virtual sweatshop, real clothes

This is really, really interesting. There's a pair of artists at Sundance who are paying characters in the Second Life virtual world virtual currency to operate a virtual machine that generates graphics files of designer jeans. These files are then printed on cotton and assembled into jeans that are wearable by people in 'realspace.' It's interesting on a number of levels.

There's the relationship between 'virtual' and 'real,' certainly. There's another set of issues this raises, though: One can buy Lindens, the virtual currency of Second Life, with your ('real') credit card. The workers in this Second Life/'realspace' factory get paid in virtual currency worth roughly 90 cents for each hour they work. Makes me wonder what the Second Life workers' stories are. Possibilities I can see as to who is attracted to work in a Second Life sweatshop:

• a kid who doesn't have a credit card, or wouldn't be allowed to use it to buy virtual currency;
• someone who is addicted to Second Life and would be interacting with its environment and characters for hours anyway, and so figures s/he may as well get paid for it, even if the pay is horrible;
• people who find it fun to work the virtual machines and/or like their co-workers in the virtual factory (the artists who put this together mention this one specifically).

Curious? Here's some video of the artists at Sundance demonstrating and talking about their work: