[iDC] Anyone using SL

Wed Jan 6 18:03:47 UTC 2010

I am a huge fan of the Second Life of art of Ball State University's John
Fillwalk (Second Life's Mencius Watts). We have blogged a bit about him
here: http://eurekadejavu.blogspot.com/search?q=fillwalk

His Flickr Gettr installation featured prominently in our Understanding
Islam through Virtual Worlds graphic novel and documentary as a way of using
art and social media in virtual worlds for cultural relations.

<http://eurekadejavu.blogspot.com/search?q=fillwalk>John bridges his virtual
world installations with physical world art -- including acoustic and
musical -- and creates installations in which virtual world objects when
touched or manipulated, create concurrent physical world music that you can
also hear in virtual worlds. Very cool stuff.

We host a number of his installations on "The Imagination Age," our islands
in Second Life. Ping me off list if you would like a tour. I'm also copying
John in (not sure if he is on the idc list).

-- 
Joshua S. Fouts
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs;
Senior Fellow, Digital Media and Public Policy, The Center for the Study of
the Presidency
Chief Global Strategist, Dancing Ink Productions, LLC
e: josh at dancinginkproductions.com
web: dancinginkproductions.com
blog: www.eurekadejavu.com
twitter/skype: josholalia
Second Life: Schmilsson Nilsson

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 1:00 AM, Stephanie Rothenberg
<info at pan-o-matic.com>wrote:

> Hi Andreas,
>
> I think people are still using SL but more of a dedicated crew and for
> more goal oriented purposes.
>
> IN TERMS OF ARTISTS there's the well known virtual performance troupe
> Second Front (http://www.secondfront.org) that includes IDC'ers Scott
> Kildall (also "No Matter" project) and Patrick Lichty (virtual man
> genius). I believe Patrick is doing a project related to Warhol's
> factory in SL but I'll let him chime in on that himself.
>
> There is transgender artist Micha Cardenas who did a durational
> project in SL about becoming transgendered called "Becoming Dragon"
> http://turbulence.org/blog/2008/12/31/second-life-becoming-dragon-micha-cardenas
> http://ucsdopenstudios.com/2009/artists.php?a=Micha_Cardenas
>
> John Craig Freeman's "Imaging Place" - a great global mapping project
>
> http://institute.emerson.edu/vma/faculty/john_craig_freeman/imaging_place/imaging_place.html
> Also by John and Will Pappenheimer is Virta-Flaneurazine (Walter
> Benjamin's flaneur in SL)
>
> http://www.willpap-projects.com/Docus/Projects_List/MainProjectsFrameset.html
>
> Then there are numerous re-enactments:
> Eva and Franco Mattes' Synthetic Performances (2007 - 2008) are a
> series of six re-enactments of historic performances of the 60s and
> 70s, staged by the artists’ virtual alter-egos in the synthetic world
> of Second Life.
> http://www.reakt.org/imponderabilia/index.html
> And Joseph DeLappe: Gandhi’s “Salt March to Dandi” in Second Life
> http://saltmarchsecondlife.wordpress.com
>
> Jack the Pelican Presents, a gallery in W'bg Bklyn also hosts the
> ongoing podcast "Brooklyn is Watching", an informal discussion-based
> show about art in SL
> http://brooklyniswatching.com
> And also Ars Virtua Gallery in SL continues to feature new inworld
> exhibitions:
> http://arsvirtua.com
>
> And of course there are lots of bad artists that continue to emerge
> but as the article you posted states, Linden Labs keeps making more
> islands so there's a space for everyone.
>
> ON THE ACADEMIC FRONT there are all the great resources that the
> previous emails listed. More and more universities are using SL for
> collaborative, discussion-based learning and for simulation training.
> The ability to role-play in a real time collaborative environment is
> actually very effective. There are many videos on youtube documenting
> college level training programs from training border patrol guards to
> flight attendant safety for rogue passengers to dentistry. At SUNY
> Buffalo where I teach, the medical school is developing a virtual
> triage unit to evaluate their ER and to train staff. Many schools are
> moving over to the open sim which is more cost effective and gives
> more autonomy. In my own classroom I use SL b/c students can easily
> create prototypes and realizations of their ideas and it encourages
> collaboration. It's also a great way to talk about issues of digital
> labor/playbor.
>
> The architecture and urban planning community has also been using it a
> lot and developing some interesting tools.
> http://studiowikitecture.wordpress.com
>
> There are also many activist communities and non-profits that hold
> regular meetings and events. These groups use SL to mobilize real
> world actions, fundraise, share information and stay connected. You
> might say why not just use email or a blog but to communicate via an
> avatar is actually much more engaging. Its expensive to set up a multi-
> person video chat so SL is more feasible and as the article says, you
> can use voice.
> Here's a list of some:
> http://www.techsoup.org/community/secondlife
> http://virtualnativelands.org/
> This lists several orgs doing interesting work
> http://lindenlab.com/lindenprize/finalists
>
> In terms of ECONOMICS, I agree that most people making some of their
> livelihood inworld are doing this thru virtual real estate but there
> are many other types of inworld jobs that generate all or partial
> income. Aside from the more well known jobs such as personal "escorts"
> and the builders who create virtual consumables, there are wedding
> planners, people who work in or run virtual maternity clinics for
> pregnancy services (bot babies), people who own or work in spas, music
> performers, club dancers, doctors, therapists. I've been researching
> people who do similar jobs in their real life and in their Second LIfe
> and there is definitely a cross over.
>
> So to sum it all up, I think you either have an affinity for virtual
> environments or you don't and those who stick with it have found an
> important purpose for it  whether it be an artistic medium, education/
> training and/or technical development, or money making. And then there
> are those that have found that the social networking is very important
> in their lives because they don't get a lot of f2f contact (i.e. live
> in remote locations, are physically disabled or elderly and are unable
> to leave the house).
>
> cheers,
> Stephanie
>
> Stephanie Rothenberg
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Visual Studies
> University at Buffalo
> stephanie at pan-o-matic.com
> .........................................
> www.pan-o-matic.com
> http://rev-it.org
>
>
>
> On Jan 5, 2010, at 11:33 AM, Andreas Schiffler wrote:
>
> >
> > Ran across the article "Whatever happened to Second Life?"
> >
> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/354457/whatever-happened-to-second-life/1
> > Quote: "Three years on, and Second Life seems no closer to finding a
> > respectable reason for being than it did in 2006."
> >
> > In Slashdot comments, people are dropping for various reasons, from
> > the
> > lack of "combat physics" to the loss of being "free of all rules and
> > social restrictions". As for myself, I never found it very compelling
> > beyond the technical if its sheer scale and that it was cross-platform
> > with functional Mac and Linux clients.
> >
> > My question to the list: Is anyone still using SL and if so for what?
> >
> > --Andreas
> > _______________________________________________
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