NMC Campus Observer

Symposium Updates

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Oct 12, 2006 05:24pm

It has been another busy day on NMC Campus with the ongoing Symposium on Impact of Digital Media. Today was machinima day, with different SL movies available across campus including Lip Flap and Better Life.

Watching machinima at Gonick Ampitheater– now playing is “Lip Flap”

This was an excellent prelude to Dan Undertone’s session on Experiments in Acting in SL: Movement and Basic Exercises.

I’m Dan Zellner from Northwestern University A few words to give you some background and then we’ll get started. I work in the Digital Media Services unit of the Library and also am Artistic Director of Studio Z - a company that does multimedia theatre work.

The purpose of the acting exercises we’re doing today is to inform a project I’m working on along with members of Penn State University, University of Georgia, and Teatro del Vicolo (Italy). Collaborators include Magy Seif El-Nasr (Penn State), David Saltz (University of Georgia), Antonio Fava (Teatro del Vicolo), Jason Woolfrey (Penn State), Sam Wootten (independent artist). The project is called Canovaccio: Virtual Commedia dell’Arte workshop. We will be working to deliver create this workshop on the NMC Campus.

The activities were basic, but definitely interesting. A few intrepid volunteers got on stage and did some follow the leader type activities, which is not all that easy in SL. Other activities dealt with subtle expressions and the issues of proximity.

Follow the Leader

As Dan mentioned, he is working with us on a whole series of interesting virtual theater projects on NMC Campus. Find more photos in our collection of all Symposium images.

Then, at 2:00 PM, we had our Press Conference announcing the plans for NMC’s Phase II expansion. Larry was on audio with Boliver Oddfellow, CEO of Infinite Vision Media, the outfit awarded the contract to build out the expansion. After a few opening remarks, we flew out to the new land (flat with nothing on it) and held an enaging discussion on a scale model of the new campus:

Discussion of NMC Campus Expansion on a scale model

You can find audio from the session, photos, transcript, the RFP, site plan map, and more at:
http://www.nmc.org/campus/NMC_Campus_Phase_II_Expansion_Project

Also announced, as part of a unique art exhbit, our museum curator Tayzia Abattoir will be setting up a comprehensive exhibit of the works of Starax (read more about him) — since the work is so complex, a new, unbuilt sim is the ideal place for a temporary exhibit. You will learn more about this next week.

Comiing up over the next few days are some more highlighted video segments meant to kindle som thought towards our wiki discussions. — again, stay tuned to the event schedule.

Story filed under: Campus Headlines, What's Happening

See all stories by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine)