<div>Archinect recently featured an article and interview on this subject, titled "Architecture's Second Life": <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=47037_0_23_0_M" target="_blank">
http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=47037_0_23_0_M </a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>The article notes the replication of real-world architectural forms, the irony of walking, opportunities for community design and a SL urbanism, the real-virtual relationship, and interviews LOL Architects the world "largest virtual architecture office." (LOL:
<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.unrealstockholm.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page" target="_blank">http://www.unrealstockholm.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page</a> )<br> </div>
<div>best,</div>
<div> Matt</div>
<div> </div>
<div>--</div>
<div>Matthew Waxman</div>
<div>Editor, San Francisco edition, WorldChanging</div>
<div><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.worldchanging.com/local/sanfrancisco" target="_blank">http://www.worldchanging.com/local/sanfrancisco</a><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/27/07, <b class="gmail_sendername"><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:dave@edtechtalk.com" target="_blank">dave@edtechtalk.com</a></b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:dave@edtechtalk.com" target="_blank">
dave@edtechtalk.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Agreed. It does have that simulacra feeling about it. Sort of a disney<br>land 'mainstreet USA' of old digital buildings about it.
<br><br>The interesting thing about it is that people (like the folks on info<br>island) are starting to realize this and are trying to adapt their<br>architectural designs to make the best of the advantages and disadvantages
<br>of the space.<br><br>It is this development and the inevitable reaction to the realization that<br>not only the detractors but the advocates that will bring on the next<br>generation of immersive space.<br><br>> That's exact my point when I refered to my short experience in SL. I
<br>> think the US (where almost 100 procent of computer games and online<br>> worlds are created) has a problem with the reproduction of the nuclear<br>> family and the wishing of a kind of Barbie/Ken archetype where the
<br>> same house, the same furniture and the same tables and chairs are<br>> copied or cloned.<br>> In SL you can find hundreds of reproductions of Le Corbusier or of<br>> Frank Lloyd Right, it's as the Sims (the popular computer game who is
<br>> the most clear "parent" of Second Life, has discovered architecture<br>> and city planning.<br>> When you have characters who fly what's the point making stairs or<br>> walls? Or to design roads or motorways?
<br>> For me SL is a kind of perverse reproduction of life but without<br>> death, sweat, smells or poverty.<br>> In Everquest, the online game I usually played for several years, I<br>> was playing a female avatar and another player, a man playing another
<br>> female avatar, asked me to marry "him".<br>> The marriage thing was a cool thing in EQ, where the weddings in the<br>> game were attended by guests from the whole virtual world. I have<br>> attended marriages between vampyres and elfs, centaurs and frogs.
<br>> We asked the "game masters" to come and marry us, it was Sony's<br>> employees who acted as priests or civil servants and who performed the<br>> ceremonies.<br>> We got a letter, very polite, but they refused us the right to be
<br>> married, "two women avatars can't be married. It could upset a lot of<br>> other players who could experience that as offensive".<br>> We, Charles, my friend, and me, could not believe what we read. We
<br>> played as wizards and shamans, we fought demons and zombies, we lived<br>> in a fantasy world where magic and phantasy played an enormous roll.<br>> Did they mean that two female avatars were "not natural", but all the
<br>> other stuff was it???<br>> We argued with them for months and we dropped the idea, but it<br>> strenghtened my these about online worlds as very conservative and<br>> oldfashioned.<br>> Ana<br>><br>
> ps. the description of the marriage it's a bit of my research about<br>> Gender in the Online Games, I am writing a book which it's going to be<br>> released in this Spring, sadly, only in Swedish and Spanish for the
<br>> moment.<br>><br>> On 2/27/07, Brooke Knight <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:brooke_knight@emerson.edu" target="_blank">brooke_knight@emerson.edu</a>> wrote:<br>
>> Hi all:<br>>><br>>> I'm an inveterate lurker on the list, but I have to pick up on Steven's <br>>> comment a few days ago about how he gave a lecture about SL, both in the<br>>> "real" world and the "virtual" world of Second Life. We here at Emerson
<br>>> College are currently engaged in the same thing -- as it is opening up <br>>> as an<br>>> educational space. We have students cranking away at building what are<br>>> essentially avatars of our buildings. In fact, we have an event
<br>>> tomorrow,<br>>> where both Trebor and Ulises will be speaking at Emerson and on Second <br>>> Life,<br>>> on the Emerson College Island, Emerson Island (145, 109, 23). Come by<br>>> at 7
<br>>> eastern and see if it works.<br>>><br>>> In this case, it will be inside the Bordy Theater on the island. In the <br>>> "real" world (I've never been comfortable with the distinction), the
<br>>> Bordy<br>>> Theater is inside of a building alongside other buildings of the same<br>>> height<br>>> and size. On Emerson Island, It stands out as one of the only objects <br>>> there.
<br>>><br>>> So, I ask -- why is it that there seems to be a need to reproduce items<br>>> that<br>>> already exist? Is a replica of a real-world place the best way to convey<br>>> a<br>>> message, even if it doesn't work in SL? How is that message different
<br>>> in<br>>> SL?<br>>><br>>> I'm just worried that we continue to experience the tyranny of the <br>>> metaphor,<br>>> as we have so many times in digital media.<br>>><br>>> Best,
<br>>><br>>> Brooke<br>>><br>>><br>>><br>>> Brooke A. Knight<br>>><br>>> Assistant Professor of New Media <br>>><br>>> Department of Visual and Media Arts<br>>>
<br>>> Emerson College<br>>><br>>> 617-824-8760<br>>><br>>> <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:brooke_knight@emerson.edu" target="_blank">brooke_knight@emerson.edu
</a><br>>><br>>> <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.brookeknight.com/" target="_blank">www.brookeknight.com</a><br>>><br>>><br>>> _______________________________________________
<br>>> iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity <br>>> (<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://distributedcreativity.org/" target="_blank">distributedcreativity.org
</a>)<br>>> <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net" target="_blank">iDC@mailman.thing.net</a><br>>> <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mailman.thing.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/idc" target="_blank">
http://mailman.thing.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/idc</a><br>>><br>>> List Archive:<br>>> <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/" target="_blank">
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/</a><br>>><br>><br>><br>> --<br>> Skarpnäcks Allé 45 ll tr<br>> 12833 Skarpnäck<br>> Sweden <br>> tel +468-943288<br>> mobil 4670-3213370<br>><br>
><br>> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth<br>> with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you <br>> will always long to return.<br>> — Leonardo da Vinci
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<br>><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity (<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://distributedcreativity.org/" target="_blank">
distributedcreativity.org</a>)<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net" target="_blank">iDC@mailman.thing.net</a><br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mailman.thing.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/idc" target="_blank">
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