An educator scratching around in Second Life

AN INTRODUCTION

Here's the general picture: I teach New Media Art modules in a Singaporean teacher training college and this semester, i've decide to take that big leap into the unknown and trial some classes in Second Life. Personally I've scratched around Second Life for about two years now. i've done what every self respecting SLitizen has done! I've tried to make myself look beautiful, i've bought clothes, I've bought skin, I've even made my own clothes via texturing with photos of some of my favourite shirts and i've even bought my 512m2 first land and built my first house! That didnt last too long though as the novelty of owning SL property wore off.

Perhaps it's because i already own land in real-life.... or perhaps SL's attractiveness has been about the social networking aspects that i found myself rather lonely in my multicoloured translucent neo-modern house overlooking a lovely bit of lake!

There were still a few things missing with my SL existence... I couldn't script... i didn't really know how to animate things and my building skills were still a bit dodgy... But SL is alluring. It offers tremendous translatable things for art and art education.

THE PUSH FOR FLEXIBLE LEARNING

Thus leading to these experiments that i am doing in SL. In my college theres a strong push for all our classess to translate into E-Learning modules. Curiously though, instead of a potential money making proposition to neighbours in the region, its rationale is more about Emergency. In time of disease outbreaks like avian-flu or SARS it's hoped that our classes could seamlessly switch tracks to the E medium. Now as yet, we have wonderful institution purchased apps like 'Blackboard' and 'Hot Potatoes' and 'Curry Fish Head' and what not and its not quite fitting the bill for a decent translation of a Visual Art education. Where those software applications strive for perfecting multiple choice questionnaires and plagarism checkers, the visual arts needs an E-platform that allows more real-time interaction and a sense of 'space'. Admittedly Second Life is not a perfect solution but it does offer sculptural / object creation in 3 dimensional (space) and 4 dimensional avenues (time/motion through machinima). Curiously 2D is perhaps rudimentarily available with still photography in SL. But then again. in our natural world, we draw on a 2D surface perhaps because we there is no easy way to conveniently mark make in a natural 3 dimensional space. So perhaps drawing conveniently in 3D brings 2D drawing into obsolescence? .... Ok so before your hackles raise in the defence of Drawing.... Its just a thought.... Perhaps a silly thought... one of those that is filed along with the exclamation that the 'painter is dead' (note, not painting... but instead the painter) as evolution in contemporary art practice is now being made by the programmer.

THE GRAND PLAN

I'm straying a little off tangent here, so i'm going to steer this back. The grand plan is this. I've got two classes. One is a BA (ed) class thats got to fulfill a Curatorial Practices and Exhibitions module and the other is an In-service module of returning Primary school art teachers that are here for some New Media Art fortification. The grand plan is to have the BA(Ed) class, the curatorial practices one, create an online virtual gallery and the returning teachers would make sculpture in Second Life

FINDING LAND

My first order of the day is to secure some land for the class usage. I was very fortunate to have met 'Alvin Korvin' of Lion City and negotiated a rental at the very edge of Lion City. For those of you who've never been there, Lion City was a sort of replica of buildings in Singapore, It had Suntec City complete with the 'worlds biggest fountain', it had some coffee shops, and shop houses and even the ubiquitous HDB apartment.

(26 Aug 2007) As i am writing this, Alvin Korvin has just informed me that Lion City is up for sale as he is no longer able to run the place.

So for a brief 3 weeks our home was in Lion City 29,223,22.

Ok, so i'm now in the market for land. I am hoping to get something in a quiet non built up area as i really don't want it too cluttered and i'd also rather not have visitors.