Re: [-empyre-] Re: Second Life

[Helen Thorington <newradio@turbulence.org>]

PS. Our most recent competition calls for artists to work in three  
spaces, on Turbulence, in gallery space and on Second Life. There are  
some fascinating entries! -- H


On Apr 17, 2007, at 10:31 PM, Alan Sondheim wrote:

> Just want to point out that I've been working for quite a while in  
> SL and have spent $4.00 US total. I don't expect the environment to  
> be free since obviously people are running it, but it doesn't cost  
> that much. As far as state-of-the-art computers go - at least in my  
> experience this isn't true; what surprises me is the smart use of  
> caching and building primitives only when needed - this keeps the  
> transfer etc. down. There are numerous venues for showing video as  
> well as live performance; in the ones I work in, there's no  
> advertising although I think a screen carries a corporate ad when  
> it's not presenting media. That's about it.
>
> I don't think SL is a Utopia, but it's the most successful virtual  
> world experiment since Lambda MOO, and it's a lot less arcane.
>
> I'm not sure that shows are expensive to set up; there are people  
> doing this I believe for close to nothing, once the land is bought.  
> I may be wrong.
>
> As far as students not knowing about it - here at Brown, Mark  
> Tribe's students are building in SL; Tom Zummer's students at Tyler  
> were doing projects there, Patrick Lichty has been teaching a  
> course in it (I believe), and I use it for demo. You're probably  
> write about anthro students.
>
> So for me it's the same old story; yes, there's money involved (and  
> sometimes large sums), but there's also a lot that's free and one  
> can work on performance etc. with almost no cash at all. I'm  
> nowhere near the advertising areas; I'm not sure where they are.  
> The SL Lib stuff is fascinating. Etc.
>
> In other words, this is I think the beginning of something  
> relatively new - a virtual gamespace that people are using  
> creatively and socially; there are people I know who spend their  
> social lives there. And as tech changes, these kinds of spaces will  
> become more elaborate, more capable of live- stream video (audio is  
> already possible), etc. For me, I'm pleased I can do live  
> performance with complex behaviors that stem from motion capture  
> and might return through choreography. When I worked in Poser/ 
> Blender, what I created could be seen only as static entity - i.e.  
> the control that cinema has (one moves through the predetermined  
> diegesis etc.); now, there is the freedom of interaction (which  
> does occur), and the line between performer and spectator is blurred.
>
> - Alan
>
>
>
> ====================================================================== 
> =
> Work on YouTube, blog at http://nikuko.blogspot.com . Tel  
> 718-813-3285.
> Webpage directory http://www.asondheim.org . Email:  
> sondheim@panix.com.
> http://clc.as.wvu.edu:8080/clc/Members/sondheim for theory; also check
> WVU Zwiki, Google for recent. Write for info on books, cds,  
> performance,
> dvds, etc.  
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