Brian was just interviewed by Eva Yaa Asantewaa about his Kinetic Cinema program and dance in Second Life. Check it out here: http://infinitebody.blogspot.com/2008/02/brian-mccormick-body-and-soul-podcast.html

The legal and social disputes that can arise in SL are very real. A police in Belgium recently apprehended man who “virtually raped” someone in Second Life. http://virtuallyblind.com/2007/04/24/open-roundtable-allegations-of-virtual-rape-bring-belgian-police-to-second-life/

It’s fascinating where second life crosses over into the real world.

I’m glad that you could look at SLB for the potential it offers, and I thought your analysis and the digital puppetry metaphor was right on. It’s true that there are ‘more interesting’ performances being done in SL, but there are few companies or artists working with this kind of model, of regularly producing performances. Indeed, this non-profit space in SL- I could imagine DTW and others (especially like 3LD) having their own theaters there, where (1) video can be streamed (2) performances can be developed and performed (3) in the future, people can attend virtual performances in RL (like we did) and vice versa – so people in Japan could attend a performance of miguel gutierrez, e/.g by logging into SL and (ultimately) seeing a video stream of the live performance.

why not just watch it at your computer alone – b/c being “in” the theater (virtual or otherwise) does change the xperience. Sure, there’s still a ways to go in terms of chips and processing, but we are getting closer with every upgrade.

FINALLY:

one of my two friends who attended the KC event in SL, in fact, was kicked out by one of the SLB ushers, b/c “it was invitation only” and he was also taking pictures, saying it was interfering with the special performance for the nyc audience. this was a real clash of worlds and played out in an interesting thread among me, Kam, and Josephine, my other Sl friend and newschool colleauge, who also attended in SL, and was also treated brusquely.

totally fascinating. We’ll need diplomats to mediate RL/SL grievances…of course there have already been legal issues and economic questions raised by this technology, not to mention the social and cultural ones

Here’s a hilarious video of real people impersonating the way avatars move in Second Life. If I didn’t know they were mimicking Second Life, I would think they were acting like demented puppets or 80’s Atari characters.