From jokaydia: Exploring Virtual Worlds and Games in Education

Art and Music Projects

In one sense, all of Second Life is one big arts project, as all of the content is user-generated. However, there are plenty of examples of original artworks, both in galleries and in the "open", from scans of paintings and drawings from the real world to 3D dynamic and interactive sculptures and installations that make use of the unique 3D qualities and building tools of the Second Life platform.

Explore the projects below or Return to the Educational Uses of Second Life Homepage.

DDM Collective - in Second Life

Based at the Leeds College of Art and Design and coordinated by Second Life resident and educator Annabeth Robinson aka Angrybeth Shortbread, the DDM Collective in Second Life (SLurl) are the students of the Design for Digital Media Degree. As part of their course, students are engaging in investigations, explorations and exploitations within Second Life. Additionally, the DDM Collective are undertaking an ongoing staff research project into the pedagogical value of Second life.

The Collective's Island includes several different spaces for student and teachers to work and collaborate in including 'The Studio' which is used as the public meet and greet section of the Collective village, 'The Cinema' which is used to show students' moving image work and 'The Meta-Lab' which is AngryBeth's personal office and studio.

For further information read the DDM Collective Blog, visit The Collective's Facebook page or watch a video about the DDM Collective project at Blip.tv.

Imaging Place by John Craig Freeman, Emerson College

John Craig Freeman (a.k.a. JC Fremont in Second Life), a university professor from Emerson College in Massachusetts created the Imaging Place in 2006. The project was an extension of Freeman's real life artwork, which originally created as a user-navigated, interactive computer program that combines panoramic photography, digital video, and three-dimensional technologies in the form of installations at art museums, galleries, and other museums.

The Imaging Place in Second Life is an attempt to translate that work into a virtual world and is located at various sims throughout Second Life, on land donated by the owners. To experience the work, visitors walk on transparent pathways or bridges to access platforms hovering above. The platforms include satellite photographs of the place which the work is translating into virtual realy and is accompanied by an audio track with voices of people telling stories about the place being presented.

To find out more visit the Imaging Place in SL webpage, visit the Imaging Place's home at Emerson Island (SLurl), access SLurls for exhibit locations from the Imaging Place in Second Life website or watch a video about the project on Youtube.

Music Academy Inworld

The Music Academy Inworld (SLurl) is dedicated to promoting music education, music appreciation, and especially for the promotion of new classical music and composers. Their island in Second Life supports a range of spaces, resources and activities including classrooms with audio/video capabilities, a lecture and recital hall, screening rooms, open air concert space and holdecks. In Autumn 2008, they commenced a series of regular classes, concerts, recitals and lectures, and aim to further develop possibilites for individual music and composition lessons in Second Life.

The Music Academy also support a weekly music chat show - Music Academy OnLive - which is filmed inworld and includes interviews with and performances by inworld musicians.

For more information visit the Music Academy Online website, read an article about the Music Academy in Second Life via Educause Connect, or watch an interview with Music Academy Online creator Benton Wunderlich on Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe.

The Port - Metaverse Node for Arts and Creative Technology

The Port (SLurl) is an international community of over 50 artists exploring art in virtual spaces. It was officially opened in August 2005 by artists Simon Golden and Jacob Senneby in collaboration with architects Tor Lindstrand and of Frida Cornell. It is now managed by Angrybeth Shortbread.

In 2005, as part of their work at The Port, Gold and Senneby launched Objects of Virtual Desire which explored the idea of product design in a virtual world and what kind of interpersonal value objects carry. As part of the project they collected a series of objects bought in SL and chosen for some particular sentimental value with the person who modelled or owned it. These objects have been recreated in the real world and for sale via the Objects of Desire web-based shop, together with the photo of the virtual object and the original creator's avatar.

The Port includes spaces for discussion, artists' installations, architectural structures, a garden, space for concerts and debates, as well as a number of installations by communities members including:

• The Pencil Factory which houses many interactive virtual sculptures by AngryBeth Shortbread including Synthy-Go-Round, an immersive interactive sound installation and the SLTypewriter which invites visitors to contribute a message to the twitter via a huge virtual typewriter
• 'What is Neccesary ... After All - an immersive sound and image installation by Pong Blumenthal
• The Caves @ the Port, an amazing underground space which includes magic gardens and flowing lava by Angrybeth Shortbread
• Hoop Snakes - an immersive sculpture by Patch Lamington.

For more information about The Port read the article - The Port - Artist's Community in Second Life, Watch the YouTube video - Synthy-Go-Round or view a fly-thru video of The Port Caves on Youtube.

The Sistine Chapel in Second Life

Created by Stan Frangible aka Steven J. Taylor, director of academic computing at Vassar College, the Sistine Chapel in Second Life (SLurl) provides a re-creation of the real life Sistine Chapel at the Vatican City in Rome. The interiors in particular have been recreated in great detail - and includes more than 200 textures used with permission from various distributors.

The project was undertaken as a proof of concept pilot, designed to explore how virtual reality could be used to learn about art and architecture, and in particular how experiencing the scale, context and social environment of a real-life space might enhance learning.

For more information read the article 'More than three thousand flock to Vassar's virtual Sistine Chapel' on the Vassar website, watch a walk-thru video of the chapel on Youtube, or watch a tour of the Chapel from smARThistory.