reported by NMC Campus Calendar June 20th, 2008
Metanomics, the web’s premier program about the business and policy of virtual worlds, begins an exciting second season on Monday, June 23rd at Noon PST.
For the kick-off program Metanomics host Robert Bloomfield will feature USC’s Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge, with guests Douglas Thomas (Doctor Ludovico in SL) Associate [...]
published June 20th, 2008 at 12:02pm
Department(s): What's Happening
reported by NMC Campus Calendar June 8th, 2008
On Monday, July 7th, at Noon PST, Metanomics will host Bettina Tizzy, Second Life’s tireless advocate for the creation and celebration of content that is not possible in real life (NPIRL).
Join us for a rare interview with Bettina, who has earned the respect of the most elite content creators in the metaverse and [...]
more…
published June 8th, 2008 at 11:17pm
Department(s): What's Happening
reported by NMC Campus Calendar June 3rd, 2008
Do not miss out on seeing this entire sim of artistry created by Madcow Cosmos, which is being held over until Tuesday June the 10th.
Madcow Cosmos was born May 23, 1978. A chef by trade he resides in the pacific northwest of the USA. Initially drawn by the simple-to-use creation tools, SL [...]
published June 3rd, 2008 at 10:02am
Department(s): What's Happening
reported by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) May 22nd, 2008
The Center for Intellectual Property 8th Annual Intellectual Property Symposium takes place May 38-30 in Adlelphi Maryland. But you do not have to be in Maryland; you can also attend and participate in this conference in Second Life, an event we are hosting on the NMC Conference Center.
The theme is “Monopoly: Playing the Innovation Game”.
Join the Center for Intellectual Property for its annual symposium exploring the relationship between the U.S. copyright monopoly, technological innovation and higher education institutions.
Although the default rules in U.S. copyright law encourage exclusive ownership and create a limited monopoly, today’s technological and cultural landscape encourages sharing and collaboration. The result is a high-stakes conflict between copyright law and culture. Where do higher education interests reside?
We will discuss these issues in the context of:
* The Development of User Generated Content
* Mass Digitization Projects
* The Transformation of “Authorship”
* Use of Wikis, Blogs and other Technologies in the Development of Scholarship
All of the sessions from Maryland will be video streamed live into Second Life, and the breakout discussions will take place here as well with summaries shared across locations.
If you are interested in attending, see the online registration and the specific information on the Second Life Simulcast. Oops, regular registration ends May 23!
published May 22nd, 2008 at 03:36pm
Department(s): Campus Headlines
reported by NMC Campus Calendar May 22nd, 2008
The Center for Intellectual Property 8th Annual Intellectual Property Symposium takes place May 38-30 in Adlelphi Maryland. But you do not have to be in Maryland; you can also attend and participate in this conference in Second Life, an event we are hosting on the NMC Conference Center.
The theme is “Monopoly: Playing the Innovation Game”.
[...]
published May 22nd, 2008 at 12:02pm
Department(s): What's Happening
reported by Larry Pixel (aka Larry Johnson) May 15th, 2008
The New Media Consortium (NMC) announced today the call for proposals for the 2008-09 NMC Virtual Learning Prize, a $100,000 competitive program of awards intended to create a collection of innovative open-source learning experiences that make use of the unique attributes of a virtual learning environment. (See the press release.)
As many as 20 NMC Virtual Learning Prizes will be awarded in 2008. Each of the US$5,000 awards will provide a cash incentive paid to the awardee of $500 as well as $4,500 in expert development assistance from the NMC Virtual Worlds team to create the learning experience. The range of inworld services available to awardees to actualize the proposed ideas includes professional building, scripting, design, animation, avatar design, and/or related services.
The NMC is committed to pushing the boundaries of how we collectively view teaching and learning in virtual space. The NMC Virtual Learning Prize is envisioned as a way to surface and realize creative ideas for how to make optimal use of a virtual setting, using a process that provides recognition, financial incentives, professional development services, and a return for education as a whole.
"Projects funded under the NMC Virtual Learning Prize program will be those that make learning fresh or novel, or that illustrate concepts that are usually very difficult to teach," explains Dr. Larry Johnson, NMC's CEO and director of NMC Virtual Worlds. "We are seeking immersive learning experiences in particular, as well as tools that support the craft of teaching. We hope to see a number of proposals with broad applicability across disciplines as that will allow us to maximize the reach of the shared resources that are to be developed under this program."
As a requirement of funding, all materials and content produced as part of the program will be licensed for broad use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Proposal authors will retain full copyright to finished products, and all funded materials will be made available to educators and educational institutions at no cost via either the NMC's Educational Resource Center on Learning in Second Life or via the NMC's website, as applicable.
For the 2008-9 award year, funded ideas will be limited to those that can be implemented in the virtual worlds of Second Life or Project Wonderland. In future years, the program may be expanded to other virtual world platforms.
Review of proposals will begin on June 16, 2008, and proposals will continue to be accepted until all funds have been expended.
For further information, or to download a proposal submission form, please see the Virtual Learning Prize website. Questions related to the criteria or the submission of an application should be directed to virtual-learning@nmc.org.
published May 15th, 2008 at 11:30pm
Department(s): Campus Headlines& Second Life News& Teaching and Learning& What's Happening
reported by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) May 15th, 2008
A stunning new Second Life art show will be opening this Saturday on NMC Campus. “Kiss the Sky” is the definitive exhibition of Hyperformalism in the world of Second Life®, and is a brand new collection of Second Life art curated by DC Spensley (aka DanCoyote Antonelli).
Virtual worlds are a place for discovering new territories and exploring meaning outside the context of the material world. Even in virtual worlds there is an avant garde, a native artform spawned from unique conditions. “Kiss the Sky” is an exhibition of artists that have been wowing viewers since 2006 with art installations indigenous to the virtual world that artist/curator DC Spensley calls Hyperformalism.
We caught up today with DC and recorded a brief interview where he talked about the new show, what Hyperformalism is, and why he thinks this is a historical moment for these Second Life artists. Be sure to check out his new Hyperformalism Ning social networking site.
Interview with DanCoyote (13.3 Mb MP3, 19:22)
On May 17, 2008, 12PM PST, DC will unveil “Kiss the Sky” the definitive group exhibition of Hyperformalism as expressed by over a dozen artists working the discipline in Second Life.
Artists included are the most notable creators in the virtual world of Second Life, chosen specifically for their Hyperformal direction. On display are Chance Abattoir, Vlad Bjornson, nand Nerd, Selavy Oh, Adam Ramona, Nebulosus Severine, AngryBeth Shortbread, Sasun Steinbeck, Sabine Stonebender, Seifert Surface, elros Tuominen, Juria Yoshikawa, and i7o Zhu.
The reception and exhibit are at the NMC Arts Lab (43, 135, 706)
Hyperformalism is non-figurative abstraction in hyper-medium and has been known to include abstract objects arranged in simulated space, navigable on a network as well as expressions of reactive and interactive artwork behaviors and geometric or algorithmic pattern play in 2, 3, and 4 dimensions. This list is far from comprehensive. Because Hyperformalism is not representational, viewer relationships are less fettered by pre-existing symbolic weight and artworks encourage fascination with form for its own sake. The virtual world provides the ability to liberate the work from scale constraints and provides a perfect context for this post-conceptualist form.
With a figure in the picture, nobody notices the landscape. Hyperformalism proposes that that by removing the comfortable cliché of anthropocentricism a viewer will be more open to a whole other class of experiences that resonate on a more basic level of awareness and reflect back to the viewer their own humanity. The perception of immersion and variable point of view implicates the viewer into unique relationships with the work destroying all of the usual boundaries between the viewer and the work.
While space in virtual worlds is a simulation, place can be real. In fact art experiences are the only thing that can be real in both the virtual and material worlds at the same time. Abstractions that exist as discoverable objects are somewhere between object and concept. It is the state of half existence between object and concept that differentiates formal abstraction in virtual worlds from preceeding expressions of formalism, minimalism and abstract expressionism. Hyperformalism is not Modernism, it is not Post-modernism because it is native to a continuum where only the human mind can visit and where the body and the ideological weight of the figure are not the default fixed point of view.
published May 15th, 2008 at 09:54pm
Department(s): Audio / Video& Campus Headlines& What's Happening
reported by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) May 15th, 2008
Look for two events coming up tied to the International Day for Sharing Life Stories, which is Friday, May 16, 2008. During the day, you can be in a Second Life story circle! Any group in SL can get self-organized and participate.
In each story circle, each teller will prompt the next teller the American Indian way, by handing him/her a talking stick.
- Organize a group! Make sure at least one member has the talking stick, which anyone can get by visiting the SL Campusfor the Center for Digital Storytelling at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching%202/209/109/23 and opening the pink box in front of the screen by the dome.
- There should be one talking stick per circle. Circles should have 10 people or less. If more folks show up, they initiate a new story circle
- The topic is a ‘miracle story’, no religious meaning implied: a story centered by what, by its impact on your life and/or surprise, felt like a ‘miracle’ to the teller - quoting Joe Lambert - “from ‘life’s little miracles’ as in the way a Buddhist might say if you pay attention every moment is a miracle, to those truly metaphysical and inexplicable events in our lives that suggest transcendent power or possibility”.
Your group should do this activity at noon, Friday May 16 for about 20 minutes.
On Saturday, May 17, the Center for Digital Storytelling is organizing a panel discussion at their home in Second Life. Join the activities at 10:00 AM PDT at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching%202/209/109/23
The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) and the Museum of the Person are celebrating the International Day for Sharing Life Stories on May 16. The following day – May 17 – the CDS is proposing a reflection on storytelling in virtual environments in the form of a panel in Second Life. The approaches to this theme will be very different as a result of the panelists’ distinct academic backgrounds.
Panelists include:
- Jen Friedberg, Multimedia Producer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
- Dale Jarvis - Storyteller, folklorist, and performer
- Adriene Jenik - Telecommunications media artist & Assoc. Professor, UCSD
- Joan Llobera - PhD candidate, Starlab, Barcelona, Spain
- Joe Sanchez - PhD student, School of Information, UT Austin
- Vicki Smith - Visual Artist, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Moderators are Joe Lambert (Center for Digital Storytelling) and Ana Boa-Ventura (UT Austin).
published May 15th, 2008 at 08:46pm
Department(s): People, Places, Things& Teaching and Learning& What's Happening
reported by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) May 12th, 2008
One of the more surreal aspects of Second Life is having a vivid voice chat conversation with a character where their mouth never moves. For years, avatars at There.com have had lip sync or at least, mouth movement, to audio.
Well, my Second Life talking friends, you can have that too with the Second Life Lipsync Viewer. This is a set of files you download and replace in your original Second Life application (see the bottom of the docs page and the Readme that comes with the download).
Now your lips move with the volume of your voice! Here is a brief test (it did not work with my dog avatar, so I had to play a human)
Read My Lips
If you like this, vote for it to be rolled into the regular viewer.
published May 12th, 2008 at 03:44pm
Department(s): Do It Yourself
Next Posts
Previous Posts
Feeds