Tech -- Culture -- Humour
Veteran Australian Second Life resident and Murdoch University Library staff member Kathryn Greenhill, has created a very interesting video of Murdoch University’s presence in Second Life. It covers the management, ongoing activities and challenges that running an island in Second Life involves.
Another good reason to have a look is that the island is closed to the general public.
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
VastPark today announced the public release (albeit an alpha release) of a number of its tools. You can now download a browser to view creations dynamically, a Viewer for “viewing the virtual experience in a static and controlled environment”, an Asset Publisher to get everything online and VastServer for real-time, multi-user interaction.
The release is to get the tools into as many hands as possible prior to the second stress test being held on the 22nd April.
If you’re brave enough to use some alpha release tools, let us know what you think of VastPark so far. I can’t actually do it myself as there’s no Mac version as yet.
An Australia Council project that was initially announced nearly a year ago, has come to fruition.
Babelswarm is the final product of writer Justin Clemens, visual artist Christopher Dodds and musician/artist Adam Nash and it’s being launched this evening at 5.30pm, Friday 11th April. It’s a simultaneous launch in Second Life and in Lismore, NSW at the Lismore Regional Gallery.
The Australia Council describes Babelswarm:
The installation, a metaphor for the Tower of Babel, uses voice recognition software that converts the spoken word of real and virtual participants into 3-D letterform images in an evolving tower of words. The artwork is a simultaneous installation in Second Life and in a real world gallery, where visitors can be involved directly in its creation via a computer interface.
The Australia Council’s chairman, former QANTAS CEO James Strong, is upbeat about the use of Second Life for artists and the Australia Council’s support of such endeavours: “Virtual worlds like Second Life are fast becoming mainstream platforms for artistic interaction; we are keen to provide pathways for artists to continue to innovate in these rich digital environments. The Australia Council supports artist residencies in many places in the real world; it is only natural for us to help artists explore the creative possibilities of residencies in virtual worlds.”
The Lismore Regional Gallery is located at 131 Molesworth Street, Lismore, NSW. The exhibition will run until April 23, 2008. The Babelswarm blog has much more detail of the installation.
(Pictures: Babelswarm, 2008)
As promised a few weeks back, we’re pleased to start a new feature called V2 (virtual two), where two avatars describe their relationship in their own words. The inaugural edition features Australia-based Synner Prinz and US-based Bill Hayabusa:
Synner Prinz
It’s with pleasure I share my journey thru Secondlife with my love….
I’d only been on Second Life a few weeks when I was walking along a jetty and saw this guy swimming around. ‘Wow’, I thought to myself, ‘that is so cool, you can even swim here’. And with that, I jumped in…. ‘hmmmmm, why am I sinking to the bottom of the sea’ I ask myself as I turn a bright shade of red! I make it back to the jetty after much splashing and near drowning and am relieved my silly newbie antics haven’t scared him off….That was the day the most awesome journey began for my love Bill Hayabusa and me, Synner Prinz.
I don’t recall when I lost my heart to him… was it when he took me horse riding on the beach and I held onto him so tightly? Was it when he took me surfing and we splashed, played and laughed together? Was it when he danced with me under the stars and made my heart race and body tingle all over? Or was it the day when the sun was setting and he held me in his arms on ‘Soul’ declaring his love and giving me his heart?
I really don’t know, but what I do know is that through our amazing adventure on Second Life we have been able to share the joys and experiences together such as horse riding, surfing, dancing, motor bike riding, skiing, ballooning, parachuting, ice skating, moutain bike riding, shopping, roller skating, dining, boating, diving, flying, travelled on a spaceship, roleplaying in a 1800’s mid western sim where we married by common law. We’ve lived in a cabin, a castle and now a mansion…. how do you top off a year like that? You renew your wedding vows!!!.
What are we doing now? Basking in love and living as a family with our two dogs in our house with the white picket fence awaiting the arrival of our twins…. nice huh 🙂 You really can live your dreams here and I never want this fairytale to end!
Bill Hayabusa
Heard about Second Life on CNN so came to do some research on social engineering for a small educational company. The idea was to motivate and guide students to excel in public speaking. The potential to improve peoples’ lives is impressive. What I found came as a total surprise. I found that if you allow yourself to become your avatar, you could live vicariously, the life you always wanted. This in turn produces a feeling of accomplishment and happiness never experienced before.
Found love… I was exploring all that can be done in SL, like swimming. The animation and control was impressing me when there she was… A vision of the woman I always wanted for a wife… to spend all my days and nights with. From the moment I saw her (knowing “this is a game… not real”) I fell deeply in love with my dream. Then after a few words, I knew what I wanted… I wanted it to be as real as real can be. I realized it’s the experience that matters most, and wanted to experience this new feeling of love, that I never was able to experience in real life.
Got married…I was role playing a US Marshal in 1897 Tombstone Arizona. I asked Synner to be my common law wife and she accepted. My heart sang and I felt young and full of life. Something I hadn’t felt in years. I thought those feelings I’d remember fondly, but never experience again.
Created a family….. One year later we got married/partnered with a complete wedding at our home we built and friends we had acquired in SL. Then we got the great news of us having twins.
From meeting each other, falling in love, exploring all that SL has to offer, building our dream home, getting married, from conception to the birth of our babies. It’s been a most fantastic experience and now I know beyond a doubt, anything is possible. Like finding your soul mate (grinning/w dimples).
Jokay Wollongong is an Australian Second Life resident with a very active education blog that’s well integrated with the Jokaydia islands in Second Life.
One interesting project underway is the Virtual Classroom Project. It’s a lengthy read but an excellent example of some of the Australian-driven innovation in education in a virtual world context.
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