Fri 15 Jan, 2010
The work has been fantastic. Thanks to all the students involved. The URL to access the island from the net is http://tiny.cc/6ZS2v. From here you can teleport to it, and it can be sent out to friends and family wanting to attend the opening next week. Thanks again for all your efforts- it has been great. /Jim
Tue 8 Sep, 2009
From our first meeting a few ideas sprang up regarding Second Life, Virtual Worlds and Machinima Film. In this entry I am only going to deal with the first one, more on the others shortly.
Second Life
At this stage it is important for both groups to get to know Second Life. Explore the spaces and places of Second Life. In the presentations today the groups showed us:
Museologi
Classic Paintings Gallery Dottyback
Roma (SPQR) Ancient Rome
Birka Viking Village
Frank Lloyd Wright Museum
David Rumsey Map Museum
Dresden Gallery
Cultural Arts Museum (Tiffany Painter): Childhood Memories
StormEye (Douglas Story)
Pop Art Lab (PAL)
Native Lands (Red RocK Mesa)
Virtual Harlem/First Ethiopian Church/Train Station
Kulturanalys
Magic Mall
Isle of Lesbos
Gender Square: Gender Equality in First and Second Life (excellent collection of papers on gender related issues)
BLU Dancebar
Sadie’s Dyke Bar and Butch Store
Club Galaxy
Dragqueendom
Space, Ibiza
Buddha Centre
Shaolin Gardens
Ambrosia Dance Club
My suggestions
Bodily Beauty in Second Life
Zindra Official SL Adult Content Island
Furries
Avatar and Identity
Life Across Boundaries: Design, Identity, and Gender in Second Life
Review of Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet
Lisa Nakamura, Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet (NY: Routledge) 2002.
Shaowen Bardzell and Jeffrey Bardzell, Docile avatars: aesthetics, experience, and sexual interaction in Second Life
Rune Klevjer, Doctoral dissertation: What is the Avatar? Fiction and Embodiment in Avatar-Based Singleplayer Computer Games (pdf). The public defence took place 9 February 2007, with 1. opponent Espen Aarseth and 2. opponent William Uricchio.
Avatars R Us? Discourses of Community and Embodiment in Intercultural Cyberspace by Paul McIlvenny
Judging yourself by appearances: hey say you can’t judge a book by its cover – an exhortation against judging the character of people based on factors they have no control over. Nonetheless, people do do it, and frequently. There are some interesting aspects to this. One is that we judge ourselves this way. The other comes when we can choose those covers – for example, our avatars.
Peachpit: The Three White Girls from YouTube: A Modern Day Fable > What It Is, Part Two: The Three White Girls from YouTube
What is real online? Does it matter? Author Mark Stephen Meadows explores the role of the avatar using the stories of three white girls from YouTube and the debate that resulted from their collective fame.
The Museologi Groups
Group 1:
Jani Pellikka
Peter Westling
Cecilia Douzette
Group 2:
Ellen Mägi Hurtis
Elenora Klingestam
Michelle Stensson Larsson
Johan Olasson
Group 3:
Victor Brog
Anu Kjäll
Stina Lindh
Group 4:
Lina Ingvarsson
Marcus Hammerstöm
Those people who were there for the presentations of inspirational areas and are not on the list should contact Jim as soon as possible:
jim.barrett(at)humlab.umu.se
Mon 6 Oct, 2008
I know that some of the groups are discussing gender related themes for project ideas. I have some examples of gender negotiation when it comes to Second Life that may be of interest:
A Womans Touch
A female only space in Second Life. This rule should be respected. It is not so easy to pass as a woman even if it is an avatar that is the point of presence.
As well there is A Womans Touch 2
A Womans Touch 2 (AWT2 as it is also known) is a sim in the Second Life. It is a place for all women to feel safe to have fun and enjoyment with other women. It is a womens only sim – we have lady cops who patrol and ask all males to leave. If they do not, we assist them in that effort 
.
Male dominated spaces in Second Life are common. There are many sex related spaces that are male dominated in SL but I choose to look at the imagery of male fashion. Men’s Second Style is a male SL fashion blog:
Men’s Second Style
Men’s Second Style (formerly Second Man, hence our domain name) was founded in August 2006 by Second Life resident Nicholas Shaftoe. With the then-pending demise of the SL forums and the general sense that there were not a lot of good choices for men’s fashion in SL, Nick decided to start a blog that would track new releases and give reviews of existing stores and designers.
For more on imaging the male in SL a Google search is enough (20 000 000 returns!!)
Very much related to gender and avatars is the work of Dean Spade, on the body, gender and ‘passing’. Dean Spade, Troubling Gender