Join Designing Worlds for a special recording!

Designing Worlds studio

Join us at 2pm SLT today, Tuesday 14th May, for a special live recording of Designing Worlds at our studio in Garden of Dreams, as we are joined by Chantal Harvey, the weel-know machinamatographer and Tony Dyson, the designer who created R2D2, who will be joining us to talk about their fascinating new project – the Bobbekins – which utilises Second Life as a part of a wider project to create interactive electronic materials for children.

Bobbekins eBook

Chantal and Tony will be talking not only about their project (currently online as an Indiegogo project), but also about their work and careers.

And there will be the opportunity for our audience to ask them questions too!

As this is a recording of a show to be shown at a later date, we will be starting the filming at 1pm, and you will not be able to see all the inserts we will be discussing (although we will supply web addresses so the audience can take a look!). But it will be a chance to find out more about Tony, Chantal and their fascinating project!

So do come and join in the recording at 1pm!

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Supporting BobbekinWorld – a new case use for Second Life

Bobbekins eBook

Tony Dyson, well-known as the creator of R2-D2, the much loved robot from Star Wars, has long been working in Second Life (and real life) with Chantal Harvey, one of the most talented machinimatographers in virtual worlds. Together they are launching a series of kid’s e-Books with advanced animation, “BobbekinWorld”.

The e-Books combine video, music and still images of cute little characters called Bobbekins, more interactive than ever before, taking full advantage of new media – including Second Life – to create some engaging stories that children really love.  Chantal and Tony believe that digital books at this moment fail to take advantage of the full potential of the new digital readers. Even young children find digital readers easy to use and enjoy apps that are designed for them (I have a very young friend who loves to do jigsaws with me on my iPad, for example!).

Tony and Chantal believe that children expect to engage all their senses, when they are being presented with a storyline or teaching exercise. In addition, educators have found an enormous success ratio in the principle of not only engaging all the senses of a child, but also in motivating their imagination in a passionate way, that can only lead to the child developing a sense of wonder and encouraging their questioning mind. “We are looking for a reaction, in the magic words: but why? What does that mean? Our publications are designed to provoke,” they say.

To develop this project, they have turned to  Indiegogo.

“Over the last 2 years, we have invested a considerable amount of money and time in this project. It has been very difficult to stay independent. We know that if we sell to the large publishers too early, we will most definitely lose control over matters we find very important and are close to our heart. We now need to market and develop the full range of e-Books and printed material. At Indiegogo we have the perfect opportunity not only to pre-sell our publications, but to also offer exciting bonuses to families and teachers who share and appreciate our concept.”

You can find out more at:
Indiegogo project:  http://netdreamer.com
Website:  http://netdreamerpublications.com
Fanpage:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bobbekinworld/137238533106251
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bobbekinworld

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Enter the immersive world of Arcachon Atlantique with Designing Worlds

Now available on the web – our latest episode, as we visut the beautiful – and endangered – region of Arcachon Atlantique.

Arcachon Atlantique is the beautiful Francophone region based on the Languedoc region of France, which has recently come close to closure, despite offering great activities and developing a brilliant immersive language learning programme.

In this show, we explore some of the beauties of the region with Claire Pascale, the owner of Arcachon and with Cybère Placebo, who has been working on developing language courses, as well as Karelia Kondor, a teacher of French in the UK, who has used the region of Arcachon in her teaching.

Arcachon Harbour

We explore the region, discussing the plans to use it as an immersive language resource, and also experience some of the activities it offers, from wine tasting, to a hot air balloon trip, to harvesting (and enjoying!) fresh oysters.

And we’ll be looking at the problems owners face in sustaining such a region.

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Official Video for One Billion Rising in Second Life released!

Today we are very proud to announce the release of our special video for One Billion Rising in Second Life.

This video was made to promote the 24 hour event on Thursday 14th February, running from 12 midnight to twelve midnight, with 24 hours of music, dance, art and celebration.

SPREAD THE WORD!

The video was made by women of Second Life, and we will be posting a list of the names on the One Billion Rising website later today, together with a list of the locations where it was filmed, so that you can visit these amazing places within Second Life.

Remember – we are planning to livestream the event itself so that people around the world will be able to watch it – and join in too!

The one caveat, of course, is that glitches happen and something will crash. However, no matter what the temporary difficulties are, just be patient. It will resume as quickly as possible.

You will be able to find the livestream using this link. We hope to see you inworld, but if you can’t make it please do join us online.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Rising in Second Life – Ce n’est pas une peinture

Dancing at LEA 15

Today we are releasing the video for One Billion Rising in Second Life, and when you watch it, you’ll see that we visited some pretty amazing locations!

One that got all the participants excited was the Art installation we chose – which was Gracie Kendal’s Ce n’est pas une peinture on LEA15. The dancers changed into the skins that Gracie provided, and the special hair designed by Fuschia Nightfire – and danced on the water level. It made for a fantastic segment!

Here’s some background information:

GRACIE KENDAL also know as Kristine Schomaker is a new media and performance artist, painter and art historian living and working at the Brewery artist complex in Los Angeles, California. For over 14 years, she has been working with various interdisciplinary art forms including online virtual worlds to explore identity and the hybridization of digital media with the physical world.

Gracie Kendal’s Ce n’est pas une peinture at LEA 15

Whether virtual or physical, the object-based work Kristine creates combines elements of color-based gestural abstraction, animation, pattern and design, neo-Baroque and Populence.Using installation, text, photography, mixed media, video and performance for her ongoing conceptual project My Life as an Avatar, she visualizes a narrative/dialogue with her virtual persona, Gracie Kendal. She documents this experience on her blog.

Gracie Kendal’s Ce n’est pas une peinture at LEA 15

http://www.kristineschomaker.net/http://1000avatars.wordpress.com/

http://graciekendal.wordpress.com/

kristinelschomaker@yahoo.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KristineSchomaker
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/GracieKendal

And now … let’s do a jigsaw, taken from the video One Billion Rising in Second Life!

Dancing in Gracie Kendal’s Ce n’est pas une peinture at LEA 15

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Coming this weekend: One Billion Rising in Second Life video

Over the last week, a group of us have been working on creating a video to go with the One Billion Rising song – Break the Chain.

On our Flickr group, you can see some awesome pictures taken by people during the filming.

Dancing for the video – photograph by Scheherazade Storyteller

As you’ll realise from those, we haven’t attempted an exact mapping of the original video. What we’ve done is to film avatars in a number of beautiful and iconic locations across Second Life. Watch to see if we feature your favourite – or maybe discover some great new places!

Dancing for the video – photograph by Scheherazade Storyteller

The dance we use is not a duplicate of the one you’ll see in the video – it was once cheorographed by Pyper Dollinger and Tatiana Kurri of Dazzler’s Dancers to match the original as far as was practicable – and throw in some special moves of our own! And when you come to One Billion Rising, you’ll hear this anthem played every hour during the event – so that you’ll be able to dance to it too!

Dancing for the video – photograph by Scheherazade Storyteller

And, in case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the original video.

Don’t forget to add your photos of One Billion Rising to our Flickr group – and enter for our Official Photo Contest too!

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Petite in The Looking Glass

Petite at The Looking Glass

Another picture from scouting for the video for One Billion Rising in Second Life.

Today we were looking for a landscape for a petite section – our plan is that for the instrumental bridge, we’ll be using some Second Life fantasy characters – tinies, mermaids, dragons and petites.  So I went scouting for a beautiful landscape to showcase them in.

And, of course, it was not hard to find the lovely fairy glade in The Looking Glass, the beautiful sim created by Marcus Inkpen and Sharni Azalee.

If you have a female petite and would like to join us for the dance, contact Samantha Ohrberg inworld. We’ll be filming this Wednesday 2 – 3pm.

But for now … let’s do the jigsaw!

Petite at The Looking Glass

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Come and dance in our special One Billion Rising video!

One Billion Rising in Second Life

Hot Off the Press…  Would you like to come and dance in our special One Billion Rising video?

The One Billion Rising in Second Life team is reaching out to the SL Community for female avatars interested in participating in our upcoming SL video in support of the global campaign One Billion Rising, the movement that seeks to put an end to violence against women and girls.

We have approximately 10 available openings per time.  You will need to come in appropriate attire for each event.

To sign up for one or more of our designated film sessions, send a notecard inworld to Samantha Ohrberg.

You will be sent a landmark once you have been assigned to your group/s.

Monday, February 4, 2013
THEME	TIME	DRESS ATTIRE
Countryside	4:00pm  SLT	Country
Modern London	5:00pm SLT	Business
Art in Second Life	6:00pm SLT	Gracie’s Special Skins (supplied free)

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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
THEME	TIME	DRESS ATTIRE
Steampunk	3:00pm  SLT	Steampunk Costume
Tropical	4:00pm SLT	Beachwear –not swimming costumes
India	6:00pm SLT	Indian (clothes & avatars)

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Wednesday, February 6, 2013
THEME	TIME	DRESS ATTIRE
Post apocalyptic	3:00pm  SLT	Post Apocalyptic/cyberpunk but NO injured skins
Oriental city	4:00pm SLT	Modern Oriental (clothes and avatars)

Due to the scheduled allotted time per video shoot, we ask that you are dressed and ready prior to reaching your designated film location. For those in multiple shoots in one day, we recommend creating an outfit folder with everything you will need to  change.quickly.

Read the links provided in this notecard for additional information.
One Billion Rising in SL official blog : http://onebillionrisingsl.wordpress.com/
One Billion Rising Youtube: http://youtu.be/fL5N8rSy4CU
One  Billion Rising RL website: https://secure.onebillionrising.org/page/event/detail/wd8

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Celebrate Thanksgiving with Designing Worlds

Celebrating Thanksgiving in Second Life

Join us at 2pm SLT today, Monday 19th November, for the new episode of Designing Worlds at our studio in Garden of Dreams. This week our friends in the United States will be celebrating Thanksgiving, so we decided to have our annual Thanksgiving meal on the show – which gives us a chance to sit round the table for a discussion. Elrik and Saffia meet with Aisling Sinclair (the show’s producer) and Zander Greene to discuss machinima and what is involved in creating the popular treet tv series, The Blackened Mirror. And, of course, we all enjoy a gorgeous meal (courtesy of Pamela Galli’s La Galleria designs) on Aisling’s deck.

From The Blackened Mirror

It’s a lovely setting – and a fascinating discussion about how far the boundaries of machinima can be stretched – and there are a few behind the scenes stories too! So do come and join us at 2pm!

Or – if you can’t attend in person – tune in at 2pm SLT on Monday for the live show on http://treet.tv/live – where you can now chat with other audience members and even some of the participants during the show – or catch it later in the week on our shows page on the Treet.tv web site at http://treet.tv/shows/designingworlds – our very own version of the iPlayer!

Celebrating Thanksgiving in Second Life

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Key Events this weekend: SLActions and Machinima Expo

It’s a highly cultural weekend, with all sorts of events going on.

Two that have a Second Life element and yet which have resonance in the wider world are SLActions and The Machinima Expo.

SLACTIONS 2012 is a research conference on virtual worlds – Life, imagination, and work using metaverse platforms and is running from November 15-17, 2012.

SLActions

SLACTIONS 2012 is the fourth edition of SLACTIONS, which was the first international conference held simultaneously in several countries on the topic of metaverse platforms. SLACTIONS aims at covering most areas currently enabled by metaverse platforms, from educational research to content production, from gender studies to media distribution, and from metaverse-based branding, advertising, and fundraising to emerging mash-ups and technology applications. SLACTIONS is unique in its format too, as a one-of-a kind event conducted both in a metaverse platform (Second Life) and on-site in multiple countries throughout the world. SLACTIONS thus contributes to the current redefinition of the way we think about hybrid online and on-site scholarly collaborations.

SLACTIONS has the format of a hybrid online and physical conference. All paper presentations and plenary sessions by guest speakers will be held on-line in the Second Life virtual world, and projected locally at local chapters, for participants attending physically. Physical participants can interact with the online participants via a “physical chapter avatar” and microphone. Participants will also be able to follow the proceedings broadcast on the Web and interact via a text chat applet.

Workshops and other events are conducted locally – or in mixed format accross several participating chapters – and local chapters may held local topical round tables.

You can read the full inworld programme here. Europeans might be pleased to learn that the schedule is skewed towards the eastern side of the Atlantic!

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Machinima Expo

The Machinima Expo will be taking place this Friday through Sunday (Nov 16-18th). The actual festival takes place inside Second Life, but the event is also being LiveStreamed through the machinima-expo.com website. There is even a chat channel to the right of the screen where you can comment on the films and/or events as they happen. You don’t have to register, just type in a name and you are good to go.

If you want to know what the programming schedule is click this link for Programming. If you want a list of all of the films screening and what’s on any particular screening reel, download the Movie Reels document. Both are Google docs so you can download them in any format you like.

You can read more details on how to attend the event inworld (and visit a spectacularly beautiful sim) here.

Machinima Expo in New York

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