[iDC] RE: An Inconvenient Youth and Second Life

Tue Feb 27 19:19:03 EST 2007

Hi --
Sure, there's the natural propensity to model things after that which  
is familiar in RL (Real Life), and as Dave just mentioned, it has  
that 'simulacra' feeling about it.
As Ana says "what's the point making stairs or walls? Or to design  
roads or motorways?" But it does take some time for people to learn  
to adapt and use the new media. And there is some experimentation  
going on as people adapt and experiment. Have you been to the Future  
where you can walk through a scripted tesseract?
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/06/_and_he_rezzed_.html
In any case, that period of adaptation or incubation period is a  
necessary part of the process of learning what works optimally in the  
new environment. We're all probably familiar with good old  
Baudrillard: soon the old media will acquire referents from the new  
media and the new media will be dominant.
How long till we start looking like our avatars? ;-)  I already want  
to fly and wear thigh-high boots all the time.

There's already been some extensive discussion about this on the SLED  
(Second Life Educators) list -- a thread entitled "Traditional  
buildings, non-traditional buildings, no buildings?" in which  
educators questioned the structures being built for virtual learning  
environments and try to answer the question "why have four walls and  
a roof when you can fly?":
https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/2005-November/ 
000103.html

cheers,
~Josephine

SL: Josephine Junot
http://funksoup.com
http://zoomlab.org

On Feb 27, 2007, at 6:24 PM, 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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>>
>>
>> --
>> Skarpnäcks Allé 45 ll tr
>> 12833 Skarpnäck
>> Sweden
>> tel +468-943288
>> mobil 4670-3213370
>>
>>
>> "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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