Here is a machinima by L1Aura Loire aka Lori Landay, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Berklee College of Music.
The machinima titled ‘CLICK’ explains what ’Immersive and Interactive Virtual Art’ is while showing us the work of virtual artists. The work shown is part of the University of Western Australia’s 3D Art and Design Challenge exhibition.
Sunset over the dreaming spires of The University of Caledon Oxbridge
If you feel the need to brush up on the finer points of the official Second Life viewer then perhaps it is time to take a stroll through the grand halls of the University of Caledon Oxbridge? This Steampunk influenced location applies the theme of a Victorian museum crossed with a university, placing tutorials inside glass cabinets which are then organized into topic areas within ‘colleges’. Volunteers are available to help the true newbies who can be seen wandering wildly in circles bumping into walls and threatening to crack the glass of the display cases (possibly on the verge of abandoning Second Life forever). I observed a ‘Professor’ rescue one confused newbie (who was holding a shopping bag, the new newbie ‘give-away’) by offering guidance, plus words of encouragement, before dispatching them on their way across the campus.
The University of Caledon Oxbridge orientation starting point
Once you have landed at the university’s orientation starting point follow the arrows to each of the colleges listed below:
College of Avatar Motion
Walking, Running, Flying, Sitting Down, World Map, Using landmarks and Short Range Teleports.
College of Camera Control:
Camera Controls, Keyboard and Mouse Controls, Screen Controls and Mouselook
College of Communication:
Chat, Instant Messaging, Friends, Groups, Voice Chat, Setting Up Voice Chat and Etiquette
College of Finding:
Finding Things, My Inventory, Find Window, Search All, Search Places and Classifieds and Search People
College of Avatar Customization:
Varities of Avatars, Shapes and Skins, Changing Clothing, Outfits, Attachments, Clothing Layers, Appearance Mode, Animation Override
College of Money and Commerce:
Linden Dollars, Using the Lindex, Buying Lindens, Buying Things, Free Stuff, Opening Boxes, Prims, Land
'Try Sitting' in the College of Avatar Motion
Preparing to focus attention in the College of Camera Control
At the end of the orientation you arrive at the Caledon Library of Oxbridge. This is the place to visit if you are remotely interested in researching Steampunk as it provides all manner of 19th Century book resources. You can seat your avatar in the library and read books online, simply click on the appropriate bookcases for web links links that will open your browser at gutenberg.org. Topic areas include 19th Century Art & Fashion, Children’s Books, Science Fiction and Proto Steampunk, Science & Technology, Fantasy & Fairytales to name a few. One bookcase is labeled as Steampunk Information and this takes you to Steampunk related blogs (beware a couple of these links are broken). Finally, avatars without premium accounts can find free digs on the university’s campus, other avatars with a little spending money can rent rather classy accommodations in the Oxbridge Mews.
Oxbridge Mews (note the penny farthing icon and number, a little homage to the mysterious show 'The Prisoner' with Patrick McGoohan.)
Note:
Desmond Shang – Founder of the University Caledon Oxbridge
University Caledon Oxbridge tutorial created by Carl Metropolitan.
I am on the second day of an Eve Online trial. While this is driving me a little crazy, it is also food for thought as it reminds me of my own Second Life (SL) newbie experience. As a SL user, or should I say ‘believer’, I find myself inevitably comparing Eve Online and Second Life. (By the way, I join the tribe of ‘SL Believers’ who all see what Second Life is in its current state whilst experiencing tantalizing glimpses of what it could be if it took a couple of shimmies to the left…)
Eve Tyrannis
Delving into Eve Online I find I must wade through quests that double up as tutorials to learn this complex game. Eve Online’s various controls and information features seem complicated to use and employ poor quality typography. The only way to begin to make sense of everything is via endless repetition. The same must be said of SL i.e. it also can only be understood by repetition but the various SL viewers try hard to reduce complexity.
Note I say Second Life viewers… there are so many that it is getting a little confusing. Which viewer shall I encourage new students to use? Which viewer do I know well enough to teach? The orientation stations I like to send students to have not updated themselves to explain Viewer 2. I am tempted to promote the Emerald viewer because that viewer is a logical evolution of the old SL viewer (which means many resident created orientation stations are still relevant). As I have a class coming up soon I decided to check out the official Viewer 2 tutorials and test the whole ‘newbie’ experience with Second Life for myself. My sign up for a new avi went very smoothly and I landed on Welcome Island where the Viewer 2 tutorials were excellent. However, I was stumped at the end of the tutorial when I found myself confronted by 4 destination choices: Shop, Explore, Socialize or Help. What to pick?
Welcome Island's four destinations
I opted for the first destination ‘Shop – Update your look’ and I was startled to discover that the ‘Go Shopping’ teleport placed me under the sea! I had to walk around a bit before locating a sad little dock area. This had about six items on display, all demo clothes for female avatars plus a 7-Seas fishing rod dispenser. I could purchase the clothes for L$25, very cheap (except when you are a newbie with no money). A miserable experience which made Dusan Writer’s recent post Show Up: Your Guide to Helping to Improve Second Life all the more relevant. Dusan quotes Oz Linden’s recent entreaty to SL residents to help Linden Labs by providing “productive useful input”. I hope it is productive to suggest that the initial destination areas for newbies in Second Life are perhaps the most important locations in this entire online 3D world? A decent web site checks all its links are working and pointing the user to the right content. Linden Labs is responsible for Welcome Island, this is the first point of contact for new customers; you would think they might check those 4 initial destination teleport sites are worth the visit? Eve Online might not have a very accessible dashboard but it does provide magnificent visuals for newbies with views of majestic planets, and graceful space rockets gliding across starlit heavens. At least while you are floundering around figuring out the controls you are doing it against a fabulous backdrop. On the other hand newbies to SL might be stunned into a state of boredom and confusion never to return having drowned their avis on a failed shopping trip.
Welcome Island sends newbie to water logged shopping area
Note to Oz: it seems once a destination is selected on Welcome Island there is no turning back?
Perhaps Linden Labs could allow newbies to get back to Welcome Island? At the moment you must pick one of those four destinations and good luck with that.
I know it is unfair to compare a formula driven game like Eve Online with the free form world of Second Life but there are many common experiences relevant to both. After all, Second life was born out of the union between science fiction literature and the video gaming industry; and those not-in-the-know still think SL is a game. That debate aside, it is a simple fact that all online 3D worlds must manage this unavoidable ‘newbie’ introductory phase and create a positive experience for their customers. Newbies must:
For an online 3D virtual environment to engage its customers successfully:
Now, I am off to fly my space ship over at Eve Online… just need to figure which is the front and which is the back end of my ship, that might help the steering thing? I will leave you with some happy snaps from Second Life’s Welcome Island.
Welcome Island and new look newbie avatar with big tissues in her pocket
Oh no... that parrot keeps repeating everything I say! Oh no... that parrot keeps repeating everything I say!
Oops I am sitting on the sign... (Welcome to Second Life and that uniquely embarrassing 'Sit here' experience.)
Hitching a ride on the white goose in the Welcome Island flight training area
Update to this post.
Thanks to Doreen who left a comment on this blog I discovered that there is a ‘back’ button in Viewer 2. (This is a big help though the button could be improved a little.) It is useful for folks traveling around SL as it allows you to return to a location you have visited at an earlier time. However, it will not let newbies return to Welcome Island and requests that they head over to Help Island Public instead. This is probably aimed at preventing ner-do-wells from harassing newbies on Welcome Island (they can harass newbies on Help Island Public instead).
To make use of the back button:
Locate ‘Places’ in the control panel on the left of your screen and then select the tab ‘Teleport History’ and you will see the locations you previously visited. Teleport History is a little simplistic in that it will not return you to the precise place you teleported from, it always takes you to the official starting point of a location.
Teleport-History in Viewer 2
Dancing banana avatars (wearing Rubik Cube skirts) enjoying a bop at Muddy's Music Cafe
Q: Second Life – Why Would You Go There?
A: To be a dancing banana…wearing a rubik cube skirt (of course).
These Dancing Banana avatar outfits were given to Friday night guests at Muddy’s Music Cafe. Music provided by DJ RayJay Baxton & Hostess Jaide Xue who was on hand with banana wearing wardrobe tips.
Now what is so special about dancing banana avatars you may ask yourself? Well, I will give you a theory to ponder…I arrived at this theory following 3 days of attending the SharpBrains Virtual Summit titled ‘Technology for Cognitive Health and Performance’ held back in January (you can see the agenda and list of speakers over on theSharpBrains Summit site). One message we heard repeated at this conference was just how important it is for our brain health to experience both novelty and challenge as we age. In recent years there has been considerable publicity for various brain games and a few fortunes have been made from the electronic versions of such games. The publicity has hinted that these games may actually prevent mental decline and keep our brains young etc. However, research does not prove that playing these games is quite the easy solution we would like to believe for avoiding diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. The SharpBrains Summit suggested that we need to adopt a similar approach to brain fitness as we have towards cardiac fitness (both are strongly related to each other anyway). Brain fitness tends to reflect our life styles i.e. exercise, eating right, social relationships, getting enough sleep plus finding challenging and novel ways of stimulating our aging brains with new learning. I would like to add to this recipe the importance of a sense humor and playful imagination. Now (with a fanfare of virtual trumpets) this is where the banana avatars enter onto the cognitive stage.
Banana avatar with Rubik Cube skirt (the skirt actually span through a range of color combinations when I clicked on it).
As I have mentioned before, I teach Second Life to seniors with the average age of 72 though I often have older students including a sprightly 90 year old. (The 90 yr old told me that she loved to travel and Second Life gave her the opportunity ‘to go traveling’.) I believe Second Life has the capacity to provide layers of ’brain fitness’ experience. For a start, there is no doubt that it takes time to master the Second Life interface. I heard that IBM considers it takes 90 minutes of training to get its staff up to speed to enter the virtual world for a meeting. I am quite certain that it takes those same IBM staff days before they feel comfortable and confident enough to go gadding round Second Life without assistance. Linden Labs are endeavoring to make the whole user experience easier especially for newcomers. However, the fact that it is tricky to master presents a stimulating mental challenge, and it is the type of challenge that helps with brain fitness. Second Life (inadvertently) provides layers of ‘brain-gaming’ experience because once someone has mastered the basics they can then begin to explore the platform where they will inevitably encounter many puzzling challenges. These challenges are tied to running the technology (their own computers plus the platform) necessary to witness and participate in the vast array of visual sights. Students also find themselves laughing at both themselves and each other as they struggle their way through the surreal landscapes on their computer screens. After all, once a person has mastered how to wear a banana avatar it is very difficult to remain serious as you play this immersive 3D brain game. By the way, if you are reading this post and are unfamiliar with Second Life please be assured that you do not have to turn your avatar into fruits and vegetables to play! Yet, the banana avatar epitomizes the brain game perfectly as it provides both novelty and challenge.
Exploring Sweetlemon Jewell’s Omega Point in Second Life
Second Life is largely created by its users, and many of these users are remarkably creative individuals who have collectively turned much of the platform into a vivid and highly imaginative space. However, if truth be told, many of these Second Life locations require us to use our problem solving skills in order to be able to behold them in their full glory. For instance, when we visit a location such as the wonderful Macbeth Island we must solve various incidental puzzles in order to follow the play as it unfolds across the island’s moody landscape. Layers of thought are piled into the installation turning it into a cerebral Photoshop of Shakespearean ideas. Hidden triggers are embedded in objects to activate your entrances and exits from the various scenes, books loaded with notecards triggered by virtual touch lie scattered about, each scene draws us further and further into the depths of Macbeth’s disintegrating mind. (See ‘Second Life -Why would you go there?’#4 Foul Whisperings for more information about Macbeth Island. )
Virtual Macbeth - The Path of Temptation on Macbeth Island
As users of Second Life we become fluent with its interactive pie charts, scripts and animations and we are not concerned by the fact that we must test out a few options before we can interact with different objects within its 3D spaces. Perhaps there is even a little embarrassment that the world is so complicated to use? Blog post after Second Life blog post speculate upon the potential of the application (for education, training, meetings and socializing, etc) whilst also mulling over its complex interface. Well, maybe we are looking at this from the wrong angle? Perhaps figuring out how to move about and participate in this virtual environment is an essential part of the whole experience? Sometimes when I am teaching my classes, I think if there was a way to take an MRI of the room by scanning down from the ceiling, the MRI screen would show our brains lit up like a smoldering forest of little wild fires!
Webinars tend to be dull to look at and tedious to listen to. They largely depend upon the skills of a moderator who hopefully has an engaging voice (qualities that are often lacking). Webinars also tend to be formulaic and predictable and, as my last post observed, they are rather sorry objects to look at. The poor visual quality of webinars goes a long way towards explaining our ensuing attention drift and poor memory recall.
An attempt to show the movement of attention when viewing the two-dimensional webinar screen.The red arrows indicate the short 'attention loop' generated by webinar viewing.
This short visual attention loop is very similar to the movement pattern of a goldfish swimming in a fish tank. The fish swims from one end of the tank to the other, as it reaches the end it bumps into the glass wall of the aquarium, and turns to swim to the opposite end of the tank. It then meets the glass wall at this end of the tank and swims back, and so on, ad infinitum. (Does the fish’s brain contain enough memory to know it has been to the end of the tank and back already?)
The Goldfish Attention Loop
In the case of humans staring at a relatively unchanging computer screen, the low demand of the webinar ‘goldfish attention loop’ triggers us into finding something more visually stimulating to look at. Based purely on anecdotal evidence it is well known that people open up their email while ‘attending’ an online meeting or training. Others simply carry on working, making phone calls or chatting to colleagues.
Now, when we look at the 3D environment of a virtual world depicted upon our computer screen our eyes can peer into a synthetic distance. This gives us the illusion of space and by adding the visual representations of familiar objects, we can create an ambiance, or mood, to this virtual meeting space. These extra peripheral visual details plus the use of additional ambient sound effects assist concentration and we end up remembering more as a result!
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark,
Brandy for the parson and bacchy for the clerk,
Laces for the ladies and letters for the spie,
Now watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.
(Rudyard Kipling. The Smugglers Song.)
The virtual world can be used to train people in customer service, managing conflict resolution, science, architecture, medicine and much more.
Probably the most well publicized simulation was created by Ken Hudson of the Loyalist College’s Virtual World Design Centre for the Canadian Border Services Agency. Post 9-11, the agency could no longer send student border guards to the actual border crossing to gain first hand interviewing experience. Due to heightened security concerns students had to role-play interviews within the college environment. The students were struggling with this aspect and the pass rate for students dropped. Instructor Ken Hudson decided to recreate the border crossing in Second Life. The students then ran interview simulations in the virtual world. The result of this role-play interviewing caused a dramatic improvement that could be measured. In 2007 student’s interview skills (without the Second Life simulation) had the average grade of 58%. In 2008, after the use of the simulation, student’s interview skills averaged 86%, showing an improvement of 28%. (See New World Notes for the original story). Check out the following YouTube video (also shown on Wagner James Au’s blog) this provides a sense of the simulation conditions for the students:
Two thoughts intrigue me about this simulation. One is the thought about smugglers attempting to carry illegal goods across so-called ‘real world’ borders. Smuggling has changed from the days featured in the romanticized Rudyard Kipling poem above. An example of this is the ‘Cocaine cast’ story’ where a man tried to smuggle cocaine compressed into a plaster cast for a broken leg.
The second thought revolves around using Second Life to create a virtual border post, intriguing when one of the wonders of Second Life is that it is multi-national and has no border controls… But then, perhaps the new ‘mature’ sims will have controlled border crossings? And then, that begs the question what would a virtual world smuggler smuggle?
Bee hives. terra mellifera, Caerleon Isle
Last week I heard Sarah ‘Intellagirl’ Robins give a talk at one of the excellent Gronstedt Group meetings in Second Life. She describes herself as being up to her eyeballs in Web 2.0 examining how these new technologies can be used by organizations. Intellagirl said that it is an uphill battle getting companies to adopt Second Life as a communication and training platform. The reasons she gave for this were that staff feel they are not tech savvy, computers are not up to speed, and training in Second Life requires a different pedagogy. Intellagirl suggests that here training must be student centered, as the traditional lecture approach does not work. Educators and trainers need to use their imaginations, and find ways to exploit this new medium, rather than resorting to ‘the same old, same old’ conventional teaching models.
nonnatus Korhonen's world creatures found on mellifera (scripted to interact with your avatar).
At this point in the talk, Intellagirl briefly took off on a fascinating tangent. She said she had been looking into Stigmergy, and she used this reference in the context of social insects such as ants that leave chemical trails for other ants to follow. Intellagirl then applied this analogy to patterns of use and human behavior on the World Wide Web. I wonder if this makes those of us exploring 3D online environments into scout ants? With our pixel sized avatars we are off foraging for locations, ideas, scripts and builds that will help us with our work. We leave trails, creating millions of highways and byways that will lead others into virtual spaces ‘en masse’.
An enticing giant strawberry hovering on a strange floating platform high above Caerleon Isle.
Will it seem as though something spontaneous has suddenly happened when hordes of people move into virtual worlds to carry out their work, meet friends and take classes?
Stigmergy is a mechanism of spontaneous, indirect coordination between agents or actions, where the trace left in the environment by an action stimulates the performance of a subsequent action, by the same or a different agent. (Wikipedia)
My last post showed the recent T-Mobile dance held in Liverpool Street Station, London, UK. This apparently spontaneous moment belongs to an intriguing tradition that, according to Wikipedia, began in 2003 and is known as ‘Flash Mob’. If you type ‘Flash Mob’ into YouTube you can see some great examples of Flash Mob happenings (often shakily videoed on mobile phones). The Liverpool Street dance was highly organized and carefully choreographed (and no doubt cost a small fortune). Yet, the final effect was an event that seemed spontaneous (at least initially).
Ant and nonnatus korhonen maze, mellifera
Thinking along these lines of stigmergy and flashmobs I was reminded of a post by Botgirl Questi’s titled ‘Are we ants or are we avatars? Botgirl has been taking an extensive look at social networking on her blog, and in this post mused
‘ Something about Twitter recently has made me feel like a minuscule and insignificant ant scurrying from data crumb to data crumb in the semi-aware hive-consciousness of social networking.’
Visit Botgirl’s blog and watch the YouTube video she placed there, this video reveals the phenomenal size and structure of an ant colony. The ant’s nest was created well out of sight, and reaches far beneath the African soil. Virtual worlds are also growing out of sight, expanding out in cyberspace.Take a look at Metaverse Journal’s How big is Second Life? which states Second Life is 22400 square km in size (8648.9 sq. miles). That seems quite big! Has the ‘spontaneous’ moment already arrived? How will we know? Synthetic worlds are a bit like invisible ink, you will only see them if you know they exist and you know where and how to look.
And finally, a question: How big does a virtual world have to get before it is put on the bus route?
Foot bridge to the bee hives in mellifera
Additional Information
Title quote: ‘How do you tell when you have run out of invisible ink’ by Steve Wright and found on ‘notstevewright’ on Twitter.
Images above taken on Caerleon Isle, showing mellifera a mixed reality project by Andrew Burrell and Trish Adams (nonnatus korhonen and neurone schism). mellifera created with the assistance of the Australian Council for the Arts.
Visit mellifera in Second Life at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Isle/242/239/27
For more information about the artists go to: http://mellifera.cc/
'Foul Whisperings and Strange Matters': Macbeth in Second Life
Q: Second Life, why go there?
A: To understand Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
I wonder how many people know what Second Life is? Of those who know what it is how many think it’s just a game? How many others think it’s a seedy sex place on the Internet? How many people visited this page because they wanted a voyeur’s window into the much publicized, yet little understood shadowy behaviors of avatars? How many people immediately left when they saw this post was going to be about Shakespeare’s Macbeth?
Macbeth Island: Silhouette of ruins
The virtual world of Second Life maintains layer upon layer of synthetic realities, and it is intriguing to see how some people extend understanding of humanity through ‘virtuality’. I was introduced to ‘Foul Whisperings and Strange Matters’ when I went to a Gronstedt Group meeting organized by Anders Wildcat. Over 25 avatars met on this small island that lies nestled deep within the virtual world of Second Life. Our Macbeth Island guide was an avatar named Anya Ixchel (Angela Thomas) who was up at 4:00 am in the morning (pre-dawn in Australia) to tell us about the virtualmacbeth project which she helped to create. I returned to the island a few days after Anya’s talk to explore on my own and take a few pictures (see below).
Enlightenment at Foul Whisperings & Strange Matters?
Foul Whisperings and Strange Matters takes a new approach to understanding Macbeth. You do not land upon the island to watch the drama unfold, you actually become part of the action. Throughout the installation you can find copies of Macbeth, and when you touch the book note cards are activated on your screen. These pose questions, encourage you to look around where you might be standing, and deliver short speeches for your contemplation. In effect you become Macbeth experiencing his descent into madness. However, the full drama comes alive when your avatar falls under the control of unseen hands, and voices intrude upon your thoughts…
cyberloom seated on Macbeth's throne. (Note my avatar's pursed lips and sinister stare!)
As I was drawn deeper into the maze of Macbeth’s mind I saw no other avatars, I was alone in the drafty castle corridors with only ghostly apparitions for company. I was intrigued by the thought that I was using the social platform of Second Life, yet here I was wandering the imaginary space in isolation. What struck me most about this is that my usual experience of Shakespeare is a social experience, plays are social creations that require a cast and aim to be realized on stage. Yet, here I was on my own and because of my virtual isolation in the Thane of Glamis’ castle I was, perhaps, a little closer to Shakespeare? Closer to the images Shakespeare saw in his imagination? This thought caused me to then wonder what Shakespeare himself would have made of 3D virtual environments?
A wunderkammer holding items (with sound effects) that symbolize Macbeth's ambition and psyche
The virtual environment of Macbeth Island is a fascinating place to visit and wander around, there are many intriguing details to see, and some macabre surprises (which I won’t reveal here). I do share one object of interest that is to be found in the throne room, the wunderkammer (see above) this is a cabinet of curiosities, used to symbolize Lady Macbeth’s influence on Macbeth’s mind. Each item on the wunderkammer produces a sound effect, but some of the sounds don’t match the object, a technique used by Anya Ixchel to unsettle visitors.
The Path of Temptation
Anya Ixchel designed the island in 2 hours, and the NMC (New Media Consortium) team took 6 weeks to carry out the build. However the project itself did not reach completion for 6 months as it took that long to develop the brief, build, tweak and test everything. The result is a simulation that provides a vivid glimpse into the future of education through simulation.
For more information about Macbeth Island
Visit Macbeth Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Macbeth/44/51/54/
Visit virtualmacbeth Wiki for more information: http://virtualmacbeth.wikispaces.com/Island+Guide
See more photographs on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/virtualmacbeth/
