PseudorealityPrevails

Me and Mrs. Winds

Well we couldn't get into the Virtual Storytelling interactive venture.  I know, sounds promising!  But we can't tell you what it was, b/c we got trapped in a box.  You know, those invisible boxes with the courier-font duct tape.  Anyway, we decided to go back to Siri's place and hang out. It's all good!

Chillaxin' at the beach house:

 

Ara riding Hattie, Siri on porch:

Siri's hobo tag!

In the sekret skybox library:

Intangible Method (a digital fairy tale)

by Scotto Moore:

A multimedia performance/investigation into the strange phenomenon of a woman discovering that all her activities are posted online, just moments *before they happen . . .

LINK: Scotto's web

Fashion Plate

Going to have to get some new virtual duds that mirror the Barbie I had in the 70s:

Obamicons

My favorite current music style, and my favorite current president, together (currently):

This one featured in the NYT.

Shepard Fairey-inspired mashups.  Make one of your own!

Superstructing

I've been playing/reading superstructgame.org, Jane McGonigal's latest 'alternate reality' game.  The idea is that it's 2019, and major threats are destabilizing civilization (disease, refugees, political unrest, violence, environmental collapse) and their combined effect will result in the extinction of humans in 40 years.  Point of the game - figure out how to not go extinct, by coming up with ideas to fight these threats and build new sustainable infrastructures. 

This past week I realized the game ends Monday (it's only 6 weeks long), and I'd better start posting (I always think I have about twice the time I actually do, 6 weeks = 3 months in my mind).  So I created a blog with my futuristic ideas with pics and links, and also references to what existing structures might be extended into future-crisis-solving ones, and I was ready to start copying things into the text field forms that comprise half the game UI (the other half being endless scrolling lists) and start linking other superstruct ideas with each other to make mega-ones - when I paused.

World without bees.  World without oil.  World without humans.  World without - ideas?  Because Superstruct is nothing if not an idea aggregator.  The unbelievably lengthy pages and pages and pages of description and instructions full of new kewl buzzwords (mobbability!  stigmergy!  mesh2mesh identity!) seem a little too slick, predesigned to be conference-friendly, lacking only some concrete examples to undergird their lovely theoretical flow. 

There's basically no game UI.  Game instructions are way too lengthy, game-play itself just text-field forms, game-display is text-heavy narrow-width scrolling columns of text and links, game-function shows a lack of basic AJAX-y type features like a dynamic ratings system, Google map modal story mashups, integrated photo galleries.  These features, or lack thereof, combine to make the whole experience feel less like a game than a wiki. 

What there is, discoverable after considerable time spent wading through the text and posts, are some interesting ideas.  And some nice stories.  And a few photos and videos as well.  But it's not a game,it's an aggregator with a theme. 

And suddenly I became not that thrilled with the prospect of posting my ideas to an aggregator.  Because after the game is over, someone is going to aggregate them.  Someone is going to draw larger conclusions.  Someone is going to make predictions for the future.  And then someone is going to present this at conferences. 

And that someone is not going to be me. 

But then I thought - why not?  Maybe that someone could be me if I stopped giving my ideas away, stopped undervaluing them, and started packaging them.  With 10 years of design work under my belt, I think I could come up with a reasonable package.  So I decided not to post to the text field forms, after all. 

I suppose in a way this game has been a good experience for me!  Just not in the way the game designer intended.  But she has aggregated enough ideas that she should be able to come up with a new game, eventually.  Maybe Peter Gabriel can help.

Keepin' it Real?

Reuters reports that Facebook is terminating accounts with avatar names!!  "You can’t be on Facebook without being yourself," according to the Facebook COO [italics mine].

I'm almost tempted to sign up again.  Almost.

Avatar Romance

My iGoogle movie is up!  Called Avatar Romance, it's about a virtual triangle involving two avatars and Facebook.  It's a dynamic theme on iGoogle, the banner image changes every hour to the next episode in the story; there are 12 episodes.

To add the theme, click here.

It was created as a new media piece, and ideally should be viewed on iGoogle over the course of a day.  But it's also a comic strip for a less tech-intensive version. The comic is here: www.peggynelson.com/avatar.

IMing in Public

I've noticed, when talking to my 20- and 30-something friends, a distinct lack of segues.  Conversations will veer at sharp angles into the very middle of topics that really do need introduction, and then jump out again just as fast, perhaps circling back around intermittently, perhaps not.  A consistency of abruptness. 

And yet, all this veering and jumping does not break the conversational flow.  The continuity is maintained by the fact that they're still talking to you; in other words, still in the same chat window.  Not only lateral discontinuities, but vertical as well.  And yet, not discontinuities at all.  We're all united in the gap.  At least, they are.

Avatars in LA

i has a stik . . .

The Man in the Mirror Suit

I'm going to be casting a critical eye on the current state of machinema for this fall's OtherZine.  My initial motivation was to evaluate the process, it's DIY filmmaking taken to the next level.  Building a world is necessarily more open-ended, and involves more in terms of people and culture, than just building a set. 

As of a few months ago, the machinema I'd seen was only adequate or conventional, in terms of line quality (which has to be simple because complex line patterns would not stream well), shot composition, and of course narrative.  Short films everywhere, especially animations, are susceptible to the one-liner syndrome, where there is a big build-up to the single, often gothic, point.  Or on the other extreme, they are pretty and ambient with no narrative arc whatever.  I have no huge reason to suspect this has changed, although I'll be looking.

But what interests me more is the process.  Building a world for itself, not for the express purpose of making a film, and then eventually making a film within that world, seems to be not only about individual or group expression, but about this strange impulse we have to copy everything.  Our art so often involves duplicating aspects of our world: novels, realistic painting, photography, film, virtual worlds, video games.   But what if we could extend it even further, what then?  What if we could duplicate the world so perfectly that experiencing the latest artwork felt like - actually being there?  Would this be worth it?  Because, you know, we are already actually there.  What is the impulse for these ever more elaborate copies?  What do we get out of them? And where might they be leading?