Over the past few months, Wharton has explored Second Life, an immersive world inhabited by several million avatars representing real life humans, as well as Assassin’s Creed, a popular video game set in thirteenth century Palestine and Syria. She is examining the effects of digital architectures on those who navigate those virtual realms. In Fall 2009, she plans to teach a course on Jerusalem in which students will join her in investigating the power of architecture in these new media.

For the past four years, Wharton has been studying “pathological architectures,” seeking to understand and describe the ways that “sick” buildings affect the people who occupy them. More broadly, she is interested in how architectures act as agents in modifying the way humans live. Her work in exploring architectures in Second Life and video games is preparation for the last chapter of her book.

“It’s impossible to understand space conventionally any longer; digital worlds and immersive spaces play too large part in our economy and culture to ignore,” Wharton said.

“I expected myself to be a kind of tourist in Second Life and in video games. But the space is invasive; it doesn’t allow you to be simply an objective observer. I have become subjectively engaged, in a way that surprised me. ”

Wharton also noted that, in Second Life, the spaces are created by the avatars themselves; both shaping and acting is an expression of their producers. As opposed to “real” life, objects retain reference to those who made them. A chair or a house in real life is anonymous; a chair or a house in Second Life, with a click of the mouse, reveals its creator. Search engines allow you to invite those makers to talk to you about their work.

For example, during the recent presidential campaign, Wharton explored the Second Life spaces created by Democrats and Republicans. Democratic spaces were functional, open, modern, information-centered. Republican sites were architecturally elaborate with classicizing buildings and the intimacy of Main Street. She drew from her observations conclusions about the working of the “public sphere” in immersive worlds.

For faculty thinking about integrating Google Earth, Second Life or video games into a course, Wharton suggests becoming familiar with the technology first. She compares it to learning a new language or visiting a new city with its own culture and conventions. Each technology may take several weeks of learning its mechanisms and exploring its the territory to feel “at home”.

With Second Life, Wharton recommends having students to visit a variety of spaces, some connected directly with the course contents and some not, in order to accustom themselves to navigating the space and interacting with other residents. But finally students can construct the historical sites they are studying in three dimensions so that they and other avatars may walk through them.

Most residents of Second Life are “in world” for social purposes or for entertainment—from soft-porn to “dancing for Jesus.” But groups engaged in politics, education, art and music are also active there. Avatars can walk around the Sistine Chapel and the Temple at Karnak or they can attend discussions of Obama’s Cairo speech with Egyptians, Turks, Iranians and other Muslims from around the real world. The first brief piece that Wharton wrote about Second Life described her first visit during the Gaza War to the newly opened Palestine Holocaust Museum (article at iReport).

“It is really worth investigating digital technologies,” Wharton says, “They give you a new means of rethinking your old assumptions—a central concern of education.”

The conference aims to be a gathering place for librarians, educators and others to explore new opportunities for education and outreach in virtual worlds.  Some of the topics at this year’s conference include:

• The Immersive Virtual Natural History Experience
• Virtual Heritage Preservation, An Unfulfilled American Necessity
• Visual Representation of Chemical Data in Virtual Worlds
• Planning an Event in Second Life
• History-Related Sites and Museums in Second Life: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Keynote speakers are Jeremy Kemp, San Jose State University, discussing his project connecting Moodle and Second Life and Bryan Carter from the University of Central Missouri who developed Virtual Harlem, Virtual Montmarte and other islands in Second Life.  Anders Gronstedt, a consultant who works will Dell, Sun and other companies and who has written for the Harvard Business Review, will discuss how businesses use virtual worlds to improve workplace performance.

Registration is $49 and you can find out more information on the event at their website, http://www.alliancelibraries.info/virtualworlds .

Bringing together faculty and students using Second Life in education with professionals from Linden Labs, this online gathering or conference will include booths with support information on using Second Life in education, exhibits of educational uses of SL by faculty and scheduled events.

Educators using Second Life in courses are invited to present.  More information is avialable in the Linden Labs blog.

blog entry at Linden Labs

Faculty and students can contact Tim Bounds for information about the parcels available (tim.bounds@duke.edu). CIT can consult with faculty about how Second Life and other virtual world tools might be useful in their teaching.

This year’s seminar is co-organized by Jeffrey Schnapp (Stanford University, Stanford Humanities Laboratory, and Mellon Visiting Professor of Digital Humanities, UCLA) and Todd Presner (Germanic Languages and Comparative Literature, UCLA). The seminar’s theme is “What is(n’t) Digital Humanities?”

Through dialogues with expert guest interlocutors and practitioners from various fields, seminar participants will examine, historicize, and critique the emergent field of “digital humanities.” Bringing together insights from media, game, literary and cultural studies, we will attempt to take stock of humanistic inquiry at the start of the 21st century.

Topics will include Web 2.0, virtual worlds, ubiquitous computing, geo-temporal navigation, participatory media, digital narratives, open source knowledge, collaborative authorship, experiential design and the classroom as laboratory.

Seminar guests include: Johanna Drucker, Michael Schanks, Lev Manovich, Diane Favro, Franco Moretti, Tara McPherson, Peter Lunenfeld.

Seminars meet 2-5 pm Pacific Time on
10/8/08, 11/5/08, 12/1/08, 1/5/09, 2/2/09, 3/2/09, 4/6/09, 5/4/09, and 6/1/09.

The following Second Life URL will teleport you to DLF’s Entropia, though you must have a Second Life account in order to log on: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Entropia/110/117/21/. Basic Second Life accounts are free: http://secondlife.com/.

For more information visit http://www.digitalhumanities.ucla.edu/ or join the UCLA Digital Humanities Facebook Group. Topics for each session will be posted on-line once they have been finalized.

Keynotes:

Beth Ritter-Gluth (Desideria Stockton in Second Life) will be the keynote speaker and her talk is on “A Vision for Making Literature Come Alive in Virtual Worlds.” She is the creator of “Literature Alive in Second Life” and teaches English and Women’s Studies at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, PA.

The keynote author is Kim Rufer-Bach who will speak on “Using Virtual Worlds to Promote Real Life Literature.” Kimberly is co-author of “Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life” (Sybex, October 2007) and is currently at work on “The Second Life Grid: The Official Guide to Communication Collaboration, and Community Engagement.”

Full conference schedule and registration information is available at the conference website, http://www.steppingintovirtualworlds.org

Or register now at: http://tinyurl.com/6ba6nq

Cost to attend is US $65 per person. For group rates (5 or more) write to john@learningtimes.net

http://campustechnology.com/articles/57198/