Cross-Media Entertainment

On Friday night/Friday morning I presented my first inworld lecture inside the virtual world Second Life. Drawing from my articles in Slate Night Magazine, I spoke about the ‘Remediation of the Art Space in SL’. This lecture was part of a special session Anya Ixchel, the editor of Slate Night arranged for the New Media Consortium’s Impact of Digital Media Symposium. CDB Barkley has already podcast my session. Anya’s presentation was fabulous, so was the ‘Fashioning the Avatar’ show where we discussed unusual choices of avatars, and the SL musicians panel was great. Anya/Angela has posted all the links to all the sessions here. But then I had to leave (it was 2am in Australia by this point) so I could get some sleep for a radio interview. I was interviewed on Saturday morning by Alan Saunders of Radio National on the By Design show. I spoke about “Alternate Reality” design aesthetics and, you guessed it, Second Life. This is already podcast too!

But I want to mention too, the closing keynote of NMC’s Symposium was Howard Rheingold! You can listen to the podcast here.

Apologies for the late notice, but there has been an amazing week of events happening in Second Life. The New Media Consortium has been holding a 12 day Impact of Digital Media Symposium. The pic you see is an event I attended last night for the MacArthur Foundation press conference in to announce their $50 million investments to support programs in digital media (Building the Field of Digital Media and Learning). What was great is that they televised us in SL to the screens in the press conference as well, and took questions from us. Here is a post at NMC on the event. There are lots of pics of the event here, including many of Anya (the blonde) and a few with me in them (the black-haired chick with pink bows). hehe. Anyway, on Oct 20th at 7am (US time) Slate Night Magazine (the SL arts and entertainment magazine I write for) is having a special session. Here is the run-down from i-Anya’s blog:

* The Avatar as Communication - Dr Angela Thomas, Sydney University (Anya Ixchel, editor of Slatenight)

* Fashion parade: Fashioning the Avatar (showcasing the range of unique identities in SL)

* Remediation of the Art Space in SL - Christy Dena, Sydney University (Lythe Witte, writer for Slatenight)

* Music in Second Life: Panel Discussion and Live Music - with Silas Scarborough, ZeroOne Paz, Mel Cheeky, Cybster Curtis and Billy Thunders (Cletis Carr)

* Future Perfect: Projections forward to an even better world - Dell Wilberg (creative designer of Slatenight)

* Engaging the Disengaged: Using SL to Revitalize the Undergraduate Classroom - Danielle Mirliss and Heidi Trotta, Seton Hall University, NY (Danielle Damone and Heidi TeeCee, writers for Slatenight)

If you have Second Life downloaded already, and are a member of the NMC guests group (to access the NMC sim you need to be a guest of the group), here is the SLURL.

For a list of ongoing posts about the many other symposium events (including a talk with Howard Rheingold!), check the NMC Observer.  

The full schedule of the events is here. Oct 21st has Howard Rheingold!! Hope to ’see’ you inworld! IM me if you’re having trouble figuring out how to get there.

The latest issue of The Velvet Light Trap (Number 58, Fall 2006), spotlights film and TV narrative. There is a wonderful selection of papers with one by Jason Mittell:

• Keating, Patrick. Emotional Curves and Linear Narratives
• Newman, Michael Z. From Beats to Arcs: Toward a Poetics of Television Narrative
• Mittell, Jason. Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television
• Kerins, Mark. Narration in the Cinema of Digital Sound
• Lavik, Erlend. Narrative Structure in The Sixth Sense: A New Twist in “Twist Movies”?
• Cameron, Allan. Contingency, Order, and the Modular Narrative: 21 Grams and Irreversible

You can only access the journal through an institution subscription though. But if you can, it will be worth it.

DAC, the premier international digital arts conference, will be in Perth next year with Beap. They have just announced the first stage of acceptances:

The reviewing of the 230 abstracts has now been completed, and many thanks to the reviewers for the enormous task. In a process that turns out to have been highly competitive, 48 abstracts have been invited to be developed for presentation at the conference. This will involve the writing and reviewing of the full paper. All submissions will be notified by e-mail, with a report of the reviewing process. Anyone who submitted who has not received a report by the end of October should contact a.hutchison@curtin.edu.au.

48 abstracts have been invited to be developed and presented, while 31 abstracts were outright rejected due to being Too far off topic, Insufficiently original or Unclear / unconvincing. The rest of the abstracts (150) were rated as “valuable contributions” by the review panel, and were not rejected as such, but the DAC format unfortunately simply does not have room for them. Hopefully, these abstracts will be developed further for future presentation. While the review panel was excited about many papers, it did make the observation that a lot of writers did not seem to understand the art of writing an abstract, and that many seemed to be under-informed by obvious, current reading/theory in their area.

Apart from the outstanding papers we are expecting to develop from this selection process, the conference experience will incorporate visits to all of the major exhibitions in the BEAP festival, networking opportunities, artists talks, and the conference itself will take place directly in the heart of Northbridge, PerthÕs cultural and nightlife centre.

I’m so thrilled to say that my abstract has been accepted! Wohoo! I’m so excited. The paper will outline a schema for how people approach media in the multi-platform landscape. I discuss theories of multi-tasking, ergodics and interactivity (and lots more but I’m not giving it away now!). Of course, my paper needs to be accepted through peer-review before I’m actually in the conference, but this is a great start. Wohoo!

I’m way too busy again, so apologies for the lack of posting about interesting things happening around the world. Here is an update on what I’ve been doing though:

• Last week I did my first video skype lecture to students at the University of Western Australia on cross-media entertainment. It was for the Masters and Honours level course in Communication Studies: iGeneration: Communication and Participatory Culture. It was great to ‘meet’, well, see Christina waving in the distance and the rest of the class, and of course Peter. I’ve been checking out the vlogs and blogs of the students and am really impressed.
• I started a wonderful mentoring program with the Booranga Writer’s Center: Youth Online Writing Workshop (YOWW). They’re running an online writing program (which means we converse and publish online and create electronic literature) for six months and I’m one of the three mentors. I’m lucky to to be co-mentoring with Bernard Cohen and Johannes Klabbers. Fantastic! I met the participants on the weekend and we took them through some exercises and gave an intro to the various forms of electronic literature around. They’re a very talented bunch of writers so I really look forward to working with them. I’ll let you know once the public part of the cool YOWW site is up.
• I was on radio again about Second Life, on ABC’s PM show. The segment was good but I’m feeling a bit pimped by the media at the moment. They keep putting in the inane things I say in the interview. [Note to self: Don’t say inane things.] Part of the problem is, however, that the interviewers are just findingout about SL and want to report ont he basics of it, the sensationalist angle. This is a first step though. There is much more interesting stuff that can be said about the creative community and what is actually happening in SL that is unique. Ho hum. One day I’ll get to talk about that I hope. Anyway, here is the blurb:

Internet Attracting Virtual Worlds
More and more people are escaping workaday reality by starting a new life in virtual reality. In 3D virtual worlds on the internet, you can create your own body and personality, meet virtual friends and carry out everyday activities. One online society, called Second Life, now has more than 870,000 residents logging in around the world. But social commentators are warning that some addicts of the virtual world run the risk of being trapped in a fantasy of cyber perfection.

• Speaking of work in virtual worlds. The next issue of Slate Night Magazine will be out shortly with another article by me on a virtual art. The previous issue, in which I (Lythe Witte that is) wrote about the remediation of virtual world art is now available in pdf form.
• And this week I’ll be speaking at the New Media Consortium’s Impact of Digital Media Conference in Second Life. They’re running a symposium in Second Life to augment the real life and internet activities (or vice versa). Here is the blurb:

The NMC is hosting a 12-day symposium on the NMC Campus in Second Life focusing on the impact of digital media on all aspects of our daily lives. At the intersection of virtual 3-D space and the “flat-web” of the browser, virtual worlds like Second Life are active settings for collaboration and socialization. The Symposium on the Impact of Digital Media will explore the ways we encounter and understand digital media — inside such a setting.

Angela/Anya has arranged a Slate Night session in which I’ll speak about the remediation of art in SL. Keep up to date with the symposium at the NMC Second Life blog.

Here are two projects by wonderful colleagues of mine:

Is Your House Killing You? was my team for LAMP. It will be on SBS soon, but at present there is a call for people to be on the TV show!:

Put YOUR home under the microscope in our groundbreaking new science show ‘Is Your House Killing You?’

We’re looking for ALL TYPES of houses and occupants to take part in this exciting new series on SBS.

You are invited to take up the challenge to ‘detox’ your home. From inner city apartments to country fibros, our expert team will swarm, probe and strip back a diverse range of homes in a CSI-style investigation. No matter what house you live in, they all harbour a parallel microscopic world of hidden dangers.

‘Is Your House Killing You?’ is an innovative new scientific makeover programme that will expose this parallel universe and consequently help us to live healthier, happier lives.

Are you a cleaning freak or the opposite? Are you renovating or redecorating your house? Do you live in a rambling old quirky house? Are you expecting a baby and in a nesting frenzy? Does your bathroom have things growing in it? Have you recently bought new furniture? Do you suspect any kind of pest problem and/or have you been using pesticides? Do you spend a lot of time in the garage tinkering with cars? Do you have a mould or dampness problem? Are you a market gardener? Do you suffer from asthma or allergies? Do you have eczema or dermatitis or have a persistent cough? Do you live on a busy road?

Your house, garden or garage might be toxic!

However great the challenge, our super brainy team will come up with a makeover plan to rid each home of their toxic time bombs.

Join our scientific sleuths as they take Australian households on a journey of discovery, and find out about the latest scientific facts and great DIY tips.

If you, or someone you know would like to have their house detoxed, contact us immediately.

[…]

Life will never be the same once you ask IS YOUR HOUSE KILLING YOU?

Check out the call here

And here is the pilot for a mini-screen series by mobile content researcher Andrew McKenzie: A Bullet Waits for You. The pilot is on YouTube.

Go Jen, Carl and Andrew!

MIT Comparative Media Studies and the Convergence Culture Consortium present the Futures of Entertainment Conference, November 17-18, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wohoo! Here is the blurb:

As advertisers look for new ways to engage audiences, content creators search for new audiences, and audiences quest for new ways to connect with culture, the nature of what counts as ‘entertainment’ is rapidly changing. We are seeing the blurring of aesthetic and technological distinctions between media platforms, of ‘advertising’ and ‘content’ and of ‘creator’ and ‘consumer’. Futures of Entertainment brings together key industry leaders who are shaping these new directions in our culture. The conference will consider developments such as user-generated content, transmedia storytelling, the rise of mobile media and the emergence of social networking.

And the blurb on the Transmedia Properties session:

The cultural logic of convergence lends itself to a flow of narratives, characters, and worlds across media platforms. Moving beyond older models based on liscensed ancillary products, transmedia extensions are now seen as expanding the opportunities for storytelling, enabling new kinds of entertainment experiences, building up secondary characters or backstory. Transmedia extension may also create alternative openings for different market segments and enable more extensive contact with brands. The great potential of transmediation is to deepen audience engagement, but this requires greater awareness of the specific benefits of working within different platforms. How are media companies organizing the development of transmedia properties? How are storytellers taking advantage of the “expanded canvas” such an approach offers? How do transmedia strategies impact the new integration between brands and entertainment properties? What new expectations do transmedia properties place on consumers?

Looks like a really interesting line-up. Jason Mittell will be presented too. Go Jason!

Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) 21st Annual Conference is being held November 14th-17th on the Gold Coast.  

The Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) represents the interests of producers on all issues that affect the business and creative aspects of independent screen production. Our annual conference is held over three days and attracts more than 650 delegates, which makes it the largest and most significant screen industry gathering in this part of the world.
Attendees include key Australian and international industry practitioners involved in all aspects of producing, creating, distributing and financing screen content.

What is good is that they’re running sessions on TV, Film and Cross-Media!!! Fantastic! The first I’ve seen at an industry conference. Spot on SPAA. Here are some of the sessions they’re running:

CROSS: Cross Media Storytelling is still story telling, but is there a New Media Way?
 
The growth of new technologies has changed the way a story can be told. The impact on the story, its production, and the audiences it reaches is evident. Using successful case studies we will investigate in what way it has changed and more importantly whether it is working?
The production options, interactivity capabilities and delivery mechanisms that are now available to story tellers and content producers are continually evolving, and the way in which it is presented to an audience spoilt by choice seems endless.

Considering that this phenomenon is approaching what appears to be its third generation the need for content producers and brand developers to organically grow their stories into cross media spaces, to find the right technology balance, and to reach its’ target audience in the most effective manner is a necessity.
Through this changing landscape and its increasing complexities the opportunity for the story tellers and producers to shape the future appears to be at its’ most exciting and its most challenging.
This session will bring together a unique panel of content producers and industry practitioners that have successfully navigated this path. Using their own experiences and specific case studies, each producer will share:

* How they approached and produced their stories,
* How things have changed and the impact on pre-production, production, deliver and audience experience, and
* What they consider are the success factors in this Cross Media Way.

Producer: Heath Amos, General Manager, Kojo Interactive
Chair: John Chataway, CEO, Kojo Interactive
Speakers: Amanda Duthie, Executive Producer, ABC,
Gary Hayes (LAMP and AFTRS)
Evan Jones, Creative Director at Xenophile Media, CAN,
Jim Shomos, Executive Producer, Forget the Rules

TV/DOCO: Extending Doco in the Time of Digital

Evan Jones is Creative Director at Xenophile Media in Canada.   He is an interactive media producer from the combined disciplines of computer science, film studies and radio production. Evan’s projects range from narrative console gaming to interactive historical documentary. Winner of the 2005 Canadian New Media Awards for Excellence in Cross Platform and Banff Television Award for Interactive Television, his project ‘The ReGenesis Extended Reality’ game engages players to interact with characters from the series. The project has attracted a whole new audience eager for more than bios and episodic summaries. The game draws viewers into a conspiracy and mystery that weaves in and out of the TV series, using the internet, email and other media to immerse the viewer and blur the line between fiction and reality. Evan will talk about the interactive and multiplatform opportunities for documentary production.

The ARG person would of noticed Evan Jones of Xenophile Media!! Wohoo! Evan is coming to Oz! I am thrilled to say that I will be working with Evan when he gets here in other states. Can’t wait for that. Anyway, for those that are interested and maybe able to attend this excellent event, the programme is now online [pdf].

Crossover Australia 2007 will bring together approximately 28 accomplished and innovative filmmakers and new media producers including invited international guest mentors as well as representatives from broadcasters and funding agencies. It will be a truly participatory retreat designed to explore the possibilities of interactivity within the context of broader bandwidth and the main ‘focus’ will be brainstorming and collaborative thinking across the different media sectors.

Independent filmmakers and new media producers will not pay fees to participate. Crossover Australia 2007 will cover accommodation and meals during the event. We do ask participants to cover their own travel costs between Crossover Australia and their home cities and recommend successful applicants approach their state film and/or arts funding bodies for assistance with travel funds.

The Lab Director is Frank Boyd, who has this impressive CV:

Frank has worked on a series of innovative programmes to support creative, social and economic development in the UK’s new media sector since founding the Arts Technology Centre (Artec) in 1989.

He established the European Multimedia Labs, the Digital Media Alliance and BAFTA’s Interactive Entertainment Awards before joining the BBC Innovation and Learning team as Director of Creative Development in 2000.

He is currently working with Creative London on a series of initiatives to encourage growth in London digital media industries including the London Games Festival and a new A/V market, Rights Lab.

He designed the 2005/2006 BBC Innovation Labs programme and is leading the mentoring teams in this pilot series.

He’s also designing and consulting on creative workshops for Sagasnet, working with the Waag Society in Amsterdam to help set up a new professional development project and incubator called the Mediaguild, and directing the InSync programme at zero-one in Soho.

Applications due 5pm Monday 16th October. Apply Now!

I don’t know how much of it will be cross-media oriented, but I’m sure Frank will put together a good collection of mentors.

Expanding the Definition of Convergence and Integration Call for Papers
A research colloquium at Texas Tech University April 19 & 20, 2007

Papers invited include research proposals or completed research that addresses any of the following:
The interaction of multiple media
The use of media among or directed to Hispanics or other ethnic groups
The use of media across multiple nations, languages and/or cultures
The effects of convergent media on media economics.

Papers will be discussed, not presented, in a round-robin format that encourages collaboration and development.

Papers are invited from:
undergraduate students
Master’s students
Doctoral students
Faculty and professionals

Deadline for submission is December 1, 2006

For more information, see [pdf]