Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Second Life Induction: Another Perfect World
a BBC documentary on virtual worlds including Second Life:
Second Life Induction Overview
Getting your feet wet:If you've not already done so - create a user name at www.secondlife.com. You'll have to go to your email to activate your new account so while your there, email your user name to b.rush|at|gsa.ac.uk so I can invite you to the GSA inWorld Studio (See below). Fire up your copy of the Second Life Viewer and you'll land yourself in a place called Help Island.
- Hint: go through the quick pop-up tutorial that first appear on your screen. You can always bring it back though the help menu.
- On your keyboard function keys - F1 will bring up the Second Life support Wiki.
- There is also this Quick Start Guide pdf.
- Find the recycle bin and learn how to clean up stray objects (prims)
- Find the video tutorials poster and try to activate it - (outside web content)
- Take a flight on a rocket . . .
- Listen to Scarboro fair . . .
By this point I hope you've received your invitation to the GSA inWorld Studio. Follow this link to quick jump to the island: GSA inWorld Studio.
- To make sure can always get back to the GSA inWorld Studio set it as your home.
- Once on the island got to the World menu and select "home to here".
Basic Tools:
The pie selector is the gate way to interacting with most things in SL You can access it by right-clicking it or command/apple clicking on most anything.
- Pie menu video tutorial
If you bring up the pie selector while clicking on yourself and select appearance you can modify everything about how your avatar looks - cloths hair skin etc.
Whoever wrocks the best mullet by the end of the inductions - wins a prize!
- Editing your appearance video tutorial
Check out the map button (lower right side) You can double click anywhere on the map to teleport to that location (if your allowed there). You can also search for locations here - however your mileage may vary.
- Teleporting tutorial
Try the search function for some Free Stuff? (Upper Right hand corner). You can search for just about anything including places and people.
Getting back to places:
When you find a place you like you can save that location to go back to later by selecting the 'world' menu and the selecting "create landmark here".
Landmarks are saved in your inventory (lower right corner) under 'My Inventory'/'Landmarks'.
Inventory:
Your inventory (pictured above) is like your backpack - everything you create - buy or otherwise receive can be found or kept there. The 'Library' found below is a collection of useful things that Linden Labs (the makers of SL) gives to everyone to start out. In the locations folder listed under library you can find various locations for support - including the 'Help Island' where you first landed. Here volunteers are willing to help you with all manner of issues you might be having in SL.
Basics of building objects (prims):
In any area that allows you to build and create objects (such as the GSA inWorld Studio) creating objects starts off relatively simple. Direct your arm toward the land itself in front of you and bring up the pie selector with a right-click and select 'Create' - (Note the edit terrain button?)
You will see the build menu appear.
The rest is best shown in person or in the following video tutorials.
- What is a Prim? video tutorial
- A web page of video tutorials on building.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Site Place Context | Metaverse | Second Life
"Second Life (SL) is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab that launched on June 23, 2003 and is accessible via the Internet. A free client program called the Second Life Viewer[1] enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world (which residents refer to as "the grid")."
Wikipideia accessed 20.12.09
"So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project--every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in--that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought. I worked this out with Martin Wattenberg at IBM; it's a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but it's the right order of magnitude, about 100 million hours of thought."To do: before we meet for the induction!
Gin, Television, and Social Surplus Accessed 19.12.09
- Create an account www.secondlife.com
- Email your full user name to b.rush@gsa.ac.uk
- Go ahead, log in and adjust your avatar's appearance.
- Visit some places. On the delicious Second Life Tag cloud (also in the Site Place Context blog) there are a number of links for 'best places on Second Life'. Visit a few and take note of your favourites –– we'll go visit them as a group during the induction.
Second Life is representative of many different virtual digital worlds. We can look at each of them as an experiment in and with reality: how we see it, how we engage with it, and how we engage with each other. Some virtual worlds have been constructed with Utopian ideas while some function on conflict. While Second Life has no - game rules per-say, there are ones with definite rules and objectives such as World of Warcraft. Each of these is a projection of an alternative set of potentials: What will people try to do in this place? How will they act and react. Our behaviour in such an environment says as much about the place as it does about us as people, societies cultures etc. Would it be possible to create a world where everyone gets along? Even if the program were perfect - we would probably mess it up wouldn't we?
The fact is that socially collaborative electronic media is becoming more and more a part of our daily activity. Less then 20 years ago we sat down in front of the TV and were entertained passively. Collectively these hours added up to absolutely enormous amounts of time! - Now more and more people are choosing to spend at least some of that time engaged with projects like Wikipedia which boasts 3.1 million articles in English alone, all posted by folks across the globe - and it was only founded nine years ago. Second life is much the same way. People visit - and while some don't come back - but others do, they create communities and they build things. In this way our cognitive surplus, or time wasted in passive consumption has been put to use.
- In relation to the Site-Place-Context the Second Life Island is will be the locus of much of our activity - its a sand-box to try out ideas and see how they go. You’ll be granted access after the induction.
- The application Second Life Viewer has been installed on the machines in the Macintosh Computer lab in the GSA Library. Feel free to install it on on your own computer if it meets the minimum requirements (available here).
Video Tutorials:
- Editing your appearance
- Looking Around
- Moving & Flying
- Teleporting
- Talking with others
- Filling in your profile
Site - Place - Context. The Project
This project aims to demonstrate the importance of being aware of, and understanding the multiplicity of contexts within any given site. It will use the Mackintosh Building, Bellahouston Park and our SecondLife island as sites – both sites of production and sites for viewing. The project is structured around four creative processes: Research, Development, Resolution and Presentation. You may develop work in any media, though this must be done within the resources available to you.
To start the research period off, you are requested to look at ways of investigating, documenting and gathering information about all three sites. During the first 2 weeks of the project, Studio 19 will become the ‘Shared Research Archive’ for the project – a depository for the information you gather. This research will be a shared resource, therefore you are required to document it in a way that will allow others to gain understanding and knowledge from your inquiry. This could be done through for example, drawing, photography, writing, recording and using online resources, blogs / wikis.
During the first 2 weeks of the project you are expected to explore the three sites. There will be workshops on SecondLife which will equip you with the tools required to make and build on our island. Check your timetable and the VLE for details. Remember, you have had inductions into our wood and casting workshops and participated in a kinetics workshop. It is expected that you will continue to develop skills in some of these areas and that your final work for this project will reflect this. There are also three lectures that support the project.
The first lecture is by Jacqueline Donachie. Jackie is artist in residence in Bellahouston Park initiated by House for an Art Lover and the department of Sculpture and Environmental Art. Jackie's residency will culminate in an art event that will open in conjunction with Glasgow International.
The second lecture is by David Harding. David established the Environmental Art Department at The Glasgow School of Art and was head of department until his retirement. He is internationally respected as an expert in the field of Public Art Practice and continues to work and write extensively on this area.
The third lecture is by Shauna McMullan and Nicky Bird. Shauna and Nicky are artists in residence at Glasgow Women’s Library, working on the ‘Making Space project’ - investigations towards a public artwork - which will culminate in an exhibition and discussion on issues relating to public art practices during Glasgow International.
During the final 3 weeks of the project, you are expected to develop a work from the research material that has been gathered. The work should reflect an in-depth study of site and context. It should demonstrate that you are aware of who your audience is. Is it a gallery based work that has grown and developed from the research you have done into a particular site - place -context or is it a site based work that exists because of its context?
Who is the artwork for?
Where is it for?
What is it for?
This final period will be supported by tutorials from staff, Cheryl, Paul, Ken and Ben and will culminate in a critical feedback session and exhibition in the Mackintosh building.
Please see the VLE for a full timetable for the project.
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