[Reader-list] August 2007 on -empyre- *The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Being in Second Life *

[Christina McPhee]

Join us at -empyre- < http://www.subtle.net/empyre>   in August 2007  
for:

*The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Being in Second Life *

when hostess Melinda Rackham is joined by special guests: Annabeth  
Robinson, Patrick Lichty, Stephan Doesinger, Dr Ricardo Peach Christy  
Dena, Kathy Cleland, Adam Nash and Dr Fabio Zambetta


Neal Stephenson's Metaverse reigns supreme. One of it's current  
incarnations- the multi-user virtual universe Second Life claims a  
population of 8 million avatars. SL is embraced by many as an  
innovative and safe fantasy scape - enabling play, creativity,  
education, companionship, love and lust. It is reviled by some as a  
cesspit of antisocial isolationist addictive behavior; and SL is  
dismissed by others as simply an over-inflated hype driven commercial  
venture expounding the values of property acquisition and commodity  
exchange. Whatever your perspective, SL is serious business with an  
exchange rate which fluctuates against the $US and an estimated  
Second Life avatar electricity consumption equivalent to the average  
citizen of Brazil. In this seemingly infinitely expandable universe  
aesthetic endeavors, creative constructions and artistic performances  
are enacted daily.



---> Annabeth Robinson (UK) is a Second Life Artist focusing on  
interactive and sound driven projects, Metaverse consultant and Sim  
builder, Lecturer - Design for Digital Media at Leeds College of Art  
and Design. aka AngryBeth Shortbread http://www.annamorphic.co.uk/

---> Patrick Lichty (US) is a technologically-based conceptual  
artist, writer,independent curator, co-founder of the Second Life  
based performance art group, Second Front, animator for the The Yes  
Men, and Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. http:// 
www.voyd.com/voyd/

---> Stephan Doesinger (Austria) is a conceptual artist and  
architect. His second book "Learning from Sim City," will be  
published in September. He initiated Bastard Spaces the 1st Annual  
Architecture and Design Competition in SL to be announced at Ars  
Elctronica. aka Doesi Beck http://www.doesinger.com/ http://www.sl- 
award.com

---> Dr Ricardo Peach (AU) is the Program Manager for the Inter-Arts  
Office at the Australia Council for the Arts, which is funding a SL  
residency. Born in Volksrust, Mpumalanga in 1968, he and his family  
migrated to Perth, Australia in 1980. aka Ricardo Paravane http:// 
www.ozco.gov.au/grants/grants_new_media_arts/second_life_artist_resid  
ency/

---> Christy Dena (AU) is researching changes to art and  
entertainment in the age of cross-media production for her PhD at the  
University of Sydney. Dena works as an industry strategist, mentor,  
educator and journalist. aka Lythe Witte http://www.christydena.com/  
http://www.lythewitte.net/

---> Dr Fabio Zambetta (AU) lectures at School of Computer Science  
and Information Technology at RMIT University Melbourne and  
researcher in the area of 3D embodied conversational agents, 3D  
virtual environments, and interactive storytelling. aka Fabio  
Forcella http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~fabio/projects/

---> Kathy Cleland (AU) is a writer, curator and lecturer in the  
Digital Cultures Program at The University of Sydney and is currently  
completing her PhD investigating avatars, digital portraiture and  
representations of the self in virtual environments. aka Bella  
Bouchard http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/digitalcultures/? 
page=staff&id=katclela

---> Adam Nash (AU) is a media artist, composer, programmer,  
performer and writer who works in networked real-time 3D spaces,  
exploring them as live audiovisual performance spaces. His work has  
been presented at SIGGRAPH, ISEA, and the Venice Biennale. aka Adam  
Ramona http://yamanakanash.net/

---> Dr Melinda Rackham (AU) is the Executive Director of ANAT -  
Australia's peak body for artists working with emerging technologies.  
Her Ph.D. explored the nature and construction of avatars and multi- 
user Virtual Reality Spaces. aka Marina Regina http://www.subtle.net

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