The Alphaville Herald

[Now With Pictures!] Second Death? Design-Your-Own-Coffin Contest Kicks Off Today

by Alphaville Herald on 06/02/07 at 11:07 am

Ghaniain coffins — Can you do as well in Second Life?

Dutch funeral company Uitvaart and coffin-makerer Bogra are so excited about Second Life that they’re already thinking about virtual death. And they want your help. The burial-meisters are kicking off a design-your-own-coffin contest today, according to a press release. Pick up your free modifiable virtual coffin at the Bogra office in SL’s »Tathlina« region. You then have until March 1 to trick it out as something fit for your personalized burial and return it to SL resident Gwendolyn Kronsage. “The finished coffin needs to be accompanied by a notecard describing the design, as we would like to know why residents decorated the coffin the way they did and what materials they used,” according to a press release. Rather hilariously, the rules of the contest stipulate that “only biodegradable materials can be used in the design process” — though this is apparently “to guarantee the feasability of the Real Life production of the winning coffin.”

Entries will be photographed and displayed at the Bogra office during March, after which a jury of experts will select the winner, which will be “taken into Real Life production by Bogra Netherlands. This coffin will also be displayed at (international) funeral fairs as the first coffin that has been designed in an online community.” W00t! (I guess.)

There is, of course, a long tradition of wild and crazy coffins in different parts of Africa, and you can even order them from abroad. A good explanation of the tradition can be found on this Flickr page, which also displays a few good cow, beer and pineapple coffins.

But coffins for Second Life avatars? Heck, if they’re having babies, who knows?

For more information, contact gwendolyn.kronsage [AT] gmail.com

[UPDATE: Flickrator Walt Jabsco was kind enough to give us permission to use a couple of pics from his Flick set of photos taken on a recent trip to Ghana. That's one of Walt's shots at the top of the story, and here's another:]