Updates from August, 2014 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Vanessa 19:41 on 30/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Sister Planet 

    Kimika Ying (of Oceania Planetary Park where Virtual Ysidora danced last year) is working on a new installation, Sister Planet. It’s Venus. But not 2014 Venus. More like 1950 Venus with carnivorous plants and other mid-century fantasies. Ying’s also interested in taking the 19th century Steampunk sensibility and moving it forward to the 20th. Kind of like 1880 Steampunk & 2014 Planetary Science meeting in an alternative middle of the 20th century.

    Anyway, Emma Pleyel-Maybe and I were hanging out there this week. We’re sitting on the rim of a surprisingly genteel, if active, volcano.

    muted color "cinemascope" photo of Vanessa Blaylock and Emma Pleyel-Maybe sitting in lounge chair's at Kimika Ying's installation "Sister Planet"

    Vanessa Blaylock & Emma Pleyel-Maybe @ Kimika Ying’s “Sister Planet.”

     

  • Vanessa 01:31 on 30/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    DragonCon! 

    the words "DragonCon" set in bold typorgraphy. "Dragon" in red and "Con" in black.

    Project Secret Identity

    Exciting News! EFF, io9, The Harry Potter Alliance, Southeastern Browncoats, The Baker Street Babes, Wattpad, & The Organization for Transformative Works are all supporting Project Secret Identity at DragonCon this weekend! If you’re there at Dragon Con in Atlanta, 29 August – 1 September, you can visit photo stations at the convention: EFF (Second floor at the Hilton) or Southeastern Browncoats (Table #1000 at AmericasMart).

    VBCO Invites You 2 March!

    For those of us who aren’t we can take our own pix and add them to the Project Secret Identity website. And for those who like to march, we can get together at 10am SLT on Saturday 30 August to carry our signs, march, and take pix. We’ll provide signs, or you can use our sign with pose and apply your own slogan (texture)
    (More …)

     

  • Vanessa 13:48 on 21/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Avatar Hangouts! 

    the words "avatar hangouts" in black and red typography using the Burbank font from House Industries set in wide and bold

    illustrations of avatars / dolls in a group

    Photo: Bloom Girls by Thelma Felix.

    Meetup! Hangout!

    Kind of like Google Video Hangouts. But since you’re already in-world, you don’t actually need “Google Video.” Still, a great chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Kind of like a dance place without the dancing. But you can dance if you want to. Kind of like a philosophy discussion group without the philosophy. But you can talk philosophy if you want to.
    (More …)

     

  • Vanessa 22:46 on 20/08/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Hello Worlds 

    wn-type-900px

    Worlds Ninja!

    In a Virtual World you’re already chatting with your logged-in, in-world friends. But we don’t chat so often with offline friends. Or friends who frequent other worlds. Worlds Ninja is a quick, easy & asynchronous place to keep up with your peeps, where & when-ever they may be!

    Ninja-1600x1067b.jpg

    Image: Ninja by Dani VR

     

  • Xue 21:31 on 20/08/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Hello world! 

    Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

     

    • Mr WordPress 21:31 on 20/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi, this is a comment.
      To delete a comment, just log in and view the post's comments. There you will have the option to edit or delete them.

  • Andrea Foenander 08:00 on 18/08/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Symposium 

    Firstly, my sincerest apologies for being unable to join last weeks hangout. Now that the issue has been resolved I hope to join you next time. I’d also like to extend an open invitation;

    At the beginning of September I will chair a discussion on a paper by Michael Masucci on the role of women in digital art. It is going to be a ten day asynchronous discussion with the comments featured alongside the paper. The format is like a Q&A session, intended to be a medium to add questions and perspectives on Michael’s ideas.

    Following the symposium I would like to publish the proceedings and attract writers to produce new essays that will form a book. The book will be launched at a later date within an exhibition featuring works by digital women artists.

     

    • Vanessa Blaylock 05:32 on 19/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

      The topic of Michael’s paper is, of course, very interesting. And the format of your discussion will also be interesting to watch unfold.

      Send us links etc when it’s time to participate!

  • Ciara Finnegan 01:59 on 13/08/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Lynx… 

    lynx

    A few links to interviews with two artists mentioned in the hangout on Monday:
    (More …)

     

  • Vanessa 14:41 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    ## Comments on Re search You may have… 

    Comments on .Re/search

    You may have noticed over the months that the comments on .Re/search often put the wrong person’s face with the comment. We haven’t been able to resolve this and have now switched to “Disqus” comments for .Re/search.

    It should pretty much function the same. New comments should avoid the wrong face issue. I’m not certain if it will be importing faces for the old comments or not, but at least they won’t be the wrong images. And it looks like it cleans everything up going forward. 🙂

     

    • xtaforster 15:30 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I tried commenting (I have a disqus), but I don’t see the comment yet. I’ll check again later.

      • Vanessa Blaylock 16:22 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Oh gosh, it’s always something! I don’t see your comment on .Re/search OR in the “moderation cue”… can you try another one?

    • Mke 23:48 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I haven’t done much coding of comments, but I have done some with avatars and bbpress.
      My first thought would be to check if/how the site is cached.
      Next step is to check a plugin conflict – minify, CDN, or something associated with Javascript.
      Or if the site uses a comment related plugin check that.
      The WP Codex says the avatar function is pluggable which means functions are easily overridden.
      Outlier possibilities: document structure issue (open element tag), php loop error.
      It is most likely a small problem.

      • Vanessa Blaylock 05:49 on 12/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

        thanks Mike! We had a comment issue here on .Re/act in the past, that your comment would go under the wrong post! That turned out to be some issue with Jetpack Comments & this Houston / P2 theme. Turning Jetpack Comments off solved that.

        Meanwhile, over on .Re/search we’ve always had a “wrong icon / avatar” issue. It’s intermittent. I’m thinking it might use the right avatar if the commenter is logged in to the website, and if not, it uses the author’s avatar for the commenter!? As far as I can tell, that’s an issue with .Re/search’s “Diablo” theme. Moving to Disqus may have been overkill, but it seems like it’s resolved (or driven over) that issue.

        TY!

    • Vanessa Blaylock 21:09 on 12/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Since the “existing” comments have been “imported” to Disqus, your name and comments are still there, but it doesn’t automatically have your Icon / Avatar. (it will on any future comments)

      If you go:
      disqus.com > edit profile > merging

      and “merge” your comments, then, voila! Your icon will “populate” all over .Re/search!

  • Vanessa 11:34 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Kimika Ying: Sister Planet 

    Christa asked me for a link to Kimika Ying’s new installation

    Sister Planet

    Adventures on the world of Venus as it might have been.

    photo of Vanessa Blaylock on the alien, gaseous covered surface of Planet Venus, circa the mid-20th century

    Kimika Ying: Sister Planet

    She’s actually just received her 5-month land grant and only started work here, but it’s a pretty compelling environment already. With the Site Dance course coming around again, I’m sure I’d like to do some work here!

    • In-world SL-URL: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA29/166/121/22
    • Website: venus-sisterplanet.blogspot.com

    • Previous Installation: Oceania Planetary Park: oceaniaplanetarypark.blogspot.com

     

  • Vanessa 10:38 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    No Hangout with Andrea 

    screen cap of Google Text Hangouts with Andrea Foenander and others

    Sadly we couldn’t get Andrea Foenander in our Google Video Hangout today. I tried to Text Hangout and it would let me 1-to-1 “hangout” with her, but it rejected her plus anyone else. IDK what the issue was. Perhaps a firewall at her university? I’ll try to “Hangout” with her from her Home/studio sometime and see if that was it.

     

    • Andrea Foenander 10:51 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Very disappointing to have missed today, my sincere apologies. I hope that I can rectify this before the next discussion. In the meantime I would like to send some info about the proposed event for September and invite all to participate in the discussion

      • Vanessa Blaylock 10:57 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

        So sorry we missed you today Andrea! Yes, perhaps we can work out the tech details on the Hangout.

        And YES, your “September Event” sounds intriguing… I’m eager to see how it goes!

        (maybe work on another name besides “September Event”? 😀

      • Vanessa Blaylock 14:07 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

        PS: I’m sure we’ll sort out the Google Hangout issue… but if all else fails, we do have a chat engine over on .Re/search:
        http://practicebased.re/search/chat/

  • Vanessa 08:41 on 11/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Stop Me B4 I MOOC Again! 

    Hi Guys, I’ve somehow enlisted myself in 2 MOOCs starting in September.

    vintage black-and-white photo of Allan Kaprow teaching

    From Stanford:
    OpenKnowledge Changing the global course of learning
    2 Sep – 12 Dec 2014

    From CalArts / Coursera:
    Creating Site-Specific Dance and Performance Works
    29 Sep – 14 Nov 2014
    (More …)

     

  • Xue 03:44 on 10/08/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Color Posts Test 

    avatar dancing

    Photo: Cho Balanced by Luminis Kanto

    This is only a test!

    The “Color Post” plugin sets a coordinating background for your post.

    I don’t think there are any choices / settings.

    Results may vary depending on your theme. In .Re/act’s case, you won’t see it on the home feed, but you will see it on any individual post that has at least 1 image.

     

  • Vanessa 19:16 on 06/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Andrea Foenander 

    Michael’s invited Andrea Foenander to join us on Monday! Here’s the talk she gave at EZTV in April!

    She’s got a lot of compelling ideas as well as an exciting upcoming project to tell us about. Ideas like

    How would contemporary culture & art historical discourse be different if Charles Saatchi liked riding a bicycle through a virtual landscape instead of plopping formaldehyde sharks on gallery floors?

    Michael has asked similar questions when he’s talked about all that art history has failed to include in recent times. For myself, I’ve felt that work with Virtual Reality & Virtual Worlds has existed in a space separate from the object production & commodity culture of the main art historical narrative.

    An event like Burning Man exists largely off the art historical grid. It’s not much talked about in museums, galleries, art fairs. Yeah it’s had impact in so many ways, including inspiring Philip Rosedale to create his Virtual World. Famously, one of the key reasons Larry Page & Sergey Brin allowed Eric Schmidt to be CEO of Google, was because he’d been to Burning Man.

    Does New Media want/need validation from Old Media? Or does it create its own independent cultural narratives?

     

  • Vanessa 15:03 on 05/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Mixed Berry Shake hangouts 2014 

    typography of "Mixed Berry Shake" with the letters made out of different types of berries

    Hangouts 2014

    2nd Monday of the Month
    • Aug 11 – facilitator: Michael
    • Sep 8 – facilitator: Ciara
    • Oct 13 – facilitator: Hugh
    • Nov 10 – facilitator: Kate
    • Dec 8 – facilitator: Vanessa

    Nobody has to be a facilitator. Everybody is welcome to facilitate. You don’t have to do a lot, but you could pick a few topics and help juggle the hour.

    Open Timetable in Google Drive

    Pix

    • Raspberries Macro by Liz West
    • Reward for work: Blueberries by @rsseattle
    • Kiwi by Sergiu Bacioiu
    • Berries by Matt Becker

     

    • Michael J Masuci 15:42 on 05/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I will be sending out some topic ideas very soon. A scholar in London is creating an online seminar event that I’d like to try to get the Bluberry Shakers involved in doing a collaboartion for. I’ll give details at the Aug. 11 Blueberry Shake hangout.

      See you all at the ‘shake’.

    • Christa Forster 17:54 on 05/08/2014 Permalink | Reply

  • Ciara Finnegan 07:16 on 05/08/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    The Auld Sod* 

    Skipping through the lashing rain (yes, summer in Ireland…), not at all confident that I was going the right direction (I wasn’t), I couldn’t help but feel a little thrill of excitement at the prospect of meeting a “Berry” in Real Life – the fact of this meeting, somehow, an affirmation of a commitment to and belief in the importance of .re/act/The Berries (to use the prevailing term;-)).

    (More …)

     

  • Vanessa 00:50 on 04/08/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    ## Alien Baby I was delighted to be… 

    Alien Baby?

    I was delighted to be “friended” by a distant RL cousin on FB yesterday… and then quickly horrified by her (to me) extremist neocon values.

    It’s kind of shocking just how few, short posts it takes to convince me that we’re diametrically opposed on just about every Social, Political, Ideological, Cosmological-Philosophical-Theological dimension I can think of.

    Of course I think my cousin is insane. But since she seems to reflect the majority values of my family, perhaps it’s not that she’s insane, but that I’m… hmm… an alien baby??

    And then… wow… Alien Baby! What a great performance work that’d be.

    I wonder how that piece might go…

     

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