Books About Virtual Reality
If you want to get an idea of how big the virtual reality movement is, and how broad its implications are, just take a quick tour of the books on this topic. Of course, one might consider it ironic that one of the main factors in what is supposed to be a migration away books and towards a culture centering around digital communications technologies has itself spawned so many books. May a thousand flowers bloom! Check out the latest book list now.
And amazingly, the press is covering the topic as well. Are newspapers tracking the story of their own demise?
Check out the latest news stories here.
A Life of Its Own
In the days when literature was supreme, one of the highest compliments one could pay to a writer was that a character in a work of fiction took on “a life of its own.” The impression being that the portrayal was so “real” that the character jumped off the page to take on a life within the imagination of the reader. So … let’s apply this to virtual worlds. What if one’s own avatar becomes so real as to begin acting with an apparent independence? Is this a compliment to the creator, or a sign of mental illness? What if it happens to be another person’s avatar? Does that, then, bring us back from the brink of mental illness and closer to the unambiguous realm of the compliment? Or even more intriguing … what if the virtual world, community, or circle of friends becomes populated with characters who seem very, very real? Is this a compliment to the technology, a sign of mass hysteria, or something entirely new in the way people connect with each other and spin imaginary worlds that “take on a life of their own?”
Art, Philosophy and Virtual Reality
For any number of reasons, several of which are explored on these pages, virtual worlds offer fertile soil for artists, philosophers, theologians … in fact, anyone, with a penchant for reflecting on the meaning of life. The short movie (referred to by virtual world enthusiasts as “machinima”) now showing on YouTube and linked to below, is a wonderful example of how this digital medium works as a promising platform for using a new art form to address some age old questions.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLeK9Lanh94]
Virtual Reality; Real Money
Factoid: The top 25 business owners in Second Life took home 12 million US dollars last year. That’s not just virtual, folks.
Announcing Summer Fellowship O…
Announcing Summer Fellowship Opportunity. Please consider it now:
http://www.aril.org/colloquium.htm
Watching Chitter.tv
Watching Chitter.tv Watch TV and twitter about it. Is this the cutting edge of convergence? #bloomberg
Everyone Knows Everything
“Everyone Knows Everything”
– Alan R. Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company
Thus, people around the world will have the same information, allowing them to select an automobile made for a world market, according to Ford’s CEO. But the declaration: “Everyone knows everything,” applies to much more than just cars. With information becoming ubiquitous, will there also emerge a global ethic, a shared value system, a common culture replacing the cultures that have long been central to our identities as peoples? This is a powerful, and in some ways, frightening thought.
Cell phone use a cure?
Cell phone use a cure for Alzheimer’s? LOL Something tells me they cause dementia. http://kliq.my/7rw
Georgia O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch Inspiration
Start with this stunning painting by American artist Georgia O’Keefe. Take inspiration from the widerness terrain of Ghost Ranch not far from Santa Fe, New Mexico where she lived and worked. Then translate its colors and shapes into the form of a dress for Second Life avatars, and it not only makes for virtual couture, but also illustrates how passion moves back and forth from the real world to the virtual, and the other way round as well. Read more ….
The Next Year in Media – The D…
The Next Year in Media – The Daily Beast – http://shar.es/aUR2E