ICAT__Story and Interactivity Seminar__report on 2nd session
Dear ICAT Students,
The second session of the year-long Story
and Interactivity seminar yesterday (Friday
at 2pm in Classroom 3) rocked on. About
10 people attended and took part in a
lively discussion about the video recordings
and newspaper articles that were projected,
and the ideas that were presented.
Beginning with consideration of the human
imagination, by which we so often enjoy
putting ourselves in the places of others,
and imagining what it would be like to
experience the world from that person’s
perspective, we had a good discussion
about Lucid Dreaming -- the ability to
be aware that one is dreaming while one
is dreaming, and to partially control
what happens in one’s dream as one is
dreaming. We began to discuss some
similarities and differences between
Lucid Dreaming, and Virtual/Artificial
Reality (in which one’s body movements
can affect the graphic environment in
which one can seem to be immersed).
We discussed “interactive media experiences”
in general, and it was suggested that
“role-playing improvisational audience-
participation activities” need not
necessarily be organised as games. We
have not yet come up with any alternative
to the game model for such play, but we
are working on it.
We were very impressed with the real-time
avatar manipulation (“performance driven
facial animation”, by which one can
“transfer an actor’s performance directly
onto any digitally-created character”)
demonstrated at http://www.image-metrics.com .
It seemed to us that avatars that people
will be able to use in “role-playing
improvisational audience-participation
activities” (game and other) are becoming
more realistic.
It was shocking to some of us that it seems
that a man could represent himself with a
very realistic moving female avatar, a woman
could represent herself with a realistic
moving male avatar, and likewise regarding
age, ethnic group (including skin color),
body size and shape, etc.
We discussed the possibilities of a husband
and wife amusing each other by representing
themselves with realistic moving avatars
that might look different from how they
look in real life. Some of us expressed
the concern that people could become addicted
to such fantasies, and they might not
afterward be able to be content with how
each other looked in reality.
A number of the newspaper articles we read
mentioned Second Life, which confirmed our
sense that this website is in the leadership
position when it comes to setting up virtual
interactive social environments on the
Internet.
It seemed to us that “online social networks”
(an example of “social media”, featuring
“user-generated content”) -- such as Orkut,
Facebook, and Myspace -- might also go in
the direction of offering users the option
of representing themselves with avatars,
and that these avatars might become ever-more
realistic moving ones -- which could be used
1) in videoconferences; and 2) on “mobile
communication devices” (also known as mobile
telephones).
The question was posed: Do people using
social media just want to interact with each
other directly (by audio, video, and text),
or do they also want some content, or some
structured activities, provided by entertainment
professionals (including designers of various
types)? It was agreed that the option of
being able to observe, and possibly play with,
material supplied by entertainment professionals
should always be available, in case people get
bored interacting with each other directly.
The next session of the Story and Interactivity
seminar will be this coming Friday (Oct 23),
2pm in Classroom 3 (as usual). There is no
need to attend each session of the seminar --
and we will bring those who have not attended
any previous sessions up-to-speed in no time.
To increase one’s enjoyment of the seminar,
one could read (and be ready to comment upon
and ask questions about) that which is written
on pages 10-20 of both _Artificial Reality_
(about interactivity), and _Hero with a
Thousand Faces_ (about story). Copies of
these books are in the library. Also,
beginning with any story (personal experience,
made-up, from a movie, etc), seminar
participants are invited to describe any
sort of “interactive media experience” and
“role-playing improvisational audience-
participation activity” (game and other)
that could be made based on that story,
or on any section of that story -- and we
might try out that activity.
Many thanks,
- Prof E
Media Studies Dept, ICAT-Chennai
98403 94282
http://www.storytellinginstitute.org
http://www.storytellingandvideoconferencing.com
"Tamil Nadu in 2020", an essay --
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~emiller/Tamil_Nadu_in_2020__in_English.pdf
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~emiller/Tamil_Nadu_in_2020__in_Tamil.pdf
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