reflecting on the Borders conference

the conference was an outstanding success. we had decent attendance, we survived with grace during the technical nightmares, and we enjoyed being there. i will not say that we hit every goal we set for ourselves but, when we didn't we learned an amazing amount.

the audience for the session was a great collection of innovative minds associated with Tulane U., SymbioticA, turbulence.org, New Media Consortium, Ogoglio, SecondFront, and countless other affilations.

my session with Michele, Dore, and Eloise was reduced to text chat when we were not able to hack into phone system as we had earlier in the day. The result: four people talking via the chat system of Second Life with an amazing high level of knowledge and insight (well three of four, left a moderator/grad student in the dust at times). 'lite speak be damned! The transcript will be published this week along witht hte rest of the documentation of Borders.


To whet your appetite until then, I have begun to post the images from the sessions at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kidneutrino/collections/72157600157477665/

"out of body" images haven't been posted yet since I am waiting for them from another colleague.

the first day of the borders conference is under our belt. Very amazing it happened the speakers were amazing, and we are worn out because Second Life went off line just before we started, we hit technical difficulties in the audio that couldn't be corrected and we are all worn out from the experience.

My talk is a scant 15 hours from now and I am nervous.
here's my amended statement:

Our discussion today revolves around the concepts of embodiment in the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)environment. The MMO is still laden with preconception that these arenas are only distraction; the territory of teenage malcontents and social misfits who just 'need to get a life'. I suggest that there is an attraction to the MMO format for a wider community of people. They are drawn to the MMO as a platform for deep socio-economic, cultural and political pursuits and yet is still labeled with a stigma.

I propose a repurpose of the expression 'Out of Body Experience'(OoBE) as a description for the interaction with these platforms. These spaces represent a boundary space of the entity in-between.

Despite the immediate association with new age spiritualist fringe cultures, Out of Body Experiences are not nearly as much hoodoo or metaphysics as one might associate. The use of the Out of Body Experience as a metaphor is not to be seen as coy or clever attempt to color this discussion. It seems point to a transitional space, a borderland of agency.

These experiences are part of many practices and arenas of social existence. And indeed, they are obviously rooted as religious practices like meditation, prayer, or channeling. Out of Body Experiences appear in other areas such as battle and combat or sexual practice. These triggers can and do invoke the sensory separations from the corporeal. And don't allow us to forget the 'zone' that we hear often about from those in the artistic professions.

Borders, Boundaries & Liminal States

"Borders, Boundaries & Liminal States", a three day conference within the virtual online world Second Life, will explore how borders are delineated and complicated within/between virtual environments. Sponsored by Ars Virtua New Media Center, and CADRE Laboratory for New Media.
Conference program via the link below:

http://arsvirtua.com/bordersprog.php

no relation

but I would be proud if I was

what do do have planned for your 74th year?

http://wbztv.com/video/?id=22187@kpix.dayport.com

http://www.panasianbiz.com/2007/04/74year_old_poppa_neutrino_sets.html

Nostalgia for Early Information Design

I was reacquainted with the awesomeness of the Powers of Ten a film done by Charles and Ray Eames for IBM. I have been doing an interview with Michael Joaquin Grey for SWITCH Magazine. Micheal is an artist very interested in magnitude. If you have never seen this film it is a classic especially if you are interested information as system.

http://presence.stanford.edu/

is a research site talking about many of the issues we are tackling
for the conference. great collection of resource materials.

SO yesterday while trying to relax my brain I came across a web-based South Park Character. I haven't made a self-portrait in a while... Here I am in class trying to explain some wild-ass-theory of mine, with my ventrilo headset on of course.

do your own:
http://www.sp-studio.de/

gearing up for the Borders Conference

spent most of the day reading through sites and composing and recomposing my position statement for the conference. it is approaching fast. the borders conference is a three day academic conference about synthetic worlds/virtual realities/online life. We will be holding the sessions in online environments primarily in our gallery in Second Life (Ars Virtua) but also on World of Warcraft.

i am heading a panel discussion on the subject of out of body. my panelists are critic/historian/artist Dore Bowen (San Jose State), artist/theorist Michele White (Tulane University), and scripter/writer/theorist Eloise Pasteur.

this is my position as it stands this hour:

Despite the immediate association with new age spiritualist fringe cultures, Out of Body Experiences are not nearly as much hoodoo or metaphysics as one might associate. The use of the Out of Body Experience as a metaphor is not to be seen as coy or clever attempt to color this discussion. This seems point to a transitional space, a borderland of agency.

These experiences are part of many practices and arenas of social existence. And indeed, they are obvious deeply rooted as religious practices like meditation, prayer, or channeling. Out of Body Experiences appear in other areas such as battle and combat or sexual practice. These triggers can and do invoke the sensory separations from the corporeal. And don't allow us to forget the 'zone' that we hear often about from those in the artistic professions.


things to consider:

Thinking about the connections between telepresence and Out of Body Experience (OoBE). Are telematics and telepresence a OoBE or simply a seductive simulation?

When are appropriate times and arenas to manifest conciousness outside the body? Why is prayer socially acceptable when participation in immersive media such as SL seems socially deprecated?

Let's consider Baudrillardian Simulacra. Do the terms of simulation/real or virtual/genuine have any currency left? Are they stubborn stains of a pre-Media paradigm?

FQ 2007 update

I made significant progress on the award trophy in the past 3 days. I am not going to let the cat out of the bag yet but, I have discovered a modular system that I already understand. I abandoned the hardware and programming idea because I have limited time.

Oh yeah I discovered a really cute freeware utility. Lego has a three-D render tool that allows you to build visually, get a quote, shoot pictures, creates a building instructional video and html page, AND upload it to the company to have the order filled. SUCK THAT, Sketch-Up!

Get it here:
LEGO Digital Designer : Virtual Building Software

IS THIS related to the award? I'll never tell (yet).