[-empyre-] Re: response to Tracey's questions

Stacia Yeapanis <stacialy@yahoo.com> · Tue, 5 Jun 2007 09:51:06 -0700 (PDT)

In terms of my power point presentation:
The presentation is a performative lecture in which I
mimic a tradional slide show. I show images from my
lives as a Sim and tell about myself. 
Documentation here:
http://www.staciayeapanis.com/slayageDocumentation.html

The audience does not have access to the virtual space
of the game itself during this lecture. They see only
the documentation of my virtual life. I speak in the
first person, but the images are stills from my game. 
When I talk about my overpowering desire to take care
of Emma, one of my virtual babies, the audiences has
to speculate whether this is made up or real. When I
talk about the difficulty I have being mean to other
Sims, my real life ethics overlaps with my gameplay. I
hope for a blurring of the "real" me and the "virtual"
me, as I give equal time to the experiences that could
only occur in the game (i.e. dying multiple times or
having sex with the characters from the television
show Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and the real emotions I
feel about those experiences.

Even as I write that, I'm having problems with the
terms "real" and "virtual." It implies they are
opposites. But a virtual experience IS a real
experience. There is a pretty widespread criticism
that individuals engaging in virtual play or mediated
experiences are escaping reality. Certainly escapism
is one of the many uses of playing in a virtual world
or watching a television show. But there are many
more. 

Acknowledging that The Sims 2 is a simulation of real
life does not imply that it is a substitution for real
life. In fact, it's the "real life" stuff that comes
out of playing the game that I am most interested in.
It's important to note that the work I make with this
video game is not that different from the things other
Sims players do with their games. Perhaps
(speculation) I'm one of the few players using
art-historical references in the videos and
photographs I make. And perhaps (again speculation)
I'm one of the few players bringing those videos into
the context of the Art gallery. 

But the online Sims community is a varied and creative
bunch of people. It is subdivided into hackers,
vidders, architects, fashion designers, storytellers,
bloggers, and photographers. The game has only thrived
the way it has because, when you get bored playing the
game, you can turn to making things with and for the
game. If anyone is interested,  I can post some links
to other people's sims fansites.

Okay, long-winded post. Tracey I will wait to address
your questions about fandom, so I don't overwhelm
anyone.
Stacia

--- empyre-request@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Introducing myself (Barbara Campbell)
>    2. Re: empyre Digest, Vol 31, Issue 3 (Stacia
> Yeapanis)
>    3. FW: 1001 nights cast [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
> (Meziane, Tracey)
>    4. fan zines, etc [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] (Meziane,
> Tracey)
>    5. FW: [-empyre-] May on vacation
> [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
>       (Meziane, Tracey)
> 
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:58:40 +0200
> From: Barbara Campbell <barbara@1001.net.au>
> Subject: [-empyre-] Introducing myself
> To: empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> Message-ID:
> <278dba884e9ab3778a918ca2c08892f7@1001.net.au>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII;
> format=flowed
> 
> Greetings empyricists
> 
> I'm going to frame my introduction by talking about
> the suppression of 
> individual identity in the literary and visual
> frames of my current 
> project 1001 nights cast (http://1001.net.au)
> 
> The video frame
> For anyone who has been present (in my time but your
> space) at one of 
> the live webstreamed performances that I do every
> sunset, you will have 
> noticed the very tight frame of the mouth. The whole
> performance is 
> generated there. First, the number of the
> performance is revealed 
> through the tongue stud which has the number of the
> performance stamped 
> into it, then the story is told. The full range of
> facial expression is 
> denied. It is the classic Beckettian "not I" frame.
> In terms of 
> "identity" - one of the themes of this discussion -
> I have deliberately 
> taken measures to suppress the specifics of my own
> identity in order 
> for others to exist through me. In this and many
> previous performances, 
> I often think of myself as a medium of the
> live-channelling kind. In 
> the course of performing the 713 stories to date,
> I've learnt to find 
> different tones for each story, without actually
> building characters in 
> the theatrical sense (I'm not a trained actress. I'm
> hopeless with 
> accents and shudder when a writer gives me a story
> that calls for 
> accented dialogue. Sometimes I feel up to it,
> sometimes I don't.),  
> although I see how the line between medium and actor
> is thinning.
> 
> The story frame
> The introduction to the project
> (http://1001.net.au/index.shtml) is 
> written as a micro-story that fades in and out over
> three screens. It 
> is written in the third person, again, in order to
> devolve the personal 
> to the general. In the same way that Scheherazade's
> own story frames 
> subsequent stories in 1001 nights, the progenerative
> compendium of 
> Arabian tales, so too does the project's frame tale
> allow other 
> subsequent tales to come into being.
> 
> Perhaps some of the 1001 nights cast writers will
> come forward in this 
> discussion with their views on how their "voice" is 
>
carried/changed/ventriloquized/consumed/feminised/Australianised
> by 
> mine?
> 
> cheers
> Barbara
> 
> http://1001.net.au
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 08:12:55 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Stacia Yeapanis <stacialy@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [-empyre-] Re: empyre Digest, Vol 31, Issue
> 3
> To: empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> Message-ID:
> <369915.23199.qm@web43145.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> Hi, Jill, you're the first person I've seen a post
> from. I'm confused as well, and feel like I signed
> up
> for the wrong list or something. Not sure how to
> proceed.
> Stacia Yeapanis
> --- empyre-request@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au wrote:
> 
> > Send empyre mailing list submissions to
> > 	empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > 
> > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide
> Web,
> > visit
> > 
> >
>
https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/empyre
> > or, via email, send a message with subject or body
> > 'help' to
> > 	empyre-request@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > 
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> > 
> > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it
> > is more specific
> > than "Re: Contents of empyre digest..."
> > 
> > 
> > Today's Topics:
> > 
> >    1. joining the discussion (Jill Magid)
> > 
> > 
> >
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 15:33:56 -0400
> > From: Jill Magid <jill@jillmagid.net>
> > Subject: [-empyre-] joining the discussion
> > To: empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > Message-ID:
> > <5d33c3c2e3a8dfa12397d27fc5651366@jillmagid.net>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII;
> > format=flowed
> > 
> > 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I am sending this email to join in the
> conversation.
> > I am a bit confused as to how this all begins to
> > hopefully this mail will link me into the
> > discussion.
> > 
> > Best, Jill
> > 
> > 
> > Jill Magid
> > www.jillmagid.net
> > jill@jillmagid.net
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ------------------------------
> > 
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