[iDC] RE: An Inconvenient Youth and Second Life

Tue Feb 27 19:50:19 EST 2007

Archinect recently featured an article and interview on this subject, titled
"Architecture's Second Life":
http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=47037_0_23_0_M


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:
http://www.unrealstockholm.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page )

best,
  Matt

--
Matthew Waxman
Editor, San Francisco edition, WorldChanging
http://www.worldchanging.com/local/sanfrancisco

On 2/27/07, dave at edtechtalk.com <dave at edtechtalk.com> wrote:
>
> Agreed. It does have that simulacra feeling about it. Sort of a disney
> land 'mainstreet USA' of old digital buildings about it.
>
> The interesting thing about it is that people (like the folks on info
> island) are starting to realize this and are trying to adapt their
> architectural designs to make the best of the advantages and disadvantages
>
> of the space.
>
> It is this development and the inevitable reaction to the realization that
> not only the detractors but the advocates that will bring on the next
> generation of immersive space.
>
> > That's exact my point when I refered to my short experience in SL. I
> > think the US (where almost 100 procent of computer games and online
> > worlds are created) has a problem with the reproduction of the nuclear
> > family and the wishing of a kind of Barbie/Ken archetype where the
> > same house, the same furniture and the same tables and chairs are
> > copied or cloned.
> > In SL you can find hundreds of reproductions of Le Corbusier or of
> > Frank Lloyd Right, it's as the Sims (the popular computer game who is
> > the most clear "parent" of Second Life, has discovered architecture
> > and city planning.
> > When you have characters who fly what's the point making stairs or
> > walls? Or to design roads or motorways?
> > For me SL is a kind of perverse reproduction of life but without
> > death, sweat, smells or poverty.
> > In Everquest, the online game I usually played for several years, I
> > was playing a female avatar and  another player, a man playing another
> > female avatar, asked me to marry "him".
> > The marriage thing was a cool thing in EQ, where the weddings in the
> > game were attended by guests from the whole virtual world. I have
> > attended marriages between vampyres and elfs, centaurs and frogs.
> > We asked the "game masters" to come and marry us, it was Sony's
> > employees who acted as priests or civil servants and who performed the
> > ceremonies.
> > We got a letter, very polite, but they refused us the right to be
> > married, "two women avatars can't be married. It could upset a lot of
> > other players who could experience that as offensive".
> > We, Charles, my friend, and me, could not believe what we read. We
> > played as wizards and shamans, we fought demons and zombies, we lived
> > in a fantasy world where magic and phantasy played an enormous roll.
> > Did they mean that two female avatars were "not natural", but all the
> > other stuff was it???
> > We argued with them for months and we dropped the idea, but it
> > strenghtened my these about online worlds as very conservative and
> > oldfashioned.
> > Ana
> >
> > ps. the description of the marriage it's a bit of my research about
> > Gender in the Online Games, I am writing a book which it's going to be
> > released in this Spring, sadly, only in Swedish and Spanish for the
> > moment.
> >
> > On 2/27/07, Brooke Knight <brooke_knight at emerson.edu> wrote:
> >> Hi all:
> >>
> >> I'm an inveterate lurker on the list, but I have to pick up on Steven's
>
> >> comment a few days ago about how he gave a lecture about SL, both in
> the
> >> "real" world and the "virtual" world of Second Life.  We here at
> Emerson
> >> College are currently engaged in the same thing -- as it is opening up
> >> as an
> >> educational space.  We have students cranking away at building what are
> >> essentially avatars of our buildings.  In fact, we have an event
> >> tomorrow,
> >> where both Trebor and Ulises will be speaking at Emerson and on Second
> >> Life,
> >> on the Emerson College Island, Emerson Island (145, 109, 23).  Come by
> >> at 7
> >> eastern and see if it works.
> >>
> >> In this case, it will be inside the Bordy Theater on the island.  In
> the
> >> "real" world (I've never been comfortable with the distinction), the
> >> Bordy
> >> Theater is inside of a building alongside other buildings of the same
> >> height
> >> and size.  On Emerson Island, It stands out as one of the only objects
> >> there.
> >>
> >> So, I ask -- why is it that there seems to be a need to reproduce items
> >> that
> >> already exist? Is a replica of a real-world place the best way to
> convey
> >> a
> >> message, even if it doesn't work in SL?  How is that message different
> >> in
> >> SL?
> >>
> >> I'm just worried that we continue to experience the tyranny of the
> >> metaphor,
> >> as we have so many times in digital media.
> >>
> >> Best,
> >>
> >> Brooke
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Brooke A. Knight
> >>
> >> Assistant Professor of New Media
> >>
> >> Department of Visual and Media Arts
> >>
> >> Emerson College
> >>
> >> 617-824-8760
> >>
> >> brooke_knight at emerson.edu
> >>
> >> www.brookeknight.com
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> > --
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> > 12833 Skarpnäck
> > Sweden
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> >
> >
> > "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth
> > with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you
> > will always long to return.
> > — Leonardo da Vinci
> >
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