** TODAY ** TITLE: Adding Emotional Presence to Digital Interactions SPEAKERS: Rob and Chris Shaw
LOCATION: 12:30p - 1:30p Santa Fe Complex, 632 Agua Fria, Main Commons RSVP here and order lunch if you're interested: http://wedtech090810.eventbrite.com/ ABSTRACT: In social networking we digitally define a public persona to expand the breadth of our exposure within the electronic social commons. A next step in this evolution will be the expansion of the emotional bandwidth, or depth of interactions within this emerging digital/social realm. In this introductory meeting, we will be seeking input into a new software approach to defining the digital/social realm. We are designing a 3D interactive world from the ground up to maximize free, emotive communication and artistic expression. THE CURRENT STATE Today’s representations of a digital self (facebook, twitter, etc) primarily rely on old technology vehicles of text, photos and video. When the 3D medium is used for social interactions (second life, sims, etc.) the virtual space created uses technologies closely derived from traditional gaming engines. The problem is these engines primarily enable navigation (rather than communication), their underlying software optimizes the number of players interacting (rather than the quality of individual interactions), they maximize the number of places you can go using pre-determined, canned representations of objects (rather than maximizing the richness of environments using spontaneous computer-generated beauty), etc, etc, etc. The environments these engines create are the mini-malls of the virtual world. Omnipresent. Bland. Oppressive. The engines themselves are stitched-together using assumptions and conventions mindlessly borrowed from the highly profitable virtual war machine. Our firm belief is that as artists and innovators we can do better. That within the Santa Fe Complex we can build on a shared system of values and priorities and build a new virtual world together from the ground up. And that the progress of computer hardware, streaming bandwidth, and social use of technology have all reached a critical point where there now exists a unique opportunity to us together to positively re-define our interactive world. Discussions will include: - Re: the present - demonstration of the work done so far. - Re: the future: potential directions for development. - Re: the Complex - integration of future development within existing structure. - Re: the World - the current status of the field – existing work, potential alliances. - Re: the $ - discussion of revenue model, business structure and compensation.
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