing Me Out :)
Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, and C&J comments:
1) Terrifying is the word I want to use by vigilant meerkat — 72
2) I like it, too. by Leslie H — 68
3) I had this discussion with some fundamentalists by DWG — 64
4) I hope you jumbled the details by Shahryar — 63
5) I'm being followed by a Moon Shadow... by Brahman Colorado — 57
6) Right wing churches use Paul & the OT by FishOutofWater — 53
7) Scary by Sagebrush Bob — 50
8) looking for cheap mojo... by bsmcneil — 49
9) You have to admit it. John Edwards knows that by funluvn1 — 46
10) I like this diary a lot by Tyrannocaster — 45
11) The election was the first sign by feduphoosier — 45
12) if we attack iran by Turkana — 45
13) you actually have a u.s. senator who is by rasbobbo — 44
14) More state fair fun (3 photos) by Kayakbiker — 44
15) Sinrud is a fool, but there's something worth by Cartoon Peril — 43
16) People are truly beginning to become aware of by funluvn1 — 42
17) Not Wesley Clark by phillysuse — 41
18) Mojo Rising!!!! by jsamuel — 40
19) Happy Saturday! :-) by Common Sense Mainer — 40
20) Which means . . . by antifa — 40
21) There seems to be... by turnover — 40
22) PASSION FLOWER by sheddhead — 39
23) This should be easy considering Tucker is by funluvn1 — 39
24) Standard Repulican Pathology: Projection by WinSmith — 38
25) Just someone there who was holding a sign by Red State Rebel — 38
26) sad week by Bill W — 38
27) That's my issue. by RenaRF — 38
28) omg omg monsters in the garden! by Runs With Scissors — 37
29) There were also a lot of lies from lenders by barbwires — 37
30) I am leaning towards Obama because he seems by Owllwoman — 37
31) WAY too much. by homerun — 37
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Thanks for stopping by by feduphoosier — 298
2) I won't tell anyone who she is btw by Maccabee — 248
3) What are they waiting for? by KingOneEye — 174
4) Tip jar by Liberal Protestant — 146
5) Powerful Endorsement?? by Granny Doc — 132
6) Hoping this has some value to someone by teacherken — 117
7) So much for celebrating Labor Day weekend by Jeffrey Feldman — 115
8) Tips by okamichan13 — 106
9) here I wish I was! by buhdydharma — 106
10) I know there are a great many by clammyc — 103
11) Tip Jar - 1 September by Jerome a Paris — 90
12) Tips for Edwards getting his mojo! by sarahlane — 85
13) Good morning gardeners! by Frankenoid — 82
14) and by Turkana — 82
15) Tip jar. by BruinKid — 74
16) Terrifying is the word I want to use by vigilant meerkat — 72
17) Tip Jar by LithiumCola — 71
18) Tips because "Nothing could be finer than by TomP — 70
19) I like it, too. by Leslie H — 68
20) I had this discussion with some fundamentalists by DWG — 64
21) I hope you jumbled the details by Shahryar — 63
22) Could someone explain this for me . . . by nyceve — 59
23) I'm being followed by a Moon Shadow... by Brahman Colorado — 57
24) Right wing churches use Paul & the OT by FishOutofWater — 53
25) Tip jar by occams hatchet — 52
26) can i be the first one to say by bsmcneil — 52
27) Scary by Sagebrush Bob — 50
28) looking for cheap mojo... by bsmcneil — 49
29) Bless and honor them. by noweasels — 49
30) You have to admit it. John Edwards knows that by funluvn1 — 46
Forgot to Add: Words From A Song I Wrote
Not all the words; the ones that matter.
And through the dark and hapless time
Through shadowed ruins roam
Still there stand bright rays of hope
That shine, and call us home
And though in time the last banner
At taps' sad sound be furled
While we the people yet endure
Hope shall prevail this world
For we will, gather'd, know that we
Are truly one and truly free
No matter who the storm may take
We stand fast for each other's sake
We stand fast for each other's sake
So when adrift and lost you roam
Know, friend, that you yet have a home
For we are one and you are free
To call on us in time of need
For "We the People" are, indeed.
For "We the People" are, indeed.