[iDC] The SL Unleashing.
Mechthild Schmidt
mschmidt at nyc.rr.com
Wed Jan 13 02:04:26 UTC 2010
Micha and list,
Your experience with LL bureaucracy is not what I would have
expected. My supportive mail was based on small to mid-scale student
projects, my own art work and my general support of open source and
the community it fosters. None of my uses require extensive research -
... So I humbly adjust my view on LL support of academia.
Best,
Mechthild Schmidt
On Jan 12, 2010, at 2:34 PM, micha cardenas / azdel slade wrote:
> I forgot to add, but wanted to share, about the university/artist
> pricing... To be totally safe, let's say that I have a close friend
> who recently started working on a project with a local medical
> school to do simulations for hospitals of expensive things like
> evacuations and difficult things like pandemic virus outbreaks.
> Their group was in discussion with linden labs about getting a grid/
> nebraska server, but it was hugely expensive (55k) and the
> restrictions were outrageous. Not only were they not allowed to
> even have access to the command line on the machine or install any
> software, they said they were responsible for backup (how, if we
> can't install backup software or access the database???) because
> they were "likely" to lose all of our data (scripts and objects)
> any time there was a software upgrade. They also worded the
> contract so that they own any "derivative works" and the group owns
> "artistic output" but were very vague about what that meant, only
> saying that "artistic output" means video, images and sounds, but
> refusing to say that the group owns what they'd actually be
> spending most of their time building, scripts and objects. After
> that insane debacle they decided to put our energy into researching
> opensim and that's where they're headed now.
>
> I could go on and on, but that would bore you, and it was totally
> clear that linden labs is only interested in building up a walled
> garden, and they treat corporate/educational customers with their
> own grid machines the same as opensim, as a terrifying "outside" to
> be kept as separate as possible.
>
>
> 2010/1/11 micha cardenas / azdel slade <azdelslade at gmail.com>
> Hi all,
>
> I just wanted to chime in quickly, because I'm swamped this week...
> Thanks for mentioning my work earlier, I really appreciate it. (and
> liz, i'm a she! ;-) ) Stephanie mentioned to me that I should
> pop in here and the discussion has been very engaging already.
>
> It seems like this is often a problem new media artists are faced
> with, or i feel faced with, is wanting to engage a critique of
> technology by using that technology, and the danger of advertising
> that technology or being the avant-garde that leads to later
> commodification. I see often in San Diego these cheap little
> minicars with GPS audio tours of the city and think of how locative
> media has been commodified that way. Or the other day I bought my
> first online video through amazon because I couldn't find episode
> 12 of fringe anywhere else, and it was exactly like all the other
> sites, megavideo, etc, except with a $2 charge. In that case, the
> pirates totallypaved the way for a profitable service and amazon
> reaps the rewards.
>
> So I often find people looking at my work and thinking I love
> second life or I'm promoting it in a way. But I still hope that I
> can subvert the original intention of these technologies for
> something I think is more ethical or positive. Like when I used an
> HMD in my performance, all the ad's for HMD's are military guys
> training for warfare, not transgender / transexual people
> developing new genders. Or similarly with the Transborder Immigrant
> Tool, I think we're using the GPS system, deployed by the US
> military, to subvert borders, not exactly their intended use.
>
> I have a lot of strong critiques of linden labs, but my hope is
> that they're just the AOL before the Internet, as I wrote in this
> series of articles:
>
> http://arsvirtuafoundation.org/research/2008/08/01/_a-warcry-for-
> birthing-synthetic-worlds_-part-1/
> http://arsvirtuafoundation.org/research/2008/08/08/_a-warcry-for-
> birthing-synthetic-worlds_-part-2/
> http://arsvirtuafoundation.org/research/2008/08/15/_a-warcry-for-
> birthing-synthetic-worlds_-part-3/
>
> and that soon we can all move towards opensim and a distributed,
> more "democratic" or horizontal metaverse where we control the
> servers and all kinds of new possibilities will open up.
>
> Until then, I still use SL largely for a question of audience. Its
> hard enough to get people to an event in SL, I think (and when they
> do show up the sim crashes), than to get them to reconfigure their
> viewer to log in to Opensim.
>
> I just try, when I talk about my work, to talk about the critiques,
> how SL can be a space of freedom with regards to gender or bodies,
> but it can also be a space of hyper racism and sexism without
> consequences, and it can be a great space to build your dreams for
> fee, but it is also a hyper commodified space where most people buy
> everything including their eyes and skin. But of course no medium
> is without problems, or platform, I guess a big part of the
> question is how well our work brings the inherent inconsistencies/
> contradictions/conflicts/joys in things to life...
>
> Ok, once I get through more of this week I'll chime in on the
> discussion of DAC...
>
> Thanks!!!
>
> micha
>
>
>
> 2010/1/11 Mechthild Schmidt <mschmidt at nyc.rr.com>
>
> LL gives all academic and not-for-profits a 50% discount on land/
> island purchases.
> That is quite a discount. Most other cost (outside of advertizing)
> such as services, objects, scripts are sold by other SL members not
> by LL.
> The pennies of upload costs for media do not deserve mention.
>
> I believe LL should be a 'model citizen' and promote fair working
> conditions (I'm sure someone from LL is following this topic).
> But (unless the transgressions are egregious) I do separate the
> company from the product they make.
> While wondering myself if SL has stagnated in their development or
> made unwise turns in their management philosophy, I feel there is
> too much Linden-bashing in these posts.
>
> So I feel compelled to come to the defense of SL:
> To me SL is a wonderfully creative tool with a very low learning
> curve for basic tools. I do not expect Maya functionality in a
> real-time app. The camaraderie was mentioned already. SL brings
> together like-minded people across cultures (though anglo-american
> dominated). It is far from perfect, but it has much potential if
> the development keeps up with other virtual or social media platforms.
>
> I find it actually quite a compromise between commercialism and
> altruism. I do not know of another platform with that extent of
> functionality, popularity, accessibility etc that has the option to
> be free of charge at a low level. I know WOW has free servers - but
> you do not own the assets, a hugely important aspect to me.
>
> Yes, I have a laundry list of complaints - but bottom line LL
> provides me with a very affordable, creative tool that they support
> and develop. Of course they have to have commercial clients. It
> would be naive to think they could exists from just the artistic
> and academic community alone, such as Allan's $14 or my own frugal
> ways. In fact we are piggy-backing on the financing of the likes of
> IBM.
>
> So let's play nice and share some of our ideas and playbor.
> (For the record - nobody pays me to write this)
>
> Best,
>
> Mechthild Schmidt
>
>
>
>
>
> Mechthild Schmidt
> Degree coordinator, Clinical Associate Professor
> Digital Communications and Media
> McGhee Division, New York University
> 726 Broadway, #669
> New York, NY 10003
> mschmidt at nyu.edu
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
> on cost of climate bills:
> “... take into account ... the cost of inaction, which is the
> extinction of the human race. Period.”
> Kevin Parker, global head of Deutsche Bank Asset Management, who
> tracks climate policy.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/science/earth/09cost.html?th&emc=th
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
>
>
>
> On Jan 10, 2010, at 11:33 AM, Lynn Hershman wrote:
>
>> The original linden folks were committed to the arts and offered
>> student
>> art competition with not only free land but $5000.00 prizes. Also
>> helped
>> in an installation at the Venice biennalle,
>> San Jose tech museum and my installation at sf moma.
>> I am not sure if this continued when the new administrators came in.
>> Simon Biggs wrote:
>>> I am not aware of Linden sponsoring any academic institutions or
>>> research
>>> projects. However, they do make free land available for one off
>>> time-limited
>>> educational activities. I considered that as a taster to attract
>>> deeper
>>> (paying) involvement, but perhaps it is part of a larger marketing
>>> strategy?
>>>
>>> Best
>>>
>>> Simon
>>>
>>>
>>> Simon Biggs
>>>
>>> Research Professor
>>> edinburgh college of art
>>> s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
>>> www.eca.ac.uk
>>>
>>> Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
>>> CIRCLE research group
>>> www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
>>>
>>> simon at littlepig.org.uk
>>> www.littlepig.org.uk
>>> AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: helen varley jamieson <helen at creative-catalyst.com>
>>> Reply-To: <helen at creative-catalyst.com>
>>> Date: Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:22:04 +1300
>>> To: 'idc' <idc at mailman.thing.net>
>>> Subject: Re: [iDC] The SL Unleashing.
>>>
>>> linden must also benefit enormously from all the academic research
>>> that's been done into/around SL; i wonder, does linden fund/sponsor
>>> anything, or are the universities/researchers paying for their
>>> land etc
>>> as well as donating the research?
>>>
>>> helen
>>>
>>> ricardo at ambriente.com wrote:
>>>> Hello Everyone,
>>>>
>>>> I'm not on Second Life although I'm one of those people who
>>>> created an
>>>> avatar long ago and didn't return to it.
>>>>
>>>> I'm writing now, because when I read about critical artists
>>>> using SL,
>>>> I'm
>>>> dumbfounded by the lack of criticality toward Linden Lab, their
>>>> treatment
>>>> toward employees and that artists using SL are uncritically
>>>> contributing
>>>> to a commercial product with questionable ethics.
>>>>
>>>> I'm largely writing from the position of an educator who has seen
>>>> talented, young students eagerly take jobs with Linden Lab only
>>>> to be
>>>> overworked and underpaid - taken advantage of for lack of
>>>> professional
>>>> experience. Linden Lab has a history of hiring young talented
>>>> college
>>>> graduates, paying them a low salary and demanding well over 8
>>>> hours a
>>>> day.
>>>> Kids stick with the job, because they think it will lead them
>>>> somewhere.
>>>> I find this treatment of young artists entirely unethical. And
>>>> it's
>>>> disappointing to here of critically engaged artists using a
>>>> corporate
>>>> platform without a critical perspective toward the corporation
>>>> that they
>>>> are playing tribute to by contributing to its environment and
>>>> popularity
>>>> while it mistreats its employees.
>>>>
>>>> ricardo
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ____________________________________________________________
>>>
>>> helen varley jamieson: creative catalyst
>>> helen at creative-catalyst.com
>>> http://www.creative-catalyst.com
>>> http://www.avatarbodycollision.org
>>> http://www.upstage.org.nz
>>> ____________________________________________________________
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> micha cárdenas / azdel slade
>
> Lecturer, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego
> Artist/Researcher, Experimental Game Lab, http://
> experimentalgamelab.net
> Calit2 Researcher, http://bang.calit2.net
>
> blog: http://transreal.org
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> micha cárdenas / azdel slade
>
> Lecturer, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego
> Artist/Researcher, Experimental Game Lab, http://
> experimentalgamelab.net
> Calit2 Researcher, http://bang.calit2.net
>
> blog: http://transreal.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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